Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I Am A Nerd!!

So...I am kind of a big nerd.  I just accidentally subscribed to my own blog.  And now I can't figure out how to unsubscribe.  I thought that I was clicking to subscribe to a different blog...but nope it turns out that I was subscribing to myself. 

I told my husband what I did and he said with grin on his face "well...that is one way to get new followers".

So now the question to you is...do you know how to take myself off my follower list?  Or do I have to look like a nerd forever?

Anywho...I hope that you are all having a great day!  Have a little chuckle at my expense, I can take it! 

Sunny

Thursday, January 26, 2012

$5 Table Runner

I have been down for the count the past couple of days with a cold, but before that happened I had planned to share my new table runner.

I find this weird season between Christmas and Spring is a little difficult time to decorate.  Everything feels cold...probably because it is dark and cold outside. 

So after Christmas I wanted to find a new table runner.  The problem; because there just always has to be a problem, is that standard table runners that I find are just too dinky.  They are neither long nor wide enough.  I have only found one ready made runner that has been the dimensions that I wanted and that was from Pottery Barn...which is three hours away, and usually not in the budget.  So I find my self making my own.

So here is what I did:

First I went bargain shopping and found a curtain panel on clearance that had the look of burlap.  The nice thing about making a runner out of a curtain panel is that it is plenty long enough and wide enough to make two table runners.  The bonus of this particular panel was that it was only $10, (originally $40, woot woot) and like I said I have enough to make another table runner too. 


I cut off the existing hems and the top, I could have saved some fabric and used a seam ripper...but I hate ripping out seams it makes me want to rip out my hair.  So it was just worth it to me to just cut them off.  Then I simple cut the panel in half lengthwise.  This took some time to make sure that I was cutting straight and exactly in half but overall pretty painless.

So I had a small amount of fabric left over from making some throw pillows and I added it too the ends of the curtain panel runner.



 I used a simple straight stitch and hemmed all the way around.  Ran an iron over it, and Voila!!  Table runner that coordinates with my living room!  Yay.


The only thing left that I need was some new chargers. I find that if I use chargers then my boys have less of a chance to muck my runner all up.  I like plastic ones so that I can easily clean them like 37 times a day.  By the way little boys are messy.

I found these awesome faux bois plastic chargers at Pier One.  They are rocking my world.

I really like how it all turned out.  Not too fussy just right, I kinda need less fuss after the Christmas storm blows through my house.

So what are you up to?  Got any simple sewing projects going on?  This one was sooo easy I literally completed it from start to finish in the time it took the hubs to cook dinner...HOLLA!

Sunny

I posted this to:

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I want to stencil...

I have two bathrooms that I have been dying to change.  Well actually I have been dying to change all three of the bathrooms in my house.  All three are on the to-do list for this year, but I only want to stencil in two of them.  Okay... the actual number of bathrooms that get stenciled ultimately depends on the ease or difficulty of the process.  I may find that I love the monotonous work of stencilling in which case they may all get it, then again I may find that I hate and stop immediately and paint over it.  Nevertheless I have big ideas.

I think that I want to start in the basement bathroom.  This room is also the laundry room and crafting room.  The fact that I primarily craft in there is kind of funny because really there is no work space and no supplies in there, but I always find my self working in there on top of the dryer(?) so I really want it to look great.



I told the husband that I wanted to redo the laundry room and I got that "seriously!" look, so I don't know if he is going to love this or not (actually I know that he won't but he pretty much let me do what I want).  The reason that he doesn't want me to mess with the laundry room is because I have repainted that room like 3 time and I have changed the flooring once.  But the flooring needed to go, we had ugly blue berber carpet....in a bathroom...and a laundry room...who does that?  We replaced it with tile that I still love.  I picked a light brown that really looked nice with the tile but when I got it up it made the trim look horrible.  I wanted to paint the trim but my husband said "no, you can't paint wood".  Why do men say this?  I mean it is wood...its not like I want to paint over 24 karat gold.  Whatever.  I needed to find a happy median that we could both be happy with.

So here is my plan:
I plan to go dark chocolate brown. 


I know that it seems like that will make my laundry room look like a cave but I think that in the end I will add enough light accents that the light/dark ration will really work well.
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Then once the walls are deep chocolate brown I want to add a stencil on top just to make it a little more graphic and cool!
This is what I had in mind:

This is actually wallpaper...but it is like $200 a roll...and...that isn't happening!  So I have found some stencils that replicate this look, and they are only $60.

                                                                             source
I think that it would look really cool and graphic if the back ground was choc brown and the trees were off white.  What do you think?

I also saw where a professional faux painter hand painted one, and that looks really great too.

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I have a lot of experience painting, so I totally think that I could pull this off.  The question is how long would it take?  I don't want this to turn into a long drawn out process....so?


I also saw where another blogger had done some in her bedroom using an overhead projector...that is an idea!
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So that is kind of the short term plan for my basement bathroom/laundry room...what do you think?
Have you ever stenciled?  Do you like the idea of trees on the wall, or is it done already?  Are you contemplating a bathroom remodel? 

Have a great Friday!!

Sunny

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Word of the Year

Layla wrote a post about her word of the year.  If you are unaware, the word of the year is a word that sums up your goals for the year.  It is fitting that you choose a word of the year at the beginning of the year versus in the middle or at the end, I think that it keeps you focused.  I guess that it is a lot like a resolution, but maybe more abstract and manageable.


I got to thinking about what I wanted my word of the year to be...I only had one that came to mind.  So here it is, are you ready?


Achieve.


I think that I always strive to achieve to be better, but this year that word has more meaning.  I want to achieve to be a better blogger, a better photographer, mother, I want to set goals and achieve them.  Isn't it a great word?


The last few years I have been busy being a mother.  The only thing that I was trying to achieve was to make it to the end of the day.  Not this year.  This is the year that I become more.  I really hope that you enjoy the ride, there is going a lot going on.


I have also made it a goal to run a marathon this year.  This is something that I really want to achieve.  I feel like the world is my oyster, I just need to dream it and then achieve it!
                                                                                 source
Sunny
I linked up to:


The Lettered Cottage

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Home Goals 2012

So I am not much for making "Goals" for my home.  I am kind of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda girl, but the Nester is having a Home Goals link party so I thought that I would throw together a list of things that I would really like to do this year.  (Disclaimer: This list is by no means all inclusive of the things that I will actually do, inversely this list may not be realistic as far as what I can actually accomplish.)

1.  I would like to redecorate/renovate all the bathrooms in my house.  We are talking 3 of them so now is a good time to refer to the disclaimer if you missed it!.
My master bathroom will take the most time and money, but it REALLY needs it.  We have carpet in the bathroom......UGH!  I know so gross...Don't judge me!!  I didn't do it, it was like that when I bought it.  Though I have lived here a while and haven't changed it.  But I have been having/raising babies and it was not high enough on the priority list.  Maybe this is the year.  Who puts carpet in the bathroom?  GROSS!!

2.  I want to get this house organized.  DUH!  Doesn't everyone have this on their list?  Pretty sure they do.   I am no exception.  To my defense, my house has like NO storage.  Aside from the attic(which is like a giant pain in the booty) and a couple of small closets I got nothin'.  So this year I want to figure it out and make it look nicer, and make it function better.

3.  Here is the big one.  I have to get all new siding done on the house.  OUCH!!  The estimate is around $21,000 I don't know about you but I don't just have that laying around.  So that is going to be big!  The good news is that I get to have the whole house repainted!!  Yay for new paint colors.  And finally I get to repaint the front door a cuter color.  It is currently blue....not my bag but whatever.

There are a few other things that I would like to accomplish, and obviously little crafty awesomeness!  But I am actually getting a little overwhelmed now looking at the task list in black and white.  Moving on!  Pictures!

                                                 Basement bathroom/laundry room.


                                   Master Bathroom...Don't judge me!!  This is real life.
                                   Boys bathroom...just needs to look cleaner, even if it is not!
                                   
She needs new siding and a paint job.
                                                   New paint for the front door too!

Again don't  judge...  sometimes a girl just has to make it "work".  I said I needed to work on it!

So there you have it, a short list of some of the goals for the year.  But who knows what will actually happen?  Thanks for looking!

Sunny

I am linking up with the the Nesters 2012 Home Goals Party.

Monday, January 9, 2012

I got mantel issues...

I have lived in this house almost 8 years and aside from during Christmas I am never happy with my mantel.
I like having a mantel but it has a few issues.  The biggest issue is scale.  My fireplace is HUGE.  The ledge of the mantel is taller than I am,  I am 5'7" so I am not a tiny girl.  This is a problem because most things that I try and put up there seem too dinky, they just get eaten up by the enormity of the fireplace.

The second problem is that the ceiling in my living room is vaulted.  Which is actually great because it makes my living space feel so much bigger than it really is.  The problem is that the ceiling peaks offset to the center of the fireplace.  Which probably wouldn't bother anybody but me, but I like things symetrical.  I got issues!  Anyhow I am determined to love my house and that includes my mantel.  So I started to scour the internets looking for inspiration.  It turns out that I am not the only one that doesn't know what to do with my mantel.  The majority of pictures were of Christmas mantel, but very few decorated non seasonal mantels. 
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I like this mantel.  I like the varying heights of the frames.  This may help to balance out the length of the mantel and the wonky shape of the roof line.  Yes wonky is a technical term.  I also like that little arty objects are tucked in amongst the frames.  One of the problems that I have been having is that normal sized objects get dwarfed by the wall expanse behind and the ginormousness of the fireplace, this would make a normal sized object work.

The problem with this is that I can see this sort of arrangement costing a lot.  Frames and art are not cheap, especially larger pieces.  "Sorry Kids, you can't eat this month...mommy is redecorating!"

I could alway leave the mantel blank with just a mirror on the wall.  This arrangement I saw a lot of when I was inspiration surfing.  However, I hate this look for my house because it looks like I am just trying to ignore the fact that I have a fireplace or mantel all together.  Lets face it my fireplace is 6' tall and 8' long there is no ignoring that baby!

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Don't all of the tiny objects pilied on this mantel look a little silly?  I love the mantel but this is not the look that I am going for.

I want to avoid having my mantel look like a piling of crap that just looks cluttery.  Then again I don't like sparse either.  So I am going to have to come up with a solution.
                                                             The Lettered Cottage
I love the mantels that Layla at the Lettered Cottage creates from thrift store finds.  I think that I will take a few pages from her play book this spring, but I kinda need something for now.  Plus it is hard for me to find things at thrift stores that have the scale to stand up to my fireplace. 

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Maybe something like this would work.  A couple of potted plants on one side of the mantel, being balanced by a taller potted plant on the opposite side of the hearth.  That looks good and not too overdone. 

Maybe what I really need to do is stop trying to force it and just see what happens.  Sometimes I just need to relax and let inspiration come to me.

I will keep thinking about it.  When I figure it out you will be the first to know, well after the people who live here.  Thanks for visiting, if you have any suggestions or beautiful inspiration...don't be shy!!  Feel free to share!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

I am completely at a loss

Before the Christmas season I was on fire with the crafty/decoraty(?)/spray painty inspiration.  Now I got nothin'.  I haven't done anything this week to blog about...mostly cause I got nothin'.  I have no projects in my head, and I haven't been to Michaels or Hobby Lobby in like almost two weeks.  This feels strange to not have a list as long as my arm of things that I just cannot wait to get started on.  Am I the only one?  Do you go through droughts?  Is this what writers go through, writers block?  Am I having crafters block?  Could I possibly have asked another question in that paragraph?  Apparently so. 

I have been surfing the Pinterest, and desperately looking through the Internets for an idea to get the new year started.  I am stumped.  Maybe I already used up all of my creative credits.  Gosh I hope not.

It seems like all of the ladies on the blogs that I read are busy making wonderful and I feel like some kind of slacker.  Here is to hoping that I figure something out soon...or else I have nothing else to do but...clean...YIKES.

Any advice, feel free to share.  Like I said...I got nothin'.

                                                                     Via Pinterest
Sunny

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Christmas Clean Up

It is hard for me to believe that another Christmas season has come and gone.  It also amazes me that every Christmas season leaves my house in such shambles!

I always clean before Christmas, and my house is usually spotless on Christmas Eve.  Come Christmas morning my house turns into a war zone that cannot be contained.  The mess inevitably spreads to every corner of the house until it looks like a scene from "Horders Buried Alive".  This year had an additional little gift, my dryer stopped drying on December 23rd.  Long story short, the appliance people had to order the part needed and my dryer just got fixed today.  Did I mention that I have three boys?  13 days without a dryer....you do the math.

Needless to say between the piling dirty clothes, and the Christmas mess something had to give.  I have been trying to clean up the mess but it seemed to just multiply and reappear in some other location.  Today was the day I took back my house! 




I took down my tree and cleaned away any reminent that Christmas had ever been here.  This always leaves me a little sad...down come the lights, the glow, and the magic of Christmas.  What is left is just an ordinary house.  It is so depressing, not to mention that here in Kansas about the time that the tree comes down is when winter really hits.  We're talking -8 degrees, YAY now that is something to look forward to. 
Doesn't she look sad?  Like a girl left by her date at prom!   She was a good tree but it was time to go.  She didn't leave without a fight though, I had needles everywhere!!  You know because I got lazy and only watered the tree once when we got her... umm....Fire Hazard?

Moving on...so my house is finally all put back together.  It got me thinking about what I want my next project to be.  Bum Bum Bum (moment of suspense).....what is it going to be?  I will let you know soon, I am still gathering ideas. 

Hope you had a great day, I am exhausted but happy that it is done!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A Great Idea That Wasn't So Great

A couple of months ago I got this great idea to make a live and growing centerpiece for my table during the Christmas season.

So I got together my supplies and posted about it here.

As with most things I learned a thing or two through the process.

I have to say that I loved the way that it looked, and my kids and I really like watching them grow and change everyday.

However, there are a couple of things that I have to warn you about before you try this at home. 

I don't know if I didn't read the package, or just glazed over the details but these babies get tall.  I mean like over two foot tall, not so good for relaxing dinner conversation (as though dinner at my table with my three boys is ever relaxing!)  I wish I had taken a picture from my angle at the end of my table.  Every time the mister and I wanted to talk we had to lean over to see each other.  Inevitably we would play hide and seek a few times before we both leaned to the right side....It was STUPID!




Secondly, and this is where I am doing a real Public Service Announcement.....these flowers do not smell pretty!  Not just a little unpleasant... they smell like urine. 

When the flowers first started to bloom, my five year old asked his dad to tie his shoes.  So the hubs sat down at the table to tie his shoes and I heard him whisper to his son "did you have an accident at school?"  Of course my son exclaimed that he had not!  Later when I realized that it was the flowers that smelled like a latrine I had to laugh out loud.



Needless to say I don't think that I will be redoing this centerpiece.  I still think that it is a good idea....just maybe a different flower.  Overall I am glad with how it looked, and I am glad that I tried it.

So there you have it, I like to think that I will just continue to learn by mistake.  But hey...we all got a Public Service Announcement out of it!

Have a Great Wednesday!
Sunny

A Recommitment

I have not posted in a couple of weeks and I wanted to take a minute to explain why.  Well first of all it was the holiday season and I was the perverbial chicken with head issues.  But more than that I was anxious of my blog. 

It is no secret that though I have the best followers I do not have many, and one of my followers dropped me from her reader.  This really rattled my confidence.  I felt like I had no reason to continue with this blog "nobody likes me anyway" (insert whiny five year old voice)

I am not the kind of person that routinely puts herself out there for criticism, in fact I tend to avoid it at all cost.  So this blog is a big step for me. 

Now I know that it shouldn't matter what other people think (insert my mothers voice in my head), but for me it does.

After a few weeks of thinking I came to a few conclusions:
I let losing one follower distract me from that fact that I am blessed with other amazing women who do want to follow me.
I don't want to be the kind of person that lets a little bump in the road stop me in my tracks, I am stronger than that.
Maybe part of the purpose of this little blog is to help me learn to be more confident, and help me put my self out there more.
I have things to share with the world.

So in this new year I am recommitting myself to this blog, to exploring my creative, and to you.  Thank You for following me and hearing what I have to say!

Sunny