Where Do You Blog? Par-tay!

I don't have a special place to blog. At the rate I'm going my office/crafty/sewing space is going to be the last space in our house to get organized and prettified. For now, I usually just hang out in our bedroom.

Which is still no where near finished. I matted and framed the prints for over the bed, but I am hesitant to hang them until I have both nightstands in place. In our house it's not as simple as popping a little nail in the wall and calling it done.
I found lamps at TJ Maxx that I love, but I hesitated and now they're gone. I also found a pair of brass lamps a few weeks ago in Ste. Genevieve for cheap that could be painted ala Sara and Jen and the whole blogging universe, but for some reason I didn't buy those either.... Ah, indecision...

I am joining in the Where Do You Blog? Party at Centsational Girl.

Monkey Love

"what?"

Give and Get is Here!

Give and Get is Here!: "Enjoy 30% off from August 26-29 at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy and we'll donate 5% of what you spend to a non-profit."

Dining Chair Redo: Intro

I mentioned a DR table a while back that the Mr. found on the side of the road.

We had/have a plan to stain the top and pedestal ebony and paint the apron white. Then we were going to collect mismatched chairs to complement it. Our inspiration was the kitchen "set" from the Friends t.v. show, only a bit less country-ish. I want to paint all the chairs white and upholster them all the same to create cohesion, like this or this, but I can't find a fabric I want to settle on!

Here's the chair Before shot:

And here are some shots of the DR to give you an idea of... I don't know; what I've got going on so far? The furniture? The layout? Yeah, I guess. The wall paint is Behr Pale Moon, the tie-ups are a pale off-white or "natural" tone, and the china cabinet is BM White Dove.

There will eventually be drapes in the windows; whenever the Mr. finishes the rod brackets and I, guess what? PICK A FABRIC!

Imagine an external curtain rod over the stairwell and a shelf like this over the little dresser.

I would like to do a plate wall between the kitchen and the door, if I can find some plate hangers that don't make me ill from their hideousness. They all have a plastic coating over the gripper feet and you can see into the end of the tube! Ick. I'm sure people aren't going to be staring at my plate hangers, but still... I know they exist because I ordered a plate from Etsy and the girl sent it with a hanger that looked comparatively nice. The sticky hangers won't work. We have stuccoed walls and don't forget this incident... I am not risking heirloom china by sticking it to the wall, that's just asking for trouble!

Anyway, back to the fabric. HELP! Please. I like fade-ey tones like dusty aqua, peony-ish pink, apple green; nothing too crazy or over the top; crazy patterns make me nervous, but a maybe a simple one (just two or three colors) for EITHER the windows or the chairs might be nice. I thought about ticking for the chairs, but white and navy won't work for me. Do they make fun colored ticking now? I really, REALLY like everything going on in Ashley's house; the colors, the antiques, the funawesomelightheartedness of every room. I also like the colors and designs Nester comes up with. Basically simple, but with lots of personality. It can be done, but apparently not by me...

So.... any ideas? Please?

Monkey Love

Jungle Dog

 

This is my parents backyard... Crazy. It needs to be pruned something awful, but Dozer had fun. He's mean to other boy dogs so poor Louie had to stay in the house while we were there.

I know... so sad, right? Ha.

DIY: Silverleaf Cherub

Yup. I decided to silver leaf him.

BEFORE

AFTER

I used the exact method and supplies I used for the T.V. frame. I never would have thought to make him silver, but Sara mentioned it and I realized what a great idea it was! Thanks Sara!

In other news, the plant in my dining room is turning icky colors and the leaves are falling off at an alarming rate.

Any idea what could be wrong with it? The soil was dry, so it's not overwatered, but I just watered it Saturday, so it's not underwatered... Fertilizer maybe? I've had it since last September (I think) and I've never fertilized it, do house plants need fertilizer?

DIY: Silverleaf T.V. Frame

Back in February, I mentioned Mister was making me a frame for our television. He neglected to inform me that he does not have a miter saw (which I assumed he had because we have everything else tool-wise) and it ended up taking about three months to get the frame assembled. He had it almost finished and then the last angle didn't fit and he had to take it all apart, sand it down, and re-glue one corner at a time. Here is the assembled, unfinished frame:

We bought two lengths of simple base moulding at Lowe's, measured the pieces to fit the television dimensions, cut the pieces to(approximately) a 45 degree angle, and glued them together. I am sure there is a simple, quick way to do all this, but this was definitely not simple or quick. When Mister does not have the equipment to accomplish a particular task he makes it. So he hand sanded the pieces when they did not fit perfectly and he created a form to keep the glued corner tight as it was drying. Then, after it was all together, he hammered in these things:

And I filled the egdes/corners with paintable wood filler:

Here is the unfinished product in place:

I decided I wanted it silver and so far all the silver spray paint I have tried looks like spray paint. Not pretty.

I decided to silver leaf it! Of course, I got the idea from Jenny at Little Green Notebook with her fabulous client silver leaf dressers...

First, I spray painted it ORB (because it was the only dark color I had on hand), so the light colored wood wouldn't show through. Plus, the packaging says you are supposed to prepare the surface with this fancy-schmancy red paint to make the leaf POP!, but no one had it. So I used what I had.

At Michaels silver leaf sheets are available two ways: on wax paper and not on wax paper. The "on wax paper" option is supposed to be cleaner, easier, and it's supposed to make the leaf go farther since it's not flying around the room like a freakin' snow globe. But, it's the same price for less sheets. So I went with the messier, cheaper option, of course!

At first I attempted to lay the sheets evenly:

But that didn't last long. I couldn't get it in the crevices, then when I got a tool small enough, it refused to stick in the crevices...

So, I just started ploppoing it down willy-nilly...

I prefer the antique-ey, not-so-perfect look anyway... ;D

The "finished" product was too shiny and perfect for me so I threw a coat of gel stain on it, then wiped it down. Ta, Da! Our six-months-in-the-making-centerpiece-for-the-gallery-wall:

Love me some Gilmore Girls!

I also finally got all the pieces matted that I have for the wall (so far). Now I just have to decide on placement. Should only take about another six months or so!

I'm linking up at Debbidoos Before and After party, come join me!

Also linking up to Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design!

Monkey Love

ROADTRIP

Found It!

I found the remaining knob for the cabinet. I put it in an Ikea box on the bookshelf that was supposed to be "extra hardware" such as screws, shelf holdy-upper doodads, and other random crap. Sounds logical right? Yup. 'Cept I forgot to label the box and I have a zillion and two black boxes from Ikea, so I couldn't figure out which box it was. Plus, I had no idea that I was actually organized enough to have put it in the box, so I didn't even look in the boxes. I searched all my purses. And coat pockets (even though I bought it in June.)

Mister works for the water company and he goes to all those big round monstrosities and checks the gauges, levels, radio transmissions, etc. Occasionally he finds random cool stuff in said areas. Who would throw a cherub into a fenced off industrial area? Weird. He lived in a drawer in the kitchen for about 6 months, 'cause I had no idea what to do with him. Mister even admitted (after I put him up there) that he wasn't sure what I was going to do with it and was wondering why he even brought it home. So I want to fix him up a little, the green "patina" doesn't do anything for me. What color should he be? Nothing crazy. I thought about white and Mister's all "You can't just paint everything in the house white, you know." Actually I can, but he is not into it and he brought this guy home, so no white. ORB? I have no idea. Anybody else?

Found these at Homegoods and TJ Maxx. I think they were all under $15.00. Love them! Especially since I plan on using them to put treats in for our Halloween party ala Frog Prince Paperie.

I'm Featured!!!

Check it out at Better After! She even took the time to Photoshop out the telephone jack and the soon to be curtain rod from the pic! Awesome. I need to get me some fancy-dancy technology like that...

Monkey Love

BEWARE OF DOG

Innocent. Content. Just enjoying his spoiled rotten life.

Who? Me?

Then I made the mistake of touching the beast with the vacuum while it was on. 

Whoops.

Bad mommy.

Really?

We're klassy here outside the StL. Redneck 4-eva, baby! 

It does make me giggle.

I saw this one on my way home last week:

And this one the week before that:

They're from Florida, though, so you can't blame the boonies for that.