Get'er Done Project 1 - Junk Drawer

Now that the snow is starting to fly and I can't spend my free time reading on a beach (bummer!) .... I've decided to (wo)man up and tackle some inside projects that have been dying for attention ....for days...months...a year (eek).

First up. The Junk Drawer....dun dun dunnnnnnn. Everyone has one...well everyone except my mother who is perfectly organized in every way.  I take after my dad.....

This was our junk drawer.

 To tackle this project I visited my very favorite dollar store and picked up some little baskets - 4 for $1.25...can't go wrong!  I use these EVERYWHERE.

Then, I took out the drawer and emptied it on to the kitchen table...well I emptied it in an organized fashion...

Among all the pens, permanent/dry-erase markers and random office supplies there was also:

- 10 "D" batteries
- 5 "AA" batteries
- 2 "AAA" batteries
- 1 "C?" battery
**** it is unknown whether any of these batteries are still useable****

- 3 packages sweet pea flower seeds
- 6 pads of post-it notes
- Scratch remover for CD's
- a piece of hardware for the kitchen faucet
- needle nose pliers (so that's where they've been all this time)
- two rusty xacto knives
- 3 lighters
- some metal clip ...that metal thing in the middle that is shaped like an 8
- misc. screws, nails and picture holders

Unfortunately I did not find the household scissors we have been missing for at least two months. Lord knows where those are....I sure don't.

Now, thanks to my trusty dollar store baskets this is our new and improved junk drawer! Everything has home - pens and pencils on the left, dry-erase and highlighters on the right, our huge collection of permanent markers on the bottom and smaller office supplies in the middle.  Yay! My blood pressure drops a few points just looking at it!

What projects have you been putting off?

Backyard Update!!!

Ok, it's not really an update seeing as I haven't posted about our yard before but I really wanted to show everyone the beginnings of my beautiful backyard!

This is a picture of our back yard taken the day we took possession.  This was also taken before sunflowers invaded and turned our yard into a jungle. Ok, notice the stump....it's hard not to I know.  This baby was a little more than 10 feet around and the ground sloped up to meet it.  It took us THREE tries to get it out...'cause seriously, I need a backyard.  I cannot be sharing with a piece of rotting wood. It's just not an option.  I considered building a gazebo over it, but it stood so tall I would have had to build three steps just to get up to it!

Try #1: Backhoe = FAIL
 Quote: You don't owe me anything. All I did was dig up your yard and then fill it in again.

(Bye bye ugly fence!)

Try #2: I don't have pictures for this guy.  He came and did a few hours work the left to sharpen his blade and told us he'd be back at 9am the next morning.  We didn't end up getting ahold of the guy 'til 2pm the next day when he told us that there was no way he could finish the job for what he quoted and that we needed to renegotiate.  Had he shown up when he said he would, things may have gone differently.  Instead, we asked him very nicely to come pick up the rest of his tools.  He never did.

Try #3: Finally someone who is reliable! He did the whole job AND came back to do touch ups for us even though he too quoted us far less than he should have.

(Stump grinder to the rescue!)

Moral of the Story: For those of you who believe, God works in funny ways.  It took three guys and a whole week but we got half the stump removed for FREE!

On to the other stuff!

The fence was ready to fall over on it's own, so we gave it a nudge (with the backhoe) and replaced it with a row of cedars on the road side and a nice tall cedar fence on the far side.  There's the same crappy fence on the other side of the yard but to replace it requires talking to the other neighbour lady....and she's kinda scary....

(Note the ugly fence and the obscene amount of wood chips that had to be hauled out before we could even start ANYTHING.  Those chips go at least 4 feet deep)

Then we brought in some gravel and made a parking area for our ever-increasing collection of vehicles that don't run. Sadface. I made a compromise with hubby that we can park things in the backyard AS LONG AS THEY'RE UNDER A CANOPY.  That way no one else - including myself- has to look at them!

Next on the project list is to lay some pretty paving stones to make a patio between the carport and the gravel! I love me a pretty little patio with a glass table to drink my morning coffee at!

Home Decor Project?

I need to confess. Crafty is ...well....hardly the proper term to describe me. My imagination has been curtailed by 4 years of Science (or that's what I like to blame anyway). I took a first-year art course and found it more stressful than my fourth-year Population Statistics course! The problem lies in that I dream that I'm crafty. I FEEL that I am crafty. (And by crafty I mean artsy....not sneaky:) Far too often I find myself wandering through a thrift store, HOPING to find SOMETHING that I could turn into something wonderful like so many women do. I peruse blog upon blog and bookmark ideas that I THINK I could recreate to fill the empty walls of my house.


Yes, they are empty. One whole year later. The other problem lies in my inability to make decisions (and spend money). Don't hate me for the latter. It's a curse. Seriously. I spent at least 15 minutes standing in the aisle at Wal-mart today, debating on whether I should spend my last $15 cash on a project OR save it for that elusive something better. The only reason I finally moved was because I started wondering if someone had noticed that I had been standing there for.ev.er. I left without my project supplies.

My hope is that by posting this, just maybe I might be inspired to actually do it...you know...just to say that I actually followed through with my plan. (and hopefully maybe it turns out the way it looks in my head). So here it is.


Oh yeah. The third and most important problem is that ...well...the few projects I have attempted...suck. Period. Oh well.


The blog that I drool over the most is Sarah @ Thrifty Decor Chick. She made these fabulous wall panels for CHEAP - inspired by similar Ballard design panels which are NOT CHEAP.

(Ballard Design panels)

(Sarah's awesome rendition)

You can find her tutorial HERE! .

So the brain-child project is to create a fancy bulletin board in this style. The plan is to use four squares of cork-board which I stared at in Wal-mart today ($10). Two squares I will cover in a colorful material, yet to be found. I'm leaning toward a classy pattern in...eggplant? Brick red? Both? The other two I would like to try and DRAW on. EEEEEKKKKK. Just the word DRAW.. kinda makes me skeeeeerd.


My inspiration for that part came from Maryann @ Domestically Speaking who was also inspired by Ballard Design. She turned an old bulletin board into a classy piece of art by drawing a damask design on it! So pretty!

(Classy Ballard Design board)

(Maryann's beautiful outcome)

You can find Maryann's tutorial for this project HERE!

So that's my plan. Two cloth covered blocks and two with a chinese'ish bird and branch motif on them. Done and done! Wish me luck!

Lessons in Paint and Paper

My love and I bought our first house about a year ago now.  I'm sure amidst all the wonderful things, someone somewhere dropped the hint about how much work/painful/energy-sucking homes were.

Naturally, I disregarded those hints.

This is our home.... Yes.....it is teal.  It actually matches our garden hose quite nicely.  I have really great plans to paint it....I promise....one day...hopefully.  Those are a few of my fabulous in-laws who have just finished ripping out alllllllll the dead ugly shrubs that ran across the front of the house....yech. Thank God for in-laws.....for real...I mean it.

Next up is the living room

 So the fireplace wall...yup...wallpaper.  Not just one layer.  TWO. Not so bad you say?  Well FYI it took FOUR of us (thank you loving parents) hourrrrrrrrrrs to get it all off.  This was the least amout of paper of all the rooms in the house...but I'll save that for a later date.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     (Tuckered Right Out)                                                                           (He loves me!)

Hubby smashed that ugly valence out and with no previous experience ....we painted our very own living room.

It's a step in the right direction I'd say. :) 'Specially for our VERY first room reno.  One day I'll have my very own furniture .....no more hand-me-downs.....I envision a slate grey L-shaped couch.   The TV will have to stay for now too....notice the stickers. Remnants of hubby's batchelor-hood.  That's what that is.  You win some, you lose some I guess.  I lost this one.  And the skull flag that is our bedroom curtain. I'll show you some other time.