Blog dump

Frankly, I'm surprised I even remembered my login information to this blog. Poor thing, so neglected.

As of 15 minutes ago, I am having serious home decor motivation/lack of inspiration. First, let me dump some projects on you that I've actually done since I started teaching (surprising that I would even find time, but when I get the urge to craft, everything takes a back seat.)

I found this little beaut while stopping by the parents house one evening. My mom had it in a pile meant for trash, so I took it! I'd been wanting to recover a lamp shade for a while now (lamp shades are so expensive...Even the ones at Wal-Mart are over $15.00...)

So as soon as I got home, I ripped that old crumbly fabric off and made it into this:

Presto Bingo - perfect addition to our superiorly boring entry-way. It's still a work in progress.

Kennedy & I also spent some time one weekend re-painting a guest bedroom in anticipation for company this Thanksgiving. 

Here's a before:

It had become a catch-all for junk. My sewing machine was in there, along with a twin bed and a pile of unfolded (clean) laundry. Shame on us. It was so easy to shut the door and never look at it.

I have an in-progress photo, but it isn't entirely complete yet...Maybe I can talk myself into continuing blogging if I have something I need to update soon...

This is post-paint, but pre-re-install the baseboards. We also inherited a nice queen-sized bed from Emily & Patrick that will come in handy with the aforementioned company. Can't wait to share the final after photos!

Finally, I'll share some things from my Science Lab!

Here's a picture frame I painted so I could "frame" out my objective for the day...

You can see the finished product hanging over my board in this picture, if you look very closely....

And I might as well share the other view of my room, pre-first day of school. Now the tables are all crooked from kids pushing them around. And my table labels are all ripped off and in a landfill by now. Middle schoolers are messy.

The new dilemma is what the heck to do with our dining room. We bought a craigslist dining table that is now just not working for me. Still no dining room chairs. Plus there are many limitations to the room. HELP ME!

Some green things

Well I tried my post-naming method again today but couldn't get the same luck I had as last time. That method is now out the window.

Instead, I have some green things to get off my chest.

First, I'll tell a boring story about something and then share photos of it.

Teetering on the edge of "crazy dog lady," and often over-stepping the line, I've been searching and searching for a bone-shaped placemat to keep Elvis's food bowls on for months. I have YET to find one (except I actually found EXACTLY what I had envisioned on Friday night at HomeGoods. But alas, it was too late.)

The moral of the story being, I just finally made my own.

So I took this...

...and turned it into this!

I struggled to decide between "woof." and "bone-apetit," but you can see my final decision. And yes, I realize how completely bored I must sound when I can't decide which dog pun to use.

Another thing I'm debating is making a whole bunch of these cat and dog place mats and selling them on etsy. I suppose I'm worried that I'd make them and then no one would buy them and then I'm stuck with 12 dog place mats and 12 cat place mats. Leave me a comment to let me know if you're interested!

Has anyone seen this etsy site, by the way? It's amazing! People make things and sell them. It's a great way to find hand-made items. Plus, people are so creative that it's usually something you couldn't find anywhere else. They also have vintage items/antiques! (In my Homer Simpson voice I'm going, "mmmmm.....vintage slash antiques....")

Here's a fun picture of Elvis eating off my hand-made placemat.

See?!?! It really works!

Please ignore the dust-bunnies in the corner, and Elvis's ugly haircut.

On to greener pastures!

Our grass finally sprouted! Right now it looks like a hair-plugs for yards campaign, but I believe in a few days it will all be filled in. Nature is such a miracle. I continue to doubt it and it continues to amaze me.

Photos to come once the grass is filled in!

Speaking of amazing nature, I found something pretty bizarre yesterday. While checking on my compost bin, (or as I lovingly refer to him, Binny,) I found something of a miracle.

Sorry for the sideways picture, but do you see those green things in there? GREEN ONIONS HAVE SPROUTED IN A DARK AND ENCLOSED PLASTIC BIN WITH MY GARBAGE IN IT.

I'll say it again for dramatic effect.

GREEN ONIONS HAVE SPROUTED IN A DARK AND ENCLOSED PLASTIC BIN WITH MY GARBAGE IN IT.

How amazing, because I was literally planning on buying some vegetable plants on my next shopping trip. Green onions were definitely on the list, thank you!

I quickly scooped those babies out and planted them.

Awww, look how cute.

By the way, I didn't really nickname my bin of food waste. That was a complete joke. I just thought someone might be reading this and unable to concentrate on anything else I said because they're trying to wrap their brain around someone nicknaming a large vat of garbage.

Finally, I suppose I should share something un-green.

Remember the time I made those lamps?

Well look what I found at HomeGoods on Friday.

Yeah....I've been copied! Although I will say that I love the silver base and may have to find something similar to dress mine up a bit. We shall see....

For now, I'll just go sit on my hands and wait for this to come in the mail.

Let there be light!

I made lamps. Seriously! I MADE 2 lamps. Kennedy and I are in the process of (finally) decorating our room. I was out at TJMaxx the other day, scrounging for some decor items, when I came across a couple of vases. I've been wanting to make a lamp (or lamps) for a while now, and these were a perfect way to start, because I didn't have to drill anywhere for the cord.

Here are the vases I found. They were $15.00 each, and actually came with a matching lid. However, one of them was missing a lid, so I was able to haggle a little and get one of them for about 10% off. Score!

Here are my lamp kits. If you look closely, you'll see that one of these was on sale. When I took it to the register, I was able to haggle and get the other one on sale too. At first, I thought they were exactly the same, but when I got home, I realized that one is a push-through switch, and one is a turn-knob. No big deal, because it saved me a couple of bucks! So far, I've saved $4.00!

Here are my other tools. A hot glue gun, and some cork tiles.

I used the cork to plug the top of the vase and hold the lamp kit in place, so I traced a circle and cut it out. This lamp-making thing is so simple, it's ridiculous.

Viola! Tried and true.

Next, I took the threaded tube (that will later hold the lamp wire) and poked a hole through the cork. No cutting necessary, just twist and push through for the perfect-sized hole.

Here's the fun part. I pushed that copper end of the wire through a hole at the bottom of the vase, then threaded it through the metal tube, and there it is! I won't go into detail on step-by-step instructions here, because any lamp-kit you buy will have it's own set of instructions. BUT, you need to follow those instructions to the letter. There are two wires there, and both have a certain place to be fastened. Otherwise, the kit won't work.

My underwriter's knot.

Once the kit was assembled, I pulled out the trusty hot glue gun and glued the wire inside the vase in place, and then I glued the cork in place around the inner-rim of the vase. I can rhyme all the time! I ended up using lampshades that we already had from some other ugly lamps hanging out in a closet somewhere. I also used my left-over cork to glue to the bottom of the lamps, so they wouldn't scratch our wood side tables.

And drumroll, please....

Ta-da!

You can do it, too! Kennedy also made a good suggestion to paint the cork white so it would blend in with the lamps. Also, it would make it look a little less 3's company (if you catch my drift.) He's so smart!

Next, I want to make some lamps out of glass vases. This will require a little more finesse, as I will have to find a diamond-tipped drill bit and drill a hole without busting the vase. I got a good tip from a handy-man about how to do this. I will also be consulting this website when the time comes. Good thing I've been saving all our glass jars from our kitchen, so I can practice!

Next blog post, I'll be addressing the fact that I set our heater to 88 (as high as it would go) about an hour ago, and our house is still only 60 degrees. I'm FREEZING!