DIY Fun!

Since Brenden and I moved into our new place we have been short a single nightstand. This wasn't a problem at our old, closet-sized apartment when the only logical place for our bed was shoved up into a corner against the wall. We only needed one nightstand. We didn't have a bedroom furniture set so we kinda pieced things together as we collected them. That's how most of our house is right now- a conglomeration of cheap particle board, real wood, and plastic. It's a one-of-a-kind collection from IKEA, thrift stores, and family donations. We once read a woman's motto in a home decorating magazine, "My only rule is that there are no rules." Out of necessity, we have adopted this as our practice and have done so with pride.
See Exhibit A. (Click image for enlarged view.)

This couch was a lovely find at our local Goodwill. It's a good size, sturdy, and comfy. We'll probably get a slipcover for it eventually, but right now Brenden really likes its look. And I must admit, it's definitely unique.

Anyway, back to our nightstand dilemma. We have been to several thrift stores in the area, checked out craigslist a few times, and gone to IKEA. We've looked up garage sales and even planned our routes but when that Saturday morning comes, we haven't quite had it in us to get out of bed before 7am. (This has happened three times so far.) And so we have remained nightstand-less. It's a terrible place to be.

We were hoping to find something along the lines of this:

Or even just some simply shelving on it like this one:

But this past Saturday after a full day of driving around town to several thrift stores and finding absolutely nothing useful, Brenden had a brilliant idea.

I thought it was a great idea but apparently Brenden was joking. I insisted we do it and after sketching out some plans, he was convinced. And so we did it.

Cardboard Nightstand

For this project, all you need are:
- two boxes (one large and one small that will fit snugly into the larger one)
- box cutter
- packing tape
- pencil (OPTIONAL)

The actual process of making this nightstand is pretty self-explanatory so I'll just skip the tedious details. Here's a picture of our work in progress:

We considered keeping the box flaps for the smaller box to make a cabinet but we couldn't figure out a way to keep the flaps closed. So we cut them off.

And here's a picture of the finished product (Paris lamp and all!):

Look at that craftsmanship! We made sure to keep some of the original details of the boxes we used, like the wording on the side indicating "THIS SIDE UP."

(You may have noticed in the above picture our lack of a headboard. Another DIY project in the future? Perhaps.)

"Everybody, I know you can believe in yourself!"

Tomorrow I'm taking the GRE. I'm feeling uneasy about it, which is strange considering how much I actually enjoy standardized testing. No, you didn't read that wrong. I enjoy standardized testing. Favorite week of school in elementary and middle school (omitting Catholic Schools' Week, of course, oh you poor souls who never experienced that joy) was the week we took our standardized tests. We were allowed to have snacks in our classrooms and there was no homework! All week long! And in seventh grade I volunteered to take the ACT for some Duke TIP thing. But then for some reason, once I got to high school, we no longer had specific standardized testing, no TAKS or whatever. I'm not really sure why. Instead, my beloved standardized tests came by taking the PSAT freshman through junior year. And then, just for fun, I took the SAT my sophomore year with a friend who was taking it for college applications. Because I just couldn't get enough of my standardized testing. I ended up taking the SAT a total of three times and the ACT once (unless you count that time in seventh grade.)

And then the testing stopped. At least until about a month and a half ago when I decided I was going to give myself a month to prepare for the GRE (there was no way I was going to study while I was in Hawaii for a week and a half.) Right after I signed up for the exam Brenden and I headed out to Barnes and Noble, seeing as we now had a good excuse to spend money there (I always feel guilty buying new books knowing I have unread novels, memoirs, poetry, drama lining my shelves already), and bought a GRE prep book. I've had great fun with this prep book- learning clever ways to outsmart ETS (the evil testmakers of the GRE) and, you know, figuring out more of those standardized test questions. I even signed up for a free practice test with Kaplan which I took on the computer, simulating the actual test day procedures (though getting the program to work on the computer took awhile which frustrated me to no end. I actually gave up and took a shower to get ready to go shopping instead while Brenden fixed the problem and got it up and working. What a good husband supporting me in my love of standardized tests.) I did fairly well on the practice exam and was so pleased with my score I didn't study at all the next week. Overconfidence, much? BAD. I did pick up the prep book again, I mean, come on! I paid twenty bucks for this soon-to-be-absolutely-useless-to-me practice book, I needed to at least get my money's worth out of it. I studied some more. Did a little better on the book's practice exam. I'll probably review some more stuff tomorrow and then I'll take the test at 1pm.

And then it will be over. And I won't have to worry about it anymore. And I will be FREE of the GRE! (I said that in a sing-song voice in my head, so that's how you should read it. I wasn't quite sure how else to convey those directions except by explicitly stating them.)

Thank you for letting me rant. This was a post to calm my nerves and remember that, HEY! I CAN DO THIS! And because you actually read through all of that, you deserve something nice. So here's a cute boy who's inspired me and given me confidence in myself. Enjoy!

Yeah...

I've been meaning to make this for awhile now. Is this totally puerile or what?
(go go GRE vocab!)
edited 10/5/11: A better aligned gif file! Thanks Alan!

Basically, Brenden's Best Birthday Bash and other things

(I just realized I never did write about moving into our new place even though I hinted I would. I'll get to it once I can take some pictures of our house that won't reveal what slobs we can be.)

Okay, I was really going for alliteration in the title. Originally it was just "Brenden's Birthday" and I was like HEY! LOOK TWO "B's" IN A ROW. I CAN MAKE THIS EVEN MORE AWESOME. So I did. But in the process I may have lied. I don't actually know if this was Brenden's best birthday bash or not. Considering it was not really a "birthday bash" since we didn't have an actual party, I would suggest that it was not Basically, Brenden's Best Birthday Bash. Ugh, and now I'm a liar and all for the sake of alliteration fun!

On August 30th, Brenden was able to celebrate living 21 years and begin his 22nd year of life. Is that a totally awkward way of wording it? Explained like a normal person, Brenden turned 22 on August 30th. Yay! Way to not die yet! Here's to another year of not dying! (We aim high here in the McQuay household.)

To celebrate the beginning of Brenden's 22nd year of life, we slept in. And then we ate kolaches for breakfast. Brenden and I came up with a very simple and delicious recipe involving frozen dinner rolls, Lil Smokies sausages, and cheddar cheese. After our late breakfast, Brenden went off to school. I went to Wal-Mart to purchase wrapping paper and ribbon to wrap the presents I had been hiding in my closet.

Brenden and I aren't big on surprises. Sometimes this can be a little sad but usually I'm totally fine with it. I didn't have to ask Brenden what he wanted for his birthday. This summer he took up reading graphic novels/comic books, helped along by a few summer blockbusters (Thor, X-Men First Class, Green Lantern, Captain America.) So he got four new graphic novels for his birthday. That he picked out. And ordered. Oh dear, now everyone knows I'm a liar AND a lazy bum. I did keep it a secret when they arrived in the mail and then hid them (in plain sight!) in my closet. When Brenden started getting concerned that his books hadn't yet arrived, I reassured him that they had indeed arrived and they were simply in hiding. It was fun watching him search all over the house for his books, when they were literally sitting on the rather empty floor of my closet whose doors are always open.

Because I hadn't given tons of thought to Brenden's birthday present, I determined I needed to at least put forth some effort into his birthday card. And guys, I made an awesome birthday card. Would you like to know why it is awesome? It's because Hal Jordan is trying to get Brenden's attention so he can tell him Happy Birthday. And it's not every day that a superhero tells you happy birthday. In fact, it's not even every birthday that a superhero tells you happy birthday.

But even more awesome than the fact that a super hero is wishing Brenden a happy birthday is the fact that I drew and colored this sucker. I did copy an image I saw on the internet so yeah I can't claim the creativity, but I can claim those drawing and coloring skills. (And I might be a little more proud of myself than I should be.) Brenden needed a cool card because he's a cool kid *ahem* cool twenty-two year old adult.

Here's a picture of him with his new comic books!

Yeah, he's a kid at heart (though I don't think any kid should read V for Vendetta.) And I love that about him. He was very happy to get his new comic books. Is it totally irresponsible of me to provide my husband with four new graphic novels as soon as he begins his first semester of graduate school? Or totally awesome?

Knowing that one of Brenden's favorite restaurants is Pappadeux's, I searched for a place with similar menu offerings here in Athens and I found the coolest little place to go for his birthday dinner. It's called NONA for New Orleans 'N Athens. They're located on Broad Street which is the main street that goes through Downtown Athens. Downtown Athens reminds me a lot of The Strand in Downtown Galveston- cute shops, hip coffee joints, fancy and unique little restaurants. It's a lot of fun.

Brenden and I had crab cakes for an appetizer. I had their Creole Pork Jambalaya for my entree and Brenden got a delicious Blackened Catch of the Day (I can't remember what fish it was) with Crawfish Etouffee topping. For dessert, Brenden got Creme Brulee and we also split a root beer float. It was an exciting dinner and we got to try a new root beer (Abita)! That's always fun.

Quick sidenote: Brenden and I love root beer. Every time we go to a grocery store, we check their soda aisle to see if they have any new root beer for us. We've had the regulars: Barq's, A&W, Mug, IBC and we've had some others not available in every grocery store: Dad's, Jone's, Frostie, Hank's, Sprecher's, Stewart's, Triple X, Boylan's, Bundaberg's, Natural Brew, Virgil's, Thomas Kemper, Henry Weinhard's, and Howie's. I'm still looking around for Hires which used to be really popular but for some reason has gone into hiding. I've had it before but Brenden's never had it and I need to share the goodness that is Hires Root Beer.

Brenden's birthday was pretty low-key but that's how we are. And while I joke about him not dying yet, I am truly grateful for the life he lives and willingly shares with me. He's a wonderful, loving, and sweet young man. I'm excited to celebrate more birthdays with him.

In other news, something else we celebrated that week was our first NFL game. Say what? Yeah, we got free tickets to an NFL game. Yeah, okay, it was a pre-season game. And yeah, our team lost. But it was an exciting experience nonetheless! The game was between the Atlanta Falcons and the Baltimore Ravens. Remember the movie The Blindside? Well, Michael Oher plays for the Baltimore Ravens, so we were secretly rooting for them too.

The game was held at the Georgia Dome, which was also home to some of the events of the 1996 Summer Olympics (the Olympic games that gave me the dreams of being a gymnast.) Hence, this fabulously awkward statue:

I really couldn't help myself. I had to take a picture of the statue from an awkward angle. The statue was just begging for me to do it.

Brenden and I don't really have any game day clothes so we wore two of the few red shirts we own- mine a basic polo, Brenden's a t-shirt from Youth Conference. We took this picture quite a bit before the game started so there aren't many people in the stands yet.

And we took this picture after we started losing the game and ability to score anymore which is why there aren't many people in the stands here either.

At the game there were concession stands. At these concessions stands there was funnel cake. This funnel cake was $6 and that one dollar difference between $6 and $5 broke my heart. You see, I really, REALLY wanted funnel cake but I told myself that there was no way I was going to spend more than $5 for it (I didn't really want to spend $5 on it either but I really wanted funnel cake.) Even so, I begged Brenden to buy me funnel cake and he insisted we need not spend $6 on cake fried in a pot of oil. But I still begged and begged. Because how does cake fried in oil not sound absolutely delicious? So he promised me we would make our own later that week. And I told him I wanted some right then and there. And I continued to beg. And then he ignored my pleas for the rest of the game. And I was so sad.
BUT!
We did end up making our own funnel cake later that week! And it was DELICIOUS! Also it was fun. Way more fun than paying $6 for a single cake would've been, I bet. I don't actually know though because I didn't do it.

I made the one on the left, Brenden's is on the right. He didn't have quite as much luck with the pastry bag as I did.

We made a lot of funnel cake. And we ate a lot of funnel cake.

Yeah, I think it was better than paying $6 at the football game. Yum!

Updates!

A few things have happened since our last post here:
- Brenden's birthday
- A trip to Hawaii (Me, my mom and my sister)
- My birthday
- Evette's birthday
- Finally getting our second bedroom in order (it's only been, what, two months now?)
- General Conference

Maybe someday I'll write about them.