Color Run - Louisville, KY

This weekend I was able to check something off of my bucket list. I completed my first 5K. I had seen pictures of The Color Run and thought it looked like sooooo much fun so I gathered Megan, a friend from work and made the 5 hour drive from Huntsville, AL to Louisville, KY to join a team with Jessi, an old college friend.

Let me start by saying I am NOT a runner. I don't think I could run around the block, much less 3.2 miles. My husband and I take our two dogs on walk around the neighborhood a few times a week and that's about it. It was definitely tough, and there were times where I seriously contemplated just switching lanes and cheating, but I'm glad I didn't. If you've never done a 5K, this is definitely one to start with. It's very family friendly, there were people pulling kids in wagons. (Wish someone would have pulled me in a wagon) And as the website says, this is the "Happiest 5K on the planet"

Here is our team, The Pigment Princesses" before:

All pretty and clean, right? Not for long!




Every half mile or so there was a different "color station" where volunteers would throw colored corn starch at you. This is why my husband did not particapte. He said he wasn't paying to run and have people throw stuff at him haha.


This is what it looks like inside the color storm. That's me in the hat. One suggtion, close your mouth. The first time I was all smiley and excited...I think I still taste cornstarch.

The blue was my favorite. This pic was taken by another girl on our team but I just loved Jessi's expression.

And finally, the finish line! I made it!

And here is my after picture. It really was a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend it for those intimidated by 5Ks. Another perk is they always donate proceedes to LOCAL chairities. Can't beat that! (And you get a pretty cool t-shirt)

Have you run the Color Run? I'd love to hear your stories!!

Coffee Table Redo DIY

I have hated our coffee table since the day we got it. As I mentioned in my last post, we bought our house furnished. We sold most of the stuff but we didn't have coffee tables so we kept the ones that came in the house. .

 It's not that it is a particularly bad coffee table, but it has a glass top. With two dogs in the house (and a husband ;) ), the glass is ALWAYS dirty. I could Windex that thing two or three times a week and still not keep up.
I found a few DIY coffee tables on Pintrest that I absolutely LOVED and the design of all of them were pretty much the same; white bottom with a dark wooden top. Since I don't really have the tools to make a coffee table at my house (I could REALLY use a small saw, *hint*hint* if my hubby reads this ;) ) So I decided to see what I could come up with using my existing table.

I measured the glass to find that it was 4'x2' so off to Lowes I went. I bought two 8 ft. 1"x6" boards and had them cut them in half. I also bought two 2ft boards in the craft wood section to use as the support underneath. When I got home, I lined the boards up across the table frame and used Gorilla Wood Glue to glue the planks together. Then, I put the glass on the top of all of it and let it sit over night. The next morning, I added the 2ft boards across the ends for stability. (I really think I could have done with out this, and will skip it when I do the side tables.)

 I let it all dry and started to screw the planks to the support piece but my screws ended up being too long. After a trip back to Lowes for more screws, we came back and the new ones were STILL too long. (I knew; we needed 1" but someone wouldn't listen :) ) I ended up just using wood putty to fill in the hole and left it with just the glue. If you've never used Gorilla Glue, I highly recommend it for any DIY project involving wood. It's pretty much miracle paste.

Finally I stained the top (Minwax Jacobean) and spray painted the base with a good spray paint with a primer built in. I let the stain sit a little longer than I should. It is a little too dark but it's still WAY better than the glass. I also put a layer of Semi- Gloss Poly on top.

One day I will make a complete new one, but for $30 and an afternoon, this one will do for a while! Also, I think it looks great with my red couch and yellow walls.

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Now I have to find something to decorate it with. My black candle holders that I kept on the glass won't show up anymore. Off to search the web for ideas! I'll post an update when  I find something.

 See that side table on the left? It's next!

PS. I bought those wonderful pillows the other day at Marshall's for $20 for the set. I love that place.

Thanks for reading!

Amanda 

Shared on: Making the World Cuter , Skip to My Lou, Tater Tots and Jello

Desk Lamp Redo

Moving into a new office on campus has meant decorating a new office. With my new job here, I am actually IN my office all day so I wanted to make it look nice and inviting. We are in one of the oldest, outdated buildings on campus so it has been a task to try to make this place presentable. This week I did a redo on an old lamp I had lying around the house. When we bought hour house back in August, it came furnished. This lamp was left so it was $0 to me. I bought spray paint ($4) and some ruffle trim ($7 for 2 yards at Hobby Lobby) and went to work.

This is the lamp before: Just a regular ole' silver lamp with a white shade.

I found several tutorials on pintrest but none that were super detailed so I kind of  "winged" it. First, I spray-painted the base blue (our school colors are blue and white) and then I took the ruffle trim and began wrapping and hot gluing it around the base. You can do this by either slightly overlapping it and wrapping it with one big strand, or cutting a different piece for each layer. Since I was worried about keeping the layers straight, and I needed to be conservative with my ruffle trim since I wasn't sure I would have enough, I chose to do it in pieces.

I started with the very top piece. No matter how spaced out the ruffles had to be, the top had to line up. Then I did the bottom piece. This gave me a guideline of how far apart I needed to put my layers so that the whole thing was covered. I continued layering from bottom to top with each new layer slightly covering the one beneath it. When I got to the top layer, I just tucked it under my top layer and glued it all the way around. I ended up having exactly enough trim. (I'm sorry I didn't take pics, I didn't think about it until it was too late.)
Here is what I ended up with.

And here it is in it's new home on my desk!

Much better than that plain old silver lamp, don't you think?