Before's and After's

Matt and I have been working to update some of our furniture around the house. Our hope is to slowly get rid of all the furniture that Matt found "on the side of the road" in college. I don't feel the need to get everything in one whole swoop, that is not a budget friendly plan. Instead we are basically just doing one thing at a time when we feel like it.

Recently I found a dining room chair that I liked at Bed, Bath and Beyond so we decided to replace our existing "side of the road" chairs. I was really happy with the price of the new chairs, especially after using all the 20% off coupons that I got from Matt's mom (thanks Susanne!).

Also. Once we got the chairs we realized that we were going to have to add some height to the table, so Matt got some "feet" from the hardware store and stained them to match the table. I think they turned out great! You can hardly tell they were added!

Here is the before and after of the dining room...

Before

After

The other project that was done is I re-upholstered the pillows on our couch. We decided that we didn't want to buy a whole new set of furniture for our family room. It would be hard to let go of our couch, it is super comfortable and really still in pretty good shape, amazing since I got the couch for free from a family in Germany who had owned it for about 12 years before it came my way (in 2003). Anyways, all it really needed was a good cleaning, restuffing of pillows, and a change in the color scheme. I thought it turned out pretty good!

Before

(taken in 2005, I forgot to get a before shot when I started on the pillows)

After

a close up of the pillows, I forgot to rotate the picture...

If you know me, you probably know that the pillow project was a HUGE undertaking for me and WAY OUT of my comfort zone. I am really not at all comfortable doing craft type projects, I have zero confidence in myself as far as that area is concerned. Basically though, I knew it had to be done, so I walked into the fabric store, told them I'd never sewn anything before, showed them the pillows I wanted to cover, and they basically took it from there. They showed me all the stuff I would need to buy, including a sewing machine. The lady helping me pretty much decided on the color scheme (remember, zero confidence...). I made all my purchases and left the store.

Next, I needed to learn to use the new sewing machine I'd just purchased...thanks to help from some of the ladies at school, I figured out the basics. I am proud to say that I did every pillow, by myself, from start to finish, and did not have to make any do overs! Yay!

Enjoying the fall!

In front of our home with the pretty red bush!

The view coming out of the post's west gate.

Hiking at Lake of the Ozarks.


More Hiking!

This fall has been pretty relaxing and enjoyable in our home. We were able to get out and do some hiking up in Lake of the Ozarks National Park one weekend, on another weekend we went up the Hermann, MO which is a cute little town on the river, it was a town settled by German's a while back, and some of the businesses, shops and homes, and churches are reminiscent of a German town. They were celebrating Oktoberfest and we thought it would be fun to check it out.

I really enjoyed visiting the town and some of the surrounding wineries. Though, I think if we head up that way again it will be during a different time of year...we basically felt like we were in the middle of a college party, which was fun to a degree but got old kind of quickly...I guess we are just getting boring in our old age!

Hmm, let's see...other stuff that has been going on...nothing much really. We are just enjoying life here. Both of us have just been enjoying our jobs and our schedules! I have been proud that we not only are working our full days, but also have been getting in our planned workouts before we head in to work. It kind of makes for early mornings (4:30am early, yikes!), but we also are both done at work by 4pm (give or take 30mins) and are home for a nice long evening!

I really am absolutely loving my job. The little guy I have been working with makes me smile everyday! I think both he and I are learning a ton! The other teachers I've been working with in our classroom are also wonderful to be around. We all seem to be pretty busy and often deal with challenging situations throughout the day, but everyone has such a positive and supportive attitude that it makes for a really pleasant working environment.

I've also been in the midst of some domestic projects on the home front, but I am waiting to take some pictures to show some fun before/after shots, I'll probably post that in the next couple of days!