Chalkboard Calendar

I made a chalkboard calendar for the kitchen.  I found the idea here and ran with it.  I found a 2x3 "chalkboard" thingy at home depot for about $6.  I had Chaynce cut it down to 21" long with only minor complaining!  I picked up a white paint pen at Joann's for a few bucks and it was awful.  I don't know if I lucked out and got the broken one or if that's just how they work??  With some practice I could make the squares ok but any writing was a mess!  I needed a new idea, and inspiration hit in the form of scrapbooking stickers.  I looked and found a font I liked but they were black, but I wasn't worried I had some leftover white spraypaint at home.

Ok it's just primer, but it works just fine.

 

This is the finished product.

 

Here it is hung on the wall.  I need to practice my penmanship with chalk so I won't embarrass myself with pictures of it all filled in.

Status symbol: walk-in closets

I dream about walk-in closets.  It's not that I'd ever really NEED one but it is such a sign of luxury to me in my mind right now.  I'm pretty minimalist for a girl in that I don't have a million shoes/purses/clothes I never wear.  I very regularly clean out my closet and donate but just the thought of someday having the space to have a few more fun shoes instead of just the basics, it thrills me.  I've already put closets on the need list for the next place we live, but if we luckily enough find a place with walk-in closets, I'm going to think that we're some crazy kind of special!

We're Alive... and the BIG news...

As usual we are caught up in our own lives over here.  I've been working lots of graveyard shifts over the last couple months and it has been zapping much of my energy.  But my last grave was Friday, YAY!!!!  Which means better money AND a better schedule!  In the last little bit I've felt overwhelmed with my perpetual to-do list around the house.  All the painting and repairs are practically done, we're now just to the organizing and finding a home for everything (which is an even bigger deal as we have no closets!)  but we're slowly getting there with a lot of creativity.

One of the biggest things on our plate right now is we've decided to do foster parenting.  We're taking classes right now and this means the second bedroom is no longer going to be our closet.  I plan to have the bunkbed put up sometime later this week.  It seems like a very sudden decision, and in some ways it was.  All of a sudden everything seemed to be pointing that direction and Chaynce was extremely hesitant but now he's more excited than anyone!  There's not too much we can prepare for (like clothes, bedding) without going unisex as we don't know what gender we're getting first and what age until right before placement.  We plan to accept 2 to 8 year olds at first and go from there, but I've really wanted to get some things for the kids so I made some beanies and bought a couple childrens' books.

We're still working... I promise!

I feel like because I haven't posted I haven't been very productive in getting this house together, but I promise it's not true!  We did get hung up on some black mold and trying to seal up some windows.  And unfortunately after getting that all patched we haven't broken paint out again yet.

I did pull out the tree and put it together basically.  I'm still working on a few more ornaments I need to spray paint and modge podge.  But this is basically it at the moment.  I'm not even too worried about hurrying to finish because we don't have kids and I know Chaynce doesn't care how bare the tree looks ornament-wise.  Really Chaynce has opened his present already (he's a spoiled little boy) and it's already on one of the new dresser/media stand in our room (he got a new 50" flat screen)

But that means we did get one dresser sanded and stained and all that.  The drawers, however, he is working on as I type.  With the below freezing temps lately we were too cold to work outside and were worried paint/stain would freeze and such.  But with the weather improving we should have the dresser totally finished by the end of this week I think.

More paint progress...

We finished the back half of the main room last night.  And while switching all the furniture back to the other side Chaynce smashed the light fixture.  It is literally demolished! Ha!  I'm not worried, it was some cheap old thing that didn't even match the other one in the room, sometime I'll replace it but it's on the end of the to-do list around here.  The color we chose was "creamy pebbles" by Better Homes and Gardens.  It's a kind of greige color although I don't know how much you can tell in these pictures.

Maybe I'll start the front half/entryway today.... maybe.... but besides that we just have baseboards in the kitchen and around the shower stall in the bathroom and we're done with paint!!!! 

Window treatments: Check

Ok only the window treatments in the two bedrooms are done, but I'm very proud.  What I'm not proud of is picture quality.  I really need some practice/lessons, probably more patience too to wait until the right time of day to be  taking pictures in whatever rooms. 

I bought 3 of this rod for the bedrooms and I hung these old blue curtains I had from an old apartment in the spare bedroom/closet room.  This is the only pic you get as the room is stacked with stuff from the living room.  We're getting ready to paint this weekend!

I made dropcloth curtains for our bedroom and really love how they turned out

Unfinished edges, exposed seams, uneven ruffle were all intentional.  We like the roughed up, wrinkled material look to them.

Thrift store success

Can I just say I love thrift stores!!!  I know it's become oh so trendy, but it's something I support, I think all benefit from re-using items, being frugal, etc.   Well today's trip was very successful.  I spent $12 and got 5 jars, 3 knives, a glass mixing bowl, a food chopper, and an immersion blender.  I'm very proud in case you can't tell.