Where is my motivation?

Hey chicks, I need some help here. I seem to have lost my motivation somewhere. I haven't been able to find it in the laundry, under the many blankets we have used to keep warm this winter, or in the pile of muddy shoes at the front door. I was wondering if I could have left it at your house? If I have, would you please stop using it and send it back to me. I really need to find it and start getting some of these projects marked off my mental "to do" list.

I do see some sun shining in the windows today. I know that will help with at least one job around here: the dusting. Maybe that momentum will carry over to others.

Hope you all can find time to get back on the creating side of things.

Come on Spring!!!

Digging out!

There will be no pictures accompanying this blog. It would be too embarrassing. I have almost finished straightening up the upstairs office. This has been a huge dumping ground for paperwork and various" homeless" items (those items that just don't seem to have a place, but can't be thrown out - yet).

Nick has been home from school again today. He is definitely well, but ran a low fever last night and slept in pretty late this morning. I figured it best to keep him home and build up his reserves before sending him back to the germ incubator. While logging Kid's Kloset items, we came across our stack of Webkinz codes. Believe it or not, he was still able to get on his account. As he sits and plays some old favorites; Goober's Lab, Cash Cow and many I can't even name, I am happily filing away all those papers, shredding ones we don't need, and figuring out what to do with the lost items. It is so much more enjoyable with his happy chatter in the background. Amazing what a little company can help me accomplish.

Hoping you guys are able to dig out from under whatever is piling up in your house or better yet, that there are no piles in your house to dig out from.

My New Desk

Whew! I think the studio is finally coming together. I do know that if this isn't the set-up that is going to work, I am on my own for the next go around!!! We decided to rework the desks so that I could have morework space with my computer. The little white desk it was on before was only 12 inches deep and barely held the monitor and keyboard. I couldn't set anything on my desk to look at while working at the computer. It had to be in my lap, on the floor, or on the desk behind me. We moved the two ikea desks to the long wall and built a desk to bridge the two. Now my 2 sons have ample work space as well as myself and I am between the two in hopes of preventing any space wars! These aren't the greatest photos ( I just snapped them withmy phone), but they show you what we did. Will get a cool piece of furniture from my mom's tonight to store all the goodies that were in the credenza along this wall before. Check #1, I think you remember the piece. Can't wait to get it in here, fill it up, and label the drawers. I'll post more pics when it is complete!

Laundry Room Makeover

This is a project I have wanted to do for a long time. I got the idea from Sausha at Show & Tell. I was hoping to tackle this one on my own, but DH made it into a much bigger project than I could have imagined. It is all finished now and I am thrilled with the results. Dare I say doing laundry isn't all that bad anymore.

I don't have a picture of the laundry room as it started out.

The biggest flaw was that there was no room for laundry baskets to hold the dirty clothes waiting to be washed. I knew that once this piece were built, I wouldn't be able to move things around for painting. Therefore, the painting had to happen first. We removed all we could from the small space and discovered we even had some old wallpaper lurking behind the cabinet. It was pretty ugly and hurt your eyes. I can't imagine and entire room of this stuff. The paint color we chose was Aegean Blue by Martha Stewart. Does that sound familiar Chick #3? I loved the way the paint color turned out. It was amazing how much brighter the entire room seemed by just changing the paint the color. It was yellow before which I

thought would have been pretty bright, but it just blended in with the white trim, cabinet, and floor. The blue really pops and makes the black appliances look awesome! The room was now ready for the "build". It was apparent that this build had become more than I was capable of. So, DH and his Grandfather took on the task of building. I was a bit apprehensive because I know they think differently than I do. For them, function is more important than form. And yes, ladies, sometimes I allow form to win over function. Oh well, back to the

project. We convinced our dear grandfather to visit for the weekend (we threw in a basketball game and a birthday party to sweeten the pot) and he and DH worked long hours to ensure that the base would be safe and secure. I was worried that it had become too much, but DH husband commented on how much he enjoyed having

this time with his grandfather doing things they both enjoyed. There were moments when they questioned whether or not this would safely hold the weight and movement of the washer. Safety was of the utmost concern. Thanks again to Sausha and her encouraging words that this could be done! Even my two DS's were able to help with the project; they painted, assisted in the building, fetched items, and helped get the washer in place. Speaking of washer - oh my! That thing weighs a ton!!! My DH's biggest concern was how to get that thing up onto the base. He knew we couldn't lift it ourselves and really didn't want to ask his buddies to help. We have reached the age where are potential for injury is greater than it used to be and we all know we don't recover like we used to either! Well, his gears kept turning and he finally came up with a solution; a pretty unconventional one, one I wouldn't necessarily recommend to others.

It did, however, work! Using several car jacks and being extremely careful, we were able to raise the washer to the height needed to slide it back onto to the base. With the washer in place, the remaining pieces of trim and paint could be added to the base. I am so tickled with the end result. It is taller than I had

planned, but my husband feels good about the integrity of the piece. The appliances open at a perfect height for moving loads of laundry and the baskets fit perfectly underneath. The laundry has been caught up ever since! Hope you like the finished project as

well. Would love to hear your thoughts!!!

Looking for some motivation!

Well girls, I think I am slumping into the winter blues. How did it get so cold so fast? I told DH that I think I would be a better bear. The thought of hanging out in my house or the next few months sleeping and eating sounds like a pretty good plan. I promise that if you were to enter my "cave" I would welcome you gladly and try to get you to stay.

Since that isn't going to happen, I need some motivation. I need a good half-time locker room talk. Someone to tell me to get up off my seat and get some work done! We are trying to get the last cabinets from my mom's house today so we can finally set up the workshop in the garage. Currently, we can't even get my car in there. The goal this weekend is to be able to do so. I am writing this down so you can hold me accountable for our accomplishments this weekend.

Hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy the sunshine!

I like marking off projects!

Although none of these are big projects they are things I have been thinking about for some time. It is nice to mark them off the mental "To Do" List.

These little booklets are some gifts I made for the girls in my Sunday School class. I have been working on these for some time. I would run out of rings or we would have new students join us and I wouldn't have them all complete. But tonight, I have finally finished all the ones I have information for. If new girls come, I will make theirs for them later. The idea is that they will begin to write down some of their favorite verses of scripture. This will allow them to find it easily when they want. I hope they like them. I asked them their favorite color and tried to find paper that matched their personality.

The next item on the completed list is this cute little gift for my Secret Pal. I found the tutorial for the precious bird ornament here.
Thanks Chick #3 for the Mason jar. It is filled with Dark Chocolate w/ Almonds by Dove!

Next up is this rustic shelf that I picked up when out boodling this summer. I have been wanting to clean it up and bring it into my studio for some time. The few little things it needed were some weird curved pieces of aluminum needed to be removed. This left some exposed wood that needed some paint. These little fixes took me forever to get around to, but I finally did and I like that it gives me some space to store some smaller items. It is hard to see in the picture, but the shelf is Martha Stewart Aegean Sea. (Thanks again Chick #3). Originally the shelf was more green, but the blue went over it nicely and I sanded the entire piece which allowed some of the green to peak through.

And last, but certainly not least is my lampshade. You may remember from a previous post that I had a lamp in great need of a lampshade. I knew I wanted more of a drum style shade and I knew I wanted to put fabric rosettes on it. It took me longer to find the shade than it did to make the flowers. I tried several stores and could never find a drum shade small enough. Finally, while making a quick run through Goodwill last Saturday after another trip with things from my mom's house, I came across the perfect shade. And of course it was cheap - $1. I snatched it up and by Sunday morning had this cute little lamp in my living room.

What do you guys think?

Grandmother's Memories

I know this isn't a project but I just had to share this with you guys. I found this beautiful set of dishes at yes....Goodwill. I know they don't 'match' what I have or even the colors in my kitchen so why are they displayed in my glass cabnits? Well....Growing up I spent allot of time at my grandmothers house. She displayed these dishes in the kitchen and anytime we had a family get together she served meals on this set of dishes. So yesterday I was looking around at Goodwill for a table and spotted these. I was SO happy to have found them. They bring back so many memories and I could not just let them stay there when I knew I had the perfect spot for them. I think they look good in the cabnits. And everytime I see them....I think of the many meals that we shared as family which she treasured. My Anut has her set of dishes....who knows....maybe one day I will pass them on to my grandchilderen.