Behind the blue door... it's not what you think.

The road of not so fun construction is really long and abnormally bumpy.  There are few bright spots when you are fixing things people don't see.  But, then you get one thing.... just one little bright spot in all the doom in gloom of rotten sub floor and beams... A new painted door!  Yes, it's a small thing.  One quart of paint to be exact.  But, it makes me happy.

Now you can see where I was going with the wreath color selections.  Hubby is a visual person, so I had to start warming him up to the color pallet.  Hmmm.. looks like the welcome mat that we got for a wedding gift is showing it's age.  Maybe 5 years old is the senior status for straw.  Time for a new one.

I tried not to get the over grown tree/bush, or the dead bushes in the picture.  You can see they had different ideas.  I'm blaming the loss of 3 bushes on the drought we had.  It is most definitely not a reflection of my distaste for taking care of vegetation.

I'm in love with the door color.  I tried to explain it to my mother.  My description made no sense to her...see if you get it.  "The color is aqua, but not 80's bridesmaids aqua.  More blue than green... more like nautical or Hampton's even."  It make total sense to me.  The actual color is peacock plume or something birdie like that.

I'm still alive, I promise!!

I know it's been a while.... a long while and I apologize.  Complete chaos has been swirling through my household.  For once, it doesn't have anything to do with my 2 year old, well not really anyway.

My house has been under construction.  It's not even the fun kind of construction.  It's just stupid old, "you were going to fall through the floor, but now you're not", kind of construction.  "The winter wind used to blow through the1/2" gap around your front and back door, but now it doesn't", "sitting on your toilet was like riding a bucking bronco, but now it doesn't move" kind of construction.

Did I mention that my house was built in the early 50's?  Some people by old houses because they love to fix them up.  I married into this house and should have made the hubby sell it.  Here I am, nearly 9 years later and I still hate this house.  It has a ton of potential, but I don't have the money to put into it.  Oh, and the other thing....no storage.  This place has 2 closets, well 3 if you include where the water heater is.

I'm ready for a little less maintenance! Like a place that just needs some paint you know!

Here's a little peek at what's been happening.

This is the laundry room.  New subfloor, new beams, and new door.  There was a hole straight through the subfloor by the door.  I'm going to miss the old sheet vinyl.  I always thought it looked like tile.

New subloor in the bathroom.  The house is pier and beam, because of the horrible drought the foundation is sinking causing all kinds of problem.

They installed the old toilet.... see all the wetness on the plywood.  That's how much water had been leaking causing some of the problems.  Sigh... why would you install it again? Boys!  Anyhoo, I made them get a new toilet and that problem was solved.

Stay tuned and you will get to see a picture of another toilet really soon.  Betcha can't wait.

Can you feel my heart beep?

TERRIBLE "TWO"SDAYS


Yeah I know it's not Tuesday.  My regular 7-5 job is kicking my a**.  I've been down and out for a week or so.  


So, today's "TWO"sday is not your typical 'pull your hair out, what did you do' story.  Prepare for your heart to be warmed by the thoughts of my little monster.


This month Liam is learning about service people in school (firemen, policemen, doctors).  Yesterday, they learned about doctors and used doctor kits.  When asked what he did in school he responded, "I put them in my ears, and I whistened to Major's heart beep. I whistened to Sopia's (Sophia)heart beep and my heart beep."


It cracked me up.  All the rest of the night he was talking about his heart beep.

Terrible "TWOsday"

My 2 year old miniature monster has at least one blog worthy moment a week.  So, I think he should have it out there for everyone to enjoy.  I'm not a selfish person and feel like everyone should hear what it's like to live with a 2 year old.

This week in lil' monster land (I mean that in the sweetest way possible) he figured out how to open the child gate.  We have one gate to keep him in the living room.  Before I realized that he was gone, I heard silence.  That's the sign of something gone a rye. 

I found him in the bathroom looking like this.

He must be worried about pre-mature wrinkles.  As you can see it's hard to be mad at that little face.  ESPECIALLY, because he knows how to say he's sorry.  He pats you on the arm and looks lovingly into your eyes and says,"I sorry". 

Not more than and hour later I found him covered in self tanner!  It's ok, he did not end up looking like Snookie.  He was just preparing to be and Umpa Lumpa for Halloween.

Flashback Thursday??

How's this name for the old projects section? Yeah I think it's kinda stolen from a local radio station, I guess that's why it sounds so good.



Let's take a look at an oldie but a goodie...  My first media room conversion.  I'll keep this simple and just put some before and after pictures up.  It was a loooonnng process.

Design concept

Before looking towards where the screen will go

Before looking the opposite direction where the bar will go

As you can see, this was a bowling alley of a space.  The owner wanted to have as many seating options as possible.

After

We ended up putting a velvet fabric valance and panels on the screen.  There's 3 rows of love seats and granite bars on either side.  I think that's a total 16.



After bar area

2 more bar seats at the kitchen area.  Above the kitchen area there was an LED night scene painted like a night sky. I loved the leather tufted door!

After another view

Probably the biggest project and overhaul that I've ever done.  I wish I had better after pictures.  I still love the faux finish in this room.  If the main goal wasn't to get as many people as possible in the theater, I would have eliminated one row of seating.  What do you think?

Freakin' Fall Wreath!

I call this Freakin' Fall Wreath because I'm a little disturbed that I have headed down the seasonal decoration path.  But, if all you people in Blog land would stop being so darn inspiring, maybe I'd be happy with my plain front door.  However everything you guys make is cool and I too would like to be cool.  It's a slight problem I have....it's been going on since I was a kid lol!

I was inspired by this post that I saw on Tater Tots and Jello of 25 Fall Wreaths.  The one from Home Stories A to Z really caught my attention, and she had a tutorial to make the flowers. So I made my own version of it.

I started with the green Styrofoam form, charcoal yarn, and several colors of felt.  I wrapped the yarn around the form.  By the way, no one tells you that it takes a while to accomplish the yarn wrapping....also wears your arms out. I made the felt flowers using the Home Stories A to Z tutorial, you can find it here.  It's totally easy.

 Here's the yarn covered form and the flowers.  I also found some pre-cut foam leaves in my colors so I threw those in the mix.

I hot glued some orange rhinestones and teeny tiny pearls inside a couple of the flowers. I did this with out burning my fingers which is amazing.

I found some old ribbon from last years stock and used that to hang it.  Please try to ignore the fact that my door is pink.  It was one of those color cards you pick up and thing "yes, I'll paint my house, trim, and door exactly what the pre-picked color says."  It will be replaced and painted soon! Anyway the wreath looked pretty decent, but I didn't think it was quite there.

So, I found a wooden initial and mod podged some cute paper on it.  Then sanded it a little and used my favorite distress ink on the edges.  I also painted some turquoise on the copper ribbon, just to add a punch at the top.

Final product much better.  It will look even better on my new door!  Happy Crapping everyone!

Linking up to:
The Shabby Creek Cottage
The DIY Showoff Fall Festival

PREVIOUS LIFE....

Let's call this a working title for this new series.  I was thinking that maybe readers might want to know where the heck I came from.  Not where I was born or anything, I wouldn't want you guys to fall asleep, but where I came from design wise...

Previous life... because it feels like forever ago.
Trip down memory lane...

Whatever I decide to call it, it will be a look at some projects I've done.  Mainly a peek into who I am as designer and artist. I'm kind of interested to see how much my taste has changed and if it's gotten better or worse. Eek!!! Shine the light baby... let see some awesomeness or some ugliness lol!

I think a good place to start is with my son's room. So, I wanted something more generic than the usual sports theme room.  I'm anti blue or pink FYI.  I painted the leaves and bird in the alcove where his crib was going.

Graphic Mural

Anybody else see that weird ghost like thing in every picture.... Not a ghost. It took me forever to figure out that there was still something on the camera lense... probably pancake. I was OBSESSED with pancakes while I was pregnant.

 Anyway, I reused a curtain that used to be a pair for the window treatment.  Take notice of the dresser in the left corner. Dang I wish I had a better picture of it! I had painted it and used wallpaper that looked like maps on the drawer fronts.

Old Dresser

Lucky for me, my parents helped me sand and re-paint this dresser.  I think I was nearly going to pop when I made the final decision on how I wanted it to look. Used the wall color on the drawer fronts.  Then, I did the one thing I said I would never do.  I used appliques that came with the bedding.  I know horrific right! The only way I justified using them was because

a) I didn't put them on the wall b) They are not clustered together over the bed c) I didn't use them all


This is the third paint job that this dresser has had.  Just goes to show you that one staple piece can go a long way!

New Dresser