Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat!

I didn't get all the decorating finished this year that I wanted to...I always have more plans than time, it seems....but I'm calling it done. I made these paper pretties and decked out the chandelier in the bathroom...



and the shower curtain got gussied up for the holidays, too.





Thanks for the well wishes for Sam. He's doing so much better than I expected. I'd have been a big baby about the whole thing. He is dealing with the stitches in his mouth like a trooper. Thank goodness he loves mashed potatoes, because he's been living on that and pudding for a week! On the up side, I've lost a few pounds from the stress of it all. :)

I made some Mint Oreo Truffles and Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles for the kids' teachers and bus drivers (all 17 of them!). I still have lots of baking to do, but it'll have to wait until this weekend when I can breathe again. One more gift to buy and my shopping is finished! Yippee!

I'm off to make some peppermint hot chocolate...borderline obsessed with it!

Are you tired of flooring yet??

This was the scene in my living room Tuesday morning. Nevermind the fact that I am hosting Thanksgiving in just two short days. But...he did it! Paul got the entire floor down in just two days. And it's a big room with funky angles.





Here's a peek at the end result (and Sage's cutie boyfriend!). We still need to do the trim all the way around, but we're just going to wait and do all three rooms at once.




I LOVE IT!! I walk around grinning just thinking about how wonderful it is to be rid of the carpet, to warm the room up and give it a little shine. LOVE it!

Paul is now an expert laminate installer! I'm so lucky to have him. :) Lots to be thankful for this year.

Thrifted Sparklies

When's the last time you built a snowman? For me, it's been too many years! Sam and I built a snowbear (see his cute little ears?) yesterday and talk about bringing back memories. Rolling out the snowballs on your knees around the yard, pushing in the carrot nose. If you want to feel like a kid again, I guarantee this works!

Normally I'm home washing Thanksgiving dishes Black Friday morning, but I got brave this year and decided to try a little shopping. I picked up the pine garland, gold wood garland, silver goblet, white and gold glass balls at Treasure Loft in Wasilla....all for under $5. Score! I'm still adding goodies to the garland to spruce it up (no pun intended!) as I unpack my 5,600, 232 Rubbermaid totes from the attic. Good grief. I think they multiply up there over the summer. I stayed away from the big stores after I saw how packed the parking lots were.

The living room floor is finished and it looks amazing!! I'll share some pictures once the Christmas decorating is finished. Right now the room is littered with totes, bows and partially finished garlands. Yikes.

I'm coming up on my 300th post...I'm thinking a giveaway is in order!

Moving Right Along

After I took down the Halloween stuff, I was left with a blank slate on top of this dresser. I just love this little spot in the living room. The possibilities are endless! I had the photos printed out at Target after uploading them to Photobucket, to see how I'd like the service (we just got a Target!) and I'm pleased with how they turned out. Mostly I was happy I didn't get to the store only to find out the one-hour service takes more like 4-5 hours (Wal Mart).

I picked some of my favorite pics from this summer, washed out most of the color (desat 80%) and came up with an almost-black and white look, with a hint of color.



This week we're putting the new Hickory flooring (fingers crossed we're finished before we host Thanksgiving!) and hanging new curtains in the living room. I designed a funky, industrial rod that I'm not sure will work, so I won't post it just yet. Stay tuned!




Anyone else putting Christmas decorations up early this year? I started last week, I am so into the spirit! This year, I'm keeping it simple, simple, simple. Lots of white satin ribbon and natural elements. Today I plan on hitting the thrift stores to see whose old stuff I can reconstruct. :)

Changes!

My dining, kitchen and hall floor is finished! I'm not going to say it was easy, but it went surprisingly smooth. Of course, Paul did do most of the work. :) He did all the cutting and figured out the many, MANY tricky angles. You see, our house has a sort of prow which means there isn't a square corner to be found. And, to make it more interesting, the kitchen is triangle shaped, because the bank of cabinets that houses the oven/stove is set on an angle. Anyway, we got it done and I LOVE it! The flooring is Shaw Versalock that we found on clearance for $1.99 sq. ft., originally $4.99 sq. ft. It feels so good under my feet!

Next up, the living room and the wood laminate!

Out with the old!

Sam and I got started yesterday tearing out the old flooring in the kitchen, dining room and hallway, and I can already envision the laminate making the rooms look so fresh and new!

The blue (yes, I said BLUE) wood laminte in the kitchen is GONE! Yippee!

And the equally offensive blue carpet in the dining room and hallway is GONE!

This shot is looking into the dining room from the living room, where there used to be a wroght iron railing. I'd love to replace it with a wood railing...maybe a rustic birch? Hear that, honey? :) Put on your thinking cap!


Sam was a HUGE help, gathering up the tools we needed then schooling me in the ways of the pry bar. :)

Then last night after dinner we had a staple-pulling party. Fun times, I tell ya! I'm no flooring expert, but do you really need a bazillion staples to hold down the carpet pad? Sheesh. And don't even get me started on tack strip.


More pics to come!

Oooooooooooooh.......

I've been having fun with Halloween decorating this year. Quite a few of what you see I found at thrift stores for next to nothing. The tree and skulls are from JoAnns, the mask was thrifted for 25cents. Stick it under a cloche and cover with cheesecloth and it looks pretty spooky, huh?

The wax hand is a candle that drips red wax "blood" (thrifted for $2! new in the box). Every year I get one new Halloween lantern, but they're getting harder to find. Keep your eyes peeled and leave me a comment if you see one!

More Halloween pics to come...

This is where they get the Swiss Mushrooms for the Swiss Mushroom burgers.

I know, I know, enough with the mushrooms already. But I couldn't resist this cool specimen I found in the flowerbed while I was waiting for the girls to get off the bus this week.






The girls are both going to *gasp* middle school this year. Sage is in 8th and Maggie's in 6th. It's been a pretty smooth transition so far. I'm excited to meet all their teachers and see just how this whole middle school thing works.

Sam's still at the Charter School, in 3rd grade this year. If I learned anything about dyslexia and learning disabilities thus far, it'd be PUT YOUR KID IN SUMMER SCHOOL. I was floored by just how much he lost over the summer, when we compared his test results this week with the ones from the end of last year. Live and learn, I guess. I'm sure he'll be back up to speed soon.


Anyway, I snapped this pic of the girls coming home one day this week. Look how excited Ginger is to see them. :)

Thrifted Side Table

I picked up this little side table for $5 at Bishop's Attic in Palmer, not really knowing where I'd put it, but I couldn't pass it up. I love the shape and the legs.


I found the perfect spot for it, right next to the dining room table. Remember the thrifted bowl and rooster plate? Oh, and the bowl on the bottom, too. The ball jar came home with me from Iowa. Have I mentioned how much I love a good junk store? ;)

Science Geeks, Springtime and Me at 40 :)

I'm so proud of my girls! They both love science so much, but especially Maggie. They entered projects in the science fair at their school last week, which means giving an oral presentation to a panel of judges. Maggie told me afterward she wasn't even nervous. This is HUGE for her. I'm SO proud. :) Her experiment was to compare two different homemade bubble recipes and find out which one produced longer lasting bubbles. Her hypothesis was the recipe that used more glycerin would make better bubbles, and she was right.

Sage's experiment compared two different brands of antibiotic ointment, and their germ-killing power. She used Neosporin, Equate brand and a "control" that had no ointment. Surprisingly, the control and the Equate looked like they had the same amount of germs, and the Neosporin had a lot fewer germs. So, spend the extra buck and buy the name brand!

Sage took the Grand Champion award in her age class for the school. Way to go, Sage!!
This week I cleaned up our shed and made a potting area for myself. I have always wanted one of those super-cool potting sheds like the "real" gardeners have. :) But this'll have to do. The whole thing started when I tried to fight my way through all the crap out there to find my potting soil from last year. One thing lead to another and before I knew it, I'd reorganized the whole mess and uncovered the old cabinets that we salvaged from my mom's house.
We're storing them there until we get our cabin built, where they'll be perfect in the kitchen. Until then, I'll be using them as a potting bench. After I took the picture, I scrounged around the garage and found the perfect sized scrap of plywood for a counter top.
The shelves are an upper cabinet turned so the doors are facing the back. It's perfect for my pots. Of course, since I took these pictures, I've used up all those pots planting some flower, herb and veggie seeds. 135 plants, to be exact. Fingers crossed they'll all sprout!

I thought I'd share a pic that Maggie took of me last month, around my 40th bday. I did it! I grew my hair out in time to turn 40. :) I sure wish I had photoshop so I could whiten my teeth and smooth out those forehead lines. lol Oh, well. Just keepin' it real.

I have some thrifty goodness to share tomorrow. :)

Introducing...

Yentna! She's on the right, and her baby brother is on the left. We're adopting Yentna, and will pick her up the weekend. Isn't she gorgeous?! She has a very curious, friendly nature. She's turning 4 this Spring, so we'll have lots of wonderful years ahead with her. We intend to train her to pack, so she can come along with Tyea on hikes this summer. I've never trained a llama before, so it'll be an adventure for both of us! And the fact that she's named after an Alaskan river, just like Tyea, Salcha and Kiska, means she was meant to live with us. :)
Remember a few weeks ago when I posted the sneak of the new project I was working on? The black bookcases? Well, they're still black. heehee Thanks in part to my being sick for a week, going on my birthday vacation, and to little sidetrack projects, like finally painting some housenumbers. We've been in our house for 9 years now...think it's about time I put some up? ;) It's hard to see in the picture, but I used some crackle medium with red underneath the antique white. It's a cool, antique look.
Maggie and I had fun building some little nests yesterday. Mag went outside and gathered moss, pussy willows, and some leafy things, and we added Spanish moss and a tiny birdie. Cute. Maggie put hers in the teapot on a cool pewter plate I found in Iowa, and mine's under the cloche.
I finally found a use for the Wedgewood china plate I picked up at a thrift store! The antique silver creamer was a gift from my mother-in-law.
And another sidetracked project...a new shower curtain and window curtain in the bathroom. I found the red and white gingham valance at a thrift store, and just sewed a white sheet behind it, for an instant shower curtain. :)

So, as you can see, I've been pretty sidetracked lately. But totally in a good way. :)

Moving like a herd of turtles.

That's how I feel. Progress on the home front is slower than slow. But it's progress, right? That's my "word" for the year. Progress.

I put up some new shelves in my laundry room yesterday for some much-needed storage. You know a man designed my home, because it is seriously lacking in closet space. Big on room size, but no place to hide anything. So I've been trying to remedy that with some organization.

How do you like my cute little window treatment? It's an apron I picked up on my junking expedition across Iowa. It needs a little something...I'm going to work on that later.

I have some exciting news on the home front to share....tomorrow!

P Dub in the House

Pioneer Woman was kind enough to share some of her prints for free, via download (see her website for link), so I printed out Beatrice (above) for my desk, to remind me to "keep it real". :)

And below is "Two Bulls" by Marlboro Man, which hangs in my living room. So fun to have a little bit 'o pioneer in our home. :)

A fun, funky little retro chair I found for my desk.
And the fabrics I chose for a couple of pillows to make it comfy, cozy.
I've been sick. Super, duper, awful, icky sick. And Paul's gone, so the kids are having to fend for themselves. Sam's been SO good about entertaining himself. For example:
Strawberry Man. Found in the kitchen, after I dragged myself off the floor from a brief nap. I couldn't resist snapping a picture.

Good Golly, I'm miserable.

The Wee Hours

I hope no one is holding their breath for the pictures of my bathroom remodel. If you are....exhale! It's still not finished. It seems like the little details are the ones that take me the longest to decide on. I'm still shower curtain-less, because I can't seem to make up my mind on which style of plain white curtain I want. For now, here's another little peek: How sweet is this vintage jacket I picked up at Salvation Army yesterday? I can't wait to wear it this Spring with a long white cami underneath, and some trouser jeans. Not bad for three bucks! Good tailoring never goes out of style.

I have so many projects in progress right now (and when I say "in progress", what I really mean to say is I've thought about doing them) that my brain is on creative overload. Last week I started tearing into my craft room, but got sidelined by a nasty flu bug. It's really cramping my style, man. I don't have time to be sick! The girls and I are coughing, sneezing, aching and just generally miserable. It obviously didn't stop me from doing a little thrifting yesterday, though. ;)

Anyway, I have a cabinet to paint, a shower curtain to sew, a pillow cover to design and sew, a little table to refinish, and a room to reorganize. And I have a plan for my kitchen island, but that might have to wait until April. My goal is to have those things finished before I leave for Vegas.

Oh, did I mention I'm going to Vegas????!!!! I'm SO excited!! My sister Carol called me last week with the crazy idea to get together with all our siblings and have a group birthday celebration in Vegas next month. I'm turning 40 at the end of the month, and was wanting to do something special, so her suggestion was perfect! It was either that, or get a tattoo. I think a little va-ca is much more appropriate for a woman of my age. ;)

Alrighty, well, the Codeine cough medicine doesn't seem to be kicking in just yet, so I guess I'll go see what trouble I can get into over on Craig's List. Night, everyone!

Palmer Places

A little peek at what I'm working on this week. This is the "before", so don't be scared off by the hideous black paint job. I decided to move some things around in my craft room, and found the perfect spot to make a workstation for me. I scored the deal of the year on this piece...more about that later!

I wanted to share one of my favorite indulgences with you-Gladheart Acres products. When I had my scrapbook store, their children's consignment store was next door to me. They make soaps, lotions, candles and other smell-goods, and are just a wonderful, happy family. They've been in a couple locations since then, and run a booth at Saturday Market. Well, when I was in Palmer yesterday getting my hair done, I was thrilled to find out they have a storefront again, right on Main Street. I'm not actually sure it's called Main Street, I'm not all that familiar with Palmer, since the only time I go there is on hair day. Anyway, go into Palmer, turn left at the 4-way and they're on the left, a couple blocks down, just before the Country Cuts building. How's that for vague? hehe I was disappointed to hear they no longer make Sweet Mama, my favorite scent of all time, but fell in love with a new smell-Rise and Shine. Yummy!! It's so fresh and soft and sweet. I got a bottle of Body and Linen spray, and a lotion stick, which I think is such a smart way to apply fragrance.

So next time you're in Palmer, be sure to stop by Gladheart Acres.

There's a fun consignment store in the same building, called Anything Goes, Runway 49. She has some cute, trendy clothes and some fun vintage stuff, too. Prices are very reasonable, and the decor is really funky and fun.

Lastly, Valley Winery just opened a store at that location. They weren't open when I stopped, but I'm looking forward to next time. You can make your own wine, and they'll bottle it, age it, and even make custom labels for you.

Be sure and hit Bishop's Attic on Bailey, and B&G Thrift (on Main in the opposite direction, past all the bars) for good thrifting places, too. :)

Happy Wednesday!

New Beginnings

One of my favorite kinds of junk is architectural salvage. I wish we had more if it here in Alaska! The finial came from eBay, and is now keeping my chunky chicken company in the living room.

The husband and the son are sick, sick, sick. Poor guys, they have have the whole nine yards; fever, aches, chills, sneezing, coughing. Yikes. Send any healing vibes our way, please!

I found the cutest store yesterday! It's called Younique Boutique Consignment, on Bogard & Seldon in the shopping center with Extreme Tan. She's got some very cool clothing, and it's SO reasonably priced! I picked up a pretty kiwi green sweater for $11, and something for each of the girls. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she's got it decorated to die for...just the right amount of vintage, with a dash of funky, and a touch of sparkle. I felt right at home. Go check it out!

And lastly for this morning, I want to post about The Scrap Shack. Many of you may already know, Heather will be closing the store on March 1st. I am being completely selfish when I say I'm sad to see her close. I will miss so many things about the store; the crops, the classes, the fun new stuff, and mostly just the way I always knew it was a place I could stop for company, no matter who was working that day.

I'm so incredibly blessed to call Heather my friend. I can't wait to see what new things life has in store for her!

No Peeking, Paul!

Honey, if you're reading, STOP. Please? It'll give away part of the surprise!
































































Don't peek!










































































Pretty Please??










































































Is he gone?




















































































OK, here we go. Remember how ugly the floor in my bathroom looked? Well, here's how it looks now!

Ta Da! I painted 12" black and white "faux" tiles on it! I LOVE it! For $15, I have a totally new bathroom floor, and it only took 7,000 coats of paint! Only kidding, sort of.

I'll give a brief how-to, for anyone interested in making over their own linoleum floor.

The first step is to clean the floor. I used Shower Power, which is my favorite cleaner EVER. That stuff is powerful! Spray it on, let it sit five minutes or so, then wipe off. No need to rinse. And it smells pepperminty. Yum.

Once your floor is dry, you can prime it. I highly recommend Zinsser 123. It's a bonding primer, made especially for slick surfaces (we used it to prime the paneling in our living room). It is a little stinky, so make sure and have an open window.

I cut in around the perimeter first with a brush, taping off around the toilet, tub, cabinets and walls. Then I used a low-nap, 4" roller (I experimented with different ones, and this worked the best for getting behind the toilet, etc.) to roll on the first coat. You will be able to see the old flooring through the first coat. Let it dry (only takes about an hour) and continue to apply coats until it's opaque. I applied three. I only cut in for the first coat. It only took about 10 minutes to roll on each subsequent coat.

Now it's ready for your base color. I used Dutch Boy "Baby's Tooth" in semi-gloss (same as the walls). It's a standard interior, water-base paint. I let this coat dry overnight.

You can stop here, and have a beautiful, sparkling clean white floor, or....

You can totally go crazy and opt for a black and white checkboard pattern, like I did. Be prepared for this to take some time. Lots of time.

But so worth it!

OK, here we go:

You'll need a roll of blue painter's tape, 12x12 and 10x12 sheets of cardstock, a quart of black floor paint and lots of patience!

Starting in a corner, tape 12" out from the wall to the opposite wall. I used the sheet of 12x12 cardstock as a spacer, moving it and taping in one long, continuous strip.

NOTE: If your linoleum has texture, like mine, press that tape down hard. Now press it harder. And again. Do you have a blister yet? Then you haven't pressed hard enough. OK... I'll let you in on a little secret. If you want to bypass the whole throbbing, bulbous white blister nonsense, use a dry cloth to smooth down your tape. Or if you have an ink brayer? Even better. It only took me 2 days to figure that out. I'll spare you the gorey details.

Your next strip will be parallel to the first, but spaced 10" this time. Continue parallel strips, alternating 10" and 12" each time, until you reach your stopping point.

Starting in the same first corner, begin taping perpendicular, alternating 12" and 10" spacing. Once you're done, this is what it'll look like:

Next, I placed a small piece of tape in each square that did NOT get painted black in this first step. (You will skip every other row in the first step)
Now you can start painting black squares! I started with the first square I taped off, using a 3" low-nap roller (Rubbermaid brand is very nice). Go light with the first coat. Floor paint is thinner than regular paint, and it'll seep under that tape if you apply it too heavily.

Once that's semi-dry (about 1/2 hour), apply a slightly heavier second coat. Give it about 15 minutes to set up, then remove all the tape. (It's really important to take the tape off while the paint is still wet, to prevent pulling off dry paint)

Let the first set of squares dry overnight, since in the next step, you'll be taping over part of your freshly painted black squares.

Now you can tape off the second set of squares on those rows you skipped the first time around. (I forgot to get a picture of them taped off before I painted, but you can see from the next picture that they're taped individually.)

Then, voila! A brand new, sparkly clean, almost perfectly painted floor! You will have some touch-up to do. Don't sweat it.
Edited: OK, after saving this post as a draft for a couple days, and sitting down this morning to finish it up, I realized that the smarter thing to do would be to paint the BLACK as your base coat, and fill in with WHITE squares, since that paint is a little thicker and would less likely to bleed. Live and learn. :)

I love my "new" floor!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me. I'd be happy to help!

Fun Finds

Do you ever get your sleep schedule completely out of whack? That's where I am right now. I've been going to bed earlier and earlier (last night it was 7:40, and waking up in the wee hours, because I just can't stay asleep any longer. I actually got up at 3 am today. Ack! So my plan is to stay up as long as I can today, take a late nap, then hopefully I can make it to at least 10 tonight before crashing. There are a few perks to getting up so early...I have lots of "alone" time before the kids wake up. But it really bites when I'm dozing off at the dinner table.

Anyway, since I have lots of time on my hands this morning, and I've browsed for every possible thing I could ever want on eBay already, I thought I go ahead and share a few of the fun things I found thrifting this week.

The green bowl is a Robinson Ransbottom 10" crock. It's hefty, and the color is gorgeous. The pillar I grabbed right away, and lugged it around the store with me...I knew if I didn't, someone would nab it before I did. The thing weighs a ton!

I absolutely love this candle holder. It's big...22" across and 14" tall. I'm sure I'll pay way more for the candles than I did for the piece.
It's not easy to find these old jars with the glass lid intact, so I scooped this up right away.
And the pink teapot? Well, why not? :)

A little birdie told me I need to start sewing again. Actually, more like a flock of birdies. I know, I know. My poor Etsy shop is empty, and I only have one item left at Scrap Shack. I know I have blogged about this before, but I have a terrible habit of hot and cold hobbies. I like to do so many things, but only one at a time. Does that make sense? Maybe I'm a little OCD? Anyway, I have made of note of the requests and will start sewing again soon. I just have a couple small projects that need my attention before I go on another sewing bender. :)

Have a wonderful Sunday!

It's a mystery...

I wanted to share a few more of my thrift store finds today. This is the so-called "garden" window (and I use that term VERY loosely) in my kitchen. I have a real love/hate relationship with this particular window. Why, you ask? (Because I know you'll lie awake tonight wondering why I'm plagued by this nagging problem) Whoever installed this window kind of missed the whole point of having a garden window, when they chose to put an upper story deck directly above it, blocking any direct sunlight whatsover from entering in the summertime. Now, since this is Alaska, and we all know the sun shines sideways in the winter, I am blessed with the occasional blinding glare on cold, snowy days. But I don't exactly need the sun to grow anything then. So the only thing growing in my garden window is a nice collection of thrift store goodies. And don't even get me started on the dust. Where does it come from in the winter? That's one of life's greatest mysteries.

Anyway, here's my "garden" (picture me doing air quotes with my fingers) window.

The fluted silver pan, dove, wine decanter and glass cake plate are all thrift store finds. I actually made the cake stand by caulking together a glass plate and upside-down glass.
The water mister is second hand, and I actually went junking right in my own garage to find the green glass Ball jar. It's a bicentennial commemorative edition that my husband has been dragging around with him for 30-some years. Sometimes I'm glad he's a packrat!
The cream and sugar set I picked up along with the bowl in the background, two teacups and 4 saucers for $5! I love roosters, but I try not to get too carried away with them, since I'm not a big "theme" decorator. But I couldn't pass these up. And last time I was in Anchorage at a huge antiques co-op called "Packrat", I saw a cup and saucer from the same set that was tagged for $20. So I scored quite a deal!
The little white dove was only 25cents. How could I pass that up?

The rooster bowl, metal stand, winter house under glass, square vase and glass domes are all recent finds. The big rooster is from JoAnns garden collection a few years ago.
Some of these things are old, most are not, but I love that I'm giving them a second home. I always wonder who owned them before me. I'm always giving things to charity, and think about where they are now. Weird, I know. :)

You can click on the pictures to view them larger, just don't look too closely at how dusty my window is. Yikes.

Have a happy Friday!