March 1st

Here it is, March 1st.

I did not get everything done that was on my list. I skipped the pillows. There's a reason the fabric was "forgotten" in the craft closet. I just don't want to deal with them. I need pillow forms and zippers, and I am just not motivated to go to buy them.

The dining room ceiling is done though, and I made a lot of progress on the gallery wall. I still have empty frames, but I have filled several more since I hung the frames.

And now, the basement. Round 2? 3? who knows.

Before.

During.

Those seams on the ledge there DROVE ME CRAZY. I caulked them shut. 

Today.

John painted the upper walls for me and didn't break his neck. He painted the ceiling way up there too. That's his painted shoe print there on the second step down. It's okay though. I've got plans for the stairs.

I had a little fun with John's office door.

This door was previously unfinished. Unfinished fake wood. It was nasty. 

Other side of the room.

I didn't get a before of this wall. John worked on it while the girls and I were out of town for the day. So this is the best I have. Imagine it without cabinets and rotting baseboards, and that's the before. For reference, I'm standing on the bottom step. John's office door is to the left of this picture.

Today.

There was nothing there before. It was a completely wasted space. The wall is about 58 inches wide. I want to add an open shelf below the cabinets. It's on "the list" if you know what I mean.

December 2006

The power of paint!

It was daytime in the before picture, and yet no light was coming in from the sliding doors. I just took the after picture at about 1:30pm on a cloudy day. 

Laundry room standing by the sliding doors, 12/2006

Today.

Check out the beam in the middle of the ceiling. I swear I am going to paint that sucker some day. And the cinder blocks? We used them to make our compost bin.

From the front , 2/2010

Today

That last picture shows how the end looks now that it's paneled. So much better. The curtains are made from drop cloths. They could be fuller, but they aren't. They are good enough to hide my stuff.

There is still a bit more to do if we can keep our momentum going. I want John to build some toy storage, hang that mirror that's propped up on the end of the shelving unit, and put a shelf under the new cabinets.  Then I'll paint whatever needs painted. Maybe even that huge beam. But I doubt it:)

Wordless Wednesday

Lessons learned.

First lesson: Don't paint until 11pm when you have a cold. You'll wake up in the morning to find something like this:

Oops!

I was removing the outlet covers as I went instead of doing them all at once. I was going to go back for this one. Oops. It's fixed now.

Second Lesson: Even though you know it's going to take hundreds of ornaments, you can't really grasp that it will be HUNDREDS of ornaments until you dig in:

Getting there!

I stopped counting after the first hundred, but I think I'm close to 200 now. I still have to go back and fill in all the gaps with small ornaments. Maybe another 150 or so will do it. That's an 18 inch straw wreath form under there somewhere. I've only broken two ornaments so far. It weighs a lot. I have no idea how or where I am going to hang it. But it is going to be pretty!

one thing off the list

Woot! I made this!

I don't think I even cried once.

I even got brave and pieced the back.

On Mary's bed. She's sleeping under it right now.

Mary loves it. I think that she can actually appreciate the time and effort I put into it. One thing off the very, very long list I am currently trying to tackle.

The bedroom windows are painted. The bathroom window too. Mary's door is touched up, as are the hallway bathroom doors. This morning I got paint for the bathroom and the bedroom. I worked all day on making roman shades for the three bedroom windows. I ran out of little ring things that go on the back though, and I don't have enough cord either. If only JoAnn's were open at 11pm on a Sunday! John's going to hang the first one tomorrow night. I want to make sure I like it before I sew the little rings (40 per shade) on the back of the other two.

This week my main focus (in addition to taking Mary to/from camp every day, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc) will be clearing out as much junk as possible from the master bedroom. John has a four day weekend, so we are going to try to get as much done as possible on the bedroom. I cannot wait to paint it! I've had this paint color picked out for almost a year.

Who are these kids? Where did by babies go?

After seeing a kid potty at my Dad's, Ellie asked for one. I thought it was worth a shot as no other potty training attempts had worked. I got her one on Monday, and she loves it. By loves it, I mean she uses it! I think the last time she had a diaper on (in the day time) was Tuesday. I believe my diapering days are OVER. No more washing, drying, folding (sometimes) or putting them away (rarely). No more packing half a suitcase full of cloth diapers for every weekend trip. We still have the night time thing to work on, but it's still a huge step for Ellie. It was like magic! And she can go all by herself. She can get her pants down and back up. That took forever with Mary. I was expecting a fight with Ellie. I had made a couple previous attempts, but she just wasn't ready. This week it just clicked.

Off to bed before midnight.

miles of white

White paint that is.

I made the bed just for this picture.

I started yesterday. Our bedroom has 3 windows (one is off to the right in this picture). The master bathroom has a small window too. I got them sanded down, the hardware off, taped them, and primed them yesterday/last night. It is slow going. And the windows have to stay open for a couple days. Next I break out the paint. Every job I've done recently, I quit before it was all done. In addition to these windows, I have to paint:

A final coat on both the hallway bathroom doors.
A final coat (or maybe 2) on Mary's door.
Two windows in Mary's room.
One window in Ellie's room.
Kitchen window over the sink.

Then once John puts in the new baseboards in our room there will be more to do. Why on earth did I wait until mid summer to start my summer painting? I'd love to get Ellie's ceiling painted. And the master bathroom (including the ceiling. My poor neck and shoulders!). The master bedroom is getting done. I'd love to do that ceiling too. It's a big room though.

Fighting! Darn kids. I need a referee whistle.

Dear Mom

Besides the fact that my lamp shade is too short or the harp is too tall, why must you hate my five dollar consignment lamp? I think it looks nice.

P.S. Sweet Eleanor Ruth took the bottom knob off there. She's working on getting the top one removed.

New lighting!

There was this old milk glass fixture in the blue bathroom. I like milk glass, but it was broken (and ugly). The globe was actually held up by the light bulb. I think it had a support piece missing or something.

You can sort of see that the globe is leaning to the side in this one.


The bathroom basically needs a complete update (saving the vintage blue tub and toilet though! I love them:) ). But every time I went in there, I saw the leaning lamp. Poor old thing. I saved the milk glass portion. I will find another use for it someday.

John installed this new light for me Saturday.


Now the ceiling needs painted. Or maybe just scrubbed. The entire room needs painted though, so maybe I will get to that this summer.

Next up, our bedroom. There was this HUGE creepy ceiling fan. Only one of the three light sockets in it worked.


Ugh. Every night before I went to sleep (for 2.5 years) I prayed it wouldn't fall on me.

After! It's just a cheap fixture to last until we can afford something better. It makes the room look completely different though.

See my new art over the bed?


I found it at the antique mall right after Christmas. The frame was sort of fake gold-ish and was slightly damaged. So I painted it. It looks so much better. Plus the booth I bought it from was having a Christmas sale, and I got it for only $7.50. I think the frame alone is worth that.

I did have to go to Jo Anns over the weekend. Just for my red flannel. Guess it's time to get out the sewing machine soon. Maybe this weekend. I was hoping to just work on the granny blanket until I dropped, but I'm quickly burning out again. Since Sunday I've gotten the last 40 squares done, woven in the ends on all 40 of them, and then started weaving in the ends on the 8 rows I already had assembled. I'm about 30 or 40 percent done with that. Then, I just need to attach the last 40 squares.....and then do the border....and then.....NEVER CROCHET AGAIN. At least not until the next time a friend asks for a baby blanket.

Finally a working camera!

There are the picture frames that took forever. Maybe some day I will get real pictures for them, but for now scrapbook paper will have to work. And there are my 2 new pillows too. I still need to get some red flannel and make a couple more. That way every time we go in that room, the kids can throw them all on the floor, and I can pick them up again and again. I'm crocheting a couple cushion covers too in red, pink and green. I have one done and another half done.

Here are the picture frames before:

That picture was taken last fall right before I primed them. Before that, the frames were in the closet for probably 2 years. I loved them in Evansville, but I tried them 3 or 4 places in this house and they just didn't work. I saved the pressed ferns. Maybe I'll use them again some day. All those ferns were in our yard in Evansville. Most of them moved here, so I could always recreate them too. I'm just glad I decided to use the frames again instead of being mad they didn't "work" in this house.

Here's something Mary wrote recently:


Her handwriting has improved so much recently. She'll be four this month. I really love the picture of Mary and Ellie. I love their HUGE toes and fingers. I didn't want to send it off to "Papaw Toe" aka Papaw Joe, but I did anyway.

I've been taking a break from the baby blanket I'm making. I was burnt out big time. Back to it soon though! I still hope to finish it this month.


This week I'll be busy cleaning the house in preparation for Mary's birthday party! I can't believe my baby is going to be 4 years old.

Off to BED.