oh to be four

I've been in my house for a little over eight months now.  Time has certainly flown by.  It finally felt like I actually owned the place when my air conditioner went out and I was the one who had to fix it.  It's the only time I've missed having a landlord.  But I guess we all grow up sometime, right?

The week I moved in, my elderly neighbors were moving out to live in an assisted living home.  They had lived in the house for at least 40 years and while I was sad I didn't get to know them, I am thankful for the sweet family who moved next door.  They are always willing to help, whether it be donating things for a home group garage sale, or telling me how to hang up a clothes line when they noticed I was struggling desperately.  I even hid out in their house for awhile when we thought our neighbor's friend had a gun in the front yard.  Funny story, I'll have to tell you some time.

They have the sweetest little girl who's turning 4 this month.  She and Thursday are made for each other.  I think she's the only one who loves Thursday as much as I do.  And I'm pretty sure Thursday loves her more than me.  Thurs always runs out of the car directly to their front door expecting to be let in.  What am I, chopped liver?  Actually Thurs would probably love her some chopped liver.

Anyway, she's turning 4, so I thought it would be nice to give her a small present.  I can't remember how old I was, but I would guess I was around her age when my cousin Steffy sent me a dress up box filled with so many treasures.  I remember very fancy jewelry, and dresses fit for a princess.  (In reality it was costume jewelry and old prom dresses, but I loved it) I have so many memories of my neighbor Ruthann and I dressing up and pretending to be in ridiculous situations that would be fit for a soap opera.

I found some jewelry at garages sales and thought that my neighbor might enjoy a box just like it.  Here's some of the jewelry I collected.

I also found these neat pins in one bag of jewelry too.  I have no idea how old they are, but how long ago did they stop giving sharp objects to children in school?  I don't know if that means 1929 or 29 years? Any ideas?  I kept these.  I don't think a four year old would find them any kind of interesting.

I needed a box to put all the spoils in, so I went to Michaels and got a simple wooden photo box, stole some fabric from my mom and raided my own scrap pile.  Here's the beginning of the vision.

I just cut in a straight as I could line and started modge podging each strip to the lid.  Soon I had this.

At this point I wanted to scrap the whole project and keep the box myself.  I try to be humble, but this is just too cute.  

I painted the bottom of the box.  

Here's where it started getting weird.  I was excited about the pink, but it was a little to early 90s looking.  I mean seriously, I have dream phone and mall madness in a closet and it looks just like that.  

So here's round 2.

Much better.  

And here's the final product.  I still want to keep it.

Guys, I love it so much.  And it's super easy and fun to make! So don't be surprised if you get one soon.

I'm going over later today to hand it over so let's hope she likes it as much as I do.  I signed the card from Thursday as well so I feel like that might be enough as it is.  Seriously.  It's bff status.

Impulsiveness

Usually, I am annoyingly indecisive.  I dwell.  And mull things over.  Forever.  When I moved in to my house I painted my bedroom the same color as my old room.  Mostly because I thought I had enough left paint left over so it would save a little money.  I didn't.  It was supposed to be a really light grey, but turned out to be almost lavender.  Not bad, just not me.  But I was determined to live with it because I had already painted it.  No one likes painting enough to repaint within months.

Except for crazy people like me.

Anyway,  I really wanted some color in the room, it was feeling a little drab.  I was having a really hard time finding curtains to match the room and also give it some spice.  These were a definite no.

In the store, they were a cute mustardy color.  Hanging, they were old grandma gold color.  No thanks,

I went back to target about 4 times before I got the same curtains in black in white.  Blah.  They didn't look bad, but the room was definitely missing something.  My bedding is white, my headboard was grey and white, and the walls were lavender/grey.  I'm already falling asleep thinking about how boring.

I've been reading the blog Young House Love for awhile.  If you haven't heard of them, you should definitely start reading.  They are basically the king and queen of house blog land.

They gave me my inspiration in their guest bedroom.  So I woke up one morning and decided to just buy the paint and go at it. If I couldn't find curtains to match, I'll just do things the hard way and match the curtains with color instead. Also that weekend I mowed the yard and cleaned most of the house.  What was I thinking?  Anyway, after 2 full days of work, definitely no more blah!  You'll have to wait (not long...like 3 minutes.) for the reveal because I have more changes to share with you.

I had also been pining over iron beds for awhile.  I found a couple on craigslist, but they were far away and a little more than I wanted to spend.  My mom happened to mention it once when talking to my Aunt Suzy, and she said "well, I have one on the porch you can have".  Hallelujah!

My cousin had used it and painted it blue and yellow.  You haven't seen my paint color yet, but I'll just tell you that the blue and yellow wasn't going to cut it.

So I set up shop in my garage and spray painted the whole thing white.

Side-note: probably would have been a better idea to do this outside.  I definitely underestimated the overspray of the paint.  Everything (Everything!) in my garage is a little bit lighter now. Just a little dusting.  whoops.

Fast forward about a week to let it dry...and ...

Please excuse the laundry pile.  You can't do everything in one day, and laundry definitely gets procrastinated.

It's hard to really get the color right.  You should read Young House Love's post about it.  Their color is  almost the same as mine and they are much better photographers.

Notice how Thursday is in the same spot in all these pictures.  She would not get up for me to make the bed better, so the quilt is wonky.  Such a stubborn spoiled brat dog.

Anyway, I am absolutely loving my new room! What a difference a can of paint can make! 

And did you notice my lovely artwork? It fits so well in the room!

Someday I might rip up the carpet and try to see what the hardwood looks like underneath, but that sounds like way too much work for the moment.  Until I get my next impulsive crazy mood again.

DIY Art

I feel like I look at a ton of things on pinterest, pin a few things, and do almost none of them.  I actually did one here, and  I think this is the only other one I've actually tried and it turned out great! I love it!

Here's my inspiration. 

http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/08/song-lyric-wall-art-diy-project.html

I love the subtle colors and knew I had to try it. 

I found a painting at an estate sale for $5!

Not terrible, just not exactly my style.  It's pretty big, so I knew it would be great for my bedroom and it's pitifully bare walls.

I bought some spray paint and some vinyl letters at Michaels (with a coupon of course) and set out for a fun (for me) saturday afternoon.

The worst part of this project was cutting the letters out.  It is time consuming, but I really didn't mind at all.  I like to do mind numbing projects every now and then.

It helped that I had this to occupy my mind too.

 Seriously, Cougar Town is hilarious and not at all what I thought it would be.  Give it a few episodes and you will love it. (my mom is rolling her eyes right about now.)

Once I had all the letters cut out I laid them out where I wanted them to be.

I used lyrics to C.S. Lewis Song by Brooke Fraser.  Check it out, yo.

There's my trusty sidekick, Thurs.  Always ready to help.

Then you just stick the stickers on and spray paint away.

And here's the finished product! Hanging in my bedroom which has changed so much since I moved (hello painting a room twice in 4 months, yuck.)  More about that later.

I'm loving it.  At first I wished that the colors of the painting had been a little brighter, but it grew on me and I love it now!

Can you tell I'm just ignoring the fact that I haven't posted in awhile.  

Trying to Cure my Black Thumb

Well, I probably only have a dark gray thumb.  I don't quite kill everything, but nothing has really ever flourished under my watch.  I've tried a tiny vegetable garden, flowers in the front yard, and even a simple orchid on my kitchen table.  I think that one is now in my parent's garage somewhere.  Poor little thing.  whoops.  Anyway, I've decided I'm going to get better.  Or at least give it a little try.  The front of my house started like this.

Pretty good, but a feel like its' a little dated.  There is hardly any grass, it's all weeds.  Especially on the weird slope toward the front by the sidewalk.  There's a tiny square right in the middle of the yard that is actually grass.  So last Saturday morning, I marched myself to Home Depot with big plans.  

Of course once I got there I was very overwhelmed and flustered.  But I managed to find the weed and feed and got a package.  Who knows if it was the right one, but I already sprinkled it everywhere so here's hoping it works.  I have plans put some grass seed down but I have to wait a month after the weed killer.  

Now for a little more interesting progress.

I coerced my brother to help me dig that big old bush out. (The one to the right of the front door.)  I'm pretty sure it was the last thing he wanted to do, but he's pretty great so he helped me anyway.  And he showed up looking like this.

I'm fairly sure that fashion statement is never catching on.  

He already cut the thing off with some sort of fancy saw and now the hard part was digging up the roots.  I pretended I was helping by digging some dirt out, but I'm pretty sure I was just in the way.  

The roots were pretty stubborn, but if you know Bobby, you probably know he's more stubborn.  Seriously, there's no match.

So after about 30 minutes of really hard work, we carried the stump to the curb!  

It already looks so different! And the porch is a little bigger than I expected it to be! I may take the hand rail down because it's not that pretty, and really not that stable either, so it doesn't really serve much of a purpose.  

Now for the really fun stuff!  My mom and I went to a local nursery and picked up some knockout roses! Theres' a chance that they won't get enough sun, but the owner seemed to think it was worth a try.  I've been told they're very low maintenance (perfect!) and I picked yellow ones.  My favorite color!   Here's my mom planting some.  

They're tiny right now, I'll just have to ask you to imagine them full grown and how lovely they will be.  The tag on the roses said this type is the only one that is fragrant and if you get really close they do smell lovely!  Hopefully when there are more of them you will be able to smell them without sticking your face in the plant.  

So we'll see where everything stands, but it's been a week and so far so good!  Nothing's dead yet! Yay!

Nope, not a tan line sadly, just incredibly dirty after mowing, weed eating, stump removing, and rose planting.  yuck.

Even though Thurs didn't do much of anything that day, she sure slept like she did.  You didn't think I would give you a post without a picture of Thursday, did you?

Heart Songs

Well, I knew it had been awhile since my last post but it has REALLY been awhile.  Whoops.  There are many excuses, but the biggest one is my camera broke.  It was very inconvenient.  Fortunately I was uncharacteristically smart enough to buy the warranty and just made it in time. (usually I don't want to spend the extra money) Definitely worth it, because Best Buy gave me a brand new camera!

So now, with new camera in hand, I can finally write about my latest changes.  I've made some spontaneous ones that you'll hear about soon enough, but I wanted to show you my new artwork in the living room.  Well, I actually did it in January so it's old to me, but new to you!

Remember my old garage door? I've used it in my apartment in Nacogdoches with pictures of friends, and then put it up when I moved in with Christmas wrapping paper behind. (blogspot isn't recognizing Nacogdoches as a word and putting the little squiggles under it.  At first I thought I had been away for so long I forgot how to spell it.  I really need to make a trip back.)

The second picture is from the Christmas party I had with some friends from work.   I set up a hot chocolate bar with lots of mix-ins and toppings.  Y-U-M.

As much as I tried to ignore it I couldn't leave the Christmas wrapping paper year-round so I tried to come up with something a little different.

Music has always been a big part of my life whether it be piano lessons, drum line, or just singing in my grandmother's living room.  Weezer has a song called Heart Songs about the songs that shape your life. There were a few songs that I just couldn't get the lyrics out of my brain lately, so I might as well have them front and center. 

I know you can't see it very well, I'll give you a close-up of each section.  It's hard to take a picture of because the huge window directly across from it casts a crazy glare.  I may have a fancy camera but that does not mean I know how to use it well.   

So, I'll give you the tour from left to right.  If you're looking for some new music, click on the links to hear the songs.  I hope you love them as much as I do. Which is a lot.

First we have "And oh, how He loves us, oh" by David Crowder Band.  Sometimes the simplest truths are the are the ones I can't wrap my head around.

Farther along I chose for two reasons.  Whenever I hear this song, it always makes me think of my Grandmother, my mom's mom.  I'm not sure if she sang it often, but I have very clear memories of her singing this old hymn.  A few months ago, I discovered Josh Garrels singing his own version and I fell in love with it as well.  I'm sad that the orange doesn't show up as well.  I may have to redo this one.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God" is from a Jon Foreman song that is ripped directly from Psalm 51.  I love when scripture is set to music because without even knowing it, you have it memorized.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul" is a new song we have been singing at church for a couple of months.  I finally bought the whole album and it was well worth the money.  It's been playing in my car almost ever since.  My worship leader talked one Sunday about how even when we sometimes don't feel like worshiping, our Soul still does.  It was made to worship the Lord.  I can't say it as well as he did, but it really struck a chord with me and made the song stand out.

I'm loving the burlappy roughness against the fabric flowers.  And I love that when I see it the songs are stuck in my head yet again.  Hopefully I'll be blogging a little more than once every 3 months.  Let's hope anyway.

Curtain Call Chapter 2

My shower curtain was my first attempt at window coverings.  My living room has 2 huge windows and I love them.  They make the house so much brighter, especially my navy paint!  While I love the windows, I was not loving the price of curtain rods for windows over 11 ft long.  Yikes.  While I was researching prices for curtain rods and curtains, I came across a tutorial on a blog showing how to make curtains out of drop cloths.

Better yet, these drop cloths are about $10 a pop.  That is crazy cheap for curtains.  Or fabric for that matter.  The tutorial I saw used drop cloths with a stripe of a fitted sheet at the top.  I really liked the way this looked, but my windows were a tad too long for my drop cloths so I decided to add some inches with my stripe of color on the sides.  I found some cute upholstery fabric at Joanns, slapped a coupon down, and got to sewing.

Now that I had the curtains, I needed a way to hang them.  Have you ever priced curtain rods? In a perfect world, things would actually cost what I think they should.  I do not think cheapest (for the size I need) curtain rods should be $50.  Times two.  I realize that might actually be a fair price, but not in my perfect world.  Luckily, the internet came to the rescue yet again.  Turns out, you can make curtain rods out of whatever you want to.  Well, not really, but you can make them out of conduit.  For about $2, you can get 10ft lengths and then connect them together with a conduit fitting for another $2.  I found some brackets at a resale shop, some spray paint, and hung them right up.  Well, actually my dad and my brother hung them right up.  And I am thankful.  I bought some curtain rings and since I didn't feel like sewing anymore, folded over the top to "hem" and hung them right up! I really like the way it turned out. 

                                    

You observant ones might notice a certain dvd hanging out on my little dvd stand, because it has been in my dvd player, iPod and car ever for about a month.

 

Les Miserables!

My aunt treated me to go see it at the Winspear Opera House in December.  Those are my beautiful cousins, my mom and my aunt.  What a fun night.  If you ever get a chance to see this musical, do not pass it up.  I promise it will change your life. 

Anyway, back to the curtains, I think they look great in the room.  They might need one more drop cloth each to make it a little fuller.  When you close them, they just barely meet.  I definitely like them better when they are open and a little bunched.

This is pretty much the view from the front door.  The living room is bigger than you expect, and I'm really enjoying it!  Don't mind my Christmas wrapping paper on the walls.  I've been to lazy to switch it out since Christmas.  Whoops.

This is the other side of the room.  I'm still working on how to get the best pictures.  Please excuse the random dining room chairs in the hallway.

Looks much better than the before picture, right? 

Also, here's the obligatory Thursday shot.  Boy does she know how to work the camera.