Another Year, Another Budget

2011 it is and a new budget The Bean Team is planning...only because our health insurance premiums went up $40 a month (boo).  There goes my grand plan of possibly upgrading to a smart phone, which would cost us $40 more a month.  Oh well, life is full of giving and taking, right? 

Then there's the glorious tax return.  Since Anthony is still in school, we usually get most of what we put in back..even though every year the entire check goes directly from our hands (what a great two seconds) to our student loan lender.  It's bittersweet but shoving any and all extra money towards those cotton pickin' loans will pay off in the future.  After they're paid and closed, I'm not sure what we'll do with the extra money.  I guess we'll just start shoving money towards our retirement fund?  Go out to eat at least once a week?  Skip the clearance section?  Can you go from being frugal for so long to being un-frugal?  Probably not.  :)  Although maybe that day I'll splurge and buy something from Pottery Barn.  I love that store (I've been inside it once) but right now it's only a distant dream.

New Year's Resolutions?  I've never been one to make them.  My thought is, why wait to make changes or better yourself for a new year?  Why not start today!  When I was 10, I remember making a personal resolution that on my 11th birthday I would start doing everything 100%.  My room would always be immaculate, I would get an A+ on every assignment and test, I would listen to my parents all the time, I would never get angry at anyone...yes, I know, a little ridiculous.  I remember making this two months before my birthday...probably the laziest, most hypocritical two months of my short life!  :)

Anyways, back to the budget.  We're excited to start a new Excel document for our 2011 budget...we're nerds, we know.  In case you want to be budget-conscious with us, you can start here.  

As much of a downer "being on a budget" can sometimes be, we really do love it.  It's taught us how to be smart with money - make smart purchases, pay off credit cards balances every month (if in order to buy it, you have to use credit, don't buy it), wait until that thing on our 'wish list' goes on sale, price-shop...the list goes on and on.  It's also taught us how to be creative and get great quality on little moolah.  Budgets bring blessing.  :)   

Happy New Year to you all!  Tag along with us this new year and watch as we tackle tons more budget-friendly home projects (we've got lots of big ideas) and just keep working on ourselves so that when blogging and the world as we know it falls away, we'll find ourselves in heaven.  

Peace out!     

O Rosemary, O Rosemary

Your leaves are so unchanging.  Well, they're sorta dead now but it was good while it lasted!  In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, it's our 'Christmas tree'.  Since we went home for two weeks this year, we thought it'd be a waste of time to get our tree out of the attic, put 'er together, fluff her up, stick some lights on her (I like tons of lights which equals lots of work), and put on the ornaments.  So, instead I had this great idea of using the pine-look-alike rosemary branches from the bush we have in our backyard.  Anthony was just telling me a month ago that that bush was getting a little overgrown.  So, of course I though, "why not kill two birds with one stone?"  You with me?  Here's what I did:

 Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of our 2010 'Christmas tree' until after we got home, hence why it's lookin' a little shabby...okay, dead.  But you get the point.  A few rosemary branches, a vase, and some ornaments is all there was to our 'tree' this year.  Lucky for us, our family in New York waited to put up their real tree until everyone was there to help so we did get to cross that tradition off our lists this year anyway.

Besides serving as our Christmas tree, it also made a great centerpiece for our table.  I love decorations that serve double-duty!  Anyone else have a non-traditional Christmas tree?

Happy New Year to you all!  Thank God for the past year, it's joys and trials!  I hope everyone has a great 2011!  I'm excited to see what God has planned!

I Love Lamp

If you've seen "Anchorman", you've probably heard this line.  Personally, it's one of my least favorite movies but Anthony can't stop laughing during it so for his sake, we get this title.  But, on to the real reason why 'I love lamp'.  We were blessed to go home to Anthony's family in New York this year for Christmas.  It was the first Christmas we've spent with family since we've been married!  It was an awesome two weeks filled with lots of laughs, tons of good food (thanks mom), and hours upon hours of playing games - Bananagrams, Scattergories, Golf, Skip-bo, Phase Ten, and Settlers of Catan...awesome games.  Since we flew there and are tightwads, meaning we didn't want to pay checked baggage fees (thankfully we got one checked bag free through our credit card), we bought most of our presents after we got there to save space.  We already had ideas of what we were getting for everyone except for mom and dad.  Then we saw their lamps.  Let me first say this, we love our mom and dad  but their lamps, well, they were a little ancient.  Ancient but with great curves!  So of course my mind goes straight to how-can-I-refurbish-them mode and then on to spray paint.  Anthony jumps right on board thinking of colors and then we get to the next hurdle...would they let us?  I felt bad just taking the lamps and totally changing them without asking, even if it will be their Christmas present, so we nonchalantly asked, "Hey, do you like your lamps?  I guess what we mean is, could we get you new ones?"  They gave us the "sure, we'd love new lamps!" answer we were longing to hear and to Wal-Mart we went to snatch up some paint and new shades.  Based on the colors in their living room, we 'compromised' on oil-rubbed bronze spray paint.  I really wanted to paint them a glossy brick red but in the end, Anthony convinced me that oil-rubbed bronze made more sense and was a more neutral, subtle choice.  

So here they are right before go-time:

I taped off the light bulb socket and switch to make sure I didn't get any paint inside the lamp.

Also, we had to be discreet since mom and dad didn't know we were actually re-doing their old lamps so we brought the lamps over to grandma's house where we painted them in her basement since it was too cold outside.  I learned to obey the directions on the back of spray paint cans last year where it says, "apply in temperatures between 50 and 90 degrees".  If you don't, the paint will develop lines and look cracked...take my word for it.

Since they're made out of metal (gold) and ceramic (green), I went the safe route and primed before I painted. 

All primed!  On to the best part...painting!

This is after 4 light coats of paint:

I sprayed right-side up, upside down, left side, front side, back side...every inch.  They looked amazing!!!  I say "Pottery Barn style meets the Bean Team Budget".  We forwent (is that a word?) our budget a little with these lamps since we wanted only the best for our mom and dad.  In the end, we ended up spending $6 on paint (of which we used barely any of the primer and a little under half the can of paint) and $30 on some sweet shades that completed our project.  So, two new, custom, stylish lamps complete with sentimental value for $36 bucks...a great Christmas present if you ask us.  The question remaining after we were done was "do you think they'll recognize the lamps?"  We were dying to find out...

Nope! They thought they were entirely new lamps!  How's that for boosting our egos?  We did reveal the fact that they were their old lamps and were delighted at their surprise and joy...and what a Merry Christmas it was!   :)

Because we're over-achievers in the home improvement area, you're probably not surprised to find out that we went on to re-painting and decorating mom and dad's spare bathroom.  Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures but the bathroom went from a bright orange to a very light grayish-green (Valspar's Tea Stain).  We had a blast doing it and look forward to tackling another room on our next vacation...the question is, who's house will it be?  Any volunteers?  ;)

My Favorite Color is White

White spray paint is a staple item in our household.  Currently we are loaded up with satin and gloss sheens just in case a random spray-painting mood comes on.  My philosophy is that ANYTHING looks good spray painted white...Anthony agrees but always comes up with another color when I share my "this would look good white" idea.

Recently, I went to a great discount store (after seeing that they were having a '75% off clearance items' sale) and found these two vases for $2 each.

 I liked the colors, but I didn't like them together and they didn't match our decor.  So...

four dollars (plus tax), a little bit of white spray paint, and a sunny day later, this is what I created:

The spray paint (Krylon from Wal-Mart) stuck great to the glass without me having to use primer, although I did put on a couple of thin coats.

Much brighter and ready to add some light and style to our 'empty' fireplace ledge. 

The Berr Chair Finale

It's all done and we've gone from 'old school' (quite literally)...

to 21st century cool and modern!

When I took it back to it's proud owners, they told me that the hook on the side of the chair (right side, close to the top) was where the child would hang her rosary and when it came time for prayer, she would stand up, turn around, and kneel on the seat facing the back of the chair.  The top ledge would serve as the top ledge of a little kneeler.  How cool is that?!  It's definitely going to be filed in the back of my mind in hopes that one day, we'll be able to DIY a chair like that for our kids...it would make a cute little desk chair or even just an accent chair, with double-duty as a place for prayer.  I love it!!!