Hello Again, D.C.

Last week I finally took my Boards.  It was awful.  That is one miserable test.
After I was done, I went to visit Patrick in D.C. for 6 days since he hadn't started school yet.  It was a great trip!  It was so nice to be there longer than a weekend.

The first day we went to Great Falls to check out the amazing views.

The next day I woke up to a very wonderful surprise.

That's right, people.  I passed boards!! 

So as many other people do, I'm sure, we went to Mount Vernon to celebrate. #totalnerdmove

George Washington's house

 George Washington's grave

African American slave memorial

I definitely recommend checking Mount Vernon out if you are ever in the area!

Patrick and I decided to go run on the National Mall the next day.

WWII memorial (This one is my favorite!)

Pretty sure I am the first person to ever take a picture right here.

Tired of selfies yet? Too bad.

 Then I found the perfect tour for my entire family to go on when they visit DC someday. HA!

Other than this touristy stuff, we were able to get supper at some amazing restaurants, catch up with some of Patrick's friends, watch lots of Parks and Recreation, and play Monopoly for an entire afternoon when it rained.  It was seriously a great trip!

And of course I spent lots of time giving this gal attention.  This is Patrick's dog, Phoebe.  I'm pretty sure she's half human.

DIY Pallet Bookshelf

Once Sarah and I moved into our new apartment, we decided it would be nice to have some front facing bookshelves to display our cute cookbooks in.

Here is how the bookshelves started:

A little rugged, huh? 

I cut the pallet to give me the pieces shown below.  

(When I say that "I cut the pallet" what I actually mean is that I started to cut the pallet and then my dad decided that it was more of a man's job and finished it for me.  It is very difficult to explain crafting visions to my dad.  By the time we actually got it cut, I was ready to give up crafting for good.  Never craft with your dad.)

Dad nailed these lats onto the bottom onto each of my shelves so the books wouldn't fall through.

I sanded both shelves before staining.

If you are looking to buy a sander, I love mine!! It's actually this drill.  You can buy all sorts of attachments to use with the drill. Here is the sander attachment.  It's a great all-in-one tool for the casual power tool user.

Here is all I used to stain the shelves.  The stain color I used was provincial 211. 

I used only one coat of stain to get the color I wanted.  If you are staining pallet wood, the stain turns out much darker than the examples show in the store.

Once the stain dried, I applied a coat of polyurethane and let them dry.  And really, that was all I did!

 To hang shelves I attached sawtooth hangers.  I used drywall anchors in the wall to hang the shelves.

Thanks for reading!