On a different note really quick, yesterday was my 7 month anniversary being married! I'm not sure when the term "newlywed" doesn't apply anymore, but we'll stick with that for now. 



I HAVE ARRIVED. My life in Winnipeg, Canada has officially begun. I won't count my actual arrival yesterday because it pretty much just consisted of meeting the family, getting to know the house, and sleeping a lot. Because Ryan was still on the road, it was just me to get a handle on the reins. We were lucky enough to get a family that would host a married couple because usually, they're just in it to host players, and it's totally understandable why any host family would rather not. But the Kuhlman's are kind-hearted people, so it wasn't any surprise to us when they agreed right off the bat (how's that pun for ya). Craig is the dad, Jill the mom, and their two kids Ashley and Nicholas. I'll write more on them later, but to sum it all up, they're awesome.

Since the Goldeyes were on the road and we all had the day off (and I had slept in till 11 that day), we needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. We took a nice stroll in the park which was covered with more grass and trees than I had ever seen in my whole life. I'm sure I annoyed everyone always commenting on how Vegas doesn't have any of that.



And in the middle of it all, there is what looks like Hansel and Gretel's house, which contained kids stories and some sort of play thing inside. Due to the rainy weather, it was closed so I couldn't see inside. It's pretty epic though: a random play house in the middle of the park.

 After the park, we went grocery shopping and headed home. Ashley is obsessed with the game Just Dance (we're going to be great friends) so we played a ton of that, which was my workout for the day. Nick, on the other hand, bragged about beating me in air hockey the whole time so of course, I had to school him on that. I'll also write a separate post on our living quarters: the most epic game room/basement I have ever seen. 



After the game, we finished off the day with 2 games of 'Horse'. BOTH, of which I lost. I still don't know how that happened, but it did and I'm ashamed.



It was a great busy first day. Tonight is the first home game and I hear it's going to pretty much sell out. Check out Shaw Park here plus game highlights, live feed, etc.

 

P.s. if you type in the hashtag #PinedaCan14 on Instagram you can see all of the pictures I post in Canada. It's going to be a great summer.

Busy Bee

Well, with the week being crazy and hectic, I was juggling getting a speeding ticket, Homer's neuter, packing, taking care and dropping off the dogs, I had no opportunity to finish the master bathroom. So that project is on hold until I get back. Honestly, I'm a little relieved not having to worry about home decor a little while. I sound like an addict - fully admitting it. And I'm so excited to leave for Winnipeg tomorrow. It's a bittersweet feeling really. It was hard to leave my pups at the in-laws house, bless their hearts for watching the crazies, but I miss my hubby way too much to wait any longer. I can't wait to see him play again and just experience a new place for a whole summer! I really have to take a step back and thank God for this amazing opportunity. We are fortunate enough to be able to be together all summer and just enjoy the love of baseball: hubby's always love, my new love. Anyway, just wanted to let you guys know the master bath will be done...eventually. But I will give you a sneak peak! :) (Apologies for the TERRIBLE quality, it was at night with absolutely no natural light)



Paint color is Dill by Sherwin Williams. I'm also going to put pulls on the middle drawers too, my drill died while doing the side ones, so it will sit like this for now. IT WILL GET DONE.

Dumping some iPhone pictures starting now! (It's mainly Homer because he just has my whole heart) + this week was pretty much all about him because we took his manhood.



Next time, I'll be writing from Canada! I run around singing Oh Canada.....really really loud over and over again because a. it's pretty much the only thing I know about Canada, and b. those are the only words I know from the song. I don't even think I've actually ever heard the real version.

The Never-ending Home

I say that with a heavy heart. Why does it feel like no matter how many picture frames, furniture, and decor pieces I buy, all of the rooms in my house are still not finished...and frankly, it feels like they'll never get done. I know I'm being dramatic and impatient, it's just physically impossible for me to be satisfied, mainly because I change my mind every 2 minutes so once I buy something and then put it up, I'm immediately thinking about how to change it. Probably the worst curse a DIYer could have. So it's nice to know that I'm leaving that pit-hole of a place for 3 months to clear my head and no worry about it until I get back.

Oh the stress. I have a hard life, don't you think? I just need to keep telling myself, Rome wasn't built in a day. Rome wasn't built in a day. 

All For Good, and Good For All

As you know, I'm remodeling our master bathroom before I leave for Canada to be with the hubby for the summer, and I'm finished with the vanity but need to organize all of the stuff on top of it and hang some wall art. I'm trying to get it done before I leave Saturday, or at least "show worthy" for the blog, so I will have something up by then. Thanks for being patient, it's becoming a longer project then anticipated. I want to go for a more simple look as far as containers and all of the products that go next to the sink, since I decided to paint the cabinets green. Yes, green. And something more meaningful as far as wall art goes, also keeping that simple.

I was stalking YHL (if you haven't seen their blog, GO NOW!) as I usually do pretty much every day, also where I got the green vanity idea, and saw this wall art that they put up in their show home.



The site is Help Ink and they just have anything from poster prints, to notecards, to t-shirts. The prices are pretty decent (all depending on what you get of course) and the best part of the site and reason why I bought the print in the first place, is what they stand for. Their slogan is "Inspirational Art That Gives to Those in Need." What's so awesome about this place is that for every $5 you spend, $1 goes to a charity. Another cool thing about it, is that you get to pick what charity you want the donation to go to. I love finding websites like this because it makes me realize how fortunate I am, and that there is such an easy way to give back. I really like this specific print because it symbolizes what I want our household to live by, and thought it would be perfect in our bathroom. I chose to give my donation to Thirst Relief International, which for every $5 gives 5 years of clean water.

I'm sure that this won't be the last purchase I make from Help Ink, because they have so many cool prints. If I would've found this before my wedding, I would have definitely used their notecards for our invitations. Everything is a set style, but so unique and individualized at the same time.

*This post is not sponsored or affiliated with Help Ink in any way. I just really love what they're doing.

Me Against the Thieves

Odd title I know, but it fits exactly how I'm feeling right now. As you know, I bought this REALLY CUTE 'no soliciting' sign a few days ago (read about that here),

and when I came home from working out, it was gone. I'm absolutely obsessed with it, so I like to look at it when I leave and get home. Well, I'm literally at work all day Saturdays, so when I get home it's usually dark. I parked, walked to the door and THE SIGN WAS GONE. Again, you can see how upsetting this is to me.

My first thought was to call my mom because she came over earlier in the day to check on the pups. I thought to myself, I don't know, maybe she took it off and put it somewhere else, or it fell and she put it inside, SOMETHING. Sadly, she didn't have a clue where it went. I looked all around the house thinking that maybe the nasty wind took it but no luck. It. Was. Gone. And I'm so upset. It wasn't exactly cheap ($48 on Etsy to be exact, I thought it would be a good investment), because it's real wood and hand carved, and I really liked it. Oh, and the nails I used to hammer it in the wall were gone too. I mean seriously people the nails too?! UGH. It's so depressing that someone would come to my front door, unscrew the nails in the wall, and take my beautiful sign. My only thought about who stole it, was a SOLICITOR of course. I mean, it makes perfect sense. They come to our house knowing we just bought it and obviously need whatever they're selling, see the sign, and get mad. WELL SORRY I DON'T LIKE TO BE BOTHERED EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY FOR A NEW SECURITY SYSTEM. As you can see, I'm completely not over this. The blood boils. Oh it boils so hot. SO HOT.

I guess this will do for now



 

The old fashioned paper and tape never fails.

Master Bath Remodel Decision

I have finally decided to take on a project and actually start it before I leave to Winnipeg.

• First, I was going to paint stripes in the dining room because I'm already bored of it and it needs some extra love.


• Then I said I would repaint at least one wall downstairs, since I'm getting so tired of blue walls opposed to the grey I wanted.


• Third, I said I wanted to do a chevron or brick pattern by the entryway


• And now I'm taking on the master bathroom vanity.

Only difference between the 4 is that I've actually already started on the bathroom and nothing on the rest. And let me add that this is all during finals week in school. I know, I have my priorities straight.

As of this very second, the vanity only has 1 coat of primer. But it used to look like this



And for the grand reveal of what I'm turning it into:



My only concern is that we don't have those white tiles in our bathroom. But oh well, paint the darn thing now, worry about that later. Plus, I figured the green will compliment the brown...or at least I hope.

The color in the Pinterest picture is actually Courtyard Green by Benjamin Moore, but the only store in Vegas that sells BM is too far & I really didn't feel like going the extra mile literally, so I bought a very similar color called Dill by Sherwin Williams.



Ryan wasn't too thrilled when I said, "Let's paint our vanity green!" Heck, I'm sure not many people would hop on board with me, but if it turns out anything like that model home picture, I say it's definitely worth a try. People need color in their life and this green is stunning...or so I think anyway.

Fingers crossed! I'll update back soon!

Major Soliciting Problem

We just bought our house about a month and a half ago and let me tell you, about 25 people selling everything in the book has knocked on our door thus far. At first, we just assumed it was because we were new to the neighborhood and they need to hit up all the new buyers, but now its starting to become a problem.

One day, someone rang the door bell and Ryan's cousin answered. Then the man took a picture of his feet saying, "I just need to confirm someone lives here." CREEPY. Well 10 minutes later, someone selling home security stopped by. Well played creepy business man. We were officially creeped out. Anyways, this happens about 1-2 times per week now. When people first buy houses it goes on public record giving every door-to-door self-selling business the opportunity to get those addresses.

Look, I respect the hustle and doing what you need to do to survive, but I've just about had it with random people coming to my house trying to sell me something. Just the other day, some guy was selling this "amazing" cleaning supplies, and I tried to stop him numerous times to tell him I'm not interested so he wouldn't waste all his breathe on his spiel, but he just kept going. After about 10-15 minutes of showing me all the different surfaces that this product can clean AND having me test it with him, I finally just bursted out, "I'm not interested, sorry!" Well I guess he didn't like that so he snatched his product from my hand and started running. Meanwhile, he's yelling at me, "OK, THAT'S FINE, WHATEVER, JUST KEEP BEING DISGUSTING!!!" The nerve. I am disgusting and proud. LOL.

I was determined to find a cute "No soliciting" sign to hang on the front door, until I found this on Etsy.



One word: PERFECT. Except the next door neighbor that doesn't like us because we blocked their driveway for 20 minutes to drop our turf off in our backyard. Can I just add, they weren't going anywhere nor needed to leave, they just wanted to complain for who knows why. 

Ottoman Transformation

When we moved into our first apartment together, I was dead set on making my own ottoman. After looking through a bunch of DIY websites, I bought the supplies and dove head first into what would be a long project transformation.

I got the original coffee table on Craigslist for I think $40. The first time around, I chose the white leather fabric (from Hancock's Fabrics) so that it was easy to clean and if anything spilled on it, I could grab a lysol wipe and it would be done. Well after a while the fabric started to loosen from just your usual wear and it started to look old and ugly. Partly because it was used more as a foot rest, and partly because I don't think I pulled the fabric tight enough around the edges.

So I decided to try it one more time, plus our new couch was cream and it just wasn't fitting the new color pallet. AND we added a new rule in the house of NO EATING ON THE OTTOMAN. Haha.

I jetted to Hobby Lobby, or as I like to call it, spend all your money and time store, to pick out some new fabric. I couldn't decide between



Yes, I am always this indecisive. I was really gravitating towards the blue for that extra pop of color and even had it in hand when I walked by the brown warn leather and fell in love. I always  think that a room needs 3 things: something vintage, a pop of color, and warn leather. I'm still working on the pop of color thing, but this fabric was perfect for the leather category . In the beginning, I told myself I wasn't going to get leather again because of the first time, but after I saw the brown, there was no going back. So as to everyone's surprise, when I came home with leather, I got questionable looks.

I also wanted to stud around the whole thing so I picked up 4 packages of these



Oh, and some black buttons I didn't get a picture of. And boom bam boom here ya go





I pulled the fabric EXTRA tight this time, almost to the point where it felt like it was going to rip. This helped soooo much when doing the rest of it, and it still hasn't come lose.

The leg portion still has extra fabric that I need to cut off and stud, but overall I'm happy with the turn out. The color definitely brings warmth to the living room as a whole, and lets just be honest, I love the warn leather look.

*QUICK TIP: If you want to stud a piece of furniture that's wood, or any material at that matter, USE A SOFT MALLET/SOFT HAMMER. I broke just about 35 of the studs because I used a normal hammer. If you don't have a soft mallet, put a dish towel or rag over the head of your hammer and bang away...but softly!