Paint Me A Sub!

Some things I need to do this spring and summer...

Paint our piano. 

It's brown and boring and brown. 

This blue color looks cheery and seems like it would fit right in at our house. 

Speaking of house, I need to scour the thrift stores and antiques shops for older wooden chairs for our dining room table. 

And I'll paint them. 

In different colors. 

Because it's fun. 

I think I also want to try doing a plate wall. 

Just like in the picture above. 

Currently our dining room walls hold an array of my childrens' drawings and artwork. 

I think we all need a change.

And a new coat of paint. 

Thrift stores again for those plates. 

I just called our regional office of education to inquire about becoming a substitute teacher once Gigi goes to school in the Fall. 

Wowzers!

There's a lot involved. 

It will cost about $240 to get on the sub list. 

I think. 

I was a bit confused. 

Maybe I'm not cut out to be a sub. 

I'll need to go online for a license. 

Get a physical.

A TB test (shouldn't this just be for someone who has recently been out of the country?)

A criminal background check.

Transcripts from my university. 

Geesh!

I just want to read off of the list the regular teacher leaves me on her desk the day she's gone and needs a sub. 

I'm not going to really teach ya know. 

Back to my dining room/kitchen. 

That sub stuff has me beat. 

I have no cute backsplash in my kitchen. 

It's a white wall. 

Blech. 

I want this...

Or this...

I think I like the top one better. 

The bottom seems too fancy for my country kitchen from 1960. 

I think I'll just go out and buy a few sheets of it at a time. 

Chad is going to have so much fun putting it up. 

I just know it. 

Dirty Little Socks

I'm convinced that if I were to choke on a grape and die tomorrow (knocked on wood after typing that), that within a year, my home would be on an episode of Hoarders.
Everyone here seems to suffer from a horrible case of "not-gonna-pick-nuthin-up-itis."
I understand that as the adult who is home all of the time, I'm more responsible for the upkeep of the home and it's tidiness. 
But would it really kill someone around here to pick up some shit?!
I don't play with Strawberry Shortcake figurines or plastic lemons, but they seem to be my responsibility to clean up from the floor. 
The girls will pick up things AFTER I mention it for the 1 gajillionth time and then threaten to haul it all to the garbage can.
Yes, it's something all parents seem to struggle with and they will learn of my Type A personality some day.
The other adult in the house, I don't know what his issue is.
Blindness?
Male Pattern Blindness?
I think that's what it is.
He's not Type A, that's for sure. 
He's what I like to call Type L.
I won't elaborate on that, though.
IT'S A JOKE, CHAD!  Calm down! 
Anywho, I conducted a bit of an experiment the other day.
I placed a pair of Gigi's dirty socks that I found strewn in the hallway into a quaint little stack in the direct line of traffic and watched to see how long it took for someone to pick them up.
They were stepped on and over, kicked into different directions.
I would replace them in their spot and watch them again get walked on and over and kicked.
Replace.
Repeat.
Replace.
Repeat.
After 2 1/2 hours, by some divine intervention, Chad stopped, stooped, and picked up the dirty little socks and threw them into the laundry room.
Amazing.
Well, not really.
Not long before the stop and stoop, I declared "I'm conducting an experiment in this house and you are all failing miserably!"
That must have gotten his attention.  
No one else figured it out.
So, if I do happen to leave this earth before the children have moved out, please check on them and the state of my house.
I don't want to be embarrassed by having the piles of junk that reach the ceiling exposed on TLC. 
    

just so you know,
those little pieces of cardboard
on the floor from the
cat scratcher thingy drive me crazy!



Wanting a Homerun

Wants and needs are two very different things.
When you aren't dripping with money, as it is at my house, you must learn to live with the needs and forgo the wants.

There are many things I want...
to travel
a new living room furniture set
a working fireplace  
a remodeled kitchen and second floor addition
a new garage
to eat some kick-ass cheese enchiladas
stylish clothes from a stylish store

But the needs always bully the wants...
bills must be paid
medicine for Zoe, sometimes on a weekly basis a refill needs to be called in
gas in the vehicles
cat food, dog food, human food
the children won't stop growing and always need shoes and clothes
It all adds up.

I don't have any neighbors so I don't really need to keep up with the Joneses.
Thankfully we like to live in "rustic" fashion.
We don't have a formally manicured lawn...it's too big for that.
We sanded down the kitchen cabinets to give them a more provincial look.
Our barn has been deemed "the hodgepodge barn" because it's covered in everything from wood to plastic to rusty metal.  
I try to dress in what I call an artsy manner...I used to be a dancer and dancers are an eclectic bunch.  I'm going with that.
I don't get haircuts too often.
Good thing Chad is bald and does his own grooming at the bathroom sink.
Zoe doesn't really have a lot of hair and what hair she is getting we have been instructed to NOT touch!
Gigi is just getting started and we will let it grow long.
I also like getting dogs that don't need groomed.  Lola has fur, not hair.

The wants are always there, though.
Screaming from the sidelines.
Begging us for a chance at bat.
But then the needs step up to the plate.
And they always seem to hit a homerun. 

  


   

A Cow In The Vent

Zoe took a peek down a living room vent and what did she see?

Sidewalk chalk.

A cow. 

A pony.

Plastic bugs.

Good thing they were only plastic bugs.

All were unearthed, or unvented, by dad.

A stern warning was given to the culprit.

I'm sure we will dig other things out that the culprit deposits.

She tends not to listen to us.

No wonder I've been so cold sitting in the living room...

To Do

Oh my.  It's getting warmer out and I'm looking at things on Pinterest (damn, that Pinterest!) and I'm getting ideas of projects to do and heck, there's always projects to be done at the farm, and I'm getting antsy to get things done.  So much to do, so much to do.  Some of the things on my to do list are to be done by others (Chad).  Here's a sampling of things that are on my To Do list...

1. Erect another fence for the barnyard animals
2. Paint the front porch ceiling blue
3. Scrape the peeling paint from the bathroom
4. Paint bathroom
5. Put up artwork in bathroom and paint the table that's in the bathroom
6. Repaint laundry room (do not like the orange we did last year)
7. Install glass tile backsplash in kitchen
8. Trim some trees in yard whose limbs smack me in the face every time I mow the grass
9. Spring clean the mowers  
10. Tear down this dumb half wall thing we have in the kitchen and get another work station set up.  I hate this half wall thing!  We need more cabinets and more usable counter space in it's place.  It's a half wall of clutter and I despise clutter.  Whew...I'm better.  Sorry for the rant...
11.  Get a larger bookcase for hallway
        
That's all I can think of right now. 
Chad just wandered by and said "You're making a to do list for me and it's a blog, huh?" 
Sure. 
Now get started.
I'll be on Pinterest if you need me...

stupid half wall thing

Farmy Old World Parisian

When I have a new baby and am totally encompassed by this stranger in my life, everything else seems to be put on the back burner.  That's how I roll.  I don't do home improvement projects.  It's hard enough living day in and day out with a babe on my boob, sucking the liquid from my being.  I don't like to think about paint colors and bathroom lighting.  When toddler time hits, things are freed up a bit more.  While I still have to worry about the toddler eating the paint off of the roller and hoping she doesn't climb onto my lap while I'm trying to make an Internet purchase of new bathroom lighting, hitting random buttons with her lightening fast hands, thus deleting my entire transaction (because with Dial-up Internet it always takes longer to make purchases), I feel more empowered to do things in the house.


We have done some improvements since moving in during the early summer of 2007.
By "we" I usually mean Chad.  I have the ideas, he does the dirty work...


We have painted all of the walls in all of the rooms.  Most of our walls are old plaster walls.  Very textured and very cool.  Not the easiest to hang things onto, though.

We have a tan living room and halls.
A tan and white kitchen/dining room.
A blue bedroom.
A green bedroom.
A green bathroom...which used to be wallpapered, even the ceiling!
An orange laundry room.


New light fixtures have been put up in every room.  A chandelier in the dining room.  A ceiling fan in the kitchen.  A Tiffanyesque light fixture in the living room.  New lights in the bedrooms, bathroom, laundry room, hall (one hall still needs a new light fixture).  There are these four very cute sconces in the living room, two surround the fireplace.  They had these ugly glass globes on them, but I bought shades a while back and they are improved, but I'm still not entirely happy with them.


I have replaced all of the UGLY plain and boring switch plates and replaced them with various styles throughout the house.  My favorite ones are in the living room.  Thanks Hobby Lobby.


We were going to paint the existing kitchen cabinets, but upon sanding them down a bit, we liked the rustic look they had.  Keepers!


Our house was built in the early 1920's.  It has beautiful wooden doors and beautiful moldings around the pulley-style windows.  Gorgeous.  A beautiful brick fireplace sits in our living room.  When we moved in the carpets were all ripped up to unearth gorgeous hard wood floors.  The linoleum in the bathroom was removed to unveil this awesome geometric style tile that was original to the house.


But we still have some work to do.  While I'm not one who needs to "keep up with the Joneses", I have a definite style that I would like to see evolved in this house.  I call it "Farmy Old World Parisian Influenced."  For now this style will will be intermingled with the "Kids' Crap All Over The House" style.    


The major things we need to do are:


1. New windows in the "new" part of the house...the part that was torn down in the 1960's and rebuilt exactly as it was...huh?  Thanks grandma.  You tore down the second floor that I now need.
2. Redo the kitchen and tear down this useless half wall thing that is, like I just said, useless.
3. put up a cool backsplash in the kitchen
4. I would LOVE a butcher block counter top.  I am so over granite countertops.  Blah.
5. I would also LOVE an apron/farmhouse sink.

The little things we still need to do are:


1. Repaint the bathroom.  I no longer like the color we painted it last year.  We had to keep the door closed all of the time after showering because of Gigi who liked to stick her hand down the toilet when no one was looking.  The paint has since started to peel on the ceiling and the top of the walls because of humidity.  We can now keep the door open and I would like something different than the green it is now.

2. Install new sconces in the bathroom.  The sconces we have know are atrocious!  They are probably 50 years old and look it! 

The wiring is a bit tricky in the bathroom.  The current sconces have a switch to turn them off and on and unless we hire someone to rewire the bathroom, who would probably end up doing the entire house, we have been searching and searching and searching for cute bathroom sconces with a switch.  I have finally found such sconces and they are on the way.

3. I would like to paint the ceiling of our front porch sky blue.  I have heard that it keeps wasps away for some reason.  Fools them into thinking they are in an open area and it's not possible to make a nest.  We get lots of wasps on the front porch trying to make nests.  And it would look pretty.


So, the bathroom is the next project.  I need to find a different paint color and Chad will install the new sconces hopefully this weekend if they arrive by then. 

I had a shade made last year to fit the window.  Smith and Noble makes custom sized window treatments.  Love them! 

There's a small shelving unit in the bathroom that we use to hold extra tp, towels and magazines.  I need to spray paint it.  I heart spray paint.  I did a rocking chair that had belonged to my Aunt Jeanne that we keep on the porch and a wire basket just last week.

I should have been a tag artist...