I am the queen of putzing

The last couple weeks I have been very busy taking on a bedroom makeover and painting hallway trims and baseboards that were in a very sorry state. Nothing is coming together YET...but progress is being made.

The bedroom is going to be ZEN BABY! Cool mushroom coloured walls, matching grass cloth behind the bed (yes, the real deal grass cloth!) and a new window covering. This is what I have picked out. The walls are done, some patching needs to get finished before I put up the grass cloth and I'm going to wait till the wallpaper is up before calling my blind guy to bring in some samples.

The swatch on the right is the grasscloth and the one on the left is a first pick at a window covering. I just want a very sleek simple roller shade...no fuss, no frills....ZEN! and that is my paint sample thrown in there. I am a paint sample junkie....I actually own and buy paint sample swatch books. I don't like to make a kazillion trips to the paint store, I want every option at my fingertips. And my current paint of choice is Aura by Benjamin Moore....LOVE that paint. This may sound totally crazy to some, but I actually enjoy painting. Once all the prep work is done I sort of find it relaxing and love watching the transformation happen.

When I haven't been painting I've been putzing. (defn: to behave in an idle manner; putter) It is one of my absolute fav ways to wind down and relax. I'll just look at something and decide to reorganize it. Or maybe open up a kitchen cupboard and decide to empty it, wash it and reorganize it. Are you sensing that I LOVE to reorganize! However there is no organized madness to my putzing. It is totally random and spontaneous. And during my randomness today I popped in on Emily's blog to see what was going on and her theme for this weeks AJ Tuesday was time. While I was in the midst of doing nothing really productive, but somehow managing to keep busy, I thought I'd play along.

I did a quick search on the internet for quotes using the word time and when I found this one it just came together for me and I knew I had drop whatever it was I was doing to sit down and capture it.

Linda.







Fur Babies!

If you have one, you know I'm talking about those four-legged friends of ours that work their way into our lives and make you wonder how you EVER lived without them! When I was a kid I wanted a dog more than ANYTHING....one with long hair down to the ground that I could fuss up and brush and groom and cuddle. I did end up getting a dog, but not until I was in my 40's, and although Bessie IS cute as a button (see my sidebar!), she is a bit of a tom boy and would rather kill vermin or roll in a dead bird than let me make her all pretty!


This is Muffy Ketto and she is the vision of what I would have had as a pet if my parents would have allowed it. I coloured her up yesterday when I was visiting Paula and I think some of her uber colouring vibes wore off on me because I was very happy how she turned out...although the picture looks a much cooler grey than the real life version which is more of a warm french grey. Lots and LOTS of fine feathered strokes were used here to create what I hoped would look like silky hair. Shading with prismacolor pencils and gamsol and a bit of glitter and stitching finished her up. I also used my new Martha punch that I picked up on my travels on the way to Paula's.

It is always so much fun at Paula's house. It is cosy and quaint, VERY comfortable, and I feel right at home there. AND it seems she always has some sort of little gift for me when I go! Not only is she talented, she is over the top generous! It is not unusual for me to visit and have some sort of little gift waiting for me. Hmmmm.....isn't it the guest who is supposed to bring the hostess a gift?....I'd better work on that!

Here is a little pic of what I came home with yesterday....that beautiful oh-so-zen-like tea light holder on the shelf....could you faint!!!!!!!!!!! I think I might need to pour me a glass of merlot, put on some Dave, light those candles and just soak in my tub!

And since I never did show you pics of the bathroom reno....here are a few more...a full shot of the vanity...hmmm, note to self....slide the scale out from under the vanity and put it in full view where I will use it!

The tub....I really should take a pic from the other end because it is the more impressive side with a built in wall shelf equipped with a iHome to dock my phone when I am taking a shower.

and finally, this uber cool piece of wall art that I bought at Crate and Barrel when Mark and I were over at Somerset fooling ourselves that we were there to do some xmas shopping!

That's it for today. A silky haired dog, a zen tea light holder and some bathroom pics. And, if you are at all interested...I'm about to throw on the start of Dexter Season 3 while I start prepping Beef Bourguignon for dinner tonight.

Reno Update

Sorry, no card today, just a little update for some of my personal friends and family who have to listen to me day after day. With the reno phase II (....yes Mark...there WILL be a phase III) coming to an end we thought we would leave a little time capsule in our house. We all signed our names on the post that is going to be covered with the decorative column! Derek...who NEVER likes me to take his picture even said we should get a family shot in front of the post to leave inside it. WOW! My boy is a little nostalgic...whoda thought? I may just have to do that when Alex gets home from work!

I even got Guy, our contractor to sign it! He has sort of become part of our family on and off for the past year and I'll kinda miss him when he is done. Not to worry Guy...I've got more secret plans for ya...I'll just let Mark get over phase II before I spring phase III on him!

Don't forget to go check Emily's blog because she has posted her next challenge for us...it's wide open so nobody with any color challenges should have difficulty with this one.

A challenge!

I've got a lot of them going on right now. Probably the biggest is the main bath and living/dining room reno that i'm in the midst of! This is a pic of the current state of my living room. I've got one word for it...YIKES!!!! Yes, it's a mess, but we are ripping down the wall between the living and dining room. The living room is at the front of the house, and the dining room at the back. The back of the house is loaded with natural light, while the front is dark and dreary. This is going to let light pour into the living room and make me happy. I'm gonna wait for the bathroom to be done before I post any pics, but all I will say is....can you say ZEN!!!

Now for the FUN challenges in my life....the Bellarific Friday challenge. I know I generally post these on Friday night, but with the b'day and the reno I'm a bit behind. The colours that Emily picked out this week made my eyes wild! In my personal life I like my surroundings to be calm and my colors subdued...but my inner soul LOVES color...LOTS of it.

These colors screamed little Missmatch Ketto to me. I adore these images and have acquired quite a few of them already, I just need to find time to work on them! Soon! I coloured her up with copics and mounted with oval nesties. When I tossed the cut pieces on the table, they landed in the 'offbeat' arrangement and I thought...HEY...go with it. The sentiment is also from stamping bella as well as the spellbinder ribbon slide tag. They came in a set of three and I've had them for quite a while....whevever I'm pulling out a sentiment I always check to see if it will fit in one of these because I love them. Little Missmatch needed some bling, so I added some hot fix crystals, they seriously are as glittery as swarovski's.

That's it for today, I'll see ya Wednesday with another oldie but goodie from Stamping Bella.

The Kitchen Reno

A few people have asked me lately to see pics of the kitchen reno that sucked my money and energy for the better part of the spring. Well, here it is. There are only a couple things left to do and that is to make a roman blind for the window over the sink and a fabric covered peg board for over the desk. When I ordered the dinette set I ordered extra fabric that matches the chairs so I'll make those things myself, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

So here is the tour.

As you enter the kitchen, this is the view to the left and to the right.

This is my desk, and since I don't have a room or a studio, or even a corner of a family room somewhere, I work primarily in the kitchen. So the cabinet next to the desk holds my most used craft items.



This little hallway with new side door and new access to the garage as well as the bathroom are all new. They used to be part of the garage.

The window in the bathroom used to be the door from the garage to the backyard. Now if you want to get to the garage from the backyard you must go around to the front, or scoot in thru that side door. Since I rarely go into the garage from the backyard, it wasn't a big issue for me! And since our house only had one bathroom, it was worth the trade-off!

The next picture is the view from the side door into the kitchen. I gotta say, I REALLY love this side door, EXCEPT for the late afternoon the sun that beats in there and heats up the kitchen. I may have to break down and get a blind on the window there as much as I don't want to. Even though I am only looking at my neighbor's house, I do like the door window to be bare. But the weather will be cooler soon so it won't be an issue until next summer.
I also got a glass top made for the table. Since there is such a dark stain on the wood i knew one scratch would be deadly, plus, since i use my copics, gamsol, paint and whatever on there, I wanted it to be protected. That little cabinet in the corner is my Best Craft Organizer. It holds my most used stamps, embellishments, embossing powders, glitter, you name it! One day I'll be able to move it out of the kitchen but I gotta stop feeding cheese to those boys of mine so they'll leave!

My favorite thing in the kitchen HAS to be the Jenn-air exhaust hood and the GE Profile gas range. When we moved here, 20 years ago, there wasn't even a range hood. We added one, but it never vented to the outside and I tell ya, it really limited my cooking experience. This baby will suck the hair off your head. A couple weeks ago I made blackened filet mignon's and Mark kept going out the side door and telling me how good it smells out there! LOL! Yet another reason why my boys won't leave! I must admit though, those steaks WERE good, I even impressed myself!

If you look closely at this picture, beyond the fridge you see the dining room. On the left is a chair and a china cabinet. On the other side of that wall is the living room. Phase II of the reno is to knock out that wall so the dining room and living room will be more open. That phase should begin in about a month because i wanted it done before Christmas. I CANNOT wait for that!

So folks, that's the tour! And I must say that when I look at these pic's it looks MUCH larger than it really is. It's not small, but not quite as large as these pics make it look. And....since it took me a couple hours to get these pic's together and type this up, there was no time for stamping this afternoon! Oh well, one thing at a time!