Drywall Update

Still working on drywall, but we're moving right along!  How awesome are my guys for working on this on their Friday evening?!  They are the best! 

Just in case you're wondering, that air conditioner? Gone baby!  Woo hoo!

Dust Bowl

You might guess from the title of the post that we've incurred quite a bit of dust around here.  In the words of my little speech kids "you are cowwwwwwwwwect!"

Eric and my dad worked tirelessly yesterday to hang as much drywall as possible.  They got so much more finished than I would have thought!

Daylight! (6 hours later)

Good-bye beautiful brick.  We could have been friends if you'd gone across the entire wall.  Oh well!

Let me mention that it's a REALLY good idea to use lots of tarps or plastic when dry-walling.  My boys started cutting stuff in the room before informing me that they were ready for my plastic, resulting in this:

Yuck!  

Fortunately I sprung into action and got everything covered before they could make too big of a mess.  Unfortunately, I know the dust will get much worse before it gets better...

Now we've got a good barrier going.

We're making progress!

DIY Classroom Banner

Over the weekend, I made a super cute banner for the speech room out of hemp/twine and leftover scrapbook paper.  In other words it cost nada dollar.  Here's how it turned out...

Isn't it cute?!  I think it would also be very cute for parties or showers.  Most likely I'll hang it by my desk to perk things up a bit.  I might add "welcome" or my name to it too.

Classroom Pinterest Project

Man, 5:45 is going to be such a rude awakening after my 10:30 AM wake-ups for the past month and a half!  I digress, back to the school project.

The other day, I was seriously considering pulling the trigger on buying a pocket chart for my classroom.  For those of you that have no idea what that is, it's basically hanging file folders that are more accessible while you're working with kids.  See below.

This would set me back $27.99. 

Enter: Pinterest. 

Bazinga-this I could make for much cheaper!  Thank you so much Silver Lining for your tutorial.





My folders and duct tape cost me about $7.  That's a $20+ savings!  I realize I didn't get quite as many pockets, but that's ok.

I also made mine a little differently because I wanted my papers to stick out long ways.  If you're interested in my changes, leave a comment and I'll let you know how I did it.

Last night was show #3 at the Muny-Aladdin.  It was awesome!  The genie stole the show.  I was a little skeptical about how he would be portrayed, but he was so expressive and made so many great jokes about our city.  If you get a chance, go see it! 

The gals.  We were missing two of our crew, but had a lovely time with new friends.  Man, were we grateful that the temps were in the 90's rather than 100's like last week.

Pinterest Project Reveal!

Curious in which project I chose for challenge? ;0)

Yep that's right I chose the door knob painting tutorial! 

Now, for those of you who warned me about this, it's not that I didn't listen. I thought long and hard about it...

 
But see how bad these look!  When I weighed my options, I felt even a bad paint job would be better than these scratched up, faded gals.  So I went for it, but only on one set of knobs. 

I used the tutorial from Young House Love.  Here's what went down.

1. After removing the handles (not matching, which was another pro on the list for painting) I used SOS pads to rough them up a bit. 

(Some recommend 200 grit sand paper, but I read that this can cause unwanted scratches.)

2.  Next I used a de-greaser and old rag to to take off some of the shine.  This helps the paint adhere.

3. After letting the de-glosser dry during my lunch, I wiped the knobs once more for good measure.  

4.  I applied one thin, even layer of primer (my preference is Rust-oleum) then applied 3 coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint. 

My dry time in between coats was approximately 15 minutes, but the can says you only have to wait 10.

Tip: In between coats, it's a good idea to turn the knobs or latches if you have them.  Also, don't forget the screws!

5. After drying for a full 24 hours, I held my breath as I screwed everything back into place. 

I'm totally in love with the transformation!  The jury is still out on how they will hold up, but I'll definitely keep you posted. 

P.S. I actually did two projects, so I'll be sharing the other one tomorrow!

Pinterest Challenge

I'm no stranger to making Pinterest projects, but I thought I'd jump on this bandwagon and join the Summer Pinterest Challenge! 

Courtesy of

Basically, you create something you've already pinned. Here's what I've been thinking about:

I've been dying to try this for forever and a day.  My plan is to start small and see how it goes on our worst door handles, the ones where the brass finish is nearly gone anyways.

courtesy of

Or maybe something a little easier, like framing these free state printable-she has them for every state!

courtesy of

Or this cool pendant light.

courtesy of

According to the rules, I have until next Tuesday to finish up.  Wish me luck!

Call Me Martha

This is not a cooking blog. 

But today it is.

Last Friday I was out of jelly.  I noticed this 3.409809 seconds after returning home from Aldi.  Fail.

Rather than drive 10 minutes to get one item and armed with my newly purchased mason jars (for charming, summery drinking glasses, of course!), Rachel Ray's recipe for canning/jam, and two pounds of $0.99 strawberries, I decided I would give it a whirl.

Rachel Ray's Steps for 1st Time Canning- Strawberry Jam

Step 1: Wash mason jars in hot soapy water (or run them through the dishwasher if time allows.)

Step 2: Rinse and hull 2 pounds of strawberries and fill a large pot of water.  You will boil your jars in this pot to sterilize them.  (If you have a canning rack, use it.  I didn't and found I didn't need it.)

Step 3: Place jars and lids in the water and bring to a simmer.  Keep them in simmering water for at least 10 minutes.  Jars must remain hot until you're ready to fill them.

Step 4: In a nonreactive pot, add strawberries, zest from one lemon, and about 1 tbsp of lemon juice over high heat, stirring and mashing constantly. 

Step 5: Stir in 1 packet of fruit pectin (I used the low sugar variety) and bring mixture to a rolling boil.  Add 1 cup of sugar until the mixture thickens and darkens in color, about 20 minutes. 

*I used 1/2 cup sugar because I thought 1 cup was a lot.*

Step 6: Use a pair of tongs to lift jars and lids out of the hot water and set on a clean towel.  Ladle jam into the sterilized jar, leaving 1/4 for head space.  Seal.  Allow jam to cool for 12 hours.

Now here's where I stopped.  However, if you planned to store your jam (i.e. not eat it right away) you'd need to put the sealed jars back into the pot of simmering water for another 10 minutes.  This ensures that it won't spoil when sitting on your cabinet shelf.

After checking with some experts in the field of canning, I found that if the jam would be residing in the fridge for us to eat right away, I could skip this step.

From start to finish, this recipe took approximately an hour, but required 12 hours of cooling time.  It made one pint size jar of jam and it tastes great!

So there you have it. Jam making was a relatively painless process and I have the added benefit of knowing exactly what ingredients are in our food!

Enjoy!

Hanging Out

It's summa time!  This is my second day to bask in the gloriousness that is summer vacation!  As you may or may not know, I have a difficult time sitting still so I'm accomplishing quite a bit around 912 ELM Tree.

To start, I finally got around to hanging my vintage plate that I talked about purchasing here. 

I didn't want to use a bulky plate hanger, so after a quick Pinterest search, I found that you can bend a paperclip to discreetly hang plates!  Hot glue and a tiny piece of fabric are also necessary.  The plate has actually been hanging for a couple days now and so far so good with the stability.

Here's what it looks like close up.  I just love it! 

Also, on an unrelated note, if you have a minute, please go to this website: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9535043.htm.  One of my best friends, Christen Kitchell, has worked very hard on this project and needs our support!

Porch Update

Again with the rain! Porch painting projects are still not being accomplished because of the impending danger of more storms. 

I did have an indoor project waiting for me, however.  As you could see from this post here, I've been thinking about doing something with lanterns and I even DIY'ed one myself.  My interest was caught the other day when I saw these on Pinterest.

I thought it might be fun to mix some of these with lanterns.  They're actually very simple to make.  All you need is tissue paper and a pipe cleaner (or florists wire, if you have that on hand.)  I really wanted gray pom poms but apparently it's very difficult to find! I could order it online, but I don't want it that badly.

Anyways, I followed this tutorial here at Design Dazzle and found it to be very easy to follow.  Feeling very accomplished on this rainy Sunday, I dashed to the porch to see how everything would look together and. I. don't. like. it. 

I like the concept of this idea, but I think using all white is where I went wrong.  It just looks a little too bridal/wedding.

The textures look awesome together, I'll admit, but the all white isn't working.  Wishing now that I'd gone with the gray.  Maybe I'll add some of my other accent colors to it and see what happens.  I am going to try a couple more arrangements to see if I like that better. 

In other porch news, these little guys recently took up residency on the porch.  Aren't they cute?  I am planning to re-pot them soon.

This is one of the fabrics I'm working with.  I really love the geometric pattern.

So it's back to the drawing board on the lighting front.  (Originally I'd thought I'd get a light kit for the DIY'ed lantern, but a friend pointed out to me that all the materials I used are highly flammable, so I decided against it.)

Here are some options I really like from Pinterest

(apartment therapy)

Trim

As promised, here are the "after" pictures of our new trim!  As you'll be able to tell very quickly, I was at a loss as to what pictures I should choose to best show it off.  My pictures might seem a little, strange since they'll be mostly of the floor region. 

The white really pops against so many of our neutral paint choices.  In our living/dining room we have a faux molding at the top (which is actually plaster) that we painted white from the get-go.  Eric likes the way the dark furniture contrasts with the white.

Here's a better look at that faux molding I was talking about.  Less orange-y wood in the house=score 1 for Lauren!

I was super impressed with the corners!  Granted this is not the best picture, but I think it looks pretty darn professional.  Score 1 for Eric!

White trim has made the biggest difference in this room!  I LOVE the creamy white stripes, white trim, and white curtains.  The brown trim was definitely bringing this room down (see the House Tour page to remember what it looked like before.)  So soothing.

White trim in the guest room.   This was the one room in our house that I actually didn't mind the orange-y trim because it complemented the aqua paint nicely.  After all, blue and orange are complimentary colors (thank you Mrs. North-still carrying art class facts with me after all these years :0)  However, the white in here is still superior to the orange faux wood, times a gagillion!

Our bedroom is the other winner winner chicken dinner, with the prize for biggest impact made by white trim.  Ignore the ugly lamp cord and gaze at the beauty that is white popping against our gray paint.  Gray + white = LOVE.

We're super impressed with how much this relatively inexpensive project has impacted the took of our house.  It just looks so much cleaner and fresher.  Another bonus was that we didn't use all the trim and had a whole, unopened pack to return for more $$.

Hubs even admitted, "if I'd known how good it would look, I would have done it a lot sooner."  He proceeded to comment that after this success, he's ready to tackle the bathroom (his exact words were "if I hadn't run out of time, I was so tempted to rip apart the bathroom.")  I'm going to have to call his bluff on this one.  For now. :0)

Have you done any trimming projects lately?  What are you using your left-overs for?

April Showers

The story goes that April showers bring May flowers.  Right now they're just bringing me headaches!  Most of my on-going porch projects are dependent upon being able to take stuff outside to paint, moving things outside so they're out of the way, etc.  I know there's really no hurry but I HATE when things take for-ev-ur, for-ev-ur (are you thinking about The Sandlot now?)


I hope everyone had a great weekend!  My kids finished their state standardized assessments on Friday, rounding out a LONG week.  Eric and I played trivia on Saturday night with some good friends.  I LOVE TRIVIA!  We didn't win but did pretty decent. 


Anywhoo, if you follow me on Pinterest you might have figured out what I'm working on over here.  If not, allow me to show you some recent inspiration.

(craftynest.com)

(also from craftynest.com)

Aren't they just gorgeous?!?!


I especially liked the idea of doing the hemp lanterns and I even had *all the stuff* on hand! (*I modified a pinch, using the leftover fabric stiffener and flour mixture from the Easter project I made here.)  It didn't work.  Probably because, duh, I changed the sticky stuff recipe.  I found that the hemp was too heavy and fell off of my bouncy ball.  So I switched to yarn and SHAZAM it worked!  Only problem was, it really wasn't the color I was going for.  Now you can understand why the April showers we've been having are testing my nerves.  They needed, wait for it, glossy white spray paint!


Here's where I'm at so far.  Think of this as a teaser.  It's not finished yet because it needs more paint and the light hanging kit.

Cool, huh?!


Darn having parent-teacher conferences two nights this week until 8:00 PM!  I probably won't get back to these anytime soon because I've also been put on trim painting duty.  YAY trim!  We had intended to get trim as our joint Christmas present, but we just got around to buying it.  Now my job is to paint so the Mr. can put it up.