When I first saw them, I thought they looked like hairpins. I am growing out my bangs and hair pins are exactly what I needed. So I broke out my daughter's beading/jewelry supplies and whipped up a cute little nest to put in my hair.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Little bird nest
I saw the cutest necklaces on pinterest this morning. They came from http://www.sarahortega.com/2011/05/diy-bird-nest-necklace.html.
When I first saw them, I thought they looked like hairpins. I am growing out my bangs and hair pins are exactly what I needed. So I broke out my daughter's beading/jewelry supplies and whipped up a cute little nest to put in my hair.
When I first saw them, I thought they looked like hairpins. I am growing out my bangs and hair pins are exactly what I needed. So I broke out my daughter's beading/jewelry supplies and whipped up a cute little nest to put in my hair.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Summer
I am feeling that summer has already started to leave us. That sweet sunshine that came up at 4:45am and shone right in my face has been coming later and later. I don't even seem to notice it anymore when in comes at 6:20.
The children has certainly been missing the sun setting at 11:30pm when they have to leave their neighborhood games at 10:00 when the street lights come on.
While we had a week of temperatures in the high 80's and some 90's it has cooled off lately to the 70's, hinting at fall. We did some last minute remodeling in June so that our home would be more presentable to the guests that stayed with us.
We finished our daughter's room, the one in which the guests were staying. We patched up the laundry room and called it good enough for now.
We moved on to our main floor bathroom. A quick remodel, new sink, refinished the wood floor enough for the wood not to get damaged and a paint job. We ran out of time to do our entryway, although it has been stripped down and is now very ugly.
We took 2 weeks to enjoy our guests and show them around the area! It was so much fun and we got to do so many things, rock collecting, beaches, picnics, fireworks, a birthday, swimming in lakes and scenic drives.
All this was wonderful and fleeting. It has been replaced with a sense of panic because we have 7 weeks until the average first frost. Around here that could be the first snow, although they usually start later. It does make it harder to work on the outside of the house and we have many many projects that need to be done. My love and I walked around the house this weekend and made a list of the things that need to be done NOW. Many of our windows have rotten sills, and bricks are needing repointed. Some painting needs done also. Not to mention my garden area that I would like to clear out and prepare for next spring. Lots to do, little time.
The children has certainly been missing the sun setting at 11:30pm when they have to leave their neighborhood games at 10:00 when the street lights come on.
While we had a week of temperatures in the high 80's and some 90's it has cooled off lately to the 70's, hinting at fall. We did some last minute remodeling in June so that our home would be more presentable to the guests that stayed with us.
We finished our daughter's room, the one in which the guests were staying. We patched up the laundry room and called it good enough for now.
We moved on to our main floor bathroom. A quick remodel, new sink, refinished the wood floor enough for the wood not to get damaged and a paint job. We ran out of time to do our entryway, although it has been stripped down and is now very ugly.
We took 2 weeks to enjoy our guests and show them around the area! It was so much fun and we got to do so many things, rock collecting, beaches, picnics, fireworks, a birthday, swimming in lakes and scenic drives.
All this was wonderful and fleeting. It has been replaced with a sense of panic because we have 7 weeks until the average first frost. Around here that could be the first snow, although they usually start later. It does make it harder to work on the outside of the house and we have many many projects that need to be done. My love and I walked around the house this weekend and made a list of the things that need to be done NOW. Many of our windows have rotten sills, and bricks are needing repointed. Some painting needs done also. Not to mention my garden area that I would like to clear out and prepare for next spring. Lots to do, little time.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Clay and Home Improvements
I've been having some tag along children to my clay studio time at the Arts Center and have been instructing them on the basics of throwing. My youngest is in love with clay, me too.
As expected with the end of my Love's semester the work on our daughter's room and the laundry room that were damaged by a water leak was slow. I did manage to get insulation around the window cavities and all the drywall up in the closet and this little spot under the heat register.
This is what the wood floors looked like after we took off the laminate floor that was on top.
After the first sanding, three more sandings to follow. We could not believe how beautiful they are!
They are not perfect floors. They are 111 year old floors! We unearthed 100 years of dirt, ink spills, some bug damage,and we have some little spots of paint left, although most of it came up. My Love was so awesome and got the hang of this new machine very quickly. We thought of taking turns but the learning curve is involved and it seemed safer for him just to finish. It only took four hours to finish the field of her room which is about 12 x 12.
Today we will tackle the edge sander and then we will speed ahead with our waterbased poly. There has been some debate in the house as to whether or not to stain. I'm for the all natural, others want it darkened up a bit.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Weekending
Last weekend it was a beautiful clear 65 degree day. We knew down at the water's edge there would be a breeze and the perfect day for biking. We loaded up all the bikes on the back of the "Beast" and drove the five blocks down. That sounds a bit strange but the hill back up to our house is a killer walking, so I can not imagine riding it back up after a long bike ride.
We found a little canal side park about two miles out and stopped for a rest. Perfect place.
6 miles later we were home. It was a very satisfying ride, and we were all sore the next day but not so sore that we won't do that again. (I think I need a different seat however!) Our plans are to go further next time, we have to get ourselves trained up for the summer season of weekly mountain biking!
We found a little canal side park about two miles out and stopped for a rest. Perfect place.
6 miles later we were home. It was a very satisfying ride, and we were all sore the next day but not so sore that we won't do that again. (I think I need a different seat however!) Our plans are to go further next time, we have to get ourselves trained up for the summer season of weekly mountain biking!
Friday, May 18, 2012
{this moment}
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Road Trip
Living in the boonies means that some times you have to put four hours in the car just to go to the doctor's office. It sounds painful to me, I just don't like cars that much and my youngest gets carsick. I always forget though that the view on the way there is magical and the time flies right by.
This day it was cloudy, misty and foggy. The highway runs along side several lakes, including Lake Superior at the beginning of the trip and then plunged into woods and large hills. The lake often mimics the sky here which means the water is always changing.; Bright Blue, Green, Dark Murky Blue, and it was Grey as the sky today.; It was very hard to tell where the lake started and the clouds began. I couldn't snap any pictures because I was driving.
On the way back we decided with the help of someone yelling "Pit Stop" from the back to explore one of the road side parks.; I had heard that there was a couple a of waterfall at one of them.
Anyone for a walk in the woods with me?
There it is!
It was not the biggest, or the best but the journey to it was fun and a great break.
Signs of Beaver!
And what 9 year old could resist pumping the drinking fountain?
This day it was cloudy, misty and foggy. The highway runs along side several lakes, including Lake Superior at the beginning of the trip and then plunged into woods and large hills. The lake often mimics the sky here which means the water is always changing.; Bright Blue, Green, Dark Murky Blue, and it was Grey as the sky today.; It was very hard to tell where the lake started and the clouds began. I couldn't snap any pictures because I was driving.
On the way back we decided with the help of someone yelling "Pit Stop" from the back to explore one of the road side parks.; I had heard that there was a couple a of waterfall at one of them.
Anyone for a walk in the woods with me?
There it is!
It was not the biggest, or the best but the journey to it was fun and a great break.
Signs of Beaver!
And what 9 year old could resist pumping the drinking fountain?
Our new favorite Beach
It was in the 60's last week and we picked up my Love and headed for our new favorite beach with firewood and a snack. This beach is perfect for us. Sugar white sand that goes on for miles is hard to come by here. There is a little stream that puts out at the park so Wynn can fish. They allow campfires which is rare to find. Most beaches either have picnic tables or a fire ring but not both. At this beach the fire rings can be picked up and moved easily. We planned to return the next day with food to grill because they also had BBQ's.
We are excited to see how this area blooms this Spring, those are all blueberry bushes along the shore and if they are like last years we hope to stock up.
Friday, April 27, 2012
{this moment}
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The wait
As we wait to make sure the floors and walls are completely dry we are thinking about our next step. We had originally thought we would paint the wood floors and I've been pintresting many very nice painted floors. However we pulled up the rest of the laminate flooring and discovered the majority of the room may have never been painted at all. They had a really big rug in here.
After researching the steps to paint a floor the right way, which involves many coats of paint left to dry over night and then a coat of poly, it came to me that it might be much quicker just to sand and poly the floor. We have done this before and the great thing about water based poly is that you can get all three coats on in one REALLY long day. So for now that is the next step after the waiting.
The laundry room is another beast altogether.
Please please ignore the mess. It became very obvious to us that the shelf we put in does not function. Well here is the opportunity to fix this room. So the plan here is to get some sort of water resistant flooring like the newer vinyl wood planks. There are two layers of vinyl tile in here and we don't plan on prying it up and releasing whatever may lurk below.
The mysterious wall with a window inside will be opened up and possibly closed back up at a much smaller rate so that the dryer door can open all the way. The shelving will go and replaced with something so much more functional.
Wow.
Ugh.
This makes digging out a garden out of the rock back yard like a easy chore.
Friday, April 20, 2012
{this moment}
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Plumbing problems
We've made careful considerations for what we would demo and restore in this house. The main bathroom is first because of water issues and tiles set on drywall. The kitchen? Maybe.
It had never entered my mind to work on my daughters room or the laundry room but that is exactly what is next due to a leaking water line in the wall of our laundry room. It was spraying water directly onto my daughters closet and it had soaked the wood joists, and wood floor and wicked it's way up into the plaster. This might have been okay, however there is drywall placed OVER the plaster so now we have a big wet mess.
This was before we were finishing tearing out wet stuff.
New plumbing ran and big fans put on all of it to dry it out.
My daughter's room.
On the plus side there are 100 year old wood floors under that laminate. However it is wet. :(
Luckily we live in a four bedroom house so we moved all of my daughter's things up stairs into the youngest's room and he moved over to bunk up with his big brother in the bunk beds. I told the kids to shoot for about 2 weeks living like this. A week to make sure everything is dried up and another week to hang the drywall back and paint and seal the wood floors. I have a feeling it will be longer. Maybe a week longer? We are so lucky that my love will be wrapped up with school in the next two weeks and his schedule will open up a little more because it is overwhelming to me at the moment, but as a team we can do this.
It had never entered my mind to work on my daughters room or the laundry room but that is exactly what is next due to a leaking water line in the wall of our laundry room. It was spraying water directly onto my daughters closet and it had soaked the wood joists, and wood floor and wicked it's way up into the plaster. This might have been okay, however there is drywall placed OVER the plaster so now we have a big wet mess.
This was before we were finishing tearing out wet stuff.
New plumbing ran and big fans put on all of it to dry it out.
My daughter's room.
On the plus side there are 100 year old wood floors under that laminate. However it is wet. :(
Luckily we live in a four bedroom house so we moved all of my daughter's things up stairs into the youngest's room and he moved over to bunk up with his big brother in the bunk beds. I told the kids to shoot for about 2 weeks living like this. A week to make sure everything is dried up and another week to hang the drywall back and paint and seal the wood floors. I have a feeling it will be longer. Maybe a week longer? We are so lucky that my love will be wrapped up with school in the next two weeks and his schedule will open up a little more because it is overwhelming to me at the moment, but as a team we can do this.
Friday, April 13, 2012
{this moment}
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Clothespin Apron
We bought and installed a new pop up clothes line last weekend, just in time for it to turn cold and flurry all week. So that gave me time to hole up in the studio and create! I really disliked my last apron for clothespins, but it was functional. So I knew I needed a new apron and I wanted it to have one BIG pocket. I've been playing around with some little bird friends and thought one in her kerchief would be perfect.
Now I am waiting not very patiently for it to warm up this weekend again so I hang out some clothes.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Studio Peek
I finally got to work today! There are several things in process, but I am most excited about this one!
Friday, April 06, 2012
{this moment}
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama
Monday, April 02, 2012
It was Spring, now it's back to blah.
We were duped. We all thought that spring was on the way. And it is really. The Crocus tell us that and the trees just starting to bud, but after that week of glorious 70's were got spoiled. The uppper 40's feel cold and gloomy. We are not motivated to work on making a garden despite the deadline of May 4th for getting trees and strawberries and raspberries.
We have been slowly moving rocks from our backyard to the spot by the kitchen door where the garden will be. It's hard back breaking work, and my back is not up for it this.
In the house I am wrapping up the "ugly" hallway and hope to have pictures soon. I have one more bump to smooth out and I need to figure out what to do with the floors.
My love made the mistake a few weeks ago in the laundry room. I've been ticked at that little room since we got here. When you open the dryer it hits the wall across from it making it hard to get laundry in and out of the dryer. I can get only one laundry basket in the area and it rubs the walls as I move it in and out. So his mistake?
He told me he didn't think that the bump out in the wall needed to be that big. (I've been telling him for months that it is a hollow wall.)
• back story• Our home has plaster walls with drywall up over the plaster walls. So we can tell by thumping them if they are original walls or not.
Well I heard this, " You should knock down that wall and see what's back there." Since I'm the one who usually does the drywall and the also the one who tapes and mud I give myself permission to do random stuff like this.
So I cut a little hole. It was hollow. I could not figure out what was in the wall so I made it bigger. The boys thought that this exploring of the walls was so exciting. Me too.
Well here's what we found.
A window! This is the very center of the house, a brick house with all matching windows so we know it wasn't added on it. The only thing that I can think of is that since it was built in 1900 when there was little electricity (especially in this area) that this window allowed light to come from the dining room to the butlers pantry.
We knew the duct was there and we are happy it is small. Now the problem is what do we do with this area? I know we want to open it up and we will but do we show the window or not? We can not move the duct since it is the only return from the second floor. There is also drywall covering the window in the dining room. hmmm...
We have been slowly moving rocks from our backyard to the spot by the kitchen door where the garden will be. It's hard back breaking work, and my back is not up for it this.
In the house I am wrapping up the "ugly" hallway and hope to have pictures soon. I have one more bump to smooth out and I need to figure out what to do with the floors.
My love made the mistake a few weeks ago in the laundry room. I've been ticked at that little room since we got here. When you open the dryer it hits the wall across from it making it hard to get laundry in and out of the dryer. I can get only one laundry basket in the area and it rubs the walls as I move it in and out. So his mistake?
He told me he didn't think that the bump out in the wall needed to be that big. (I've been telling him for months that it is a hollow wall.)
• back story• Our home has plaster walls with drywall up over the plaster walls. So we can tell by thumping them if they are original walls or not.
Well I heard this, " You should knock down that wall and see what's back there." Since I'm the one who usually does the drywall and the also the one who tapes and mud I give myself permission to do random stuff like this.
So I cut a little hole. It was hollow. I could not figure out what was in the wall so I made it bigger. The boys thought that this exploring of the walls was so exciting. Me too.
Well here's what we found.
A window! This is the very center of the house, a brick house with all matching windows so we know it wasn't added on it. The only thing that I can think of is that since it was built in 1900 when there was little electricity (especially in this area) that this window allowed light to come from the dining room to the butlers pantry.
We knew the duct was there and we are happy it is small. Now the problem is what do we do with this area? I know we want to open it up and we will but do we show the window or not? We can not move the duct since it is the only return from the second floor. There is also drywall covering the window in the dining room. hmmm...
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