My Opinion Monday - On raising a fish.

A year ago,  boyfriend and I got a fish. A beta to be exact. We named him Ron. Boyfriend liked to refer to him as "master" beta -(get it??) he's 28 folks. Anyways, we took care of Ron really well in the beginning. Changed his water regularly, (over)fed him, and had him right on the mantle so everyone could see him.

Fast forward a few months. We got rid of the rocks that were in his bowl, and the other things too. They were just gross to clean out when we actually did that. And by we, I mean me. Boys don't know how to do everything you know.  And then he set on our desk. Which was in the back of the living room, making it harder to remember that we actually had a fish.

Then Tyler's niece discovered Ron. She always fed him when she came over and made sure he was entertained. She asked to take him out of the bowl many times to play with him. Bless her heart. Mya was the last one to feed Ron and realize he was actually alive. 2 weeks ago.

Last night after we came home from having a few drinks with some friends, I suddenly remembered we had a fish. And poor Ron. He was not floating, but he had sunk to the bottom of his poorly cleaned bowl. Tyler said he sank because he was a treasure (he'd had a few drinks). We said our good-bye's and sent him off to be with Nemo (meaning we flushed him).

So now we have 2 fish bowls (because I bought him a new, smaller one a few weeks ago, put water in it and set it next to him...obviously never getting around to actually moving him over to cleaner water) and some fish food leftover.

Here is the only picture we have of Ron. May he rest in peace.

Ron. 9/2011-9/2012. 

And may we re-evaluate the whole getting married to have kids thing.

Everything gets painted...

I'm starting to think that this blog should have been titled "Everything gets painted" because everything that we've brought into the house has essentially been painted. And if that piece is really lucky, gets painted again. I recently went on a "donating spree" and got rid of a few items that just weren't serving any purpose other than collecting dust and junk. I got rid of the desk we had in our living room on the office wall because I'd already bought another one from the Salvation Army and Tyler has put me on a one in, one out furniture diet.

You may remember that this is what the wall looked liked after the new paint and accessories went up (and what the house looked like before we painted everything):

Looking good, but I always thought something was missing...

Well, after we painted the new desk and hung up some frames, this is what we've got now:

Tell your boyfriend the color is CORAL and you can get away with
a pink desk :)

Quick, can you spot the differences? Don't mind the heater fan that I clearly didn't realize was there when I was taking the picture or the fact that the chair you're seeing is clearly blocking a bunch of "stuff" that has made its home on the floor in front of this wall. The blue chair and "stuff" needs to go back to the craft room - after we had water in the basement a month ago or so, most of my items got moved upstairs and just haven't made their way back down yet.

Did you notice the CORAL desk though?

My Grandmother would say "ohh, pret-ty, pret-ty!"

I LOVE it! Since the rest of our house is pretty colorful, those colors start to feel like neutrals - the blues, greens, grays, teals - so this coral was just the pop I think this wall needed! I'm going to be painting the chair white I think - or maybe not? thoughts? I've had the chair for about a year now, so glad it finally found a home :)

This piece actually matches another piece we have in our living room that we painted yellow - same line of furniture for sure. The legs match, the drawer handles match, the little wooden applique at the bottom (which you can barely see) matches. It was meant to be in our house (and that's what I had to tell Tyler when he begrudingly came to pick me up from the thrift store since I didn't have a vehicle big enough to get it home. "Hi, um, can you come pick me up at the Salvation Army?"). And at only $20 for the desk itself and $12 for paint, I'd say we have a winner!

I did learn that you should always prime a piece if you're not sure where it's been. The paint didn't take too well to a few places so I was painting, then priming some spots, then painting again. It's a little rough around the edges and I left it that way because I'm lazy to add character.

Now all I have to do is find some knobs I like - which is essentially trying to find a needle in a haystack. Wish me luck!

Kitchen Remodel Update

I know this doesn't look like much (okay, yes it does) but I wanted to post a few new pics of the progress on the kitchen remodel. We're in the final staging of pouring our concrete countertops and hopefully those will be installed next week. In the meantime, all the painting has been completed and hardware has been updated:

The accent cabinets are not white - they are Benjamin Moore Barely Teal and match/accent my Kitchen Aid mixer pretty well. That pretty little beaut will be stationed on this side of the kitchen for all to see!  These cabinets do have the same hardware as the gray cabinets, I just haven't taken an updated photo of that yet.

And as you've noticed, the booze has still not left the kitchen. Even though I added a ton of cabinet space, you didn't see that I actually had some storage racks there previously and so all that I had on those I've put in these cabinets. I really didn't gain much storage space, but I did gain covered storage space which I love. The big cabinet is awesome for those silly appliances you hardly use - crockpots, griddle, blender, etc. I still haven't found a permanent home for the booze though...it needs to be easily accessible, visible and in the kitchen. And that is where it has stayed during this time. I'm sure when all things are done it'll be tucked away nicely in a cabinet.

And one more picture - part of the concrete countertop almost ready for filling, sanding and finishing:

I do realize that one section is curing better than the rest. Well, that's because we were so excited to make sure it look much better than the underside that we slide it off the form just a bit to take a peak. Then the next day we flipped it over and noticed that portion was curing faster than the rest. So we're hoping that by next week it's fully cured and we can get these puppies filled, sanded and finished!

Please excuse the horrible quality of all the photos on my blog. I'm still rocking a 3 Megapixel cell phone camera. Don't hate. 

Need to hem your jeans? Check out this tutorial!

I'm short. I tell people I'm 5'1 1/2" - like the 1/2inch makes a whole bunch of difference. I use to wear heels a lot so I could pass for 5'4" on a good day. I wear flats WAY more than I like to admit and in turn need to hem every.single.pair.ofjeansIown. I had to do this when I wore heels - well, should have - but now it's more of a necessity than a "oh, I can just roll those up, no biggie..." now. I recently hemmed about 3 pair of jeans and thought "I should take some really crappy cell phone pictures of this to post on my blog in case anyone else feels the urge to do this!" So here it is: my attempt at a tutorial.

You will need the following:
* 1 pair of really long jeans (if this your first attempt, you might practice on a cheap pair)
* 1 pair of pinking sheers (or scissors - the pinking sheers will help prevent fraying though)
* a sewing machine
* a few straight pens
* ruler or tape measure
* glass of wine (optional - but recommended)

Step 1 - Try your jeans on and roll one leg up to the desired length. Place a straight pen in the SEAM of that fold - that will allow you to unroll the leg but still have the length marked. Lay the jeans out on a flat surface and cut one leg to the desired length. Cut ABOVE the pin just slightly - if you cut below the pin, your jeans may turn out a bit longer than you'd hoped (which is fine if this is your first rodeo). I cut above the pin as you'll be adding a bit of length back in a following step. Cut the second leg using the first legs cut as a guide.

Step 2 - Cut the excess material about 1/2 inch above the factory hem. This will allow you to keep that factory hem so you don't look like a second graders whose mom just turned the jeans under and sewed because it was good enough....I speak from experience. Doing this will keep the professional hem and no one will be able to tell you shortened them on your own!

See - cut 1/2 inch above the factory hem. 

 Step 3 - Turn the small piece of jean circle INSIDE OUT. This is very importante - you always want to sew right sides together in order to get this right - right?

Have a drink of wine. You're going to need it for this next step.

Step 4 - Now FLIP the piece around. This part is kind of hard to explain. Essentially the side that was on the right will now be on the left and the side that was on the left will now be on the right. Then wrap the smaller section AROUND the jean leg and match the cut edges like so:

Have some more wine if you can't figure this out. Then call me. 

Here's a close up of that step. Put a pin near the side seam - this will ensure that those match up when you sew. If the seams do not match up, everyone will know you did this on your own. You don't want people to know that until AFTER they compliment you. If they say it looks dumb, you do not take credit for it. If they say it looks great, by all means, tell them you did it!

Step 5 - Sew the two pieces (meaning the jean leg and the piece you cut, flipped around and pinned) together. I like to keep my sewing foot right about 1/4 inch from the factory hem. When you're sewing, you'll want to make sure you're not pulling or stretching too much or else you'll end up with too much jean on one side. I start by sewing over one side seam and holding out the other side seam and sewing. That will give you some control over the stretch factor.

Step 6 - You are almost done! How's the glass of wine? Now's a good time to work on that too. This is what your leg will look like after you've finished sewing. Pat yourself on the back if yours even closely resembles this.

Step 7 - Plug your iron in and heat that up to the appropriate setting - cotton unless your pants have way more elastic than cotton. Iron the seam open. You don't really have to do this but it just makes for a nice finished product and will make the new hem lay properly. If you're in a rush, use a hair straighter to do this - those work fantastically on this type of seam!

Step 8 - slam the rest of the wine because you are FINISHED! Trim extra frays (I should have taken my own advice huh?) and viola - your jeans are hemmed to your perfect length and are ready to wear!

If you find that you were too generous with the length and need them shorter, just take out the seam and cut the leg a little bit shorter and then sew back together again. If you find that you've cut them too short, make them into jorts. Everyone loves a good pair of jorts, no? (Jorts = Jeans + Shorts)  Or you could make them capris. Or just drop them off at the local Goodwill, run inside and grab yourself a new pair to practice on and try again before attempting on your expensive jeans.

I've done this so many times and if I don't f* it up in the first couple steps, I can be start to finish in about 15 minutes. Did you know you would have to pay someone between $15-$20 to do this for you? Look at all the money I'm saving you! But if you can't figure it out, I'll do it for $10.

I hope that you find this tutorial easy to follow - if not, please tell me. I have a way of over explaining things. Did you like this tutorial? Would you like to see more? Leave some feedback in the comments below!

Remember when I said you can't have a pink guest room?

Well, you can't. Or I can't. We couldn't. It just didn't work. Unless our guest was a 5 year old girl. And they weren't. They were brothers, mothers, fathers and a few drunken friends. The pink 'big girl' bedding (as those mothers who recently purchased the set from Overstock for their 3-5 year old girls put it) just had to go. I wanted to buy new, but sometimes you just have to work with what you have. And what I had was the bedding in the master bedroom....which gave me an excuse to get new bedding for that room instead! Score - I still got to shop AND I'll get two room makeovers with just one purchase!

So this is the bedding I had:

Before I did anything else to the room. I wasn't too concerned about it. 

But this is how Tommy Hilfiger styled it:

Yeah, it looks nice there. Just didn't look nice in the guest room. Here's what I came up with:

See that headboard? Yeah I know, it's hard to see it. I paid 59 CENTS for it so it's okay. 

I'll probably change it another 3 times before I actually love it...thanks Pinterest for that complex!

Imagine those canvases painted pink and green...something like this:

These just looked really bad in pink and green.
(Oh hey jewelry box, haven't forgotten about you!)

And no room in the house is complete without a tgdesigns pillow:

Pretty simple but I like it!

I still have a few more projects to finish up for this room. I bought an old vanity for $5 this summer and it's about to get a coat of yellow paint! I'd tackle that tomorrow but I'll be practicing my hand at making a boob cake for the bf's birthday. I asked what he wanted, that was his first request. I'm sure it was a joke, but my baking partner in crime Val and I will be attempting one tomorrow as a practice run. Dana will be there to provide booze and suggestions. Saturday Funday - doesn't quite have the ring that Sunday Funday does, but I'm sure I'll have a ringing zinger on Sunday from all the fun on Saturday. 


Happy (project) weekend to you all! Hopefully I'll have something to report back on Monday with - besides my opinion that is :)

Why didn't I think of this?

Sorry to those that missed my opinions. I decided that I'd just keep my mouth shut these past couple Monday's since it was the day after Christmas and then a few days into the new year. I didn't want to start the year off by bitching - I do that plenty enough without writing it down - so I took a few weeks off. I'll be back on Monday though....and now back to the original post...

I find myself saying that a lot lately since I joined the timesuck that is Pinterest. You can even follow me, just click the button above this post. I've decided it's the place where most people who aren't engaged plan their weddings and babies, which is odd to me to be honest. I've got a few boards and have found some fairly useful ideas - it's just actually doing them that seems to be most everyone's problem. I've done one item so far, and am trying not to pin something I'm not really going to do.

However, today when I decided I needed a fabric storage idea, I Googled it - sorry Pinterest. I eventually came across this post and decided that I must do this and I must do this tonight. So I did.  And this is what it looks like now:

I didn't take a before, but  I can assure you it was a disaster, like an angry 4-year old
took over and just threw every piece of fabric wherever there was an opening. Not pretty.

I luckily already had the shelves built in in my craft cave, I just had to remove a few shelves and viola! I'm completely in love with this, I did a little happy dance - probably because I realized I did have the fabric I needed for a custom order that I just reordered and have been waiting on. I'm hoping this makes me much more excited about organizing - because like I said, craft cave is a total disaster right now. CPS would take away my kids if that was their room.

Did you notice the yellow and gray fabrics?

Remember I redid a chair with one of these?

Well, that color scheme is about to dominate this color scheme:

It looks far more girly in person.

Turns out you can't have a pink guest room. It just looks dumb when the rest of your house looks awesome. I just can't make the pink and green work. So I'm going to take the duvet and turn it into fabric and make a bag for a soon to be baby momma. and no it's not me, that would just be ridiculous.

Anyways, if you're running out of space and need a new way to store your fabric, do this. It's form core, cut into eights and then fabric wrapped around. It can't get easier than that!

Custom orders - finally finished!

A few weeks ago (okay...4 weeks ago) I was at my very first holiday show. I had some large orders and delivered the final products yesterday! I know that it took me a little while to finish - I was hoping to have them done within 3 weeks - but after being at another party and having one of my own (and someone closing the craft room for a few days because I spend all my time there), I just couldn't find the time to get everything done earlier. I can honestly say my first party was a huge success and I wasn't expecting to have that many orders at all. Lesson 1 - always be prepared. I wasn't. Now I hope I am.

Please excuse the horrible photography quality...I MUST get something better in place for this...

Here are the orders I completed for Linda:

The ribbing effect with flowers was a pretty popular choice....

I'm going to make these in different colors for display, love how they turned out.

Colette's order:

The H stands for h-awesome...or their last name. whichever.

Ribbing with flowers. 

Squares - the other pillow behind is my outdoor pillows that I recovered. 

And all together now. This is on my gray couch - they looked great on her patterned chairs!

And at another party, I had an order from Josie for a wreath:

Very classic Christmas.
 I wasn't sure about the color combo at first, but I reall like how this turned out.
Looks great next to the fireplace too. 

I'm working on personalizing some owls to be more sports-like (which is only for family, I'm not really into the whole displaying sports stuff everyone in your house type of decoration - but for family and special requests - I will do it) and am working on some other designs for small handbags and more pillow designs. I'll be doing a cupcake for a Christmas gift and a girls stocking...oh wow, I have lots to do!

Let's just hope I don't see this sign again anytime soon:

I pretty much spent 3 full weeks in the craft room.
This is what I encountered after my first party.
Apparently someone wants to spend time with me. psh. 

Holiday Frame - Christmas version

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So you remember when I bought a frame and decided it was the "Holiday Frame" and I'd switch it out to whatever holiday it was so I didn't have stuff everywhere? Well, it's that time of the year again. Let me show you the Christmas version of the frame:



Probably should be asking for a new camera for Christmas since I'm posting all these horrible cell phone pictures huh...

 Maybe this is a better angle:



Maybe not.

Sometimes pictures just don't showcase how great my things are. This picture does showcase the fact that the gold balls look like balls. I will never look at it from that angle again. bah.

But you get the gest - this is the Christmas version of my holiday frame. It looks better in person, I promise.

Somebody else wanted in the picture too:

This pictures sreams "BUY A NEW CAMERA YOU FLIPPIN IDIOT!" don'tcha think?

I would take a gift card (I know I said I hated them) to a store that I could purchase said camera from. It's kind of a personal preference type thing - which is probably why it gets taken off my Christmas list each year. My mom has been trying to get me one for about 4 years now. I used one Tyler's mom got him until that went nuts...and now I'm using Val's since she bought herself a new one after we thought she lost her other one - turns out it was just stuck between the wall and bed in my guest room after a drunken bday weekend...or was that a wedding? no clue. Either way, I think new camera is on the top of my list this year!

Holiday Open House - table 1

I had a very successful first holiday open house presentation a few weeks ago. Thank you to everyone that came out and those that purchased some items. I'm still in the midst of getting everything completed (silly felt supplier being out of the 2 most popular colors!) and am on my way to another open house soon, and then another....anyone else want to add another?

Ain't no thang...ain't no thang. 

(and yes, I know the picture is a little bit for the space - I wanted you to be able to see it all since 

this was a horrible picture from my failed cell phone camera!)

I only took one picture (so glad I didn't decide photography was the path to take...oh your wedding was gorgeous, here's the 2 pictures I captured - on my cell phone no less - of the cake and groomsmen!) Here is what my spread looked like at the first party I was at:

My Opinion Monday - although not really

Yeah, sorry for the disruption in my blogging. I wish I could blame it on unpaid bills, but this site is free and I only have my craft room to blame for me being MIA. You may remember me talking about displaying some items at a holiday open house coming up. Well, that's in like, 2 days. I've spent much of my free time in my craft room - thanks to the landlord for getting me a heater as an early bday present...just too bad I didn't get anything on the actual bday. Instead of boring you with lots of words, I'll just include some pictures...

Exhibit 1: owls

Notice the Hawkeye, Cyclones and Bears colors...this is at "team colors" as I'm going to get peeps. 

Exhibit 2: wine bottle holders - so that cheap bottle of wine you're planning on regifting looks better.

Drinking in moderation is fine. Don't go calling "Intervention" on me. 

Exhibit 3: Christmas stockings - because Santa isn't going to just put those gifts on floor with the rest of them.

Exhibit 4: messiest craft room ever!

And I've taken over the living room too...

Thank god my pillows have been hanging out since January. One less thing to worry about.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I'm hopeful that the show on Thursday will go fantastically. If no one likes my stuff, well, ...I hope my family likes it because that's what they'll be getting for Christmas if no one else wants it!

These are better than the color swatches I hope...

So I posted some color samples the other day when contemplating keeping the McDonald's decor or switching it out for something a little more fresh and thought I'd get some actual (cell phone) pictures of what we've got done so far. As with most of my photos, please excuse the quality - I have an older cell phone, circa 2009, with only a 3.0 mega pixel option. Maybe someday I'll have a 'big girl' camera... hint hint mom if you're wondering what to get me for my birthday in 4 months. even though we need a deep freeze, a camera would be way more fun. 


So, here is a shot of the living room with the accent wall....

Shout out to myself: notice the tgdesigns pillow that pretty much set the tone for the entire space thus far :) and the chair that I picked out fabric for and redid prior to any of this happening. I thought this was going to be a summer of drunken love, not moving in and getting all serious and stuff....

But anyways, I just noticed that you can see the extension cord running the length of the room so that we can plug the TV in. Guess what though - there's a plug in ON THE BLUE WALL RIGHT NEXT TO THE COUCH! Not sure how we didn't notice that sooner. There must have been some other stuff going on.

Like this maybe:

I can't wait to take some newer pictures...ones without a shop vac, extension cords, and red paper on the floor. If I took it from this angle today, there would be a queen size bed in the way. It's hot up here and hot in the house. We got new window treatments too and are getting a new AC this weekend - no central air peeps, kicking it Amish style for a while, no cable as of yet either. Oh and no dryer or dishwasher either, they both went kaput the other day. And then the replacement dryer I picked up on Craigslist for what I thought was steal went kaput about 5 seconds after hooking it up. I confronted the seller about a 4 or 6 beers into the evening. Went over well from what I remember. We're still stuck with 2 broken dryers but new washer and dryer are being delivered on Thursday :)

Once I we I get it all decorated, I'll be posting more pictures. I just wanted to let everyone know that it's okay to use bold colors. They really do work out. Do not be afraid of paint - it can always be redone, just ask Val.