Baby Whimsys Nursery Debut

I have finally put forth the effort to both take pictures of the nursery and upload them to my computer!  Quite the accomplishment based on all my pictureless posts lately.

A brief overview of the nursery - all the furniture in this room was redone by me and Mr. Whimsy.  It was a lot of work but really fun to work on together.  I hit up garage sales, other rooms in the house, and friends to put the nursery together (the matchy-matchy store stuff isn't really my style) so it matched the vision I was going for.  We (Mr. Whimsy) primed and painted everything with heirloom white spray paint, then (I) applied a glaze and poly-acrylic to it.  This was a very slow and long process (as you could probably see from my never ending to-do list) but I am really happy, and proud, of how it all came together.  Mr. Whimsy actually spent many evenings while I was sleeping hanging up things, shifting things around and re-hanging up things until they looked just perfect.  Several mornings I had the pleasure to wake up to a more complete nursery (seriously, it was fantastic).  He has a really good eye for room design and item placement.

In the beginning, I knew I wanted to use a light aqua and incorporate some things I have had for a while and haven't found the right home for in my home - namely a vintage aqua lamp that was missing a lampshade, a ton of doilies and a toy box/trunk I got from my Grandma a while back.  I also really wanted to use baby pink and have the room really sweet and feminine.  Apparently I have a thing for blue birds as they seemed to turn up in a couple places in the nursery.  

I took tons of pictures of the individual projects, and at some point will probably do post highlighting some of my favorites, some of my flops, and some of my most challenging one.  Let me know what you think!

To Do List Update

Well its been a week since I posted my to do list so that I would shame myself into getting to work.  A few of the items have been scratched off but I think we added a lot more to the list than scratched off.  I will not panic though and I will get this stuff done (Team Dashboard, you may just get taken up on your offer soon!).

I have taken a few liberties with my scratch outs, italicizing, etc.  I'm a glass half full type of gal!

Overall Nursery

- Paint nursery (Mr. Whimsy) This is almost done so it gets the scratch out

- Add woodwork to nursery (Mr. Whimsy) - beadboard has been painted and nails have been purchased so in honor of this, I am going to mark this item with italics... as in its about 25% complete

- Schedule deep cleaning for carpet - (Lindsey) - waiting on painting and wood work to be complete.  And nursery to be cleaned out (refer to "added this week" list)

Furniture, Decoration and Organization in Nursery and House (baby specific items)

- Redo furniture - dresser x 2, rocking chair, glider - paint portion (Mr. Whimsy) - nada... I take that back, we purchased primer and paint but still, pretty much not much has been done in this area

- Redo furniture - dresser x 2, rocking chair, glider - glaze portion (Lindsey) - nada

- Get/redo crib (Mr. Whimsy and Lindsey) - I talked with the Rowdy Ramdsdens and just have to schedule a time for pick up... but other than that, no change in status

- Set up nursery (Mr. Whimsy for muscles, Lindsey for "oversight")

- Hang up/organize baby clothes, blankets, figure out storage for baby stuff (Lindsey) - kind of done.  I have used every baby coat hanger I have but a lot of the folded items will go into the dresser... which has a nada status currently

- Ask Denise (Rowdy Ramsdens) about organza rosette fabric for lamp shades/curtains (Lindsey) - Done.  I am not going to get the fabric (but this resulted in a new item added to the list). Items that get taken off the list are by far the easiest to accomplish!

- Clean out cabinet in craft room to make room for things in Baby Whimsy's closet (Lindsey) - about 50% complete

- Get pantry organized to make room for all new baby stuff (Lindsey) - zilch 

Random Must Do's- 

- Mow the lawn (Mr. Whimsy) - grass/weeds are growing higher every day!

- Get last name officially changed, fill new name with insurance (Lindsey) - WOOHOO! I still nneed to re-register at the hospital but the big part is done!

- Mail belated graduation/baby/wedding gifts (Lindsey) - sorry folks, your gifts will be in the mail soon... 

 Not Mandatory but Hope To Do:

- Fix up onsies y (Lindsey) - I wish!

- Add doilie "M" to painted canvas (Lindsey) - not yet

- Doily light shade (Lindsey, Mr. Whimsy for any electrical know how) - project changed to doily lanterns (see added on this week list)

- Deal with excess garden produce - steam, puree and freeze zucchini for baby food (Lindsey) - Instead of making baby food I made dinner :) and passed some out to family/friends

- Art with bird and Bible verse (Lindsey) - not yet

- Sleep (Lindsey) - I am not sure 2 hour cat naps at night are worthy of a scratch off 

And added on this week:

- Paint tree in corner of room (Mr. Whimsy) - Mr. Whimsy said we needed to do something big and fun to the wall so I found a whimsical (of course) looking tree and we are going to use a projector (borrowed from the library) to sketch it on the wall with some kind of shimmery paint.  Pretty excited about this one!

- Attempt to make button lampshade (Lindsey)- I have a very cool old lamp that I was going to make a doily lampshade for but then I saw a button one that is (of course) more work but oh so fun looking.  Hopefully I have enough white an pearl buttons to complete this one

- Make 3 doily lanterns to hang in corner of room (instead of bird houses and light shade (Lindsey) - this should be a quasi easy and fun project but it will be messy so I will probably save it for the weekend

- Do something with the furniture and stuff that is in the nursery (Lindsey and Mr. Whimsy( - right now the center of the room is piled with the old furniture and baby gift we have gotten... this mess has to be cleaned out soon!

Painting/Beadboard Installation in Progress

Mr. Whimsy is making things happen!  (Please excuse the gigantic mess in the center of the room)

The color of the room is officially Fountain Mist but it pretty much looks like Tiffany's blue (this was unintentional).   It looks pretty dark here but in real life its much brighter and lighter.  I really love it.

Slowly things are getting crossed off the list (meanwhile, the list keeps growing... more on that next time.)

Upstairs Furniture Shuffle!

My husband works on averages of 6.5 days out of the week - fortunately a lot of this work is done in our "home office" so he is not an absentee spouse.  I do crafty projects on average of once every one or two weeks (if I am lucky).  In our home I have a craft room... he has a little desk in room that shares space with a guest bed and my bookshelf.  It was not the most balanced situation (although I have been on the benefiting end so I did not mind too much).

(the little desk in the office)

I am not the neatest person ever and so my craft room tends to get a bit... cluttered to put it mildly.  After several discussions on the subject, we decided to do the furniture shuffle.  The big desk that I used for sewing and storage moved to the home office.  Also moving to this room is the printer, copier, and various office supplies currently being housed in my craft room.  

(the "big" desk... in my messy craft room)

(the big desk in the clean office)

The bookshelf is undergoing a paint renovation and will be relocated to a new home... (hopefully) to be announced later this week!  (I am pretty excited about it).

(the bookshelf... clean for the first time since I got it!)

I will be adding shelves and rearranging my craft room.  My books (I have WAY too many books) will have to find homes in my craft room (except for a couple collectibles which we will keep on a pretty shelve in the office).  

(I have WAY too many books)

My craft room needs a MAJOR clean up and reorganization.  This is okay - I can handle it.  I know I am super blessed to have a room solely for my projects and it should be a neat workable space so creative juices can flow freely.   

(craft room missing the big desk... this is where we plan for more shelves to go)

Meanwhile, framed pictures were moved to various rooms and minor projects were accomplished.  It was a very productive weekend night!  What do you think?  Any suggestions on good craft room organizational planning?

Thrifty Bathroom Makeover

For a while now Joe and I have been wanting to redo (re would imply doing it again... we just need to do it for the first time!) our master bathroom.  We painted our cabinets white at the same time we redid our kitchen cabinets.  The lighter color helps the bathroom seem bigger but the rest of the bathroom has pretty much been just... there.  

I hooked up a small chandelier over the bathtub but its kind of out of place because the rest of the room is SO plain.  Finally, a while back we replaced the standard wall mounted mirror with a framed one.

I had an idea of how I wanted it to look but just hadn't done anything about it.  We have chocolate brown towels and I was think a really light blue with brown and bronze accents would be nice. Again, this was all in my head and nothing has been to it.

Two weeks ago, thanks to garage sales I FINALLY made a positive step in getting the bathroom in order.  First, I went to an apartment garage sale and got a brand new, full roll of painters tape for $0.25.   At another sale, I got the small roller for $0.25 and 10 bronze knobs for $1 (they were supposed to be $2 but what garage saler pays full price on everything?!?!?).  Then, at my last garage sale of the day I found a full can of light blue never used paint for $1!  The finish is flat and I wish it was a least eggshell, but for $1 in a color I want, I'll take it!  

Then, I had a $10 off $10 coupon to use a Kohl's.  I found a bathroom themed wall vinyl on clearance for $12.79.  I had spotted this vinyl almost a year ago at Hobby Lobby and liked it but never got it... with my $10 coupon I paid $2.79 plus tax for this vinyl.

When I got home Saturday afternoon I was ready to get to work and make a big change... then I went to get the paint roller and we had run out.  So frustrating!  The project was once again put on hold because I did not feel like going to the store.  All the project pieces have been sitting in a corner ever since.

Finally this past Saturday, I saw a new roller at a garage sale for $0.50 (I would have bought it at the store but I kept forgetting).  Now I have no excuse to get to work!  

This bathroom makeover is the ultimate thrifty project.  Total project cost include:

Painters Tape : $0.25

Mini Roller : $0.25

Knobs: $1.00

Gallon of Paint: $1.00

Roller: $0.50

Vinyl Quote: $2.79+tax

TOTAL: $5.79

I am hoping this blog post will shame myself into actually getting to work and painting this bathroom!  Unfortunately I will be out of town for the majority of this week so I have a feeling that this never ending (or frankly starting) project will get put off a little bit longer.  

What projects do you have waiting in the wings?  Feel free to shame yourself into action here!

Too busy to blog!

I have officially not blogged in over a month... pretty pitiful! Tons have been going on, I have just been busy, enjoying outside more than inside (i.e. posting on the blog), and have been travelling a bunch. Seriously I think I have been gone 3-4 days out of the week for the past several weeks. Combine that with the sun going down at 8:30, we typically don't come in until sunset. This results is late nights and short weeks. I am looking forward to spending time with friends and weekends at home. That being said, there has been lots to keep me busy lately.

Some of the highlights of the past month have included:

1. My sweet and smart sister graduated from Texas A&M. Whoop! I am so proud of her.

2. We have found 4, yes FOUR, snakes outside of our house. My resident snake expert (my cousin Jason) says they are harmless water snakes but I am not a fan of ANY kind of snake. They have all been disposed of property. They have all been about the size of an unused pencil and their tail is red on the underside. The scary thing is I have not seen one of these snakes until Joe has pointed them out and they all all is areas that I regularly walk around (outside the front door, my flower bed, under my old red metal chair and just inside the garage). I am working on improving my attention to detail. Joe is looking for a outside cat we could have to keep these nasty critters away.

3. Joe built me 2 big shelves in my laundry room. I needed more pantry/kitchen storage space so Joe added some big shelves above my washer/dryer for kitchen electronics, big platters, and canned goods (to accommodate my couponing habit). This fulfills that need nicely and I am loving the additional space that I have in my regular cabinets.

One shelf down, (err, up), one to go!

4. I have tried canning. My incredibly generous aunt Marilyn is a great gardener and on one of my trips to Brenham, she gave me a giant box filled with tomatoes and a cooler filled with other fresh veggies from her garden. In order to keep these from spoiling, I canned fresh tomatoes and homemade salsa. The tomatoes were relatively easy but a bit more watery than I expected. The salsa tasted great but after working on it for about 3-4 hours, I only got 4.5 cans of salsa. It was definitely not a good investment in terms of time but totally worth it for the experience. I would eventually like to can pasta sauce with some of my fresh basil but that will have to wait. Also, my Aunt Gay Nell said should would have me over to can pickles. I am pretty excited about it.

Box full of tomatoes awaiting their fate

Canned tomatoes

5. Joe and I have been talking a lot about creating an outdoor living area. We have spent a lot of time planning/brainstorming where things could go and what would look best. Will update you with how this progresses over the months to come.

The outdoor area will be at the back of the house around the covered porch

6. I got a Cricut! I am super excited about it even thought i haven't really used it yet... but I will!

7. One of my chickens mysteriously died. In preparation for Aprilfest this year we started building a big bonfire with tree and shrub branches. Due to the burn ban, the bonfire hasn't happened yet. Meanwhile, we noticed that the dogs moved the branches around to make a tunnel going through the pile. During the day the dogs lay in here, their dog house, or in their kiddie pool. When the dogs aren't in their tunnel the chickens take it over. When I got home this past weekend Joe said something must have died in the pile because it was stinking. I jokingly said it was a chicken. Sadly, I found I was correct when I went to count my chickens and found one missing. We shortly spotted the chicken in the pile and got it out. When examining it, it was obvious it had been dead for a couple days but it showed no outward signs of injury. Not sure what happened but maybe a snake bit it? Any ideas?

RIP (the chicken, not the dog)

The bonfire now has tunnels through it and is the (literally) cool hang out spot for my dogs and chickens. This is where we found the dead chicken.

7. We (mainly Joe) have completely re-done our rabbit area. Due to the heat, we have expanded the covering over the rabbit area, installed fans and a misting system in an attempt to keep the rabbits cooler. This seems to be working but it was a LONG processes.

When its in writing it really does not seem like much but it really has been. My sister is getting married in July and that should cut done on some of my traveling (I've been in Brenham a bunch for her showers bachelorette party). I am hoping things will slow down, but honestly, who knows.

Picnic Table Pick Me Up

I bought this wood picnic table at a garage sale over a year ago. Its original rust colored paint job lasted for a couple months but by now, it was in need of a MAJOR paint job. It was peeling and unappealing to use in any way, whatsoever. I was deciding on a color and am a little tired of the dark red/maroon I used a bunch when I first moved in. Instead, I am really loving yellow, pink and green right now... this time yellow won out.

A little sanding, primer, and two coats of left over yellow paint letter I have what appears to be a brand new picnic table. I also applied a couple coats of polycrylic... I am hoping this will help protect it from the weather. I've already gotten use out of the table and know I'll be using it tons more this summer.

Thank You Husband (for my shoe shelf)!

A while back, my shoe shelf completely collapse on itself. I mean completely collapsed.

I know I have too many shoes (I never throw them away), but I really think these shoe shelf deals are gimmicks. Anyway, my wonderful husband headed to Lowes, picked up some cheap particle board and brackets... and left them in the garage for a couple days (he was out of town for work, not being lazy). Meanwhile, I decided these shelves should absolutely be hot pink so I went to work...

First with primer...

Then I mixed a couple shades of pink paint that were in the garage and painted pink. I put 2 coats of polycryic (probably should have done three through), then Joe had some spare time and hung the shelves in the closet.

I organized my shoes and now, my closet is pretty (at least the shoe section is!)!

(Almost) New Dresser

A couple weekends ago, I found this old dresser at a garage sale for $20.

I have been looking for a piece like this will all the design and carvings to try out my new glazing process. I got this technique from All Things Thrifty and tried it out with good success on my kitchen cabinets.

A couple days after I got this dresser, I found an awesome spray paint deal - cans were only $1. That pretty much picked my color for me and it was time to get to work.

First step was giving it a dusting and removing the drawers and hardware. Next up, I spray painted it with primer. The change was already amazing.

After spray painting it green I was already loving it. One thing to keep in mind when spray painting something this detailed is to be sure to spray paint from all angles, otherwise the underside of the curves and carving will not get the necessary color.


I gave the paint a couple days to dry hard (only because I was too busy to do it the next day), and I started glazing. For the drawers I used a smaller artist brush so that I could get into all the crevices. On the big, flat areas I used a much bigger brush of course.

I split it up into sections because it took a while to cover all the areas and to wipe it off. Again, you just wipe it with a damp, clean cloth. I rinsed mine a bunch so that I didn't have to go through a billion rags.

On the above picture, you can see the bottom portion is unglazed, the semi circle at the top has the glazed mostly wiped off and the rest of the top has the glaze painted on. The glaze makes it look black and can be a bit concerning but it wipes off easy as long as you have a clean, damp, rag.

Because this piece will not get tons of contact on the painted parts (like my cabinets will) I did NOT use a polycrylic - I just chose not to and so far I haven't had any problems.

I love the finished piece and the extra cabinet space was REALLY needed. Now I am on the lookout for more furniture to glaze! What do you think?

Cabinet Re-Do

Since moving into the house, my kitchen cabinets have been one of my least favorite things. They are the standard grade, a mix of real and faux wood. The color is what got me... it reminded me of my college apartments. The darker color made the kitchen seem smaller and very... cookie cutter.

Joe had wanted to do something to the cabinets from the very beginning. I was very hesitant from the beginning. Finally, after many talks and visits to different blogs, I relented.

We both wanted to paint the cabinets white, I wanted to apply a glaze to them that I found on my favorite blog, All Things Thrifty. Brooke at All Things Thrifty does AMAZING things with furniture and her house and constantly inspires me to be more crafty. She also glazes EVERYTHING under the sun. Back to the cabinets though, we though the white cabinets with the black glaze would be a nice touch to the kitchen, would make it seem larger, and would be more our style.

This was my first glazing project so we followed Brooke's glazing steps pretty much spot on, you can find the instructions here. The entire process was not overly complicated, just time consuming.

First step was to paint the cabinets. Because they are inside we could not spray paint (like Brooke recommends). We first removed the doors and drawers then applied a primer then several coats of a high gloss enamel. Joe did this as he is much more detail oriented than I am. With the painting complete, and the cabinets stark white, I applied the glaze.

The hardest part of glazing was actually buying the glaze. We could not figure out which product was correct as Lowes had just changed their paint labels (so I could not compare it to the products shown on All Things Thrifty), and unfortunately, the Lowes employee did not really understand what we were looking for (NOTE: this experience was very different than most Lowes shopping trips because typically I receives TONS of great info from the Lowes employees).

Once we got the correct product (you don't need much, we got a quart and used less than 1/4 of it), it was torture trying to explain that we needed the employee to add the black color to the glaze. The guy pretty much said there was no way to do it without pouring out a quarter of the can of glaze. Instead, we bought the quart and bought one of the tiny color sampler paints in black and mixed the two at the house.

Brooke had mentioned getting the glaze tinted was a problem for her as well so I imagine this is a universal issue and if you want to glaze something you should plan to get the two separate products and mix it yourself.

With the glaze mixed, I applied it to the cabinets. This was my first glazing project ever (heck of a project to start on right?!?!), so there are some errors but overall I think it turned out nice.

After the glaze dried (and we got some time on our hands), we applied a 4 coats of a polycrylic to protect the paint job.

We finished off the project with some glass knobs off ebay (they were a steal at only $2.50 a piece!). I think they really make the project come together.

Once final note, we removed the small cabinets above the stove as well. Joe installed 2 wine glass holders from Target here and presto, the finished project!

After doing this process I know I will be glazing a LOT more in the future... in fact 2 weekends ago I bought a furniture piece for my room that will be getting the glaze treatment very soon.