A beautiful day for a wedding...and another project filled weekend!

So, how did you like them there before and after kitchen pictures? Amazed, I know.  I thought so. Anyhoo. Onto this weekend. How many of you have gone to the store to print off a bridal registry list, purchase a gift and a pretty bag, bagged it up, and took off to the wedding?! Yeah. Me too. Several times. Its easy. Its stuff they want. However, since this whole Pinterest craze, I have found that many a nifty way of coming up with gifts for people. I nosed around on the bride-to-be's pinterest boards and found crafts that she wanted to do for her house for after the wedding or just because. I picked three different projects and made them for their wedding present! Its personal. Its something that she wanted.

The ring dish

This is a very easy tutorial on the dish without the monogram or birds on the side from http://abitofbeesknees.blogspot.com/2012/02/diy-lace-bowl.html  

Monogrammed Ornaments




The simple quote on canvas

A refreshed kitchen...

Well peeps, this project took a little longer than expected due to only one thing:  I'm cheap. I was waiting for my bank points to tally up to enough for paint and whatnot's to my fav hardware store. But, in reality, the total time to do this only took about 3-4 days. I am in LOVE with how bright and airy my kitchen is. This was phase one. I have plans to add more cabinets to the other side of the kitchen which is technically an eat-in area, but I don't believe in a formal dining room that is only used for special occasions. I would rather have a regular dining room with more cabinets, a double wall oven, a nice size kitchen island, and a little breakfast bar in front of the window. I could utilize the space much better for my cake business. 

Just so we're clear on the BEFORE. You can also see the space on the right side that I would like to add cabinets to and bring everything together with a good size kitchen island.

Mimi getting the "unders" of the cabinets and shelves

The almost final product. Doesn't it look FUGE!!  (that's Sophia's word for huge, btw) I can't wait to get that island in there. I think it will make a world of difference.

The fridge and shelves...my fav place for cookbooks now! I guess it wouldn't have killed me to clean the fridge for the picture.  And, my sweet girl.

Emmaline helped by being her cute self and  walking around patting us on the back

Behind the sink

 The tile backsplash was so much easier than I thought it would be. I took a "Ladies Night" class at Home Depot to learn how to use this special mesh backing that eliminates the need for backer board and grouting behind the tile. It works GREAT!  The tiles "stick" to the mesh and you grout over the tiles as you would normally. The tiles could be re-positioned. There was less mess and took SO MUCH less time!  My only suggestion, put on your big-girl pants and RENT A WET SAW!!!  I am terrified of saws in general, so I thought I'd cut everything by hand using a manual tile cutter. FAIL. It took my 10 times as long, blisters and pain galore. Maybe Home Depot will have a man for me to rent with the tile saw next time!!

Along the counter...pre-grout and plate covers

Weekend #5

Spent a little time trying to get together a family binder. I want a sort of "control center" where we can keep our most important "go to" items for the house, doc appointments, shopping lists, coupons, etc. Its not hard to put together, but its going to be hard to maintain. Its going to take all hands on deck and getting Hubby into my organizational mode is next to impossible. Having a plan for anything is our biggest downfall. I like to plan everything days/weeks/months in advance, but Hubby is more of a spontaneous creature. Unfortunately, we need some plans to secure our financial future as well as the well-being of our household. Sorry Hubby, I win this one.

Here is a great HOMEKEEPING BINDER tutorial from my favorite organized momma blogger!
(I also purchased my printables from her)

Weekend #4

Getting ready for our favorite time of year!! This weekend we tackled some Halloween projects and a lovely Fall craft!!

Train Wreck Green, Too Green, Shamrock, Napple, Al Green, "It has to go" Green, Mint Custard, The Green Screen

...some of the names that people gave my wall in a FB contest to NAME THAT COLOR!!  Pictures do this color no justice. You just don't feel it like you do in person. It has a vibe, maybe a pulse. 

This is probably going to be  long post because I want to tell you a story about a crazy green kitchen and its journey to a land called NORMAL COLORS. The pictures of this kitchen on the realtor's website were what kept me from even looking at this house for about a month. I didn't even want to go in it. The size, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms did not entice me in the least because of THIS kitchen. THIS green. THIS lattice. THIS fake copper tile back splash put up with sticky tape. THIS sunflower wallpaper border with matching drapes... hand sewn yellow material with wallpaper glued to it. THIS was too much. I'm a girl who loves a challenge but I was afraid that I had met my match. But, clearly I overcame my fear of THIS and decided the kitchen would be my first project to start on. The first things we did were take down the wallpaper and sand down the lattice...that was meticulously hand-painted. Then we primed the walls and painted them a lovely light blue-green. That alone made such a difference in the mood of the room. After that, we decided to tackle the floor. Literally. We had to tackle it, hammer it, scrape it, peel it off. There were 6 layers of flooring and subfloor to take up. Each layer was nailed, stapled, and glued down like the previous layer my try to jump up and run away. 

Hubby, doing his manly thing

The garage was full of old gross flooring

 So, here we are a few months later...the flooring was such an ordeal that I decided to move on to some other, simpler projects before doing anything else to the kitchen. My momma and I were trying to decide between some Fall projects for our weekend challenge and she just said "Lets do you cabinets." It was so bold that I couldn't say no!  Insert a quick trip to Lowe's for sanding blocks and paint rollers plus some coffee to perk us up. We came home, removed the doors and hardware, scrubbed everything down...

Before anyone gets all "oh your cabinets are so pretty, why would you paint them?" This is why. They aren't pretty. They are full of old holes, scratches, and only have one coat of black paint.  And, I don't like black. SO there.

After priming them, this is what we were left with. The doors and drawers are all drying in the garage.

This is what I keep taped to the cabinet door so I am constantly reminded of my kitchen goal. I love this kitchen. Its so simple and pulled together. Now if my PNCpoints Lowe's card would hurry up and get here, I can buy my paint which will technically be free to me!!

Thanks for reading!!

Here we go!!!

Let the kitchen renovation resume!  This weekend we are taking off the cabinet doors and priming them for their new color "Sharkey Gray"  and I cannot wait!!  Stayed tuned for some before pictures...

Weekend #2: Handmade Events

This past weekend was spent making my wee daughter, Emmaline's, first birthday a simple but memorable event. I LOVE to entertain large groups of people, but my budget does not support my favorite hobby. So, I try to find frugal ways to do it anyway!  My decorations are always handmade and I find ways to reuse them every time. I made my sweet little Em a t-shirt with iron-on transfers that I made on my computer and a pair of ruffle-booty bloomers. The bloomers were super easy. I just found some fabric scarps, cut them to about 4" wide and about two times as long as the bloomers that I was sewing them onto. Fold them in half (into 2" strips or however wide you want your ruffles), sew a seam down the open side with wrong sides together and turn right-side out. From there, I hand-sewed a loose in/out stitch all the way across the strip, pulled the strip together to form a ruffle, then pinned and stitched it to the bloomers. I did 5 ruffles and it only took about an hour from start to finish.

Ruffle booty bloomers!

Ruffle booty bloomers...bum view

I AM 1!!

My sweet-n-sassy gals1

Cupcake curiosity

Cupcake AWESOME!!

Weekend #1: Closets

Its our kickoff!  Welcome!  This is weekend #1 for our crafty/organization weekend project. Each weekend for the next year, we are planning on tackling some type of project to help us clean, organize, simplify, and make our lives a little bit craftier!

First off, I moved into this house in April. I went from maybe 1200sq ft of space, not all livable, a dungeon basement and very old fixtures/decor to a 3600sq ft house. Each room needs major cosmetic work. There was no cohesiveness to the design from room to room. At first I was super excited about the endless possibilities. The first thing we changed was the room with the kittycat artwork carpet. We ripped out the carpet in the family room and then the 6 layers of flooring in the kitchen so that we could have the same flooring throughout the two rooms that were open to each other. It was beautiful. After a few projects though, I began to lose steam. The house became more and more disorganized.  I was losing control with the cleaning. Then I came across another blog. Clean Mama is my new hero. She breaks down chores, has to-do lists, organizing kits. I know, I know...I could do all of this myself. But, I'm literally so drained that having a pre-made list laid out in front of my is so nice. And, after a few weeks of doing things her way, I'm on a great system that is soooo easy and saves a lot of time. My house STAYS clean. Not kidding. It literally takes me no more than 15-30 minutes per day to do a short list. Maintaining is the key. The other night I was so tired and thought about skipping, but a few minutes later I found myself just Git'n'er'dun! It was worth it. Coming downstairs in the morning with the kitchen damn near sparkling is a great feeling and starts my day off right. her blog also helped me break my projects down into steps.


So, for our first weekend project entry I decided to tackle a few closets in my house. I started by taking everything out of the closet in my daughter, Sophia's room. Her room has also had a complete overhaul which took a little over a week to paint and pull together:

Room before...dark and dreary

Random, leveled stripes

Happy trees!

Owls and shelves!

Cute closet doors!  No more plain white!

Sophia is 5 and is not the best at cleaning or organizing. What kid is at that age though?!  I wanted to create a system to help her be more self-sufficient when getting ready for school. Her closet was a disaster on the inside:

We started by taking everything out of the mess hole. Added some new bins and shelving, as well as a stepping stool so she could easily reach the hangers to put her own clothes away. The pink hanging organizer has five shelves, one for each day of her school week. Sunday night we put the clothes on the shelves that she picks out for the week. Each morning, Sophia gets up, grabs an outfit, and gets herself dressed...usually before I'm even out of bed!  

That only took a few hours so I decided to tackle the hallway closet as well...

I labeled the medicine drawers, per a pinterest idea, used baskets that I already had. A little organization goes a long way mentally.  I love opening the doors to these closets now. It jump-started my desire to keep going on the home improvements.

Weekend #1 was a success.  I keep going and looking at the closets and smiling. Now, 51 more to go!!   

Testing!  Testing!  1 2 3....
Mimi Kerma, coming aboard!

Pinterest. The devil in crafty form. All those ideas compiled onto one site...always available and friends pinning new ideas daily/hourly/minutely!!  (I may have made up a new word there.) Its just too much. I have been known to give up much needed sleep for an hour of quiet time after the girls go to bed just so I can nose around on Pinterest with ice cream. I have personally grounded my mother from looking at Pinterest until we finish certain projects. So, after a few weeks of complaining that we never get anything done, I came up with a plan. A blog and a challenge. Recipe for success, right?! A 52 week challenge of projects. Small projects and only on the weekends. I have a new house and my mom has an old one, but both are in dire need of (re)organization. We have been scrambling towards the finish-line of the perfectly organized home that runs like a well-oiled machine. I know, I know. Doesn't exist. But it doesn't hurt to try! Something has got to give. My new house doesn't feel like home yet. We need complete overhauls. We're talking designs, organization, and mainly BUDGET!! I want to spend less of useless things and start saving for #1 An awesome family trip & #2 An awesome finished basement that our whole family can enjoy. So, read on. Enjoy the progress along with our witty sarcasm. (Lets be honest, we are WAY funny and you know it) The kick off will be September 1st!!


Some ideas/rules/ guidelines for these projects are:
1. We may plan through the week, but the actual project must take place on the weekend.Saturday and Sunday. Mom and I are big on planning but not so much on the executing.  
2. Some projects may only take a few hours and others may take the whole weekend. 
3. All projects must fall under the reduce, reuse, recycle categories. I can't pretend to be the greenest person on the planet. I care about our environment, but mostly I am cheap. I can't stand buying paper towels just to through them away. Expensive cleaners are mostly water can suck up a budget in a NY minute. And lets face it, gardening is just as therapeutic as it is productive and frugal.
4. Some projects are allowed two consecutive weekend. These will include furniture refinishing, room painting, or other large projects that require multiple steps. 
5. Everyone gets a vacation, so here and there, we will have guest bloggers to join us and share their current projects.
6. All projects will be photo-documented with before, during, and after photos. 
7. All projects will have complete supply list as well as cost. Lots of projects will be free as part of this challenge is to use up our current stash of supplies and re-purposing things we already have>
8. As we briskly head towards organization and a simplified life, some projects may be about kitchen/food prep, such as prepping meals for the week to come over the weekend. (it ain't all glue sticks and pallet wood!)