Happy SUMMER! We are BACK!

Even though we've been doing summer-ish type stuff since May it's finally summer-summer-summer time with this Saturday being June 21st. We've been super busy doing mostly nothing at all...just taking a blog break. But we wanted to catch you up a little on our life before we get back into the DIY and home decor stuff that is on the way!

Summer starts with selfies with the dog on car rides!


And Snapchat selfies (everyone piled in the guest bedroom bed) when friends come to our house for a weekend of fun!

True beauts in the morning! Photo/Snapchat Credit to Hollie @ Fancykins 

 Partying with family especially my sissy...

 My grandma knows how to really get the party going!

Grillin' out....

Throwing a kegger for memorial day....

A quick girls trip to Nashville!

Dressing in that good old red white and blue...and matching your husband.

Don't think we would forget to get our house summer ready too!

Planting fake succulents in cute vintage pots, and tricking your friends into thinking you now have a green thumb...

Taking a photo of a real life plant so you can remember it before you kill it. (I try to keep them alive, I really do.)

Jumping up and down and taking 13 photos of the very red and plump strawberry you grew all by yourself. There is hope for plants in my future!

Watched my husband play "The Hero" in a murder mystery in the local community theatre!

 What would summer be without flea markets!!

 3rd Sunday Market. My favorite.

Our next big project this summer....

Staining the deck, more on that soon.


Tons of posts sitting in the draft just waiting for me to finish edits and will be posted next week. Everyone enjoy your first weekend of summer!

You can see more of what Adam, Scout & I have been up to this summer by following us on instagram!
Follow me on instagram!

Be My Guest | Ashley from Attempts at Domestication

While I am relaxing somewhere on a (hopefully sunny) beach. I've asked a few ladies to fill in for me. Today's guest is my friend Ashley.

Hey there Let's Just Build a House readers! I'm so excited to be here while Trina is on vacation, even though I'm totally jealous. I'm Ashley and I blog over at Attempts at Domestication! I live in Richmond, VA with my handsome husband of three years in a cute little house in the suburbs. I blog about all things domestic from crafts, home decor, cooking, sewing and life. My husband and I have also dabbled into woodworking and the pieces that we've built together are some of my favorite things about my house! Our first project was building a large 8 person farmhouse dining room table. We painted the legs and apron a crisp white and stained the tabletop dark walnut. It's an amazing combination and I never thought I could love a piece of furniture so much! The chairs were an awesome $80 find on Craigslist and I really think they compliment the table very well. I plan on refinishing them, but I can't decide if I should finish them in a fun color or leave them white. After successfully building a table we got brave enough to try our hands at building a nightstand for our master bedroom. We searched high and low for a nightstand that met all of my requirements, which included having a drawer, a shelf and being made from actual wood. My husband did a fantastic job at constructing the nightstand and I absolutely love it. It is painted the same crisp white as the dining table and the top is the same shade of walnut. We splurged a little on the knob, it was $8 at Anthropologie, but I think it's the perfect finishing touch. My favorite home decor projects to date has to be the old window that I turned into a picture frame for a few of our wedding pictures. I love having reminders of our special day hanging up in our bedroom in such a fun way. I also created some fun typography of our vows that hang over our nightstands. To see more of my projects and to get to know me a little better be sure to pop over to Attempts at Domestication or follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Thanks so much to Trina for having me over! I hope you are having a blast on your vacation! :)

I've been reading Ashley's blog for a few years and I'm still impressed with her crafting and DIYs. You should follow her on instagram too. She posts her adorable outfits and photos of her wine drinking (like me!). Be sure to hop over and visit her. I know you will stick around! 


REMINDER!

If you haven't entered the Giveaway for the super awesome Teak Bench from Teak Closeouts Please head over here to enter for your chance to win! Giveaway closes in a few days!

Be My Guest | Hollie @ Fancykins

Since I probably have a drink in my hand and my toes in the sand. (Yes, even if it's before noon--because it's vacation!) A few friends are taking over LJBaH this week! Today I'd like to introduce you to my dear friend Hollie who is not new to blogging, but she does have a brand new blog!

Hey, everybody! I’m Hollie, and right now I’m probably (hopefully?) sitting on a beach with our friend Trina, maybe (definitely) drinking some sort of fruity, beachy drink.

When Trina asked me to write a guest post for LJBaH, I was more excited than I probably should have been considering I was at work and swamped with a billion other projects that should have taken precedence. You see, I’ve been friends with Trina for 11 years and her house is one of my favorite places to spend a weekend - I’ve moonwalked along her catwalk and claimed a guest bedroom as my own - and I love to gab about house and blog stuff with her.

Trina and me, the year we were roommates in college, in what remains one of the greatest nights of my life.

So here’s my contribution to LJBaH, which details a night I ate pizza and used a hammer. Small beans for some, a giant leap in small-space living for people like me. Follow my blog, Fancykins (which I rarely update but have big aspirations to do that someday) find me on Instagram @holliecats and on Twitter @holliewrites for more trials and tribulations of lazy decorating and hanging things.

How to hang pictures without having a mental breakdown in 12 easy steps

Step 1: Have two or more pictures that you want to hang evenly, in a row on a wall. Decide you have time to binge on one or two episodes of Bridezillas before you have to get down to the dirty work.

Step 2: Snap out of your reality TV blackout when you realize your apartment is superdark. Notice your Netflix sesh was five hours long, decide to hang pictures anyway.

Step 3: Order pizza from Papa John’s, despite the fact that you live seconds away from a billion other pizza places that are probably way better. Go downstairs and pick up Papa John’s 30 minutes later, cursing the fact that you live so close and that’s why it’s so hard to stick to a diet.

Step 4: Get back up to apartment, super winded because you live on the top floor of a walk-up, decide to eat pizza while hanging pictures to save time. Great plan until you spill that garlic dipping sauce on the rug and the cat licks it up and wants more.

Step 5: Realize there isn’t one single hook on the back of the frame; instead, there are two on either side. No worries, you’ll just use some of that wire you think you got in a photo-hanging kit a few years ago.

Step 6: Can’t find that photo-hanging kit, resort to purple vintage ribbon you randomly find in a kitchen drawer.

Step 7: Vintage ribbon stretches, which means pictures are so uneven it looks someone hung them up after taking a billion shots of Fireball. Eat more pizza, call for backup.

Step 8: Backup arrives, also eats pizza. Together, you decide to hang two nails on either side of the frame where the two hooks are. High-five each other and get to work.

Step 9: “Maybe we should see if there are tips online?” the backup asks after three failed attempts. Realize the iPad is all the way in the other room, suggest trying again after you eat more pizza and add a few songs to your “Housework Jamz” playlist on Spotify.

Step 10: After 1,000 extra holes are hammered into the walls and the pizza is gone, the pictures appear to be somewhat even. Use your Handy Level app and get confirmation that they are indeed as level as you’re ever going to get them.

Step 11: Step back and survey your handiwork, gasp in horror when photos look super freaking uneven. Realize your vintage apartment has crooked ceilings and floors, which make everything look wonky and all of your stress was for nothing.

Step 12: Make personal pacts to hang only gallery walls from now on, fix these pictures another day, start diet tomorrow. Pin yourself to sleep and dream of future projects.

Step 13: Never fix the pictures, eat pizza again two days later. Realize you’re not the only one who eyeballs this stuff. Feel OK about your apartment, your pictures, your life.

And that’s it. Easy-peasy, huh?

Any LJBaH readers have simple picture-hanging tips and tricks you’d like to share, or are you giving it all up to hang haphazard-yet-cohesive gallery walls? Do you even have to measure those things?

Hollie

Well, I didn't realize she was going to share a college days, drinking-in-a-bar, kissy face photo of me, but there are worse ones she could have included....Thank god there were no Iphones when we were in college!


P.S. Only a few days left to enter the giveaway for this beauty. Enter Here.

A Ski Lodge Party

This New Year's Eve we participated in a progressive dinner party.  What is a progressive dinner party you ask? It's a house hop. Everyone starts at one home, and hop to different homes throughout the evening. Each host serves a signature drink, and appetizer to the house hoppers.

It's best to do it with your neighbors or friends that live close. Cuts down on drive time, and if you can walk to each others homes...you don't have to worry about choosing a DD! But if you will be driving from house to house, don't forget to decide on a DD before the night begins!

This year we decided each house could do their own theme of their own choice.

We chose Ski Lodge. We figured our house already has the lodge feel, so we already had the setting. Since we would only be hosts for a short time in the evening (about an hour), we didn't want to go nuts with party planning. But still wanted to do a few fun things..

One Saturday afternoon we pulled out the barn wood. Adam hammered some nails into it for about 10 minutes in the garage and came up with this:

Yep, that will work.

 We busted out some stencils, and printed some "mountain animals" from the internets to trace.

 This was Adam's first time stenciling. He said it was boring...

 Rawwr...

 And here she is. Ready for the front yard.

Welcome to the ski lodge!

Adam strung up some lights last minute to give it a little more pizzaz.

I added some new year's art to the chalkboard easel to greet guests in our entry way.

Vintage ski poles courtesy of my dad for some added lodge decor.

 My dad also gave us some of his old cross country skis. Adam tied them up on the catwalk.

 For the table I spray painted some pinecones with gold spray paint. And used some fabric as a table runner.

I served my favorite hot warm dip. Bagna Cauda. It's italian. And it clogs your arteries. And it's soso good.

 We had a bar set up with hot cocoa, wine, and scotch.

Your Ski Lodge hosts thank you for coming!

Other stops on the evening's progressive dinner included:
Hawaii (if you didn't notice by Adam's lei)
Mardi Gras!
German Christmas Market
A Wild West Saloon
and ended the night in New York Times Square!


I wish I would've taken photos at each hop, but the night happened so fast!
Here are a few more:

Adam's Aunt Katie painted this backdrop in one afternoon!

Beautiful German Christmas Market Setup.

Ladies in New York for the ball drop.

I am Tyra Smizing here..

At Mardi Gras...notice the cowboy in the background...

Have you ever been to/hosted a progressive dinner party?
What theme would you choose?