Crafting & Television

It's summer. I don't have to go to school and actually be productive but I can't just sit around all day doing nothing. I will go CRAZY! This is why I occupy my time watching Beverly Hills, 90210 or Gilmore Girls on DVD over and over again while making things (that G thinks are pointless). It's what I do. Anyway, I have been really into crafting blogs lately and have found some great new ideas. I'm pretty into white lately and I first found a 4th of July wreath that I fell in love with. Her's is cuter and it took my some time to not only cut out the fabric but to arrange it. I then came across an idea for garland made from paint chips. I am not proud because I had to "borrow" several paint chips from Lowe's but I love the way it came out.



I have also been totally preoccupied with mug rugs and coffee cozies. If you are not up with the mug rug (like G), it's smaller than a place mat but bigger than a coaster to accommodate your drink and snack. I made a Halloween one for my mother.

Then I found some fish fabric yesterday. She loves fish as much as Halloween.

The fish one didn't turn out as well. I made a matching coffee cozy but I need to get velcro to be able to fasten it.

I also found a pattern I loved at Moda Bakeshop. So I got the fabric and got to it. Cutting all the triangles about gave me a fit. It's not quilted yet because I need to go get the backing fabric but I really love all the white. Sorry for the iPhone photo.


I am about to hack into a jelly roll to make another quilt I found on the internet. I was really excited about it but then they left out two fabrics from it and now I have to tweek it. I have been putting it off.


I am currently looking for some Halloween type crafting because I won't have time in October. I also found some patterns for reusable fabric zip-locks. Only I need nylon and I'm not sure where to get nylon. It's something I'm thinking over. Now kiddos, it's nearly 2:00 that is a sacred time in the summer for me... Sonic Happy Hour.

Vegas Vacation

Last week we ventured out to Las Vegas.

The boys were pretty pumped to be in Vegas. We stayed at the Venetian. It was beautiful but could have been more customer friendly.

The first night we went to see Mystere at TI. The pirate show in front of TI was way more family friendly the last time I was in Vegas. The show was good but very very dirty in a cheesy way.


The second day we ventured out down the strip. We quickly walked through Ceaser's. The Forum is still pretty and it had a H&M! It was three floors.

After the stop at H&M, we went over to the Bellagio. The boys lost some money while I walked through their fine art exhibit. They had some wonderful art. We ventured out into the heat to watch the fountain show out front. It was great.

We ate dinner at a great little Italian place in the shops attached to the Venetian. We headed back down the strip to Paris to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. They made it sound more interesting than it was. It was basically just an expensive picture taking experience.

There was a couple up there who were standing VERY close to me while getting WAY too friendly. The smacking, wet kind of kissing and rubbing.

On our third day after spending the morning at the pool, we took a cab down to New York, New York. We rode the roller coaster that runs through the building.

I got a large margarita there that had an insect floating in it. Not so fun. After a very hot walk, we ended up at MGM. We all won money and saw them feed the MGM lions!


That took us on the hunt for Wayne Newton merchandise at the Tropicana. His website says he has a store there but he doesn't. Tropicana was nicer than I expected but we all lost money there. Boo. And then back to MGM for our show Crazy Horse Paris. It was a girlie show. I loved all the dancing. We ate at Pink's hot dogs for dinner. I've always wanted to try Pink's! By the time we walked all the way back to the Venetian I was beyond tired so I went to bed. The boys stayed up and played more. It was a great trip and we all came back breaking even or better.

The Great Floor Remodel of 2011

We have been fairly busy with home improvement since April. It first started off with turning our boring backyard into something you may want to look at. We had two bushes and that was all. We had to rip out a lot of grass and put new plants in. It is still a work in progress but has come a long way!

We next moved onto the biggest project ever, the floors. It started in the laundry room where we somehow had linoleum. The glue was horrible to scrape BY HAND!



This was the first room G ever tiled. I think it turned out very well. But this picture was before the grout.


We ventured out into the rest of the house after the laundry room. It took an entire weekend to bust out all the old, nasty, ugly tile. It was an orange-ish color. The dust got EVERYWHERE! When you blew your nose, it came out brown from all the dust we were inhaling. That turned out to be not so smart as the dust mixed with the end of school stress got me sick. It was the worst sickness I have had in years. I had to quickly recover since we weren't done yet. As we were ripping out baseboards, the wonderful tile broke off with them.

We lived without the majority of our flooring for some time as we carefully went about laying tile.

The kitchen and breakfast nook turned out wonderfully! Keep in mind we are replacing all the trim with this project as well. And the table won't live in the corner like that forever.

After we finished all of the tile, we had wood guys come in to lay wood. That was the day that the tornadoes were ripping through the area. There was one spotted just west of us and the dog and I were freaking with workmen in the house. Herman and I ended up in the closet. We fell asleep. When we woke up at 10 pm, the wood was laid.


Last weekend we took it easy and had some guys come in and install the crown molding. We had to paint it ourselves first before it was put up. The next day, painters came out to caulk and paint it for looks.


We are still not done yet folks. As I write this, we have the floor guys here again scraping and staining the floors. Then it's on to the new carpet! I can't wait for new carpet that hasn't had the last guy's toe nail clippings in it. The carpet is really why this whole thing came about. Our carpet was the original and stained with holes. After the carpet goes in, it's on with the trim work. It's been over a month of work and we're nearing done. I will have to post more pictures of the finished project.