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12.10.2014

Quick Key Holder Project

The other day I was at Wal-Mart just rolling down the isles wasting time. Don't judge me it's one of my hobbies. I was not planning to get anything to DIY I just wanted to see what I could find. I found this little key holder wood sign thing, it was $3 so I figured why not. Our keys where just being thrown in the corner of a bookshelf and seriously making me itch and home with me it went!
 

 
 
This is what the little wooden key holder looks like. You can find it in the arts and crafts section of Wal-Mart and you cant beat the $3 price.
 
 
 
 
I knew that I didn't want to paint it. I wanted to keep with the natural/rustic theme we kind of have going on (who am I kidding I am a sucker for stained wood) so I stained it with some leftover stain I had laying around from Minwax in the shade Provincial. You can get these mini cans for about $5 bucks at your home improvement store.
 
I didn't take a picture of the process *worst blogger ever* but basically what I did was got an old rag, dipped in the stain and did one coat on the wood sign front and back. Since it's in cursive there is a lot of nooks and crannies in the sign and to get to those I got a q-tip, dipped it in stain and pressed it against the spaces I could not reach with my finger. I did not sand it or seal it since it was pretty smooth already and it is just basically going to stay on the wall as a permanent fixture ha!
 
 
 
Isn't it pretty! Simple and cheap, this seriously took me like 10 minutes and just left it overnight to dry. I hope you guys liked it. Come back soon.
 



12.01.2014

Long Road Trip Tips

Hello there world wide web! Excuse my absence but the holidays are upon us and that means family time. The thing is I am on one end of the country and our families are on the other and we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. We had not seen them in 6 months!

The Mr. and I just did a cross country trip from Ohio to Texas and back for the Thanksgiving holiday and after being stuck in a car for about 19 hours each way, I thought I would share some things that helped us keep our sanity along the way since we drove it straight.

Enjoy!

1. Probably the most important one. Always have a buddy. We could not have done a straight 19 hours alone. When we moved up to Ohio it took us 3 days to get up here since we were in different vehicles hauling all our stuff.

2. Trivia games on your mobile device are a fun way to pass time. It keeps the passenger doing something if you are not sleepy and the driver with eyes on the road and talking to stay awake. It was also a good bonding experience for us both.

3. We found that 4 hour drive times each at a time was the magic number to switch places.

4. We have a Spotify subscription, but it does not go on for 19 hours straight so carry your favorite CD's (yes we still use them) and abuse the heck out of the "seek" button in you car. I find the constant change in stations keeps me awake.

5. If you need to pull over for gas, try to go to gas stations that are on the exit side of the intestate so you can hop on and off. It can get a little confusing going to gas stations on the opposite side and then try to find your way back across (trust me).

6. If you feel your belly button gnawing at your backbone around 10 pm -ish ....STOP... do not wait until after that because believe it or not, a lot of places are not open 24 hours. We made that mistake and found ourselves desperately looking for food for 30 min straight and we finally settled for a truck stop subway. Please do no stop at a truck stop subway.

7. Always carry napkins in your car because accidents do happen.

8. You get a 5 mile leeway before you get pulled over for speeding just f.y.I.

9. Carry some vitamin C pills and hand sanitizer, trust us this one because we are both sick right now. That is a lot of states to cover and a lot of gas station restrooms and tuck stops. Keep your immune system up my dears.

10. AAAAnd finally....................Sunflower seeds! yes people that's right. These salty little things are a life saver. Pop one at a time in your mouth and welcome to wide awake land. I tested it on this trip and it totally works, you are constantly doing something and you still have your eyes and attention on the road. My mom's boyfriend is a truck driver and gave me the tip and I owe him big time.

This is what we did to help us on our trip to and from so it might not be for everyone. It was a little exhausting but it was a lot cheaper than flying and dealing with the holiday time at the airports and having to rent a car to see all our family.

Do you have any tips for long road trips? We are going back in December and would love to hear from you. Thank you for stopping by.