Boredom?

Sometimes...actually, a lot of times people ask me if I get "bored." Then I ask, "I'm sorry, do I what?" and they continue, "You know, with your husband at work all day and you're just at home and you don't have any kids...don't you get bored?"

*Blank Stare*

"I'm sorry, do I what?"

If you're curious, no, I don't get "bored". I'm not sure I even know what that word means. It was like a curse word growing up. If we went to our parents and whined, "I'm borrrrrred" they were quick to say, "Great! Go [insert chore here]!" Then we would say, "No, no!!" and they would graciously say, "Then go find something to do." Needless to say, we found things to do. I guess that's why I'm never bored. I always find something to do.

I felt this "bored-ness" creeping on the other day and I was like, I don't want to do the dishes...so I didn't.

Instead I cut up this old tank dress that I got from Urban Outfitters like, a year ago. I failed to take a before picture because I didn't think I would do a post about it. Oops. So it looks like this, except white, longer, cheaper, and with pockets.  I thought I would love it more, but it turned out not so much. It just didn't fit right at all and it was on clearance so I couldn't return it. Since, it has just been sitting in a box full of stuff that I don't fit/wear anymore.

I love ruffles and I see ruffle shirts/tanks everywhere and I'm like, I can totally do that!

But I don't. Until I felt the bored-ness coming on. and to avoid doing chores like I learned as a child I found something to do! I chopped off the bottom 3/4 of the dress and made a crop tank out of the top. Then I used the bottom of the dress to make ruffles! Then I sewed them on. Ta-da! Ruffle tank. I know just what shirt I'm going to wear with it (desert sand color)...I just haven't bought one yet :)

Mail Time, Mail Time, Mail Time!!!

I bought a mailbox for our new house this past week. Yay! but I thought it was kind of boring. I decided to make it "cute." *

I didn't think about my address being on the mailbox/internet...durh.

This is what it ended up looking like:

I used chipboard stickers and stuck them on the mailbox...Unfortunately, I didn't stick some of them on well enough (as you can see in above picture) and paint got in underneath. Now, if I really cared enough, I could take a paintbrush and fix it with white paint. I don't know if I care that much :)

*I actually think it turned out kind of gross, but My Honeypie and brother and two younger sisters all liked it so...We'll keep it!

On a more awesome note I scored this baby:

For FREEEEE!!!

I'm gonna make it pretty!

 

Cute, Sappy, and Scrappy.

I discovered something awesome. You can sew on paper! What? A lot of you probably already knew that, but I did not...and I think it's so cool! Yesterday I made this for My Honeypie:

Okay, wait, let me back up. A couple of months ago I saw this book Layered, Tattered, & Stitched-A Fabric Art Workshop. Basically, it is what it is: fabric art, and I thought "cool!" But I bought some dress fabric instead of the book. The other day I went to buy fabric again, but Joann's was a mad house. I think they were doing inventory or something. There were people in blue shirts with walkie-talkies everywhere! So I looked at some magazines and bought one:

[caption id="attachment_134" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Sew Somerset"][/caption]

It has so many pictures! and a lot of projects, but I haven't actually read the thing. I've only looked at half the pictures. Doing that gave me the idea to make this for My Honeypie (deja vu anyone?):

[caption id="attachment_135" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="You Make My Life Happy....awwwwwwwwwwwww"][/caption]

Turns out all you do with mixed media art is use "trash" and make something pretty! Like above. Or like the lady on the cover of Sew Somerset does. Her Facebook page is here. She has some sweet stuff and uses antique/thrift store finds. My little sign is made simply out of this: paper tag (as the base), scraps of fabric (from Baby's quilt and another too short skirt), and a vinyl quote. It's cute and sappy, but so simple! The sign is now hanging above the napkin note that My Honeypie wrote and stuck on our door the day we got married:

[caption id="attachment_137" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="awwwwwwww"][/caption]

Now if only I could learn to do this whole mixed media/scrappy, tattered thing with clothes!

[caption id="attachment_136" align="aligncenter" width="168" caption="Alice Dress*Esty.com"][/caption]

Unfortunately, I have had this picture for over six months and didn't write down which Esty vendor it was from...uh. Sorry. Love it!

Paint Speaks to Me

I've always wanted to be one of those people that name the paint...you know, you go to the store, get totally bored, walk over to the paint section and start reading the paint chips? Eggplant Sunrise, Unicorn Surprise, Mandarin Glory...Okay, yeah, I haven't ever come across paint chips named like that, but if I named the paint....Dirty Worm, Leafy Toad, Mist of Darkness...You get the idea.

There are some pretty great paint chip names out there already:

-"Sensuous Pear"-Better Homes and Gardens. I think this might be my favo.
-"Sunwashed Kelp"-also Better Homes and Gardens
-"Exotic Peacock Plume"-Wal-Mart?
-"Icy Peppermint Vinca"-also Wal-Mart? (apparently Vinca means Periwinkle? I think.)
-and lastly, "Amphibian" -Behr. Just as a side note, with a name like "Amphibian" you'd totally think it was in the green color family right? No. It's gray. Like charcoal. Whatev.

We haven't done much in the way of construction on our house the past week, but it has given me time to look at paint samples. I love paint samples! My Honeypie has literally pulled me away from all the paint chips because, "We have to go..." Oh responsibility. I was looking through Behr's exterior paint collection and cutting out the colors I liked when My Honeypie suddenly said, "I like that one."

[caption id="attachment_127" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Behr Pacific Mist"][/caption]

I didn't even know he was looking. It's a very faint blue...like a mist! Hence the name. We decided that it (if paint sample prove to be what we want on the house) will be the main body color.

We decided on white for the trim on the house...honestly, I chose this paint for the name, "Daisy White". Daisies are my favorite flower! I couldn't resist. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the 'regular' white and Daisy White. Who cares?

[caption id="attachment_128" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Behr Daisy White"][/caption]

Lastly we chose a darker blue for the doors and a few of the accents on the house.

[caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Behr Teal Wave"][/caption]

We'll see how we like the paint samples on the real thing!

[caption id="attachment_130" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Behr paint samples"][/caption]

Sing Us a Song

You're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us all feelin' all right

-Billy Joel

Such a lovely song...and such a lovely surprise:

[caption id="attachment_113" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="piano"][/caption]

Yes!! That's right. I got a piano. For FREE. Now the person who gave it to me really doesn't want me to paint it, but it was my intention to have a painted piano all along. Now the question is: what color? I can't really do yellow even though I would *love* to do yellow, but I already decided that YELLOW is the color we are going to paint the well pump outside. I have several ideas posted here. I am also thinking of adding some pretty wood appliques like these:

[caption id="attachment_114" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="amazon.com"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_115" align="aligncenter" width="237" caption="hobbylobby.com"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_116" align="aligncenter" width="237" caption="hobbylobby.com"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_117" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="google.com"][/caption]

 

I think so!

 

The Roof

Wow, okay so we lost the ability to connect to the internet for awhile. Basically, the same old stuff so far: demolition! The roof has been the main project this week and we had awesome family that came and helped! Those who weren't allowed on the roof (me, being prego and all) helped with clean up and making food!

[caption id="attachment_91" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="ripping off the shingles"][/caption]





[caption id="attachment_95" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Day Two"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_96" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Comtemplation?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_97" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Break time for 4th of July Pancake Breakfast!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_98" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Logan and Erica"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_99" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="clean up"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_101" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="so cute!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_102" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Nathanael and Mark"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_104" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Treasure found in the yard"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_105" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Baby praying mantis!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_106" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Real baby!!"][/caption]

Okay so what I really don't understand is this picture:

[caption id="attachment_107" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="wut?"][/caption]

One of the nieces was destroying the wall and all of a sudden everyone heard glass shatter so they called me in and we discovered a window, complete with glass (this picture is after the glass and window frame have been taken out). The people who lived here before us (which was about ten years ago and no one has lived in it since) added onto the house...but when they did that they ENCLOSED THE OUTSIDE WINDOW INSIDE THEIR WALLS. Wut?

Shelves and Spice

I was wandering around an antique store in town looking for a chandelier to put in my kitchen, but instead I found a couple of glass bottles to put my spices in. I heart spices! Eventually I want to have enough bottles in my kitchen for my spices to be like this:

[caption id="attachment_44" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="from BHG.com"][/caption]

Except for my bottles are going to be all different sizes and on an open shelf, like the shelves below:

[caption id="attachment_51" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="from BHG.com"][/caption]

But longer. That's what we're shooting for anyway.

I also found these: and I thought, how excellent would it be to use these for an extra design element in between shelves? I think most! Since we're only in the demolition stage I am putting off buying them. Just in case I change my mind.

Nineteen Forty Four

It turns out the SD cards have a little slide-y thing on the side that keeps certain computers (mine) from reading the card. All you have to do is slide the little gray rectangle and boom! Pictures all of a sudden show up on your computer that weren't there before. Weird. So I got our pictures! but then I totally forgot to bring my camera again last night, so I took some not so awesome pictures with the Iphone.

From two days ago:



[caption id="attachment_58" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="kitchen beforekitchen beforekitchen after--that cloudy stuff? it's all the nasty dust"][/caption]

you can tell what wall i did because after a certain point i'm too short to reach!