August Wrap-Up

Is it just me or does it feel like September? When school starts again I feel like it's September. Though I've been "in school" the entire summer (I'm a grad student, there's no such thing as summer vacation for us :( ), my boyfriend started up his 3rd year of medicine last week, so things have been more... normal since, which I love!

I've been trying to get myself in a routine these past couple of weeks because of that, and that's why I hadn't posted last week. I just didn't feel like it, I wanted to get myself up to gear with other things; hope you don't mind, and appreciate the honesty. We've slowly fallen back into good habits, ie going to bed at a reasonable hour, and waking up early.

I'm also trying to meal plan a little more, though I still need some work on that.

I'm not quite sure what the next month holds, to be honest. See, we've been on strike since March 3. And by we I mean the post-graduate students of Quebec(most anyway), and against the government for wanting to raise tuition fees by 75% in 3 years. Long story short, the strike was temporarily called off last week, and we've got less than 1 month to catch up 2+ month's worth of classes.

Which means I gotta whip up a presentation about what I've been working on for the past 2 years (or close to 2 years), that I'm to present in 2 weeks. One thing about me is I HATE oral presentations, I royally suck at them. So I'm trying to prepare myself as much as possible in this short amount of time. And no I couldn't prepare myself before, I'm also a HUGE procrastinator and didn't want to think about it until I had to.

So that's my life right now in a nutshell. I'm really stressed about the presentation.

To top it off, I caught a cold a few days ago, and instead of being able to work on my presentation, I'm lounging around not knowing what to do with my body. Cold's hit me hard and I can barely think straight. So.... excuse me if I'm a little off my game today with this wrap-up.

The wrap-ups are a way for me to round-up all the posts I've done in the last month so you can catch up if you've missed anything, thank all the lovely people who've featured me, give you sneak peaks of what's to come and little things that are not worth an entire post.

Last month's posts

My First Garden and how I Started from Seeds



and a 2 Months-In Update



FYI, my cukes ALL died the weekend after I posted this :( But I'll still be doing one more update on my garden at the end of the season (whenever that may be, we're still having beautiful and hot weather here!).

The Laundry Shelving Unit Saga! My dad helped me build some shelves for the laundry space in my kitchen, which I had to divide into 3 posts.

The first was all about the planning and how we built it.



The second part was the final product and all it's special features.



And the third was how I've been using it so far as an extra storage space, which was it's main purpose.



The last post of the month was how I organized my cleaning supplies with the pretty new bins I got at Michael's on special.



Features

I'm always so happy when I get featured at linky parties, so I want to further promote these parties/blogs. For a full list of parties I attend from time to time, check here.

My DIY Mug Shelf was featured at:


And my Custom Built Laundry Shelves were featured at:


So thank you ladies, again!!

Updates

Speaking of my Kitchen Mug Shelf, I got a small update on that. When we made them, we only sealed them, but didn't varnish. I really wish I had now...



I think it's the fact that my boyfriend loves to stir fry stuff and oil flies everywhere making the wood darker where it fell. I'm half thinking of removing everything from on top of it and letting it like that for a month so the lighter spots can get oiled. Or just rubbing some oil on there. I'm not exactly sure what to do yet... Any ideas?

Next, I mentioned on Facebook that I had bought myself some washi tape a few weeks ago. I'd seen this site being advertised on many blogs and thought it was too good a deal to pass up.

Downtowntape.com sells rolls of washi tape for 2$ each, and, here's the best part, there's a flat shipping rate of 2.95$! You really can't get much better than that! Shipping is always so expensive to Canada, which is why I rarely buy anything online, but this I could work with!

Well my tape finally showed up a couple of days ago! Can't wait to do some projects with these. Are you tired of seeing washi tape projects, or can you not get enough of them?! I was a little tired of them before I got my own, so I can understand if that's how you feel...



Featured on Facebook

I'm aware that not all of you are following me on Facebook, and that is totally fine, I'm not forcing anyone. (But if you do want to follow, go right ahead!) However, I don't want to let that come between you knowing about these great tutorials or products, so I'm sharing them here, too.

If you like these ideas, go straight to the source before pinning!! Click either on the link or the photo to be brought to the post ;)

I know it's still a little early for Halloween (and even more at the time I shared this on Facebook) but I just can't get enough of these Halloween pillows!! (From Michael's, inspired by Craft Wars) They are just way cute! (If you follow the link you gotta click on the Project 8 and then you can download the instructions).


I thought this was a super neat way to transfer text onto cardstock in a really particular position: DIY Rub-On Transfer from Bluebuttonpress.


I love this method for stenciling from Lil Blue Boo! With bleach, looks SO cool!


I found this really nice Etsy shop(thewheatfield) that sells watercolor and acrylic prints, ranging in price from 6$ for a 5x7 to 24$ for a large print. I'm thinking of getting this one for myself (18$)! Soooo pretty!


Lastly, The Homes I Have Made made this vinyl tiled backsplash for her rental home. Reminded me of when I used contact paper for the backsplash behind my stove, one of the very first posts I did on the blog, and now I feel like doing the entire wall!


Coming Soon!

As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to dedicate to blogging this month, or well for the first half of the month.

I've been working on our bathroom, making it a little more to my taste. So far it's painted... I chose this light blue color (with a tiny bit of green in it, almost aqua but not quite). It's darker than this on the walls, though, but I really like it!


I had a hard time choosing accent colors, but I think I've finally got it down. So I'm gonna do a few projects this month and hopefully get to show you guys!

Apart from the bathroom, I'm probably gonna get back to some seasonal crafting at the end of September, for fall and Halloween, so you can a expect that, too.

And there are 2 birthdays this next month: the Blog's 1 year birthday the 15th, and my own 25th birthday on the 29th. I'm not very big on birthdays, so I'm not really planning anything... (like giveaways- I'm sorry I'm just too poor and shipping is way too expensive, but I still very much appreciate every single one of you!!)

And that wrap's up the wrap-up!

Feedback is always appreciated, whether about this post, the blog design, blog content, etc.