climbing the walls: custom trellis...

I mentioned in previous posts that we had some landscaping installed recently. Due to the Sahara-like conditions here in the Queen City, they aren't growing like they should, so I haven't posted the after pictures yet. But I will give you a quick peek at one area that is bringing me much joy. There is a narrow spot between our front porch and our driveway that we've basically been using as a pass-through since there was nothing there.

Since it was such a small space, we decided to put some Clematis in there since it will grow but not be too bushy for the space. 

It came with a tiny bamboo trellis, but it was so small the Clematis had no where to go and started dying. So I headed up to Home Depot and grabbed a trellis and a trusty can of Rustoleum spray paint and created my own custom trellis to match the house. What once looked like this:

Now looks like this:

As soon as I added it, the Clematis started growing like Jack's beanstalk. 

It just looks so nice when you're coming up the drive. I can't wait until it fully engulfs the trellis.

As soon as it grows past the second horizontal bar, I am going to remove the original bamboo trellis. 

PS: Excuse the messy mulch. With all of the crazy rain and winds we've been having, our pristine new much is full of leaves and petals. I pick them out of there every day but it just doesn't seem to make a difference. Ack! Anyone else have mulch anxiety like I do? Let me here a "trell-yes!" (yes, that was a trellis pun.)

A little self-promotion...

As many of you know, I'm a freelance copywriter. 

If you or anyone you know is in need of some writing help, I'm your gal! 

Check out my portfolio and feel free to contact me through the blog as well. 

http://www.krop.com/jennaschauerobrien/

It's a bathroom party!

I've linked up to the Show Us Your Bathrooms link-up over on Thrifty Decor Chick. I submitted our guest bath makeover. Head on over and check out some of the other great bathroom makeovers! 

I've got your number...

So it's only taken me 326 days to post anything about our wedding. I know, I know. But life has been a little hectic and now that things are calming down and we're settled in our new abode, I've finally had time to get our pictures organized and look back on that amazing day last August.

I did a lot of DIYing for the big day and over the next few weeks I am going to share with you some of my favorite projects. First up are all projects seating-related.

Anyone who knows my husband knows that he loves music. And not in the "oh yeah, I really like that song or that band" kind of way. He lives and breaths music from the minute he wakes up until the minute he goes to sleep. I am also a huge music lover and the one thing we knew for certain was that music would play a significant part in our wedding day.

The single aspect of our wedding that we spent the most amount of time on was creating our reception playlist. From cocktail songs to dinner songs to dancing songs, we revised it for months to ensure just the right mix for our guests. Organically, a music theme for decor started to take shape.

Our Save the Dates were designed by one of my coworkers to look like a vintage concert poster.  I wanted to seating cards to play off of the Save the Date, so I designed them too look like admission tickets. When guests came up to the seating card table, they were greeted by this:

I took an 8x10 white frame from Marshalls, spray-painted it yellow and created the sign using clip art.
The message reads: Take your ticket for an evening of music and celebration.

And here are their tickets, complete with "ADMIT ONE" down the side. 

The first line was for their name and the second was for their table number number. Oh yes, we named our tables after our favorite bands/singers. Of course, I chose NKOTB, New Edition and NSync to represent my fabulous taste in music. 

Those frames may look simple, but they took many steps to make. First, I bought plain wooden crafting frames from Michaels for $1 each. They didn't have any stands so my handy uncle created bases to help them stand on their own. Once I attached those, I lugged them all home with me to Ohio and my dad and I spray painted 20 frames in a bright yellow. 

Then we narrowed down our list of favorite bands, printed out one of their album covers and put them in the frame. For those guests who may not have known the band/table where they were assigned, my mom found shimmery crafting numbers that we added to make table-location easier. 

We had Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, The Beatles, Metallica, Hall and Oates and even a Michael McDonald table (don't judge - he is one of our faves!) It was a fun way to add a personal touch to each table and give our guests a memorable welcome to the evening. 

DIY beverage cart

Last post, I gave you a sneak peek at a project I had been working on and here is the big reveal.
For years I have been obsessed with transforming an old AV cart into a funky, rolling bar cart. These are some of the pictures I have had tucked away for inspiration.

Clockwise from top left: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

On a recent garage-saleing excursion, my dreams got a little closer to reality. I picked up this baby for a mere $10 and the ideas started flowing.

Since finishing our deck, I knew it would be the perfect place for this metal beauty. A couple cans of Rustoleum Painter's Touch spray paint in Glossy Apple Red later and VOILA!

It took many, many coats to cover this baby. I started with Valspar Outdoor Spray Paint. It was awful, Both cans were hard to spray and the nozzle would spit out paint, leaving little paint dots all over. So I switched to Rustoleum and it was so much better. Smoother spray, even coating and no splatter.

It has been surface-of-the-sun-hot here for the last two weeks, so unfortunately I wasn't able to use it when I had my girlfriends in town. Hopefully we can have the neighbors over soon and make full use of it as a bar. Lemonade is sweet, but a vodka lemonade on a hot summer evening is sweeter.  

Red was the hubby's idea and I have to say it adds just the right amount of pop to our neutral deck.

I love it! 

Have you used a pop of color on your patio? Tell me about it!