Survivor: Pumpkin Edition.

Last month we filled you in on our quick little side porch renovation which included the deets on our new veggie garden.  As we have learned throughout our renovation adventures, one project can lead to another project, which can lead to another project, and so on and so forth.  Our quickie side porch project is no exception to this trend... 

About a couple of weeks after we planted our veggie garden, I noticed a couple sprouts that had apparently hitched a ride on our gardening process.  At the time I didn't know what the whale-tale-like sprouts were, but I recognized that they were not a weed so I let them be.  When my Aunt came over to help me spring-ify the front garden, she confirmed that the hitch hiking sprouts were not a weed and appeared to be of the melon family.  And then it dawned on me - when we tore out those wretched bushes to make way for our new garden, we discovered an overlooked pumpkin from the fall that never quite made it to compost bin.  So in a last ditch effort of survival, we had a pumpkin successfully deposit some seeds in our new veggie garden.  I thought this was awesome, and even though I didn't have a place to plant my baby pumpkin sprouts, I really liked the idea of keeping them.  Enamored with the idea of a slew of free pumpkins come harvest season, I decided to extend our veggie garden outward to make room for a mini pumpkin patch.  And since this feat was basically unplanned, I was also determined to make this project as cheap as possible.

As any good gardener should, I did some interweb research on how to grow pumpkins.  From what I've heard and read they're relatively easy to grow, but will pretty much own your garden as they are a vine that likes to spread out.  I decided to construct a garden space just for my pumpkins on the other side of the tomato bed.  In order to keep the pumpkin vines from crawling into my tomato garden, I planned to put some sort of trellis divider between the two beds.

I enlisted the help of my husband to locate some wood boards that we could use as a garden border, and to help me dig up the grass where the pumpkin patch would be.  Once the grass was out of the way, I loosened the soil with a shovel to make sure our pumpkin roots had room to grow.  Next, Chris drove some metal steaks into the wood boards to keep them in place -- he pre-drilled a hole and then hammered each steak in.  Ta-daaaa, new garden space!

Since pumpkins need a lot of nutrients, we purchased (3) bags of garden soil to fill our newly laid out garden bed.  To go the extra mile, I also mixed in some veggie garden food into the soil (which our tomato plants seemed to benefit from).

Then it was time for our pumpkins to make the big move to their new home.  I carefully dug up each pumpkin plant out of the tomato garden, being as careful as I could not to disturb their shallow and fragile root system.  I dug up about a dozen (give or take) pumpkin plants and evenly laid them out in the new garden space.  Keep in mind that I did not plant them as far apart as they are suggest to be, as this project is sort of an on-the-fly experiment.  I also decided to plant all of the pumpkin plants that sprouted up in case some don't survive the transplant process.  If you would like to plant your own pumpkin garden, you should plan on planting each pumpkin plant about 2-3 feet apart.  Mine are about 1 foot apart, so I expect a lot of overcrowding.

In order to loosen the soil for root growth, I dug a hole deeper and wider than each plant's root system before planting, refilling the dirt to accommodate the size of each root ball.  Once they were all planted, I gave the pumpkins a good watering to allow the roots to relax.  Transplanted plants usually need a lot of water to keep them from going into shock, so I'll likely be giving them a good drink every day as needed.

The last step in our pumpkin patch project was to install a trellis-like divider between the tomato garden and the new pumpkin patch -- I needed something to keep the pumpkins away from the tomatoes.  Instead of buying lattice or a tall trellis, I found some 18" pieces of picket fence garden trim at Home Depot.  The price wasn't too bad, and I only needed three of them so they were a good option for us.  Plus the little fence looks cute in the garden.  Hopefully the our improvised trellis will do the trick, but I'll keep you posted.

Here's the price breakdown for what we spent on our teensy pumpkin patch:
- 6 cubic feet of garden soil -- $24 (we used 3 bags of Miracle-Gro Garden Soil)
- 54" of white picket fencing to serve as a trellis barrier between the gardens -- $15
- Salvaged wood border -- FREE
- Manual labor -- FREE
- Pumpkin plants -- FREE (thanks, Nature)
TOTAL: $39

I'm no pumpkin expert, so we'll see how this summer goes!  I'll keep you posted with periodic pumpkin updates until harvest season rolls around...fingers crossed!  Here are some pumpkin tips 'n tricks that I learned throughout the process so far:

- Pumpkins like full sun (6+ hours).
- They need a lot of nutrients, so compost and fertilizer is a must.
- They need to be planted in soil that drains well.
- They need a lot of room to spread out, so be sure to plant them far apart from each other. 
- Mulch or straw will help keep weeds at bay and retain soil moisture in the warmer months.
*I found this website to be especially helpful for pumpkin education.

Like any other plant, there's no guarantee that my pumpkins will survive or produce many pumpkins.  However, I'm still going to spend the summer crossing my fingers for a conclave of jack-o-lanterns come autumn.  You never know, we could end up with something like this:

Now seeking part-time jack-o-lantern carving artist.  Will pay in pumpkin seeds.

UPDATE: The first day after we transplanted the pumpkin plants, they were not lookin' so hot; they were really sad and wilted.  I gave them a healthy watering and within a few hours they were looking much more sprightly.  Water, water, water!!

Spring Cleaning: Our Side Porch Renovation

I'll be honest - we didn't give a single poop about our side porch.  With plans to one day replace it with an extension of our current driveway into a circle drive, we really didn't care about lending it any love.  And then out of the blue I was inspired.  Maybe I'm high on all of that spring time pollen floating around, or maybe I'm just being more rational these days, but I got the itch to make over our lackluster side porch into a dreamy summertime lounge pad.  Here's how this idea happened:

Chris' coworker offered us a free grill (ummm heck yes, we'll take free), and a family friend gifted me five baby strawberry plants in need of a garden abode.  Problem was, we had no place to put a grill or plant those sweet 'lil berries.  Since the driveway thing isn't happening for a couple more years, we figured it'd be a grand idea to spruce up the side porch and make some use out of it while we have it.  This plan was chock full of positives, like having a place to grill right off of the kitchen, having beds to plant the strawberries (and other veggies) in, and finally turning our fugly side porch into something better appreciated by our neighbors (hello, curb appeal).  The best part about this makeover?  It cost less than $100.

Really the biggest part of this outdoor renovation was removing the horrible evergreen bushes that lived in the beds alongside the porch.  My plan was to remove the bushes, tear out the roots, replace half of the old soil with new compost, and plant my very first veggie garden.  No big deal, right?  You obviously have never met the bushes that used to live on our side porch.  They're overgrown, scraggly, harbor tons of weeds 'n vines, and have needles that will easily puncture your skin without the protection of full body armor.  Here's a pretty decent way to describe them (just pretend Samuel L. Jackson is talking about the bushes instead of a haunted hotel room):

Those bushes were horrible, but nothing my Jeep, some tow straps, some lawn clippers, and some very heavy-duty leather gloves couldn't handle.  First, I exposed as much of the base of the bushes as I could by clipping back limbs.  Then I decimated those bushes one-by-one by tying tow straps around the base, and casually yanking them out via the force of my heroic Jeep Commander.  To say that uprooting those bushes wasn't in some way hugely therapeutic would be like saying Samuel L. Jackson is a sissy.  I'm totally flexing right now.

In order to keep my ever-focused husband on track with his basement renovation progress, I enlisted in the help of my Father-in-law to help me remove the bush carcasses.  To my surprise, he and my Brother-in-law surprised me by swooping in and removing them before I got home from work one day.  Whoever said in-law's were a burden obviously didn't get as lucky as I did.

The next day when I asked my lovely husband what his plans were for the day, he replied by saying that he was my slave for the whole day.  Oh, heck yes.  With the brush out of the way, we quickly got to work removing the weeds, vines, and root system left behind by those evil f'ing bushes.  We then removed half of the dirt in the beds and relocated it to the back of the house for grading (another issue that we'll hopefully have resolved by summer's end).  Then it was time for some compost.

We loaded up the Roon and drove our happy little worker-bee family over to a local family-owned garden center where we purchased a yard of compost.  If you're unfamiliar with dirt measurement, a cubic yard is equivalent to about 324 square feet of inch-deep compost coverage.  It was the perfect amount to cover our entire front yard garden (for fresh planting in a couple weeks) and to fill up our newly emptied veggie beds.  The new compost ran us only $26.50, which would have cost way more if we purchased compost by the bag-full at Home Depot or Lowes. 

Now it was time for the fun part -- plant shopping and planting!  I'm quickly becoming a garden nerd, so I was more than eager to peruse Pinterest and my gardening books for information on what to plant in my new garden beds.  With a list of plants in mind, I headed to Home Depot where I took advantage of a 4 for $10 veggie plant sale.  I came home with four tomato plants, a cucumber plant, a green bell pepper plant, a jalapeno plant, and six marigolds.  All of the plants grow well together in full sun (which our beds have lots of), and the marigolds serve as natural 'n aesthetic insect repellants.  I planted all of my new veggies and my strawberry plants nice 'n spread out so they have room to grow.  I planted some of the marigolds in the veggie beds, but I also planted two in pots that I can move around the porch as needed.

Once everything was planted and acclimating, I drug our two yellow Adirondack chairs out of the shed and gave 'em a good hose down.  I'm thinking a small little table between the two of them would be great for a happy hour lounge spot, so I've got my eyes peeled for a flea market/Craigslist deal.  I think my favorite addition to the side porch are my new wind chimes!  As a kid I always loved hearing the chimes at my family's beach house in the summer -- they're so soothing and peaceful!  We still need to pick up our free grill, but we have a spot waiting for it in front of the basement stair railing.  We're also noodling on the idea of putting up a temporary privacy wall or fence to give the porch a little more seclusion from the many drivers that drive past our house.  We'll let you know how that goes.

I gotta say, we shouldn't have hated on our side porch as much as we did -- it had a lot of potential that we could've seized a long time ago!  Now we have a veggie garden and grill station located right outside of the kitchen, as well as a nice spot to sit and hang out with friends while we grill.  We also did our neighborhood a solid by cleaning up our junky porch and making it pretty; there has been a lot of rubbernecking in the past couple of days!

Now all we need is a little bit of summer sun to grow our veggies, and some balmy evenings to enjoy a few cold drinks and grilled dinners with friends and family.  In the spare spring days before all that good stuff happens, I can at least crack a window and let the soothing songs of our wind chimes fill our house with anticipation of warmer weather to come.  Ding-dong, winter is dead!

6 Ways to Liven up Your Hallways

If Family Feud asked 100 people "What is the most boring room in your house?", I'm pretty sure the top answer would be "hallway".  SHOW ME "HALLWAY":

DING.

There are a few reasons why hallways are traditionally classified as bland, boring, or drab.  For one, they're small.  It's easy to add furniture or throw pillows to a room and instantly spice it up, but hallways are just too tiny to fill it with such frivolities.  Another decorating roadblock is wall color; it's tricky to paint a hallway an amusing color when it's the meeting center for most of the rooms in your house (which already have color palates of their own).  So how do you liven up a hallway without disturbing the decorative flow and color palate of the rest of your house?  Here are six ways to transform an ordinary hallway into a decorative dream:

Note: When we refinished the floors, we had to remove the shoe molding around the baseboards.  We've yet to replace them.  Please ignore our laziness.

1.  Select a neutral foundation.
One of the dilemmas of hallway decorating is choosing the right color for the walls.  To be honest, you should really choose a neutral shade that compliments all of the converging rooms in your home.  A good way to do this is to gather the paint chips from each of your rooms, lay them out on a table, and introduce a neutral paint chip until you find something that works with most or all of the existing colors in your home.  Since hallways are small and are usually limited on natural light, try to steer clear of darker shades and opt for something lighter.  Consider a sandy tan, a creamy ivory, or a calming gray.  Though it may seem boring, just remember that it's just the undertone for embellishments that you'll add later on.  Like the next five suggestions...

2.  Two words: WALL ART.
Hallways have an abundance of wall space, so you need to utilize them to their full potential.  Wall art is A fantastic way to introduce color and personality to your neutral wall hue.  A big trend right now are gallery collages.  For our hallway, we chose to frame bright 'n colorful art in an assortment of white frames.  Part of the fun is choosing frames that aren't necessarily alike, and unifying them by painting them the same color.  This doesn't have to be expensive either!  For our hallway, I've only spent $17 on our current collage -- $10 for a white shadowbox frame from Target, and $7 for the mirror at a local flea market.  The rest of the frames I already had on hand, and I've either made or printed the art myself.  FYI, Ikea and the Dollar Store are great sources for cheap frames.

Art doesn't have to cost much - this was a clearance frame from TJMaxx and silhouette art that I created 'n printed myself.

Some vintage birdie busts, and my Dry Tortugas window art.

3.  Invest in an eye-catching runner.
The perfect rug can speak for itself, so investing in a fun runner is a great way to introduce personality and interest into a small space.  It can be somewhat difficult to find an attractive runner, especially at a decent price.  Keep your eyes peeled for a runner you like on quick deal sites like Joss and Main, The Foundary, and One Kings Lane -- we've purchased three rugs for our house at hugely discounted prices!  Another fabulous place to find great rugs and runners is West Elm, which is where our current hallway runner is from.  Word to the wise - West Elm occasionally has rug sales, which is how we purchased our runner at a great deal.  I've also found that discount retailers like Home Goods and TJMaxx have a great selection of oddly-shaped rugs (i.e. runners) in an assortment of stylish patterns and textures.  And when all else fails, there's always Target!  Since hallways are high-traffic spaces, be sure to stick a non-slip mat under your runner to keep it in place.

4.  Paint your doors anything but white.
If you really want to make your hallway unique, paint your doors something other than white!  I cannot even begin to express how drastic of a change something this simple can make to a small space.  It's unexpected, which makes it exciting.  You can find my feature post on painting hallway doors here.

5.  Change your hardware.
Don't let brass control the hardware world (unless it's your jam).  Doorknobs come in a wide variety of finishes, shapes, and designs.  Common finishes include oil-rubbed bronze, chrome, nickel, glass, or porcelain knobs.  For a few more bucks you can even purchase new knobs with vintage appeal like oblong knobs or fun mounting plates (Home Depot and Lowes offer these options).  Anthropologie also has a stellar collection of knobs and hardware.  You can also find unique hardware at flea markets and antique stores, so keep your eyes peeled the next time you're shopping vintage finds.  Need something more budget friendly?  Spray paint is your friend.  Our basement door had a really fun glass doorknob and the daintiest deadbolt I've ever seen, and we definitely wanted to keep them to preserve character.  Me and brass aren't friends, so I updated our basement door hardware with some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint (flashback to this post for the deets).  If done correctly, the finish lasts!  For the rest of the doors, we opted for some simple oil-rubbed bronze doorknobs, which ran us about $8 per door at Lowes.

Original glass knob that I cleaned and spray painted to match the other knobs.

6.  Upgrade your lighting.
Who says hallways can't have awesome lighting fixtures?  Nobody, that's who.  Most hallways are equipped with basic, humdrum fixtures, with the sole intention of simply lighting your hallway.  Do your house a solid and get something that's both decorative and gets the lighting job done.  There's no reason not to!  Flush mount or semi-flush mount fixtures are ideal for most hallway spaces, but depending on your ceiling height you may also be able to go with a pendant fixture.  Check out Shades of Light and Barn Light Electric for unique finds.  Lowes' Allen Roth collection also offers a super attractive collection of lighting at affordable prices -- we installed this awesome Allen Roth semi-flush mount fixture in our hallway:

We usually have an Edison bulb in this light, which compliments the fixture far more than this CFL.

So voila - those are the 6 ways that I transformed our downstairs hallway from blah to exciting.  Do you have any other suggestions that might camp up hallway decor?  Leave your ideas in the comment box!

Happy Note Calendar

It's time for another Pinterest-inspired conquest.  This:

As inspired by this pin:

Originally featured on Design Sponge.

Upon first glance, it doesn't seem like much.  But if you read the description of it, it's really quite fantastic.  In a nutshell, it's a recyclable calendar with a date-stamped index card for each day of the year.  As you cycle through the calendar, you take note of memorable events on each card by citing the year and the event.  For example, on December 25th you might write "2011 - Got 2 tickets to Key West for Christmas!!!".  You might also note things such as baby's first steps, the day your dog learned how to sit, when you got a new car, or even something as simple as "took a walk through the woods with Roon & Chris".  The idea is that as you cycle through the calendar through the years, you'll stumble across your memorable notations and feel happy.  Cheesy, but I had to have one of my own.

 If you'd like to craft your own happy note calendar, here's what you'll need:

- 366 lined-index cards (taking leap year into account)
- a date stamp, or a nice pen to hand write the dates
- a display box to hold your cards

The original pin shows white lined-index cards, cut in half to fit a repurposed cardboard berry basket.  There are a lot of ways that you could make your calendar "your own" by storing the cards in a unique box, or by choosing different types of index cards.  Did you know there are even neon index cards?  Neon's the bees knees right now.  I opted for some sweet color-striped 4x6 index cards and an antique cheese box.

As for stamping the date, you can either use a date stamp or write the dates by hand.  I borrowed my date stamp from work since I liked the stamped look better, and believe it or not, it really didn't take that long to stamp each card.  To help put it into perspective, it only took me about 3/4's of an episode of Snooki & Jwoww to stamp all 366 cards (no shame).  Then I put the cards in their new box, and that was it!  To officially inaugurate my new calendar, I scribbled "made this calendar" on that day's card.

My happy note calendar is going to live in our kitchen for now.  I can't wait for a few years to go by so the cards start getting exciting!

Reader Request: DIY Geometric Doormat

Yesterday I posted a photo of my newly DIYed doormat on Instagram and received oodles of lovely compliments on it.  And since I've had a few requests for a tutorial, I decided to expedite the writing of this particular post so I could share it with you ASAP.  Seriously, thanks a million for all of the positive feedback, not just on this project, but for everything.  You guys are the best!

So I think you'd be super surprised at how freaking easy and cheap this project really is.  Here's a list of my simple supplies:

- Ikea TRAMPA Doormat ($9.99 at Ikea)
- 2" wide painters tape
- leftover white semi-gloss trim paint
- a crappy paint brush
- a piece of 8.5" x 11" scrap paper
- scissors

First, I used the letter-sized scrap paper to create a nearly-symmetrical template for my design.  Instead of slaughtering the simplicity of this task by attempting to transcribe how I cut the paper, I decided to create a pictorial step-by-step.  Follow the arrows...

 
Once I had created my paper template, I located the center of my doormat via tape measure, and secured the template in place with a little piece of under-mounted rolled up tape.

With my diamond-shaped template in place, I applied tape around it's perimeter.  Make sure the tape doesn't actually touch the paper, as you'll need to remove the template before you paint.  To get a perfectly-taped "diamond", I free-handed the points of each diamond once the pieces of tape met up.

To ensure equal distance between my geometric lines, I snipped off two strips of the 2" tape to use as spacers while I continued taping my design outward.  You can recycle the same two tape "spacers" for the entire project.

After all of my lines were taped, I removed my paper template.  Then I refolded my template back into a triangle (folded twice), and cut approximately 2" off -- this created a tiny diamond to serve as the very center of my design.  I secured the tiny diamond with tape to make sure it stayed put during the painting process.  If you haven't figured it out already, this tiny diamond step is pretty much identical to the steps required to create the original diamond template.

I originally planned to spray paint this rug, but honestly, these rugs soak up a LOT of spray paint.  I also wanted a thicker paint job that would endure plenty of feet over time.  So I decided to open up a can of leftover trim paint and give that a whirl.  Why the heck not?

To apply the paint, I used a crappy, low quality paint brush that we had sitting around.  Then I got to paintin'.  This part was a bit more tedious than I had expected it to be, as the doormat sucked up a lot of paint.  But there was no turning back at this point, so I kept on keepin' on.  Good news - it only required one coat.  Yay!

I let my doormat dry for about two days, removed the tape, and marveled over it's beauty.  Back in the fall, I took a stab at another doormat design and the final product fell short of my grandiose expectations (you can read about that one here).  But this little baby put a smile on my face.  Winner winner chicken dinner.

Hey, good lookin'.

Even better than the overall attractiveness of my new doormat?  The price.  Aside from the actual doormat, I had every one of my supplies already on hand for this project which brought the grand total spent for my new geometric doormat to a wallet-friendly $10.  Can't argue with that.

For those of you who requested a tutorial on this, please share pictures of your own geometric doormat -- I'd love to see them!!  I have a few new posts lined up waiting for pictures, so keep your eyes peeled for newly posted projects from this DIY squirrel.  Thank you again for all the love!!

It's Taupe-ally Grey, Right?

Taupe, grey, taupey-grey-ish; the hue is open to interpretation.  For the record, Martha calls it Bedford Grey.  I call it the new swagger on my hallway doors.
 

When we replaced our hallway doors, we never painted them.  This was probably due in part to sheer laziness, but mostly because we just weren't satisfied with the idea of painting them plain 'ol white.  Leave it to me to want to attack even our doors with my obnoxious need for originality.  Nothing is safe in our home.  Nothing.

After over a year of staring at the scuffed, bland primer on our doors, I decided they needed to get painted.  The thought of plain white or cream was still nauseatingly blah, so I knew the remedy had to be a bit more nontraditional.  I thought of a color, perhaps a blue, but that seemed a little too over the top, even for my liking.  I've seen people do black or espresso doors, but that was too austere.  So I decided on a middle ground between the extremes: grey.  And in order to avoid clashing with the sandy walls, I decided that a warm grey would best compliment the hallway's color scheme.  A quick surf of the paint aisle later, and we had our color: Martha Stewart's Bedford Grey.

I'm a Behr kind of gal, so I had the kind folks in the Home Depot paint department color match Martha's color to the Behr Ultra Premium Plus paint in a silky, satin finish.  Why not semi-gloss you ask?  Because I have a strong distaste for shiny decor, and I'd prefer the warmth of a softer finish.  But that's just me.

This past weekend I decided to make the best of my current motivation and get the door painting job done.  The first thing I did was prep each door for the perfect paint job.  I began by wiping down the doors to remove any dust, dirt, what have you from the surface.  I also ran a lint roller across the top of the door to do-away with any dust bunnies hanging out up there.  Then I loosened the door knobs and taped them off.  To protect my door hinges from paint, I taped over them with painter's tape.  I happened to do this in a pretty nifty manner...behold:

Once my doors were prepped to my satisfaction, it was time to paint.  I used an angle brush to apply paint in the door crevices, around the door knob, and on any other surface that I couldn't really get with a roller.  Then I used a small, smooth-surface roller to apply the paint.  Using a small roller for painting doors is ideal as it creates a smooth finish, and doesn't hold more paint than needed like a larger roller would.

I let my doors dry for about 45 minutes before applying a second coat.  By the end of the day, I had four beautiful doors in my hallway!  In case you're wondering, I plan on painting the inside of the doors an unexciting white so that they don't clash with the color schemes of the rooms themselves.  But I'll save that task for another day...

All in all, I'm super pleased with the way the doors turned out!  The color is very dynamic and varies in different lighting; sometimes the doors look grey, sometimes they appear taupe.  We'll continue to add character to the hallway by swagging-out the walls with a colorful gallery of framed art and treasures.  I've got a couple of framed beauts lined up already, so stay tuned!

The Name Game.

For being so accustomed to handling things "my way", I gotta say - the process of changing my name was not something I wanted to deal with.  Don't get me wrong, my hesitation had nothing to do with my new moniker.  It just had everything to do with changing a quarter century of personal identity and establishment...and having to deal with government agencies to do so.

But alas, I've made it through the process relatively unscathed.  And since I longed to have someone direct me to do exactly what I needed, I want to spread the love and share my findings with you.  Hopefully you'll find this helpful and guiding.  Knowledge is power.

If you happen to be a fellow Marylander, you've hit the jackpot. If you live in a different state, the name changing process is likely not too much different from what I did, but it wouldn't hurt to parouse the internet and do a little research on your state's standards before you take my advice verbatim.


1.  Pick your new name.  
Sounds obvious, right?  It kind of is and most people have this part figured out way before their wedding day ("Mrs. Prince Charming" notebook scribblers, you know who you are), but for some it can be a challenging decision.  There are actually a few different ways you can alter your name, and it's fairly important to have this figured out before you embark on the name-changing process.  Let's pretend that Jane Anne Doe finally marries the man of her dreams, John Deere.  Get it??  Like a female doe and a male deer + the anonymous Jane 'n John Doe + the famous John Deere agricultural equipment supplier + the weird connections that my brain makes.  Anyway, so when Jane changes her name, here are some of her options:

Jane Anne Doe

(no change at all - you can get married and still keep your name the same, ya know)

Jane Anne Doe-Deere

(you can hyphenate your last names together - you can also drop the hyphen and just have 

two last names, "Doe Deere")

Jane Anne Deere

(you can drop your maiden name, keep your middle name, and adopt your husband's last name)

Jane Doe Deere

(you can replace your middle name with your maiden name, and take-on your husband's last name)

I have married-friends that represent all four of these options, all chosen for various valid reasons.  Some ladies are established in life, and prefer to keep their name unchanged for convenience sake.  Some gals are business fiends and choose to adopt their husband's name while still keeping their maiden name in tact for easy correspondence with clients.  And some squirrels just plain like the ring of a certain name combination.  I personally adopted the last option with the intention of bestowing my dropped middle name (which is my Mom-mom's first name) upon a maybe-one-day baby squirrel of mine, assuming I'm ever that lucky.  But overall, it's important to remember to choose the option that makes you the happiest as you're the one who has to use it, say it, and write it for the rest of your life.  Oh, the sweet song of commitment.


2. Change your name with Social Security.
It's actually not as painful as it sounds.  The Social Security Administration has an awesomely straight-forward page on how to change your name with Social Security, which you can find here.  For convenience sake, I'll divulge the instructions here too.  First thing you need to do is fill out an Application for a Social Security Card form, which you can view in writable PDF form here.  Once you've filled out the form, print it and take it to your local Social Security Administration office.  You can use this link to enter your zip code and find the SSA office nearest you - be sure to make note of their office hours, as they can be somewhat limited.  BEFORE you go to Social Security, be sure you have all of the following to make your transaction as easy as can be:
- Completed Application for a Social Security Card form
- Marriage document - I called ahead and found out that my marriage certificate was gravy.  Please note, the copy I used was signed by my Minister, and NOT a court-certified copy of my marriage license (you will need one or more of these later in the name-changing process).
- Your current Social Security card
- As many other forms of ID that you can bring (i.e., drivers license, passport, birth certificate)

My local SSA office was open until 3:30, so I left work and arrived around 2:30.  When I walked in the office, I entered my name and SSN into a computer, which then granted me a numbered ticket.  I then took a seat and dabbled on Pinterest while I patiently waited for my number to be called.  To my surprise, I only had to wait about 15 minutes before my number was called.  I approached my designated window and presented the teller with all of my supplies.  To be honest, they only really looked at my application and marriage document, but to be safe, I'd still bring all of the required documents that I mentioned above.  I was told that my new Social Security card would arrive in the mail within the next couple of weeks, but I received mine in about 2 days.  My sister-in-law didn't receive hers for a few weeks, so I wouldn't rely on my unusually short waiting time as a standard.  Social Security will also tell you that you need to wait about 48 hours before heading to MVA, as it takes a couple of days for the system to show your name change.  All in all, the "official" name change with Social Security took me less than half an hour to complete.


3. Change your name with MVA and update your license.  
This was actually the toughest portion of my name game adventure, but hopefully I can keep you better informed so you can avoid the same mishaps I had.

First of all, you will likely need a certified court copy of your marriage license.  If you live in Maryland, you definitely need a court-certified copy of your marriage license.  This is where I screwed up.  I assumed that since my marriage certificate (as signed by my Minister) was good enough for Social Security, it was probably good enough for MVA.  Oh so foolish of me.  I had to find out the hard way that the state of Maryland requires a court-certified copy of your marriage license in order to process your name change with MVA.  I'm not sure what credentials you'll need in other states, but you can easily find out by visiting your state MVA/DMV website, or by giving them a quick ring on the phone.

The person who marries you should tell you how to obtain a certified court copy of your marriage license (if needed) when they sign your marriage certificate.  In Maryland, you need to contact your county courthouse for all the required deets.  In my county, I had to submit a written or in-person request for a certified court copy, and pay a required fee of $5.50.  

My ultra-special court copy arrived in the mail within a few days of my written request.  So it was back to MVA I went, where I was finally successful.  They made a copy of my certified marriage license copy, which was nice because I needed the coveted court copy again later on.

A couple MVA-related tips:

- Visit your state MVA/DMV website for the location nearest you and their corresponding hours.  Maryland has smaller, express locations which are intended to process common transactions quickly.  I called ahead and verified that I could visit an express location to change my name and update my drivers license.

- Plan on going to the DMV on a day where you can look "cute" as they'll likely retake your license photo.   Be sure to style your hair down, as most MVA's will make you take your hair down for pictures.  Wear normal, everyday makeup (i.e., don't test drive any flashy-bright fuschia lipstick that day), and remember to mind your apparel because whatever your shoulders are donning matters.

- Try making the trip at the beginning of the month, as MVA/DMV locations are typically much busier towards the end due to last-minute people who need to renew their expiring registrations and licenses.


4. Change your name with your bank(s) and credit cards.
If you can go in person, it's pretty darn easy.  You can visit any one of your bank's branch locations and have a mini pow-wow with one of their representatives.  All you need is your old name, account number or credit/debit card, and something that shows your new last name (i.e., your new drivers license or updated social security card).  I went in person and it took me a mere 5 minutes.  Be aware that some banks will also require you to contact their credit card department after you change your name on your account; you'll need to do this to request a new credit card that reflects your name change.  You'd think that you'd automatically get one upon changing your name on the account, but they can't make it that easy.  But no worries, this step wasn't too stressful either.  I simply placed a call to my credit card company and they mailed me a packet with a postage-paid envelope to mail in my required documents (which were the standard drivers license, social security card, marriage license, etc).  I made my copies, filled out the provided form, and popped the request in the out-going mail.  My new credit card came in the mail a of couple short weeks later.


5. Inform your insurance carriers and mortgage company.
I feel like this is something that's easy to forget, but it's still very important.  You can find the appropriate contact numbers to reach a customer service representative who will assist with your name change.  This was pretty easy and didn't require much time or effort.  I happen to have a bank account with my mortgage company, so I was able to complete this step in person at my local branch.  They required my new drivers license, as well as a court-certified copy of my marriage license.  Easy peasy.


4.  If you want to change your personal email, do it now.
If your personal email address has nothing to do with your name and everything to do with cute animals and random numbers, you can probably skip this step.  But many people have emails that reflect their name in the address, so if you would like your email to represent your new name go ahead and make a new account.  I personally have chosen to keep my email the same, even though it has my maiden name in it.  I just don't care that much.


6. Let your workplace know.  
Here's to keeping your creepy coworker's unwanted advances at bay.  Just kidding (kind of).  Advise your work's Human Resources department that you've changed your name.  This is important for tax information relating to your pay.  They'll also hook you up with a new work email, business cards, etc.  If you have an email signature, you may opt to put your former last name in parenthesis following your signature so that your email recipients know who you are, i.e., Jane D. Deere (Doe).  It doesn't have to be permanent, but it helps to keep to your coworkers and clients updated on your name change.


5. Update any and all online accounts to reflect your new name and/or new address.  
Insert Facebook joke here.  I'll be honest, Facebook was the very first stop for me on my name changing adventure.  It's not supposed to be critically important, but somehow it is.  Anyway, be sure to make a point of visiting any websites that you have accounts with and update your name and personal info accordingly.  Such websites include social media outlets, retail websites, online software access, etc.  Don't let this process get overwhelming - you can start by making a list of accounts you know off the top of your head, or you can opt to update as you go along.  Keep in mind, if you have credit card or billing information automatically saved to a retail website account, be sure to update it so you don't have any snafu's the next time you impulse buy that really-awesome-super-kewl-only-one-left thing.


7.  Own it.
Your new name is your new swagger.  Rock it with confidence.  And while you're at it, go ahead and treat yourself to a cute new accessory, conveniently branded with your new monogram. You deserve it.