I have awesomely crafty bride friends!

Heya Nesters!

Right now, I have six friends {excluding myself, of course} that are engaged. SIX. 

Almost all my fellow brides are pretty stink in' crafty, but my one friend Megan has gone above and beyond the adorable DIY factor.  I asked my friends to be bridesmaids via a hand written personalized note card. Megan took a page out of the Once Wed's book blog and made the most adorable. cards. ever.

What an awesome job did she do!?  She really brought the cuteness factor to another level.  I'm so impressed and happy she shared this with me and is letting me share it with you all!  And as always a big thanks to Once Wed and the blogging community for the endless inspiration that you give all of us betrothed ladies. 

Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!

XO
G

She works hard for her money!

So hard for it, Honey!

Since I work so hard... I think I deserve a nice space to work, dagnabbit!  And let's be real- I am kind of over my office desk right about now.

I've had this desk since the beginning of time.  Okay, well, at least since the time I started using a desk for homework. {Kindergarten?}   It's done me well and withstood a couple smaller makeovers, and despite my best efforts to make it work, it just doesn't tickle my fancy anymore.

It's gotta go.

Hello Nesters My Old Friends...

I've come to talk with you again....

Hiya guys!!  How are you all!? It's been a while!  Happy New Year!  I'm sure, much like you guys, life has been madness and I am thrilled to have enough time to jot some words down for ya!  Because let's be real... I miss you.  So here I am! ... Hooray!

Well I guess I should just cut to the chase and tell you the biggest news around the house!!

How soft is your stool?

Ew! Get your mind out of the gutter!  I am not pulling a Dr. Oz and talking about your poop.  {That's right, I said poop!} I mean your foot stool!  I'm having a wee dilemma with mine...  A while back I mentioned stopping for a stool on the side of the road...

I have since reupholstered the little guy and he's lookin' better... but not great.

First, ignore the crud on the ground... then, let me show you how I covered 'im.

DIY Filing Cabinet Makeover

Heya Nesters!  Well I finally had a chance to put the finishing touches on a project I've been working on for a couple months.  I alluded to it in this post but I don't think anyone really picked up on it. It really was only a few days work, but with nice long gaps in between.  I guess it was somewhere between laziness and being busy.  I had about hit my wits end when it came to file organization...

Fathers Day Card

Every. Single. One.  of my family members makes cards for each other.  Except me.  Or at least I didn't for a long time. {I like to think of myself as fairly well organized but cards always managed to be an uber last-minute thought.  Sometimes an after-the-minute thought...}  Until I found out that all those tear-jerking, sentimental notes I scribed into the witty, Target-purchased cards were relegated to the circular file, destined for the recycling plant after the fact. How dare they!  Their response was a shrug and "then make your cards..."  Heartless I tell ya... heartless.  Needless to say, I began making the cards.  One big reason I never made cards was that I thought to myself "I'm not an illustrator like Mom or Joe or a photographer like Dad, the only thing I can draw are fashion croqui's and technical flats.  I can't draw that on a card."

via

  So I bought them.  Then I found the wonderful world of craft paper and how to manipulate it.....

The Raz

Nesters, meet my nephew, Lucca Parker Alterio... {AKA The Raz....}

He was born yesterday at 10:38 AM with a full head of hair, bright blue eyes and is the most adorable thing I have ever seen in my life.  I will have to travel to NYC to meet him face to tiny little face over the weekend but I'm already in love.  How could you not with those chubby cheeks!! 

DIY Projects: Happily Leather After

Heya Nesters!  A few months back I showed you my bookcase makeover from girlie pink to modern white. And I'm happy to say I have finally taken one step closer to being totally done with it.

2 Year Anniversary

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Hiya Nesters!  Welcome to this special Saturday edition of Temporary Nest. Today is a special day for me.  Matt and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary.  {It's actually Monday, but who wants to celebrate their anniversary on a Monday? Not us!} It may not seem ground breaking or even all that significant since we're not married or engaged. But Matt is so wonderfully special to me, if you haven't noticed by his frequent cameos in my adventures.  And I'll be honest, before him, I had never celebrated a first anniversary, let alone a second!  

DIY Project: Old School Silhouette

Heya Nesters!  Alright well, enough with the chair business! There's more to life than velvet and tacking, right?  I wanted to show you guys today a little project that is close to my heart. As you may know. my brother, Joe, and sister-in-law, Molly, are expecting.  We are in the heat of baby shower planning and coordinating.  That combined with redecorating post-Christmas and my obsession with wanting to make a silhouette and I had a project calling my snowed-in name "Giiiiiinaaaaa... Get off your lazy, cold heiny and maaaaake meeeeeee."

So I did. 

Navy Blueprints

Heya Nesters!! Well as promised in yesterdays post, I wanted to chat with you all about fabric and color.  We all know that Satine {my lovely latest project that you can see here and here.} started out as a lovely sun-bleached magenta velvet. 

Upholstery Class: Week 2

Heya Nesters! It always comes back to Monday morning doesn't it? Well lucky for me, that just means I get to dish to you guys about my upholstery class!! {Which to me, is like even better than normal girl-talk.}  So without further adieu let's launch into it.

Saturday's class, as indicated in the subject of todays' post, was week numero dos.  I couldn't have been more thrilled to work my fingers to the bone bright and early on a weekend morning.  I was greeted with as much glee and enthusiasm for class from Kevin and Pamela, as I was feeling.  What a bright way to start a morning! This is what I came back to....

Tulle and Tootsies

Good {snowy} Morning, Nesters!  Last night I added a little tulle and tootsies to my fine nest.  What the heck am I talking about? Well... lets start with a little background.

Via

DIY Project: The Plight of the Stockings

Heya Nesters!  As mentioned before, I had many DIY projects underway for Christmas gifts and couldn't show you until after the wrapping-paper-ripping was over.  I couldn't ruin the surprise! After all, occasionally family members do stop by the ol' Nest. Anyhoo, one day in November, I got an email from Pottery Barn advertising their Christmas stockings.

via Pottery Barn

Since I had already been hemming and hawing over what homemade gifts to churn out I thought, "What a better gift for a new family {Joe, Molly and the Raz} than a family of matching homemade stockings!"  HA! How wrong was I?!

Christmas is the time to say I love you!

Good Morning Nesters!  As we all know, the holidays are the time to share with our loved ones and show them how much we care.  And hot-diggity-dawg I am hooked on my boyfriend, Matt, of which you've all heard.  Schmultzy isn't it?  I know. It's terribly cheesy but it's true. He's got me hook, line and sinker. And I like to think, he feels the same. But around the holidays I felt the need to express it more than the every-day.

We look freezing here because, well, we are.  We went to Zoolights at the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, MA to embrace our inner children and ended up dodging the millions of other peoples outer children that were apparently on the attack.  All the while freezing our little hienies off.  But it was worth it for the lights.

DIY Project: Advent Calendar & Cans for Comments Update!

Welcome back from the holidays, Nesters! I hope Santa was good to you and that no of the family members were strangled after a wee too much egg nog. With Christmas over and done with, as promised, I am going to embark upon showing you a plethora of DIYs.  Here is number uno.  

Felt Advent Calendar

The Peanuts Gang!

Ok well maybe not peanuts exactly... maybe more just nuts in general.  Does anyone else have trouble getting presents for their grandparents around the holidays?  I am lucky enough to have 2 of my grandparents alive and kickin' at 85! WOO! But they are impossible to shop for.  They have every single thing they would ever need.  EVER.  So just as a little token, every year I've gotten them each a bag of Lindt Chocolate.

But this year, that's a big no-no.

DIY Project: Girlie Bookshelf

Heya Nesters!  Well I have to admit, I kind of forgot to post about this DIY.   It's not entirely done but I thought it was dramatically different enough to show you the "during" portion. A while back {so far back that they were taken in the old apartment!!} I introduced you to this bookcase that my dad and I made when I was a kiddo. It hold sentimental value and I am a total sap so there was no way I could get rid of it. But at the time I made it I LOVED pink, flowers and Hanson. {I know... I not only dated myself but I made myself "that girl"}

Shopping overload

I really have overdone it this year when it comes to gifts. I mean, don't I look like I'm drowning gifts here in my lounge? ... HA! No but really, I have gotten some really amazing deals this year which has caused the disease of "Well, if this was so cheap I guess I can pick up that too!" Don't you hate that? 

A DIY of a Different Kind...

Heya Nesters!  I've shown you all kinds of DIY tutorials for your home and fun little projects.  But today I'm going to show you a DIY that I did with an abridged tutorial.  If I were to give you an in depth step by step, you'd be reading this for quite some time. So to give you background: Matt's friend Matt (there's two!) got married this past weekend.  I had my sights set on a navy blue dress and I searched high and low to no avail.  But I found these FABULOUS shoes that I knew would look amazing with any navy dress. And I happened to decide to get them when Amazon was having a sale on pumps!  Huge score!

Needless to say, I never found the perfect dress. {Lets be real here Karma isn't nice enough to let me find the perfect shoes and the perfect dress.}