A Very Merry Christmas.....

We had a wonderful Christmas despite the complete chaos from all the projects underway. We are taking mental health breaks from all projects for the past few days.

It was wonderful. I forgot what free time was like. This was the best Christmas we've had in a while. The kitchen is half painted, the cabinet doors are all in the garage, and the guest room is filled with all my kitchen stuff. The floors are not finished and I still have no stairs.

The good thing about split levels is two living rooms. So we cleaned the downstairs living room and had Christmas in this room only. It was perfectly ok with all of us, in fact just having a clean room was great.

Their is no plastic or painters tape down here and that's great!




We celebrated Christmas Eve Mass yesterday and the ceremony was finished with some teens outside in the cold playing Christmas songs on Various horns. It was really beautiful. We ventured out in the 38 degree weather to walk through a really cute light display.

We stayed up until 1am wrapping gifts and William woke us up at 4am. We refused to get out of bed until 6am though. Although their was no sleeping at that point, just a whole lot of my husband and I saying "Go back to bed" for the next 2 hours.




I got a Canon EOS Rebel XS for Christmas and I love it. My son got a Wii, legos and my parents gave him a keyboard. The boys went to Homegoods and picked out this perfect blue ceramic bakeware to match the new kitchen colors. I love Homegoods. I told them if they went there they would find something I liked. My husband has knack for buying me the oddest things, so I figured I was safe if I sent him there.







We are so blessed this year. Although many bad things have happened to us regarding our son who has adhd and aspergers, we are still very blessed.

My husband was in Canada working on the Olympics and it was really hard on us, well his old job just hired him back so he will be home from now on. Yeah! A helper for all my projects.

My two doggies also were very spoiled this Christmas too. This was Chloe's first Christmas and we don't know how old Goldie is, but its her third Christmas with us.





I can't wait until I can do the manual settings on my camera but for now the pictures are still so much better than my old camera.

3 Projects Going at Once

Ok I am working three projects at once in a desperate attempt to have a living area that's usable for Christmas.

I am removing popcorn from my hallway ceiling, painting the kitchen cabinets black and walls grey blue and finishing installing wood floors.

I started the popcorn last weekend - apparently if you don't sand enough the stuff peels when you go to repaint. So I have to resand and paint over. I started the cabinets this week too. I am hoping to just be working on the floors by Monday.

If I by chance get the floors in by Black Friday than I am going to finish them.

Here are some pictures of my progress.


I was testing out paint colors next to the black.

See no floors.

Ok, maybe its user error but this definitely wasn't worth $17 - sorry Home depot.

Spray the ceilings with water or vinegar depending on if their painted or not... and scrape.

On the left is SW Sleepy Blue , than SW Tidewater, and the last is a custom grey-blue from Home Depot. I picked the custom blue on the right.
This bright blue was already on the walls and is going. The tan is becoming blue also. I am planning to put wood floors in here and butcher block counters.


Wish me luck.

My guest room is starting to take shape.

It still needs curtains and some stuff on the walls but its a big improvement over the dingy white walls it had.

Dresser Before & After

Unbelievable After...





Ugly Smelly Before...





I will need new handles but for now this will have to do...





I have not had a lot of time to work on this so it took me a while to finish. I painted the drawers white and the whole dresser is Olympic High Gloss in Cranberry. I am on a hunt for new handles but for now I sprayed them with Valspar Metallic in Aluminum.

I love how it turned out. It is now one of my favorite things in my house.

I definitely could not imagine this dresser ever looking this good. It smelled so FUNKY after getting it free on Craigslist. I sanded and primed it with Kilz after heavily cleaning it.

I am so excited to put this in my guest room tomorrow!

Homemade Toy Storage Boxes

Ok I was sick of the primary colored plastic buckets that didn't hold anything. I made these boxes to fit on his shelves.

When we were organizing today I made him get rid of two garbage bags of stuffed animals and toys. I am sick of his room being a huge mess. I normally can't even walk in there, let alone put away clothes, change the sheets, or vacuum.

It finally looks good.

Plus I could finally vacuum it. I may want to polyurethene these boxes but for now their done.

Updated Post for DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

The DIY Showoff Fall Festival - My Spooky Yard

Enjoy my spooky decorations. I am sorry about the blurry night pictures. I need a new camera.

I made the tombstones four years ago. I got the styrofoam sheeting at lowes, cut out and primed. If you don't prime for some reason the paint melts the styrofoam. This could be different now since its been a few years since theses were made.

To put it in the ground we zip tied poles to the back and put in the ground. I take poles off every year so its easier to store.

The green spotlights are new this year.

Procrastinator Party - Preview of Project Plus a Bonus

OK I am still a procrastinator. I am working on the wooden toy boxes still for William's room. I hope they will be finished tomorrow. I just have to paint them.

Here is the before..




Here is one of the boxes before painting and making the handles. They will be painted Navy and I will be adding rope handles to keep with the nautical theme...





OK here is the reason my toy boxes aren't done. I have this dresser that I got free on Craigslist. When my sister and I went to pick it up the people were so creepy and even though it was the ugliest thing I've seen we took it and left. For about three months I have been stuck on what to do with it. I decided to paint it and I can always change it if I hate it. It needs another coat of pink and the white is only primer. I need to find drawer pulls too. Well it's almost done so check it out....




Here's the before...

My House is Spookified.

It's amazing how a few halloween decorations turn boys into crazy zombies. They have been playing zombies in the freezing cold for an hour now.

Well check out my decorations.