Growing Up Continued

Most times when I write these blogs, I'm only half with it.  When I get comments on blogs or when I'm cruising my own blog (yes, I do that...) then I go back and read them.  I see the words I've misspelled (such a pet peeve with me) and pictures I've missed.  

I noticed recently that I posted all about Growing Up and my file cabinet and left you with a picture of the mess ALL over the floor in my office.  While my housekeeping skills suck sometimes, I'm NOT that bad and don't want mostly complete strangers thinking so.  Here is a more accurate look at my office and my new file cabinet.

Much better, no?

He's Back.

My Peeping Tom has returned to the scene of the crime.  A couple of weeks ago, I spotted him in my trees watching me. He's now getting bolder.  When we were installing the laundry room organizers, I glanced out the back door and noticed this.

The next time I walked past, thinking that Tom was going to go on his merry little way, he had instead made himself more comfortable.  

I'm pretty certain that he's here to stay...

Yet Another Door...

Not to worry folks, I've been keeping busy on my to-do list.  

One of the things recently mentioned was refinishing the original pocket door from the living room that will be the laundry room door.  Texas has been having a record breaking drought lately, so I figured I was safe to paint the door in my carport.  Guess what?  It rained the day after I started working on the table.  Had I known painting the door would have put an end to the drought, I would have done it weeks ago!  

Anyway, it is now painted and laying in wait for installation.  It will need a touch-up, but that's easy enough once it's been hung.  (We haven't hung a single door that HASN'T needed touch-up so...) I can't wait until it's hung.  It's one more element on the way to having a finished kitchen!!

A Super SWAG Bag

Several posts ago, I mentioned that I had been doubly blessed.  One of my blessings was winning a SWAG bag from Cathe Holden at Just Something I Made.  Cathe is this incredible woman who has an awesome blog of graphic design and creative ideas.  She had an fabulous giveaway almost two months ago and I was a lucky winner!!  (I did receive my bag 1 week after being notified I had won.  It's just been a while since I've had time to shoot pictures of it and post about it.)  

I received the famous yellow slip from the USPO in my mailbox one day.  I headed over at lunch the next day and picked up the HUGE box!

I was highly impressed.  This sucker was huge and almost as tall as my seat in my car.  I took it back to work and pull out the extra large Land's End bag that was inside.  It is the perfect shade of red for me.  Not orange, but more of a hot pink red if that's possible.  

Let me tell you, Zach could easily play hide and seek in this thing.  Not to worry, I don't often zip up toddlers in bags...

It wasn't until I got home that I took the time to pull each and every thing from the bag and examine them carefully.  It was almost as magical as Mary Poppins bottomless bag.  Each item was followed by something more and more fun.  Think I'm kidding??

Each item pictured came out of the bag.  Wow!!  Need a closer picture to see each and every thing? No problem!  Here you go!

See?  Just wait until you see the fun I've had with each of these items.  I'll be posting my creations (and fails) in the coming months.

Summer's a Comin'

One of the things I have had the most fun with is constantly changing my front door's wreath/decor.  An afternoon of crafting and finished in a day, LOVE IT!!  A couple of weeks ago, I was cruising Michael's with a friend and noticed their Gerber daisies on sale for 60% off.

Couple those with ostrich feathers in blue and lime, sparkly lime tulle, a grapevine wreath (all 50% off at Hobby Lobby) and just a bit of glitter (I had already) and I had a great craft project on my hands, my couch, my table, my floor, my face, just about everywhere. 

I used a brush glue and applied it somewhat messily to the tips of the petals and the centers of the flowers.  I then dusted the edges of with matching colors of glitter. While those were drying, I gussied up the grapevine with my Glimmer Mist.  It added just the

right shimmer to the background.

The final result was fun and summery, and just a little bit over the top.  In the steamy days of summer, looking like a popsicle is a blast!

 

 

Checking off one more thing...

In anticipation of having my gas installed in my kitchen, I wanted to get a couple more things checked off my never ending to-do list.  One of the big eyesores was my kitchen floor, okay, my entire floor, but I'm speaking specifically of my kitchen floor in this post.  After removing the linoleum and the subsequent tile underneath, an ugly black mastic that sometimes scraped off and sometimes not was left behind.  Yuck.

The random bare spots behind the carseat in the picture above is from the original cabinet layout.  The mastic was nasty and no matter how hard I tried, wouldn't come up.  VERY frustrating.  Every once in a while moving something would pull off some of it, but I couldn't ever get it up and off on purpose.

With the addition of the pocket door and the need to move the stove dryer anyway, I took advantage of the time to paint the floor.  With a fresh coat of the new stain, it looks TONS better.

Closing the Case

((on the title:  You can tell how tired I am based on the title of my blog post.  Currently I'm mentally dead, (no comments about that being all the time, people) so, hence the random title that only partially has to do with the actual post.))

I don't know about you, but where I live, it's hot 99% of the time and by hot, I mean 95 degrees or higher, sweatin' weather.  Because of this, I tend to go through a lot of clothes.  Lots of dirty clothes = Lots of laundry.  Lots of laundry means annoyingly loud washer and dryer clanging.  The simple thing would be to shut the laundry room door and poof, the clanging stops.  Only one hiccup, the laundry room door is now the pantry door.  Oops.  

So, now all I need is a 6 panel door that matches the rest of the doors in my house.  Hmmmm, good thing when I opened up the wall between the kitchen and the living room I kept the pocket door that we removed.  So, off to Home Depot, yup, they're starting to recognize me, and purchased a pocket door frame.  Who knew they made specific frames for pocket doors???  The things I'm learning.  After removing the old studs and building a "stud addition,"  the framing of the door went relatively smooth.  

If my house ever is hit by a torpedo, etc, heaven forbid, this door frame will still be standing tall.  It has enough Liquid Nail on it to keep the whole house glued together.  

 
Now, if I can just get the old new door refinished, we can hang it and close off all of the noise & mess of the laundry room, AND I can check one more thing off this never ending list. 

Pantry Storage Solutions

My new pantry is currently in a fabulous state of 4 walls and one door.  Fascinating right?  I'm waiting until my electrical and gas lines are run to bite the bullet and purchase my wall stencil.  Eventually it's going to be an incredible pantry and storage place, but until then, it's 4 walls and a door.  We did take the time and rehang my ironing board organizer thingy from Lowe's.  It seems so simple and I can't figure out why I didn't design it and make my own fortune, but I digress.  

The top holds the iron, spray bottle, which I need to locate again, and starch.  The board then hangs below, keeping it up and out of the way.  So much better than the previous way I had of precariously leaning the board against the wall and balancing the iron on the window ledge...

On the other wall, I have an organizer for my brooms, mops, floor scrapers, and other long items.  I'm happy to have them up and out of the way.  Nothing scares me quite the same as stepping on a mop handle in the complete dark and no matter how many times I stand it up, it slides down the wall and finds the floor.

Eventually, I'm going to get the two lights installed and the missing plug that goes in the random empty box in the picture.  All of that is hinging on the replacement of the electrical box.  I'll keep you posted on how that's coming. I'll also have floor to ceiling shelves installed for storing all kinds of things.  That though will have to wait until later...