I'm still here!

I'm still here! I've got a couple of projects up my sleeve that I've been working on.  I'll get a post up soon. I promise!

Kitchen sneak peek!

There's been a lot of work and a lot of progress made on the house! We actually starting painting this weekend. I'm so excited! (You can see some of the befores here.)

One of the biggest transformations though, has been the kitchen. We aren't changing the footprint so much, but everything this else is getting a facelift.

Here's a sneak peek at what we've done so far.

As a reminder, here's what the kitchen looked like when we had our inspection.

So, what have we done? Well, wall paper is gone, beams are gone, light fixtures have been replaced with can lights (LOVE!), and the cabinets on the far end have been removed. We are planning on putting in a pantry of some sort on that end and probably a counter or table to eat breakfast at.

 This past weekend, Sparky (aka, my electrician husband) popped all of the decorative stuff off the front of the cupboard doors. They were glued on and he used a wonder bar (not to be confused with a wonder BRA), and hammer and they popped right off.  Then, he filled them with some putty and sanded them a couple of times.  They are pretty much ready for a new coat of white paint!

He also broke out the saws-all and cut off the little fence thing (so, technical...I know, but that's what it looked like to me).  Such a big difference! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! It doesn't even look like the same place. Even with just primer on the walls.

I can't wait to get the lovely gray paint we picked out on the walls and the new tile floor down!

Love is in the air!

I have never decorated for Valentine's Day before. Ever.  I think it's because I'm not a big fan of decorating with hearts. The look is a little too country for me. (If you decorate with them GREAT! They just aren't my style.)

But, while stalking reading some other blogs, I became inspired to make some of my own Valentine's Day decorations.  And, it is my son's birthday on Valentine's Day as well, so he deserves the house to look festive, doesn't he?

After reading this post and this post and this post and this post, I was ready to jump in!

So, where to start. What do I have at home that I can use?

I'd bought two rolls of flocked wrapping paper at Target after Christmas for a whopping $.25 a piece. As in twenty-five cents. I loved them and knew I could use them for something! 

I also have a ton of picture frames. Like, too many. But I can't bring myself to ever getting rid of any picture frames. I keep them forever. EVER.

I have white vases and a cool little silver pot.

I also have some left over red craft paint.

A trip to Home Depot got me a 4x4 post, for $6.97. 

A trip to the dollar store got me heart picks and ribbon.

And a trip to JoAnn's got me Valentine's scrapbook paper.

I had originally planned to print out letters on scrapbook paper and use Mod Podge to put them on my blocks.  But, for once in my life procrastination paid off and my Silhoutte came! So, I decided to use that instead.

This is my craft area. I can't wait to have a table to do this on in the new house.

What came out of all of this?

Scrapbook paper and scrapbook letters in a little five opening frame. I threw the picks in the vases just to have something behind it.  RC came home with a tissue paper flower, so I threw that in a vase too.

I think this is probably my favorite.  (Even though the pictures aren't the greatest. I was in a hurry and didn't have time to figure out my manual settings.)

I took the glass out of a picture frame and taped on the black flocked wrapping paper.  Then, I cut the sticks off of the picks and glued the hearts onto the paper.

I picked up a little cyclamen plant at Wal-Mart for my little silver pot.

I wrapped a ribbon around the top and then added vinyl letters. (Yay!)

Amazing what a bit of ribbon taped to a plain white pillar can do!

The top shelf of this stand is really small and I always have a hard time figuring out what to put there.  I don't know what made me think of using a playing card, but I kinda like how it looks! The Queen of Hearts is propped up using a red wine marker.

And this is what the whole stand looks like.

Next up was the blocks. My DH cut my blocks for me and I painted them red. Then, I downloaded a couple of designs from the Silhouette store and printed out letters.

The blocks are on a Norwegian bible that came out of my husband's grandparents house. I love it.

I really like the way everything turned out! Are you decorating for Valentine's this year?

Isn't she a beauty?

Well, beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. Some may see a chair that used to be in grandma's house. But I see how beautiful she could be! High gloss black paint. A super cool bold fabric. I can't wait!

Here's the thing though, I've never redone any furniture. Never reupholstered anything. Nada. Zippo. Zilch.

I'm figuring I can find some instructions or tips online to help get me started. Miss Mustard Seed is an insipriation. So, I've been trolling her site.  Any other tips or sites I should check out?

I did it!

I can't believe I actually did it. I bought a Silhouette cutting system yesterday. 

Why can't I believe it? Because I'm cheap. Cheap. With capital C-H-E-A-P.  But, thanks to Brooke over all All Things Thrifty.  (Oh, and she just had a baby! Congrats Brooke!) I got a killer deal. And I couldn't pass it up.

So, now what do I do? (That was the first question my sister asked me when I told her.)

Kierste at brown paper packages does a lot of great things.

And, I've kinda become obsessed with subway art. Maybe I'm easily influenced...cause it's everywhere!

Anyone have any other ideas? What should be the first thing I make when my new Silhouette arrives in two weeks!

I want one!

A Silhouette, that is. Seriously, it's the coolest thing. I want one to decorate our new house with great things. I want one to create great gifts for my family and friends. I want one to...oh, I don't know, I just want one!

And guess what? All Things Thrifty is giving one away! Woo hoo! If I don't win, I'll be heartbroken. But, I think I'll recover because they are also offering a great deal!

Go check it out!

I want one!

A Silhouette, that is. Seriously, it's the coolest thing. I want one to decorate our new house with great things. I want one to create great gifts for my family and friends. I want one to...oh, I don't know, I just want one!

And guess what? All Things Thrifty is giving one away! Woo hoo! If I don't win, I'll be heartbroken. But, I think I'll recover because they are also offering a great deal!

Go check it out!

What to do, what to do...

I had every intention of making this super cute stool I saw over at brown paper packages. But, I didn't have a stool. And it's cold here. And I didn't want to leave the house. And my four year old was running a temperature.

I still wanted to do SOMETHING though. But, I had to be able to find all of the supplies here at home.

What to do, what to do.

Scrapbook paper, picture frames, double stick tape, and my camera =  Silhouettes!

I remembered seeing some cute silhouette projects, so I binged "diy silhouettes." (Yes, I'm a bing-er, not a googl-er.)

The one from Crafty Mama is the one I remember, but I also found one from Modern-Day Family that looked even easier. So, I followed Modern-Day Family's tutorial.

I got the kidlets lined up, took some pictures and printed them out.

I like the symmetry that having three objects brings, so along with an individual picture of each of the kids, I also did one of RC giving Baby Peach a kiss.

I don't have a stapler, so I just taped the picture onto the black paper and it worked just fine.  Once taped, I cut around the picture.

So,  the frames I had were 10x13. Scrapbook paper is 12x12. Dilemma.  I wasn't sure what color of paper I wanted to use so I had pulled out a couple of different colors.  I ended up using one to create a mat for the mat.  I just cut the accent paper into to strips (I love my straight cutter!) and taped them onto the mat.

I have a confession to make. I suck at hanging pictures. As a result, I don't really like doing it. Usually, my DH does it. He breaks out the tape measure and the pencil and the level (seriously). Well, he wasn't around while I was doing this and when I finished, I wanted to get them up on the wall.  Down to my tool box I went and grabbed nails, hammer and you guessed it, a tape measure. No level though. I couldn't find it.  And, I still ended up hanging one lower than the other. I have another confession. Measuring and math are not my strong suits. I eyeballed it and pounded the nail in again and it looked close enough.

Here's the result:

It took me about two hours from the time I started taking the pictures to getting them hung up.  Baby Peach has some little wispy hairs on the top of her head that didn't turn out exactly as I'd hoped, but you have to look really close to notice.

All in all, I really like the way they turned out! I can't wait to hang them in our new house.

Linking up with Saturday Nite Special over at Funky Junk Interierors!

The "Befores" (Finally!)

I've been saying for months now that I was going to post pictures of the new house. Well, I'm finally getting around to it.

I'm warning you though, some of it ain't pretty. Some of it is down right U-G-L-Y.  Why did we buy the house, then you ask? One word. POTENTIAL.  Ok, maybe more than one word. For as outdated as it is, it immediately felt like home when we walked in the door. We were able to see beyond the wallpaper and fake beams. We were able to see our family growing in this home and making it our own.

So, without futher ado...

The master bedroom.  Sigh. God bless her. (In the south, I think they say "Bless her heart," this is what we say in the north.)

Nuff said.

It looked like this within a month or so of us closing. The weird cubby is coming out and another closet is being added by taking the hall closet.

Master bathroom. Pretty tiny, but we were impressed that a house built in 1976 even had one.

My son, RC's, room. I'm going to have to get creative with organization and purge! (Not sure if you can see it, but if you look along the seam between the wall and the ceiling, you'll notice a faint line where the lovely wall paper border was.)

Baby Peach's room. Two layers of nasty carpet. Sigh. (And, RC's hands.)

Upstairs bathroom. For me, this is probably the worst room in the house. DH and I are using it as an opportunity to expand our knowledge of tile installation.

We've never had a separate dining room before. I think I'm excited about it. No whining to watch TV while we eat supper.

The front room. The room that doesn't serve any purpose. This is going to be my library.  (Oh, and the posts are already gone.)



I'm actually excited to have a nice, white kitchen! We need to update and clean it up a bit, but the appliances are pretty good and we can live with them for a while. We are going to took out the counter and cabinets on the end and are going to replace them with a stand-up pantry and somewhere to sit. We haven't quite decided yet what to do with that end. If you have any ideas, let me know!

I really see the family room as being where we spend most of our time and am really excited about the potential!

And last, but certainly not least, the ugliest laundry room in America.  We already took out the lovely sink. We are going to add a toilet (there is no bathroom on this level) and replace the vanity.

Remember the beams in the kitchen? Well, I had mentioned to my DH that I wanted to just paint them the same color as the ceiling so they would disappear. His response? I don't think they are structural, let's see. They weren't but this is what was underneath. I laughed right outloud when I saw that wallpaper.

Needless to say, the beams in the kitchen and the family room are now gone. Along with all of the wallpaper in the kitchen, master bedroom, upstairs bath, family room and laundry room.  The carpet is also all gone. So is all the trim. The carpet was installed up against it instead of under it, so we had to take it off to install new flooring anyway.

I can't wait to start painting!

We've pretty much got a blank slate to work with, if you have any suggestions on any of the rooms, let me know!

What does clean smell like?

For the longest time, I thought cleaned smelled like bleach, Mr. Clean and Pine Sol. You know the smells. They kinda hit you over the head when you open the bottle.

Now, I think I know what clean really smells like. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. And I LOVE it.

In my goals for 2011 post, I said I was going to live greener and start making my own household cleaners.
Well, this is week #2 of cleaning with a vinegar and water mixture and baking soda. I mixed up the vinegar and water and added about 200 (ok, maybe 30?) drops of orange oil. Instead of our bathroom smelling overwhelmingly like bleach when I'm done cleaning, it smells like nothing (not even orange vinegar). 

Ah, I can take a deep breath while cleaning and not go into a coughing fit from the nasty cleaner I used to use.

I went the cold turkey approach. So, I've still got a few bottles of cleaners that I'm not really sure what to do with.

Here they are (along with some stray bread crumbs). My grime fighting teammates. I love 'em.  After reading this post from DIYLife, I might recruit apple cider vinegar to be part of my team too. We'll see.

What does clean smell like to you?

Home Goals for 2011

When The Nester asked what people had for home goals in 2011, it didn't take me long to know what mine were.

As I've posted before, we bought a new (to us) house back in November. Since then we've been tearing it apart.  I see it as a chance to start over with how we approach decorating and make it our own.  As a result, I only have one goal for this home in 2011.

Don't fill it up with things we don't LOVE

In the past, we've had a tendency to buy things because they matched our decor or they were a good deal, not necessarily because we loved them. I want to change that with this house. If it takes us a year or two to finish all the rooms, so be it. I'd rather live with an partially finished room we love than a finished room we just kinda like.

The whole remodel process is new to both of us. We've done some sprucing here and there on houses we've had in the past, but this is the first time we are tearing up floors, tearing down wallpaper and tearing down fake cedar ceiling beams (Yes, I said fake cedar ceiling beams...they were everywhere!)

All of the possibilities that come with starting from scratch are a little daunting, but I can't wait! Here's to a fabulous "new" home in 2011.

Organized recipes, here I come!

We were snowed in here from December 30th until January 2nd. Like, even if DH had snowblowed the driveway we couldn't have gone anywhere because the drift on our street was as tall as the mailbox.

Needeless to say, the Christmas stuff came down (and actually put away in an organized fashion for once), the house got cleaned, movies got watched and wine got drank.

Come Sunday though, the hall closet was driving me crazy. It had become a dumping ground. So, I took everything out of it, put the garabage in the garbage (novel idea), decided to donate the things I didn't love, didn't use and figured someone else could use, put what was left back in a way that made sense (another novel idea. why not put the things that get used the most on the middle shelf in the front!), and all was right with the world.

Until, I went to put away one of my recipe books. Sigh.

I print a lot of my recipes from online and emails I get. And, to date, they've been getting shoved into this one little book.  There are also quite a few written on scraps of paper that I've grabbed from either my mom's or my grandma's.  Everytime I need to find something I have to shuffle through the whole stack.

Well, on Sunday I'd finally had enough. I sat down and sorted all of the recipes into categories and threw out the crap that I'll never make. I had a vision of a lovely binder with all of my recipes organized by category.

Where would I find such a thing?

First stop? Target. They did have some lovely binders. But, they were over $5 and didn't come with any plastic sleeves. But, right next them were the plain jane binders. Aha! I'll make my own! Into my cart went a plain white binder ($1.84), 50  plastic sleeves ($3.84), and dividers ($.97).

(They joined the two 4 foot pre-lit Christmas trees that were $3.50 a piece. $3.50! I couldn't pass them up. Anywho, back to the binder.)

JoAnn's is right across the street from Target, so that was my next stop. Pretty paper, here we come! ($1.20 for two sheets.)

I broke out my Fiskars paper cutter and some scrapbook letters and went to work.

This was my final result!

Isn't it pretty? And all for $7.85. I sat and gazed adoringly at it for a bit.  The DH even thought it turned out nice.

(Please forgive me for the picture quality. As I mentioned in my 2011 goals post, I'm trying to figure out my camera. I'm extremely frustrated at the moment, but I'm hoping it will get better as the year goes on!)

Happy New Year! What is 2011 going to bring?

I'm not usually big on New Year's resolutions. They don't really fit me. I'm also not very good at setting goals.  I have things I'd like to do, but never write them down. If I write them down, then (horror of horrors) I might actually have to do something about them!


But, 2011 seems like a good year to try! We had some big changes as a family in 2010 (moving back to North Dakota, new baby, new house) and those changes have given me a new perspective. I'm ready to take some more risks and live life to the fullest. I think I've been a wuss when it comes to living life so far. I want to start changing that in 2011. I'm not saying I'll be jumping out of airplanes, but I think it's time (I'm 35 for crying outloud) to start putting myself out there more.

So, here we go...my goals for 2011.


1. Get back into shape

I lost 50 pounds last year before I got pregnant. I felt great and want to get back there. I figure now that Baby Peach is 4 months old, it's time to get back on that horse. I've signed up to run a 10k in May to give me a kick start.

2. Take my blog to the next level (Inspired by Life Your Way)

I'm going to post at least once a week. I know that many post every day, but that's just not realistic for me. Once a week is doable, especially with all the remodeling we've got going on at the new house. (Pics coming soon!)

3. Learn to take great pictures 

I've had a Nikon D70s for 4 years. And haven't used anything but the auto setting. Horrible, I know. A great camera going to waste. So, I'm going take a picture a everday in 2011 (365 Project). I'm hoping this will help me not only learn to take great pictures, but also teach me to use my camera!

4. Live greener (Inspired by Life Your Way - Green Goals for 2011)

I'm going to start using homemade household cleaners. It's all stuff I have around the house anyway. And, I found some Orange and Peppermint essential oils that I bought a while ago. So, I'm ready! I'm also switching to Dr. Bronner's soap. We've been using antibacterial for years, but I've been convinced to change! These are small steps, I know, but I can't bring myself to use soap instead of shampoo.

5. Do something that scares the shi crap out of me.

I'll be honest. I have no idea what to do here. I think I'll know it when it comes up. I'm hoping I know it. And when it does, I'll take a deep breath and try not to ignore it.


Ok, that was scary. It's out there in web land for everyone to read and ask me about. Sigh. I guess I'm committed now!

Where has the time gone? (And pretty flowers!)

How did it get to be the end December already? I had such good intentions of keeping you updated with the cool Christmas crafts and decorations I made. Only, I didn't make any. Sigh. Things just got away from me.

In the past, we made the trek from Colorado to North Dakota for Christmas. This meant, I had to have everything done and ready to go by December 20th or so. Our tree was always up the day after Thanksgiving, so we could enjoy it before we left.

This year, since we are back in North Dakota there didn't seem to be much of a rush. The tree didn't go up until the second week in December. I was still puttering around with decorations the week after that. And, by then there didn't seem much point in creating a bunch of cool, new Christmas decorations. Sigh.

Next year, maybe next year will be the year. We'll be in a new house and maybe I'll get up the motivation to do a bit more.

I did manage to get some fresh flowers in the house with some greens though! I love the look of white and green, so I went with some white flowers and Christmas-y greens.

I think they turned out pretty cute. I had a big arrangement on the table, then three small ones on side tables through out the house. The only things I bought were the flowers and greens. I bought two bunches of flowers and one bunch of greens at Sam's Club for $3.88 a piece. Everything else I had on hand.  So, I got four arrangements for around $12!

For the biggest arrangement, I used a quart mason jar, a plastic silver charger and some green and silver ornaments.

For the smaller arrangements, I used a pint jar and some green ribbon. 

Cutting the flowers and greens took the longest (and of course I had a 4-year old helper). 

They added such a nice touch to the house! My plan is to keep swapping out flowers and ribbon throughout the year. We'll see how it goes.

I do have a bunch of pictures of the house remodel as well. That's what coming up next! The transformation so far is just amazing! I'm super excited to get painting and super scared to get painting.

Have a safe and happy new year!