Random Projects

So, I can never just sit still. So, here are some projects I've been working on between house projects.

I made this totally awesome puff ball board. I {love}it!!!

I just made a puff balls. Cut a piece of wood into a circle. Sanded it. Painted it. And Glued my puff palls onto it. Easy peazy!

I used these handy puff ball makers. Genius. 

Not sure what else to put on the mustard board. I'll figure it out soon.

A new craft store opened up in town. This means trouble for the hubbs {seriously}.

I made these from there. I bought the wood and came home and created them. So much fun! The blue one is a white erase calendar. Another in a mason jar that I painted with chalk paint and then sanded. I use if for my make up brushes. 

Here is my bike. I've had it for 10 years and I'm very attached to it. But, I didn't like the color anymore. And the rain kind of did it in. I thought about buying a new teal bike. But, I just couldn't. I love this bike. So, I decided to restore it. 

And it was a great idea!!! I love how it turned out!!

I spray painted it, put on a new seat, new handle bar grips, a new bag on the front, made vinyl to put on. And then decorated it. It was fun. And rewarding.

I made a scrapbook of the house updates. That was fun. And it's nice being able to have to show people what the house used to look like when we give house tours of our work. 

I painted the edges of a piece of wood. Then I made a cool sign with paper and modge podge.

It turned out cute!!

Then I did the same thing with these wooden things the hubby made for me. I still need to find something to make this project cuter. It will come to me. 

I spray painted our patio table. It was blach-ish.

I painted it white. 

The front yard fence was a nasty green color. 

I spray painted it black. Much better. 

I made a reindeer sign. I love it.

My husband does not. 

And I'm working on more. So, I'll those soon.

Happy crafting!!

Living Room update

So, I finally painted the fireplace in the living room.

The old post from the living room is here

And we swapped out the tile. The hubby said we should tile over the old tile. I said we needed to bash out the old tile. The hubby listened to me {not sure why?? But...wait...we all know why :-) }. Well, turns out we should have done it his way.

Old tile...

Bashing out the old tile like the wifey requested {ba ha}.

New tile and grout installed.

You probably can't notice. I can. But, the tile is all wavy. Oops. Wife fail. 

But, it's better than the black.

I finished painting the fireplace white. Then we installed a new mantel with restored wood from the Restore. Favorite place.  And ditto with the trim around the tile on the floor. It's all very lovely now. It's like vintage chic. {Perfect}

I love it!!!

The Outside of the House

Sooo, this will be a fun one to post about. This was our biggest project yet! And it was brutal. 

The front yard was awful, terrible, no good. I don't know what they were thinking when they landscaped it. 

The cream color and green trim was gross. 

The randomly scattered bushes were weird. 

The HUGE random tied together logs were unreal. I don't know what their purpose was. Ugly. 

And there were rock EVERY WHERE!!

And railroad ties EVERY WHERE!!! Why??

The yard was really ugly during the winter when all the trees weren't blooming. 

To be totally honest, I was embarrassed to drive up to my house and walk into it. 

Once I was inside all was well. It was looking pretty inside. 

But, it was embarrassing having my friends come over. I would always apologize for my yard. Like literally apoligize. I would say, "I'm sorry my yard is ugly. Someday {there's that word again} we will get around to fixing it up {after all of our other 10,000 projects get done}."

So, it sat like this for about 10 months. 10 months too long.

Then the work began. At first we recruited the kids. But, that didn't last too long. And didn't really help much. Ha ha. 

We had them shovel rocks. 

And while all the boys worked on that, I started painting the house. That was lovely. Not!

Once all the rocks were gone (which took days and days. And a few more days. and 40 wheel barrels full) the hubby started working on a flower bed and the patio area. 

This was the worst part. The hubby worked on this every night after work. And every Saturday. 

We had one hiccup on a particular Saturday. We were trying to sell off some of the large rocks we removed. A guy come over to pick some up. And he had a heart attack. My husband did CPR on him. It was SCARY and SAD!!! And took up one whole Saturday {which was precious work time}. 

And the patio was finally completed!! 

And we bought a park bench.

Then the hubby started on the pathway out to the street. 

I tried to help. But, like the kids...I wasn't much help.

Oh yeah...forgot to mention that I got a new mailbox. I don't know why more people don't do that. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I just {love it}. 

I love that I can plant flowers in the back of it. I hope the mailman does too {smile}. 

It took me several Saturdays to get the front of the house painted. Notice I only said front. The sides and back have yet to be painted. Someday {smile}. 

I finally got my part painted so then the hubby started on the next flower box {for all the roses we bought}.

Then we laid down sod. WORST job EVER!!! I'll never do that again. So. many.worms.

And it was SO heavy to carry. And awkward to lay out. 

It was a pretty miserable few days. The hubby took a few days off to get it done. I told him Saturdays weren't just cutting it. Ha ha. I just wanted it done already. I wanted my hubby back. Ha ha!

After the sod we leveled the ground, put in pavers around the tree and mailbox. Then the hubby installed his pond. That was a job!! We moved big rocks from the back yard to the front. Joke. The hubby hit several sprinkler heads during all the pong installation. So, he did a lot of pipe repairing. He installed a plug outside and ran it to the pond so we could have power {being an electrical engineer comes in handy}. We transplanted a few of the old plants to new locations. Then we dumped bark chips in the separated areas. And ta da...we had a yard!!! Miracle!!! 

We did the impossible.

Only took 2 months {chuckle}.

This is the yard the day we finished.

And this is the yard today. Everything has settled in. And the trees are blooming again. 

It's beautiful!!!

We love to just sit out front and listen to the water trickle. And the birds love it. So, we watch the birds splash around. And the squirrels love it too. We enjoy watching them as well. 

Everyone that drives by our yard stares at it. So, I think we did it just right. 

The roses are starting to bloom. And we can't wait for all of these flowers to start budding. It will be epic!!

Advice: Never re-landscape your yard on your own. You might not survive.