Shelf

Wow, it has been an insane couple of weeks.

I've had a few spare moments to post an update, but I haven't because. . . well, I'm lazy.

Here's what we accomplished last weekend:

First, since the weather was gorgeous and not so stinkin' hot, we headed outside and attacked the insane bush that was trying to take over our front yard. Like, literally.

[I hear Sheldon's voice saying to me, "Literally? Literally?" Yes. Literally.]

Imagine the branches extending to cover the grassless areas on all sides and that's how huge this thing got. Also, you can see my bro & sis-in-law's house through the trees over there. Hiiiiii!

There are still a bunch of roots we need to dig out but this is a HUGE improvement over the way it looked previously. I'm pretty sure it will come back just as big as ever next year.

Then we took our exhausted selves inside and I started cleaning the mantle that I got several weeks back.

You can see the left crevasse is "cleaned" out and the right one is still dirty. This is even with using my cleaning toothbrush to get in the corners.

Someone (a man, I'm sure) had used wood putty to fill in some of the nail holes and cracks. But they got the putty everywhere and never sanded it off. So I had to use quite a bit more elbow grease than I thought to get it off.
Once it was cleaned as well as it ever could be, I let it set and dry off for a few minutes.

Then my hubs got to measuring. And making pencil marks on the wall. And drilling. And drilling and drilling and drilling.

Ta da!

It's up! The color stands out a little more in person. Our walls are Mourning Dove by Olympic.

Here's how I decided to decorate it. For now.

 After all that, we were quite tired and pretty much collapsed for the rest of the day.

I had spray painted our new light for the breakfast area earlier in the day, allowing it to dry while we were puttering outside. We just need to purchase a new rewiring kit and it'll be ready to hang.

This coming weekend I have set aside to paint the chair I got in PA. Hopefully.

We're also counting down the days until vacation. After the past couple of weeks I've had at work, I sincerely need one.

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In other news, our little guy is getting so big! He's over 4 months old now and weighs almost 5 pounds! This is significant because occasionally he still forgets himself and attempts to claw his way up my leg when he wants attention.

I'll leave you with this bit of cuteness: this is his post-dinner snuggle habit.

Deals & Steals

What a week.
Or, I should say, what a crazy past few weeks since my last post!

There's been a lot going on. . . and a lot of nothing going on, if that makes any sense.

I did want to share about my mantle that I found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore this weekend. It was only $35.

I will say that we forgot they only take cash or checks and we had to run to the closest ATM. So. Worth. It.

Here it is on Jeremy's workbench. Notice my well-used drop-cloth. It's a plastic tablecloth I found at Target one time on clearance for $1.

I'm planning on mounting it to the wall above our bed and using it for pictures and various knick-knacks. Yes, it will be secure enough so that it will not fall on our heads in the middle of the night and kill us.

Thank you to my boss for pointing that out.

In other project-ville news. . . .

I have nothing.

I've been lazy (pretty much), and haven't done any of the projects I have sitting downstairs.

That could be because of the snake.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Yes, there is a snake in my house. I saw it while doing laundry the other weekend. There was only minimal freak-out followed by the thought, "Just grab him by his itty bitty neck and throw him outside! You can't let him bite the cats!"

(He really was tiny. Not worm-tiny, but tiny enough that I was pretty sure he couldn't wrap himself around my neck and strangle me. Okay, okay, he was like, MAYBE a foot long.)

But when I got back around the corner to grab him . . . he was gone.

GONE I TELL YOU!!! LOST FOREVER IN THE DARK RECESSES OF MY BASEMENT!

Needless to say, the hunt was on.

Also needless to say . . . we still haven't found him.

J is convince he's gone back outside through whatever hole or crack in came in through. Of course we're going to inspect the exterior of our house and seal any holes so he can't decide to make another visit.

So the fear of Snakey-Snake has kept me out of the basement unless absolutely necessary.

BUT with my new mantle comes the need for a trip to Lowe's for some seriously long screws & bolts, so we may as well pick up the spray paint that I also need and get two projects done and out of the way.

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On the D-front....I get tired of talking about it. Reading about it. Living with it.

I can't control the last, so I'll control the first two.

My trial week with the Dexcom went pretty well. It's an extremely useful tool and the day after I took it off, I felt a little lost. I also felt I had some spare time on my hands since I wasn't taking the extra steps to input all kinds of data into two separate devices.

J still wants to figure out how to play Tetris on it.

So the appeals process has been started with my insurance company. Hopefully the data I was able to gather during my week of use will enable them to make a decision in my favor. If it's going to happen, I need it to happen before the end of the year since I've already met my deductible.

It kind of struck me, the first day of use. Ok, I'm test-using this machine so that I can prove I have low blood sugars that I can't feel coming. . . yet with this machine, I can see them coming and take the appropriate steps to prevent them, thereby not having them. Which is good. . . . but doesn't prove I need the machine. It tells that I need the machine, but there's no concrete, solid evidence that shows it, you know? Maybe I wasn't going to drop that low before I started coming back up. Maybe I was going to drop lower than I'd ever been. Who knows?

J likes to explain my unexplainable disease with two words: chaos theory.

It's a fitting description.

Projects

I have sooo many projects in the mix that I'm not sure where to start.

Ok, I've started a few, but I've been lazy. The beginning of the week really wipes me out and I feel like I have no time to do the things I want to do. Having a 9 week old kitten that just wants to play and looks up at me with those adorable little blue-green eyes and mews so sweetly at me also makes me want to sit and do nothing but play with him. Teensy, dagger-like claws and everything.
Hopefully this Saturday I will be energized and motivated and be able to get stuff done.

aka: Little Man, Big Guy or Cutie Bootie

*I cleaned the chair and light fixture that I found in PA. It was gross. I think it'd been kept in a barn or mudroom. I need to sand the chair a little bit, then paint. I also need to pick up a new chain, wiring kit, and paint for the light. Glossy red. It'll be smashing.

before cleaning

Little Miss Inspector

close up of the grime

*I have three small pallets (about 3'x2') that my f-i-l got from work. They're currently another perch for the cat to sit on. They need to be sanded, painted (or stained, I'm not sure yet), nailed/screwed together and then I need to get some casters to add to the bottom. Then I'll have an awesome table for the porch. . . and I'll just need chairs.

*Speaking of cat perches, it seems we might be in the market for a second one. I have a table that J brought home from work. I'm not sure if I want to use it in the living room or transform it into a cat tree for our second baby, Yoshi.  

*I picked up a silver-colored candlestick, a medium sized silver-plated (I think) oval wire bowl, and a small pot at Value Village for under $5. They'll be glued together, painted white, and used for storage on our bathroom counter. We don't have much horizontal counter space, but we can go vertical. So far I've only managed to clean all of these. I need a hot glue gun...

*I also picked up a brass candlestick and small plate that will be glued together and used beside my sink to hold a few odds & ends.

(Can you tell I'm putting Pinterest ideas to work??)

*In the same shopping trip to Value Village, I found chocolate-colored tabbed window panels that are 80" long. After a quick ironing, they look great in our master bedroom and I can finally take down the bright pink sheet we've been using to cover the french doors with for 11 months (wow, it's been almost a year!!!).

*I also scored what I thought was a single rose printed curtain panel by Waverly. I thought it would be pretty fabric for a pillow or two. I need more pops of red in my living room. Turns out it was a valance and just what I needed above my kitchen sink! Happy surprise.

I know I won't like it forever, but it's pretty for now

That was a good Value Village haul. All for about $23.

*I'm still working on ideas for a headboard for our room. I found a picture on Pinterest the other day of one that was made with pallet wood of random sizes, topped with essentially a 2x4 turned flat to be like a small shelf. I really like that idea. And the pallet wood would be free (wood would--ha!). With the chocolate brown window panels that perfectly match some art that I'd made from OTHER curtain panels that I'd bought from Value Village, I think I want to pull out the rest of the colors in that floral pattern to make a bedroom that's not too matchy-matchy, not too modern, not too vintage, but a nice mix. I need to add in some golden yellow somewhere.

Original creation & picture by Lovely Crafty Home

*I also seriously want to paint my craft room. I think I've decided on a color...maybe. Or not. But I know once I head to the store to actually BUY the paint, I'll be able to decide. The guest room needs paint too, but until it's done being used as a kitten isolation chamber, I can't even plan.

*I've been keeping an eye on this GREAT mirror at my favorite antique store. Yesterday I noticed that it was finally marked down to $30. I pondered for quite a while. It's probably 4 feet long and a good 4 feet high, with a really thick wood frame. The mirror is held in with screws on the back and I think I could take it out. But it wouldn't have been quite wide enough for a headboard (it would have worked, but it would have bugged me since it would have been 6" short on each side) and I couldn't think of what else I'd want to use it for. I couldn't justify it, so it stayed in it's little corner and I went back to work.

*J has a cute little wooden nightstand that I noticed needs paint. It'll be going in the guest room, so I need to wait until I decide what to paint in there before I can get it painted. But I really really want to start on it.

And all this stuff is just the "make up" of our little home. None of it even touches the major stuff that needs done (new deck off the master, master bathroom overhaul, guest bathroom mostly-overhauled, new flooring throughout the house, kitchen cabinets refinished, kitchen counters replaced, front yard landscaped--and that's just off the top of my head). Home ownership. . . yay.

But I wouldn't trade our little house for anything!

First step is prioritizing my projects by time and money needed to complete. A glue gun is cheap. I'll start there.

Sewing Machine

I hit up the other antique store in town yesterday during lunch. When I say "antique" store, I mean antique/junk/Avon. Somehow they all work together to create a great place to spend a lunch hour!

The best deals come when you aren't looking for them. Or....have no money to spend, even on a great deal. In this case, I had the money.

$25 for this baby!

(Please excuse the blurriness. For whatever reason, my work computer does not like to save pics as jpeg and I'm not bored enough to want to sit and figure it out.)

It came with its user manual, a storage box containing extra feet, and some other doohickey thing that I haven't figured out the use for. Maybe some kind of guide to help you measure and sew a straight line?

I may even paint the table and legs. The front opens up like a door and has a little storage box on the inside.

I'm not sure what year it is. There's a serial number on it that I might try to google tonight. Then I'll sit down and read how it all works....

As Promised

I finished hanging the hooks in my closet this evening. Yesterday afternoon was spent painting and I must be a little out of practice because I wore myself out. The wall is only 3 feet wide by 8 feet tall, so it's really tiny compared to say, our entire master bedroom.

Again, here's the ugly board that was there before. The paint on the wall was flat, one of my biggest pet peeves.

I was rather proud that I managed to tape off the ceiling, corner, and baseboard in a fairly straight manner.
I then realized that I did not have:

1. a small paintbrush to use for the corners and edges and 
2. a stir stick for the paint

Necessity (laziness?) being the mother of invention, I dug out my Dollar Store plastic ruler (bonus: the latex paint peeled right off when it dried) and since I'd taped the three sides really well, I used my foam roller and just smooshed the paint up into the edge.

Professional technique?

Probably not.

Did it get the job done?

You betcha.

"Quill," used in our master bedroom as well

Thanks to my sis-in-law for her donation of an old sheet that we use as a drop cloth.

I did two coats and gave the first one about 45 minutes to dry. The second coat, I tried to put on a little thicker. Tonight after dinner, I hammered a few nails in the wall and......

Ta da!

I've got plans for various and sundry items to hang here. Jeremy's belts and ties are the one thing I wanted to display and store a little better.

After I finished, I still had the "itch" so I had to get outside and trim the stupidbig bush in our front yard that's growing insanely fast. Since we had a full day of rain, it was easy to pull up some of the runners it had sent out. The soil there was very loose, made up of a lot of composted leaves and mulch.

I just hacked and hacked with the new clippers that my parents gave J for his birthday last week. It was pretty therapeutic. Too bad my old painting injury was acting up and I had to quit.... ;)

I managed a respectable two wheelbarrow loads of trimmings. Which represents about 1/8th of the work needed to get that bush looking decent.

Then as I dumped the second load in the brush pile out back, I disturbed a doe as she was out for her supper.

I wanted to attempt a small boxed garden next year for some fresh veggies, but I have a feeling she and her buddies might eat it all...

Mission: Saturday Mini-Project

The other day on my lunch hour, I popped over to one of my favorite little antique stores. There's really only two good antique stores in our town and each has different types of antiques. I had some inspiration from Pinterest and I'd even gone so far as to make a list on my phone of things I wanted to keep an eye out for.

So with too many ideas clonking around in my brain, I wasn't really expecting to find anything (cause that's how it goes--if you didn't have any ideas, you'd be able to find TONS of stuff and not be able to justify your purchases because, what would you DO with that??).

Slight correction: I wasn't really expecting to find anything budget-friendly that I could take with me and not have to get the husband to come back for with his truck.

Imagine my surprise when I found these beauties tucked in a random corner of a booth!

Please excuse Madam during her nap.

The large one has a nice green patina. The bottom left corner had some dried spackle but a few swipes with a wire brush removed most of it.
The more ornate one had a print of Victorian ladies taped into it. With masking tape. Buh-bye Victorian ladies.
For the oval one, I wanted to hang it by the wire, but I didn't want some ugly nail showing.

Here's the wall I wanted to hang them on. To the left, out of the picture, is our front door. The door to the basement is directly opposite this wall.

A tiny bit of jury-rigging on the ornate frame - it kept falling off the nail, so my hubby drilled some holes for the eyelet screws that we then threaded wire through - and a stop at Hobby Lobby for my awesome little knob and here's the end result!

Looks great!

J was pretty confused at the decorative concept of hanging empty vintage frames on a wall ("You're not putting anything in them??") but I think he gets it now. Also....we agreed the upstairs is mine to decorate and he gets the shop, man cave, and garage. So there's that.

Slight art deco influence, I think.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to put a word of welcome in the larger frame. Maybe a vinyl wall sticker of a pineapple. Anybody have any ideas?

So that was my fun Saturday mini-project.

My original Saturday plan was to refinish my mirror....but I tore up the house looking for the paint and silver leafing kit I'd bought a couple years ago to use and I couldn't find it! I know it's here somewhere....

I have no idea how old this mirror is. Mom said it's an antique. In my earliest recollection, it was baby blue. Bless her for allowing me to paint it this color in my yellow phase. But it needs serious updating. It needs to go in my bedroom above my dresser. Needs.

Nosy-pants HAS to see what Mom is doing! I think she's actually posing.

And I'm hoping to finish another project tomorrow.

I decided to paint this wall in our closet, behind the door. The previous owner left an ugly corkboard there--who puts a corkboard in their closet?? (Ok, maybe a BIG walk-in closet may have need for one...not ours. I had to hold the clothes back with my elbows in order to get the majority of the board in the picture!)
And I have several hooks I want to use to hang J's belts, maybe his ties, and a few necklaces that I wear frequently. There's no room for shelving.

Here's the before:

Blah.

Stay tuned for the after, hopefully Monday!

(Only three and a half weeks until we travel north to see family in Lancaster, PA! There's some GOOD antiquing in that area! I can't wait to see what I can find!)