It’s been a while since I posted a new project.  The winter always seems to be a blah time of year for me.  I always thought it was due to busy season for public accounting, but this winter was the same, even without busy season.  Even though I haven’t tackled many projects or blogged a lot in the past three months, I’ve been doing a lot of living.  In short 2015 has been great so far.  I’ve learned a lot, stepped outside my comfort zone and have lived with no regrets.

I started off the year by joining the Rex Wellness Center.  I’ve never joined a gym before (I usually just workout on my own and I was a member of a boxing place for a while), but I wanted to try something new and meet new people.  I only lasted 1 month at Rex Wellness.  It was a great facility, but I was by far the youngest person there.  It was all grandmas and grandpas at Rex Wellness…..that was not my target audience for new people.  I hate being a quitter.  It pained me to admit that I made a wrong choice and that I was one of those “January Gym Tourists.”  But shit happens, not every decision is always right. I am someone who usually suffers through to complete something at all costs, even if it is not making me happy.  It was a huge accomplishment to walk away from the Wellness Center.

At the same time I was unhappy with Rex Wellness, a friend told me there was a promotional special at her Crossfit Box.  I’ve been interested in trying Crossfit for a while, but something was always holding me back.  Mid-January I signed up for the 3 month promotion.  I started out in the Crossfit Light Classes which teach you the sequence progressions for the various weight lifting moves.  The members were very inviting and the Crossfit Light classes were small so you got a lot of individual attention to work on form and technique.  I moved to the regular Crossfit classes within a couple of weeks, since the Light classes are only offered in the evenings and they were getting in the way of my dating life!

Speaking of dating…..I’ve gone on more dates in the past three months than I did in all of 2014.  I’ve learned a lot.  Both about myself and what I’m looking for/not looking for.  I posted back at the beginning of the new year, here, that I believe “I am exactly where I am supposed to be.”  I still believe that.  The past three months have been completely uncharacteristic of my normal life, but at the same time it has felt congruent with the person I have become.

Now that the weather has warmed up, I’ve been running more and getting back into projects.  I am looking forward to starting a kitchen table refurbish project soon and helping a friend paint stripes in her nursery.  Don’t worry I plan to post about both of these!

This past week/weekend I worked on some shutters for my window sash mirror.  My dad made me some board and batten shutters from some 1X6 boards to go with my mirror. I planned on painting them a grey color to go with the brown/grey walls and blue window sash.  I used some left over paint from my bedroom, but the color was too light.  I had some left over paint from my headboard that was a darker grey.  I painted one with the darker grey and put them up for comparison.

The darker grey shutter looked much better.  After painting the other shutter to match, I fixed a rig on the back to hang the shutters on the wall.  I pre-drilled 2 holes for ¾” screws.  I screwed the screws in, but left a 1/8” out.  I wrapped the wire around each screw and then screwed them in until they were flush with the wood.  It’s probably best to pre-drill your holes to prevent the wood from possibly splitting when you put the screws in.  I repeated the same on the other shutter.

Next I measured the wall to hang the shutters next to the window.  The shutters are 2 inches taller than the window, which would leave 1 inch on the top and the bottom.  I wanted a 2 inch gap between the shutter and the window.

I think the entryway nook is finally complete!  Here’s what it looked like last October before the board and batten and new paint compared to now: