Laughing at the Days to Come

Disaster Averted

2011-09-05T12:59:00.003-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that we've had a lot of project fails around here lately, but here's one we were able to turn around. We brought some low bookshelves from Grandma's house that I thought we could turn into toy shelves for Ava. That way, I figured, I could put her toys in her room and get them out of the living room. Bonus! I knew the shelves weren't wood, but they certainly looked paintable. They were painted black, and I wanted to paint them white on the outside and green on the inside. First we tried to paint them without sanding them first. Not successful. The paint just beaded up. So Mr. Wonderful sanded them down lightly. This is what we got: You can see that some random areas just would not take paint.

We tried sanding again, but didn't get much farther. I was about ready to throw the towel in, when Mr. Wonderful said "what about covering it with some kind of fabric?" (where does he come up with this stuff?) and I thought to myself "Duh! Mod Podge!" So, I picked out some fabric (I would have probably preferred to use just one kind of fabric, but I didn't have enough of any one fabric that I liked and I wanted to do this as cheaply as possible.) I just brushed the Mod Podge on the shelves first, then on the back of the fabric and stuck it up there. Then I Mod Podged over the top of the fabric.

I ended up buying some twill trim from Joanne's (maybe $6?) to make it look more finished. In the end, we don't see too much of the fabric anyway. I like how they turned out and I love freeing up the space in our 10x10 living room!

Thanks to Mr. Wonderful for saving the day!

The Dresser That Got Away

2011-08-25T13:49:00.004-05:00

Hey, I'm back! I didn't mean to be away for so long, but I JUST found the little connector cord thingy for the computer. It was in a toy basket. The camera case was in the car, and the camera itself was in a random drawer in the living room. If you have a toddler, this will make perfect logical sense to you.

Things have been busy here at our abode. Since I last wrote we decided to look at houses. We looked at a bunch, figured out what we wanted, found a really nice one in our price range, got a loan approved at the bank, took one look at our budget and decided to wait 6 mo. or so to buy. We know it would be much better to wait, and darn that Dave Ramsey, he's been a good influence on us. SO, plans are moving forward to squeeze another baby into our 800 sq foot home. And we couldn't be happier about the decision--we truly love it here.

So anyway, I'll start back in with a major fail. Background on this is that Mr. Wonderful's wonderful grandmother passed away in June. We miss her already and have been remembering her in our hearts often. Since much of Mr. Wonderful's family does not live nearby, we had the opportunity to take some of her furniture home with us. I have always loved this little dresser: His family thought I was crazy, but I could see how easy it would be to put a shelf on the bottom and put a few baskets down there. Adorable hardware, chippy paint, and a slab of marble for the top (which held the memory of one of the last stories grandma ever told us. She was quite the story teller :0)

So, Mr. Wonderful single-handedly loaded that dresser up in the trailer we brought up and placed it in the nursery for me. I had planned on using it as the changing table. Maybe repainting it someday, but for now I loved that chippy paint. Wait....did I say chippy paint?....about an antique dresser....in the nursery? Red flags went up all over in my brain. Flags that said "lead hazard" on them.

So, I tried doing some online research. I didn't find anything terribly conclusive, and that home based tests can be unreliable. So I emailed the lady who knows more about paint than anyone in the Blogosphere. Miss Mustard Seed. She was really sweet and emailed me back, letting me know that there isn't really a product for furniture that can "seal in" the paint like you might find for walls. And that painting over it wouldn't work for long if there was already chipping paint on the furniture. She advised me to move it out of the house with young kids around. Sad face, but I really appreciated the advice.

I took one last shot at home based lead tests and found one that seemed to be the most reliable.

I just bent the test, squeezed it until some liquid came out and rubbed it on the paint. If the test turned pink within 2 hours, there was lead present.

Well the test turned RED almost instantly. Soooooo I sweetly said "Mr. Wonderful? Do you think you could use your muscles and take this dresser out to the garage for me?"

That man. He endures so much for me. :0)

So, on to plan Q. I think I'll try to strip the dresser next spring and go from there. That's not the only fail we've dealt with this month. But I think I salvaged the next one. I'll have to post about that one next.

Uhhhh...Pennant Duvet, part 2

2011-07-12T12:40:00.004-05:00

So I changed my plans. Originally I was going to make this into a quilt, but I decided on a duvet instead. There are several advantages of a duvet. First, I knew it would be mostly white, therefore I knew I'd be washing it a lot. As annoying as it is to restuff a duvet, I knew it would be easier to wash and dry. #2, I don't know how to quilt. That was a big one. And #3 I realized I had just donated any blanket that I could put in the middle of the quilt. And I'm trying to use things I have on hand. So anyway, as of the last post, I had pinned on the pennants. Next I sewed them on, first straight across, and then the rest of the little triangle. Last. Favorite. Part. I did it in probably 3 hour-long sessions. I decided to just straight stitch and let 'em fray, 'cause I thought it'd be cute and the zig-zag stitch and I are not BFFs.

Once I had the front stitched, I picked out a vintage sheet for the back that I had on hand and pinned the top to the bottom. I hope you're not looking for a tutorial, because I made this up as I went along! I picked up some giant red rickrack at Joanne's for a trim between the sheets. I pinned it the best I could, but as I sewed, the sheets moved along and my sides did not match anymore--groan! So, I would re-pin the other sides and hope for the best. Which brings me to another reason a duvet cover was a better choice for me: they can be rumplier and not perfect and it's OK. Whew!

Once I had them all toghether, I sewed some ribbon on the inside corners of the duvet and the corners of the down comforter I bought at Ikea. That way I can tie the comforter to the duvet and it won't shift around annoyingly. When I say this thing is not perfect, it isn't false modesty! Here you can see that on one corner the top sheet is about an inch longer than the bottom sheet. But when it's all tied up you can't tell. :0)

Aaaaand here is a hole I accidentally snipped in the bottom sheet about 2 seconds after I finished the thing. Thankfully it's right at the bottom and when I stitch it up you won't be able to tell. Oy.

Instead of risking more uneven seams, I just made ties for the bottom out of the extra fabric from the top sheet. It'll be easy to get the comforter in and out this way, too.

This is the bottom of the duvet. I used a vintage sheet instead of the fabric I originally intended to use. It was easy to use because it was already finished. Plus, I figure if the top side gets smudged, the bottom side is pretty enough to become the top side until I can wash it.

And here it is! I'm so glad I splurged on the rick rack. I think it really makes it. Can't wait to show you what it looks like on the Big Girl bed! Life has been busy, but we're making good progress on the room, and my grand to-do-before-the-baby-comes list. :0)

Cost breakdown:

Top sheet: $2.50 on consignment (bonus, it's already been washed a bunch and is super soft)

Bottom sheet: free, already had it

Pennant fabric: about $7 for two fat quarters (only used about half of them, though)

Rick rack: $11 with a 40% off coupon at Joann's.

Down comforter: $14 at Ikea

Total: $34.50.

Pennant Quilt

2011-06-27T22:13:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking for awhile about making Ava a quilt for her new bedroom. I've seen a lot of really cute stuff online, and think I've found a way to make it easy enough for even me to do!

A few weeks ago, the fam was in Ashland, WI where there is a really cute shop that carries aDORable fabric. I got this for 1/2 price. $4.50/yd! I think it's Moda? I'm not sure how I'm going to use this fabric. Maybe as the back of the quilt and it can be reversible??? Each panel is so sweet:

I'm unashamedly copying this quilt from A Pretty Cool Life. I kinda figured I'd make pennants using all the fabrics in my stash.

But then I realized that part of the cuteness of the quilt inspiration is how she picks the colors and puts them together. So I decided to do some experimenting.

I was kinda liking this, but not getting very far with it:

I originally thought I wanted more primary colors, but it wasn't doing it for me:

Another try:

Then I remembered the fat quarters I had also gotten from the store in Ashland (I think it's called the Painted Cottage?)

I also got some giant yellow rick-rack that I kept nearby for inspiration. It may or may not be used on the bed, but I liked the general feel of it

Once I pulled out those fabrics, I found I didn't need to be limited to 4 or 5 fabrics, but that I could add more. I found that using one pattern to pull colors out of made it alot easier to put them together. I got the darker blues out of there and it started to come together. I also found that a mix of large and small patterns made a big difference.

For the main part of the quilt, I found an off-white king sized flat sheet at a local consignment store. It was 70% off at $2.50. I just cut off the embellishment. Then I cut the sheet to 68x88 (ish.)

To make the pennants, I made a template from a piece of paper. It's totally not perfect. And the cutting wheel sliced off pieces of the template as I went along, so I know some of my pennants are smaller than others. But I don't mind. I think it'll only add to the final product.

I eyeballed what I wanted it to look like, and laid out the pennants. I found that different orders of the fabrics made a difference to me too, so I just played with it until I liked it. Then I pinned it. That's as far as I've gotten. Here's how it looks now!

I'm pleased at how it's turning out so far! I won't be able to get back to it for at least a week, but I'm excited about how it's coming together. :0)

The Great List and a Great Weekend

2011-06-21T14:13:00.004-05:00

We just had a big weekend at our house. First off, Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Friday! They were gracious enough to offer to watch Ava so Mr. Wonderful and I could have a little getaway. We went up to a town called Minocqua--a pretty little town situated in the lakes of central WI with all of the trappings a tourist could want! We spent a day going out to eat, antiquing, lazing on the beach and playing putt-putt. Despite the fact that I got a hole in one and 3 birdies, Mr. Wonderful still beat me by 5 strokes. You might say he's a little more consistent than me. :0) It was an awesome day!

My parents are also uber productive, so they helped me get started on my list of things to do before the baby comes! Ava helped too:

She's good with a hammer :0). Here's the Great List:

1. Paint and modify wardrobe

2. Move wardrobe into the living room to be the entertainment center

3. Move current "entertainment center" (shelving) to Ava's new closet (and paint it) for storage

4. Make play kitchen for Ava (in process)

5. Modify built-ins in Ava's new room to be bookshelves (in process)

6. Move stripe-y chair from basement into nursery for late night feeding

7. Pare down Mr. Wonderful's wardrobe (in process)

8. Pare down my wardrobe (check!)

9. Combine our clothes into one closet (in process)

10. Move guest room bed into basement

11. Move twin mattresses into Ava's new room

12. Move an end table into nursery next to stripe-y chair

13. Make bedding for Ava's room

14. Make curtains for Ava's room

15. Make a bunting for Ava's room

16. Move a dresser into baby's closet

17. Move guest dresser (and paint it) into nursery to be new changing table

18. Put a shelf above the changing table

19. Find a different way to deal with diapers (Diaper Champ, etc.)

20. Put up a second rod in Ava's new closet.

21. Find a way to store Ava's toys in her new room.

22. Paint the beige "accent" wall in Ava's new room Cottage White

23. Paint the wall behind the built-in bookshelf something fun.

Yeah, I know a TON of stuff. But I'm excited for the way everything is going to come together. I think Ava's new room is gonna be super CUTE. Speaking of cute, here is what I picked up in Minocqua for Ava's new room:

Sooooo stinking cute. Especially since we call her Ava Bird. If one of you could tell Ava that this two week phase of not napping isn't cool that'd be great. If she went from 2-3 hour naps every day to no nap at all in the snap of a finger, I'd be sad. And please don't insert stories of how so-and-so's baby dropped their nap at 18 months, m'kay? Last week, I figured she was overtired because of VBS, last weekend I figured it was Grandma and Grandpa excitement, but now I don't have a reason!

A feature, Pinterest and a Crazy Nesting Pregnant Lady

2011-06-17T15:50:00.005-05:00

Majorly quick post here, but I wanted to let you know that I'm so excited--Laurie from Tip Junkie featured my filing cabinet on her blog! It was really sweet of her. Here's the link. Tip Junkie is a great site that compiles great blog posts. Kinda like a one stop shop--there's so much awesome stuff to wade through in Blogland, it's nice to let other people do the wading sometimes!

In other news, get ready because my second trimester bod is ready to NEST. I made a list of things I need to do to get ready for baby, also known as Ziggy #2 (Ziggy being short for zygote, of course.)

The list is SUBSTANTIAL, but I know many of my 3rd trimester friends would encourage me to start NOW. I'm definitely heeding the advice, because it doesn't look like we're moving any time soon so we gotta make this house work for us!

I've been compiling ideas on my new Pinterest, and have been particularly excited to outfit Ava's big girl room. If you are interested in checking out my boards, here's the link!

We're From the Island of...

2011-06-09T13:48:00.004-05:00

We have this window in our bedroom. It's kind of a misfit. It's not shaped the way the other windows are. It's wide but short. To make matters crazier, the window is practically flush with the trim, which means we can't mount anything inside. Any window covering or shade we put up has to be mounted on the wall or on the trim itself. It's just not like the other windows. It's okay. It was born that way.

Mr. Wonderful is not a good sleeper. Lots of light can make it harder for him to sleep in (sleeping in is not really in his vocab, you might say) So last fall I pinned up some dark fabric over the windows. This made Mr. Wonderful very glad, but I was not so enamored. It was UG! So I started sifting through my options.

Shades were not going to be SUPER effective due to the mounting issue. Then I looked at blackout curtains. Most of them have vinyl, which is supposed to off-gas terribly. Then I thought maybe I could just find some thick fabric. But I didn't want it to be severe and dark. Then I found this fabric at Joanne's. (back view)

It was $21/yard down from $35 a yard. It doesn't look terribly thick in the pics, but it really does block a lot of light, and manages to not look dark or depressing. I ended up buying just a yard and hemming all sides, one of which being a long hem so I could have a little rod pocket.

I ended up buying some brown grosgrain ribbon so I could tie it up and let the light in during the daytime.

I safety pinned the ribbon to the curtain in back so when I let it down the ribbons don't fall off. Totally mistreated. Awww, yeah. Also, the window is not crooked, the ceiling is slanted. Do not adjust your monitors. :0)

Not as pretty down, but it's gonna help the mister and much improved from what we had. What's that you say? The bed is not centered on the window? Some of us are pregnant and need a little extra space, mkay?

Oh, and speaking of pregnant, we had our ultrasound on Monday--baby is looking good, and we can't wait to be surprised when he or she is born!!!

Uh Oh.

2011-06-09T13:45:00.002-05:00

Do you see that hinge at the top of the cupboard? Do you see how there are still screws left in it? Looks like the door hanging on them was stripped...maybe open shelving is in our future???

Lovely Lanterns

2011-05-31T12:05:00.004-05:00

I finished my garden project! It was super cheap, fast and easy and I'm so glad I took the time to figure it out and do it. I have been collecting aqua Ball jars for awhile now, so those were free, as well as the candles I already had. All I bought was some wire and sand at Joanne's (on a gift card!) So it was fa-reee! Here is how it ended up (in daylight): Here is the early evening glow:

I ended up getting the sand because I wanted the candles to stay put. I wiggled them down in the sand so they wouldn't shift around and get by the glass and break it. It also helps me reach the candles in the bigger jars. In the biggest jar I first put a bunch of rocks in the bottom to save on sand. I wrapped the wire around underneath the threads and then looped it over to make a handle before securing it on the opposite side.

Here's what it looked like from the ground later:

And of course, the pictures don't do it justice. It is really pretty and it made us want to linger as we sat underneath.

I really wanted this to be a low maintenance project. Something I could put up and leave up all summer without having to worry about rain or bugs. I spent a day racking my brain trying to figure out a way that I wouldn't have to take them up and down. And then I realized, duh, put the lids back on! Now they'll be super easy to care for. Another advantage to these lanterns is that they are totally kid proof. We don't have to worry about Ava getting into them.

So there they are--our romantic, free, ambient lighting for these beautiful summer nights!

Linking up to the Lettered Cottage

2011-05-27T12:47:00.003-05:00

Yay for spring! It's finally starting to be consistently pretty nice outside (despite freezing temps the last two nights) and I'm trying to be really proactive about being outside a lot. So last night I was driving back from teaching my class, and even though it was a little chilly outside, I decided I'd invite Mr. Wonderful for an outdoor date. We took out the lawn chairs, grabbed a couple of blankets and sat right in front of these guys: Lilacs have always been a favorite of mine. In fact, in high school my mom and I redecorated my room with one of those ridiculously HUGE wallpaper borders with lilacs on it.

Anyway, I have been wanting to make our backyard a little more interesting and romantic in the summer, and last night's date gave me the motivation to start DOING something about it. I don't have all the tools and materials I need yet, but here's a sneak peek:

I'm excited to see how it will turn out and how it will encourage us to spend more time outdoors this summer!

Speaking of lilacs, we also have a white lilac bush in the front yard. (how awesome is that?) It doesn't look like much from the front:

But my favorite part is that it always seems to have the best blooms in the back, right outside my bedroom window. It's so wonderful to sleep with the window open and smell those beautiful blossoms!

So there's a little spring tour of my favorite parts of the yard! I'll post more pics of my new project once it's done!

Update on our almost 2-year-old

2011-05-19T21:05:00.003-05:00

Time for another episode of pictures for Grandma!

Ava had a run in with the driveway this week. Poor thing had a lip out to here! She's doing much better just three days later. One of Ava's new hobbies is putting shoes on. Putting my shoes on me, putting her shoes on her, putting her shoes on Papa, no one is safe!

She was really into sitting on the potty and even went poopy once! So, I got her some big girl underpants. But she's over it now. Totally not interested.

Here she is on Easter! Amazingly, she wore the same 12 month dress she wore last year. We pretty much squeezed it on her.

Ava got some Easter eggs to paint from Auntie Jen. She definitely favored the blue paint and...sampled it. Found blue paint on her teeth.

Her new signature look. Pigtails!

Okay, so we've been considering a major bathroom project and this is the biggest reason why. I used to just take her in the shower and she liked it first, but gradually began to dread it. So we moved operations to the kitchen sink. She barely fits!

Completely unintentional artsy pic:

Free Lantern

2011-05-17T14:51:00.002-05:00

Last summer I scored this lantern for free at a rummage sale: I took this pic after removing the glass. Anway, he said I could have it 'cause it doesn't work. Psssh. Details. I had it on our front steps, but it couldn't even be seen because our steps are black, too. So I bought some yellow spray paint at Joanne's....and I brought it back. Almost as soon as I got in the car, I knew I should've gotten red. When I brought it back, I found some red on sale for $.97!!!!

I used lots and lots and lots of thin layers. Many trips out to our (very ventilated!) garage.

I don't know exactly what to do with it. But I've been meaning to paint it forever, so thanks Sarah for the motivation!

Linking up to the Spray Paint Party!

Latest DIY Project

2011-04-19T08:08:00.003-05:00

Ava and I did an impromptu photo session the other day to deliver a very special message:

Did you get it?

How 'bout now?

She's gonna be a big sister! We are due at the end of Oct./early Nov. We got to see "Ziggy 2" on ultrasound yesterday and he/she is looking great. We're not sure if we will find out whether baby will be a little brother or a little sister yet. I haven't been too sick (well, except that week I had a stomach bug--ugh), just tired and nauseous. Hopefully, that'll be over with soon. :0)

We are so excited about this addition to our family, and excited to watch Ava become a big sister!

Personalized Onesies

2011-03-30T14:59:00.003-05:00

I have two Wendys in my life, and both of them had babies recently! So, of course, I turn to my new friend, applique, to make adorable onesies. I actually copied these from a onesie I saw on my friend's baby. On the first one, I handstitched around the outside with embroidery thread to help the lettering to come out a little better. On this one, I machine stitched right down the middle. That was really hard!

Can't wait to meet the babies that wear 'em!

Post #101!!!

2011-03-25T14:54:00.004-05:00

Okay I know it's been a long time since I posted, but blah, blah, blah you get the picture. Right? :0) Anyway, I know you'll forgive me, because I have HUGE news! We got our couch! We bought it about 8 weeks ago at Ikea, had it delivered to my brother's house and then patiently waited for my parents to come visit us (and pick up a huge couch, haul it on a trailer and bring it to us). No biggie right? They are the nicest. The trip was postponed a couple of times, but we finally got Big Red (yes, it has a name) about three weeks ago. I snapped a quick pic of the living room before the big day: Not bad at all, but the furniture was too big and most of all, not ours. The owner of the couches is getting married tomorrow and needed them back for his new home. You may know that I obsessed over...I mean...hemmed and hawed a bit over the color I wanted, but I took a chance and went for red! I know it's not a great picture, but the amazing Mr. Wonderful cleaned the house for me and I took my chance while I had it. I knew when Ava woke up it was all over :0) BUT, I really like it! It fits great in the space, makes the room feel bigger and it picks up the red on the rug. We might replace the coffee table with something less elongated, but overall we're really happy. So after MUCH ado, there you have it! Linking up to: Thrifty Decor Chick Before and After party

Hybrid Wreath

2011-02-05T13:29:00.006-06:00

Ever since Christmas was over, I've been needing a new wreath on our front door. Since the decor around the doorstep was all red, it made sense to keep it all and just switch it out with a Valentine's Day wreath. Aaaand it was blank for about a month, but no more! I made a hybrid of this wreath and this wreath.

I had these great Valentine's Day cupcake liners, but I didn't know if they would be enough to cover the wreath form. Curiously the packaging didn't mention the square footage they would cover. Odd.

But I knew I had some red felt around and I would make it all work out in the end, so I went for it.

Kinda cutesy, but I like it. I got the wreath form at Joanne's (with 40% off coupon, of course) for about $2.80. Everything else was free!

Linking up at Tatortots and Jello

2011-01-28T11:09:00.003-06:00

I finally did it! I've been thinking about this for at least a year. Sometimes my momentum for a project is slow to build and then I just HAVE to do it and there is no stopping me. It's kind of like trying to get children out the door to run errands. When I get to the threshold of no return I can't turn back, even if it means my child is wearing socks for mittens. Oh yes, I've done it.

ANYway, here she is! I always knew those shapely legs would look good in white.

One of the reasons it took me so long is this top. It's a formica or laminate or something. Which I KNOW I could paint, but a) I LOVE the kid friendliness of the wipeable surface, and b) the paint would scratch easily on a surface this smooth and that we use so much.

So I'm going to live with it for awhile before I decide whether to keep the top, try to paint it, or replace it with something else. And whether to distress it. In any case, it is really nice and bright and brings out the colors in the rug. And I think it'll look great with our new sofa! I'm excited to get rid of some of the brown in the room. Not a bad color, just overpowering right now.

What do you think, should I distress those beautiful curves?

Fast and Easy Frugal Magazine Holder

2011-01-26T20:52:00.004-06:00

Okay, why didn't I straighten this up before I took the picture? ANYwhoo, I have some recipe magazines and they were ALL over the place in our butler's pantry making a huge mess. A pig sty as my mom would say. So I made a magazine holder. I saw the idea on a blog back in the day (I'd link to it, but the link has since been broken) to use a cereal box to make it. Which to me is much more reasonable than spending $7 for what is basically a cereal box at the store. I just cut off the top tabs, and then made a diagonal cut on both of the long sides. I used scrapbook paper to cover it, but wrapping paper or even fabric with Mod Podge would probably be a better choice. But my recipe mags are corralled and out of sight. It's the little things, people.

Oh, PS! We purchased a sectional and it's turning into a mini living room makeover. We won't actually receive it for a couple of weeks, but I think it's going to be good. Mostly we are relieved to have actually made a decision. :0) Can't wait to show you!

Renew, Reuse, and Recycle.

2011-01-25T12:24:00.004-06:00

Just a simple, frugal project to share today. Mr. Wonderful bought me a cardigan for Christmas a couple of years ago. I've always liked it, but one of the buttons fell off and broke. So I couldn't just re-attach it.
So I found some new ones at JoAnn's. They are the kind that sort of look like leather. Or wood. Or something. Anyway, I love 'em and it feels like a whole new sweater.
I just cut off the remaining buttons and replaced them with safety pins so I knew where to put the new ones, made sure they were big enough for the button holes, hand sewed them on and that was it. It's like recycling for your closet.

In fact, my mom did the same thing for my jacket last winter. My winter jacket has been with me since about 2002. It's a wool toggle coat from the LL Bean outlet store in ME. I was all ready to toss it out and get a new one when I realized that the ONLY thing wrong with it was that it needed to be cleaned professionally and it needed new cording to hold the toggles. It was a consumer wake-up call for sure. So I took it to the cleaners and Mom fixed the cording. Perfectly good coat. In fact I still love it.

Here is a really great post about converting your boot cut pants to skinny pants. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it would be a great way to use some of the pants I already have and update them. I'm trying to be hip by wearing skinny jeans, but now I'm confused by that beer commercial where they make fun of that guy who is wearing skinny jeans. Did the moment pass on that trend, or am I still with it? I'm just a stay-at-home-mom who is trying to be cool, people. Help me out here.

Applique--the new love of my life!

2011-01-21T12:51:00.004-06:00

Stitch-by Stitch: Project #2

Hopefully by making this look more official it'll keep me on track to keep with my sewing projects. I loved this project. Applique. I've always been kind of intimidated by it, especially the special fusible webbing you need (ps, don't get fusible interface. Not the same thing...). But it wasn't too hard to use. Also, I forgot to use stabilizer and it wasn't a big deal. At least not yet...:0)

Step 1: find a onesie or t-shirt to use
Step 2: google "bird template." Find one you like. I picked a bird because that's Ava's nickname :0)
Step 3: trace it right from the computer screen and cut it out.
Step 4: Stick it to the fusible webbing.(follow manufacturer's instructions)
Step 5: Cut out around it.
Step 6: Iron it on. Press the steam button a few times. Lift the iron off every once in awhile because you are afraid to burn it.
Step 7: Zig-zag stitch around your shape in a fun, contrasting color
Step 8: Draw little legs with a disappearing ink pen.
Step 9: Straight stitch on the lines you drew.
Step 10: cut out a wing from a different fabric (I used felt)
Step 11: Stick it on the fusible webbing and cut out around it.
Step 12: Press it
Step 13: I didn't stitch around the wing because I used felt, but you certainly could
Step 14: Freak out because I didn't prewash anything. D'oh!

So it might not hold up to the wash, but live and learn, right? Also, my sewing machine decided to throw in a few straight stitches with the zig zags. Does anyone know why that might be happening???

Aaaand, our photographer Ava's first picture:

What a talent!

Sewing Pep Talk

2011-01-19T13:11:00.004-06:00

I went to the sewing shop the other day. I had dutifully attempted to clean my sewing machine of lint, and oil it like I should. I followed the instructions I got with it. But it sure didn't work when I put it back together!

So after seeking advice from a friend I contacted the Fashionette Sewing Center. Sound like a blast from the past? Well, it is. Ralph, the man who runs the shop is turning 85 next week. He started fixing machines when he was 21. So he has a few years of experience. He offered to clean and oil the machine while I watched so I could do it myself next time, and he gave me a little sewing lesson on the ins and outs of my Sears Kenmore 1320. He spent two hours teaching me and I think it was the best $50 I've spent in awhile. You just don't find that kind of service anymore! Highly recommended. If you go, make sure you have some TIME.

I got a great sewing book from my sister for Christmas. It has a lot of projects that kind of build on each other. Now that my machine is running again, I did one of the mini projects in the book. You are supposed to draw out a picture and then "free" stitch over it. Meaning, you are supposed to put the feed dogs down and really take control of the machine.

Well, I couldn't get that to work, so I just kept the feed dogs right where they were and stitched on my design, which I nabbed from The Graphics Fairy. Bad picture, blah, blah, blah, but it was kinda fun. I used a fancy disappearing ink pen from Joann's. Here's the book:

I'm excited to get sewing now that my machine is working lickity split.

I have adopted this as my sewing mantra (from the book): "You're the boss! (Not Tony Danza--YOU) Don't let that machine sass you, or make you feel like you can't do this. You can. That's just a machine and you're in charge! Be the boss!" Each time I sew I'm going to find a mirror and yell this at my reflection Jack Donaghy style. I think it's going to work.

Some Ava pics for you. Overalls courtesy of Aunt Jen:

This scene is becoming more and more familiar when I pick up Ava from her nap:

A friendly wave (wearing mom's mittens):

Have a good day!

Seriously, do yourself a favor and don't read this post.

2011-01-17T11:08:00.004-06:00

Here's a disclaimer. I've been researching and thinking about, dreaming and eating (just kidding) sectionals lately and this post turned into a brain dump for me. It's really long. There is only one little picture. Just come back and read the post when we actually pick one out, m'kay?

The couches we have in our living room were graciously lent to us by one of Mr. Wonderful's buddies. His buddy is renting a room right now and needed a place to keep his furniture. Seeing as how we were using a futon at the time, we went for it, even though the sofas weren't exactly scaled right for our 10x10 space: Yes, it definitely encroaches on the front "foyer" (that little space that lets the door swing open--they actually called it a foyer on our refinancing appraisal!). But they have been wonderful to have for the comfort and seating that they give our living room. (Not pictured: huge loveseat)(also there is a matching enormous recliner and ottoman in the basement)

But, said buddy is to be wed in March and will be ready to claim his furniture (and bride! ;0) So, we've been doing a lot of shopping and researching in order to be ready. Yes, we could bring the futon back upstairs, but we think we're ready to make this purchase. We decided a small sectional would be ideal for the space. Lots of seating, won't be awkward to try and fit in. Won't encroach on the foyer. Blah, blah, blah.

Here was our original list of requirements:

slipcovered (I'm picturing lots of spills in our future)
sleeper (for when Ava gets her big girl room someday and the guests have nowhere to go)
120"ishx90"ish
Not too poofy

After shopping around town and online I realized that this would be a difficult list to satisfy. I originally thought we would get the Ektorp from Ikea, but found out that they discontinued the sleeper in the sectional. And for some strange reason, slipcovered couches are generally a) hard to find and b) ridiculously expensive. Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware (which has 5-figure sectionals), Crate & Barrel. Not in the budget.

However, I have been happily surprised by the amount of smaller sized sectionals we have found compared with the last time we looked, which was about a year ago. You may remember my masterpiece, Ginormous Furniture Epidemic. Apparently the corporate giant furniture manufacturers read it and my voice was heard! Just kidding.

And don't even get me started on color! Of course I want one of those super beautiful beach-y pristine white slipped sofas, but that's not going to happen. a) I know you just have to bleach it and it'll be clean--but you still have to bleach it, and I'm not that motivated. b) I don't want our guests to be squeamish about sitting on our furniture. So maybe in 10 years or something.

So, okay we've checked off white, off-white, tan (still would show a lot of stains), and pretty much all the Restoration Hardware colors (they have about 10 variations of off-white. It's actually kind of funny to look at their website). Then I thought about my obsession with red couches. I like this idea, but am afraid it will make my living room look like a crayon box threw up. But I do want to just not worry about it and buy what I like and what makes my eyes happy. Still under consideration.

Darker blue. That's what we had before and I really liked it.

Some shade of green. The Ektorp has a really cute new green color. Hmmm...

Dark brown. That's what we have now and I just feel like there is a lot of brown in our room. BUT maybe I'd feel differently if the furniture was scaled better for our room.

Basically I've come to the conclusion that if I end up not liking the color in our room I can always paint the walls and that we probably won't always live in this house, but it would really stink if what we picked out didn't go with the rug I spent four months making.

Yesterday, Mr. Wonderful and I got to thinking about our list of requirements for the couch again. We decided it doesn't HAVE to be a sleeper sofa. We can come up with alternatives for guests. And sometimes those sleepers aren't all that comfortable anyway. And I decided that maybe I have to let go of my slipcover dreams and just get upholstery or microfiber. But I draw the line at a poofy couch!

We had originally planned an Ikea run last weekend, but Ava got croup so we ended up not going. I have found some really good deals in town here, and some of them are made locally, which I definitely like. So we may forgo the trip altogether. I'm excited to make this decision so I can stop thinking about it!!!

But if you are still reading and have any insight, let me know. And also, you are a saint. :0)

Our Christmas

2011-01-03T13:00:00.003-06:00

Hi all, just a few pictures to record what a great Christmas we had!

Grandma Jane picked out Ava's Christmas dress. She's pretty cute! Here, Ava is demonstrating how she is "so strong!" She balls up her fingers into fists, puts some strain into her face and tries to convince you of how big and strong she is! It's hilarious. Also hilarious, instead of saying "bye bye" now she says "bye guys!"

Oh the wonder of that Christmas tree!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Love,

The Strycharskes

My Book Page Wreath!

2011-01-02T12:50:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year, all! I think 2011 is going to be a great year. I've got a feeling!

We had a great Christmas with family, and also a few quiet days here at home before we go back to our regularly scheduled programming. AND Ava treated us to two days of sleeping in. Bliss!

I've got some terrible photographs of a gift I made for my mom. I decided to try my hand at a "book page" wreath. These are all over the place in Blogland, but here is a link to the wreath that started it all. I actually used the same sheet music I used for wrapping my gifts. There are a ton of tutorials out there, but I'll share what I found as I made mine.
First off, I added a little embellishment. I didn't realize when I bought it that the gold would kind of blend in with the color of the old music butI still like it. It's a little bird on a little branch if you can't tell from the super high quality pic. I just stuck them into the styrofoam. No glue, so it could be changed out if desired. I started off rolling up the rectangles of music into kind of a figure 8 and hot glueing them on to the form, but I found after awhile that it turned into more of a puffball. I couldn't even see the hole in the wreath. I didn't like that, so I decided to make my rectangles much smaller. Then I realized that I should've wrapped the wreath form in sheet music to begin with, so I kind of hacked that together. I ended up trimming the wreath with a scissors until I liked it. That worked great. My mom actually plays the piano AND the harp (and encouraged us in our music studies, which was great. Except that summer when she made US take harp lessons. It was all kinds of adolescent angst.) so this seemed like it would work for her. I also got her one of those wreath storage tubs, 'cause this wreath would be tough to store, and they will probably be moving in the next few years.

So there it is! It was a fun and easy project. I got a sewing book for Christmas, as well as a good scissors, a rotary cutter, a cutting mat, fabric, etc. So I'm excited to start working on some sewing projects.

My Apologies to All You Musicians...

2010-12-20T12:50:00.005-06:00

I can't let you see what is inside these packages before the 25th, but I'll show you how I'm wrapping this year!

Long ago, when I was but a music major, my mom started buying me sheet music at flea markets, antique stores, rummage sales, etc. Mostly piano and choral music. I'm not sure how she'll feel about this, but I've found a use for it all!

Here is how I prettied up the cookie mixes I gave out:

I love the mix of music, burlap and ravel-y muslin. (not Ravel-y, you music geeks!) Muslin makes great gift tags, by the way. On some of them I just used a black Sharpie wherever it worked, and I liked that, too.

The best flower pattern I found was here. It works well with paper. Have a most blessed Christmas everyone!!!

Do Yourself a Favor...

2010-12-17T12:14:00.004-06:00

...and make chocolate covered potato chips as one of your Christmas "cookies." You will thank me. I had a helper! Mostly she just ate the chips...

Anyone who knows Widman's Candy in Fargo, give a shout out. These things are amazing! Put wax paper on the counter, or cookie sheets for portability. Melt some chocolate or almond bark. Dip ruffled potato chips in them. Lay them on the waxed paper until the chocolate hardens. So easy an 18-month-old could do it (with a lot of assistance :0) Widman's covers the whole potato chip, but I just dip them in a 1/3 or 1/2 way. Make sure to use good quality chips. You don't want these things breaking. I've heard Pringles work well too, but I'm a purist :0)

Perfect salty/sweet combo!

If You Want to Destroy my Sweater....

2010-12-13T11:13:00.003-06:00

How's that for a great song reference? I gotta confess--I still have NO idea what that song means. If you want to comment and disillusion me, feel free. :0)

Anyway, one of my FAVORITE sweaters got destroyed in the wash this month. You can't tell in the picture, but it is somewhere between my size and Ava's size: So I decided to make lemonade....errr...crafts! Here is my cozy new pillow which I made with a small Ikea pillow form. I ended up making the pillow smaller, and taking in the sides of the sweater to make a pretty easy craft. I love the chevron cable knit!

And I saw these online somewhere. Little votive sweaters made from the sleeves. I puckered the cut off part on the bottom and glued some felt over it. I need to get some bigger candles to put in these. (the glass votives are from Ikea and I already had them.)

Oh shoot, I forgot to take pictures after I gussied them up! Okay, well all I did was tie some jute twine around them, but it's kind of a nice touch.

And some pictures for Grandma. I find these snowpants to be quite humorous...

Ava LOVES sledding and being outside!

Multitasking Princess Leia Buns

2010-11-22T13:33:00.003-06:00

As you may remember from a recent post, our clan dressed up as Star Wars characters for Halloween. Cutest Yoda ever, right? Well when it came to the Princess Leia buns, I was stumped. I have short, blonde, curly hair. I had no idea what to do. But then I remember this post. SO cute. Oddly like Princess Leia buns...

After the big day, I just pinned one on my purse for a cute accent.

Plus it covers up a stain I was too lazy to try and get out. :0)

Sockin' it to Ya!

2010-11-16T14:14:00.004-06:00

Ava is mobile in full-force now. We are used to the spills, slips and bumps that come with the territory. I realized, however, that most of her socks don't have "grippies" on the bottom. Maybe that's because she has tiny feet and most of her socks would fit a baby that can't even crawl yet. :0) So I remembered a tip I saw in Real Simple: use puffy paint! Remember? From the 80's?

Here is a picture of her new socks. (or "shaaaa!" in Ava-ese) I put cardboard inside the socks so the paint didn't leak through to the other side. It was pretty super easy. And Ava stays on her feet (a little bit) more. :0)

You "otto" do this project. Wah-wah.

2010-11-12T13:25:00.008-06:00

FINALLY! I finished another long-standing project. Yay!

When I moved to Wisconsin to start teaching, I was really excited to outfit my very own apartment. It was the cutest apartment you've ever seen. I called it the Hobbit House. The tallest thing in the place was the refrigerator. I could reach everything! It was very exciting. (I am five feet tall :0)

I bought two of these slipcovered ottomans from Ikea. As you can see, with one wash they started to look a little like they were wearing "highwater" pants.

As I had been seeing a lot ruffles and pleats out in blogland, I was inspired to make those ottomans a little more ladylike (and cover up those legs!) Basically, I cut 4 1/2 inch strips of fabric, ironed them a 1/2 inch on either side, pinned them to the original slipcovers and sewed them around. On the first one I pleated it, ironed it and put some basting stiches in. On the second one I ended up just pleating it as I went a long and that was a LOT easier. I ironed it afterward.

I read a tutorial or two, but I ended up eyeballing the pleats. Its a nice little Ikea upgrade! I like 'em!

Linking up to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed

Autumn at Our House

2010-11-01T08:01:00.003-05:00

Hard to believe it's November already! Here are a few snapshots of our fall season...

First haircut!

Happy Halloween!

Love,

Obi Wan, Leia, and Yoda :0)

A Tale of One Filing Cabinet

2010-10-21T10:30:00.009-05:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...Grab some popcorn people, this could be epic. Or probably just long... The saga begins in February, 2010...

Behold, the before of the office:

When Mr. Wonderful and I married, I inherited this filing cabinet. It's not a bad filing cabinet, but it didn't really go with the antique table we're using as a desk. It's more contemporary, shall we say. But it's made of wood, so of course I wanted to paint it. Mr. Wonderful gave me permission to do whatever I wanted with it. Yay! But, needing to make things complicated, and having seen this post on Centsational Girl, I decided to experiment with paintable wallpaper. You know, I had a 9 month old child, what else did I have to do? I found it on sale at Menards for about $10. We don't have a bathtub, so I used storage tubs to soak the wallpaper.
Fold it, glue-y sides together.

Originally I had planned to wrap the paper around to the back, but it failed epically, as the drawers are too close together to allow for the raised surface of the wallpaper. So I decided to just leave it on the fronts.

After painting the whole cabinet Cottage White by Behr, this is what I had. (These pictures are from back in March)

Looks pretty good. I knew I was going to add hardware eventually. I ordered some label holders for my birthday (some women want clothes, some women want hardware!), and thought I could use some of my "found" hardware to go with them.

But the reality was that it wasn't working. I ignored it for many months, but the wallpaper wasn't totally adhered to the filing cabinet, I had a curious toddler on my hands and I knew it was just a matter of time until things got ugly, but I felt stuck with it.

Enter screen molding. I think that's what it's called. I looked for the cheapest molding I could find at Menards, basically.

I used a miter box (yes, it was even me! It wasn't even Mr. Wonderful!) to make some 45 degree cuts using the measurements of the drawer fronts.

They looked kind of rough

So I found something that looked like an emory board and filed away.

Looking better!

Using tiny headless brad nails I hammered the moulding to the fronts, used a tiny nail punch to get them all the way in the grooves, painted them with some off white freebie paint I had (antique white from Glidden), and used caulking to fill in the corners as well as the sides where the edges of the wallpaper showed through. Then I added hardware--the label holders I got for my birthday, and chunky pulls that match our kitchen hardware.

Here's a close up.

And the full effect of our office, which is located in the butler's pantry.

Now if I were a good blogger, I'd have written something clever on the chalkboard. MAN! But, I'm pretty excited about how it turned out, even though it took...mmmm 6 months. Thanks for hanging in there to the end!

I'm linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick

also linking up to Miss Mustard Seed

also linking up to Funky Junk Interiors
Whoops! I linked to Thrifty Decor Chick again! Sorry everyone!

A Before and After + a Fall "Mantel"

2010-09-30T11:48:00.005-05:00

Thanks for joining me for the Laura Ingalls party! I had a blast reading the posts and always marvel at how much one can learn from bloggers. And I'm glad Nellie Olson didn't come. :0)

I finally have gotten to the point where I feel like I'm pretty much done with the "mudroom". I may come back to it in the future if I have any spare beadboard or trim, but I decided not to go out and buy it special. I dressed it up for fall and it feels finished to me! Yay!

Here is the grizzly "before". This is just the top of our stairs, what you see if you turn left when you enter our back door. Welcome to our home, right?:I gave the mildew a scrub down with bleach, fresh primer and paint, new baskets/tags, hooks, a corner seat, and accessories!!!

I seriously hardly ever get to accessorize. No room for it. Here are some fall leaves from our yard:

Pine cones, berries and a fern from our yard:

The mirror used to hang in my sister's and my closet (is that right, Grammar Police?) when we were kids. It is from an old wardrobe. I've been trying to use it in our house, but it's VERY heavy and I couldn't find a good spot for it. I like it here!

It's kind of a difficult spot to photograph, but hopefully you get the picture. (wah-wah). We've been using this area more and more as it's gotten colder and I really love it. It has also become the place to store our library books throughout the week, which is handy and cute too!

Happy Autumn, all!

Get Your Laura Ingalls On Party

2010-09-24T10:42:00.004-05:00

Well the day is here! I decided on something really simple. Like bread and butter simple.

Over the weekend we visited my folks and enjoyed another installment of Ally-take-your-stuff-home-you're-almost-30-why-do-we-still-have-some-of-your-stuff???? Thankfully, she also offered me this cookbook that I remember from when I was a kid. It's an old Discovery Toys cookbook. When I saw the "recipe" for making butter, I thought it would be cool to try. Here are my tools:

All we did was put a tablespoon of whipping cream in a baby food jar and shake it. The book has more activities to go along with it but they were a little advanced for Ava. In fact, she wasn't sure at first:

But then she at least picked up the jar:

I tried some of the butter on bread. It was kind of like fancy whipped butter that you get at weddings. But it was also one step away from being whipped cream, which kind of weirded me out. But it was pretty good. Not exactly churning Laura Ingalls-style, but whatevs.

I've also been making bread. I started a few weeks ago with regular bread, but we're trying Ava on a dairy-free diet to see if it clears up her eczema, so now I'm making dairy-free bread. From this recipe. Here's the yeast chilling in the soy milk:

A picture of my adorable mixer. (Thx,Fatmessers!)

Rising dough:

And loaves! I actually really am enjoying the bread baking. The kneading, the rising, all of it!

So I can't get logged into Linky Tools, so let's not overthink this. Just post a comment with a link to your post! Looking forward to see what you came up with!

Pump Up the Jam. And the Pillows.

2010-09-23T11:45:00.003-05:00

Hey all,

So kind of a silly project. At least I feel silly for caring, but c'mon look at these pillows! Flat as pancakes. Not very inviting. Just sad, sad pillows. I mean, in the swing of things not a big deal, but I just wanted fluffier pillows! So I took the cases off:

One was from Ikea, one was from Kohl's. Circa...2005. Maybe pillows just get flat over time. I tried fluffing them by hand, but I decided to bulk them up with some extra batting I had after taking apart a quilt.

Here they are in their new pumped up state!

Silly? Yes, but I like it!

Don't forget--Get Your Laura Ingalls On party tomorrow. Link up! I'll have instructions on how to do it on the post.

Multitude Monday

2010-09-20T12:28:00.003-05:00

Hey there,

I decided to join Ann Voskamp and some other ladies in the simple act of counting and naming our blessings. They do this on Mondays. It is a way to remember the goodness of God. Sounds so simple, but I miss it so often. So here we go:

#1. Second chances. Third, fourth.....

#2. A heavy crocheted blanket to huddle under (man, it's cold out today!)

#3. A financially saavy husband

#4. Going back to the start.

#5. The quiet of naptime.

#6. Bras that fit. A little TMI maybe, but to a post-nursing mom (or nursing, or pregnant, etc.) this can be such a big deal!

#7. Getting a break from sharing my body (see above.)

#8. The anticipation of a visiting friend.

#9. Busting a move on the dance floor.

#10. Celebrating with a family who needed a good celebration. Congratulations, Jen and Alex!

It's been a real wild week. Ava is teething and we're experiementing with different kinds of milks which seems to have led to some gastrointestinal fun as well. She's just not herself these days, and that has had it's difficult moments for Mr. Wonderful and I. All the more reason to recognize the ways God is amazing.

I wanted to note as well that the Get Your Laura Ingalls On party is not just for experts! I hope you'll link up even if it's just something that you're trying for the first time, which is what I plan to do. I'm off to make the most of the rest of naptime... :0)

Toweling ON.

2010-09-16T13:09:00.003-05:00

Ever since finding doe-c-doe , I've taken quite a liking to embroidery. It hits me right in my rather retro sensibilities, I guess. So when I saw this book in the library I picked it up. It gives a pretty good play by play for a lot of different projects. I found a plain flour sack drying towel in our stash and decided to embellish it with the adorable apple on the front cover. But I didn't want to use fabric, so I just used the embrodery around the fabric.

The instructions said to trace the design on tissue paper. I figure there is probably fancy craft tissue paper, but I just used some from our impressive stash of gift tissue paper.

Cute, no?

Thankfully I still had a hoop left over from our front entry project. I fit the fabric in:

It took me about 2 hours to stitch. It was a little hard to decipher the stitch from a book description, but I think I got it. And if it's wrong...well, I guess I've never heard of the embroidery police, so I guess I'm ok. My stitches are probably terribly big, ala Laura Ingalls, but again. No embroidery police.

After I was done I carefully tore away the tissue paper...

And here's what I came up with! It was a fun little project. I did it all in one extra long naptime.

I like the way it looks on our island!

Come to my Party? Please?

2010-09-15T12:44:00.003-05:00

So, my friend Beth made a comment on one of my posts that gave me an idea. One of the things I have been doing as a stay-at-home mom is trying to be more self-sufficient. Buying less convenience foods, making or repairing things instead of buying. Making our tiny house work for us. Etc. It makes me feel like Laura Ingalls sometimes. Did you ever read those books? I did. I read the series maybe four times. No joke.

So I thought it would be fun to have a "Get your Laura Ingalls On" party. This might be a bad idea, since it's not like I have a million followers, but I thought it would be fun to hear and learn from you guys about ways you are more self-sufficient. Do you make your own amazing pie crust? Can you milk a cow? Knit? Construct? I'm not going to be picky.

So what you do is write a blog post (or find an old one) about your really cool ability, and sometime between now and then I'll figure out how to set up a McLinky. On the day of the party, you link up your post to my McLinky.

Now I'm going to set up an arbitrary date. How about September 24th? It's a Friday. I don't know how to make a button, but if you think this is a cool idea spread the word and we can all be Laura Ingalls together on Sep. 24th. Unless you want to be Mary, Carrie or Grace. Or Ma. Or Michael Landon. I'm not gonna judge. :0) September 24th: Get Your Laura Ingalls On Party. Be There!

LATDTC Recommends...

2010-09-11T20:33:00.003-05:00

When I got married, I inherited a child. His name is Bizimana. Pete sponsors him through Compassion. Sadly, I haven't gotten to know him much, but Ann Voskamp's series of posts from Guatemala City have opened my eyes to how special it could be to do so. When I opened up this post, I was excited about some new project to try and make my house prettier. Reading it made me see our little house for what it is: a clean, safe, provision from God. Ann is a gifted writer, and we all need perspective. Happy reading!

Coffee Talk

2010-09-10T11:04:00.004-05:00

As you may have read in this post, I have several unfinished projects around the house, nagging at the back of my mind and preventing me from starting some other projects I'm interested in doing. I was hoping to finish them this past weekend, but of course it didn't happen. But I did finish ONE of them. A big one.

I found this table in Mr. Wonderful's basement after we got married. I love the lines in the legs and the squares on the top. We used it upstairs for awhile. It worked great for playing games, but it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big for our 10x10 living room. It was also in pretty rough shape. It had a thick amber shellac on it that was chipping in a lot of places. So I decided to refinish it. If I had my way, it would have probably been painted. But Mr. Wonderful didn't want to cover up the wood, so I planned to refinish it, forgetting that I was 8 months pregnant and shouldn't be using poisonous chemicals. Preggo brain, right? So that didn't happen. It has been sitting in our garage half-done for 16 months.

Until now! I used chemicals, sandpaper, a sander, a profile sander, a Dremel, a drywall scraper thing and even a flat head screwdriver to sand, scrape, chip and wish that thick amber shellac away. It was not a scientific process. It was not always pretty and I'm not even sure I got it all. But here's what it looked like when I decided to just hope for the best. I actually kind of like it like this. It reminds me of old leather:

(check out the saw horses I got for Mr. Wonderful. $5 at a rummage sale. They saved my back some aches and pains)

Here it is after 1 coat of Red Mahogany:

I read in a post somewhere that vegetable oil gets oil based paints off your hands. It did a pretty good job, and I was thrilled to not have to put mineral spirit on my hands!

The table now lives in the man cave where it has room to run around. I love how the grain of the wood alternates:

I put two coats of polyurethane on it. I think it's improved and its DONE!

Move Over Oprah...

2010-09-09T13:07:00.002-05:00

...this is one of MY favorite things!

It's called Bean Salsa. Some people might call it Cowboy Caviar, but I think Bean Salsa is a little more sophisticated. And there is less association with the eating of fish eggs, which sounds DISGUSTING to me.

I got the recipe from my mom, but I'm not sure where she got it. I LOVE this stuff. When eaten with tortilla chips, it is a beautiful marriage of salty and sweet. It's a struggle to limit myself when I eat it...which can be a problem...anyway, here's the recipe.

1/2 cup sugar (I use less)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mix together and pour over the following finely chopped ingredients:

1 green pepper (any color is great, really)
1/2 white onion
2 green onions (if you have 'em)
2 fresh cilantro leaves (not stems)
2 fresh garlic cloves (or 2 t. minced garlic)

Drain and add:
One can black-eyed peas
One can pinto beans
one can shoepeg corn
Mix all ingredients and serve with tortilla chips (scoops are the best)
Better the second day. It ages like a fine wine. :0)

Shoepeg corn is by the other corn. I don't know what's so special about it. For black-eyed peas, nothing beats Sylvia's. Sylvia claims to be "the queen of soul food" and I believe her. I tried using other brands, or using dried black-eyed peas and it wasn't NEARLY as good. I don't know what Sylvia puts in her "specially seasoned" peas, but they are ah-ma-zing and worth the money. Here's what it looks like all stirred up. It makes a TON, so I'd suggest making it for a party or giving some away. Especially if your silly but wonderful husband won't eat it. Otherwise you might end up eating the whole bowl. Which I wouldn't suggest. Not that I've ever done that.

I'll probably be linking up to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Dirty Laundry

2010-09-03T13:56:00.004-05:00

Well hello!

I am making sure and steady progress on my projects, but today I am going to divert us to a new one. The other day I was balancing the Quicken files and reconciling receipts. I noticed that the last time we bought laundry soap, it cost us $13! Apparently Tide has gold flakes in it or something. I was instantly motivated to get going on learning how to make our own laundry soap. At least to try.

We bought an HE washer before Ava was born. Partly because we wanted to cloth diaper, and partly because we needed a new washer anyway and there really is no comparison between top loading washers and HE washers when it comes to water efficiency. Seriously. We love it.

So after browsing some tutorials online, I decided on liquid soap. It can just go in the regular detergent drawer. This recipe is supposed to be low-sudsing (which is apparently why you need to buy special HE soap in the first place) which will also make it great for washing diapers. If diapers get soap built up, they won't absorb. If they don't absorb, they leak. If they leak, I cry. (Just kidding. Mostly.)

I used this tutorial (which is fabulous.) It really has all the info you need, but here's my step-by-step. First I grated some Ivory soap with a cheese grater: Put about four cups of water in a kettle. I was feeling really hard core and used a stock pot. Turns out that is totally unnecessary. You can just use a regular pot. Little by little put the soap flakes in and stir until it gets nice and soapy.

Put 3 gallons of water in a container. In case you were wondering, a gallon is 16 cups. I used my 4 cup measuring cup, so 12 of these puppies: (right? I hope so. Math is hard, let's go shopping.)

Add your soap soup from the pot to the water in the bucket. Then you add a cup of washing soda. (Yes, that's right, Walmart employee who tried to sell me baking soda instead. I want Washing soda.) Turns out washing soda is hard to find. But a friend of mine tipped me off that they carry it at a local grocery store (County Market, but I've also heard they carry it at IGA). You can also order it at Ace Hardware and they'll ship it to the store for free.

Oops, my bad. It's "super" washing soda.

Then a half-cup of Borax. Borax is a little easier to find. We got ours at Target or Walmart or something.

Then you stir it all up in your container and let it sit for 24 hours. From what the tutorial says, we should enjoy a significant cost savings. $.03/load as opposed to something like $.20/load. That's pretty serious! We will miss the gold flakes in Tide though. :0)

I read on the tutorial that you can often get buckets like this at delis, so I tried at a grocery store. And they gave me one! AND the lady saw Ava and asked if she could have a c-o-o-k-i-e. I said she could and they gave us a free cookie too! It was quite a haul at the grocery store today.

So there you have it! It was really easy. I hope it does the trick.

Loose Ends

2010-09-01T17:05:00.004-05:00

Hi all,

Well I finished a major portion of my business start-up today and got it in the mail. And my mind immediately went to....projects! Big surprise, huh?

I realized that I have a lot of unfinished projects hanging around. I don't like the feeling of having them hanging over my head, so I made a list. (Love lists!)

I started this filing cabinet last winter, and came up against some roadblocks, which I think I have figured out to address. (Sorry the pictures stinks. Ava was sleeping and I wasn't going to take a chance to turn on the light. She's the lightest sleeper ever.) Here is the entryway as it looks today (you'll see that I didn't clean up before taking any of these pictures.) I have a few more ideas to add to this space.
I took a trip in July. Look what Mr. Wonderful was up to while I was away! He designed this shoe rack with CAD (a computer program) last winter and started it while I was gone. It fits perfectly in our entryway.
So, funny story. I took some maternity leave before Ava was born, and got really nesty. As in, I cleaned the stove top with a tooth pick and a q-tip. No joke--and what a difference! Anyway, I thought it would be a good time to tackle refinishing our coffee table. This huge monstrosity:
Once it was out in the garage, I realized that all the chemicals involved were probably NOT a good thing to expose to my pregnant self! So guess what. It went on the honey-do list (isn't that totally jerky?). And then Ava was born and we had no time for it and it's been sitting in our garage. Well the time has come, my friends. It's not sitting in there for another winter! So I'm doing a little at a time during naps.

So there you have it. Four projects I want to finish! There are a few others that I want to do before winter (too cold to work in the garage) and I MADE myself promise I wouldn't start any new ones before I finished these.

I think fall is so motivating! I was feeling really lazy about stuff and then I started seeing posts about fall and it got cooler for a couple days and I was reading a fall issue of Taste of Home and then I just got crazy with project lust! Poor Mr. Wonderful. He's in for a productive weekend! :0)

Ava Update

2010-08-28T10:55:00.003-05:00

Hi all,

Just an update on our almost-15-month old today. She is growing like crazy now! She says "Mama, Papa, wuff-wuff, hi, bye-bye, oo-oo ah-ah (monkey sound), no, no, no, no and more no. She says it all the time!

She has taken up to about 6 steps at a time, but she's still pretty cautious about it. She has, however, 3 dance moves now, so I'm hoping that she starts walking more in the next few weeks so she can bust them out at the weddings we are going to!

My other favorite things she is doing now is giving hugs upon request. And she will pat your back (or her stuffed animals) when she hugs you. She will also follow simple directions to hand us things, or put things in a container. It's so fun to realize that she understands so much of what we say.

This is a picture of her post-ponytail hair Snuggle time with Papa

Working on her "new" computer (our old laptop. She loves pounding on it!)

Trying on her bike helmet. She loved it! :0)

The NUMBERED Cottage

2010-08-03T22:49:00.003-05:00

Whew!

It's been a long time! Long story short, I'm starting a small business, so projects and blogging (and lawn mowing as you will soon see) have been on hold. BUT I'm really excited about this post, because although the exterior of our house could use a lot of work, we did an upgrade this past month that really makes a big impact on our "curb appeal".

Behold: The "before" front of our house: (creepy stalkers and burglars note that we don't have anything of interest in our house, so ignore the house number). Note the sticker house numbers. For Christmas I asked for these FABULOUS house numbers. They can be found at Home Depot, but interestingly not at their website. It's like a wonderful insiders secret!

Mr. Wonderful did all of the work to put these up. I will tell you that he used some caulk-type stuff to secure the numbers, and then used the tape to hold them in place until it set. I got to enjoy the job of scraping off the ancient sticker numbers that were on our door frame. Let me tell you that Goo Gone did not really work on these suckers. Mostly just elbow grease and some scrapes in the paint on the metal door frame.

Much prettier! I love how modern and clean the numbers look. And much more readable. I would also love to paint the front steps and then paint the house number on the front steps too. Mr. Wonderful says we should worry about the exterior NEXT summer. He's probably right!

Also I changed out the flowers in my wreath to match the ones in the coffeepot on the front steps. Less cluttery that way, I think.

the Mama Bag

2010-07-12T12:02:00.004-05:00

Woot! The sewing bug has bit again. And the venom is sweet.

I tried out another bag from Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule. This one is called the Mama Bag. That's right. I sewed myself a purse! Mr. Wonderful laughed at me because he thinks I have too many purses. I did buy myself a purse this summer at a rummage sale, but believe it or not, it's TOO big. It's so cavernous that I can never find what I need. I wanted to downsize. And I wanted something less...hippie-ish. Don't get me wrong, I love hippies! I just don't want to carry their purse all the time. :0)

I added some pleats to the front ala Gussy. Gussy makes me want to pleat and ruffle everything in sight.

Can I tell you that I was like a woman possessed during this project? I finished it in a day, using one whole 2 hour nap and probably another hour during the evening. I couldn't stop myself! I am so excited about how much better I'm getting at sewing! Next I want to try tackling patterns. Patterns are very intimidating to me. With their fragile nature and their tracing chalk. They are kind of like bobbins to me. Although I think I am slowly conquering the bobbin!

I think what I have learned from sewing is to just go for it. Yeah, maybe your idea won't work, but you can always tear it out and try it again. And I've learned to be a little more careful with my work. I think having a young baby I got in the habit of being happy if things just got done, and didn't worry about the quality of the job. So I took my time with this purse, and got a little nitpicky with it. It paid off!

Now get out there and sew!

Faux Roman Blindy Thingys

2010-07-07T20:38:00.004-05:00

I don't know if I've mentioned it on the blog before, but we received an awesome gift from a friend for our baby. She works for a trade magazine that specializes in baby gear and thus gets a bunch of awesome freebies through work. She passed along a COMPLETE nursery from Cocalo Couture, and some other things to boot which totally floored us and made outfitting Ava's room a breeze. I love all of it, but since our nursery is small, we has to put the crib next to a window. If you have kids you know there are all sorts of safety precautions to make when it comes to windows. It's gotten to the point where I wasn't totally comfortable having those long drapes so close to her when she isn't supervised. (Choking hazard? Suffocation? There is so much to worry about!)

So I took a cue from some other bloggers and decided to try making some Roman Shade looking things. I read some other blogs, here, here, and here. Then I decided to wing it and make it up as I went along. I knew I wanted to just keep the curtain rod. No cornice or anything fancy. I liked the Nester's idea of just tying it up with ribbon, but the curtain was way too long to do that and I didn't want to cut it down. So I did sort of a fusion of a Roman Shade tied up.

Not perfect, but safer. And I safety pinned up the ribbons on the bottom, so if she ever gets tall enough to reach it I can always pin it up higher. :0)

I'm linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party!

A smorgasboard of Ava pics.

2010-06-26T12:01:00.004-05:00

Why yes, my daughter IS eating graham crackers off the floor. And yes, we DO feed her. Father's Day!

Ava took a dip in her new swimming pool (Thanks, M & G!)

She LOVED it. She is a beach baby, much to her papa's delight. My parents were up for the weekend, and we had a great time. Look at those adorable thighs!

Good news about Ava's hair-dos. I'm getting better at them! Here she is rocking the pig tails.

And here.

AND here.

Ooo, and here's her VBS costume! I had some extra material leftover from mine.

Doesn't she look so ancient Egyptian?

Heh, this picture depicts how sometimes Ava's bibs can make her arms look a bit...short.

There! An Ava fix for you!

Now headlining....our kitchen island!

2010-06-25T12:27:00.004-05:00

Hey, lookee here! No, above the giant fur cleaning ad (seriously, how often have you seen people in Wausau wearing furs. How can you make a living doing that?) .....

It's our kitchen island featured in You Magazine! (a publication of the Wausau Daily Herald) I think it's a women's magazine. It doesn't say that on the cover, but all of the people on the "board" are women, so I think it's safe to assume. My friend, K, saw the island and asked if she could write a how-to article about it. It was really sweet of her and she did a great job with the article. It was fun to be interviewed and see it in print. And I'm really glad they didn't use the picture with ME in it!!!

It's In the Bag...

2010-06-24T14:57:00.003-05:00

I can't believe that I just sewed two bags. I took fabric and out of this fabric a bag appears. I'm not claiming they are any GOOD, but they serve the intended purpose and this is still boggling my mind! I can do it!

I used the book Handmade Home by Amanda Soule Blake to make them. There were challenging parts, such as dealing with the blasted bobbin, and figuring out how to make button holes (the machine just does it FOR you! Even my ancient one!) I wanted to make a bag to replace the above lovely plastic one, which has been my place to put the multitude of bibs and washcloths that clean up mealtimes. Babies have a way of exponentially increasing one's laundry, no?

This is the one I made! I think it looks much better. I had some sturdy canvas material, which I figured would hold up well. I didn't make the cloth balls hanging down that the book suggests, but I did make a pocket on the front. For color. And I used hem tape that I found at a thrift store (5 packs/$.26!) for the straps and drawstring.

Here is the other bag I made. I made it to hold Ava's cloth wipes, which are currently getting hopelessly mixed in with all her diapers. When baby is on the changing table and you realize you need another wipe, you want to be able to get to it FAST! Hopefully this will facilitate such speed.

I would definitely suggest checking your local library for Handmade Home. There are a LOT of cute ideas for practical things you can use around the house. They aren't too complex, and some of them don't even use a pattern, such as this one. A good confidence builder!

Our Big Girl. I Refuse to Call Her a Toddler, Though.

2010-06-14T15:17:00.004-05:00

Guess who turned 1 last week? Nope, not me. Nope, not Mr. Wonderful....Yes! It's Ava! Some people refer to 1 year olds as "toddlers". I can't bring myself to do it. After all, she doesn't toddle yet. I still have time!

We had a celebration with my side of the family over Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time of watching the Bird go through the rites of passage that come with a birthday for the first time. She was really excited about the wrapping paper and the gift bags, really confused about people looking at her and singing in a big group and entirely unsure about the frosting and cake. The party was resplendant with my sister's far superior birthday cake. I didn't try to compete last week with my birthday cake, but I did try a pretty easy cake. I'm not a baker, and I've never made a birthday cake before, but it was fun!

Ava was a pretty cool customer when it came to trying her birthday cakes. Here she is:

With the proud parents:

I used a paper pattern to cut the 9x11 cake into a number "1".

ps. if you buy Red Hots in the cake decorating aisle, they cost about 10x's more than if you walk two aisles over to the candy aisle. It's a crime, really.

And for your visual pleasure, my amazing sister's amazing bird cake. Holy confection perfection, Batman!

Very Trix-y

2010-06-09T20:40:00.005-05:00

I like to think my decorating style is like the tortoise from "The Tortoise and the Hare". It seems like it is taking forever to do some of these projects, but slow and steady wins the race!

This little project was inspired by Kimba from her "good enough" mudroom. I really love chalkboard stuff, and I thought these chalkboard tags could help us organize our little mud-space. I could have bought pre-made chalkboard tags at Joanne's for about $1.50/3, which would have been a steal. BUT I found a cheaper, greener option on another blog.

I cut these tags out of cereal boxes. I think I used that receipt as a template. Then I used chalkboard paint on the glossy side of the cereal box. Otherwise it'll soak in too much and curl it. They still curled, but straightened out as they dried.

You know the drill: two coats of chalkboard paint, let it cure for 24 hours and then cover the surface it with chalk and erase before using it.

Then I used some scrapbook paper to cover up the non-glossy side of the tags. I attached the tags to some baskets I got at a rummage sale for $.25 each with some jute twine.

Sorry for the awful lighting. I think the baskets will be great for mittens and hats this winter. Also, there will be a lower shelf to put them on eventually. :0) Pretty good looking cereal boxes, eh?

Raising the Bar

2010-06-08T14:13:00.005-05:00

I tried an experiment this week. I am a devoted Nesting Place reader, and have been intrigued by her window "mistreatment" expertise. I have really no experience in and hardly any opinions about window treatments. I only know that I hate the 80's balloon valances. Seriously.

So when Mr. Wonderful first put up our curtains and said "where do you want 'em?" I was not sure how to respond. I mean, they go above the windows, right? So they have looked like this for the past couple of years (broken shades and all): There's Mr. Wonderful now!

There's me waving in the reflection!

Since I read that curtains should be hung high and wide so as to let in as much light as possible, they have been staring me in the face. All. Winter. Also, those leaf thingys seemed too redundant.

So this week, (with some help from Mr. Wonderful) I rehung the curtain rods. I didn't know exactly where to put them, so I picked 4 inches from the ceiling and about 4 inches from the window moulding (I think 5 inches on the small window). Totally arbitrary. I didn't have to go quite THIS far.

I also super-glued the broken shades. Eventually I'd like to get some bamboo shades, but for now, I just made it work. I also got rid of one of the curtain tie-backs. I dunno. Like I said, I'm pretty clueless. But I DO know that I like the effect much better. And it has stopped them from taunting me with their low-ness and mis-placed-ness. so I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

The windows look bigger, no? If you know of any other good online resources for window treatments, let me know!

Easy Upgrade

2010-06-04T20:19:00.003-05:00

We have a windowsill right in front of our kitchen sink, which I love. I like being able to look out the window while I wash dishes (no dishwasher at our casa), and it provides precious horizontal space for us. It was cluttered for a long time, and I wanted to try and clean it up. For some reason, clutter affects my brain. Sooo anyway, I saw a blog (forget which one) where they used a soda bottle (pop bottle for you Minnesota peeps) for their dish soap. It was sooper cute. I saw this bottle of lemonade for sale at Aldi (super cheap grocery store chain that we shop at) and thought it would be great for this project. It was around $2.50 I think. I got the top spout at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I got 10 for $5 and I had a gift card, so it was free.

Speaking of which, if any of you Wausau readers want one, I've got 9 left. A gift from me to you! Just let me know.

And I splurged on my FAVORITE dish soap, 7th Generation lavender and mint. Sounds like kind of a weird combo, but I love it! I love it better in a pretty bottle though.

How to squeeze in a mudroom

2010-05-25T14:21:00.004-05:00

More progress on our stairwell! What I haven't told you is that we are going to turn it into a mini-mudroom. We used to have a row of hooks in our butler's pantry to hang coats, but it really wasn't a convenient place. I have also been starting to see the top of our stairs as wasted space recently. It's just a little corner, but those are precious square feet! When you have a small home, you have to find those places and figure out how to make them functional. It's right next to the door, so I decided it makes a lot more sense to put the mudroom area there.

I had admired this take on the mudroom awhile back, but we didn't have a closet I could use for that. At least not anywhere NEAR the door. I definitely wanted a seat in our mudroom but didn't know how I could work it in. Here's what I came up with and what we have so far:

I took the hooks off the IKEA hook rack we bought for our butler's pantry, and screwed them into the boards that were already on the wall, and then Mr. Wonderful helped me cut the board for the seat and fitted it with some extra boards on the bottom to raise it up off the cords that run under it. I covered the board with some repurposed quilt batting and fabric and used our new staple gun (thanks, K!) to staple the fabric down. Just a little seat for putting your shoes on. Because it is in the corner, it doesn't block your way down the stairs at all. There are a few more things to do before I want to be done with this space, but I'm excited about the progress!

Cost: hooks--$6 (five are repurposed, two are new from HD)

paint--free (leftover)

seat--free (leftover wood, batting and fabric. We were gifted a staple gun, though I did have to buy staples for it)

I would love to use some bead board, but I'm not sure how that would work. It definitely needs some more color, maybe a pillow for the seat, but I'm excited about how it is going so far.

AND I'm linking to DIY Day (The Finale! :0( ) ETA: I'm linking up to the Lettered Cottage!

Sew, I have some news...

2010-05-24T20:08:00.003-05:00

I bought a sewing machine! I'm super excited about it. I got it for $30 from an older lady who was moving out of her apartment. It doesn't sound like it has been used too much. It looks a lot like the one my mom had growing up, so it might not have a lot of bells and whistles, but it's familiar. I didn't do very much sewing at all apart from my home ec classes in junior high, but I was surprised at how much I remembered. Thanks, Mrs. Puffy (yup, Mrs. Puffy). As a side note, in junior high I sewed a pillow shaped like a cyclops. A staple of fashionable decor.

For my next project (after cyclops pillow) I decided to make some cloth wipes for Ava. We already use cloth diapers, but we have been using paper towels sprayed with water for her wipes so far. Having a diaper pail AND a garbage seemed silly, the more I thought about it.

So a friend from church gave me some sherpa, and I repurposed some flannel sheets I already had. I cut them to match and put the wrong sides together. I made some 8x8s, but then made some of different sizes with the scraps. Then I did a zigzag stitch around the edges. Easy, but a major feat for me. I had to learn to thread the machine, bring the thread up from the bobbin (hate the bobbin), change the foot, figure out why 3 threads would come up from the bobbin sometimes, and just get the feel for my new machine. Ignore my toes in the picture, m'kay? Oh, and if you're wondering about the black thread, it was an artistic choice. It has nothing to do with my hatred for the bobbin and my reluctance to change it. Oh, and the wipes have been working GREAT! I could kick myself for waiting so long!

And a picture for Grandma. A new hat picture!

And yes, she is as delightful as she looks!

A Before and After--Me!

2010-05-13T14:38:00.002-05:00

I LOVE before and afters. I love seeing the transformation of a room, a wall, an item or a person. I spend a lot of time thinking of how I can improve my home and envisioning what different options will look like. I love reading bloggers who flip houses and do amazing things with reasonable budgets. I actually struggle with how much time I spend on this stuff. I have to limit myself or I'd easily spend all my free time on it.

It occurred to me yesterday that it points to the difference Christ has made in my life. One small illustration of His grace in my life. I am definitely not a perfect person, and I can't give you a time and date of my salvation, but I have been changed! Even better than those pages in a glossy magazine. (Did you catch YHL's blog post about the photo shoot at their house? Using dish clothes to make the towels fluffier? Shocking! Makes me feel better that my house doesn't look like a magazine!) I am a totally NEW creation. Not just a re-do of the old me!

When I was thinking aobut this, one big change that stood out to me is that God has taken away all sorts of bitterness from me. There was a time in my life when I really harbored bitterness and was easily offended. I was angry. It's something that God has just routed out. And I'm thankful. Just one example of my before and after story. :0) Feel free to share what God has changed in you!

PROGRESS. Feels good.

2010-05-07T13:05:00.004-05:00

Here's a bit of an update on the dreaded stairwell. Details of the nasty before pictures can be found hereI apologize for the lighting. There are currently no working lights in the stairwell. I used classic taupe by Behr, because we had it already. It's okay. But in the wrong light it looks like the dusty rose I had in my bedroom ca. 1987 when I "designed" my bedroom. The pink bunny room. Not exactly what I was going for here, so I'll just choose to view it through taupe colored glasses.

I know, this hardly looks like an after picture, but it truly truly looks much better. We don't really want to put up new drywall or do a major overhaul, but the paint really brightened up the space.

I researched how to paint a stairwell and extension ladder safety, so I was pretty confident in my ladder technique, but I was still sweating bullets when I painted the stairwell. It was scary! And I'm not even really scared of heights. I was so tense that I felt like I had pulled muscles the next day. It was crazy. But anyway...

Set the feet of the ladder against a stair (or better yet a wall), making sure the feet are even and flat against the ground. Make sure it is not too vertical. And the top goes against the opposite wall. *DO NOT TAKE THIS AS EXPERT ADVISE. TAKE PROPER PRECAUTIONS WHEN YOU USE A LADDER*

I had to get rid of some mildew on the cement blocks before I primed (Kilz) and painted.

I sprayed this mixture of one part bleach to three parts water on the mildew and let it sit 10 minutes before wiping it of with water.

I've got some other plans in the works for the stairwell to make it a utilized space. I'm really excited about it, AND I got to use a table saw for the first time! Woohoo!

Fake it Don't Make it Orange Chicken Bowl

2010-05-04T14:18:00.003-05:00

Mr. Wonderful really likes a dish at Applebee's called the Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl. I googled it, and found this recipe. It was great, except that it took a day to get the oil off the floor, stove and the smell out of the house. I avoided making the recipe because of frying the chicken. So we decided to try something new. Here's the new recipe.

Two boxes of breaded chicken fingers

1 T olive oil

1 t. minced garlic

1 1/2 t. grated orange rind

1 c. orange juice

1/2 c. hoisin sauce

dash cayenne pepper

1/4 cup sugar

dash of salt and pepper

Cook the chicken as directed on box while you prepare the glaze. Warm the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens, stirring frequently. Pour sauce over chicken and serve with a stir fry.

I tried this last night and it worked great! Much easier than frying the chicken. Bon Appetit!

Pictures for Grandma

2010-04-29T12:21:00.002-05:00

Back in March when my mom came to visit, she was surprised to hear that Ava hadn't been getting into the cupboards, as apparently her uncle had a special interest in that activity as a wee babe. She is making up for lost time now! Here is Ava on the move:

Who me? No, not me!

She can keep herself pretty busy with her new activity. Its fun to watch her discover! Makes you wonder why we even have any toys in the house!

Hi, My Name is Ally and I'm a Tag Sale-aholic.

2010-04-28T13:15:00.003-05:00

Let me hear you now, "Hi, Ally!"

Thank you for your show of support. At least I've taken my first step, right? Admitting the problem?

I found a GREAT estate sale last weekend. I'm finding that the best recipe for a great tag sale is older house out in the country, maybe on a farm, an older lady's house. I could have bought so much more, but I stood my ground. This is actually a pillow case, but I'm using it flat on the kitchen island right now. I HEART the colors. They had a ton of stuff like this. One of the ladies running the sale said "oh you're one of those....what do you call it? Shabby chic people, aren't you? (I'm not really, but what do you say?) She then proceeded to point out all this great stuff to me. Every few minutes.

This is handmade. Not totally sure what it's going to do yet. Perhaps hold magazines in the guest room.

Some of it isn't exactly baby friendly. But I love it! An apple crate. This might flip over and be a table in the outdoor room. (the one in my mind. That MAYBE will become a reality when pigs fly. I would LOVE an outdoor room)

And this adorable vintage baby romper for a dime:

Modeled by Miss Ava herself. It's a 12 month outfit, but I don't know if it'll fit her in another month-and-a-half! I'm sure sizing is different these days. But I figured for a dime, I had to get it!

Thanks for listening, and for your support as I battle my addiction. To tag sales.

DIY Wedding Decor, Part Deux

2010-04-23T11:33:00.003-05:00

For Part I of this post, click here

Last, I wanted to share our favors. They are also a Martha find. Nests actually add up if you buy 300 of them, so my mom found an awesome frugal alternative. These are actually little wreaths that were about $.10 a piece. She just clipped them and re-formed them into nests.

I ordered the eggs from a local candy shop. I can't express to you HOW delicious they were. They were chocolate with caramel inside.

Sigh....it was a beautiful day!

DIY Wedding Decor

2010-04-22T17:18:00.004-05:00

We've been a little quiet around here. A couple projects waiting in the wings. Mostly we've been working on project get-Ava-to-poop and project get-Ava-to-sleep-through-the-night-it's-been-ten-point-five-months-already-girl!!! The former was a success. All I needed was an oral syringe, as apparently I have the only baby on the planet who doesn't like juice. The latter project....let's just not talk about that :0/

SO I thought I could share the diy decorations from our wedding. We wanted to do our wedding on the cheap. I had no idea what I wanted it all to look like (and we had 4 months to plan!) So I looked through all the wedding magazines I had collected and ripped out what I liked. It worked great (this is also a great idea for home decorating/remodeling projects). Everything I picked seemed to have a handmade/springlike appeal to it. So a theme emerged.

This was the inspiration picture I found in the magazine for centerpieces. That was even before I realized that birds were hip. So I employed (and when I say employed, I mean I didn't pay them. They were more like indentured servants) many friends and family members to make 1100 cherry blossoms out of crepe paper. You know. No big deal.

My sister added the birds, and also made these super cute vases to put them in. My parents cut down all their bushes in the backyard. Awww....

These are our invitations. We printed them from a kit at Target. We stamped the bird, scanned it and made it a watermark on the back. I love how they turned out, but if I had it to do all over again, I'd have paid someone else to print them. It took forever. But it was good team building for Mr. Wonderful and I!

This picture is to showcase the wreaths that my sister made (over my left shoulder) They are also made out of crepe paper blossoms (over and above the 1100 we already made!) She is truly a giving, gifted and loyal sister!

Okay, I have one more pic to post, but Blogger hates me and won't let me add it. I'm going to try and post this and I'll do a seperate post for the last picture. Click here.

Hope For Ava's Hair Do

2010-04-19T11:54:00.004-05:00

My friend The Mothership is having a giveaway today! It features some SUPER adorable babywear from the Sunshine Shoppe. Seeing as how I am baby-hair challenged (see above) I am totally scoping the site out. Poor Ava. Having a mom who can't do your hair, but refuses to get it cut must be challenging. If you have or know a baby, get over there and check it out!

Just For Fun

2010-04-16T12:06:00.003-05:00

Our kitchen island is going to be featured in an upcoming publication, (which I will share with you when it comes out) which I am super excited about! My friend, K, wrote the article after we finished it awhile back. Today, they sent a photographer to take pictures of it. *the following pics are NOT the photographers pics. They are my point-and-shoot, homely, no clue about lighting pictures* I just thought I'd take advantage of my specially-cleaned-it-never-looks-like-this kitchen.

This one shows the newly painted cabinets! I considered trying to do a fancy dancy "tablescape". Buuuut, that is not my forte. So I used my new coffeepot, some faux flowers from Joanne's (I put some books in the bottom of the pot to make them stand up higher) aaaaand a couple of branches from a really pretty bush that may or may not be on our property that I nabbed last night after dark. Nabbing things after dark might be my new thing. So what? Big deal!

Ha! So the photographer just got a couple pictures of the island and then wanted some with ME in them. Jigga wha? Nobody mentioned that small detail. If they had I may have, I don't know, showered today. Or maybe put on some make up. So as not to look like frumpy mama. Hopefully they either do some amazing photoshop tricks or don't use them :0) Oy vey.

Going once, going twice, SOLD!

2010-04-14T10:15:00.004-05:00

We tried something new on Saturday, and went to an auction! I saw it advertised in the Buyer's Guide (free publication delivered to our house once a week), and looked up the web page. They had a couple of dough bowls advertised, which I've been keeping an eye out for awhile now. My friend Marge had one in her New England cape-style home. During Christmas she would put some fresh boughs and apples in it and it looked so great. I've always wanted one. Anyway, so I did some research, found out how crazy expensive they can be, and hoped for the best.

Our Mapquest directions got us ridiculously lost on the way there. They were terrible! So we were late. Walking into the auction was super intimidating, because I couldn't make out a word of what the auctioneer said at first. I didn't know where I was allowed to walk, or if it was okay that we brought a baby along, but I pretended to know what I was doing because I figured I should keep my game face on. A friend of mine gave me a few pointers:

1) Set a top price in your head
2) Don't make it a contest
3) Pretend it doesn't matter to you whether you get an item or not
4) Don't bid on the auctioneer's first price, wait until he drops it down

As time went on I was able to kind of decipher the auctioneer and understand how it all went. I got my little number card and "practiced" on some things I liked but didn't care whether I got. When the first dough bowl came up for bid I was distracted by Ava. She was being pretty good but I was feeding her some puffs or something. So I didn't get in on the action when I could have. But anyway it went for above our limit. So I didn't hold out much hope for the bigger more primitive dough bowl.

We stuck around. Mr. Wonderful ended up getting a set of books called "The History of the World" (sounds like some heady reading!) Finally, the other bowl was up for bid and I was ready this time. I didn't bid on his first price, I waited for him to drop it down. Somebody else bit first, I held up my number high for the next price, but I wasn't the only one. I got it at $40, and then I made a rookie mistake: I double bid. The auctioneer even had to say "ma'am I already got you at $40." Embarrassment! Somebody got it at $50, and I thought I was done, but the guy behind us said "c'mon, are you going to let that get away????" So I bid $60! And the guy who was clearly a dealer ahead of us bid $70 and I couldn't keep going. SAD!

We stayed for a little while longer. They put this foot warmer for a carriage up for bid, (you would have put coals in it to keep your feet warm back in the day) and nobody was biting, so they added an enamel coffee pot to the lot. I happen to heart enamel, and I thought it was cool, so I bid on it and got it! Here it is:

It's actually pretty huge. Here is a little perspective:

So the auction was a lot of fun! I highly recommend it, but as a warning it was really addictive to bid. And even though we set a limit in our heads, it was really tempting to raise that limit. Do I really want to lose this item over a measly $10? $20? $30? But that's part of the fun. I see many more auctions in my future this summer!

Birthday Party!

2010-04-12T12:26:00.003-05:00

On Saturday we hosted a little soiree for our dear friend Rach. We like to call her Auntie Rach (she's not my biological sister. She's my sister from a different Mister.) Ava wore a special onesie in honor of her "auntie": Rach has rather unique dietary needs, including but not limited to gluten-free foods. So we made a "Rachael-friendly" dinner. I invented a new food for it, modeled by Chris!

It's a hamburger, but instead of using a bun, I pan fried some potato slices in olive oil. (please ignore the ketchup. It's not Rachael friendly. Some of us (*ahem, Mr. Wonderful*) just couldn't give up our creature comforts!) We also snacked on grapes and cashews.

Thankfully, Rach's doc gave her the go ahead to have a slice of cake. So she brought a gluten- and dairy-free cake as well. I know, the birthday girl shouldn't bring her own cake, but I haven't mastered the art that is gluten- and dairy-free baking.

Happy Birthday, Rach! We love you!

Cute Pictures of my Baby

2010-04-11T12:17:00.002-05:00

Snapshots of my days. She may keep me up at night, but she lights up my life!

Baby gate? Who needs a baby gate? She is starting to like solids! Yay! I won't breastfeed forever after all!

She loves her diaper time.

Chillin with Papa.

OMW these Nikes are adorable. I never would have bought them myself, but they are the only shoes that actually stay on. Highly recommended.

Inadvertent bouffant.

Less than 10 minutes later:

I should probably do a post like this whenever I'm sleep deprived. Its making me forget how frustrating it can be when the baby keeps waking up at night. It is so beyond worth it and I seriously have nothing to complain about. I love being a mommy!

Kitchen Update, Part I

2010-04-09T12:10:00.003-05:00

Warning: Longest. Post. Ever. Lots. Of. Periods. For. Emphasis.

I have been waffling back and forth about painting the cabinets forever. I hated to be the person to paint over wood, but the more I looked at it, the more I saw fabulous cottage-y potential in cabinets that were, shall we say, past their prime.

My mom came to watch Ava while Mr. Wonderful and I went away for our anniversary, so I seized the opportunity to have her stay and help me with this special project. As I have mentioned before, my mom is a powerhouse at projects and I knew she'd help me get the job done.

Since I forgot she was going to take off the doors while we were gone, I didn't get a proper before shot, but these should give you the idea: Notice that we got new hardware but not new hinges...

After the doors were off:

My naive self with the profile sander before we started, thinking "We'll get these puppies done in a jiffy!"

The knotty pine was covered with what seemed to be two coats of a thick shellac. We ended up getting 60 grit sandpaper and a lot of elbow grease for the frames and using a new sander to do the doors in the garage. I seriously thought I had carpal tunnel that night. We sanded for about 6 hours. Any thoughts I was entertaining about painting the trim (which has the same finish) have vanished. We didn't just rough up the surface, we took it all off and it looked like this:

We did an oil based primer (Kilz) and two coats of semi gloss latex paint (didn't want to spring for the $50/gallon cabinet paint). On the inside we did yellow to match our walls. We just got a cheapo brand for that. We matched it to Behr Pale Daffodil. For the outside we picked Behr Parmesan (worst name ever, but it seemed to have the crispness of white while still being off-white).

This is my amazing mom painting the tricky spots in our makeshift workspace. This woman is in her 60s people. No joke.

The insides are so cheery! Inspired by a post from the Nester.

I decided to take some of the doors off on top and replace them with baskets. I love the variety and also those top doors are so wide and short that they didn't really hang right. I kept the middle ones because there's a recessed light in there.

We spray painted our existing hinges. Cheap. But again, some of our doors aren't quite fitting the same way they used to. It's kind of chancy to change up old cabinetry like this, but I think we'll be able to tweak it.

We chose this hardware a couple years ago, because the old hardware didn't have standard measurements. The new hardware curves in and covers up the old holes.

I love this little cutout in white!

Overall, I love the painted look. It makes our kitchen much brighter, and just overall looks better. However, Mr. Wonderful and I agree that we need some more contrast, because now our floors, counter top, back splash, cupboards and ceiling are essentially all the same color, which isn't to our taste. The counter top and back splash need to be replaced anyway, so the plan is to work in some color/contrast there. We decided to keep our sink and just do this as cheaply as possible.

In the great tradition of my grandfather....

2010-04-08T14:08:00.002-05:00

...I went dumpster diving. Last night I was on a walk with Ava, and I spotted something in an accessible dumpster (as in I didn't break in anywhere) on our way. I asked myself, "could those be....no...they wouldn't just throw those out..." but they were! And then I plotted to come back after dark and nab 'em. I hate to see anything go to waste! Do you like how I keep trying to justify myself?

So after Ava went to bed, I told Mr. Wonderful that I was going on an expedition. I pulled on my black fleece jacket, grabbed the empty stroller from the garage, and walked the short distance back to the dumpster. And this is what I found, right on top: Fabulous hardware samples! Mwahahah! So I threw them into the empty stroller (just as the neighbors were pulling in *whistles while looking around innocently*) and strolled back to the house to show Mr. Wonderful. It made me feel like a teenager! Stay at home moms gone wild!

If anybody asks, you NEVER saw this....

Why? Why now? Why here?

2010-04-07T14:53:00.003-05:00

Okay, so on Monday I decided to stop eating sweets for awhile. While I was pregnant and now that I'm nursing I have really just gone overboard with sugar. And I'm a good rule follower, but not good at limiting myself so I decided just to cut them out altogether for awhile. Plus I did the same thing in college and was successful so I wanted to see if I could still do it.

Well last night we had a terrible sleeping night with Ava, and my alarm woke her up so I stumbled out of bed, starving, into the kitchen and saw this: They have been haunting me all day. I couldn't even eat lunch in the kitchen because they smelled so much better than my food and I swear the smell is following me around! But you know what? They are still sitting there on that plate. Bam! I can DO it. And I can ignore the Easter candy in the guest room. And the chocolate in the pantry. Heck, even the Diet Coke my mom left is tempting me from the fridge, and I think Diet Coke is g-r-o-s-s! Sorry, I had to rant.

Welcome on in!

2010-04-05T12:22:00.005-05:00

Yay! So I "finished" the art wall in our entryway. I say "finished" because I'll probably add to it over time. I wanted some kind of welcome art and had been admiring some in Pottery Barn Home with the word "welcome" spelled out in mismatched letters and numbers in white on a white background. I scoped out the letters in Michaels and Joanne's lamenting the fact that "welcome" has so many letters in it, as those letters add up. And it seemed kind of formal for us, and then I saw these sweeties: They were right next to each other (alphabetical, you know) and it clicked. Much more fun! I have always liked the size and font of these letters from Joanne's. So I painted them up with two coats of leftover "Happy Camper" from Behr. Easy peasy! I hung them up with those strips from 3M that come off easily. Behold the less welcoming before:

And the much more welcoming after!

The clear files on the wall are to store things that I don't want to forget as I go out the door (but still do). They looked very antiseptic before, but now they look a little more mod and cozied up.

I wanted the arrangement to look random, like I added to it over time (which I have and will continue to do!)

Mr. Wonderful and I found some of the fabric when we went away for our anniversary. We found a store that was going out of business and got some fat quarters on the cheap. The key art from my last post is in the mix too. Appropraite for an entryway, I think!

A $.39 1/4 yard fabric piece from Walmart (I think it's my favorite) is above the "hi". Its a retro-looking apple print.

So it's better, yes? I still have a lot of ideas for the entryway, but it's good to see progress!

Key Elements

2010-04-02T15:17:00.003-05:00

Well, dear readers,

There have been big goings on at our home this week, so I haven't had much time to share, but I will let you in on the big changes soon, I hope. In the meantime, I wanted to share my progress in the entryway. I'm trying to add in some art to cozy it up and make it much more welcoming. Inspired by this post from CG and also an image from Pottery Barn Home I set out to make my own art out of a skeleton key Mr. Wonderful had in his house when we got married. I always thought it was super cool, but didn't know how to display it. Using a frame I already had, I fitted some burlap in as a background. It is just held in by the fiberboard and the frame's hardware. I simply hot glued the key onto the burlap. But it didn't stick (it is pretty heavy). So I ended up drilling a few holes into the fiberboard and sewing the key in with black thread (barely noticable).

I thought I'd have to buy a shadowbox frame or something, but then I realized I could just take the glass out of the frame. So that's what I did! For now I think I'll just leave the frame as is. It looks like a chippy wooden frame, but it is actually plastic.

Free wall art! Hoorah!

A Goodwill FIND

2010-03-25T15:54:00.004-05:00

Here is the shower curtain we received for a wedding gift: I picked it out for our registry, but it never QUITE clicked. Especially with our towels. They are more of a slate blue than the blue in the stripes. Plus, it's springtime and I was ready for a change in the back of my mind. Behold, our new shower curtain:

I got it at the Goodwill for $4! I love the bold, cheerful print! I also really like crisp, white shower curtains, so maybe I'll just have a rotation. I'm excited to explore some accessory changes in the bathroom as well. And yes, the curtain IS wrinkled. I was too excited to put it up to wait until Ava was done with her nap to unfold our extremely squeaky ironing board. I figure the wrinkles will fall out with a couple hot showers. Right? Right guys? Guys?

Asters and Zinneas and Alyssum, oh my!

2010-03-24T16:38:00.003-05:00

In addition to the paper pretties, I extended the garden theme of the baby shower to the centerpieces/prizes. First, Rach and I planted some seeds. I was actually very nervous about this part. You see, I kill most plants that I touch. Once I even killed a tree in my parents yard with a lawn mower. I ran over it. The upside is when I offered to mow the lawn from then on they politely declined. :0) So you can imagine my excitement when I passed the flower pots and saw this: They were sprouting! I freaked out to Mr. Wonderful, but he was distracted. So I told him to be more excited! He tried. He really did. Then I called Rach. She was excited like me!

I was wondering aloud to Mr. W about how to label the flowers (we planted three types) and he suggested writing right on the pot. Instantly I thought of the chalkboard projects I've seen in Blogland and decided it would be a great excuse to buy some chalkboard paint.

Here they are on my messy kitchen island!

They'll be so handy, because this size of pot is just for starting seeds out, so I will have to relabel them a lot. Now that I know I can sort of grow something. (yes, I kept some for myself!)

Here are the centerpieces. Ignore the big white barcoded label, mkay? The hydrangeas were a steal at Aldi and I got the garden gloves and trowel (also prizes) at Dollar Tree. The fabric is from my stash. The pots were 3/$1 and the seeds were $.25/pack at Dollar Tree. I had the soil and I got the chalkboard paint at Joanne's. It was a fun shower and I had a good time planning it! Now we're just waiting for the baby. Hang in there K, you'll do great!

Smooth Operator

2010-03-23T14:13:00.003-05:00

Upon experience with our new kitchen island, we decided that we needed to retrofit the drawers with ball bearing drawer slides. The dresser had wooden rails, and one of them was broken. They were quite sticky. We got the new slides at Menards and they look like this: We had use L-brackets to fasten 3/4"x 1 1/2" boards from the back of the dresser to the front, making the tops of the boards flush to the front of the drawer opening. We had to use 3/8" screws so they wouldn't go through the back of the dresser. We couldn't avoid screwing through the bottom of the drawer though. Still trying to come up with a solution for that! Possibly some peg board organizers.

It was trial and error to try and fit the modern slides onto the antique dresser. It was a little of this:

And a little of this:

But in the end, we triumphed and the drawers work a TON better. Thanks to Mr. Wonderful, who figured most of this out, and let me use the power tools!

Paper pretties!

2010-03-22T14:57:00.004-05:00

Hi friends,
I have been a bit mia, but it is due to so many projects getting done. So it's a good thing!

I threw a baby shower for a friend this past weekend. She's an avid gardener, so we made it a garden theme. When I saw the tissue pomanders at Martha's website I knew I had to make them: You may have seen these around the blogosphere. I think this version is probably the easiest. I can't imagine anything easier! They turned out so cute! I used paper lanterns from the Dollar Tree (much cheaper than a styrofoam sphere), Elmer's glue, and used tissue paper from wedding and baby gifts we have gotten. I actually think the crinkly used tissue paper looks the best.

I folded up the tissue into a small square, used a canning jar to trace around for a circle pattern and cut the circle out. This left me with a bunch of tissue paper circles. Wrap the tissue paper around a pen or pencil, elementary school style. Dot the end of the pencil in glue and press onto the lantern. Repeat a billion times. This is a great project to do while watching hulu or chatting with a friend. Kind of mindless and fun! Big shout out to Rach, who helped me out!

On March 25th Living With Lindsay is doing a $5 challenge. The challenge is to create a craft for $5 or less from items found at a dollar store (you can use some materials you already have on hand too.) At $1 a piece, these tissue pomanders should fit the criteria!

On March 15, 2008...

2010-03-15T08:13:00.004-05:00

I had picked out the prettiest white dress I could find... And we had chosen two beautiful rings...

I spent the whole morning grinning...

While you were hanging out with the guys...

We said some special vows...

And praised our God...

All our friends and family were there to see...

You washed my feet and I washed yours....

And we sealed it with a kiss...

We are living happily ever after...

Thanks for two beautiful, full, exciting years, m'love! You are beyond the husband of my dreams!

Arranging our art wall, step by step.

2010-03-09T12:31:00.004-06:00

Whew! This post has been awhile in the making. I'm learning that it's all about patience when it comes to frugal home decor. Well, two years ago (I told you it's been awhile!) I got married. Our anniversary is on the 15th! Aaaaand about a month-and-a-half ago, we got this in the mail: Its our wedding pictures! I picked out some pictures that I wanted to put in a collage on our bedroom wall. So I gathered up all the frames we received as wedding gifts. I noticed that most of them were a brushed or antiqued silver color. Except for this one:

I researched whether you could antique something like that and I found a website that described how you can get that effect on your silver dishes with one of these:

The frame said it was silver plated, so I thought what the heck? I mashed it up in a bag, so it looked like this:

I rubbed the egg all over the frame and guess what? Epic fail. All it accomplished is making me feel silly and making me crave egg salad. So eventually, I decided that frame would be best used for another project. :0)

But I had this frame already. And I thought to myself, "how on earth am I going to find pictures that small from our wedding?" And then I dug deep and realized that I could take the matting out and use a big picture!
I heard from Layla that you should lay out the pictures on the floor in front of the wall that you want to hang them on in order to figure out how to arrange them. Buuuut, we don't have floor space, so I used our bed. First, I tried an arrangement where all the pictures are arranged with a horizontal line inbetween. I think I saw it on Martha's website. It's kind of meh, for me.
Then I tried something a little more stair-steppy.
Then I tried putting the biggest frame in the middle (which I think I heard from the Nester) and flanking it with smaller ones. But there are a lot of larger frames in my collection....
Then I tried throwing out all the rules.
I added the new oval frame in. I tried to balance the black and whites with the colors and made sure the matching frames weren't next to each other.
Then I went for more of a "diamond" shape. Roughly. Which I think I saw on Layla's Houzz interview.
And that ended up to be the one I liked the best! Another trick I heard from Martha is that you should use newspaper templates to hang up on your wall before you put the frames up. It makes it easy to get the nails (or whatever you use) in the right spot.
I love having that be our art in our bedroom. It reminds us of that special day and helps me to drop my other concerns at the door. Our bedroom came together in a lot of soothing tones and this really highlights them for me.
Yay! It's finally done! *runs to find a checklist to cross it off of*

Welcome Art

2010-03-04T10:47:00.004-06:00

I have been drooling over these images for awhile now:

Look on the wall!
On.. Beadboard... I'm dying...

I thought it would be a good way to welcome-ify our entryway. So I went to Bethesda Thrift Store, which I find is the most crafty. I found some embroidery hoops on my first try! Two for $.59 and one for a hefty $.19. Yes! I just used my new fabric stash to fill them.

To try and get them flush with the wall, I gathered the fabric in the back and tried to sew it in. I think I've seen that done in the past.
Aren't they cheerful? I'm going to try and find a medium-sized one. And probably just buy every one that I find thrifting from now on and keep adding until it fills the whole wall because I love it so much. Or until it looks like the Apartment Therapy post.

$.50 craft

2010-03-03T12:21:00.004-06:00

I came across this when I was at the Goodwill the other day. Yep. It was the worst picture of a button covering kit ever. Just kidding. I took that horrible picture. But if I could've taken a good picture of the back I would. Because it said $.99 on a PINK tag. Which meant 50% off, yo. Yes! When I saw it, a craft I saw on a blog came to mind. If I could only remember which one...

So basically, you take the little metal wire insert-y things out of the buttons. (super easy) Cut out the pattern on the package and use it to cut out little fabric circles. Wrap the fabric around the button covers (easy, easy, easy) and pop the back in (easy.)

Then you hot glue a tack onto the button to make a super cute tack to dress up your bulletin board. I realized as I was at the Goodwill that we don't HAVE a bulletin board. Which I'm sad about, because I love these! Luckily I have a sister with a birthday coming up who is a teacher. Who surely has bulletin boards. Who hopefully doesn't read my blog. Jen, if you're out there, you never saw this...

I'm linking up!

A Special Gift

2010-03-01T13:35:00.005-06:00

I met her at church. We were both sitting alone and she offered to share a hymnal with me. She introduced herself, but for the life of me I couldn't understand her thick Massachussetts accent. One Sunday, the pastor announced that Bud Larrabee had cancer. After service she told me that Bud was her husband. She took my arm tight almost as a shield from all the people offering best wishes and condolences on the bad news on our way out of church.

One Sunday I brought my friend Brian and we worked out a scheme. He would simply introduce himself to her and we presumed that she would introduce herself back.

B: Hi, I'm Brian

M: Nice to meet you, Brian. I'm Maaahhhge.

B: Excuse me, did you say Marge?

M: Yes, Mahhhge.

Marge! This was good because she invited me over for tea. It's not good to go to someone's house for tea when you don't know her name.

Marge and Bud's (who kicked cancer like a bad habit!) house was gorgeous. Like out of a magazine. But they built it themselves, a modern cape-style, decorated it with antiques, and insisted on comfort. Put your feet up kinda people. She told me they found the antiques in their younger days when it was the fashion to try and find junkyards from long ago. People would go and dig and not tell anyone else where they were finding their stuff. Marge and Bud had found the oldest junkyards. As I type this, it sounds outlandish. But they live in New England and anyway that's what she told me. They had beautiful stuff.

She would have me over for tea, and for supper and for frappes on the patio. It was almost as if she could anticipate what I needed. One night I walked in and she had set the rocking chair in front of the fire for me. It was enough to wash that college stress right outta my hair. They dine by candlelight every night. Being 2000 miles away from home and living on cafeteria food, it was pure heaven. They outfitted my first apartment with furniture from their beach cottage that they ended up selling. They came to my concerts. They sent me home with goodie bags.

I visited once after college and it was wonderful. We exchange letters sporatically. Fewer and fewer as the years go on. This week we got a package from them for Ava. The sweetest handmade items! She knit the sweater, and made the doll by hand. The doll (sleeping face on one side, awake face on the other) had a little tag attached that said "Hi! I'm Francine!" She is actually the first doll or lovie that Ava has shown much interest in. She already has a little stain on her face, which makes me cringe a little, but it makes me glad that Francine will be well loved.

Thanks, Marge, for everything.

LATDTC featured...

2010-02-26T16:24:00.002-06:00

...on Amy Anderson's (aka blogger of Modpodgerocks) Twitter!

http://twitter.com/modpodgerocks

What a great resource for ideas, eh?

You Are Now Reading an Award Nominated Blog

2010-02-26T13:34:00.003-06:00

That's right, folks,

Laura from Navigating the Mothership sweetly nominated me for a "Beautiful Blogger" award. This, of course, is based on my supermodel good looks and cover-worthy face. Just kidding. Thanks, Laura! (check out her blog. Her notes on motherhood have me in stitches everytime I read a post. Seriously. She is hilarious!)

So, my duties as a nominated "Beautiful Blogger" are to tell you seven interesting facts about me and then nominate 7 more beautiful bloggers. Here goes:

1) I have two middle names. They are Nichole and McKenzie. If you know my last name, you would understand why I never under any circumstances would have hyphenated my name when I got married.

2) When I was a 7th grader I played the role of Oliver Twist in a local college production. It would be the height of my acting career.

3) I am one of 8 lovely ladies in a group of high school friends. We attended the same dance studio. We still take a mostly-annual trip together after all these years. Our name is Fatmess.

4) I studied the cello in college, and play in the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra. We have a concert this weekend!

5) I listened to Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber every single night for a whole summer.

6) I climbed Long's Peak, a 14,000-er outside of Estes Park, Colorado.

Aaaaand,

7a) I hate red paint on walls. Not YOUR walls! If you have red paint on your walls, it is lovely.

7b) I am a people pleaser. See 7a.

There you have it. Now to nominate. I don't think I even know 7 bloggers, but I'll do my best.

Lindsay from Gietzen Ground

Dee from Riz-Bitz

JMom

You ladies are Beautiful Bloggers!

Epic Hair Fail

2010-02-25T09:51:00.005-06:00

What I am about to show you is downright embarrassing, but so hilarious that I had to share. These are honest-to-goodness attempts to do my daughter's hair. As in, I was really trying! These are not jokes! But they turned out so funny I had to take pictures. Er...maybe a little too much baby oil.

At least she's working this style

My attempt at pig tails.

I did the clip on the side and it turned out okay, but is tough to get a picture of since she keeps turning to look at the camera.

Her hair is SO long. It's at that straggly stage. Maybe I'll just stick to headbands from now on. If you have any tips for me, Ava would appreciate it :0)

Baby Steps

2010-02-24T12:40:00.004-06:00

Hello there,

I am making a bit of headway on my projects. I wrote them all down on a list last week. Oh boy, it was a long list! So, I'm trying to just stick to one area. I chose the office, since it'll probably go the fastest and involves the least painting.

I added another jute pencil holder-thingy to the desktop plans. We had this very modern looking pencil holder already. Now there are two! See, it looks less lonely this way.

I have been getting into Mod Podging lately. I really wanted to try Mod Podging the plastic file bin that sits on our desk. I used fabric from Joann's. Seriously, it took me three visits to the store and multiple websites of searching to find fabric. Mr. Wonderful offered to watch Ava so I could browse at my leisure. I was still there for about an hour! I didn't take before pics, as I'm sure you know what a plastic filing tub looks like. I didn't even sand it or anything before I started. I started on one end, first brushed the tub with podge, then the back of the fabric and smoothed as I went along. I did two coats of podge over the top. I trimmed the top edges with a swiss army knife to make it look even. I had to go slow and do some creative folding to make it work, but I'm pretty pleased with the result:

I also did a pretty box that I got a gift in for Christmas. I really like the way it looks together! Mr. Wonderful cleaned the desk off last weekend, so it's really starting to come together. There are a few more pieces to work on, though. Centsational Girl (love!) did a series on organizing and pointed out that when your filing box is pretty it feels less like work to do your bills! So true. In fact, I'm gonna go file right now!

Featuring the Work of Mr. Wonderful

2010-02-22T10:45:00.004-06:00

Several years ago there was an article in Real Simple magazine about turning your personal pictures into art for your home. It looked like a great way to personalize your home, and it stuck with me. After Mr. Wonderful and I got married, I loved the idea of using a picture from our honeymoon for art. Unfortunately, the cost of getting a canvas made of your pictures is prohibitive. It generally starts at around $100. So I sighed and tucked that idea away for another day....

Until Mr. Wonderful surprised me one day! He had the canvas printed for about $45 at the FedEx store, made his own frame and stapled it around the back. It is such a cheery memory and picture. (especially on gray, dreary, Februrary 22nd days. I mean, gray, dreary days.) Look at the color of that water! Here's a close-up of Mr. Wonderful's handiwork. You could also have the color strech around the sides if you choose. Doesn't that fold look great?

Mr. Wonderful customizes on the cheap! I'm so thankful for my creative and handy husband!

Clearing out "Valuable Real Estate" (Thx, Nester!)

2010-02-19T12:36:00.003-06:00

For how much we have gone to being an "e" society, there sure is a ton of PAPER in our lives. I am amazed at the sheer quantity that enters our house on a day to day basis. Mr. Wonderful is an electronics-oriented person, and he helps bring me into the 20th century. So when we started combining our files (read: PAPER) he wanted to get a scanner/printer/copier, scan our old papers in, and recycle the documents. What I heard? DECLUTTER! Yay! I'm all in.

As you can see, it is kind of a messy process. It took some time to get them all in, decide what we needed to still keep a paper copy of, and shred the old ones. But all our documents now fit in half a file drawer. It doesn't take long to keep up with the new documents either. I have a "to scan" file on top of our desk. Handy dandy. We try to do a good job of going through our mail regularly, and recycling things we don't want right away. But we fail a lot more than we succeed at that! Who am I kidding? You've seen my desk.

Here's what we DID keep:

receipts for major purchases
pay stubs for the current year
retirement documents
tax documents for the past 7 years
Investment documents
Some important medical/dental/vision benefit statements

The rest is stored on our hard drive (and backed up). We ended up using the ABC method for organizing our paper documents.

A is for Action. Action documents are anything that we need to take action on. To pay, to mail, etc.

B is for Basic. These are our basic working documents that we will add to over time. Pay stubs, bills, receipts, etc.

C is for classic. Classic documents are those that we don't use on a monthly basis, but are very important. Birth certificates, wills, deeds, etc.

Action documents are generally stored on our desktop file for easy access. Basic and classic documents are stored in our file cabinet or on our computer.

I got most of these ideas from other websites, like Want What You Have and Flylady.

2010-02-17T12:12:00.005-06:00

As promised, here are a few pictures of Ava and her tutu:

Sassy!

Her hairpiece was done by my friend Nicole. She does beautiful work! I'll be sure to post her website link when it is up and running.

Pictures were taken by our friend Rhonda who has a little studio in her basement. Thanks Rhonda! I got the photos taken for Mr. Wonderful's Valentine's Day gift. Plus a photo printed mouse pad so he can see his little ballerina while he is at work.

This is the photo that convinced me to chop off my hair. Plus the little fist that likes to pull on it.

This one is my favorite.

I have to say that we don't usually go this girly with Ava, but it was a lot of fun. I didn't think that we'd get good photos, because the first few times I put the tutu on her it went right into her mouth, but they are so cute!

Where I'm Coming From

2010-02-16T12:34:00.004-06:00

I thought it would be fun to give you a bit of background info on our little home. I find that it helps me to know where other bloggers are coming from when I know something about their life and how they think about their home.

Our home is a recovering bachelor pad. Mr. Wonderful bought it about six years ago when he was a single guy and didn't like apartment living. He had anywhere from 2-4 people living here at any given time as roommates. It was the epitome of a bachelor pad. There was the free, incredibly uncomfortable couch. All the walls were white(ish). There was, we shall say, no cleaning routine. (You might be able to delete the word "routine" from that last sentence). This was the case for about four-and-a-half-years.

I didn't see my husband's bedroom until about halfway through our engagement. I thought he was being protective of my purity, but it turns out he was a little sheepish about the state of his room!

Housekeeping had the potential to be the most problematic area in our marriage. We are pretty compatible in most areas. (In fact, in our pre-marital counseling, our pastor told us that we are "disgustingly compatible.") But while Mr. W sees a house as a place to live, I obsess over houses. I have this deep desire to create order in them. I am thankful to be able to say that God was faithful to teach us how to come to a middle ground in this area. He gave me the patience to build a home slowly so I could do so without being overbearing. He gave Mr. W love for me, and a desire to serve me, even when he doesn't understand my obsession!

Here is a picture from our Valentine's Day date! Mr. W cooked me dinner (fettuccine alfredo with chicken and chocolate peanut butter cake for dessert!) and we watched the Olympics, while some friends offered to watch Ava. It was so relaxing! Thank you, Mr. Wonderful!

Things are finally coming together for old Liz Lemon

2010-02-15T12:02:00.005-06:00

Maybe I should just call this blog "Quotes From 30 Rock." It's so addicting!

I am delving into the world of Mod Podge! I wanted to start small to practice, as I am craft challenged. I saw some Mod Podged binder clips somewhere in blogdom, and I had some binder clips I wanted to pretty up! Maybe my craftlessness is turning.(things are finally coming together for old Ally Lemon...) I just looked through a magazine, found some cute backgrounds and cut them to fit the black part of the binder clips. Then I applied Mod Podge to the binder clip, and the back of the magazine paper, and stuck it to the binder clip. I started on one end and tried to smooth the paper to the edges as I went to the other side to prevent bubbles. I put a layer of podge over the top and let it dry for about 15 minutes, added the word on top using the same steps. I let it dry again and did one more coat for good measure.

I'm using the binder clips in our laundry basket to keep the canvas bag from slipping down (over and over and over...) so I used "laundry" like words.

It was a fun project to practice Mod Podging. There will be more Mod Podging in my future. For more fun projects, check out modpodgerocks.blogspot.com. It's hardcore!

Five Minute Free Kitchen Makeover

2010-02-13T11:30:00.004-06:00

I could not believe the difference this made in my kitchen. How it looks AND how it feels. Look at this fridge. Look at it! It's ridiculous. It does have some wonderful things displayed. In the upper right hand corner you can see the picture I was talking about in my last post. "Paid in full" document from one of Mr. Wonderful's school loans. Ava's ultrasound picture. But I was ready for a change. So I took it all off! It gives me some breathing room. Some blank space in our home. Makes it feel less cluttered. It made me more accountable for making sure I have a place for everything. And it prepares us for what I ultimately would love to do with the fridge. Looking for the fridge in the link? Why, it's underneath the beadboard of course! (dying, dying, dying, I love this so much. She did it herself. So genius.)

But for now, I'm loving THIS!

Oh Heavenly Day!

2010-02-12T12:25:00.003-06:00

Most of the time I feel like I can't get going on a lot of projects. It feels like there is a roadblock at every turn. I'm just not a naturally crafty person. I'm not a cutthroat organizer like my mom (seriously, you should see her work. Its ridonkeykong.) But yesterday the heavens opened, the angels started singing and I actually accomplished something.

I've been working on getting some pictures on the wall in the living room and the master. In the living room we have kind of a fun vibe going on, so I wanted to hang some more pictures from our honeymoon and just some fun times. One of the roadblocks I encountered was that a couple of the frames I wanted to use only had easel backs and not hooks. Thanks to mom (see?) I had a tool kit that included hardware for frames. So I used some tiny nails and put a hook on this bamboo frame that we bought on our honeymoon. (Antigua. Heavenly!) Almost 2 years ago. I guess its about time I got around to using it! On Young House Love, I was reading about how they use strips from a photo booth they rented for their wedding as art. Well, it just so happens that we have one of those from a wedding we went to a couple of years ago, and I had just taken said photo off my fridge when I was cleaning it. (Can you hear the angels singing?) Isn't it cute and fun? We had such a good time at the wedding and I thought it would add to the fun factor in our living room. Roadblock! The couple's (though they are lovely) name and wedding date are on the picture!

Well, in the said tool kit, there happened to be a roll of electric tape (heavens opening...) I personally like to call it "custom matting." This frame only had an easel back as well. I ended up using a swiss army knife to cut a long horizontal rectangle in the top of the back (it is basically cardboard) and hung it on the nail from that.

Not bad, eh?

Storage. Not just for plastic tubs.

2010-02-11T12:27:00.004-06:00

One way that you can cut the clutter living in a small space is to look for pieces with storage built into them. For example, my sister gave me these excellent end tables when I moved. (She did the tile mosaic on the top. So creative!) We have two of them, so there are six extra drawers for storage. Much more than if we had typical table-style end tables. Plus I love the hardware on them.
Other ways you can add storage is by using ottomans with a top that comes off, a chest for a coffee table, a stack of vintage suitcases as a bedside table, or a dresser as a changing table or sideboard. You want your furniture to multi-task in small spaces. If you have any tips, please leave a comment and share!

Adding some texture

2010-02-09T16:12:00.003-06:00

I'm getting started on a project for our office area. When I picture the office area, I really wanted some natural textures incorporated. I have seen other bloggers use jute twine in their projects, and it looks easy, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Here are my supplies: I used a tin can with the label taken off. To prevent sharp edges, the top of this can was taken off with a safety can opener (LOVE those things). I got the twine at Ace Hardware (I love the selection there and the service was incredible.) Basically I glued the twine in a spiral around the can and kept going!

I used waaaay too much hot glue, though, so for my next one I'm going to try to use less and really push the twine together as I go along. It looks a little forlorn all by itself, but I think it'll look really good on the desktop with the other stuff. And such a green craft!

I'm going to link this to DIY day at A Soft Place to Land (with THE Kimba, who FYI, commented on my rug! Woot!)

High Storage

2010-02-09T11:46:00.004-06:00

This is a picture of the upper cabinets in our kitchen. Whoever designed the kitchen put cabinets from floor to ceiling! Even the toe kicks are only about an inch high. I see a lot of houses today with cabinets that don't reach the ceiling. For a situation like that, it would be a great place to display items that work with your decor. I love that I don't have to worry about creating "vignettes" because I have no horizontal space! I'm terrible at stuff like that. You're going to have to ask The Nester about that. While for a shortie like me it doesn't seem super practical, its a great place to keep candles, vases, and other stuff I don't need to get into very often. It's going to look so good painted! I can't wait to get started!

Underbed storage

2010-02-08T14:36:00.011-06:00

Back at it! We just got our new computer (!) up and running, so I've been away a bit.

I realized recently that we are not using the space underneath our bed and our guestroom bed. This is prime real estate in a small home! I decided to use the space under our guestroom bed as gift wrap storage.

We have a TON of gift bags from our wedding and our baby showers. When you get married and have a baby in a 15 month span of time they tend to pile up. Also, we almost exclusively use gift bags for the reuse aspect of them. That's why I decided on this storage solution.

Since they fold flat, I just got some cardboard underbed storage boxes from the dollar store. I folded the mountains of tissue paper flat as well to be reused.

So we went from this piled up in the basement:

To sliding these away under the bed:

These are the boxes I used from the Dollar Store:

They do the job just fine for something you won't be in and out of very often. I'm happy with how it frees up the basement space (another one of our projects). And with the amazing number of babies due at our church and in our circle of friends, we'll hopefully weed through those gift bags and free up some space for other things.

A bit of healthy accountability

2010-02-03T15:43:00.011-06:00

Groan!

I'm about to share with you some of the more...unsightly corners of our casa. They are the places that need some help. But thankfully the ideas are flowing. But it's gonna take awhile.

Behold! Our stained counter tops. They are white and speckled. Some would say that speckled is good because it hides the spots, but they pretty much just look LIKE spots to me. We're planning to tackle our kitchen this spring or summer. Which should be interesting, because we don't have a budget for it. Or any of what is to follow....But! We're going to paint the cabinets, and get new counter tops, as well as install a bead board back splash as well as other tasty ideas I have stolen from other bloggers. Mwahaha...

Gasp! I know, this is not like those other blogs, with their beautiful glossy pictures and their fabulous for less glamour. Nope, we're getting down and dirty today! This is the top of our stairs, which is shockingly right next to our back door (where pretty much everyone enters). Not very welcoming. AND it has potential to serve a purpose that is not being realized. This is a big no-no when you are trying to live in a small space.

Headed down the stairs. I don't even know what kind of material is on the walls. But it seems to be some kind of fiber-y board that has been painted different colors over the years. Blaze orange, green, and now white.

Next, onto our office area. Our office is currently located in the "butler's pantry". It is really just an extra wide hallway, that we will someday steal space from to put a bathtub in. BUT I'm very excited for the office, because I've been doing a lot of Mod Podge research, and Mr. Wonderful gave me full reign to transform his file cabinet! Plus, we have this fabulous library table from my parents to work with.

Lastly (for now) our coffee table. With these monstrous brown couches and a brown coffee table and natural wood floors and trim (I know, I know, everyone is painting theirs white) our living room is being taken over by a lot of dark brown. So the least I can do is paint our coffee table. In the past, I really didn't like our coffee table, especially the hole where there used to be a drawer and now there isn't (the hole is on the other side of the table). However, lately I've been picturing it white with a little shelf where that drawer used to be, which is the perfect size for our laptop, or mmm...maybe Ticket to Ride (our favorite game. Small obsession. Very minor.) But I think the shape of it will come out more with some white paint.

Do excuse the mess. I know I should probably try to make my house look pristine for pictures, but I always get a little discouraged by "perfect" houses I see on the web, so I want to try and be real here.

So there you have it! If you don't start seeing some progress on these projects, tell me to get in gear! The painting projects might take some time, as it's cold here and I don't want to paint indoors anymore!

Go With the Flow

2010-02-03T14:34:00.003-06:00

Continuing our series on small space living, let's talk about spacial flow.

I recently learned from a Young House Love article that round tables are better for spacial flow than cornered tables. Which makes a lot of sense, now that they mentioned it. I would start looking for a new coffee table for our living room, but I don't think it would work for two reasons. #1. we have an unnatural addiction to Ticket to Ride, which fits perfectly on our table. And #2. a circular coffee table would look funny off-set on a circular rug. And I am not making another one. :0)

Using a round ottoman mixes up the shapes used in this configuration, and makes it so much easier to move around. You cannot DIY that view, my friend!

Well, I'm off to try and figure out how to get some of these fabulous pictures to show up from the web instead of just putting up links. Because this blog post is looking BOR-ing.

I know! I'll post a cute picture of Ava!

Tutu tutorial

2010-02-02T13:33:00.005-06:00

"Tutu cute". "Gaga for tutus. " So many options!

A friend of mine made a couple tutus for our other friend who is due this month, and she shared her secrets with me. Once again, it hadn't occurred to me that one could make one of these adorable baby accessories rather than pay $25 for them. But it is a no-sew, super easy and super CHEAP project. Not to mention that tutus are the latest in baby couture :0)

Materials:

A length of ribbon. I chose pink satin ribbon and I got a yard of it, but it would probably be smarter to, you know, measure the waist of your prima ballerina.

Tulle. I ended up using 2.5 yards, but I've seen tutorials that use SIX yards. Depends on your desired level of fluffiness.

Scissors.

And that is seriously it!

I figured this out as I went. All you have to do is cut rectangles of the tulle, and tie them onto the ribbon. I'm guessing my rectangles were about 6" wide and 12" long. At first I used knots, and then I started looping the ends through and around the ribbon like so:

I don't really notice a difference either way. I just kept tying the tulle on until it covered the ribbon to where I had just enough left to tie a bow in the back.

At the end I just trimmed it with a scissors until it looked even to me. I should probably burn the ends of the ribbon to stop it from fraying too. The cost was about $4.00 (with coupons at Joanne) Don't you wish I had posted pictures of Ava wearing the tutu? Well, stay tuned, because they are coming. And the cute factor is going to go thorough the roof, so watch out!