And...the Painting is Complete

The second coat is on, and we're ready to start hanging pictures. A finished project.

Which means, of course, more projects. As soon as the last coat was done, I started thinking about cleaning up to take pictures. And decorating. Finally!

The dining room, with Sophie in her high chair

The front door adds a bit of color, yes?

The hallway, with one of my favorite prints from IKEA

The piano with my homemade artwork

My only problem now: everything is dark and a little monochromatic. So I need some accents in some bright color, don't you think?

So I went looking and found this cool box at Tuesday Morning:

My new "inspiration piece"

Doug had a hard time understanding that Tuesday Morning was a store:
ME: I got this at Tuesday Morning.
DOUG: When did you get it?
ME: This morning.
DOUG: What?
ME: I got it at Tuesday Morning.
DOUG: Friday afternoon. That makes no sense.
ME: Tuesday Morning is a store.
..and so it continued.

He left the conversation rather disgusted with whoever came up with that name. Anyway, the box has orange and dark pink accents, which pop wonderfully against that grey-green wall. Now I just have to find stuff that will work (or make it, since we're watching our pennies).

The Urban Farm/er's Market

Doug is at it again. He wants the biggest garden and wants to be the first to plant it. Mind you, this competition is only a reality in his head, since he's the only one competing.

The tilled portion (darker brown) is half of the garden. Half.

I pointed out to him that the end of the garden looks angled.
He pointed out to me that the yard is actually angling away. Hm.

He's already been to get several loads of compost. He even beefed up his truck so it could hold more than normal. No sense using extra gas, after all. I thought this was really funny. Then I saw several other neighbors who were doing the same thing with trailers.

And he asked me to scope out some grapes. Lowe's had some at $5.97, which is much less expensive than we've seen elsewhere. So we got five Concord grapes and three Black Munooka - one juicing grape, one eating grape. Anyone actually try a Black Munooka? Just wondering.

The plan is to have grapes and maybe blueberries as a living fence for the garden. And I'm already planning on using those grape canes to make arbors and whatnot. Hehehe.

Oh, and here's the best part: we've figured out a plan to get the kids to help. I know, these very rarely go over well. But here it is: when something is ready to harvest, they can pick it and set up their own farmer's market stand in our front yard. Whatever they make, they can keep. But they have to help with the weeding and picking...the not-so-fun stuff. 

They love selling stuff, and I'm hoping the neighbors will appreciate local, fresh veggies and fruits. This could be so fun! That is, after all the work...

Califor-ni-a, Here We Come!

Doug and I haven't been away from the kids, other than a few dates (way too few) since before Bonnie was born, twelve years ago. Okay, almost twelve years. I have been known to exaggerate.

This weekend, Doug has a family affair in CA, so we're ditching the kids, courtesy of a few relatives and friends who are kind enough to welcome an extra child or two for a few days, and driving away. Ten hours away, to be exact. Oh, my.

So it's out to Los Angeles on Friday, play on Saturday, and back home on Sunday. Should be a wild ride. But we'll never have to answer the question, "Are we there yet?" or hear, "Mom, I have to go now!" It's a stunning thought, really. 

Pinterest and Paper Scraps

Pinterest is truly the best time-waster out there. Love it.

I spend many hours pinning things I see on the internet, and enjoy being able to find those things quickly when I want to go back to them. Do I ever do anything real with them? Well, let's just say I finally have crossed the line from pinning to doing.

Happy dance.

This is what inspired me:

From http://indiefixx.com/

One day, after reading the blog Young House Love, which I thoroughly recommend, I decided to take their Pinterest Challenge. This challenge is designed to get you moving on creating, and it was time for me. After looking at the original picture, I decided to use magazines (books can also be used, but that feels like sacrilege) and cut 1-1/2 inch strips.

Super easy. I used my home magazines, since I have so many of them waiting to be read. What can I say, I've been trapped in a novel series for the past month, so they've been piling up.

Then I made different-sized loops with said magazine strips, using the kids' glue sticks that I stocked up on when school was starting. Amazingly, there are some of those glue sticks left.

I also printed out a copy of the original picture, and used a colored pencil to mark the loops I had completed. Once all the loops were glued together, I was at a new dilemma: how to actually mount this thing to the wall. It's pretty flimsy, being made out of magazine paper and all. Doug suggested some veneer that he had left over from the bookcase he made.

That looked okay, but I wasn't sure how to adhere it to the board. So we went to Michael's and found a spray adhesive, along with a matte sealer. The sealer is to finish the thing off. So, for a total of $11, I figured we were pretty close to being done.

Then I remembered a picture I had in the basement. It used to be on the walls that I am painting (yes, still working on the second coat), and it isn't my favorite. So I turned the print upside down, and viola! A frame with a white background.

With a little spray adhesive and the sealer, this is what I finally had:

And now it's on the wall (one that has two coats of paint on it):

It looks almost silver, and the glimpses of color help break up the monotony of my current monochromatic scheme. A finished project!!!

Now, that doesn't happen every day.

A Place for Everything

And Everything in its Place...and every time I hear that I want to smash something.

I read an article a while back that "15 minutes a day" could keep your home clutter-free. Once you get it perfect (the author declined to say how long that would take), only 15 minutes would keep it that way, if you "kept on top of it". I'm guessing the author doesn't have five kids and a husband who keeps everything in piles. Or maybe she's just more of a dictator than I am.

It would be nice to have everything in a place. My poor place doesn't have a home for everything, though. I know, whine, whine, whine. Someday it will, I swear.

Doug really wanted a bookcase for our bedroom. I wanted built-ins that have doors so that little hands do not continually take down books. Since Doug is the one actually making the bookcase, he won. Or at least, the newly-made bookcase is now in our room. It is still unpainted, therefore temporary, in my opinion.

A very impressive one-day project

And wouldn't you know, Sophia has applied herself diligently to the task of taking those books down. Every day. Sometimes more than once a day. So why didn't we just leave them on the floor? That's my question.

I tried to "catch" Sophie in the act, but this is what I got.
Sad that most of this mess cannot be attributed to Sophie.

Although we can always use a bookcase, so I'm not really complaining...this one will have a home. Just not always in my room, I'm thinking.

One Step Closer to Grout

And this is a good thing. No, really.

I came home the other day and found this waiting for me:

A jar of premixed thinset on the tile...

Lots of tools...

And baseboards!

Yes, Doug had cemented the loose tiles (there were still two) in our bathroom, AND he put up some baseboards to boot. He ran out of material before finishing the bathroom, but at least the light won't leak into our bathroom from downstairs anymore.

Wa-hoo, grout here I come!

Here Comes the Bride...Now We Need a Guest Room

My niece is getting married!

Here's what this means to me: many relatives will be descending on me in about a month and hoping for a place to stay. We were firmly raised with the notion that a relative's house is much better than a hotel. Not sure I believe that anymore, but I do love having company, so I am happy to let family come and stay.

My guest room needs some help, though. As does the company bathroom, aka the kid's bathroom. Oh, and the downstairs bathroom. What to do, what to do.

Here's what we have right now:

What does this say to me? Storeroom.

The front bathroom is pretty featureless.
Unfortunately, it has two boys that use it regularly.
Please don't use your imagination here.

The downstairs bathroom is a little scary without walls.

I'm hoping to get some paint on the walls in the guest room, and at least a door on the downstairs bath. And everything needs to be deep cleaned. Seriously considering hiring a cleaning service to deep clean everything before family comes.

Because...did I mention that Doug and I are catering the wedding reception? It's a light buffet, but it is for 100-150 people. The first time we've done anything on this scale. So wish us luck. Food, people, party! And exhaustion, but that can come after the reception.

And the Winner is....

Linen. From the Eddie Bauer line of colors at Lowe's.

Instead of trying to get Doug to agree to a color (we're talking front room/dining room here), I just decided to pick one. So he said he wants white. Or off-white. I just can't live with that. Even though I had mentioned earlier that I was getting used to the off-white in the front room, I think I was deluding myself.

So I found the perfect color: a grey-brown with green undertones. And I went to town.

Living in chaos

Prepping: washing, patching, sanding...again and again...

It took me a good week to prep - partially because the space is just so large, partially because the walls were filthy. We are talking walls in a stairway and a dining room where five children are running around on a more-than-daily basis. There were nicks and bangs, too - many from before we moved in, but I will take responsibility for a few myself.

Then! I started painting. Personally, I like to paint the trim first. It is much easier for me to get a straight line working from the walls into the trim, although many people recommend doing the trim last. The trim is painted in my favorite white, Swiss Coffee. Not that exciting, but easy to remember and it goes with just about everything.

Then I started on the walls. It was a little more gray and green than I was anticipating.

I started in the dark hallway, and was a little panicked...
though I hid it pretty well, I think

The hallway is my least favorite place to paint: lots of doorways (lots of cutting in and switching back and forth from rolling to cutting) and it's very boring...who cares about a hallway anyway? But if I start there, then it's easier to keep going and get everything done. If I start in the main room, the hallway gets neglected for years (it was the last thing to be finished at our house in South Carolina before we put it up for sale). This hallway is also visible from the front room, making it a little more important for it to look decent.

Then I got going on the front room. Holy moly, is there a lot to paint in there! But here I fell in love with the color (again - I was in love when I chose it). The contrast between the white trim, the red door, and the Linen color is sophisticated, subtle, and just stunning. How do I really feel? I loooooove it.

Little Giant ladder. A must for cathedral ceilings or stairs.

There are even a few walls with a second coat already! It did take a whole week to get the first coat up...and it will probably take at least two for the second coat. But I'm more than halfway there. And I'm motivated by the fact that I can't allow myself to decorate until it's done. And I really want to decorate. Hehe.