Monday, October 24, 2011

My Opinion Monday - breaking and entering, to paint?

Yes, you read that right. I'm going to be breaking and entering an undiscolsed location this evening to paint. I'm not going all grafatti and spray paint or doing any "Occupy" supporting (which, why is everyone so up in arms about the richest 1%? Perhaps those Occupiers shoud go get a job, work hard and try to accomplish what those 1% have. Perhaps the world would be a better place then. I'm in the 99% because I made poor decisions, pretty sure many others are in the same boat. I have a job so I can work my way out of debt and go on vacations and save for retirement - but this is a story for another day...I clearly have opinions about that).

I'm simply taking a key from a key box, well - my friend is taking the key - from a key box in a place that she almost owns, opening the door and letting me get to work with a roller and a couple brushes.

All in the name of getting shit done.

Orginally suppose to close in July, it's now October and a (the 5th or 6th albeit) closing date has been set for 2 weeks. There is no time, or patience in fact, to reschedule the movers, appliances and drunken happy hours for another time.

So as I type what could possibly be evidence to a misdeamoner and laugh about text messages exchanged last night regarding the lack of a ladder (something about me on her shoulders as the cops busted in to arrest us - we have a ladder now), I'm feeling a little Jessie Spano right now. I'm the scared part, my friend is the excited part.

I've done a lot to statisy my need of painting, crafting and decorating  - skipped meals, overspent, lost sleep - I've never snuck around (and possibly broken laws, unless you count speeding to the craft store to get there before closing) to do it.


This should be interesting. If I don't update, it's because I'm in the clinker and need you to bail me out.
Oh well, as my newly designed tshirt says, sometimes you just have to "Get Rollin'"

UPDATE: I didn't get a chance to post this prior to painting but I'm happy to report that I am not in jail, we did not get caught and it looks like the only other condo with people home was the one directly below where we were. The place looks better than it did before...and the only tell tell is the blue painters tape around the kitchen cabinets. But boys are the ones that do the maintenance there, highly doubt they'll notice if they do a routine check out of the monthly routine.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

New project alert!

I got a request to make a "big gray purse with a huge pink flower in the middle" the other night while the Jefferson Trifecta was getting drunk off box wine.  I remembered that I said I'd make this, but couldn't remember what I said I would make for my housewarming party that weekend...funny how your mind remembers certain things. Well, here is what I came up for the "huge pink flower" for the purse: 

Too bad that $46 cell phone battery I had to buy didn't improve the picture quality...ugh. 

I like it. I sent it to Dana and she's super excited to get her purse now. Too bad I'm going on vacation on Friday for 6 days. If I could only take my sewing machine with me!

I'll be displaying some items at a holiday open house in November, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be one of my items. I'm lovin' it!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

My Opinion Monday - Open letter to my Facebook friends

Dear Facebook friends:

This letter comes at a time when Mark Zucherburg has just messed this up royally implemented some new changes to the look of Facebook. I have just one request for you at this time friends. Please stop posting all 1,000 pictures from your honeymoon/vacation/etc. I've always been annoyed by this, however, with the new changes to Facebook, I now see those pictures INDIVIDUALLY in my Photos option rather than in a nice, pretty little album - where I use to have the option to click on the album to view all 1,000 or not. Now, I do not have that choice. I am forced to scroll down through what feels like hundreds of pages to see pictures of people that I actually care about. 

Less is more my friends. I love the photogs that are doing the "sneak peeks" of their sessions. I enjoy this because I only see the best of the best. I don't need to see the "oops, dropped my camera off the bar and took this picture of the black sky" or "oh crap, that is really blurry, let's try this again...and again...and again..." photos. Nor do I need to see the same picture 100 times of the same beach/ocean/scenery/yougetmydrift. 

If I could figure out how to get the damn photos option back to showing me only the albums that were recently updated, I'd be a much happier Facebooker. Until then though, stop posting all your god damn photos. This is not the era of hosting slide show parties to show off your fancy photos  - I didn't RSVP on purpose to your party, Mark apparently did for me and is forcing me to sit through pages and pages of your photos. And seriously, don't the people that you really want to see your picture see them when you're out for dinner, over at their house, etc. Why must you subject all of your 1,500 friends to this? We just want to see your dumb status updates and go on with our day. Or at least that's what I want to do. 

So, please remember the saying "Keep it simple" or "Less is more" or my personal favorite "No one wants to see that, just stop while you're ahead." Happy picture posting!

Best Facebook Friends Forever,
Traci

Friday, October 7, 2011

Be honest, which chair would you rather sit in?

Don't lie to me. Would you rather sit in this chair:

 Or this chair:


That's what I thought. You'd rather sit in the chair with the waaayy cooler pillow. I bought some new patio furniture in lieu of rent this month (which means, I guess, he gets to keep it if we break up? I mean, I paid for it, but it was in lieu of writing a check to him for rent minus half the utilities..ah guess we'll cross that bridge if we get there).

The set (a small loveseat, two chairs and table) came with some pretty - yawn - boring pillow covers. I didn't notice until we got it home that it was from the Country Living series. Now, I'm a small town girl and my style is a bit country, but that fabric was plain and boring. I just so happened to have enough outdoor fabric in the damask pattern that I love so much, so I just whipped up 4 new covers in about an hours time.

I like this much better than I did the plain old standard, comes with the package covers.


My motto in life is "don't settle, even if it is just a paint color" - I think that fits here too...just with pillow covers I guess.

Sidenote: the corner tables are from Goodwill. $4.99 a piece, 2 cans of stone spray paint and voila! - side tables! Don't be jealous, there's plenty at Goodwill to go around :)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

We finished something!

Remember when the front of the house looked like this:

Pretty drab, but considering no one lived here for a year, it's not too bad.

Well we Tyler's dad finally did something about this. Ty took out all the bushes and started a landscaping project that only his dad could help finish.  After a couple days of this:
Someone must have known I was going to take a picture...always wanting to show off the "goods"
 and this:
Craig hard at work. He only stopped to sleep. Crazy man.  Much appreciated though.
We now have this:
New front patio, much better than the bushes. Chairs from the side of the road, tables from The Will.

 and this:

Quick tip: buy your plants towards the end of the season, they're much cheaper and these come back each year. Score!

and this:

Now we can sit out front and stare awkwardly at the neighbors house.


Now let's try those side by side shall we?
Before

After. You like?

Not to shabby huh? We'll be adding some planter boxes that we decided we're going to make this winter. We actually took the time to sit on the chairs last night - they're a bit uncomfortable but we got them for free on the curb so I can't really complain. I'm just going to whip up a few cushions for them in my newly finished craft room - which I just need to tidy up a tad then I'll take a few "after" pictures. We all remember the before right?

Things are coming together people...be ready for some more before and after posts!

Monday, October 3, 2011

My Opinion Monday - holiday decorating

Holiday decorating makes me cringe slightly. If you've seen anything I've done on here, you pretty much can get that I'm more of a contemporary style. My mom tends to get me little holiday items, which (sorry mom) have mostly ended up in a Rubbermaid container, never to make an appearance. I actually just came across a little pumpkin candle holder she probably got me in college...it was running around in my trunk. Eeh sorry again mom.

But now that I'm living with the bf in a house that he has no idea how to decorate, I decided that I needed just a little bit of holiday/seasonal stuff in here. I wanted to add a little personal touch I guess. Anyways, I came up with this:
Who says you have to put a picture in a picture frame?

I'm calling it the "holiday/seasonal frame." I found the straw wreath at, where else, Goodwill for $1.19. I then cut some felt into diamonds, glued those on and then wrapped some decorative string to mimic an argyle pattern. I hung it on the frame I also picked up at Goodwill for $3.99, then painted. I stepped back and thought, "hmmm, this needs something." And probably only because Tyler goes "is something else going on there?"  So I headed to the craft store, picked up some felt leaves and fake acorns, and tied those onto the same decorative string I used on the wreath. While in the checkout, I spied those little alphabet beads that we use to make bracelets with in about 6th grade. So I picked those up too. And then came up with this:

Yeah, I made this part on Sunday while watching football...that inspired the second sentiment. 
So this is my holiday/seasonal decorating. I'll switch out the wreath, garland, decorations for each holiday or season. I don't quite know exactly what I'll come up with for Christmas, but I have some ideas, which will most likely change between now and then.  I'm sure Tyler will be decorating the outside with something like this:
I'm cringing right now at the thought of the house looking like this on the outside....
I have no words. Other than "so help me God." Anyone else cringing at this???
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