A Couple Small Projects

So I'm sure most of you are like me, you're sick of winter and spring can't get here soon enough.  I know everyday that I look out side and see the snow I think that.  And every morning as I walk to the bus stop in freezing weather, I think about warmer days.  So I guess I've been thinking about spring and summer a lot lately.  Most of us in WI are normally dreaming of spring about this time of year.  It's just how it works here.

Most of my projects right now are pretty small.  First, because we made the decision to wait until spring to take on any large projects.  Second, I have another cold (seriously, could I go just one month without getting sick).

I spruced up my coffee filter wreath the other day with some flowers.  I just needed something that wasn't dreary and dark.  I needed to bring warmer weather into the house somehow.  So I went and raided my fake flower stash.  I just added a few of the fake flowers to give it a little different feel.  I used my U-pins to hold the flowers on, so when I get sick of these flowers, I can take them off and add something else.  It's great.  I use the U-pins for displaying my jewelry at art shows, but they really came in handy here.  I'm sure if you don't have hundreds (no seriously) U-pins around, you could use normal pins.   
  

It's a simple change, but I like it. The picture doesn't really show how pretty it really looks. I took it last night while it was dark with limited light sources. Maybe I'll try to get a picture when I get home tonight.

I got this idea from Thrify Decorating the other day while blog hopping (swing on over there to see how she made them).  It's such a cute easy idea, I couldn't pass it up.  I took Yoda outside with me to find a few sticks (which she's always up for finding sticks), grabbed my hot glue gun, and raided my fake flowers again.

It took me maybe 5 minutes to make these.  Unfortunately I have no idea where the box of vases is, so I had to compromise and use a Pom jar filled with rocks for now.  We'll see if when I get home tonight if they are still there; Toonces feels the need to eat anything that even slightly resembles a plant.  The best part about these, J actually likes them (sometimes engineers don't like things that aren't "clean"  That's the stupid term J likes to use all the time). And don't worry all that electronic crap (except the wireless router) will be put out of sight.  

Wordless Wednesday - Goat Pug

I'm trying some new things out with the blog, you know spruce it up for spring a bit. Let me know what you all think. It's kinda a work in progress, so any suggestions are welcome. :-)

I'm Back Baby!

I know, I've been gone for a long time.  Did you miss me?  Probably not, but I'm going to tell myself you did.

Apologies for the dark picture and fuzziness, I'm working on that. :-D

So what's new here at the casa?  Well, I guess not that many exciting things.  I finally have all the paint up in the living room.  That's exciting.  I painted the red wall last week and I'm in love (I know it's hard to see in this picture, you'll just have to take my word for it).  I had to take a day and a half of vacation to do it, but it was oh so worth it.  And I have to say, painting a wall deep red is not an easy task.  I started with two coats of gray primer, to help make the red bright and reduce the number of coats I had to do.  Then it was two coats of red, waiting for each one to dry, and then a third touch up coat on any areas I may have missed the first two times around.  Then I had to wait for that last coat to dry, just to make sure I still didn't have any areas that needed more paint.  Then there was clean up, boo clean up.  But that's okay.  It's done and oh so pretty.  Now we just need to find a dining room table we like so people stop running into our hanging light.

We also got the entertainment center put together and up.  It's nice and it will hold oh so many things.  Perfect, everything can be out of sight and not just piled up on a book case.  It's not completely done.  We need to figure out how to hide the wires from all of our electronic crap.  I went back and forth on the glass wall behind the TV, but I've decided I do like it.  Now J and I just need to start agreeing on how to decorate.  Doesn't he know that I'm the all knowing woman, and he should just accept the knowledge I'm giving him.

I also need to show off that wonderful drywall job we did.  I got it all mudded, sanded, primed, and started the texture.  Then J swooped in and finished up the texturing, which I'm convinced was his plan all along.  Let the girl do all the hard crap and then I'll take the glory for how good it looks.  Stupid boys.  I will give it to him, he did a great job finishing up the texture.  It's extremely hard to see where the old ends and the new starts.  Too bad he didn't stick around long enough to paint the wall!

Why is this picture so crooked, was I drunk?  I don't remember!

And last but not least, our arts.  I know amazing.  It's the only thing we have up on the walls at this moment in time.  I know, I'm getting there.  I needed to get all the walls painted before I could start decorating.  I also needed all the parts to the entertainment center off the floor.  So now I'm on to the fun part.  Thrifting!!!!  Love it.  And I even think J might be getting the hang of thrifting, sort of.  And before I leave you, I have to let you know, J picked out the arts above.  He does have a good eye at times, I just wish he'd drop the only child attitude at times.  But it's okay, I still love my boy!!

Wordless Wednesday!

High Noon, Madison, WI - 9:00, Wednesday March 9, 2011 (TONIGHT) - Be There!

Can I start decorating yet?

Remember these bottles?  I got them from a lab across the hall that was being decommissioned.  They had a "come grab anything you can" day, and this was my only score.  Really it was because I was afraid of the crazies that came.  Boy you say the word FREE and everyone is there scratching and biting to get anything they can (they ripped things off the wall).  It reminded me of one of those bridal sales where women go crazy and grab any dress they can.  Only this was with lab supplies.  But I guess when money's tight (and it is for almost all of us), free lab supplies are heaven sent.

But that's enough about the back story of these bottles.  The point is I thought they were interesting and since they aren't too useful in the lab (hence the reason they were left over after everyone had left).  Of course we can use them, but we have media bottles already that we like better.  I grabbed these bottles because I thought they were interesting, not necessarily useful in our lab.  I wanted to use them at home somewhere, but didn't know what to do with them.  So last night I tried idea number one; I filled one with little black rocks.  Just to see what it would look like.  What do you think?  I have a few other ideas I'm going to try.  I'll get some pictures up soon, maybe I'll have a vote or something.  

I also made my coffee filter wreath last night.  I stained the filters the other day with tea (just plain black tea) and have been waiting for them to dry.  I picked up the foam wreath in the floral section at Joann's, using my 50% off coupon as well as my 10% on my total purchase coupon.  So that cost me less then $2.00.  The coffee filters cost me $1.00 (picked those up at the last 10 for 10 sale at the grocery store) and the tea I already had.  So this project cost me a total of $3.00.  Pretty good if I do say so myself.  I am going to get different ribbon, but that can wait for my next trip to the craft store, which will be soon (I have so many coupons right now).  So in all, this project is going to cost me well under $10, awesome.  Now I just have to find a place to hang it.

As you can see I have it hanging on the ugly ass door for now, but that's just because I haven't decided where I'm going to put it.  I might put it up above the bay window.  Maybe I'll try that tonight and see what it looks like.  I'll get some pictures of it in different places and post some later, then I'll see what you guys think for this too! :-)

I'm really happy with how it looks.  I wasn't sure, I've seen a bunch of them, and liked them, but wasn't sure if it would go with our stuff.  But it does.  The color is great.  It goes really well with the wall color and I think it will go great with the red paint (which will be going up this weekend).  And it was so easy to make.  The hardest part was waiting for all the coffee filters to dry (because I'm impatient).  I think it literally took me 20 min to make.  I made it in between priming and painting picture frames (with my free paint sample from Valspar.  Free is awesome).    

I was thinking of making another one and dying the coffee filters a color; like green for St. Patty's day or lavender for spring.  Hmmm, so many possibilities.  

Worldess Wednesday!

So busy and flustered, I forgot to add a title the first time around!!

So I feel like I've accomplished nothing here as of late.  Well nothing house related.  I've been busy with my beads and have gotten a lot of done with that.  I'm still waiting on getting my torch set up, but J told me I had to be patient and wait till spring for that.  So I'm waiting patiently.  I've also been swept up with all the political and civics related things going on here in WI, especially Madison.  I won't share my personal opinion on the subject here or how it effects me personally (and it does effect me), but I will say it's quite a sight to be downtown.  It's all we do lately, read and watch the news.  No matter what side you're on, or where you live, I feel it's always important to know what's going on, especially when it's so close to home.  Okay, enough with my lecturing about keeping up with current events :-)

I have been working on a few things.  We have all the drywall done in the living room (I got that baby finished on my furlough day this month) and we've started painting.  Just have the primer (and texture to match the rest of the walls) up, but paint is next.  We have half of the entertainment center up and as soon as we get the brackets, we'll have the rest of it up.  I've even started a few decorating projects.  I'm dying to start decorating.  We just need more furniture, but J seems to be lacking the drive to go our and find out.  So I've recruited my mom and one of my friends to help out.  I can't wait to start thrifting, it's one of my favorite pass times.  Ooooooh, I'm excited.  

I did pick up these interesting looking bottles a lab across the hall was getting rid of.  I'm not sure what to do with them, but I thought they looked interesting.  I though about filling them with something (rocks, sand, shells, etc.) but I'm not sure.  Maybe I'll just leave them empty.  Maybe I'll just bring them back to work and use them there.  Who knows, but you know me, I can't pass up something that looks neat and is FREE.  I'll find a use for them.

I also picked up some fun black rocks this past weekend for my square candle holders.  I think they look like m&ms from a distance.  Then if just makes me want some candy.  But I like them and I like how they look in the candle holders, now I just need a place to put these guys.  See what I mean, I need to finish buying furniture so I have places to put these.  ;-)

I'm working on a few other projects right now as well.  Well I'm not really working on it yet, I'm waiting for my tea stained coffee filters to dry.  But as soon as those babies are dry, I'll start working on my latest crafting project.