Christmas Ed. Latest Obsessions 11.17

Since I was already obsessing over some Christmas items last month, it’s only fitting to continue the obsessions!  From vintage to plaid, it’s a mix of nostalgia and inspiration for the upcoming holiday season.
Latest Obsessions 11.17 - the bee life
Ornaments: Every year growing up it was tradition to pick out a Hallmark ornament to add to a collection, start a new one, or just whatever was the favorite that year. Where I still love getting my annual Hallmark ornament, I like getting other ornaments each year, for a milestone, for B, gifts for neighbors and friends… I love ornaments and they’re so sentimental and easy.

Vintage Wrapping Paper: I cant help but feel nostalgia when I find some prints with a vintage flare, especially with Santa’s! Growing up my presents from Santa always had a Santa pattern on them, and now that I’m older, I can’t help but love that small piece of my childhood.

Just Plaid: This has been a latest Christmas obsession for a few years now… it started with a plaid pattern on our Christmas cards, to table runners, and just wanting EVERYTHING plaid. Where you can’t go wrong with a classic red plaid print, green plaids are starting to grow on me.

Multiple Alpine Faux Trees: So we have one of these adorable faux alpine trees, and I love dressing it up and having multiple trees around the house… but I want more of these skinny guys! Since I keep our main tree pretty uniform and simple – these trees are where I like to have a little more fun and keep the holiday chair going throughout the house! I’ll keep keeping an eye to build my little cluster.

What’re you Christmas obsessions? Are they new and trendy or vintage and nostalgic?

Photo Sources: Top Left | Top Right | Bottom Left | Bottom Right

Latest Obsessions 10.17

So many things lately you guys, and so much fun, but so, so random.
Latest Obsessions 10.17 - thee bee life
Etsy. We have been shopping for wedding gifts for our bridal party, parents and a few other special people participating in our wedding and Etsy has pretty much been our one stop shop.  The ability to customize special pieces for our loved ones, order hand made jewelry and custom prints has me completely obsessed! I can’t share too much, because a few of those recipients may be reading!

Vintage Santa’s. Yup, I know I’m early guys… but I’m so excited for Christmas! And I think vintage Santa’s might be a thing at the #wagarwoolfchristmas this year. This wreath has my name written all over it not to mention this print (from Etsy) has already been ordered.  I wasn’t sad at all when I saw all the decor out in the stores, I will be decorating as soon as Thanksgiving is over.

Summer Clothes… for our honeymoon! Since we’re going someplace warm, I’ve been shopping for a few fun and flirty bathing suits on top of some fun summer clothes! Especially taking advantage of some of the clearance items. Starting to get obsessed with our upcoming trip.

Our Wedding.  Yup! Still obsessed. As the final details are coming into place, the seating chart is nearly set and guest list is final, simply cannot wait with all the warm and fuzzys inside. Final dress fitting is this weekend and then it’ll just be the final countdown! I can’t imagine what our wedding day is going to be like, but I know it’s going to be pretty wonderful and perfect and I can’t wait to marry B.

Photo Sources: Top Left | Top Right | Bottom Left | Bottom Right

House Tour – Our Living Room

Hi friends! I wanted to invite you inside our home and give you a little tour of our living room!  It’s one of the rooms where we spend most of our time besides our master… yes I know… I still owe you all the official master tour, it’s coming, I promise! Anyways, back to the living room, since it’s one of the rooms we spend most of our time in, it’s one of the more finished spaces.  It’s also one of the spaces that I like to update and switch things around on the mantle, coffee table and even the picture frames. So here is the space just Plain Jane, no holiday decor – just normal life.
Living Room (2)Living Room (3)Living Room (1)One of my favorite parts of our living room is all of our old photos that we’ve incorporated into the gallery wall or through the mantle and built-in’s.  They’re pieces of our past and what make up our families and who we’ve been shaped to be.  Family is very important to both of us, so it’s nice to be surrounded by our loved ones, past and present.

It’s the little details we’ve been able to focus on and update (like the knobs on the built-in’s) still giving it an appropriate feel for the period of the house but giving it an updated feel. 

Hope you’ve enjoyed one of our most loved spaces!

DIY – Window Side Table

I am excited to share my latest project with all of you; a window table.  Once you have the materials, this project is pretty easy and low cost! It’s a win-win when it comes to creating a cool piece that’s custom to your needs, whether it be a coffee table, plant stand, or a side table the options are endless.

What You’ll Need;

  • Window (of your choice) – I used an original window from our basement, since they were pulled out when we had glass block put in. Total cost; $0
    • Don’t have any old windows laying around? Check garbage day, it’s amazing what people will put on the curb!
  • 4-Legs; length and style of your choosing. I used: Waddell Ash End Table Leg from Lowes. Total cost; $16
    • NOTE: I bought legs with pre-installed hanger bolts that allowed for a clean smooth finish without needing extra hardware to attach the legs
  • Wood Glue
  • Paint – color of your choice & paint brush
  • Drill and drill bit to predrill holes for legs
  • Blade to scrape off excess paint on windows
  • Timing; finished within a weekend

From there you can prep your window by cleaning it up and sanding if you’d like. I opted to keep the hinges and some of the other rustic elements since I was working with a 100-year old window.

Next, flip over and mark out where you’d like to place your legs – as you can see with the window I was working with the spacing and exterior width was inconsistent and not much to work with so I eyed about an inch from the edges. Once I had those marked, we pre-drilled a hole, although we didn’t go deep enough a few times so we had to go back over the holes.

Before screwing the legs in we added wood glue in the hole and around the bolt on the leg. Make sure your legs get all the way in and are secure, some of ours were wobbly, so we had to re-drill new holes and start over. But once they were in and secure you definitely knew it. The wood glue required about 12-hours to dry, so day one was finished.

After the wood glue was dried, I flipped the table over and began to paint! I opted to use a primer over the preexisting brown, and also did the legs in the same color.  I had to do 3-coats before this beauty was looking clean.

I let B do the fun stuff and scrape the paint I’d gotten on the window.  This really cleaned up the piece to give it that finished look. From there it was just giving it a good clean with some Windex and setting it up in place – we added this gem as an accent in our sun room. The light and airy of the white and windows ties into the space perfectly.IMG_4428IMG_4430IMG_4432Using most of what we already had, the main expense was buying the legs for $16 – you can’t even get a coffee table for that!  I love the way it turned out, it still has a vintage and rustic flare to it. Not to mention it has multiple purposes and I am sure it will change overtime for us!

Happy DIYing!

Our Engagement Photos – Sneak Peak

Okay blogger-verse, you’re getting the first look at some of our engagement photos, I repeat… FIRST LOOK. I haven’t even posted on social media!!

We took pictures this past Saturday, and instead of doing the standard sunset photos, we opted for sunrise at the suggestion of our photographer.  Our photographer, Tim, is a friend at work who I talked into doing our engagement pictures, although a photographer, he doesn’t typically do engagement pictures. He is so talented, so I knew they would come out amazing.  We ended up going to three different locations with three different outfits over the course of 4-hours, it was exhausting, but also really fun!

Enjoy the sneak peak:

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Photo Credit: Timothy Logan Photography
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Photo credit: Timothy Logan Photography
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Photo credit: Timothy Logan Photography

The last photo was taken on Tim’s 250 Polaroid – a camera that is nearly extinct as far as finding or getting film.  This was the last one that we took with the Polaroid, and it was definitely the winner, third times the charm.

I can’t wait to see how the rest of the photos come out, but Tim said there are over 700 pictures for him to go through and edit/touch-up, so he will send them as they come. I absolutely love what I have seen so far (B does too!) !!

XO –