Rooms With a View

MY NEXT PROJECT~

Today is my brother Brian's birthday! I won't tell you how old he is today. I will tell you that he is 4 years and two months older than me. I miss him so much! I am also very, very proud of him and what he has accomplished during the past couple of years. I did not have any recent photos so I stole these two off of his daughter, my niece Amber's, blog.

Brian with his adorable granddaughter Savanna!

At a shooting range. Happy Birthday Brian, I love you!

My next home improvement project is our front foyer. We do not use it often as most people who visit use the garage door or the back door. It is a small project so I thought I would get it done before I move on the the living room. Here is what the foyer currently looks like...

The white doors lead to the dining room which we have turned into an office for Charlie.

Standing by the front door.

Standing in the hallway looking towards the front door.

My goal is to finish this project this week. I will post photos when it is complete.

READY TO CREATE!

Remember the photos I posted last week of my very messy scrap space? Well, I finally finished cleaning and organizing it. It is now ready for me to do a little scrapping. I had hoped to this weekend, unfortunately I was down with my monthly Tysabri headache. Today is another day and I am hoping to spend a little time working on a few things. How was your weekend? Here are some photos of my clean and organized scrap space...

This table was a dining room table I purchased at a consignment store. It was meant for our dining room which turned into Charlie's office and a guest room. So, we cut off part of the table and put it in our scrap space.

My side of the table.

Vinny's side of the table.

Most used punches.

Scraps.

Words, gems, eyelets, rhinestones, brads, and other embellishments.

Patterned Paper.

My desktop. The lint roller is for picking up glitter.

This holds mostly rub ons and thickers.

This cabinet was also purchased for the dining room. I took the doors off of the top part. The bottom part holds things that I don't use as often like glitter and my embossing materials. The top part holds the following...

Buttons.

Flowers.

Clear, acrylic stamps.

Chipboard, mini albums and ribbon.

On top are my magazines and books.

This is a view of the dormer.

More dormer.

Wrapping paper and gift bags.

Individual alphabets and numbers.

Tools are on the bottom shelf and cards and envelopes are in the plastic folders.

Paints and rubber stamps.

My favorite drawers from IKEA. They hold my inks and borders.

Cardstock and themed patterned paper (Christmas, Easter, etc).

Well, that is all there is. I hope to have a few projects done soon to show you. I hope ya'll have a great Monday!

NEXT UP...

Next on my list before I do any more painting is to clean and organize my scrap area. It took quite a beating while I was painting the bathroom ( it is just outside of the bathroom). I have organized one area which I will show when the rest is done. Here are the before photos.....my camera batteries were about to die hence the bad photos...

Pretty bad don't you think. I hope to have it done before Friday which is Tysabri day. Have a great Thursday!

TA DA!

Okay, I promised after photos of Patrick's bathroom and here they are. I did not chose the color scheme. He wanted Black and Purple to match a hat that he owns. I threw in the Gray to calm things down a little. Purple is his favorite color and my least favorite color. I must admit that I am pleasantly surprised with the results.

As you walk into the bathroom. The walls are a light gray and the ceiling a lighter gray.

This cabinet was stained before I got my hands on it. It is now a high gloss black. I still need to caulk around it.

The funky wall.

A few candles.

This mirror used to be white and the cabinet stained. Now they too are high gloss black.

I found this great print at Hobby Lobby. Patrick was born in Las Vegas so I thought this was quite fitting. The purple basket holds his hair iron and blow dryer. I am sure they will end up on the counter but for now, they are neatly put away.

The back of the door.

Now, how about a little side by side comparison...

Well, that is it for the upstairs bathroom All I have left to paint in the house is the entry, living room, hallway, kitchen, laundry and all of the closets. I also want to paint our exterior shutters and trim. Next up is the entry. It is a small job that won't take me long. HAHA. I cannot wait to have all of the brown out of this house. No offense if you like brown, it just is not my taste. Now that this room is done I must tackle the dust created from three months of work. Have a great Wednesday!

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO PAINT A BATHROOM?

If you are me, it can take you anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months. I finished Vinny and Mitchell's bathroom in just a little over two weeks. The latest bathroom took me over three months. Why did it take me so long?  I have no idea? The ceiling was tougher than the other one and I never did get it as perfect as I had hoped. I finally got to the point where I just could not take it anymore. It is finally done except for some caulking. I am going to show you the before and during photos today and tomorrow the after photos. Here you go...

The following photos are what happens when you scrape a popcorn ceiling...

A shop vac comes in real handy when you have a mess like this. Stop by tomorrow for the after photos! Have a great Tuesday.

THE YARD

Before I show you our almost finished yard I must tell you what I was able to accomplish today.

• Finished organizing Charlie's office.
  
• Put linens away in my new linen drawers (photos to come soon)
• Finished decorating lamp shade for guest room (photos to come soon)
• Got Mitchell's hair cut
• Got Vinny's hair cut
• Got my hair cut
• Made a huge mess in my scrap room decorating the lamp shade.
• Power washed the pool deck (took me two hours)

That is it! The kids did get their rooms dusted, vacuumed and cleaned. Patrick even cleaned his bathroom and his JUNK DRAWER! I still have about 10 jobs that MUST be done before Sam arrives. The rest of the list is just going to have to wait.

The good news is the yard is pretty much done. All we have to do is buy our pine needles to lay down and buy a few flowers for one pot. Here are some before and after photos...

 

The before is the top photo and the after is the bottom.

 

The hardest part of this job was removing the bark they had used as mulch. It was causing a white fungus and we were concerned for termites. The pine needles work much better. There are a few beds that are also in the front where we have already put the pine needles down. I will have to take photos of those later. The area in the above photo took me at least two months to remove the bark.

 

This pot was left behind by the previous owners. I painted it and now need a few pretty flowers to put in it.

 

This area is on the other side of the door. Storm did all of the weeding one day when we were gone. I just trimmed the trees and raked up the mulch and the old leaves.

 

We plan on putting in a nice bench under this tree.

 

This is an old photo of our front porch and door. We plan on painting the casing around the door but we are not sure what color. So, we are open to suggestions. We are also going to paint the shutters which are currently black. Again, suggestions are welcome.

 

I bought two pots at Big Lots for $5 each and painted them light purple. I planted some kind of plant that will grow taller and will have purple flowers. I also planted two azalea trees on either side of the stairs. The addition of these flowers made a HUGE difference.

 

I also planted some flowers in front of the Japanese Maple. I cannot remember what kind they are.

 

This is in the back yard. I had Storm trim this tree and he went a little crazy. I am sure it will come back to life next year.

 

I worked on this tree a little and then Storm finished it for me. Behind this tree on the fence I found a little surprise which I will show you in a minute.

 

This is what we call the PIT OF DESPAIR. In our area there is no pick up of yard debris and it is not allowed at the recycling center or the dump. So, if you have yard debris that you want to get rid of you must call for permission to burn it. I wish I had taken a photo or our fire. I just could not get away since I was the only one who knew how to keep the fire burning. There is already new branches that will need to be burned. It is an eye sore in the back corner of our yard. Every house in Roebuck has their PIT OF DESPAIR.

Remember the surprise I found behind the tree? I found these four butterflies that were all rusty. I sanded them, primed them and then painted them. We hung them on the wall behind our patio table. So very pretty.

Wow, this is a long post! If you have stuck with me through this whole thing you deserve an award. As always, thanks for stopping by.

MANIC MONDAY

I am sure you are all wondering what I was able to cross off my list today. I was unable to sleep last night so I did get a couple of things done and then today I hit the ground running since I was already up when the sun came up. Here is what I was able to do today...

• Dusted Charlie's office bookshelf
• Organized Charlie's office bookshelf
• Swam 20 laps
• Costco: picked up photos for Sam's frame.
• Michael's: bought trim for lamp shade and a couple of cute boxes for office.
• Walmart: picked up Outdoor Clock from Site to Site, bought two new door mats, and picked up a few groceries.
• Home Depot: bought plants
• Came home and power washed the front and back of house, front walk, and back patio. Pool patio still needs to be done.
• Planted plants
• Watered plants
• Watched Charlie and Vinny hang Butterflies.

Not bad for a Monday. Tomorrow will be all about the inside of the house. At 3:00 Vinny, Mitchell and I will be getting our hair cut. What I don't finish tomorrow I will do on Wednesday. I also hope to get my major shopping done on Wednesday. Sam's plane arrives around 3:40 in Charlotte which is a little over an hour away. That gives me most of the day to finish up. I have accepted the fact that many items on my list will not be completed and I am okay with that. I am just happy that I got the yard done before he arrives. I will take some after photos tomorrow to show you the difference.

So, what would a post be without a couple of photos?

 

Our new outdoor clock. I found this online at Walmart for $19.99!

 

New doormat for the front door.

 

And a doormat for the back door. Both are from Walmart.

The next couple of photos need a little explaining. When we bought our house there was a redwood fence surrounding the pool. The fence was falling apart and quite honestly, it was ugly. Plus, if I was in the kitchen I could not see the kids swimming. Between the fence and the concrete surrounding the pool, was a three foot expanse of small white rock. Rock is no fun to step on when you have to fetch a ball or pull a weed. Here is what the fence looked like...

 

For safety reasons we did put up a fence that goes around our property...

 

You can see the old fence posts in the bottom right corner. We had the rock removed but the guy did not do the greatest job so we are still working on that. We plan on putting sod down as soon as we find some and hook up some lights. We did have to leave a few fence posts up because they hold important things like an electrical outlet, the pool light, and the on off switch to the pool. Since they are redwood and ugly I decided to paint them. I also added a welcome sign and pool rules. Vinny helped me and they both looked so cute. Vinny wrote out the rules with paint pens. I decided to spray them with Water Seal to water proof them. Unfortunately, I did not allow the paint pens enough time to dry. As I was doing the welcome sign I heard Vinny screaming. I looked around to see this....

 

The kids think it looks cool. I think it looks unreadable. I will eventually spray paint over it and then let Vinny do her thing with the rules. This time I will allow the paint pens plenty of time to dry. The Welcome sign only had a few little dots that she put on with the paint pens so they did not run as much.

Yesterday I forgot to post my daily Hummingbird photos. Here are a few for today...

 

 

Well, tomorrow is going to be Tornado Tuesday so I think I will try to get some sleep. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a groovy day!

LIVER, PANCREAS, AND A LITTLE ART.

On Tuesday I received the good news that I do not have Hepatitis. So, what is causing my white blood count, liver panels and other labs to be abnormal? The answer to this question depends on who you ask. My family doctor believes it is due to my MS therapy Tysabri. My Neurologist does not think Tysabri is to blame. He thinks I do have a bit of Pancreatitis, possibly chronic.

I believe that it is a combination of all of the different drugs I am currently taking. I have decided to slowly go off of all of them. My Neurologist thinks it could take anywhere from 6 months to a year since I have to do one drug at a time and taper off slowly. I had also hoped to stop Tysabri but my doctor convinced me to do one more treatment which is scheduled for Friday. We will do my yearly MRI on Tuesday and he will talk with the Tysabri rep and we will go from there.

Okay, on to the art part of this post. Ever since I finished the kids bathroom I have felt like something was missing on the wall where the towels are hung. I just could not decide on what should go there. A couple of weeks ago while I was walking around Hobby Lobby I saw a lady holding up a poster that I knew was exactly what I was looking for. I found the perfect frame at Michael's that was even on sale. It is hung a little higher than I would like but I am still in love with it. The kids love it too!

 

Is this not the coolest poster. It is perfect for both of the kids. Vinny LOVES dolphins, and Mitchell LOVES sunglasses (actually, Vinny loves sunglasses too).

So, just when I thought I was finished with this bathroom, Vinny came home from school with a piece of art that she made to match the bathroom. It is meant to hang from the ceiling. So, Charlie put it up tonight in the only place we could find; over the toilet...

 

This is made from drinking straws with ribbon running through each of them. It looks so perfect in this room!

The next room that needed some art was the Master Bathroom. Here are a couple of shots of the wall before...

 

 

Again, I searched and searched for months for the perfect art. I finally decided to make my own art. I loved what I did in our master bedroom so I thought would try something similar. Here is the result...

 

I tried to channel my inner David Bromstad. After painting the canvas with Gesso I then painted it a cream color. I painted a few streaks of brown paint randomly across the canvas then sprayed it with a water bottle. If you ever watch COLOR SPLASH then you know that David does this with almost all of his artwork. Mine did not quite turn out like his but I still liked the effect. Then I painted some flowers using acrylic paint mixed with some gel medium which gave the flowers some texture. I sealed it with a good water proof sealer and up they went! I am really happy with them. I was worried that Charlie would not like the pink but so far he does not seem to care.

Alrighty then, I am going to attempt to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. Tomorrow is Mitchell's Honor Assembly and Vinny's 5th grade Graduation party. I hope you all have a groovy Thursday!

NEW BATHROOM!

  I have finally completed the kids (Vinny & Mitchell's) bathroom! Here is the room when we first looked at the house...

 

I did my best to get a good photo of the walls....

 

Besides being red, the walls are also bumpy, can you see it? When the previous owner came over to pick up some mail I asked her what the treatment was she used on these walls. She told me she went into the backyard and dug up some dirt and stirred it into the paint! Yes, you heard me, dirt. Dirt has rocks in it and is very hard to get it off the wall. I scraped and scraped and started to sand and realized there is no way I would get it off this year. So, I did my best to get them smooth and then Charlie recommended I use the good ole Venetian Plaster. I also decided to scrape off the popcorn ceiling. As I was scraping the walls I found a spot that was very soft and realized it needed to be fixed.

 

I forgot to take a photo of the after. Believe me that it turned out perfectly.

The old icky light fixture.

 

The old knobs on the right, the shiny one. I do not like shiny knobs or fixtures. I also did not want to spend $30 on new ones. So, I decided to try sanding them. It worked perfectly! I now have beautiful brushed silver knobs!

 

The last of my photos of the old room.

And now I present you with the new bathroom!

I found the shower curtain at Walmart of all places.

 

 

The cabinets did not turn out quite like I wanted. They are definitely better than the boring beige of before.

 

I replaced the towel bars with hooks. My kids can't seem to put a towel on a bar, they can put them on a hook.

 

We had this print in our bathroom in Salt Lake. I re-painted the frame and the mat. It says "Some Days You Are the Dog, Some Days You Are the Hydrant"

 

Since the room has Ocean Blue walls and a ceiling of green I thought this wavy light fixture was perfect.

 

Ribbon around a couple of metal bins.

 

 

I painted the M and the V to put above the towel hooks. I decided to do something different and put them on the mirror.

The bathroom is now bright ( not too bright) and cheery. The kids LOVE it. They have actually been keeping it clean on their own.

Thanks for stopping by!

OUR 15 MINUTES OF FAME! (OKAY, IT WAS ONLY 3 MINUTES)

A couple of weeks ago, Charlie was watching the local Fox News and heard about a contest the station was having. The contest required you to send in a photo of a part of your kitchen that is in need of organizing. I sent in a photo of one of our kitchen cabinets. Our cabinets are a nightmare because the shelves do not adjust and they are very shallow. They are picking four winners; one each week. So, guess what? WE WON!!!!!

A reporter, Margaret Burnquist, camera man, Adrian, and the professional organizer, Triste Horrell came to our house on Monday and filmed for three hours. We had so much fun even though I was nervous being on camera. You can see that first hand at the end when I was completly tongue tied. When they were finished, Triste had actually completed three cabinets. My kids even love how organized the cabinets are.

Here is the link to the commercial. I could not figure out how to embed the video into this post so you will just have to live with the link. When the video starts, there is a 15 second commercial before our segment starts so be patient.

KITCHEN NIGHTMARE

Here are some before and after photos...

This is the cabinet they came to organize.

And this is our new coffee/drink area.

A lower cabinet with mostly breakfast items.

It is now my baking and snack area. My favorite part is the popcorn holder. It is the red and white striped bucket. I had this in a cabinet just taking up space. We never use it. Now, it holds many of the 100's of popcorn packages Charlie picked up at Costco. In the basket are snacks. The organizer, Triste taught me that "Boxes are Bad". I had so many boxes that only had a few items in them. Out went the boxes and in came a lot more room.

 

The food cabinet with a few other items thrown in.

 

Now it is a food/breakfast cabinet with room for more food.

The next photos are the cabinets I did by applying what I learned from Triste. I got rid of the three tiered shelves and replaced them with lazy Susan's. I am sorry but I do not have before photos. Trust me; they were really bad.

 

This cabinet used to hold just spices on a three tiered shelf. Now I have room for all of my oils, and my cake decorating items.

 

This cabinet used to hold all of my cake decorating items, and our medicines. It was a mess! Now, it has only medicines and with the extra room I put in some extra kitchen cleaning items and a flashlight. I love it.

If you are local, you should consider giving Triste a call. She is very affordable and she works magic. Here is her info...

SYSTEMIZE

Triste Horrell

864-442-0442

triste@systemize4u.com

Thanks for stopping by and if you did not read my last post, please do. Have a groovy week.