You've Got Mail

Maybe the best project to date!!  As many of you know, I LOVE real, good old fashioned, snail mail!  Nothing beats a personal letter found amidst all those bills and ads...handwritten and personally addressed to me!  It brings flutters to my heart!  So, naturally, we needed a great mailbox!  The house came with the beautiful  functional one below.  But it wasn't "pretty".  AND it was tilted.  So thank you to Dan once again for installing our new mailbox!  

There he goes!  It was kind of funny because we both thought it would take a lot of time and effort to get the old one out of the ground, but no!  Out it came in one swift motion! 

 (made Dan look SUPER strong!) :)

Meanwhile, I was inside getting the new mailbox ready.  I ordered the following:

-New white mailbox post from Flying Monkeys

-Black mailbox from Amazon

-Ground anchor to hold post up from Amazon

-Address decal from Etsy

Thankfully, we went to the new 2-Story Menards Grand Opening the morning of this project and picked up a shovel for $2.99!

And here are all the pieces of our project...our neighbor made sure to tell us not to upgrade too much or we'd make everyone else look bad!  Oh Louie :)

Dan called me outside to bring the camera...I thought he wanted his picture taken with his finished project.  But then he took the camera and said I got to put the top on!  YAY!  It was like putting the star on top of the Christmas tree!  

Now everyone write me a letter!!  

Backsplash Time!

So...FINALLY!  The project we've had on our list since, well, we moved in!  We were really hoping we could do it this past October but obviously that did not happen!  It was a very long process, if you ask me, and this is why: decisions have to be made.  What?!?  Picture Dan and me with our hands on our cheeks screaming like Kevin in Home Alone after he put on the after shave!  Let me provide you with a visual:

 It's hard for us to pull the trigger on things that are:   a.) Expensive and b.) Permanent.  It's just the way we're wired I guess.  So after months of research, Pinterest scouring, going to all the home improvement and tile stores around, and laying out 5 samples on our floor for weeks, we finally bit the bullet.   It was hard to compare the $25 per square foot tiles to the $4.98 per square foot tiles....ya know?  :)  True to our track record, we chose right in the middle at $10.97 per square foot from Home Depot.  "French Palace" it's called!  And so the process began...

The above photo is a before shot for your viewing pleasure!  The project took 3 weekends.  The first weekend was cutting and measuring.  We spent a Friday night measuring, marking, and laying everything out and then all day Saturday cutting the tiles.  I had to run to Ace Hardware to get Dan some goggles to protect his cute little eyes! :)

Yes, an alcoholic beverage is necessary for any house project.  McShane rules.

There were pieces of glass EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!  The wet saw definitely took some getting used to!  Thank you to my sister's friend, Jill, for letting us borrow her saw and all of her supplies!  And also teaching us how to do this!

After cutting all the tiles, we started sticking them all on the wall the NEXT weekend!  Again, Friday/Saturday night routine!  We had a few panic moments where we thought we measured wrong but it all turned out ok.  There's a lot of "Ok, Dan, these 3 need to be cut down 1/2 inch!"  or "Tiny babies needed for this corner!"  After getting over the fact that we wanted to kill each other, we decided it'd be best if we worked as a team :)  For a moment on the first weekend, we paused and asked ourselves if we should hire someone...hahaha!  

In order to keep it all straight, we had to label all the piles of tiles by number so we knew where each of them went on the wall.  We had 25 numbers, or 25 square feet.  And, more importantly, 5 outlets, one window sill, and inconsistent cabinet levels.  BOO!!!  It's never as easy as you think it's going to be!

By the third weekend of this, I wanted to put this project to bed!  Good grief!  We had grouting left to do though.  We headed to Home Depot and picked out some grout.  We decided on an off white...I think it was called Bone?  Since our tile is half glass/half ceramic, we had to get unsanded grout, which is not sold pre-mixed.  We picked up a few buckets and sponges and went to work again! 

Do you like how I wore the same outfit for 3 weekends in a row?  :)  After the grouting and wiping down, we decided to call it a day!  But we do still have to finish caulking it and then seal it with some special spray.  So, here is a reminder of the "before".  It wasn't bad at all, I just felt like it said to me every day, "You guys!  PLEASE dress me up!"

And here's the AFTER!

We love it!

Fancy Drawers

Totally minor project in the McShane household but it makes me happy!  Exhibit A is plain "junk" drawer in kitchen...blah.

And now there is prettiness!!

I found this left over paper from PaperSource that I had in my office at work from when I re-did our team's bulletin board.  So I brought it home!

It's the little things, right?!  :)

Featured!

Our wedding invitation was featured in Minnesota Bride!  YAY!  I worked on designing our invitations with Jodi Tupy -owner of Tupy Boutique!  She is so great to work with and just the sweetest gal!  Working with her was so fun and creative!

2012: Year of Organization

So, I've been reading a blog a lot lately called IHeartOrganizing.  It's incredibly inspirational!!  This girl (whoever she is that writes the blog and supposedly lives in Wisconsin) doesn't just have things in order....she takes organization to a whole nutha level!  So, I realize I can't be as intensely organized as her, but I'm going to really try to focus this year on knowing where everything is, not wasting time looking for things, and getting rid of things I don't need, use or like.  Our kick off to the 2012: Year of Organization starts with a filing cabinet.  Stay tuned for more on this-but for now, here's a nice photo of Dan in his happy place....NOT  :)

Born To Be Models....

Most of you know that I work at the DoubleTree Hotel where we held our wedding reception.  After the wedding, my boss asked me for a few photos from our wedding so we could possibly use them in the hotel's wedding ad, specifically for the wedding fair a couple weekends ago.  I honestly thought they'd choose one of the ballroom or choose one small  photo to go with some other couples' photos, but NO!  My boss made our modeling dreams come true!  Haha, just kidding!  Dan did say, "Wow, now this fulfills my bucket list of being in an advertisement!"  I said, "Even if it is just our feet!"  SO funny!

First Dance Frame

Another Pinterest idea come to life!  Definitely had to write our first dance lyrics with our wedding portrait for our bedroom!  It didn't take too long at all but is very special!  

For those of you wanting to do this, I found this frame at Target, which was the best one I could find with a big enough matte to write on!  Just FYI! :)

Wedding Invitation Ornament!

My friend Caroline came over yesterday afternoon to deliver a little Christmas present to me!  And boy, is it blog worthy!  It is a Pinterest idea come to life so I have to share it with you!



I'm probably WAY behind, but I hadn't ever seen this craft before!  She cut up our wedding invitation into strips to make this keepsake ornament! 

Thank you Caroline!

Basement Overhaul

And so it began!  We took one weekend and tackled it!  We decided to paint the entire basement "Fashion Gray" by Behr.  The accent wall was what gave us some stress....and cost us a couple back to back trips to HomeDepot.... :)

Oooh!  Check out that guy's nice butt!! :)  Dan's so good at taping!

PS-That's my new table from Pier 1!  Stay tuned for updates on the chairs I found for it!

So, we thought we wanted an orange accent wall.  You would think after the wedding, we would realize how very hard orange is to get right.  Many swatches and weeks of debate still got us nowhere!  I hate to say we "gave up" on orange, but, let's face it, we did.  Plus, it's always hard to get the right color for a basement with no natural light.  So, here's our orange test...it was scary!

Not what we were looking for!  It looked like a highlighter!  We eventually decided on a tealish blue to match one square in the Crate and Barrel pillows I had my eyes on.  

Let me give you a reminder of what the basement looked like when we toured the house with our realtor:

And now the finished product!

What a process!  But SO much fun!  Here is a source list for anyone that might be interested:

1. Orange Bench - Homegoods (St. Louis Park)

2. Sparkly Gray Pillow on Bench - Homegoods (Burnsville)

3. White Mirror - Homegoods (Burnsville)

4. Gray Sectional Couch - Ikea

5. Colorful Pillows on Couch - Crate and Barrel (Zenith Throw Pillow)

6. Orange Throw Blanket - Ikea

7. Black End Table - Homegoods (St. Louis Park)

8. Orange Cylinder Lamp (can't see very well) - Ikea

9. "m" Decor on Table - Anthropologie

10. 12x12 Picture Frames - Ikea

11. State Love Prints - Modern Ink Stationary on Etsy

Canvas Prints!

After much research on canvas photo prints, it boiled down to price but also quality.  Surprisingly, CVS had the best price and excellent quality too!  I originally ordered the two canvases to put in our bedroom...but when they arrived, we couldn't help but put them up in the living room instead!  We're very happy with them and I enjoy so much walking by them every day to remember the best day of my life!

We hung them with 3M squares, which can be a bit tricky!

We had company over about 20 minutes after we hung these to watch Sunday football!  

Here's a view from the mudroom:

Gotta love pictures and gotta love 'em even more on a big canvas!!

Linen Closet Heaven

Linen Closet Makeover!

For those that don't know, my new husband was out of town for work for a total of 5 weeks in the past 2 months!  I've had many emotions about this: anger, frustration, happy for free time!, loneliness, empowered!, and so on!  A rollercoaster of different feelings!  It's hard because it's not his fault and I'm glad he has a great job.  But it's also hard to be home alone for that long.  So each time Dan would start packing to fly out for the week, I would start preparing my "projects" for the week so I could stay busy!  The last week in October and the first week or two of November, I tackled the linen closet in our upstairs hallway.  Sad that this was the highlight of my week but I think we're all getting accustomed now to our adult lives where things like this make the top 10! :)  Sorry there are no pictures of the painting process but, in a nutshell, I spackled holes and repainted the entire inside of the closet white.  It was a bit beat up, dusty and, yes, had holes!  Then I took out all of the shelves and sanded each one and painted them all white.  This took about 3 coats each!  Good thing the World Series was on!  Now for the fun part, organizing!  Here is a before photo, I just didn't have time to make this any neater until now:

Then I picked out color coordinated baskets and labeled them all!  I tossed many things and categorized everything you could imagine!

Ta da!  Everything is in it's place!  Hopefully now I won't hear, "Honey!  Where's the _____?" from Dan anymore!  I don't blame him...did you see the closet in it's previous state!?  To summarize, there are baskets for the following if anyone is looking for ideas:  make up bags (unfortunately an entire bin is devoted to this seeing as I always buy my makeup during the "free gift" times!), "Nails", "Headbands", "Face", "Teeth", "Bath", "Medicine", "Toilet Paper", then there's the towel and washcloth shelf and on the bottom there is a bin for all sheet sets.  I also keep a little tote on the side (can't see it) of handy tools we use on a regular basis so: hammer, measuring tape, 3M stickies, nails, masking tape, etc. YAY!

Lambeau!

Oh ya...check out those tutus!  They only took Caroline and me 3 hours to make!  But it was well worth it for the Monday Night Football Game-Packers vs. Vikings in Green Bay!!  Caroline's family had tickets and we got the idea to give Dan the tickets for his wedding gift!  Thank you Caroline!  Matt came with us and sported his horns.  I tried to not leave him out so I wore my Vikings sweatshirt :)  We literally started tailgating at 12:30 and the game started at 7pm!  But we had such a blast!  I was telling my co-workers today at lunch everything I ate this weekend: foot long sub sandwich, beer cheese dip, cinnamon bread, taco dip and chips, hot dog, french fries, nachos, pizza and then chicken fingers on the way home.  Oh my!!  Not to mention beer that I NEVER drink!  But I was in Wisconsin!  Packers won 45 - 7!



Our New Sectional!

So we had a fabulous time buying a sectional sofa for our basement!  After much research and thinking, we decided that the Karlstad sofa at IKEA would be our best bet!  It was the PERFECT size for our basement and the perfect price...not to mention the chaise lounge and gray color that is exactly what we had in mind!  The only thing was, we did NOT anticipate how many boxes it would come in!  We brought 2 SUVs to get it and Dan still had to tie parts of it to the top of the car!  Such a hilarious sight!

  

So, after IKEA, I had to go nanny for the night!  And when I got home, it was all done! 

WAY TO GO DAN!  THANK YOU! 



Stay tuned for basement updates...you didn't think I'd leave these walls white did you?! :)