Movin' On Up

Okay. I'm just going to say it. WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE!!!!

Hah! I wish. But we did get a house, and for a one room shack, she's a beauty. A little old, and a little faded, but I think she will clean up nicely.


Let's call a spade a spade. She's dumpy. But she came with this ugly little table for a whopping total of $25.


I know, right? Ugly too! These people should be paying me to take this crap off their hands.

In related news, the playhouse/picnic table seller threw in this guy for free just to get it out of his yard. I'm a landfill hero!


Then I snapped up this ugly little number off CL for free. I couldn't stop snatching up fugly backyard items that would be better off in the dump.

But I have a secret weapon in my artsy arsenal. And here it is!

Krylon Fusion spray paint for plastic. It's available in an array of colors, and can make over all of my furniture, restoring everything to its former glory! In fact, I think my made over pieces will be better than the original state, since all of the colors were sketchy and ill advised.

Stay tuned to see all of my amazing made over pieces. I'm gunning for shock and awe!

My backup weapon, of course, is the upcoming city cleanup day where residents can dump anything out front, and the city will haul it away for free. Should any of these projects turn out, ahem, less than stellar...I can just kick them to the curb--literally. Wish me luck!

Little Kitchen

You know the old saying--you don't do something homemade to get it faster/cheaper/easier/better...you do it because you get exactly what you want. And that makes all 8 trips to various stores totally worth it. Presenting....B's little kitchen!

Here's the before


And the after

It's adorable, perfect, and I'm in love with it. B has already made me a hamburger. Sure, she stuck it in the mailbox next door, but you better bet it was prepared with love.

Anyone in for a kitchen-off? I kind of suspect that I would win. Unless Ashley went to PBK and just bought one. Then, everyone would talk nonstop about how great her kitchen is.

I Blame Stephanie Rich

You folks know how much I love Halloween. And countdown calendars. So I especially love Halloween countdown calendars.


Back in 2009, Stephanie threw down the gauntlet and decided to make her own PBK-inspired Halloween advent calendar. It's based on the PBK inspired one above, and ends up looking like this:


I somehow got it in my head that she was full of great ideas, and that I should follow suit. I ran out to Jo-Ann's, bought insane amounts of felt, and started on my project.

What a tedious load of work! That thing took for-ever! I worked on it for hours and hours. Each square required different colors, buttons, numbers, patterns. It was exhausting. I shelved the project, and it ended up hiding in my party shed.

Fast forward to spring 2010. I had just found out I was prego, and thought it would be a *great* idea to whip out the overwhelming bag of junk and get cracking. I worked for hours at craft night, and felt like I made great progress. Then I got busy, and the project never left my trunk.

Fast forward again to late summer 2011. Fall is creeping up, and I want this stupid thing done and hung. But I somehow misplaced the bag with all 31 completed pockets. I'm 87% sure Satan is involved at this point.

I still have the main components. In theory, I could run out and buy more felt for the pockets. My other option is to convince Lancer that my sewing skills are so impressive that I can now make items that look like this.

Of course I made this, dear! What's PBK?

Please convince me that Blakely will appreciate the handiwork and effort I put into this thing. I'm about to set it on fire.

On a related Halloween note, I attended my first sewing class tonight, and decided to do a basic 8-panel Halloween skirt. I chose this fabric:

I think it's adorable. The plan is to make my skirt, and then use my newly acquired sewing savvy to sew B a matching jumper, and then parade ourselves all over the Bay Area in October. That won't be our costumes, just our holiday finery.

On a slightly related note (but really just to get out finishing my stupid calendar) I think I can make these paper mache inspired decorations. Anyone in?

Don't answer that in the affirmative. Just tell me to go finish my advent calendar for the love of all things dark and spooky.