Finished Bathroom

Before

You'll probably have to click on the pictures to read my descriptions. I wanted to tone down the ultra feminine appearance and frankly we were all sick of the blue bow print wallpaper.
Chris hasn't seen it yet. Cross your fingers that he approves.

$600 later this is what we have. It's a lot less cluttered and way more orderly. I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

96 Bags!

Since we've been SO super busy on the bathroom remodel I forgot to tell you about last Sat. nights CVS deal.


The big hit of the trip by far was being "paid" $50 to take 96 BAGS of Lifesavers for FREE! Every bag was free between the b1G1 free sale and our B1G1 free coupons. That's a picture of them in Alex's office chair. We almost had a Lifesaver avalanche just trying to get a picture.

We'll give some to Chris's coworkers, and a lot of other people. I'm sure we will not have a problem finding homes for it all. LOL

We got a few other things. The typical stuff like razors, band aids, soaps, etc. but this was the real wow of the night. :)

And speaking of the bathroom...
All that is left is to find the correct replacement knobs for the sink and shower. (I've made 3 different trips to Lowe's for these and still don't have the right ones!) and I need new bolt covers for the potty. After I get those taken care of I promise to post pictures.
We ended up putting in new flooring which was NOT part of the original plan. But then neither were light fixtures! More to come soon...

July Customer GC Entries List UPDATE

And the winner is GabbriellasCloset2!

I'll be sending you a convo shorty. :) Congrats!

On the last day of each month I draw a name from the pool of customers that have shopped with me.

I'll be doing this on the 30th day of each month throughout the year.

The name I draw will receive a $5 or $10 gift certificate, or free item of their choosing from my shop!

*Only actual purchases count for the drawing. PIFs and trades are not entered to win unless a regular purchase was made at the same time.

*You can see the list of winners on my shop home page under announcements.

Entries for July:

angelbabe6333

GabbriellasCloset2

EDIT: OK it's been a super slow month. Nevertheless the drawing will still be held tomorrow because I am a woman of my word! :) Check back on the 30th for the winning shopper.

Some bathroom pictures.

Keep an open mind until you see the finished result. We're making a transition from roses and bows to masculine faux leather walls. It looks awfully dark at this point but like I said, we aren't done yet.

BEFORE

I saw this technique on HGTV for covering papered walls and not dealing with the hassle of removal. We were able to remove the top of the paper- in some places- but not the adhesive residue beneath, so this was a great option for us.


The first thing you do is "paint" a section of the wall with wood glue and apply tissue paper that was wadded up and then un-wad, leaving as many of the crinkles and wrinkles as you can. Yes, tissue paper like gift wrap tissue. :) You end up with something that looks like the picture above.

DURING

Next we started in painting the papered walls brown, or coffee bean to be exact.


Here's DS Caleb painting the peaks where it is cathedral. Thank goodness he doesn't mind being on a ladder!
A shot of the corner wall completely painted.



Then we went in with the next color which was coffee. As in coffee with creamer color. We thinned the paint with water and wiped in on with cloths. After that we used the same color undiluted and just slung paint all over for the splatter effect. (Those white spots are where light fixtures and outlets go to go after we finish.)

AFTER

So that's all I can share for now. It really looks like leather in real life. Albeit paint splattered leather. LOL I will try to get a better picture of the texture once we are done. I can't wait to get this finished and decorated!

When Hubby Is Away...

the mom will play. LOL- HAHAHA- evil laugh.
I've been wanting to totally redo our master bathroom for quite a while now but every time I bring it up Chris shoots my ideas down. See, Chris can do anything he puts his mind to but he really, really didn't want to tackle the bathroom because it is wallpapered and has real high cathedral ceilings. If you don't know, wallpaper is a nightmare of all nightmares to get off. Chris just wasn't ready for that and never was going to be ready! But me, I was beyond ready for a change.

So what's a girl to do? Well, first she waits till dear ole hubby is out of town for like 2 solid months. LOL Then she watches a lot of home improvement type shows and learns of an awesome way to give wallpapered walls texture and new color without having to actually remove the old paper! Perfect, I thought to myself. How wonderful!
The wheels in the mind begin to turn. Notes are being jotted down. Instructions absorbed like a sponge. A list of materials needed is compiled. And finally a trip to town to make the leap and buy the suppies. Too late to turn back now. I'm in too deep. The money's been spent. Renovations have begun.

As I am gutting the room I smile with glee as I threw out the old light fixtures. I can hear hubby in the back of my mind telling me not to throw them out. Telling me those might come in handy some day for something else. Never mind that two of the globes are broken! Sheesh. I felt 10 years younger when I took down the old mirror with the intention of never hanging it back up again. For I shall buy new light fixtures and a new fabulous mirror. Gutting the bathroom I liberally toss things that I know hubby would want to keep. Things like rusty screws that are just laying around with no purpose. The bathroom mat that will no longer come clean no matter how much I wash it! An old jar that used to have one of his pipes in it.

What was old is rapidly becoming new. The bathroom is looking great, and there's nothing dear hubby can do to stop me. I am a woman mad with power and the freedom to let her creative mind run wild. Bwahahahaha. :)

Pictures coming soon.

What I've been up to.

Edit: A few people have shown interest in purchasing some of my new goodies. I never dreamed anyone would want to buy them. Just goes to show you never know what may happen in blog land. lol
If anyone else wants to buy some of the gift baggies or the soap clothes just send a convo to me here and we can discuss price, and I can make a listing just for you in my etsy shop.

It has been so hot here the past couple of days. Between laundry and the usual housework I've been trying to keep my mind focused on something other than the heat by being creative. Instead of making jewelry I wanted to "play around" with some of my other many hobbies.
So... I thought for today's blog post I would share those things with you.


I started off making 64 little silky fabric gift baggies. They are 5" X4" and I cut some cotton ties for each one. I love how every color of the rainbow runs through this fabric. I may use them to pack my jewelry sales. I may list them as a supply in my etsy shop. I really haven't decided but I had a blast making them. I'm glad I know how to use my sewing machine! :)

I call these Soap Cloths. You might look at these and think I am completely crazy, but bear with me and hear me out.
I really love these because each family member gets their own bar of soap and their own "washcloth". They are filled with Peggy's goat milk soaps which are just super for your skin! They lather extremely. You never have to stop mid wash and re-suds your washcloth, and you never drop your soap because the coasie acts as a grip.
Each one has a loop on the corner to hang your bar to dry between showers. The coasies are made of 100% cotton. They are refillable. Still think I'm crazy? lol
If you thought I was crazy with the Soap Cloth idea then you may really think I've flipped my wig on this one. It is a coffee filter memory book. Or at least it will be when it is finished. When the pages are open it kind of looks like a butterfly.
I am using #2 cone filters for the inner pages and a #4 cone filter to tuck the book away in. My hubby bought the wrong size filters one day so they've just been taking up shelf space ever since. Coffee filter books aren't new. They've been around about a s long as the paper bag albums, or so. I hope to finish this project tonight.



So there it is. I've been a sewing, crocheting, scrapbooking fool lately. Needed a little break from making jewelry. ;) If you made it this far, I thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a bit of feedback and let me know what you think. Yes, even if you think I'm crazy. lol

Meet Spike

EDIT: We know what he is! He is a Cecropia Silkmoth and he is right at a month along in his journey to becoming a moth. We've decided to observe him and with any luck we will see the full transformation within one more month. Totally cool.

Cabin Vacation

You will need to stop the music on my playlist. Otherwise you are about to get bombarded with a two different types of music. LOL

Moo Moo Moo Cards!

Click to enlarge.

I am officially a member of the Moo card cult. LOL

I hear a lot of people are upset that it is hard to get much of a picture on the Moo's. To me that is a plus. I feel that having just a peek leaves potential customers wanting to see more. How do they see more? Look on the back of the card, visit my etsy shop, and wahlah.

I will be using mine as tags for my jewelry. (See the bracelets on the right side.) For earrings I find it is best to have them on the back of the cards so that the picture on the front doesn't distract from the jewelry on the tag.

One thing you should know if you are considering placing an order for Moo cards is simply this; make for SURE that your pictures are very good quality. The pictures on your cards will only be as good as the quality of your photographty skills.

I give them two happy thumbs up! I've already placed a second order. :)

My CVS week 7/13

I didn't take a picture of the haul this week. Bad me. I put most of it away before I remembered that I forgot to. lol
Anyway it was GOOD!
I got:
* 25 FREE bottles of Dawn
*1 Excedrin Migraine 50ct.
*2 Maalox Max
*1 Speed Stick
*1 Neutragena Mascara
*6 Air Wick Freshmatic mini starter kits.
*2 Bayer w/ Heart Advantage 30ct.
* 1 bottle of Tide
* 1 bottle of Gain
and the BIG jackpot was these MONEY MAKERS!
Seven! hardbound photo books. I used this freebie to my advantage by filling them with pictures of my jewelry and attaching a business card in each one.
What a great free promotional tool for me.

My total was $158-ish but I paid less than $5 for everything after ECBs and coupons.

Now the only question is what to do with this mountain of Dawn?! Before you start to think I am REAL BIG hoarder I should tell you that I GAVE away 25 more of the Dawn coupons that I had. So see, I do share. ;)

THEN, as if that wasn't enough to make my day, a girl at the Burger King drive-thru (Alex had to have a Whopper fix!) she saw my car door magnet ad and asked me for my business card.
She said she had been looking for someone that hand makes jewelry. She seemed as excited as I did. I hope she looks me up and likes what she finds in my etsy shop. :)
And here I thought the door magnet was a waste. I only took it because it was free. Guess you just never know, eh?

Pictures of the mini paper bag album.

Ohana means family. :) It's a family themed book.
No pictures yet because I don't know if I'm going to keep it or give it as a gift.

Page 2 has a place for 3 pictures. Page 3 is for 4 cropped photos for the "window", or pictures & journaling.

Another swing open for more pictures page.

On this page the flower swings up. When down it hides a pic. or notes.

The tag on the left page is raised but you can't really tell in this picture. The butterfly is also 3-D.
Next page is same as the one above but with the flower down covering the photo box.

The page on the right side is a pocket page that hold two large tag shaped photo mounts. You can add pictures to the front and the back, making room for 4 pictures + one on the actual page itself behind the tags.

The only bad thing about pictures is that you can't see all the textures. The black silhouette of the butterfly and vines is felt. I used a lot of button mini brads, crystal brads. There's some stamping, tons of inking, a ton of Prima flowers that I inked with my catseye inks. Just a crapload of attention to detail. lol I also made tags that I put in each one of the "pockets": the opening of the bags.

If you want to see a larger view just click on each picture. They all enlarge.

So there it is. I would appreciate any feedback on it, unless you don't like it. In that case keep your opinion to yourself. ;)
Just kidding!

What is this?

Does anyone have an idea what kind of tree this is? I've searched but all the photos and descriptions I've come across are all *off. Either the leaves will be different or the berries won't be exactly the same. This is a tree that is in my yard. It is covered in these berries. I am really wanting to know what it is. If you think you know, please educate me. :)

I scrapped!

Can you believe it? I can't. How long has it been?? AGES!

I've amassed a lot of pictures since the last time I made any layouts but none of them were inspiring to me so, I decided to make a little album instead.
It's made out of brown paper bags and it's about a 6.5X7" size. Ten inner pages, front & back, and three pocket pages to fill with mementos and such.

I am doing it all in the Stella Ruby patterned papers by Basic Grey. I started on it around 8:30pm and worked on it straight through until about 3:30AM. For my seven hour investment I got the book almost completely finished. All that's left to do is decorate the front of the book, make a few tags and note cards for the pockets, and tie fabric and ribbons on the binder on the side.

My scrapping style is vintage Shabby Chic and that is why I think I have a hard time getting inspired to scrap all guy stuff all the time. I am visually and creatively drawn to the floral, inked and aged papers soo much more that masculine papers.

Anywho, I will take pictures and come back and edit this post so that you can see the book later today or tomorrow. -If anyone is interested.

Not going to garden. LOL

In years past my attempts at a real garden failed. Many of you have heard me mention over and again that I do not have a "green" thumb. I am just utterly cursed when it comes to getting plants to grow and flourish.

You might also remember my earlier post about the volunteer pumpkins coming up? Well those are now triple the size they were! Doing most excellently with tons of blooms.

Then there was a tomato that I threw out during the "great tomato scare" about 3 weeks or so ago and guess what. Yep, tomato plants have shot out of the ground.

I also threw out cantaloupe seeds and now have shoots of cantaloupe plants coming out of the ground as well! GO FIGURE! All just discarded. No prepping of the soil, no fertilizer, no nothing, and boom, they grow!

Silly, silly me. All that wasted time when I all I really needed to be doing was just chucking the seeds on the ground. Screw proper spacing, proper watering, proper sunlight to shade exposure. HA. Nature knows what it is doing way better than any growing instructions I've ever tried.
So I've decided that I am not going to go to the trouble of planting a "real" garden. I'm just going to discard my seeds as usual and what volunteers to grow is fine with me. LOL

This weeks CVS trip.

Not very much of a deal this week but that's how it goes some weeks.

10 bottles Dawn
4 cans Pringles (ate one on the way home) lol
3 18oz. bottles Olay w/Ribbons body wash
2 3ct. packs Gillette razors
2 Hershey's
2 pks. CVS pantyliners (for my mom)
2 pks. CVS tampons (for SIL)
1 Olay cosmetic wipes 30ct.
1 Maybelline Define A Line eyeliner
1 32 load bottle of Tide
1 Arizona Green Tea (Not pictured cause it was drank on the way home- lol)

Total: $79.04
Total I paid after coupons and rolling ECBs: $2.04

Just checking in.

I took the gang to see fireworks shows this past Thursday and Friday night. Our town does them a night early so that families can be together for barbecues, picnics, or whatever, instead of being out fighting in the heavy traffic. Isn't that thoughtful? Too bad my hubby couldn't be here.

Then this morning I finally got to the farmers market. I bought some farm fresh eggs, some blueberries, and some home made peanut butter fudge. I can't wait until the corn is ready later on this month. That is next on my list for the market.

And well, that pretty much sums it up for now. I hope you all had nice 4th!

July Customer GC Entries List

On the last day of each month I draw a name from the pool of customers that have shopped with me.

I'll be doing this on the 30th day of each month throughout the year.

The name I draw will receive a $5 or $10 gift certificate, or free item of their choosing from my shop!

*Only actual purchases count for the drawing. PIFs and trades are not entered to win unless a regular purchase was made at the same time.

*You can see the list of winners on my shop home page under announcements.

Entries for July:

angelbabe6333

GabbriellasCloset2