Right Now...

Right now, I am sick as a dog but I am a happy girl. I've had a whirlwind of projects around here... and all of them [the end results, that is] so far have been nothing short of gorgeous.

Right now, I am looking at photos of what my kitchen used to look like [roughly 6-8 months ago] and how it looks now after I labored on it for a whole week. A couple of gallons of paint and hours and hours of taping and careful painting just makes the biggest of difference!

This last photo was obviously taken on Mother's Day. :) I couldn't find a photo that has no people in it... [Sorry, Mom! lol]

Right now, I'm physically exhausted but my heart is full knowing that not an ounce of energy that I spent updating my most favorite room in the house has not been wasted. At all. I spend most of my days in my kitchen if I am not out and about with the Aunt Betty.

Right now... I am realizing that I am in no way shape or form done. There's lots to do. But this is the fun part! The nightmare [a.k.a. Painting and Taping] is mostly over.

Right now... there's no photos of the other side of my kitchen because there's a mess of stuff laying on my island. I'm getting ready to make supper and I am unloading and loading the dishwasher. :) Just a lot going on. 

Right now, I am putting together a feast. My very busy husband has no percussion/band rehearsal tonight, thank God, so I could make supper and not have to worry about fixing something quick and don't have to watch him eat and hurry out the door. This is a rarity around this time of year for us.

Right now... Alka Seltzer Plus is my best friend.

Right now, I am browsing iTunes for a new good book to read.

Right now, I wish I could share all the other projects I've been working on, but none of them are ready to be photographed. There's lots of picking up and cleaning up to do yet.

Right now, my cup runneth over. I am just so thankful for all the people in our lives and all the things that we have been blessed with. Also thankful for all the energy, I don't know where it's coming from, but around this time of year, I get a  surge [of energy] and I am up and at it until the wee hours or until I am finished.

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DIY: { Fall Wreath + Monogram }

Hello friends! :) After the dry and nasty summer, I am sooo in the mood for fall. I can't wait to bust my hoodies, jeans and boots out. I'm just ready for cooler temps now.

Soon as the rain hit about a week or a week and a half ago, I went shopping for plants and got started weeding and pulling out [dead] weeds, busted out the water hose and dressed up my front porch for fall.

...and I am in the process of decorating my house for the fall and winter festivities. We don't really have Thanksgiving at our house because we go to my in-laws for that but we do have our friends over all the time because I cook/bake like a maniac when it's cold outside. 

So to kick start the craziness, I made a fall wreath, which was inspired by this. :) I by no means did not invent this this wreath. I'm pretty sure someone in blog land and the internetzz has made one like it. But I don't care, I wanted to make one and wanted to share with you all what I ended up with.

I was going through the thrift store originally for furniture I could maim, paint and re-purpose which was rather disappointing because I didn't find any that suited me but alas, I saw a pile of old Christmas tree ornaments, yarn and wreaths. And I came out of that store $4.50 poorer.

So here's what I got, I bought 4 boxes of whatever ornaments they had in that pile, I looked through the yarn they had and got the yellow, brown and orange, the white I already had and so did the glue sticks and time. Yeah, I have a lot of time in my hands. lol

Some of these pics are from my phone. [excuse the quality]

 

My 25 cent wreath.

 

I just took off the tops off of the ornaments and got to wrapping. There is no certain way to do this, just wind that yarn on the ornaments or foam balls [whatever you have] until you could barely see a trace of it under all the wound yarn.  

 

And then glue them to your wreath. :)

 

And here's what you will end up with! But, like the crazy person I am I thought it needed one more thing! How about A MONOGRAM?!

 

So I got to work and busted out my Cricut and my deep cut blade and cut an R from heavy weight chipboard and wrapped it in orange yarn and attached it to my wreath.

 

Here I am cutting different sizes on regular cardstock before I cut into my precious chipboard, to make sure I get the size I want and the right font style too. I didn't need to hook my Cricut to my laptop for this, I have enough font cartridges to give me enough options. I actually used the cartridge that went with my machine when I bought, Plantin Schoolbook. I cut my monogram at 5 1/2 inches and even if I used a deep cut blade, I did multi-cut my image just to make sure I get a really clean crisp cut. I do this anyway even with the regular blad and regular weight cardstock. :)

Now scroll down!

 

And, I am done... with this wreath at least. And I am quite happy with it. :) Now, if I can just think up something I could hang outside for winter... Hmmmm...

Laterz gators,

What's Been Going On...

It's been a summer of DIY projects, home decorating, lots of swimming and tons of fun with friends and family around here. :) It has also been so hot and dry that most of the work happened indoors and we are just now doing the damage control from the drought outdoors. 

We didn't get to go on the road trip we planned on taking but after all that has happened and all the progress we've made in the new house, we absolutely wouldn't have it any other way. We'll take the road trip some time in the next few months or so. We have plenty of time for trips, but we need to make our house a home first and foremost.

 

John built me a desk. I painted it this beautiful aqua. Then he bought me the hydraulic bar stools for me to sit on while crafting. I was so tickled because he knew I was getting frustrated with all that I was seeing both online and in stores, so he went on a search on his own. He knew exactly what to get and why he believed I would like them... and surely enough when he brought them home, I was happy as a clam!

Here's one truth about me, I can't do just one project at a time. When I get started on one, all these other ideas pop in my head and depending on the availability of energy and funds, I get started on a couple or a few more. So while this desk was being built, I was working on picking out paint for John's music room. You can see it here.

 

John was very firm about wanting gray for his room... And gray he got. I'm married to a very selfless man, he will do anything for me and will give me the moon and the stars if I asked for it. So when he asks for little things like his own room, or gray paint or my old desk, I give it all to him. No questions asked.

I even cut the Pearl logo on his bass drum head for him. He wanted a sticker, was getting ready to buy one but soon as he realized it was not gonna look good on his set or probably not going to be the size he wanted , he sweet talked me into busting out my Cricut and cutting out the logo for him. Guess what he got? A Pearl logo. Yes, that logo on the bass drum is cut by YOURS TRULY, thanks to my handy dandy die cutting software that makes cutting all kinds of images possible. :)

 

We made this snare drum lamp too! I wish I took photos of the process, but it's so easy anyone can do this. It's the coolest thing in his room except I have to figure out a way to conceal cords. I'm just not satisfied with wrapping the cord with fabric. Given that this room took some work and a lot of patience to put together, I want it to be clean. And I don't wanna have to keep fixing it.

The lantern below is what inspired the drum lamp. I found a couple of brand new Ikea light kits during one of my thrift store excursions for $cheap so the next time I go to World Market I snagged two paper lanterns and got the two for $5 after discounts. :) I made this whole thing myself in two afternoons.

 

And here it is hanging in my pink/craft room. Such a gorgeous light piece!

 

With all the chaos going on with my craft room getting put together and John's room too, I painted our old wax-ruined end table. It's now sitting in my pink room underneath my coffee filter lantern.

 

I also sewed curtains for John's music room, I made a wristlet/s for my iPad out of scrap fabric, I made camera straps out of scarves I bought last year, and worked on Project Life at the same time while planning Vacation Bible School, too.  

 

Recently, I painted our hallway. I painted it pewter, a color I wouldn't have chosen for our two or three other houses in the past. We've gotten a lot braver with our color choices this time around, I believe. The wall hangings are by me too. The pictures on the right are from Flickr.

 

Then, an idea about a fabric-covered button turned into a coffee table converted into a tufted [end of the bed] bench that John and I are so so so in-love with!

We already had the coffee table and I had it sitting on the foot of the bed since we moved here. It had two glass tops that I had to constantly clean because, yes, it's glass! Glass is a pain on the neck! And it didn't used to be while, it used to have a maple-ish finish, but I thought I'd paint it so it would match our bed side tables. Then some fabric, foam, batting and the fabric covered buttons I made, and I have a bench.

I'm sure I forgot something, but I'll share some more pics here soon. :) 

Laterz gators,