First Friday At Gather Goods

Around here, we love First Friday. I'm pretty sure towns all around have similar concepts. A certain night of the month dedicated to celebrating local art and small businesses. Such a great concept! Alvin and I try to make it out to First Friday as often as possible. We had an especially good First Friday this October.

A quaint local shop, Gather Goods Co., had a DIY cotton wreath class to celebrate. It was such a fun, unique date night! I highly recommend following the shop and trying out some of their other classes. They make good date nights as well as girls nights :) Basically who doesn't love some cute crafts? 

Oh, did I mention that they had pastries from the absolutely amazing bakery across the street?? I would be in big trouble if Yellow Dog Bakery was right across the street from me. So. Yummy.

So there we are, making mini cotton wreaths and chowing down on some delicious pastries. Poor Alvin was the only man. I guess not every guy is up for making wreaths on date night. He took it like a champ though! 

It was a pretty quick class, easily done before or after a dinner date. They have many other class options that are longer for bigger DIY arts. They are also offering another quick First Friday craft for November. I highly recommend checking it out! We have our mini wreaths hanging on our gallery wall of love ;) 

Anyone else's gallery wall perpetually crooked??

Fun date night! 

DIY Kitchen Backsplash

Our kitchen reno saga continues. A few weeks ago we finally tackled the backsplash. Let me tell you what. It nearly broke me. Everything I read about DIYing backsplash made it sound fairly easy compared to the other projects we've tackled. Boy was I wrong. But not necessarily because doing the backsplash is difficult. More-so because the previous owners didn't put up the old backsplash properly. It was also a glass mosaic which means a lot of little pieces to peel off. Ugh. Just thinking about it gets me all riled up all over again! 

So, remember how I said they applied it wrong? It means entire sections of the drywall were ruined when we peeled it off. UGH! Long story short, if you currently have a glass mosaic backsplash up, you should seriously consider how much you hate it. I super duper hated this backsplash so all the work was still worth it for me. 

I'm not going to even write up a how-to, because with any luck my experience will not be your experience. I'm going to link you to the blog I followed like it was DIY gospel. I went through the entire process (three posts) with ToolBox Divas. 

So what can I share with you that ToolBox Divas didn't? Well, I got my tile off Wayfair! At just $4 a square foot, I would highly recommend checking them out for tile if you're not finding what you want at traditional stores. I was cautious and ordered a sample first and fell in love. It was exactly what I had been looking for! I'm practically hoarding floor samples from them in search of the perfect shade of black/dark gray. 

Another thing she does not mention much is the tile cutter. We used a basic tile cutter and it does get the job done, just not perfectly for subway tile. This was a choice we made since Alvin can't work if he accidentally chops a finger off and I like my hands the way they are. Basically, we chickened out. And I wasn't patient enough (or good enough at tile setting and planning) to mark each tile and take them into a store to be cut. So in short, we had to get creative around the many outlets in the kitchen. I don't even care though. It's still an improvement to me. But, if you want it done perfectly you will need a wet saw or the patience to mark each tile and take it in to a store to be cut. 

Despite the rough patches, literally, and the funky pieces by the outlets, I would do this all over again. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself! 

And here's a before, just as a reminder. 

We've been keeping a rough tally on our kitchen reno costs, so here it is.

• Kitchen cabinets: ~ $178
• Kitchen Counters: ~ $175
• Kitchen Backsplash: ~ $225
• Rough Total So Far: $578

Not bad! Next up, kitchen flooring! 

5 Home Staging Tricks You Can DIY

So you want stage your home to sell but don’t know where to get started. No problem! I’ve created a quick list of the first things I look for when doing a consultation. These are tasks that are easy for the homeowner, like yourself, to do on their own.

1. De-clutter. You see this one on every staging tips list because it is important. So, de-clutter. Then, look at the space and take away one more item off each shelf/table. The decor should add something to the space, not take away from it. If there is too much stuff laying out it can make a large room feel cramped.
2. Take down photos. This one is hard, I know. But, buyers have trouble picturing themselves living there when they are looking at the current homeowners. You can leave up quotes that will help your house still feel like home while trying to sell.
3. If you have books on the shelves, take half of them down and turn the other half backwards. It’s easier for the eyes to scan a room if it’s not being distracted by bright book covers. Another reason to do this is that you never know what might offend a potential buyer so best to play it safe. The exception to this would be antique books, classics, and books on art/style. Let's hope no one will be offended by your collection of Sherlock Holmes.
4. Make sure all walls are light neutral colors. This no longer means they all need to be beige. Light grey is in right now so you have a few more neutral options to choose from, since you are still living in the space. For a darker neutral, Sherwin Williams' color of the year (2017) is Poised Taupe.
5. Plant flowers in the front yard. Don’t have a garden bed around your mailbox? Create one. It’s a cheap weekend project that brings a lot of curb appeal. Don’t have a garden space by the front door? Purchase flower pots that match the shutters and/or door and plant seasonal flowers in them then place these on the doorsteps. 

I hope these tips help you feel more confident staging your own home!

Getting Smart With SkillPop

This past week I had the pleasure of taking not one, but two SkillPop classes! SkillPop is new to our area and just started hosting classes in here this August. They started in Charlotte last year. Based on my experience, though, they are off to a great start in the RDU area! Their mission is to provide pop-up classes taught by local professionals in cool places within your community.

This is A.J. She was so sweet and clearly passionate about what she does.

My first class was on photography with A.J. Dunlap at the Glass Box in downtown Raleigh. A.J. is a wedding photographer here in Raleigh and is also a wonderful teacher. She was so patient and clearly wanted to be sure everyone in the class really understood how to use their camera to achieve the style of photo they wanted.

Ta-Da! Barely did any editing to this photo! Shot in manual mode like a beast. 

Having taken that class, I feel much more confident using my camera now and look forward to using manual mode. Isn’t that crazy?! But it’s true. This girl who always kept her camera in “Smart Auto” mode may never do that again. I also left the class with a strong desire to purchase a nice Nikon DSLR. Luckily, A.J. gave us tips on how to do that on a budget as well! 

I took my next class the following evening with Sarah Faucette of Native State Design at Loading Dock. This was a class on branding your business. It was awesome to see so many entrepreneurs in attendance to learn how to brand themselves better! Sarah did a great job explaining the process to us, providing DIY resources, and making a somewhat tedious task more fun. I'm already thinking about re-branding as my business has gone a slightly different direction than I originally thought it would (and I love that!). I feel more confident about the re-branding process having taken this class. Although I may still end up hiring Native State Design to help with the re-branding because they're awesome at what they do. 

A room full of entrepreneurs learning from Sarah!

So far I have loved my experience with SkillPop. I chose these two classes specifically to help me with my business. There are others coming up that look equally beneficial, such as Blogging Basics and Intro To Social Media for Business. But don’t worry, it’s not all work no play with SkillPop! Their first class was on hand lettering and they have a calligraphy class coming up soon! You should check it out! Leave a comment and tell me which class you’re most excited about or what you'd like to see them do next!

DIY Concrete Countertops

I know I said we were going to do butcher block counters, but then I thought about a few things. First being we're paying for a wedding so is paying thousands for new counters really a priority this year? Second being we already have a lot of natural woods in our home and I didn't want to stress about the counter wood matching other décor woods. Then I discovered there's a concrete overlay product you can put right on top of the laminate. Say what?!

Immediately I loved the idea of grey counters with our new white cabinets. Added bonus, this DIY really wasn't too difficult and it came in under $200. In case you forgot, here's what the kitchen looked like before we did anything.

Here's what it looked like after the cabinets were painted. Better but I still hated the counters(and backsplash, that's next).

And here it is with a brand new concrete counters! Ta-Da!

I won't post much of a how-to because we followed Young House Love almost to a tee. Here's there post on how to do it. The only differences are that we used Henry's Feather Finish because we could pick it up at Home Depot and I can get too excited about projects to wait for shipping. Our counters did turn out a bit darker than theirs look and I wonder if the Henry's is darker or if we did something else different.

Pro tip: If you are planning on selling your home soon I highly recommend this project if you need to update your kitchen on a time crunch and on a budget. Worried buyers won't like the concrete look? I get that. But I know more people will like the trendy concrete over the dated laminate.

We also did super small batches and worked slowly to make every layer as smooth as possible. Minimal sanding needed. Roughly one cup of mix and 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. water was just the right amount of concrete mix for us o be able to take our time and still use it all before it hardened in the bucket.

The final difference is that we didn't wait a full 24 hours between coats. I believe the shortest time between layers was six hours and it turned out fine. We were trying to get it all completed before I left for my Cali trip.

We did the sealant just like they did. Honestly this project only takes so long because there's a lot of waiting between coats of concrete and sealant coats. But totally worth it. I can't say I'll never end up with different counters but I can say these new counters are MUCH better than the laminate.

Next on the list, backsplash! Although the tear in our (clearly) cheap laminate flooring means new floors are coming soon too! Careful moving those stoves during these projects, guys! :o