It's Here SOMEWHERE!

The other night after watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother in bed on Jeremiah's laptop, I began digging under the covers.

Jeremiah: What are you doing?
Me: I am looking for an adhesive bandage.
J: Why is there a bandage loose in bed?
Me: Well, last night after my bath I was drying off and Mel was walking around the tub and fell in. When she hopped out she was all wet and she skidded around awhile and she accidentally and yet very badly, scratched me on the side of my foot.
J:So a bandage.
Me: Yes. You will know it when you find it because it is huge and it has a cartoon airplane on the side. And also? It is covered with my blood.
J:Great.

I am not going to lie, Friends. For awhile I thought there was a good chance that the band-aid had gone to the dogs (As in, literally. Eaten by the dogs. Probably Spike. Although Atticus does have a love of all things tissue flavored.) but Jeremiah persevered and found my Jay Jay the Jet Plane bandage adhered to the floor the next morning.

P.S. Stay tuned for FtVF. Next Thursday will be a driving lesson. I hope you took last week's lesson to heart, Friends.  Let's quit parking like asshats.

Hammered

Jeremiah is currently working upstairs.

I am downstairs. Working on my lesson plans. Or blogging. Whatever.

A few seconds ago, he ran downstairs and out into the garage. He needed a hammer and a nail.

He came back in with "his" hammer.

Y'all?

It was my dad's. I found it when I cleaned out Old Red in January. Yes, it had been in my car for six years and I did not even know it.

Me: Eying hammer suspiciously Um, that hammer belongs to my dad. Gasp That's MY DAD'S HAMMER!
Me (again): I forgot about that one. I thought you were getting the one that I accidentally brought home from work. And kept.
Me (again and again): So wait. Technically I have two hammers and you have how many?
Jeremiah: huffy and indignant I have owned hammers before. 

But I am not sure he has. Because I have managed to acquire two hammers in a period of six years, completely unintentionally. And I haven't lost either of them.

p.s. I also found the top saw part of a tree saw, several steak knives, and the world's largest screwdriver in the hidden compartments of Old Red. The screwdriver I found sitting below my windshield wipers after the car was fixed in CALIFORNIA. I totally could have injured myself or someone driving home with it resting there. I did not know what to do with it, so I added it to my apparent arsenal of rusty tools/weapons/kitchen cutlery in the back of Red where it remained for the last five years. Pretty soon I am going to need a toolbox. Or an alibi, because Friends? That's a lot of scary shit to be hauling unknowingly.

p.p.s. I found a ton of other stuff in there, too, over the years. Which is weird because I remember it getting cleaned out before my dad and I traded cars. Perhaps my dad wanted me to have these things. I think I remember him purposefully leaving some of it in the car (not the tree saw or knives). Anyway, I got some pretty great things like bungee cords and a tape measure. And I use both regularly. One time I whipped out my bungee cords and someone said "You keep those in your car?" and I was all "Duh. Who doesn't keep bungee cords in their car?".  I am like a boyscout. Always prepared. And dad? FINDER'S KEEPERS. Except the tree saw. Because Jeremiah gets a scary look on his face and talks about altering it to use in the backyard. Please take that back ASAP.

Freeze Frame(s)

So I know that YHL recently did a wall gallery at their house, but I promise you, mine has been a long time in the coming. We actually had a small-scale version at the house we rented. I pulled my inspiration from these two books:

And while this isn't wall/picture/gallery inspired, I've included this photograph of a blue room with yellow, brown, and green accents from Domino as it served as inspiration for my back room. Just a little less stuffy and a bit more casual. And I want that brown pillow.

Okay. So here are some examples we I looked at. The one below is from The Nest. Of course, I could never paint a wall red. I think it looks great, but it simply isn't for me. But we did choose black frames for the project because it was going into the front room, which isn't as whimsical as the back half of the house. We collected frames that we already had and bought more at Goodwill and Salvation Army, where they cost about fifty cents to a dollar. Then we spray painted the ones that weren't black. And by we I mean Jeremiah because I let him do it. He loves it so much I hate to take that away from him. can't spray paint (muffled sob).

The picture below is actually inspiration for our hall upstairs. Jeremiah took an incredible picture and my mom had it enlarged for him as a gift. We'll put smaller pictures around it, just like they did in Domino.

And we smooshed things pretty close together.

It ended up looking like this after Jeremiah got everything up. For now. We plan on spray painting the mail/wall file thing (that I got at Salvation Army) and adding more to the right side of the table.

You can see that we tried to get a variety of frames. I think that the different sizes, textures, etc. really adds to the wall.

We don't have pictures in them yet. Photographs will be black and white and anything else will/can be color. I have a ton of paper that we can use to matte, too.

That is a recent project. More pictures when we get the frames filled. Howsabout you? Any galleries? Black and white photographs versus color?

Three Less Cheap Venetian Blinds in Our House

Yesterday while on yet another trip to Lowe's, we found more blinds on sale. Bamboo. Roman. Not just a lame sale, but a CLEARANCE sale.  We had been hoping to replace the venetian blinds (those cheap bendy plastic ones) and were simply waiting for a sale.

So we picked up three, one for each window. Here's Jeremiah measuring something. He was NOT super happy about me taking this picture. He may or may not have given me a dirty look and we may or may not have exchanged words.You can also see in this picture that we ran out of ceiling paint and need to do some touching up - all in good time.

So after he removed the second set of curtain rods (we had originally planned on sheers with heavier curtains, not blinds) and moved the rods lower; I entered the picture with some hemming and ironing of more sheers. And then we hung everything. Here's a picture with the flash:

And here is how it really looks. We are super happy with it. I plan on attaching a heavier fabric behind the roman blinds so they aren't semi-private when down during the day. They'll be completely blocking out the light.

  

We really like the look. What do you think?

DIY Framed Board - Or, Hey, What Else Can I Do With This Gorgeous Frame?

This frame was originally silver and housed a very cool (but not fitting exactly with our decor) bird print.  The print came out. We kept it, just in case we wanted to switch things up.

Anyway, Jeremiah spray-painted the frame white (I might be spray painting challenged. But that is a whole different story.).

I bought some super-cheap fabric at Jo-Anne's, as well as some cork board. We did three layers: Cardboard, cork, and then the fabric. Put everything back together, hung it on the wall, and voila! a super chic place to post stuff. It is hanging directly above the desk, sort of tying together our little work area.

I won't be putting up any ugly shtuff like bills and stuff, but nice things, like this calendar that I picked up in Jerome (that I will repurpose by cutting out the images and framing them.). Other things will surely make their way up to that beautiful frame...slowly, orderly, and one at a time.

p.s. The fabric looks like it might have a pinkish hue, but it is a solid brown. It appears to be lost in translation.

p.p.s. The Fixx. That's what we're listening to at this moment.

$2.50 Tables

Remember a looooong time ago when I mentioned that I bought two tables at Salvation Army and I only paid $2.50 total? Hence the title of this post. The tables started out looking like this: Ugly. For suresies. And I am pretty sure that Jeremiah scoffed at my tables and thought they were unsalvageable. He humored me, the tables came home with us. Lucky bastards.

Then when we he sanded the cabinets he also sanded my tables. Still darn ugly.

When he finished, I primed. Oil based primer. It covers just about anything and sticks to the crap that didn't get sanded off.

Then I painted. White. Several coats. The gnome made his way into this picture, too, so I cropped his happy little face right out. Here's a close-up of the table.

And here they are, finished. With my cheap $5.00 lamp.

We like.

Another success!

So much prettier than before, and at only $1.25 each, quite the steal. Anybody else love to bargain shop? Get any great deals lately?

Holy Ssssshhhhelves!

Hello again, dear friends. And family. I come bearing shelves. Pictures of them, actually. I found this website: Holy Crap This Chick is Talented! and decided that I needed to have several of the shelves. In different lengths. They are for pictures and stuff.

So handy dandy Boyfriend made them and sanded them. I primed them. I painted them.

On a super-exciting note, I have a garage workspace. This is exciting, as I had zero space before. But now? I've got cabinet space. And drawers. Don't be jealous.

Here's what they looked like finished: This isn't the final way it will look, obviously. Any framed pictures on the shelves will be white. And there will be LOTS of them.  The birds will probably stay. So will the candle. But not that bottle. I think I might paint or decoupage it...

But don't you dig my shelves? We altered her design slightly as I didn't want a huge lip in the front. And the shelves are placed lower because they'll be loaded with pictures, so they are eye-level-ish.

Then he made me baby ones for the dining area. Love these. They are higher because they aren't holding any pictures. Just some dishes and my favorite blue jars.

Love. They look great with the constant light that the small room gets.

What do you think? Success? We think so. I just need to collect/spray paint some frames white and find pictures to put in them.

Anybody else building right now?

p.s. Listening to Dead Weather's Sea of Cowards
p.p.s. Please ignore the gnome. That is for a photo project I am working on. 

Oh, the horror.

Soooo...

Trip to the optometrist today. That's always fun. When I first moved here, I went to a Nationwide chain that was covered by my insurance and offered me HORRIBLE service.

After about two years I said, "Screw this" (Actually, I probably dropped the f-bomb. I found out I'd been wearing the WRONG prescription contacts for an entire year. You might have dropped the f-bomb, too.).

I left and found a doctor that isn't covered as much as the crappy place but I get much better service of a much higher quality.

And it was today that I was informed that...

I need bifocals. f-bomb inserted here. I knew it before I went in, but still.

Sigh.

So anyway, I am going to go over to Sun City (as soon as I can see again and my pupils aren't as big as frisbees) and I'm going to get myself a pair of cheaters at their Walgreens. I figure all those wacky old ladies in Sun City probably have some funky glasses.

I'm going to get a pair. And I'm going to rock them. Just you wait and see. I'll be all eccentric and crafty and awesome.

F-bomb-it, I'll kick some serious bifocal ass.

p.s. I'm listening to Don McLean. Yeah, oldies. Fitting, isn't it? Seeing as how I'm apparently an oldie now. Oh, so sad.

To all the men out there...

...and Annie Hall and Kd Lang - I salute you. How do you wear a tie and not get food on it? I wore a very cute linen scarf (from Spain) wrapped all stylishly around my neck and I swear I've tucked it into my undies, gotten yogurt on it, and closed it in the overhead cart. I am so not cut out to be a man.

Jeremiah will be so happy to hear that.

But the scarf looks bitchin'.