Spreading the Love - Pinterest Challenge

Well, I've meant to participate in the Unofficial Pinterest Challenge hosted by Katie @ BowerPower and Sherry @ YoungHouseLove, but never really got around to getting a project finished and a post written in time. 

Even though it is that nutty time of the year for school psychs, I was determined to do it.  I was hoping to show my DIY curtains... but I haven't finished them.  Then I thought maybe I'd have some wall art up in the living room...  yeah, didn't get that done either.  Okay, so what about finishing a painting of Rudder I started this summer?  Not enough time.  Kevin and I went to Talkeetna this weekend, and I've been Snotty McSnotterton with a cold since last week, therefore I had a limited amount of time (aka Tuesday night, which was already scheduled for some good ol' report writing for work...).

So, I remembered that I've been wanting to spread awesomeness.  More specifically, I wanted to spread the love.

If you know me, I'm not a lovey dovey mushy gushy type.  Not at all.  Valentine's Day is my least favorite holiday.  I'd rather celebrate Flag Day.

I'm a recent fan of Kit over at the DIY Diva.  She's hilarious and has an awesome old farm house that she's fixing up.  I'm also pretty envious of her power tools...  Anyways, she has this a Random Acts of Awesome website.  Ya know, just spreading awesomeness into strangers life.  I love that.

Pinned by me (kristalee3) via Kit

Lately I've been feeling the lack of love between people at work, that unconditional acceptance and love for people.  Ya know, that wanting the best for them, even if they aren't your blood relative or best friend.  So, feeling somewhat unsuccessful at making awesome strides in this compassion for all kiddos/people at work, I think I'm going to just spread little reminders around town.

Oh and I love rocks.

And painting rocks.

It goes back to elementary school.

Anyways, here's what I did, and what I plan on continuing to do:

1. Paint a heart and a "love _____" statement on rocks.
2. Spread said rocks around town as I'm out and about.
3. Hopefully make at least one person smile, or think about loving one another. :o)

Here's a few iPhone pictures from late last night of the last minute Pinterest Challenge project. :o)

 

All of my river rocks are buried in a foot of snow/ice, so I had to use little rocks I had in the house.  Future rock painting will be a bit bigger, and rounded, well loved stones.  :o)

Off to spread some love around Anchorage! :o)

Making Mugs

I have seen tutorial after tutorial on Pinterest on using a sharpies on porcelain.  I think I pinned one of them over a year ago.  In true Krista fashion, I just now got around to trying it out.  :o)

Oh, and pardon the pics.  I took them before I left for work (which was like 7:00 am, which is also pitch black dark in December)

One of my schools was auctioning off cookie trays to benefit Abused Women's Aid in Crisis (AWAIC) in Anchorage.  Last year they were able to donate over $1000 (this is my more affluent school) from parent/teacher bids on cookies.  Well, give me any excuse to bake copious amounts of cookies and I will do just that.  :o)  I wanted to try hot chocolate on a stick (FAIL!) and serve it in custom mugs with marshmallows (I toyed with the idea of trying to make my own... but then I realized I was uber busy) and homemade sugar cookies.  I'd share the sugar cookie recipe, but its a family one from my Great Aunt Dorothy that I'm not ready to share yet.  Maybe next year. ;o)

Okay, like I was saying... mugs.  I picked up two plain white porcelain mugs for $1 at the thrift store with "good lines" (dunno why I felt the need to stick that in quotations... It just felt right...).  I followed this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess.  I drew on them freehand, then baked them at 350* for 30 minutes.  Cooled, washed, then ready to go!

I went with "Merry and Bright" and "Comfort & Joy" because I love how two (okay, technically three) words can encompass the coziness of the holidays during the darkness that is Winter.  Love, love, love!

Here are the final platters I brought in.  No clue how much they auctioned for, but hey, they went for something, and that something went for good.  Oh, and I got to be a bit artsy fartsy and decorate mugs AND cookies!  Sounds like a win-win-win to me! :oD

If I Were To Get This All Done...

...Then I must have magically ended up with a 32 hour day in which I required no sleep!

Yay! No sleep!  I'm so excited!

Oh wait... I forgot.  I like sleep!

 

So, I know that this list is a bit over zealous.  I know that a lot of these projects will cost more than I expect.  I know some (or many) will carry into 2014.  I know that I will probably change my mind about some of these [hair-brained] ideas...

But here they are!  Break out the Carhartts!

In 2013, I'd like to do/work on the following house projects:

Living Room:

• Wall art - my walls are tired of being naked!
• Bookshelves - need somewhere to keep my growing pile of books and various assundries
• Curtains - I've hated the cheapy ones that came with the house since day 1.  They need to go.
• 1/2 wall into the kitchen - I'm dreaming big! :o)
• Shoe rack - this is Kevin's request, as he hates tripping over my boots when he's over.

Kitchen:

• Finish cabinets - Paint underneath (one year later...) and put up the rest of the hardware
• Counter tops - bigger project, but if it happened... I'd be such a happy camper!  Not sure what I want to do with them though...
• Floor - mine is uuuuuuugly! ["but she sure can cook!" - name that song!].  Again, bamboo?  Cork?  Engineered hardwood?

Downstairs Bathroom:

• New vanity - the one I have is falling apart (oh, and has graffiti left from previous tenants)
• Frame out the mirror
• Change the light - I have the fixture, just haven't gotten to it.
• Hooks - no towel bars in there, bought some neato toledo artisan hooks, just need to nail those bad boys in.

Office/Gear Room:

• Paint the gear shelves - but what color????  ahhhh!
• Make/buy bins for said gear on the shelf
• Light - change it out, maybe, still undecided
• Curtains - DONE!  (I had to put one thing on the checklist I could immediately check off.  That's how I roll.)

Guest Room:

• Window - make it purdy
• Quilts - break out the sewing machine and get to stitching!
• Art - finish the half done art hanging on the walls. :op

Upstairs Bathroom:

• Vanity - need a new one.  Stat.
• Floor - need a new one.  Stat. (seriously, its grungy AND a small lotion bottle created a huge spider like crack in the tile.  Reeee dic u lous!)
• Figure out how to make the long awkward shelves into a usable "linen closet"
• Re-tile the tub - Or else it's going to look more and more like caulk city in there.  Oh, and I HATE the dusty pink tile and the ones with the flowers...
• Hang up towel hooks.  I hate the brassy bar that's dangling from the wall.
• Paint.  Make it.... blue! (or some variation of, I have a lot of blue paint)

Upstairs Room:

• Paint. 
• Awkward sink - Mission: make less awkward (yes, I have a pedestal sink chilling in my bedroom)
• Art.  Again, another naked room.

Outside:

• Patio like something or other in the back.
• Work on the drainage issue - although this may not be a problem with the lack of snow this year...
• Flowers & Garden - Plant some more flowers.  Grow some grub.  Add two more small raised beds to the side of the house.

I'd also like to:

• Go berry picking on the Denali Highway while everyone else is caribou hunting.
• Have a [at least moderately] successful garden.
• Be way more awesome at preserving things from said garden.
• Travel somewhere I haven't been (preferably outside of Alaska).
• Spend more time outdoors.  Hiking, biking, boating, camping, picnicking... Anything outside!
• Read more, Hulu less.
• Be a better bread baker and soup maker.
• Consider craft fairs for the Fall/Winter.
• Give Rudder a haircut (ok, I know this one is weird, but I cannot wait until it is warm enough to get rid of his well loved Fozzie bear look he's rocking...)
• Tune my piano and play it!
• Not kill all of my house plants.
• Finally organize all my paperwork...  
• Rediscover my sketchbook.
• Post things sooner (instead of waiting, oh 6+ months, then deciding its a bit late to talk about Easter in November...) 
• Make my house feel more like home (good post here on that)

Now, where did I leave that tape measure...

Pin it Up, Hang it Up

I did this MONTHS ago, and forgot to share.  :o)

I found a little wooden framed cork board at the Value Village thrift store in Fairbanks this winter for a cool $4.  It was missing a hook and was a little dinged up, but I knew it could be gussied back up and be useful again.  :o)

So first thing I did was prime it, then paint it white.  I primed with a sponge brush, then used newspaper to cover the cork board, and spray painted it white.

I didn't want to use just any old tacks, so I bought some generic tacks (which were harder to find than I thought!) with a plan in mind.  I used a little bit of sand paper to rough up the painted surface, then put on a dab of superglue.  Next I attached a random assortment of buttons I picked out.  I have 3 tins of buttons from my grandmother; I don't think she ever found a button she didn't like and kept every extra button from every shirt, coat, or pant suit owned!

I found a key rack bar on clearance at Target (somewhere in the $2 - $3 range) and decided to keep to the wood look (it tied in with the wood pieces in the living room).  Screwed that on, then up on the wall it went! I must say, I have spent less time looking for my keys since I put this up.  :o)  It's also nice to put outgoing mail into, so it doesn't get lost somewhere on my kitchen counter.  Yikes...

I had more plans to maximize this ITTY BITTY space behind the door.  So I made a really fancy workstation (again, one of those moments where you go, "gosh, a garage with a work bench would be pretty awesome") but hey, it worked just fine!  I had some left over baseboard from the built ins, and thought it would be a good size for under the cork board.

So, I painted it white then screwed it into the two studs in that wall.  Next, I put up 4 oil rubbed bronze hooks from Lowe's.  They were actually probably the more expensive items in this project...  I decided to use two prints (they're actually greeting cards) I bought at Gulliver's (favorite little Fairbanks bookstore!) and put them in matching frames.

Here's a close up of the button pins.

Some kinda neat buttons, huh?  I wonder what that rose one went on...

Voila!  A little entrance coat rack and mail station in the tiniest space behind the door!  I see all these awesome mud rooms and entrances on blogs and pinterest, but I just don't have that kind of entry.  You open the door and hello! you are in my living room.  :o)

I'm still toying with the idea of adding wainscoting under the coat hooks...  I have some, but think I'll wait to see what I do with the baseboards and rest of the room first.  :o)