Gift help

Good morning, Lovelies!

I was recently invited to a 'belated' bridal shower for a co-worker whom I really like, but that I just don't know very well yet (she's fairly new).

She recently got married, did not register, sounds like she had a lot of household stuff to begin with, oh and is just starting to share news that she's pregnant (but not with many people).

I am clueless as to what to get her. Do you have any ideas?? HELP!

Laundry Room Mini Makeover

The boxes are all unpacked and the dust has settled (mostly). And I have a blank canvas for a house. What to do? What to do! So far, the only rooms I have a clear vision for are the master bedroom and the laundry room. The master is going to wait til after Christmas as I'm hoping to receive some particular linens as gifts... (cough! cough! hint hint!)

The laundry room was easy. Just needed a quick little painterooo to make it pretty.

Before:

The two white bars are where the existing shelves were hung.

The wall color is actually really pretty: it's Valspar's "Boston Cream"

J helped me remove the existing wooden shelves, I then took them into the garage and prepped them for painting. When painting/refinishing wood, you can't scrimp on the prep work. It's a lot like painting your nails: remove old polish, wash polish remover off, base coat, color, top coat, Voila! 

The shelves got sanded with 150 grit sandpaper to get off the old sealer and sand out any imperfections in the wood. I then followed up with 220 grit sandpaper to really prep the surface for paint. After sanding, I used our ShopVac to vacuum away major dust and followed up with a damp cloth (tack-cloth also works well). If you don't get the dust completely off, the paint will stick to that and flake off over time.

The shelf on the left is sanded, the one on the right is still shiny with varnish.

Time to prime! I used Rust-Oleum "Painter's Touch" Primer in gray. The trick to spray painting is to do many light, even coats. At first, it will look awful, but after about 3 coats your project will be amazing and there will be no paint runs. You can apply each new coat after 15-30 minutes of dry time for the previous coat.

Once your primed coats are dry, you can paint your desired color on. I chose Rust-Oleum's Painters "Touch" Gloss in Purple. Once again, many light even coats, always keep your spray can moving.

The color turned out so pretty!

I opted to not use a clear varnish/lacquer type top-coat because my paint is very glossy and these shelves are fairly light-duty use and don't get wet. 

I also had this bathroom shelf from IKEA that I painted the same purple and Hubs installed. It now holds our keys, my purse, J's wallet, and our cell phones. It's SO NICE to have all that stuff in one place.

The finished product! The lighting was poor, but you get the idea. My next additions will be a purple valence for the window and hopefully a fun little chandelier!

House Hunters: Mission Complete!

We did it! The house is officially ours. We received our keys on Tuesday evening and since then we've been having a grand time imagining, measuring, discussing, and generally agreeing about all the stuff we get to do.

Tuesday night I cleaned the kitchen and all the bathrooms. J checked out his garage and learned how to program the thermostat. I ran some laundry and then we played a game of cribbage in the dining room (I won). You know the things you normally do when in an empty, new-to-you-home. :-)

We have to buy a microwave so I measured and am researching. I think I've selected the model I want, it's a GE, so hopefully it'll last us a good long while.

Today, J took the afternoon off so we're going to move over the most fragile items: the TV and wine glasses. (Yes, we have priorities!) and then I think J will mow the lawn if it's dry enough.

Oh you want pictures? OK!

It's all ours!

Dining room looking into kitchen

Living room

Kitchen

Shiny!

Office

Stairs, landing, and entry

Master bath

The move is officially Saturday. My Mom and I are going to try to get all our food and kitchen stuff moved over on Friday. Hopefully it doesn't rain and everything goes smoothly!

House Hunters: Update

I can't believe that I didn't update you all on what's been going on with our house.

The landscape bid came in within the budget that we had set, so we put a second offer on the house. After some negotiations, we arrived at a fair selling price.

To give you an idea, the house is to the left (see the corner of the deck?), the trees on the right are planted down the hill into the gully.

This picture is the bottom of the gully, the large rocks between the "tea house" and the bamboo are the "creek bed" that the sellers created for the storm drain to run down to look pretty. This will all disappear in the spring, no more tea house, bamboo, or storm drain. Hello fence and semi-terraced grassy yard!

The yard truly is peaceful and beautiful, but it just won't work for us long-term. We want our kids to be able to run and kick a ball, not trip on rocks and play in storm water run-off. We're hoping to retain most of the privacy and greenery of the existing peripheral landscaping, this will be a huge project but hopefully a fun one. We have plenty of time to git 'er done...30 years to be exact! ;-)

The inspection went fantastic. There was a small amount of water in the crawl space and 2 non-structural support beams weren't "footed" with concrete and were starting to rot.  But the seller was so upset that something was wrong that he had everything fixed within a week to the specifications of our home inspector and his recommended contractor. (The water ended up being from a spot in the foundation that a pipe runs through that hadn't been properly sealed--a very minor problem to fix).

All the paperwork is now complete, we are awaiting an official signing appointment and we close on Wednesday, October 19th! Two weeks! Ahhhhh..... So much to get done!

My Quilt

September was National Sewing Month according to Joann's. I decided to partake and challenge myself to a quilt. Michelle posted a quilt she'd made for a niece and I loved the design/pattern. So I used her tutorial as well as the help of other bloggers and I now have a finished product.

First, I invested in the Olfa Deluxe Ergonomic rotary cutter plus the pinking blade, this tool alone made cutting all those squares so easy, and NO edges frayed.

I did a lot of math and bought enough fabric to make a double size quilt, then I cut squares, stitched, and cut again based on Michelle's instructions. Then I laid all the squares out in the pattern I desired for my quilt top and sewed them all together.

With the top put together, it was time to get some batting and back the quilt. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found this pin to Diary of A Quilter's Beginning Quilting Series. The Batting 101, Intro to Quilting 101, Machine Quilt Binding 101, and Bias Binding 101 were EXTREMELY helpful!

I laid out and taped the backing, placed the batting over it, and rolled the top out so that all layers were smooth. I then pinned them all together using dozens of long straight pins. I machine quilted using the above-mentioned tutorial and instructions in my sewing machine's manual. Quilting is tough, but with a lot of patience, it can be done!

Notice that I had help quilting.

For the binding, I purchased Wright's Double Fold Bias Tape: Quilt Binding. I then followed a combination of found tutorials. This tutorial was the simplest and most helpful, however I used tips from this one to join the bias tape at seams (also use it if you want rounded corners).

Happy quilting!

House Hunters

We have found a house that we love! Yay!

The neighborhood is perfect, all the houses are nicely maintained (except one...of course!), the road is quiet. The houses is in a cul-de-sac and on a large corner lot.

Isn't she purrrrty?! 

The current homeowner has been in it since construction and he had extra windows put into the house so it is extremely naturally well-lit. Which is perfect for my night-shift habit.

It has 3 beds, 3 baths, and an office. The kitchen and baths were all upgraded 2 years ago. And it's within our price range.

Why don't we own it yet??? Great question:

The back yard is a gulley. With water running through the middle of it from a storm drain. The "creek" is actually supposed to be within the back 15 feet of the property instead of the middle. 

We put in an offer with the contingency that the owner moves the run-off to where it's supposed to be. He declined, so today we had a landscape company come and bid out the work for us to have it moved. Depending on what the bid is, we may put in another offer on the house. We can work with the sloped yard, that doesn't bother us too much. Running water is a whole 'nother story.

Cross your fingers for us!

Ten on Tuesday

1. What is your favorite brand of shoes?
ALL! Let's see, I love Dansko & Privo by Clark's for work, Sperry Topsiders for daily wear, Teva for flip-flops, Nine West & Paolo for dress shoes.


2. How old were you when you learned to tie your shoes?
I was probably about 5, but I truly don't know the answer for sure.


3. How do you feel about freckles?
I think they're cute...too a point. 



4. I can count to ten in ___ languages.
2: English and Spanish



5. What is your favorite store-bought ice cream flavor?
Lately, I've been loving Dreyer's All-Fruit bars in coconut. But scoopable, I don't actually have a favorite flavor...I rotate my flavor choices!


6. Were you in ballet or gymnastics as a little girl?
I took 1 gymnastics class and 1 ice skating class when I was about 5. That was it until I was 11 and started horseback riding lessons.


7. Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?
Snuffleupagus!


8. What’s your bedtime?
Between 10 and 11:30 when I sleep at night. When I sleep during the day, I get to bed between 8 and 8:30 am.



9. Do you have any jewelry that you wear every single day?
My wedding ring when I'm not working (we're not allowed to wear them to work).


10. Who is the bug killer in your household?
Whoever gets to it first!