Since starting the latest DIY project I have learned to use my time as wisely as possible.  I have roughly 3 hours a day to quickly change into junky clothes, get my work gear together and then try to make something happen before I hear the baby alarm go off upstairs.  The 3 hours is usually broken up into about 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon.  My changing, working and then cleaning up stunt takes place twice a day and is quite exhausting.  One day last week the Little Guy and I had a different type of playdate.  I gave up my time with the paint brushes and he left the crib behind so that we could meet up with his Little Buddy and another new mom friend.  The four of us headed out to a local attraction called The Maymont.  It is a lovely old home (at least that’s what I gather from the photos on their site) and grounds with gardens and a small zoo.  On this day we did not tour the mansion, instead we walked through the Children’s Farm and down to the Japanese Garden.  This part of the park required a rambling walk down a fairly steep hillside and then once you were good and tired, a walk back up.  Ugh! 

Me and the Little Guy enjoying some shade in the Japanese Garden

It was quite hot on this day, but thankfully the humidity was down a bit.  We were able to see goats, rabbits, sheep, deer, hawks, owls, vultures, a bobcat and my favorite, the bears!  I do believe I may have enjoyed it more than the Little Guy since he seemed enthralled, not with the animals and surroundings, but with his stroller.  He got to ride in the regular, upright, facing forward seat of his stroller rather than being clicked into the top portion which faces me while keeping him in his car seat.  I cannot even remember how many times I pointed out a sweet animal only to look over and see him chewing on his harness or grabbing at the awning.  If I had known that’s all it took to keep him happy I probably would have put him front facing much sooner and parked the stroller in the family room while I tried to get housework done. 

Oh well, I will have to tuck that trick away for another time, right?

Kitsch Krafts

…now that we have a big booming thunderstorm going on outside.  With the Dining Room DIY Project still consuming all of my time I have completely neglected all of the outside world except the vegetable bed and the potted plants on the back deck.  We transplanted several shrubs and a tree to better spots and I fully intended to soak them down religiously until they seemed good and rooted.  Well, I’m not sure if it’s the late hour grogginess or guilt, but I will confess here and now that I have been a total slacker on the watering job.  It’s harder to ignore the large pots on the deck and, of course, the food bed. 

(Good Old Miss Roxy, watching over the veggies.)

(Well, sort of.)

When those plants start to shrivel up you notice it right away and then you start to think about how much it cost to put it all together.  You know how tight I am with cash, so usually that thought gets me out to the hose fast.  Yesterday we had a record high of 102 degrees in the Richmond, VA area.  It was literally hard to breath when you walked outside.  In the evening, around 6:30 pm, when the sun is on the other side of the house and the deck is usually prime for relaxing, you could still feel the heat coming up from the boards.  It felt like if you stood there to long the bottom of your flip flops would melt and stick in place.  The Little Guy and I lasted about 6 minutes on the chaise before we succumbed to the thick humidity and had soaked through our clothes.  We decided that just looking at the lovely potted flowers through the windows was more our speed on this day.

After surveying our property a couple of hours later, The Mister and I realized that our yard was one hot day away from spontaneous combustion and we needed to get the hoses and sprinklers out stat.  So, that was my task this morning.  Rather than running from the nursery after laying the Little Guy down for his morning nap, donning junky paint clothes and rushing down to the dining room to finish up the window trim paint, I went outside to begin putting together the waterworks.  It’s days like today that make me wish we had irrigation.  After carefully positioning a sprinkler out front, with a splitter and hose to a tree we recently transplanted, I was ready to check one of my main tasks off my list.  That was until I started the flow and discovered a gaping hole in the main hose.  Water gushed every where but the areas we needed it and I had to pull up the old hose and wind a new one down the side yard in it’s place.  A simple task, you may say.  Well, it took about 45 minutes.  I may have mentioned this a couple of times already, a-hem, but I only have the Little Guys nap time to do these sort of projects and this one small part ate up nearly all of that time.  Anywho, after rigging up several sprinklers around the yard, MacGyver-style, I was in business.  I spent the rest of the morning watering and repositioning until the whole yard and all endangered plants were soaked through and around mid-afternoon I was feeling pretty good about what I had accomplished, even though I never even set foot in the dreaded dining room at all.

It wasn’t until a trip to Lowe’s and subsequently to Home Depot to purchase the rest of the Dining Room DIY Project window treatments that I noticed some dark clouds in the sky.  By the time we wrapped up our shopping the Little Guy and I were racing to load up the car before the hurricane hit.  (At least that’s what the high winds made it feel like.)  The best part was that we did not encounter rain until we were almost home (insert demoralizing snicker here) and pulled in to the garage just as the serious part of the downpour hit.  It has been raining quite steadily since and I have a feeling it will continue through the night.  So glad I watered the lawn today.

Kitsch Krafts

(PS-While out and about in the yard I discovered a shrub in the side yard that we were coaxing along was hacked down to a nub.  I guess it wasn’t part of the neighbor’s aesthetic.  Unfortunately it also was not part of their property.  Wah-Wah…the Side Yard Saga continues!)

I know, I’m a day late and a dollar short.  Oh well.  We had a good time celebrating our first Father’s Day over here at the Kitsch casa and I just wanted to send the love out into the blogosphere.  I miss my dad tons and would tell everyone to take advantage of the time you have.  You never know when it’s going to end.

Here are some classic shots of me with my dad:

I am just under a year old in this pic and I have no idea what we are dressed up for.  It may have been my parents anniversary.

I had to include this one because it’s so classic 70’s that it cracks me up.  Look at that hat my dad is sporting!

Yes, to my mother’s dismay, he was a total jokester too.

Oh well, it call comes out in the wash…or bath, right?

Kitsch Krafts

It’s happening fast!  I cannot believe it is already the middle of June!  I feel like May whizzed by before I could even flip my calendar over from April.  We have had a couple of visits from the grandparents and between those, and the yard and house projects, things have just been in high gear.  I must reflect back on one thing and that is Mother’s Day.  I now have a new appreciation for this holiday and will say it’s better than all the rest combined.  The Mister got the Little Guy in the morning so I could sleep in (Sleep = the greatest gift on Earth!) and then my boys made me breakfast in bed.  Later, they took me out for a nice brunch with some friends.  All in all it was a low key, but very lovely day.

(Here I am with my Guys!)

That afternoon we also ran to the home improvement store and bought the plants for this little patch out back:

(Here is a shot of our sad old flower bed on the back side of the house.  More on this yard project later!)

Shortly after working on our soon to be veggie garden I started the DIY project in the dining room and you all know the rest.  That room is still sucking away at my time, but looks to be finished up soon.  I just wish I was moving through June with a neat and clean home instead of the DIY disaster zone we currently live in.  Soon, soon I keep telling myself.  I am sure as soon as the dining room is finished I will want to jump on something else, but I am still going to keep my eye on the prize.

I hope all the mothers out there had a lovely day too and all you DIY’ers (inside and out) are having fun in the sun!

Kitsch Krafts

WhooHoo!  You cannot imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon the Vintage Picnic Storque article with Please Sir this morning. 

Guest Curator Diana Martini was kind enough to feature my Vintage Picnic Set with all the other lovely vintage picnic items she found on Etsy. 

(My vintage picnic set is in the bottom left corner.)

The other funny thing is that I recently came across her site, Please Sir and found it to be quite inspiring.  It’s always fun to find other people out there in the blogosphere that enjoy the same things as you, even if you don’t live any where near each other.  It’s so strange how people connect any more isn’t it?  So, back to the feature…be sure to check out her blog and her guest curator spot on Etsy’s Storque.  (It's so ecxiting to be paired up with so many other cool items and sellers!)

Oh yeah, don’t forget to leave a comment!

Kitsch Krafts

It’s the hardest part of any DIY paint project.  Well, that and doing everything while the baby sleeps!  Luckily the paint can dry in between naps and I don’t go to crazy in the meantime.  Hanging with the Little Guy always takes my mind off all the work I have to do around this place.  The priming is complete and I am waiting for the swatches of wall color to dry.  While I am trying to make a decision about which colors to use I plan to get a couple of coats up on the ceiling.  Lord knows when the last time that thing saw a fresh paint job.  It’s funny how white things seem until you paint them with a fresh coat of white paint.  As soon as the chair rail got a hit or two from the brush after I splattered primer I could really see the distinct difference in colors.  Can’t wait to get the ceiling and all that trim cleaned up!

In addition to the wall color I need to make a decision about curtains.  Since this room is large I thought about going bold with a fun patterned fabric for the stationary panels I plan to put up high and wide along all three windows in the room.  The real privacy will come in the form of bamboo roman shades.  So, I was perusing Target the other day and came across the new table linens from Dwell Studio.  As always, I was drawn right in by their use of color and fun pattern.  I was also lured by the size of the largest tablecloth, 60” X 104”, which is exactly the size I need for these windows.  Unfortunately, finding the longer sized curtains in the ready made world of window treatments has proven very difficult.  If, and that is a big IF, I find a ready made panel that I like it either doesn’t come in the larger size or that size is super expensive, or it’s out of stock.  That was my luck up until recently in searching for curtain panels.  Until I walked into Target that fateful day.  I left with just enough tablecloths to make curtains for the dining room and adjoining living room.  Now I just need to choose which to use in each room.  Here are some shots of the dining room pre-DIY disaster with the curtains held in place via clothespins over the sheer panels the previous owners left.

Linen #1 – Large Medallions

Linen #2 – Branches with Birds

Usually I do not like a lot of bold pattern, so I may end up just using one set in the dining room (since it’s a larger space) and going with plain fabric for the living room.  Both linens use the exact same color combo of chocolate brown and deep blue gray with an occasional bit of mustard thrown in for contrast, all on a white background.  My plan is to put up white wooden curtain rods with rounded finials that sit above the window and just below the crown molding.  I also want the rods to hold the curtains outside of the windows on either side, just overlapping at the trim and up to the edge of the bamboo shades I plan to hang for privacy.

I am curious to know what you guys think.  So far everyone that I have asked has picked the same style with the comment, “This one looks like you”.  What is funny is that I was leaning toward the opposite design.

So, let’s see what you all think, “looks like me”.

Kitsch Krafts

This is what has been occupying my time almost nonstop since the beginning of May:

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Yep, the wallpaper steamer didn’t work to my benefit.  Actually, I take that back.  It worked so well that it took down the wallpaper, the paint behind it and the top layer of the drywall within about 15 seconds.  I stopped after destroying one section of wall (you can see part of it in the far left of the second photo above.  Despite the really bad damage taking down the wallpaper caused I have been able to patch these spots with drywall compound, sand them down and cover everything with a couple of coats of oil-based, odorless Kilz primer.  It’s already looking like a new place and I am chomping at the bit to get the final colors up on the walls.  I think one more coat of primer is warranted to be sure that lovely border stays hidden forever and then I will be on to round two of painting.  Seems like this one week wallpaper removal and painting project has taken on a life of its own and wants to grow into a month long endeavor.  I have been slightly depressed about the length of time this has taken, but I have learned some lessons for future redecorating projects for other wallpapered rooms in my home.  I think I will skip the removal and go straight for the heavy duty primer.  I have always been told painting over wallpaper can be disastrous, but in this case I think I would have saved about two weeks time and I still would have had a nice looking paint job.  Oh well, you live, you learn, right?

Now, for my next big decisions…paint color and curtains.  I had been planning some light shades of blue gray to play off the darker shades of blue gray I was going to paint in the adjoining formal living room.  However, the dining room is almost twice as big as the living room and it gets a LOT more light.  Plus, the furniture in that room is all blue (I don’t know what I was thinking!).  So, I have decided to flip my plans and use the darker colors in the larger space.  I want the rooms throughout our home to glide seamlessly into each other with pops of color here and there, but I don’t want just a neutral white or beige background.  Although I like that look, I really want to have some color on the walls.  Over the years I have found that I lean toward shades of blue, green and gray with all different shades of stained wood thrown in the mix.  So, I am sticking with this color pallet throughout the house.  I also love a hit of bright red once in a while and that will definitely show up here and there as well.  Right now, though I need to get two colors picked out for the dining room because I hope to have them on the walls before the end of the week.  Here are the shades I am considering right now…(at least until the next trip to Lowe’s or Home Depot!):

Set #1- Woodlawn Silver Brook & La Fonda Villa Fountain (The middle colors)

These are from Lowe’s Valspar line and they are also both National Historic Trust colors.  They are definitely more blue/turquoise than gray.

Set #2 – Antique Silver & French Grey

These are from Home Depot’s Glidden line and have a little less turquoise in them.  They also both have more of a gray look to them when holding them up in the room.  Go figure!?!

What do you guys think?  Of course the lighter color would be above the chair rail and the darker color below.  Oh yeah, and I am planning to paint the chair rail along with the bottom color so it sort of fades away.  I love the moldings in our home, but I’m not wild about this chair rail.  The rest of the trim and moldings in the room will be high gloss white.

I would love to hear your opinion, and I know some of you definitely have one!  So, let it rip…

Kitsch Krafts