April In Review!

April In Review

• cute little shelf in the kitchen
• thrift store wing chair
• rug swap, bedroom/living room
• re-arranged the bedroom, still trying things out
• some jewelry and crochet small projects
• re-arranged the garage, yay! 

:) 

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March In Review

March in review: 

• blanket cover for the Day Sofa
• thrift store lamp refinished

That was it!  Was on vacation for a week, too, and then sick for another week.  

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February In Review

February In Review:

• painted canvas shoes 
• bedroom swaparoo
• Houseplants
• started a gardening blog! 

January In Review

January In Review

• cute botanical stuff in the bedroom hallway

Yeah...January was mostly about going on a cruise, being on a cruise, and then recovering from a cruise, hehe.  And LOTS of SCA projects, which you can find on my SCA blog here. 

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A Year in Review: Year 2!

A little pre-emptive, it being only the 20th, but hey, if the world ends tomorrow...?  LOL.  Kidding.

Rather than recap the entire year (since I do a monthly recap anyway, which is tagged), here are my favorite projects of 2012:

January

I finished my craft room!  It took me a couple of months to get all the bits and pieces put together, and the flooring installed, but I finally finished it, and I loved it!  And now I'm already bored with it.  LOL.  More on that later.

February

Uh...yeah, I didn't really do anything in February except buy a new vacuum cleaner.  :/

March

Made over the guest bedroom, complete with new flooring to match the craft room and coordinate with the rest of the house.  Yay!

April

I finally finished the aquarium stand that I started SEVEN YEARS AGO.  Yay!  (And no, there still aren't any fish in it. Or, you know, even water. There's dust.  I'm telling people it's a terrarium).

May 

Painted the bedroom ceiling (along with an 8" border around the top of the walls) a soft, warm white.  I love it!  I did the same thing in the dining room in June;  and I still plan to do the living room and entry hall ceilings this way, as well.

June  

Several hot hours in the blazing June sun took my Mexican Orchid Tree from an overgrown, shaggy mess, to a lovely small tree in the backyard.  I've learned since June that I really, really need to keep up with the suckers on this thing in order to keep it looking nice.  After being sick for a few weeks in the late summer, this thing grew right back out again and I had to start all over!

July   

I was very sick in July.  :(

August

I played with my bathrooms a lot in August.  Knobs, mirrors, frames, small tweaks like that.  I've been talking about re-painting both of them ever since, but I have yet to get around to it.

September

I made over my fireplace by painting the beige ceramic tiles with chalkboard paint, to make them look like slate tiles.  I love it to itty bitty pieces.  <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

October 

This might actually be my favorite project of the entire year.  As much as I love all of these projects, this one I can't stop touching, and am planning to repeat on a much larger piece of furniture.  A little red nightstand got a faux-bois makeover and a painted faux-alabaster top.

November

It was either the new hooks in the bathroom or the dining room chairs in November, but I had to go with the hooks because not only is it attractive, it's *useful*.  (Technically both projects are, but this one's been a lifesaver).  Amazing what a huge difference a piece of scrap wood and some wall hooks make.

December 

The month isn't over yet, and I DO have a dresser to paint;  but since I'm doing this post now, I'd have to say my favorite project this month has been the little Ikea jewelry box that I did last night.  So! Cute!  I'm probably going to hate it by this time next year, knowing me.





Provided the world doesn't end in two days, I'll see you guys after the holidays, unless I have something spantacular I can't wait to show you.  Everyone be safe.

It Took Me Twelve Months...

...but I'm finally doing one of these on time!

November In Review

• new seats for the dining room chairs, and a paint job, too. 
• a new seat for the computer desk chair, as well
• some accessory changes, and a freshly painted screen in front of the fireplace
• began refurbishing my "door guardian" statue
• Robe/towel hooks in the master bathroom
• New file cabinet + sewing patterns = more organization in the sewing room

At some point between now and the holiday break I'll working on a year-in-review post, too.  

October In Review!

It's late again, but I made it before the 15th this time!  :D

October in Review: 

• little red side table re-do (two of them, actually)
• working on the Day Sofa:  frame assembled (thank you World Market, for shipping me a replacement assembly hardware kit for free!), and working on creating a new cushion for it 
• roadside salvage ex-cabinet turned bedside bookshelf nighstand
• cuttin' up more t-shirts

That list looks awfully short, but then, I usually do 2+ months at a time, LOL.  

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Month(s) In Review

Whoops.  Forgot a month again!

August In Review: 

• Spent most of the month on my butt, recovering from a massive lung infection in July.  
• Painted little chalkboard labels on my kitchen canisters
• Hung a mirror in the master bathroom, and painted its frame, and the two picture frames in the room
• Also put knobs on the master bathroom cabinets

September In Review: 

• Painted the fireplace tiles
• Experimented with a brass-cleaning method I saw on Pinterest
• Re-arranged my mineral collection into the china hutch in the dining room
• Painted and hung a $6 thrift store mirror in the front hallway
• 
  

Day Eight, A Few Days Late

Hey, man, at least it's not the 24th like last month, right?

July In Review

• Shuffled around the nightstands in the bedroom...and then forgot to post pics.  Whoops.  I'll do that soon, I promise! 
• BIG yearly housecleaning binge, yay!
• lots of yard work and mid-summer yard maintenance, including trimming the tree in the front yard
• looking for a new shade of blue for both of my  bathrooms
• was really, really sick for two weeks, and didn't get anything done.  :( 

Shortest.  Montly review.  Ever.  

Sigh. 

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Wait...How'd It Get To Be July Already??

I heard a theory once that the reason time seems to move more swiftly when we get older is because as children, we're noticing everything, all the time, for the first time - we soak up every detail, and the world is full of new wonders.  We see more, we retain more, and our memory (and hence, our sense of the passage of time) seems stretched out, fuller.  As we get older and our focus narrows ever more towards going from point A to point B and getting grownup things done, we pay attention to all the little details of the broader world around us - we focus on it less, and so it seems less significant.  We're paying attention to the time we don't have instead, and our sense of the passage of time narrows as well, making it seem like things move faster and faster.

HOW is 2012 half over already?  Jeez.

June In Review

• remodeled the Clematis vine trellis on the back porch (update: the vines are now halfway up the new trellis already!  Pics as soon as they start really filling out). 
• thinking about replacing the 2yo "new" couch cover
• booked a cruise with my BFF!  OMG U GUYZ 
• pruned the Mexican Orchid Tree in the backyard
• noticing lots of things breaking and in need of maintenance around the house all of a sudden

Plans of Many Things

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been hella-busy with the costume sewing, and now that I'm finished for a while, I have lots of things around the house to do: 

• there's a little homeless side table that needs painting and a new top, for the bedroom
• a shelf in my closet needs some work, and the dresser in there is coming out into the bedroom
• more ceilings to paint white
• There's [always] more gardening/yardwork to do
• I need to do a HUGE Knick Knack Rodeo (wherein I collect all the gewgaws from around my house, and separate the things I love from the things I've simply amassed over the past year because they were on sale) 
• I may or may not be repainting the master bathroom - not an overhaul, just a slight color adjustment.  
• That bathroom, and the guest bath, both need a little bit of tweaking, too 

It's June! June, June June

Name that tune.

May In Review

• the roof is NOT leaking!   :D
• sick for two weeks:  no projects for me    :( 
• re-arranged the art wall in the bedroom
• painted the bedroom ceiling
• sewed & hung new curtains in the bedroom
• sewed & hung new curtains in the dining room, too
• painted the dining room/kitchen ceiling
• re-arranged the living room furniture for probably the ten thousandth time

December In Review, and 2011 Favorites

One post to bind them all!  (Because I don't feel like doing two of these).

December: 

• epic thrift shopping at the Goodwill Outlet/Distribution center
• Table Rodeo, which yielded "new" nightstands, a little devotional altar in my meditation space, and a "new" end table in the living room
• knew knobs in the guest bath, now that the cabinets are put back together
• made an old trunk table into a shelf for my office
• put together a wee coffee bar in my kitchen
• opened up a can of whoopass in my craft room!  

2011:  Favorites & Major Transformations

post here

January:  replaced my metal back door with a pretty wooden one - with paint!

                           "wtf??"         "idk."

February:  it snowed!  In central Texas!  That's like the THIRD time that's ever happened!  (Not really, but it's pretty rare). 

(And actually, my pipes froze, and I didn't have any water for three days, but, no harm done, thankfully).  

March:  re-arranged the bedroom.  I still love it, though I'm ready to start tweaking some stuff.  Or, I will be, as soon as the guest room is finished. 

I also spray-painted the mini-blinds in the living room.  I spent about $15 per blind, rather than upwards of $40 each to replace them with wood.  Yay! 

June:  Until June, I was excited about sprucing up the backyard.  Then the worst drought in 100 years hit , and derailed everything for everyone. Giant trees - hell, whole forests died, between the drought and the horrible wildfires that raged through over the Summer. 

I managed to get a couple of small trees in and going strong this Fall, though, and I plan to reboot my efforts in the Spring. 

July:  Re-arranged the living room like whoa.

  

August:  started another blog, for my SCA stuff. :) 

October: re-did the guest bathroom  

November:  once the weather finally started cooling off, I  got busy cleaning up the yard and getting parts of it ready for the Garden-stravaganza I have planned for 2012.  

December:  just about finished re-doing my craft room.

On to 2012!!!  Hope everyone has a safe and fun New Year's, and a happy, fulfilling new year! 

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Month In Review

October In Review   (10 days late, lol)


Hung a room-divider sheer curtain between the living room and office
Gave all my big houseplants a much-needed and long-overdue bath outdoors
Got some more work done on The Aquarium Stand That Wouldn't Die
Went to Ikea
Finished the second of two couch covers I made for a friend
Found a coffee table on bulk trash day with awesome feet, which I refinished and put on my couch
Re-covered a desk chair I got from Ikea, for my sewing room
Hung the third shelf in the craft room (one shelf at a time? really? I swear)
Cleaned out and painted the guest bathroom.

I also put a towel rack in the bathroom, but have yet to actually hang it on the wall.  Lot of good THAT does all of your wet hands.   So...



To-Do List for November

Hang the towel rack in the guest bath
Do the second phase of the painting/color scheme in the guest bath
Finish the aquarium stand???
Lots and lots of yard cleanup
Plant another tree in the backyard, and some grass seed in the front before it gets too cold
Hang the final shelf in the craft room, and get some of the rest of the painting done in there that I want to do.

once upon a time, I had a beautiful garden. 

Vee shall zee...

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An Adventure!

I'm still up to my ass in alligators, project-wise, between the SCA and all my regular home stuff.  August 2011 turned out to be a month-long exercise in maintaining my own boundaries and learning to manage my time better.

Home project-wise, I did do a lot of work on the craft room shelves and the aquarium stand; but I don't have progress pictures uploaded yet, and certainly not an afters, since I'm not finished with either project.  Hopefully I'll be finishing the shelves and hanging them Saturday morning.  <--- and there's your progress report for August.  Fail. :c  Oh, yeah, there was that little footstool, too.  Yay.

Costume project-wise...oy.


Meanwhile, I had an adventure!  My best friend, author Dianne Sylvan, was invited to Armadillocon last weekend, and I was invited to tag along as her +1 ("assistant", lol).  Armadillocon's a sci-fi/fantasy writer's conference.  Not a big, glamorous fan event; more geared towards writers and aspiring writers themselves.  It was a lot of fun.

I'd fully intended to take a million pictures and bring you a wonderful and exciting blog entry about our weekend, but...I forgot.  But I DO have a picture of Dianne in action:

the café in the hotel lobby had the BEST cheesecake!

I took the [glass!] elevator all the way to the top/9th floor of the Renaissance Hotel just so I could look down.  I'm not afraid of heights, but they make me feel weird enough (and I'm enough of a wuss), that just riding the elevator and looking down was a pretty big rush, LOL.

There she is!  Everybody wave at Dianne.  And then go buy her vampire books.

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February In Review

Last month, I....

• made a little "ottoman" cushioned cover for a plastic cooler
• spent three days with no running water due to frozen pipes
• played in the snow
• Made a coat rack for the front entry hall out of an old headboard section

...which is not a whole lot, for me.   But, you know:  stress + Winter blues.  March is going to be fabulous. :)


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January In Review

Remember that "month in review" thing I was going to start doing, so that I can keep track of myself?  Yeah, I forgot, too.  But since the first month of 2011 is over [already!], I figured it'd be a good time to start. 

January In Review:

• Painted my back door
• lots and lots of costume sewing
• Spray-painted one of the mini-blinds in my living room;  came out so well that I plan to do the rest of them as soon as I can find the time
• Sewed a couple of quick throw pillows from a $5 drapery remnant
• Started a new project list-book to keep in my purse
• Working on plans to re-do my craft room + music/guest room + guest bath
• Started throwing together a drop-cover to turn a cooler into a cushioned ottoman; pics when I'm finished!

 Whew! 


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