hi.

No post since July. I know. I’m a horrible blogger. We’ve had a very busy house the last few months. And sometimes living life is more important than documenting life.
Anywho, here’s what’s been going on.
August
Peachy turned 2. RC started first grade. And I went back to school. At 36. What was I thinking? Oh, yeah. I was thinking maybe it was time to get a degree. So, I enrolled in an online degree program. So far, so good, but it doesn’t leave much free time after working full time and trying to keep things together at home. Sparky’s been great though. He knows just when I need encouragement and support.

I also did a little transformation on an old candle stick and table top. I decided to try my hand at making my own chalk paint. I’m not sure if I’d do it again. It’s ok, but not the exact look I was going for. Definitely good enough for now though! (And now, a few months later, I’m ready to repaint it something lighter and move it to a different spot.)



September
My SIL got married! Yay! RC was the ring bearer and Peachy was the flower girl. And I took the pictures. (Yikes! I was pretty nervous, but they turned out great.) It was a beautiful fall day and we had a wonderful time.


We also did a little DIY in late September. The main floor half bath was driving both Sparky and I ca-ra-zy. The closet and it’s door just weren’t working. We purged, painted and hung curtains. We’ve still got some accessorizing to do, but really love the way it turned out.


October
We decided it was time for a party. So we had an adult only costume party. It was a blast. Sparky and I were The Bundys. I had a lot of fun doing some spooky decorations.  Vivienne at The V Spot was my inspiration. She’s got great Halloween decorating ideas! No pictures of the party itself…needless to say some of the guests wouldn’t appreciate their pictures posted all over the interwebs.
I spray painted some branches from our yard black, spray painted a faux pumpkin white then used $1 Store spiders, bats and webs to finish it off. The raven is from Wal-Mart, the lantern is a left over from my SIL’s wedding, and the candelabra is from TJMaxx. The skull candle holder was a prize Sparky won for best costume at a Halloween party a couple of years back. He was a great Fred Flintstone. (Oh, and the mirror is a new addition over the buffet. We bought it from a friend of my SIL’s for pretty cheap and spray painted it white.)

I’ve been updating the Irish blessing I keep by the door for each season/occasion. It’s been fun seeing what’s out there. I do a Bing search and type it up in Microsoft Word. Then,  I use the same white frame and just swap out the blessing and mat (aka scrapbook paper).


November
Thanksgiving really snuck up on me this year. We hosted my parents and my SIL’s family. The day before I scrounged around the house to find some fall-ish, Thanksgiving-ish decorations. (I should’ve taken a picture of the table all set! It was really pretty. Sigh.) I ended up with burlap, fake leaves, and gourds.

Right before Thanksgiving, I broke out the craft paint and had the kids paint some pictures. I chose fall colors for them to use (green, red, yellow, orange and bronze) and let them go to town. Then, I punched a hole in them and used some twine to hang them up in the dining room. They definitely aren’t hung perfectly straight, but I like them! And RC was so proud to have them hung up.

And now, Christmas is only a few weeks away! AAAAAAA!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
And now it’s 2013! Yeah, I started this post a month ago and just got back to it.
Christmas was awesome. We had Sparky’s family here on Christmas Eve and then went to my sister’s on Christmas Day. Sparky’s sister from Florida was up and my brother and his fiancé came from Montana. Lots of laughs, lots of wine and lots of Farkle and cards. It was great.

I had a 2 week break from school and also took 2 weeks off of work. I was actually at home pretty much the whole time with my kids. From December 22 until January 2. Other than maternity leave, I think that’s the most I’ve been home with them. Gosh, that sounds horrible. And a couple of those days, my seester’s kids and my SIL’s youngest was here too. 6 kids 9 and under. 1 – 9 year old, 1 - 8 year old, 2 - 6 year olds, 2- 2 year olds. Yikes! I don’t know how SAHMs do it. I honestly don’t. They had so much fun though! All of them were asking when they’d get to see the others again.
After everyone left and the kids went back to school and daycare, I had 3 whole days to myself. 3 days! 2 of them are gone. And not much but laundry and workouts have been accomplished. Where does the day go? I have one day left. And I don’t really feel like doing anything. We’ll see how it goes. 
I hope everyone has a great 2013 and I’ll try to pop in every once in a while, but can’t make any promises. Applied Statistics and World Religion are in my near future. Oh, and I guess I better get back to work too.

April Fools?

This isn’t an April Fools prank. This IS an actual blog post. Amazing, I know. Just doesn’t seem like I’ve had enough time to sit down and write one. But hopefully, spring will put a little spring in my step and inspire me to get going on all the projects I said I was going to get done. Like, the front room. Not much has changed there since my last post. Lots of ideas, no execution. Bah.

We have been doing some work in the craft room. We’ve got the treadmill and the XBox+Kinect in there along with my crafting/decorating stuff, so it’s getting used more by the whole family than it used to be. But I’m saving that for another post. Hopefully in the not too distant future.  It involves paint, sticky tiles, free furniture and fabric.  (I was going to post a picture of it from when we first moved in, but I can’t find it on this computer. GRRR.)

But, I did get a couple of little projects done this weekend. I was able to get out the spray paint! Yay! It was 70 degrees. In North Dakota. In March. That just doesn’t happen. 

I have a bajillion picture frames. I think it’s an addiction. Frames on clearance? Buy ‘em. Frames at the thrift store? Buy ‘em. It’s a sickness. But, as a result, I had some picture frames that I wanted to change up.

I’ve seen a “He is Risen” printables out on quite a few blogs and decided to do my own. I really like the way it turned out.

I’ve also always wanted an Irish blessing hanging in our house somewhere. Lo and behold, I get an email from The Irish Jewelry Company and there it was!


I like how it adds a little something by the front to door to welcome people when then come in and also let them know we are thinking of them when they leave.


It feels good to create stuff again. Hope you were able to pull a good prank on someone today! By the sounds of it on Facebook, a couple of people on know pulled some good ones.
(Geez, that plant is looking a little sad. Maybe I should go water it and prune it a bit.)
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Thriftstore Lamp Makeover

It's no secret that I'm cheap. Cheapy McCheaperson, that's me.  And lamps are spendy. Too spendy if you ask me. And to be honest, I really don't like any that I've seen in stores.  I'm not going to shell out $40 (at a minimum) for something that I only kinda like.

But, I'd seen people all over blogland making over lamps and having them turn out fabulous. So, I thought I'd give it a try.

First, finding the perfect lamp. I knew the general shape I was looking for, tall and curvy. But I had no idea how much it would be.  I checked out The Arc Attic Treasures that's close to where I work. They had a pretty good selection of lamps. They ranged in price anywhere from $2-$10. Not too bad.

I found one that I really really loved the shape of for $3.99. But I didn't buy it. I wanted to check out a couple of other places first. Just to compare. To see if I could find one cheaper somewhere else. (Cause, 4 bucks isn't cheap enough ya know.) The Salvation Army was next. Bust there, they didn't have anything. Next stop, Dakota Boys Ranch, they had some, but nothing that looked like I wanted. 

By this time, I was starting to get a little nervous. It'd been about a week since I'd been to Attic Treasures. What if it was gone? Hmmm, maybe I should go there. Right. Now.  So, I did.  And lo and behold, my lamp was still there! Yay!

Pretty fantastic, right? For $3.99?

I already had some primer, but had to pick up a can of green spray paint. Which was an ordeal in itself. I looked at Home Depot first and their selection of spray paint was not great.  By far the best selection I've seen has been WalMart of all places. 

First step (after cleaning it off a bit), primer! 

When I saw the lamp primed, I almost decided to leave it white. It looked that great.  But, the whole purpose of this lamp was to add some color to our family room, so I kept with the original plan and painted it green.  First coat on, looking pretty good! Second coat on, and I ended up with this. 

It's kinda hard to see in this picture, but it's all crackly. All over. GRRR. Not the look I was going. I enjoy a good crackle finish, but not on my lamp. Sigh. Crap. <insert favorite cuss word here>.  How the heck did that happen?  My 16 year old nephew informed me that if you don't shake the paint for as long as you should it will do that. Huh. Good to know.  Now what?

Sanding is what. I don't have any pictures of the sanding process. Sanding kinda sucks. I was covered with green paint powder. All those lovely curves on the lamp are a pain in the rear to sand. But, sand I did and put on another coat of primer, just to be safe.

Two more coats of green paint later, and I had was finished.

I snagged the lamp shade off of the lamp that was originally there. And it looked great. I originally thought I wanted to put a drum shade on her, but really like how this one looks.

Not too shabby for a $3.99 lamp!

(You may have noticed a bit of a new look to my blog as well. I've been wanting something a little more me. After seeing this post on how to make your own header using Microsoft Word, I decided to give it a try. Let me know what you think!)

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Painted brick and other goodies

I love our family room. I love the space, the furniture, the light, the fireplace. (You can see what it looked like when we bought the house here.) But I don’t love the nook thing by the fireplace. I’m sure it originally held firewood. That it did serve a purpose. But the fireplace is now electric (done by the previous owners I think). No need for firewood. And the only purpose it served now was to mock me. I’d bought a big vase to try to brighten it up, but it didn’t really work.

I couldn’t take it anymore. The dark black hole next to the fireplace. Mocking me. So, this weekend while Sparky was off playing golf with my uncles, I decided to paint it. Yep, I finally painted brick. And it kinda sucked. Painting brick is not that fun. But, it looks soooooo much better. Like, I can’t even believe how much better.


We had left over masonry primer from the playroom project and lots of leftover paint from when we painted the family room. The color is Gobi Desert from Behr. It’s a nice tan that goes with pretty much anything. And the majority of our house is painted this color.

Even just the coat of primer made a huge difference!

But, painted was even better! Ahhhh, no more mocking. It's like it almost disappears into the wall.

And of course, once that side looked so good, I had to do something to the shelves on the other side of the fireplace to even it out.  Poor, pathetic shelves.

First, I cleared everything off except for the TV components. I straightened up the cords as best I could and tucked things behind to hide them a bit, but still need to do something about them wrapping around the front of the fireplace.

Then, I went shopping. Around the house. With a glass of wine in hand.  At 10:30 on Saturday night. An exciting life I lead, I know. Don’t be jealous.


Anywho…on the top shelf, I leaned a picture of a Celtic circle. (I can’t for the life of me find what it means. Love or life I think?) I made it from a stencil 8 years ago maybe? I’ve had it forever anyway and still love it. I also have my Grandma’s old Brownie camera. I love it. Then, I found some hardcover books and “covered” them with scrapbook paper so they were all the same color. The pitcher I had just picked up at TJMaxx Thursday for $5. I had bought to go upstairs in the dining room, but it fits here too. And brings a nice touch of color. I've had the basket forever. I have kind of a basket obsession. Once they come into my house, they never leave. 

For the second shelf, I wanted to draw attention away from the cable receiver, but I couldn’t completely cover it up. First, I hung a collage frame on the back wall. I made this for Sparky for Father’s Day a few years ago. (I taped a white sheet to the wall and setup the tripod and RC and I did silly stuff for the camera. Eventually, I’d like to change out the pictures of RC and me for pictures of RC and Baby Peach.) I got the camera from my MIL the last time we were at her house. My FIL taught high school photography and she has some of his old equipment. I have no idea how it works. I'm actually impressed that I figured out how to open it and get the lense out. But I love it! Again, more books wrapped in scrapbook paper. (Webster's Dictionary to be exact.)

The bottom shelf has a pitcher full of branches I cut off one of our bushes. The Shamrock picture is one I made for St. Patrick’s Day this year. I love it so much; I wanted to put it back out. The family plate was a gift from my SIL. The picture of RC and Baby Peach is one I’d taken to make a silhouette. I love it. The white piece is an old light fixture globe I spray painted white.

I’m not sure if the shelves are giving off quite the vibe I’m going for in the room, but it’s definitely better than what has going on in there before. And it was all free!

This room still has a bit work left to it, but it’s getting closer!

 ToDo:
Tile fireplace hearth
Shorten curtains
Possibly embellish shortened curtains
“Family” wall above trunk
More pillows
Possibly make a pouf or two for the floor


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