TP Art

Okay, okay, technically it's not toilet paper art, it's toilet paper roll art. Of course this is one of my Pinterest finds and probably one of my first projects that I've completed from Pinterest. I don't even want to count how many more projects I have pinned on there!

I started out by creasing and cutting up our toilet paper rolls (after saving many!). Then I started lining them up until I could find a design I liked best.

 

In the end, I decided to go with one long pattern

I took it outside and went a bit too crazy with the spray paint. This was also my first spray paint project. I went through a full can and had to buy more. It was very difficult for my to get the paint to stick and get in all of the crevices. Maybe I should have painted the pieces before hot gluing them together?

It is currently hanging in out entryway. I like where it is, but not sure if it will stay here for the long haul.

Happy Easter

Meet Jasper

Introducing Jasper

A couple of weeks ago Jesse and I adopted (purchased from a local Wal-Mart) this cute little guy (okay, garden gnome). We decided that Jasper would be the perfect name for him.

We than took him to introduce him to Penny. As you can see she was a bit apprehensive at first. She even tried chewing on his wonderfully pointed hat a bit. Penny then took Jasper outside where they got better acquainted. 

 

 

Now it was time to find a home for Jasper. He wanted to take up residence in the tree, but we decided it would be safer for him to plant his feet in the ground.

And what do you know, after having this magical little creature for just under a week our garden grew from the above into some very pretty flowers.  Only a matter of time before we find out what other wonders Jasper will be bringing our way or trouble he will be getting into.

Tour of Our New Digs

I just posted pictures of before we moved in and of what our house looks like as we are currently living in it. Be sure to check out the Home Tour tab above!

We were very fortunate to almost completely furnish our first house with hand me downs from our family.

• Living Room
• Couch, loveseat, chair, and ottoman from Jesse's parents
• Grandmother clock that was Jesse's grandparent's
• Our renewed coffee table
• New end tables and lamps are the only items we have purchased so far! Oh and the TV, of course
• Office/Den
• Bookcase from Jesse's parents - which they actually purchased at my grandparent's estate sale, all in the family right there!
• Kitchen
• Table and chairs from my sister
• Master Bedroom
• Entire bedroom set from was Jesse's grandparents.

We are so thankful that our family took our hints to upgrade their gently used furniture and graciously hand it down to us. Everyone benefits! :)

Don't forget about the other new post below on our Chalkboard Refrigerator!

Chalkboard Fridge

That's right....my very first project I took on after moving into our very first house was to paint the refrigerator with chalkboard paint!

It went from this:

To this in just a couple of days (apparently I like to stretch out the majority of my projects over a matter of days).

Now, a chalkboard fridge isn't for everybody. Just ask my sister or mom if they want me to make over their refrigerator and I'm betting you they would say, "No way, Jose."  But it was just the perfect first project for our new home and this odd gal. It didn't take an overwhelming amount of effort and I know that we won't be living with it forever.  The later being the reason I was able to get Jesse on board (and even help out!).  We are planning a kitchen remodel down the road (a very long ways down the road).  He probably knew this was a good way to let me do a little bit and spend only a little amount of money and be satisfied with our kitchen for a smidgin' longer.  And to put me off on attempting to paint the cupboards awhile longer too (though I'm using this time to convince him it is a good idea that works).

Anyways, back to my super, awesome project! I love it! Can I say that again? I love it! It is the perfect place to keep track of our menu.  I also quite enjoy making to do lists and this is a perfect place to write one out. Make it nice and big and in a spot where I always have to look at it. Then maybe things will also get crossed off the list (possibly my favorite part of list making <-- list making is an art).

So, the steps were pretty simple.
1) Take apart the fridge if you desire -- quite possibly the most difficult part of this entire project. It seemed to take us forever to figure out how to get those darn handles off! Jesse did not want to have a black fridge with white handles, so we decided to spray paint them black.  We also attempted to take off the face plate of the ice/water dispenser. Somebody (me) got a little too rammy and cracked a corner, but that someone (me) also successfully removed the plate later the next day, who then tried to continue to take apart the darn thing and cracked yet another piece of plastic by tightening a screw rather than loosening....Anyways with all that work and destruction we decided to just leave the darn thing white and put it back together.

2) Next up, I sanded the beast down. I used some 3M sanding blocks and went to town -- dust everywhere so clean up later!

3) Wipe down all the dust off the fridge so you can paint!

4) While I was doing steps 2 & 3 Jesse was being a sport and coating the white handles (and some grass) with black appliance spray paint.

5) Apply the first, second, and third coats of chalkboard paint with a roller according to the paint instructions.

6) I then covered the entire thing with chalk and wiped it off before starting to make my menus, lists, and awesome doodles on our fridge.

7) Bask in the awesomeness that is chalkboard paint and all the crazy people that first tried out painting their  own refrigerators.

My lovely one more time

It's Been Awhile, Folks!

Well, I've been gone a few weeks months. I'm sorry for my lack of posts, but I hope to pick it up 'round these parts as I expect to have quite a few projects going on...though they may all take a bit for me to get through.

December was a big month for us. On the December 5th we purchased our very first house (happy dance!)

Note to self: put away the garbage can before taking pictures!

We quickly followed that up with a week long trip to London, leaving on December 9th. Jesse was asked to travel across the pond to meet and work with a client. I was able to tag along (paying for my own expenses of course). I actually worked from the hotel a few days while Jesse was away as I was a bit too timid to venture out by myself.  We really only had one full day to sight-see on our own, and it was a cold rainy day. We parked our butts on a classic red double decker bus and got to see all the classics of London. 

We finally got fully settled into our home in January and have already started many projects, mainly concerning paint. That being said there are even more projects being added to my craft wish list now that we have a house to decorate and have our way with! 

I plan to be posting before, during, and finished for now pictures of our house! Like the title of the blog says: In Progress, and our house definitely will always be in progress.

Stay tuned for all the fun to come!

Project Show Off

Okay, I have a few projects that I have done in the past months that I haven't posted about yet. And instead of give you a boring step by step post on each of them (which really would be quite boring), I figured, why not throw pictures of the finished products (and a short commentary) all together in one big Project Show Off post?

Let's Go!

These little guys are very simply (I may have posted about them before) all I did was dump out the flour into another container and framed part of the packages!

They keep our Street Art company and are located right beside the baking supply cupboard.

Currently blue is a little accent color in our bedroom, where this frame resides. It includes our birthdays, the date we started dating and our wedding date.

These doo-hickies, if you haven't guessed, are our initials. I cut the letters out of some cardboard boxes and hot glued pretty yarn all the way around them. They also hang in our bedroom.

I may or may not have purposefully cropped my face out of this picture....but I want you to focus on my awesome new necklace, concocted out of one of Jesse's old shirts. 

And this little guy was slightly a beast to finish. It use to be all black, and was just a cheap end table I bought from Target years ago, probably only $10. It's not made out of real wood, just pressboard, but I decided to try to sand it down. {Pain} Then I bought some colors I liked and painters tape. Slapped a few dozen (okay, maybe not quite that much) coats of the base color on. Then tried to make a chevron pattern. Two hours later, I had the table top taped off, but still not quite right and painted in the second color. I went to bed and dreamed of all the glorious chevron projects I've seen in the blogosphere and couldn't wait to see my final product. 

I took the tape off the next morning and to my dimay, the lines weren't even close to being crisp. You may not be able to tell in the pictures, but come on over for an afternoon treat, and I'll show you. The 'smudgy' edges have grown on me and it may even look like I did it on purpose, so the table (that I probably paid more for in supplies to redo, than what it originally cost) will stay as is, and I will enjoy it.

So, that's what I've done with my life recently in the last many months. What do you think? What have you been up to?