End of November 2011

Holy Moses, I am behind again. But wouldn't it be weirder if I was blogging events sometime around the time they happened? Yeah, totally weird, so let's not change horses mid-stream. I'm starting small here, just some mundane stuff that took place in November before we went to Utah for a month. Mostly pictures, so here goes!

For Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to have the Phillips come visit good old Greencrest for the holiday. Everyone on the block (and the honorary Greencresters the Stevens) made an insane amount of food and gathered at our house for the day. Not sure what I was thinking volunteering to host it at our house, maybe that I'd be forced to clean it. Well, either way, it was a blast. We had 30 people in the house at one point and yet it didn't feel too crowded. Miracle.

So many pies!

Kids playing in Eleanor & Winston's room.

A few days later I put Winston in the bouncer so I could run some laundry up and down the stairs without him being upset. On one of the trips down I found this.

Ohhhh, my poor baby! He fell asleep jumping. I was trying to get another angle and bumped the wall and he jerked awake by jumping. Like his legs got disrupted mid-signal. Such a cutie!

And a few days after that we had our ward Christmas party. I loved that they held it so early in the month before all the post-grad crowd take off. Here are three of my favorite girls.And three more favorites.The Primary kids sang two numbers. Cute Eleanor thought that she was supposed to be up there so she followed them all on stage. She's there in the red dress.

My three cuties.

Eliza got her face painted. Don't get me started on missing Eliza...

And Eleanor decorated a cookie.

While Winston smiled at everyone he saw.

Deaths all around! -That's for Megan, Tommy and family. We may use the phrase "You're killing me!" a bit too much when describing something cute. Thus, Winston is often "killing people" with his smile and dimple.

At home, Eleanor likes to amuse Winston as best she can.

Peekaboo! I wish I could have gotten his face, he just adores her.

As we got out our Christmas decor, Eleanor found some rather large socks. Ha ha.

All of our "real" Christmas stuff is in storage in Utah, but I keep finding things to make or buy at thrift stores here in Michigan. I only got to enjoy the decorations for a few days, but Clayton stayed for two weeks alone during finals, and we wanted it to be festive for him. So! We hung ornaments in the foyer...

(Ok, so these were a whole lot prettier in real life.)...glittered some old bulbs from the thrift store...... and decorated our honest-to-goodness Charlie Brown tree. I know, it's pathetic. I bought it our first year here as I couldn't stand not decorating even a little for the holidays, but I didn't want to spend too much. This tree was $2.50 and looking back, I think I should have splurged for the 4 foot one that was $6 at the thrift store. Oh well, a penny saved, right? (All of you who know me, stop laughing.) The 16 inch strand of green lights really makes it look spectacular, don't you think? I'm pretty sure Eleanor gets the magic of Christmas from all this splendor. Well, next up will be posts about our Utah trip!

More Before & Afters

So we are starting the countdown of days past my due date. I was due yesterday, June 10th. Booooo. No baby yet, and I don't feel like a whole lot is happening, so I might as well catch up on my project blogging, and maybe my projects. My mom got in on Thursday night and we have loved having her here already. I wish today was sunny so we could go to the lake, but it is gloomy and bleh. So instead, I think we will tackle my craft area and maybe one more big project. We shall see. I keep hoping contractions will derail my plans. So here are a few more big and small projects I've finished in the last few weeks. The first is just a boring tray I picked up at the thrift store.

Before

After
Once again, please excuse my super awesome photography skills.

Boring old side table before.

And still pretty boring side table after. This was a super-quick spray painting job that looks almost as bad in person as it does in the photo. Basically I had left over spray paint and thought that the patchy black would look better than the ugly fake wood veneer. It does.

And here is the dresser I got at a super fun store called Dicker & Deal. Everything there is priced to be bargained down, however the dresser was marked at $8.99, so how low are you supposed to go? I didn't know you were even expected to bargain so I didn't say a word and the guy sold it to me for $7.44. Woo hoo!

One of the drawers didn't close correctly, it was pretty dinged up and as I found when I got it home, it smelled very strongly of men's cologne. I figured out the problem with the drawer closing, I got rid of the smell and refinished the whole thing. I tried to strip the brass to get a silver finish ala this tutorial, but the hardware pieces are solid brass, not plated and couldn't be stripped. Duh. The process tarnished them pretty well though, so I also had to spend a bit of time using my silver polish to clean them up. Sadly, we also had to lose the sweet Spiderman sticker.

Here is Eleanor during the "baking soda to get rid of the smell" treatment. I ended up using an odor-blocking primer inside the drawers to make sure that our baby boy doesn't smell like a member of Jersey Shore.

And here is after! It's set up in the closet in Eleanor's room, thus the dresses hanging on top. I forgot to take a proper "after" shot while it was still downstairs. For the color, I used some left over paint from the downstairs foyer makeover which was pretty close to the original and I'm pretty happy with the results. I love blue.

And here is an open drawer, clean, odor free and lined with shelf paper. One big project DONE!

Do I dare? This is my next project. My neighbor Ruth gave me for this for free and it became my sewing desk. I want to paint it bright green like this or this. Fun huh. We'll see how motivated I feel today. Although, this picture made me appreciate the desk's natural awesomeness.
Do you see what I see?

Hilarious, yes?

Eleanor's Room Before & After

Remember this picture? This is a small peak at Eleanor's room the day after we moved in to our current apartment. Soon after, I painted the walls (her third blue nursery, "Why no, I don't have obsessive issues, why do you ask?") and got to decorating. I had pretty much everything and it's finally been nice to have it all together for her. Oh wait, I still haven't made curtains, well, I did for her last room (#2, scary Michigan house) but I never liked them. Since I've known this little bun in the oven is a boy, I've wanted something masculine since the room was so girly. Something to balance it out. Honestly though, I would be amazed if I tackled that before we move next year. I did put up white cardboard in the windows to cut out the light. It's super classy looking. Ha. This was the first "finished" room in our place.

So here is the "before".

And here is the "after".Ugh, the crib-skirt is completely pulled out and crooked, and I didn't notice it till after. Guess who was too lazy to fix it and take a new picture. You guessed right! I love her crib-skirt, I made it out of a few layers of blue tulle.

It's hard to see the doily garland I made. It's cute. I got the tutorial here over 2 years ago and finally made it almost a year ago. It may seem like I am getting crazy amounts of projects done lately, but honestly, I am just finishing or documenting a lot of things that I started ages ago.

The ugly clutter on her door? That would be her ribbon clip thing. She has a few. I wish I had painted the inside of the door white. Was worried at the time about the landlord caring.

Speaking of a few, here is her little lamb family. The second one to the right is her first and favorite as you can tell from the dinge-factor. Funnily enough, the one to the far left is the "daddy lamb" and the others are apparently just acquaintances.

It's hard to see (Jeesh! Could I take a decent picture ever?) but the little box is a princess and the Pea diorama I made before she was born. Princess and the Pea is one of my favorite fairy-tales. I saw this amazing little diorama a few years back and had to make my own version. It's intense folks, hand painted real-wood floors, hand cut and shaped topiaries, hand sewn mattresses... yeah, it was definitely a pre-baby project.

I am mainly blogging this now because it's been on my to-do list for months and months. I told you I don't finish projects in a timely manner. For those of you keeping track, I deep-cleaned the car yesterday! Huzzah! Today my big chore was errands. I got all of the post-baby stuff that women need. I think Clayton owes me a generic Otter-Pop for not making him buy Tucks and Maxi pads. I think I owe all of you a name-brand Otter-Pop for reading that last sentence.

I Made A Bench!

So I recently got it into my head that I needed a bench at the end of my bed so I would have a spot to sit and put on shoes and socks. Pregnancy makes the dumbest things seem really important. Generally the end of our bed is where my totes full of clean laundry sit til I am ready to have a folding party while watching a movie. I'm slowly trying to make our room into a grown-up space that looks pretty, versus the college bachelor looking space it's been. I mean, we have a tall kitchen cupboard ($3 at a yard sale last year- it was brand new!) that holds our extra canned goods right next to our dresser. Because nothing says classy like pinto beans and applesauce in the bedroom. Anyhow, I found an online tutorial and got to work.

I bought a new shelf piece for $3 and four table legs for $2 each at our local Restore. A piece of foam for about $9 at Joann's with the half off coupon (Does anyone know a cheap source for foam?), $1.50 for button blanks that I covered with fabric I had on hand and new fabric for $7 a yard on sale. I used 1+1/2 yards. I used an old fleece blanket for the batting, spray paint I had on hand and my neighbor Timmy cut the legs down for me with his saw. It has 6 legs (the two far back ones are the tops of the table legs and don't match, but you don't really see them) and is only a tiny bit wobbly! Yay. I actually bought some small "L" brackets for $2 to strengthen it so I feel very comfortable sitting on it. All together I spent $34 (if my math is right), half of what the gal in the tutorial spent and mine is a wider depth and more sturdy. Oh! And mine has tufted buttons. I'm pretty pleased, however, if I were to ever make another one (which I doubt I will ever want to do) I know what mistakes to avoid. Like using dowel screws as opposed to regular ones, but hey. Live and learn. Here are my pictures. I will have to post what it looks like at the end of the bed once my room is clean. Ahem, might be a while.

I took this close-up to see if you could tell where I had to patch the fabric together. I bought one yard thinking that since it was decorator fabric it would be 54" across. Didn't even check. Duh. Got home, realized it was 45" and wouldn't work and had to go back and buy another half a yard. Then got home again and realized that another half a yard didn't solve my width problem, duh, so I ended up just patching it all together. You can't tell unless you look close, so, yay!I do enjoy sitting on it to put on my socks. And my piles of laundry look ever so much better stacked on this as opposed to sitting in tubs. Ha. Yeah, I will be clean and grown up one of these days. I have a few more projects that I've finished recently and a few more to knock out in the 23? days til our little man is supposed to arrive. Wish me luck!

Vase Before & After

So here is a vase that I bought at Hobby Lobby over a year ago. It was marked down from $70 to $6, and was 30% off that. Sweet. I liked it until I got a different vase for my living room that clashed styles. You can see a bit of the newer vase in this post. It's in the last picture sitting on the side-table. Anyhow, I decided to do something with this one, even though I really like the design. Lately I have been spray painting anything that will hold still with white primer. Frames and nick knacks mainly. I gave this vase a good coat and then made a stencil of a quatre-foil design I liked and went at it.

Before

After.
I know, I know- I've got mad photography skills. Don't be all jealous that I know how to use a flash so well.

This is a little better, despite my messy sewing stuff. Sadly, I got so excited about painting this that I really didn't consider where it will end up, and if it will match anything. I was originally thinking our bedroom but I want to keep that area more neutral with shades of gray, white and black. Now this may just live downstairs where there is a bit more of a rainbow going on.

So many more projects to come!

P.S. Charlotte- I wanted to just buy a freaking stencil, but I didn't want to spend more than a dollar, soooo... being super cheap, I made the stencil by printing off the design on the computer, tracing it with a Sharpie onto one of those flexible kitchen cutting boards (I have a bunch of them and only use one) and then cutting it out with an exacto knife. I thought about using contact paper or something that would stick, but didn't want to make a trip to the store, and I wanted to be able to reuse it, so I just used what I had on hand. Once I had the stencil I just held it in place on the vase and traced the design on with a pencil and then hand painted it with craft paint and a small brush. I honestly think true stenciling would've been harder, and I am always disappointed with how much stencils bleed. It sounds like a lot of work, but it was one of those projects that I would spend a few minutes on at a time while watching tv or while E was playing. (Um, that would often be the same chunk of time.)

Kitchen Before & After!!

Remember this? Although I am one of the slowest unpackers ever, I did actually get the kitchen together so Eleanor didn't have to eat in a towering Mousetrap. Can you find her amidst the clutter? Somewhere to the right of the diet coke. So it was put away, but not cute.

Then I decided I was so in love with the color Peacock Blue that I had to put it somewhere in my house. Being renters, I had to put it somewhere small, so that when we move in 2 years it will be easy to paint over. I chose the back splash. I love the look of lacquered walls and venetian plaster, so I did my own DIY version. Since the back wall was super beat up from when they changed out the counter tops a few years ago, I decided to go with the textured look of venetian plaster. I used cheap wall putty to make it look like plaster, painted over it with my glossy paint and then wiped a rub-on poly over that to make it really shine. This is just the paint color test. But you can see how truly awesome it looked before. Ha.

And here is a picture where you really can't see the texture at all. Go Marianne! But you can see that I moved my measuring cups and salt off of my little ledge and made it an actual "display" of sorts. Pretend those are air quotes around the word display. P.S. The empty knife magnet thing is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I think everyone should own one. You can even install them inside of your cabinets! They are so handy! Um, paper towels are never cute, but what can you do?

I also finally got around to hanging some pictures up and making little curtains for the windows. So I declare that the kitchen is done! Maybe. Either way, here are the before and after pictures. Please ignore the after pictures garland. That was for a baby shower that was at my house. It's not permanent.

Before....

After!

After!

After! P.S. Did I mention that I found the cake stand I have been looking for for over 6 years? My sweet Bishop's wife from my singles ward (What up Wendy!) had one that I adored and I have been searching ever since. Also didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for one. This one was $16 at TJMaxx! Early birthday present to me!

More after.

Close up of the curtain fabric. I searched in vain for something less than $49 a yard. Finally I found this coverlet from Urban Outfitters and made it into curtains for two rooms! I plan to use more of it elsewhere. I have a ton left over.

Here are a few close ups of the art I hung in here. I have so many family photos in our living room (blog to come soon) that I only wanted art prints in here. Here is Queen Esther by one of my favorites, Minerva Teichert. I got this for Clayton for his birthday last year. We have a problem of buying each other gifts that we want for ourselves.

The Lost Balloon.

Disaster & Accident in the Italian District

Doll jumping rope with cats. Yep. Underneath, Rainbow circle? Sadly I find these images off of public domain sites (and a few, cough cough, other sites) and don't know the artists info.

A close up of a Carrière self portrait and a robot escaping on a pony.

Menier Chocolate advertising poster by Firmin Bouisset. Chocolate graffiti?
I can get behind that.

And a gratuitous treat shot. The baby shower had some serious good eats. Pinwheels, homemade salsa, apples with caramel, chocolate caramel cookies, coconut cupcakes, veggie pizza... Happiness. I decorated with an aqua and red theme, but it wasn't very clear. Oh well. The adorable red magnet board is actually from Eleanor's room, which is ALSO done. I know! Three rooms done? What is up Marianne? I will post them all soon. That is my goal. But you all know how I am with goals, so...

And because a post should always contain something of Eleanor.
Here is a sneak peak at the living room.