Great Chair

Another lovely from the DIY newsletter.  I’ve gotta find this chair, and this poster!

(decoupage project)

Snowed In!

8-14 inches expected today!  Good grief.  It’s really ok (seeing as though it IS winter); but we are missing out on our second Sunday at church, and I adore going to our little church. So boo on the snow for today.

Since I’ve had a bit of free time this morning, I’ve been doing a little online browsing; ran across a great article on Forbes about the CPSIA disaster.  Good reading.  I was a bit disheartened to learn that resell shops still aren’t truly exempt, and to learn that there are a few people out there that are, um…do I have words for people like this?

Yet prominent consumer groups have continued to defend even the law’s more extreme applications, and their spokespersons are dismissive of public outrage. “I haven’t heard a single legitimate concern yet,” Public Citizen’s David Arkush wrote last month.

Obviously Mr. Arkush, and those that are like minded, are…are…see?  No words!

I suppose my big concern is that if this law is passed (oh wait! It already was!) that we’ll move quickly from “so-called-protecting” our children to even more heavy-handed regulation.  Why not “protect” everyone?  Let the government take over everything!  No more small business, no more handmade…give an inch and they’ll take a mile.

Ok, enough of that for me this morning; I’m going to take my as-of-late life verse seriously and turn my mind to better things! I wrote it on my wall last week, and I think I’ll keep it up there for the time being:

I promise to be a bit more positive in my next post. But truly, if you haven’t taken action yet, click on the handmade link in my sidebar; let’s do what we can!

When I Get Things Done

Well, the boys and I braved the -25 temps this morning and took Daddy to work…because momma was stir crazy!  We are at Papa and Nonnies right now, where we are able to snuggle up to the woodstove.  Delightful.

Yesterday, however, did turn out to be a wee bit productive! Grammie had the boys, so  I spent the majority of the day like this:

downing mugfuls of coffee and painting inbetween sips.  I’ve always adored Big Letters, and finally decided to construct my own; I drew it and dad cut it out with his handy dandy jigsaw.  So I painted ‘er up yesterday, along with a couple of oars that mom and dad gave me for Christmas.

To the left of the “m” is the area of the house wherein, if you walk in the front door, you go either upstairs or downstairs, so we have 3 pretty signifcant walls that need “done up”.  The “m” will hang over the door, and the oars opposite; I have a significant project planned for the wall that faces the living room, but I haven’t begun it yet.

I also managed to sneak in Music for Millions, a super 1944 movie that was on TCM.  I’m crazy about the old black n’ whites.

While I had planned on finishing a bit more, it was nice to get a few things accomplished and loaf around some too.  Don’t get to do that everyday with a coupla boys running around.

Happy Friday out there!

All Time Favorite

I love this picture.  Love it. It’s of my grandfather and his brothers, on their ranch…many years ago.  Grandpa is the one being “branded”.  I’m going to enlarge it, maybe get it mounted on canvas.  Possibly put it inbetween pictures of the boys with their little cowboy hats on.

Kinda reminds me of an average evening in our house, minus the branding iron. 

Funny Story, That Couch

But we’ll get to the couch story in a minute.

(Oh, and by the way-I’ve been so busy this week already that I haven’t had time to reply to comments! Thanks for the kitchen love-it’s still nowhere near what I want it to be, but your encouragement helps!)

Onto the the current topic.  This is my latest effort in decorating our walls.

Couple of canvases, paint from my valspar paint samples, and 5X7’s of the boys.

I think it came to about 5 bucks per painting, because I bought the canvases at 50% off.

…

Onto the couch story!  About 10 years ago, my parents purchased this couch.  Lovely effort for the time.  About 8 1/2 years ago, Erick and I moved to Virginia, and while searching for a couch, we came across the very same one for about $200 bucks at a furniture sale, so we snatched it up because it went well with our decor at the time, reminded us of home, and was a durn good price!  But by the time we were ready to move back, we willingly sold it.  Time to move on from the green monster. Alas, we moved in with mom and dad while job searching…back to the same couch.  After 3 years (THREE YEARS!) of living with my parents, once we bought our house, mom and dad were more than willing to unload their green monster, so we are now in possession again (and truly are grateful for anything to sit on at the moment!).  Ha.  Does anyone else have a piece of furniture that you would love to get rid of, but seems to stick to you like glue?

Chalkboard After

Realized I hadn’t posted a picture of our chalkboard “after” yet.  It has been a rousing success…I love it!  And I’m hoping that the announcement in the middle will get my dear husbands attention tomorrow morning *hint hint!*

Also realized that I didn’t tell you how I put this together.  I purchased Rust-Oleum magnetic primer and chalkboard paint at either Home Depot or Lowes-I can’t remember which.  Those two blur together in my head.  It was probably about 30 bucks for the 2 cans, but I’ll be able to do many projects with both.  Well worth the money.  You can also get the chalkboard tinted in a few other colors-I just preferred black.

And if you want to go the make-your-own way, I’ve done that too.  It’s just for the chalkboard paint though, and is posted here.

First Homey Project

Almost finished with my very first make-this-house-a-home project.  First thing on the walls, believe it or not!   I used magnetic primer and chalkboard paint, although I have to wait a day or two more to condition and then start writing with the chalk.  Looks like the magnets work, though.   I used painters tape and have a bit of clean-up work to do around the edges, but I like how it came out.

It’s not a great picture-but my only non glary, non fuzzy one.  (Took it during the worst possible lighting moment of the day, of course!)  It’s in our kitchen on the dining room side.  I have scads of chalkboard paint left, which I’ll use in the boy’s playroom.

Oh, and my “Sea Spray Blue” which graces the walls of our kitchen/dining room/living room has turned decidedly green.  It’s a pretty color, but not at all what I was going for, so it’s back to square one.  Poor Erick used all of Labor Day painting, so I feel terrible to have to re-do.  But if we don’t do it soon, it’s just not gonna happen!

As you can see we still have many details to cover-switchplates and chair rail, to say the least.  Under the chalkboard, we are going to eventually build some built-in seating which will wrap around 3 sides of our eventual table.  LOL.  Eventual is the operative word. 

Happy Monday!

August Fields

Have you seen Amy Butler’s new fabric? Verrrrry purty.

We’ve been busy little bees this week. Tuesday we took Erick’s bro to the airport in Portland-it was kind of late so we didn’t do much wandering, but we DID stop at Homegoods. Can you believe I’d never been to a Homegoods store? I bought some plates and a little storage until for my plethora of magazines. Yay for the prices! We then took 88 through Falmouth Forside so we I could salivate over all of the amazing houses on that route, and ended up at Antonia’s Pizzeria in Freeport. Good eats, people. Oh, and we discovered our car was leaking oil like a sieve, so it has an appointment next Tuesday with the doc. *sigh* We are hoping it isn’t too sick!

Wednesday we ended up at Papa and Nonnie’s. We had tacos and sopapillas then we all walked to the movie theater and watched Wall e. The boys were THRILLED. It was Ry’s second movie and Jack’s first; they were super and loved every minute (Jack tried SO hard, but couldn’t stay awake all the way through). We spent the night and woke up to waffles with strawberries, bacon, and coffee. Then Erick and I headed out with a borrowed truck and picked up the first of our kitchen cabinets and countertops! We have to start off small, but at least it will be something. Our stove arrives this weekend, so after that gets here and we get another coat of paint in the kitchen, Erick will be tearing out the old and putting in the new. Honey, I just can’t wait to use my dishwasher that has been sitting in a box for the last week! We also bought the paint for our kitchen floor and our bedroom walls.

We are waiting to view an August Field or two of our own; the next semi-unrainy day, mom and dad and Erick and I will head to Portsmouth NH to be a little touristy ourselves. I’m hoping tomorrow works! Sunday at the very least. I’m ready to spend a day without thinking about anything house wise (except possible decoration, of course).

She’s got Talent

Never Fails; my sweet sis-in-law always delights me with new designs.  Lovin’ her stationary!!  She has new save the date and wedding and party invitations; a little bit of everything, really.

Ack!

Ok, so one picture. I’m working on a few things for the house, and this project has been pretty fun. I’ve searched antique markets from here to the coast, picked up old bottles, and painted the insides. The higher priced paint (red, turquoise, and darker green) leaves them fairly opaque…the cheap stuff leaves them pretty translucent. I’m gonna work with the cheaper stuff again, see what I can do. Although I do like the see through effect…just not the blotchiness.

I’m working on a painting, too…not completely satisfied with it yet. Will post someday.

In the meantime, Maine State Housing is sending an appraiser by next week to see if we have accomplished everything that they want us to accomplish. It’s probably in the small print somewhere (in that huge pile of paperwork that you sign at closing) but we just didn’t realize we were on such a tight deadline. Luckily Erick’s last day of work is today, so for the next few days we will be living/eating/breathing home stuff. It’s stressful, but good motivation, I guess. Gotta look on the bright side, ya know. But prayers that we could accomplish everything to their satisfaction, ON time, would be a great thing. One thing we know? If we could go back, we would SO NOT go with the state housing program. It really bites the big one.