Week 34 Project

In the last post I promised more creativity. Here ya go!

90% of people enter my house through the back door. There is a small landing and you either go up to my kitchen or down to my basement. I've been wanting to jazz it up for years, really welcome people into my home... warn them about what they are about to get into. For the longest time I thought I was going to paint black and white horizontal stripes. My kitchen is black and white and I thought it would be a good transition. I must have thought about it for too long because I eventually got bored of the idea.

Well, I saw this wall over on Suzanne's blog and immediately loved it! I had, black, white, yellow and grey paint. I went out in search of a purple to match the Stag's head painting I already had in the hallway and just choose an orange to round out the group. Tapping the horizontal walls took the longest.

For whatever reason I choose to start this project the same week I began loosing the eyesight in my left eye. (I've got optic neuritis. I can basically only discern light and movement in that eye at the moment.We don't know what caused it. I'm still seeing doctors. I'm getting by, but I gotta tell ya make-up application has been a b!&%h) So anyway, that made attempting plumb lines on a staircase quite the adventure. My balance is a bit off, so I had my dad help with tapping the most precarious edges.

Once the lines were up the fun began! Painting "random" patterns took a lot of planning. Ha! My bother is an entire foot taller than me. So he was recruited to paint the top bit behind the painting. I promised him it would take 10mins. But then he walked in the door and suggested a color change (He was totally right!) He had to stay for about an hour putting on three coats of that purple. I love the way it turned out!

Back Staircase Paint Project, Done!

Weel 33 Project

I'm a little embarrassed that I'm still working on last year's year long resolution, but I'm gonna power through this and own it. I will finish. Si Puedo! In my defense, the last three months have been fairly crazy. I quite my job the same week this happened in my basement. 

Yeah, that is about four inches of water. It was the fourth of July weekend. So, everything was closed and everybody was flooded, pun intended, with calls from distressed homeowners like myself. My ever resourceful mother figure out a pump rental situation and I had four family members over at my house within hours making quick work of it. Then the bulldozer came and I became the proud new owner of a very expensive dirt pile, which covers the new main sewer line that had to be put in under my front porch.  See how much fun I've been having! Needless to say inspiration has not been forthcoming. However,  it was really great to work on my tan this summer!

So this" week's" project was simple, cheep and not very creative. After spending all that time outside looking at my lovely new dirt pile, I noticed my four year old railing needed some sprucing up. Enter a can of spray rustoleum.

Railing spruce-up, Done.


More creativity to come, I promise.

Week 32 Project

Yet another baby gift... This taggie blanket was my first attempt that this pattern. It came from Suzanne over at JustAnotherHangUp. I altered it a bit, but I think he came out fairly adorable, not quite as adorable as my friends Chris and Traci's baby, Grayson, but still.

Lionus Taggie Blanket, Done!

Week 31 Project

One of the many baby gifts I didn't quite finish during this past holiday season for a "baby boom" among my friends, includes this Giraffe. He's complete and has been delivered, so now I can share! I made this little guy for my friend Annemarie's second child, Morgan. The "monogrammed" M looked a little bigger than I expected after I stuffed him, but I like him anyway!

Morgan's Giraffe, Done!

Week 30 Project

Cy got me again.
Well, Cy and Valley Thrift.
Why do I go there with him?!?

We picked up this corduroy,flannel,button up shirt thing the last time we were there. I forgot to take a before picture, but the bottom had curves to it like a traditional tuck-it-in-men's-button-up. Cy wanted to use it more as a jacket. The hem job I didn't isn't the prettiest, but from the outside it looks pretty good.

I worked on the jacket while Cy sat at my dining room table painting. I sent him home later in the day to finish a couple of stitches himself. Later in the week I got a text from him in the middle of that day that read "I have gotten numerous compliments on my jacket today...Thanks for the help with it." He really is a kin- hearted, sweet kid!

 

Jacket Conversion, Done!

Week 29 Project

**** I'm sure you are shocked to learn that I did not quite meet my 2012 new year's resolution. I know, I too was surprised when Christmas 2012 rolled around and I had only posted 28 projects. Soooo, I'm gonna take 2013 and wrap this 52 week project. I will say the end of 2012 was kinda hectic. In transitioning to my new job, I also accepted three other jobs, quit two of them and then worked two jobs for about three months. I was kinda busy. ...Back to the blog posts*****

I had four friends give birth in the span of five weeks during the holidays. I finally wrapped up some of the gifts I had created and got around to going to visit some of the mommas and babies. So I can finally post about this project that I started at my friend Mindy's house... like 5months ago?!

 I got the pattern from Suzanne over at http://justanotherhangup.blogspot.com/  It's called Maggie the Taggie Owl. I had heard about taggie blankets and seen them in stores and I thought Suzanne's pattern was too cute. Apparently babies love all the different textures and tend to rub the silky tag of regular blankets and some smart mom somewhere decided to make a taggie blanket to sooth her child.

And now I present  my taggie owl. I made one for Tommy and one for Max. I hope they love them!

He has a few different types of ribbon for feathers and his back is made of super soft brown minky.

Taggie owls made and delivered to babies before they can walk, Done!

Week 28 Project

Dining room wall before:

Dining room wall after:

Its really hard to take a pic of a gallery wall without glare...

 

Looks like you get a glimpse of the Christmas decor too!

I've been looking at "gallery walls" for months and months.

My wall needed more.

 

I had the basic idea before but it just wasn't substantial enough for the size of the wall. I also have been in the mood to simplify. I know, kind of opposing ideas, but hear me out.
I have picture frames of friends and family all over the house. I have a hard time once I decided a picture is frame worthy, to ever switch out the picture. And so the frames just kept adding up and spreading throughout the house. There was a picture frame on every surface in the house. It was like a scavenger hunt. Your eye never had anywhere to rest. Soooo, I wrangled them all up and filled out that wall. I used some art too, just to make it more eclectic. (Which is one of my favorite things and words. My high school portfolio was even titled The Eclectic Ladybug) I think it fills the wall nicely. I also like that it "simplifies" the rest of the house; no longer is the rest of the house hoarding picture frames. Now just this one wall gets to hoard!

Gallery Wall Done.