Handy Maria

On this week's edition of This Old House...

I decided to play handyman this weekend instead of doing any real scrapbooking work. I know, for shame, I have nothing REAL to write on this way, but I accomplished some things around the house that made me feel better. Well sort of, as it was a long line of small catastrophes, screw ups and tantrums.

Number 1:

My little sweet pea

#1 Sweet Pea, this is the younger wee one. This is post Sears "I'm going to throw the mother of all crying fits because I decided not to sleep ALL DAY" picture. Literally, an hour or so later. Guess she just didn't want to go out. So much for getting her 3 (going on 4) month pictures. Momma's behind already little one, and now you're making me take another half day out of my schedule to do this later just because you refused to take a nap. MAN, I really need to get ahold on my parenting style and nip this in the bud, AGAIN, before she starts teaming up with her big sis.


Number 2:

The Baby Blanket Tapestry

Okay, this was a win. One of my projects in the wings since we moved in. This blanket was part of Oli's layette, and its never been really functional for her. The material was really stiff, figured it would be so even after washing, so I had the bright idea just to make wall art out of it. Among other wall art I'm working on for her room.

I grabbed a flat wooden plank type stick from the unfinished wood stuffs area of Hobby Lobby for somewhere around $3 and painted the ends in a color matching the layette color scheme. With a little help from hubby, stapling the blanket to the plank for me (as a backing) and me attaching ribbon with some hot glue and a few more staples, this is the finished product. I had to doctor the image too. It's a cellphone shot, but it was REALLY green thanks to the curtains in her room casting that hue on everything.

Number 3:

Planned refinishing of the white wooden shelves I picked up at Goodwill, for the downstairs RED bathroom. I've needed some shelves in there for a while. Its an odd cubby hole type bathroom, so where the loo sits = no light. I needed something small that I can either 1) put a touchlight on or 2) trust with votives. Found the shelves while shopping one day and there we go.

However, they had scratches, so I had to refinish with my acrylics. I wanted a glossy finish too, which the acrylics don't give in their natural state, so I hit up Hobby Lobby on the way home with miss fussy butt post Sears tantrum.

Whoever the douche was at Hobby Lobby that took the little spray cap off the bottle of gloss I bought, and me for not realizing it until I opened it on Sunday.... GO ME, and I hope you DIAF Mr.! Now I have to take the thing back for an exchange, or possibly an upgrade. I wasn't so sure about using the spray anyway when there's a brush on version (at twice the price). I'll have to think about it until whenever I decide to return this stupid thing for its CAP.

Number 4:

Haircut! Nuff said. Got some me time and took care of the awful length of hair weighing me down for so long. This was a serious win for me. Guess Sundays have become the "me time" day, which I'm GOOD with for as long as hubby lets me.

Number 5:

My $3 (ea.) flowers!

Yes, I found them ON CLEARANCE. I'm a cheap wench. I had eyed something like this at Michael's for some time now, and when they went on clearance I decided to go for it. That bathroom was so bare that its ridiculous. It needed something. So, after some discussion with my mom about it, I figured that the simplest thing to do would be to get some swaths of flower garland and the staple gun and... yah, you get the picture. I kept going back and forth on if I really wanted to do that too, or if I wanted to do something more... it still needs a shelf or something, but this is good for now. It makes it a little more "homey" to me.

I just wish the craft makers would get one thing right - flower garland needs to be longer than 6ft! I can cut it if I have to, but I have large mirrors to cover (or large anything in this house for that matter). More footage please, I'm willing to pay extra for it too. I had thought about using these same garlands (or maybe just greenery with some gauzy type material) over my garden tub, but considering the lengths of the garland I've seen out there, forget it, its not going to work with that high ceiling in the master bath. I'll just have to stick to the gauze.

If Hancock Fabrics had a store anywhere close to me, I'd bankrupt my husband and I, I swear.

So, pretty productive weekend, even with the good AND bad events.