Month 2 . Here are the before pics

We are starting our 2nd month of our project. Actually it started last week so I am behind now, Dang! I hate starting out behind on things. So I better get a move on, and I am sure posting this post alone will take as long as doing the projects. I don't know why posting is sooo hard. I have to be doing something wrong. Anyway......

I picked projects for this month that will require very little money to complete.

Project 1 painting the laundry room and sunroom. It was started and then abandoned when we had a family emergency and never was picked up again.

These two pictures show the contrast of the before and after. We are covering up the green and painting yellow. We already have the paint bought for this project.

Project 2

redoing the kitchen backsplash...... again!!

It was a single row of tile with green painted wall. I did not like it at all. So we put in the beadboard. I think it was in Sept. So it was painted a lovely shade of gray and lots of poly that as time went on got more and more yellow and looked terrible!! If just keeps getting worse. So I need to sand, prime and repaint and then get the right poly so it doesn't turn yellow.

You can see on the two following pictures the difference from what it is suppose to be to the terrible smokers house for 50 years color it turned. The light spots are where my hubby touched it up before it started turning yellow, and that paint didn't have poly on it.

So I already have the primer , and paint for this. I will need to buy a different poly a water based one this time. Live an learn.

Project #3

Magazines

I have a love hate relationship with them. I love looking at a magazine it is my sanctuary to immerse myself in one. However they multiply I have a hard time parting with them. so I have to continually sort, and purge them.

I have not done anything with the ones I kept when we moved, except add to them in the two baskets that you see, and the box is full of the ones I moved with . This takes up the whole floor on my side of the bed.

I need to purge, and sort , and come up with a storage plan.

I do find I buy allot less since I read blogs now as my inspiration.

yes, I was sorting socks right before taking pictures so those are matched clean socks in the pic waiting to be put away.... sorry about that.

And Project #4 This was was in the after pictures of last month. We will see this corner a couple more times before it is all said and done. This month I want hooks installed on this wall. This should be easy. I felt like I needed an easy one considering the first 3.

So there is my 4 projects for this month. It will be a relief when I can check these things off the never ending list. I am ready for a project that is a little more creative then what I have done so far......

The Afters of Month one of Our new year new sister project.

I have had these projects done before our deadline , which was Feb 14th but have had a problem getting the picture posted. So my sister has had no proof that I actually did them all. I have to get better at the posting part. She has her before and afters posted so check them out and see what she has been busy doing. If you missed what we are doing check here. And better descriptions of my before are here

PROJECT 1

Here is the before of the table in the library

Unusable and made me crazy

Here is the after . We can actually use the table. We hung up the shelf to clear more space on the table, and I wanted space for the art caddy I made. I was going to throw the file bag hanging on the door away since I had no use for it. But as I was looking for a good place to put color books close to the art supplies, this is what came about, the color books fit perfectly on there side, and stay hidden.

Here is a close up of the art caddy, I got the two pieces at a thrift shop, one was a ugly brown lazy susan, and the other I think was a condiment holder but no longer had the cups in them. I painted them and glued them together. I finally found cups that would fit in the holes. and the little buckets fit perfectly beside them. It holds skinny markers , fat markers, color pencils, crayons, and scissors. and the the whole thing spins and fits nicely under the shelf to make more table space. I am thrilled with it.

This is a close up of the shelf. I have had it forever, picked it up at a garage sale for a couple bucks it has been sitting on a bench just as a display shelf ever since I bought it. I decided it needed to be more useful now. I picked up the buckets at thrift stores and target dollar spot, I lined the back with wrapping paper to liven it up, I like the floral ( bottom middle slot). However until the wild wallpaper in the room goes away I can't add too much color or pattern in this room. the buckets hold glue, twist up crayons, pencils, small markers, erasers and small stapler. The two baskets on top hold some sewing items. Yes the clock is hanging on the wall not leaning. It needs raised or moved. It no longer works there since we hung the shelf. All and all it has worked out great.


PROJECT 2

This the before on the closet we have been building out of a side porch on our home. During Christmas it had turned into a dumping ground for all stuff with no place to go and decoration boxes.

This picture is standing at one end looking down. That is the door into our room on the left, and the box on the end is a closet in a closet we built using the other door that came off onto the porch. I will have to show that more latter.

Standing at the other end looking the opposite direction.

Here is the after, I am thrilled, to have a closet again. Our clothes have been hanging on a rack in our room since we moved in 9 months ago. It is not done But we got more done this month then I had even hoped. We got it all painted, trim painted, ceiling painted, carpet laid, rods hung and about half the shelves put in. We

Painted it a light blue gray, with white trim

and a white beadboard ceiling . I love it ! it is

so calming. Who doesn't need a calm closet, If I shown you the wallpaper in the bedroom you would understand.

this is standing at one end looking to the back, this is the ironing board space my hubby has forever. It was built to hold this ironing board, a iron hanger, and an outlet for an iron and enough floor space to iron.

this is standing at the back looking toward the door, there are a couple more projects that will be happening in this space. , But look at that mirror on the brick wall.... swoon. luv it.

PROJECT 3

Before: the Library shelves

The original after of the shelves

and a picture I took today a month latter with out me having to do anything to them

Yippee!!!!!

See you can tell its a new picture, the book in the basket is a book about spring. That basket is for our books for that season or holiday so they don't get lost in the shuffle and miss getting read.

PROJECT NUMBER 4

Before: under the kitchen sink. ( those dishes are clean, they are on the clean side )

Here's is a close up of the wrapping paper I modpodged to the bottom, and then

I put clear contact paper over it. It is so happy

Ya!! Doors and painted a lovely white.

Here is how the cabinet looks now, I also painted

the inside of the cabinet yellow to help brighten it

so it wasn't such a dark hole . That really helped

allot. I Love how clean and organized it is.

That is my 4 projects all done, everyone one of them has made a big difference in the living in the house. I didn't no any staging for any of these pictures as you can tell. Just keeping it real. I mean 8 of us do live here.

Now to post the next 4 projects for this month. I have one of them done already ya!!! This month I am picking projects that aren't going to cost me money as it is real tight around here this month. So Check back in soon to see what I am working on this month.

4 weeks of Before projects for the month.

Here is a list of the Before pictures of my projects for the next 4 weeks. In our New year New Sister project.


First up is the table in the Library. This Table is the kids Art and craft table, homework, and I sew at this table when I sew. It usually is bad but not quite this bad, It does have a stack of puzzles and games on it that were just added to it. It does accumulate allot of stuff on it, and the supplies are a mess. I want to clear it and come up with a good system for the supplies that need to go here.

Next is a Big, Huge , Giant project. It is finishing the inside of this closet. We started this closet in Oct. Our room did not have a closet, but it did have a side porch on it , so we enclosed it. We got as far as drywall mudding and taping, and we are terrible at it. So it was slow process. The holidays came and we started stacking all kinds of holiday boxes in here, everything that needed to be out of sight, so it became a storage bin. It is time to get this done so I can have a closet. The top picture is standing at one end , and the bottom picture is standing at the other end. ( see the art work on the wall, Em was excited that she had permission to draw on the wall.)

For this project We need to finish sanding, scrape ceiling, prime ceiling, paint ceiling, paint trim, paint walls, paint the bead board wall, paint moulding, lay carpet, install shelves and rods, build shoe storage, put in moulding. Add hooks to beadboard wall. That is a long list! I don't know if we can get this done in 4 weeks.

( those are clean dishes in the sink)

Last of the 4 projects, my under the sink cabinet. This has looked like this since Sept I believe. We had to replace the cabinet due to a leak, from before we bought the house. So we put in a new cabinet, and new sink, and faucet, and garbage disposer. I painted the cabinet and primed the doors and there it has sat. without doors, unorganized. So it is time to finish the doors, paint the inside of cab to brighten it up, cover the bottom of the cab, and organize it. So it is usable space that looks better. This cabinet replacement of course lead to redoing the back splash right then and that will be an upcoming project to fix that issue. (GRRR)

Below is just a little project , because I was on a roll this weekend. I was trying to find a good place for gloves by the back door, that the dog couldn't get. I have this little dresser by the back door, and the top drawer were still full of summer stuff, sunblock, bug spray , little fans, bubbles, sidewalk chalk. All the stuff we used all the time this summer, and I guess once we stopped using those items I just gave up the drawer. So I cleared it out to another storage space for off season and moved winter in to the drawer. In it is garage opener, shopping bags, and gloves. Perfect.

I think I have enough to keep me busy for a few weeks. I really want to get it all done. My list of upcoming projects is soooo long.

Week one of the New year Sister Project

My sister and I have started a new thing for the new year. We will have 4 projects to get done in a month, or 1 a week. We should do one a week , some will take longer then a week so 4 in a month. And when we get them done , we will make each other have a "good mail day" just for fun. But being accountable is the biggest motivator and having someone care about what and how you are doing on these mundane tasks that WILL make life easier, Is a Great Bonus. Us moms and housewives do allot of projects and are proud of ourselves but don't really have anyone to share it with that will care about it. So its is nice to have someone to show.

So for the first of my 4 weeks projects

The kid part of the library shelves. They are out of control, and it makes me nuts.

this is part of the library shelves, this shelf holds the little kid book, and a few educational toys on the bottom.

another picture of the same shelves

Here is the after of the same shelves

Another After shot of the shelves because they are soo pretty. We did organize the books by color and it looks very pretty. An added Bonus the girls like putting the books back away in the color order, to keep the rainbow.

It did inspire me work on more of the shelves so here is a picture of more of the shelves, This is only half of the book shelves. The rest will have to be another project, they include allot more office supply stuff, which I do not have a system that works yet for the office yet.

So that is the first of my projects , It does make me happy to walk past those shelves now.

I am dreaming of a heartfelt Christmas

( from: myplaceoryours)

It seems like Christmas is right around the corner especially when you are tooling around the internet, blogs are filled with Christmas ideas already. Of course this makes since when most of the blogs I read are stay at home moms that make everything and are trying to make and do great things as frugally as possible. And this takes time people. If you have never made homemade gifts or decorations, or tried to pull off a Christmas with little money you have no idea how much time and work this is to pull off. So As I am looking around for great inspiring ideas on the dear blogs I follow. I came across Roots and Wings blog. It is new to me . But I enjoyed spending some time there seeing what she is all about. And I came across her 8 weeks of heartfelt and homemade holidays Just reading about it Puts you in the right frame of mind to gear up for the holiday season. She asked what are your priorities for the Christmas season this year. I have been thinking about this allot this year. As I am in a nesting mood lately. Or as I say I want to circle the wagons , meaning making a circle of wagons to keep my family in and safe and keep everything else out.
This tends to happen when ever we have had a very busy time or stressful time. It makes me want to circle the wagons pull what I love close and ignore the rest.

My priorities for Christmas are always the same I would say. I want to have allot of family time .
I want to watch Christmas movies all snuggled on the couch, drink hot chocolate after being outside in the cold. Having a home filled with home cooking and plenty of baking. looking at Christmas lights, seeing Santa. My ultimate vision in my head would be my home decorated and the mess cleaned up, we always decorate together but its the mess after that, that distorts that image. So in this image the house is decorated There is Christmas music playing, and Everyone is around in our small Living room and dining room either reading, working on a craft, or baking. But we are all together just content in our little world we have here. o.k in my image its calm and fairly quiet but that is so not reality around here. Our house is never quite if we are all in one room it is loud crazy and funny. Never a dull quiet moment around here. But with 6 kids what should I expect.... Not quiet. So I am happy when its all noisy and crazy as long as it is happy noise. I leave out the shopping part in this image all together if you didn't notice because it is the most stressful part of Christmas Its never ending , the wrapping is never ending. I use to really enjoy it and the wrapping but I am past all that . Again the whole trying to pull of a great Christmas with little money is allot of work and can be exhausting. So in my image it is all done and wrapped. This year I want to find some new ways to have the Jesus Christ in our Christmas this year, Something interesting and truly meaningful to all the kids It is hard to do these kind of things which such a wide age span in kids, so I am on the lookout for this this year. That is my project.

Now you have seen my vision now for some reality that we do do and is a MUST DO every year And it is a big chunk of my vision. We have our Annual ______ Christmas Slumber Party. We started it when our oldest was about 4 ( he will turn 20 in Jan) so it has been going on for awhile now.
We start out the party with putting t0gether a gingerbread house it is usually not ready for a magazine cover when finished but certainly done by 6 kids. ( last year we tried to make a rice krispy house it was a disaster within minutes!! then the scavenger hunt starts we buy 3-4 items for each kid ( for $1 or less each) and we have clues for them to follow around the house to find their gift. It is a BIG deal around here. The present itself has very little to do in the fun. This takes awhile. And while they are doing this I am cooking our buffet or unhealthy foods for this party. we have our favorites that we must have such as reindeer poop dip ( cream cheese and chili ) , pizza rolls, deep fried ravioli, cheese dip, veggies w/ ranch, chick nuggets, cheese , sausage and crackers. Its a big buffet that we can always eat the leftovers the next day. We then have a long list of movies to watch the most important Muppet Christmas carol, Jingle all the way, Grinch both cartoon and movie. polar express, elf, I'll be home for Christmas. As you can see we have to start early and stay up till weeee hours in the morning. I would say this is my favorite Christmas party , and the one I stay up for the latest. If the kids write at school about their favorite thing to do at Christmas time this is what they write about. My husband and I are already making plans on how to do this when they are all older and grown. We have ideas like scavenger hunts they have to drive around town for. And ginger bread house competitions with prizes.
I am in the Christmas spirit already and I am still deluded that if I get a jump start I will have more down time in December. HAhAhahah . But until Dec actually gets here and I am behind then I can tell myself that.
Actually until Nov 27th I can tell myself that.
It is like anything you do before thanksgiving you are on the ball, ahead of the game. and black Friday you are on time and that Sat you are officially behind in the game. We get one day to be one time!!!

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

This lady is unbelievable with her sewing skills. I seen her contest for the Halloween costumes she made, allice in wonderland they are AMAZING! I have a couple girls that would love them and it would be so cute for them to be these matching costumes. I really really want to win.

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!


Check it out and get your entry in also.

New Bathroom Finally!

We are finally done. It was a labor of love. it was a cheap redo , well of course it was, I did it but this might be the ultimate cheap redo for me. This is a Tiny tiny bath room so it needed all the help it could get to seem bigger. Before we bask in the pretty lets look at the before


Look at that expensive big crown molding, of course all 100 year old homes have that right.... Well not this one. We had door trim molding in the basement we painted it white, and we bought very small trim at Sutherlands that was like $1.79 a piece we painted that white . We hung them both up there with about 6 inch space between and then we painted the wall white between. It looks fabulous. You do not know it is not big crown molding just looking at it. And the total cost for that was $6.50 I believe since we had the top trim in the basement. But even that is cheap cheap stuff about $2.75 a piece.
My Fan makes me so Happy because it did make me so unhappy we got everything all painted looking good and the fan ( sorry no before, but imagine a $20 fan with wood grain blades, and bright gold metal, that had seen its better day. ) I looked terrible up there. I decided I would try to paint it before I bought one , I had nothing to lose it wasn't staying up there looking like that. So I ( I, meaning dear hubby) took all the blades down I cleaned them well, and spray painted them white and dear hubby sprayed the fan rubbed bronze spray paint while it hung on the ceiling. It looks sooo good, it looks like we bought a new fan. cost $0 we had the paint . but it was $1.00 white from Walmart and $5.00 paint from Sutherlands.
Do you remember this cabinet? I know it looks like it is new. but it is but a labor of love. Same cabinet as this
So I sanded it all , used wood putty to fill in the carved in designs, sanded them flush on the drawers, We added trim ( screen trim , super cheap $1.25 , for 8 ft) we added the trim to the front top and the door. It covered up the engraved section on 99% of it , but nothing a little caulk can't fix, We primed and painted it country white semi gloss same at the walls. I needed different handles but needed a cheap fix, I took of the excisting knobs off sanded them ( they were porcelain ) spray primed them and spray painted silver on them. Again if it didn't work I wasn't out anything if it didn't work they had to go. I chose silver to match the faucet and shower faucet, I really wanted black. But silver looks fine and they are holding up GREAT not one scratch and with a family of 8 that is good. I do need to add one back to the door. I took it off it was in the center of the door I thought it made it looked dated, so I filled in that hole and I want to put the knob in the corner but I need a longer bolt since it will have to also go through the trim work.

How about that black mirror. I just took the door down and spray painted it black. I could not decide what to paint it with it being on both the white and green wall I couln't use either of those colors so good old black it was and I think it looks great. cost part of a $1.oo can of gloss black paint.

The shower curtan was a $.10 find at a garage sale I was sooo excited it had the cloth curtain and plastic liner. I think it is perfect.

the paneling was sanded , primed and painted semi gloss country white from walmart $15.00.
The walls are a custom green. For my laundry room that joins this room I wanted a green so I bought an oops can of green paint I didn't like it it was too minty. So we added a gallon of white it did nothing , so we added another, and a 1/2 gallon of dark brown to darken it a little. and a couple bottles of craft paint brown and we got this green so my one can of painted ended up being in a 5 gallon bucket, so the bathroom is that color. and probably another room will still be this color someday.

We had a new vanity top white we got at a garage sale for $10.00 but it got broke while waiting on the this project so that is sad.

I think that is about it. I had a couple things for the wall I got some big frames from a garage sale for 4 for $1 that I painted white to go on big wall behind door.I was going to layer them on top of each other , and I also got a stack of white platters and saucers to hang on wall behind toilet, however hanging things on plaster walls can not be pretty. and since we are selling I haven't hung anything up I do not want to have chips on the wall. I got the stack of plates of .50 for 8 of them.

So the total for the room

$ 15 white paint we only used half of the gallon so $7.50 really
$ 7 mildew preventer added to both paints
$ .25 for silver paint
$ 1.00 for white spray paint for fan blades
$ .10 shower curtain
$ green paint left over from laundry
$ bronze paint already had used about $.75 of it.
$ 11.00 for all of trim work
$ .50 bucket and tray
$ 1.00 black paint for mirror, sticks, tray
$ free sticks painter black

not on here but bought
$1.00 frames
$.50 plates.

total $31.50

How great is that it looks so much better so much brighter, cleaner and bigger. All that for under $40 can't beat that. I love being in there now.
Oh my stick center piece now has a black crow sitting in it for Halloween decor, it freaked the kids out haha that was worth it. I found the bird stuffed under the sink today, I don't think they liked my decor .