1. Herringbone is different from Chevron, and definitely different from Houndstooth. While looking for an actual Herringbone pattern on both Pinterest and Google, the number of incorrect images was surprising! I will say that Herringbone is the most open to interpretation. There are lots of options of stripe thickness, and some people put a seam between the stripes. However in no way should you confuse Herringbone with Houndstooth, as they really look nothing alike. Get it together Pinners!

I made ya’ll this little cheat sheet for fun!

2. This is the trendiest thing I have ever made. I pretty much made this exclusively for Pinterest. Kidding…kind of. It just encompasses all of Pinterests favorite things:

      -Chevron/Herringbone/stripes

      -Grey and Peach

      -Dipped gold details

      -DIY

      -FREE!

You read that right! This project in total cost me $8. Total.

The dresser I found in an ally with a free sign on it. I made Mr. Gaunt strap it to the roof, as it wouldn’t fit in the trunk or back seat. DAMN I NEED A MINIVAN! The Peach paint was leftover from the Laundry Room. The white paint was leftover from the house trim, and I already owned a sander and all the painting equipment. The only things we bought were a $1 can of OOPS paint (the dark grey) and a can of Rustoleum Gold Spray paint for like $7. Obviously this project would not be this cheap if you were not a paint supply hoarder, or a back ally furniture scavenger (in which case, we have nothing in common)

Time wise this project took an embarrassing amount of time. I did spread it out over about 4 days, to let each coat really cure before painting more. That’s really important when doing a lot of taping off. I started with washing, lightly sanding, and painting the whole dresser peach and the drawer fronts white. I removed the knobs and the feet (which unscrewed with ease).

Next was the taping off. Oh lordy this was tricky. You may not know this about me, but the only thing I hate more than math, is measuring. Remember the stripes I just eyeballed in the spare room. However I knew that if I picked a geometric pattern on a small space, I really needed it to be accurate. And really I just shouldn’t be so lazy.

I looked online for a pattern for a while but couldn’t find one. Then I just sat down and drew out what I wanted on a piece of cardboard, then started measuring. I did this wrong twice before getting it right. I didn’t want to have to tape twice, so I had to make sure I calculated both the white and grey areas accurately. I wrote “G” in the grey areas so I wouldn’t get confused. It was tedious, and probably took me a solid hour just taping. ): ALSO: Frog Tape is soo much better than blue tape.

While it dried I painted the feet and knobs all metallic gold.

When it was all done, I was so in love! I made Mr. Gaunt come out to the garage to stare at it with me! I have plans to put a polyurethane (waterbased) coat on it too, but its like $15 for a can, and I’m poor. Plus no one will really be using this dresser. It’s been placed in our spare room, and will belong to future babies…lucky bastards.

Mr. Gaunt and I went on a long hilly walk today, I’m kind of hating the gym lately, too hot and stuffy. I’m loving the nice weather, and feel awful not taking advantage of it, so we have been walking a lot. Today we walked to the Post Office, the Library, and strolled through Maritime Heritage Park (which is a beautiful park that unfortunately ends up being kind of sketchy with all the homeless that hang out there). Needless to say our walk ended up being exactly three miles. So that’s nice.

I did have a little breakdown on our walk. I feel so unhappy about my weight right now. My physical fitness has to pick up, and my decadent splurges have to go down stop. I need way more veggies, and way less cheese and bread. I just know how much better I would feel minus 30 pounds. Lordy. It’s never-ending is it? I feel like my ass and stomach are larger than they have been in a while though, which is just so unpleasant. Consider me on a diet!

For dinner we had grilled chicken sausage, asparagus, and herb potatoes.

The potatoes were leftover from Mothers Day that I sliced up. Then I just cut some thyme, dill and oregano from my garden, tossed with some olive oil, pepper and salt, and baked at 425 for 15 minutes. Super yummy, and not too bad for you.

Also in super exciting news!!!! Mr. Gaunt got a promotion today! He will now be a supervisor, which is more responsibility, but also more money! Yay! We really could use more money. I also have taken up a twice a week cleaning gig at my moms wine bar via our other business, which will be bringing in a nice little monthly paycheck. I have also sold 3 paintings this month, and booked our largest wedding yet for November! Mr. Gaunt has also started a used media shop on Amazon that he is done really well at so far. You would think with all our little business adventures that we wouldn’t be nearly so poor. The funny thing is, all this money will be coming in later on, so far now we just have to keep treading water and hope for the best. HARD WORK! HARD WORK! HARD WORK!

Mr. Gaunt and I spent time the other night talking about our jobs, and how hard we are working, and our dreams. We have a philosophy that it is better to work our butts off trying to work for ourselves, and have freedom, then to just work a basic 9-5 for someone else. The saying “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life” rings so loud for me. The passion and desire I have to build a career around my life, and not build my life around a job, will continue to fuel me through the hard times. We will make it. We will work for ourselves. We will be able to do the things we want to do. We will get everything we need.

On that note, I did ZuzkaLights ZWOW #19 video tonight. I did it the best I could, and my abs feel it. She says its to prepare me for my bikini body…yeah…uh huh. You should really do it too! It’s not to bad, and its super fast.

http://www.youtube.com/zuzkalight#p/a

I recently (well maybe a couple of months ago) took up eating oatmeal almost every morning.  I use to be a fan of instant oatmeal packets (of the fruit and cream variety…eek! Totally crappy for you) but I gave it up when I couldn’t find one that was both good for you an yummy. I tried an organic brand and thought it was AWFUL! Then for a solid 9 months I ate nothing but Greek yogurt with honey or granola.

In early spring I was sooo cold at work. I felt like I needed something both nourishing and warm to eat at my desk at 6 am. My coworker brought plain old oats every day and microwaved them with cream. It looked really good, so I started bringing a big tube of Quaker Quick Oats, and using our instant hot water dispenser to make a bowl full every morning. Then I add frozen blueberries or raspberries, or home-made raspberry jam, or honey. So good!

Now I eat it 5 days a week. Sometimes I put a little peanut butter in it, or brown sugar for dessert. I eat it at home sometimes too if I want a warm snack, but the instant hot water is way easier than boiling or microwaving it.