Art

So, before I start on this post I'm going to set a goal.  My goal is to blog every day this week.  Hoping this will get me in the right mind to write more!

I've been a little obsessed with pictures for the past year.  I think you can guess why.

Because of this I want to put them up all over my house.  I already did a picture wall in my dining room and now that we are making our downstairs into a nice family room I'm aching to do something similar, but different.

I found a whole bunch of frames at Porters (a craft store) for 40% off, so they were only a few bucks a frame.  I bought black, white, blue and pink.  Weird colors?  I don't know, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them, but now I'm seeing a theme come together with some fabric I had on hand.  I put them into a few of the frames.

And then I have this amazing picture of Naomi I had blown up and framed.  The best frame to match it was a bright pink and blue one.  Coincidence?  I think not.  I think it will match the other frames and such beautifully.

And then I came across a girl who is doing water color paintings to raise money to take her sister to Disney Land or World.... one of the two.  Send her your photo and she will paint it and take whatever you choose to donate.  I had her paint two.  One of Nae and one of myself.  I think it will make a good picture for our bathroom - where I get ready.  It's not often that I find a picture where I think I look pretty, but with these I do.

I sent the money and as soon as I get them I'm going to frame them and then I'll share them and the pictures they were painted after.

I'll definitely have her do more for me in the future.  I think they could make a beautiful present.

If anyone knows of any artists who will paint/draw/anything like that to one of my photo's let me know.   I'm looking to fill my home with more than just photos - I want paintings of photos :) 

Upstairs, Downstairs, Family Room, Living Room?

I wrote this post on Sunday and had planned to post it on Monday, but then thing's came up - I had my crown prep and didn't feel much in the mood for anything.  Then Tuesday happened and I vented about something else.

Anyway - sorry about hearing about my giant to-do list again, but this was written before Tuesdays or Thursdays or Friday - whenever I wrote that last one's post. 

10-31-2010

Lately I've been going nuts.  Nuts with how I feel like I don't have a handle on anything.  My house seems to constantly be a mess.  I am behind on balancing my checkbook.  Laundry, editing, taking pictures, videoing, blogging, reading blogs, phone calls, cards, exercising, projects, dinners.... ect...  How do you just get a grip!

One thing at a time... I know....

Jaren has brought up making our upstairs family room into a living room for a while now.  I'm always hesitant because upstairs is where I've decorated, painted and made into a nice homey warm home.  Downstairs is cold - figuratively - it's white, not really decorated.  Basically it's where we stick stuff.  But since I've started my photography business my computer is set up down here.  And so we've put half of Nae's toys down here and I'm down here every day.  It's become more familiar and not so cold.

And because I feel like there isn't a room in the house that is in order - except Nae's room - I'm all for roping off the upstairs and wrangling the circus to downstairs.  First thing on the list is to paint.  Painting the downstairs will give it the finished warm homey feeling that I need.  We will move some of the furniture from upstairs downstairs - bookshelf and T.V. stand.  That will help.  I'm going to decorate downstairs.  And over time it will feel more like the upstairs.

What we are most looking forward to is after Nae is put to bed we can walk upstairs and sit in a nice, clean space.  And the mess is all in one place.  And when people decide to drop by I wont feel like the worlds most horrible house wife because my house looks like it was ransacked.

I'm hoping this will help me to not feel like a housewife failure.  Which happens quite often....

Project Clean House

Is underway.  Since I've been done with my race I've not ran more than a mile and a half....  I feel a little guilty, but I'm getting so much done around my house!

My sister has come out and helped me a bit and I am so grateful.  I'm planning on totally ransacking the entire thing then putting it back together again room by room.

First up is the kitchen.  That has been cleaned, but just needs to be maintained.  Oh man how I hate unloading the dishwasher.  Only takes 5 minutes, but for some reason drives me crazy.  But I don't mind loading?  So weird.

Next is the family room.  Lindsey dusted and wiped down all of my shelves.  Just need to fluff cushions, switch cushions, vacuum couch, vacuum floor, clean windows, clean blinds, scrub floorboards and...  umm.. re-decorate.  But that wont happen for a while.

Thursday I cleaned out my closet.  Something I had been needing to do since I could fit back into my old wardrobe.  I have quite the give-away pile.  I still need to organize and dust.  And re-decorate.  Which is something that may happen in the near future! Wahoo!

Bathrooms.  Basic cleaning and need re-decorating.  Cleaning will get done this week, re-decorating may take a few months.  If only money grew on tree's.....

Naomi's room.  STILL have not hung her stuff.  I'm annoyed every time I walk in there because of that.  But I need 2 people!  It's a problem because either she is sleeping or Jaren isn't home.

Dining room.  A work in progress.  Needs picked up and a rug and the hutch sanded and re-painted.  Oh, and new chairs for our table.

Should I post before and afters of everything?  I plan on doing it with the decorating thing.  But maybe not the cleaning thing.  Cause that would show just how messy I've let things get in my quest to run really far really fast consecutively. 

Hidden Treasures

Monday night I went around my house and took a few pictures after an inch of rain had fallen.  The greens were so vibrant and the lilacs were beautiful. 

Then I looked up and saw this:

That's when I decided to see what else I could find.  I walked behind my house and looked under our deck.  I know I've seen this little wagon before, but somehow it struck me as a pretty neat item.  I decided I was going to get it out, clean it up and use it for something. 

Pretty awesome, right?  If I repaint it I'll lose the wee wagon name and I want that.  So, I'll just find some use with the rust.  Apparently it was Jaren's when he was younger which means it has probably been sitting there for over 20 years.

Hickory Dickory Dock....

Disclaimer: This is not for the faint in heart or the wimpy scardey cats. So... if you have a weak stomach, I might not continue onward.

The house that Jaren and I live in was built in 1975, so it's 33 years old. It's on their farm and he grew up in this house till he was 12 years old. His parents built a new home and then another family moved into this one. Once they moved out the house was unoccupied for 10 years. It was basically used as a storage unit.

The first time Jaren brought me out here to see it it was night so I couldn't see very well. We had just gotten engaged 5 days before. My first thoughts were... this is WAY out here in the boonies (I was correct). Then he pulled up and the lights caught this beautiful scene.....

Split level (great... hate those things... Do I go up, or down?? I can't choose!!!!)

Overgrown bushes covering all the basement windows and sprawling out over the sidewalk onto the lawn. (eeewww... I know they are spider infested. I HATE spiders!!!)

So we walk up and Jaren opens the door and flips on the light.....

70's decor everywhere... couches, boxes, random things all over the place. I can't tell what's downstairs but I can see there is no carpet, just cement and probably more stuff(I was right). Upstairs there is white dirty carpet and.. no... no no no no, PANELED WALLS!!!!! Needless to say I asked Jaren multiple times.... "Were living HERE??"

"Yes."

"Do we have to?"

"No, but if you'd like a significantly lower rate you'll live here."

"Uhhhhhhh... all RIGHT"

"It was a very nice house when I lived here."

"Fifteen years ago...."

I knew that they were going to renovate so as we walked through I asked... "Can we get new closet doors?" (they were the accordion type.. I'm not a fan)

"Yes"(Uh huh, still has yet to happen)

"Can we take off the paneling? (Ohhh please please please!!!)

"Yes" (It wouldn't actually come off, so they drywalled the whole thing, plastered, painted and it really looks like a completely different home)

"New Carpet?"

"Yes"(I love love love my carpet!!!!)

The kitchen was the most scary of them all. Small, sort of a gallery thing and all of the appliances were all there. Dusty, old and scaring me half to death.

"New Kitchen?"(See if you ever get me to cook on those...)

"Yes"(SCORE!)

And so there it was... I wont even mention the bathrooms. The one plus (besides the fact we were getting a house that was going to be fixed up) was the fireplace (nope.. not even used it yet... something about a fire hazard?) As we walked around and as the renovations took place I noticed mouse poo everywhere but thought of course there were bound to have been mice here. I'm in the middle of nowhere and this has been unoccupied for EVER. I also asked if we could bug bomb the thing.. cause eeeck, spiders! He initially told me we could probably do it, but it didn't get done and we spent the first 3 months setting traps and finding the eight legged daemons everywhere. Luckily, I don't think I ever got bit.

We also got new windows, siding, a completely new kitchen, and roof. But.. that isnt even the reason I am posting.

One night, after we had lived here for about 2 months, we were sitting quietly on the couches. I was doing homework and Jaren was reading when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something by the fireplace. I look up and AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! A mouse!!!! I screamed, it scadoodled, Jaren lost 2 years off his life and we both jumped up and ran over to try and catch it.

Now... you see, I'm not afraid of mice. Not at all. I'd rather they not bite me, but my fear of spiders is on a much more epic level. We couldn't catch the darn thing and it found a small hole in the bottom corner of our wall of cabinets (I guess you could call it our pantry). So Jaren stuffed the hole with some stuff so it wouldn't get out so we could get traps the next day.

We purchased many traps over the next 4 months and caught tons and tons of mice. I couldn't believe it. I was so grossed and bothered that there were so many. I counted. 25. TWENTY FIVE WHOLE MOUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We used all sorts of traps: snap traps, sticky traps, catch all traps, and our own creations. The only thing that didn't catch any mice was the catch-all. It's a small metal box that has a hole for a mouse to crawl in and then it will continue through the mechanisms and then it's trapped!

I thought I'd be clever and put peanut butter in there to lure the unsuspecting victims to their demise. No such luck. Well, the mice stopped being caught and we eventually cleaned the house of the infestation.

Tuesday Night.
Same thing, but watching TV with my friend Jessica, and Jaren was reading on the couch. He put his recliner down and his eyes got real big and he sat still and was staring at my blanket(I'm always wrapped in a blanket). "Where?! Where is the SPIDER! Do you see a spider?!?!!?!" (as I'm trying not to jump up and run for my life).

"I think..... I think I saw..... THERE IT IS!!!" A mouse runs over to the fire place from the couch and runs strait for the pantry.

"GET IT!!! Before it goes in the hole!!" Nope... it went in.

Were pretty sure it came in when Jessica was coming in. Drawn by the light from our house and it was cold outside so it would have been all warm and toasty. You know, seemingly welcoming. Jaren said he'd get a trap the next day.

Wednesday.
Forgot about the trap. Forgot about the mouse.

Thursday(today).
I was walking by our back door and looked out onto the deck and there was the silver catch all trap out side the door.

"Jaren.... why is the trap outside?"

"Well, I woke up this morning and heard this, clickity clickity clickty.... So I opened the closet and peeked in the catch all and there he was."

HAHAHAHAHA, I couldn't stop laughing. So funny that the mouse randomly found the trap in the closet with the crusted over peanut butter from over a year ago and went in. The trap that couldn't..... finally did. Jaren is going to release him out far far away in a field. He's just a little guy.......

Squeaky

Yep.. I named him. And the nasty crusted over peanut butter. At least he has some food.