Memorial Day

Tags

cat, rain, yard

We were going to go to Chocolate Fest in Burlington, WI because it’s just down the road. I love chocolate and really wanted to ride the ferris wheel. However, it is raining. And it looks like it is going to rain all day today. The cat is hunkered down in the kitchen and she almost went out onto the porch until she heard the rain again. On top of that, yesterday she experienced her 4 worst sounds: tin foil, trash bags being opened, rain, and fireworks. So yeah. Today is not much better. Poor kitty.

I purchased new flowers to replace the asters that died. It makes me soooo mad that the cheap Walmart flowers died. Maybe it was too cold; maybe the dirt in the boxes was too moist – who knows. Menard’s was having a good sale so I got 4 osteospermum – two in the darker purple/magenta shown in the photo and two in a lighter white-ish purple. I got two impatiens – I think mine are the “celebration bright salmon” variety. The pansies have gotten really big and the catnip is also taking over. I was going to get koleus because that did well in the heat last year, but they only had king sized ones and that would look weird with my other shorter plants and there wasn’t really room for something that big.

Two more weeks of school (official classes) and then exams. It should be a blast. My kids have to write one more essay which we will somehow crank out in two weeks. We’re writing informative news articles and if they don’t get their interviews done, they won’t be able to write. *sigh* Let’s hope they actual take my warnings to heart and accomplish their work.

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Bathroom Quick Remodel

Apparently I’m not done updating for the day. We’ve had a busy spring. So here is one more.

I always knew we would repaint the upstairs bathroom because even thought it’s not a disaster, it’s just not the look we are going for at all. And although the upstairs bathroom is not large by any means, it has more wall space to paint than the downstairs bathroom. While looking at pinterest one night, I found a picture of a kitchen corner that had bright vibrant verdant green painted trim. I loved it. But that color green would not really go with any other colors in my house. But I was inspired all the same.

As most decorating projects get started, I had seen one simple object in a store and decided to use that as my main inspiration. That object was a Sonoma bath curtain from Kohl’s. I love embroidery and for a non-hand embroidered product, this shower curtain was pretty darn cute!! I had to have it and Kohl’s cash made that possible.

Then I realized I had leftover paint from my remodel in the art studio. I figured, it’s only paint; if I don’t like it, I can repaint it! I decided to paint the trim around the window and the baseboard because they were already painted white (along with the walls, the baseboard heater, the sink, the toilet, tub, and shower curtain. Too bland. So pink it was!!

Before.

Boring white trim

Earlier this spring I purchased a new curtain rod and shower curtain rings because the originals were getting junky and gross.

New curtain rod and rings

As with all my rooms, I am going for the chic vintage flare.

Painting the trim and baseboards took 2.5 hours on a Saturday (that does not include the few hours it took me to move items, clean the floor, wash/prep the parts to paint, and tape around the trim) and I decided to wait a full day before putting on a second coat. The second coat went on Tues.

Here is what it looks like now!

Finished project.

Close up of embroidery on the shower curtain.

Little plant addition.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It makes me happy every morning because the pink hue reminds me of grapefruit which I love a lot. Now getting ready for work in the morning doesn’t seem quite so tough on beautiful spring days!

Quick wreath

If you are looking for an easy project that can literally be tailored to any season and any decor, then here is a super easy to make wreath. We made this way back in the day in my Brownie Girl Scout troop when my mom was the leader. If Brownies can make it, anyone can. This literally took an hour and requires no sewing and no gluing.

Here is what I did.

My colors were inspired by fabric I had purchased (quite a while ago for a different project) in a color coordinated bundle from my favorite quilting store, Patched Works, Inc in Elm Grove, WI. (The customer service there is amazing). I’ve been meaning to make a summer wreath for a while now and grading/school related everything has always taken precedence. But because it is Memorial Day weekend and soon to be 4th of July, I went with more patriotic colors. I don’t like super bright “Americana colors” so I opted for a softer vintage/rustic colored pallet.

Then, get an old write hanger. I found there are two types of metal hangers: the one that is INCREDIBLY hard to bend and one that is not hard to bend. Test out your metal hangers until you find one you can easily bend either just with your bare hands or with the help of pliers. Having manly help is awesome, but not necessary. When I was in GS, we made heart shapes.  (I’m pretty sure my dad and my other leader’s husband bent about 18 hangers for us for this project). I really like the heart shape because it’s “homey.” So I chose that shape, but a circle square or anything else works.

Hanger bent into a heart shape

Next, I just “eyeballed” the fabric when I cut it. But I measured it. Cut the fabric into 2 x 6(ish) inch strips. It can be shorter or longer than 6 inches, but I found that around 6 inches was easier to manipulate. Anything smaller would have been cumbersome (at least for me). The bundles I bought were quarter yard fat squares. I cut them down the middle and then cut the strips. The first picture is already the half of the quarter after I cut it.

Cut quarter fat square in half.

Here are the strips.

2 inches wide

Here is a wider shot so you can see how I have the fabric positioned on my cutting mat.

Cut from fabric

Here is my color selection. The solid colored one on the left is worsted wool; the rest are cotton.

Fabric color choices

Next, this is where you can get artsy. I like consistent patterns so I chose blue, white, red repeating. But it does not matter. Your choice!

I started at the top right of the heart, but again it does not matter. You basically fold the fabric in half, making a loop, and then pulling each end through the hole. To achieve the desired result, lay the folded fabric over the wire. Spread the loop, stuff the edges through wrapping it under the wire. Make sure when the fabric is pulled through the loop, the fabric ends go up and out so the fabric is on the “right side.”

Tie the fabric.

Piece number 1

Tying piece #2

Keep tying until you’ve gone all the way around the hanger.

Color scheme.

I had six pieces of fabric so I did two repeating patterns.

Pattern taking shape

A craft project is not complete without an interruption by a cat!

Twiggy helps!

Here is the finished product!!

Finished wreath

And now it’s on our door ready to greet us and whoever visits. The colors are a little off in this picture because it was late afternoon and my camera was being goofy.

Wreath on the door.

Living room redecorate – as good as it gets

I suppose everyone who owns their first house usually has a room that ends up getting redecorated first. Ours was the living room. We did not really plan it that way. It just kind of happened. I’m very pleased with the results. The first thing to change were the couches. My husband and I each had our own apartment furniture and it did not really fit with the historical interior of our house. I naturally expected this and was prepared to wait until I felt inspired.

Here were our first couches. Mine is on the left and I had a cover over it because I wanted to be able to easily change the color when I wanted. My husband’s is the white one in the middle that he is sitting on.

Living room with apartment furniture

Here is the new couch. Also note the new location.

New couch

Next, once we got a new couch, we needed new side tables. I don’t have pics of the original side tables because they are the two tier bookshelf things you buy at Target/Walmart for your dorm. I knew I wanted antique side tables but I did not have a particular style I was looking for. I figured I would know it when I saw it. That’s exactly what happened when I visited my sister in Minneapolis and went to the large antique stores. I got great deals on the tables.

Here they are.

Side table for me

Other table for between the two chairs (old living room chairs)

Then, my husband was jealous (as jealous as a guy can get over side tables that his wife has and he doesn’t) so, he “demanded” that we go buy him one too. Haha. Whatever you say honey. So this was the one he picked out at Target. He put it together himself. I like that it still looks “vintage.”

Manly side table

Once the three tables were in place, the TV stand was no longer acceptable. So that got updated also.

Ugly first TV stand

So this is the new waaaay classier one.

New TV stand.

After the TV stand change, the three chairs were replaced as of Easter this year. I already wrote on that event in another post, here. But most recently, the third chair (to replace the “bachelor” chair) arrived at the store and we picked it up. Now it is here!!! It has Latin writing on it!!!! Hahahaha.

First “bachelor” chair.

“Bachelor” chair

New chair which I LOVE!!

Latin!

The draw back to this chair is that it is not a recliner. Therefore, I took it upon myself (at my husband’s request) to buy an ottoman suitable for our living room style. I was shocked at how expensive ottoman’s are. Our living room is not huge, so I could not have one that is the size of a large dog bed; not going to fit. Together we looked at the ottomans at Target. For a guy, he was relatively impressed with the choices there. I bought three. I couldn’t decide.

Three choices for foot rests!

Here is what we went with.

Chair with Latin writing to replace the “bachelor chair”

I really wanted stripes because we didn’t have any stripes yet, and I think it’s a nice contrast and goes well with our other pieces of furniture. The only thing I dislike about it is that the legs are lighter colored brown when all of the feet on the chairs/couch is dark brown. *sigh*.

So here is the total living room. We really enjoy it!!!

Full living room

Flowers and man caves

Tags

cats, flowers, garden, house projects, man caves, yard

In the second spring in our home, we are settling into some spring traditions. Last year my mother-in-law helped a ton with planting several containers/boxes with me. She showed me the ropes and how to pick out flowers from the store and then how to fertilize the soil etc. Now this year, I felt comfortable accomplishing all those tasks myself.

So the asters in the boxes have not fared well. I’m not super upset about this because they cost 1.50 from Walmart. But still. I got flowers from there last year and they were fine. Are asters not hardy WI spring flowers? Hmmm. I guess not. Almost half of them have died. At least, I’m assuming they’re dead. The flowers have withered and died (so I popped them off, thinking/hoping new ones would sprout) and then the stalk turned brown. Not sure that’s a sign of life. However, the pansies are doing well and growing. Hopefully our little bout of frost Sun night (grrrr) did not hurt them too badly.

But in better flower news, the muscari have taken off and even a second flower sprouted out of each stalk! The hostas that I transplanted are all surviving too. They have filled in nicely. Lastly, the bright red tulips bloomed and so did the pink hyacinth. I love the color combo next to each other as well as the height contrast. I want more all around that rock. New goal. Then, in the shade garden all but one hosta (a bluish colored one) have come back and the bleeding hearts have shot up and bloomed and each of the two plants has two or three branches with flowers. So pretty!! Those are my husbands favorite. And yet…..he despises poppies because right now before they have grown a stem/bud/flower they look like weeds and he can’t stand them. I love them and I can’t wait to see them. I think we definitely have more than last year (haha). Because I want to keep them, I think I’m going to have a hard time convincing him to do so unless I figure out a place to transplant them to. So….now I’m wondering how do I transplant poppies? And where do I put them in my yard? They are growing int the “shade garden” which isn’t so shady when the trees don’t have many leaves.

Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, the cat caught a bird. I really enjoy the birds in my yard. And yet, I don’t feel bad letting her  catch and eat a bird. I figure it was not going to survive one way or another anyway so what does it matter. It’s only her natural instinct. After 7 years of living indoors, she finally caught and ate an animal. I’d say her life is pretty near complete!

Our third and last chair has arrived. We picked it up on Saturday. In buying furniture, I have totally followed in my mother’s path of don’t get anything white that will show the dirt. I don’t have time to clean or pay someone to clean my furniture. I brush the cat fur off and febreeze the room and we’re good to go. So my couch is a soft red color and my other two chairs are grey (not awesome for hiding white cat fur, but she knows not to go on them). Well, I still stuck to my mother’s advice and got  a dark colored chair, but this one has writing on it. I’ve ALWAYS wanted a chair with writing on it, especially since it became popular to have that rustic French writing on it. Yeah. Well mine is in Lation. hahah!!!! I was shocked my husband agreed to this fabric. When we have to pick out fabric or colors, I sometimes pick out the most ridiculous one just to see him get all grossed out by it because he’s a boy. When I pulled this fabric off the rack, he’s like “wow, that’s really fun let’s get it!”. I know my jaw dropped and the older couple near us was totally laughing and the newly weds picking out furniture together. I was like, “ummm alright” and then I had to contain myself from jumping and hugging him because we finally agreed on a pattern!! haha again! Since moving into our house summer of 2012, we have officially replaced all of our living room furniture. It feels really good and the living room has a very adult look to it! We are both very pleased. We still have all of my furniture from my first apartment (2 chairs and a couch from my grandma) and his “man bachelor” lazy boy recliner. That’s up in the computer room which has a newly obtained “man cave corner” complete with Hawaiian scented candle that I got in Maui on our honeymoon.