A Quick Decorating Project...

I realized that I have never blogged about re-painting the main floor 1/2 bath.  About ummmm... 8 years ago I think, I found the directions for this beautiful faux finish.  I used a dark green, a light green, a white and a metallic copper paint sponged on the entire wall.  It sounds weird and this picture does not do it

 justice, but it was really pretty.  The room is pretty small with no windows, so very dark (that's why the picture is so bad).  Because the room is so dark and the overall tone of the paint was so dark, the room seemed TINY!!!

So I decided to paint it a soft grey color, and it turned out so pretty!!!  And the room looks HUGE now!!  Here is a picture of the wall color.  The shelves there are a CD stand that I bought 8 years ago at Pier 1.  It used to be silver, but I spray painted it oil rubbed bronze so it would pop a bit against the grey color.  The silver just blended in.  I got this idea to use the CD stand for shelves from a friend and neighbor!  The shelves are the perfect size for toilet paper rolls and rolled towels and a vase on top!!

Ok, so now to the art project.  When cleaning out my cabinets for the cabinet refinishing project, I found this little basket thingy.  I think it was a wedding gift that came with a casserole dish.  I found it in the cabinet above the fridge, I don't think I have EVER used it for anything before so I decided it would work perfectly as a little decorative "tray" to sit on the back of the toilet in the 1/2 bathroom.

So, I spray painted it with the same oil rubbed bronze spray paint that I painted the CD shelves.  I did 2 coats of the bronze and then a coat of a clear matte finish layer, and here's what we ended up with...

I love the way it turned out.  I haven't quite decided what to fill it with, but right now it has 2 rolled towels that I had previously.  I haven't quite decided what color scheme I'm going to go with...

Although I did find this color scheme on Pinterest, and I love it so I think I'm going to use this for the 1/2 bath, but you know it's always up for discussion.

Source: http://design-seeds.com/index.php/home/entry/feathered-brights2

I figure the walls are the top color and the oil rubbed bronze is pretty close to the bottom color and the old towels I have are pretty close to the 2nd color, so we are already over halfway there!!!

I'd love to hear what you think about this color combination...

What I've been doing... Weekend edition!!

Alright so I will start this post off with Friday night... we had someone come look at our last appliance listed on Craigslist.  He looked at the stove, paid us cash for what we were asking, and said he would be back Sunday at 1 with a pick-up truck to get it!  Woohoo!!  No more "spare" appliances in the garage!!

So, on to Saturday...

-Slept in a bit, woke up

-Fixed the kids breakfast

-Showered and got all dressed

-Headed out to the THUNDERBOLTS game!  (Never heard of the Thunderbolts?!?!?  They are a team of the cutest... maybe not the best 1st grade boys basketball game.  I'll be honest with you, the game was rough, one might even say bad!!  Our leading scorer was held scoreless, and it just seemed that with the exception of a few, that the rest of the team just wasn't really in the basketball playing-mood.  And that happens sometimes!!  Except for my child, who had a bee in his bonnet!  If you know my child personally, you know he is very competitive, but not very aggressive!  And he definitely does not have height on his side (look at his parents!)!  Something got into him and he was more aggressive than I had ever seen him... he scored, he blocked SEVERAL shots (hello, shortest kid on the team?!?!), stole a couple passes and had his hands up almost everytime down on defense... he may have even thrown in a double team or several!  As disappointing as it was to lose (we all know we lost even though they don't technically keep score), I was so impressed with my kiddo's playing on Saturday!  OK, enough "bragging"!!

- Ate lunch with the family

- Ran to Target with the family to pick up a few things and a birthday gift.

- Started on what may be the project of the century... our basement storage room...

 I am so embarrassed to be showing you this picture.  If you remember one of my posts before Christmas, I was talking about going through all our old filing and shredding and making new hanging folders, etc.  Well I got about 1/2 way done with that project before the kitchen started, then there was Christmas, then back to school, then... well you get the point.  During that time, a whole stack of files, paper and other stuff fell off the table onto the floor, breaking a fan.  This is also the room where things get thrown, when they don't have a specific spot.  This is also my "sewing room", so there's a ton of fabric, and stuff.  I have several projects that I want to do that involve my sewing machine which you can maybe see is located on the table, which can't be reached right now!!

-Got bored of cleaning/organizing after 15 minutes so I took a nap while watching the KU bball game (which was almost as rough as the Thunderbolts game!!)

- Made a quick dinner (well let's be realistic... warmed up leftover pizza) for the boys and the hubby so they could go to a birthday party followed by a professional indoor soccer game.

-Got the boys out the door!

-Opened the fridge, got out an apple, a pear, a Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade, and a banana and had dinner myself!

-Vegged in front of HGTV (they were all new episodes)

-Caught up on my google reader (which had 1500+ posts (I wasn't online much in the last 2 weeks!)

-Took a bath, read for a while, chatted with the boys when they all got home, went to bed

SUNDAY 

-slept in a lot!!

-washed, dried, and put away 6 loads of laundry

-started in again on the cluttered basement storage room.  One of the things down there is a filing bin with all our appliance instruction books, warranties, etc.  This file used to be super-organized, then we had kids and everything just got thrown in there, so I decided to go through the whole thing and organize it again!  Here are piles of books!!

 Found some super old things... an instruction book for a VCR?!?!?!  We haven't owned one of those in many many years... did a whole lot of recycling with this project!!

 After I finished that project (which I forgot to take a picture of the finished files), I did some meal planning and grocery list making...

- Went to dinner with the family... Cactus Grill!  Yummy!

- Did our grocery shopping for the week (Trader Joe's and Whole Foods)

-Read a little bit

-Went to sleep!!

A somewhat productive weekend!!!

What I've been doing lately...

Well I think in the last 2 days, I have had 4 different people ask me if I was ever going to blog again!  I was pleasantly surprised (and happy!).  I didn't realize that anyone really cared all that much about what kinds of crafty things I've been doing and what kinds of books I've been reading, but I guess there are a few who do, so I'll come back!!!

Ok, so what have I been doing??  Ok this little "story" has many steps that all inter-relate so I will try to keep it brief!!  We used to store all our luggage under our master bed, but it was really crowded under there, and our bed is really tall so when you walked in the room you could see some of the stuff under the bed and no matter how nicely and neatly organized the luggage was, it still just looked junky, so I started looking for a new place to put all the luggage.  I came up with the guestroom closet.  Perfect!!!  Right?!?!?!

Well the guestroom and it's closet were completely full of supplies for different projects that I am either in the middle of or planning to do (the husband calls it my staging area!).  So in order to get the luggage into the closet, I had to clean out the guestroom.  This whole process took about a week!  I took about 4 rubbermaids full of stuff to Goodwill (mostly old kids clothes, etc.).  Then I had to find a place for all my project supplies, so the only room currently not really being used in our house was the dining room, so I moved everything from the guestroom to the dining room.  This took about a week!!

So here are the pictures for this fun project...  The first is the current view under our bed... it's empty and clean!!!

 This is the picture of our guestroom closet... see all the luggage??

 And I really can't believe I am showing you this picture, but this is the current state of my dining room table, with all my projects in process and waiting to start on just hanging out on the table!!

Alright, let's move on to books!!  I just finished reading this book...

 It was fabulous as all of Adriana Trigiani's books are... I highly recommend them if you are looking for something medium to read (by medium I mean, not light and fluffy chick lit, and not dark deep thriller).

The 7 year old and I are reading this book together...

I absolutely LOVE Beverly Cleary.  I think she's a fabulous author, and the 7 year old seems to like this one too.  I read the pages on the left and he reads the pages on the right!!

So what else have I been up to... a little bit of this (although not as much as I should do)...

 quite a bit of this...

 and this...

 a bit of this, although the 7 year old says I don't know how to build with K'nex very well, so maybe I should just let him do it!!

 and yes, I have renewed my relationship with this guy...

While cleaning out the guestroom closet, I found this guy that I had made when I was still a consultant for Uppercase Living...

 so I hung him up here (this would be the boys' bathroom...

And lastly, I finally got my kitchen put back in order, and I've had a ton of people asking to see pictures of the completed project so here you go...

I love it!  I think it's beautiful!  So that's what I've been up to lately!  I will try not to make it so long before I post again!!  Thanks for reading!!

What have I done the last month... Reading edition...

Here are a list of books I have read since my last post.  I really liked all of them and recommend them all (especially the first 3)...

**Jackdaws by Ken Follett
**Local Girls by Alice Hoffman
**Zero Day by David Baldacci
To the Power of Three by Laura Lippman
Fugitive by Phillip Margolin
Drama City by George Pelacanos
8th Confession by James Patterson
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah
Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian
You Believers by Jane Bradley
The Nobodies by Carolyn Parkhurst

If you have any questions about any of these books or would like specific book suggestions based on your favorite genre of book, just reply to this post or send me an email and I would love to make recommendations for you!!

Well hello, does anyone remember me?!?!?

I'm back to blogging!  I know everyone has just been sitting on the edge of their seats, biting their fingernails wondering with great anticipation when I would be back... HAHA!

I have a great piece of advice for everyone... do not under any circumstance plan a major renovation the week before Christmas that won't end up finished until the week of New Year's.  The renovation itself went smoothly and turned out fabulously (pictures to come later), but it just sent our holidays completely out of whack.

Then there was that 4 days in there that we didn't have an internet connection at all, turned out to be a problem with our DSL line and thanks to my husband who spent over 2 hours on the phone with somebody across the ocean who English was not their first language to get the problem solved.

But enough with excuses, how were your holidays??  Ours were good, just rushed!!

I did complete some projects and I did take pictures of them so I will be back with posts of those later this weekend!!!!

What have I been doing... Reading edition... Code to Zero

Another fabulous book by one of my most favorite authors, Ken Follett!  A man wakes up in the restroom at Union Station dressed as a bum with no memory of who he is, what he does or any memory at all.  This book takes place during the Cold War, and the background of this book discusses the space race between the US and Russia, so you know that this man has something to do with the creation/flight of rockets.  As in all of Follett's books, there are tons of twists and turns and keeps you guessing until the very end!

I definitely recommend this book!!!

What have I been doing... Miscellaneous edition...

I apologize for being MIA for a couple days!  If you are here for a cabinet update, I will have that posted later today.  They finished up on Friday late evening and told me not to touch them until Monday, so I wasn't able to put anything away until then.  During that time, I decided that I wanted to line all the shelves and drawers with a plastic shelf liner so I have been working on that all day Monday and Tuesday doing that.  I finally got it done last night about 9, put away stuff until about 11 and went to bed!  So I will finish it all today and post pictures when I'm finished!!

So... what did I do this weekend, you ask?  We had the hubby's Christmas party, so I had to shop for something to wear, then get ready, then go to the party (it was a lot of fun!!).  I also did some Christmas shopping and got that all figured out (still have a lot to do)!  I also finished another book, which I will "review" later today!  Oh yeah, and I did about a million loads of laundry!!

Nothing too exciting!!  I still have so much to do to get ready for Christmas!  What all do you still need to do??

What have I been doing... (Reading edition)... 7th Heaven

For my second book "review" for today, I read 7th Heaven by James Patterson.

Not to be confused with the old TV show Seventh Heaven.

I love James Patterson's books!  This is the 7th edition of the Women's Murder Club, and it was just as wonderful as the previous 6!  His books are all thrillers/mysteries, which is my favorite genre of book.  I highly recommend this one too!!

What have I been doing... (Reading edition)... On Mystic Lake

Since my house is in complete disarray, I haven't been able to do much crafting lately so I have been doing a lot of reading.  The first book I'm going to "review" is On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah.

 Definitely do not confuse this with the 1980's hit movie with Julia Roberts... that's called Mystic Pizza.  Mystic Pizza takes place in Mystic Connecticut (I think) and On Mystic Lake takes place in the Pacific Northwest, and the plot is nothing at all the same.

Kristin Hannah is a fabulous writer, she deals with real world issues... this one dealt with adultery, divorce, pregnancy, death, and depression, but she deals with them in a real-world manner, not a bunch of soap opera type storylines.  I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!!

Friday Cabinet update... (Home Improvement Edition)...

Here's what they look like now!!!  BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL!!!!  The crew is here right now as we speak putting on a polyurethane coating on, then they will put all the handles back on and it will be FINISHED!!!!

So, if you are my friend on facebook, you might have seen my post yesterday about being a little bit down.  There are several things that have been going on that have all contributed to my "downness", but I am feeling better now.  One of the things is the complete upheaval of my house right now.  It's all for the greater good, the cabinets will be fabulous when they are finished, but right now here are some pictures of what my house looks like... the fridge is in the middle of the eat-in kitchen.  The kitchen table is in the middle of the living room along with 1/2 of all my kitchen supplies.

The other half of my kitchen supplies is in the dining room... the table is completely covered with stuff and on the floor are huge rubbermaid bins full of dishes.  It is driving me crazy!!  Only one more day!!  

Thursday Cabinet Update... (Home Improvement Edition)...

Oh you guys... the cabinets are looking SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!  They got the first coat on yesterday and will be back today to do the second coat... It looks so good especially against the blue of the wall!!

Here is the cabinet that I've been taking pictures of to update you guys... you can still see the brushstrokes, but that's pretty common after the first coat.  The granite countertops pop so well against the dark brown!!

I am so excited!!  It's looking so good!!  I'll be back tomorrow morning with another update!!!

Cabinet update... (Home Improvement Edition)...

So far we have gone from this...

 To this...

And now, we are here...

SURPRISE!!!  We are getting blue cabinets... I have decided to go with a country look!!

Just kidding, that's just the tinted primer... it's actually a beautiful color of blue... a very pretty bluish-gray!

Since the refinishing team had to miss Monday due to illness, they stayed later last night to make up for it... they got all the cabinets degreased, sanded, and primed so today they will put on the first layer of color!  I will update either tonight or tomorrow!!!

What have I been doing... (Reading edition)...

Finished another book... I seem to be on a crime/mystery book sweep here!  This book is The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly.  I love his books, this one was no different.  It was fabulous!  I highly recommend it!!

And don't worry, the book I'm reading now is not a crime or a mystery book!!  Stay tuned for that one soon!!

Appliances, anyone?!?!?

Tomorrow is the BIG day!!!!

The big cabinet refinishing project begins tomorrow!  I will plan to post pictures everyday to let you see how things are going.  

Last week we received in the mail, an immediate family pricing invitation to Nebraska Furniture Mart so we went yesterday and ordered all our new appliances!!  woohoo!

I do have to admit that I feel a little bad getting all new appliances when my old ones still work perfectly fine, so we are going to try and sell them, and if they don't sell then we will donate them to Habitat to Humanity.  I've enclosed a picture of each appliance with a price, if you are interested in any appliances or know someone who is, please let me know and I can get you all the dimensions and take pictures of the insides.  All appliances were brand new when we built the house which was in December of 2001.

 Microwave $50 *have someone possibly interested

Refrigerator $200 *have someone possibly interested

Stove $100

Dishwasher $75

What have I been doing... (Decorating/Home Improvement edition)...

So, I know all my faithful blog readers have been waiting with great anticipation to know what the big project is that I'm working on that requires many layers of spray paint.  We built our house 10 years ago and when we did that, everyone put in brass doorknobs and accessories.  Like those in the picture below... and they are ugly (in my opinion).  We priced out how much it would be to get all new door fixtures and with over 22 doors it was going to cost a lot!!  So I decided to spray paint them all!!!  It's actually a really easy process, there's just a lot of waiting time in between each layer and you have to completely take the entire door off the frame!!

Here are the steps to spray painting your doorknobs.
1.) Gather your supplies... screwdriver, hammer, sanding paper or pads, primer, paint, clear coat (optional), styrofoam, dowels boxes.  I am using the Rust-oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze paint with clean metal primer in white.

 2.) Remover the door from the frame, and remove all the hardware from the door.  If you've never removed a doorknob before, you may want to google "removing doorknob" because it can be a tiny bit tricky.  You also need to clean all the hardware after removing it from the door.  I usually have a bucket of soapy water and just toss each piece in as I remove it.  Let each piece dry completely.

 3.) You need to fully sand every area of each piece of hardware.  I use 150 grit sand paper or sanding pads.  You don't need to fully scratch off all the brass, you just need to rough up the surface so the spray paint will adhere.  You can see in this picture the difference between the sanded and the unsanded (sanded knob and hinge are on the left, unsanded on the right).

 4.) Now this is where technique can differ.  I usually save some styrofoam from packaging boxes and put all the screws upright in the styrofoam.  I also put dowels in and "hang" the doorknobs on the dowels, so if you do have any drips they will drip right off instead of staying on the knob.  I put on one coat of primer, follow the directions letting it dry then flip the hinges over and turn the knobs and put on a coat of primer onto the areas that didn't make the first pass through.

 5.) After the primer has dried (follow the directions on the spray paint), complete the same process with the your main paint color.  I usually do 2 total coats of the color so for 1 hinge it would be coat 1 side A, then coat 1 side B, then coat 2 side A, then coat 2 side B, being sure to let the paint dry as directed on the directions for the spray paint.

 6.) AFter this step, you can also add a clear coat if you want, on my first knob that I completed, I did put on the clear coat, but it dulled the colored finish so I don't think I'm going to put on the clear coat anymore.  Once everything is all dried, just reattach all the hardware back to the door and here's what you will end up with...

What am I up to... (Miscellaneous edition)...

I am currently working on a mass undertaking decorating/ home improvement project that requires many many layers of spray paint (I will post about this project later today or tomorrow).  As I wait for each layer of spray paint to dry, I am trying to complete a few organization type projects here and there... including...

 - taking everything out of all my cabinets in the kitchen because the cabinet refinishing project starts Monday!!!

- Working on my Christmas cards (yes,  I hand-make them every year)

- Reorganizing our bill filing system with the aid of my Dyno Label Maker (possibly the best thing EVER invented)!

 - And shredding all kinds of old papers from 2007-2009 (Apparently I haven't shredded any old stuff since before the 4 year old was born... oops!!  The paper recycling in town will be full this month!!!!

These projects on top of ER visits, dentist visits and pharmacy visits have been keeping us super-busy!!!