HouseCapated

Silhouette Craft Cutter Giveaway!

2010-06-26T01:37:00.000-07:00

Thrifty Decor Chick is giving away a Silhouette Craft Cutter next week! On Tuesday 6/29, in fact! Be sure to check out her giveaway here http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/06/silhouette-craft-cutter-giveaway.html .

Have you seen one of these things in action? Have you seen what the Silhouette can do? It is SO COOL! Not to mention, they are kinda spendy, so giving one away for free is awesome!

Have a great weekend,
Halle

Lollipop Ghosts

2009-10-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

Somebody Stop Me! I just can't stop making stuff for Halloween. This morning, I made these for the extra special costumed trick or treaters.

Supplies:

1. Tootsie Pops

2. Kleenex (preferrably unused..hahahah! I kid, I kid)

3. string

4. black marker

Wrap the single kleenex around the tootsie pop:

Tie the string around the ghosts "neck".

Draw a simple face on the kleenex. I use 2 black dots for the eyes and one for the mouth.

I plan on passing these out the the best costumes tonight!

Ok, I am DONE with Halloween. Seriously!

Have a GREAT night!

Happy Halle-Ween!

2009-10-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

I did one last little "HalleWeen" project, and just in the nick of time.

I bought the oval plaques at the dollar store. Painted them warm white, added a coat of crackle medium, then painted them black. I LOVE the crackle medium!

Hubby helped me get the letters on the plaque. My homeade stencil was too hard to cut out with an exacto knife, so he free handed the outline of the letter. I like the effect because the letter looks less perfect. I'm lovin' the hand drawn effect.

Finally, I added some black glitter to the edges of all the plaques. Then hung 3 different patterned black and white ribbons. Voila!

I love how it turned out.

Love!!

Hope you have a happy Halle-Ween!

Curtains!

2009-10-21T00:35:00.000-07:00

Curtains, I tell ya, CURTAINS!

We've been very busy with the leaking pipe issues in the last week. 2 appraisals and OMG expensive.

Soooo, I thought I would write a post about something I care about...I made curtains and I didn't sew a stitch!

I bought some fabric (half off!) at the fabric store and used iron on fusable webbing to hem all the edges. It was very easy, compared to actually sewing. The fusable webbing works and holds up so well.

I knew I would never need to close these curtains, so I bought 2 of the shortest curtain rods I could find and that is what I used on each side of the windows. I hung them with little curtain hanging rings.

At first they were just hanging there and I thought they would look better bunched up and tied.

To achieve this "bunched up" effect on each curtain panel, I took some burgandy ribbon and a small cup hook (screwed into the wall behind each panel). I tied the ribbon tight around the curtain panel, then hung the ribbon onto the cup hook. Then fluffed.

This fabric is sooooo lovely.

I love it!!! I don't usually do burgandy, but I'm starting to become fond of it.

I think I will have to change everything else in the room to go with these curtains! I love them. And the fact that I made them myself makes me really happy.

One more thing I did to give them a lil' something special...I thought the tops needed some ooomph. So I stuffed the curtain rod pocket area with tissue paper. Now they are fluffy and perky at the top. Love!!

If you have been contimplating doing some home made curtains, I totally think you should GO FOR IT! It was super easy. Iron on fuseable webbing was so simple!

Have a great day!

Housecapated!

2009-10-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

We found out we have ANOTHER leak in the main water supply line that runs from the outside meter to our house.

What does this mean? Every house has a main water supply pipe that runs from your water meter to your house, underground. This is the one and only supply line that brings water into your house. I noticed that our water bill had doubled in the last 2 months, so we knew we had a problem.

It was easy to diagnose, because this happened to us just last year.

We shut off the master water valve in the crawlspace, then checked the meter outside...the happy little arrows on the meter were still spinning away. That means...yahoo....another leak.

Last year when this happened, we had to dig a huge hole through our driveway, dig down 4 feet, replace the leaking pipe section, then fill the hole back up and replace the concrete. VERY labor intensive. Hubby did all the work with his dad and uncle, poor guys.

This time, we are going to have to replace the entire water supply line. Can you tell how happy I am about this? NOT!

We have a guy coming out tomorrow to give us a quote on the cost to replace the entire line. (Please be a quote that doesn't make me pass out, please oh please oh please!).

I think replacing the entire water line is the only way to go so that this whole situation does not become an annual repair-a-thon.

I know this is a boring subject...but this is the type of stuff that I really detest when it comes to home ownership. I know all homes have repairs, but REALLY the MAIN water supply line that runs under our DRIVEWAY?! Let me remind you that this house is only 21 years old. Let me also remind you that we have only been here for 3 of those 21. 3 years and 2 leaks in the main water supply line....Really?!

All I want to do is paint, and decorate and paint some more. It really buggers me when the fun projects get totally sidelined by boring and expensive ones....I'm feeling Housecapated!!

Thanks for bearing with me.

UPDATE: $3500 before tax. They replaced the line in 1 day. After the all was said and done, almost $4000 for one afternoon of work. At least its done now. Hope this house doesnt have anything major break for a while now.

Halloween Wreath

2009-10-08T01:12:00.000-07:00

I made a Halloween Wreath this week. I used a styrofoam wreath, black paint and tons of ribbon. I have a lot of ribbon laying around. I kinda have a "problem" with ribbon. Especially grosgrain...I love it!

First, I bought a 10 inch styrofoam wreath at the dollar store and painted it black (I've seen these same hard styrofoam wreaths at the craft store for $5. I only paid ONE dollar for mine at The Dollar Tree).

Do you like my fancy dancy paper plate palette?

Wreath during painting process.

Next I cut 14 inch long sections of ribbon:

Then I started tying the ribbon on using a double knot.

I alternated the ribbon colors, making a pattern. You just tie and tie and TIE ribbon all the way around. When that was done, I cut all the ribbon ends in a slant:

To prevent the ribbons from fraying, I "heat sealed" the ends. This was just a matter of taking a lighter and getting the flame almost touching the ribbon end...only do this for 1 or 2 seconds. BE CAREFUL, I managed to burn only one finger. Bonus!

Then I hung one long ribbon to the top and took a pic:

I wasn't totally loving it, so I added a little wooden sign that I have had for years.

Here she is!!

The photos really don't do it justice. It's super cute in person. I think I will hang it on my front door!

I might still do some adjusting to it. I think that I might add a few more swiss dot black ribbon pieces...that is, if I can find it! I could only do the lower half of the wreath because I ran out and I can't find it at the fabric store. I haven't checked Michael's yet...hope they have some. OR, I will just take the 7 strips that are on there already, and rearrange them to be more spaced out??! Well, not tonight. Im all tuckered out!

Have a great day!

Monogram Craft

2009-10-05T01:16:00.000-07:00

I love these, and I love that I made them myself!

First, I bought a pack of hard, flat canvas panels at the craft store.

Next, I painted them dark brown with Burnt Umber acrylic paint:

For the "W" canvas, I took my craft store plastic stencil and 'Rich Espresso Metallic/ craft paint, and with my handy dandy Spouncer I painted the background for the "W":

Next, I printed out a "W" using Word and then cut it out with an exacto knife. I don't have a picture of the "W" stencil I made, but here is a pic of other monogram stencils I have made:

Just a little advice: I have made the stencils out of regular printer paper and I have made them with white card stock. I think both work fine. Sometimes printer paper is better because it is flexible to work with a curved or an (new word alert) un-flat (??) surface.

Next, I taped the "W" onto the canvas and filled in the W with a creamy white. I used white craft paint with a tiny dab of the Rich Espresso craft paint mixed in to get the perfect off-white color.

As seen above, here is the finished "W" monogram:

For the Fleur de Lis, I used the same process. I painted the entire canvas with burnt umber, then took a pre-made craft store stencil, Rich Espresso Metallic craft paint, and spouncer.

That's it! It really was very easy to do and I have since made one for my friend. I think they make great gifts and add a special touch to your home.

Have a great Monday!!

I WIN!

2009-10-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! I am so excited. Not sure if you heard me.... I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

I won a giveaway! Yay!! I've never won one before, so indulge me here :).

Over at Hoity Toity Baby, I was put into a random drawing for a saaaaweeet cookbook written by Jessica Seinfeld. And..I actually won! YAY Again!

I've had a rough week with both my kids being sick and this really made me feel better!

I'm off to buy a lottery ticket! I mean..err... Back to decorating!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Halloween Decor

2009-09-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

Fall blew into the Pacific Northwest today. It really feels like Halloween outside and so I got started on my decorating. I don't think its too early...only 2 days left until October!!

I tried to make most of my decorations this year. Or at least use more creativity than I have in the past. We LOVE Halloween at my house and it is a month long celebration for us.

Here are some items that I've put out already.

Caw Caw Caw-ute Entry:

The twig pumpkins are from Target. They were in the $1 section, and were only $2.50 each. I fancied them up by putting them on candleholders and putting black maribou underneath. I also put some ribbon around the middle of the candlesticks to add some Halloween spice. The 2 crows were from the Dollar Tree. Score!

Freaky Family Room Mantel:

I think the glitter skulls are my favorite this year. You can get them everywhere. Even the Dollar Tree!

Here's a lil' graveyard-ish scene...not sure where its final resting place will be (pun intended):

Spooky Formal Living Room:

I cannot take the entire credit for coming up with the glittery skulls, in glass, spanish moss combo. I was deeply inspired by this post at Let it Shine. That post got me kicked into full-on Halloween decorating mode! Thanks Alyshia!

I already owned the candle holder. I bought the glitter skull at JoAnn Fabric (they are also at the Dollar Tree). I got the Spanish Moss at the Dollar tree and the Spooky sign for 2.99 at Target. About a $5 project. I loved it so much I made 2 of them!

Hope you enjoyed looking at these. I am going to make a Halloween wreath next. Fingers crossed!

Halloween Preview

2009-09-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

My daughter was really sick all weekend, so I haven't had a chance to add a new post. I am going to get one up today.

Here is a preview:

More coming later...I just didn't want you to think I'd forgotten my ladies!! Now off to make chicken noodle soup for my lil' sickie. Poor girl.

Award Time!

2009-09-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone!

As I mentioned earlier this week, I received my first blog award from Chantel at Growing Up...Townsend Style! Now it is my turn to pass the award on to 6 of you, listed below.

Award Winners!:

1. Beverly at The 3 Clutters - She was my first follower and her blog is great. Go Bev!!

2. Koo and Poppet - She has cute Etsy shop and blog. I love her handmade misfit creatures!

3. Hoity Toity Baby - Great blog content and great blog name.

4. Miss Mustard Seed - She is a fabulous painter. Very intricate and very lovely.

5. Fiona and Twig - Anne is very creative and loves everything vintage. I like her already!

6. I'm Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor - Helene had her SITS day this week and that is how I found her. Her writing is so witty, so funny and so TRUE!

Ladies - HERE is your award (loud applause).

As part of receiving the award there is a fun survey. After taking it, pass it onto the recipients you choose.

Here are the rules for the Over the Top Award:
1. You Can Only Use One Word in your survey answers!
2. Pass this along to 6 of your favorite bloggers!
3. Alert them that you have given them this award!!!
4. Have fun!
Here is my survey::

1. Where is your cell phone? - Counter
2. Your hair? - Ponytail
3. Your mother? - Tired
4. Your father?- Busy
5. Your favorite food?- Italian
6. Your dream last night?- Weirrrrd.
7. Your favorite drink?- Tea
8. Your dream/goal?- Self-employed
9. What room are you in? Family
10. Your hobby? - Hairbows
11. Your fear? - Death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? - Healthy
13. Where were you last night? - Bed
14. Something that you aren’t? - Mean
15. Muffins? - Ok!
16. Wish list item? - House
17. Where did you grow up? - Texas
18. Last thing you did? - Coffee
19. What are you wearing? - PJs
20. Your TV? - On
21. Your pets? - Dog
22. Friends? - Lovely
23. Your life? - Full
24. Your mood? - Focused
25. Missing someone? - BFF
26. Vehicle? - Liberty
27. Something you’re not wearing? - Makeup
28. Your favorite store? - JoAnn
29. Your favorite color? - Black
30. When was the last time you laughed? - Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? - Unknown
32. Your best friend? Many
33. One place that I go to over and over? Target
34. One person who emails me regularly? Trish
35. Favorite place to eat? Restaurant

Have a great weekend!

Vase Craft

2009-09-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday!! One more day...until the weekend, hang in there!

I got a teeny bit crafty and covered a vase with some twine that I bought in the $1 bin section at Target.

First I got all my supplies out, here is the twine (sorry my hand looks strange in this pic) :

I think I have a double jointed thumb...look at that weirdness! It doesnt normally look like that...or maybe it does...reality check.

Second, I took the small vase from my powder room:

Next, I took my double sided tape:

I probably could have hot glued it, but I didn't want the twine to be permanent. I tend to get tired of decor somewhat quickly and I was worried that I would hate this vase in a week. It makes me feel better knowing I can just take the twine right off, if I want to.

Next put a strip of double sided tape vertically down the side of the vase, then start wrapping the twine around around the vase:

Easy peasy! Here it is whilst I wrap:

Finito!

Then I put the vase back into the Powder Room where it lives:

I think it adds a lil' sumthin'...hopefully I can keep it there for a while before I change it again. It would be fun to wrap it with coordinating ribbon for the holidays, too! Just to have that little Punch O' Color.

Run to target and grab your $1 twine!

3 column blog and and My First Award!

2009-09-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

I am volunteering at my daughter's school tomorrow...early bird style. So I will get right to it.

One tiny bit of boring stuff:

Can any of you tell me how to get my blog to have 3 columns? I am using one of the minima templates and I think I am supposed to insert some html to get the column on the left....? The left side of my blog looks so lonely.
*UPDATE - I figured it out. I went to Cutest Blog on the Block and they had step by step instructions. Super easy! Thanks Helene for the tip!

Now onto the juicy part:

I won my first blog award! It was bestowed upon me from Chantel at Growing Up...Townsend Style!
Chantel has made my week! Thanks Chantel, I am so very honored!

I will leave another post soon (I need to get some details from Chantel) to tell you how you can become a winner of this fabulous award, too! I get to choose 6 people....So excited!

I also have been working on some Halloween decor that I can't wait to share.

Mamma's off to dreamland now!

Hutch - Before and After

2009-09-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of Thrify Decor Chick , and she inspired me to refinish a piece of furniture that I was this close to giving away. I thought I would refinish it before I decided if I wanted to keep it or not.

Here is what it looked like before:

I always thought this was an eyesore, but it was so useful! I had nothing else to put in this spot and this piece was passed on to me from a family member that is no longer with us. I have a huge sentimental attachment to it, even though it was...well....u.g.l.y. SO, I thought I would try to refinish it first to breath some new life into it.

First, I removed the hardware and shined it up good. Then, I primed the wood, then painted it with a quart of satin black paint and a sponge roller.

In case I am the last one on earth to realize it, sponge rollers are THE BEST. Zero brushstrokes and so easy! I did have to use a small sponge brush for all the nooks and cranny's.

The backing on the piece is just a piece of fiberboard...I think. All I know is, it isn't real wood and I didn't know what to do with it.

So, again, I referred to my lady, and her awesome idea of Paintable Wallpaper .

I removed the backing, found some paintable wallpaper at Lowe's and covered the hideous fake wood backing. I then painted it with the same satin black paint and reattached it. Put the hardware back on annnnndddd.......

Here it is now:

Look away from the decor....I am still adjusting it! In fact, I think I have rearranged it 10 times since I took this pic. I am not even sure this piece is in the right room...but the point is that it looks SO much better!

It took about 4 days ,with drying time, to get this done.

Ok...I got un-lazy and took a close up pic of the painted wallpaper backing:

Then I rearranged the decor a bit:

Not sure I'm loving the decor....but the hutch looks WAY better!

Thanks for checking it out!

P.S. Forgot to mention that I lightly distressed the edges...except I still have like 6 edges to go before its "done" !

Formal Living Room - Before and After

2009-09-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

We have been working a lot lately on the formal living room. There are soaring cathedral ceilings in the formal. It was INSANE to paint the largest wall behind the fireplace. It was so scary watching my husband teeter on his tippy toes on the ladder. He rocked this wall though. We most recently painted the largest wall and I've been working on the mantle decor. We shall not be defeated by this house!

Here is the Before:

Plain Jane walls, but it was awesome to start from a clean slate. By the way, this fireplace is huge.

My 2 year old can walk into it without bending. It has to be one of my favorite things in this entire house. I have always dreamed of having a big BIG fireplace.

Here are the latest pics of the room now:

Not too shabby, eh?

I am usually messing around with the mantle decor. I can't seem to get it just right. I really don't want to clutter it up and I think it only looks right with a few big items on it. These candle sticks are about 2-4 feet tall and yet they still look dwarfed by the big wall. Hopefully, someday I will get it perfect.

This is my favorite piece in the room. We are Disneyland freaks:

Have you ever seen hand-cut sillouettes made? We had them done at Disneyland on our last trip and it took the woman about 2 minutes....yes, TWO minutes to cut all of these by HAND by just looking at us. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. You HAVE to check that out if you are ever there. It is a must see. (I told you we were freaks)

One more shot of the living room from the staircase:

Ok...one more:

We still have a little more painting to do. You can see under the window area that is not yet done. I also want to get something to put on top of the curio cabinets. Any ideas?

Let's review, shall we? :

Before:

After:

Have a productive Thursday!

Don't...I mean, DO fence me in

2009-09-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

One of the first items we tackled at this house was building a new fence. When we moved here the fence was completely rotten and falling down.

Like This:

My hubby and his friend worked tirelessly all weekend to get most of the new fence up. It took tons of wood, tons of concrete and much sawing and nail-gunning. Oh, what fun we had!.....not.

Here is one side of the fence after the posts were in. Now we just had to wait for concrete to dry...tick...tick...tick:

And that was only one side. There is the entire street side of the fence, too.

See here:

Then, there are 2 gates to build.....IN. THE. RAIN.

Doesn't this project look like it was just so much fun? NO??

How about in the rain AND in the dark?

See? NOW we are having "fun".

After all of those good times, here is what we ended up with:

Sooooo worth it! It has been 2 1/2 years since this fence went up, and man, what a job! Mamma is so glad to have that checked off her list. Onto the next!

Before and After - Powder Room

2009-09-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

It's my Texas Bathroom! Or at least that is what I call it. I grew up in Texas and sometimes I get all nostalgic when I miss it, and that is the result of the inspiration in my powder room. This is one of those projects that we thought would be fairly straightforward. But, just like all of my "this will be so easy" projects, it ended up being more difficult than it should have been. Everything went smoothly except the toilet install. It took like 4 days because of installation issues. My husband could NOT get the base screws to properly attach to the house's original thingies on the...oh forget it...i dont know what I'm talking about...It was hard, ok?!

I knew I wanted to gut the entire bathroom and put in a new toilet, sink, faucet, hardware, mirror, lighfixture and crown molding. My dear hubby is the one that does all the labor around here, and he was so good about letting me add to the list of things I wanted to do in there. I think he felt safe that since it was a small room, I couldn't go too crazy with my wish list.

Anyway, here is the before pic of the downstairs bathroom. Can you believe I lived in this house for 2 YEARS before we did anything to this room?

BEFORE:

HOW DID I NOT GO CRAZY! Probably because there were 100 other more important things to tackle in this house first.

And now....ahhhhh, so much better!

AFTER:

This little box holds/hides extra TP. What do you think? Wrong spot? Too big?

And finally:

Don't mess with Texas.

I grew up in Texas so I LOVE this. I made it from a birthday card my best friend sent me. I saved it for about 4 years before I finally framed and hung it. It is perfect in my "Texas" Bathroom.

I am always messing around with the items on the shelf and I cannot seem to get it just right. Sometimes, I think the shelf is too low. Sometimes, I think the accessories are too small. Sometimes, I want to move the pic. Sometimes, I feel like I nut, sometimes I don't.

Hope you are having a WONDERFUL weekend!

The Backstory.

2009-09-11T00:38:00.000-07:00

We purchased our house from my aunt and uncle for a GREAT price and are forever grateful to them for working with us to help us get in this house. Without them, then this housecapade would have never begun. Even though I may get frusterated sometimes, these adventures are a huge part of our memories, and that makes for a full life. Thanks J & J!

Before we decided to purchase the house, they (the aunt and uncle) had a contactor work for a year to redo several aspects of the interior to move it from 1988 into the 21st century. All the oak moldings in the house were replaced with white wood. All the dark wood doors were replaced with refreshing bright white wood doors. New light fixtures in the dining room, eating nook and bathrooms. New hot water heater. All the walls and ceilings were freshly painted..and I mean ALL. New front door. All the carpet was replaced. New hardwood floors installed. Basically, just about all of the interior was replaced for cosmetic purposes. If they would not have done those things before we bought the house, we would have never been able to afford to do them all ourselves. Even though all the interior had been redone, there were still some key things missing that we needed for this house to function. Such as blinds, a cooktop, all the towel bars and toilet paper holders, and closet doors. We didn't really need closet doors, I guess, for the house to "function"..but it sure was nice once we put them in. We got the cooktop right away, but still went a year without getting permanent blinds. We used those paper ones for a year...A YEAR!

With all of those major replacements out of the way, we could see this diamond of a house would be a very smart investment. We knew we still had a huge HUGE job ahead of us to make this house what we had envisioned and we are continually working to make our house, our home.

Here are some pics of the house when we did the walk through prior to purchasing. So much has changed since then and I can't wait to show you all that we have done, and will do in the future.

Before:

Whew! I'm exhausted just from looking at those. They don't look too bad right?....right????
Well, just wait until you see what we've accomplished since these were taken. I am so excited/proud and tired.
I just wanted to give you an idea of what we started with. I will post these Before's again when I post the After's. Hope you want to see them! This is like free therapy for me.

When all else fails...start blogging.

2009-09-10T22:29:00.001-07:00

Well, here we go!

My husband and I moved into a 20 year old house about 3 1/2 years ago. Since day one, it has been more than an adventure (at times its closer to a nightmare). We have put SO much time and energy into our home with a huge amount of repairs/remodeling/decorating/painting/planting...you name it. We have come to accept that these are just the "perks" that come with owning an older home (a' la Money Pit).

Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our house. And feel so blessed to be able to live in such a wonderful home, but it has been a labor of love.....and sweat...and tears...and blood....and ER visits....and...and...and...you get the idea.

I started this blog as an outlet for me to share our house capades. I would love to hear yours too...it will make me feel less crrrazy!