Bathroom Mini-Makeover: Oh So Right, or Horribly Wrong?

Yesterday I mentioned that jackhammers will be in our weekend plans -- how fun, right? Yep, we'll be busting up the concrete pad on the side of our home to make way for something else. We have such a small lot that I want to make the most of it, so I'm excited to have that space.

And who are we kidding? We all know I will not actually be outside with a jackhammer in my hands -- that's laugh city right there, folks. My trusty husband who actually knows how to use the thing will be providing the labor and I will be the primary party in charge of motivational talks, iced tea breaks and clean up. I always get stuck with clean up!

There's another thing I'll be doing, though -- our bathroom needs a little love, and I intend to love the heck out of it this weekend.

First off, I'm ashamed to admit that I never painted the trim so there's still brown paint smudges on the side of the window casing (and they're from previous owners but still, I'm type A and I can't believe I didn't take care of it in 3 years). And second, my bathroom is one of the many (many) rooms in my house without baseboard. I must harbor some weird subconscious ill will toward baseboard.

Well no longer -- both of those things are getting taken care of this weekend.

Also, I need your help. I don't care for the shutter style doors on the vanity at all, but I'm stuck with them for the time being so I've been thinking of ways to make peace with them. The vanity needs a touch up (I think the previous owners painted it the espresso brown color) but I'm thinking about changing the color to a creamy white while I'm at it... what say you?

Tell me what you think, for reals. Because I am not a fan of making any decision for myself without lots and lots of research. And by research I mean other peoples' opinions. And... go!

How to Get Free Manual Labor

We've had a few trees removed since we purchased this home three years ago: the giant spruce that shaded out the whole backyard and prevented any grass from growing, and last fall two large aspens that were half dead from bores. It made me sad as I am a big lover of all trees. I am practically my family's version of The Lorax, y'all. In fact, knowing that we'll have to get rid of a couple more old aspens in the next few years gives me the urge to pelt people with marshmallows, so it's a story for another day...

...today's story is about us being cheap and the mess that trees make.

So, having trees removed costs money. Especially when they are eleventy thousand feet high (or a realistic approximation thereof) and near your home. We saved a couple hundred dollars each time by opting to pick up the mess ourselves rather than have the tree removal guys drive out their giant wood chipper. And we had the best intentions as we have a fireplace downstairs and a fire bowl thing for summertime backyard fires -- easy peasy! Haul it over to the side of the house, let it dry out, chop it up, and voilà.

(about half of the mess)

Fast forward to the date we realized we were never, ever, going to reach the voilà moment. Our basement fireplace doesn't draw well and we rarely spend time downstairs, and we have only a handful of backyard fires each year. Cue the "wop, wop, wop."

So now I was stuck with massive piles of wood on the side of my house -- and this was a problem because I have plans for this space. Plans that don't involve logs.

Well, as it turns out, a listing for "free wood" on craigslist is like catnip to lots of people. It's like me finding a listing for "free all-expense paid shopping trip in NYC with never ending supply of calorie-free maple bars and ripple-chested cabana boy named Paolo to carry your bags." What I'm trying to say is it's good.

Within a few hours we had a multitude of emails from people begging to come to my house and carry hundreds of pounds of unsplit firewood, that was only "cut to length" in the loosest sense, off my lot. It didn't even matter that they couldn't back a trailer up to the fence and had to haul it across my front yard to the street. They wanted to do it! 

Moral of the story: Before you clean up a giant mess, take a moment to ponder whether one man's trash may be another man's treasure. People will work for treasure!

What are you doing over this Labor Day weekend? 
'Cause we're renting a jackhammer.

Poisoned Pickles: A Monday Misadventure

I am the worst descendent of Mormon pioneers ever.

And while I'm assuming the half of my family that is LDS comes from "pioneer stock" -- and even if they don't in the strictest sense, I'm sure these ancestors moved somewhere, sometime in history, so I'm counting it --  I know for certain that if I spent time in a covered wagon or a handcart or even a log cabin on some homestead, I'd unintentionally kill my theoretical olden times family and neighbors through poisoned jam and pickles.

It's okay though, because canning is overrated. Don't try to convince me otherwise because it's useless -- I grew up in a family that gardened and canned and I still know I'm right. I'm going to continue making my freezer jams, freezing my peaches, and knowing in my heart of hearts that I prefer both those "easier" methods as they taste more like the fresh fruit they came from. I will continue to purchase things like ketchup, applesauce, tomatoes, and pickles. Especially pickles.

Picture it: my cooktop, covered in salty white baked-on blooms of splashed brine. Empty jars, scattered lids, piles of cucumbers.  The kitchen scattered from hither to yon with crunched up dried dill. (An aside: you know how you find sand in odd places days after you go to the beach? I've already found dill in my bra.) Oh, and picture my pioneer spirit too: it was broken. And sweaty.

And maybe, just maybe, only two jars of pickles sealed after all that. And perhaps, to add insult to injury, they were the two jars that fell over, full of cucumbers, into the sink full of hot water just before I poured in the brine. And so now all my sink's bacteria is sealed nicely in two jars of doomed cucumbers... just waiting to strike.

I could pop jars open, buy new lids, process stuff and pray to the canning gods... or I could admit defeat, and admit that my older sister Johannah got all the pioneer genes and all I got was poison pickles.

DIY Drip Painting

Alternate title: Look Ma, I'm an Artiste!  (yeah, that's right -- not artist. Artiste. It sounds so much better.)

What is art? Well in my house it's whatever I say it is, and I imagine the same goes for you. I love fine art (i.e. real paintings) and I have a couple pieces, hopefully more in the future, but that doesn't mean random things I pull together or design that I enjoy or create can't fill spaces on my wall and do so beautifully.

Case in point, my new paintings.

 
I have no idea how to draw or (artistically) paint, and scary words like shading and gesso make me cry. However, I needed something in my dining room to pull in some of the neighboring living room's colors as a starting point for the sorting out of said dining room. And since eventually I want to remove walls and make these rooms one big fabulous space, I might as well be decorating them in ways that will work together.

Enter fabulous blog post idea and genius David Bromstad technique video. 

Um, I could do that... I think.

Step 1: Get yourself a canvas. I bought a pack of two 18x24" canvases -- with my 40% off coupon it came to $9 and change.

Step 2: Gather your tools. I don't like to make decisions so I grabbed a whole bunch of craft paint and decided to pick colors in the midst of my creative fog. I was pretty sure I'd be overtaken by some artistic zone... I'm optimistic like that. You'll also need a water bottle.

Step 3: Mist the canvas down really well -- you want the paint to run.

Step 4: Mist it some more. Really, don't be afraid... wetter is better! By the time I was done I had refilled my bottle 3 times because I kept 'starting over' in frustration and my canvas came through like a champ!

Step 5: Glob on some paint along the top -- I mixed my two blues together (a bright turquoise and a dark navy) and brushed it on. Get lots on, and I smooshed it all over so there weren't subborn globs that wouldn't run.

 (I'd glob more than this on top if I were you. Just an idea!)

Step 6: Spray your water! Drip, drip, drip. See? Easy. (Unless you're me and you start over 3 times... but still, pretty easy!)

Step 7: Add some more paint if you want -- I added more of both blues, and then a couple greens. David Bromstad suggests limiting your colors otherwise they run together and become muddy and I think that's a good idea. I ultimately dripped my individual colors directly onto the wet canvas (keep misting it so it's nice and wet!) and let them drip down for a less mixed together look.

Tip: some brands of paint are super, super thick and resisted dripping. I'd spray water into the bottle and shake it up until it would behave. But I don't take no crap off of nobody that way. (Cool Runnings, anyone? Jamaica, we have a bobsled team... ohh, never mind.)

Step 8: While your painting dries, take a magic eraser to your now blue folding chairs and driveway and vow to plan better next time.

I really think I like them.  Mike says he likes them and told me they remind him of looking out a car window when there's rain all over them and you can just see glowing colors. I think that's a compliment, so I'll take it! In fact, I'll name the pair 'Rainy Windows' and consider myself an accomplished artiste.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the bonus:

Yeee-ah. Mission accomplished.

Sharing at The Shabby Nest

Collecting Dust--er, Sand...

I'm not a big collector -- I don't have secret shelves full of rare coins or Disney paraphernalia hidden somewhere in my house. Talk about a dusting nightmare. But much to my shock and surprise, I've gone and broken my own rule: I've started a collection.

... A collection that will grow at a nice, slow pace and that other people can't contribute to; in other words, the perfect collection for this serial thrower outer. Do two jars of sand count as a collection or do I need to book a few more emergency collection-justifying vacations ASAP? I'd be willing to do that... you know, if I had to.

I picked up the old bale top canning jars at an antique store on the coast, and lucky me had saved some sand from our visit to California last year -- apparently this plan had been hatching subconsciously for quite a while. Planning gold star sticker for me.

Do you have collections? Are they manageable or overwhelming? Does anyone want to admit to having a stash of 300 cookie jars a la 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy? Come on, spill... especially if your collection is weird. Then you have to share.

Back in the Saddle

I'm baaaaack!

I didn't plan on taking an unscheduled summertime vacation, but I will not lie -- I loved it. Lurved it. Lah-huved it. My week decorating for VBS transitioned into my week directing it and doing a back to school makeover and shopping spree for my visiting niece which quickly rolled into our family vacation on the Oregon coast. We arrived home Monday evening and I still can't believe how quickly these past several weeks have flown by.

Our vacation was wonderful -- Oregon is one of my most favorite places -- I took my kids back to the same cottages I grew up vacationing at, and we spent a week playing in the waves, walking on the beach, and obsessively smelling the delicious air. 'Cause I'm sensory like that. I've been sharing some photos on Instagram and Facebook but here are some vacation highlights:

Now I'm back -- and while school doesn't start for us until after Labor Day, all our major plans for this summer have been ticked off the to do list and I'm hoping to get a couple projects in before the craziness of back to school kicks in.

And? We are making eggs like crazy. And by we I don't really mean we, I mean my grubby little chickens who ate all my baby hollyhock plants while I was vacationing. The birds with a death wish. We even got our first double yolker while we were in Oregon -- check out the size of that baby.

Can we say ouch?

And? I got bangs.

I can wear them swept to the side or straight down as a full fringe, but the only time I wear them down is when my hair is up so I don't feel like an old person slash wannabe hipster. I can so not pull that look off. Jealous.

And?? Last month I shared two photos of glasses on Facebook and asked for some help in picking my new frames. Here they are:

 
Now we're all caught up! Super fabulous.