the moments in between

wordless wednesday : changes

(the second coat goes up today!)

the quirks of an old house

the first time that we went to replace a light in our house, we took off the old fixture, found these wires, and called an electrician. one that was based in our old neighborhood, and knew what to make of this. and who took the time to tell US what to make of this. as long as you keep track of which is "red" and which is "black," it's all good. and ground wires? not so much. ;) we've replaced a few lights since that first one, and no longer fear we're going to burn the whole place down every time we do.

so now our traditional house with it's funky old wiring has this fun new light in the dining room. i went back and forth on the style, and almost went with a standard drum light since it *fits* the style of the house better - but i'm so glad i didn't. i just kept coming back to this one, and i'm glad i took the risk. i LOVE IT in the space. i'll love it even more when i get the old pull down map that we found put up in here, and the chalkboard wall painted. our dining room is used every day - for meals, for homework, for computer work & games, for art projects. the house may be old and traditional, but we aren't. 

happy wednesday! i've got ben home sick and am nursing a sore throat - no fun. i've also got an idea involving my december daily album and a bottle of chalkboard spray paint. wish me luck. ;) i'll report back tomorrow!

hello, october.

really. OCTOBER? crazy. it's definitely feeling fall-ish around here - i tweeted last week that i was picking up my workspace and found 4 cardigans & hoodies - a sure sign of cool mornings and warm afternoons! i'm in an autumn "feathering your nest" sort of phase and really feeling the pull to get some house projects done. i spent saturday clearing out the hutch in the dining room - it's where all the craft/art supplies and school papers live. i feel so much better having it under control. well, aside from the piles left on the dining room table from when i ran out of steam. ;) i'll have to tackle those today.

after one blue that looked like sam's tongue after he'd had a blue airhead and one blue that was even MORE electric, we have a winner! woohoo. i was beginning to worry the shutters wouldn't make it back up onto the house before the leaves fell from the tree off front and made it obvious they were missing. ;) our house currently has beige siding on the first floor and white shake siding on the second - we're planning on painting the beige to gray once we re-side the garage. that project got bumped back to next year when we had to put in a new a/c. next on the list is tracking down the perfect color for the bathroom. i'm hoping that one doesn't take 3 tries.

(go // copyright www.twopeasinabucket.com)

i had a new page go up in the 2peas garden today - this one is a product spotlight for the my little shoebox destinations line. i'm in love with the green tone on tone map paper. i started this page with the misted ampersand and worked from there. i had no real plan for this page - just kept grabbing papers i liked and cutting them, then finding a spot where they'd work. love doing that. the little car on the bottom is my favorite detail. =)

supplies used : 

InLinkz.com

happy monday!  i'm off to finish up another week of project life while sam's at preschool. his friend liam is coming home w/ us today, so i'm anticipating a crazy afternoon.

he waits + ikea

happy monday! i'm starting slow today - trying to get back into the groove after the long holiday weekend away.  matthew has today off, so we're using it to catch up on errands and laundry.  good times. =)

i wanted to share a bit of the process behind my "he waits" page with you today. i snapped a few pics as i made it so i could show you how it went together.

i started by stamping my vanilla cardstock (i order more with every kit, LOL) with the days of the week stamps in pumice stone ink.  i used a stamp block with a grid on it - it really helps for lining up a design like this without drawing in guidelines. i tried to stagger the words so they weren't lined up, and didn't worry about stamping all the way to the right side of the paper, since i knew it would be covered with the ki calendar paper. as a side note, i think i need to invest in a second basic grey magnetic mat - i'm addicted to mine, and it's hard to do 2 pagers with just one! i still used it here - it was invaluable in keeping my two sheets of cardstock in place so that i could stamp across the page break. and since i had someone ask - this is a 8.5x11 2 pager. =)

next, i cut the clear backing on the KI stickers from metropolitan so i could arrange them without sticking them down. i didn't want the words to be lined up and i wanted the swirls to weave over and under the photos, so i had to do a little experimenting to get it just right.  there were a few places where i trimmed off swirls and added them other places to get the look i wanted.

to get the KI stickers into place, i peeled about 1/2 of the sticker off the backing and carefully placed it before removing the rest of the backing. these things are pretty sticky, and i didn't want them to accidently land on my photos!  this step took a bit of fussing - i had to adhere my photos down enough that they wouldn't move, but some of them had to be lifted to the stickers could go underneath.  i love the end effect, so i'm glad i made the extra effort on this step rather than just running the stickers under all the photos! my title letters were the making memories stickers from busy sidewalks - i misted them with mister huey's warm calico so they'd show up on the white background.

i finished the page by adding little strips of paper between my stamped borders - i just grabbed scraps from my desk and trimmed them with my scissor - & then using my craft knife to cut the date stickers where they crossed the page break. i also added some handwritten journaling into the background design as well as some typed strips near the title. at this point, i felt like the page still needed something, so i grabbed the butterflies from mass transit.  when i opened the package i was delighted to find that there were gray ones mixed in with the black and white - they made the perfect accent to finish off this page. most of the pp on this page are the SC & Sass exclusives that are only available with metropolitan - i can't get enough of these patterns.

and now...  IKEA!

(can you spot the kid in this photo? ;)

like any IKEA-less person, any trip i make to an area lucky enough to have one has to include a shopping trip. of course, i had to take into account the limited room in the car once you have three kids and a vacation's worth of STUFF. here's what made the cut and came home with me :

a rug for my scraproom (um, i gotta do some major cleaning to get this in.  the current rug will go down to the basement lego room)

a new quilt for sam - he calls it his puzzle blanket. the grey is perfect w/ all the crazy brights in his room.

lots of felt food + kitchen accessories for sam for christmas

shelves for the bigs' room (but not the brackets.  OOPS)

frames, frames and more frames. i got a few ribba (2 large, 2 small),3 virserum, and 4 sets of clips (big plans for these!) i actually stood there and looked up my etsy account while at ikea, trying to figure out which of the larger frames i needed.  and still managed to buy one that was too small.  i made it work, though, by trimming back my keep calm print - i lost the crown at the top, but i'm liking the look.  i've had it for over a year, and am glad to have it up on the wall.  not sure the other prints will stay in those frames - i just grabbed the first ones i came across!

vases + jars. vases for me, jars for the boys.  they're good for holding the STUFF that comes home in pockets.

that's it from me today - i'll be back tomorrow with some december daily(ish) talk! =) have a good one!

the joys of old houses (or : every project spawns another)

this weekend, while we had the fridge pulled out of its spot, i found the missing ramp for sam's toy parking garage.  i mentioned a couple weeks ago that i had finally contacted the company to find out how to order a replacement.  well, i guess i don't need that info.

and you might be wondering WHY i was moving the fridge.  well, it wasn't to clean under it (although i did, because THAT hadn't been done in idon'tevenwanttothinkabouthowlong.) i moved the fridge to try and find a place that i could investigate a suspicion that had been raised about the kitchen floor when we removed the threshold between the living room and kitchen.

and WHY did we take that threshold out, thus raising questions about exactly what was under the current kitchen floor? because i had wanted to put the door back into the frame between the living room and then kitchen.  and thank goodness the previous owners that took it out had stored it - it's an odd size.  it no longer has a door knob (i'll have to hit some antique stores) and there's a bit of water damage at the bottom, but it's a gorgeous solid oak door, so i'll take it.

and i wanted to put the door back into the frame because i wanted to change how the living room functioned. i was sick of looking at the winter coats hanging by the stairwell to the basement, and tired of the living room being a set of hallways to get to other places.  with the door in place, we brought in a chair from our bedroom and a floor lamp from the basement and now have a cozy little corner by the bookshelves.

but back to the floor. when we pulled up the threshold, it was obvious that there were more layers than i had previously assumed.  we KNEW there was horrid peach peel and (doesn't really stick anymore) tile. we knew there was funky faux brick lino under that. from the view under the threshold, we could see a layer of plywood under the lino. and that plywood was ABOVE the original floor level.

and now the wheels were turning. and we ended up moving both the fridge and the stove, trying to find a place we could start pulling back layers. a spot under the stove was the winner, and my hope was confirmed.

there are original wood floors under all that. and i can't even describe how happy that makes me. we've been looking at flooring options, because the current floor is beyond bad. and nothing felt right.  and let me tell you, i'd rather go to all the work of tearing out all those layers and having the original floors fixed up than to put something new in. i'm even willing to paint / seal it instead of staining it, if there are water stains.

i'm so freaking excited and can't wait to get in there and tear it all out.  realistically, though, it will have to wait till the new year. because i also reeeeeeeeeally want to get the carpet off the stairs before christmas. (ha.  yes, i'm serious).

so, sam has his ramp back and i'm dreaming of 80 year old oak floors. all because i decided to put a door back into a doorway.

 

baby steps

 

i've had a stack of completed pages on my desk for months. to put them away, i needed more albums. to get more albums, i needed hobby lobby to put them on sale. and for that to happen on a week when i had a chance to make it there.  once i had the albums, i had to sort / purge my patterned paper and idea books to make room for the new albums. and to be honest, my album organization system could totally use an overhaul but that is waaaaaaaaaay too overwhelming to get going on.

a year ago, we talked the bigs into moving their legos downstairs. we made enough room for everything, with the thought of setting it up as a proper hangout space for them. we're finally getting back to it, and trying to do it RIGHT.  but, as basements tend to be, it's kind of chaos down there. i started painting in a corner this weekend, because i can't finishing organizing stuff till i move a bookshelf and i can't move a bookshelf till the walls are painted - but i can't paint a WHOLE wall till things are more organized. hm. that takes me right back to where i started - so i did what i could.

sam's parking garage toy has been missing a ramp for a year. it's beyond time to admit that it's not going to show off. i finally went to the plan toys website and found out they have an easy process for requesting parts. kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

i upgraded to lightroom 3. now, i LOVE lightroom - but have always printed from PSE because for some reason lightroom + my printer don't play nicely together. lightroom 3 has made some nice upgrades to their printing process, and i'd REALLY love to cut out the extra steps involved in printing from PSE. enter a lot of reading on color profiles and making trail prints.  still not quite there, but i'm closer.

we have a new door for our garage. not the car door, the person door (old house = detached garage). we've had it since spring. the old door's in bad shape.  but before we could put it in, we need to paint it. and before we paint it, we needed to pick a color.  and to pick a color, i needed to commit to what i wanted to repaint the shutters / front door area. and yesterday, i did that.  going with a deep gray-ish blue.  hoping it looks fabulous.  next step - see if there's any white exterior paint kicking around the basement so i can repaint the door frame. 

i want to redo my blog design. i've been totally overwhelmed by the process - i've been thinking about it for a loooooooooooong time. and i've finally decided that this, too, will need to happen in baby steps. i updated the banner a few weeks back. i'm finding digi elements that fit the look i want and am trying to get comfortable using them.

and that, my friends, is why i feel like i've gotten nowhere in the last few days.  baby steps on many projects, but nothing completed.  i know it will pay off in the long run, but in the meantime - it can be frustrating.

also frustrating? 3 year olds who wake up at 5:30am and then only take a 20min nap. sigh. happy monday, friends. hoping there's less whining at your house than at mine. ;)

(digi credits : photo frames - rhonna farrer for 2peas, tape - creature comforts, stitches - tia bennet for 2peas)

 

 

framed! + sneaks

**don't forget to check in on this post to enter to win a spot in kelly purkey's beginnings class - you have till saturday morning to leave a comment!**

i have a confession.  i'm REALLY good at buying prints.  and really terrible about framing / hanging them. my plaster walls are a little intimidating to me when it comes to making holes, and i'm forever standing at target, staring at frames, unable to remember what size / color i need for the print / space.

i'm doing my best to change that.  there's no way i can buy frames for all of the prints i have at once, so i'm trying to get one or two every couple weeks.  i started with these :

 

(sorry for the glare!)  this 12x12 matboard collage of photos was given to me by becky for christmas. two years ago!  ack. i found this 12x12 shadowbox frame at target - perfect.  it had been just leaning against the old window - now it has a a lot more presence.

and this counting birdies print from vol 25 now has a home in sam's room. the "s" still needs to be hung on the wall, but it requires drilling. we'll save that for another day.

and now....  studio calico sneaks. =)

 

this page was in the sneak slideshow, but with a yellow background.  i kinda took it apart and rebuilt it on kraft yesterday.  and i'm glad i did.  this one uses the main kit, quilting bee, and the wedding ring add-on.  i used turquoise maya mist on the background.

this one uses quilting bee + the honeycomb add-on (which, btw, is my fave of the add-ons). the background got a liberal coating of silver plated maya mist.  i LOVE these wood veneer shapes - they are too cool.  i used my 3-in-1 hydrangea punch to make snowflakes - a little trick i've used before. this star confetti punch would have been awesome, too, but i don't have one yet!

there is still a lot more cutting and gluing to be done (and some sewing, with the project kit) - so i will have more sneaks closert to reveal time. =) i've got to turn my attention to a couple of other assignments for the next day or so, and then it will be back to the kit!

link me up

i'm in need of some new inspiration - i'd love if you'd be willing to share your fave home decor reads.  i've got some house projects bouncing around my head for this year and could use some help looking at things in a new light. =)

and since i hate to post without a picture ...

 

this is sam, one morning a couple weeks ago.  we had dropped off alex and ben and run an errand (yes, with him still in his pjs - there's not a lot of time in the morning!) i had promised him fruit snacks when he got home. and he wanted to play wii fit.  but mean old mama wouldn't turn on wii fit till he was done eating.  didn't stop him from standing there. and he was adamant about leaving his coat on. notice his wellies kicked off behind him, he prefers them to his snow boots.  funny boy. i have to laugh every time i look at this photo. =)

excited about...

*sending the bigs back to school today.  WOO!!! now to try to catch up on all the things that didn't get done w/ everyone underfoot for three weeks.

*the contents of these packages, and dinner w/ the recipients tonight :

 

*a blissful trip to target this morning.  got sam i am a juicebox and a snack and he was happy in the cart. they have the CUTEST new kitchen stuff.  i resisted buying yellow polka dot drinking glasses..  BARELY.  but a bread box and cookie jar came home with me.  we WILL get going on the kitchen done this year. i want to get rid of the wallpaper, paint the cabinets, and get a new floor and countertop.

*this came in the mail today. oh my. i can't wait to spend some quality time with it this week.

 

happy monday, everyone!
 

if i won the lottery....

i've been window shipping while stuck inside with all this snow....  here are some of my fave things.

 

via anthro. love the clusters of tone on tone flowers.  might have to use that on a page.

via pottery barn.  love the frame and the bars.

 

via cb2. i want this rug for the bigs' room! love that it's gray but still playful.

via pottery barn.  i want a 3 for the living room, or a 2 for the bedroom.. i can't decide, but i think one will be mine.

 

via wisteria.  probably too big for our entry area, but i love it.

 

via anthro.  again w/ the numbers.  this is awesome.

i need some new vases..  i guess i'll window shop for those next. ;) we're having another snow day - this time for the windchill being dangerously low. i *think* the snow is done for now..  it is currently touching the bottom of this swing in the backyard.

 

and that's in an area w/ no drifting!  it is much, much deeper in other places.  insane.  please send patience - i'm going to need it to get through yet *another* day with three boys with cabin fever who could really use some time apart.