{When the Paint Dries......}

Why I'm Tired of Winter

So I know everyone is tired of winter.

At least those that get winter. I'm in Western Pennsylvania and I am soooo over winter.

Yesterday I saw it start to snow outside and I almost started crying--that's how over winter I am.

Not only have we seen too much snow we have also had some days where the high was in the negative, (seriously that shouldn't be legal)

So to sum it up, here are the reasons I hate snow/winter:

No matter how slowly I open my car door, I always get snow on the seat.

Having to blow dry my hair completely

People that drive like they've never seen snow before

Snow

Temperatures in the single or negative digits, seriously?! a high of -9? what is high about that?

Driving in the snow, it turns me into an old lady driver

I don't put much faith in a groundhog telling me if there will be more winter or not

I find winter depressing after Christmas

I really want to open my windows for fresh air

All I can think about when I see the big piles of plowed snow is if a body was hidden in there, and how long would it take to find.

NOW there is ONE reason I don't totally hate winter

NOT HAVING TO SHAVE MY LEGS

but I do it for the gym anyways :)

January Recap

Can you believe that January is gone already?!

Hopefully this isn't an indication of how fast this year is going to go.

But I have a feeling this year is going to be GREAT!

To recap January:

New Years

http://whenthepaintdries.blogspot.com/2014/01/happy-new-year.html

Spring Cleaning Already?

So you wanna buy a house?

http://whenthepaintdries.blogspot.com/2014/01/so-you-wanna-buy-house.html

So you wanna buy a house.......

So you want to buy a house?! Congrats!! Here are some of my suggestions before you start looking.

1. Determine what you can spend.

There is no point in falling in love with something that you can't afford.

It would be like finding 'the wedding dress' and then checking the price tag. Don't do it. I recommend taking a hard look at your finances to figure out what your budget is, you won't be able to enjoy your house if you are stressed about making the payment.

2. How long will you be there?

When we starting searching we knew that we wanted a house that we could start a family in, we were thinking about 4 bedrooms but would consider 3 bedrooms also. At the time we were thinking we would live in our home about 7-10 years, now that we have so much blood sweat and tears into the place I plan on dying here.

3. Location, Location, Location

Growing up I had always pictured myself a city girl. Bright lights, busy streets, great social life.......then I remembered I don't like people. But we aren't the boon-dock types either, driving 20 minutes to buy groceries? No thank you. So we looked for a house in the middle, not down town where all the houses are two feet apart but not in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors in sight for miles. Also you will want to consider schools, even if you don't have kids now, you could sometime (yes, even if you aren't planning, condoms do break)

4. Must have list

Your must list should be realistic. I'm saying you shouldn't have big dreams about your new home, but you might want to separate your list into 'must-have' and 'would be nice to have'. A couple of our must haves where a decent sized yard and 3-4 bedrooms, which we ended up with.

Our would-be-nice-to-have was a garage and fenced in yard, neither of which we got.

5. Compromise

Oh compromise, the story of adulthood, which is totally overrated.

If you have already started house hunting I'm sure that you have found that the dream house that you had in your head is either our of your budget or just doesn't exist. Unless you can build your own house you are most likely not going to get everything you want in a house. You just have to figure out what you are willing to compromise on, can you put up with an out dated kitchen if it means have a garage? Decisions, decisions.

Spring Cleaning Already?

Ever seen January 1st hit I have been in a clean-up, de-clutter, get rid of it mood.

And I have no idea why.

Could be because we have gotten started on remodeling again and there are a bunch of supplies hogging my dining room,

or the bathroom vanity sitting in its box in the living room.

No, we haven't torn the bathroom apart yet but it was a great steal on craigslist :)

So well those are things I can't change I have taken on some projects that are a little simpler.

First was going through two boxes that were in my closet, no pics of that though cause the closet still needs some work (am I the only one that feels as soon as I get rid of a piece of clothing, then i want to wear it?)

Secondly I went through my kitchen cupboards that house the food, cleaned out old food and organized them.

Third, I worked on the two shelves in the laundry room. Before I only had one of the green containers, and the other shelves just had random containers, however the dollar store finally had some in to complete my shelves!

Happy New Year!!

There is something so refreshing about a new year.

The chance to do new things,

the chance to learn new things.

the chance to explore new places,

and meet new people.

So clearly you need a party to bring in this wonderful new year right?!

This is the first New Years Eve party I have ever hosted.

It started right around Christmas when I asked my family members what they were doing

for new years and everyone pretty much said they didn't know, so I was like hey lets party.

Insert panic mood a few days later when I realized I needed to throw something together.

Insert night of when I thought that putting together a photo booth would be fun.

Insert house that is also under some form of remodeling:

My husby helped me staple a yellow bed sheet in front of the bed room door,

and I made a banner and photo booth props on my cricut.

Always our recent white elephant gifts of a beach ball and floaty came in super handy.A

And the great thing about cameras is the ZOOM

and no more unfinished drywall :)

And I say that is a pretty good way to bring in the New Year :)

Stepping Stones

I have been longing to make stepping stones for a while now. Months ago I spotted some molds and colors on clearance at Jo-anns and snatched them up, however when I went to the local Jo-anns for the mix they didn't have it. Oh, and it was coupon commotion so I had a ton of coupons but nothing I really needed......or wanted ;)

Lucky for me, there is another Jo-anns by where my sister lives which is only around a half an hour drive. They were around $7 a box and I used coupons. I wanted to decorated them really nice and make them colorful, however the mosaic glass pieces that they carried were around $10, even with a coupon I thought that was too much. So I went to the Good-Will and purchased a couple plates and a coffee mug that I then smashed up to use.

I should also point that they these are for primarily decoration. Outside we have rocks on both sides of our house and they are currently there. The directions say to let sit for 24 hours and not step on them for at least two weeks. Also it is good to make these outside or with a window open due to the fumes from the mix.

This would be a great craft to do with kids!! Other then the smashing glass part ;)

HGTV Star

Is anyone else as excited for HGTV Star as me? Love this show!! I love seeing what everyone comes up with each week, each designer has their own unique style and I love to see it come out. I was surprised to see Jessie go last night, her worked seemed so strong the first episode. Not sure if its too early to have favorites, right now I'm just liking everyone! :)

Father's Day

Hey Everyone! Hope you enjoyed your weekend and your Father's Day!!

We had a great sunday celebrating with our dads and family:)

My Dad and I at my wedding :)

HGTV Star

Any HGTV star fans out there?

This is one show that i look forward to all year!!

I am a little confused why they changed the name of the show.....

So thoughts on the winner of the first night? Brooks?

I'm totally loving the chandelier in his vignette, the rest i'm just not sure that its my style. I love how he went bold and was daring.

As of now, since there was once one eposide, I would have to say that i'm really liking Abby, Anne, Cris, and Jerabai so far.

By the way, did anyone like Jerabais painting? I know the judges didn't but I sure did!

Dining Room Set Re-do Part 2

In Dining Room Set Re-do Part One I showed you the beautiful dining room that I had found on Craigslist and has been in our dining room for a little over a year, functional but really needed redone.

I got the kick in the butt motivation I needed when I learned that my husbands sister and brother in law were coming to visit for a week from England. Even though we didn't sit down to eat at it (they don't have a Cheesecake Factory over there) I'm feeling pretty good about finally getting it finished. :)

The chairs had already been previously sanded down (yay!)
So after wiping them down I was able to start staining them.

I was unsure of what type of wood/color would work best so I choose the Red Oak and it seemed to match the table quite well.

Luckily it was one of the few nice days we had in April and I was able to stain them in the driveway.

This is probably the biggest stain job I have ever taken on, I use a foam craft paintbrush that would extremely well, it really held a lot of stain and spread it very well. The one suggestion I have is to make sure that after it dries that you wipe it down really well, a couple of days after I was still finding sticky spots.

Two of the chair cushions looked like this^

I took the first piece off to use a template and this was underneath, with these two I just covered right over them, figured there was no need to change the padding and it was a lot cheaper.

I laid out the first piece of fabric and cut around it, just a rough estimate, I don't like to measure anything if I don't have too :)

The second two chairs had these cushions on them, I was tempted to leave them unattached and just cover them, but I want the table to look somewhat uniform. When I took this covers off, underneath was two feather cushions, I ended up covering over them.