Finally a Before and After

Kitchen at time of purchase

Kitchen during demolition.

Kitchen now.  Not really much else to be done.  Just hung the spice rack today.

Toggles

Yesterday I went to Old Navy to hunt down a Christmas gift for the husband, and to get some long exercise pants for me.  I found both of those, plus a couple tops for me. I also tried on this coat, and really really like how it fit, and the interesting color blocking going on.  It appears to be great quality.  I would be using a 30% off coupon, making it about $45.50, quite reasonable for a warm and snuggly winter coat.  The only problem was the toggles.  Now I like toggles just fine, but I wasn't a fan of how these are attached with stark white rope.  It felt like they should have used a bit less contrasty color, like a tan or even red or brown from the colors of the coat. On closer inspection I saw how the rope was attached, and think it would be relatively straight forward to replace it with something better.  Just didn't want to buy the coat, manage to ruin it, then be $45 in the hole.  Still pondering it over; may have to consult the best seamstress I know, my mom.

Designing my Studio

Here is my list of necessities for my future art studio:

1. Lighting- a wall of windows (not quite as fancy as the picture below, but same concept), glass doors, and a stainglass window I create.  Would also need really good lighting for night time use.

2. Storage- Need good storage space.  My art dresser will fit in there, will have a wall of narrow shelves, and preferably a loft style storage spot.

I like the use of the desk side.  I plan on having a large work surface reaching out into the center of the room, but the far end could have open storage like this piece.

I love the idea of a peg board for hanging certain supplies.  I'll probably pull out every piece of art supply that I have before putting things in the studio, and figure out where exactly I want everything to go so I know there is a place for every bit of it.

These shallow shelves are great because I'd be able to see exactly what I have.  This picture actually makes me giddy.

3. A drying rack- I want a drying rack like this wall mount one. It has just enough slots for one person.  Its only $89.40 which isn't the worst price I've seen.  Going to do more research, maybe make it into a Valentine's Day gift (since that's the next holiday I can get away with getting a gift from the hubby).

4. Easel- Matt got me one for Christmas this year.  I just put it together tonight and I love it so so so much.  It's the perfect size, made of sturdy solid wood, and just beautiful. I'll have to post a better picture later.

5. Heating and Air-  May just be a window unit and then a space heater, but I do need something to make the summers more bearable.

My Christmas List and a guess on Matt's

I would like two or three of these OXO cutting boards in the 10.5x 7.5 size.  These are from Bed Bath and Beyond for $8.99.

I would also like 2 of these French White Ramekins, also from Bed Bath and Beyond.  I want them so I can do this whenever I have a hankering for some cookies.

Also on my list are these style folding stadium seats.  Not because of sitting in bleachers, but for sitting at work during nap rubbing kids' backs for hours to get them to sleep.  Would really help to not have to strain my back.  Whatever color seems the least obnoxious in person, no neon yellows or anything, but it doesn't have to be black.  Both of these pictures are ones from Dick's Sporting Goods.

Matt's List

My husband is incredibly hard to buy anything for, other than gift cards.  He wants a boat cover for his boat, but those are pricey and hard to know what size.

I also think he would like gift cards to Dick's Sporting Goods to buy more hunting equipment for all those deer he kills every year (and by kills I mean watches walk by in the woods).

We would someday like a Keurig but will have to save up for it.  When we get one a nice to-go cup would be a good gift.  And that is close to all he ever mentions wanting. 

He does need more long sleeve shirts though,   the end.

 

Frosted pane, no pain at all

Our livingroom has a door that leads into the future garage. Right now it looks into the clutter, sawdust, and junk that is the work room. I had considered etching the glass but then saw that they make contact paper you can put on, giving the frosted effect without damaging the glass.

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This is the door before we applied the contact paper.

We took off the grid by just unscrewing it in nine places or so. Very easy. Then I cleaned the glass with some ecofriendly glass cleaner and a paper towel.

We got the contact paper from Home Depot. There were lots of different options but I decided on the one that gives the look of rice paper. For the sheet, which was almost the exact size of our door's glass pane, it only cost about $21. Not too bad. We used a spray bottle with water, a few drops of dawn and sprayed it onto the glass. Then we pealed off the backing and attached it to the window. We had to shift it around a little but it wasn't a problem. Matt had to cut off a small strip of excess. To smooth out any bubbles I used a credit card and scraped outward and down.
  We put the grid back on and called it a day. Was faster and easier than I thought it would be.

No longer looking into our messy garage. Yay!!

Building the Built-in

My husband does carpentry, so he is building our bookcase for the living room. There will be five pieces on that wall. Two cabinets, two bookshelves, one window seat. This is what the one on the right looks like. Still in it's two pieces.

The left bookcase is already put together and attached to the wall. We'll have the window seat between the two. Matty hasn't gotten to that part yet.

Renovation on River Road

Matt and I have been working on the living room lately. It took a lot of demolition but we finally get to put it back together. The archway that was there originally was in pretty poor shape. They didn't take the time to do it properly so we took it down and started from scratch.

These are a few pictures of what the entry/dining room and living room looked like when we bought the house. Lovely green peel-and-stick tile, old bent fan, cabin wood on the far wall.

Moldy ceiling, more peel-and-stick tile, and just generally poorly constructed everything. All had to be torn out and redone. Even the windows.

This is the current state of our house. That table is just till we can build a farm style one. The bar is unfinished, and obviously so is the rest, but I think it's really come a long way.

My beautiful new archway. Blue in the back of the bookcase which is the same blue as the door in the living room and also the ceiling.

Coffered ceiling in the living room. The blue is Mount Airy and the walls are Sourdough.

Touches of Red

Our guest bedroom is going to have neutral walls. Possibly a pale blue,or greyish color and the accent color will be....red. Not fire engine red. Or neon red. But a beautiful shade of crimson. It's hard to explain but it will be great.

I think this pillow would look perfect in the bedroom. The maker, Sukan is one of my favorite sellers on etsy. The pillow cover is a bit out of my price range, plus it would be coming from Europe so shipping is a lot, but it is fun to dream.

A couple of weekends ago I went to Birmingham, then Atlanta with my bestie, Lydia. The main purpose was to go to the High Museum of Art. We of course decided to make a trip to IKEA. It was fantastic. I really want to take Matty. I got several things and it was only $36 total. One of the things I got were these shelf brackets. They're the perfect shade of red and for only $5 I know they'll go great in the room near the corner desk Matty will be building. I'll probably use a natural board and seal it for the actual shelf. I think white has too much contrast and more red is just too much.

uh, yeah. some more

Another fantastic tutorial. This one is from Tao of Craft. I would love to have a few of these for a nursery with a woodland theme. Wouldnt that be sweet?

A simple yet impressive tutorial on V and Co. by guest blogger Cluck. Cluck. Sew. I'm not really a flower person but I think this pillow is great.

Favorites, and More Favorites

I seem to save a lot of tutorials in the favorites list. Maybe someday I'll take a weekend and try them all. These flowers are so delicate and lovely. The tutorial is from Mrs. Priss.

Design*Sponge is one of my all time favorite blogs. Partly because of all the before and after photos submitted that basically rock my world. Also for the sporadic tutorials that seem like something I could actually manage. This faux-pottery project is pretty cool and looks like it would be a quick afternoon craft time. Project submitted by P.S. -I made this... and no that wasn't some subtle way to say I submitted it. That's actually the blog's name. :-)