After seven years, we have a painting routine.  Scott does the roller and I cut it in, although you will not find any pictures of me with a brush in my hand for this post.  Maybe the next one.  :)  

The ceiling in the bedroom and part of the bathroom will be blue and the walls, white.  For the rest of the bathroom, the walls will be blue and the ceiling will stay white.  Eventually the doors will be painted a light gray/pewter color, but that will be a couple months I’m sure.  For now, I’ll be more than happy with this as it is so much better than yellow contractor paint that is impossible to clean.  Plus, it brings a little bit of relaxation into my sanctuary.  

So, here’s the starting off point:

This week, I started patching the walls and sanding them.

You may be thinking, “My that is quite a lot of spackle on the walls, Christy!”  And you’d be right.  The problem with buying a house that has been flipped is that, chances are, it has a lot of areas, especially walls that were done poorly.  Paint drips, patched walls that weren’t sanded before being painted, painting over dusty walls…this room has all of those spectacular qualities that a couple hours with an electric sander worked wonders on.  

So that is the first day!  It’s also my least favorite part of redoing a room because of the crazy mess that all that dust makes.  And I’m so glad it’s over with!  Today’s dusty mess took about 90 minutes to clean…not too bad!

What you need:

• 4 corks
• hot glue
• 1 tooth pick
• 1 sail (we used a 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ piece of foam)

Assembly Instructions:

1.  Glue your 4 corks together.

2.  Put the tooth pick through the top and bottom of the foam.

3.  Stick the foam into the second cork, right smack in the middle of the cork.  

4.  Optional step: take a tiny eye screw and screw it into the front of the boat.  Attach a string to the eye screw for fun boat pulling!

And for our Sunday School lesson, we wrote a little something on the sail.  

Today my family has made me feel very special, despite almost everyone feeling sick.  This cold is really hanging on for dear life!  I received a very fine and one of a kind picture of myself as a cheerleader, made by my whole family.  Unique gifts are the most splendid of all.

I picked out what I wanted for breakfast a couple days ago and this morning I made the most amazing stuffed french toast ever.  Ever!

Now, normally I wouldn’t focus posts on food that I ate on a certain day because it’s a little weird to share each thing that you ate that day (I think, anyway).  But I’m pregnant.  So this is happening.  Aaaand, I’ll also be more than happy to share the recipes for these fine foods later on.  And trust me, you’re going to want them because they are some super delicious treats. Okay, so lunch.  Mmmm….lunch. Pepperoni Stromboli baked right in my oven.  For some reason this whole pregnancy has made me crave Stromboli.  It’s the only thing I actually crave.  And If I gave in to this fantastic craving as much as I had it, I’d be as big as a house.  Self restraint is a wonderful thing.  So is salad.  All that followed by Chinese food for dinner…a wonderful treat.

We didn’t do anything extraordinary on this Mother’s Day.  But sometimes having my family focus on me as the one who usually takes care of all the details is a really nice thing.  They all made their beds and Willow did such a good job that you would’ve thought a maid came in and did the job for her.  That bed was perfect.  Chloe helped vacuum and steam the floors.  They set the table nicely without complaining or arguing.  There was a minimal amount of bickering, and what bickering there was I can completely blame on being sick.  You can tell when it’s just sleepy, sick stuff and when it’s meanness or spitefulness toward one another.  Other than wishing my family would feel better, I’d say today was just about perfect.  :)

Each gift giving occasion for my mother includes a personal time of anguish for me.  I can never think of a gift that is special enough for my mother.  And not because she makes it seem that way, but because I do.  And each time I make any mention of gifts for her she says, “Just get me shoe box stuff” (for the Operation Christmas Child shoe box drive).  Each time I find something else to get or make for her instead.  This year, I did a little of both.  I don’t have a picture to share of her gift, but I did mail her a box of shoe box stuff and a little something for her.  :)  The girls also included a couple things for Nana.   And for Scott’s mom, I found a fantastic idea on Etsy.  This woman embroiders pillows in a similar way to how I did this painting.  Her pillows were really beautiful and while I’d love to do something like that, I have not yet tackled embroidery.  One day maybe.  

I like this so much I’m going to make one for our family as well.  I think it needs a nice frame too.  :)

This little guy only took me a few minutes to whip up (a few = 20 or so).  Easy peasy and super cute!

Most of these pictures are taken by Daddy.  However, Chloe (6 years old) took this next picture…I know, I know.  She’s a genius!  

Chloe also took the next two pictures!  She’s so amazing!  :)  And the other two are following in stride. 

They even skimmed out all the leaves and things that had already dirtied up the pool.  The rain alone gave us a whole 12 inches of rain in the deep end.  I like when God waters the gardens and fills the pool a little for me.  :)

In the next couple weeks, Scott will be repainting the deck.  He’s going to make it more of a sandy color.  White can be quite blinding in the summertime and I find myself squinting a lot out here.  The inevitable crows feet don’t need any early invitations!  I plan to spruce up our gardens inside the lanai.  They need a little freshening too.  :)

This room used to be Laelia’s room.  Did she ever sleep in it?  Not one night of sleep happened in this room.  Not one.  A couple naps when she was an infant, but that’s it.  And really, just a couple.  Her clothes have to stay in here for now, but she will probably share a room with her older sisters in the next couple months since the baby is coming shortly after that.  He’ll be in our room with us, just like each of his older sisters were.

Here’s the BEFORE:

The light pink walls changed to green.  The barrel backed couch replaced the crib.  Scott’s office was already in this room, but it needed to take on some of his personality as well.  After all, he spends a lot of time in this room!

Okay, so how to steampunk.  Well, I studied and studied pictures on the web (if you have seen the movie “The Wild, Wild West” with Will Smith, then you probably have a good idea of what steampunk looks like).  I began with a rich green for the walls and then decorated the room in a victorian  vibe–the barrel backed couch, the ornate gold framed mirror, the curtains.  Then, as I noticed from all the bazillions of pictures online, the main part of steampunking is layering in decor featuring lots of metal and gears and rivets.  That kind of thing.  Although sometimes you’ll see a room that looks like it has metal rafters and things like that.  I didn’t go that far, but in retrospect a soft gold for the ceiling would’ve looked fantastic.  Unless the painting fairies come to visit, the ceiling will remain white for now.

I found a fabulous clock on Amazon that brought a good deal of the steampunk vibe in the room.

Over Laelia’s dresser, I hung an old world map poster–20 cents on Amazon!  I bought a poster sized frame for it at Michael’s.  I also found this fabulous electric lantern (also from Amazon) that I hung over the dresser, using a chain and hook that I already had.  One key in redecorating a room is looking all over your house for things that will go with your theme.  I promise you, most of the time you have a ton of things already that will go perfectly in there and you don’t have to spend a lot of money!  Some more of our already owned items were the chest on the dresser and the old books.

And this gold chair was in my living room, but it looks fab in here!  I traded it for the rocking chair that was in here before and I use it more now than I did when it was in Laelia’s nursery.  Go figure.  The girly, flowery, rug was replaced with a smaller rug that won’t get caught under Scott’s office chair.  It also carries on the Victorian look.

I took the white, plastic faceplates off of the outlets and light switch and sprayed them with a brown primer and lightly sprayed them with a copper spray paint on the edges only to give it an antiqued and even slightly rusted look.  This is a situation where rust can be a bonus or is at least acceptable.  :)  Ultimately, I would love to add some gears to these guys, but this is perfect for now.

And the last thing I did was refinish this toy chest that was given to us by a neighbor whose son had outgrown it.  I tried to transform it into a steamer trunk kind of thing.  I think I mostly achieved that.  I’ll be sure to show you how I did it soon.  It’s nice storage for Scott’s audio equipment and some books and things.

These changes are just a jumping off point for our steampunk office.  This is a really cool look we can continue to build on.  There are a bunch of pieces I was dying to purchase, but it would’ve been crazy expensive and I’m thankful for willpower when it comes to spending. So for now we have a great start!  Maybe I’ll test the soldering waters and see if I can hack it.  ;