Busy Weekend

You'd think that after having such a busy weekend that I would have some new, fun decorating project to show you. But no, even though my weekend was busy I did no home dec. projects. Sometimes weekends are just like that. I have about ten projects in the works right now, but the weather was so nice this weekend that I took the time to be outside.

We spent most of Saturday at various sports games and practices, but Sunday was yard work day. With the sun out and the temps in the upper 60's it was the perfect day to be out in the yard getting it in shape for spring.

I had bought some espaliered Camellias at Costco (Have I mentioned how much I love Costco? -- No? Well, I do and I'll have to write a post about it sometime) a couple of weeks ago, and then we had a week of continuous rain right on through the next weekend; so they hadn't made it into the ground. Add to them the twelve or so plants I bought at the nursery this week (when I was only stopping in to pick up a gift card for a fund raising basket), and I had a lot of planting to do this weekend.

Espaliered Camelia

Let me back up a little bit. After remodeling the house a couple of years ago, our yard was completely torn up. We knew that we needed to do something but we didn't want to spend a whole lot more money right then. We hired a landscape designer and had her draw up an overall plan for us to eventually implement. We decided to hire someone to put in the hardscape, a sprinkler system, and the front and back lawn right away, but left the planting till later.

Backyard after renovation

Another backyard after renovation

Over the past couple of years I have slowly implemented our plan. Some things have changed along the way, but the plan is mostly intact. I have now hit the point where I am refining the design; moving plants and adding new ones that I like and/or have discovered along the way.

Backyard after hardscape and two years of planting (The big tree is just to the right of the picture)

Close up of bench and rock wall

This weekend I put in some blue fescue (I have always loved that plant and will be adding some more throughout the gardens), the two camelias, and some ornamental grasses (Golden Variegated Sweet Flag). There are still some areas that I have barely touched yet and some plants that I put in last year that didn't survive (thus needing to be replaced) but overall the yard is coming along nicely.

Elijah Blue Fescue

Japanese maple and new Golden Variegated Sweet Flag (ornamental grass)

Planted espaliered camelia

More Golden Variegated Sweet Flag

I then got the boys to pitch in and do some weeding. With all the rain that we have gotten lately our large backyard tree has sown a million seedlings that are now popping up throughout my gardens. After about three hours of work, I have a mostly weed free back garden.

So, that was my weekend. Hopefully this week I will get back to some of my incomplete projects. I'd really like to finish the monogrammed pillow for my younger son's room and the two monogrammed pillows for my spring bedroom look (no, I don't stitch monogram, I fabric paint my monograms). It's about time I switched out the fall/winter room for a lighter airier look. I also would like to finally get around to painting the frame on the guest bedroom's full length mirror that has been leaning up against the wall since the remodel.

Plans for My Guest Room

I've almost finished my son's skateboarding room, so it's time to really start planning my guest room makeover. I'm not really sure I would call it a makeover though. I'm keeping most of the bones of what's there and just adding and editing. The first thing I need to do is make an upholstered headboard for the Cal King bed. I bought white denim a while back for this project so all I need now is the batting, foam, and plywood base. I found some good tutorials online detailing how to make the headboard. A few of them include this one from Craftyland, this one from Living the Swell Life, and this one (with video) from Design Sponge. Thrifty Decor Chick has a good headboard tutorial/post here where she uses egg crate foam (much cheaper than foam from a craft store).

I like the color scheme in the guest room of white, green, and yellow. I've bought some green trellis fabric to make pillow shams for the bed. I also would like to get a new, white duvet or quilt for the bed. I have a cheap full length wall mirror in the garage that I am planning on revamping and hanging behind the door since the guest room is currently sans mirror. Hopefully, now that I have put this out into blogland, I will get in gear and get this room completed (or at least started).

I have a post almost complete (just waiting to get some good pictures in there) about the skateboarding room and will have that up shortly.

Happy New Year! and Todo List for 2011

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted here. I am new to this blogging thing and I know that I need to post more regularly to have a successful blog, but it just seems like life keeps getting in the way. Oh well, I guess it all depends on how you define success. For me, right now, I just want a place to come and share my thoughts and projects as I can. I do want to post more regularly and I have a whole host of projects I have been working on (and a whole host more that I have planned in the coming months). So this is going to be my post of projects I want to post about and ones that I have planned in the future to post about.

Projects I have started (or completed) and need to post about:

• Skater bedroom -- from little boy to big boy room
• Copycat nutcracker decorations
• Our Christmas tree
• Making decorative pillows
• King Sized pillowcases -- Who really uses them?

Projects I want to do this year:

• Remodeling the boys bathroom -- from plan to completion (note: I think this will be a series)
• Do it yourself artwork for the great room
• Figuring out how I want to configure the den/office/library
• Organizing and accessorizing the great room bookshelves
• Upholstering a headboard for the guest room (and also revamping a full length mirror for the room, new decorative pillows, and maybe making a new duvet cover)
• Built ins for the dining room

That's a start for what I want to accomplish and blog about this year. Wish me luck!

Problems with our School System (and it's not the system it's the "Educators")

I've been a bad blogger and I didn't think that I had anything to blog about until I went to the school parent's association meeting this week. I know schools are strapped for cash and for whatever reason people (ok, educators really, which probably explains why this is an issue) are all up in arms about the educational system in the US, but the way that educators are trying to change things is just wrong. It is obvious that these so called educators are really just PhD's with an inflated sense of themselves (and I can say this because I have a PhD myself) and who have no real world experience with either teaching or with kids. Most of these people are either so old that they are out of touch with what children are like, or they are just out of school with no world experience and no kids of their own. Both of these scenarios are just disasters waiting to happen.

So, what has gotten me thinking about all this. Well, the attempted cancellation of the Halloween parade at my son's school. The teachers and staff apparently talked among themselves and voted to cancel the annual parade on the grounds that most kids don't care about it anyway (this coming mostly from 4th and 5th grade teachers). Then, the younger grade teachers voiced their opinion and they rescheduled it for after school. Now we hear that they are revisiting that and that a couple of parents object to Halloween so they are considering canceling the parade again. Well, let me tell you, the parents association today let the principal and teachers rep know that this was not an option, that we want the parade, that we were mad that this all went down behind our backs, and I think they got the picture that this type of thing better not happen again. Case closed!

Next issue, the belief that educators have that being in school sitting at a desk is the be all and end all of education. The principal went so far as to say send your sick kid to school because we need the money we get for them being in school (and getting all the other kids sick). Not only that, she was upset that parents (gasp!) take their kids out of school (and jump through the stupid hoops to set up an independent study so the school can still get its money) to take family vacations. She even said that it was more educational and important to be sitting in school than to be out seeing how our country works (taking a trip to Washington D.C. and seeing Congress in action, visiting historic battle sites in Virginia, etc) or seeing how other cultures and countries differ from our own (yeah, it's much better to learn about this from a book and a teacher who has probably never been to India or France or Germany). I think all the parents in the meeting were dumbfounded. We didn't know what to say.

These are just a few examples of how our educational system is deteriorating. Since when did we as a people give over the rearing of our kids to educators. Let me tell you, I never did and I never will. I know that I am much more equipped to teach my children everything they need to know academically than any teacher they will have in their pre-collegiate years. What I can't give them at home is the social aspect of being in school and that is why I send them to school. I also don't believe that our educational system is lagging behind that in other countries. I believe that we give every child a chance at an education and that our "test" scores represent that ideal. Many of the countries that we are being compared with only educate their brightest. Kids are separated at a young age into the educational track, the sports track, the vocational track, etc. So we are only seeing the test results of their top performers since they are the only ones being given that education. If you compared our top 10 or 20 percent to their results I bet you we would fare just fine.

In addition, what is really the goal of education? In my opinion it is to produce people who will excel in the workforce. We need to foster creativity and critical thinking and thinking outside the box so we end up with a workforce that is competent and inventive and groundbreaking. We need to produce young adults who can think for themselves and sove the problems that society and businesses face.

What is the goal of educators? To have a job and as such they create problems where there aren't any so that they have something to fix. New math? Give me a break. Math is math. There is one right answer and there are often many ways to solve any given problem. So why do educators keep changing the way that teachers are supposed to teach math, and why, if a child solves a problem correctly but using a different method are they counted wrong? Is a successful workforce made up of robots who all do the same thing? NO, NO, NO. A successful workforce is made up of creative thinkers who find a better way to solve a problem.

I have so much to say on this topic that I will definitely be revisiting it from time to time. For today, I have to get back to making sure I equip my children with the critical thinking skills and the tools they will need to really be successful in life. Not the cookie cutter, standardized testing education they currently get in school.

Shelves Above DS's Desk

Along with a new school year, comes the beginning of a whole new year of homework. I was observing my ds (dear son) at work the other day and was again reminded of how messy his desk had become. It was time I did something about it. So, I hatched a plan to put up some shelves above his desk to store all that junk currently residing on the desk (of course I know that once the current junk finds a home, ds will find a whole new batch of stuff to put on his desk -- mainly Star Wars lego models).

The Project Results: Close up of new shelving

First I decided how deep I wanted the shelves to be. I decided to make the lowest shelf a bit narrower (8.5 inches) than the other two (12.5 inches) so that it would not encroach on his workspace. The shelves length was constrained by the adjoining wall and the window placement to 24 inches. A trip to the local hardware store (Home Depot) netted brackets to hold up the shelves and some MDF to make the shelves themselves. I also wanted the shelves to look a bit more substantial so I decided to edge the MDF with some scrap wood we had lying around the garage.

The theme of my son's room is planes and fighter jets, so I wanted the brackets to be silver. Of course the ones I liked only came in black, so I spray painted them silver using Rust-oleum primer and paint (Painter's Touch 2x). My preparation and painting method is as follows. First I scuff sanded (ok, dh (dear hubby) did this) the metal brackets. Next I applied two coats of Rust-oleum spray primer. After letting the primer completely dry, I wet sanded the brackets with 600 grit wet sandpaper to smooth out the primer coat. It is important to use a special sandpaper made for wet sanding since regular sandpaper would just disintegrate if you got it wet. Also, while wet sanding you need to keep the piece you are sanding wet by either dunking it in a bucket of water or spritzing it with a spray bottle periodically.

Brackets in spray box spray primed

Two coats of silver spray paint (Metallic aluminum) finished the job.

Brackets in spray box painted silver

Close up of brackets spray painted silver

After cutting the MDF down to the sizes needed for the shelves, I primed them using KILZ primer and then painted them Behr Ultra Pure White Semi-gloss. I like to use semi-gloss on furniture and shelving because it is more durable and easy to wipe clean.

Since I wanted the shelves to seem more substantial than 3/4 inch MDF I edged 3 sides of each shelf with 1x2 fir strips, mitering the corners. After cutting all the pieces to length (remember to add the additional length needed for the 45 degree miter cuts) I prepainted them with Behr paint plus primer in a dark blue called Starless Night. We attached the edging to the shelves using small brad nails. I filled the nail holes with wood filler, let dry, and touched up.

Shelves painted, edged, and nail holes filled

Finally, we installed the brackets and shelves. Wow! Ds's desk is now clutter free (at least for a few days). This space is still a work in progress. My next project is a DIY magnetic white board (did you know you can buy white board paint?) for the striped wall above the desk to hold the weekly spelling list and for me to leave reminders and notes on.

Before: Cluttered desk space (This was on a good day when I had picked it up and put things away).

After: Cleaner desk workspace

Now, if only he would let me paint his room a light grey (it doesn't get enough natural light for this deep of a color, but he picked it out two years ago and loves it), paint the "chair rail" white, and paint just the wall below the rail and behind the bed dark blue, I think the room would be perfect and would really grow with him as he grows. I'll let you know how good my powers of persuasion are.

Refinishing (and Finishing) Furniture

Anyone who reads this blog has probably finished or refinished a piece of furniture at some point in their life. It is one of the most rewarding projects that you can do. It just feels fantastic when you take something that is old and worn or beloved and you strip it down and then refinish it to shiny newness. I dream about finding an amazing hutch at a garage sale or flea market, haggling to get a great price, and then taking it home to refinish and put in my stair vestibule. I am still looking for that perfect piece.

It was about a month before last Christmas, we had moved back into our newly remodeled home and I was sitting at our informal dining table when I realized that it just didn't fit in with the new house. I loved the old thing (it was one of the first purchases that my husband made when he moved here after grad school) and it had great shape, but it was finished in a light stain that just screamed country, and the new house was definitely more beachy modern. One big problem was the chairs. While they were fully functional, they were just ordinary looking and boring and not the look I wanted in our new home. So, I sold them in a garage sale to a young man who was just getting his first apartment.

Original table and chairs

Around this time I saw these pictures in a Pottery Barn catalog and knew that was the look I wanted and I needed those chairs. They were a bit of a splurge, but hubby made them my Christmas present. Hooray for me. We even got one of the six I wanted for free with a bonus bucks deal (which resulted in me getting the last chair a few days after Christmas -- as soon as the bonus bucks could be used).

Pottery Barn chairs with two toned table (Image from PotteryBarn.com)

Pottery Barn chairs paired with a table similar in style to our table (Image from PotteryBarn.com)

However, the table needed some work. Out to the garage it went. We started by using stripper, to get the poly off the top of the table. It took three applications (and next time I want to try citristrip since I've heard it works really well) and a bit of scraping to get it all off. Next my husband sanded it down to get all the old stain out. I would say he did a three part sanding, going up in grit from a 100 to a 250 (I think). We didn't bother stripping the legs and apron of the table since I knew that I was going to paint this part white. We did clean it all really well and then sanded so the primer would have something to hold on to. I then restained the top of the table a deeper brown (Minwax English Chestnut or was it Special Walnut? -- of course I didn't write it down. I just stained some test pieces and decided which color I thought matched the chair legs the best). Two coats of stain and the table top was ready for three coats of polyurethane. Between each coat we sanded smooth. Finally, I taped off the table top from the apron and legs and primed and painted. One coat of primer and two coats of Behr Swiss Coffee in semi-gloss later and I had the perfect (the top looks great with the chair legs), newly refinished informal, everyday dining table for our great room.

Our refinished table with new chairs

(Of course the whole refinishing project ended up being more expensive than anticipated because without the table under the light, super tall hubby banged his head on the light and broke the glass. So we had to order a new glass piece (luckily it wasn't too expensive and way less than a whole new table).

Framing Prints, Pictures and Art

I know I said I was going to do a series on decorating our newly renovated house (and I still plan to do this once the kids are back in school) but I was just looking around the house today and realized that something that can really make a house stand out is its art. And it doesn't have to be expensive art. Much of what I have hanging in our house was either done by me, or is framed prints and photos. Lately, I have been experimenting with brightly colored mats. My inspirations were these pictures out of Better Homes and Gardens and (of course) one that I can't find in my archives right now.

Inspiration: Wide, light blue matts from Better Homes and Gardens

Inspiration: Wide pink matts from Better Homes and Gardens

And here is how I interpreted this in my own home.

Add a pop of color in your matts

dark and bright matts

I'd had this bright turquoise matt board for a long time (I just bought it because I loved the color) and so I decided to punch up this display with a little color. I still need to find just the right piece or pieces of art to hang above the bookcase. It is a very large and high wall so I feel like I need something quite substantial here.

Vestibule at the bottom of the stairs (I need to find the right piece to go under this picture)

We've had this print for a long time. I think the darker matt really pulls the eye into the print. Like most of the house, this area is another work in progress. I have been looking for a sideboard type piece to fit under the picture. It needs to be deep enough to store all the myriad games we have. I can't wait to find the right piece so that I can refinish it to be just what I want, but that's a different post.


In the dining room I matted cooking photos in different tones of green.

Using two wide matts (at least 1" reveals)

I got the idea to do two wider matts from this inspiration photo from Better Homes and Gardens. I loved the two toned wide blue matts. (OK, I also love the floor to ceiling bookcases. I want to do this in my office/study someday soon) I interpreted this with an off white outer and light green inner matt. Eventually I might change out the outer matt for another shade of green.

Inspiration: wide two tone double blue matts from Better Homes and Gardens

In the guest room, I added some color in the bright yellow matts around photos of the kids with their grandparents. Someday I'll post about how I try to make our guest room inviting and comfortable for guests. The impressionist style painting was done for me as a Christmas gift from one of my uncles. The colors were perfect for this room.

Using a bright yellow matt to highlight a photo

I am blessed with a very artistic family and like to include their artwork in my home. I have a watercolor done by my mom hanging in the hallway right when you come into the house from the garage. SInce the garage is our main family entrance, I thought this would be the perfect place to hang this inspiring scene from the Napa Valley.

Upstairs, in the master suite I painted and hung an oversized painting of a flower. I painted this on a thin piece of plywood (I got this idea from David Bromstad of Color Splash). You don't have to go out and spend a lot of money on canvas to make fun art for your house. I think the plywood cost me about $5 at Home Depot (and I only used half the sheet). I also painted a scene on the back of it, so if we get tired of the flower we can just turn it around.

Upstairs, in my boys rooms, I covered matts with scraps of fabric I had lying around the house that coordinate with their room colors. Some ribbon adds a little interest to these matts.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of this post is that artwork and photos really add life to a home, and the way you matt these pieces can really make them stand out. A simple matt can take a stock poster or print from ho-hum to special and fantastic. And it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. You can make a matt out of a piece of colored cardboard, or cover a corregated cardboard matt with fabric scraps (or just leave it and use the corregated texture). Craft paint can make a white matt into any color you want. Just have fun and make your house beautiful.

p.s. Here's another inspiration photo of mine from Family Circle magazine. I love the bright, skinny frames. I haven't done this yet, but I am looking for a place in my home where something like this would work.

Inspiration: Colored frames with white matts from Family Circle