Frosty the Window

My crazy week is coming to a close already and it's only Wednesday. All I can say is, "Thank Heavens". I had three exams in three days and now am suffering from test fatigue and information overload.

So instead of getting right back into the swing of studying new information, I'm allowing myself to take a little breather this afternoon. So far I've:

- started laundry and cleaned up the kitchen which has been on hold since last week,

- emptied out one of my pot of flowers because it's looking pathetic thanks to the squirrel gangs in the neighborhood,

- and now I'm sitting outside on this beautiful Fall day, blogging. One of my favorite things to do which does not mix well with nursing school.

 

I'll think about starting on my new chapters....later.

 

Until then, here's a quick little project appropriately titled, Operation Frosty the Window, Joe and I did a couple weekends ago.

 

Behold our bathroom window.

 

 

Now, in the summer, this window is all fine and dandy for us. We have plenty of leaves to shield the prying eyes of passersby and it's on the second level so no big deal right? Not so much. When those leaves fall, which unfortunately will be happening within the next month most likely, our neighbors behind us will have a pretty good view from what I can assume is their kitchen window.

 

And if you're standing out on the porch you have a nice view of someone doing their business...

 

 

I thought about getting some sort of shade, curtain, wood panel blind of some kind but figured the combination of steam from hot showers and dust wouldn't look to great. And the less I have to dust, the better. So I looked into "frosting" the glass. Once I convinced Joe that with a little elbow grease the "frosting" could come off, he gave me the okay and here how's we did it.

 

I suggest two hands for something like this. Our window isn't huge by any means but it just makes it easier. I picked up the window film supplies from Lowe's, ahhh I love Lowe's, and went to work. For those of you remotely interested, I picked GILA window film for around $20. First, you need to clean the window really good, especially if there's anything stuck to it or there's a lot of dust. You want to make sure you have a smooth surface.

 

 

 

I also picked up an Application Kit like the one here, simple because it came with all the tools I needed to complete the project from start to finish. It came with an application spray, a cutting edge tool, a cleaning cloth and an edging tool help push out all the bubbles and smooth it out. Take the application spray and spray the window like crazy. This is where two hands come in handy. While I was spraying the window, Joe was putting tape on the two sides of the film so we could easily peel them apart. There will be a clear side and a "frosty" side. Peel the clear side completely off and spray the heck out of the frosty side that will be applied to the window as well. By this point we had also cut the frosting panel to the size of our window with about an extra inch around the whole thing.

 

 

Once the window and frosty panel are coated in the application spray, apply it to the window and start working out the air bubbles.

 

 

The whole window took us about a half hour to complete. It still lets in great light during the day and now we don't have to worry about anyone seeing anyone in their birthday suit.

 

 

So there you have it... our old and improved bathroom window!

Frame it up!

I have been working on a couple projects lately around the house and although one is not 100% finished, I couldn't wait to share them with you! I've been wanting to put up a gallery of frames in our upstairs hallway for quite some time so I started working on it. I wanted to share pictures of our travels, art we either did or found...basically anything and everything that could be put in a frame that meant something to us.

A couple weekends ago I picked up eleven frames from IKEA for $50! Talk about cheap!! And you see those two dark frames in the back? Well, I had four of them that Joe let me do a little makeover on.

Here they are with a few other frames from around the house I found to use.

I picked up some primer/paint in one to work a little magic on these frames!

Drying!

Then I went to Goodwill to browse their frame selection. I picked up another eleven for $30 although I've only used a couple of them. I didn't like how some of them turned out and ended up not needed as many as I thought. Oh well...

I needed more spray paint so off to Menard's I went and I ended up picking up these. The primer/paint in one worked just fine but I though I'd try this as well.

I really need to wear gloves...my hands were white for days!

And off to work I went...

So, here's the hallway I wanted to make my gallery in. I took the Sunday paper and cut it up to the sizes of the frames I had. Then I used some painter's tape to put them on the walls to help me visually see where/how to place them without creating dozens of holes. Once I got all the frames up, the hallway seemed really small and tight. I should have taken a picture for you to see but I got to excited trying out another spot.

Welcome to above our couch in the living room. The frames and layout looked much better here...so out came the nails again and...

Wha-la! I love it! I love the layout, the look of it, everything about it! Now we just have to find pictures for our frames!

And I continued with the frames upstairs! Again, totally loving the look of it!

And I kept two of the big ones in the hallway.

Now for the second project that has been hanging over my head since the end of June. Joe and I FINALLY finished painting the stairs!

So glad to have our big painting project done!

Just in time for school to start a week from today. Boo.

Nice Cork Board!

Remember back in May I shared my hopes and dreams for the future? Okay, maybe it wasn't quite my hopes and dreams but my summer "to do" list. Unfortunately, it looks as if my list will not be completed seeing that today is August 1st and I start up second semester of nursing school on the 27th = I'll never see the light of day until next May. Ugh. I'm giving myself one more week before I start thinking about packing up my backpack again.

Anyway, I did knock off one of the tasks listed on it the other day between working overnights the past two nights and trying to catch up on my sleep during the day. I now present to you my cork board cupboard! I picked up these cork tiles from Target for less than $7 smackaroos.

Here's the lucky cupboard! And cheesy art!

The tiles were a little too big for the space I wanted to fit them in so out came the scissors and more cheesy art!

Then I did the dirty work...measuring and cutting.

The tiles came with their own sticky fasteners which are stil holding up!

Ta-da! I only put up two tiles since I'm barely tall enough as it is to reach the top of the one above.

Here's a look at the final product! Everytime we get something in the mail (like wedding save-the-dates and postcards) they end up under piles of papers in the office. Now, I can pin them up and enjoy them for a bit!

Oh remember when Joe broke the rules and gave me a little something for our one year? This was in the card... Gotta love the office.

Updated Summer To Do List

For the house:

* make curtains for the kitchen

* paint living room/hallway/bedroom

* picture collage in living room/upstairs hallway

* find new bedspread for our room

* build coffee table

* build bookshelf

* build shelf & bench for kitchen

* make curtains for living room

* finish Xmas tree skirt

* wash bottles from wedding

* corkboard cupboard

* blinds for bathroom

* frame both bathroom mirrors

* XL shower curtain

For the yard:

* plant wine barrel

* add plants/flowers behind garage - This pot of flowers count, right?

* build a deck

* keep growing grass & picking weeds

* border around front/side of house

Can't forget about food:

* can lots of different things - I'm counting my jelly making day here!

* prepare freezer meals

Yep, it's going to hard to finish this in 27 days. I'll save it for next summer!

Joe and I are headed to Chicago tomorrow through Sunday so happy early weekend to you!

Summertime Flowers

A couple days ago I ran to one of my favorite stores, Lowe's and picked up a few pretty little things. You know what else that means? I get to cross off one of my summer "to do" items!! Booya! As you can see I picked some flowers for the wine barrel, potting mix and a little sample of a paint color I've been thinking about for the living room/dining room/and upstairs.

It didn't take long for Stella to take her first victim.

Here's a look at my homemade dirt from our compost bin!!

Crazy Eyed Stella

I filled the bottom of the wine barrel/pot with the compost dirt and although it's not perfect, there are quite a few sticks and rocks in there, I was able to get a really good base.

I filled the rest of the barrel with potting soil and planted the french marigolds.

I also picked up this grayish brown clay pot for this lovely, oh so pretty petunia gem. 

Now if only I could get a personal assistant when it comes to picking out plants/flowers for behind the garage. I feel very clueless and want to make sure I pick ones that compliment each other as well as ones that are relatively easy to take care of. Any takers or tips?

To do list for the yard:

* plant wine barrel

* add plants/flowers behind garage

* build a deck

* keep growing grass & picking weeds

* border around front/side of house

Sarah's Summer To Do List!!!

Yep. That's the real name of my summer to do/DIY list...clever I know:) I'm still working on going through our 2000+ pictures from the trip. It took almost a full 48 hours to wirelessly send them from Joe's computer to my computer so that's why its taken me a wee bit longer to show you but I'm making progress. I hope.

In the meantime I've made a list of all the things I'd like to accomplish this summer but I don't necessarily feel like I have to which is good since it is a pretty big list.

Here's what it says...

For the house:

* make curtains for the kitchen

* paint living room/bedroom

* picture collage in living room/upstairs hallway

* find new bedspread for our room

* build coffee table

* build bookshelf

* build shelf & bench for kitchen

* make curtains for living room

* finish Xmas tree skirt

* was bottles from wedding

* corkboard cubboard

* blinds for bathroom

* frame both bathroom mirrors

* XL shower curtain

For the yard:

* plant wine barrel

* add plants/flowers behind garage

* build a deck

* keep growing grass & picking weeds

* border around front/side of house

Can't forget about food:

* can lots of different things

* prepare freezer meals

Now, where to start?

Hopefully Stella will be a good help to me this summer...

A long overdue reveal...

I'm not even kidding you. This project has been sitting on our bedroom floor for a least a solid month now, if not a little longer actually. What was the reason for never finishing up the darn thing? Time. We didn't have it before...and now we do. Have I expressed how awesome it is to have TIME to do things we love to do? Doing the happy dance all day long!

Now onto the project...

I've been wanting to hang a few pictures of our wedding for quite some time now and I took the plunge. I went to IKEA to browse their frame collection and I came across these beauts for around $16 a pop! What a steal! Usually frames of this size can cost you around $30. I also liked how they didn't "look" IKEA. You can always tell if a house or room has been furnished with IKEA things.

And here are the photos. I ordered them from Mpix and if I remember right the total came to around $36. Booya! Another steal!!

Of course since the frames were from IKEA, I had to finish putting them together. The clips just went onto the back of the board and then I had to wrap the wire around them. Easy peasy.  

Someone wanted to help me...

All three in the frames...and then they sat on our floor until last night.

The wall of choice.

 

As you can see, we are all about eyeballing where to put the nail. haha. Sometimes it's in our favor, other times it's not. We live on the edge. 

I couldn't stand the way the color of the wall was photographing so I waited until this morning to finishing taking photos. Ta-da!

And they didn't fall on our heads last night so a double fist pump for that!

Some may think our room project is coming to an end now that I've made curtains, we got a new bed and put up pictures and even added color to the walls. Well, I hate to break it to you but you're wrong. When I originally picked the green to match our new bedspread, it was because I didn't want to be afraid of color. I wanted to embrace color and run with it throughout the whole house. It turns out...I'm deathly afraid of color.

A lot of it has to do with the different lighting our room sees at different times of the day I guess. For example, the photos above. The last picture you see...I LOVE it. It looks great and everything is starting to come together. But if you scroll up a few more pictures when we have our bedroom light on at night...it looks gross. When the sun is shining in through our window in the afternoon...it's so bright and ugly it makes me want to hide it from people if they are over. Thankfully we don't hang out in our bedroom when we have friends over.

So this summer, I'm repainting our room. I haven't decided what color yet but it will definitely be lighter. I think the dark color on the walls make our room look smaller and that is something we don't really want because our rooms are already small enough. I use one of my pillows as a side table for my phone at night because there isn't enough room from my side of the bed to the door to actually have a real table. That's how small our room is. Future project of skinny side tables hmmm??

I also have to find different bedding because now that it's getting warmer, Joe is sweating all night long because our comforter is too warm for him. I swear, he could sleep with just a thin sheet and still sweat. I'll have to take it back out when winter comes around again because I do like the stripes!

Oh the never ending list of projects I have for the summer...keep tuned in!