Party at my car!

So we have this crazy robin that attacks my car. I'm not sure if it's the same one, but it happened last year too. I had to drive around all spring during robin mating season with side mirrors that looked like the bottom of a bird cage. This year, I was determined to put a stop to it. I tried one of the kids' plastic snakes draped over the mirror, but that didn't work. I googled the problem and saw that people said that an owl statue would likely do the trick. Now my solution isn't as good as putting up an owl statue, but it's immediate and free as I do not have an owl. I intend to get one as my solution will get old, and it looks ridiculous, and it does not help other people's cars when they are visiting.Until then, I will use this ridiculous method. I like to call my robin deterrant "the party car"!

Since this works, tomorrow I may even wash the car!



Our house is finally "growing up"

If you've been following my blog, you've seen some of the changes that have gone on in the house within the last month or so. I started thinking about our new furniture, and came to the conclusion that I'm just glad that it looks like we have real furniture, even if it is used and cheap. Now some of our friends are at the point in their lives that they are replacing their cheap furniture with quality furniture. I think that's awesome and I know that someday we'll get there, but until then I offer this theory as to why we are only at the cheap furniture stage. Even though we will be 32 this year, we have only been married almost 3 years, so that puts us at the relationship progress point of like 23. He was a bachelor before, and I struggled with money issues (thanks mostly to my ex), so neither of us brought much "good" furniture to the table. He had the nicest stuff, and that's why we have living & dining room furniture that looks like adults. He also had a really nice bedroom suite, but after we bought the house we realized that it wouldn't physically fit in our bedroom so we sold it. We replaced it with furniture from Ikea that we are pretty happy with, even if our bed does sit on the floor like it's in a college apartment. Talk about rolling out of bed. *snicker*

I have found that within my circle of friends, we exchange alot of stuff. We swap, trade, lend, buy, sell, and borrow stuff from each other all the time. Everything is game,clothing, furniture, toys, services & favors. This week for example, I acquired a book shelf for the boys' room to replace their um, "other" one.

Here's a before

And here's an after

I also hung that stupid race track on the wall. It's an interesting "art" piece now, and I don't have to trip over it anymore :)


I have also acquired a real desk for the den/office. Just to refresh your memory, here's a before.

And here's an after

Shocking difference huh? As you can see, I kept the video storage thing with the top on it to hold my cricut. Gone is the diaper box, the garage storage, and the end table on stilts. This desk actually hides our clutter and keeps little fingers off everything. Since I cleaned out the storage closet the other day, I had available space to put what didn't fit in the desk. Just for the record, this space is pretty long. Afterall, it was a garage before. The office & craft area only takes up about half the room, so on the other end is this:

The couches have both been slip covered to protect the innocent, and we have more cheap furniture over there, but it works and looks better than it used to. That really is saying alot, trust me. It's kinda of a throw back to our youth, as we have a console tv, a stereo that has huge speakers (they are floor units on brackets on the wall), and inside that crappy cabinet, 3 different Nintendo systems and an xbox. The Atari lives in the storage closet. Seriously, it does.

I remembered today, that our tv cabinet in the living room was also a freebie from a friend who was moving and didn't have the need for it anymore. Prior to it, the tv sat on one of those little stand things. Sad really. :-P

It's not fabulous, but it was free and it is being used for what it was made for so we are happy with it.


All of our "new" furniture isn't the high end stuff you might see in a magazine, but it's functional and looks ok for the most part. Someday we will get around to replacing it with solid wood pieces, but until then, we will be content in our particle board palace.

The To-Do (or die) List

I am a high strung person. As we speak, I'm having Tums for breakfast with a tea chaser. I don't have an ulcer (at least I don't think I do), but I definitely have stomach issues when I get wound too tight for too long a period of time. The only way I have found to ease these symptoms is to make a to-do list. I make to-do lists for all sorts of things like projects, groceries, house work, day to day things, party planning, you name it, it has a list. I have a little spiral notebook that I carry around until I have used every page, sometimes front and back. Sometimes I lose it, which creates a panic much like when I misplace my cell phone. It helps me to feel less stressed to have a list, even if that list is an entire page long and has two or more columns. It also gives me a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day when I look at that list, especially if I realize the day is at an end and I don't feel like I have gotten anything done! I should also add that I have little to no concept of time or how long things are really going to take. It usually takes at least 3-5 times longer to do something than I think it does or should, therefore I am also habitually late. Anyway, back to the list. I really think that if I didn't have a to-do list, I'd either have ulcers or have to go to the nut house. It's like steak with no A-1, cottage cheese with no pears, yen without yang! It just can't be done, at lease not without sacrificing quantity and or quality. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm off to make a list of things that I have coming up.

Being creative can be a dangerous thing

If I have realized anything from planning Kinsley's first birthday, it is that being creative can be a dangerous thing. If you are creative and crafty, well that's even worse because in addition to having this big idea, you also have to make it happen. Literally. Plans started out simple enough, I was going to send out some invitations and bake a cake and get her a present of some kind and were all gonna have a good time. Then came the internet. As I searched for cake ideas, Henry spotted cupcakes. Now I hate making cupcakes, all that attention to each cupcake with the little cup liners and the pouring and the icing ugh, I don't even want to think about icing each and every individual cupcake. It's just way too much work. But, since it's his first child, and maybe his last, we aren't sure, (and my first girl), I let him pick the cupcakes. Now I know cupcakes are all girly and cute and less messy because you don't have to cut them and really don't even need a plate, but I find making them labor intensive. Anyway, that's where it aaaall started. Cupcakes. Since I was making cupcakes and not the cute cake I wanted, I decided that it would be a good idea to incoorporate some of the design elements I liked from the cake into the cupcakes. The cake had this cute little spray kind of thing with flowers and butterflies. It was kind of a whimsical Dr. Seuss looking thing, I think it had some sort of wire that went up and bent over and ended in a butterfly or flower. I had no idea where to get wire that wouldn't tear up the cake but would still hold up the design, so just as well. I opted for a mini butterfly cookie cutter (to make little treats for each cupcake) and flower print cupcake liners. Since I needed invitations and our theme was going to be cupcakes I thought, "how cute would it be to have invitations shaped like cupcakes?". Now the game was on. I have a cricut and paper is readily available. I found a cute template on the net, cute pink sprinkly looking paper, and made my invitations. Part 1 complete. Then I started thinking about how I made Colin, my oldest, a little outfit for his first birthday. Oddly enough it had a cupcake on it as well. I made Kinsley a pillow case dress. I stared at it for a month before deciding that she needed a diaper cover to go with it, and since I have my new sewing machine, I was going to applique both with a cupcake. Done. Part 2 complete. Then I saw these cute little pictures of little girls wearing tutus and they were so sweet looking. Well, if everyone else is doing it, why not me? So, I consulted a friend and made a tutu. Part 3 complete. But wait, she needed a shirt to wear with the tutu. Why not a custom one? I bought a white shirt and customized it with "Kinsley's first birthday". Part 4 complete. Now, she needed pictures in her cute little getup. Easy enough, I dressed her in the outfit, headed over to the neighbor's yard and snapped a few off. Part 5! Mwahaha! I was on a roll. The boys each have a signature hound from their first birthday. It's this little blue weenie hound with a birthday hat on that everyone signs at the party and you keep it forever. In a box. In the closet. Not wanting to repeat this again, I got one of those picture frames with the big mat for everyone to sign. I thought it could use a little embellishment, so back to the cricut for "Kinsley's first birthday" again. Part 6 was done. Now it was getting down to the wire, it was time to bake. I started with the cookies. I looked for pre-made and rolled sugar cookie dough, but could not find any. No matter, it's easy enough to make. I hit the net, got the recipe, made the dough, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I rolled, cut and baked the cookies, and after a period of cooling, it was time to get all artistic. I got a recipe for icing, mixed it up, and painted the base coat on each one. Yes, with a paintbrush. After that dried, I got a smaller paintbrush, mixed up a different color of icing, and did the details. After two hours of icing cookies, they were done. And I thought cupcakes were labor intensive! They looked awesome, just like they did in my mind. I was happy, and part whatever we are up to was done! Today I baked cupcakes, and I'm blogging while they cool. I also came up with an idea to make her a happy birthday banner, so the cricut has been working while I'm writing. I'm off to finish the banner, eat lunch, finish cleaning the house, help Henry on his crafty project, and ice those cupcakes. We are going out to dinner tonight, and tomorrow I'm going to decorate the house, have the party, and move on, away from this birthday party. :-P

The haves and the have nots

While I was shampooing the carpet yesterday, yes that ugly pink carpet that I will explain why I still have, I got a text from my mom- my biological mom, not the other one. She asked what I was doing and I told her that I was cleaning the carpet and getting ready to clean the rest of the house, and her response was the same as it always is "Why are you always cleaning your house, your house isn't dirty". First of all, my house is dirty and stays in various states of unclean most of the time. Secondly, if I didn't clean my house all the time, it would be beyond dirty and into the filthy category. Let me also say that thanks to the mother who raised me, not the same as the one who birthed me, my standards of clean of somewhat skewed. She kept the house near immaculate most of the time. We had a living room and a dining room that we weren't even allowed to go into because they were for "company". The Avon lady apparently fell into this category, as she was allowed to sit on the "good" couch. Now my mother would argue that our house was never that clean, but I tell you that everything was put away and cleaned up at the end of every day. Because of that,  I consider dusty furniture a form of dirty as well as seemingly clean floors that have just not been vacuumed or mopped. For the record, that same standard does not apply to other people's houses, just mine. Anyway, all that brings me to this; I have a relatively clean house because I have not been ignoring it. It will not just go away. Do you ever see thin people going to the gym or running down the street and you think "they have the perfect body, why are they going to the gym"? They have a great body because they have not been sitting on the couch eating cheesy poofs and watching soaps. Fat is like dirt, it won't just go away either. ;-P
So back to my explanation about the carpet. We still have pink carpet because we have not saved the money to replace it. We had it, but decided to allot it for other things. For example, remember how I was saying that I like the sound of an air stapler and nailer? Look out world, Henry bought a whole set up today. It is for a specific purpose, but we have been talking about getting one for a while and are always doing projects and thinking "if only we had a nailer, this would go so much faster". True, the carpet if likely more visible than anything we will do with the nailer, but the nailer makes us happy. We have lived with the carpet this long, what's a few more months. Heck, if we put it off long enough we will be able to just get laminate and skip the other. Anyway, I shampooed the carpet with the big carpet cleaner fueled with this high dollar but awesome cleaning solution that has a light orange scent, got up stuff other cleaners have left behind, and made the house smell like a clean hotel room for a day. I have not gotten new flooring, but I have old flooring that is much cleaner than it was.

A few words on shopping at Target

Everyone likes to find great deals. Sometimes, you can find good deal in places you'd least expect. Today while at Target, I saw this super cute little Easter hat for Kinsley in the "cheap" isles at the front of the store. I got her one because it looked cute and it was only a buck so I also got her little white gloves too, not that it will be easy to get them on her. The shocking thing to me was that over in the little girls section, they had an almost identical hat (it was brand name and the ribbon was a different color) for $7! That's just crazy. I'm glad I circle the cheap isles like a frenzied shark before I get further into the store. Another great place at Target is the clearance section. I buy alot of my clothes there for cheaps in the off season and sometimes the current one. Today I was cruising those isles when I saw this adorable sweater. When I looked at the tag, it of course said "maternity". That didn't surprise me because that happens to me all the time. Out of everything on those clearance racks, I more times than not pick up something that I loove only to realize that it's maternity. I of course buy the item anyway, but it's the principle of the thing. To be honest, the XS maternity (which might be a maternity size if you wear like 00 in normal clothes, in which case you'd most likely be either uber skinny or 12, neither of which should be having a baby) fits like a normal small. I am not ashamed to say that I buy as many maternity clothes now as I did when I was actually pregnant. The ones I buy are always on clearance which is good for the budget, they are super cute and don't look like maternity clothes at all (though today's maternity clothes keep up with the current fashion and don't look like the frumpy mumus our moms wore), and they're stretchy so that when you're having an off time in the month you can still fit into something without sporting a muffin top or looking like a beached whale. Target also clearances things on Tuesdays (I think I'm right about the day), and anything already clearanced gets clearanced again! WOOT! Sometimes waiting and thinking about it really does pay off. You may not $15 like it, but for $10 you could live with it and for $5 you could love it. It also works for "thrifty" people like me who like to stretch a dollar as far as possible and squeeze a nickle so hard the buffalo loses his lunch.  I am not really that cheap or thrifty, but I do like to get things for a cheap price. I also love something else about Target, and that is their coupons. You can stack a manufacturers coupon with a Target coupon to get a slammin' good deal on stuff. They also have coupons for stuff other than cleaning supplies and depends. I got a coupon for $1 off any kids clothing item, and there were others for $2 off ladies dresses and $4 off swimsuits, not to mention that I also printed one for BOGO on Reese's cups. Heck yeah, sign me up! Perhaps what I like best of all about Target coupons is that when you buy something with a coupon, and sometimes without, they often print you another coupon for it or something like it. Today, I used a $2.50 off a case of diapers coupon, and when I checked out they gave me a $3 off a case of diapers coupon, AND a $3 off maternity clothes coupon which I am likely to use not because I deliberately shop in that section, but for $3 off I will now! They have done the same for me in the past with formula too. Hey, $5 off a can of formula is no crummy coupon. They don't even ask about the coupon, they just assume that if you are buying it now you might be buying it again in the future so here's an easy, hassle free coupon for ya. You don't even have to clip it out. It just doesn't get any sweeter than that.

When your horizontal space is limited, go vertical!

Since my post revealing my crazy work area, I've been giving it alot of thought. A friend said she had a bookshelf she was going to yardsale. I was interested. Then I started thinking more. Maybe a shelf unit wasn't really what I needed, but an armoire! Something to not only organize the mess, but conceal it. I searched craigslist. I found a few candidates, but decided to hit Goodwill first. We loaded up the kids and hit two Goodwill stores. At the second one we found it; a reasonably priced, solid enough, decent looking piece. Honestly I'm not sure what it was supposed to be used for originally, but it must have been some sort of dislplay like purpose because it had a short shelf with a light behind it. Now this didn't really suit my purpose, but I have vision. For $40, I didn't mind bringing it home and doing a little "work". So here's a picture of what it looked like when we got it home.

There's open storage for stuff I don't mind people seeing, and closed storage down low to hide clutter and better yet, keep tiny fingers out of my stuff. We removed the light unit, altered the shelf it was on so that my scrapbooks will slide more fully supported all the way to the back, and took off the trim work at the top. I don't like scrolly stuff like that, and it wouldn't allow my scrapbooks to fit anyway. It had to go. I went through my storage closet in the den and purged some items, cassette tapes anyone? It was time to load up the shelf. Here's a pic of my new storage solution doing it's job.

Remember what it looked like before...

And now with the shelving unit

Here's a closer view. Pay no attention to the duct tape on the top, it's just there until the glue dries. Minor casualty from the alterations.



After the office rummage sale, I will get rid of some of the stuff stored under the table and neaten that up a bit. I'm thinking of covering the diaper boxes with contact paper, you know, to elevate them a bit. :-p I also repurposed a hanging unit to hold my current works like the tutu and bags. Having this stuff organized, as well as the storage closet, I was able to neaten up the computer area.

Before

After

There's not a huge difference in the computer area other than it is neater and some of the junk is gone. That's ok, because there is a huge difference in the sewing area and I'm thrilled to have real storage that looks less ghetto and isn't going to fall off the wall and dump all my stuff. All in all, I'd say it was a productive day. :)

The good, the bad, and the progress

I mentioned a few days ago that we were getting new flooring to replace the pink carpet. We have shuffled the budget and decided to do that next month instead of this month, afterall we've lived with it this long so what's another month. Now some might think that's a horrible thing, but it's not and here's why.

1. We have a puppy and he's still piddling on the floor sometimes. Rather than take a chance on ruining my new floor, I will just shampoo all of our carpet one last time and then throw it all out. It will give him an extra month to get things together and maybe be a little more housebroken. GOOD
2. Since we aren't blowing the whole budget on flooring, I will be able to do other smaller things that we were going to have to wait to do. GOOD + PROGRESS
3. It keeps me grounded and makes me realize that things take time and you have to be patient and willing to adapt. I once dated a guy who said "patience is a virtue that you do not readily possess". He was right and I'm trying to work on it.

So this morning, my little home improvement protege and I are off to shop! We will be hitting Goodwill, Joann, and Hobby Lobby. I have coupons for those last two. :) After we return, I will let you know of my spoils and you can rejoice with me that I saves at least 40% on everything. Mwahahaha!

I've got a staple gun & I'm not afraid to use it!

In an ideal world, I'd have an air powered nailer and staple gun. I just like the sound it makes, it sounds like progress and makes me think of hunky roofers workin' in the sun. (Sorry honey, but it does) Since this is not an ideal world, I have an electric staple gun and no nailer (yet). It still makes alot of racket and it gets the job done, but it doesn't sound nearly as cool. The other day when I was using it, I started getting a headache from all the stapling. I didn't want to stop working because I really wanted to get the project done. That's when I asked Henry if we had any ear plugs. His response was "No", BUT in his brilliance (see how I slipped that in there to make up for the comment about the roofers?) he added "but I DO have some shooting ear protection in my hang gun box if you'd like to use that". Perfect, now I was back in business. I downed some ibuprofen and procured the ear protection.

I'd like to think there's a certain Charlies Angels look to the photo... No? Ok, onto the project then.

So I've been coveting these leather Parsons chairs for some time. Ideally I'd like to build (because they are waay over priced) a square wooden table that seats 8, and add 8 Parsons chairs so that when friends come over we will have a super comfy place to sit and hang out because, it's very difficult to fit 8 people on a couch and a lazy boy which is all the seating we have in the living room. Here's another example of "want vs. get", you remember about that from an earlier post. I want leather Parsons chairs,

I have 6 regular dining room chairs with fabric covered seats (NOT good when you have kids), so what I get when I combine the two is this:

Together with my table (which is a rectangle not a square), it looks like this:

Now I am not a professional upholsterer, but I think I did ok. I admit that there are a few more wrinkles in the corners than I would have liked, but that's what you get when you add together an amateur, thick fabric, and tight corners. I will probably add more staples later, but for now I'm done. They're not leather Parsons chairs, but the vinyl will definitely be easier to clean than the fabric was, and it gives them an updated look. Best of all, I got the vinyl on red tag clearance at Joann for only $6/yd, so when you figure that I got 2 1/4 yds that's only $13.50 for 6 chairs instead of $150 for 1, and I have a little bit of vinyl left over for some random project. I'll take it!

The elephant in the house

Almost everyone has that space in their house that they just don't really know what to do with, so they leave it in some form of dysfunctional state until they figure it out. For us, that room started out as the "game room". Henry had a pool table, and since this room is a converted garage it seemed like the perfect place to put it. Our intention was to put in a small bar and a tv and all of our old school video games and have a place to hang out. After a while, we realized that the room was really too small to play pool, and we needed the space for other things. I actually covered the pool table with a baby shower table cloth and used it for scrapbooking for a while. I think that the "man cave Gods" were probably angered by that. We recently got rid of the pool table, and the room is now called the "den". I use that term loosely because it really is a collage of different things, and we now know that it needs to function as a tv room, a home office, and a craft room. It's right off the kitchen and there's an attached half bath (on the opposite side as the kitchen), which is great because it's also a guest room when we have company.
There are perks to having this converted garage den. For starters, it has french doors at the end which let in alot of light and allow you to exit the room without going through the house. They are also great for ventilation because the room has no other windows. Who wants to stare at the side of the neighbors house anyway. Another perk is that it has an exterior door to it from the kitchen which means that you have more sound seperation from loud children, and you can close it off from the rest of the house if you want to. This leads me to the problem. You'd think that since we use this room so much, it would have been one of the first rooms we fixed up right? Wrong. Since we can close it off and no one visiting has to see it (unless they are an overnight guest), we have spent our efforts on the rest of the house that we really don't even use anymore. This poor room is like the ugly step child that gets all the leftovers and hand me downs from other rooms. We finally replaced the old ratty mini blinds that were there when we bought the house, with wooden blinds. We only did that because we had new windows installed and realized that the blinds wouldn't fit back in the opening anymore. We have a decent sized closet in the den, but it has the water heater smack dab in the middle of it. That makes storage an issue as things that are stored in there are usually not easily accessible, so we have had to find other ways of storing things. That brings me back to one of the functions of the room: a home office. Here is what we have devised for the office space. Feel free to snicker, laugh, and poke fun. :)

On the opposite side of the room is this:

I don't think this picture needs as much explanation as the other one. Everything that you see is pretty much what it really is. I should add that the shelf in the top left corner is hanging on by a thread and likely to fall any day now. A book shelf purchase is imminent. Ignore the junk on the table and in the floor, I just haven't cleaned up after my latest project that I will blog about you can be sure.

There are a few other interesting storage things in there like one of those hanging closet organizers that you're supposed to put sweaters in. We mounted a 2x4 to the wall and made a little hanging system to hold up the organizer. I have my fabric in it sorted by type. It's not pretty, but it works. Now just for the record we do have a plan in mind to spiff up this room, but it requires purchasing new cabinets for the kitchen so that we can install the old cabinets in the den and upgrade the room from slum dog to millionaire. Ok, maybe it won't be as fancy as a millionaire, but it'll look better than it does now. That's one of the reasons we are living with it in such a sad state, we don't want to spend alot of money remodeling it when we will get supplies for free later on. Some people call that being "green", I call it "thrifty & on a budget". I'm hoping to strip off the remaining wallpaper border soon so that I can at least paint the room, which will make a huge difference. That border is evil and I have no idea what it's up there with, but I have a plan A & a plan B. Someday this room will be awesome, but until then I will continue living in my vagrant like room and loving the fact that it finally has an identity and a purpose, even if it does look like a shack on the bayou.

When good organization goes bad

I try to be a pretty organized person. I like containers and bins, which I feel is a very canadian word, and all manner of organizers and sorters. But sometimes, good organization goes bad. When this happens, one has little choice but to dump everything out and start all over. I had this happen to me over the weekend. I got out some bins that I had miscellaneous fabric and other stuff in, and realized that though it looked fairly organized on top, lurking beneath the surface it was a jumbled mess and I honestly didn't really remember what was down there. On the bottom. Where you can't easily see. I also noticed that a similar thing had happened to most of my other craft stuff too. That made me sad, and I started thinking that organization goes bad for 1 of 2 reasons. 1. You dig through the stuff, get things out, and then don't put them back where you found them, or 2. Your method changes, or you begin to do different projects with those items that renders the previous form of organization useless. I devised an upgraded version of my organizational stuff that was fashioned from a curious assortment of things being grouped together that may or may not actually go together. Plastic mini milk crates being strapped together with zip ties and hung on the wall vaguely resemble something you might see in a college dorm. That situation is made worse by the fact that there are toddler shoe boxes (I did at least cover the weird looking one with contact paper) on the "shelves" next to a cookie tin & an empty wipes container. It's not pretty, but it's functional and suits my needs for now. That might be a completely different example of when good organization goes bad, I'm not sure. I do know that displaying such wacky things is most certainly a design faux pas, but sometimes you do the best you can with what you've got. :)

In the buffet of home improvement, sometimes you just have to "nibble".

As I've previously mentioned, we have a lengthy list of home improvement projects that we'd like to do. I might even liken it to a buffet of projects. Some are small and easily completed, some are massive and take a little time, and some are just there to be pretty, kinda like that parsley stuff they put around the cottage cheese. I suppose that the goal with our house is to eventually eat the entire buffet, which brings me to the stomach, or  in this case, the budget. Since we have a huge buffet and a considerably smaller stomach, it becomes necessary to pace ourselves and nibble on this feast a little at a time. We have a menu of what is to come with the next return trip to the buffet.

1. Replace the pink carpet with a floating vinyl floor that looks like laminate. 
2. Recover the kitchen chairs with vinyl, thus making me feel that I am closer to having the leather parsons chairs I really want.
3. Make some custom window treatments/roman shades for the living room. 
4. If we're lucky, we may even be able to squeeze in some glass shelving for the coffee bar.

I hope to have all of this done within 10 days, as that is the length of time between the start of the new budget and Kinsley's birthday party when our families will be visiting. I'm fairly certain that I can get it all done and make the cupcakes that are required for the party. It's gonna be tough, but in the event that I fail they will be able to see the house again 2 weeks later when it's Jonas's birthday. Chomp, chomp, chomp!

Want vs. Get

When we decided to buy a house, there were a few things that we decided we really wanted. We wanted at least 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Sure the extra bathroom isn't a necessity, but to us it was important enough to exclude any house that didn't have at least 2. We also wanted a house that was not too far from his office. That meant both actual miles as well as the time that it took to drive those miles. We looked online a lot to narrow the search. We set a budget, and admitted to ourselves that to get our ideal location, we were probably going to have to sacrifice condition. You can change a house, but you can't change its location, at least not without a huge cost increase. The probable sacrifice was ok with us as we are pretty handy and have family and friends who know things and can help out when we need it. We also wanted to be able to put our own stamp on the house and make it ours. No one wants to rip out granite because they hate the color someone else chose, you know what I mean? We ended up buying a house in a great neighborhood that's close to work, school, shopping and everything else, but it was stuck in the 80's. We are trying to resuscitate it, but it's still a work in progress. We have a lengthy list of things that we'd like to do to it, and we frequently go over that list and make revisions and adjustments based on what's driving us the most nuts at the time. Here are a few examples of want vs. get.

We wanted a good looking house. We got this pink house with purple shutters & huge trees & bushes.

We wanted to put vinyl siding on, but we have that budget thing so we got paint. ( and a chainsaw)

Not too bad huh?



We wanted an open floor plan, but we got this divided kitchen and dining room.

So. Much. Wallpaper. :(

We have slowly rehabbed it into this. *Note: the pink carpet will be disappearing in a week! WOOT!

We added the bar, the window over the bar (which used to be the back door),  the french doors & the coffee bar. We have not however, added a real countertop to the bar. (It's on the list)

For now I will stop there, but be assured that there have been many more improvements which I will post later. Sometimes it's not what you get that you have to live with, but rather what you want. Make it happen!

Craft stores need 12 step programs

As any good crafter should be, I am a fan of craft stores. Mostly I frequent Joann, but I occasionally drift over to Hobby Lobby as well. The reasons that I refrain from visiting the Lobby are because 1. I don't like their fabric selection quite as well, 2. though I like their scrapbooking section fairly well for certain things, I sadly haven't touched a scrapbook in quite some time, but mostly because 3. I only need one addiction at a time. Craft stores suck you in with a vortex of swirling colors and patterns. They offer great discounts and provide you with a plethora of coupons and sale papers for things you aren't even interested in, but they look so tempting in the color ads that you begin to conjure up projects just so you can buy one because "it's on sale".  I talk with the employees at Joann when I'm there, some of which I'm almost on a first name basis with, and most of them tell me that it's very hard to leave the store with a paycheck. How could it not be? They have first hand information on which items are on sale and how to get the very best deals. A few have even admitted that they work there merely to support their crafting habit. I  have therefore decided that craft stores are like crack and  need 12 step programs. Since no crafter should swear off  new projects (unless you have unfinished projects lurking about), purchasing things to complete said projects, or having a reasonable stash, (unless of course you are like a crazy cat lady except with fabric and other craft supplies) I have devised my own 12 step program to manage crafty addictions.

1. Admit that you are an addict/junkie and need help. This is often the hardest step.
2. Never shop when you are lonely or depessed. This form of "retail therapy" will only get you into trouble.
3. Some say to get an accountability partner. If you choose to go this route, make sure that your partner is not a fellow addict or they will become what's known as an enabler. This compounds your problem for obvious reasons.
4. Have a specific project in mind that you are going to complete within the next X number of days. Here, X= the realistic amount of time that it will actually take you to complete the project. Don't start 5 things and not finish any of them. That's how cat ladies get started.
5. Don't buy supplies for a project you might do some day when you have the time. You know that you aren't likely to have the random time to do it.
6. Plan out your projects in detail. That means making a list of all items you will need to complete said project. Having to return to the store to pick up  forgotten items leaves you vulnerable to the vortex.
7. Before you go to the store armed with your list, go through your stash and see if you already have any of the items on the list. Searching current items= less stock+more money in your pocket.
8. Organize your stuff. Make up a system that works for you. This will make step 7 much easier.
9. If you have a project in mind that requires pricey supplies, or if you repeatedly use the same types of items, wait until they go on sale or you have a killer coupon to purchase or stock up. 
10. Save your scraps, you might need them. Now I don't mean every single scrap, I mean pieces that are big enough to actually use for something. If you are having a crafting withdrawal, hit the scrap pile and create something random. Some folks call this "a quick fix".
11. Make a project board. Here you can list out all of the projects you would like to do and rank them by importance or ease of completion. 
12. The last and perhaps most important step is shopping with cash, your coupons, and a calculator. This will help you to see your limit before you hit the register and feel obligated to give them your debit card to save face and cover your overages.

I hope that my 12 step program helps you to manage your own crafty addiction and become a "functioning craft-a-holic".

Is it really handmade if...

So I'm a crafty kind of girl and I like things that make other things easier. For example; I have a cool new Viking sewing machine that, as previously stated, I don't really know how to use. I mean I can use part of it, the sewing part, but it also has an embroidery part which I have only a theory about how to use. Don't worry, there's a class for that, which I took but didn't really understand the details of because I got my machine and then got busy and didn't open it until the day before the class. I will be re-taking that class after I have had time to figure some things out. Now I at least have sort of enough knowledge to attempt to use it, maybe. Anyway, I also have a Cricut. For those of you who don't know, that's an "electronic cutting machine" as described by their website. The question comes when doing projects with either my Viking or Cricut as the majority of the work is done by the machines itself. My part in the project is to prep the materials being used and set up a computer program that tells the machines what to do. After I do that, I can just walk away and let them run. Now I'm not saying that it takes no talent or skill to create stuff with the machines, I'm just saying that it isn't exactly hands on. I suppose that at this point I'm more willing to say that the Cricut projects are more hands on because after you cut them out, you usually still have to put them together with other paper to make something. I'm a little hesitant to make the previous statements because I have friends who do professional embroidery. They do amazing things that look awesome, and have far more knowledge about embroidery than I could probably ever hope to have. I'm going to say that their items are not only "custom", you remember the discusson about that word, but "professional". I'm pretty sure that the prep work they do to ensure quality is both tedious and time consuming, I can't even imagine. Having said all that, I am struggling with a question; Is it really handmade if you use machines to do most of the work? I'm going to say no, but I will give it the "custom" stamp. There, question answered. :)

Homemade vs. Custom

Yesterday while I was making curtains for my windows, I started thinking about the labels that we apply to things. Mostly I was thinking that since I was making my own curtains they would probably be called "homemade", whereas if I had someone else make them they would likely be called "custom". That led me to believe that people tend to think that if one has knowledge but not money (or is just thrifty) they have homemade things, while one who has money but not knowledge (or time) has custom things. I also started thinking that if one person made 2 identical things and kept one for themselves but gave one to a friend, would the first be homemade and the second custom? The answer there, in my opinion, is that both things should be called the same thing. I think that in the end it comes down to quality and experience. If you hack something together and it looks like your blind aunt did it, it's probably homemade. If you take the time to do something right and you do a good job, I'm going to say that it's custom. I also think that most people are too modest to accept that they can do something well enough to call it custom,  it's like being boastful or cocky. How about we just call it what it is, talented.
I feel that I tend to fall into the "homemade" category based on the quality of most things I attempt. I usually know just enough to get the job done, and the outcome is usually closely resembles what it was supposed to be. My "finishing" tecniques need help which is why I recently purchased 2 books on sewing and started attending sewing classes. Ok, Ok, so I bought the books because they were on sale, but I did want to get them anyway, and I'm going to the classes because I got a fancy new sewing machine and I don't really know how to use it and the store proviedes the classes for free, but I wanted to take them anyway. The first step in getting help is admitting that you have a problem, right?  The lady as the store says I can retake the class as many times as I need to until I feel that I understand. I have a feeling that we are going to be on a first name basis in the very near future. I'm hoping to elevate my sewing status to custom quality sooner rather than later. Until then, I leave you with my most recent attempts at custom. I at least had the intention of them being nice, but you be the judge.

This is the roman shade that I attempted to make for my bathroom. I had originally intended to use different fabric, but I found this fabric that I love at Walmart in the $5/bolt section. See, "custom" doesn't have to be expensive.

And here we have the shade down.

And here is my solution to keeping them raised. The website I used for my template said to get a special thing like the ones on mini blinds. I'm too cheap though, and I didn't feel like searching for it.

There are a few minor flaws in this project, but all in all, I think it turned out well.
Here's the website I used for my pattern.
http://www.terrelldesigns.com/Instructions/Make-a-Classic-Roman-Shade/Preparing-to-Make-a-Classic-Shade
Use the calculator tool! It will save you a lot of heart/headache.

Blogging is harder than it looks, but here's how I got my title.

Who knew that blogging was going to be so hard? I have plenty to say, but just getting my blog set up has been a serious learning curve. There are so many options about what you want to see and who you want to see your stuff, then there are colors and fonts and layouts. You also have to pick a name for your blog that isn't stupid and sort of sums up what you want to say or the point that you want to get across. I realize that the name of my blog seems a little odd, but i gave it a lot of thought. Here's how I got to the name Infinite Elephants. One day when we were doing some sort of demo on our house, which if you don't already know about you will soon learn, my father-in-law was here to help us. I believe that I made a comment similar to "I don't know how we're going to get this done". It was then that I heard him say "It's like eating an elephant, you just do it one bite at a time". Now I know that that is an old statement, the origin of which is unknown, but I had never heard it before and it really stuck with me. It made perfect sense and seemed applicable to my life in general.  I'm always trying to finish something. At first, I thought that perhaps my elephant had an eating disorder causing it to gain weight at a rate equal to if not greater than my speed of eating. Then I thought that maybe my elephant just had regenerative powers, and that was why I never seemed to finish my to-do list. Then it hit me! I don't have just one elephant. I do finish projects, I just always have more to take their place. It's like I have "infinite elephants".