A Laundry Room

I haven’t posted much on the house lately.  We were doing so well with painting and updating it; just need to get it going again.  The downstairs is almost done; minus our room and bathroom. 

I forgot to take a before shot of the laundry room, but just imagine a burnt orange color.   This really is one of my favorite rooms.  Although I say that about each room after I finish it, but I really do like my “new” laundry room. 

I always dreamed of a HUGE laundry room, but I guess I’m not meant to have one.  I have made my little space functional and warm.

This room will always stick in my mind due to the day Brian and his dad painted it was the day the tornado hit Tupelo.

Since it is a small space and the entry we come into the house everyday, I wanted a light welcoming blue.  Brian wasn’t too thrill about it when I picked it out, but once it was all completed he was surprised.  This is also my pantry too, there are cabinets on either side of the wall.  The far right, you see in the picture, is harder to get to so it houses cleaning supplies, vases, random item not used.  I would use it more, but Sunni’s litter box is over there too so one of the doors is hard to open without moving it. 

I made a simple shelf to go on top of the washer and dryer.  I had a piece of plywood cut, then I sanded and stained it.  It was harder than I expected to get these suckers leveled!  I do love how it looks with the wood against the blue wall and the white.  I added in hot pink as an accent color.  I made a simple curtain for window.  This was my first sewing project all on my own in quiet sometime.  It was enjoyable and quick. 

On the opposite wall I found a wall organizer for us to hang our many bags and coats!  I have a bag problem! But then again B doesn’t like using the same bag as me so we always have at least two diaper bags.  I then have my purse and another bag or two I carry to work.  I need to start using it for the function of holding mail and other things. This wall also has the door to the garage; which will remain unseen due to it’s an ugly door.  Add it to the never ending list of things we need to replace.  

One new fun thing I have started doing since re-doing the laundry room is, wait for it, making my own detergent.  Yes, I know!  I have toyed with the idea for awhile, but was always thought it was so hard to do, wrong!  I am obsessed now!  I was amazed at either how much detergent we were using or how much “grime” is left on the clothes.  Our towels have never felt cleaner until now; they no longer smell either.  Not only did I switched to handmade detergent, I got rid of our fabric softener and dryer sheets.  We now use this lovely little felt balls. They are wonderful!  I keep them stored in the little tin bucket you see sitting here.  The other jar is oxi-clean for an added boost when needed.
 

The iron you see is from Brian’s great grandmother’s house.  We were going through it getting things we wanted and we came across this.  I knew it was perfect for the laundry room.  I made a little clothes pin from in the hot pink to add a touch more

Living Room

After we got back from Hawaii I started to get B to work on the house.  The first room we updated was the living room.  Here are the before and after pictures.

Before looking toward the back of the room. See how horrible the faux finish was.

Another view.  Gross

After: Looks so bright! I really love the green.

After:

Side by side:

Happy October!

Happy middle of October!  I know I say this all the time, but man, seems like time goes by faster each day. 

This weekend my parents came for a short visit.  Friday night was low-key with dinner out at Lost Pizza.  This is slowly becoming my favorite new pizza place.  We watched the Tupelo vs. South Panola game on TV (how crazy is that to see a high school game on national channels); poor Tupelo got slaughtered.  Saturday I planned to take Mom to see the quilt show which was set up at Oren Museum.  I have never been to Oren so I was not sure what to expect.  The quilt show was more of a small display the museum had, but still nice.  We toured the rest of the museum while we were there.  I was pleasantly surprised at everything there.  I got several great pictures of the grounds outside. 

Here are the rest of the photos.

After the museum, we headed over to Heirlooms Forever.  I knew she would like this store, but she LOVED it. She picked up a couple of patterns for the girls.  This store always makes me wish I knew how to sew more and quilted.  I need to get back to my quilts I’m slowing making, but then again what do I not need to be working on! :)  I picked up the fabric for two Christmas presents.  If everything goes according to plan, I hope to cut them out this weekend and work on them.

Saturday afternoon, Brian and I went down to Aberdeen for a blues festival.  The festival was blah in my opinion, but I did have fun taking pictures at Blue Bluff.  I don’t know why Brian hasn’t taken me here before!  I really want to go back and get some more pictures.  I also LOVE pictures taken with Hipstamatic app.  If you have an iphone and do not have this app yet, go and download it NOW.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Blue Bluff.

 

Here are a few “normal” shots of Blue Bluff.

What’s been happening?

There has been a lot going on in my neck of the woods.  I know I should break up the long post that follows into smaller ones, but I don’t want anyone to miss anything. :)  I hope you bear with me!

Last week, I FINALLY finished and mailed my Pay It Forward project.  It took me a mere 6 months longer than planned, but I did it.  I hope that Lisa, Susan, and Jeff enjoyed their happies!  I hate that I had to change what I was doing after doing one set (I did coasters) due to my sewing machine died and I was determined to get them out before end of August!  Here is a shot of the finished products.

Friday I celebrated my 29th birthday!  Yikes! :)  Brian cooked breakfast for me and his new special coffee, Nutella Coffee.  I was excited to find out he got me a Hobo wallet/clutch for my birthday!!To celebrate my birthday, we had a cookout with a few friends over.  It was wonderful having everyone over for some fun and the weather couldn’t have been more prefect.  I think I have found my new favorite dish to make for a cookout; brisket.  It’s super easy, especially if you take the route we did, and it feeds a lot of people.  We had plenty left over for us to have several meals with this week.  I am already planning to cook a brisket for Christmas supper for Brian’s side of the family (since we host).

Saturday, I was in charge of deciding what we were to do.  Brian gave me too many great ideas to choose from; Oxford, Starkville, Memphis, staying at home, or a water park.  I wanted to do them all, but at the same time I wanted to stay at home.  Before Friday night, I had narrowed it down to Memphis or staying at home, but then Friday night I was leaning toward Starkville to be able to hang out with John and Margaret more.  After waking up later than planned (we stayed up past our bedtime :)), Brian was sweet and went and got us Chick-fil-a for breakfast while I was to decided.  It took me some time, but decided I didn’t feel like driving anywhere even though I really wanted to go to Memphis to play.  We had a wonderful day playing around town and running fun errands.  I picked up a few Halloween decorations too.  I didn’t realize I didn’t have as much Halloween as I thought I did, so that means I get to pick up a few more this year! ;)

Sunday and Monday I relaxed and cleaned some.  Poor Brian had to work while I got to enjoy the day off. 

As promised, I picked up a State banner for Brian.  The Ole Miss one is by far better than the State one. :0  I stand firm in the fact having the State one out Saturday caused Ole Miss to lose. (I promised Brian that we would put it out Saturday if we had it out Friday during the cookout.)  I will have it out Saturday for sure!!

My sister has done it again!  Her youngest niece's birthday celebration was this weekend.  Katie asked for 3 cakes this year. (Did anyone else ever get 3 cakes growing up? I didn’t!)  Katie wanted a cleat, soccer goal, and soccer ball; and she got all of them.  DeAnne amazes me on how she comes up with ideas and how to create the cakes.

The cleat!  How AWESOME is this!!!  The cleat is made from rice crispy treats formed into the shoe.  How in the world she formed it I don’t know because I would have no clue on how to even begin to do that.  She then covered it with fondant.

All 3 cakes together!  My sister rocks!!!  If we ever have kids, I can’t wait to see what they might come up with and what DeAnne makes.   

…

The past few days I have thought of blogging, but then as I open the app to write nothing comes to me.  Blah. I guess that is because nothing really has been going on with us lately.  Funny how that is because in my mind there is so much going on!  There are so many things I want to be doing or mentally adding to my forever long running to do list and project list.  I keep meaning to take pictures of the guest room now that it’s completed (phrase 1), but never think about it until it’s late in the night.  It’s one of my favorite rooms (color wise).  I can honestly say I will be so glad when we are done with the house.  I’m ready for weekends to be work on my project list day, not work on the house project list day.  I’m also ready for Fall!  Oh how I love Fall!

Enough blahness!!! :)

I picked up a new knitting project this week; which I have already put on hold until I can get my Mom to show me how to turn the heel of a sock.  I am trying to knit my first pair of socks.  I promised Brian a couple of years ago I would knit him a pair and started them then, but messed up and frogged (for those of you who are not familiar with the term frog, frogged, or frogging; it is the process of ripping out a project.  Reason for the term frogging?  The “rip it” sound it makes.) the project to start over. I am now at the point to turn the heel and I have no idea what that means.  So in the mean time, I have decided to start another knitting project.  I want to make at least two baby blankets, one blue and one pink, to have on hand for gifts. 

Tomorrow Brian is leaving me for the night to head up to Nashville with Kevin to see Tom Petty.  I’m a tad jealous he is getting to see him play, but it will be a good guys’ trip for them.  Plus I’m being bad and skipping the Down on Main concert to have a night to myself.

The After.

This weekend we re-did the laundry room.  This one was going to be a little more labor intense due to we had to move the washer & dryer out.  I finally decided on the color, Beach House, same as the hallway.  A  neutral color was the best option. It looks completely different now.  Silly mean never did take a before pictures in all the before pictures I took.  But you can tell just be looking at the after that it looks better!  (I didn’t get really good full shots yet due to it was raining last night after we finally got everything completed and I couldn’t open the door to get a full shot.  Plus I don’t want to share that shot just yet due to the nasty pipes showing; which will be hidden by a freezer later on.)

This is one of the better shots in my opinion.  We stacked the washer & dryer to make room for chest freezer.  I love having the washer & dryer stacked already! 

Finished projects.

I know you all have been waiting to see what project pictures I was going to post! :)  I finally got  around to taking pictures of one finished project and did another one this weekend. 

Last weekend when  my parents came in town, Mom brought the 2nd set of curtains for the office.  The office is now 100% complete!

Before:

After:

Looks COMPLETELY different!!  I LOVE the curtains!  The fabric a raw silk stripped. 

Saturday afternoon I finally sat back down at the sewing machine.  It’s been almost 2 years since I sewed.  I finally got around to making the Crooked Coasters from The Long Thread.  I still need to trim the threads closer, but I couldn’t wait to share!  These are great therapy since it’s just sewing lines. 

I have another sewing project in the works that I hope to share by end of the week!

Whew.

It’s been one of those weeks.  Where as soon as Monday is over, you’re ready for Friday afternoon to be here.  For the past couple of weeks I have been feeling a migraine coming on.  This weather is killing me, please just rain so this feeling will go away.  I do not enjoy walking up with feeling like my head is going to explode at some point.  Thankfully today it went away quickly!! 

I’m trying to get organized better and motivate myself to finish all my half-finished projects and start the ones I have in the queue.  I’m trying a system my Mom did/tried a few years ago.  She read somewhere that if you have multiple projects a good way to complete them and not get tired of one project (which I tend to do if it’s a large one) you work 10 hours on one project then move on to the next and work 10 hours on that one, and so forth.  I’m hoping I can do this and it will help me be organized in my projects and help to complete them.  Yesterday I made some craft time-tracking cards.  I broke down the time in 30 minutes segments.   Here are some shots of them.  

 

 

 

 

 

I’m hoping these really will help me get some things done.  Mom said it helped her when she would used them. 

This weekend I hope to finish up several of those projects that are just about done but I never seem to be motivated to finish them during the week. Hopefully the weather will be pretty so we can spend most of the afternoon at the pool!  I need some more sun on these pasty white legs. :) 

Vroom, Vroom.

Over the weekend, my parents came for a visit.  Mom had finished up a project for me and wanted to bring it to me, so I suggested they come stay the night Friday.  I decided to make turkey meatloaf, soy sautéed green beans, rosemary-garlic potatoes, and a key lime cake for dessert!  Brian and I did not want this to be a “working” weekend so we decided to head over the Automobile Museum.  I had never been; and was pleasantly surprised. 

Here are a few pictures from the museum.

Saturday morning I made a favorite for breakfast.  It has been years since I had these and my first time to make them.  If you remember back in the day when Hardees's had AWESOME cinnamon biscuits (before they changed the recipe and started using applesauce in them), you will love these.  This is the recipe.

Cinnamon Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 C self-rising flour
• 1/4 C shortening
• 1 T sugar
• 2/3 to 3/4
• 1 C raisins (optional)
• Cinnamon chips (see recipe below)

Directions:

Cinnamon Chips:

• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/3 C shortening
• 1 T plus 1 t cinnamon

The night before, mix sugar, cinnamon, and shortening.  Melt all ingredients.  Pour on foil-lined cookie sheet and place in freezer.  Next morning break into small pieces (keep frozen until use).

With flour, sugar, milk, and shortening; make biscuits.  Add raisins and cinnamon chips last.  Mix fast so the chips will not melt.  Roll and cut out like biscuits.  Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.  Frost with frosting (see below) while warm.

Frosting:

• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 T milk
• 1/2 t vanilla

Brian’s response to these was; “You need to make these every morning.”  I responded back with maybe on weekends. :)

I was hoping to have pictures of a couple finished projects, but one is not completed yet (due to my lazy self) and the other needs to be cleaned up some before pictures are taken.  I will try to get some tonight of the completed one to share.  I’m uber excited about them!