Sleep On It

We went bed shopping yesterday afternoon.  I had in mind exactly what I wanted.  I thought we were on the same page.  I had been talking for months about wanting an upholstered headboard.  So I was surprised when we got to Nebraska Furniture Mart and we had different ideas about the kind of bed we wanted.  I was kind of torn because our dressers are more traditional, kind of Art Deco but I like modern-ish furniture.  Turns out my husband likes more traditional furniture.  We finally found one that was a happy medium.  So now we just have to go back and buy it.

I'm pretty excited that we found something we liked.  I'm even more excited at the prospect of actually having a bed frame.  For the past 6 months (at least!) our mattress has been on the floor.  So it will be super nice to have a bed frame again.

In other news, our dog threw up on the couch in the basement last night.  Ug.  I had just made a rigged up slipcover for the couch.  So I was thankful he at least didn't throw up on the actual couch.  I'm about to head to the store and buy a plastic sheet protector and then make a new slip cover after the couch is covered.  I never realized dogs threw up so much.  Not very impressed.  At all.  Sorry, I know that's gross.

But for my next couch slipcover, I plan on using velcro so I can take it off and wash it, instead of my original method of fabric glue.  Hopefully this will work better.  And be better for cleaning up puppy accidents.

Under Construction

I am working on updating the look of my blog. I am having some issues though so please be patient if things look a little weird. Hopefully it will get better!

So it seems I am smarter than I thought, it just took perseverance.  I need to read a book on website design I guess.  Or not.  Probably not.  I will probably just continue faking my way through it.  Oh well, I got the job done.

Stained

So apparently summer has officially struck in Missouri.  It's supposed to be about 100 for the next week.  Meaning the weather has put a serious cramp in my outdoor projects.  Also meaning to get any work done outside, I have to get up super early so that I don't die from the heat and so that I still have shade.  So I was up at 6:30 to let the dog out and was working on the deck by 7.

So the inside of the top deck is done, the inside of the bottom deck is done, both sets of the stairs are done.  The outside though, the outside is not done.  Sigh.  There are more stupid little posts on our deck than I want to count.  If you stand at just the right place though, the deck looks done.

Eventually there will be before and after pictures once we get the house painted.  Just imagine a deck that has grayed because it's never been stained or had water protectant put on it.  Not the most attractive thing.  We went with Thompson's Waterseal in a semi-transparent California Redwood.  As a lucky accident, it perfectly matches our brick.  I can't wait to get the whole thing finished.  I'm thinking two more early mornings and I can hopefully get it done.

Today I am desperately hoping to get laundry put away and start cleaning out our office.  The office has been the room where we pile everything since we bought our house.  It's an absolute disaster.  There is so much stuff I just need to throw out, stuff that needs to be shredded, and things better organized.  It's just a hot mess.  If I weren't so embarrassed I would take a picture of it but it is truly that bad.  So after the laundry, I'm totally getting on it.  It's too hot to do anything else anyway. 

The Creative Juices, They Are A Flowing

Oh boy!  I love it when I get inspired and get in a crafty mood.  Last night after it cooled down a little, you know to like 85 instead of 100, I got to work on my wicker entryway cabinet I bought.  I started on it last week.  I had debated between two colors -- Caramel Latte and a hammered bronze.  I went with the Caramel Latte, huge mistake!  It was more of a creamy gold and over wicker, it looked like it would have gone in my Granny's house.  So back to Lowe's yesterday and I bought the hammered bronze.  Two cans of spray paint later, it had the husband seal of approval.  It's sitting in the garage right now to finish drying and to get less spray paint smelly.  I can't wait to get it back into the house and accessorized.  It also has the bonus of great storage space.  I am so excited to put some of my bigger kitchen stuff inside -- cake containers and the like.  It's going to be great.  And so convenient!

Okay, it looks a little weird with the doors hanging open.  And it looks a little goofy in the middle of my driveway.  You can see my amazing garage door though.  Anyway, I'm pretty much in love with it.

So last night in looking for something online.... I forget what.  I found a tutorial to make Roman Shades.  I could not be more excited.  I have loved Roman Shades for so so long.  When my parents built their new house I desperately wanted my mom to put Roman Shades up.  Apparently they're hard to make though.  At least with sewing involved.  I have been trying to figure out what kind of curtains to put up in our master bath since we bought our house.  Deep down I wanted Roman Shades but I am way to cheap to shell out the money to buy them.  So we've had terrible, tacky venetian blinds in the bathroom.  Just plain white ones my husband put up for me.  No there's nothing really wrong with them, I just think they're ugly.  Well, it turns out I can repurpose them to make my Roman Shades.  So today after lunch out with a friend and a hair cut I will be making a trip to buy fabric and making Roman Shades later today.  

Deep Conditioning and Jello Popsicles

I love summer vacation so much.  I get to do things I would not do with my husband around.  Right now I'm deep conditioning my hair.  I have BioSilk deep conditioning on my roots and scalp and Redken Color Care on the rest of my hair.  That doesn't sound like such a terrible thing to do with your husband home, right?  Well, it's all tied up on top of my head.  And wrapped in plastic wrap.  The plastic wrap is the kicker, it makes me look insane.  I read that it helps trap in the heat and moisture though.  I'm trying to deal with my super dry hair and dry scalp.  It's bad.  And if a plastic wrap hat is going to help, I'm willing to try it.  It's worth a shot anyway.

Today has been a day to try to fix skin issues.  So there's the dry scalp thing, it's gross, it looks like I have dandruff even though it's just dry skin, but it's not terrible.  The more unpleasant skin issue....  I break out in hives.  It's been happening for the past year.  I've been to the allergist and they never really figured out what causes it.  They just keep prescribing me more medicine and nothing has fixed it.  So I've given up on the medicine and now I'm trying to change things to help make it better.  So after a shopping trip today, our household is switching to more natural products.  I've always been fairly sensitive to soap and scents so I'm going to see if changing some of those things will help.  I've been using Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap for quite a while.  I love it so much.  It's minty but not sweet.  It has cut down on summer bug bites and cures heat rash.  Amazing.  And now we are switching to Seventh Generation laundry detergent and fabric softener.  I also bought Tom's deodorant.  So here's hoping the switch to more all natural products will help the hives.  It's not super attractive to be covered in hives.

It's supposed to be 102 with a heat index of 109.  In honor of it being horribly hot and having air conditioning, I'm going to make Jell-O popsicles.  Unfortunately I do not have the Tupperware popsicle  cups my mom had when I was a kid, but dixie cups and a spoon will do the trick.

1 (3 oz.) pkg. Jello, any flavor
1 (.14 oz.) pkg. unsweetened Kool-Aid
1/2 to 3/4 c. sugar
2 c. boiling water
2 c. cold water

Dissolve Jello, Kool-Aid, and sugar in boiling water. Add cold water. Pour into ice cube trays or popsicles molds. Insert sticks. You can wait until mixture is partially frozen to insert sticks. Freeze until firm, about 2-3 hours. Makes 20-24 pops.

All on the Table

So on my house wish list has been a table for our front hallway.  Initially I had in mind a nice upholstered bench or a sleek table.  Then I went to a garage sale with one of my friends the other day.  We had planned to go to breakfast (it was probably really brunch, but I refuse to be a "brunch person").  She called me and said, "Hey, I found a good garage sale, want to go?"  So she came and picked me up and we went to this garage sale.  When I was a kid, I never would have bought something at a garage sale in my hometown.  We lived in a small town and it just wasn't something we did.  Anyway, we were in the nice suburbs and had to go.

I hit the mini jack pot.  I got a Tag plate with birds on it, super cute!  It sounds old lady-ish, but it's not at all. I also got a picture frame and a book.  I'm super excited about the book.  My parents house burned down when I was in college and we lost nearly everything -- that meant everything from my childhood is gone.  So while I was at this garage sale, I found a copy of Christian Mother Goose.  It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.  And now that I've googled it, holy cow!  I got it for a great bargain.  Wow!

So I spent $45 and I got all that stuff.  And some margarita napkins.  And a front entry way table.  You knew I would get there eventually.  It's a wicker cabinet originally from Hobby Lobby and the price tag on the bottom said $149.99.  It's kind of shabby chic.  It's about to get a face lift.  I want it to be less shabby and more chic.  That's going to involve a trip to the store for some spray paint.  But here it is right now.

It is going to look better.  I'm also thinking of new pulls on the front.  It somehow reminds me of Beauty and the Beast.  I think it's the shape.  I originally wanted to paint it turquoise to tie it into the living room built ins.  But, that wall is right next to my pink/zebra print laundry room.  And you can see the cabinet from my kitchen which is a dark cranberry.  I don't want to get too crazy.  I had thought about coral as a nice color to kind of tie it together, but I still think that might be too much.  So now I'm thinking more of a nice bronze/brown kind of color.  Pretty excited to paint it.  

Super Clean

I worked at a residential facility for a couple of years. On Saturdays the kids would "super clean" This basically just meant deep cleaning. As the daughter of a teacher, I know this is what summer vacation is intended for. I have slowly but surely super cleaning our house this summer. Today it was the kitchen.

When we bought our house the kitchen cabinets looked like they had never been cleaned. I vowed each summer to clean the cabinets to keep that nastiness from ever happening again. I reorganized cabinets, finished painting trim, and scrubbed the outside of the cabinets. You can never get things too clean, right? 

Wrong! I scrubbed the paint completely off the cabinet by the stove. Sheesh! And I'd already gotten rid of the trim paint brush so I couldn't even touch t up. I know my husband is going to laugh at that one. But the kitchen is clean. And somehow we have FOUR travel coffee cups with no lids. How does that happen?

hoarding, deck staining, and other adventures

I am finally conquering my deck project.  I had sworn it off for a while after that day my staining project kicked my ass.  The day I realized it is impossible to stain our deck in one day.  It's a bad idea to try to stain your deck on a holiday weekend when you have company coming over the next day.  Just saying.  I'm back to work now though.  The top deck is practically done.  The steps to the top deck are practically done.  The lower deck has a good start.  Turns out, it's a way better idea to work only a few hours at a time and do it in the morning when it's considerably cooler and when the puppy is asleep so he won't tromp on the wet deck.  Anyway, it looks amazing!  I'm loving it!

In all my procrastination to not do the deck I have been cleaning things.  I've also discovered I have a problem keeping junk I don't need.  When I cleaned out my closets the other day, I got rid of 17 pairs of shoes.  Yes, 17 pairs of shoes.  Today I cleaned out my upper bathroom shelves and got rid of probably at least a dozen bottles of nail polish.  I didn't count and I refuse to go back to the trash can and count but there were a lot.  Also, some gold body glitter gel, an old pair of glasses (so old I don't even remember when I got them), and about 5 bottles of lotion.  I can't wait to throw more away.

I also finally started painting the trim in our kitchen.  Every time I talk to my mom she asks if I've painted it yet.  Now I've finally started.  All the baseboard trim is done, now it's just time for the ceiling trim.  I could've gotten it done yesterday if the ladder wasn't in the basement.  It's on the agenda for tomorrow.

I am loving this week.  I love crossing things off the list and seeing big projects get completed.  I still need to finish cleaning up the spare room, that really just means a trip to the trash can and a trip to Goodwill.

Face Lifts

My house projects haven't been going at the rate I thought they would this summer.  We started staining the deck over Memorial Day.  Well, turns out it's not possible to stain our entire deck in one day.  Before company came over.  Sheesh.  Terrible idea!  I'm still fighting with the deck, so I haven't gotten back to staining it yet.  Next week I will.

I've done a half-assed job cleaning.  I am just loving being home way too much.  I'm trying to get more motivated though.  We're slowly getting there though.

I did do a great project last week.  I was at Lowe's shopping for something to build a fence around the a/c with (our dog ate the a/c cord) and happened upon some Valspar paint sample jars for $3.  I'd been thinking about painting the built-ins in our living room for quite a while.  I already had brown paint at home left over from painting the barnwood door frames into our living, our two front doors, our basement door, and the trim in the front hallway.  I figured if I could just buy the sample of paint and only spend $3 I was in good shape.  So, leaving Lowe's with nothing I had actually planned to buy, I was ready for a good project.

I mean look at these shelves, they are not attractive.  The thought of them was something that attracted me to our house.  I knew they could be better though.  The doors were not in great shape.  They closed off the shelves, making them really dark inside.

So first the doors came off.  Sure, they had to come off to paint the shelves.  They were not going back on though.  Those bad boys were shipped off to the basement for safe keeping, they may return some day for child-proofing purposes, but for now those things are gone.

 

A coat of brown paint and they're already looking so much better!  I had just enough paint to get the built-ins and the mantle done.  I'm pretty much already in love with my shelves at this point, but I had to run to a meeting.  That meant though that the paint had time to dry and be ready for the accent color on the back wall when I got back.

 

Turquoise!  I love it!  The back of the cabinets are painted, covering the one last piece of paneling that was left in our house.  It was such a great change!

And it's done.  Not the biggest change ever but I think it makes a huge difference.  Even better, Todd liked it when he got home too.