Tornadoes and a stenciling project from hell

It's kind of hard to write a post about stenciling the entryway knowing that 22 people died in our state this weekend from the 200+ tornadoes that ripped through the area.  We're incredibly lucky that we didn't have any damage when homes, cars, businesses and lives were destroyed less than 10 miles away.  Despite some heavy winds and small hail, our part of town seemed to have suffered no damage at all--the only reminders of severe weather are shreds of fiberglass insulation all over the place, likely carried from destroyed buildings miles away.

Despite the weather, I tackled stenciling our entryway this weekend.  On Saturday morning I headed out to get some paint and supplies prior to the weather turning.  If you want to try your hand at stenciling, here's what you'll need:

Paint, a stencil, and a sponge brush.  If you're going to make your own stencil, you'll need blank stenciling paper, a template, a Sharpie, a hard surface, and a sharp knife.

I printed off my template and then taped it to the back of the stencil paper so I could trace it on.

Then I slid the acrylic block under the sheet and cut out the pattern with the knife.

Starting in a corner, I taped the stencil to the wall and then it's time to paint away!

Here it is after about 10 minutes.

After about an hour or so (?).  It was surprisingly slow going.

I had to take a break while the power flickered, but here's what it looked like by Saturday late afternoon.

By Sunday afternoon, I had gotten two entire walls done, but my shoulders were aching and I was feeling over it.  More importantly, I was getting sloppy and there are a number of places that I'll have to retouch later.  It's taking much longer than I had anticipated, but all in all I'm THRILLED with how it's looking.  For less than 30 bucks, the entryway got a great little makeover.  It's a subtle difference, but I think it looks interesting.  Oh, and ignore the weird brown spot on the ceiling.  We had a roof leak last year but once I scrape the ceiling in here, that weird brown spot will be history.

So, what do we think?  How was your weekend?



Weekend Plans

The weekend is almost here!  So much to do in two little days!  On tap:

K9 3K Dog Walk to support the Wake County SPCA,

Settling down to dig into the new digital mag Trad Home,

Stenciling the entryway (I think I've settled on something like this),

Visiting the farmers' market and doing a bit of cooking and eating.  Fun fun!   Happy weekend everyone!  Anyone have any fun plans?

Weekend Project

This weekend I plan to stencil our entry way.  Wheeeeee!  I really like the idea of wallpaper, but that's not really in the budget at the moment.  I've found some great looking stencils (at Olive Leaf Stencils--there are a ton of cool patterns), but one is too big and they both require shipping and I'm really impatient.  So, I'll just have to make my own!  (I've done it before actually and it's surprisingly easy.)

Here's the entry way as it is now:

Stencil A, which I love:

The only problem is that the scale is HUUUUUUUUUGE:

I could probably find a way to make it myself in a much smaller scale.

Stencil B, which I also love, but I really want to stencil this weekend and I'm not sure how long it'll take to ship:

So, we'll have to see.  I plan on using some of the Martha Stewart Precious Metals paint in either Bone or Tin, so the effect will be subtle.  I'll be sure to post pics.

Up Next: The Living Room!

Sometime in the next year or so, I actually plan on finishing the living room.  We need to get rid of the massive over-scale red chair which has never gotten much use, then we'll bring in some side chairs, a rug, and some side tables.  I'd love to get a rug in there soon, but first I need to figure out what fabrics I'll use on the chairs (and then buy the chairs), and that'll guide the rug decision.

I used a neutral rug in this inspiration board below, but I'm also toying with the idea of bringing in some color from the artwork into the rug decision.  It'll be easier to pick the chair fabric first and then the rug than vice versa, so as much as I'm chomping at the bit to buy a rug, I know it'll be the smart thing to hold off for a little longer.

I Have To Have It: Spring Accessories!

Just browsing online a bit and found some things I might need to have this spring:

Summer straw hat, $34.50
Mini pearl supernova bracelet, $58.00
Summer watercolor floral scarf, $34.50
Swarovski crystal accented watch, $188.99
Turquoise horn bracelet, $48.00
Seychelles "Change of Venue" sandals, $94.95
Thin sparkle bangle, $19.99

Done! (mostly...)

After a few months of hard work, the front of our house is looking how I had envisioned.  As a refresher, here's what the house looked like in February:

It wasn't bad, but I didn't love the army green door and shutters.  So I painted the front door red and it looked better:

The yard was still a mess though.  Half of the lawn was ripped up due to my crabgrass removal project.  Good times!  Then we had even more good times when I ordered 10 yards of mulch (which in case you didn't know, is a LOT of friggin' mulch).

The mulch made everything look a bit better though:

The shutters were still that weird green, but I wasn't really looking forward to painting them.  Enter my parents.  Although it's my dad's birthday today, his idea of a fun birthday weekend was to come over to our place to paint our shutters.  Don't have to twist my arm!

So my parents got to work and instead of a weird green, the shutters are now a flat almost-black (Behr's Stealth Jet, in case you're wondering).  It's a very subtle difference, but I'm really happy with how the shutters turned out.

Last weekend my mom and I picked out some planters for the front door area and some of the beds and got to work.  I think the planters will look great once they start to fill in a bit more.

Plus, Mother Nature hasn't exactly been slacking off either.  The dogwoods are in full bloom and the grass is finally starting to fill in.  We still have massive amounts of weed removal to do, but we're making progress.



My thoughts a week and a half after being burglarized

Oh, happy Friday!

It's been about a week and a half since our house was broken into and you know what?  It still sucks!  So, in an effort to maybe make some good come out of it, I figured I'd post some of the "coulda-woulda-shoulda" thoughts that we've had since this happened, so maybe someone out there in blog-landia could learn from us and hopefully avoid this happening to you.

I will say that one thing I've learned is that there's really nothing you can do to guarantee 100% that this isn't going to happen to you.  You could easily spend a boat load of money buying various things to protect you and your possessions and you can worry yourself sick about it, but if someone really wants to get in, they'll find a way.  That said, I still think it's smart to think about security and find ways that make sense for you to help protect you and your property, especially in this economy when people are desperate.

I know it's terribly cliche, but I didn't think this would happen to us and if it could happen to us, it could happen to you.  And let me tell you: you really, really don't want someone out there with everything necessary to assume your identity.  It's not a warm fuzzy kind of feeling.  And it really sucks knowing that you got about half the money back from your insurance company as you should have because you didn't have the right insurance riders in place.

Okay, so here's my top five lessons learned:

1)  Get an alarm system.  I was never a believer and generally thought they were for paranoid people, but they make sense.  I think there's a preventative value in having that little sign in the front of one's yard to let people know you have a security system.  And if someone does choose to break in, at least you have a better shot of knowing about it before it's too late.  However, if you do get an alarm, use it.  They don't do much good if you don't...you know...arm it.

2)  Protect your documents.  We had a simple fire-proof safe that we kept our important documents in.  Bonus points for us for thinking about it, but we didn't really think that someone would take the safe with them.  So get a safe that you can bolt to the floor or get a wall safe.  Or a safety deposit box at your bank (they can be free or at least very very inexpensive, depending on what kind of account you have).  If you insist on having a small one, at least hide it (and putting it on the floor of a closet doesn't count--it's apparently EXACTLY where thieves think you're going to put it).

3)  Get the right kind of door hardware.  If you don't know what you need, ask around at the hardware store or call the police department.  And be sure to get the extra long screws that will screw the hardware into the stud.  Most hardware gets screwed into the trim only, which is easy enough to pop off with a crowbar, so make sure it's screwed into the stud.

4)  Catalog your stuff.  If your stuff gets stolen, you'll need to prove to your insurance company that you did indeed own said stuff and you're not making it all up just to make a quick buck.  What constitutes proof of ownership?  Check your homeowner's insurance policy to be sure, but generally photos, receipts, packaging, and owners manuals count.  I'd suggest taking periodic photos of every room in your house and storing them on a site such as flickr, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or whatever.  (You could do this when you set your clocks and check the batteries in your smoke detectors.)  Take detailed photos of jewelry or other valuable items and/or scan the receipts.  And for electronics, be sure to get the serial numbers.  Obviously, you're not going to do this for every little thing you buy, but figure out what makes sense for you.  We actually did really well in this department:  we were able to prove almost ownership of almost everything that was taken, save for two bottles of perfume.

5)  Get an insurance rider on your jewelry.  I know.  It's not a fun way to spend your money every month.  But check your homeowner's insurance policy to see what they'll cover when it comes to jewelry.  And don't forget to take into account that watches get included in this.  Then figure out the approximate value of your watches and jewelry and see where you're at.  It might make sense for you; it might not.  But do the research to find out.  Think about it:  if all of it was gone tomorrow, it can add up quickly to replace it. 

So, there you have it.  Not exactly my funnest blog post ever, but I hope someone out there gets something out of it and can learn from our experience.

One Year Later: The Downstairs

Oh boy. Not sure what to think after looking at these photos. On one hand, we've done a lot since moving in, but on the other hand there's a lot left that I want to do.  In no particular order, here are all the rooms on the first floor.

 

 

Entry

We'll start with a fairly straightforward room.

 

 

I painted the walls and painted the front door red and that's been about it for the most part.

 

 

 

 

I got this mirror at a local consignment shop when we lived at the old house and never really had a great place to put it.  It's perfect for the entry way.

 

 

To do:

• Replace the desk with a more substantial piece of furniture
• Purchase an umbrella stand

 

 

Family Room

 

The family room hasn't really changed all that much.  Aside from filling up the bookcases and adding some art, it's very similar to how it was when we moved in.

 

 

Up until last week we had a nice tv to fill up that empty space.  Hopefully we'll have a replacement here sometime in the next week or two.

So far in this room we've changed out the ceiling fan, hung up some art, and brought in some cute throw pillows.

 

 

I hung some curtains shortly after we moved in and painted the mantel as well.  The door will hopefully get replaced this weekend.  Like how it's screwed shut???  UGH.

 

 

To do: 

• Paint the walls the same color as the hallway
• Paint the bookcase interior a medium gray
• Figure out what to do with the fireplace (paint it, leave it as-is, or cover it in drywall)

 

 

Dining Room

 

The dining room has been surprisingly one of my favorite rooms to work on so far.  It's also the room that's the most finished!

 

 

Shortly after moving in, we bought a dining room set, flipped an Ikea bookshelf on its side to use as a makeshift buffet, changed out the light fixture, and recovered the chair fabric.  Then we got some fun artwork to hang on the walls, painted the walls, and refinished a little storage chest.

 

 

 

 

Kitchen and Breakfast Room

 

The kitchen and breakfast room haven't changed much either.  We got new light fixtures and Chris created a pot rack and that's about it.  

 

 

 

To do:

• Paint the walls
• Maybe get a rug for the breakfast area?

 

 

Future Kid's Room

 

 

This has been a fun room to work on: it'll be a kid's room someday, but since that kid is a ways off, I figured that we'd paint it a gender-neutral color and that can work now with just adults living here.  So, I painted three of the four walls a high gloss navy blue and painted the other wall cream.  I also made some crepe paper puffs using a Martha Stewart kit and dug out my old map of Australia from when I spent a semester there in college.  I still need to put some trim around the map as a frame of sorts.

 

 

 

To do: 

• But a nightstand
• Buy a dresser
• Buy a rug
• Figure out what to do with the ceiling fan (it's just weird)

All three of these items will do double duty in the room as another guest room and when the room is a kid's room.  We're hoping that we'll get our tax refund soon so we can start looking for rugs.

 

 

 

Guest Bathroom

 

 

 

Aside from getting new towels, we've done NOTHING with this room.

 

To do:

• Replace the vanity and toilet (both with something taller)
• Repaint the walls (Griz accidentally shit on the wall once {I have no idea how} and when I tried to scrub it off, I scrubbed off some of the paint and I don't have any touch-up paint to fix it.  Oops.)

Guest Bedroom

 

 

I've hung some curtains and refinished the desk (one of my favorite projects, if I do say so myself!), but this room is still remarkably the same as the way it was when we moved in.

 

 

To do:

• Get another desk/tall nightstand for the other side of the bed
• Replace the bedding with something brighter and more colorful
• Get a rug

Living Room

 

This was the one room in the house that was a color other than tan.  Why the former owners chose such a weird green is beyond me.

 

 

One weekend my mom and I painted the walls a pretty cream and it's 1000% times better.  Although it's still not done. 

 

 



To do:

• Sell the enormous red chair and replace it with two side chairs from Craigslist that we'll get reupholstered
• Get a rug (seeing a trend here?)
• Install two antique brass swing-arm lamps above the sofa

Pantry

Not much has happened in the pantry, other than swapping out the standing freezer for a chest freezer.  The standing freezer opened the wrong way, keeping a huge amount of the pantry completely unusable.  Go figure.

 

Sorry it's blurry.

And of course, the former owners painted around the old freezer and so we have a weird blotch of white in an otherwise green pantry.  Does this bother me?  Yes.  Am I going to do anything about it?  Unlikely.  Moving on.

 

Master Bathroom

Ah, the master bathroom!  A gem of a room:

Mmmmmmmm...blue laminate countertop.

Our plan is to basically gut the entire thing.  The tile in the shower and the vanity need to be replaced.  I want something taller, something sleeker and more storage.

Not much has changed, other than adding in some towel rings and towel bars.

Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is pretty much done for the most part.

To do:

• Add a small table
• Paint
• Replace or refinish the ceiling fan
• Find something to balance the window on the other side of the bed.

So, that's where we're at one year after moving in!  We've made some progress, but we definitely have some work to do!  Maybe I'll go back to my plan of one-room-at-a-time?  Nah, probably not.  That'd require too much focus.

Watching: Miranda

If you need a laugh and like odd ball humor, check out Miranda.  It's a BBC show about a really awkward woman and the only place I've found to watch it is on YouTube.