Secrets

Okay, I'm going to admit to something deep, dark and secret. I HATE painting furniture. But I hate retail prices even more. So I broke out the mouse sander this past week and tried sanding on this...

 The mouse sander is in the picture because I almost forgot a before picture.

 Yes, it had that ladder looking molding up on the top. It was in 

shade shape, so I just ripped it off.

You know foggy weather is not conducive to sanding. Tends to get all clumped up and you get saw mud not saw dust. I know, I know quit complaining about the fog because soon enough it'll be 113 and I'll be complaining about that. So hopefully I'll get to sand more this week. It was almost done, the sanding it is. But it got dark. I only have to sand the inside now. My BFF suggested painting the inside a different color. What do you think? The outside is white because it's going in this room. The condition to this post is we can not tell the Carpenter I am sanding and painting a piece of real oak. It's not an heirloom but it's not particle board or even veneer. It's the real deal, oak. Shhhh our secret okay?
Yes I even worked on the craft room this weekend. Pictures within the next century I promise.
Oops!!! Almost forgot the most important part, how much I paid for it. $8.99. Can you believe that!!!
Have a great week!


P.S.  Changes being made on the blog. Please be patient. Trying for a cleaner, uncluttered look.

Another Thrift Shop Tale

Okay you are probably wondering why there's a picture of some funky Tupperware salt and pepper shakers on my blog. Well there's a story to that and sorry a rather long one. I love these salt and pepper shakers. Unlike most girls of my age I had a hope chest and diligently filled it until I got married. I came fully loaded... hmmm perhaps not the best choice of words. LOL. I purchased a set of these when I was just a teenager. Smart me got the all white set. As most of you know who have followed my blog for some time we took care of my mom until she passed away 3 years ago. (Sigh where does the time go?) So during the 4 years she was with us we spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital. The hospital would always put her on a salt restricted diet. Don't know why... she had no high blood pressure usually the opposite... no blood pressure. So it was my job to sneak in the salt shaker. So one hospital visit I was crazy rushing around trying to feed the family (remember I still had a hubby, two kids at home, homeschooling, and working part time plus mom) and get to the hospital before they closed the doors. So I just grabbed my trusty salt shaker by the stove and rushed to the hospital. This was one of those bad hospital stays where she bounced back and forth between ICU and a regular hospital room. We almost lost her during this time. During her bouncing back and forth the beloved salt shaker went missing. I was devastated. Made them search all over for that salt shaker but no luck. So I just put Mr. Pepper away in the cupboard and used another not as good set. You see I'm a firm believer in the thrift store principle. You know the one: that eventually everything comes through the thrift store if you're patient. Well four years later I'm walking through my favorite store and there sitting all by it's lonesome is Mr. Pepper's mate. Waiting for me. I fairly rushed over there and grabbed it. I was giddy with happiness and couldn't wait to get home. $.60 worth of happiness. Silly I know and my family thinks I've gone over the edge that's for sure. But I know you ladies understand.

Linking up to Treasures and Trinkets Thursday

Foggy Distractions

I am not as talented as these creative ladies but I can vote. Make sure to check out the first round of projects and the winners. Enjoy.



I should have been working on this Saturday

But I was having more fun doing this instead.

The day was just lovely and two sunny days in a row at this time of year is enough to make me giddy. I decided to switch the rooms around because it is just the 3 of us the majority of the time AND I was ready for a change. I really like the mirror hanging there so I'm going to paint it eventually, when the fog clears. Second day of fog delay this week. Puts a huge cramp in my plans.
I did work on the sewing room a teensy bit but got distracted. So still foraging ahead with that room. Hubby did hang my cabinet though. Pictures eventually.
Have a great week everyone.

Sewing Room Update

So I chugged along on the sewing room this weekend. Have decided that I will paint over my spring break. Which means I'll have to move furniture again. Oh well such is life. It's just been too damp and foggy this year to paint. Because the guest house is detached it runs on it's own heat so can get expensive to run it long enough to dry paint. But here's a few photos of what has gotten done.
The floor plan didn't work out quite as I had expected. Maybe eventually I'll make changes, but for now I just used furniture and things I had on hand. This book case by no means holds all my fabric. Just a small portion of it. I hope to get it down to just fabric on this bookcase and what I have on hand will fit just here. Here's to hoping. I still have 3 large rubbermaid tubs to unpack for this bookcase. Hmmmm.......

 This big thing was hanging in the kitchen as a spice cabinet. It is being reincarnated into holding all that small scrapbook/paper crafting stuff. I'll be hanging it on the wall over by my table.

 See it's really large. The carpenter made it a few years ago for me. He's a great son. This also meant changes in the kitchen. Hubby hates changes so he's been cranky, but I love change. Post on the kitchen later this week.

 Here's the creating corner. Small dresser that by no means holds all the supplies. Sigh. I must simplify.

 That cabinet will hang here. Hopefully also get a paint job over spring break. The mini blinds are going and simple curtains will take their place. That I can do right now.

 This sewing cabinet the carpenter bought me at my favorite thrift store sometime last year. I love the built in thread holder and all the drawers.

 Of course my machine does not fit this opening but I thought I would just use a solid piece of wood and be able to use the whole surface for scrapbooking or whatever.

 Thread holder. Love it!

 Fortunately the bed did fit into this corner. Makes for a nice reading spot for me also.

 This treadle sewing machine belonged to my husband's great grandmother. Yes the machine is still in there and it still works. My daughter is determined to make a quilt on it.

 Of course changes in the big room prompted changes in the bedroom. Moved the bed to accommodate the small desk from the large room. I figured since we really don't use this room much that having it against the wall wasn't a big deal.

 This is the sad story of the unfinished other side of the room. Still working on it. I might actually get to sew sometime this year. Sigh.... well must go get this side of the room worked on. Have a great week.

Kris and Kim at the DIY Dish have done it again. Another couple of creative projects. This time for Valentine's Day. Check out their video and go make those placemats. They've also got an incredible give away.

No Painting Here...Just Dreaming

Well damp, foggy days are not conducive to painting where I live so what's a girl to do? Dream I guess. I hate fog. It's the other season here; as in summer and fog. We get two seasons and fortunately the fog season is realtively short and the summer season is loooongggg. I did buy my paint and supplies so I'm all ready when better painting days appear.
On a positive note I've been given plenty of time to think about what I need in this room and what I would like. Lots of time to troll the internet searching for ideas; like this awesome crafting desk over at Knock-Off Wood. She's got a plan for just about everything I think.

and these awesome shelves for the wall of bookcases I have envisioned along that north wall.

Ana White's site is one of my favorites. I check it every day and save things on the to do list which is a great feature. I mercilessly send pictures to the out of town carpenter saying can we build this on your next trip home? At this point he'd either have to come home for several months or every weekend for the next year. Suppose I should learn how to use those power tools. I mean if that little bitty thing Ana can do it ( and I am by no means or stretch of the imagination little) I should be able to do it. So I wonder where he hid all those power tools???
Cheers! Have a great week.

Sewing Room Wishes

This past summer I re-did our guest house, at least the small bedroom and bathroom. I hadn't done this room yet. You can read about the re-do of those rooms  here .

As I was saying yesterday, the office works great as an office but it's too small for crafting/sewing. Hubby gave me the green light to make the large room in our guest house my craft/sewing room. So I'm going to show you the room I hope to update in all it's present glory. It's definitely become a catch-all room. So I'll be getting rid of several pieces and painting and bringing in pieces that will facilitate my creativity I hope. It's a fairly large room at 12x15. It's long and narrow. I'll be changing the green to a soft white. The funky thing about painting this room is that it will have to be done in stages. There's no other place to put the stuff that's staying, so I'll have to shift, paint, shift, paint until it's done. We have no garage as a good hunk of it went to the guest house. It's more a glorified laundry/storage area. No problem until I want to do a project like this. 

Both of these bookcases will be moving. The one on the left to another corner and the other out of the room. The door leads to the bathroom.

 I think I want the one with all shelves for my fabric stash. I have quite a bit of fabric so I also hope to weed that down to fit just into this bookcase. I believe I'll put a desk and shelves in this corner.

The bed will be going into this corner. I'm going to swap out this bed for the one in my front bedroom in the house. It doesn't have a head/foot board to work around. That way a guest can still stay in here.

 I think I'll put the fabric bookcase in this corner. Goodbye painting.

 The computer armoire and curio cabinet will be exiting this room also. So will all the stuff. I hope to put a set of short bookcases along this wall on the right for storing supplies. I'm going to float a folding table in the middle of the room to work on for scrapbooking and sewing for now. The armoire is covering the third window. 

 This room gets a lot of great light. I can't wait to claim it. I'm so excited. See lot's to do.

I'm not complaining mind you. I'm thrilled that I have this space that I can use. Not everyone is so lucky. So enough said. I'm off to Lowe's to purchase paint. Valspar Woodrow Wilson Linen I believe. Sigh... have a great week. I'll be busy.

Saying goodbye just doesn't get easier. I think every time it's harder than the last. Sigh.

Well the holidays are definitely over. The house was way quiet after the kids left yesterday, even the animals laid down and took a nap. Hubby was over at his brother's helping to finish up their move to their new house. Even he wasn't around. So what's a gal to do? Well I'm a list making a gal. That doesn't mean I ever check those lists again (therefore I've learned to date them to have a serious laugh over later on and to see if I actually did do anything on the list.) There's really more I need and want to get done than I know where to start. So mostly I sat and thought... pondering what to do. This whole, new sparkling with promise year ahead. You would think now that the kids are gone and I only work 17.5 hours a week that I would be getting loads of things accomplished around here. Not so. So where is my time going? I think I know... all those games on Facebook. I've really got to give those up. I've also decided that the office room works great as an office but not for crafting/sewing/quilting, etc. There's just no room to move around in here. Especially if I set up to sew or get any kind of craft going. So here's what I'm going to propose to the hubby. I want the large room in the guest house that sets empty the majority of the time and seems to be a catch all room. I should rent it out, but it creeps me out to think of someone I don't know living in my backyard. Is that weird? I mean I don't mind sharing. I'll tuck that twin bed into the corner out of the way. So wish me luck. I will be posting photos of course.