Oh, who am I kidding- it's always project time around here!! We're big fans of DIY and sweat equity in this house (something I think that we both inherited from our parents), and we're always finding some small (or large) project that will help make our happy little home even happier.

Actually, I take that back. Usually I'm dreaming up the projects, then dragging poor Darren into them. Good thing he's a good sport about it and handy at just about anything (installing a tankless water heater, anyone?), because yesterday the appliance delivery dudes dropped this off at our little casa!!

Yup, that's my new range- the very last appliance I had to choose for the kitchen before the remodel could take place. It took me long enough to settle on one, and it didn't help that I was really picky about it. I had a definite feature list in mind- natural gas, stainless steel, double oven, and five burners on top, one of which had to be a long oval to accomodate a cast iron griddle. I'd looked at both 30" and 36" models and finally settled on the smaller one (since my kitchen is tiny as it is). Besides, anything is an upgrade from the little 24" model that came with the house when I bought it almost ten years ago!

Luckily, said range is no longer sitting in the middle of our living room/dining room/home theater (can you see the reflection of the Wii in the oven door?) amidst the remnants of another project that involved removing an actual planter from the room. When I arrived home (late, again) from work tonight, Darren had already moved it into the kitchen!! It's not totally hooked up yet, but I should be cooking with gas (bye, bye, electric oven) by tomorrow evening!

I mentioned earlier that my family has a long DIY history, and this layout that I recently scrapped (in my hotel room in Boston) shows my brother, one of his friends, and I all working to build a new home for our dogs in my parents' back yard several years ago.

This is another layout based on one of May Flaum's Big Picture classes. I was thrilled to finally find a use for some of my old Basic Grey "Color Me Silly" paper that I've had in the stash for quite a while. I know that some people are huge proponents of purging anything that you don't use in 6 months or a year, but I find that as long as I buy supplies that I know fit my style, I usually eventually (even years later) find a use for them.

Now that the last appliance is in place, I'm quickly running out of excuses for putting off measuring the kitchen and sitting down with the IKEA planner to choose cabinets! It may be a while yet as we need to gut the room and redo the floors first, but it's definitely getting closer!

New Year's Eve Expedits

Totally by coincidence I've spent the last two New Years' Eves at home making stuff. In 2009 I made my knock-off Shootsac, and this year I built not one, but two Expedit bookcases!! The fourth and fifth ones I've built- I kind of feel like a pro now. :)

I decided to have a little fun with the Nikon's intervalometer while I was constructing the first one (thanks to Paperclipping Roundtable for mentioning the idea in an episode and reminding me that my camera has this feature built in) and set it up to take a photo every 10 seconds. I then loaded all those photos into iMovie, which spit out this video for me (there's no sound- I was too lazy to find music to go with it).



I only paused shooting when I had to go look for tools (I thought that large expanses of time with nothing going on would be kind of boring), and, yes, I did accidentally attach one of the sides as the top near the end. Luckily that was easy to fix. Darren also makes an appearance toward the end- he always has to help me get the corner screws in and tightened. By that point the bookcase weighs more than 200 lbs, and at that weight I simply can't wrestle things into place on my own.

Both Expedits already have a new home in the bedroom. Our house is small, and while the bedroom isn't tiny, it's pretty full with our king size bed in the middle of it (and I refuse to get a smaller one). That doesn't leave a lot of room for a wardrobe, so we've literally been using cheapo Wal-Mart bookcases covered with curtains for the last 8 years.

Oh, and not everything fit in those bookcases, so I often ended up with a big pile in a basket like this (and, yes, that's a wetsuit on top of the pile). Unattractive, no?

Here's what it looks like as of tonight.

We are so happy to have upgraded to these big boys!! I know it looks a bit crowded (and, really, there isn't a whole lot of room on either side of the bed- plenty of space to walk, but that's about it) from that perspective, so here's another.

I know that it's not the ideal storage solution for everyone, especially if you like more space, but for us it's perfect. We've got space for clothes, books, and whatever else we want to store- I even have a little charging station for my phone and an Anthropologie egg crate for jewelry hanging out in one of my cubes!

Oh, and just for the fun of it, here are a few pictures of the 4Runner (right before Darren helped me unload it) the morning after I made my insane solo trip to IKEA to pick up the bookcases, baskets, and an organizer system for the hall closet (I won't be getting to that for a while). The car was stuffed completely full, but, hey, if I'm going to drive 8 hours, I'm going to at least be efficient and bring back as much as possible!

Road Trip (and a Halloween Layout)

So, those Journal Your Christmas pages I was planning on posting today? Yeah, not so much (I will try to get to them tomorrow)...

Instead I went to the happiest place on Earth- IKEA!!

Those of you who have a version of this wonderful store in your neighborhood may be wondering why a trip there is such a blog-worthy event. Thing is, my closest one is four hours away, meaning that I don't go very often (and when I do, it's an all day event with looooooots of driving involved).

It's always a difficult choice- do I give up one of my vacation days to get some much-needed organizational items, or do I stay home and scrapbook, read, and generally goof around all day. We really did need some closet organizers and a pair of Expedit bookcases for the bedroom, though, so in the end I was a good, responsible girl and went.

I didn't have the chance to take many photos since there was just one little me and three cartloads of stuff to wrangle into the 4Runner (which is currently sitting in the driveway bursting at the seams welds. We'll get it all unloaded tomorrow morning. Tonight I need to clear a spot in the living room to stack it all until Friday when I start construction. I'm a pro at building Expedits by now. :)

In lieu of new Christmas pages, let me instead share with you a Halloween layout that I finished last week. I can't believe I've already scrapped my Halloween decor photos! It's kind of cool to already have them in an album.

This page is based on a sketch from Valerie Salmon's Got Sketch 106 class, and I pulled out some of my yummy new Pink Paislee "Hocus Pocus" papers to play with while I made it.

Okay exhausted me is going to try to make space in the living room now (by taking down the Christmas tree). Or maybe I'll just crawl into bed instead...

It's Started!!

Darren got out the sledgehammer last night and started breaking out the planter (yes, planter), that the original builder of our 1950's era ranch thought was a good idea. I mean, really, who does that?!!??

Seriously, it even has dirt still in the bottom of it! We're not sure that it has a bottom, actually- it may go all the way through to the crawlspace like that, which means we'll literally be excavating dirt from the middle of our living room.

Please excuse the mess in the photo. I have no idea why the throw pillows are on the dining table. And you can also ignore the sloppily closed curtains (we close them when we use the projector). And the cat bed in the fireplace. And the boxes of Halloween lights that I need to hang this weekend. And the cartons holding the new vanity for the bathroom. And that big black blob in the chair is Griffin.

You get the picture. But, hey, you can see my cute little Halloween glam pumpkins on the mantle- sweet!

Speaking of pictures, here's one circa 2008, right before we rented the house out for the final time before moving back into it ourselves.

As you can see, the planter had long ago been converted into a makeshift table of sorts, but it's honestly always been out of place in this house. (You can also see the icky old carpet that we pulled up last summer.)

This is the first of many projects around here, and one of the three that has to be done before the floors can be refinished (the other two being the kitchen and bathroom remodels, since we don't want to have to worry about carrying heavy cabinets and appliances across newly finished floors). The planter's brickwork is also integral to the fireplace brick, which means I'll be tiling a facade over the brick to hide the broken places when this is all over.

This means that you can expect to see some remodeling posts from time to time around ye old blog.

Oh, and that first picture? I took it after setting a custom white balance on the D3 using my new toy- a Balens White Balance Lens Cap. I love it!!! No more funky yellow or blue tones when using auto white balance. And now I'm totally eying these after playing with their free sample download- they really do work!

Scrap Room Part 3: The Beginning of the End

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on the new scrap room move-in. It's been a HUGE undertaking because I've been sorting and organizing and purging along the way. I now have a nice sized box of things to put in the next yard sale that the scrapbook store has.

I've also seen that I have waaaaaaaay too much stuff, so with the exception of the new Basic Grey papers I'm going to try to not buy any more scrapping stuff through the end of the year. Is anyone else finding that they have too much? Anyone else want to join me in not shopping or at least cutting back?

As of the time I took these photos (which was the week before last, right before I left for the cruise) here is how the room looked:

Still some stuff in the floor, no guest bed yet, and a few things like the plastic drawers that are not yet in their final resting places. Oh, and no curtains yet- the rod has to be hung first.

I did get the pom-poms (from this lovely Etsy shop) and paper lanterns arranged and hung. I LOVE it!!! I haven't done the paper garland yet- that's a project I'll probably work on while recovering from knee surgery.

The whole arrangement is hung over my desk, so I see it all the time. That back left corner (by the closet door) could use a little something else. I may stick another paper lantern in there.

The Expedit is nearly full now- good thing I bought the big one! I love that it has storage space on top for my stereo (I've had that thing since high school, maybe before- it was a gift from my parents) and those cute glass seahorses that I got for Christmas (also from my parents).

All my completed/in progress albums are along the top. Paper and cardstock take up the next row and a half. The rest of the unit is books, empty albums, supplies, and some miscellaneous embellishments. I'll take photos of all my different organization and storage methods and do a big post once it's finally together.

And what's this?!? And actual scrapping project? Why, yes it is!! It's a little something I'm working on based on my recent Bahamas trip. It's a bit of a cross between a Janet Hopkins project I've tried before and an Elise Blaha project I wanted to try. I'll post more details when its done.

Scrap Room Part 2: Somewhere in Between

I really did not mean for it to be almost a week between posts. In fact, I took these photos last Tuesday as I was assembling the Expedit and had every intention of posting them on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, Wednesday night was when I started to get sick. It was either a cold or allergies, but either way the effect was the same. While I've still accomplished many things I needed to get done, some little things (like cleaning the bathroom and blogging) have sort of gone by the wayside. Now that I'm better, I'm catching up on things. Starting with blogging, because the bathroom can wait. :)

So, first up is the assembly of the Expedit. Honestly, I was pretty nervous about this because I've read all kinds of horror stories about trying to put these things together. I actually had very little trouble with it- the only things I needed help with were tightening the screws at the end (it just required more force than I could apply) and standing the thing up against the wall when it was through.

It was basically just a long session of knocking wooden pegs into holes with a rubber mallet, putting in the shelf dividers, putting in the long shelf, and then repeating for the next row. The process was made very simple by two very important pieces of advice that I gleaned from an IKEA forum. First, DO NOT tighten the screws at the corners all the way until all of the shelves and all of the sides are lined up and attached- otherwise you'll never get them lined up all the way. Second, knock the pegs ALL THE WAY into the holes as far as they will go. I promise, they will stop when they are supposed to.

A little under an hour and a half after I started, I had this to show for my efforts. I even had time to go to the gym afterward. :)

Now that the shelves and my desk are together, I'm ready to go to the next stage and start decorating and organizing. The Expedit really takes care of most of the organizing. It's on the wall that's behind me when I sit at my desk and so very easy to get to. I imagine it will take some time to get everything in, though. My plan is for it to hold all my completed and in-progress albums, paper, idea books, magazines, and some tools and embellishments.

The decorating is going to be the really fun part. First, I really want to do this with the tissue paper pom-poms and paper lanterns over the desk. Photo credit to Design*Sponge, where I found the idea.

I love the paper garland they have mixed in with it, too, though I plan to make one more like the photo below, also from Design*Sponge. I have the punches and tons of scraps to use up, so it should be easy and fun!


I also toyed with the idea of doing this with the top of my desk and laying a large piece of glass over it, but I think that I actually want to keep that surface white so I won't have distracting colors underneath whatever I'm working on.

I also thought of making one of these (scroll down for the pinboard) to hang on the wall, but the way things are going right now I may not have much wall space to play with. I'm hanging a lot of artwork and things from my previous house, so it's filling up quickly.

And since this room is also the guest room (at some point soon I need to move the bed in and paint it white), I would love to make one of the little DIY chandelier lamps at the bottom of this post. Again, it all depends on wall space. I don't want it to get crowded in this room at all.

Oh, and yes, Mom, the room is painted my new favorite wall color- Sandstone Cove by Behr (from Home Depot). :-) The whole house is actually slowly being changed to that color. Every room is decorated a little differently, but it plays well with pretty much any color scheme.

Scrap Room Part 1: Cleaning and Whirlwind IKEA Trip

After finally deciding that I've had enough of being separated from my scrapping supplies (and also with an impending knee surgery that will keep me from doing heavy work for a while), I decided it was time to just put the scrap room together, already!

Wow, that was a long sentence!

Anyway, I started the scrap room project off in the same way I started the bedroom project- with the floors. Luckily, the floors in the scrap room do not have big, poorly done patches in them, so I didn't have to worry so much with covering it up. Over the course of a few hours, I had removed the remaining tack strip, pulled out lots of little staples, and cleaned (and cleaned, and cleaned) the wood.

Then it was time to assemble my desk, which actually took less than an hour. After moving the iMac in, it looked like this:

Not that it's anywhere near that clean now! Currently it's covered in half-assembled IKEA paper lanterns, the packaging of a new waterproof point and shoot camera (and I think the camera is in there, too), some paper honeycomb balls, and a stack of things that need to be filed.

With the floors done and the desk installed, the next issue to tackle was where to put everything. I'd already decided on the IKEA Expedit shelving system, but the closest IKEA for me is nearly 4 hours away! So, Sunday after church we hopped in the good ol' ($1600 and worth every single penny) Honda Civic hatchback and made for Atlanta.

Isn't that a beautiful skyline, with IKEA just over the horizon?

I posted some photos of the showroom at IKEA in a previous post, but have you ever seen the warehouse in one of these places? It's ENORMOUS!!! There were 30 more aisles just like this one. You find the aisle and bin number of the item you want, get one of their big flat carts, and go pull your stuff. I got very, very lucky and got the last white Expedit that they had available that wasn't damaged!

Did I mention that the Expedit is huge? It's 73" x 73" x 15" and weighs 215 pounds. And I got two of them- one for the scrap room, and one for the living room that's designed to hold flat-panel television. So this is what the trusty little Civic hatchback looked like with 430 pounds of furniture boxes hanging out the back. Man, I love this car.

We pulled our items first just to make sure we could get them while they were in stock, and then browsed the showroom for a bit before starting the long drive back home. We arrived at about 11:30 pm and unloaded everything, and by midnight my scrap space was full of evidence of having been to IKEA...see the half-assembled paper lanterns I mentioned? Oooh, and IKEA chocolate is so yummy!

And that's it for Part 1 of the scrap room move-in. Next up will be assembly of the Expedit, and then either decorating or moving stuff in (the order of which will depend on how quickly the chief Expedit anchorer of the household can get the Expedit anchored to the wall). Who knows, it may just be a mix of both.

Weekend Recap

This weekend I...

Worked on putting the bedroom together (finally!) so I can get my craft room set up. All of the bedroom stuff had previously been in the craft room while I worked on the flooring and painting in the bedroom. The plan had been to wait until the floors were refinished to put everything together, but it may be a while before that happens and I'm tired of living in a construction zone, so I decided just to go ahead and do it for my own sanity. :)
Just as a quick reminder, here's a post that shows what this room used to look like.

And here's what it looked like Saturday morning when I dove into the project. There were still some pieces of tack strip left, plus about a zillion little carpet staples that I pulled up.

This was the only really icky part, and it wasn't so bad. There was a layer of grime over the wood from years of being under carpet and padding. I used a microfiber mop and Murphy's Oil Soap to clean it. It took 4 passes (you can see the mop head from each pass...the first is on the bottom) and a trip to Target to get a couple more of the replacement heads- good thing these are washable!

Starting to move the furniture in. The room is small, so the bed takes up a big portion of the floor space. I put it on 7" risers, but since the bed is supported by the frame underneath and not the headboard/footboard, it looks like the legs are floating in mid-air. I'll have to figure out something to do about that.

And here it is with all the furniture in. I put new curtains on the wardrobes after I finally settled on a set from Target's Simply Shabby Chic line (after waaaaay too many trips to the store and web site to see which ones I wanted). The curtains and curtain rods over the window are from the living room at my old house. The rods are from Target, and the curtains are just plain white cotton tablecloths hung with clip rings.

I ended up not using this rug- I bought it at Anthropologie and it's beautiful, but it simply doesn't work in here so I returned it. I think I need to find something much more neutral so it won't clash with the quilt. Speaking of the quilt, it and the sheets were a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad last year. This is the first time I've used them, and I just love them!

Got the first coat of paint on the scrap room walls. I still have another coat plus pulling up staples and cleaning the floors like I did in the bedroom, but it's a lot better than it was.

Watched an episode each of Burn Notice (via Hulu) and Stargate: Atlantis (Season 5 DVD)



Downloaded the September digital editions of Scrapbook Trends publications, including the new Holidays idea book.


I love being able to download the new issues as soon as they are available- no waiting for them to come in the mail or trying to find a place to store them later. I've taken to scanning in most of my magazines when they arrive anyway, so this just eliminates that step for me.

On a sort of related note, several members of the now out-of-publication Simple Scrapbooks Magazine editorial board have formed a new company- Ella Publishing. They are going to bring the same professional content and editing talent to digital publications that can be downloaded. I'm pretty excited to see what they come up with.

Found a few more pics of the new BasicGrey releases that I wanted to post here. :)