One room at a time

 

I've been working on getting rooms finished.  Not just the construction part of them done, but decorated as well.  I worked on the master bedroom last week... I painted it for the third time, painted our side tables with a faux in-lay look, raised the curtains up and over, and got Matt to put round shelves in one of the corners of our room.  I'm currently shopping around for a duvet cover, probably white, to go on our duvet we have but I never use because the only cover we had is maroon and doesn't match at all.  I like this one from IKEA and its only $39.99.  I just might order it soon.

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The last couple days I have been working on our bathroom.  I patched holes we had from where a towel bar used to be, caulked any places that needed it (like the window, and by the shower where the wood didn't match up), and most painful was scraping the grout off the glass tiles that has been mocking me for over 2 years. 

 

The grout set faster than I could get it on and wipe it off.  I think grouting above ones head is the worst.  Scraping over head wasn't any less painful.  But I got them scraped.  Tomorrow I will be painting the ceiling (also over head, of course), using a tube of white grout in the caulk gun and filling the holes where grout didn't make it the first go around (over head), painting the rest of the walls the same color as our bedroom, and trying to hunt down wood frames for two skeleton leaves I have framed in silver frames at the moment.  Then I'll put the room back together and it will be done, once and for all.  That would make two spaces in our house that are finished; the kitchen is the other.  I will post before and after pictures after I get it finished, hopefully next week.

 

Finding My Passion

 

I've been thinking a lot lately about what job I would feel most challenged and passionate about.  I really love working with the kids at the Montessori school.  I like finding fun new crafts to incorporate into the afternoons what they are learning in the mornings.  I like seeing all the interesting wooden Montessori works.  I do feel like I'm lacking my hands on art for myself.  Like in college I majored in art (photography) but also minored in crafts.  I would dare to say that everyday I did something artistic or creative.  And if you ever want to test your creativity, try being in classes with 20 other creative people and try to out imagine them.  It's no small feat, and I definitely don't think I succeeded every time.  But the point was that I pushed the limits of my creativity, and kept finding more and more fun processes and techniques I loved.

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Over the Thanksgiving break I was talking to my family about how I keep thinking how awesome it would be to open a toy shop with Matt.  I would imagine and design everything, Matt would make what needed to be made out of wood, and I would do all the finishing details.  It could start as just an Etsy shop but could grow into a brick and mortar store someday.  I could blog the process, cause let's face it, I haven't been very disciplined about blogging about house renovation. I think that is in a big part to the fact I'm not really passionate about our house renovation.  I am pretty passionate about the fact I wish it were finished already.

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So Matt and I have started the brainstorming process for our future etsy shop.  My little sister, Haley suggested the name, Matelia  which is a combo of Matt and Amelia.  I'm really liking it as a strong possibility.  It's short, unique, and has meaning behind it.  Anyway, I may be blogging more about our process.  Who knows, maybe we will get the shell of the shop up and running soon.