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I've got a new post up today see you at:  www.decorandthedog.net

Thanks so for moving with us.  See you at the new digs!

1. I’m so on top of this monthly recap that it’s not even funny.

2. I am transferring the blog to a new site this weekend.  If things get weird, that’s why.  Also, if you can’t find me next week.  Come look for me.  I’ll update this site with direction to the new one when I get that all figured out.

3. I have no clue how to transfer a blog.  Most people hire that done.  I’m cheap and am good with the Google.  Plus I like to make things hard.  I’m sure it’s just typing my new blog address into blogger and bam!, new website. 

4. I’m sometimes delusional.

5. I think I’ll have a craft room reveal next week.  And maybe a stencil giveaway.  And then a bathroom reveal the following week.  High five!

Happy recap day!

Catch up on the rest of 2013 here:  January February March April May June July

Big weekend plans?  Who’s pumped for the new site?

So, I was at a beer tasting the other night.  Because that’s what grown-ups do.

I was talking to a nice girl that I had just met.  The conversation was going great until I got the dreaded “Do you have kids?” question.  Well, it’s not really the question that is dreaded.  It’s the response.  Which is “Oh.” followed by looking away in pity/awkwardness/horror that an almost 32 year old woman doesn’t have kids.  The conversation then ends because I clearly can not be your friend because I can’t join you for play dates.

My dog is fun.  Darn it.

Sorry for my rant.  Here’s a pretty Hawkeye inspired pennant baby quilt that I made for a dear friend.  My dear friend that lived across the hall from me sophomore year at the University of Northern Iowa.  My friend that I watched every episode of the Bachelor with.  My Euchre partner that helped me beat all of the boys in their floor tournament.  This quilt is for her 3rd baby.  STOP IT TIME!

My friend is a big fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes.  She is also not finding out the sex of the baby.  I decided to go with the black and gold color scheme.  I like that it is themed but still classy.  Black and gold are great gender neutral colors without being too “baby”.

I am madly in love with quilt.  I want to make one for myself.  I love how the bunting lines pucker in the wash.  I also love how the pennants fray a little giving it a vintage feel.

I swear this isn’t a shameless plus (well, it didn’t start that way) but if you are looking for a custom pennant quilt of your own, head on over to Sew Midwestern and Kim {NewlyWoodwards} and I will get to quilting.  Unless you want Cyclone colors.  I might have issues with that.  (I kid. I kid. Sort of. It would just hurt a lot.)

Now if only this quilt would help our football team this year.  A girl can dream.

Who wants to be Ike’s play date?  Who wants a baby only as need for a cute Hawkeye quilt?  Me neither.  Go Hawks!

Don’t you hate when bloggers do teaser posts about the big projects they are working on?  Yeah.  Me, too.

Oh, hey!  Look at our pretty new faucets in our almost finished bathroom that I can’t show until a week or two.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  Right?

We are so stinking close on the world’s longest bathroom project.  Just a little touch up paint and some styling and we’re good to go.

In the mean time, let’s discuss our new faucets.  The ever generous folks over at Pfister sent us these Park Avenue Faucets.  We feel all fancy now when we wash our hands.  As I was washing my face last night I told Nate that this must be how the other half lives.  The only way they could be better is if they turned on themselves or gave Ike a bath.

The faucet was easy to install. We previously had some inexpensive faucets.  Nate tells me that the install on these guys was much easier.  No swear words.  No threats of divorce.  Beautiful.

The faucet is a single control.  The flow is great.  And it’s drool worth.  All very important in Michelle-land.

We chose the polished nickel.  I am madly in love with the polished nickel.  I just wouldn’t recommend others following in my difficult footsteps.  There aren’t many options for the polished nickel finish in mirrors, faucets or hardware.  I love the options that we found for all but it was a challenge.  Also, we just installed these babies but I can already tell that keeping the polished nickel clean may send me over the edge.  (Not a far push.)

Thanks to Pfister for sending us these beauties.  They have gone to a happy home!

Have you ever fallen hard for a faucet?  What big DIY projects did you work on this weekend?

I wasn’t compensated for this post.  Pfister supplied us these beautiful faucets.  I wasn’t required to review them.  We just love them so we thought we would!

Oh hey. It’s almost the end of August.  Time for the July recap. 

First. I must share the crazy thoughts going through my head.

1. I want camo skinny jeans.  It’s a new obsession.  Someone find me some cheap ones. JCrew has a beautiful pair but camo probably isn’t one of those closet staples that I should splurge on.  Nate doesn’t get it.  I think those Duck Dynasty boys are wearing off on me. 

2. I don’t know what is more embarrassing for me.  The fact that I watch Duck Dynasty or the Kardashians.  At least neither is on a regular basis.  I really don’t watch that much tv.  I clearly make good decisions when I do.

3. Someone send me a way to get rid of moles.  They are destroying our yard.  I might sprain my ankle.  This is serious stuff.  Nate has been fighting them for 4 years and he refuses to hire someone to get the job done. I’m going to make it my mission.  Or publicly humiliate him into it.  Probably the latter.

4.  Don’t Google nude scarf.  Don’t.  This and #1 are good reasons for me to stick to DIY projects and not fashion.

5. Ike lodged a complaint with me.  He needs a dog bed in the sewing room.  He told me to put a rush order into Sew Midwestern.  Poor thing.

Happy July recap!  Happy weekend!

Catch up on the rest of 2013 here:  January February March April May June

I often post pictures like this on Instagram.

I then get comments questioning how I don’t weigh 500 pounds.

Turns out that I don’t eat delicious donuts every day.  I only wish that I ate donuts topped in bacon every morning.  My usually egg and whole grain English muffin doesn’t look nearly as awesome.  Even with a filter.

I also like to exercise.  You read that right.  I like it.  I’m not a crazy P90x’er but I move.  A lot.  I’m a big believer in finding an exercise that you like and hop to it.  Exercise doesn’t need to be expensive.  (I sound all preachy pharmacist like right now.  I had a patient call awhile back and they asked for “the tiny one that likes to give advice”.  I think he meant it in a good way.)  There are so many free videos on-line.  I’m also a big believer in “cost per use”.  I “pay off” my exercise videos quite fast.

Today I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite exercise videos/sites.  (I always find this information fascinating on other blogs.  Pretend you do too.)  I promise to have house related things soon…ish.  As all good medical professionals recommend, check with your doctor before beginning an exercise routine.

I will start with my most expensive piece of exercise equipment.

This dude needs a lot of exercise.  He’s 6 1/2 going on puppy.  He definitely doesn’t let us skip our nightly walk.  We walk him at least 45 minutes (usually 1 hour) at least 6 days per week.

In addition to walking, I do some form of strength activities at least 3 times per week.

I’m a huge fan of kettle bells.  Strength training and huge calorie burn in a short period of time.  My favorite video set is the Kettlebody by Brook.  Cardio, strength and yoga DVDs in one set.  Highly recommend it.  She’s only slightly cheesy and I have seen good results with this set.  The three DVDs kept me from getting bored for a good few months.  I purchased my kettle bell on mega sale at the beginning of the year.  I hear Walmart has a super cheap set. (I can’t verify this because that place terrifies me.)  I started with the 7lb.  I currently use either a 10 or 15 lb for the exercises.

I’ve recently enjoyed this free 15 minute kettle bell workout.  Lots of calorie burning in 15 minutes.  And you get buff.  Boo-yah.

I’m a big fan of this free fitsugar arm workout from Cameron Diaz’s trainer.  It’s starts all nice and slow and by the end my arms are screaming.  Feel the burn.

One of my all time favorite yoga DVDs is MTV Yoga.  I’ve had this yoga DVD since undergrad.  So like 10 years.  Wow, that’s depressing.  But good for the video.  I like this DVD for stretching and going to my happy place.  Plus it burns the arms and thighs.

I talked Nate into picking up a free weight bench from my brother’s neighbor.  He fell for it.  Off to test it out and be beast like.

My newest addiction is the free app myfitnesspal.  I’ll probably be bored with it in a week but you never know.  You can use it as a food and exercise journal.  I like that it breaks down the amount of each nutrient you eat.  The food data base is huge making it easy to track calories.

Any favorite exercise DVDs?  What’s your favorite form of exercise?  Who wants a donut?

Alternate title: How I Got Poison Ivy at Craft Night

Last Wednesday night was craft night.  We made boxwood wreaths. They are super easy to make.  Like we all finished our wreaths before leaving for the night easy.  (That says a lot.) 

Most of us in our craft night group had previously been eyeing boxwood wreaths but their high price tags kept us away.  Kim did a little Pinteresting (a verb) and found a tutorial from Liz Marie Blog for us to base our project off of.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Grapevine wreath
• I had one hoarded in the basement.  You can get them at Hobby Lobby (bring a coupon!)  You can often find them at Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.
• A poor, unsuspecting boxwood bush
• I have a few growing in front of our house but they weren’t quite ready for mutilation yet.  Luckily Nici had a few that wanted murdered, I mean trimmed.
• Optional: burlap ribbon for a bow

Start by butchering the boxwood.  We mainly cut long pieces.  We ended up trimming some down as we went along. 

Shove the cut pieces into the grapevine wreath until it looks pretty.  This should take approximately 5 minutes. 

Fluff/prune for the next 15 minutes to make yourself feel like this project was actually a challenge.

Make Kim tie a burlap bow for you beings she embarrassed you by wearing the same shirt.

Hang it up the next day!

And then itch your feet off.  I somehow managed to get into poison ivy.  This summer is the first time I have gotten it.  Not cool.  Beware.  Craft night is dangerous.

Check out previous wreaths from the Decor and the Dog vault: Quirky Owl Wreath, Candy Corn Wreath, Whispy Ornament Wreath, Yarn Wreath

Have you had your eye on boxwood wreaths?  Any great ideas for our next craft night? Preferably something inside. ;)

I haven’t shared anything house related for awhile.  Lame.  What kind of DIY blogger am I?  Oh yes, one with a job. I remember now.

We are about one weekend (at home) away from finishing up our master bathroom.  Hooray for the longest project in history! We maybe should have started this one in the fall and not during the busy Summer months.  You live and you don’t learn.

I’m also working on a new blog design.  Nothing super fancy.  Just cleaner.  It will be finished in approximately the year 2099.  Look for it.

Part of the new blog design includes taking some updated house tour photos.  And maybe a video.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

We snapped some photos of our living room in its current state.  Well, its current state with the added benefit of fluffed pillows and couch cushions.  Ike is anti-fluff.  I’m pretty sure he thinks his job is to smush pillows and cushions.  If that’s the case, dude needs a raise.

Without further ado (and more nonsense on my part), here is our living room.  One of my favorite rooms in our house!

I also think I need to do an updated post on the evolution of our rooms.  Write that down.  Remind me.

We have big plans for built-in cabinets and a fancy mantel.  We keep talking like that project will happen soon.  Which means probably about 2016. 

I bought that awesome olive lamp at Goodwill.  It was love at first sight. It’s the little things in life.

I asked Nate to photograph some angles that we don’t always show on the blog.  It’s hard.  The following is called “Your View If You Eat Breakfast With Nate, Ike and Michelle”. I promise bacon will be involved.

Here’s some room info for you. Because that’s what all of the cool blogger kids do.

• Wall color: Macadamia (Sherwin Williams)
• Furniture: Ethan Allen Retreat sofa, love seat, and chair
• I would hands down buy this set again.  It’s super comfy and has held up well.
• Shelves: JCPenney Leaning Shelf
• Coffee table and end table: American Furniture
• Rug: RugsUSA
• Accessories on shelves: thrift stores, Gordman's, gifts, TJMaxx, Marshall's

Who’s going to remind me of all of this stuff I should blog about?  What’s the favorite part of your living room?  Is your pet a pro-smusher?

Have you seen those Lifetime movies where the couple has been together for 11 years and then the wife learns something shocking about her husband?

I’m the star of that movie!!!

After 11 years of being Natchelle, my world was turned upside down.  A hidden past came forward.

Nate is almost 32 and had never been to a fair.  What???  How could this be? I wanted to know if he really grew up in Iowa. I couldn’t even trust that his name was Nate at this point.  Mind blown.

I love fairs.  So very much.  The food.  The animal shows.  The crafts.  The smells.  All of it.  Growing up, the Webster County 4-H fair was the highlight of my summer.

That’s me with my reserve champion market hog.  That’s a pretty big deal when you’re a young 4-Her.

That’s me with my duck, Roger. She (yep, that’s correct) won best pet.  Such a good duck.  Ike would love her.  I later received a red ribbon for my hair.

So, clearly the fair is a huge part of my past.  And come to find out I married a man who had never ever been to a fair.  It was time to make that right. 

We joined one of my very dear childhood friends and her husband at the Iowa State Fair last Thursday.  Nate’s life will never be the same.  And I can now remain married to him.  Long live Natchelle.

Within minutes of walking into the fairgrounds it became clear that we needed to have some sort of food on a stick in our hands or we may risk being kicked out.  We grabbed some corn dogs, cheese curds and a lemon shake-up and joined Santa.

Nate was still doing okay at this point.  We did a little wandering after our first food stop.  We checked out the wine tasting, some antiques and some crazy entertaining duo.  We then headed to the animal barn to check out the sheep in disguise.

Nate didn’t find it nearly as entertaining as my friend and I.  I love the sheep barn.  The constant “baaing” makes me laugh.

We arrived at the pig barn just in time to see the biggest boar being led to his cage.  I played city girl and snapped a photo of this 1100 pound beauty.  I mean, can you get much better than this???  The pig didn’t want to move.  I liked his style.

We then hit up the fried dessert stands.  An Iowa State Fair must.

Nate had a fried Snickers.  I had a fried Milky Way and my friend had fried pineapple.  All of which were amazingly glorious and disgusting all at once.

I then took a nap.

This post is going nowhere fast.  I swear I’ll have some kind of real post…next month.

So, that’s the tale of Nate’s first fair experience.  Overall he said he didn’t hate it.  He thought it would be more redneck.  He thinks he can wait another 32 years before he goes ago.  Ohhh, Nate.

Are you a fair fan?  Were you in 4-H?  Ever have trouble naming a duck?

I’m still working on my craft room.  Life keeps getting in the way of me finishing projects.  Pesky job.  Pesky dirty floors.  Pesky being an adult.

When I started my craft room, I cleared everything out and placed it in the spare bedroom across the hall. It looked like this.  At it’s best. And that’s just fabric. Oy.  There was more crafting junk on the other side of the room.

I decided that I should get to cleaning that mess up.  It was time.  My hoarding ways were catching up with me.

I started with the fabric.  Kim (NewlyWoodwards) is a genius and she gave me some comic book boards to see if they would help me get organized.  I liked them so much that I bought more (from Amazon) and got to work.

I can now easily see what types of fabric I have.  The tubs are easy to transport and store nicely in the closet.  It’s not the most adorable blogland storage solution but it’s super practical (and inexpensive).

Remember this darling green buffet and button art?

I was originally going to use the buffet to store fabric.  I was, however, concerned about the fabric starting to smell like old furniture so I put the kabosh on that idea and decided to use it to store other crafting supplies.

The top drawers hold paper items and sewing accessories.

The inside of the cabinet holds paints, jewelry supplies, glues, foam, etc.

I think I’m starting to get my life back in order. 

I have a few more things to hang on the walls and then I might get to a proper room reveal. Get excited.  But not too excited.  You know me.

How do you store your craft supplies?  Any other great fabric storage suggestions?