Build Your Own Crate Furniture in Two Easy Steps

Like everyone else who has spent hours upon hours looking at home decor on Pinterest, I pinned about 800 crate or pallet DIYs. The below image was the one that stuck in my brain, though. I can't seem to find that it's an actual DIY anywhere on the internet; I think it's just linked up to spam mostly, so I don't feel bad for not crediting the image. But anyway, I loved it.

After glancing at a few other tutorials, however, I decided that I could probably pull off something similar. Jamie and I had been having trouble finding a media console that we both liked and was narrow enough for the low-profile look we were going for, so ta-da, let's make one!

Back in May, my mom's trip out to visit just happened to coincide with our finally moving into our new house. Being the crafty birch that she is, I knew she'd be down for helping me figure out how to execute the project. 

Step 1: Get yer shit and figure out how to put it together.

First thing's first, we needed crates. I found 'em at Michael's for about 14 bucks each and bought 8. I felt like maybe I could have searched really hard on the internet and found a better deal, but I'm impulsive and I wanted to this like, right now. 

Now that we had our crates, we had to figure out how to fasten them together. They're all a little irregular, so they're not at all stable when stacked up. They needed reinforcement. After brainstorming a few different methods of bracing, we settled on using three 1x4 boards that we screwed on the back.

I'm getting ahead of myself. First we had to sand the shit out of these 8 crates. For as not-cheap as they are, they sure are shittily made. We sanded for what seemed like forever and they still have more rough spots than not, but we at least reduced the splinter risk by about 85%, so that was good enough. 

(The only issue I have with the rough texture now is that it's pretty impossible to wipe down when it's dusty without completely ruining my rag and getting fuzz stuck everywhere. So I'm open to cleaning suggestions.)

Okay, so now we build.

Step 2: Put it together.

We arranged the crates upright until we were happy with how they kind of fit together. Remember, they're irregular so this is a challenge. Then we laid them face down in that order and grabbed our first board to brace to sit across the center of the back to connect all eight crates. We pre-drilled the holes, then screwed the brace to the back of the crates. We did this two more times so that we had three braces on the back: top, middle, and bottom.

Then, once that was done, we finally found our orbital sander and spent even more time sanding.

Then we spent about 4 hours staining this shiz. Two of us, with even a little bit of help from Jamie for probably 20 minutes. FOUR HOURS. It could have gone faster if Jamie helped more, but to his credit, while we were doing this he was unloading our POD the whole time, so he was excused.

(For anyone curious, we used Varathane in Kona.)

Here's what we ended up with for about $200 and a coupla back aches:

It was pretty empty for a bit while we were still unpacking, but after finding my box full of framed photos, digging out some of our unimpressive book collection, and a trip to the thrift store, I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far.

Framed vintage sheet music from the thrift store on the left, goofy dramatic weddin' photo on the right.
Li'l suitcase which holds miscellaneous junk and red wicker box which holds 3D glasses for our TV: HomeGoods.
The sticker on the bottom of that blue candlestick tells me that I paid $10 for it at Big Lots. I must have been on drugs.

Vintage books hold up our cable box so that the cords fit through the crate crack.

It was a lot of work. I definitely wouldn't have actually done it had my ma not been down for the crafty adventure, so many thanks to her for helping me out. We get tons of compliments on it, so it was totally worth it.

Have you guys hopped on the crate/pallet trend?

I Like Big News (and I Cannot Lie)

Hey guys, long-time-no-type! It's been a while and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things here. A lot has happened since I last wrote. After a month or so of not knowing if we were going to close escrow, we finally moved into our brand new home back in May!

We love the open floor plan!

We have a rad fire pit which we share with rad neighbors.

Basically, we love our new place. I have a ton of photos I could post right now about the house but that's not really the main reason for my return to this space. 

'Member how I started this blog as a way to document our infertility treatments? Well, I'm not going to be doing that anymore.

Just kidding. Not pregnant. That's totally an echocardiogram, but it is relevant. Nope. No baby growing in my uterus, but there's one growin' in my heart.

We are adopting!

When we decided to buy a house back in November, we had quite a few items to start paying for which led us to decide to discontinue my $400+ per month acupuncture habit. After a little bit of time, I began revisiting the idea of adoption. (I say "revisit" because it's something that Jamie and I had discussed years ago before we were even married.)

We never jumped too deeply into infertility treatments, but what we had already done I knew one thing about: I hated it. After 5 years of analyzing my body and cycle, obsessing over timing our grownup-fun-time ever-so-carefully, months of acupuncture preceded by months of sticking myself in the gut with blood-thinners, I decided that's not what I wanted. I was no longer comfortable trying to force my body to do something that it's obviously not equipped for.

So, after a little bit of soul searching, I brought it up to Jamie. Admittedly, he wasn't quite ready to give up on treatments. We had a handful of conversations over some time to decide if this was what we really wanted to do, and ultimately, it was.

We made the decision back in December to adopt a newborn, but due to all of our new home adventures, we spent the first part of this year doing our research. After taking a month or so to settle in, we finally decided to get started. Now that we've officially been accepted into the program we chose, we wanted to share the news with you all! It's typically suggested that we don't tell the world this early, but I also didn't follow that rule with the fertility treatments either. We're over-sharers in this family and have a hard time keeping our lives to ourselves.

We're in the super early stages right now, so there's a long road ahead of us still, but we're feeling really great. It's my intent to keep everyone updated on our journey here just as I did throughout my fertility treatments, so keep an eye out if you're interested.

Wish us luck!

The Return of So What

I'm linking up with Shannon from Life After I Dew again for So What Wednesday!


First of all, SO WHAT if it's been nearly four months since I last put up a So What post? Misty put up her very first SWW and it motivated me to hop back on that train. Now, where to start...?
So what!

if I shattered my phone two weeks ago, taped it up with blue painter's tape and have yet to get it fixed OR even put a case on it.

So what!

if I Photoshopped a beard on my new nephew.

So what!

if I don't want The Neighbs to move and posted this alteration to their for sale sign on the internets.

So what!

if they're still staying in our same town. We were supposed to be neighbors forever.

So WHAT.

Just Friday

Welp, I haven't really been focusing on weight loss since starting acupuncture and my TCM diet, so I think Fitness Friday will be taking a hiatus. I'm still working out consistently, but because my new diet is so restrictive, I've been more lax about the things that I can eat which means that I don't always make the healthiest choices. That's not to say that I'm eating crap all the time, but I'm not as strict about it as I was before.

In my TCM diet, I'm only allowed alcohol during ovulation. Last weekend, I was certain that I was super close to ovulation, so I may have felt confident allowing myself some beers when we attended the Stone Sour Fest at Stone Brewery with our friends Bob and Maryla. I was DD so that helped me to not over-indulge, but it was difficult because I wanted to taste all of the beers.

This was on Sunday... I may have also squeezed in a couple beers on Saturday night when we hung out with Megan and Chris. We went to dinner at Pint House in Fullerton which offers a BEER TOWER, so of course we had to order that. Duh. (They also had a really great "backyard" patio which I really wished was my own backyard patio.)

After dinner, we adventured a few blocks to find Bootlegger's Brewery. We'd had Bootlegger beer locally before but had yet to visit. It's a low-key place that kind of looks like it's run out of a truck garage with it's large roll-up door. There's a few picnic tables inside, but the majority of the tables are outside. They serve their beers in mason jars and have cornhole and a giant Jenga game set up outside.

It was a fun weekend! I didn't feel bad for cheating and having a few beers because I was so certain that I was so close to ovulation. Turns out that I didn't ovulate til like Tuesday or Wednesday, so then I was like "oops! Cheat days I guess!" Meh, I'm not going to worry too much about it. The rest of my TCM diet is going swimmingly. I haven't cheated with the food at all and I'm still seeing results in my treatment which motivates me to stick to it.

[Now it's time for some cycle talk.]

Last Friday I mentioned that Dr. Lee gave me a second herbal blend to help raise my temperatures. Well, it definitely helped regulate my temperatures, but on Monday he upped my dose in hopes of bringing it up by another tenth of a degree or so. It sounds minuscule, but it makes a difference. My follicular phase (pre-ovulation) temps are hovering between 97 and 97.1. Ideally, I need to be at least 97.2.

The red line indicates when the app I use things I ovulated based on temperatures (temperatures always rise after ovulation) and other indicators like positive ovulation tests and physical symptoms that I record. This post-ovulation phase is the Luteal Phase where we wait for hopefully (and ideally) implantation. My temps so far aren't looking great, though. They need to be up to at least 97.8 and so far, I'm not quite there. I have a feeling my herbs will be adjusted again on Monday to help me out here.

Now, we wait. Anyone who has tracked their fertility to try getting pregnant knows how much this two week wait sucks. In the first half of the cycle, there's stuff to do that helps the days go by while you're waiting to ovulate. Checking symptoms, peeing on sticks, and with this TCM stuff there are things like keeping my feet warm and using a heating pad on my belly every other day, then, of course, all the doing it. (Did I mention that according to Dr. Lee, I need to immediately prop my butt up and stay that way for a minimum of three hours after it? That was fun trying to sleep like that for three days in a row.)

After ovulation it feels like there's no purpose. All I get to do now is continue my diet and herbs, acupuncture, and temping just for the purpose of recording it all the while, somehow retaining my sanity while waiting for my period to show or not show. (I guess we can still do it for the fun of it.)

It's a lot. This is all kind of a lot to maintain which is why we've taken so many breaks from really going gung-ho with trying. Now that I'm seeing Dr. Lee, though, I have a new hope. His office is basically wallpapered with successes; the walls covered with collages of thank you notes and photos of babies and pregnant women. I try to read some of the notes on every visit.

This last Monday, I found this one from a couple who were told that they couldn't conceive. This is what gives me hope.

Craving a Change

I woke up last Wednesday craving change. This happens every once in a while, most recently being in January when I decided on a whim to chop my hair that I has been so adamantly growing. So, appropriately timed at 6 months past that drastic change, I felt the intense need to change again.

From my teen years through my early twenties, I changed my hair often and drastically. I mostly kept it short and dyed it just about every color you could imagine. The image below is just a few examples of my wide array of hair adventures. Between the ages of 15 and 25, I was fearless.

Sweet collage skills, bro. 

Over the last four or five years, I've kind of tamed and grown up. My hair, while still ever changing in length, has only strayed from brown once or twice to explore into the comparatively not-so-adventurous regular, normal red. Because of this, I found myself intimidated by this new extreme change I was craving. Could I pull it off? Would I look ridiculous? Am I too old?

There was only one way to push myself: Instagram. It worked and later that day I made a trip to Sally Beauty. Having worked there for a few years back in the day, I knew what products I needed:

• blue bleach
• developer
• violet toner
• purple shampoo
• super extra mega deep conditioner

Tada.

I'm pretty stoked about how it turned out. When it's time for a cut and a root touch-up, I think I may try amping it up to platinum, but I'm still really happy with it at this level. I've received a lot of compliments on it and so far, luckily, only two Miley Cyrus comments (to which I have no idea how to respond).

My craving has been satiated.

So What!

I'm linking up with Shannon from Life After I Dew again for So What Wednesday!


So what!

if I downloaded the Beautiful Mess app so that I could put text and arrows on my Instagram photos... because everyone else did. Now where's the bridge?

So what!

if I'm almost 30 years old and still wear my nose ring (and still get it caught on the li'l loops on my bath towel.) I vowed as a teenager that I'd "never change", and this is really all that's left to hold on to. No, that's not really why I still wear it. I just still like it. So what.

So what!

if we spent a small fortune going out to see a movie. We rarely go, so we did it in style at Cinepolis. Big comfy recliners and wait service at your seat mean you can eat and drink during the movie. We chose to just drink. 

So what!

if I haven't been too great at cooking dinner lately causing us to eat out a lot. I know what you're thinking, that pasta looks delicious! It was delicious, and I didn't make it. So what if I'm friends with Maryla who has a new cooking biz and always comes bearing tastiness. She brought us this casserole when we hung out the other day! (PS check out her Facebook page: I Cook, You Eat. It will make you hungry.)

So WHAT.

So What (if it ain't) Wednesday

("Ain't" ain't a word.)

Okay, I had a lot on my plate yesterday, so I never got around to putting together a So What Wednesday. This is why, today, you're getting a So What (if it ain't) Wednesday. As always, I'm linking up with Shannon at Life After I Dew.



So what!

if I still haven't gotten around to posting about our New York trip, or even finished organizing the photos. (What I'm not saying So What to is that I just realized I never ate any New York cheesecake. I'm such a failure.)

So what!

if I also haven't managed the photos from my family's visit before our NY trip.

So what!

if I've let bread into my healthy meals. It's Dave's Killer Bread; it's whole grain, organic, and non-GMO; and it's delicious.  Also, I think that before I wasn't eating enough calories and was hungry all the time. Since introducing this bread, my meals stick much longer. On that same note...

So what!

if I haven't posted a Fitness Friday since March 29th! (holy crap.) I should (should) get one up tomorrow. In it, I'll explain why I haven't really been motivated to post a Fitness Friday.

So what!

if I spent half of yesterday listening to mostly N'Sync. After the "It's Gonna Be May" meme, I was reminded of me and some peeps circa 2000 dancing and n'lip-syncing to It's Gonna Be Me in a talent show at, wait for it, band camp.

And so what!

if I decided to cut my own hair yesterday. When I first chopped it, and when it first got shaggy, I had it cut by my friend Jamie at W Salon. She does a great job and I love how she cuts it, but my hair was driving me crazy and I literally have $27 in my checking account, so I did it myself. I'm hoping next time I'll have a little bit more cash and can actually go back to her!

So WHAT.

(If'n y'wanna see these pics before they're on the blog, and more, follow me on Instagram!)

Fitness Friday

Let's see, let's see, where to start? There isn't a whole lot new this week. Uhm, oh! I decided to give PB2 a try. I've been seeing it all over Instagram. It's powdered peanut butter, made only of peanuts, sugar, and salt. It's only 45 calories per 2 tablespoons versus the usual 190 in regular peanut butter. You can put the powder on or in anything you want or you can mix it with water or any other liquid to turn it into a peanut butter consistency. I've been mixing it with almond milk and eating it with an apple.

I also put some in a jar of overnight oats with half a scoop of triple chocolate protein powder. It was supa-rich and tasty.

So that's been cool. The taste is a leeetle off from regular peanut butter, but that might be because I mix it with almond milk, so I will try it other ways and see if it tastes more normal.

I'm also eating a lot of eggs/liquid egg whites, still. What's new? And while I've done pretty well with keeping my day time eating in check, I cheated a bit in the evenings.

I ordered this lamb shank with double veggies instead of veggies and mashed potatoes. The veggies were likely sauteed in oil or butter, and the lamb shank was super tender and fatty, but overall it probably wasn't that bad. What was bad was the weekend that followed this lamb shank.

I kind of let things get out of hand last weekend. Having breakfast with friends included a not-so-bad eggs... and regular bacon... and fruit! and a cinnamon roll. That was followed by a day of many beers. The day of many beers was followed by a chili dinner, which was delicious and still probably not that bad... but then I had like 800 pounds of corn bread. With butter.

Whatever, I thought, tomorrow's another day!

Yes, yes it was. Sunday was another day of drinking and eating. Another day with friends, eating rice, beans, meat, snacks, and drinking beers and sangria.

Oh, and I made this:

Oh and it was mighty tasty. A major hit. Yikes.

So I did poorly this weekend, and I felt it on Monday. I felt sluggish and had trouble really pushing myself in spin and Zumba.

Yes, I did still burn 574 calories between spin, pilates and Zumba, but I was pretty bummed that I didn't do better. I mean, the week before, I burned 413 calories in Zumba alone! But then today happened. After burning 340ish calories in Zumba on Wednesday and still feeling like I could have done better, the Zumba instructor really amped it up this week.

She knows I have my Polar, so today she said "We're gonna burn 500 calories!" I was a little skeptical at first, but as class went on, it was looking good. The end of class came, and...

Uh yeah, I did it. 510 calories, dudes. I was pretty stoked about that. I spent a lot of the class with my heart rate up in the 150's and 160's and I'm noticing that I don't feel as awful as I used to when I was up in that range, so, yeah, that's cool too.

And with that, let's check out some progress pics!

Left: 1/4/13, Center: 3/1/13, Right: Today

Left: 1/4/13, Center: 3/1/13, Right: Today

March 1st, 2013 (-since 3/22/13, -since 1/4/13)

• Weight - 148.2 (-0, -5.8)
• Calf - 13.75" (-0, -0)
• Knee - 15" (-0, -0.25)
• Thigh - 23.5" (-0, -0.5)
• Hips/Butt - 40.75" (-0, -1)
• Belly - 38.5" (-0, -1)
• Waist - 30" (-0, -1.5)
• Bust - 36" (-0.25, -2)
• Arms - 11.5" (-0.25, -0.75)

Okay, I can't help but be bummed that I didn't lose any weight this week. I'm actually a little annoyed with this because earlier in the week I was 147, but, really, it's not important. I didn't lose as many inches either, but I still lost some off my boobs and my arms.

At first, I didn't think I could see much difference in today's photos compared to the photos from March 1st, but I took a closer look. What I'm seeing is my back fat and love-handles are smoothing out, my butt's getting a little less lumpy and of course my boobs are deflating (it comes with the territory!) Also, outside of the photos, these workout pants are on their way to being too big. While they're a far cry from being loose, I do find myself yanking them up constantly during Zumba or Body Combat.

Let's break it down, so since March 1st I've lost only .6 pounds, but I lost 3.5 inches! Since January 4th I've lost nearly 6 pounds and 7 inches. If you want to go way back, I've lost nearly 15 pounds and 18.25 inches since June 7th. Those numbers might not be impressive when you consider the amount of time, but I am still of the mindset that I'll have an easier time keeping it off by going slowly.

My struggles this weekend will be alcohol and Easter, then my struggles next week will be not working out on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday while my family is here as well as fooood and more alcohol with them. BUT. I'm giving myself a pass to not stress about it. I will make an effort not to go overboard and to make good food choices, but the family time will be most important.

If I still fit into these jeans after they leave, I'll mark it as a success!

Fitness Friday

Okay, so I went a little gung-ho this week my workout schedule. I even added a second workout yesterday and did Body Combat after Body Pump/Cycle. This leaves me feeling like today's one workout wasn't enough, but that's just my brain getting all weird on me. Of course it's enough. But then again, I'm all "But I had to cancel my Saturday morning class!" and them I'm all "You're not going to gain 8 pounds if you skip it!" but then I'm all "But I'm prolly just gonna draaaaaaaank all day." and then I'm like "Well, okay, but... you'll survive, and it will be fun and worth it, yo."

That got a little out of hand; I apologize.

As for food? I did really well this week, I think, if you don't count St. Patrick's Day. Corned beef tacos whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

These were accompanied by kind of a lot of beer and a couple shots. D'oh. I've mentioned probably one thousand times how that's my biggest struggle. I like beer. I like wine. It's so hard for me to say no to. Sweets used to be really difficult, but those are super easy now. With sweets, I have the discipline to have one bite. I can't really just have one sip of wine. And some times when we're out, I tell myself that I will allow myself one drink. But then I order a second. You get the idea. So that's still my main hurdle... still.

But food? I (mostly) have that down.

At home, it's really easy for me to eat low-cal and mostly clean. The only carbs I eat at home are from fruits, veggies, and whole grains like quinoa and various types of brown rice. No white rice, no white potatoes, and I rarely eat bread. My problem lately, though, is that I eat then I am satisfied and no longer hungry. Then, an hour or two later, I'm not just kind of hungry, I'm hungry to the point that I'm about to get a headache. I feel like I am eating constantly. Even on days like Wednesday when I burned 800 calories, which upped my calorie budget to 2000, I was still HUN-graaay. So needless to say, I'm still trying to figure out how to keep myself satiated for longer.

So, last week I was really stoked about getting my new Polar heart rate monitor. I finally received it on Monday evening (at 7:20. What the crap, UPS?) I've used it every day and really like having all of the information it provides. Being able to keep an eye on my heart rate can be really motivating. When I see that it's in the 140's and I realize that I feel pretty good, it amps me up to work harder. 150's? Let's see if I can hit 160! Then, of course, being able to see the calories that I've burned makes this thing worth every single penny.

I didn't post my numbers last week. My measurements were the same aside from going back up .25" on my calves as well as my weight bouncing back up to 149.4, which was 1.8 pounds higher than the week before. I was feeling awesome that week when I was down to 147.6.

I had some killer results that really pumped me up, so while I was still feeling good about my fitness and going to classes at both Studio 5 and CUT, I was really annoyed with my weight for spiking like it had. Now, I'll be the first person to tell you that overall, the scale really doesn't matter. It's how you feel, how your body changes, and if you really need numbers, the measurements. Despite having 3 people this week notice the change in my body, I still let the scale have an affect on me.

When I weighed and measured myself this morning, I realized that I was being silly and that the advice I give others about the scale is advice that I need to remember to take myself.


March 22nd, 2013 (-since 3/15/13, -since 1/4/13)

• Weight - 148.2 (-1.2, -5.8)
• Calf - 13.75" (-0, -0)
• Knee - 15" (-0, -0.25)
• Thigh - 23.5" (-0.25, -0.5)
• Hips/Butt - 40.75" (-0.25, -1)
• Belly - 38.5" (-0.25, -1)
• Waist - 30" (-0.25, -1.5)
• Bust - 36.25" (-0.5, -1.75)
• Arms - 11.75" (-0.25, -0.5)

This is exactly why I need to relax about the scale. Today, I weigh more than I did on March 8th, but I've still lost inches. I'm hoping for another good week as I'll be doing my April progress pictures next Friday!