The other day I mentioned how these original paint colors are wearing me down.  I didn't realize how much.  I don't mean in a wow-I-can't-get-out-of-bed way; just that being such a visual person, seeing these yucky colors day in and day out is thwarting my brain power.  Draining.  Dragging me down.  Cloggin' the ol' noggin'.  Yick.

The epiphany in the shower lit a fire.  Some painting has happened previously, so this is early part 2:  Mass Eradication Attack Phase.  I feel like I should insert some 80's montage music here.

The upstairs master bath, as you might recall, is in a state of fluctuation as Mike has big plans for it but we haven't gotten to any of them yet.  I'd love to get the vanity built so we can get rid of the World's Worst Bathroom Vanity on the Planet (which I haven't revealed to you yet) but I know I'm not the most quality carpenter in the world.  Maybe if I just take my time I can do it.  I will admit, it makes me nervous.  I have the sink which is glorious and it's such a shame that it's packed away in a cardboard box, sulking, alone, neglected.


Ooophff.  Before, above.

After below.  I'm not sure what the color is as I've never actually read the lid, but it was my $5 mis-mix purchase.  I quite like the color.  I don't know if the bathroom will stay this color or not, but what's important here is that the color above no longer exists.  Yes, we only have one outlet in there.  It's a zoo.


Then.......so you'll remember I finished up the vanity in our main floor bathroom, but things have stalled out there too as the next step is ripping out and installing new tile.  And deciding what to do with the bathtub area.  Turning it into a half bath shouldn't diminish the value of the house since we have three other full bathrooms.  (Crazy.)  But we haven't figured out what to do with the post-tub space yet.

Here's a before.


Oh!  Oh.  Oh wow.  Ow.  Thankfully things have changed a bit.  Where does one even find tile like that?!  Oh, ugh, those stagers, they sure didn't help matters either.  It's amazing this house sold at all. (heh)


It's the same paint as the master bath, for now.  (It's drying in this photo, hence the mottled look on the wall.)  I know I'm making twice the work for myself by painting now and possibly repainting later, but like I mentioned, I cannot take these original colors anymore.

I picked up some paint for my office yesterday.  I couldn't decide between two colors, a sweet light yellow called Lemon Curd or a dark slate blue called Heavy Armour (woman of extremes Mike called me yesterday when I asked his opinion), so I got them both.  My plan is to do something two tone like this.  But maybe not with such a sketchy edge between them.  Maybe a straight line.  Or not.  We'll see.  The yellow on top, the dark blue below, and quite likely painting the ceiling in the yellow as well.  The plan shall reveal itself unto me.....

So, gettin' there.  Paint:  Love it.  Better than a band-aid.  Better than ....well, I could prattle on but I won't.  It fixes things, it's quick and painless, it vastly improves everything, even if it's only a placeholder color.  I strongly advise trying it.

Anywhoo.

Hey, did you see these cutie little plant pouches I made yesterday?!  Oy jeez, I just can't get enough of them.  It's seriously the only thing I look at in the yard, honing in with tunnel vision, blocking out the rest of the muck and mire.  Mike has the next two days off which would have been Perfect to work on the yard.  Thanks rain forecast.  :(

Oh, and don't forget, tomorrow, Thursday, is the season finale of Sirens on USA Network.  Help baby get a season two and keep her Menards habit in a constant state of equilibrium by watching.

And hey, May is National Pet Month.  Do something kind and giving!

Yes indeedily doo, this sweet planter pouch project was free for me to make.  Hard to believe, right?  Only thing I paid for today were the plants, and gosh, those were $1.88 per 6.



I can barely stand how cute these turned out, if I do say so myself!

How did this come about, you ask?  I've seen all sorts of types of pouchy planters all over the web and because I'm growing sick of our sad sad sad back yard, I thought today I'd bring at least a hint of color and fun to it.

Here's how I did it......

Supplies I used:

• outdoor carpet sample pieces (these are free at Menards so I grabbed two of each kind)
• embroidery floss
• random buttons/sew-on decorations
• felt
• needles
• thread
• plastic bags (such as potato or banana which already have holes, or regular shopping type but snip some holes)
• packing peanuts
• twine
• plants

Now, I had every intention of buying more of the outdoor carpet like on the right side of the photo above but they were out of stock.


Start by attaching the decorative elements, the buttons, the flower thing, making a felt flower, whatever it is you're going to use to make these things even cuter.


Next up, stitch together the two pieces of outdoor carpet.  I did this by hand with the embroidery floss and a simple blanket stitch, but feel free to use any kind of string-like stuff and stitch type you prefer.  Plastic thread would be cute, ribbon, twine...I mean, really, the possibilities are endless.  Do note, the outdoor carpet on the left above does tend to unravel easily, so running it through your sewing machine might not be a bad idea if you have one of those.  If not, no worries.


Snip some holes near the top corners next, where your twine will thread through to hang them up.  Trust me, do this now, not when they're full of plants and dirt and they're falling all over the place.


I tucked plastic bags inside filled with a few packing peanuts at the bottom.  The plastic is there to lessen the potential dirt erosion out.  The peanuts are for drainage and as filler so they wouldn't be completely filled with dirt.  Although, I may take out the peanuts and fill them completely with dirt as there isn't much in there for the plants to grow into as of right now.


Next, put in some pretty flowering plants!

Lastly, thread the twine through and hang them up!  You could thread the twine through on an earlier step; I did it last so I could figure out the heights on the fence as I went.  And uh, don't hold too many things in your hands at once as you're trimming the twine lest you cut up your finger.  Yeah, don't do that.  It hurts.

Easy peasy, silly cute, bright and fun, yeah?!

Hang 'em on a fence, on a railing, on a wall....oh my goodness, you can hang them anywhere!

Great project for the kids, if they're old enough that they won't stab each other with needles and scissors.

It's so cute!  Isn't it?!  Awwww!


If you remember from the other day, I was making these little concrete knob hooky things that will screw into the wall or fence or whatever, wherever, ya know, stuff.  Places.  Hang things.

My mold container wasn't exactly square or true, as you can see the slight twist in the final product, but hey, handmade stuff isn't meant to be perfect, right?  Right.


I popped the little cutie out of the mold twenty four hours later as it seemed pretty well set.  I think it needed some air to breathe and cure up, which is what it's in the process of doing now.

So yeah, my mold survived which is great.  I think I can probably get at least one, if not two more out of it before I have to make another.  Which isn't a problem since I want to vary the sizes.  I already spied a half and half container in the fridge and just finished up a smaller cream container.

In other news....

I made a curtain for the upstairs guest room but don't like it.  More on that some time this week I'm sure.

I was standing in the shower, thinking, on Saturday and it smacked me upside the face that I desperately need to get rid of these original paint colors around the house.  They're clouding my mind and making me woebegone.  More on that this week I'm sure too.

In the mean time, gotta get dinner out of the oven!

I'm on Amazon yesterday and I look over on the right side of the page.  "Treat yourself," it says, thinking oh, get something nice for yourself, you don't need whatever it is but it'll make you all warm and fuzzy.  I look at the product suggestion....


Elmer's Stainable Wood Patch.  Why didn't it suggest some shoes like above?!  Hm.  Clearly I'm project predisposed across the web now.

So I have in my Pinterest stuff a folder called On the Docket in which I pinned a bunch of projects I hope to accomplish.  One of those projects is to make some concrete knobs, or hooks, or whatever, they screw into a wall or fence or whatever and you hang stuff off them.  My plan is to make some for inside and outside.

I pinned this idea originally but I kinda can't really make out what they're saying.  That's ok, I got the gist of the steps from their photos so I didn't go searching for any how-to's.


My sweetheart drinks oodles of half and half with his coffee so I saved one of the cartons for this project since it's a smooth waxed interior surface.

Here I already cut the top off.  Based on their photos then the size I'm kinda thinking about then looking at the size of this container, I needed to cut it apart and down to a smaller size.

Inside, which you can almost see, there's a little flap overlapping.  Having done lots of mold making throughout my prop career, I already knew that I wanted to avoid having that flap on the inside otherwise it would reflect on the finished product.







Next up was a bit of cutting and folding.  As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my brother, scissors, paper, and tape making all sorts of stuff, so I kind of have a leg up on this.

I cut open the container through the edge with the flap, then cut off the bottom since I a.) didn't need it and b.) didn't want that pattern showing up in the final product.

After I opened up the container, I cut it in half length-wise, into two pieces.










So here's where the folding began.  To make a smaller square I folded the edges in at random spots.  I tend to make stuff up as I go along and not measure, but it was about 3/4" to 1", those new folds I made.

I dry-fit the two pieces together to see if the size was about what I wanted for the final product, and it was close, so commence more folding and cutting and trimming and dry-fitting.

I then trimmed down the length of the container since I didn't want twelve foot long knobby things.  Ok, twelve is an exaggeration.  I was hoping to get more than one mold out of this but alas, no such luck.  Babe, drink more half and half, please.

I cut it down in length based on knowing I needed to fold up some bottom flaps.  That's a terribly formed sentence, isn't it?


I'm having a little trouble here, getting all my photos located where I want them....grrrr, bear with me.

After I got the dry-fit where I wanted and trimmed the container down, I then cut straight up the folds to start forming the bottom flaps.   Fold some more, add a little duct tape and voila, I have half the mold made.

For the other half, I cut off the initial folds I had made so I could fit the piece inside this one, looking to have as few seams and lines in the finished product as possible.  This way the inside was clear of flaps and such.  It was essentially just a folder, the second half, that I slipped inside so that those short sides in front you see here, those are on the outside.




Here's the finished little mold.  It turned out to be 3 3/4" tall and 1 3/4" square.  I rolled some duct tape and taped together the pieces inside then taped the bejesus out of it on the outside with more duct tape to make sure the thing didn't leak like a sieve.  That would suck.  Especially since I was doing all this on my dining room table.

I gave a quick dash of Smooth-On Mold Release spray inside the container as an added precaution which I already owned from other older projects but there's no need to get it unless you plan on doing lots of mold making.  You can just as easily use a dash of spray oil, or so I've heard.  Lightly though.  Or I'm sure craft stores or hobby stores or art supply stores have mold release spray if you'd rather.





I collected a few more materials from around the house.  A scoop of vinyl concrete patch that I already had from last fall's patching of the garage base.  Some sand just in case I wanted to toss some in which I didn't use.  Some plastic cups to mix everything.  Popsicle stick stirrers, of course the duct tape, a random long screw I found in my stash of miscellaneous screws, and there's the little mold.  Oh and some painter's tape.

Next up I mixed up the concrete patch stuff to the consistency of oh say, natural peanut butter.  Be careful -- use a dust mask as that stuff clouds and poofs and flies everywhere and it's a fine, fine dust bound to turn your lungs into solid lumps.  Ok, again, I exaggerate but it's not good to breathe that stuff in so protect your delicate insides please.








I got all a-twitter here, all excited, pouring the mix to the little container, hoping I'll get out the finished product that I'm picturing in my head.

As you can see, I set everything inside a plastic bag, ya know, just in case my taping job sucked.  Ahem.

So after pouring the goo in, I gave the little container a few taps to settle the mix and maybe wiggle out some air pockets.  I let it sit for a minute, oh who am I kidding, no I didn't, but you might want to before you place the screw in.






The screw didn't sink which was good but I used the painter's tape to help support it a bit.

And now we wait.  And wait.  I have no idea how long this is going to take to set up.  You'll have to come back and see the finished knob hooky thing at a later date.  My goal is to reuse this container several times so we'll see how that pans out.  I've got plenty of screws in the basement and lots of concrete patch, so maybe I'll be cranking these puppies out.

I just checked on it and there's a little water leakage but it's not bad at all.  Definitely within tolerances.  Thankfully I was smart enough to put it on top of some plastic, which sometimes, I'm not that clever.








Huh, I wonder if I could use that vinyl concrete patch for the pantry floor, or at least as a thin layer to level the darn thing out a bit before putting something else in.  Hm.  I will look into that.

In the mean time, Hailey seems to be handling this second round of chemo all right, though today she's sleepier and hasn't eaten her breakfast yet.  Of course I'm an extra paranoid Mommy and will be watching her all day, making sure she's all right.  Last time it was about this time I noticed it had started kicking in.

So, stay tuned for the final knob hook screw thingie, if it ever sets up!

Yeah.  Yep.  Uh huh.

I've been doing a real piss poor job of getting things done around the house lately.  It's starting to frustrate me as well, I know.  It makes for much more exciting reading when I'm working on something, I know that too.

Hailey had her second dose of chemo today so we're hoping everything goes much more smoothly this time.  They gave us the runny poop medicine ahead of time and suggested preemptively striking that down, just in case, even though the doctor says this particular chemo doesn't normally cause runny tushies.  Ah well, either way I plan on being home the next few days to make sure all is good and she's ok.

So that means, hopefully, I can come up with some projects to get done.  The basement is nagging me, calling my name, but ugh, I...just  ....no  ....can't....  too much!

I was back to surfing the interwebs today, my usual top three items as of late:  DIY floors, shelf brackets, and vintage vacation home plan books.

I've got the plan books in the shopping cart, all totaled up and waiting for me to pull the trigger.  (Tough luck, Mike, that bathroom is getting papered.  I love you!  There's still Chunky Turtle Ice Cream and Chocolate Truffle Creme Brûlée left, if that helps ease your sorrows!)  I did see a wild variation on the paper theme, using marbled paper.  Clever, and quite the funky look.

The brackets, this time I typed in "DIY shelf brackets" and found much more interesting stuff, cooler looking ideas than what I saw at the store.  Even though I'm not much for the whole trendy steampunk/industrial look, I did think pipe fittings were a workable option, though I never realized those little pipe fittings added up so quickly.  

Today, between applying coats of primer to the Ikea bookshelf shelves which I really um, didn't get far on, I was poking around the internet, shoppin'.  Mostly for shelf brackets (lie), although funny, I did accidentally come upon the motherload of vintage house plan books.   I wasn't even looking!  (lie)  I'm a tad hesitant to share it with you but I will because on occasion, I can be nice.  Only drag was that most books started at $30.  Sad face.

But I was over on eBay, looking at zillions of brackets when I came across one that someone was selling, had made, but it was a plain ol' angle iron made of flat stock steel.   And then they were asking $18.  For one.  Plus $11.50 shipping.  For a bent piece of metal with two holes.  (And in this day and age, how come there isn't a "filter by ugly" option on eBay?!)

Which reminded me of another time I was poking around eBay and came across some light fixtures that were obviously made by the seller but they were claiming they were vintage, jumping on that steampunk/industrial runaway money train.  And then charging hundreds of dollars, even one or two in the thousands.

Or the other day when I saw someone on Craigslist selling a light fixture from Ikea for $50.  And you can still walk in the store and buy it for $25.  He was claiming he spent more.  (Have you checked out the Ikea PS 2014 collection?  Some neat stuff.)

Or the "reclaimed wood" tables and such on Craigslist that are obviously made of new pine and stained.  For $500+.  Sheesh.

Or when I'm at a thrift or antique store and there's a piece that appears to be old but isn't and it's tagged an antique with a price to match.

As you can tell, it irks me when folks blatantly try to rip other people off, hoping customers won't be terribly educated about what they're shopping for.   I know, it's a story as old as buying and selling.  Doesn't mean I can't still be annoyed.  Heh, it sincerely bothers me.  I almost emailed the Ikea light guy but stopped myself.

When I was doing props, I ran into this quite often since I was out shopping on a daily basis.    (Before you think doing props is fun and easy and all you do is shop all the time, don't think that.)

Many times my budget for a show was $100, or $200.  Or if I was very lucky, $500.  As if that wasn't hard enough, my prop lists were generally 3-5 pages long of scripted items, including furniture.  Not including set dressing or all the stuff that will get added during rehearsal.  All of these items were very specific too so it's not like you can just run out and buy x, y, and z and call it done.  Sometimes I could -- when I was at Steppenwolf and had budgets of $5000-6000.  That made it easier but very rarely, even with that level of funds.  You have to make the money you have work extremely hard for you, and it can be tough when there are folks out there trying to scam.

Being a prop person, you will really really really really learn how to budget and allocate time and funds.  Deadlines are absolute.  Stage managers will harass you.  So will actors, the director, the production manager, the scenic designer, the artistic director.  Budget budget, less is best.  Work the phone.  Research.  Build it or buy it?  Make that thing do something it wasn't meant to do.  Fake Food Making King!  Find that Can of Anti-Matter!  Research.  Meetings meetings, discussions discussions discussions.  Study, research.  Research.  Did I mention research?  Organization, priorities, accounting, master of keeping track of miles and eating in the car.  You will spend more money working on a show just working on the show than you will earn.

You will memorize what thrift stores in town are best for what, who will work with you and who won't.  Who prices fairly and who doesn't.  Who is scamming and who is honest.  You learn furniture history, history in general, be a buff on multitudes of countries, know when UPC codes were invented, or fridges, or plastic, when pencils became yellow.  You become a walking encyclopedia, a dictionary, a librarian almost, a cultural wizard.  Oddly, the highest praise I could receive is if no one noticed the props and people forgot to thank me.  It is one heck of a hard job and definitely not for the faint of heart.

But as you can see, it taught me a lot.  Understatement.  Now you can see where I get my mad budgeting skills from.

Back to buyer beware though.  Do your research.  If you're going to spend your money on a particular thing, anything, educate yourself first.  You've seen those Antiques Roadshow segments where someone bought some big fancy what's-it, spent a ton of money hoping to cash in, only to find out it's a fake.  Know what you're buying, and know you're not being taken.

I read a thing online yesterday (though I can't find the link again, sorry) about thrift store shopping tips.  One of them was bring your smartphone so you can educate yourself about what you're looking at.  Clearly the list was written when smartphones were just coming out.  But still, good tip.  Even more so at antique stores.  That can also apply to regular retail stores as well.  Oh this fancy who's-a-what's-it is from wherever random country and is 500 years old!  Can't you just feel that patina!  Even when you're internet shopping.  I mean, jeez, you're right there on the internet already, right?  Do a little research.

Huh, no photos today.  Well, I suppose that's a stellar excuse to share a cute puppy photo then.

Hailey at three months old.

Ha, look at what my folks gave me yesterday!  A Menards mug, heh!  I think they are amused by my Menards habit.  

Very cute!

Only problem is I don't drink coffee.  But that's ok, I can put chocolate milk in there.  Hopefully Mike doesn't steal it from me.

Speaking of Mike, there was continued discussion about the action plans I came up with for the upstairs hall bathroom.  He really doesn't want me to paper a wall in there.  I think he'll be pleasantly surprised at how mind-blowingly cool it looks when I'm done.

I did find another copy of that 223 Vacation Homes and Plans book online today, finally.  I'm contemplating buying it and using one of the two for the bathroom.  I still think it'd be out of this world and I'm not so sure inkjet printed paper would work.  Though I haven't tested it yet.  Nor researched.  I did buy a box of corn starch $1.00, in preparation ya know.

So today was errand day, running back to Menards because I can't help myself even though I went yesterday to get a torch for the Creme Brûlée recipe.  I went mainly because I was hoping the other Menards nearby would have a Varathane stain chart since my usual store didn't have it.  Varathane makes these itty bitty super tiny packets of stain samples, 0.04 oz of stain for $0.30, which is all I need to touch up the floor where I ripped out the newel post and such.  The flipper missed a spot.  Go figure.

But I also wanted to pick up some primer and some white satin paint.  I finally got all the books out of my office and thought, huh, I wonder if I could repurpose the shelves from the bookcase, maybe cut them into various sizes and use them for things and books I do want to keep in here.


Here's the poor thing before I took it apart.  Yeah, the room is so tight I couldn't angle myself enough to get the whole thing in the photo.  Sorry.

There are lots of holes in the undersides of the shelves where they were bolted to the metal stands though.  Hopefully I can work it just right so that the brackets hide the holes.  Brackets....goodness, it's so hard to find tasteful, simple, non-invasive, not in your face huge, it's all-about-the-brackets brackets, jeez louise.  Either way, I'll start painting these shelves tomorrow.

Before I put them up though, I gotta pick a paint color.  This is how I start.


Like a paint junkie in need of a fix, I start grabbing paint chip cards at the store.  Anything that snags my attention, I grab.  Stashin' 'em all in my pockets and such....it's probably terribly amusing to watch from afar.  Come home and start taping them to the wall.  Not usually in this nicely-arranged-by-color fashion.  I ordinarily mix the colors up therefore you're looking at the color rather than how pretty all the shades look together.  I always put a black card in the mix, every time.  This would be a great room to paint black actually, come to think of it.  Now I'm kicking myself for passing up the $5 mismix semi-gloss black at the store.  I left it because it was that icky acrylic latex.  But $5, and semi-gloss.  Hm.

Hailey is always good at helping, as she is above.  She makes an excellent assistant.  Yes, that's carpet pad on the floor.  She's not comfortable walking on the wood floors so we've covered every surface for her and well, some areas aren't terribly chic.  Who cares -- it's more important that she can get around.

Slowly over the next few days I'll start pulling paint chips down until I get to a last few which I'll spread out further, then check them in various lighting.  It is important to always check colors in the various types of light a room receives through the course of a few days.  Something you love in the store, or in another room, may suddenly look way wrong in the intended room due to the light.

Then hopefully I can start assembling a good plan about how I want this office to work.   And then get on it, make it happen!

And by the way, the Chocolate Truffle Creme Brûlée and the Chunky Turtle Ice Cream were both ridiculously good.  I come to find out at dinner last night that Mike poo-poo'ed the ice cream idea initially because he knew I'd still make it but also make a second dessert in reaction, therefore he'd get two desserts.  Sneaky Sneakerton.  I don't know why I was so shocked at his scheming ways.  Pretty clever, that one.

Yesterday I had a great action plan for the upstairs hall bathroom.  Here's how my day went.

Excitedly I dashed over to that new Salvation Army and perused the books.  I was getting discouraged until I came across this one:

Room above pantry, a copy cat of space only with wood floors and a window. Wall on right, you're outta here.  Someday.

Room to the right, east, of the room above. Not as big in real life.

All righty, I think I've got a plan!  Well, one thing anyway.

Yesterday I was poking around the interwebs and came across a cool blog by some nifty sounding folks who are also here in Chicago, Yellow Brick Home.  I think you should check them out.  So then, as I'm wont to do, I started ambling around the web, strolling, looking this a-way and that, oh look shiny, is that a squirrel?  I'm not really that distractible except for when I'm poking around images maybe.

I came across this, make your own wallpaper somehow and I about gasped.  What a flippin' cool look that is, right?  I thought, hey, that is exactly what that hall bathroom upstairs needs.  Bingo!


Can't you just totally see that on this wall?!  Oh yes.

Sometimes these decisions take forever to make and sometimes they hit me fast as lightning like this one did.  I suppose if it's taking me forever, I haven't found the right thing yet and when it hits me, yep, it's right and it's just gotta get done.  Now.

I'm sure the floor and shower tile will really start to bother me after I get this project finished.

Ok, you can see it now, right?  How excellent.

Anyway, so I thought I'd run back over to that Salvation Army I was at yesterday since they had a lot of books and hope to all get out that I find the perfect thing, something just as colorful and fun.  Otherwise I know how it's going to go....I'll get all anxious to get working on it, I'll end up going to more stores, not finding the right thing and getting discouraged because I'll be looking for this exact mid-century colorfully illustrated book.....Keep your fingers crossed for me.

After finding this damn cool idea, I thought, Oh!  I'll have to go to Menards for wallpaper paste, right?  Menards!  (Seriously, I think I have an infirmity, a severe problem with my Menards addiction.  Don't send help.)  But then I remembered, you can DIY some removable wallpaper paste.  Ah ha!  I found this itty tutorial from The Poor Sophisticate online.  Tellin' you, these interwebs, super handy.

At first glance I thought those teal horizontal lines in the photo above were towel bars of some sort but upon closer inspection realized they are glass shelves.  They'd be so much cooler if they were teal colored towel bars, right?

And oh crap, I just realized if I can find a book about bowling, maybe this wallpaper idea would be cool for our first floor bathroom, the one with the vanity I made, with the maple bowling alley counter top.  Especially since I can't pick a paint in there to save my life with the floor tile I have picked out.  Hm....

My folks are coming down on Sunday so I need to get hopping (ah!  I didn't even mean to make a pun but I did) on my desserts.  I am a baker, a dessert aficionado, and if you come to my house, if Hailey will allow you in which is unlikely, you will have a good dessert.  I'm a little loathe to share what I'll be making in case my mom reads this but I'll share.  Maybe she'll stop reading at this point.   My initial plan of making Chunky Turtle Ice Cream was poo-poo'ed by a certain tall red headed male in the house.  So I'm still making that but now I am also making Chocolate Truffle Creme Brûlée to appease him.  But we don't have a torch so maybe I do need to go to Menards.  I also need to do some tidying up.

So now I've got a lot to do.

But before I go, a shout out to the Animal Gods, the keepers of Good Animal Healthy Juju Karma Stuff:  You're on notice.  Enough already with the bad juju going around and all our pets not feeling well lately.  Stop it.  Please.  Go back to spreading happy healthy fun time good stuff.  Make them all better, and do it now.  Thank you.

Ok, back to what you were doing.  I am off to my busy day.  Happy Friday!

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Sorry for the little heading there.  I'm not sure if a.) I'm doing that right, b.) it'll do what it's supposed to, or c.) if it's going to do anything at all.  I don't usually do stuff like that, tag, cross link, whatever.  I don't know what I'm doing.  If it doesn't work, I'll make it go away.

Anywhooo.  So what's up?

Not a whole heck of a lot around here.  Still reeling from tax day.  But at least it's gorgeous outside which is where I wish I could be but I can't figure out what I can be doing out there as I am sans plants or supplies.

And, instead of rushing to the door every hour and a half due to the chemo mangling Hailey's intestines, now we're waiting for her to poop.  It's been since Sunday.  So, yeah, we're really due.  Sorry.  This is what you do when you have a dog -- you have endless poop discussions.

She's been perky lately which is great.  I ran out for an hour and when I got home, she greeted me at the door, waggy tail,  French Bread Toy in mouth.  I saw her in the window first, Hamburger Toy in mouth, wiggling, peeking out because she had heard the garage door.  It was so cool.  I love that goofy girl.  Here she is, pre-surgery, with Hot Dog Chuck.  Lookin' good against that Sonata blue paint, yeah?

So yeah, I ran out to pick up some food items which took me dangerously close to Menards.  I don't think I've ever been so close and not gone in.  I was even doing some crazy rationalizing in my head....well but if I just run in for a gallon of paint, that's no big deal, right?  Oh crap, their garden center is open.  What if I just walk through and look?  I can do that, right?  Just look?  Right.  Somehow I managed to not go in.  I almost cried as I drove away, watching it fade in the distance in my rearview mirror.  Nooooo.  No, I didn't.

I did stop at the new Salvation Army near us and looked at belts as I thought that would make a cool floor for the pantry but not at $2.99 and up per belt.  Rats.  I did find a great picnic blanket thingie for Hailey to lay on in the yard though.  That was great.

But I so wanted to stop at Menards.  This little office is starting to take its toll on me.  Something needs to be done.  It's that same dog vomit yellow color as the stair well.  It's super tiny.  It's pretty dark, but I guess that isn't really a problem for me as I like unlit.  It's cramped.  It's crowded.  There's too much stuff in here.  It's a mishmash and visually distracting.  It's always the one room in the house Mike bows out on, where I really unleash creatively since he doesn't come in here much.  Although, it is right off the kitchen and living room so I might have to control myself a bit.  We'll see.


Here's the room as it was in all its staged glory and using that amazing camera lens.  I seriously have no idea how they got a fake blow up twin size bed in here.  That closet in the corner isn't really a normal closet either, of course, as it's got an angled wall inside.  If only it was normal, it would help my situation as I could tuck the printer in there, all sorts of other stuff on shelves....But alas.  That's too much to ask.

My Ikea bookcase hasn't survived several moves (and the flood at the last place) very well and it's missing parts, barely standing up, so I need a new book solution.  This shelving idea is super cool and I could do several in varying lengths, maybe even paint them, go nearly up to the ceiling.  This would be for the one wall you can't see in the photo above.

I still think this would be a lot of fun, putting Astroturf up on the wall.  Menards even has it on sale right now for $0.19 a square foot in a twelve foot width.  Sniffle.  Twitch.

Normally, and most often, I paint my office in a shade of yellow since it's my favorite color.  Since this room is so itty bitty, I was thinking about maybe a shocking shade like this.  Or I could branch out and do something like Abigail Ahern's new Bowery Blue.  oooOoOoh, what a color, huh?  (That with some Astroturf would be fun.  You think I'm kidding.  I'm not.  I know, my taste can run a little eclectic sometimes ((read:  terrifies Mike)), and certainly is not for everybody.  Go big or go home, I say.)  Or, considering how many paint chips I've collected, I could do this, stick 'em to the wall.

Well.  No matter how I look at it, this room is a headache.  Due to its size and all the copious amounts of crap I surround myself with in it, I should do some research, look at a bazillion images, pin the favs, and formulate a plan.  This can't be a willy nilly throw it together type of situation.

I realize I'm doing a lot of talking the talk, not doing much walking the walk around these parts as of late.  Maybe today or tomorrow I'll map out some actual things to do so I'm not boring you with "what if's" for much longer.

Oy me, what a day.  Tax day.  Uuuggghhh, I feel sick from those two words this year.  Vet bill arrival day.  Bills in the mail day.  It's darn cold outside.  There's still SNOW on the ground from yesterday.  Mike thought I was silly for not liking his theme for a fantastic fundraiser he's setting up at work.  Some days are just like this sometimes.

I will say I'd much rather have vet bills than not have Hailey with us.  She was so cute and sweet and waggy when I came back from my hugely depressing but quick post office jaunt today -- that made me smile.  It's fun to see her doing things she used to do before all this crummy cancer stuff.

So, with my bank account on vapors, I need to get yet even more creative about my projects around the house. Oh my gosh, I'm already going into Menards withdrawal, I can feel it.  I'm shaking.  And I've got this nervous tick going.  Or I suppose I could work on stuff that I have supplies for and haven't gotten to.  Sometimes my motivation level for those small things can get a little low.

One of those lingering little projects is recovering two sausage shaped pillows I've got.  I already have the fabric.  I think.  I keep changing my mind.  I recovered all the other pillows on the couch.  I must say, if you need a quick update, a speedy inexpensive change, a refresher in a room, change the covers on some pillows.  Or, if you're not the crafty sewy type, pick up a few new ones.  It can be surprising how much of a difference it makes.

These pillows I've had, I've had forever and I just keep changing the fabric on them.  It's been a while since I've done it and since we moved and I painted the living room, the old fabric was looking even more sad and unrelated to anything in the room.  I don't have any before photos it seems.  Just as well; in thinking back to what they looked like, I'm kinda embarrassed.

Last summer I purchased a Groupon for the ridiculously ginormous fabric store in the Pilsen neighborhood with three or four different names, LZ Fabrics, Textile Discount Center, Mega Fabrics is a new one to me.  It's hard to keep track of what it's called.  All I know is they have more fabric on God's green Earth than is possible to imagine.  Take your local fabric store and multiply it by one thousand.  I am not kidding.  Normally I don't buy Groupons as I hear more about the trouble people have with them but when someone told me they had one for the fabric store, $20 gets you $40 worth of fabric, I was on it like flies on you know what.

All told I got a quite a bit back in February.  My tab was $44, so in all I spent $24 for a hefty quantity.  Turns out one fabric choice wasn't the best if you have dog and husband.  It's the one on the left below.  Snags all over.  Boo.  Sad face.  I'll have to see what else is in the magic bag of fabric to recover it again.


I do love that fabric on the big pillow in the back though.


And I like the fabric on these two pillows much more, which is why they're on "my side" of the couch.

So I guess in a way round about way, my point today is that small things can make a very big difference.  As Charles Eames once said, "The details are not the details.  They make the design."  Very true, Mr. Eames, very true indeed.

With that line of reasoning and a bit of a spin, the details of my day make up only a small part of a greater whole that is decidedly finer than the sum of its parts.  See, design is far more multifaceted than one might suspect.  Frown upside down.

Sorry, again.  Yeah, it's been a rough long week with this chemo affecting Hailey's rear end.  Last night was the first night in about a week where we weren't rushing for the door starting at 2 a.m.  Poor girl.  She finally made it through a whole night which was great for everyone.  It helps that I picked up a probiotic on Saturday plus we went to the vet hospital yesterday where they gave us some medicine to help stop the uh, draining.  We go back there again today for a blood test, lucky Hailey (not), so I'll be sure to discuss this issue with Dr. H. if I get to see him.

So there was lots of discussion this weekend about what to do with our terribly sad back yard.  Mike is feeling an inordinate nag and itch to get things fixed up and at least functioning back there.  And, as always, I'm trying to figure out how to make it nice in the most cost efficient manner since that's what I'm trained to do.  Poor guy, every time we talk about the yard, it's "well, we need to do this too," and "what about this issue that needs addressing on top of it all too."  He ends up looking overwhelmed and defeated and then the subject gets changed.

It's a chilly rainy day here in Chicago (and what what, who is talking about snow?!  That's...I can't....No.) but here are a couple of photos of how awful it is.  And trust me, this is actually better than it was when we first got it, if you can believe it.



Embarrassingly awful, this yard, huh?  Told ya it was worse than those "befores" on those TV shows.  You didn't believe me, did ya?  Secretly I keep hoping I run into one of those TV hosts at the hardware store and they come and magically transform our yard for us....Ah well.

Pretty destitute, this yard, and clearly we aren't helping the situation by strewing tables and folding chairs all about either.  Plus we're using our free from the city rain barrel as a gangway blocker so Hailey doesn't go up to the gate leading to the front yard and bark at everything going by.  It was only just Saturday that I was able to yank the last chair cushion off the last remnants of ice on the ground.

(If you live in Chicago and own your home, if you have not signed up with Meter Save, you must do it today.  We're saving between 75-80% on our water bill by installing this free meter.  No joke.  You get a free rain barrel.  Or other things.)

As you can see in the first photo, the steps into the garage are a big problem.  I did do some measuring and as it turns out, Menards has pressure treated stringers on sale this week so I may go pick up two of those.  I realized I have to figure out how to get a ledger board or something into the concrete of the garage in order to anchor the new steps.  Don't have the right tools I'm sure.

In the second photo, over by where everything is piled up on the right is where Mike would like to put in a patio of some sort until we can afford a deck (which he wants to attach to the garage).

I would love this which for us wouldn't be too much of a stretch as my parents live on a wooded lot so we could pilfer branches and logs from them.  The only issue is commandeering the correct tool(s) to cut it all.  Plus it's pretty, temporary, easily moved, and very inexpensive.  Plus I could move some of the pieces to the front yard when it comes deck time.

There was also this circular wood deck that was kind of neat, but it would require more time, effort, and expense.  The nice part is that it's raised.  We do have the tools to get this one done.

I also read a snippet of a forum where folks were talking about using broken concrete pieces to assemble into a patio.  Since we need to take out that pathetic little walkway, I thought that might be a good way to reuse, recycle and not have to figure out how to dispose of concrete chunks.

I also saw lots of pallet deck ideas and while I'm not hugely on that "pallet everything," it seemed like it could be a viable, easy option.

In the end, I'm not sure if Mike saw any of the emails I sent him with these ideas and it sounds like he just wants to get some paver blocks and drop them in.  Not that he's not a creative guy, because he is and always has great ideas about design, but I think a straightforward patio is about all he has tolerance for here.  He just wants it to be done already.  So, we'll see.

Sorry I've been away for a bit.  Poor Hailey and this chemo, they don't seem to be getting along in the vicinity of the rear area, to be polite.  Needless to say, none of us have been getting a lot of sleep in the last few days with the unending rush to outside at all hours.  I feel terrible for her.  Hopefully this won't happen each time she gets a new dose.

So I haven't had a chance to work on much around the house really, other than to think about what I would like to be working on.  Although today I did the Super Fridge Purge and Clean where I took everything out, washed all the shelves and drawers, tossed stuff and reorganized.  That felt good.  I really haven't felt like I've gotten things organized since we moved in here.

Now that the stripes are complete my attention seems to be drifting back into the pantry, thinking about that ratty floor in there.  Finishing the stripes has got me hankerin' to finish something else.

I looked into some self leveling concrete and it sounds like it could possibly work, though it would take some good prep to make sure I don't have rivers of runny concrete seeping out everywhere.  It looks like the stuff is on the pricier side and I'd need about 5-6 bags to get a 1/2" thick floor so I'm not sold on the idea.  That and the carpeted floor was cold in the winter so it's clear there's some insulation (lack thereof) issues to contend with.

I'm not in the mood to tile the floor with ceramic, nor toss down a wood floor.  It's a pantry.  And while I do want it to be cool, we have enough tile projects lined up, I already feel too much tiled out.   It's not a big room, this pantry, so something a little more creative without going too nutso seems in order.   It's a room that inherently comes with a Get Away Free, Do Something Cool card.

There's vinyl tile.  Eh.  Easy.  Solves the problem.  Cleans easily.  Boring potential:  quite high.

I could paint it.  Though that right there, I mean, there are just a bazillion ways to paint a floor.  I suppose then it could be a rotating canvas of ideas whenever the whim strikes.  Boring potential:  quite low.

Off to the interwebs it is then.

This woman did a faux concrete floor using a product called Ardex and while it's definitely a cool floor, kind of where I wanted to go with the whole thing, this stuff sounds way fussy and she ended up with only an 1/8" coating after six layers.  Much too thin for a higher traffic pantry.

A leather belt floor is cool, though wow, imagine how many leather belts you'd need!  Hm, it is only fifty eight square feet.  How many trips to every thrift store in the whole area!  How many droopy pants around town!  Actually, I'm sure Mike's got a growing stash.  I'll keep this idea on the back burner as the more I think about it, the more it grows on me.

I thought about cork flooring but after a cursory search, it's pretty expensive.  Or those decorative cork tiles but they aren't terribly sturdy.  I did see this idea which, wow, yeah, serious hangover and a serious test of patience?  I know, you can just buy corks, but I don't think this is right for me, though the additional insulation is a plus.

This is neat, felt flooring (sans the LED lights) but that puts me back in the realm of carpet where I do not like to tread.

This was kind of interesting, a newsprint printed wood floor.  That would have to be a DIY thingie where I make up the process. (Broken link and now I can't find it, sorry.)

There are paper bag ideas, cutting strips of plywood ideas, brick veneer, epoxy, pennies, mosaics, hand drawn permanent marker, hand drawn permanent marker, bottle caps, tree branch circles, puzzle pieces, maps.....the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on.  Type "DIY floor" or "floor ideas" into Google images and see what comes up.  And it goes on.

What if I wallpapered the floor and sealed it?  Or made wallpaper tiles?  Or tacked down a bunch of paint sticks and stained them?  Or.  Or.  Astroturf!  That would be really fun actually and something I would totally do.  (Did you hear Mike scream in panic just then?)  Or.  Or.  Or.  Or poke through the materials section or free section of Craigslist and see what I could turn into a floor.  Or.  Or...or......

And overwhelmed.  Cross-eyed with ideas.  Step away from the computer.  Better go lay down for a few seconds while my brain resets.

All righty!  How exciting!  Another project complete!  Yessss.  It always feels extraordinarily good to finish something, doesn't it?

Here was my inspiration for the entry way painted stripes as you may remember.

And here was the entry area before:



Wow.  Sad sad sad.  I can't believe we lived with this sad state of affairs for so long!

And now, drum roll please, here is the finished wall!




Yay!  The colors don't read exactly right in these photos; I tried to fix it but I'm obviously not terribly good at that.  But you get the general idea.  Bright stripes of color!

You'll notice too that the hand rail, tacky spindles and crooked newel post are gone.  Mmm hmm, yes, very nice.  Now your view of the stripes is decidedly unobstructed.  Now too, you can see that awful excuse for carpet more readily, so yeah, that has got to go soon.  And I need to figure out what to paint the rest of the stair hallway with to get rid of that dog vomit color.  I need a seriously tall ladder for that job.

The colors used are black, Seascape Green, Sonata, Dalen's Duckling, Wild Mulberry, Leap Frog, and Summer Shower.

Mike was talking about putting up a short header going across from the stair wall to the door wall in order to give the entry some definition and a sense of enclosure.  I suggested removing the can light and putting in some sort of ceiling/low hanging pendant fixture.  So, those ideas get added to the docket mix and we'll see what comes out.

What do you guys think?  Like it?  Hate it?  Totally want to do it?  Never would do that in a million years?

Sundays are one of my favorite days of the week, next to Saturday taking top honors.  On a Sunday, I get to see Mike all day, hang with Hailey, and the premise is a day of lounging do-nothing-ness.

I made it out to Menards today to pick up some more colors for the front entry stripe project I've got going on.  I was a little disappointed when I arrived -- there weren't any balloons, no parade, no welcoming committee.  I'm sure my timing was just off and I missed it by accident.

This was the first time I ventured out of the house leaving Hailey home alone since her surgery so I was a little anxious but, we both managed just fine.

I ran Menards out of their neutral base sample sizes so I was only able to get three colors:  Wild Mulberry, Dalen's Duckling (?!  Huh?  What a name.), and Leap Frog.  Any other colors would have been too light for this project, so I determined.  I figured I would use some of the dining room color and the upstairs bath/guest room color.

So I go downstairs to nab those two colors and I look at the label for what I thought was Tropical Splash, the color I used upstairs, but it says Seascape Green.  Huh?  I don't remember buying this color, I thought.  I grabbed a spare paint card and as it turns out, they mixed the wrong color.  No wonder I wasn't a huge fan of it.  It wasn't the color I had chosen.  No worries -- every store has made this mistake on me at least once.  But that does explain a lot, and will give me an excuse to repaint.

Turns out the Seascape Green was a good fit for this stripe project though, heh!

Almost done with the stripes.  Between the magenta and yellow will go the Leap Frog, a bright emerald green and then I'll have two more stripes left to paint, over there on the right.  I thought maybe another Leap Frog and the Secret Passage gray.  And then it's done!  Well, after a few minor touch up's.  But then it's done!

(Yeah, I was uh, checking out that crooked newel post today, by the way, and found where all the patched screw holes are for the whole thing, right.  Ahem.  So uh, that whole thing there, the post and the spindles which are loose and the uh, hand rail, yeah, that all might um, disappear suddenly.  We'll see.  Don't tell Mike.)

What do you guys think?  It's a super dreary day here in Chicago, hence the darker photo.  I am really liking it and can't wait to see what the bright green does for it.  Then that carpet has to go....!!