Working Hard and Hardly Working

Today was pretty darn eventful! I (kind of) worked out, I finished my last project of winter break, and I was still able to catch up on some SVUs with my boys... Great Saturday in my book!

Hardly Working:
Brian and I knew we wanted to do some sort of outdoor workout with Kevin. After our hike with Kevin, Rachel, and the dogs last week, we decided to do something along those lines, but in a different location to change it up a bit... Lake Balboa was the local winner! It's a man made lake pond, and there are a bunch of running trails around it, and boy, was Kevin excited to get there...

He was super excited once we got there. There was a ton of ducks and water birds there, and I think his hunting blood was starting to kick in... he was head down and sniffing for most of the walk!

Family shot

We just walked the trails... not the greatest workout, but we were moving for quite a while and I got to try out my new watch, so it wasn't a bad trip after all! In fact, my exact stats from my brilliant new watch were the following:

We did 4.46 miles in an hour and 33 minutes which equals a 21.01minute/mile average. Haha, super slow, but again, other than the 2 or so minutes Brian and Kevin ran ahead (and then I had to run to catch up!) we walked.  AND according to the Garmin, based on my weight, I burned 411 calories. I hope that's true, but I won't get my hopes up!  ;-)



Working Hard:
Yesterday I started a project. Weird, right? Well, I've been reading the Young House Love blog lately and I noticed a piece of furniture they have in their house that sparked some inspiration...

Cute Shelf!

They had this little book shelf in their sun room. I didn't really notice it at first because I was too busy thinking about how cute the jars on top of the self are! If you're wondering, they made them little souvenir jars. What they did was take some sand and shells, tickets, anything to commemorate their trips, and then they labeled them with the particular trip and the year! Totally cute, right??

Anyway, they recently moved and they've been blogging about their new set up. They're hoping to eventually make this chimney doubled sided. And what happened to be in the picture?? Only what I am assuming is that very same book case, but painted... and  that was when the shelf itself caught my eye. I have a shelf that is very similar to theirs in my closet. It was left in the garage when I moved in and I didn't know what to do with it, so I just made it a shoe rack and it's been in my closet ever since. So what to do, what to do...

My similar shelf

 When Brian moved in, I gained several game consoles. And Play Station 3 is particularly awesome because it can play Blu-rays and Netflix, and probably about of other stuff (oh yeah, like video games!) The problem is, we've been had it set up on our end table. Not the most attractive or practical place for it...

The current situation

Good thing Kevin doesn't like chewing on wires, right??

Brian and I both like the shabby chic look. And I just lost some of my beloved turquoise in the house. So i decided to work some magic on that old shelf and put it where the end table is...

Priming process

 I started painting yesterday.

First I primed it so there would be some white scuffs in it, underneath the turquoise. Contrary to my quasi philosophies in my Sorry Dad posts, this coat of paint was shotty on purpose. So don't get scared!

Right about now, you're probably asking yourself if I was painting on my dining room table. Are you crazy? What would my parents think about that?? Just kidding. Of course I was painting on the dining room table! I am by no means an artist, but I do like to do paint from time to time. Sometimes I just repaint picture frames, sometimes I paint on canvas. I always do it on the table. I decided that was okay for 3 reasons... 1- the table was a hand-me down from my parents, so I've never had the it's-brand-new-and-I-don't-want-to-ruin-it feeling. 2- There's imprints of newspaper (don't ask me how) and our homework from my parents house, so it already has some unique and distinguishing features from my past. 3- We like the whole shabby chic thing, remember? So these little imperfections a la Kristen kinda fit the whole style. ;-)

Moving on...

The next step was to paint it turquoise...

With this coat, I was a little more careful than I was with the primer. And it turns out, painting this little shelf was a total pain in the ass. Those little wooden poles going up along the sides make the whole thing difficult. A bunch of nooks and crannies... at one point, I was even laying across the top of the table so I could see underneath and make sure I was covering every surface.

Pain in my butt.

But even worse than the painting was the sanding. That happened today... to the right is a picture I took during the sanding process. The right side shows the shelf prior to sanding and the left side shows after it's been shabbi-fied.

I love how it looks, but good gravy, it was a lot of work. I wish I was ambidextrous... between all the painting this last week and then the sanding today, my right arm is toast. Plus while I was sanding today, I cut one of my knuckles when one of the shelves slammed down onto my hand, I broke and bruised my thumb nail when I jammed it right into the side of the case, and now I'm blowing turquoise snot out of my nose.

Good times. :)


But it appears to be worth it!

Finished product!

Bird's eye view

Then Brian helped me moved some furniture around, we re-hooked up the Play Station and the lamp, and that was that!

Woo-hoo! Now if only we could do something about those pesky wires...
;-)

Save the Date Tutorial

My save the dates arrived in the mail today!!!

I had been looking at save the dates for months. Magnets are really popular. And I understand why...they're easy to hang on the fridge and you see them everyday. They look classy. They're super cute. But they're also really expensive. Like, over $100 expensive. Again, I have better things to spend my moolah on.

After some much debate discussion with my mom, I decided to make my own. And then I sort of drifted away from the magnet idea and towards post cards. They're also cute, and like, a novel idea. (And you can even save a little on postage. Double score!)

We had engagement pictures taken back in October, and they had an "Old Hollywood" theme to them.  I have a vintage vision for the wedding too, so I knew that I wanted the save the dates to be old fashioned looking. Through my previous web shopping, I noticed that photo strips are a popular trend right now, and a great way to showcase multiple pictures (because we're that into ourselves).

So I opened up power point and started to mess around.

The reason I chose pp was because I am computerly-challenged (yeah, I make up words- eat your heart out, Sarah Palin) and I have no idea how to use something cooler, like photoshop. Plus I had to make a five foot by four foot poster for one of my research classes last year and we learned how to create and resize slides, so  I was already familiar with this sort of thing.

And with that, I picked a picture to be my background...

 I liked this one because it's candid, there's enough room around me and Brian to write, it sets the tone, and it's just interesting to look at! I messed around with the color a bit and cropped a McDonalds out of the shot.

The Wiltern Theater

Next I googled "vintage photo strips" and found one like this:

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I added it on top of our background photo and rotated it a little bit so it looks like it was kind of just tossed onto the picture. I strategically placed the strip over that light post that was in the foreground. Then I layered some other shots from our engagement shoot over the strip, and changed those pics to a sepia tone so they blended better like this:

Then I added a text box at the top that said "Save the Date!" at the top. This was another strategic placing. I put it over the marquee so that the other words weren't a distraction, yet you could still tell a marquee was there and that we were at a theater.

Again, I am not the most computer savy person, so this is a very crude rendition of what could possibly be done with this project. Someone more in the know than myself could have created their own marquee like this:

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But again, I was playing with balls in college.

Not those balls, these balls!

Besides, there's no time for learning about computers when you have Kinesiology Majors Club Dodgeball Night!

Me and my bridesmaid Brigitte... we dominated that night, btw!

Back to the save the dates. Actually, before we do that, I need to talk about something... on wedding websites the The Knot and Wedding Bee, the girls are constantly writing in acronyms. Like, instead of fiance, they write FH for future husband. Or MOB for mother of the bride. The one that cracks me up the most- and I honestly don't get how these girls can write this all the time (unless I'm just that immature)- is STDs for save the dates... Maybe it's from the slide show I put together back when I taught health, but whenever I see this, I automatically picture a vagina full of herpes. No. Bueno.

Okay, nowwwww, back to save the dates... I added another text box to the bottom where I put the date. All of the other information is on the back, but I felt like the date should be on the front just in case someone wants to hang it up or something.

And voila...

You have the front of the postcard!

For the back, I googled 'save the date vintage postcard.' Originally, it was just to get ideas. Then I found this:

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Quite the little find! I made a text box with our return address to cover the fake one and then I made a text box to cover the fake info and add our real info. Closer to the finish...

I didn't want to print these myself because that seemed like a hassle, what with the double sides, all the ink, yada, yada. I researched the STD boards to see what others had done and the most reliable (cheapest!) source seemed to be Vistaprint.

Now to bring your work to any printer, whether it's in person or through the internet, you have to have your images saved as jpegs, so I had to learn how to convert a powerpoint and a word doc to a jpeg. Back to google. (Google is to me, what Windex is to Toula's Greek dad- solver of all problems!)

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To convert these files (for a mac, anyway), you have to save them as pdf documents. Once they're in pdf form, you can then re-save them as jpegs. So there's an extra step, and you end up with three forms of the same thing, but the end justifies the means, I suppose.

Besides, once they're in picture form, you can mess with the color a little more, blur the edges, and make it look even more vintage.

Then I added the back to my upload onto Vistaprint and bada-bing-

Ready to order!

I was a little skeptical at first, but my order arrived in about 2 weeks and they look great! Another item to check off the wedding to-do list!

Off to bed, good night!

Sorry Dad: Sterling Blue Master Bath Part 1 and A Disgusting Morning

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 My house has three bathrooms. THREE. It's a lot of maintenance, but it's perfect for those times when all 3 of me have to pee at the same time.

Actually, in all seriousness, it is nice now that Brian's here too. But they are a pain to keep up. And for me, cleaning not cleaning the bathroom is a vicious cycle...

You see, today I realized something that I guess I've always known, just never really thought about this clearly. Bathrooms gross me out. Like, make me want to gag and take a bleach shower. So I go way too long in between cleanings, making the build up of yuck worse, making me not want to clean even more. Do you see my dilemma?

This morning, I experienced the hat trick of detestable repulsiveness. It all began while I was painting bathroom #2. These are there stories. Duh-dunnnnnn. (Sorry, we've been watching Law and Order SVU on Netflix lately... that show gets in your head!)

1: I had my head hovering over, next to, and behind a toilet for what felt like hours. In reality, it was just long enough for me to paint around it, but still. Too long for me. I'm not a fan of my face being anywhere near a toilet. 

2: What is with the random hairs that stick to bathroom walls? I had to deal with several of these during my rendezvous with the paint brush today. I find these hairs particularly revolting because A) I know it's not mine, and that's gross enough. B) They're never in a normal place. For example, a level on the wall that would line up with any part of the body that hair grows on... They're always like, 2 feet above head level. How do they get up there?? There was one a couple of inches down from the ceiling. Unless Brian's having hair confetti parties in the bathroom without telling me, I just don't get it. Ugh. Gross.

3: Raw chicken is abhorrent. This has nothing to do with the bathroom. I was prepping dinner in between paint coats. I cut some up to put in the slow cooker my mom and dad got me for Christmas (thanks guys!) and it's just nasty. Besides the way it feels all slimy in my hand, it's also pretty gnarly to know you're holding the meat of a dead animal. But what gets me the most are the veins on raw chicken. Ew, ew, ew! It's enough to ruin my appetite. Good thing I had 6-8 hours to gain it back.

(Dinner was delicious, btw!)

Needless to say, by 10:00, my stomach was feeling a bit on the delicate side. But I managed to tough out my last wall painting project for the time being. I painted the master bathroom. There are bathrooms in each of the bedrooms which is a pretty awesome set up (when you don't have to clean them). Neither one of these bathrooms have been painted since I moved in- the only rooms in the house that we never touched. (Probably because no one ever sees them!)

I figured that since we're in our bathroom on a pretty regular basis, I should pretty it up a little bit and make it a more calm and relaxing place. Since I don't have the budget for a whirlpool tub, I figured a nice light blue color on the wall would be the next best thing and it must get done now.

I had a revelation today as I was thinking about this current Sorry Dad project. My dad's philosophy is the old adage, if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing right. I kinda feel more like if something's worth doing, just get it done so you can enjoy it. My dad is by the book. I'm more like, um, just go rent the movie. :) Can you tell I feel guilty? I was thinking about this as my paint brush approached this weird little dent-crack thing above the shower. Now my dad would have stopped, chipped away at it, puttied it, and then sanded it down. But I don't have the time patience for that, so I just painted right over it. My reasoning was that I've lived with it looking like that for this long. Besides it looks better with the paint than it did before the paint. And now I can sleep at night.

Speaking of the paint, I wanted a light blue, but I didn't want it to look icy. (Which I'm pretty sure doesn't make sense because blue is a cool color. I wanted a warm, light blue... I also want world peace and the skies to rain chocolate, but what can you do?) The color I went with is called Sterling Blue, and it has some gray undertones, which made it seem earthier to me. Clearly I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Here's what I started with:

Before

Vanna Kevin modeling for us

All taped off and ready to go, I started by getting the most awkward part done first. I'm not going to lie, what I did today required finesse, grace, and acrobatics. There were points in time where I was on my tippy toes on a step stool in the shower, which I highly do NOT recommend. Balance is key here, folks.

Good thing I have that enormous butt to catch me if I fall.

As I moved away from the corners of the tub, I had even less foot room to hold myself up on. I was standing on my toes on the track of the doors. It hurt. I was tempted to pull out my ballet slippers. Then my mind flashed to images of Black Swan which I just saw last week... there were too many mirrors in the bathroom to throw ballet slippers into the mix. No thanks. Oh yeah, and I don't own any...

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Side note: Did anyone see this movie?? I left the theater like, "What the hell just happened?" Natalie Portman is a-m-a-z-i-n-g, but I'm still not sure if I actually liked the movie. It definitely freaked me out though!

Anyway, back to the bathroom. Kevin has an affinity for the shower. As in, he likes to jump in it, rip up the non-slip mat (that I had to get for my accident-prone fiance), and drink whatever water he can find. He drinks every last drop. Like he's been lost in the Sahara for months and he's starting to see mirages. Eventually, he was in the way of my warm blue progress, so  I had to kick him out of my work space and put him in his waterfront penthouse suite with a park view. (I can sell New York too, where's my TV show??)

Not looking thrilled about being banned.

Did you notice the turquoise wall??? :)

He eventually got comfortable and started spying on the girls sunbathing next to the pool. That little perv.

Wouldn't you know it, I let him loose after I finished the first coat. and what was the first thing he did?

I've never seen him actually lay in the tub like that before. He was either really tired or really lazy. And you should know, there was no water coming out of that faucet. None. He's just crazy like that.

Also, to add to his repertoire and assist 4 out of 5 vets in assigning him a 'special dog' diagnosis, he managed to bump up against another wall of wet paint...

So between yesterday and today, he is the most patriotic dog you'll ever meet. I suppose it was my fault this time though... "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Yeah, something like that...
;-)

This is what the bathroom currently looks like after 2 coats of paint:

So far, it definitely has more character. I still need to hang a shelf, towel rack, and some decorations, so stay tuned for the finished product!

Sorry Dad: Crab Apple Red Kitchen Part 1

Could there be a paint name that better describes me?? (Picture Chandler from friends saying it!)

Yeah. Moving on to this portion of Sorry Dad. I painted one of my kitchen walls today. And that really is the name of it- Crab Apple Wine, to be exact! It's actually a wall in the eat-in portion of the kitchen. I like bold colors (as previously noted in this post about my bathroom). When I first moved into my house, I was pretty much obsessed with turquoise. I wanted a turquoise accent wall so the first thing I painted my dad painted was the little wall in my dining room that overlooks the living room, evidenced in this pic from NYE:

It's fitting and I love it! SO much in fact, that I decided to paint another one in my kitchen, and the nook that surrounds my bedroom window.

But times, they are a-changin'. I went to Europe in the summer of '09 and took some really awesome pictures that I wanted to display, but they don't really vibe well with the turquoise beach theme that's going on in the house. I've been wanting to paint this wall for over a year now. Correction- at first, I wanted to do some really rad maroon and gold wall paper that looked like it had come right out of a European castle, or a wall in the Louvre. Something like this:

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That would have been awesome, right?? But my practical dad and real estate agent mom (<---If you live in the So Cal area and are looking into buying or selling your home, check out her website, she's the best and most knowledgeable agent I've ever met. And thanks to her, I know hundreds.) talked me out of it. Apparently, wall paper is a pain in the ass to put up, and as it turns out, not the greatest look for re-sale. So I agreed that I shouldn't go the wall paper route. Err, or just stop dead in my tracks for a year.

My Europe pictures have been in these awesome frames just screaming to be hung, but they always seem to take a back seat to that pesky little labrador who screams to go on walks. But now with these 3 weeks of vacation from work, I have the time to catch up on all these projects I've been dying to do!

So, onward! First things first... a before shot of my awesome turquoise wall:

I still love this color, and it's still the first thing you see when you enter the house, but alas, it's time to move on in the kitchen. (Which is actually behind me when I was taking this picture.)


And yes dad, don't worry, I taped off the walls and I cut in before I started. Here's proof:

Yep, that's Kevin, trying to eat the tape. This is why these things are difficult!

Kevin was being really cute while I was working. He wouldn't leave my side. So I had to force him out of the way...

Yeah, that's my leg holding him back while I was using my hands hands for the tape. Part monkey, or just resourceful?? You decide.

At first, like with any dark color, I was scared. I think this is the darkest color I've ever used on a wall. The first coat was blotchy, and even though I expected that, it still worried me. I kept hearing my dad's voice in my head, "Why didn't you just call me? I would've helped you." But then I did the second coat and I relaxed because it started to look just how I had always pictured it!

Caution- wet paint!

  Here's another shot at night, once the paint had dried:

The only hiccup during the whole process was when Kevin decided (in between coats) that he must lay down and take a nap. He's such a diva. And then this happened:

No worries, crisis averted. It dried on him super fast. Now he just looks stupid. Like he's turning into Clifford.

Aw look, it's me and Clifford Kevin! Source

It's also making me crave beer, mon. ;-)

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Anyway, I'll post Part 2 hopefully within the next week, after I get some pictures and maybe a shelf hung up and the look is complete!

Until the next adventure,