My First Craft Project for the House

Ta-da! My first craft project for the new home. So easy one can barely call it a craft project. I combined this dry erase board idea from paper n stitch with this adorable menu printable via How About Orange. Now if only I could start using it regularly and sticking to it. ; )

Our First Change

So technically this isn't our first change to the house. The first change was the new water heater. Then there was the radon removal pipes and fans, and the new electrical switch for the air conditioner. But this is the first change worth blogging about. (Although we went with a 50 gallon water heater, which is pretty sweet, but doesn't photograph well.)

We had a ceiling fan/light installed in the living room!

Ooh! Ahh!

Not terribly exciting, but it's nice to be able to install overhead lamps where you want them and this was the only room missing one. And fortunately we had an old ceiling fan sitting around and I love me some ceiling fan. (Although we'll probably look into a new one soonish because some sort of something was missing so he couldn't hang it close the ceiling; it has to drop down a bit. Our tall friends and family will have to be careful not to bang their head on the lights, but they'll be spared a beheading by the fan blades.)

Of course the beauty of the ceiling fan is slightly marred by the continued chaos in the living room, and the whole house really. But it's slowly coming together.

Week in Review: 3/12

The Maple Syrup Festival last weekend was awesome (Even though I missed the llama!), as evidenced by me shoving waffles supreme into my face.

Those are my waffles! With syrup, blueberries, apples, strawberries, ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate chips.


This weeks links are generally home related links because the only thing I can think about is the house that I think we might buy! Yes, you read that right! Lee and I saw the house last night, we're going to look at it again tomorrow morning with the in-laws and will very likely make an offer tomorrow afternoon! Say your prayers! Cross your fingers! Arrange your magic voodoo spirits in our favor! We LOVE this house!


I want need the kitchen island/table in the second to last picture here at dress, design & decor. Exactly what I see in my head!

If this pans out, I'll need to start planning the garden ASAP! Here's some tomato growing tips from The Kitchn.

The moment there is an accepted contract in our sweaty little palms, I will virtually move into the Young House Love How-To archives.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Chore Chart-ing

"cleanliness may not be next
to godliness but it sure feels
good"
- Nikki Giovanni

I have got to clean the apartment tonight. After lots of postponing and telling myself I'd do a little here and there, I'm back in my usual situation: I've gotten nothing done and everything needs to be done. Even mopping. (Bad snow. Bad.)

When I reach this point every 3-4 weeks, I reflect on how if I broke things down and did a little every night the apartment could be really clean, all the time, without entire panicked evenings devoted to the situation.

So to prevent future nights like tonight, I've made a chore chart. (You can actually view it here.)


I feel very dorky about it and like I need to pick up some gold stars on my way home from work. Maybe some poster board too. But I feel dorky about a lot of things (the magnitude of my love for Jane, romantic comedies and Glee) and scheduling things out is a generally effective way for getting me to do stuff.

The chore chart, in addition to being delightfully alliterative, runs Monday through Thursday on a four-week cycle. I still need to do a big cleaning tonight, but if I start the schedule on Monday, hopefully I won't have to do any big cleanings in the future and I can easily transition into cleaning twice the square footage once we buy a house. 

(And yes, Lee often helps around the house, but since he's generally pretty busy with working and schooling full-time, I do must of this and he helps with the dish drying, dishwasher unloading, trash disposal, kitty litter emptying and Zoey's evening potty trip.)


Is anyone else this crazy about cleanliness? Am I the only childless chore-charter (ooh...alliterations!)?


image: unusualimage

Red and Aqua?

I've realized that I have this tendency to excessively color coordinate my home, even though when I look through decorating blogs and websites I appreciate a more eclectic feel. So I'm trying to un-Sears catalog the home. Slowly but surely.

Currently I'm thinking about changing up the couch pillows and throwing in some new color spice on the mantel and bookshelves. The couch is red with coordinating pillows that came with it from Value City. Not fun, as seen in this photo from a couple years ago.


Aww...are those anniversary flowers? I think they are!

So I'm thinking, to jazz things up a bit, I'll introduce some aqua. Yes, aqua. Here's a fabric swatch I'm lovin' and more evidences of the awesome power of this color combination here at Party Perfect, oh brooke, and The Inspired Bride.

It may be months before this plan goes into action, but I'm excited!

Stitch-tastic Cards and Awkward Photos

I was trying to be clever and easy at the same time and decided to try my hand at stitching some cards for a birthday present.

It was easy and it wasn't at the same time, meaning it took a couple nights (while watching Season 1 of The Big Bang Theory) and the hole punching (Push pins work better than the embroidery needle, in my opinion.) was a bit tiresome and produced some hand cramps, but I'm generally pleased.



I got the fireworks pattern from Sublime Stitching's flickr. I was really pleased with these.



The "e" is my favorite; the tea cup is my least favorite. The tea cup is taken from some random clip art and I just printed off a big "e."

I'm still working on my technique a bit, but I think there's some potential here.

In other DIY news, in an attempt to save money I've decided to try to trim my own bangs. I bought some real-deal hair scissors yesterday and gave it a whirl. I am quite relieved it turned out alright.



I never know what to do in photos. The standard smile seems too cheesy but then my other faces are just weird.
I'm awkward.

It's Possible!

I always thought to have a secret room in my house that could only be accessed via bookcase, I would have to spend millions on a haunted Victorian mansion, but not so my friends!



I found this on Lifehacker today. Secret bookcase rooms can be accomplished with some Ikea shelves and basic tools. I'm going to go ahead and add "secret bookcase doorway" to Lee's to-do list for the house we don't own.

Lee's First Project

Lee and I don't own a house. We're kind of thinking about possibly maybe starting to look, but it will still be awhile before we purchase. And once we purchase, we probably won't have a lot of extra money for projects and things so that will be slow-going. First we'll need paint and flooring perhaps. I want a nice master bedroom set and we'll need some new dining room furniture.

However, I already have Lee's first big project picked out: a pergola. This could change depending on what kind of outdoor situation we get, but I really want one of these. I have visions of draping it in white fabric and some other fun outdoor lighting.


image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jshappell/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0