Girl v. The World

New Post on LoveJoy Photography!

2012-01-31T10:41:00.000-06:00

Check out my new post of sweet baby Tanner!

DIY: Framed Frenchy Chalkboard

2012-01-26T11:52:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time I scored a gorgeous mirror to hang above the table in my entryway. I lovingly painted and antiqued the frame. Then I hung it in it's new home with great pride. Thirty minutes later, my gorgeous mirror came crashing down the the ground and shattered into a million pieces.

I may or may not have cried like a little girl.

After I picked up the pieces of my poor mirror, I realized that while the frame was broken, it just might be salvageable. So I stored it away in my garage until inspiration struck.

A few months later, inspiration struck, and her name was Miss Mustard Seed.

Source: missmustardseed.blogspot.com via Angie on Pinterest

This is her beauty of a chalkboard. I loved it. I wanted, no, NEEDED, it in my home. So I put my thinking cap on and came up with a plan.

I headed to Home Depot and bought a sheet of 1/4 inch think MDF, some black chalkboard paint and some grey primer. Several days of priming and painting later and this is what I've got:

Isn't she lovely? Nevermind my chicken-scratch. I have the worst handwriting in the world.

I love the details on the corners and sides of the frame.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And I'm very glad I was able to create something pretty out of my gorgeous broken mirror.

Little Things

2012-01-18T11:54:00.000-06:00

Hi there! I'm sorry I've been a bit absent lately. I feel like my days are getting away from me. Where does the time go and why is it moving so fast lately?

Anyhoo, I haven't started on many house projects in the recent weeks because I have been busy trying to jump-start my photography business. It is going to be a long process but I am so very excited about delving further into my love of photography! So lately when I take a trip to the antique store or thrift store, I'm keeping my eyes open for props I can use in my shoots. Like these:

Aren't those wooden toys just precious? And who doesn't love Classic Pooh? The shabby chair was a great deal and I can't wait to use it in a shoot!

Oh, and I picked up this AMAZING vintage kitchen scale and my local antique store. Isn't it gorgeous? I've been dying to get my hands on one of these for a while now and they're either overpriced or not too pretty. This one was perfect!

Other than shopping for photography props and equipment, I'm trying to decorate my house for this awkward time of year. Is it just me, or does the few months of winter after Christmas seem to be weird to decorate for? It's winter, but it's not Christmas and I have to fight the urge to bust out the Spring decor. Hmmm...

One thing I have managed to accomplish is making a cute little ruffle runner for my front entryway table. Using a strip of dropcloth fabric and leftover linen strips from my ruffle Christmas skirt, this little project was super easy and I love the way it looks.

Hopefully, I can start getting back to my loooong list of house projects soon. Stay tuned!

New Post on LoveJoy Photography!

2012-01-06T20:42:00.000-06:00

Head over to my photography blog and meet Delilah & Olivia!

Goals for 2012

2012-01-04T13:04:00.000-06:00

Holy Moses. Does anyone else feel like the holidays always sneak up on you then chew you up and spit you out? I'm exhausted!

Lobster and I had a fabulous, albeit BUSY, Christmas and New Years. We traveled all over the great state of Texas and are SO very happy to finally be back home with absolutely no plans to go anywhere for at least the next month or two. Maybe I can finally get to some big projects I've been dying to start!

Of course, my "To Do" list is always a mile long, so I think it's important that I set some goals for the year for myself. These are the projects I MUST accomplish before the ball drops again:

Source: Uploaded by user via Joy on Pinterest

Paint my kitchen cabinets! Isn't this kitchen gorgeous? It's one of my inspirations for how I want my kitchen to look (well, as close to it as possible!). I have been agonizing over this project since we moved into the house a year and a half ago. First, Lobster said no to my request to paint said cabinets but I have since ~~bent him to my will~~ convinced him how nice white cabinets would look. Then I just plain ran out of time. It will be a loooong project so I think now is a good time to start before spring comes and I get distracted by pretty weather and gardening.

Source: brynalexandra.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

Repaint my guest bathroom. I'm thinking a charcoal gray like the bath pictured above. The paint color in that room is an "oops" color anyway so I'll be happy when it's gone.

Source: google.com via Joy on Pinterest

Reupholster a couple of small side chairs that resemble this one. This project won't be too difficult but I keep putting it off for whatever reason. Laziness, perhaps? Nah.

Source: hgtv.com via Julia on Pinterest

Create a chalkboard with an old antique frame. I've already got the frame, just need to create the chalkboard part.

Source: missmustardseed.com via Joy on Pinterest

Paint my trumeau mirror that kinda sorta looks like this one, but ugly. This means I'm FINALLY going to order some chalk paint and see what all the hubub is about.

Source: thehouseofsmiths.com via Joy on Pinterest

Frame out our builder-grade mirrors like this one at House of Smith's.

I think I'll stop there for now or I'll get overwhelmed! It's a pretty good start for the year, I think. What projects do you want to tackle this year?

New Post on LoveJoy Photography!

2011-12-28T14:28:00.000-06:00

Go take a look at my Christmas mini-session with Carly and David on LoveJoy Photography!

Guest Post on Heart Full of Daisies

2011-12-20T09:00:00.001-06:00

I am guest posting over at Heart Full of Daisies today! Head on over and check it out!

New Post on LoveJoy Photography!

2011-12-14T09:35:00.001-06:00

Check out my session with little Austyn on LoveJoy Photography!

Decking the Halls

2011-12-12T10:00:00.002-06:00

My absolute favorite time of the year is Christmas and I will deck out the house in all kinds of holiday decor until the cows come home. I think I've spent every weekend since Thanksgiving tweaking and adding and re-arranging all my holiday stuff. I just love it!

This year I added a few new goodies to my stash. First my cute little plaid ornaments:

Aren't they precious? I stole this idea from the fabulous Eddie Ross. He's awesome. I love him. Anyway, these were super easy to make (just cut Goodwill plaid shirts into strips and wrap and pin around styrofoam balls). I have them scattered throughout the house in little plaid groupings. LOVE!

Then there's my antique Santa toy that I scored at the Round Top Antique Show back in September. It was sitting all alone among all kinds of other things on a table and I loved him immediately. As soon as I snatched him up, thirty other women swarmed me, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over him and fruitlessly looking for another just like it. Too bad, ladies! He's mine!

I hung some plain green wreaths with some fabulous thick, plaid ribbon in between each window in the living room. I scored the wreaths from Goodwill (where else?). Originally, they were hideous. But I cleaned them off and took off all the crappy fake flowery icky stuff and instantly had perfectly good wreaths!

Now, I'm not really sure if I'm in love with my grapevine "chandelier." What do you think? I do like it but I'm thinking I need to hang it differently next time. Anyway, I got the gigantic grapevine wreath at Hobby Lobby for half off, wrapped it with burlap and my plaid ribbon, wound a string of timer lights around it and hung some sparkly snowflakes for a rustic, wintery chandy!

Then there's my entryway table. I also found the pre-lit wreath at Goodwill and I got the giant sparkly ornaments from Hobby Lobby.

Finally, I wanted to add just a dash of the Christmas spirit to our bedroom, so I hung some of my large antique-y silver ornaments above the window seat in our bedroom. Aren't the pretty?

I just love decorating for Christmas, don't you? Do you go all out like me or just the basics? I'd love to see your decor!

No Sew Ruffle Tree Skirt

2011-12-07T13:49:00.000-06:00

Can I just tell you that Miss Mustard Seed is one of my heroes? Seriously, that woman has some mad skills. I saw this tutorial she did for HGTV for a no sew ruffle tree skirt and I knew that I had to have it for my new skirt!

Isn't it gorgeous? It was really easy to do, but very time consuming. It took me the better part of a Sunday afternoon to finish.

And a LOT of hot glue! But I truly love how big and frilly and lovely it is, don't you?

If you want your very own, head on over to Miss Mustard Seed's tutorial. Give it a shot!

Simple Sweater Stockings

2011-12-05T10:44:00.001-06:00

This year I decided to switch up my holiday decor colors. For the longest time they were deep red and gold. Lovely and elegant, but I wanted something different. So I decided to follow the theme of my everyday colors in my living room which are blue, white and silver.

Changing the ornaments on the tree wasn't hard. But when I came across stuff like my tree skirt and stockings, I knew I had to get creative because I was not going to pay a bunch of money to replace something I used only once a year. Having just created my sweater pillows I had the brilliant idea to make some stockings out of sweaters as well. And I love how they turned out!

This project couldn't have been easier. Basically, I went to Goodwill and found a few sweaters I liked. I try to get all men's sizes or large women's sizes. At home, I washed and dried the sweaters in high heat in order to shrink the sweaters a little. Then I turned the sweaters inside out, took my old red stocking and laid it on top of the sweater with the cuff of the stocking lined up with the lower edge of the sweater.

Then I took my sharp fabric scissors and, eyeballing a half inch seam allowance, cut the sweater out around the stocking. Then I sewed around all the cut edges, leaving the cuff open. Turn the new sweater stocking right side out and VOILA! A new stocking! (It's hanging a little wonky in the pic below. I promise it looks like an actual stocking in real life!)

You can keep the stocking as is or you can add a bit of coordinating fabric to the cuff part like I did. I basically just wrapped the plaid fabric around the cuff to get an approximate length, then I tucked half of it inside the stocking and pinned it before turning the stocking inside out again to sew the plaid fabric on.

I did the same process with a pretty white sweater and a piece of grey fleece. This is what they look like hanging above the fireplace. I really like how they turned out and it was SUPER easy!

Has anyone else made some super easy stockings? I'd love to see them! Send me a link...

I'm linking to:

Christmas Pillows

2011-12-01T16:43:00.001-06:00

Hi kids!

So one of the things that has been keeping me so busy lately is making Christmas pillows. I fell in love with a couple of pillows from Pottery Barn, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay those prices! So I decided to try to make a couple of my favorites.

These were my inspiration pillows.

Here are my versions. I think the poinsettia pillow turned out pretty good, but I'm not thrilled about the wreath pillow. I think I'm going to have another go at it, though. We'll see how much time I have after I finish all my other bazillion projects!

Since I had my sewing machine out, and since making pillows is super easy, I decided to make a few more. Some to keep and some to give as gifts.

How do you like my felt sheepie pillow? Cutest thing ever isn't it? I really had no reason to make it other than it being so cute. I'll save it to put in my future baby's room.

There you have it! Of course, the pillows aren't the only projects that have been keeping me super busy. I have decided to change my entire Christmas decor theme this year which naturally means making new stockings, a tree skirt, etc., etc. Why do I do this to myself?!

More pictures of other projects to come!

I'm linking to:

Random Awesomeness

2011-11-29T14:38:00.000-06:00

Hello friends! I have been so busy creating and decorating for Christmas in my house that I have been neglecting the good ol' blog lately. So sorry! I promise I'll update with lots of pictures soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you some random things that make me happy. Enjoy!

Source: google.com via Joy on Pinterest

Drool...

Source: moviegoods.com via Joy on Pinterest

I will watch this movie approximately 473 times before Christmas. FAVORITE!

Source: flickr.com via Joy on Pinterest

Sweet baby! I want more border collies!

Source: myonlyappeal.tumblr.com via Joy on Pinterest

Gah!!! So cute! I am obsessed with sheep and wool lately. Is that strange?

Source: tumblr.com via Joy on Pinterest

I want to live here...

Source: Uploaded by user via Joy on Pinterest

...or here...

Okay, I'll stop there. I could go on and on.

Be back soon with Christmas decoration pictures. Yay!

Stencil Winner!

2011-11-18T08:50:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Susan Krauss! I'll be contacting you for more information, Susan. Happy stenciling!

NOVICA Winner!

2011-11-16T08:37:00.000-06:00

Thanks to all of you who entered to win the NOVICA gift certificate! Random.org generated comment number 5:

Congratulations to Katie @ Strawbridge Stuff! I hope you find something wonderful for your sister!

Last Chance to Enter Giveaways!

2011-11-14T12:43:00.000-06:00

Hey guys! Don't forget to enter my two giveaways! You can enter for a chance to pick up a gift certificate to NOVICA and a chance to win a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils! Just follow the links to the relevant posts and leave me a comment for a chance to win.

Hop to it, people!

Office Makeover: Accent Wall and a Giveaway!

2011-11-10T10:00:00.003-06:00

I'm going nuts with the giveaways this week, huh? I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am!

Hey, remember when I told you about the inspiration for my office makeover? Well, it's slowly but surely coming along. My latest endeavor was to stencil the main wall in my office and the folks over at Cutting Edge Stencils were gracious enough to send me a stencil for review! I did a bit of research and really fell in love with their Casablanca stencil.

Cutting Edge Stencils has a lot of different designs to choose from and I could have easily chosen at least three others, but I loved the curves and simplicity of Casablanca so I went with it. The stencil was shipped promptly and arrived with an awesome clip-on level to help keep the stencil straight and level as you move along. Be sure to read the instructions and go to Cutting Edge Stencils website for some very helpful videos. I watched each one at least twice before I started!

Here is a before picture. My office is painted a sage-y green color. I didn't want to take away from the beautiful color already on the walls and I didn't want too much of a stark contrast so I opted to do a half-tint of my original wall color for the stencil color. This way, I would have a more subtle tone-on-tone effect going on.

I used a high density foam roller (which was included by Cutting Edge Stencils) and a lot of paper towel for this project (rolling the excess paint on a paper towel before painting the wall is a key step). The process took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I attribute that to my having to paint two coats before moving the stencil to the next section of wall (painting a light color over a dark color probably wasn't my brightest idea, but not a big deal). The trickiest parts were the corners where the walls met and the bottom where the wall met the baseboard. I made sure to tape off the ceiling and baseboards as well as the adjacent walls. Cutting Edge Stencil's online videos were REALLY helpful when trying to get into the corners without screwing everything up!

All in all, it took me three days to do one wall but I was multi-tasking and letting paint dry between coats. I have read that stenciling a wall can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days depending on the size of your room and if you multi-task like me!

As for the stencil, it was fairly easy to use. The level helped immensely! And it was super easy to clean up afterward.

Here's my office after I finally got everything back in place. (Please ignore my pink chair that I have yet to re-upholster.) I love how it turned out! Not too striking, but definitely adds a bit of interest to the room, don't you think?

I really enjoyed using this stencil and I think you will too. In fact, the folks over at Cutting Edge Stencils want to give one of you a chance to win your very own stencil! Woo hoo!!! Get excited!!!

Once lucky winner will get to choose any stencil they want (for a value of up to $50) from the Cutting Edge Stencil website! All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me which stencil you want (and be sure to leave your email or other contact information)! How easy is that?

The giveaway will be open until 5:00 p.m. CST on Thursday, November 17, 2011. You can only enter once, please! And spread the word...you know your friends would love this, too!

Gifts With a Cause and a Giveaway!

2011-11-08T16:04:00.001-06:00

Hello friends! Anyone else start their Christmas shopping already? I started a couple of weeks ago because my free time is booking up QUICK and I know Christmas will be here sooner than I think.

Anyway, so I've started shopping and making stuff. But I wanted to share with you a fantastic website where you can find a lot of wonderful unique gifts!

Have you heard of Novica? Novica is a leading fair trade artisan website that works with National Geographic to give talented artisans around the world a place to express their artistic talents and provide access to the world market. Novica has thousands of top fair trade corporate gifts, accessories, jewelry and home decor items on their website.

I was thrilled to be given a chance to choose one of their products for review! After much browsing (seriously, they have so much great stuff it was very difficult to choose), I finally decided on a gorgeous shawl called "Maya Unity" made in Guatemala. Once I ordered it, my package took about a week to arrive and when I opened the box I was very pleasantly surprised to find that my shawl was gift wrapped!

The maker of the shawl even included a small "worry doll", a traditional Mayan cloth doll, and a postcard with a personal note from the shawl maker! How cool is that?

Isn't the shawl lovely? Very lightweight, soft, beautiful colors. I will wear it as a scarf. I have a scarf collection that grows by the year. I would have taken a picture of me wearing it but, I'm not gonna lie, I was lookin' mighty rough that day. I don't do pictures on rough days.

Anyhoo, I love my new shawl/scarf! And guess what?

The folks over at Novica want to give you a chance to win a gift certificate!!!

To enter the giveaway, just head over to the Novica website and take a look around. They have everything from women's and men's accessories, scarves, home decor, even walking sticks and cufflinks! After you've browsed a bit come back here and leave a comment telling me what lovely thing you found that you would want to put a gift certificate toward. It's that simple!

The giveaway will remain open until 5:00 p.m. CST on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. You may only enter once and be sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you win. Spread the word and get your friends over here for a chance to win!

Oh, and by the way, if you dig what Novica does you can sign up to be a consultant for their home party division. If you're interested, follow this link for more details!

Ridiculously Easy Pillow Covers

2011-11-02T15:45:00.001-05:00

Remember how I told you that I was mad for plaid and cable knit crazy? Remember how I said I had some simply brilliant ideas on how to incorporate both elements into my winter/holiday decor? Remember all that?

Well, I'm back to show you what I did. And, let me tell you, it is so stupid easy. And cheap. Seriously.

Step one: go to your nearest thrift store and buy mens (or large womens) plaid shirts and cable knit sweaters. Go ahead. I'll wait...

You back? Good! Now take all that stuff you just bought for less than a meal at Chili's and cut it all up.

Wait...what?

That's right. We're gonna slice up those shirts like Edward Scissorhands and make some pillow covers! Here's how I did it:

Take your plaid shirt and button it up. Turn it inside out. Using the plaid "grid lines" as a guide for a straight line, measure the width and height of your pillow. Mine were 18 X 18. I added an extra inch on each to give me a 1/2 inch seam allowance so my plaid shirt was cut to a 19 X 19 square.

Now pin the two pieces of fabric together (you know, the front with the buttons and the back of the shirt). Then sew all sides together.

Now unbutton the buttons, turn the pillow cover right sides out and stuff your pillow in. Button up and VOILA! You have just made a plaid pillow cover.

The cable knit sweaters are just slightly more difficult. Out of my four sweaters, only one had nice big buttons going down the front and I sewed that one up just like the plaid shirts. But the others were regular old sweaters so I simply measured to the size of my pillows, adding an inch for seam allowance, cut, pinned and sewed three sides. On the fourth side of each sweater pillow, I sewed about two or three inches from each corner and left the middle open in order to stuff the pillow inside. Then I just hand stitched the pillow shut. Granted, when it's time to take the winter pillow covers off, I'll have to cut open the hand stitches, but I don't mind that. If you're super crafty, you could put a zipper in there. But I'm not that ambitious. Anyhoo...

There you have it! Super easy and quick and CHEAP plaid and sweater pillow covers! Now, why on earth would anyone go to Pottery Barn and buy a sweater pillow for $60 when you can do your own for $2?

While I was at it I made a sweater pillow for Big Bertha and a faux grainsack pillow for Eloise.

I have some other ideas for the remnants of my plaid shirts, but they are for Christmas. I'll post that little piece of brilliance closer to the time. Meanwhile, how do you like the pillows? Let me know if you decide to give this a shot. I'd love to see how yours turned out!

I'm linking to:

Cable Knit Crazy

2011-10-26T10:00:00.001-05:00

We all know I'm mad for plaid right? I think if I were to pick a second favorite thing that I adore in the fall and winter, it's got to be cable knits. Dreamy, chunky cable knits...

Source: purlsoho.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: None via Kim on Pinterest

Not only are they super comfy to wear, but I am loving using them in the home. Throws, pillows, slipcovers...you name it, a cable knit looks fantastic!

Source: countryliving.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: roost-home.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

Unfortunately, cable knit accessories for the home can be expensive. Just check out Pottery Barn's website ($50 for a pillow cover?!). So I've come up with a way to incorporate cable knit in my fall/winter decor for a fraction of the PB cost. Wanna know what it is?

Source: paperolive.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: potterybarn.com via Joy on Pinterest

You'll have to check back soon. I think you'll like what you find! (I'm such a tease!)

Mad About Plaid

2011-10-24T10:00:00.001-05:00

Source: google.com via Joy on Pinterest

I'm a Scottish girl, through and through. Granted, my family has been in America for generations now, but I still feel the blood of my Scottish ancestors run fiercely through my veins. It's no surprise, then, that there's not much that I love more than plaid, especially around the holiday season.

Source: flickr.com via Joy on Pinterest

I've decided that this year I'm going to go plaid crazy with my Christmas decor. Why I haven't done it before now is beyond me. I guess I never really knew what to do. But I've come across a few ideas in the past few days that have inspired me and I'm super excited to get started on my new projects. You'll have to stay tuned to see the ideas I've come up with...

Source: potterybarn.com via Joy on Pinterest

I know, I know. I'm adding yet more projects to my ever expanding list. It's a sickness. And, yes, I do realize that it's not even Halloween yet and I'm already thinking about Christmas decorations. That's also a sickness. But at least I'll be prepared come jingle bell time, right?

Source: countryliving.com via Joy on Pinterest

What's inspiring you this season? Are you already thinking about Christmas or am I the only wacko out there already getting my decorations in order?

Two Mini Projects Down, 4,387 To Go

2011-10-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Lobster got food poisoning or the flu. We're not real sure which it was. But he was out of commission Sunday through today. So what's a girl to do when her hubs is laid up in bed?

Paint something, of course!

Remember that time we painted our front door red? Well, we were so impressed with how easy it was that I decided I wanted to paint the interior of our front door black. Lately, I've been digging how black doors look in entryways so I wanted to see how it looked in our little cottage.

Just like when we painted the front of the door, we decided to use Rust-Oleum's Door Paint in black. I used an angled Purdy brush for the crevices of the door and a dense foam roller for the flat parts. In about 12 hours (including dry time) our door went from ho-hum:

To holy crap what have I done (after the first coat):

To Oooooh, me likey!:

I really like the impact it makes, don't you? So, the first time we did this, we had the door open for 6 hours or so and didn't realize how stinky the fumes of the paint were. This time, we had the door closed the whole time and I really think we were high on paint fumes the whole weekend. It was awful. I felt so bad for my pets. So please, for the love of God, open some windows or something when you're using this paint!

Oh, and here's my little entryway table with all of my fall decorations. Funny story, I got that mirror at an antique store that was going out of business for an absolute steal. I finally got it painted (it was a disgusting yellow and fake gold) and hung and I was so pleased with myself when, thirty minutes after it was hung, it came crashing down, shattering the mirror and busting the frame. I was so sad I cried. So I searched all my local antique stores for a suitable replacement to no avail. Fast forward one week and I'm shopping the Round Top Antique Fair with my sister when, lo and behold, leaning up against a random table stacked with odds and ends is the EXACT mirror! It was a MIRACLE! Not only that, but the woman who was selling it said it had been there for three days and she was just looking to get it sold so I got it for a steal....AGAIN! Once again, though, it was yellow and gold and I had to paint it but since I had done it once before, the process went pretty quick. This time, the mirror was already wired to hang (so I didn't wire it which was the problem the first time) and it has been hanging happily (and safely) in it's new home for a couple of weeks now. Yay!

Okay, tangent over. Moving on...

Anyhoo, the other thing I finally got done was hanging baskets on the wall in my guest bath. This was my inspiration for this project:

Source: imbusyprocrastinating.com via Joy on Pinterest

And here is my version:

Not too shabby, eh? I took the picture before I had all the towels put in the basket. I guess I got too excited. But you get the idea. I love how it adds storage for towels without taking up a whole lot of space in a small bathroom.

Oh, and do you notice the curtains under the sink? I took the doors to the cabinets off and installed two small tension rods and then hung some dropcloth material. Behind those curtains is the kitty litter box. I hated having the litter box out in one of our extra rooms and there is really nowhere else to put it so this was my solution to an unsightly necessity. The kitties took to it right away; they just slip in and out from behind the curtains and leave less of a mess trailing litter behind.

Anyway, they weren't big or hard projects, but it sure felt nice ticking something off of my to-do list!

Kaleidoscope Home Tours: Maison de la Normandie

2011-10-11T14:17:00.000-05:00

Getting back to our home tours...

This is the Maison de la Normandie by Glendarroch Homes. This house was, by far, Lobster's and my favorite! Here's the floorplan:

The exterior of the house had me at hello, but then I walked inside. Oh, Lordie.

Those ceilings! The lighting! That floor! I was already drooling at this point...

The living room was open and elegant. Just enough light was flowing in from the large windows facing the backyard.

I loved the manliness of this office. It was gorgeous and refined and elegant and classy. But it had an old-world English aristocrat vibe going on that I loved.

The high tray ceilings and the colors of this room were perfect. And the little seating area (below) was fantastic and chic. I wanted to live in this bedroom.

The ceilings in the master bath were just as gorgeous as the entry hall. Can you imagine getting ready for work in this space? I'd want to dress to the nines all the time just to do my bathroom justice!

I loved the robin's egg blue china cabinets in the dining room. And look at that unusual ceiling!

This WILL be my kitchen one day. I swear it!

I thought this was an interesting concept: the small office nook inside of the mudroom/laundry room. What do you think about that? Good idea or bad? I can't decide...

I really liked this back patio area with the fantastic outdoor kitchen. I'd probably spend every mild night outside if I had one of these.

Here is Lobster's favorite part of the house: the upstairs "man" loft. Look at that bar! The lights changed colors every few seconds. Who wouldn't want a full bar, a big screen projection t.v. and a poker table in the upstairs loft?

This little upstairs bathroom blew my mind. Have you ever seen a bathroom in the round? I loved it! I can just imagine a little girl getting ready up there in the mornings and fantasizing about being a beautiful princess locked away in a castle tower, waiting for her prince to come.

One of my favorite rooms: the wine cellar! How gorgeous is that door? How amazing is the color of that wood? Be still my heart (and give me a glass of wine!).

I just had to look at those amazing ceilings again. Sigh...

So what did you think? Did you like the tour? Did your heart go pitter-pat over this house as much as mine? If only I had a million buckaroos...

Just a Leetle Bit Behind...

2011-10-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

So I may have mentioned in the past that I tend to create lots and lots of projects for myself. And every now and then I get a little lazy and fall behind. So my “To Do” list gets longer and longer and my “Done” list gets shorter and shorter. Lately, I've been feeling like I’ll never get anything done.

Of course, instead of tackling any one of the projects on my list, right now I’m just going to daydream about what my projects will look like when they’re done. Wanna see?

After paining my kitchen cabinets white, hopefully my kitchen will resemble the likes of these beauties:

Source: traditionalhome.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: None via Joy on Pinterest

Source: hollymathisinteriors.com via Joy on Pinterest

After stenciling the walls in my home office, I hope to be able to work in a room that has walls as nice as these:

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After I paint the buffet/t.v. stand in my living room, I hope my t.v. will rest a little easier on something that looks like this:

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Source: thehandmadehome.net via Joy on Pinterest

After I repaint my guest bath and hang a few baskets, I hope my guests can take care of their “bidness” in a bathroom that looks a little like this:

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After I paint the interior of my front door a glossy black, I’d love for my foyer to resemble these lovely spaces:

Source: thehouseofsmiths.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: awelldressedhome.com via Joy on Pinterest

Does my list intimidate you as much as it does me? It doesn’t help that I’ve got guests coming to town or the hubs and I will be out of town every weekend in the foreseeable future. Can’t a girl just stay home and work her tail off and take pictures and blog about it? Is that too much to ask? Sheesh.

So, what’s on your To Do list? Are you drowning in projects too? I’m not the only over-ambitions DIY-er, right?

Kaleidoscope Home Tours: The Seville

2011-10-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I showed you some pictures of the first house we toured during the Kaleidoscope of Homes tour in Fort Worth. Today I'll give you a glimpse of the second house we strolled through.

This is The Seville by Village Homes. Here is a floorplan:

Honestly, Lobster and I agreed that this was our least favorite home on the tour. For us, the home was too boxy and didn't have enough "curves" to it. You know how sometimes when you walk into a space it feels "soft" or "hard"? This was definitely a "hard" house, if that makes any sense.

Upon entering the home, you come face to face with the staircase and a never ending hallway. On the right is a large dining room:

One thing I can say about this house is that there were a TON of windows and it was very bright. The rooms were also very big, but I did not like all the loooooong hallways. There were details in the dining room that I loved, however.

Like this little buffet area. Love the starburst mirror.

Love this giant crown thingy.

Love this chandelier.

The kitchen was also large but didn't have much architectural awesomeness beyond the beams on the ceiling and the great lighting fixtures.

When you took a left out of the entryway, you came upon this sitting room. This is the first of many sitting rooms in this house.

Loved this mirror. Hello, world!

The master bath was very large and, in my opinion, a bit of a waste of space. I loved all the marble, but the room was so huge that it almost felt like a museum.

Here is yet another sitting room at the back of the house. I thought the fireplace was gorgeous and you know I'm a big fan of all the bamboo shades in this place!

The bedrooms weren't much to speak of, hence the lack of pictures, but I thought this bedroom had a nice, simple, country charm to it (which, honestly, didn't fit the feel of the house, but whatever).

And here's the third and final sitting room in the large loft area of the upper floor.

I thought this courtyard, which was nestled in the middle area of the house and surrounded by the walls of the house on three sides, was a lovely little addition. I could enjoy some nice cool evenings out there sipping margaritas by the fountain, couldn't you?

So that's the second house for you. What did you think? Do you share my lukewarm feelings for it or were you a bigger fan?

I'll be back soon to show you the last house on the tour (it was Lobster's and my favorite by far!).

DIY: Pretty Pouf

2011-09-27T15:32:00.000-05:00

I think I'm a bit behind on this trend bandwagon, but after seeing so many poufs in design lately I thought it would be fun to make a couple. This is by far one of the easiest projects I've done lately.

First, go to the Better Homes and Gardens site and download the pouf template. Print it out, cut out the pieces, tape together and you're good to go.

Next, lay your template out on your fabric. I used some leftover fabric I had from when I reupholstered Eloise. Then I sewed my pieces together and followed the instructions for filling the pouf.

Now this is where I disagree with the instructions. They suggest filling the pouf with fabric scraps, old clothes, old towels and sheets, whatever you can get your hands on. I did this for my first pouf and while it seems to be a great idea in theory, I found that it made my pouf very heavy and too lumpy. So (after these pictures were taken) I went back and re-stuffed my pouf with fiberfil (you can get it at just about any craft store).

This is how the pouf turned out. I made another one for my office in a different fabric. By the time I made the one for my office I knew I wanted to stuff the pouf with fiberfil so I bought four 32 ounce bags and used about 3 and a half bags worth of the stuff.

Anyway, besides that, I really found this project easy and I love how the poufs turned out. They're very functional for footrests but also for when you have a lot of people over and you run out of space on the couch, your guests can just pop a squat on a pouf instead of on the floor!

Kaleidoscope Home Tours: Hermoso Castillo

2011-09-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

This weekend the hubs and I checked out the Kaleidoscope Of Homes in west Fort Worth. This is an event that is put on by the Greater Fort Worth Builders Association every year in which they sell tickets to the general public who would like to tour some grand homes in new developments around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Nifty idea, huh? I thought it was even cooler that part of the proceeds go to the Scottish Rite Children's Hospital. So when Lobster came home with a couple of tickets, I was more than happy to strap on my trusty camera and spend the day gleaning inspiration from these gorgeous homes!

This year, the tour consisted of three homes. The first home we toured was the Hermoso Castillo by HGC Residential Development.

Here's the floor plan:

What I loved about this home was how open the main area was and I loved what the interior designers did to the space. So bright and cheerful!

I'm a big fan of blue, so I especially loved the color scheme in this room. Soft, calming, pretty. Lovely. And I love the beams on the ceiling and the chandeliers!

Do you see the t.v. screen above the fireplace? With the push of a button, a faux "painting" comes down to cover the t.v. when not in use. I WANT one!

I love the details of the scroll work built into the arches between the main room and the kitchen. And don't you love those curtains? I thought the bold stripe in the middle of the panel was a fantastic touch.

I adore this chair and the monogrammed pillow.

This little breakfast table caught my eye immediately. I love the soft blue legs and warm wood top.

And these slipcovers!!! Be still my heart...

I fell in love with this kitchen. So crisp and clean with touches of blue and fresh green. The marble countertops made me drool.

Isn't this a fantastic little bar nook? Every house should come with one, don't you think?

I need a formal dining room. With a fireplace. Stat.

This was the master bedroom. Lobster looks pretty relaxed with a free beer in hand.

Hello, lover. I need this closet. Badly. I think this closet is about four times the size of my current closet. I could LIVE in this closet. Who doesn't want a closet like this? And the chandy! Perfection!

This was one of the extra bedrooms. I loved the gorgeous sage on the walls and the light airiness of the space. I especially loved the sitting area. I would have stolen those chairs if Lobster had let me. He seems to think I have an obsession with chairs and is trying his best to regulate me. Silly man.

What do you think? Gorgeous house, no? Stay tuned...I'll be posting about the other two homes we toured later in the week!

Case of the Shrinking Pants

2011-09-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have one of those mornings where you're getting dressed and you decide to wear a pair of pants you haven't worn in a while that use to be a little big and when you put them on they're almost too small?

Yeah, that was the start to my morning. Very depressing. I'm chalking it up to my pants shrinking. Because I refuse to admit that, really, I've just gotten lazy and gained a few.

After my honeymoon, hubs and I continued to go to the gym but we weren't as crazy strict about it. Then we started letting ourselves eat a little less healthy every now and then. You know, a burger here and a pizza there. Then hubs got a new job with a pretty big pay cut and we knew we couldn't justify the expense of the gym anymore, so we cancelled the membership, vowing we'd use the neighborhood fitness room and jogging more outside. Good plan, right?

What we failed to realize was that north Texas would soon turn into Hell with over 100 degree temperatures for three months straight. Needless to say, we did not jog outside. And then we just got downright lazy and "forgot" to hit the neighborhood fitness room.

Fast forward to mid-September and we both feel like fat slobs. The reality is that neither of us are fat, but we both have a few pounds we could stand to lose. But we just don't have any motivation! It's amazing to me how I could go from being a 4-times-a-week gym rat to doing nothing at all and secretly loving it. How did it come to this? How do I get back in the groove?

In the meantime, I have a sneaky suspicion that when I go to try on some of my old winter clothes here in the next couple of months, they will have mysteriously shrunk too. Stupid shrinking clothes! Why can't I just walk around in yoga pants and an old t-shirt all the time? Who's with me?

The Red Door

2011-09-14T14:57:00.000-05:00

We have been wanting to paint our door since the day we moved into our house. I'm not sure if the previous owners were color blind or if they just had really poor taste, but they made some strange color choices in the house. I think they had intended to paint the door a nice red color, but it turned out to be a sort of fuchsia. And it had clearly been a good several years since the door had been cleaned, so the color was actually a dusty, dull fuchsia.

Not pretty.

So a couple of weeks ago we got our first cool day (after about 65 days of 100 plus degrees) and we decided it was time to tackle the door. Lobster and I opened up all the windows, locked the cats away in our bedroom and got to work turning our horrid fuchsia door into a truly red door.

First, we sanded the door down with a steel wool sponge. We didn't sand enough to take the paint off, just to scruff it up a bit. Then I cleaned the door with soap and water and let it dry.

We chose to use Rust-oleum's Door Paint in Cranberry. It's an oil based paint so it was a bit different to use; I've only ever used latex based paints. The paint went on nicely and it covered really well. I used a small angled brush to paint the grooved areas of the door and a foam roller to paint the flat parts.

Here's the door with only one coat of paint. Look's so much better already, doesn't it?

While the paint was drying, we cleaned the brushed nickel hardware with a mild soap and water. Then we applied a second coat of paint and let it dry. We had intended to do a couple of more coats, but after the second coat it really didn't seem to need any more. So we let the door dry for about 6 hours while we enjoyed a cool breeze, ate pizza and watched Batman Returns. It was a good day.

It took Lobster and I about 45 minutes to put the hardware back on the door. It was a lot harder than it had been to take it off. At one point, the deadbolt would not lock. Not good. Clearly, we're not pros.

Here's the door now. Much better. MUCH, much better in person, I promise. Now to just add a pretty little fall wreath and some potted chrysanthemums and pumpkins and we're all set for fall!

Party Time!

2011-09-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

This weekend we celebrated Lobster's big 3-0 by having a small soiree at our house. Like usual, I bit off more than I could chew with my menu, but lucky for me some good friends came over early to see if they could help us get ready. They were lifesavers!

In the eating area of the kitchen I set up a dessert table where I proudly displayed my "cakes in a jar." I basically baked chocolate and white wedding cake cupcakes and stuffed them into mason jars, topped each with icing and stuck a cute party flag on the top. They were so yummy and pretty cute, too!

No party for my husband would have been complete without jello shots. Trying to help him hold on to his youth, you know. I found a recipe for these cupcake jello shots and they were a big hit.

Of course, we had all the appetizers set up on the kitchen island. A cheese tray, antipasti kabobs and chips and salsa kept people munching until dinner. I also strategically placed tubs of ice around the kitchen for people to store their beer because there was absolutely no room in our packed fridge!

Even Killian got all dressed up for the occasion. Then Lobster had to try on the hat. Neither of them look pleased to be my models, do they?

Killian did not have trouble finding a playmate among all of our friends. He spent all evening chasing the ball or playing tug with the guys. We had several yard games set up in the backyard and the boys made quick work of making them all drinking games. Silly boys.

The girls, however, were far more civilized. We sat and chatted. And drank a lot of beer.

When it was time to blow out the candles, my camera decided to get all artsy on me. Totally psychedelic, man.

We stayed up way too late, drank far too much and ate until we were stuffed. I'd say it was a successful 30th birthday! Happy birthday, Lobster!

DIY: Bergere Chair Makeover

2011-09-06T15:11:00.006-05:00

I finally finished my second chair! It took me three weeks, but I finally put the finishing touches on it last night and I am SO glad I'm done.

Remember when I told you how I found this Bergere chair on Craigslist? So, I eventually picked the fabric I wanted to use and ordered it and I finally got around to giving this big ol' chair a new look. This is what I used:

Supplies:

Around 6 yards of fabric (I ordered 10 yards and have a lot left)
A bottle of Sander/Deglosser
Primer in a spray can
Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo in Linen White
Floetrol (a latex paint conditioner)
Polyurethane in a spray can
Foam brush and roller
Pneumatic upholstery stapler
Air compressor
Glue gun and lots of glue sticks

First thing's first: the deconstruction. Much unlike Eloise, this chair was a little easier to deconstruct. I was able to pull the old fabric off the chair without ripping it. This was important because I use the old fabric as my pattern to cut out the new fabric. Tugging the old fabric from the frame was also helpful because it loosened many of the staples. However, many of the staples were so deep into the frame that no matter how much I digged with my flat-nose screwdriver or tugged with my needle-nose pliers, they wouldn't budge. So I had to leave many staples in the wood.

Once I had all the fabric off, I took the frame out into the garage to begin the painting process. As with Eloise, I left the foam and much of the batting on the chair during the painting process. I wasn't too concerned about getting paint on the batting because no one will ever know.

First I used a sander/deglosser on the wood of the frame. I had reason to believe that the old finish was an oil based paint and I would be using a latex paint. Sanding with a traditional sanding block would have been pretty tedious in all the grooves of the wood, so I opted to use the chemical method. Once the sander/deglosser had done it's magic, I spray primed the wood and let it dry overnight.

Originally, I had planned to use a paint gun to paint the chair but no matter what I did to thin the paint, the stupid paint gun was not working right. So I gave up that idea and used a foam brush and foam roller to paint the chair a nice creamy white color. IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to reduce the brush strokes and leave a smooth finish, I added Floetrol to my paint. It's a latex paint conditioner you can find at just about any hardware store. It works wonders!

Anyway, after about three coats of paint (leaving it to dry overnight after each coat) I opted not to do the antiqued finish on this chair as I had done on Eloise. Why? I don't really know. I may or may not regret that decision later. After all my paint was dry, I sprayed a protective polyurethane finish over the paint and let it dry.

Meanwhile, while all this paint drying is going on, I'm back in the house laying out my fabric and cutting out my pattern. After the chair had completely dried, I pulled it back into the house and started the reupolstery process.

The hardest part of reupholstering this chair was sewing all the pieces of fabric that make up the bottom part of the chair. I got it done, but it definitely was not perfect. I thought about tearing it up and re-doing it, but that thought quickly passed. I figured since the bottom of the seat would be covered by the seat cushion, it didn't have to be perfect. (Like my little labels to myself? It helped me keep track of all the small pieces and put them together like a puzzle.)

Oh, and remember how the arms of the chair had been eaten by a dog? Yeah, I had no desire to replace the chewed up foam, so I just cut a couple of pieces of batting and stapled them over the mangled foam to make the arms smooth and dog-bite free.

At this point, I just had a party with the staple gun. Remember when you're stapling the fabric back on, try to stay as close to the original staple marks as possible. Once you've stapled your fabric back on, trim all the excess fabric as close to the staple line as you can. And don't be like me and staple the back panel on the chair before you've pulled the front panel through...yeah, that was fun. I had to undo all the bottom staples on the back panel, trying not to ruin my new fabric, just so I could pull the front panel through and staple it all back on. I cursed like a sailor the whole time. Lobster left the room early on to avoid my wrath. He is a smart man.

Anyhoo, once I got all the panels stapled onto the frame, I sewed the cushion panels together. That was fun, too. I'm just going to say that I enjoy sewing t-cushions about as much as I enjoy going to the dentist. Which is not much. At all.

Cushion done (thank you, baby Jesus) and it was on to making the piping. With Eloise, I only did single piping, but this chair originally had double piping and I decided to stick with it. So I cut out 2.5 inch strips of fabric and sewed two or three strips together at the ends to make really long strips. After measuring my cording against the old piping that I ripped off the chair, I laid the cording on one end of the long fabric strip and sewed it closed.

Then I laid the second length of cording right next to the first, now encased, length and folded it over. I then sewed along the same stitch line, making sure to keep the second length of cord pressed tightly against the first length. Once both cords were sewed in, I cut the excess fabric right up against the stitch line. The rough edge of the double piping (where you just cut the fabric away) is the back of the double piping and will be glued to the chair.

With that done, I started getting busy with my glue gun, carefully gluing all the double cording in place. Be careful, I burned my fingers several times.

And this is what she looks like today! Much better, I think. I think I'm going to name this one Big Bertha. She's big and beautiful and very comfy. I'm not real sure how Bertha = comfy, but I'm going with it.

How do you like her?

I'm linking to:

Summer: Good Riddance!

2011-08-31T14:26:00.000-05:00

Am I the only one counting down the hours of the last day of summer? Okay, I know fall won't "officially" happen until September 23 this year, but who cares about that? Tomorrow is SEPTEMBER!!! And this weekend Texas is supposed to cool down to a chilly 93 degrees!!! Bust out the cardigans!

Clearly I have a bit of fall fever. It is by far my most favorite season and I can't wait to start decorating my house in shades of autumn. Like always, Pinterest is there to feed my fall fever. Oh, the ideas I'm getting from these pictures!

Source: bhg.com via Joy on Pinterest

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Source: thesweetsurvival.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

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Don't you get excited just looking at these pictures? Woo hoo, come on fall!!!

Food Matters and A Juicing Update

2011-08-29T13:40:00.000-05:00

Lobster and I watched another documentary last night. Okay, I watched the documentary while Lobster fell asleep. Anyhoo, this one is called Food Matters. The film is described as:

With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what's wrong with our malnourished bodies, it's no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. Food Matters sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide 'sickness industry' and gives people some scientifically verifiable solutions for overcoming illness naturally.

"With access to better information people invariably
make better choices for their health..."

In what promises to be the most contentious idea put forward, the filmmakers have interviewed several leading experts in nutrition and natural healing who claim that not only are we harming our bodies with improper nutrition, but that the right kind of foods, supplements and detoxification can be used to treat chronic illnesses as fatal as terminally diagnosed cancer.

This film really strengthened my resolve to feed myself and my family organic, whole, raw produce and ONLY grass-fed beef and poultry. I have believed in the concept of nutrition as the ultimate healer of the body for some time, but very rarely do I ever hear of medical professionals agreeing with that sentiment. This film explains why most medical doctors dismiss this idea...and why they're simply WRONG.

Go watch this film. It can be streamed instantly on Netflix. I loved it and if you have any interest in health and natural healing, you will love it too.

As for the update, Lobster and I completed our modified juicing experiment and we have come to conclude that we absolutely LOVE our juicer! We still have a big juice every morning for breakfast and we are going to continue to have a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables as the main parts of our meals. Lobster lost a whopping 6 pounds in the 15 days we did our modified diet and we both feel fantastic (I did not lose weight and I'm not surprised; my body does not lose weight easily). I have also decided to stay off caffeine for a while. I still have coffee, but it's decaf now and I am trying to drink a ton more water every day.

If you haven't tried juicing yet, you really should! It's tasty and oh so good for you. And watch Food Matters. It could change your life!

DIY: Birthday Bunting

2011-08-25T11:45:00.000-05:00

Lobster's 30th birthday is coming up at the beginning of September so I had the fabulous idea of hosting a party for him at our house in a couple of weeks. All of his closest friends will be there and I will be cooking and baking up a storm and probably spending a small fortune on Scotch (hubs loves the stuff...yuck!).

Since it's a big birthday, I wanted to make the atmosphere as festive as possible. So I decided to make a couple of birthday buntings. I keep seeing them in party pictures around the interwebs and I think they're precious. Not to mention they can be used over and over again (maybe a little boy's birthday party someday?).

Supplies

Big bundle of 18X21 precut coordinating fabric from Wal-mart (in their fabric section)
2 packages of double fold bias tape in coordinating color
Sewing machine (not necessary if you use pinking shears and stitch witchery)
Thread of a coordinating color
Bunting pattern

First I downloaded and printed out the bunting triangle pattern from Chickabug.com. Really fun site. You should check it out.

Then I traced the pattern onto my fabric and cut it out.

I decided to use two pieces of fabric per bunting flag so that each side would be a finished side. This is not necessary, just a personal preference. So I sewed both pieces together using a zigzag stitch to attach the pieces to each other but also to prevent fraying along the cut edges of the fabric. If you have only one piece of fabric for your flag you can cut out the triangle of fabric with pinking shears to prevent fraying.

Once all my flags were cut and sewn, I inserted the flags into the open part of the double fold bias tape and pinned them all across the length of the bias tape.

Then I sewed the bias tape along the open end using the same zigzag stitch. Be sure to leave a good 6-8 inches of bias tape free on each end so you can use the ends to tie up your bunting.

And that's it! Easy peasy and ready to par-tay!

Those Glossy Pages

2011-08-24T14:26:00.000-05:00

If you're anything like me, getting a magazine in the mail is like a mini-Christmas morning. I literally skip down the driveway hoping and praying to find a new glossy magazine in my mailbox. And when it happens, you can be sure to find my bum planted firmly on the couch flipping through those pages as soon as I'm back in the door. I LURVE magazines! And not just magazines, but catalogs. Oooh, catalogs. It's like shopping while sitting on my couch.

Pottery Barn catalog is probably my fave, where I find inspiration like these lovely spaces:

Source: google.com via Joy on Pinterest

And then there's Southern Living Magazine. Besides the fantastic recipes and great articles, they have pretty pictures like these:

Source: southernliving.com via Joy on Pinterest

Next is Better Homes and Gardens. Soooo much eye candy, including:

Source: decoratinggallery.bhg.com via Joy on Pinterest

But for me, at least for home style inspiration, nothing beats House Beautiful. Just take a look:

Source: housebeautiful.com via Joy on Pinterest

I mean, really! Doesn't it make you want to rush out and re-decorate a room or two? No? Just me? Fine then.

What are your favorite magazines and catalogs? What else inspires your home style? I'd love to know (and maybe add to my addiction)!

Will I Never Learn?

2011-08-23T11:41:00.000-05:00

Hello, lovelies!

I hope you all are enjoying cooler weather than we are here in Hell---er, I mean Texas. We are on day 457 (or something) of over 100 degree temperatures. Oh, and no rain. My hubby has been crying over the loss of our lawn for a month now and my beloved raised bed garden is now a lump of dry, cracking dirt. I must say, however, that our okra plant is a champ. He just keeps growing like 130 degrees is no big deal. Meanwhile, the hubs, the dog and I have been stuck inside for the past three months because we fear bursting into flames. We're starting to get a little wacky with the cabin fever.

Anyhoo, that is not the point of my post at all. Maybe I should start over.

Hello, lovelies!

Evidently I have a problem. Time and time again, I find myself drowning in a pile of projects and I get so overwhelmed because I don't know where to start and because I want them all done NOW so I just go into deer in the headlights mode and don't do any of them. Have you ever been there? Is it just me?

Right now, this is what's on my Home Projects List:

1. Refinish and reupholster this chair, fabric has been bought, just need to DO IT.

2. Reupholster these two chairs; need to choose fabric and order.

3. Paint and reupholster new office chair that I scored at Salvation Army for $30 smackaroos (pictures coming soon!).

4. Paint new desk that I scored on Craigslist for $50 bucks (pictures coming soon!).

5. Sew pretty pouf for office (I just finished one for the living room and can't wait to show you!).

6. Sew fabric bunting for hubby's 30th birthday party.

7. Paint kitchen cabinets and add hardware.

And these are just the pressing projects. I have about 50 more that I want to get done in the next several months. I think part of my problem is that it is SO DAMN HOT out that I can't work in my garage, even with the doors wide open, without having heat stroke.

So what's a girl to do when she has way too many things on her plate but can't get motivated to do it?

Browse Pinterest, of course. And plan more projects.

I told you I had a problem.

Office Makeover: Storage and Free Art

2011-08-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

I don't have any great pictures of my office before (I know, bad blogger). But here are a couple that might give you an idea of what I was working with.

On this wall we have a ton of books. A TON. Three bookcases crammed full of books. We might have a book hoarding problem. I'm slowly but surely going through all of them and getting rid of quite a few, which is really hard for us to do, by the way. Does anyone else have a book problem? Am I the only one?

Over here, we have a way too big L-shaped desk, a ton of clutter and a big, but comfy, white chair and ottoman. Downsizing to a smaller but still functional desk and moving the chair so that everything fit in the space better is one of my priorities.

So, one of the things I want to accomplish in this room is maximizing the space I have and introducing more storage solutions for all my office and crafting, sewing, DIY-ing crap that has heretofore been stuffed in the guest room closet. I decided that since there was no closet in this room, I needed a small cabinet or buffet with plenty of storage space. As usual, I started scouring Craigslist and local thrift and antique stores for the perfect cabinet.

And wouldn't you know it, I found a buffet. At the Salvation Army. For $85. And it was already painted white (although not perfectly done, so I'll have to re-paint it at some point).

It was the perfect size for the space and offered three small drawers, one long drawer and two cabinet spaces. Perfect!

This is the buffet in its new home where the wall of books used to be. I also moved the white chair into the corner beside the buffet and took out the too-big ottoman. I found a great table lamp on sale at TJ Maxx, along with fun little horse head sculpture. I got the vintage type fan at Target (the room gets really hot in the summer). It's a nice little piece, yes? I'm pleased with it. But the wall above it needed a little something.

Several months ago I scored a fabulous book of Audubon bird prints from an estate sale. Twenty-five prints for $10! I have been wanting to frame some of them for a while now so I figured this was a great opportunity to pick out my favorites.

I narrowed down the prints to my absolute faves and grabbed four 11X14 black frames I snagged at Ross and within 5 minutes, I had free art!

Then, since I was feeling all crafty, I whipped together some new pillow covers for the white "reading" chair and this is what this corner of the room looks like now:

Not too shabby, eh? I think it's a good start. Now I've just got to tackle my mountain of books and downsize my desk and stencil the walls...

It never ends, does it?

Squeezin' the Juice

2011-08-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

Lobster and I have been on a documentary kick lately. We watch documentaries ranging from the oil and gas industry to babies being born (The Business of Being Born is a must see for any mom-to-be or wanna-be-moms-someday).

Recently we watched one called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead about a guy from Australia who was tired of being overweight and fighting a somewhat rare auto-immune disease and getting no help from doctors who just put him on a plethora of pills, so he took his health by the horns and went on a 60-day juice fast while traveling across the United States.

By the end of the documentary, the man had lost something like 90 pounds (even after he stopped the fast and started eating healthy, whole foods again, he continued to lose) and he cured himself of his disease. He even inspired a lot of other people to do the same thing and you get to see their progress in the film. It was inspiring.

So inspiring that Lobster and I ran out and bought a juicer and fully intended on signing up to do a similar fruit/veggie juice and salad type diet. We had the plan all laid out and then I had the brilliant idea to "test" a few vegetarian dishes to see if we could really handle eating no meat for 15 days.

Yeah...that ended badly.

So we have modified the diet. We are now doing a fruit/veggie juice plus salads and lean meats type diet. We've eliminated caffeine, sugar, grains and dairy. And so far, it's not so bad. I am having headaches everyday and I think it's caffeine withdrawal. But other than that, I feel really good and I am really digging being able to consume more than the recommended fruit and vegetable servings every day due to the juicer.

We got the Breville Ikon Multi-Speed Juicer at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It retails for $199 but I used a coupon and got it for less than $150 (score!). It got the best reviews in many consumer sites and I can personally say that it is very easy to use and does a great job of squeezin' the juice.

On the negative side of this little experiment, it takes a while to prepare and juice your fruits and veggies so we've had to get up a little earlier in the mornings to make sure we get our juice on. Also, buying all kinds of produce has put a bit more of a dent in our grocery budget every week...

...can I just take an aside here to say that I think it's sad and pathetic that you have to spend three times the amount of money on healthy, whole, LIFE AND HEALTH GIVING, REAL FOOD than you do on junk food!!! Is it really a great mystery why our nation is in the throes of an obesity epidemic? SHAME ON YOU, FOOD INDUSTRY!!!

Okay, all ranting aside, we have never bought more produce in our life. The fridge is filled to capacity and yet, we still have to run out mid-week for more. The juice itself is rather delicious, in my opinion, but you have to be sure to mix fruits in with the veggies or it's not that tasty.

Anyhoo, if you want to take your health by the horns, please watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and give juicing a shot. You don't have to do the fast to reap rewards; simply getting more fruits and veggies in your diet will improve your health to no end!

Any other juicers out there? What are your thoughts? Any recipes you want to share?

Office Makeover: Inspiration

2011-08-15T13:48:00.000-05:00

I work from home a couple of days a week, so I spend a good deal of time in my little office. At first, I just wanted a space that was functional and quiet. Now, though, thanks to Pinterest, I am inspired to create a space that is not only functional and quiet, but also beautiful and inspiring. I have already gotten started on my home office makeover and can't wait to show you the progress I've made, but first I wanted to share some of the spaces across the interwebs that have started my creative juices flowing.

Source: thenestuk.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

I heart organization. A lot.

Source: bhg.com via Joy on Pinterest

Simple, light and bright.

Source: whisperwoodcottage.com via Joy on Pinterest

Love the bookcases with painted or wallpapered backs.

Source: betterafter.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

Love this desk.

Source: acharmingnest.com via Joy on Pinterest

This is really the space that inspired it all for me. The layout of this office is almost identical to mine and I LOVE her stenciled walls. I am so stenciling my walls!

Source: elementsofstyleblog.com via Joy on Pinterest

More fantastic organization. Le sigh.

Source: fancyhouseroad.com via Joy on Pinterest

Love the inspiration board, the library ladder (swoon!) and the pops of color.

Source: brookegiannetti.typepad.com via Joy on Pinterest

Oh. My. Heavens. What I wouldn't give to work in a space like that!

Source: lonnymag.com via Joy on Pinterest

I love the artful display of books. I'm digging that their all the same color. And the chair! Be still my heart!

Okay, I could go on and on. I'll spare you! But aren't these home offices heavenly? I'm going to attempt to take the things I love out of those spaces and incorporate them as best I can into my own home office. On a budget, of course. And using much of what I already have (I have plenty of books. Seriously, I need to go on a book diet). This is going to be fun!

Stay tuned!

Old Buffet Gets a New Life

2011-08-11T12:43:00.000-05:00

When Lobster and I moved into our little cottage just over a year ago, we had some okay furniture and some not-okay furniture. I guess that's typical for newlyweds who have only lived in tiny apartments. But as soon as we got our house, I knew I had to do something about the lack of "real" furniture we had going on.

But, like most newlywed, first-time homebuyers, we were on a budget. Also, our house is not the biggest and I wanted to keep the living spaces as open and airy as possible. So I've had to get pretty creative with some things.

For instance, when we moved in, we were living with a giant flat-screen t.v. on a tiny little particle board t.v. stand. It was not pretty. In fact, it was so disturbing to me that I decided it was the first thing in our living room that needed to be remedied. I knew I didn't want a large entertainment center because it was too bulky and it would crowd the living room. But I couldn't handle a simple table either because I wanted a bit of storage for our favorite DVDs and the all important Blu-Ray player.

So I did some brainstorming and researching and spending an inordinate amount of time on Pinterest and Craigslist....where I found this:

I apologize for the quality of the picture. It came off of Craigslist. Anyhoo, yes, that is an antique buffet table, generally used in dining rooms. But as soon as I saw that baby, the gears in my old noggin starting turning. I was fairly certain I could use this as an entertainment unit if I did a little tweaking.

We drove about an hour and spent $120 ($100 for the buffet and $20 to rent a truck at Lowe's) and soon we were the proud new owners of an antique buffet. As soon as we got it home, I took out the top dresser and was delighted to find that it was joined at the sides by dovetails. So I grabbed my trusty rubber mallet and I gently hammered the sides of the drawer away from the drawer front. The sides and back of the drawer came off fairly easily and in tact, which was a bonus in case I ever wanted to put the drawer back together again.

Then I laid the bottom of the drawer on the space it had occupied when the drawer was in the unit, acting as a "floor" in that space. My idea was to create from the front drawer panel and "faux" drawer that would tip open and closed instead of opening as a drawer. But first, I had to find hinges that would allow the panel to lay flush against the rest of the unit when closed and lay flat when opened. I literally bought and returned 7 different kinds of hinges until I found a pair that would work.

Finally, I installed the hinges to the lip of the drawer frame on the buffet and to the bottom of the drawer front panel and VOILA, a tip-open faux drawer!

We also had to drill a hole in the back of the buffet so that we could run our wires through to the outlet in the wall. The bottom drawer and the side cabinets hold DVDs, a Wii, CDs, etc. I forgot to take pictures of all this. Bad blogger.

You also might have noticed, I changed out the old, gold hardware with knobs I found at Hobby Lobby for $2 a piece. These may or may not stay, depending on what I do next...

Now my dilemma is...do I paint the buffet? The wood finish on it is nice and it's in good shape. It matches the other wood in my living room (side tables, coffee table, floor), but I think that might be the problem. It's all so...woody. I'm toying with the idea of painting the buffet white and distressing or antiquing it, similar to what I did with Eloise, the French chair.

(That's Bella the kitty. She's shy.)

I need your opinion! To paint or not to paint?

Ready...discuss!

Do You Bamboo?

2011-08-10T10:32:00.000-05:00

I sorta fell in love with the look of bamboo blinds. Look how lovely they can be:

(all images via Pinterest)

I love the natural, casual yet still elegant element they add to a room. So, of course, when I sorta fall in love with something I generally find a way to make it happen in my own space. In this instance, I got lucky because Lobster and I had just taken down our boring white blinds to repaint the living room and I casually mentioned to him that this would be a prime time to install bamboo blinds instead of re-hanging the old white ones that "we" don't like anymore.

He was not fooled. He knew that "we" meant "me" and that he was perfectly content with boring white blinds.

But he loves me. So he just rolled his eyes at me, which I interpreted as, "Sure, honey! Whatever you want, domestic goddess of my heart!" I'm almost positive that's what he was thinking.

So I hopped on Overstock.com and lickity-split, I ordered the 7 bamboo shades that just happened to be sitting in my cart. Honestly, I have no idea how they got there. Really. Promise.

Only a few days later, my shades had arrived and we were more than ready to put them up after having absolutely no blinds in our living room windows for almost a week. It was creepy. Especially at night when we were literally on display like the mannequins in a department store window.

They were super easy to install, especially if you have a nice husband to do it for you.

Yeah, this was before they were installed in the living room. Hello, world! Please feel free to watch me in my home!

After installation--much better! The shades are easy to open and close and even when they're closed, they still let in a lot of natural light, which is what I wanted. For me, there is nothing worse than living in a dark cave. Lobster, on the other hand, would be happy to live in a dark cave because there would be no glare on the t.v. Really? Men!

I think they're much better than the boring old white ones we were rockin' for nearly a year. Of course, the old ones are stored safely away in the attic so that if we ever move, you know I'll be taking my bamboo shades with me!

So, do you bamboo?

Spirit of Fear

2011-08-09T11:27:00.000-05:00

I don't often talk about my faith here on the ol' blog. But sometimes issues weigh heavily on my heart and I feel the need to write about it. And frankly, the older I get, the less I care what other people think about my beliefs. I never want to force my beliefs onto anyone else, but I refuse to hide them from people either. I suppose my past reluctancy to share my beliefs stems from the very topic I want to discuss today: fear.

I feel that the spirit of fear is overtaking us as a nation and as individuals. We live in a culture where all you hear on the news or read in the papers is doom and gloom. Especially now, the only thing you hear around the water cooler is how the market is crashing and people are going to start losing their jobs, etc., etc. It's no wonder that the general public is running around like chickens with their heads cut off, screaming, "The sky is falling!"

Fear is the great destroyer. It wraps its bloody fingers around hope, faith, and love and strangles the life out. Fear erodes relationships; eradicates dreams. It stops at nothing to eliminate all that is good in this world. If you are not equipped to fight back, it will destroy you.

Our God tells us to [b]e on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. (1 Corinth. 16:13). He assures us, over and over in the Bible, Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10).

The spirit of fear is not of God. He does not want us to worry, but trust that He will provide us with all we need. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7).

Your father knows what you need before you ask him. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today's trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:8b,34).

Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest. (Luke 12:25-26).

Why, then, do we continue to let fear sap our strength and crush our faith? Why are we allowing evil to pervade our daily lives and reduce us to panicky fear-mongers? Why do we continue to believe the lies that fear whispers to us every day?

It is up to us, as children of God, to fight back against the spirit of fear. He has equipped us:

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:6-8).

Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:6,8).

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:10-18).

If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 31b, 35, 37-39).

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. (Psalm 46:1-3).

If your life has been invaded by the spirit of fear, I urge you to turn to God and his goodness. He will give you strength and peace. He will provide you with what you need. All you need do is ask.

Turn your fear to hope and your worry to praise! He is with you.

Always.

The Stuff of Dreams

2011-08-05T10:00:00.001-05:00

Oh, Pinterest! How I love thee...

This is what I'll be dreaming about this weekend:

Source: the-feathered-nest.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: None via Joy on Pinterest

Source: nestegg.typepad.com via Amelia on Pinterest

Source: dietcokeandasmoke.tumblr.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: greigedesign.blogspot.com via Joy on Pinterest

Source: sunsurfer.tumblr.com via Joy on Pinterest

What will you dream of this weekend? Have a good one!

DIY: Faux Roman Shade

2011-08-03T10:00:00.007-05:00

I am a DIY-aholic lately! My poor Lobster just hides in his man cave on the weekends because I'm too busy cutting, sewing, gluing, etc. to pay him any attention. It's a good thing he likes his man cave...

Anyway, you might recall that I mentioned making a faux roman shade for my kitchen window. Using Censational Girl's tutorial as a guide, I decided to give it a go. Here's what I used:

Supplies to Make a Faux Roman Shade

3 yards of fabric
3 yards of blackout liner in white
Sewing machine
White thread and sewing needle
A 48" long piece of wood
5 36" long, 1/2" diameter wooden dowels
Hot glue gun
Drill and wood screws

First, I laid out my fabric and trimmed off the selvage on each side. Then I measured the width of my window (about 48 inches) and added two inches for hemming (50 inches) and then cut my fabric to be 50 inches wide.

Then I laid my blackout liner on top of my fabric (wrong sides facing), trimmed the liner to be the same width as the fabric, pinned the liner to the fabric and then sewed the fabric and liner together on all sides.

Then I created a 1" hem on three sides (leaving the top of the fabric un-hemmed).

When the fabric and liner was all hemmed, I laid it back out, right side down, and placed the piece of wood at the top of the panel, leaving 1" extra at the top. Then I wrapped that extra fabric around the top of the wood and hot glued it.

Now the tough part: creating the pleats. I don't know if I'm just a moron or if creating even pleats is hard for everyone, but it took me a good hour to make five even, straight pleats of generally the same length. I wanted my finished shade to be 36 inches long so I just kept adjusting the pleats until both sides and the center measured 36 inches (and maybe some centimeters because, at that point, I didn't care if it was perfect).

Once I got my pleats done, I hand stitched the top of each pleat to the layer of fabric just underneath it. I hand stitched each pleat in five places: one on each side and three evenly spaced stitches along the top of each pleat. That was a bit time consuming.

Then I inserted a wooden dowel into each pleat so that it rested at the bottom of the pleat, helping to give the bottoms of the pleats a straighter line when hung.

Once that was done, I was ready to hang my shade! Here's where I failed to take pictures of the process, but I'll try to explain the best I can.

I only glued the fabric to the top, back of the wooden piece so that I could get underneath the fabric in the front of the finished curtain and screw the entire wood piece directly into the wall. I had my hubby drill three holes in the wooden piece: one about two inches from each end and one in the center. Then I climbed up on the counter with my shade and a level and I held the shade in place (with a level sitting on top of it) while my hubby reached under the shade and drilled it into the wall through the pre-drilled holes and using wood screws. This was a pretty simple process, but it took four hands, for sure.

Anyway, here's what she looks like! I love it! Now, what I can't decide is if the combination of the roman shade and the fabric on the pendant lamp is too busy? What do you think?

Because I could change the pendant light to have a simple glass shade instead of the drum shade, like this:

Hmmm...I just can't decide. Can you help a sister out?

Option 1:

Or...

Option 2:

I'm linking to the following party(s):

Recessed Light Begone!

2011-08-02T10:00:00.002-05:00

My kitchen has recessed lighting. A lot of recessed lighting. When we first moved in, I was thrilled about it simply because it was not a fluorescent light box that I had seen in so many other homes. Now, however, I dream of hanging a fab chandy over my little breakfast table and a cute little pendant lamp over my kitchen sink. But I can't, because of all the bloody recessed lighting!

See, when you have a recessed light fixture, there's a giant hole in your ceiling where the light bulb screws into the recessed socket. And you can't just pop that recessed socket out and throw in a normal light fixture without patching ceilings and doing a bit of rewiring. All stuff that I don't do.

I thought all was lost and I would just have to live with a kitchen with no character. But then I found the Portfolio Recessed Light Converter Kit at Lowe's. It looks similar to this:

Basically, you take out the recessed light bulb, screw this baby into place and bingo bango, you have a pendant light. Ah-mazing. Luckily, it does not come with the lamp shade pictured above; in fact, there's a pretty good variety of shades you can choose from. Of course, I didn't like any of them.

So I decided to make my own. Also at Lowe's I found a small drum shade (the kind that you slip over the base of a light fixture on a lamp and then screw in the bulb, if that makes sense). The opening inside the shade looked to be about the same size as the opening in all of the glass shades that were supposed to go with the pendant adapter kit. So I decided to give it a try...

This is how it turned out:

Not too shabby. I decided that I wanted to add a touch of color, though, so I decided to cover the lampshade with some lovely grey and yellow fabric to complement our newly painted walls.

So using a lampshade template I already had, I laid out the template on top of my fabric, pinned it, and then cut around it leaving about a half inch extra on all sides.

Then using a spray adhesive and fabric glue, I secured the fabric around the shade, folding the extra fabric on the top and bottom into the inside of the shade and gluing it down.

This is how it turned out! Super cute, right?

Well, then I decided to do a flat faux roman shade in that window in another fabulous grey and yellow fabric. I got that done this weekend and now I can't decide if I like it with my cute drum shade or if I should replace the drum shade with a simple glass shade. You'll have to help me decide, so stay tuned...

Eloise Gets Another Feature!

2011-08-01T09:49:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited! My little french chair project has been featured on modhomeec! Head on over there and take a peek!

Thanks for featuring me Shelly!

You'd Think I'd Had Enough...

2011-07-27T16:31:00.000-05:00

Any normal person would wait a year or two after successfully completing their first greuling reupholstery job, right? And then there's me...

Lookie what I've come home with this week:

I found two of these babies at an antique store for a third of their original price. Score! That upholstery had got to go (hello, 1985!), but I'm not sure yet whether I'll be painting the wood or not. (This girl's twin is in my bathroom being used as my vanity chair. That one's wood will likely get painted.)

Hello, gorgeous! This is Big Bertha, my new bergere chair. Don't you love her curves and her deep seat?

I like the details in the wood, too. Clearly, I'll be reupholstering her considering purple and green are a bit off in my robin's egg blue and white living room.

But she's in very good shape and I got her for a great deal off of Craigslist. The woman who sold her to me has a matching ottoman and I might just buy that off of her too. Kinda debating because it's large and I'm not sure I have the space.

Big Bertha has her share of problems, though. Check out what a bored dog did to her arms:

Yikes! Methinks I'll need to learn how to replace foam on this project!

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. I'm not real sure why I drown myself in projects. I think it's a sickness, really.

Anyhoo, I won't be starting on these very soon. I'm still fabric hunting. Anybody have any suggestions on where to find great prices on fabric?

DIY Reupholstery, Part 3: Reveal

2011-07-25T10:00:00.007-05:00

If you need to catch up with this project, click here for Part 1: Deconstruction, or here for Part 2: Rebirth.

So.

I showed you how I tore apart a ghastly pink chair with good bones. Deconstruction was a BEAST! I was sore for days, but it sure was good for some free aggression therapy. And it was probably good my husband wasn't home that weekend!

Then I showed you how I painted and antiqued the wood of the chair. I think it turned out pretty good for my first try at antique finishes! And I showed you how I used the original fabric of the chair as a pattern to cut my new fabric. And I showed you how I used my handy-dandy pneumatic staple gun to reupholster the chair with the new fabric.

So what's left to show you? Oh, YEAH! The finished chair!

Without further ado, here she blows:

Ta daaaaaa! Well, whatdoya think? I think she's purty. I'm going to call her Eloise. Why? Because it's a French chair and that's a French name and it popped into my head just now.

Here are some detail shots:

And not only is she purty, she's so comfy! She's my new permanent spot in the living room. Here she is in her new home:

My little footstool is perfect for this chair too! Yay!

So there you have it! My new (old) French chair, Eloise. And in case you didn't get enough photos, here's a before and after for ya:

Before

After

I'm linking to the following party(s):

Featuring...ME!

2011-07-25T09:00:00.001-05:00

Hey, y'all!

(Did I just sound like Paula Dean just now? Sorry 'bout that. Anyhoo...)

So, I'm being featured over at Twenty-Six To Life today! Woot! Head on over there and check it out!

DIY Reupholstery, Part 2: Rebirth

2011-07-21T14:43:00.001-05:00

So, where were we? Oh, yeah, we've already deconstructed the Pink Chair. Now we've got to prettify it and put it back together right?

For the "rebirth" of this ugly-but-with-good-bones chair, I had to grab a few supplies--

Tools Used to Rebirth the Chair

Zinsser Cover Stain Primer and foam brush
Linen White paint by Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo
Walnut Stain
Burlap (3 yards)
Fabric of choice
Staple gun and air compressor
Six pack of your favorite beer
Harry Potter movies 4 through 7 (yes, it took that long)

After my chair was nicely scruffed up with the sanding block, I got to work putting two coats of the primer on the bits of the chair that would not be covered by the fabric. No need to prettify what can't be seen, right? I let each coat dry for around three hours (the directions on the can said two hours would be fine, but it was hot and sticky outside so I let it sit a little long and I think I probably should have waited even longer).

After the primer was dry, I applied two coats of Benjamin Moore Linen White with a foam roller. I let each coat dry for about two hours (again, in hindsight, I should have let it dry longer).

Once the paint was dry I applied walnut stain with a foam brush and wiped it with a clean, damp cloth to get an antiquing effect. I used the method set out by Miss Mustard Seed (who is the bombdiggity, by the way). You should definitely check out her tutorial.

Then I set aside the chair in a safe place to allow it to dry overnight. Meanwhile, I took the pink fabric that I had carefully removed from the chair and I laid it out on my new fabric making sure to line up the pieces so that the pattern of the new fabric was properly centered. I then cut around the pink pattern pieces, leaving about an inch of wiggle room around the parts of the fabric that I knew would be stapled back into the chair. On the pieces that would need to be sewn together, I cut along the edge of the pattern because it already proved me the half-inch of hem that would be used when I sewed the pieces together. Does that make sense?

At this time I also cut fabric on the bias to recover the cording I had kept from the original upholstery. I then made my new cording and stuck a label on each piece so I wouldn't forget which piece went where (front or back of the chair). For a great tutorial on making cording, see this post from Miss Mustard Seed.

When I had all my pieces cut out, I sewed the pieces that needed to be sewed.

After my chair had dried overnight, I began my re-upholstery process by pretty much putting everything back on in the reverse order that I took it off. First, I replaced the batting of the seat and put the seat section back on and pulled the back of the fabric through the back of the chair.

Then I took my trusty pneumatic upholstery stapler and started stapling the edges of the fabric to the wood frame at the back and sides of the chair.

I repeated this process with the front section of the chair. After putting the batting back on and smoothing it out, I laid out my fabric and pulled the bottom of it through the bottom of the chair. I took a few stick pins and pinned the top of the fabric to the foam at the top of the chair to help me keep it in place while I pulled and tugged and shimmied to get the fabric in the right position. This took a little maneuvering but after I had it just right, I stapled the bottom of the fabric to the back and sides of the chair. Then I stapled the fabric to the front of the chair starting in the top middle and then going across left, then across right, then down left, then down right, pulling taut and making sure the fabric was even.

The next step was to put the burlap back on the back of the chair, pulling taught to keep it nice and tight.

Then I put the batting back on the back of the chair, smoothing and adjusting as necessary. Laying the chair on it's front side, I then placed the new fabric over the batting and smoothed and adjusted, making sure each edge was lining up with the edge of the chair where the staples would go. Finally, I stapled the fabric on, using the same method of middle, across left, across right, down left, down right.

Finally, when the fabric was all stapled, I trimmed the extra fabric very close to the staples in the 1/2 inch groove in the chair using tiny little annoying scissors. Then I grabbed the cording I had already made and my hot glue gun and glued the cording into the groove to cover the staple line.

And then I took a long hot shower and passed out. That was tough!

Stay tuned! I can't wait to show you Part 3: Reveal!

DIY Reupholstery, Part 1: Deconstruction

2011-07-19T12:23:00.002-05:00

Remember that one time where I came home with a $35 thrift store pink chair that my husband abhorred? Remember how I told him that it wouldn't be pink forever because I was going to reupholster it?

Well, what I failed to mention to him is that I had no idea how to reupholster a chair. Never done it before in my life. Closest I've come to re-doing a piece of furniture is when I made a slipcover that turned out pretty bad. But the only way he was going to let me keep my beloved (although atrociously pink) chair was if I followed through on my ~~lie~~ claim of being able to reupholster something.

So I googled my little heart out looking for tutorials. And I bought a book. And I researched fabric and supplies. And then I bought said fabric and supplies. And then two weekends ago Lobster went out of town for the entire weekend on a business retreat and I knew it was my chance to tackle the Great Reupholstery Project of 2011. His being out of town gave me the freedom to cuss and scream and turn the living room into a craft room while watching all seven Harry Potter movies and drinking several bottles of wine and not have to 'splain nothin' to nobody.

And I'm glad he wasn't there to witness what I became during this project. I didn't shower. I hardly ate. I drank far too much. And I had several fights with the Chair, the pink fabric, old rusty staples and a pair of pliers. I may need a tetanus shot. It wasn't pretty. But, in the end, I DID IT! And I'm going to show you my process in three parts: Deconstruction, Rebirth and Reveal.

So without further ado, here is Part 1 of how I reinvented The Pink Chair:

Tools Used for Deconstruction:

Staple remover tool
Needle nose pliers
Flat head screwdriver (not shown)
A bottle of Purple Cowboy (one of my faves, you must try it)
Harry Potter movies 1-3

IMPORTANT NOTE: I took pictures of (almost) every step so that I could use them as a guide when I put everything back together. This process is far too complicated to just wing it! Also, I was VERY careful to preserve every piece that I took off so that I could use it as a pattern when cutting my new fabric.

I started out by flipping the chair face down and removing the black fabric covering the bottom of the chair. I started using the staple remover thingy but quickly found that a flat head screwdriver was a bit easier to use when prying the staples out. I would pull up the staples with the screwdriver about halfway and then yank them the rest of the way out with the needle nose pliers. I kept a little trash can next to me because there are a TON of staples and I knew if they ended up on the floor, my vacuum-cleaner dog would eat them.

The black fabric was a bit fragile so I ended up poking a few holes in it. Eventually, I just tore the rest of it off the chair and decided to wing that part since it wouldn't be seen by anyone anyway. After I got the damn black fabric off, I repeated the staple pull, tug, trash process on the fabric attached to the bottom of the chair.

Once the bottom was staple-free, I flipped the chair back in its rightful position and began taking the cording (or welting) off from around the finished edges of the chair. I just yanked until it came free. Very technical procedure. Anyhoo, I saved the lengths of cording and labeled them according to where they came from ("front" or "back") because I was going to take the pink fabric off the cording and re-use it.

Then I repeated the staple pull, tug, trash on the pink fabric on the front of the chair. The entire staple-pulling process took the most time out of the whole project. I swear there were at least 10,000 staples in that freakin' chair.

Anyway, once I got all the pink fabric staple-free, I carefully removed the fabric from the chair, preserving the batting underneath it as much as possible. The batting looked to be in pretty good shape (and frankly, I had no idea where to buy more cotton batting) so I carefully removed the batting from the chair, keeping it in its form, and set it aside in another room that was closed off from curious and trouble-making cats.

Once that was done, I was surpised to see that I was not the first person to reupholster this chair! Do you see all the batting stuffed into tufts in the original foam? I left those in there because I wanted to keep the chair un-tufted. I also found a piece of the original fabric. It was a lovely mustard yellow. Lobster would have loved that color even more than the pink. Ewww.

SO. I decided to also keep the original foam (again, no idea where to buy it and didn't find it necessary to replace it) but I determined that it would stay on the frame of the chair while I painted the wood. First, because I'm lazy. Second, because even if I got paint on the foam, who would ever see it? Are you with me? I may be a perfectionist, but I ain't crazy.

I took my naked chair outside and gave it a good sanding with a fine-grit sandblock. I didn't sand to take the finish off, I just wanted to rough up the wood a bit to help with paint stickage (I just made up that word). After sanding, I wiped down the wood with a clean cloth, making sure to get in all the cracks and crevices. Then I went inside to drip dry because it was a hundred and freaking eighty degrees outside at 5:00 in the afternoon.

That's just bloody ridiculous, Texas.

So, there you have it. A chair deconstructed. Stay tuned for Part 2: Rebirth and Part 3: Reveal.

DIY: Starburst Mirror

2011-07-13T11:42:00.000-05:00

Okay, okay. I jumped on the starburst mirror bandwagon! I couldn't help it; I'd been eying them in catalogs and decor mags for a while but I refused to pay hundreds of dollars for a damn mirror. So I decided to make one myself!

With the help of some great tutorials from Crazy Wonderful and Twenty-Six To Life, I hashed out a plan and bought my supplies. This is what I used:

8 packs of shims (Home Depot)
Gorilla Wood Glue (2 regular bottles)
Gorilla Glue (1 small bottle)
14" round beveled mirror (Hobby Lobby)
D-Rings and picture wire (Home Depot)
35" round piece of 1/4" thick plywood (Home Depot cut it square and my husband sawed off the corners to make it round-ish)

To get started on this project I used Crazy Wonderful's method of making shim "groupings" in groups of 5 and groups of 7. I glued each group together and clamped each group until it dried. Making these groupings was the longest process in the whole project, taking me about four days (working on it in the evenings for a couple of hours) to get all my groupings done.

Once all my groupings were glued and dried, I arranged them in a (very large) circle on my kitchen table, good sides facing down. (NOTE: put plastic or newspaper or something on any surface you're working on because I learned the hard way that glue drips and can and will take varnish off a table. I often learn things the hard way, much to Lobster's chagrin.)

Anyhoo, once you have your pattern laid out the way you want it, take the 1/4" thick piece of plywood and first make sure it is wide enough to cover most of the shims, but not so wide that the plywood peeks out behind some of the shorter shim pieces. We had to readjust the diameter of our plywood a few times to get it just right. But once that is done, put a ton of glue on the plywood. I mean a TON. I used both Gorilla Glue and Gorilla Wood glue. Overkill? Maybe. But I had tried this once before with a conservative amount of glue and some of my shim groupings didn't stay stuck. So, I'm just sayin'...

Then, stack a bunch of heavy objects on the plywood and let it dry overnight. I used cookbooks, laundry detergent, 10 and 20 pound weights and my husband's toolbox. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of that scene. It was pretty funny looking.

The next day (or two...I'm a procrastinator), after making sure all my shims had stuck (and unsticking them from my kitchen table) I took two D-rings and screwed them into the back of the plywood.

I then strung picture wire between the two D-rings and made sure it was on real tight.

Then I flipped the whole thing over and spread a TON of glue on the back of the 14" round mirror.

Then stacked more heavy objects on the mirror and let it dry overnight (just cookbooks this time).

Once the mirror dried, I enlisted Lobster to help me hang our new starburst mirror on an awkward wall just beyond our living room. Here's what she looks like:

Not too shabby, huh? It turned out way bigger than I had anticipated, but I do love it. Of course it's not perfect--there were some gaps between some of the groupings because the shims are never perfectly straight, but you can't really tell unless your scrutinizing it up close.

So there you have it! Easy, peasy DIY starburst mirror! It took some time to build, but it only cost about $30 in supplies and I think that is WAY better than paying hundreds of dollars from a fancy schmancy home decor catalog, don't you?

Getting Out of Debt: Cutting the Cable

2011-07-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

The hubs and I have decided that we need to get serious about getting out of debt. We have a lot of debt. A LOT. Credit cards are atrocious but the student loans are the worst. I guess that's what I get for wanting to be a lawyer. Can't win for losin', I tell ya.

Anyway, we've started this new journey by listening to the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University CDs. I love Dave Ramsey. He is funny and easy to listen to and he's chock full of good advice. He does tend to piss you off, however, when he calls you out on all the excuses you come up with to stay in debt and/or increase your amount of debt. But it's what we need to hear. And it motivates us to grow up, break bad habits, and start being responsible.

Being an adult sucks sometimes.

After listening to the first few CDs, Lobster and I knew we had to sit down and look at our budget and seriously cut some expenses so that we could start throwing more money toward paying off debt. There were two things in our budget that were simply "wants" and not "needs": the gym membership and cable TV. We knew we had to give them up and we knew it would be hard, but there was no other way to cut the budget. Funny how easy it was to quit the gym but it made us both cringe to cut the cable. Clearly, we need to re-evaluate our priorities in life. Ha!

So we started doing some research about living without cable TV. We called our provider about twelve times to see if we could get a better deal on a less expensive package, but no dice. We also determined that we should keep the same provider for our internet needs because it was the fastest speed available and for someone who works from home half the time, this was a "need" for me. So we canceled our "bundle" and kept the internet, but what about TV? How were we going to watch anything in this digital-happy world?

Enter Best Buy to the rescue. Lobster and I discovered that in order to receive a signal to watch the free stations, we had to get a digital antenna. They range anywhere from $15-$200. After talking to a guy in the store, we bought the $80 amplified, omni-directional, flat interior antenna because he said it did the best job of bringing in the clearest HD picture. We only got one antenna for the living room TV to give it a test run. Later on, we'll get one for the bedroom TV too.

So now that we're set to watch all the normal (boring) stations, what about our favorite cable shows? Do we just have to give all that up? Not necessarily.

We were already subscribers to Netflix (around $10 a month) and it provides a good variety of TV shows for instant streaming to your TV. But a lot of those are from previous, not current, seasons. Boo. So we did a bit more research and discovered Hulu Plus.

Hulu Plus provides a wider variety of previous AND current seasons of TV shows that are available to stream to your TV or computer or even a laptop or tablet. The only downside I see is that some shows are not capable of being streamed to the TV (laptop only) and I'm not the kind of person who wants to watch a show on my dinky computer screen. But the selection of shows that DO stream to the TV looked pretty good and because the idea is still pretty new, I believe this type of thing will just become more and more mainstream and they will continue adding new shows and allowing more to be streamed to the TV. And it only costs around $8 a month. Score!

So this is what we're going to try. It will cut our cable bill by over $100 A MONTH! Can you believe it? For that amount of savings, I'm willing to give it a shot.

And if all else fails, I have a library full of books that need to be read.

Have you tried to cut your cable bills lately? What have you found that has helped you in the transition? Anyone else tried Hulu Plus? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Introducing...

2011-06-28T15:01:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that I love to take pictures. Just a little. And I'm starting to take more and more of them and buying more books on photography, etc. So I decided it was time to dedicate a tiny little space in the big ol' blogosphere to just my photos.

Let me introduce you to LoveJoy Photography! It's still a work in progress, but here it is in all it's (unfinished, but we're working on it) glory! Please stop by and take a peek and if you're feeling really adventurous, maybe click on that little "Follow" button on the bottom of the page?

Love and rockets,

A Shameless Addiction

2011-06-16T12:16:00.000-05:00

So, have you heard of Pinterest yet? If not, you probably should. It's my newest shameless addiction. What is it, you say? I'm glad you asked. Allow me to explain...

Pinterest is a website that pretty much catalogs images of pretty, interesting, funny, random, weird, etc. things for your viewing pleasure. If you come across an image you like, you just "pin" it to your personal board. You can have several boards for different types of images, such as "Home Inspiration" or "Food" or "Wedding Dress" or whatever rings your bell and tickles your fancy. It is, in my opinion, one of the best internet sites that has popped up in the last year.

Lately, I've been pinning a lot of home inspiration images. It has drastically streamlined my need to cut out pictures from magazines and/or save images on a folder in my computer. I LOVE IT! Wanna see some of my faves? No? Too bad. I'm showing you anyway.

Source: greatinteriordesign.com via Joy on Pinterest

I want this laundry room.

Source: houzz.com via Joy on Pinterest

Is this not the dreamiest bathroom? Ahhhh...

Source: missmoss.co.za via Joy on Pinterest

I simply must live here. Now.

Source: weheartit.com via Joy on Pinterest

Library love.

Source: lonnymag.com via Joy on Pinterest

Oh, Lordy, those chairs! Be still my heart!

Source: joann.com via Joy on Pinterest

This is the fabric I want to use in my kitchen. LURVE IT!

Can you see why I am addicted to this thing? Go check it out. You'll love it!

One Fine Day: Party

2011-05-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

A gorgeous day had turned into an even more beautiful evening as my new husband and I had stood in front of God and everyone pledging to love one another until death do us part. Just that morning, as if the city had known how much I would love it, Christmas lights had been put in the trees and along the wrought-iron fences that lined the streets of downtown Fort Worth. The evening had taken on a magical quality and there was celebration in the air.

Lobster and I arrived at the downtown hotel where our reception was being held. We joined the cluster of bridesmaids and groomsmen waiting for us outside the doors to the reception hall. A muffled Michael Buble could be heard crooning just beyond the closed doors and the flicker of candlelight danced with shadows through the sheer curtains in the windows.

One by one, the bridal party entered the room to cheers and applause. Finally, it was our turn to be introduced to our family as husband and wife.

The love in the room was palpable. As soon as we entered, the roar of joy and the warmth of love in that room was almost overwhelming.

The first order of business was Lobster's and my first dance. We chose to dance to the song "Only You Can Love Me This Way" by Keith Urban. Yes, I cried. Lobster may or may not have teared up. Tough guy.

After dinner, it was time for the toasts.

First up were my parents. My mom made a 35 minute speech. Seriously. It was good...but it was long. Yes, I cried.

Then it was my sister, Cupcake, and her soon-to-be-husband and the best man, Happy Pants.

Both Cupcake and I cried during her speech.

No one cried for the best man's speech...oh wait. He cried. Crybaby! (Just kidding, Happy Pants!)

And while we're all crying, let's go ahead and throw in a Father/Daughter dance, shall we? Oh yeah. I cried like a baby. This picture makes me tear up every time.

Of course, we did all the traditional things that you do at a wedding. Lobster using his teeth to find my garter was especially embarrassing. Thanks for the suggestion, Happy Pants.

But the best part of the party was the dancing. Boy, was there dancing!

...and a little drinking...just a little.

Every now and then Lobster and I would sneak away for a little break from the jubilation to just check in on each other. We were having so much fun with our friends and family but neither of us forgot that the evening was about one another.

Finally, around midnight, I had had enough. It hit me all of a sudden that I was utterly exhausted. So we cued the DJ and let everyone know that it was time for us to go.

Amid the jingling of wedding bells, our wonderful guests gave us a grand send off. And since our vintage getaway car had its engine explode that morning, instead of driving off into the night, we strolled...

...just around the corner to the main enterance of the same hotel because we had booked the honeymoon suite! It was rather humorous trying to sneak back into the hotel without any of our departing guests seeing us. Kinda hard to miss the chick in the wedding dress...

And that is the story of how a Lobster and his lady finally tied the knot and had the most wonderful day of their lives (so far).

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

Obsession: French Chairs

2011-05-19T14:16:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been obsessed with French chairs. So obsessed, in fact, that I am itching to get my hands on one (or two or three) even though I have no real idea where I would put them.

Aren't they dreamy?

So I have been scouring the local thrift stores and a few weeks ago I came across a French-ish chair that I kept being drawn to. I can't tell you why I kept going back to look at it because there were several things "wrong" with it: the price was a little high at $80 (I'm cheap), the wood finish was worn and would need to be repaired (not a huge deal, but a consideration), and the fabric was PINK. Very, very pink. I knew I could never live with the current upholstery so I'd have to do something about that and I just wasn't sure I wanted to take on that kind of project. So, despite my being drawn to it like a bug to a light, I went home empty handed.

Fast forward one week and I am back at the thrift store staring at The Chair. It's still there. It's still pink. But now it's $10 cheaper. After hemming and hawing over it I turned and left, once again, empty handed.

Another week passes and I am on my way home from work when I find my car steering itself to the thrift store. As I walk into the store I immediately spot my chair (notice how it has gone from being "a chair" to "the chair" to "my chair"?). It's still very pink and still priced too high for me. Just as I'm about to walk away, I notice a small sign on the checkout counter that says "Today Furniture 50% Off."

I immediately accost the first salesperson I see and ask him if that sign means "select furniture" or "all furniture". Leave it to the lawyer to make this distinction, right? Luckily he tells me it means "all furniture". Before he can even get the words out, I blurt, "I want the pink chair!"

"Uh...okay." He says, eying me suspiciously as he scurries off to pull the tag off my pink chair to hand to the cashier.

Still not believing that the chair was really half off because I'm incurably cynical and don't trust anyone, especially those people who are supposed to know these things because it's their job, I head to the check out fully expecting the cashier to tell me I owe $70-and-change, at which point I was fully prepared to walk away, again, empty-handed.

She rings me up and tells me my grand total. $35 and change. I am shocked. Clearly, the universe wants me to buy this chair. And so I did.

As soon as I got home, I put the chair in the living room and waited for my husband to get home. I knew he'd think I was crazy. He usually does. I usually am.

Walking in the door, Lobster takes a quick glance and very non-chalantly says, "What the hell is that?"

"It is a chair." I explained.

"It's pink."

"Yes, yes it is."

"I hate it." He declares.

"No, you don't." I declare right back. "You hate that it's pink. You don't hate the chair. The chair is cool."

He stares at it for a minute and says, "You're right. I hate the pink. Therefore, I hate the chair."

"I'm going to fix the pink." I say, already getting excited about the prospect of conquering this new challenge I've set for myself. "I'm going to reupholster it."

Lobster looks at me, sighs and says, "Of course you are."

I then tell him what a deal I got on the chair and I see him smile a little. Saving money always makes him smile. It's a good thing I'm becoming the Queen of Deals.

Having convinced my husband not to burn the chair while I'm sleeping, I can now safely go about the task of figuring out how to reupholster a vintage chair. Cheaply. I think this will be Project Number 497 for me this month.

Le sigh. And I wonder why I'm always so tired...

Anyhoo, my plan is to use a cheap canvas fabric (the same I'm using to make curtains in the living room). The color is "natural," meaning it's white-ish. Not quite white. A bit off white-y, beige-y, taupe-y. Are you with me here? Anyway, I figure if I mess up, it will be easy and very inexpensive to buy more fabric. The real question is whether I keep the wood finish of the chair and just refinish it so that it looks shiny and new or do I paint the wood and distress it a la the pictures at the beginning of this post?

Decisions, decisions...any opinions?

Happy House-i-versary!!!

2011-04-28T12:18:00.000-05:00

Today is one year since we closed on our house. Granted, we didn't move in until a month later, but let's not split hairs. I can't believe it's been a year! Sometimes it feels like much longer, other times it feels like just yesterday.

I think we've done a lot to the place since it became our own. And we still have a long way to go. But I have been so happy being a homeowner. You can't truly make a house a home until you're able to paint, refinish, and remodel whatever your little heart desires.

I love our neighborhood and how it looks like a New England village. I love that we have a lot of walking trails and a pond filled with ducks (Killian likes the ducks too). I love my garden in the backyard. I love our rose bushes. I would have loved our hydrangeas if they had lived. But I think they're dying. So I will love whatever gets replanted in their stead (I'm thinking a trellis against the wall with fast climbing ivy because it's a shady spot). I love having a haven to come home to and I LOVE decorating and coming up with crazy ideas that make my husband go "Wha?!" (i.e., turning a 100 year old buffet into an entertainment center).

I love our life here. I'm so glad God led us to this little house in this little corner of the world. It's exactly where we're meant to be.

The $5 Footstool Makeover

2011-04-25T11:05:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been on a garage/estate sale kick. And when I say "kick" I mean I spend Wednesday and Thursday evenings scouring the internet for estate sales, making a "game plan" and a map with every location I will be hitting up on it. So, yeah, I'm a little intense sometimes.

Anyhoo, I have scored some amazing deals over the past few weeks and nothing gets me more excited than a good deal! My hubby, however, doesn't really get it. And he freaks out a little when he sees me come home with something that looks like this:

That is one ugly footstool, no? Not loving the puke-green leather? Yeah, me either. But it was $5 and I knew that I could recover this baby lickity split and have a super-cute piece. I just had to figure out what I wanted to do with it.

Turns out, once I figured it all out, I had everything I needed to get started (don't you love it when that happens?). I had that tool thingy that pulls out upholstery staples and I had a good amount of already bleached and washed dropcloth fabric. So I set to work yanking some 100 year old staples out of that fabulous green leather and found, to my surprise, that under the leather, the stool was stuffed with straw and wool. I'm thinking this is a pretty old stool...

Anyway, once I got the leather off (good riddance) I draped my dropcloth fabric over the top, checked all the sides to make sure I had adequate coverage, then cut a square of fabric. Flipping the stool over, I then pulled the fabric taut on four points and then began pulling taut and stapling around the circumference of the stool. I was too lazy to bust out my sewing machine so once I had the top of the stool covered, I tore (yes, tore) a length of the dropcloth (one of the long sides being already hemmed) and began making a pleated skirt, stapling around the circumference of the stool, very close to the edge. This is how it turned out:

And that was it. Super-easy and I think it looks great, if I do say so myself! It took me all of an hour and a half to finish this project (after I got the green leather off).

Oh, and did you notice this cute little side table? I found this little guy at an antique mall for $30. It was a hideous brown color with a picture of a duck in a basket on it. Who does that? A duck in a basket? Really? Anyway, I took it home (yet another piece Lobster looked at and said "Good God!") and I spray painted it a semi-gloss white that I already had on hand. Nifty, eh? Ballard Designs sells this exact thing for $140. TAKE THAT, BALLARD!

I win!

Stupid People and a Demon Dog

2011-03-31T12:30:00.001-05:00

This morning was ruff (you'll get the pun in a minute).

Lately, I've been going for a run in the mornings because Lobster got a new job and we had to switch our dog walking routine. So I'll work out in the mornings and walk the dog at night. It seemed like an excellent plan when we decided to make the switch. But after further consideration, I have come to conclude this was a dangerous decision. For me, anyway.

On my morning runs I have noticed a disturbing trend among the people living in my neighborhood. Evidently, NO ONE looks in their mirrors before zooming down their driveway. Moreover, it seems that everyone is in a mad hurry to get down their driveways every morning judging by the 40 MPH speed at which zoom (without looking). At least four times per run, I encounter a jackass neighbor who careens down his driveway while I'm standing at the edge of it glaring at him. As soon as he's down the driveway and halfway into the street he sees me and is always shocked.

Really, moron? You're shocked that there's a person on the SIDEWALK? You just can't believe that anyone would be, oh I don't know, traveling along the sidewalk and quite possibly at the same time that you decide to careen down your driveway without so much as a cursory glance? How have you survived this long without killing anyone or running over a child on a bike?

This type of behavior is so common in my neighborhood that I've become very cautious when I run. I will wait by the edge of the driveway until I'm certain they've seen me or until they speed past me in reverse and the coast is clear (every time with a look of shock on their face that I'm there). But this morning was different.

After waiting for three other zooming driveway idiots, I was almost done with my run when I come across the fourth idiot of the morning. This time, he's sitting in his car in the driveway. The windows are tinted so I can't see whether he sees me. But he's not moving and I'm just waiting at the edge jogging in place. After about two minutes of waiting, I decide I'm just going to go around him. So I start rushing past and the second I'm right behind his car he decides it's time to fly down the drive in reverse. I literally had to use my hand on the back of his car to launch myself around the back of the vehicle so I wouldn't get squashed. The sound my hand made on the car must have sounded to him like he hit a small animal because he screeched to a halt and I saw the shadow of his head turn and look in my general direction.

At which point I made some rude gestures and yelled, "WHAT THE F****??!!"

Generally, I would not scream the f-bomb at a perfect stranger who is also my neighbor, but I think the circumstance called for it.

Anyhoo, I have no idea what he did after that because I took off running again. If he had gotten out of the car to apologize I was fairly certain more f-bombs would fly. And I try to limit myself to one or two f-bombs a day.

If that wasn't exciting enough, three minutes later a yappy devil dog comes out of nowhere and rushes down the sidewalk yapping its head off. As I get closer, the demon won't move so I yell, "MOVE, DOG!" and try to run around it. But as I'm trying to ignore the stupid thing and continue on my run, I realize the yapper is following me and trying to bite my heels! I am literally about *thisclose* to turning and kicking it (not hard, I do love animals) when I see a man walk out of his house and start calling the thing home. He gives me a look like I'm the one who possessed his dog to come chasing after me like a rabid hellhound.

I was *thisclose* to punching him in the face.

Lucky for me, I made it home without further incident. I don't think I could have taken much more. It's pretty exhausting being almost run over and then chased by Satan's yappy spawn.

Stripping Is Hard Work

2011-03-29T11:11:00.000-05:00

(Disclaimer: If you think this post is about me taking my clothes off, you are going to be disappointed. I am not that type of girl! Shame!)

Anyhoo..

A few weekends ago I picked up a lovely little side table at the local Salvation Army. It was solid wood, very sturdy, with two drawers and a great classic shape. It was only $25! But is was UGLY. Some very misguided person had taken it upon themselves to paint it a mucus yellow color. It was awful, which is probably why it was at the Salvation Army.

But I could see its beauty through the horrid paint job, so I decided I'd take it home with me and strip it of its embarrassing coat of paint. How hard could it be, right?

Sigh. I never learn.

After googling the crap out of "how to strip paint from wood" I happily flitted on over to Home Depot and picked up some Citristrip. Why Citristrip? Because it was gel based (won't run down the legs of the table) and it smelled like oranges (still toxic, but as long as it smells good...). I also grabbed a plastic dropcloth and a plastic scraper (metal would gouge the wood) and then flitted happily back home.

This past weekend I decided I was going to tackle my stripping project. I set up my work space in the garage, donned my super sexy plastic goggles and long dishwashing gloves and started globbing the Citristrip on like a pro (or not). After waiting the obligatory half-hour, I got to work scraping.

And scraping.

And scraping.

Holy hell, did I scrape. And only the top layer of the mucus coating came off...so I had to do it all again.

Glob, wait, scrape.

This time the second layer came off, but there was still quite a bit of paint stuck on the table. So I did it all again.

Glob (frickin') wait (frackin') scrape.

This time, most of the paint had come away but there was still some stubborn stuff left in the cracks and crevices of the wood. So I read the handy instructions on the back of the Citristrip and went and got some toothpicks to scrape out the stubborn paint.

Except that a lot of it would not scrape out. I probably went through 400 toothpicks, most of which broke in pieces after one swipe, and very little paint got removed from the crevices.

Blast and damnation!

At this point, I had been stripping for 4 hours and my back, shoulders and neck felt like I had been hit by a truck. Lobster poked his head out into the garage and very sweetly suggested that I call it a night and come in for dinner. I was tempted to say no (because I'm stubborn...I know, shocker) but he lured me with a beer. It was a very tasty beer.

So now I have a mostly stripped side table chillin' in my garage. Yesterday I googled the crap out of "how to strip paint from cracks in wood." I am going to not-so-happily flit over to Home Depot today and find a metal crack scraper thingy. I WILL get that damn stubborn paint out of that wood! I will not be defeated by a horrendous mucus yellow paint job!

I will not go down without a fight!!! (Insert fist pumping here).

Anyone else tried to strip furniture? Am I the only one who thinks it's hard? Surely, there's an easier way...

Enjoying Life

2011-03-22T14:17:00.000-05:00

Lately, I haven't much been inspired to blog. And for a while I was feeling pretty darn guilty about it. But I saw something today that made me realize that I should be more concerned with enjoying living my life than feeling an obligation to write about it. Sure, sometimes I really want to share stuff with all you fine people, but sometimes I just want to enjoy my days without feeling the pressure of writing something relevant (not that most of what I write is relevant to begin with, but whatever).

Right now I'm loving my garden and decorating my house and hanging out with my husband and our dog. I'm loving the cool evenings and the warm, breezy spring days. I'm loving interacting with some of the great people that I work with. I'm loving writing and photography. I'm loving getting to know a new church. I'm loving garage and estate sale season! I'm loving nature and its amazing beauty.

I'm busy living my life today. I may be busy living my life tomorrow. I'll write a little in my blog when the mood strikes, but I am letting go of the guilt.

I hope you enjoy living your life today!

Scenes From My Garden

2011-03-09T11:37:00.001-06:00

I am hopeful that Spring is on its way, despite the schizophrenic weather we've been having. My spidey senses tell me life is coming back to this frozen tundra soon. And by "spidey senses" I mean that my flowers are beginning to bloom. Putting two and two together and all that...

Welcome to my bulb garden:

I love the flowing elegance that these leaves create, don't you?

They almost look like they're dancing. If I were a baby tulip, I'd dance in the sunshine too.

Can you believe the colors of these hyacinths? I never realized how beautiful they were. God really is amazing with his colors.

Perfection.

And look! A baby broccoli head is forming! I'm actually growing something!!!

How does your garden grow?