The Kitchen is Revived. Finally.

Ok, so we've been a little busy. One might be inclined to believe, from my silence, that I've either fallen off the face of the earth or that I've been having an uncreative streak (gasp!)

Well I'd like to inform you that no, we've actually done some stuff. Take that.

And without further ado, I give you the kitchen!

Here it is, with all its horrifyingly 1980s colonial-esque glory.

Here, we can see the basicness of the kitchen.  Pine plank flooring (a horrible idea for such a heavily used pathway), maple cabinetry that is admittedly pretty nice and still in really good shape considering its age and how much I know I used to hang on the doors and shelves, shotgun or galley style layout with a pantry offshoot, and OMGTILEEVERYTHINGELSE.
 

 

And such lovely tile it is(n't).  Hey, it was cool in the 1980s.  I think.  Maybe.

   

Actually, there's no telling, considering my mother's taste (of which there seems to be very little!)

The old oven has been removed to make way for countertops and the new oven, which was the excuse to do all this in the first place.  The thing was original to the house (think 1987) and well past retiring age.  It had gotten very ...quirky in its twilight years.

Yes, sadly, all that mess is a usual sight.  Maybe someday I'll bully somebody into hiring a maid again, since nobody else wants to clean.

But wait!  We have a change!

What's that?  Granite?!  For realz?!!!?1

Ok, I think I just sighed in happiness a little, as I'm sure you did as well.  I think I may be exactly where you are right now too, because this is just a teaser image that my mother emailed me.  She's thinking that tile behind the new faucet there for the backsplash, which I would have long since picked out, but she's finicky (for someone with very little taste).  I'm thinking it's dark, but acceptable.  One must always keep in mind that the room is dark and dreary already, we need light and airy!  But whatever the case is...

OMG THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER.

Until the weekend, when I actually get to see this in person and I should acquire more pictures, adieu!

I Come Bearing Pictures!

This is my brother's old room.  Yeah, I don't have any before pics, so let's just imagine this room, filled with a lot of stuff, and a lot of really crappy paint.

The Pillow Fabrics: These were some awesome fabrics we found in this little shop ("The Cotton Patch") in the boonies in some town in south MS.  I say little, but really, this place was a cluster of buildings and sheds, out in the middle of some rural area, and each building was packed so tight (both of fabric and people, it was obvious that this place was profitable!) it was hard to move around.  SO much better than the terrible selection at Hancock's and the other places in Jackson.

The Prints: It was a pain finding something that wouldn't clash too horribly with the rather obviously American-Colonial antique style, while also admitting that this house is being used in the modern day.  Michael's failed to have any sort of non-modern botanical prints, so I thought these worked out. The birds are ridiculously cute, anyway.

 

 The somewhat finished corner of the room.  That's all of Will's old toys and stuffed animals on top of the armoire (and imagine that in a terribly finished rusty red, and there you have the before picture).  The armoire is "Shark Loop" by Valspar, which turned out a bit too crisp and fresh-looking, so I wiped a Fruitwood stain over it to give it a bit of a patina. Please don't notice, but it isn't entirely done... either with paint or stain... The lamp is granddaddy's.  I used some Valspar spraypaint (Lowe's is like right across the highway, yay convenience) to bring it back to life - it used to be goldish and very ugly.  It still needs a new shade, and we're trying to find a barrel shade of the right type, which will be covered in the owl print.  The painting is a watercolor that Will did at some point of a snake.  Don't ask me why he picked a snake, god knows we never had any.  Bedding is all new, courtesy of Belk's and BB&B.  In case you're wondering, this is the third floor of a house with a gambrel (?) roof, so that wall is slanted, as is the wall opposite.  This room still lacks another new fabric (looking for a taupe-ish linen!) for curtains and a bed skirt so we can hide all that crap under the bed.  Yes, that's a record player under there.  How can you throw those out if they still work?!

And now we get into the unfinished bits.  The door to the left is the central stairwell, my back is to the front wall.  Middle door is closet, right is bathroom.  The whole wall is real, stained, very dark wood, with NO WAY TO BREAK IT UP other than putting things in front of it.

The desk used to be a secretary desk from my Dad's medical office, part of the bunch of furniture he inherited from the old fellow he bought his practice from way back in the day. At some point, he'd painted this an eggshell blue - EGGSHELL!  It looked nasty and filthy, like it had collected a lifetime of body filth in its eggshell finish. Which it had.  Not to mention how at that point in time, I really wanted these little wood cutouts of a heart and a goose on the front panel there.  Which I then drew on in pen. Hey, I was very young.  Well, I've gotten complaints that the color didn't change much, and it really didn't, but I stripped the paint off the top, stained, poly'd, and put some semi-gloss blue all over the rest (it's actually two-tone, but I don't think I made it contrast enough.  /sigh.) At least it looks fresh now.  The new knobs are frosted glass globes from Hobby Lobby.

The stool used to be a rusty maroon, even darker than the dresser, and VERY distressed with age, and the seat was matching dirty vinyl.  After taking the whole thing apart (the legs have to come off to get to the seat fabric, wtf?) and spray painting, it now looks like this!  Oh, and there's some extra, as-of-yet-uncovered pillows.  And my lappitytop.  Say hi!

The REALLY unfinished portion of the room.  This is the front wall, again on a slant.  The plywood used to sit on top of the other (dismantled) twin bed, because it was a rope-type bed and would sag.  This may actually get put in the attic proper here soon.  There's also parts of the ping pong table in here, and then the old, saggy typewriter desk that I would really like to say bye-bye to. And then the other random clutter that hasn't been figured out yet.  In the corner there on the left is a Kermit the Frog wall hanging from the 80s, done in shaggy yarn, by my un-crafty mother herself.  Way to go.  Yeah, can't figure out what to do with that one either. And that's what the existing curtains look like.  Very, very, very boring.

Whee, workspace!  The ridiculously cute owls fabric (you should have heard me squeal in the fabric store, omg) and one of the pillows I slipcovered over.  This is a rather dirty thing.  My mother informed me that she actually made the pillow.  Didn't know that.  It's still ....really dirty.  Can't tell now!

And up on the list for things to happen later: a built-in bookshelf system, to house all the extra booky things that don't quite fit in anywhere else.  Like ALL the kids' books that I can't bear to toss out. This will go on the wall between the armoire and the front wall.

Pardon my lack of awesomness in the monologue.  It's morning, I'm sleepy, and technically avoiding going to class/studying.  So naughty.

Linking Up!

Still Alive and Kicking!

And I promise I've actually been busy.  I just keep forgetting to take pictures.  I have things lining up to be presented, actually.

And now, for a bulleted list of THINGS!

• My brother's older bedroom in general, that's been an attic for a while. When I have to stay at that house, I will now be sleeping in this room, so as to not have to argue with entitled cats.
  
• My brother's old armoire, which is betwixt a nasty brickish red with a bad finish to a pale blue gray with a lightly stained tone.  And surprises inside!
• Bedding for this room too, replacing horribly juvenile, boyish white/green stripes.  IF we can find a suitable set of twin sheets with a fitted sheet that is NOT queen size.  Because that would be awesome.  Hey, sixth try's a charm, right?
  
• Grandaddy's trophy-thingy-turned-ugly-spraypainted-gold-lamp-turned-spraypainted-white-lamp.  Grandaddy had an odd notion of what was "classy".  White looks better.
• Antique metal chest from a 1950s doctor's office. It has about 14 tiny drawers and a center cabinet with tempered, beveled glass in the doors.  ...one of which I broke with a clonker of a shoe when I was 12.  Oops...  Anyway, it's blue now, instead of the sick and sad "white".
• Curtains are being searched for.  It's really hard to find non-sheer linen with COLOR OPTIONS.
• A little gamer's rocker chair - you know the ones I'm talking about, they're just a little C that sits on  the floor, that you sit on yourself.  Found one on dorm moveout day (I love that day!) and I've been repo-ing it a bit.  A... weight-challenged... individual evidently sat on it and busted the webbing, so I've had to tear it up to fix it, but eventually I'll finish sewing the canvas recover.
• I also recovered TWO MORE of those little cube storage ottomans, this time in black, but I'm still wondering what I needed with two more little ottomans.  Oh well!

But something that really took no effort at all were these:

 

 I think I'm correct in thinking that those little particle board shoe racks are about $25 for one piece with two shelves.  They're something that us less-financially-well-off-but-still-snobby look at, sneer over the construction and price tag, but secretly pine over, because what girl doesn't want a well organized closet that looks like it's had some effort put into it? 

Well, there were TWO of them by the dumpsters on moveout day.  Yoink!  I now have pristinely organized heels (not pumps though, they're too tall) and tennis shoes.  And the top shelves, out of sight up there, have nicely folded sweaters and old jeans (because someday I'm going to make a denim shag rug!!!  WHEN I find the instructions for it!).  To the right is the skinny little shelf ($15 at Wallyworld, and not worth that, if you have to pay for it!) that's serving as a boot cubby, and to the left, there's still room for my western hats!  Which someday I'll get to use again, when my horse stops being silly and learns to lope...

Anyway, I was able to break half of the hanging shoe rack down, which is AWESOME because that really limited door space and never quite fit the door to begin with.  I told you before, these are skinny doors on wide closets.  But I'm happy that everything is properly organized now! 

Because, you see, I rather like shoes.

At some point I'll paint that wall properly.  Maybe.  Or maybe I'll just graduate in the spring and move away!  Anyways, tata for now!

Record Cabinet Installed!

I'm so happy with this.  You can't really see how lovely this is from the camera, but it's lovely, such an improvement from just that hutch sitting on the floor.  I weeded out some of the books and put the cookbooks in the pantry, so all my lovely novels fit here quite nicely.  It could only be better if I could open the cabinet from the front rather than the top.  But maybe that'll be a project for another day!

The entirety of the living area (I'm standing at the kitchen counter), complete with TV box at left, which is also a severe source of limitation.

I'm trying to drop a lot of hints about how much I'd love to just have ONLY the sofa.  It's a rare occasion when two people sit down to watch tv, let alone three.  And god knows nobody ever uses that recliner.  Just imagine the wall where the loveseat is:  bare of furniture except a mobile, brightly colored armchair.  Ahhhh...

I'm thinking, though, that grandaddy's pharmacist's mortar-and-pestal lamp needs some spraypaint with a bright lovely color...

I'm Aliiiiiiiiiiiive!!!

I'm kinda back.  Like I said, busy semester, and with gas prices and horse feed prices currently engaged in a space race comparable to the one during the Cold War, only faster, there really isn't much budget left over for pretty stuff.  So it's been just work work work, don't fail Chemistry again, goof off with some Tolkein or Civilization III...

Until today.

I bought a record player cabinet/trunk/thingy.

Unfortunately I couldn't wait to de-ugly it long enough to even think of taking a before picture.  It was gutted messily and I was already halfway across the face of it with some spray paint before the light clicked on that I should take a picture.

I also ran out of paint, so this next is its temporary state, until someone gets home to help me unload the sucker.  Even with its innards stripped out (at this point, having HulkSmashed the electrical innards and supports, this is just a shell), this thing is heavier than lil' ol' me can handle.  Not that I wasn't perfectly capable of smashing out a lot of it with just a hammer...

Maybe someday I'll clean out the inside enough to transform this into a trunk or something, since the lid opens up all nice-like.  Or maybe it'll be content being a shell.  But my hutch will sit on top of this, off the floor at last with its lovely collection of books, and I think it'll look a ton better.

As I've stated before, you're not allowed to judge me for the trashy looking space around my residence.  I just rent here, and the owners keep a LOT of stuff just sitting around.  And I would not let that chickenhouse just lean like that.  Just sayin.

I've been busy.  Between trying to get away from campus before 5 (which hasn't been happening, due to painting, mostly) and studying for Spanish or Genetics or Chemistry or something, I just haven't had time to create.  I guess I could technically post pictures of my paintings, but they're horrible.  Really.  They look like the very elementary Beginning Painting paintings that one would expect of someone who has never handled oils before... or much painting at all.  So no cookies for you.

On the other hand, my mother has acquired temporary custody of my pony alphabet and that pastel horse portrait, and won't stop showing them off every chance she gets.  /sigh.  I hope she gets prints made soon so I can get that portrait pushed on to its commissioner...

I've bought more books, yes.  Naughty me.  Goodness, I need some relief in the form of shelvage!

Also, my man thinks I have Brown Recluses shacking up with me.  Can't get a decent photo, but here's a sketch I sent to a buddy who happens to be an insect enthusiast...

I draw really lightly.  I'm sorry.  It doesn't scan very well.  And it was a quick ID sketch so it's not exactly glamorous.  Brown Recluse?  Mebbe.  I hope not.

Also, I've been nominated for the Stylish Blogger Award!  Really?  I guess they're scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point.  I really think I'm the last person in blogland to recieve this... and as such, have no idea who to pass it on to.  So let me know if you haven't gotten it yet, and I'll be happy to pass it on!

Thank you MMBCreations for the nomination.

There are rules that go along with receiving the award.
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!
So here goes...

!.  I'm 25, and a senior in college, studying both Art and Biology, and hope to go into Genetics, because it's sure to pay a whole lot better than being an artist.

@. I'm wierd, and tend to be really nerdy.  I can definately nerd out a the average person on a number of subjects. 

#.  My drug of choice is books.  (are books?)  Classics in general, fantasy that tends towards high fantasy, plus the occasional Michener and Anne Rice.  If they're hardback, and cheap, it's just unfair... I have to have it.

$. I also adore kitchen stuff.  Do I cook much?  No.  But I like to think that's just because I'm usually only cooking for myself, since I live with my little brother, who is perfectly content to huddle in his room with some Easy Mac.  I have plates and bowls and cups coming out both ends.

%. I am hopelessly impulsive, and my man has been carefully chosen to balance that trait out.

^. Speaking of him, he gets annoyed with me for decorating his otherwise very bare apartment.  I come home with stuff for him as often as myself, and can take credit for pretty much all the aesthetics there.  He secretly loves it.

&. I love to know how to DO things and MAKE things.  Crochet, leather braiding, sewing, carpentery, metalwork, painting, crafting... It's an obsession.  To be able to MAKE your own clothes or MAKE just the right decor thingy, or to MAKE just the right piece of horse equipment, or to even able to change your own oil (which I do), is incredibly satisfying (and definitely cheaper!)  My man's the same way, and that makes me happy!  He understands! 

So that's it.  Like I said, I have no idea who hasn't gotten this already.  I think pickings are a bit slim when they get this far down!

Sorry I'm a bit dry today.  Just slightly exhausted from workout soreness, walking around campus, and just knowing that there are impending genetics and chemistry problems to tackle tonight.  I know I'll be getting some decent sleep tonight, so you do too! Adios!

Homemaking Pillow!

Goodness, I am having a wicked chocolate craving right now.  Flipping through my Google Reader is just torture, since everybody is going full blast with the Valentines treats.  There were picture of chocolate-on chocolate donuts, and chocolate drenched cookies, and chocolate goodies everywhere... Evil evil evil, and me trying not to eat sweets!  Come on, people!  Trying to LOSE the muffin top here, not add to it!  Gotta keep fitting into my size 1 Cruel Girl jeans! (which, by the way, I only fit into right now because I DECIDE I can fit into them. I never said it was attractive.  And before you gripe at me for saying "size 1" and not "size 14", I can at least say that this is the only brand in which I wear a 1!)

Anywho, I got busy yesterday.  Washed and dried and draped the couches in the canvas I'd gotten for them.  It's a HUGE improvement.  Though at some point I'll need to get a third canvas and form the arms and some pleated skirts, to trick the unsuspecting into believing that my couches are not hideous.

 

And suddenly the matching pillows don't look quite so bad.

Ok, yes, I know, but I did say "quite."  I never said "nice".

 

I thought it was interesting that the Home Depot canvases were whiter than the Lowes ones, which I've been using for the other projects.  But still washed up to be nice and soft!

Also, I tackled that pillow that I've been desperately trying to come up with.  I visited the last fabric store available, and it had even less cooperative selection than the others.  So I gave in, and decided to FORCE the fabric to bend to my will.  

I basically copied the shape of the case that was already on the body pillow...

Dying the canvas.  You're looking at a test strip.

 

Drying in the sun.

 After this, there was a period of sewing it altogether into the pillowcase, and then machine washing it (cold/cold). I didn't wash it BEFORE I sewed, because I figured the edges would shred WAY too badly, which they were already trying to do in the dye bath.

And then I painted stripes in an acrylic paint that I had lying around (Liquitex, "Red Oxide", about 13 years old and stretched with water). Maybe at some point I'll add the finer lines that made the original look that much more awesome, but I'm a little unsure of my straight-skinny-line-making skills.  So I stopped here!

That's my copy of Vanity Fair sneaking into the pictures.  I just finished it today, and I'm now a little horrified at how the movie altered the story to make Becky LIKEABLE!  Let me make it clear, if you've not read the book but seen the movie, that she is quite definitely a villain, with only one redeeming action in the whole book, which she then stomps on, or rather, dances on top of merrily with spike-treaded boots.

Anyhow, just my ranting.  I hate movies that take ridiculous liberties with plot (*coughcough* Dawn Treader *coughcough* Golden Compass *coughcough*).

It's Freakin' Cold!

 But at least it made for some pretty awesome picture taking.  This is my baby girl playing in the snow, wearing the blanket that I fixed up for her last month.  You can kind of see the black fleece that I sewed into the shoulder so that the blanket edge wouldn't cut into her spine.

Most of this is already gone, but I think this was her first time playing in any snow, and she was SO excited!

But that's it for today! I did manage to clean up a bit and do a workout video since I couldn't get to the campus gym, but that's not going to interest you at all.  Ciao!

I Sew an Ottoman Slipcover!

I decided I'd had enough of my horrible orange Walmart ottoman - not only was it not a pretty color or design to begin with (I hate ORANGE and YELLOW), but it was actually saved from a dumpster behind one of the dorms on move-out day.

Read: dirty.

Hello, box.


So I sewed!

And then staged a picture! (I can hear the few of you that have seen my previous posts sighing in relief. Honestly, I don't know why you come back, my pictures are that bad.)


It's all really wrinkley, and the couch behind it is just draped with the rest of the canvas, but I'm happy! And I love my new book set :3 And my new Minnie Mouse sketch mug (for the illustrator in me). I think that all in all, including the props, which I may have spent $13 on... I spent $13 on this. LOL I already had all the material left over from the wingchairs!

I couldn't find any tutorials for it, just wrapped the top like half a Christmas present, tacked on some trim, and then did this trial and error bit for the skirt. Seriously, I couldn't find a single tutorial that would admit that anybody could be stupid enough to need a supersimple box pleat skirt explained (like me?). So if anybody wants a tutorial... while I will admit that I'm noobish and really just winged it, I did document the process.

(Post-Note: I just noticed that Much to Do With Nothing had done an eerily similar project on her blog. As I am a follower, I may have seen this and had the image burnt into my brain, but forgotten the source.  I thought I was doing pretty awesome though!)

Also, remember when I stuck it to the man last month? I bought ALL THOSE ART BOOKS and this little happymaker?

I loved Marguerite Henry growing up - I read every one of her books that was in print, and adored the Wesley Dennis illustrations. He is a huge influence on my more realistic drawings even now.

But you see this? That little "A" below "Edition of 1950"?


That means first edition.

Oh yes. I paid 50 cents for a $95 book (according to eBay). SCORE!

So yeah, just wanted to share that little win with you. Along with my awesome slipcover (if I do say so myself).

Some Wesley Dennis love!

Linking up!

Testing, testing, 1 2 3...

Do we see potential? These are just some dropcloth scraps that are nowhere near big enough to cover the couch (the plan is to slipcover my ridiculously orange dumpster-save ottoman sometime soon with this) but at some point I'll be draping the couch with this same material...

And the question is: the pillow fabric - does it work? I just found it at Goodwill today, and took a risk and snagged it.


See, I have been obsessing over this picture that somebody posted on their blog a little while back (no idea who, I tend to just mindlessly save pictures for inspiration), and THAT PILLOW! I went right out and grabbed a body pillow, which was a very unfortunately cute blue graphic print, that didn't work at all. But that's ok, because I'll cover it (as) soon (as I find the right fabric).


I'm personally wondering if it doesn't have enough contrast to it, but I dunno. I really haven't been seeing many other great stripes at stores (they're SO underappreciated, apparently). But I don't know!


Also, it's really wierd that the wall looks green. It's definately more of a suedey brown color. Just sayin'.

Storage Situation: Solved.

This is where ALL my arts and crafting things go. Well, they did, back when they fit... since then, they have rolled over into ottoman storage and china cabinet drawers, with some of the bigger things just sitting out on desks. I've been trying to convince myself that since my sewing machine has a cover, it's perfectly acceptable to look at.

And those books I keep mentioning? Here's less than half of them. Another quarter of them are BEHIND these.


And here are most of the rest. I used to actually be able to use this for stuff other than books - it actually used to function as my entryway table. See my little purse just barely hanging on up there? And don't judge the terrible pictures, I'm really not a photographer.

Enter my lack of satisfaction with my space. I can't put things away because they simply don't have a home, and everytime I bring home a new book, I have to break my heart trying to figure out what to do with the other ones. I've got all my Marguerite Henrys piled in the back of those shelves, and that hurts my feelings. And those ART SUPPLIES! There's nowhere to put them all! Just plain nowhere!

So I went shopping, despite how much I loathe shopping (wait, did I say loathe? I might have meant adore.)

And found this gem!


It's not entirely what I was looking for, style-wise, but those drawers are perfect. FOUR ROWS of shallow drawers, deep enough to hold artwork!


Of course, now only a quarter of the woodtones in here are the mahogany that I want them to be, but after settling this in my man's apartment over the weekend due to weather, and seeing it against that white paint on his walls, I think that at some point I'm going to definately want it just the way it is.

Until then, it's not hurting my feelings.


No, it didn't actually do anything to alleviate the book situation, but man, I can organize my room now. O Happy Day!