Amazing.
This is how I’ve been describing my Haven experience to anyone who asks (and anyone who doesn’t).
And it truly was. Michele describes it as like being the new kid on the first day of school. Lauren describes it as a secret club meeting.
I would describe it like this: Even if you have never met a soul there, attending Haven feels like a class reunion with 350+ BFFs.
Haven was amazing. Incredible. Mind-blowing. Hug-inducing. Soulmate-finding. Constantly inspiring. Life-changing.
i.e. there are several more recaps to come. But right now, my brain is overloaded and I’m a bit sleep-deprived. I’m going to make a valiant effort at organizing my thoughts into coherent posts throughout this week. So, stay tuned 🙂
In the meantime, you can search the hashtag #havenmavens on Instagram and Twitter to see what us Mavens were up to all weekend!
It. Has. Come!
I have been waiting for this day since I registered on the morning of January 1st. I never thought August would get here! But. It. Is. Here. HERE!
Today, I leave for Haven a Newbie and on Sunday, I’ll return a Maven! This has got to be some sort of Blogger Bildungsroman (10 points to anyone who can tell me what a bildungsroman is without Googling it first).
I cannot wait to meet other bloggers, learn about community-building, friend-making, diy decorating, and all the ins and outs of planning, designing, advertising, sponsorships, and more. I hope I’m not building this up too much in my mind (because I have a tendency to do that), but I think this is going to be a life-changing weekend. A mind-blowing weekend. A rock-your-socks-off weekend.
Brang it on, ya’ll! I’m ready!
Want to follow along on my Haven adventures? Check out my Instagram feed, where I’m sure I’ll be posting an obnoxious amount of photos 🙂
http://instagram.com/twopurplecouches
A couple of weeks ago, the lovely and awesome Thalita of The Learner Observer posted a whole bunch of delicious recipes for creating flavor-infused water. I’ve always loved a bit of lemon or lime in my water, but why not try some herbs?
I think I forgot to post an update on the crown moulding progress. And progress we do have.
You may have noticed this photo appear on Instagram a few weeks ago. After weeks (months?) of “acclimating” to our home, the crown we purchased was moved back into the garage to be painted. Huzzah!
Then, with the help of our awesome new pneumatic brad nailer and air compressor, we actually affixed pieces of moulding to our dining room walls.
Seriously. See, I have photo evidence!
It’s a beautiful sight, isn’t it? At this point, I will explain why it looks like we nailed a baseboard to our wall. Because we did. We’re getting all fancy up in here with our moulding project. I should clarify that for once, this wasn’t (100%) my idea. Tom & I were admiring multi-piece moulding examples at Home Depot a while back, and then I could see the wheels turning in his head: one piece would no longer fit the bill; we were going to create our own crown concoction.
The original vision included three separate pieces of wood. To be nailed to the wall by a man who has never attempted this before.
Well, reason came into a play, reality set in (because we want to do most of our first floor rooms this same way) and the final crown product will have two pieces put together, and should look something like this:
The bottom piece is the baseboard; the top is a crown piece.
There is a bit of reason behind this madness. After doing some research on crown types, room sizes, etc, I discovered that there are recommended moulding widths based on the height of your ceiling. So, a standard 8ft ceiling would take a smaller piece of moulding, where higher ceilings can take larger pieces. We have 9ft ceilings in most of our first floor; our family room has a 10ft ceiling. The same goes for your baseboards. We upgraded to 5″ baseboards throughout our first floor; and the bottom piece that we’re using for the crown matches our baseboards.
I can’t wait to see and share how the finished product looks in our dining room. And then it’s on to the rest of the house! Or maybe just a few other rooms, hahaha!