Functional Bridal Shower

With the wedding soon approaching, naturally, my maid of honor was going to throw me a bridal shower.

We sat together and were trying to come up with different ideas for games or themes.

One of the top ones was a ment to be honeybee theme.

Then my mother came up with the best ideas ever.

This will be a very pictureless post, mostly because I forgot to snap pictures while all of this was happening!

We decided to do a work bridal shower.

Basically, instead of bringing gifts that I didnt really need, we would prepare freezer meals.

so people would bring ingredients for the freezer meals, instead of body wash or plates.

We ended up simply picking a whole bunch of freezer meals from pinterest that sounded good, such as lasagna and cafe rio pork roast.

The idea was for all of these to have as little prep as possible, basically throw the ingredients into a bag, shake, and freeze.

We had maybe 10 people show up, and all together it took less than an hour to make them all.

We of course chopped all of the vegtables and chicken before hand to save on time.

At the end of the shower we all got together for some snacks and cheesecake, and I walked away with 22 ready to cook meals.

It was a more priceless gift than anything else I could have asked for.
They were able to gift me the gift of time to spend with my finacee, instead of working in the kitchen for long hours to make a meal.

For the shower favors we gave out glass jars of thyme.

Blog Overhaul!

Hello to those few people out there who may happen on this.
This blog is currently under construction whilst it's owner tries to learn HTML and make a new layout.
In the meantime, please enjoy the strange sights, such as a mismatched blog title and header and other goodies.

As of 1 week ago, The blog has gone from sunlightitup to the Gilded bear.
I felt like the new title fit better with what I was blogging about!
Keep posted for more goodies coming your way!

Shell chair makeover

Hey everyone!

So I am super excited to share this with you today.

If you follow me on instagram, you may have seen this sad little creature when I brought him home from craigslist.

The craigslist ad showed a blurry picture with the chair and base intact, and said it was a vintage Eames chair. I was beside myself with excitement, and dropped everything and ran over there.

Upon arrival, a young guy came out with both pieces separate.

"Yeah, in the ad I forgot to mention it was in two pieces. But we love this chair, it works just fine like this"

I didn't want to leave empty handed, so I forked over my forty bucks and shoved it into the back of our little car.

When I got home, I had a chance to look more closely at it. The metal base was rusted, and the whole thing smelled like seaweed. It looked like someone had marked up the seat with sharpie, and there were no screws to put it back together.

I was a little frustrated, and was worried that I had wasted my money.

So I stuck it into our storage room for a week while I figured out what to do with it.

And here is the new version:

(Yes, that is a fish tank on our patio)

I am in love with it. The red back gives it just enough pop with our other chairs, and it works really well at the head of our table.

It ended up not being an Eames chair at all, but actually a chrome craft chair. 

I don't mind, I love how comfortable it is, and it was still super inexpensive.

To connect the base with the chair, I ended up using some simple superglue. I was going to test it out first, and so far it hasn't failed. 

I suppose if someone sits on it and it collapses it will make for a good story, eh?

As always,

Living room mood board

Hey guys,

I wanted to try something different, and since I really have no direction with our living room right now, I put together a mood board to try and figure out what I am looking for.

I needed to figure out what ways I could use our leather sectional to look best at the moment. 

it's not our favorite couch, but Ty got it from work for a discount and he enjoys it, so it will have to do.

I was trying to incorporate elements that we already had, such as the lamp, couch, and mirror.

As a reminder, here is what it looks like now:

Getting there... slowly...

The end of the radio silence

Hello everyone!

I know it has been insanely dead over here recently, but its not because I haven't been up to anything!

If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen all of the thrift store/ craigslist hauls that I have been bringing in lately.

Among them, was this super fly globe bar.

It was featured on a couple of  different blogs, from the amazing Trisha over at Black and white Obsessions, To Brynne at The Gathered Home

I really appreciate them taking the time out of their day to feature me!

Thanks guys!

Speaking of, isn't it funny how you could be scouring thrift stores and craigslist for one thing and then when you finally find one, you find even more that could be even better than your original?
Yeah... That's my problem... Cause then I buy all of them..

That's the case with my globes.

Looked for months  just to find one, and then I found two and a globe bar cart all in a month.

Hopefully I'm not using up all my deal luck!

I also found that cool looking candle at one of our local thrift stores that was closing down. I have no idea what I am going to do with the stand when the candle runs out, but in the meantime, its a great conversation piece.

 But are you guys ready for some picture spam? Here you go! 

 Check out that cool faux wood grain fabric

This handsome man is currently a buffet/catch all in our dining room. He was originally a boring brown, but looks dapper with some cool herringbone!

 

 Yep, a vintage Eames chair in two pieces.

And finally, this chair got a makeover from blah to not so blah.

More info on him later!

Anyways, I promise that I will blog more often, if only to show you guys all the cool stuff I find. ;)

 as always,

Thrift store haul// Gold giraffe and Rattan

Hey guys :)

I know when you begin your journey into thrifting, it can seem a little daunting, especially when you don't know what to look for or where to begin.

Most thrift stores are awash in vases, candle sticks, fake flowers, and hideous clothing; so you have to really look to find the good things.
The best part is when  you find those things. It's almost like a treasure hunt, and you just want to show off your scores!

Here are some of my finds from this week:

When I go thrifting, normally my mentality is something along the lines of 

'If I saw this at Target, would I buy it?'

For those two giraffes, it was a resounding YES!

They are lovely, and incredibly tall. Perfect for holding bracelets or just hanging out sniffing my flowers.

-Plus, they help fuel my brass animal addiction-

I also spied those flowers hiding in the back of the bin. I know that fake flowers that size and quality normally run around $5 each at the craft stores, so at $1 for the bundle, it was a no brain-er. They instantly spring-ified our livingroom. Its amazing how much a little bit of greenery can change things!

I also found that beautiful gold trivet. We needed one anyways, but I think the hardest part is going to be not hanging it on the wall!

I also snagged some books from one of my favorite stores.

These were picked because of their entertaining titles or their actual use.

My favorites are:

It could have been a kumquat

How to get along with people

The 'adjustable' diet cookbook

I don't know what an 'adjustable' diet is, but it sounds fun!

Check out this bad boy right here.

For our wedding we are collecting hundreds of vintage teacups to turn into candles.

Someone else must have had the same idea, because these are wonderful. I think they went for a lilac scent as well, and they work fantastic in my office. :)

(please excuse Bandit the dog photobombing my pictures ^^)

And finally, what I am the most excited about, this rattan chair.

 Its similar to this one found on Amazon, but it was only forty bucks!

I will keep you posted on what happens with him, but I am taking ideas for what color the cushion should be.

Are you a fan of keeping rattan natural or painting?

All of these finds typically come from one of the four stores in my 'Thrift store rotation'

One is good for furniture

One is good for knick knacks

One for dishes and books

And the last one is usually a suprise. Never know what I will find there!

What kind of things have you found in thrift stores?

Do you have a rotation as well?

Well, that's all for today folks.

As always,

Hello spring! DIY moss letters

Hey Ya'll!

Spring is finally here in our little corner of the world.

There is nothing more wonderful than waking up to the sound of birds chirping and a beautiful day ahead of you.

Our home has been busy with all the crafts happening recently, as well as some spring cleaning.

So time for some fresh new spring decor to get us in the mood!

I have seen these all over the blogosphere, and I have got to say, I love them. Anything typography has my vote, and plus, you don't have water these!

Supplies needed:

1 moss mat. I picked mine up at Jo-anns,

I got the six foot roll, and it totaled 17.00. If you are only doing one or two letters, you could likely get away with only 2 ft.

Letters, Normally $3 each, they were a dollar off, so $10 on letters.

You will need hot glue

Green paint or spray paint

a sharpie

and scissors.

Total money spent on this project: $27 and about two to three hours of time.

To begin, Paint the backs of your letters with green paint. If you want to skip the drying step, feel free to use spray paint. I used plain acrylic paint and mixed 3/4 paint and 1/4 water to make a dark wash.

When the letters have dried, place them on your mat and trace around them with your sharpie.

Don't worry about marking on your letter, you will cover it up!

After your letter is cut out, you may want to shake it vigorously into the garbage for a second to remove any extra moss.

Hot glue the moss to the letter.

You will not want to cover the bottom of the letter unless you plan on hanging it on a wall.

Mine are just going to be shelf decor, so I left the bottom plain.

After I glued the front of the letter, I measured the sides and cut long strips to go around the border of each letter and add dimension.

And just like that, you're finished!

Ready to hang on your wall or shelves!

What kind of things do you do when spring comes?

Till next time;