A good night's rest - bedroom redo inspiration

Chances are when I get back from Florida I'll feel completely refreshed and ready to tackle some summer house projects. One of which involves re-doing our bedroom and the sunroom. It involves some moving around of items and fabric, but overall, I think it will look nice.

This is what I'm using as inspiration for the bedroom:

Both images are from the Pottery Barn website

I really like the softness and texture of these two spaces. Our bedroom doesn't get a whole lot of light, so painting the room a nice light color (I'm thinking a slightly warm light grey) would be helpful, along with adding some glass table lamps, repainting my dressers/nightstands and adding some white bi-fold closet doors to our very unorganized closet. 

Photo from BHG.com 

I also have a deep love for paisley, texture and exotic and vintage styles/prints. Like the moravian star chandelier with the antique dresser in the above photo. I just... love it. I also have a woodblock stamp and would love to stamp/dye some sheets or my old light blue duvet cover and pair them with a paisley quilt/shams. I just think that would be pretty. 

Or something like this: 

Image from Target.com

But first things first, what needs to be done:

• Repaint the bedroom
• Repaint/distress the dressers and night stands
• Find two glass bedside lamps 
• Find two small 2x3 size-ish rugs for both sides of the bed
• Replace mirror on dresser 
• Install bi-fold doors 
• Install curtain rods 
• Find/make bedding and curtains 
• Maybe replace the over head light
• Maybe install new molding 

I haven't worked out too many ideas for what to put on the walls. Right now I have two metal stars (that I will probably repaint because they're a copper color now) and another project that I haven't actually started yet. 

Which may or may not look exactly like this.... from Pinterest

For the time being, my friends Raine and Kal are staying in our guest room/sunroom with their kitties and dog  so this project will have to go on hold until after their living quarters are set up (which apparently is happening today - I'm so excited for them!) and I get back from vacation. You know me, I get twitchy if I go too long without painting something. 

Summer clothes shopping/creating

It's only a few days until I finally get to go on a verymuchneeded vacation to visit my family. Unfortunately, the hubs gets to stay home and take care of the critters, mind the house and all of that fun stuff, leaving me to spend a blissful week of doing just about nothing with my family.

However, Florida is a LOT hotter than New York and I don't particularly like sweating unless I'm working out, which is certainly NOT on the to-do list while I'm there. Whenever I go to Florida, I pretty much sweat just by existing, so breathable clothing that not only looked good, but was comfortable was the first thing on my list to pick up. 

While I'm trying to start my Handmade Wardrobe Challenge and this was the absolute perfect opportunity to take start it, by making a bunch of clothes to wear on vacation, yeah... that didn't happen. Mostly because right now I just don't have time. June was a CRAZY busy month for us with events every weekend (which is usually when I would do that sort of thing) and working late most nights. It will have to commence when I get back I suppose.

I had a few "rules" in mind while I was shopping. Since I go clothes shopping maybe twice a year I needed to give myself some guidelines:

1. Buy good quality - I would rather spend a little more on a piece of clothing that will last a few years than have to replace it 6 months later (and end up spending more money overall) .
2. Don't spend a lot of money - Goes kind of directly against rule 1, but I needed to make sure I bought things on sale to get the most bang for my buck.
3. Buy useful items - pieces that "go" with  items I already have, transition between work and social, comfortable (so that I will actually wear them), and will allow for some weight flux - since that tends to happen with me. 

I'm happy to say that I managed to stay within my budget and I found some really cute items that I can wear to work, vacation, and for any other reason. My style, or at least what I'm starting to gravitate toward is more boho than anything else (taking a hint from my jewelry collection which is basically all boho with a few more traditional pieces) - so I picked up 2 maxi dresses (one of which I'm wearing today), a long maxi skirt, a pair of shorts (they're chinos but with a cute stretchy waistband so they're REALLY comfy) and a mustard yellow top with a braided kind of embellishment. Oh, and some aviators, because I totally rock them and with my green eyes, going anywhere where there's actual sunlight means I can't see anything and get massive migraines. 

I managed to find everything at TJ Maxx for $106 total, which surprised me because I generally have terrible luck when I shop there. Either what I really like is expensive or I just can't find anything I like that's in my size, or at least a close-enough size so I can alter it. I felt very accomplished yesterday. 

I have also found some patterns that I'm in LOVE with and some inspiration pieces too. I really want to wear more dresses/skirts because, let's face it, they're comfy. If they're made with the right kind of material, you can have a piece that will last next to forever and will fit even if your body fluxes like mine does. I also like the idea of having items that are dressy enough for work (just add a cardigan, jacket or accessories) but I can dress down and are comfy enough for a weekend camping trip. 

I've gotten to a point where having two (or even three) separate wardrobes is pretty much out of the question, so now finding pieces that transition well is the plan. And, of course, trying to save some cash by making my own clothes too. The most important part of it though, is finding "myself" and wearing something that is really a reflection of who I am and not who everyone wants me to be. Sure, I may end up being a little more quirky that some of my co-workers, but as long as it's still appropriate, there's nothing wrong with quirky. When I actually make an effort with clothes/hair/makeup, I get a lot of compliments. I'd like to find a way to "try" without actually having to. Yay laziness!

A sort-of update

It's been super crazy at our house lately. My very lovely friends Raine and Kal (over at Nemeton project) are staying with us until their sheds are installed on their property (which surprisingly will be by the end of the week). This is where the guest room becomes super handy.

Garry and I have been contemplating other ideas for the guest room as well. As in slightly more cute and tiny ideas.

Like I said before, we're taking a break from any big projects over the summer. Unfortunately, it's not just because we want a "break" from housework, but with my hours being cut at my main job (boo!) and since Garry is a temp and his hours are fairly inconsistent, we need to make sure we can put more in reserves in case something happens.

That, and I've been exceedingly exhausted for the last week-ish. Like there's not enough coffee in the world for me to get out of bed in the morning.

The weather here is supposed to be ridiculously hot today and tomorrow and with that, I've been thinking about summer clothing. I found a great tutorial online for a super simple maxi dress here. Seriously folks, it will take 2 hours at most. The best part? I have old jersey/beech bed sheets that would be perfect AND I have some kelly green Rit dye. Sweet! Also - I can add some embellishments with my lotus woodblock stamp I bought a while ago. Ideally, I'd find a way to ombre dye the fabric and then use a metallic fabric paint (which I might have somewhere...) for the woodblock stamp. Best part - I have two sheets so I can test it on one before I spend the time/effort making the dress.

I'm hoping this will help kick off my Homemade Wardrobe Challenge. I'm really hoping to make some cute maxi dresses for summer since my office doesn't run the a/c in the summer time since not a lot of folks are here.

Photos? Hopefully... soon. Wow, I know I'm bad about this.

The other side of crazy

Well folks, Garry and I managed to make it through the busiest week ever without too many scratches and bruises. Seriously, I don't think we were this busy before our own wedding last September.

The business was mostly on my part. Being that it's the end of the school year I had events to cover a few nights after school hours and I had an event to do with the radio station I work for. On top of that, I had a few other errands to run with my friend Adee that just got married on Saturday.

I pretty much stayed in bed all day on Sunday. I was exhausted. As in so tired that I couldn't sleep exhausted. Yeah, not pretty. Garry had some friends from out of town in, and I was a bad hostess and just hid in my room all day. Oh well, they understood. We were crazy busy and I was crazy exhausted, these things happen.

So now we're looking at the rest of the month and summer to see what projects we're going to take on and what needs to be finished. Since the weather has been typical for this area, it's been raining - a LOT. So finishing the fire pit was put on hold until we could get a few days (where we have some time) to mortar the facing on the stones. Once that is all set, we can start having some fires (yay!) and burn some of the wood we have from cutting the pine trees down.

In a few weeks I'll be taking a very much needed vacation to visit my family in Florida for a week. Seriously guys, I haven't had a real vacation in a LONG time, like 2 years. I'm due.

The plan there will be to sit next to the pool and do very precious little else. We're also planning a party for my grandma's 90th birthday - so okay, there will be one day where I have to do something, but that's how those things go. My cousin is also due to deliver her baby the week I'm there, so that will be really exciting too! It's doubtful we'll end up going to the hospital or anything, but I will be cheering her on while I'm poolside with margarita in hand.

When I get back from Florida, we're going to start working on some more yard-related projects. I'd like to get the flowerbeds tamed, new plants planted, and re-mulch. Making sense of the back corner of the yard would also be a good plan as right now it's a pile of bricks, slate and various random plants growing (including the indestructible hosta, which I'm very sure I killed off last fall, apparently not, so since it has defied my ability to kill it, I'll dig them up and include them in the landscape project - which means they will probably die when I move them...).

I'm still working on the plans for the backyard garden. Essentially, what we're going to have to do is fence in the area where we're going to plant it, as most of these plants are poisonous to dogs. Added to the fence will be a pergola-style archway. The crummy part of this project is that we're probably going to have to wait until next spring to tackle it as we have some bigger indoor projects to attend to (like getting the attic situated so we can actually use it as a guest room/office). For this summer, the plan is to clear out the area of weeds and other debris, rebuild our mermaid shrine and hopefully plant a flowering tree in the back corner area.

But, all of this will have to wait until my vacation. I'm looking forward to spending a week doing very very little other than existing. It will be blissful.

Taking time to take care of ourselves

It seems as though we spend a lot of time daydreaming planning our house projects and sometimes actually working on them and not a whole lot of time taking care of ourselves. This weekend, even though we did absolutely nothing on our house, left Garry, myself, and even our pup Auron, quite exhausted.

Starting on Friday, we went pretty much non-stop all weekend. Friday, Garry and I woke up at 4:30am (he has to be at work by 6am), worked a full day (I worked an event after I was done with my "regular" work for the day) and then went to our friends respective bachelor/bachelorette parties. By 11 pm we were both exhausted, Auron was annoyed that we were gone after his bedtime, and in much need of some deep sleep.

While the sleep was good, it felt too short. The next morning we were up and at it again. This time we were going to my co-worker's wedding and then straight off to our friend's memorial service. You read that right folks, wedding and a funeral in the same day. It was rough. Poor Auron had to stay home for all of this too, even though both events were technically "dog friendly," I didn't want to chance him acting inappropriately in those situations.

Sunday, well, let's just say Auron at that point had had enough. He stopped eating. Naturally, Garry and I were really upset. He would eat a little and then stare at us dolefully. Garry took the pup over to a friend's house to play and run around with their dogs (so he could get some exercise and maybe that would cause him to eat) and while he did manage to eat a little bit, he wasn't willing to eat an entire meal.

Everything else was "working" fine and he has been acting completely normal. We tried feeding him breakfast this morning and he wouldn't eat unless one of us fed it to him out of our hand - which then he ate with the usual gusto he would when we fed him in his bowl. Ah ha. We're fairly certain he's doing this out of defiance because he wants more of our attention (which we fully admit, we haven't been able to give him the previous two days) so we're making a pact to spend more time playing and spoiling our little pup (not that we didn't during the week anyway, but this will involve more interactive play on our part) and spoiling ourselves like going out to eat once in a while or to a movie. This could also mean a master bedroom redo to encourage more... umm... restful sleep.

I have some paint chips on the wall (yes, again) and I'm leaning toward a light, warm grey. Yep, it's a totally different direction than we went before, but I think part of the reason I'm having a hard time sleeping is that the room color (albeit, one of my favorite colors) is just too dark. Part of this renovation will also involve re-painting our dressers, end tables and bed frame, *finally* adding some bi-fold doors (and possibly doing a cool project with them too), new curtains, bed linens, some soft rugs for under our feet and lamps for our nightstands. Maybe some closet organization in there too? Hopefully Garry will feel ambitious enough to tackle the molding (base, window and crown) project this summer too. Oh, and artwork... yes I have some things in the works for that as well.

We're also thinking of moving Auron's crate to the guest room. As much as we love our little boy, when he rolls around in his crate at night it wakes me up (preventing a good nights' sleep), and our room feels a lot smaller with his very large crate in it.

Overall, it's a nice "project" for the summer. It's not difficult to do (the hardest part will be installing the molding, which we've done base and door molding before, but I hear crown is the hardest to do) and everything can be done in stages without the room being out of commission. Besides, we have a guest room if it ends up too crazy in there for a few days.

Hobbits don't do well in the heat

This weekend was so incredibly warm, humid and all of those not-so-pleasant things, well that is if you're Garry and I. See, my husband looks very much like a tall-ish hobbit, or a leprechaun, take your pick. But for someone that is barrel chested and furry, hot weather is not so fun. 

Not to mention that I don't particularly care for hot and humid weather. I sweat a lot. I mean a LOT. It's kind of gross even though I know it's entirely functional and natural. I don't mind sweating when I'm actually doing something, but I don't want to be sweating just because I exist. 

Yesterday the heat got particularly bad so we installed our AC units in our living room and bedroom. Our poor little Auron was not handling the heat very well either. When I put him to bed he was panting pretty hard so we installed our AC unit in the bedroom at 10 p.m. last night. We all slept much better once that kicked in. 

We didn't get much accomplished over the weekend as it was just so hot. Well, I did manage to clean the house aside from our bedroom and the kitchen (which hopefully I'll get to tonight). In that process I burned my toes with the steam mop. Let me tell you - that REALLY hurts! Steam mops are wonderful things, but it's best to do that when you're actually paying attention instead of mindlessly daydreaming about artwork for your guest room. 

I even managed to clean up some of the baseboard (as it's looking a little rough) and I'm very thankful for the magic eraser sponges. If you haven't used them, they are the best thing ever. I removed so much grossness (which I'm embarrassed to admit was there in the first place) with just one of those damp sponges. They clean walls, wood, just about anything that you need something very slightly abrasive for. I like that the abrasiveness comes from baking soda and nothing crazy chemical-y. 

We try really hard to use products/cleaning methods that are environmentally friendly, however sometimes they just don't work. I bought a dish detergent (can't remember the brand) that was organic, environmentally friendly or whatever and that stuff just did not work. You pretty much have to "wash your dishes" before washing them in the dishwasher and to boot it was supposed to be efficient enough to only have to use a little bit, we ended up having to use twice the recommended amount to get our dishes "almost" clean. Augh. So it's back to our old detergent for now until I can find something that will actually work. 

Otherwise, some of the other methods we use have been really helpful: 

• Steam mop (except when I burn my toes!). They clean the floors with a very hot steam which lifts all of the grime and dirt (and paint splatters) off of your floor. The pads are washable and all you need to clean your floors is some tap water. They clean our floors really well, however once in a while we do have to polish them. 
• Microfiber cloths. These help eliminate the need for paper towels. We still keep them on hand for the really gross stuff, but for the most part (for dusting, windows, kitchen/table tops) we use the cloths. It has cut down on our paper towel use considerably and you can just throw them in the wash. I'm planning on picking up a few extra cloths to have on hand as sometimes they get pretty dirty before I get to the next room. (Or maybe I should just be better about cleaning so that doesn't happen?) 
• Method brand cleaners. These products are environmentally friendly and they actually work really well. I usually get them at Target as they have the best stock. They're a little pricier than some cleaners, but fairly inexpensive compared to some other environmentally friendly cleaners out there. You only need a wee bit so the stuff lasts a good long time. I may have to stock up twice a year (but then again, maybe that's an indicator that I should clean more). 

Bathroom redo - step 1 of a billion

It's been a long, long week of desperately trying to get better so I can actually get something accomplished this week. I'm feeling a LOT better than I did on Monday, so I'm hoping (weather permitting) I'll get some gardening accomplished over the long weekend.

That's right - I have three whole days off of work! Can you believe it? It's been a while since I've had that much time off and wasn't sick. Maybe I'll finally get around to weeding my garden this weekend...?

This week Garry was a saint and refinished our tub. I don't have any before photos for you guys (it was pretty bad) but I will have some "after" photos for you folks either this evening or tomorrow when we take all of the drop cloths down.

The process wasn't terribly difficult, even though our tub didn't want to cooperate at first. Here's the rundown of the process (even though I didn't participate because I was at work/still sick when Garry did it):

• Clean the tub. I know it sounds like a no-brainer, but getting the tub completely clean was integral to making sure the end result was what we wanted. The kit we bought had a cleaning solution and steel wool pad in it, but because the paint was chipping so bad the solution ended up flaking the paint even more. 
• Plan B: scrape all of the paint off. We're no strangers to scraping paint (like our disasterous accent wall project that we eventually remedied with wood paneling) and luckily the paint came off relatively easily. 
• Sand down the tub. Garry (and our friends Kal and Raine) took some light grit sandpaper and sanded the entire tub down so the surface was nice and smooth. 
• Clean the tub (again). All of the dirt, dust and other debris had to be cleaned off in order for the solution to seal properly. 
• Tape plastic drop cloths around the tub surround, fixtures and floor around the tub. The epoxy stuff was in a spray can so we had to make sure that if it got "outside the lines" something was protecting the rest of the bathroom. A few cheap plastic drop cloths and painter's tape did the job. 
• Get the masks, turn on the air vent, open the bathroom window (and other windows in the house), move all the critters to the bedroom and shut the door (so they wouldn't be affected by fumes) and spray away! This step was a two-parter. You have to spray the first coat on (in a nice, even coat), wait 15-20 minutes and then spray a second coat on. 
• Since our tub (after sanding it down) was already white, we only needed two coats. If you have a darker tub and you're going for a lighter color (or a light tub that you want darker) you'l need more. We only needed one can of the two-can set - so if we need to do it again down the road, we're all set. 
• Wait 3 days for it to cure. This was the kind of sucky part. We couldn't use our (only) shower for 3 days. My cat was also thoroughly annoyed that he couldn't play in the tub. Luckily, our friends (that are almost done refinishing their bathroom) let us shower at their house.

Okay, see our friends Jeff and Eithne bought this old late-Victorian era house on the other side of town. The place needed a LOT of love and they were just the folks to give it to that sad little house. They bought it a few months ago and had a ton of work already done, like having new water pipes installed, new drywall in a few rooms and a whole bunch of other craziness. One major project that needed to be completed before they moved in was having the bathroom redone. Oh man, it was bad. They had to take out pretty much everything, down the studs. But let me tell you, that bathroom has become my new favorite bathing place. 

I don't have photos (because I was smelly and was just too excited to bathe), but let me describe it for you. The walls are painted this gorgeous cerulean blue from the midpoint up along with the ceiling. The floors are a soft white hex tile with light putty-grey grout (they aren't terribly in love with it, but I certainly am!), a gorgeous pedestal sink with large round mirror mounted over it is across the room from a small dresser used for bath essentials, a glittery chandelier hangs from the ceiling (or as Jeff calls it, the chandelier in the sh*t house) a fluffy white bathmat is placed invitingly in front of... this amazing claw-foot tub with a telephone shower handle and a large shower head for actual showers. 

I know! I'm insanely jealous too. 

So I begged asked nicely if I could indulge in a nice hot bath. Oddly enough folks, I had never taken a bath in a claw-foot tub before then. I know, what's wrong with me? Eithne happily granted my request and I took what was probably the most relaxing bath of my life. Wow... just wow. Looking at the light from the chandelier playing off of the gorgeous cerulean blue walls and ceiling and feeling like I'm underwater in the Mediterranean (not that I'd actually do that because I'm terrified of the ocean) was blissful. 

There plans are to add some board and batten on the lower half of the walls too. As I luxuriated in that gorgeous tub, I imagined some gorgeous Mediterranean artwork and some colorful towels to tie it all in. It's a huge bathroom - plenty of room for some substantial pieces. 

There's still a lot of work that they have planned for that house (her list makes mine look like a college student's weekly grocery shopping list), but just like everyone else who buys a house (especially one that really needs some love) you take it one project at a time. 

So our not nearly as impressive bath tub will be finished curing today. We still have plans to redo the tub surround and install new fixtures, but that's going to wait for a while until we can build up our savings again, as that's easily going to cost a few hundred dollars to do it how we want to.