A week of Ideas Part 1.

So, how about some of those ideas I said I'd share last week?
Anyone curious?
I'll start off by saying, they are not ridiculously clever, but some small workings of my brain muscle to solve some humble conundrums in our new home, or just some things that inspired me. I'll post some of them over the course of the week, and you let me know what you think and jump in with the ideas and inspirations that have worked for you, yes?
Okay.

Let's start with the back hallway, shall we?

Sometimes contractors do funny things. They did this in the house we built a few years ago, and apparently they did it here in our new house too.
Perhaps the very same electrician, drywall and finishing electrician all worked on both houses and figured it would be a great idea to spread out and fill an otherwise useful wall with random switches, security systems, vent fan switches and even a couple dead plates lower down the wall....(we'll stick with one battle at a time though...)

I had some lovely ideas of what to do with this wall before I realized it was otherwise occupied and can't even be used for any shelves, hooks or anything heavy enough to need a drywall anchor. All  of which would've been very handy in a back hallway leading to the garage.

Instead I had lovely random switches that couldn't be covered up permanently because they all actually have a purpose and need to be used from time to time. (like the thermostat in the middle of winter...ya,  I'd say we need access to that one)

Then Al suggested one day, that I use shadow boxes that could rest OVER the offending appliance and could be lifted off and on whenever necessary.

Brilliant Al, (you should see what she did with some plywood she found in her garage...)

Here are three of the frames I picked up at good ol' Ikea cause they had the deepest boxes that were just the right shape and size. (not to mention the right price)

Also, these "Ribba" frames allow you to place your artwork and matting in the foreground of the frame and then place the shadow frame inside after , basically creating a hollow box. I left the fiberboard backing and hanging hardware off, but used the positioning tabs to hold the shadow frame in place and then guess what? , I just HUNG IT ON MY WALL RIGHT OVER ALL THE GADGETS.

Heck yes, it was that easy and now it all looks beautiful.

They are this simple to pull of the wall when the gadgets are needed because the frames are sturdy and lightweight and none of the gadgets require the use of both hands to operate.
( I suppose the only way I could improve this would be to somehow hinge them to the wall, so that they opened like little doors, but like I said, I'd have to be very careful drilling anything into this wall because of all the electrical wiring stretched all over it behind the drywall.)

Two of my favorite prints by Ezra Jack Keats. (love love love his illustrations)

This has become a great spot for displaying my little artist's latest works. ( although this one of this little lady is now a little old, but gosh! I like her too much to swap her out. I think it's her bewitching eyes)

The whole thing is  pretty, it's practical and it cost practically nothing... I'd say that's a pretty good idea!

What do you think?

When Pigs Fly!

The table and chairs are done!

I have a few little quirks with it that if I had all the time, paint, and patience in the world, I would do better...but I've made "more-than-peace" with my paint job and this little set and I are actually bordering on LOVE.

No,... it's not bordering....who am I kidding?
It's love.

What started as a rather  plain and ugly little table and chairs from Ikea (plain because of Ikea; ugly because my kids had dumped, spilled, scratched, drawn and destroyed it in any way that struck their fancy-- their ketchup, play dough and sprinkles fancy that is) has become a little spot of exuberant art in my kitchen.

First I scrubbed the whole thing clean and primed the pieces. Then I painted them in the leftover paint from the kitchen which is CILs deluxe in Antique white.

Then I sat and pondered them for a while. I had so many, many, many, ideas of neat things to do (and maybe those will make it into future furniture projects?)  But this time around, I was inspired by the lovely artwork of Erica J. Vess; particularly her "Up Up and Away" collection.

My kids love hot air balloons. We have this awful My Little Pony Hot Air Balloon that plays a tinny little song everytime you push it, hold it, or look at it the wrong way and both of my kids ADORE playing with it.

But annoying jingles aside, I also think Hot Air Balloons are pretty cool. You will NEVER find me riding one, but they are cool.
They have this adventurous "Round the world in 80 days" vibe and belong to an era of big hats, wagers over cigars and the dawn of photography....
I digress...

Well, I thought up this little pig to fly in his hot air balloon and the more I thought about him the more I liked him. He has a big hat, is probably off on some adventure waged over a cigar and looks forward to having his photo taken upon his glorious return....


His name is Vern (like, as in Jules Vern)

I painted up the illustration for the center of the table while the kids were having a nap and I added some embellishments to the sides of the table and chairs later while they were cranky and wanting juice (my attention to detail diminishes greatly by the end, but we just tucked that bit next to the wall).

Each chair was adorned with a little hot air balloon (alternating blue and red) and the sides of the table mimic the patterns in Vern's Balloon.

The table still needs some varnish and perhaps even a plexiglass or plastic sheet to sit atop the illustration. Even though it is painted in hard-core acrylics (professional grade), I would hate for Vern to be chipped or to have an overturned cup of  apple juice dampen his spirit of  adventure.

I'm happy with the little table, I'm happy with the little chairs, and I was happy to have a project that involved my painting skills ( which are few and far between these days).

A truly successful makeover!

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

I feel that I have hit upon a universal truth, one of those things that sounds like a scripted line from a movie, where it comes out of your mouth and after you've said it, you think "Yeah, that IS how it is; I nailed it."
Tell me if you agree:

Moving into a new house is the best; moving out of an old one is the worst.

(to expound):

Barring some unforeseen nightmare in a new home, moving into a new house can be one of the most thrilling and exciting things.

But it's the leaving of the old house that can be so so hard, full of work and a little drudgery. 

If you are like me, it takes an awful lot to deter from the joy and excitement of finding new homes for things and making little corners of a new place feel like home. 

We moved into our last home that we built the very first DAY it was possibly liveable. The water was turned on the evening before we moved in and the railing was put around the gaping hole down to the basement where the stairs were going. We had to contend with uninstalled cupboards in the middle of the kitchen floor, rooms without doors or finished closets and a bathroom filled with extra tile, bags of grout sand, and a stand alone toilet....pretty. But I was still giddy to be setting up my nest in this construction  zone.


Our more recent move was MUCH easier, as we just showed up, unpacked, (did a little painting) and sat back and said, "we're here". It's been so much fun!
But there's still the old house to finish and get sold and that's a bit of dicey position to be in. God has a funny way of having things turn out, and as it would happen, the house is in sale limbo already (let's describe it as "betrothed") to someone very close to me. Honestly I am OVERJOYED to be finishing and sprucing the old girl up for my lovely "N." It makes all the work that went into this old place feel worth it, because it's going to someone (s) I love, to be home for them.
Talk about win-win.... except now we need to get to work.

(Also a Universal Truth):     All good things call for elbow grease.

So, we spent this last weekend with the "wee Winkelets" at their Oma and Opa's and Kevin and I worked on our own version of a DIY home show, finishing all the things on the house that never got done while we lived there.

(FINALLY the unfinished walls have baseboards.)

sigh

Anyway, I did so much "dapping" and caulking that my fingertips were worn to a shiny nub by Saturday night, and let me tell you there is no amount of 80's tunes or bags of Nibs than can make that job less tedious.

But at least I look wickedly hard-core with my gun here :)

Kevin and I have joked in the past that if we were any Sitcom family, we would be Tim and Jill Taylor from "Home Improvement"
A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y.  
(some of you are even reading this and thinking, "Oh my gosh, they SO are.")

Now, Kevin is not always as ill-fated as "Tim the Tool Man Taylor".  He's actually amazing with what he can figure out and fix around the house, but this weekend did include wolf-like noises made over a torn apart hardwood floor with boards that ended up being a fourteenth-of-a-flipping-inch too large, a saw that wouldn't work and a nail gun that went kaputs....

But in the end we triumphed over at little less than half the long list of things that need to be done and we only made a couple rude remarks to the Primer  and how much we hated it and how much we hate priming walls....
honestly, all that work and then the walls look waaaaaaaay worse than they did before! (arrrgh)

 We spent our Sunday recovering and eating the last of Oma's Christmas baking, holding a  baby niece, and eating broccoli in front of the t.v. to make up for all the junk food we consumed overnight on Friday.....

How was your weekend?

Cheers.

The Kitchen Unveiled!

Wow, what a crazy week of painting it has been!

Kevin and I managed to repaint the ENTIRE kitchen in three days. THREE DAYS!
and we didn't even neglect our kids to do it!

We took everything in two shifts a day starting Monday night till Thursday night (I took Wednesday off for visiting my sister's new baby).We did one shift during naptimes and one during the evenings when the kids were asleep. Kevin did some extra painting here and there in the basement while I managed the monkeys and on Thursday morning he did the same for me so I could get the back of the wrap around done (boy was that a pain in the but).
By Friday morning Kevin was putting cupboard doors back on the bottom of the kitchen and trying to use wholesome language to express his frustration with the finicky nature of  drawer fronts and lazy susan hinges.

But it was all worthwhile,  for now I have my dream kitchen and it looks even better than I thought it would! It feels like a special treat to just be in there making tea or sweeping the floor and dang it,  if my vintage tea towels don't look amazing next to those cupboard doors in their soft creamy whiteness!!!!!!...

It's bliss I tell you, pure kitchen bliss. 

Now if only I were a better cook...

painting painting!!!!!!!

Oh we are up to our eyeballs in paint... and it's wonderful I tell you! WONDERFUL!

On top of discovering all of the lovely things our new town has to offer (stay tuned for all the fabulous finds from  the THRIFT STORE tomorrow) we are still settling into the new house, entertaining friends (ALREADY!, so please come visit!) and melting in the sweet sweet presence of a brand new (and FIRST) niece (aren't babies amazing????), we are also painting the kitchen.

And it's everything I hoped it to be, right down to the black spray painted door knobs.

We chose CIL's luxe line Antique White in a satin finish, and boy, is this a great paint to work with!

Low VOC, almost no smell and it coats so richly, that we are down less than 1/2 the can and well on our way to being more than half done the kitchen.

Which means I gotta get off the computer and get my caboose in action cause most of this frenzied kitchen activity has been happening after the littles are in bed... and before I collapse into my own bed.

 But here's some eye candy to get started with.

Here's the before with the upper cupboards taken off, taped and ready to rock.

After the third coat on all the uppers still without cupboard doors put back on.

(I swoon)  Here's the upper cupboards put back on.

And here's our resident hairstylist, "Stoffy". Doesn't that look like a face you'd trust your mane to????

cheers.