Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a great idea to take a quick picture with Henry and Prudie to use on my Christmas card.

These animals obviously don’t know the definition of quick.

As my Thanksgiving present to you here are the outtakes from that ill fated photo shoot:

Nobody is looking at the camera!

Really Henry?

Oh jeez!

I’m still deciding if I got any that I like.  I may try again-I really wanted a picture with Prudie but she wasn’t having it today.  Another attempt will most likely just result in more hilarious pictures of my photogenic-when-he-wants-to-be dog.

-A

Paper Wreath

Bored at work one day this week I searched Etsy for a paper leaf wreath.  Holy cow-super expensive…but super cute too!  So I made my own!

I knew I wanted to put it in my living room so I pulled out a bunch of scrapbooking papers that I thought would look good in there.

Then I found a box to use as the foundation for my wreath.  I have no idea where I got this box from-I don’t eat Tilapia.  I ended up using two lids from my Wolfgang Puck cookware to make the outer and inner circles.

Then I cut out both circles

And picked the papers I liked the best.

Then I drew out a basic leaf shape and traced it over, and over, and over again.  Then I cut them.all.out.  That took forever!

While I like the ones where all the leaves lay flat I decided I wanted this one to have more dimension.  I folded each leaf in half length wise and then put a staple in at the end so it would kind of curl up.  Then I placed the two outside leaves on the cardboard first and then put the one down in the middle.  I put a couple staples in each row just to keep it secure.  I didn’t have any pattern to choosing which colors and patterns would go where.  I just picked one up and if I liked it I stapled it down.

Then I worked my way around

Until all the cardboard was covered.  You can see that I had some problems with the inside ring of leaves.  I wanted them all to be sticking straight out to the center of the wreath but I seemed to have lost my way somewhere.  It doesn’t bother me enough to redo this one but I’ll try to pay more attention when I make more.

Originally I planned for it to go above the door out to the entryway but it was just too small.

So I put it next to the door instead.

This project was (mostly) free!  I had all the supplies on hand (I say mostly because I did buy them all at some point) so not only did I not have to shell out any money to complete it, I also didn’t have to take off my sweats to leave the house!  I think from start (picking out the papers) to finish (hanging it on the wall) this project took me about three episodes of Grey’s Anatomy.

Right now I want to make one for every room but I’m holding back-I could easily end up with one on every wall in every room!

-A

Week 13

I’m happily plugging along and hanging stuff on the walls this week.  I’ve been pretty focused on the living room but I’m hoping to get to the untouched walls of the kitchen and to finally tackle the guest room.  My brother will be here for Christmas…if I get my butt in gear I might have it done by then.

My muddy yards made that rug really gross in the living room so I took it outside and cleaned it this week.  I hung it across the 1/2 wall to dry and haven’t moved it back into my living room.

I’m getting closer to painting this room but I can’t decide what I want to do.  Right now I’m loving light grey walls  and some orange-y curtains.  I’m not in love yet though so we’ll see where this ends up.

I’ve added a few more trays above the sink but other than that my poor kitchen has been neglected.  I’m also refinishing my kitchen table so that’s why it’s upside down.

All four grandparents are on the wall!  I feel like I need one more thing up here but I’m not yet sure what.

The bathroom hasn’t changed.  I’m hoping I can sweet talk my brother into helping me with the beadboard while he’s home for Christmas.

Let’s not talk about the guest room, ok?

After living with it for a few weeks I realized that I hated the collage wall I started in here.  I’m having a hard time decorating with my high ceilings.  I love them but it’s a lot of pressure to fill those walls!  I decided that I would rather do my collage wall in a more orderly way.  The same frames with similar things inside them.  The frames I’m liking right now are from Ikea so I taped off their rough shape and played with it until I landed on this grouping.  The nearest Ikea is 3 hours from my house but these frames ship!  I haven’t pulled the trigger yet because with shipping it’ll be about $100 for this wall.  Other things I thought about were painting inside those squares and then putting a smaller, cheaper frame inside it or re-working the whole thing with $2 8×10″ frames from Wal-Mart.  I think I’ll live with the tape a little longer while I decide.

Nothing new in the closet…

My disorganized bedroom collage wall got pared down and moved in here.

I just love my living room.  I’ve added more decorations in the front living area (just need candles for that candle holder) and more pictures to the picture ledges.  I’m waiting on my last frames to dry and then I’ll finish this puppy off!  My favorite thing up there right now is this letter from my grandfather-my favorite was the corn relish also. 🙂

I’m really hoping that by next week you see improvements in the kitchen and guest room!

-A

Week 12

Holy moly people, can you believe it’s been 3 months already?  It seems like just yesterday I was living in a construction zone that looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

My picture ledges are up!  I’m still tweaking what’s going up there but I’m happy to finally have stuff going up on the walls in here!  All the brown frames will be sprayed black…eventually!  I also found this new in the box Christmas tree at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago.  For $15 I’ll live with it but would like a taller, fuller tree in the future.  My cousin Sara gave me some pretty silver and blue decorations that I really want to put up but Henry seems to think they’re just more toys for him.  I’m putting off hanging them up until I can figure out how to keep him away from the tree.

Nothing new in the kitchen

Or the laundry room

But the hallway got some frames this week!  The pictures in them aren’t staying and I need to get a 4th one so this project is far from done!

I (my dad) hung that shelf over the toilet so I can get rid of the loop towel holder on the other side of the sink.  I’m sick of it falling down all the time!

Someone needs to plan a visit over here so I can get motivated to finally finish this room!

Woohoo!  So proud of myself for actually getting this wrap up posted on a Tuesday!

See you next week for the start of Month 4!

-A

Room of Requirement

…or this week’s thrifting adventures.

I’ve been scouring the local thrift stores looking for a second bedside table for my guest room.  I hit a new store in town and found a few things (but no table) so I went to the consignment shop.

I’m a huge fan of the Harry Potter books and this store reminds me so much of the Room of Requirement.  If you’re not familiar, the Room of Requirement basically is whatever the person going into it needs it to be.  If you haven’t read the books but have seen the movies you may remember it as the setting for the nail-biting broom chase-around stacks of chairs and books and shelves.  Basically that’s how this store is.  Everything is stacked up so you have to move chairs, tables, mirrors, etc to get to items you actually want.

I knew that I wanted something small, dark in color, cheap and bed height.  I was prepared to find something in horrible shape and fix it up but as I was walking the aisles I saw it: a small wicker trunk with a glass top.  I unstacked everything on top of and around it so I could really check it out (and see the price.)  Imagine my excitement when I saw the $15 (down from $48) price tag and realized it met all of my criteria!  The best part (other than the price) is that I didn’t have to do anything to it!

I was a big spender this week:

Trunk-$15

Lamp-$5

Vase-$15

both shelves-$4 each.

I’m pretty happy that all of this came in under $45!

Here’s what I did with all of it:

The lamp is on the mantle filled with corks (no, I didn’t drink all that wine!)  I plan to switch things out in there for the holidays.  Right now it has some cute glitter acorns in it but I also see it filled with ornaments for Christmas!

This rack solved a huge problem in my bathroom!  I didn’t like my brushes in the container on the toilet and the counter is too small to keep them there.  This has worked out perfectly!  And yes, I’m slightly embarrassed by my nail polish obsession!

I’m not really happy with this lamp here.  I got it because A) I needed a lamp for that side of the bed and B) I already had a lamp similar to this one so I thought it would be nice for symmetry with out being perfect matches.  I’m still not sold and will probably keep looking for lamps I love more.

This is by far my favorite thrift shop steal, maybe of all time.  I love the size and color of the trunk but especially that it’s more storage!  It’s already holding some decorative items I don’t have a place for right now.

I haven’t put up the black shelf yet but I plan to repaint it and probably hang it in my bedroom somewhere.  Maybe I will have made a decision about it by next week.  🙂

I’m afraid I won’t be able to top this week but I really look forward to trying!

-A

Week 11

This week has been a lot of fun!  More and more decorations are going up and pretty much everything is unpacked so I’ve been able to spend more time just hanging out in my house instead of feeling like I had a million things to do!

The laundry room has become just a holding area.  I like the pet food in here and I like recycling inside (I had it outside for a while and it got so dusty and soggy that it grossed me out) but I’m just not sure what else I want to do in here.

I haven’t done anything in the kitchen this week.  I still want to put in cabinets in around the stove and hang some open shelves over the table and install some baseboard under the cabinets that are already there.  I also plan to refinish the kitchen table and repaint the chairs.  But that all sounds like so much work and I’d really just rather watch The Voice right now.

I had plans to hang some pictures in here this week but Wal-Mart let me down.  I think I’ll end up printing the pictures at home and get them up next week.

The bathroom was also left untouched this week.  I’m anxious to get the bead board and some art up in here and see that hand towel holder?  It won’t stay on the dang wall!  I’ve tried and tried to rehang it but no matter what I do I keeps falling down.

Obviously the guest room took most of my time this week.  Aside from being too short, I’m really happy with the curtains I made!  The curtain rod in here is the first purchase I’ve made for my house that I regret.  I went with this rod because it was cheaper than the one I really wanted and I thought I wouldn’t care that much because I don’t go in the guest room very often.  Turns out I do care.  It’s too small and I don’t like the finish so eventually I’ll replace it and it’ll end up in the yard sale box.

I started working on a collage wall in my bedroom and I’m loving how it’s turning out.  There’s still some tweaking to do and I plan to fill it in as high as I can so I plan to keep collecting frames and other interesting things to put up there.  I want everything to be cream, white or silver so that pink key will get painted eventually.

I’m still loving my bathroom and now I’m looking for art to hang in here.

That cardboard box is full of yard sale stuff.  Looking at these pictures I realize that I need to more it to another part of my closet so it’s not the first thing you see when you walk in my room.  I do like having the box in here so when I find something I don’t want any more I just throw it in the box to get it out of my way.

Still loving my living room!  I can’t wait to get up the picture ledges so I can get the rest of my pictures up.

Now that the construction phase is mostly over it doesn’t seem like much changes from week to week.  Soon my weekly pictures are going to be like those picture games where you have to point out what’s different between pairs of pictures!

-A

Thanks Pinterest!

Like everyone on Pinterest I saw the pins for the large engineer prints every time I logged in.  I loved how they looked and was excited by how reasonable the project seemed to be.

The only reason I put off doing it was….I was embarrassed to go into the store to ask for the engineer print…I’m kind of neurotic I guess.  I was worried that the poor office supply store people would be sick of dealing with the thousands of Pinterest addicted people trying to get cheap, meaningful art.

I finally sucked it up and went to Office Depot and asked.  They weren’t irritated because they don’t do engineer prints and therefore have not been slammed by crazy Pinners.  There isn’t another office supply store in town so I went with their large format printing.

For $25.00 I got:

A 24×30 print, foam board, spray adhesive and masking tape

Side note: That’s my family in 1981.  I’m sure right now you’re saying, “Self, I thought this blog was written by a girl but that arrow seems to be pointing to that cute little boy on his dad’s shoulders.”  Well, you’re mostly right.  I am a girl (and was even then!) and I am cutely sitting on my dad’s shoulders.  Obviously I didn’t get good hair until I was much older!

Back to my cheap art:  Office Depot didn’t have the right sized foam board and I was boycotting Wal-Mart that day (long story) so I got the 20×30″ foam board and trimmed the picture down.  Then I put the foam board on a piece of cardboard and sprayed the adhesive on it.  Luckily I got repositionable spray adhesive so I was able to move it and adjust it several times to get it right.  Once I got the picture in place I used the orange masking tape to cover the edges and make sure everything stays stuck down.

I’ve seen other bloggers and pinners paint the edges or finish it off with ribbon but I like the little extra insurance the masking tape gives.  I was also looking for a pop of color up above the mantle and I like that the orange is unexpected.  I’m not in love with the other stuff on the mantle so you’ll probably see that change with each set of weekly pictures until I get it right.

This project was so easy (and cheap!) that I’m sure I’ll do it again when I find another picture that I love.

-A

Week 10

By Week 10 I mean last week.  I also mean here are the few pictures that I got around to taking in Week 10.  A rough cold slowed me down and killed my motivation.  The good news is Week 11’s pictures have already been taken and will be up in a couple of days.

The big deal this week was the back yard:

Over the course of three days we dug the holes, set the posts, bought more posts and fencing and put it up.

See that fence in the background?  It enclosed the yard when the sheds were up but since we tore them down the panels have just been hanging out there (and holding up my neighbor’s rock wall…)  With those panels I had 24 feet already so I only had to buy 5 posts and two fence panels and my dad made the gate out of the extra.

In the spring I’ll work on setting up a garden area and working on some grass.  The white picket fence in the back isn’t ideal but it keeps Henry in and it’s already up so I’m leaving it for now.

The only other room that saw improvements was the guest room:

The bed is cleared off!  And I have a comforter that actually fits inside the duvet cover now.  I can’t wait for my first guests!

I promise this week I won’t be a slacker!  The time I didn’t spend fence building or working I spent sleeping or getting addicted to The Voice.  How have I not watched this before?!?  I wasn’t a huge American Idol fan (and I don’t love Christina…) but Blake and Adam crack me up!  I’m glad I’ve been recording it the last few weeks so I had something to watch when I didn’t feel like doing anything!

In addition to my wrap up of Week 11 I also have another successful Pinterest project to show you and I’m hoping to get a little thrifting in too!

-A

Procrastinating…

You know how when you start packing you group like things together?  All the kitchen stuff in boxes, neatly taped and clearly labeled?  Those boxes are awesome to unpack.  Then you know how you get to the end and you walk around your house with a box throwing all your random crap into it, not caring which room it belongs in?  Those boxes suck.  Those are the boxes I have left.  They’re a huge pain in the rear to unpack so I’m just ignoring them.  Instead I went thrift shopping again 🙂

Here’s what I found this week:

Chair-$8.00

Lamp-$5.00

The chair is sturdy and I like finish.  I slid that baby up to my desk and didn’t change a thing.

The lamp on the other hand was bad.  I’m just not a brass kind of girl so I spray painted it:

Love that Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint!  I plopped a $10.00 Wal-Mart shade on this sucker and called it done.

I love the chair with the desk and I think I love the lamp on my buffet-it just needs to be taller.  I don’t love the basket under it so I’m thinking some cool old books (or something) will give it height and some interest.

Ahhhh, I’ve already (almost) forgotten about those random boxes (and the guest room I haven’t touched.)

My mother and I are digging holes for fence posts tomorrow so if all goes well I’ll be back in the afternoon for this week’s wrap up.

-A