P is for...

Progress.

Slow progress, but progress.

Progress... but not by me. I quickly realized that this whole floor scraping project was way out of my league. I might be a tad handy with some things, but I'm kind of a wimp. Scraping this flooring would have taken me and my puny biceps for-ev-er to finish.

Enter my brother-in-law, Joe -- he's an awesome contractor here in SE Idaho and we trade office labor for handy contractor-y labor. He was nice enough to agree to do the worst job in the world (yep, scraping stairs has stolen the title from wallpaper removal) to pay me back for my amazing skills as a personal assistant/business manager/bossy sister-in-law.

He's crazy strong (he can pick up and move large appliances by himself! Leap tall buildings in a single bound!) so he actually removes things when he scrapes the floor, which is apparently a pretty integral part in removing flooring.

This is good news, friends. I would have been scraping these steps until school let out for the summer! Haha, I kid. Sort of.

Something New For My Bedroom Walls

Recently I took a little break from my stairwell project to DIY myself some bedroom wall art.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but my husband and I have never had anything decorative above our bed; I've never been able to find something I loved for that space. I like meaningful art as a general rule anyway, but especially in a bedroom it somehow feels like it should be more personal, and certainly not just thrown up to fill the space.

Maybe this is just me, and maybe I'm overanalyzing things (surprised?) but that's just how I work. I'm complicated, people!

A month or two ago I started to form a plan...I love the look of weathered wood signs, so I decided to create one for my bedroom. Before I had to start searching too hard for old wood, some family friends kindly volunteered some of their weathered wood siding. Lucky me!

One side of the siding had some old white paint which was most likely lead-based. I (carefully) scraped the offending paint off, cut all the pieces to similar lengths and liberally coated the previously painted side with both a clear spray and polycrylic. 'Cause I'm nervous about lead paint, and if a little bit of poly is good to seal any stubborn bits of possible dangerousness into the wood grain, a whole bunch of poly is even better.

I laid the pieces of siding out on my kitchen floor (newly glossy side to the back!) and used screws and leftover wood from another project to secure them to each other.  I also added screw eyes and wire from a picture hanging kit.

At that point, my excitement got the best of me and I had to hang my new project above my bed to see if I liked it well enough to continue.

 And... I just about died.

I love it. It's unexpected, definitely not boring above-the-bed-hotel-art. My favorite part is the juxtaposition of the rustic, weathered wood sign and the glossy chrome and crystal light fixtures and the crisp bedding. Did I mention that I LOVE it? L.O.V.E.

And it's not even done. My plan is to paint one of my favorite quotes onto the sign to finish the project, but I love how it looks even by itself and I was just too excited to keep these photos to myself. Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if I want to paint it at all... no matter how random it might be to have a big blank wood rectangle hanging above my bed. I'm going to have to give this some thought.

 I think this sort of sign, left as is, would also be fabulous as a backdrop for pretty much anything -- how great would a display of mirrors or framed photos look layered over this? Gorgeous!

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It Goes Up To Eleven!

Ever heard of Mandi at Vintage Revivals?

If not, now you have! And I doubt you'll forget her anytime soon. Like this post's title tries to imply in a nerdy Spinal Tap referencing way, this girl is creative. It goes up to an eleven, people.

She just made the crazieaziest project ever. As in, I'm in awe at both the product and the process.

Mandi wanted a zebra rug -- you know, the ones that are popping up in cute rooms right now. She didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars though, so girlfriend made.her.own.rug.

I couldn't make this stuff up. Please, hop over to Vintage Revivals and read about this amazing project.



Beware the Wild Yeast

My sweet husband has decided that he wanted to make and keep a wild yeast sourdough starter, which sounds very Discovery Channel to me. In all seriousness, apparently it's a bit of an art and not all starters are created equal. My father has kept the same starter alive for over 30 years, he loves it so much. That's committment, people.

The hubster has been reading all about the process and researching tips from the sourdough gods, and I'm for supporting him in things that interest him. Plus it's my job to sample his homemade wares... you know, quality control. I'm there for him.

He treated our family to sourdough pancakes last weekend (the only sort of pancakes I enjoy, thanks dad!) and he also tried his hand at a loaf of sourdough bread.

His first loaf of bread ever, mind you.

I think it's kind of cute. I'm so proud of him!

Just wait until I teach him how to form a loaf. Boules, batards, baguettes, oh my! He'll be unstoppable, and I'll be 10 pounds heavier.

The Walls Are Painted!

I'm finally done painting, and the crazy Cirque du Soleil ladder has been removed from my stairwell and my life (for good, hopefully). I still have a lot to do in this space, but I wanted to share the progress.

Here's a reminder of the mess I was dealing with when I started to pull wallpaper:

And here are a couple photos of the stairwell walls (and ceiling) after fresh paint:

I'm still loving my new $10 lantern, I think it looks great in the small stairwell, casting all those fabulous shadows on the ceiling and walls.

As for the stairwell itself, I like it more too, even without anything on the walls or Phase 2 (the official name for the stairs part of this project) complete.

Speaking of Phase 2, I ripped all the ugly beige carpet from the steps and uncovered this:

 Old vinyl flooring. Yuck.

I have a sinking feeling that I'm not going to like Phase 2 of my little stairwell project.

(My husband, the one who hates coming home to new holes in walls and ripped out carpet, would no doubt love to say, "I told you so!" right about now. But he would never do that, because he loves me... and values his life.)

Read more about my stairwell project here

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I'm So Excited, I'm So Excited!

"I'm soo..sooo..scared!"

Best Saved by the Bell scene. Ever. If you disagree, you just might be dead to me.

Unfortunately we don't live in a land where Saved by the Bell or its fabulous girl group "Hot Sundae" exists. Sigh. Back to reality...

We did it.

We bought a new washing machine and dryer!

One on hand, I feel a bit ridiculous because my life has been reduced to large appliance-induced adrenaline rushes. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure this wasn't my initiation into the club of boring adult purchase giddiness, so I should just make peace with this.

I'm a completely lame responsible adult who absolutely lives for understands the importance of purchasing shiney new appliances the necessary objects for the washing of my official reproduction Kelly Kapowsky costumes care of my family.

I can't wait until my laundry room looks like this:

Source

...even though I just remembered that my laundry room is in a windowless room in my outdated basement.

So it might look a little bit more like this:

Pre-photoshopped source


Ahem. I guess I'm going to have to do something about that.

Adventures in High Wire Painting

I'm officially in the home stretch of Phase 1 of the Stairwell De-uglification Project of 2011. (Doesn't that sound official?)

Painting time!

The good news is that this part goes quickly and it means I'm almost done. The bad news? I have to climb the evil ladder of doom again. In a way this project has been therapeutic, almost like exposure therapy for my fear of heights... but really? It's been horrid, and my palms have been sweating and I never, ever, ever, want to do it again.

And because I never, ever, ever want to do this again, I decided to throw out all my recent "I love color" mumbo jumbo and go with a nice neutral that I can live with forever and ever, amen.

Enter Sherwin Willliams' Rice Grain. I think we'll get along swimmingly, especially when I start Phase 2 of my project... the stairs. The stairs are going to be the main event in this little space and I can't wait to share my plan with you guys!

Hope you all have a great weekend and a nice President's Day! If you need me, I'll be the girl with a death grip on the ladder in my stairwell.

Stairwell Progress - Texturing Patched Walls

If you're a fan of this blog on Facebook or if you follow me on twitter, you may have seen my joyful exclamations when I finished pulling all the wallpaper down in my stairwell. It was a beautiful moment, one that will warm the cockles of my heart for a long time, I'm sure.

(On a side note, I've always wanted to use 'warm the cockles of my heart' in a sentence. Check!)

After the wallpaper was done, it was time to move onto patching the walls.

Between the chair rail that had been on the wall, putty knife gouges and the section of unprimed wallboard from an old addition, there was plenty to patch. This is always the hardest part of a project for me, because I just want to paint already, and patience isn't one of my strengths.

But I know that if I just take some time and do it right, I'm going to be a lot happier with the end result. Soooo, I patched. And I patched. And I patched some more.

Then it was time for some texture.

When I fill holes that are bigger than nail holes, I  like to add some texture to help the patch blend more seamlessly into the existing walls. While orange peel texture is not on my list of favorite things, it's what is on the walls in my stairwell and I have more fabulous things to spend my money on than fancy new wall textures.

Here's my non-blended wall in dire need of some textural love:

No, my stairwell is not going to be green. I just picked that color to help the texture show up better. No worries, I pinky swear. Can you see the stripe of smooth wall in the middle? I sure hope you can.

I thought I'd share the completely amateur, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants process I use to match wall textures using an aerosol can of spray texture. I use this stuff that you can buy at any home improvement store:

The thing I like about this specific product is that you can turn a dial on the back of the nozzle to adjust the size of the splatter. I always turn it to the finest spray to begin.

1. Spray the texture on. I prefer to use a continual spray vs. quick bursts because I've noticed that each time you press the nozzle you get some bigger splatters before the spray evens out. I also err on the side of caution -- don't go crazy, you can always add more texture later if it doesn't match.

2. Examine. Get up close and personal with your wall. Love your wall. See how the new, wet texture looks next to the existing wall texture. You can decide if you need to spray some more, or if it blends well as is.

Again, I'm no professional and I'm not about to waste hours trying to make it perfect; I just don't want giant spots of perfectly smooth wall surrounded by texture (you've all seen walls like that, I know it!).

Sometimes if the walls have a really, really fine texture on them I even dab at the wet texture softly with a baby wipe to make the bumps even smaller and more subtle. Yeah, that's right. A baby wipe. I'm a mom, people -- that's how we roll.

(I didn't actually use the baby wipe method for my stairwell walls, they had plenty of orange peel-y goodness and did not need the texture spray to be toned down one bit.)

3. Let it dry. This one's pretty self-explanatory, friends. No photo needed.

4. Paint. At this point I paint over my test area and the existing wall just to confirm that the result is what I'm going for. If it is, I can tackle all the spots on the wall that need texture and I know just what to do to match the existing walls without all these boring, time-consuming spot checks. Did I mention I don't have a lot of patience?

See? Not too hard. Is it perfect? Um, no. Is it good enough? Ohh, yeah. Life's too short to worry about orange peel.

A Change In Bedding

For the last year or so, the cute hubster and I have had West Elm's pintucked duvet and shams on our bed.

Cute, right?

 If only it were all about looks. Le. sigh.

Bear with me for a moment while I explain why I decided to make a change, since I will surely be tarred and feathered for being the only person in the world who doesn't unconditionally love and adore the pintucked bedding trend that's happening right now.

Ahem.

There are lots of things that the pintucked bedding had going for it: it was pretty and white, it added great texture to the room, and the bed looked nice when it was made. I wanted oh so badly to love it with all my heart.

There was one major con though, and it was a big enough deal that it ruined the whole pintucked-bedding-experience for both me and my husband. This duvet cover was so delicate, almost every time one of us would try to pull it up or move it around, I would hear a 'riiiiip' as one of the stitches either popped or ripped through the cotton.

Admittedly, our footboard may have contributed to this problem since the comforter and duvet cover would work their way down and get wedged between the mattress and footboard, which would make it more difficult to pull up. But even at night, something as simple as pulling the duvet cover back over me would, more often than not, result in more tearing. And since I live with a blanket hog, I was pullin' on that duvet cover all the time!

I want to be able to live in my bed. Not literally, of course; having people bring me breakfast in bed every.single.day. would be a total drag, don't cha think? HA. I kid. But really folks, I want a soft, inviting, livable bed, not one that I'm afraid to flop down on with a book. The pintuck bedding is beautiful, and I think it would work great in a guest room, but it just wasn't right for our bedroom.

And that? Is why I bought new bedding. It's still white, and though it's not as texturally interesting or forgiving when the bed is made, it does have a nice little embroidered detailing.

The best part of the new bedding is definitely how it fits into our life. I can climb into bed with a book or relax with my kids without worrying about the structural integrity of a pintuck. 

What do you think? Are you lining up to tar and feather me now? Have I committed a major offense against the pintuck bedding lovers of the world? Or are you a fan of bedding that's (gasp) comfortable and soft too?

I {Heart} You

You may have noticed that I used { }'s in my title, which practically guarantees that my post will be full of love and squishiness.

Happy Valentine's Day to everybody, whether or not you celebrate in the classic, Hallmark-y tradition (which we do not). If my hubby gave me roses, chocolates, and took me out to dinner today I might grow suspicious as to what government agency was involved and where exactly my real husband was being imprisoned.

I view Valentine's Day as a sweet little roadbump of fun in our usual routine; it's a nice excuse for crazy things like pink pancakes, but both my husband and I like to express our love every single day. We're lovey people like that. So we're spending the morning on a little coffee shop date (can't wait!) and then at our tax guy's office. Sa-weet. I'm hopin' for a valentine in the grand tradition of washer and dryer-purchasing tax refunds.

As far as I'm concerned, my family celebrated yesterday. We had a nice morning at church, some maple doughnuts, and a bit of shopping, after which we all settled in for a movie nap:

I looooove movie naps. Boys watch a movie, parents nap. Brilliant!

"Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild"? Not so brilliant. Le sigh.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

How I Made My Distressed Chalkboard Frame

Ages and ages ago (or you know, a few months ago -- ages in blog world) I promised to share my technique for achieving the cute finish on my kitchen chalkboard frame, seen here in all its closeup glory:

When my sister was visiting last weekend she decided she wanted her own chalkboard, so after a bit of fake grumbling I made one for her. I did it in one day, so it's a pretty basic little project.

First we went and got a large frame from a local thrift store for $2. (It was $5 but I talked 'em down on account of a loose miter joint that needed some love. Thrift stores are like garage sales, for sure)

I painted it with several coats of a color I stumbled across at Michael's a while ago, Krylon's Catalina Mist. Brilliant stumble, Anna.  

Here's a closeup of the painted frame on my fancy shmancy cereal box countertop protector:

Catalina Mist is a lovely aqua shade. I'm always happy when I find spray paint that comes in nice colors since the selection is so limited.

Next, I distressed the frame with a fine sanding block I keep around for just such an occasion. My distressing philosphies? Less is more and keep it random.  Now I'm no expert in distressing -- heck, I rarely use this technique. There are tons of great tutorials out there in blogland, so I'm just going to give you a brief rundown.

Like I said, I use a worn out sanding block with a very fine grit. Just sand the areas that would naturally receieve most of the wear. The frame's outside corners received the largest amount of attention, then I lightly rubbed the sanding block along the entire front of the frame to gently rough up the detailed design and make it look less "I-just-painted-this-with-a-can-of-Krylon".

When I distress I do it slowly and hop around the frame (or other piece), examining the overall project constantly, and doing my best to maintain a random and natural look. Start sanding too much or too symmetrically and you might as well stamp "Faux Distressing Done By Anna" right on the front of your frame (in my opinion).

After all that, you'd think I'd have a better picture.

 

(You can also get a look at my technique by scrolling to the top of this post and the photo of my turquoise chalkboard frame)

After distressing, I wipe on a glaze with a foam brush, making sure to get it in all the frame's details. I let it sit for a few minutes until it starts to dry, and then wipe it off with baby wipes. Letting it dry just a bit allows more of the glaze to stay in the details of your piece rather than just being wiped off.

Glaze is another subjective thing -- you want to be happy with the finished look, so leave as much or as little glaze on the piece as you choose. If you look at it and it makes you want to dance a jig, or eat a doughnut, or kiss your husband, then I'd say you're good.

My sister bought a small piece of 1/2" MDF from The Home Depot for around $5 and had it cut to fit the frame, then I painted it with chalkboard paint while she attempted to beat my awesome Unblock Me skills. She's a cheater, by the way.

Nope, no picture of the chalkboard paint either. This post is about the frame, after all.

Let it dry and stick the chalkboard into the frame... then hang and enjoy!

{This spot will eventually have a photo of the finished product when my sweet and lovely (cheater) sister remembers to get it to me. Hey Buff, I'm talkin' to you! XOXO}

UPDATE: Here's the finished product, complete with a snarky Unblock Me-related message from my sister:

My answer? I'm not telling. The game is on my husband's phone so I rarely get to play it, and somebody whose name rhymes with "shmy shmister" should get back to work! Cheater!

Here's another photo of the board complete with imaginative menu-related drawings:

Thanks to Craft Gossip for featuring this project!

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Open Letter To the Universe

Dear Universe,

Please stop breaking my stuff.

It's bad enough that we still own that house in Salt Lake, but did you really have to go and break the dishwasher down there? I'm not about to make our nice renters hand wash or anything, so this turn of events has severely cut into my washer/dryer purchasing fun.

Just so I'm perfectly clear, buying appliances for my house = fun. Buying appliances for the house I wish would disappear from my life = not fun.

Also, medical bills are lame-o. Cut it out, okay?

And in conclusion may I please remind you that it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty.

Sincerely yours,

Anna

P.S. I'll be back to normal tomorrow. Just working through my pity party and peeling wallpaper 'til my fingers throb!

P.P.S. Friends don't let friends wallpaper stairwells.

A Big Thank You!

Over the past little while, several ladies have gifted me with the "Stylish Blogger Award" that's been floating around, and I wanted to thank all of them for sharing the love and reading my silly little blog.

So Sarah, Allison, Brooke, Tana, and Mikalah, thank you! I really do appreciate you ladies.

Now I'm supposed to tell y'all seven things about myself. Try not to fall asleep, okay?

#1.  I love music -- I rarely watch TV, instead I listen to music. I played the violin throughout school and I also love to sing. However, playing the piano escapes me; the whole 'two-hands-doing-similar-but-different-things' concept messes with my sad little brain.

#2. Red wine? Maple doughnuts? Yes, please. These would maybe (just maybe) be my choices for my last meal on Earth. (You know, if I got to choose. And wouldn't be judged by my peers for random cry-for-help meal choices.)

#3. I'm ridiculously bad at making decisions for myself. I prefer to have suggestions heaped upon me while retaining supreme veto power. :)

#4. I could watch the movies "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice" (either the newest version or the faaaabulous A&E miniseries) over and over. Just ask my husband. It's a sickness.

#5. I really love shoes. And cute jeans. And unique jewelry. And anything else that's pretty and requires me to shop. I do not, however, love the dreaded fitting room three-way mirrors and their incredible uglifying skills.

#6. I am a big giant nerd who studied Biology and Nursing in college and once ruined a {lame} double date by blurting out some random factoid about why sharks have dark top sides and pale bellies. (It's so they fade into their surroundings regardless of whether they're above or below you, helloooo!) In my defense, I'm pretty sure it was totally applicable to whatever conversation we were having at the time. It was still pretty nerdy.

#7.  I'm totally blind without my contacts, as in 'thank-goodness-for-scientific-advances-or-I'd-be-wearing-coke-bottles-on-my-face' blind. I can't decide if I'm brave enough for LASIK.

(Imaginary #8. I love lists! Yay!)

I'm going to break the rules and not pass this along, because I am pretty much addicted to eleventy thousand blogs and I would hate (really really hate) to leave anyone out, or forget anyone on a list of my faves.

So instead, go check out the fabulous ladies who were sweet enough to send the award my way in the first place!

Sarah @ The Birds Papaya

Allison @ Fab Rehab Creations

Brooke @ 20 Something Designs

Tana @ Orange It Lovely

Mikalah @ Posy the Porcelain Pig

My Least Favorite Job In the World

Wallpaper removal is awful. Maybe I'm making a snap judgement by labeling it my least favorite job in the world, but I don't care. It's most definitely my least favorite house-related task, and since moving into this house I've had to peel paint from unprimed wallboard, wrestle metal posts from the ground, and pull hundreds of carpet tacks from wooden floors. Sooo, I'm pretty much an expert on crappy jobs, and removing old wallpaper tops my list.

Remember the four levels of stairwell ugliness from yesterday's post?

Today I started tackling them. Why today, you may ask? Well, for a few reasons:

1. I've got big plans for the space! I'm a fan of plans.
2. I'm a little neurotic, and I sometimes lay awake thinking about all those big plans and imagining (I kid you not) all the things I could caulk around my house!
3. Shame. I can't post such a nasty space and then not do my best to sort it out ASAP so y'all don't think I'm weird.
4. My husband was in a really good mood this morning. That may sound silly, but I'm pretty sure my random demo stresses my cute man out, so I like to take advantage of good moods so he still loves me when he gets home for dinner!

Speaking of which, this is what greeted my husband when he came home for dinner Monday evening:
 

The good news is he still loves me. The bad news is this is going.to.take.forever.

My contractor brother-in-law is loaning me his fancy ladder that can contort like a Cirque du Soleil performer and can safely deliver me to great heights (eep!) in order to remove the paper and then paint the walls in the stairwell.

So let's all say some prayers for scared-of-heights me, okay?

My $10 Light Fixture

$10 isn't too bad for a new light fixture, is it?



My parents recently redid their kitchen, dining room, living room... you know, most everything. They had an old <coughcoughreallyuglycough> light fixture above their dining table, and last week they finally got a new replacement chandelier installed. 

What to do with an ugly chandelier... hmm... what to do, what to do?

Send it to me, of course!

I had big plans to make it cute and hang it in my dungeon of a stairwell. Then I saw the discarded chandelier in person.

Apparently it is true what they say about remembering things through rose-colored glasses. I thought it would be fixable and then I got it in my house and couldn't look at it without cringing. It was a no go, people.

Unfortunately that still left my stairwell without a working light fixture. So while my sister was visiting (because she's awesome and she loooooooves me), I dragged her to we visited my local Habitat for Humanity Restore where I found this brassy babe for only $10.

(Thanks for the arm, honey)

I pulled the lantern apart (taking photos of where each doohickey went, 'cause electrical fixtures are not my forte) and painted it with Rustoleum's Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint. I replaced the gold lamp wire with black and then put the fixture all back together again.

Then my wonderful, amazing husband spent the first half of the Super Bowl hanging it for me.

That's love, y'all.

 

I love how it turned out, I think it looks fabulous and I'm overjoyed to have a working light in my stairwell again... it's going to be a while before I get used to flipping that switch.

Phase 1 of my stairwell makeover is now complete.

Here's a list of things that absolutely must go in order for me to live in peaceful coexistance with this stairwell:

I can't wait to get started!

Except for the part where I have to figure out how to remove wallpaper that covers 16-foot high walls in a stairwell; I'm not really excited about that part.

Update: You can follow my stairwell progress here!

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My Own Personal Hampster Wheel

(I know this isn't home-related, but please bear with me this one day!)

It's time for me to get back into the habit of exercising and more specifically, running. I've really slacked off these past several months in the exercise department, plus I've never been one to forego holiday cookies at parties in order to maintain my girlish figure (how very un-merry that would make me).

Last June I participated in a fantastic Ragnar Relay with 11 other amazing peeps, and I had such a blast that I'm doin' it again. These races consist of 12 sweaty people stuck in 2 vans for 30 hours, running around the clock through beautiful countryfor 190 miles or so, and having a great time. Sound fun? Of course it  does! 

I also ran a half marathon last August, and I'm planning on a repeat performance of that race as well.

The problem is, I'm not running anywhere with this extra holiday cookie love I've got goin' on right now. My sister injured her foot during the half marathon and I, being the wonderfully supportive sister I am, stopped running in the fall when she had to rest because of her foot. Sympathy sedentarism, you know.

So it's back to the hampster wheel treadmill I go, until we're finished with -14°F weather and my nose stops running and then freezing the moment I go outside. I'm not a fan of treadmills -- they are.so.boring. but when you live in a frozen tundra they're a necessary evil.

Are any of you runners? I would love training tips to help give me a jump start since I feel like I lost all my endurance somewhere between the Halloween candy and the Christmas cookies. I want to improve my personal times for both races, but I would definitely consider myself a casual runner. I just think it's fun, y'all.

(jazz hands. the ultimate runners form, and don't let anyone tell you differently!)