Roundup: DIY Leather Projects

Taylor and my third anniversary is June 8th.  Leave it up to Taylor and myself to come up with a way to make our anniversary into a glorified craft project.  The present for year 3 is supposed to be leather, which gave us an excuse to start a project that we saw on A Beautiful Mess a couple of weeks ago.    

We already had the hairpin legs from a project fail about a year ago, so we only needed to purchase the leather.  Hello, leather is not cheap!  But hey, it is our anniversary!  We followed the directions almost exactly, but added corner pieces so there would be less wood sneaking its way through.

Anyway, now we have all of this leftover leather. Yasss!  This now gives me permission to create tons of little crafts involving my favorite material of all time.  Here are some of my faves.

Keychains by A Beautiful Mess

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Hanging Planters by Vintage Revivals

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Leather Pulls by House Tweaking

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Leather Blanket Ladder

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Leather Mail Catch All by Design Sponge

I am actually going to get started on this letter catch all after I post.  If there is one thing I need, it is a place to put mail that isn't the kitchen counter or dining room table.  Which ones are your favorite?

Countdown for Summer + Summer Goals

We are so close, fellow teachers. So. close.  I started counting down the days for summer late April, stopped counting down because double digit numbers seemed unbearable, and have restarted counting down because 3 is not so scary of a number.

I am taking on some jobs this summer, but I am committed to not wasting time on social media, television, and too much sleep.  Here are some of my goals for this summer.

I just applied for membership to the YMCA which is only located 10 minutes away, so I have no excuse to not exercise.  I even have a buddy to exercise with.

I know that all of the house projects will get finished, so I am actually limiting what I am allowed to do or that will be ALL I do.  I just can't help myself.

I love reading, but struggle spending the money on books which is where the library card comes in.  I want to read The Grasshopper Lies Heavy which is what the show, The Man in the High Castle is based on. The Girls is a thriller recommended by Cup of Jo.

What are your goals this summer?  Does everyone around this time of year wish they were teachers?

Lifestyle Shoot with Katie Webb

My new and sweet friend, Katie Webb, texted me a couple of weeks ago and asked if she could take photos of Taylor and me in our home.  Ummm.... YES PLEASE.  Naturally, Taylor and I scrubbed the house down and then tried to act natural. 

My favorites are below:

This is how we always sit on the couch.

Taylor, you are just so cute.

We tried to get one with Pedro and Emery too.

Still trying.

Success!

Here we are in our typical cuddle positions.

You can see the entire shoot on her blog.  If you live in Austin and need a photographer, I can't recommend Katie enough!  She also took some awesome photos of the interior of our house that I will share in an upcoming post.