Weekend Workroom: Simple wall art

For a long while, we've still been trying to figure out how to fill those empty walls we tend to find throughout our home. We're getting there, but it has been a slow process because we haven't wanted to put things up just because we have them. We wanted to put things up that were meaningful or actually might qualify as grown-up art.

And, yes, I know grown-ups rarely refer to themselves as "grown-ups."

I came across this project, however, and figured that if it worked it could be a really awesome way to make our own "art" pieces for both our bedroom and for the living room (which, aside from the Christmas season when stockings are hung on the wall, can be pretty barren). If it didn't work, I realized I wouldn't be out a ton of money and I would have at least spent an afternoon trying something new.

A quote Christopher has really come to love lately (that I'm trying to work into my own heart and mentality, as well) is from G. K. Chesterton: "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."

So, I set out to try this project. I bought most of my supplies at Michael's, but I shift my supplier (that sounds so much more official than it actually is) based on what is on sale. Michael's happened to have the better deals on large (I think they were 18x20-inch canvas packs), as well as a coupon for the Helvetica packs that I used for the lettering. I think I bought the paint there, too.

The project was initially supposed to be a secret but, as most people who know and Christopher and I well, we don't do particularly well with secrets. We maybe keep them for two days. Then it's all over. The main reason this project didn't stay a secret was because I wanted something that would be meaningful for Chris and I wanted his input. We finally (after much debate) settled on short bits of one of the verses from "Be Thou My Vision," which is one of Christopher's favorite hymns (if not his favorite).

And, since the process takes a while, we're still trying to figure out what to put on the other set, which is why they haven't been put together yet...

Regardless, I liked how the panels turned out, particularly because I took the time to draw the necessary grids and to space letters for each panel, knowing that I am not capable of making anything straight on my own. We decided to keep this set (for our bedroom) really simple, only doing one color per panel. Some colors needed more coats of paint than others (particularly the deep red), but I just kept at it - I did laundry and cleaned the house bit by bit between coats. The paint did bleed in a bit (like the one from A Beautiful Mess), but from any distance it's not too bad. It adds a bit of texture and gives the Helvetica a bit of a distressed look, which is kind of cool (in my opinion).

Anyway, it was a fun, simple way to do wall art. I'm looking forward to completing some more in the coming year and continuing to make our home both beautiful and meaningful.

Weekend Workroom: Library & Cataloging

I love books.

I don't know that anyone who knows me at all would fail to understand that statement. The seasons where I let myself read, I read voraciously.

And for many, many, many years, my dream has been to have my books cataloged and organized and in matching shelves.

Chris has tried to make this dream a reality for several years. In our first year of marriage, at our second residence, he "built in" bookshelves (as much as he could in a rental) to give us a bit of extra storage space and a nice piece for our living room. We added a bookshelf that we used as pantry space at our next residence (since the house we lived in had ample pantry space). Then we migrated everything over to our last apartment (man, we've moved a lot) and just used the same configuration of shelving because a) we had no money, and b) we decided it wasn't worthwhile until we had a permanent address again.

When we moved into our home (yay for permanence) last spring, one of the things I set my heart on was to finally purchase some matching bookshelves and create my long-dreamt-of library, but it was one of the last indoor things we could do because it wasn't an essential piece of making our home work. Because IKEA has finally made its appearance in Colorado, we figured through all the pieces we desired and a timetable in which to purchase each of them.

But we've continued to purchase other things that have been more needed in the meantime, so the project has continued to be pushed off by our circumstances.

For my birthday, Christopher's parents purchased the bookshelves and Christopher assembled and put them in place in our home.

And it is freaking awesome.

This post will kind of do double-duty because there's so much more of my heart wrapped up in it than there probably should be, so it fits here but it also fits over at the renovation blog. There will be other stuff featured at the reno blog, though, if you want to check out some of the other things we've been up to lately (who am I kidding? You can see what Christopher has been up to...).

Our garden level/den looked like this when we moved in:

 

Yes, the paint on the walls was high gloss. It was everywhere, which is one of the main reasons we painted EVERYTHING. We replaced the light when we moved in, and the carpet and the stairs this past spring, but I digress...

And now it looks like this:

We used the Billy bookcase system from IKEA. I took the measurements for the room and used their Billy planner (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/rooms_ideas/planner_billy/index.html) to figure out how to make the best use of the wall space. The bins on the left shelf are a reddish color (also from IKEA, but I don't remember what they're called), and are the perfect storage space for Christopher's shoes. The chair is a Poang from IKEA, and it's super-comfy. We plan to get a second one in time, but it's a great spot to read, rest, and enjoy the coolness (thermally) of our garden level.

Perhaps the largest piece of this, however, was actually cataloging the books. I wanted a system, but not just one of my own... so I landed on the Dewey Decimal system. It's simpler than the Library of Congress system and a lot of more recently published materials actually include the numbers with the publication information. I still have a few more boxes to go before I'm done, but I've made some pretty incredible headway the past few weeks.

I am a little confused over the difference between [Fic] and the 800 classification for literature, and I can only assume that it has to do with intelligence level ([Fic] being more juvenile fiction; 800s being "literature" with a snooty holding of the head). The "younger" books have been moved upstairs with the bookshelves that used to be downstairs. It seems to work well for us. There also wasn't sufficient room for our bibles on the shelves, so they got their own bin on the Expedit.

For the cataloging, I've been using a freeware program called "Book Hunter." I found it through the Apple App Store. It doesn't have a plethora of bells and whistles, but it does the job and has plenty of color to keep me happy when the books' covers are in the system.

Anyway, I keep looking down the stairs and thinking, "Man, that looks good" and sighing a bit because it's pretty cool.

Next task: Replace the desk. We haven't found one we like yet. Give it time.

Weekend Workroom: A Little Bit of Everything and a Lot of Rocks

Our weekends have been a bit jumbled lately, as we've sought to keep our lives on track with our one-car status and we've had a slew of events that have kept things interesting. Not much time for crafting (though I'm hoping to change that this week - more in Thursday's post), but Chris and his parents have been doing a lot of work outside.

Two Weekends Ago (April 20-22): Missions Weekend
In preparation for Christopher's upcoming trip to Nepal in June with some of the youth kids, we helped put together and run a Nepalese-style lunch and servant auction for some fundraising (the lunch happens every year - the food styles just rotate). It was a great event, but a lot of work lugging tables and chairs into place the night before, and helping get everything ready to go that Sunday. Overall, raised about $3000 for the trip and went home and slept (at least I think that's what we did).

Last Weekend (April 27-29): Grab Bag Weekend
We were scheduled to go to the regional marriage conference, but decided it was a bit too much to sandwich between the track meet Chris was scheduled to coach on Friday afternoon and the prom that we were scheduled to chaperone Saturday night. But it was a good set of days. I went with Chris to work on Friday and was blessed to be able to do some shopping for things we had been putting off for a while due to finances (more on that in Thursday's post, as well), and then I joined him at the track meet (which I'll admit I actually enjoyed quite a bit, even when I wasn't reading). Saturday morning, we had donuts and spent some time together before doing some more long-put-off shopping, Chris mowed the lawn, and we went to prom. I don't know why any parent in his or her right mind would send a teenager to prom. It was awful. There are not really other words to describe it. But my date was great!

This Weekend (May 4-6): Rock Haul
Christopher's parents came up Friday night, so I spent my day off Friday cleaning the house (mostly because it really, really needed it - it is spring after all). The reason they came up? To figure out a solution for the west side of our house, where Chris found another layer of rock under the ground cover when he tried to clean it all up last summer. With the use of a crazy machine that moves stuff like rock and the creative re-use of old railroad ties, everything is looking much better, and it's not even quite done. More on that will be posted when it's finished at the other blog (http://mercuryreno.blogspot.com).

So, it has definitely been a mishmash around here lately. Lots of things happening with our weekends. And our camera needs to be charged, but we can't find the correct cord, so picture-taking is somewhat limited. What few pictures I take, I have been taking with my phone and sending through my Twitter account. Here are two to note:

Christopher riding with the "Dingo." Yes, that was it's name. No, it did not eat any babies.
Just rocks. But it helped us get our driveway back, and we are very grateful for that.

Completely unrelated to most of this post, but I made two of these roasted red pepper
and Italian sausage pizzas this week. They were absolutely awesome.

Weekend Workroom: Settling Back In...

This is a little late (I mean, it's Tuesday, right?), but I figured it was worth posting because I have just now gotten my computer back... which is fantastic.

There's a lot that's been happening around here lately, and that doesn't just include all the work that Chris has been putting into getting our office finished out and ready for us to move stuff back in. We're almost to the point where things are in their places and finding their homes again, which is good because our office has been spread throughout multiple rooms for a little more than a week at this point, and I'm eager to have this crazy room back.

For reals this time, you can check out the lower level remodel on that other blog. I couldn't find the camera cord until we unpacked stuff, so... posts have been a bit delayed on all accounts.

God is moving us into a new season, which we're really excited about. I feel like God is finally answering a ton of our long-held prayers in really backward ways that only show how incredible and merciful He truly is. I'll be able to share more in a couple of weeks (and, no, that's not a hint toward anything - I'm just not allowed to share too many details right now).

To celebrate being done with Missions Weekend this year (since Chris helped orchestrate a large portion of the meal after church and we both ran around with a bunch of other awesome people for several hours to make sure everything went as planned), I asked Christopher what kind of ice cream he wanted, giving him the options of several candies that I stockpiled after Valentine's Day, when everything was on sale. He wanted the one with peppermint patties, which is one of our favorites. The base is like a Frosty from Wendy's. It's pretty fantastic.

Chocolate Mint Chocolate Ice Cream

(from cuisinart.com)

2 cp. heavy cream
1 cp. whole milk
1/2 cp. chocolate syrup
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cp. crushed chocolate mint candies (I use 15-16 of the small peppermint patties)

Combine all ingredients (except candies).
Chop or crush candies into smaller pieces - if you have some extra time, putting them in the freezer before you cut them can keep them from being super-sticky.
Freeze mixture according to manufacturer's directions 20-25 minutes. Add candy for last 5 minutes of freezing time.

Weekend Workroom: A Little Renovation

We (and by "we," I mean Chris and my father-in-law) have been renovating our garden level this weekend. Because our main computer is out of commission, I'm hoping to post pictures along with my post over at The Mercury Renovation tomorrow evening, if possible. It's pretty cool, to be honest. It doesn't look so nasty down there anymore...

A sneak peak:

Before the demolition. Lots of mismatched stairs, one broken (third from the bottom) that came up with the carpet, and non-square walls.

After demolition. the challenge of re-leveling the stairs took a lot more time than it really should have. We went out the front door and in the garage door for many, many hours.

Newly finished stairs! They are sturdy and beautiful, and we will eventually paint them - but, for now, I'm just totally stoked not to have to skip over a step or two when descending.

You'll see more in the post! There's a lot going on around here...

I think it's safe to say...

...that Abby likes our new home. In fact, we all do.

Latest Project: The Mercury Renovation

So... Chris and I just closed on our first home. The thing is, it needs a lot of everything - cleaning, painting, new this, new that... all sorts of things!

While we're fixing the place up, I've started a blog to keep track of our progress. Check out daily updates at http://mercuryreno.blogspot.com!