DIY Marquee Noel Sign for an Outdoor Christmas Display

by margotrd, posted in DIY, Projects

Christmas is undoubtedly my favorite holiday. It is the day we celebrate the ultimate gift of Jesus being born into the world to be our Savior. During this marvelous season, you get to spend time with family and friends, eat delicious food, and see all the festive lights around town and neighborhoods. In a time where there is more darkness than light during each day, it seems fitting that Christmas lights adorn homes and buildings to brighten up the night, as Jesus brightened up the world when He was born. I know a lot of people have beef with huge, over the top Christmas displays, however, I think it’s amazing to see a house illuminating an otherwise dimly lit neighborhood. It brings smiles and joy to those who drive by, and fills children with a sense of wonder. I remember the hunt to find the best decorated houses when I was child. We would drive all around the town, searching for those homes that were dripping with lights from tree to shining eaves (no crazy programmed LED light shows back then!).

Several years ago, when my husband and I bought our house, we began an outdoor Christmas light display to act as a gift for people who want to find the over-the-top decorated houses to drive by each Christmas season. We make it a point to use mostly lights; no inflatables here! Our other personal rule is no Santa, which can make finding yard decor a bit more challenging, since most decorations are geared toward the jolly, old soul. We make due with what we have though, and seem to still impress people with a our light-covered home. Last year, we were interviewed for our town’s newspaper regarding our Christmas display, and we won “Most Festive” for the neighborhood light contest! We used over 18,500 lights for last years display! I feel like pictures never do Christmas displays justice, but here is what it looked like.

Each year we add a little bit more, always wanting to keep the passerby’s seeing something new. I inevitably have to start thinking about new additions much earlier in the year than during the actual Christmas season. So, I began this project in August! I realized I needed something that had depth or dimension in the yard, other than mini-mega trees, and the new deer we had just added. Last year, I had made a “Noel” sign out of lights, that I had just stapled to the fence, but it was a pain to put up and take down. Yet, here was my inspiration for this project, which was to add a sign of marquee style letters that could sit in the yard and be pretty night and day.

First, I found the font that I liked. I then made a grid of 1 inch by 1 inch squares in a google doc, then added that grid as an image in a new google doc where I could place my letters behind the image. Then I increased the font size of one letter at a time to fill my grid. I would print out that letter, and then go back in to the same grid, erase the letter and do the next one. This kept my letters all the same size and dimension to the others. Once this was done, I drew out a grid of 6 inch by 6 inch squares on a sheet of 4ft. X 8ft. plywood. Then I just used my printed out sheet as a guide for where to draw the lines in each square on the plywood. It is like those coloring pages where you had to fill in the missing part of the image using a grid. (Not having huge prints made at an office supply kept my costs down, but could be done if you didn’t want to do all these steps!)

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Ditching the ultra 90’s kitchen lighting

by margotrd, posted in Projects, Renovations

A few years back we decided to take down the eye sore that was the fluorescent light box protruding from the ceiling in our kitchen. It was an obvious time warp that dated our kitchen right back to the day it was built…in the mid nineties. It’s crazy to think that was twenty-five years ago, but when looking at the style of homes built during that era, it is clear we have progressed in design choices. Thank goodness pink tile and carpet are not a thing any longer, as my house was deep in the throes of that Barbie design style. To purge the pink tile and paint from the kitchen, I had to come up with a short term solution until we could do a real remodel. I did chalk paint on the cabinets and we made concrete counters in lieu of granite, until we could save up for them. As for the lighting, we had this massive fluorescent light casting the nastiest garish hue on our kitchen by night, and by day it just stuck out like a sore thumb. It didn’t really provide much in the way of task lighting for cooking, either. What we really needed was a layering of light, some for task lighting and some for ambiance.

This is how our kitchen looked from the real estate listing, before we bought it. Unfortunately you can’t really see the light!

First, we had to tear off the old light box and add wiring for the can lights and pendant lights we planned to install. To achieve this, we cut out a huge hole in the ceiling, mainly because it was going to be easier to patch one large sheet of drywall than to fill in around where the drywall was missing from the old frame for the light box. We added four recessed can lights for task lighting, which was just enough to make it bright, but not too many so it wouldn’t look like our ceiling was Swiss cheese filled with holes everywhere! It was quite an endeavor to get the wiring done since we added a switch for the pendant lights so they could be turned on without having the can lights being on. We even had to send our son up into the ceiling to crawl across and grab the wire as Dean pushed it up through the wall, because his wire tape wouldn’t reach. It was quite the ordeal! For the lighting over the island, I had had my eye on Darlana pendant lights, but they were pretty pricey, so I searched for a look-a-like, and found one from Joss and Main!

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A table to gather around…

by margotrd, posted in DIY, Projects

During this time of social distancing, I can’t help but think about how one day soon, we will be able to gather again with family and friends around our new dining table. The idea for this table came with much thought; how I could make something beautiful, yet not spend a fortune in doing so. For years I have wanted to build a dining table, and I only needed to make a table top since I had acquired pedestals taken off an old table I purchased from a thrift store for only thirty bucks! The top of the table, however, was not to my liking so I tossed the top and began to think up ways to create a top that would suite my style. There are thousands of DIY tables on Pinterest that are beautiful and unique, and while I have taken some inspiration from many of those, I also wanted to design the top in my own way, to my own personal liking. Originally, I had wanted to use huge reclaimed beams sliced in half to make a top with a lot of character and warmth. The pictures below show something similar to what my inspiration was if you combine the two.

Source


Source

As I sourced reclaimed lumber, I learned very quickly I wouldn’t be getting wood for cheap any time soon. Most beams run about $10-$25 per board foot, which is the length x height x wide. So, when a board is four to six inches thick, eight feet long, and a foot wide, things add up quickly. I was looking at $500+ dollars just in the lumber alone, and then I would have had to pay someone to slice it up into thinner pieces, since my table saw wouldn’t have cut it… pun intended!

I figured enough was enough, and needed to put those pedestals to use and just come up with a new design altogether. They had been stashed away in the furnace room, taking up what precious little space we have of storage in there. But, even more so than using the pedestals, I needed to get rid of our old, worn out table that had taken much abuse over the last 15 years. It was a cheap buy from a furniture store, purchased for our first home when we got married, and though it is structurally sound, it was time for something new!

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RVing across the Southwest: Day 10 and 11

by margotrd, posted in Travel

After getting some much needed rest, it was nice not having to worry about leaving at a certain time to get anywhere. We took off from Gold Run Rest Area and decided we would drive till we saw something on the map that seemed like a good place to visit, since all our plans had changed due to the previous day. (Read about that here.) The mountains were beautiful, and I enjoyed the highway driving out where it wasn’t congested and stressful. Dean probably appreciated that more than me! I scanned my road atlas, and saw Lake Tahoe wasn’t too far off Interstate 80. I figured we could drive there to see about camping somewhere close to the waterside, which hopefully would make up for not staying on the coast.

When we pulled into Tahoe City, we first drove north around the lake. I had seen a campground on the map that seemed pretty close to a beach. Although it was a bit of a dreary day, we were determined to get this vacation back on track, and no cold, cloudy day would stop us from trying! We pulled into the Lake Forest Campground and took a drive around to find an open spot. After deciding we didn’t really like any of the sites, we drove back out and searched for the next campground. The scenic road that wraps around the lake showcasing impressive homes was quite a treat for the eyes! We drove all the way to the northern end of the lake, but the supposed campground I had quickly googled about wasn’t really a campsite for RVs. So we headed back south to the west side of the lake, hunting for Meeks Bay Campground. I was hoping that they would have an opening for us, but as we had learned, without reservations made way in advance we weren’t guaranteed a spot. We pulled up to the gate, and asked if they had any openings for two nights. She said they only had a few spots to pick from that might fit our RV, and that we could drive through to check them out before we decided for certain we wanted to stay there. Once in, we found it was tight getting around the loop of sites, but we did find one spot that Dean said he was pretty sure he could back into. I figured if he could do it, there was no sense in looking any further.

Most people were leaving their spots that morning, so it ended up being private and serene. It was just what we needed, especially after sleeping in a rest stop with loud semi-trucks with their engines rumbling through the entire night. Meeks Bay Campground is also a short walk to the beach, which is a private beach for the campground, unless you pay. It made it much less busy, with only one other family there when we arrived. The major plus was that dogs were allowed to swim just off to the right of the actual beach where it became rocky. (We did ask special permission before taking June for a swim, just to be sure!) There were huge pine trees surrounding the campground and a trail that went parallel to the main road that you could access from the resort next to the campground. This place gave us a chance to slow down and really take in a enjoy our surroundings. We had no agenda anymore, and for the first time the entire trip, our RV sat in one campsite for two nights! I got a lot less camera focused, and just enjoyed what I was seeing with my eyes, instead of being behind a lens.

We swam in the bitterly cold water both days, against our better judgement knowing we would be freezing for hours trying to warm up. The first day the water may have been half of a degree warmer than the second, but we had to take advantage of the private beach with nearly anyone out there! June loved to fetch branches we threw out in the water. She also would swim out to check on the boys and me and then would head back to Dean on the shore. The water is cerulean blue and clear as drinking water. I swam out all the way out to the end of the swimming area, and I could still see straight down to the bottom of the lake! We were all awestruck at the beauty of Lake Tahoe.

We walked on the path several times, strolling along under the massive trees, picking up an occasional pine cone to marvel at its size. We soon found we could have walked for miles with no real end in sight, as we were far away from any town or eatery. So, we spent most of our time playing games, taking walks, or swimming. The second day it rained most of the morning and then turned to snow for an hour or so! It was actually very beautiful, but we were really cold in the RV, as we hadn’t brought any winter weather clothes or extra blankets. The sun came out and warmed up the ground enough that the snow melted away at the lower elevations. We could clearly see snow capped mountains across the lake, and even right across the road from us the hills were a splash of white!

These two days gave us a fresh spirit about how we would end our trip, and I am so thankful we had the opportunity to visit Lake Tahoe! I know this area is extremely crowded during the peak season, but since we were there just a couple weeks after Labor Day, we almost had the place to ourselves. Dean and I both feel like we would visit there again, but maybe next time stay in Tahoe City to be able to visit the local shops and restaurants. All in all, it was an amazing first experience at this natural beauty.

Day 10: 87 miles

Day 11: 0 miles

RVing across the Southwest: Day 8 and 9

by margotrd, posted in Travel

When we started our day, we struggled to decide if we should head out towards the coast, as was the purpose of this trip to begin with, or spend one more night in Sequoia National Forest. Its beauty and grandeur were captivating, and our campsite neighbors had told us about Muir Grove, which was filled with old sequoia giants and not too many people. It sounded idyllic to us, but our plan was to head out to the coast so we could spend a few days on the beach, as well as see the coastal redwoods. Now, here’s where hindsight is a beast, and we we wished we would have listened to that voice that begged us to stay in the forest, because these two days were THE MOST stressful of the whole trip. Did we have some fun? Of course, but the years taken off my life due to these two days…. definitely not worth it.

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RVing across the Southwest: Day 7

by margotrd, posted in Travel

I woke up pretty much when the sun came up, because since we had arrived so late in the evening, we had to pick from a handful of uneven sites to park at. The one we ended up with slanted downhill so badly we had to sleep on the opposite side of the bed so all that blood didn’t rush to our heads. If only we had some leveling blocks with us! (Next time we will be more prepared…) At any rate, we had to get moving because we had to vacate our spot by 11a.m., and we planned on hiking down to see the General Grant tree before we left. I took June on a long walk around the campgrounds, since dogs are not allowed on any national park trails or paths. Then we set off to see this tree, the 3rd largest tree in the world!

I felt like I had been shrunk down, the trees were so massive all around us. In Colorado, we have big trees, but nothing compared to what we were seeing all around us. I kept thinking to myself that these trees weren’t even the biggest ones we would see! We were in complete awe. It’s a short thirty minute hike down to the Grant Tree Trail, and I do recommend walking the trail rather than driving to the parking lot, if you stay at a nearby campsite. It forces you to take your time and digest everything you are seeing. Once we arrived, we were with all the other folks who had come to see the big trees. Photographs really don’t do these behemoths justice. And beyond that, I gave up trying to capture some gallery-worthy shot after trying to take nearly a hundred pictures and realizing this was a family trip not a photo shoot! I had seen many pictures when I was doing my research, but there is nothing like standing underneath a tree whose limbs are as large as the trees that grow in the forests that I am used to. The sheer height of General Grant is staggering, at a whopping 267.5 feet! It is actually taller than General Sherman, but is not as large in volume, which is why it is only the 3rd largest tree. We almost couldn’t believe it was real. It felt like a set out of Avatar or something. Naturally there are a lot of people who want to see this giant of giants, so we waited in line to get some pictures, and then continued back up the trail so we could head over to Sequoia National Park to see General Sherman.

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RVing across the Southwest: Day 5 and 6

by margotrd, posted in Travel

I think I was looking forward to this day the least, as it was a ton of driving, and there weren’t a whole lot of exciting places to visit on the way. We left the Kaibab Forest, heading towards Flagstaff, AZ. Our ultimate goal was to get into California, staying overnight somewhere on route to Sequioa National Park. I knew that the Mojave National Preserve was on the way, and I had my mind set on seeing the lava tube there. I figured it would be a bit of a detour from the straight path we were on, but well worth it for our family to experience this natural attraction. We drove in high winds for hours and hours, which definitely slowed us down and made the drive a bit of a drag. After a quick stop for lunch in Kingman, AZ, we were back on the road. The state line wasn’t far away, and I felt like our vacation was really beginning to become an adventure! We had done several new things and seen some awesome sites, and I thought to myself, we can just zip through this day to get to the really good stuff at Sequioa’s parks.

As we drove into California, we were “greeted” by a young woman, full on topless flashing us on the bridge we were passing under! Dean and I were stunned, and couldn’t believe that had just happened! I was also extremely glad the boys couldn’t really see out of the windshield, because they missed the whole debacle. THANK the LORD! Then, we roll up to the mandatory stop at the border station. They asked us if we had any fresh produce, to which we answered honestly, yes. They then proceded to confiscate my brand new bag of avocados and mandarin oranges! I had no idea you couldn’t have fruit or veggies from out of state, and I was in a rage. (Mostly an inner rage… don’t worry.) My opinion of California was going sour already, and we weren’t even a mile into it!

I stewed over those avocados for what seemed like hours, and we continued to drive across barren wastelands. Finally, the exit for Kelbaker Road came, and we entered the Mojave National Preserve. I looked around and thought, gee, isn’t this what we have been looking at for the last three hours? The main road was fine, albeit a bit bumpy, but we sped forth towards the old Kelso Depot where the visitor center is located. We saw signs to lookout for tortoises crossing the road, sand dunes off in the distance, and Joshua trees sprinkled across the almost other-worldly landscape. My sour mood was beginning to soften, as I drank in the unusual scenery and noticed we were practically by ourselves out there.

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RVing across the Southwest: Day 4

by margotrd, posted in Travel

Another beautiful, crisp morning and another day filled with lots of driving, we set off from the Hovenweep campground and headed to the Four Corners Monument. I had read all about this place, so I knew getting there as close to the opening hours as we could would help us to not have to stand in line for a long time. When we arrived, there were several RVs and cars in the parking lot, however, the “line” was really only a few people taking their turn getting pictures. Only a few shops were open, and we didn’t really check them out, as it all looked like the typical touristy souvenirs. However, I have to say, traveling during the off-season was such a winner for us. Only a week earlier, on Labor Day, the wait to have a picture taken at Four Corners was more than 2 hours. Now, having been there, I would have been completely horrified to stand and wait in line (for a 3 picture maximum during the busy time) for such a tourist trap memento. I’m not saying it’s not worth the $20 to say “been there, done that”, but I am saying I wouldn’t have been all smiles by the time we got to take our turn to get a few pictures taken. Do I recommend going here? That is questionable… depending on how important your time is, and what things you want to check off your list, there may be a better things to see. But overall, it was fine for us, and we now have our pictures to prove we have been in four states at once. So la-ti-dah!

Our next destination was the Grand Canyon. The drive took about three hours from Four Corners. We had a fun time on the drive because we would exchange waves and honks with all the other Cruise America RVs that were heading the opposite direction from us. I’m sure these were the travelers that had been there for Labor Day. In less than an hour, I counted about 30 of our “sisters” (Cruise America rentals) as I called them, driving past us. That did not include the plethora of other RVs that sped past that were not in our “family”!

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RVing across the Southwest: Day 3

by margotrd, posted in Travel

Continuing west across southern Colorado, we stopped for lunch in Durango. We were headed towards the Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center, in Dolores, Colorado. This place contains the highest known archaeologically dense site in the United States! Once we arrived, we meandered through the small museum, which has several Native American artifacts and a large display of an underground dwelling. Outside of the building, there is a short half-mile paved trail up to the top of a lookout, where you can see all around the valley below. There are also old ruins of the Escalante Pueblo. Dogs were allowed on the trail, so June got to stretch her legs after a several hours of driving. The park rangers were very helpful in figuring out which locations to visit, as the Canyons of the Ancients covers a lot of land. There is a loop you can drive that is over 80 miles, which hits the major stops along the way. With all the research I had done, I didn’t quite realize the amount of distance from site to site. Adding to that, being in an RV limited us to some of the roads on that loop. We instead asked what site had the most concentrated ruins. The rangers quickly replied that we needed to go to Hovenweep National Monument.

On our way out of the parking lot, we decided to last minute change the plans and head to Mesa Verde instead. As we drove a few miles, I felt really anxious about visiting Mesa Verde in lieu of Hovenweep, namely because I had researched so much regarding places that are dog-friendly, and we were driving to a place that didn’t allow dogs to go anywhere except parking lots. I certainly didn’t want to leave June in a hot RV while we trekked around Mesa Verde. In a sheepish voice, I told Dean I actually didn’t want to go there, and thought we should, in fact, go to Hovenweep. I knew that they allowed dogs to be on the trails, and that made me feel much better. I reasoned it may not end up being as spectacular as Mesa Verde, but I wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy it, if I knew our dog was stuck the RV for a long while. So, we recalculated the GPS, and headed towards Hovenweep.

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RVing across the Southwest: Day 1 and 2

by margotrd, posted in Travel

(To preface, we had been planning this trip for almost a year, with the intention of getting our dog, Bella, to the ocean. Our plans and route were tailored to that goal, so everything we did was to get to California’s coast. Needless to say, when she died 5 days before our trip, it became almost burdensome to go on the trip with such heavy hearts. We pressed on, keeping her in our thoughts all the while, and it became a trip of healing for our family.)

Way earlier this year, I reserved our RV rental through Cruise America, for a 15 day trip during September. I wanted to be sure we would have enough time to travel 3,500+ miles, and not have to be traveling during the busy season, so we could actually enjoy our vacation. This made our cost much less, as the rental was cheaper to begin with, and then I got a sale code where mileage was only $0.17 a mile instead of $0.35. They also allow dogs for no extra cost, which compared to the plethora of other RV rental and share sites, made it a no-brainer to pick this company. We had never rented or used an RV before, so this was an exciting endeavor, albeit a bit nerve-wracking.

Pick up for the RV was pretty straight forward, as they quickly give you a rundown of how to use and operate the vehicle. We chose the smallest size available for 4 people, which was a class C 25 footer. After signing the paperwork, Dean drove the RV and I drove our little Nissan Sentra back home to pack up. We spent most the day packing up, and then went to the grocery store for some last minute items. Our plan was to leave the next morning, relatively early, which for us means 9 A.M. Hahaha….

So our real start to the trip was Saturday, September 7th. We headed out pretty much on time, which was mostly due to the fact that it felt like Christmas, and I couldn’t sleep at all the night before. Our first stop was the Great Sand Dunes National Park, in southwest Colorado. We live about 30 minutes from Denver, so the first leg of our trip took about 5 hours, including lunch and gas breaks.

Being that we left in early September, we were taking a chance that the weather would hold up for us on our trip. But, as we drove over La Vita Pass, just west of Walsenburg, the clouds grew ominous. Thankfully Dean was the driver, because if I had been, we surely would have gone off the road or into another car because of the crazy wind gusts that pushed us to and fro on the road. I was white-knuckled in the passenger seat, hoping a burst of wind wouldn’t cause the trip to come to a sudden end on the first day. Lighting and thunder surrounded the mountains to the north… just where we were heading. You couldn’t see the top of Blanca Peak, which lies south and a bit east of Great Sand Dunes National Park. A black cloud engulfed it, and a dazzling display of lightning gave me something to focus on other than the wind and rain that was impacting our drive.

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