Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Projects out the Wazoooo!

A while back a wonderful blogger wrote a post about DADD, Design Attention Deficit Disorder (I think that's what she called it). I cannot, for the life of me, find that post (google: you've let me down), but it was so funny. And it described our house to a T! She said you have DADD if there is at least one unfinished project in every room in your house. Check.


The picture on the left has two more coordinating prints. They are destined to hang on this wall above the dresser/buffet in the DR. This one has been sitting there since, um, January? They used to hang on our wall in the LR at our old house. Our new walls are made of some kind of mortar/concrete mix and things are much more difficult to hang. A hammerdrill is needed, no joke.


Mister picked up this dining room table on the side of the road about two years ago. We plan on staining the tabletop and the base espresso to match the buffet in the DR, we plan to leave the white part white, to tie into the corner cabinet. He has the bottom portion stripped and that is as far as it's gotten.


Speaking of the DR corner cabinet, this is what it looks like currently. About two months ago, Mister built me a "spray booth" in our garage. It doesn't have the plastic surround yet. He has been working 6 days a week and has been unmotivated to help me in his off time. So it sits.


You can't focus on finishing a project before starting another. Check.


Since the DR is at a standstill, I decided to start painting the bedroom. This what happens when you second coat the edges without mixing the can of paint. Grr. Damn my laziness and impatience.

The wall pictured above needed to be painted first so I could move the bookshelf onto that wall so I could paint the wall the bookshelf was on. Of course, I since lost steam, so that is still the only wall that is painted.


 Classy, right?

Meanwhile, I decided to use the hardware (knobs) from the cabinet redo for the bedroom furniture. Luckily, there were six knobs on the cabinet and I need two for the storage bench and four for the bookshelves. I used the left over blue spray paint from my mirror project to tie the color into our bedroom from the hallway.


Of course, being me, I neglected to spray all of them at once. So the other bookshelf still has these knobs on it.


Which are actually originally from this bench:


I switched the knobs between the bookshelf and the bench because you could see the bookshelf from the door and the knobs the bookshelves came with are ridiculous. Can you even spot them in this photo? What Swedish genius thought these were a good idea? I only had one bookshelf assembled so they switched out easy. The new/old, blue knobs did not actually fit into the stock holes, so I had to drill them bigger. Pretty simple.

The gallery wall in the LR is not finished yet either. Mainly because of the concrete wall problem. I am too nervous to use the hammerdrill without "adult" supervision and himself is never home. I guess it would help if I at least got it mapped out, but even that is difficult. The television "frame" that Mister is building for me is also in the basement-of-lost-decor-dreams. Without the centerpiece measurements, I am not sure about placement of everything else. So this is what the LR "gallery wall" currently looks like:


If you'll notice, I DID get Mooey Vuitton and The Squeal framed. Finally. I am going to have to invest in a mat cutter for the rest, since just these two cost me $152(they were weird sizes)! I already have the frames for the rest, I think, but just mats will cost me a fortune and I am officially out of money.

Time to start finishing some projects I have already started so I don't have to spend anymore cash. With one exception. See that rug in front of the media cabinet? That is for our "outdoor living area", which currently looks like this:


My brother and SIL passed down a patio set from my great-grandmother last year and I finally took it to the sandblaster yesterday. Then I will have to primer it, spray paint it, and polycoat it. None of which I have yet. Argh.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a spray primer that works well on metal? How about a spray topcoat that won't yellow and won't flake the first year?
Do you guys have a laundry list of projects that need to be finished? Is anyone else as pathetic as I am when it comes to flaking out in the middle of projects?

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

We have Looft-off!




I know. You can barely see them. I was just so damned excited that I could see two whole plants that I wanted to share my joy!
The top one is pretty obvious, right? But the bottom one, you have to look reeeaaaallly close at the bottom right of the pot. See it?
Yayyy!! So exciting. I think this is the first thing I have ever grown from a seed.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Monkey Love

Nesting in the discarded bedsheets headed for the laundry.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

DIY Pillow Form

I ordered an adorable pillow cover from Lilybethgoodies on Etsy waaaay back in January and did not order the pillow form because I did not want to pay shipping on it. As it turns out, finding a 12 x 20 pillow form is next to impossible in St. Louis. I finally decided to order one from Pottery Barn or Ballard or something and it was back-ordered until May! So I took matters into my own hands...


Here we have a ridiculously old, stained, smelly feather pillow that Mister's mother made, probably 30-40 years ago. We have two. He refused to give them up. I tried to tell him about the mites and bedbugs and such, to no avail. I finally just bought new ones and switched them out and hid the old ones until I decided what to do with them.
The patch is because Gidget decided to chew a hole while we were at work one day, which led to her not being able to stay out by herself. Feathers everywhere, I was finding them for months!


I used some leftover drapery fabric from my recent dining room project.

 

Cut it 13 x 42.



Folded it in half and sewed the edges except for a space large enough to shove my fist in. Then turned it inside out.

 

 Ripped the patch off. Cut the hole big enough for me to shove my fist in. :)



 Made a ginormous mess. 


 And some more mess.

 

 Stuffed it to capacity. 


 Folded the edges under. Sewed up the hole.


And put it to good use. Yay! Super quick, super easy, and FREE! Love it!

 


The DIY Show Off


Thursday, April 15, 2010

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Loofah-tastic

Did you see this video?



Hilarious! Apparently it's "offensive to women". I think that's ridiculous. For one thing, it's make-believe, and for another, what woman would be stupid enough to get in the tub?

Anywho, I saw a different video on one of my fav blogs, The Art of Doing Stuff. I was intrigued by the potential and decided to attempt growing loofah myself.



The lady who lived in our house before must have be quite a gardener. There are pots strewn about the property. I planted these Saturday, we'll see what happens...

I have like 30 seeds left, does anyone else want to try to grow some loofah?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Rug Update

I spoke to the carpet saleslady, we'll call her "Brynna". The company that is shipping it has no ETA at the moment. They also said the new shipment could be crooked, as well. So "Brynna" says she's not comfortable with the situation and she is going to have her manager refund my credit card. She's not comfortable?

So now I am not getting it.

Starting over: Any ideas?

Monday, April 12, 2010

Friday, April 9, 2010

SYL: Bunting Kit Received

I got my Bunting Cross Stitch Kit in the mail on Tuesday from Erin at Slipcover Your Life!


Okay, well... OBVIOUSLY, this is a terrible picture and I suck as a photographer, but I LOVE IT! I am a bit nervous about getting started as I haven't cross-stitched in about 15 years, but I am sure it will turn out fab! I chose the colors with the intent of adding it to my gallery wall in the LR if I ever get everything up and Erin even threw in a extra color, just in case! Love her, she is the greatest!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Wildflowers

I don't know what these little flowers are, but they are turning our yard into a meadow and they only bloom during the day.

Directly in front of our house.

 
Looking to the left, from the porch.

 
 Looking to the right.


 No idea what these little purple flowers are either, but they're pretty.


 They almost look like minuscule Iris's from this angle.


 Anybody know what these are? Besides lovely, of course.




Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Run, Don't Walk...

to your local Costco today, ladies (and Eric)!! I picked up the new Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts: Basic Techniques for Sewing, Applique, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing, plus 150 Inspired Projects from A to Z (Hardcover) {wow, that is quite a ridiculous title, no?} for a scant $18.99! That is $2.00 cheaper that Amazon.com and you don't have to spend $25.00 to get free shipping!  

So excited!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Monkey Love

"Hello, won't you join me?"

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Remember when?

Remember a while back, I told you guys I had decided on a rug? It came in about 5 weeks ago and, sure enough, it was skewed enough to be noticeable.


This is only about a foot of pattern and just in that 12 inches you can see that on the left there is a small "ivory" triangle and on the right there is a larger "ivory" triangle with a "light mocha" dot in it.


It took me almost a week to go and see it (the binder guy is only there until 3pm during the week and he is about 20 miles from me) and I was not happy. Maybe it is unrealistic of me, but I feel if I am spending the equivalent of a mortgage payment on something then it should be damn near perfect. It took me three days to work up the nerve to call the woman at the place that ordered it for me (I do not like confrontation) and she was all "No problem, don't worry about it, I'll call you when I get an arrival date for the next shipment". I still have not heard from her. It's been a month. Of course.