Giuliana and Bill

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Can I just say how much I love Giuliana and Bill Rancic?! They might be my favorite couple ever. This weekend my cousin Jen and I had the honor to hear them speak at the Indiana Health & Fitness Expo in Indianapolis. They talked to us about how they met (which was adorbs) and then they shared with us the story of their life's "unplanned plan" as Bill likes to call it. If you have watched their tv show, Giuliana and Bill, then you already know a lot of the story. Of course it's 100x better when they tell it in person. If you are unfamiliar with the Rancics I'll give you a brief summary of their journey.

Giuliana and Bill were married in 2007. In 2009 they started trying to conceive. After some time it because apparent they were having issues. They tried in vitro fertilization a couple of times with one ending in a miscarriage at 9 weeks. In November 2010 they were going to try in vitro again and Giuliana was asked to get a mammogram as part of the checklist before the procedure. That's when they found out she had breast cancer. Giuliana had to undergo a lumpectomy followed by a double mastectomy. In the midst of this she did an egg retrieval and the couple agreed that they wanted to move forward with a surrogate to carry their baby. The surrogate pregnancy was a success and their little miracle baby, Edward Duke Rancic, was born on August 29, 2012.

Through this entire process, the Rancics were in the midst of filming their reality tv show. They chose to keep doing the show because they wanted to be able to help other women that were going through similar situations. I admire them so much for that decision. Giuliana and Bill have been amazing role models for me as I go through my infertility journey. They have literally shown that when you trust God that He will bless you in the end. Their marriage has also been an amazing inspiration. Giuliana and Bill work very hard to be a positive, happy couple. You don't see that very often in Hollywood.

It was a blessing to be able to hear them speak, but to top it off we were able to meet them! YES, I'm so serious! It was obviously brief, but we thanked them for being willing to share their story and for being an inspiration to so many women struggling with infertility and cancer. They were so sweet. Oh, and here's a picture to verify my story.  :)




Things I'm Loving Thursday : Healthy Smoothie Recipes

Thursday, April 25, 2013


Lately I have discovered just how delicious healthy can be. Smoothies are one of the easiest and best ways to introduce lots of extra fruit and veggies into your diet and you wouldn't believe how good they can taste! Here are some of the super yummy super healthy smoothies that I love right now.


Blueberry Avocado Smoothie
Strawberry Yogurt Smoothie

Healthy Mint Chip Shake
Chocolate Avocado Smoothie
Mixed Berry Protein Smoothie
Berry Mango Smoothie

DIY Upholstered Wingback Chair

Tuesday, April 23, 2013


I am SO excited to be writing this post today! I have been wanting to get this chair done for what seems like an eternity. I showed you the "before" picture HERE way back in January, but life happened and I had to put it on hold until this past weekend. It was worth the wait though! I am IN LOVE with the finished project! So now for all the dirty details!

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this. Prior to this project I had zero reupholstering experience. So if I can do it so can you! My best advice would be to pay attention to the details. Label and save every piece as you take it apart and you will be fine. Be prepared to work hard and be patient. It's time consuming and tedious, but so worth it in the end!

 
This is what I started with. It was mauve (do I need to say more?) and dirty. I found it at Goodwill for a whopping $25.

 
Removing upholstery is like peeling off layers of an onion. Start at the bottom and just keep removing staples and peeling back layers. I used a flat head screwdriver and pliers. 

 
After the bottom was finished I moved on to the back side of the chair. It was nailed in with what seemed like a million little teeth. I used a screwdriver to pry them loose. Make sure you save the tack strips that are on the back sides... you can reuse them when you reassemble the chair.

 
Once the top back layer was removed I worked on the next layer of staples on the back of the chair. 

 
After that I worked on the sides of the chair. There were more tack strips and staples and then I discovered the nasty batting. Yuck! This stuff was gross!

 
The front was next and oh look! More nasty batting! This was as far as I got back in January. Fast forward to this past Saturday...

 
Then off came the fabric on the arms. When you start on the front make sure you label each side (right & left) of each of the arms. Label the batting as well since you will reuse that later on.

 
Once I got to this point I was just ready to be done so this was where I failed on the picture taking. Basically I just peeled and peeled off layers until the chair was bare. In order to remove the fabric on the cushion and back of the chair you have to unscrew them first. But that's it, really! Now for the fun part! 

 
I enlisted my fabulous mother-in-law to help me with the sewing. She will probably die when she sees this picture! Sorry, Bev... I just wanted to make sure you got credit for your amazing work! The cushion requires a couple stitches as well as the arms. If you want to add piping you will need to sew that too. 

Again, I failed miserably at taking pictures as we put the fabric back on. I was too excited about getting it finished to stop to take pictures every five minutes. So are you ready for the Before and After? Drumroll, please!

.......................... Ta-da!
 
 
To wrap up, I purchased my fabric from Fabric.com for $7.48 a yard. I bought 6 yards, but I only ended up using about 5 yards. I also purchased an electric staple gun for $30.00 just to make the project a little easier on myself. So the total cost of this project (excluding the electric staple gun) was just $70! Paying $70 for a custom upholstered wingback chair made it worth every second of the work!


DIY Show Off Photobucket

Blogiversary Giveaway Winners

Monday, April 22, 2013


And the giveaway winners are......

CHALKBOARD LABELS
Kendra Knuth
Bethany Stremming Litz
Heidi Robbins
Heather Christie


GRAND PRIZE
Denise Konkle

 
Congratulations to the lucky winners and thank you to all of you for participating! Winners... please send your mailing address to lovelylittlelifeblog@hotmail.com so that I can get your prizes out in the mail! Thank you!


Things I'm Loving Thursday : DIY Furniture Makeovers

Wednesday, April 17, 2013


If I had an unlimited budget and more time on my hands I would overhaul a different piece of furniture every week! I love how you can change the entire personality of a piece with just a coat of paint or some different hardware. Here are just a few of the many amazing DIY furniture makeovers that I am drooling over right now.


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