DIY - Wood crate coffee table

Over the weekend, we brought our current DIY project to our parents house for Paul to put together. This project was so fun for both of us, Paul loves to build & I love to see Pinterest inspired projects come together. It's a win win! Here she is in all her glory…

Below was the original inspiration via Pinterest

In the photo above, they stained the boxes to give it more of a rustic look & used a tin can + wine corks to use in the middle of the table. We wanted something a little more modern looking so we decided to keep the crates their original color but used a protective sealant. Next we found a pot at anthropologie & filled it with succulents, to fill in space around the pot with blue/gray colored rocks we saw at the nursery.

                            

This table is fun because it also allows for space inside of the crates, we haven't really played around with what to do with them yet, maybe a trip to IKEA will be in store soon?

Here is some of the building process in case you want to make your own! 

These crates aren't super sturdy so we used a piece of plywood to support them on the bottom, Paul then attached the wheels & crates together with 3/4" wood screws. 

You will end up with the large hole in the middle of your table, to fix this Paul cut up blocks from a 2x4 and secured them in all 4 corners. He used left over plywood to cut a square to place on top of the blocks.

The final product!

I did it!! 10k race.

Going into my 10k (having never run one before) I secretly set two goals for myself. I have no idea why. I hadn't run a distance like this for at least 6 years (early high school) & I just hoped that my 20-30 minutes of cardio 3x a week for the past 6 weeks would somehow carry me thru it. My two goals were this…

1. Just keep running - I didn't want to walk at all. Being an athlete, even though this type of distance was above my current shape, I just had to complete the entire 6.2 miles at a jogging pace. 

2. Complete in under an hour - I don't know where I got that time. I just really wanted to beat it.

To my surprise it did BOTH!! Never once stopped for a walk break & completed it in 59 minutes + 13 seconds! Honestly the whole race was an answer to prayer, I was so nervous the night before even googled "how to survive a 10k." Knowing that I wasn't in 10k shape I just prayed that the Lord would give me the confidence in myself to accomplish my goals and He totally answered! They marked each mile so that you could keep track of where you were in the race, at the 3.1 mile turn around I couldn't believe we were already there, it came so fast and I was feeling great :) Mile 4-5 was probably what gave me the most trouble but I knew that if I could keep going that I would definitely feel motivated enough for the remaining 1.2 once we hit mile 5. My dad stayed with my the whole time and we kept each other going with short conversation "half way there, almost to the end, 1 more mile to go" The sun was warm but we managed to finish together! I was so glad that my dad had pushed me to run the 10k with him, I felt so proud that I was able to push my body to complete that distance. 1/2 marathon next?

Road trip!

Road tripping our way to San Diego tonight. We have a weekend free so we decided to go visit the fams. Actually, we have a lot to accomplish while we are down there..

1. Run my first 10k! I called my dad on Thursday, you know just to chat about life and 5 minutes into our conversation I some how agreed to running a 10k with him on Saturday. Still scratching my head on how that happened...I haven't exactly trained for it so please pray for me!

2. Building our new coffee table! Parents have all those necessary tools. Us apartment renters..not so much.

3. Each as much homemade food as possible! No one does homemade cooking like mom :) and I won't feel guilty after completing my 10k, double win!

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feeling thankful.

As we are beginning a new season of thankfulness with thanksgiving around the corner, I've been reminded of so many moments in life where I feel overwhelmingly thankful for the small, plain 'ol simple blessings. Like today..

- We woke up at 11am, yep just slept thru the morning..don't ask why, our internal clocks are out of whack. God thank you for that night of rest.
- It was basically lunch so we skipped the coffee and made guacamole from the mound of avocados we bought at Costco a few days ago. God thanks for providing us with that meal.
- I then made my way to the office where I spent 3 hours getting completely wrapped up in editing a new wedding film. God I thank you so much for my job.
- We carpooled to school, While Paul took a test I went to the gym and completed a 5k on the treadmill God thank you for giving me a strong & able body. 
- We met up and walked back to the car together, feeling cold for the first time in a long time with the fall breeze. God we are so thankful for your seasons.
- Home & hungry we threw together a quick dinner of chili & grilled asparagus AND ate at the dinner table for once. God thank you for these quiet dinners with my husband.
- Soon after we headed to our friends for an impromptu movie night filled with the best buttery popcorn. God thank you for blessing us with great friendships.

My days aren't always like this one, most of the time they are hectic & real life takes its toll, but I'm so happy to give thanks to a perfect & gracious God who gives me these small blessings when I'm in need of them most.

last week according to instagram.

Paul likes to call me his "day planner" The one that sets up all our hang outs with friends, random outings, work schedule, basically I'm the wife/personal planner. We actually have breakfasts where we sit down and go over our social/work calendar for the week. It's been really busy lately! Last week we had the chance to go to 31 Bits fall/winter launch & new warehouse party. We always see a ton of friends from college there, plus all the bits girls who I've gotten to know when I interned for them in college. You have to check out their jewelry. It's seriously amaze-balls.

Ok..you all have to get these booties from Target. So comfortable that I was

able to wear them a full 10 hours at Saturday's wedding! Can't handle myself when

husband wears a bow tie..oh don't you mind my thumb there.

Saturday's wedding was probably top 3 material. That ceremony site was insane! I secretly 

have a thing for flower-free weddings. These flowers on the head table & the bouquets were

 the only flowers there. Hand crafted ombre cranes, doily table runners, and candles did it all!

...and look! Our coffee DIY coffee table is somewhat coming together!

Friday Film!!

A new Friday film (better late than never). This one is super sweet, one of our all time favorites. I'm a total sucker for amazing father/daughter relationships and this father's toast just melt my heart. As your weekend begins, it's a work night for Paul & I. We are currently prepping for our Malibu wedding tomorrow. To start off your weekend enjoy this film, maybe grab a tissue :)



Tobie & Nick in a nutshell are an ideal couple. Cute, fun, trusting, loving! There are so many more words we could use to describe them but those were the top 4 that came to mind. Meeting with them over coffee for the first time felt so natural and comfortable. We loved them immediately. Our favorite moment of the day was the father/daughter first look. We've only had a couple brides opt for one, but every time they have been so incredibly sweet. This one in particular was so special. I (kelley) had a hard time knowing if my shot was in focus because my eyes were full of tears! 618studios.net

Target does it again.

If you are a fellow instagram-mer and target lover there are 2 girls that I would highly recommend following next on instagram: "targetdoesitagain" these girls are super cute and instagram daily on fun fashion/home/kid finds at your local Target! It makes me want to go to Target errry-day. I was just there the other day and fell in love with this new line of home goods they have! It's called "Curiosity" and if I were registering there again, their stuff would be all up on it.

In case you were wondering..that U.S. cut out is a cutting board. Amazing!

Cleanse Overview.

It's a long one but I make it interesting, I promise!

So in a nutshell, I failed my cleanse. And when I say failed, I mean big time. I lasted about 6 hours until I was over it. But in all honesty I don't know if this cleanse was made for individuals who are on a consistent workout plan as well (look at me trying to justify my failure).

My morning started off strong, I felt so ready to kick this cleanse in the butt. Breakfast called for a light smoothie so I grabbed my lightly used blender and started adding what the recipe called for…

• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cup berries (I used a frozen mixture)
• 1 tsp PB
• 1 cup of ice

Blended that bad boy up still stoked on the start of this cleanse..That was until I poured myself a glass, took a sip which followed by a pathetic gag…yes I gagged. It was sooo gross! I much rather would have liked to eat those separately. I just couldn't take it and since it was already 10:30am I decided, "eh..I better move onto my late morning snack" Which wasn't that bad. I made some green tea which was delicious and chomped on a cup of sliced cucumbers (I may have added a pinch of salt). 

A couple hours later I started on lunch..cooked myself a nice plain chicken breast (4oz) and steamed some broccoli. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. Then headed off to school with Paul to get my daily workout in. At the gym my legs felt like a ton of bricks and my arms felt like rubber, I was SO TIRED! I had on energy whatsoever and after 30 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes of light weight lifting/stretching, I didn't know how I was going to make it thru a whole hour of yoga. It was painful, but I did it! Paul picked me up from the gym and I probably looked like hell, so wiped out. I asked him if we would judge me if I quit my cleanse (which he thought was silly in the first place), he just laughed at me and said, "let's get you some real food."

Benefits of my 6 hour cleanse:

• I've gained a new outlook on snacking!

I don't need to go straight for the cheezits or chips, one thing about this cleanse is that I never felt hungry, even though I was eating small portions, they filled me up instead of empty calories that come from my usual crap snacks. 

• I can cut back on carbs and life still goes on.

I just love me some carbs, but it's actually so easy to go without them. That night for dinner Paul felt like grilling some burgers, I said nay to the bun and went for just a patty with cheese and grilled onions/mushrooms on top. So proud of myself!

Another benefit of cutting the cleanse early, getting to double date at The Boiling Crab! A new restaurant just across the street from us, you get bibs and no plates/utensils..my kind of eatin' 

I'd love to hear of any cleanse experience you've had. Did you feel tired at all? How did it benefit your outlook on healthy eating? Happy Thursday!

Cleanse with me.

Well..I'm 3 weeks into my gym membership and feeling better than ever! After visiting home this weekend, my mom even commented on the fact that I looked slimmer (cue victory leap!). I denied it since I hadn't even really seen a difference yet and I was stuffing myself with a donut after church (cue ah-ha moment). I've been working out but continuing to eat crap. In the past, I've been able to not worry about what I ate, as long as I was staying active..which was never a problem.

After this "ah-ha" moment, I decided to try a cleanse. I came across this 2-day cleanse and decided to go for it for 3 reasons.

1. It's short so I won't feel overwhelmed with this being my first cleanse

2. I happened to have a lot of what it called for

3. It's totally do-able! 

Some of these cleanses called for all kinds of crazy things like "only drink liquids for 7 days" and "eat an entire salad without dressing," who does that? Dressing is the sole reason I eat salad, common. Another reason why I need to cleanse...So wish me luck! Or even better, take this bad boy on with me :) think of it as only 48 hours of your life.

antiquing & a rad date.

Our weekend's in San Diego are always a little bittersweet. They either entail a wedding to shoot or if not a shoot, there is always a laptop that comes down with us to work on whatever project is next on our backlog. Either way, it always seem like work follows us on our weekend bound. Well, for the first time in a long time we made sure that didn't happen :) the laptops stayed home and took the weekend off! 

Friday, we picked up Paul's sis Lauren and we carpooled her down to San Diego with us. Friday we cheered Paul's little bro on at his football game and stayed around for the varsity game since it was our homecoming weekend :) Saturday, my mom dragged took me to an antique estate (yes, estate) that she had heard great things about. It was actually really amazing, turns out the estate once belonged to Betty Crocker! Whhaaa? And they had so many fun antique finds. I scored this vintage Pepsi bottle crate that Paul has decided to use as a new succulent planter. Love my little gardener!

favorite antique find

After antiquing with mom. Paul decided to surprise me with date in downtown San Diego. When we were in high school/college we used to spend a lot of our dates at a mexican restaurant in old town San Diego. I was super surprised at this romantic side that was coming out of Paul, who was this guy? After an early dinner we strolled thru a street fair and ended up at a park where we sat on a bench and people watched. It felt like we were teenagers back in high school. I'm smiling right now just thinking about it.

I hate getting all cheese-fest on the blog, but that date made me fall in love with this guy all over again...Ok enough ;-) Sunday morning, we all got together for church (my family & Paul's) and celebrating Paul's dads 51st birthday. Still such a youngster! Feeling so blessed to have had such a great weekend home dating & celebrating!

Wednesdays + me. meant to be.

Wednesday's…my trashy show watching, house cleaning, do my hair/makeup, catch up on work, basically best day of my week days. I have the apartment all.to.myself and as much as I love Paul, he totally distracts me from my work. While he's gone at school I've also been surprising him with new Pinterest inspired recipe's when he gets home. As "home maker" as that just sounded..it's not. Half the time I get a, "maybe let's try something different next time?" We're way past the days of pretending ;-) Last night was actually a hit (for once) I made cheesy oven potato/bacon chips w/ chipotle ranch dip. Delicious as an appetizer!

find recipe HERE

Ooohh. Remember back when I was deciding what to do with my hair this fall? The options were 1. ombre or 2. dark.. I did neither. Totally chickened out of both. But did go a tad bit darker. Hey, I'm working my way there! I am seeing a little red in there though, my inner "wish I were ginger" self is loving it.

We are San Diego bound this weekend! It's homecoming at our High School so we decided to give Paul's sister a ride home from college join in on the festivities! ;-)

New project {crate coffee table}

As I've mentioned many times, 90% of our apartment is furnished thanks to IKEA. It's cheap, it looks decent, and it's 3 miles away from us. All reasons why we chose to shop there when we furnished our first and second apartments together. Most of it has held up but Paul noticed last week that our $40 coffee table (why I love you IKEA) has seen better days.. Perfect timing because I JUST had seen a cool DIY project on Pinterest that week!

The caption said "Crates from Michael's, stain or paint. How cool is this??" First off. Michael's doesn't carry these. BUT Home Depot does! (Online purchase only). We found some HERE for $12 a piece + free delivery. 

We decided that adding wheels to the bottom would be fun, plus it would give the table a little more height. Home Depot came thru again with these modern looking steel wheels! Just $4 a piece which you can find in stores.

Giving it more of a modern look I think will fit out home style a little more so we are thinking of going for a lighter stain or even some fun paint, we can't wait to get started on this project together! I also love that this table offers storage space on the sides. Just ordered the crates yesterday so once they arrive we will get DIY-ing :) I'll be blogging our progress! Happy Wednesday

work & play

Taking some time to have fun on the job together :) 

date night.

Last night we had a "breaking bad" marathon/date night with some friends :) If you haven't gotten into Breaking Bad, I totally recommend it. I was at first skeptical because I honestly love mindless television and this show actually makes you use your brain. It was a fun recovery for our post-wedding hangover.  Now...I don't often blog about my outfits because..again to be honest I wasn't born as a gifted shopper, stylist, outfit-putter-together, whatever else you can call it. But I was somewhat proud of this throw together outfit. I even got a "cute headband" compliment from my husband! Blog worthy?

Headband: Nordstrom // Jean Shirt: Target // Pants: Anthropologie // Sandals: Payless

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Fall ideas!

In all honesty, we aren't big Halloween decorators. Christmas? Well that is a whole new world. For us, a good fall candle does the trick. This lack of halloween spirit can't stop me on Pinterest though! Instead of messy pumpkin carving, I think pumpkin painting will be our new thing! If you have any other fun pumpkin ideas, please share :) Paul and I are thinking of hosting a P.P.P. (pumpkin painting party) for some friends. Prizes to the best pumpkin painter!

Chevron, stencil, spray paint, chalkboard your pumpkin! 

SIDENOTE* If you love watching our wedding films and want to keep updated on new ones, please head over to our 618 Studios FB page and give us a "like" We are just 20 away from hitting 1,000! 

a cup of joe with a sheepadoodle.

Last week, we had our good friends Troy and Aimee stay with us while their new home was undergoing some remodeling. A whole week of sleepovers?! It was awesome. They even made breakfast. For that I told them to never leave. Their sweet sheepadoodle Kean also was a guest. I've blogged about him before, I'm kind of obsessed, how could you not be? Just look at that face!

FACT: I ask Paul for a sheepadoodle puppy everyday.

Paul's response: "yes Kelley, I know…but not until we buy our own place."

*sigh* Someday...