Sunday, October 20, 2013

Green Tomatoes

Question of the day: would my kids eat fried green tomatoes?

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Door Knob Conundrum

I have had a nutty busy week racing around and dealing wih life.   Yesterday I went to let the dog out and the back door knob was so looose it nearly came off in my hand.  Not good.

I made an execuitive decision to replace the sucker.  Off to the home store I ran.

No endorsements for any particular brand frome me.  I oicked this black Weiser deal becuase it felt solid abd I love leavers.

The knob has an adjuatble latch that fits different hole set backs which makes it super easy to install.  This was a super easy diy job.  It took me less than an hour including the run to the homw store.

It feels so nice to open the door with this baby.  It looks nice too!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Fiesta Swoon

A little Fiestaware porn for a lovely saturday afternoon. I love this stuff!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

October Rose

Well, its that time of year again when I start to question myself.  Clearly I am not the only one.  


The days get shorter and it starts to get darker earlier and earlier.

The garden starts to look a little worse for wear.


Then one day you wake up and find this staring back at you.  Roses in October in Canada are a RARE treat!


Is that not the very definition of yellow October rose perfection!  I planted it this spring and its bloomed pretty much continually since I planted it.  I hope it makes it through the winter.  Its SO pretty and cheery!  I have been scared of planting roses because I am intimidated by them, thinking they need the care of someone with a green thumb.  Shhh don't tell my pretty rose!



Monday, September 16, 2013

Little Boys Rooms and Big Boys off to College

There is over 8 years age difference between my boys.  My oldest son we off to college this fall.  My daughter campaigned to keep his room as a shrine but I had told him this past summer that he was being evicted and moved to the basement.  I really wanted my little son to have a room of his own because he has been living in make shift  accommodations  pretty much since he was born.

We painted the room in a Ralph Lauren colour (Joshua Tree) when we moved into this house 12 years ago.  It was older son's pick.




A lot of people are scared of painting bright or dark colours  because  they worry they are hard to get rid of later on.  The trick is to get some primer and go around the edges of your base board and ceiling so the first colour doesn't show through.



I have posted here how much I love Farrow and Ball paint.  I gave little son the colour card and he chose "Chinese Blue".  I had it colour matched mainly because F & B and discontinued this colour and I would have had to order it in which takes time.  I was looking for fast.   I think he chose it for the name. To be  perfectly  honest, I was a bit skeptical.  I thought it would be really dark.


We tested it on the colour card and its an almost perfect match.






Blue is his fav colour!


He is a HUGE Scoobydoo fan.  We looked high nd low for Scoobydoo  jammies after he wore holes in his last pair.  After looking high and low, we found these at Kohl's in Taylor Michigan!



The doors and trim in this room had never been painted.  You can see the difference in colour between the two in these pics.  I painted them after I took these pics.


This ceiling had stucco on it which I scrapped off and made smooth.  Its a BIG job but SO worth the effort.


You can see the nice smooth ceiling in this shot!  The room originally had stucco on the ceiling and no crown molding.


Cutting in around edges with a colour is an art form.  I use a smallish brush and a wee bit of paint.  Like this...


Hold the brush flat against the wall with the bit of paint against the wall and pull across.


I find I get a way straighter line if I eyeball it than I do if I tape it off.  Notice, no green show through because we primed the edges first!



All moved in!  I made him the quilt a couple of years ago.  The painting over the bed is also one of my originals. I also made the cute little night table because I wanted something that would fit perfectly in that itty bitty little space.


The night table is just primed at this point.  We are in negotiations over what colour it will be.


His stuffed pug Wilbur.


Mr Fluffy and Lizzy the Sea Otter.


PS...if anyone is  interested in purchasing an original print of the art over the bed, please message me.  

Friday, September 6, 2013

The Never Ending Kitchen Project

I am kind of scared to admit this but my kitchen project has essentially sat here semi-finished since the counters went in.  I quite simply ran out of steam. I only have a few small-ish things left to do so it was easy to just live with it ...until this week!

I jumped back on the kitchen horse!  I want her DONE!

Please cheer me on here guys because I can really use some encouragement!

I got the primer out and primed the bulkhead prepping it for trimming out.


The current plan is to tile this space with the white subway tiles and put the shelves that were there back up.




Oh yeah!  Fresh white microwave shelf!  This baby was ugly fake oak.

My kitchen smells of Farrow and Ball paint.  Yummy.  I love the smell of it because it smells like clay class!  Its such a nice smell compared to most paint that is made with  synthetic  pigments.




Tuesday, August 13, 2013

DIY Garage Door Roller Repair

Wouldn't you just know it. I did my nails last night! I don't usually do my fingers but its a sure fire jinx.




My garage door sounded like it was going to derail this morning. Upon closer inspection, I realized that two of the rollers were REALLY broken. I touched one of the rollers and it FELL on me.




This little roller gizmo is suppose to be ONE piece.  




You can see just how worn this was.  


Really bad.

I had to run out and buy some new rollers.  This is what they are suppose to look like.  They are suppose to not be bent or loose. I opted to buy new nylon rollers over the old steel ones that were on the door.


Goes well with the nice nails don't yah think!


Old, yucky, broken roller.


New roller.



 I must say, I was somewhat intimidated by replacing these.  Turns out, it was easy peasy.  I unbolted the brackets with a ratchet.  

And I popped in the new rollers.  


Ta da!  I ended up replacing four bad rollers.  The door sounds SO much better now!