Here's to a more productive 2012...

I didn't get too much accomplished around the new house in 2011. I had big plans, but lacked the drive and energy to get anything major done. I'm not going to make any "resolutions", because I suck at follow through. I am the least competitive person you will ever meet and that extends to personal competition or challenges. I will say that I need to look a few pounds, move more, eat better, and follow-through on projects. I believe these are basically the same things I said last year, but there were a lot of changes in my life in 2011. Hopefully now that my personal life, home life, and work life are seemingly stabilized, I can focus more on myself and the beauty of the small things around me.

I did start the year off on high note, though. Back in June, I talked about a little trip to World Market where I bought napkins to turn into kitchen curtains. I needed eight to cover both windows in the kitchen, but only bought four, in case I changed my mind. Then they immediately discontinued that particular pattern (Tree of Life) and neither store in St. Louis, nor the website had four more napkins. They did however have a 60" x 90" tablecloth, which I snapped up, with the thought I could use the napkins I already owned to make pillow covers for the living room. It all then sat in my "project box" for, ooohhhh, six months. I even bought teal pom-pom trim from Joann's to make the curtains more "curtainey" and to tie the colors in with the dining room more. For some reason, projects involving precise measurements and cutting fabric are very intimidating for me.

Anywho, I finally turned the napkins into pillow covers today.

It was a super-easy, super quick project. I didn't use a tutorial; I simply cut one of the napkins in half, slightly overlapped the pre-sewn edges with the cut sides to the outside, placed the pretty side of the cut pieces against the pretty side of the non-cut napkin, pinned, then sewed up the edges.

Ta-Da.

Only problem?

They overlap completely, but only about an inch and after a teensy bit they start to pull open. I need to get a couple of buttons that coordinate and learn how to use the button-holer on my sewing machine. Maybe I'll get that taken care of by next January... lol

I'm linking up my pillow project over at Loribeth's blog Small Moments. Come check out the other "Shared Moments" posted.

Have you made pillows out of napkins? Do you prefer to use a zipper when you make pillows? Have you gotten any projects out of the way this year, yet? What resolutions do you have this year?

Christmas 2011

Things at work are still insanely crazy. I went from being "just the Receptionist", where I had about four hours of free time a day, to working eight to ten hours of overtime a week. All because my boss, who was the HR Manager and Event Coordinator, got fired (through no fault of her own). We had our annual Holiday Party last Friday, which I ended up coordinating from start to finish. Doesn't it just burn your biscuit when everybody wants their opinions heard and their finger in the pie and to be "kept in the loop", but no one actually wants to raise one of those fingers to help out? Pisses me the hell off. Grr.

Now we've got our annual Holiday Potluck, which (again) has all fallen on me. Where's my raise, people?!

I did manage to get the house all dolled up for Christmas, but feeling motivated enough to to post the pictures is another story. I basically just used all the decorations from last year, with the exception of my new wreath and a few ornaments to match the new color scheme.

LIVING ROOM 

 

DINING ROOM

I didn't do much in the rest of the house... But maybe next year I'll decorate the shelves J is building for me in the kitchen! I also wanted to make Christmas/Winter themed curtains for the kitchen, but didn't get around to it.

I'm just glad the Holidays are over this year. Between work and attempting to reach a Holiday event family balance with a new beau, I am worn out. Here's to a more productive 2012.

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere

I thought you might like a little peek into the ridiculous disaster that is my current living situation.

Here's the view from the front door into the DR

If you look right instead of straight ahead 

The "Office"/ 2nd Bedroom, view from the living room

"Office"/ 2nd Bedroom, view from the Master Bedroom end (if you look carefully you will see a sad pittie in her crate)

Master Bedroom

I want to paint the bedroom, so I am hesitant to bring the bookshelves in yet, so everything is in still in boxes and piles. Plus, I want to upholster the bed and it seemed silly to put it together just to take it apart to upholster it, so none of my under-the-bed storage is in use, so I can't find anything and everything is a big, huge, GIANT cluster... Ahhhhh!!!

The Breakfast Nook

I bought new pendants, but need to paint the ceiling before I can hang them...

Rest of the Kitchen

I have the paint for the bottom half of the walls (BM White Dove, why mess with a solid choice?) and the millions of holes have been spackled, so we shall see what I accomplish this weekend. Probably not much... Tonite I have dinner with my parents, tomorrow a friend of the ex-Mr.'s (who will heretoforth be know as G) and I is having a get-together and he will be out of town, so I feel like I should go, and Sunday I have to go out to the old house and play with Dozer for a while. I may bring him back to the house for a while to start getting him acclimated. G has decided that it would be best for Dozer if I take him! *happy dance* But unfortunately I don't even have an occupancy permit yet (shhhh), so I can't bring Dozer's big oak containment crate (which I have big plans for, that involves lots of paint and some chicken wire!) over just yet. A few things didn't pass the sellers inspection at the last moment and they were still in the process of fixing them, but they are done now, so hopefully Monday.

The disaster of my DR

You can see a table under all that if you look close! I didn't even want the table and chairs, but G's mom got him an antique maple DR set complete with a 6 foot long sideboard/buffet... Exactly what I've been looking for, I speculate, and I find it highly suspect that she just suddenly came across this great, awesome deal now... ; D   I bought a chandy for the DR and the paint for the ceiling, so job #1 needs to be move all this shit downstairs into the basement so's I can get my paint on.

I found this amazingly hideous piece of wonderment at a junk/antique store in Grafton a few weeks back and I couldn't leave it behind!

It's hand embroidered and signed from 1973! The colors are beyond amazing and are my inspiration for the house. I know, it's ugly, but I think it's super-fun and I just love that it's one of a kind! Plus, it's like Puck or something! Surely that adds a little sophistication to it, right?! That's what I thought.

I plan on putting it in the DR, right on the side of the Bergsbo cabinet.

I haven't decided if I'm going to paint the frame or leave it gold... I'm afraid any other color with detract from the embroidery. Although it does have an equal amount of silver thread in it, so maybe I'll silverleaf it.

What do you think I should tackle first? Can you believe I've been here two weeks and have accomplished next-to-nothing? Go me! Score one for the laziest girl in the world!

Spring Wreath

I saw this wreath on Living with Lindsay last year and thought it looked cute. I know the concept behind it is two years old, but I don't care. I'm single-handedly staging an Egg-Wreath Revival! Join me, won't you? lol

I used a larger grapevine wreath, I think mine was 14" as opposed to 10", but I wanted to hang it on the front door and no one can see it anyway, so bigger is better.

This is the first wreath I've make that entails more than spraypaint and some fabric, so it did take me longer than the 15 minutes she proposes. But Lindsay is a Craft Queen, so she could probably whip up 5 wreaths in the time it would take me to make one...

I ordered the Quail eggs from Etsy. They all came individually wrapped in toilet paper and not a single one was cracked! I highly recommend the seller.

I used some burlap I had leftover from the media cabinet makeover for the bow.

But beware: if you are going to use Spanish Moss be prepared for a mess!

That's in addition to all the stuff that stayed on the dropcloth I was using!

Have you made a door decoration for Spring yet?

Painted Birdhouses

A few weeks back I saw this awesome pink bird on Lynett's blog and decided I must have it. She told me she got it at Michael's, so off I went. Luckily they had it! But then I had to figure out what to do with it... Not wanting to steal her whole idea, I came home with two of these from their unfinished wood section:

Using supplies I already had (wood stain from this project, craft brushes, paint from the front door, and leftover ceiling paint), I turned them into this:

FYI, if you are detail oriented this project will take you for.ev.er. However, if you are good with spraypainting them, distressing, and calling it a day, it could take you an hour. I chose to stain the roofs and bases carefully and the only small brush I had was like 10 hairs, so it took me like three hourse just to do the stained areas... 

Did you notice the base on the left-hand one?

It's the base for my broken candleholder! I love being able to utilize stuff I already have on hand. I did spray this with white Rustoleum pray paint. Then I just hot glued them into place:

I thought it was pretty clever to paint the one with the front door the same color as our own front door, but now I'm not sure I like the color inside the house. I may repaint it blue or gray.

Although it does coordinate with the beak on the pink bird, lol!


What do you think? Have you started crafting for Spring yet?

Do you WUSLU?

Do you get the emails for WUSLU Daily Deals? Yasmin has a new special item everyday and shipping is always $5.00. A lot of the items are too far on the "Shabby" end of "Shabby Chic" for me, but they are always cute. When these Turned Pillar Holders showed up in my inbox I had to have them:

Unfortunately when they arrived, the large one was broken:

I have no idea how it could have broken, they were both packaged very well, surrounded by bubble wrap and in small enough individual boxes to prevent moving around inside the larger box... But it was shattered, in about 6 pieces. I could have cried. I immediately emailed Yasmin to ask if there was anything she could do, as it does state on the website that all sales are final. Luckily she got back to me quickly and said she was sending me a replacement! I didn't have to pay shipping again or anything.

I love them. They are hefty and weighted and just the perfect size to hold my beloved Bath & Body Works candles. In person they are a wonderful bronzey color, not too wintery and perfect year round!

She also told me it was unnecessary to send the broken one back, so I figured I should make use of it. Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what I did with it! Waste not, want not.

All in all, ordering from WUSLU was a great experience and I would definitely buy from her again!

Legal Crap: I was not compensated in any way for this post. I just thought I should share a good shopping experience. 

 Have you ever ordered from WUSLU? Or another daily deals website? Have you had a good online shopping experience recently you'd like to share? How about a bad one?

Our Living Room

After fighting a near-debilitating headache Saturday, I finally utilized the tripod my mom got me for my birthday last month by taking some much needed pictures of our living room. It's not "done" by any means; I never made those leopard print pillows, or hung the gallery wall, and the mantle is only half decorated, but it's 100x better than it was this time last year.

February 2010

February 2011

We still have the same coffee table, but I pushed it into the hall for these shots. 

February 2010

February 2011

Not a great shot, it's hard to see the detail on the couch, but it's apparently the best my point and shoot is capable of, even using the tripod and a higher ISO. Although maybe that's not what I should have done. Photography is not my forte. It was in H.S. and college, but I don't retain information I don't use everyday. It's so much nicer watching movies on the couch, as opposed to crammed in the chairs with a dog each. lol I talked about the lamps here and the side tables here.

February 2010

February 2011

Before we got a flat screen our television lived in the media cabinet. Which I've obviously painted. I am so much happier with it now. It fits the house better and looks almost Victorian and dainty as opposed to '70's and oppressive. I'll show you the deets this week. The Mr. made the frame for our television and I silverleafed it. I still need to figure out a way to hide the wires and get the gallery wall hung.

And some superfluous shots, just because. 

I LOVE that black urn. I just got it at HomeGoods on Friday - only $12.99! Crazy, no? That's also one of my new Goodwill goblets holding a succulent, also a recent purchase. I hear they are harder to kill, so we shall see.

This little money tree is also a new plant purchase. Let's see how long I can keep it alive... The stalks/branches/trunks/whatever are braided together. They were being held in place by a twistie-tie, which looked awful. So I removed the tie and used a length of hemp twine to replicate the way it was bound. Much nicer. I moved the shed antler from our Christmas mantle to add some interest to the pot.

The Mr. keeps the firewood right out on the front porch and he was tracking in lots of dirt and bark pieces whenever he would fetch a load. I finally ordered a door mat a few weeks ago. I think it's interesting that I can make sudden, snap judgment purchases on things that may cost hundreds of dollars, but when it comes to deciding on a $40 doormat I panic and freeze. Weird.

So that's our living room currently.  

What do you think? What would you change?