Project House Update: Curtain Plotting

When I debuted our master bedroom revamp, I mentioned how we still needed to find away to fix our window treatments.

It's kind of hard to see in this before picture (I need to get better at 'before' pics), but check out the right-hand side.

The biggest problem we're having is the functionality. Because the window is large and is actually a sliding glass door, we need vertical blinds. While we may need vertical blinds, it doesn't mean they need to be so ugly or that we need to see them.

To pretty them up, we removed the old bisque slats and replaced them with some crisp white ones. Fortunately, Home Depot will cut them to length for you free of charge. Then, we removed all the hardware, taped up the moving pieces, and gave it a good coat of white spray paint. {Sidenote: my best home tip would be to always have a couple of cans of white spray paint around. It's so handy to have.}

See how much prettier they are now?

Even though they are better, they aren't good enough. Our plan has always been to cover the blinds with curtains. Here's where things get tricky. With the height of the ceiling and the height of the window, the vertical blinds basically take up the entire wall. This means that the curtains either need to mount from the ceiling or wider than the blinds. However, with the windows being over 100 inches wide, they'll need support in the middle. This limits our options to ceiling mounts or slim mounts above the blinds.

Secondly, as I mentioned, the window is over 100 inches wide. If I want to actually cover the entire window with curtains (and for full coverage, it'll be closer to 150+ inches), it could easily be over $200. Ouch.

My original plan was to hang non-functional curtains. They would basically be two panels that would always frame the window and simply hide the blinds when they are open. They wouldn't need to cover the full span of the window and would save on cost.

Apparently functioning curtains are really important to my husband. Instead of the full-coverage expensive option, he proposed hanging a double rod. The inner rod would house full, cheap, simple white curtains for privacy purposes and the second rod would hold the decorative panels. The only flaw in this plan is the mounting. Double rod brackets take up much more space than we have to work with.

We haven't made up our minds yet, so any input or ideas would be appreciated.

Almost has tricky as how to mount our curtains is what material I should use to make them. Here are some of my favorites. Simple colors, geometric patterns, nothing too girly. Any stand-outs?

 

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The Official Trailer

If someone would please PLEASE tell me when I can buy my midnight premiere tickets, I'll be forever grateful.

It was the best night ever...

...sung to the tune of this.

On Thursday, November 8th, 2012, we finally won trivia night!

Not only won, dominated! We won by 8 points! And were in first the ENTIRE time. Woot! We were perfect in round about household cleaners, prehistoric elements, and TV theme songs.

Been waiting five years for Mitch and me to finally win trivia. And it was the one time my sister actually came along, so she now has to come every time. 

Yay for "Dragons are Dinosaurs that Fly".

Fan of Friday: Week of 11/9/2012

This week, I'm a fan of art.

I know it's kind of an odd thing to be a fan of, but I'm on an art kick.

It's actually kind of an odd way this obsession came around. I was watching a lot of TV and trying to figure out why some of these house sets feel more homey and cozy than my own home. Look at some of these screen shots.

"Mike and Molly"

Interior from "Grimm"

"Big Bang Theory"

My theory? Look how full those walls are! They have so much personality. Why can't my walls have personality, too?

I think my brain is still stuck in teenage mode of "You better not put holes in those walls!" Well, they're my walls now and I want to cover them with stuff.

Now, since I've been collecting for a bit, stuff is starting to pile up. I get indecisive about what should go where until I just snap and hang a bunch of stuff at once. Like the shadowbox that has yet to find a home.

And like this mirror I'd been hunting at Target (this isn't my picture but you can see how they changed it here).

Or this gorgeous James Bond print (you know I love me some Bond) that should be arriving any day now from Joss and Main.

And some that I'm eye-ing.

Just a little jelly

This picture is happiness

The cat looks like Rusty!

This is why I love my family

Because I can ask them to take ridiculous pictures with me. For basically no reason.

It really looks like Kingsley is doing his impression of "The Most Interesting Man in the World".

I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I shouldn't because I'm a cat. Stay thirsty, my friends.

If I had any sort of prize, I would turn this into a caption contest. But if you leave a good one, I would probably be so happy that I would go out a buy a prize and send it to you. I'm just sayin'...

Work Out Wednesdays: Rocktober

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There IS a month called "Rocktober" and it is named so because I rocked it.

I didn't write about it in my blog because I didn't want the added pressure, but guess what I did EVERY SINGLE DAY in October? I worked out.

That's right. For 31 days straight, I worked out every day.

It was an arbitrary goal I made up on October 3rd, with Halloween and skimpy costumes appearing on the horizon, and I somehow managed to stick it out. I'm really proud of myself. Originally, I was going to reward myself with a fancy pair of shoes or a really good quality purse, but it doesn't seem right now. It doesn't accurately reflect my accomplishment and what I learned from it.

And after 31 days, I learned a lot.

• Working out doesn't equal weight loss. After working out for four weeks straight, I gained five pounds. I did. There's no denying it. Personally, when I work out more, my appetite sky rockets and I eat. A lot. I wish I could be self-aware enough to curb my eating when I'm focusing on my fitness, but I just haven't mastered that yet. Some may argue that I may actually be smaller, but more dense, that may be true, but I don't have any proof either way. I took from this that if you are looking to slim down quick, focus on diet, not exercise. If you are looking to keep weight off, exercise is critical. But my focus wasn't on my weight. The five pounds I gained really aren't phasing me because of the things my body can do now. That being said...
• When you buckle down, you can make a lot of progress in a very short amount of time. My regiment consisted of a rotation of Day 1: Running, Day 2: Jillian Michael's 30 Day shred, Day 3: Other workouts (like yoga, dance, etc.). Over the course of the month, the amount I could run shot way up. I could run faster and longer. I could make it all the way through Exercise 1 of the 30 Day Shred without taking any breaks. I didn't expect to notice so much progress. There are times in the past when I've "trained" for something and haven't seen any results and given up. Now I know that you can't be on the look-out for results because you will probably be disappointed. You have to focus on something motivational NOW, not in the future. 
• Sometimes taking a day off helps your progress more than another workout. When the end of the month was in sight, my body really started to break down. Although I made sure to switch up my workouts as much as possible to prevent fatigue, some of my muscles just weren't having it anymore. I don't know what caused it, but my calves just didn't want to work. It made running very difficult. Even though I had been running longer and farther, I suddenly couldn't do the easier runs I could have done at the beginning of the month. Since Rocktober ended and I took some time off and let my calves rest, my runs have shot back up in length. 
• There is ALWAYS time for a workout. It's not like my life stopped when I tried to complete this challenge. I still went to work. I still hung out with friends. I still went on date nights with my husband. I just forced it to work. Here's how:
• Treadmill. I am lucky enough to have a treadmill, which means I could run at night safely. Most of my running happens at roughly 9PM, after dinner is long over and I've watched a couple of my primetime shows.
• Hulu. Almost all shows are online the next day. It's not a good enough reason to skip a workout. 
• PIP. That being said, if you just can't miss your show, you can always do picture-in-picture with a workout DVD.
• Just put your shoes on. Putting shoes on is always the hardest part. No matter how tired you are, no matter how unmotivated you are, no matter how late it is (there were some days I managed to get a 11:30PM workout in just under the wire), once you start working out, it gets easier. Starting is always the most difficult part.

Now that it's done and I get to take days off, I feel more guilty when I skip a workout. I know I can make the time. I know my body can handle it. It's all in my head. And I should be running because I've got a 5k I'm training for, but it's still difficult to get off the couch and just do it.

Happy Election Day!

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After months and months of being innondated with propaganda, today it ends! Yay!

Also, today is the first time I will actually voting at the polls, rather than with a mail-in ballot. Due to some confusion over my address, I'm up bright and early with my notes on how I want to vote.

I'm actually kind of excited to vote at the polls. It's the same polling place my parents voted at when I was a kid. I would play on the playground out front while they voted and now it's come full circle. I feel so grown-up!

Project House Update: The Box Office

Maybe you've seen this before on Pinterest. It's a slotted shadowbox so you can store all your ticket stubs as a souvenir for all those events. When I saw this, I thought, "I love ticket stubs, but they always just make a mess and I end up throwing them away. I could use this." Unfortunately, when I clicked the link, it doesn't take you anywhere helpful.

Well, screw that, I can figure this out. And I did! Here's what I did and why!

Let's start with some of the decisions I made. First, I wanted a shadowbox comparable to the one in the picture. I wanted the tickets to collect at the bottom and still be able to see the imagery in the box above it. This means you will probably need a shadowbox that is at least 8 x 11 inches, if not greater.

Secondly, we don't really go to a lot of shows and concerts. Most of our ticket stubs actually come from traveling, like plane tickets or wristbands and maps from tours. Therefore, I wanted the box to be more about traveling and our trips than tickets.

Lastly, I don't know about you, but I had some trouble finding a pre-slotted shadowbox. I knew I was going to have to cut a slot in an existing shadowbox. I needed a shadowbox that I could clean up after slotting, not one of those plastic boxes that would look like crap afterward.

Fortunately, at Michael's, I found a bare wood, 11 x 14 inch shadowbox. You may think that the fact that the front opens up is a downside because the stubs might be able to fall out a gap between the door, but it closes pretty tight. Also, if you don't have a husband who lives for his tools (especially his router), it would be easier to cut, or even use sandpaper to rub a slot, in the top of the box.

So here's how the box started.

And after my husband attacked it with his router, here's the pretty slot. It's roughly four inches long and half inch deep. It actually came out a lot more professionally than I expected (sorry, honey!).

Because the wood is unfinished, the frame needed to be painted. I taped up the glass and painted the exterior. {Sidenote: one of my favorite house tips is to take advantage of Ace Hardware's free pint of paint deals. Certain Saturday mornings, they give away 40 pints of paint. Any time they are doing this, go and get some. Even if I don't have a specific project in mind, I always grab a can of some color I like for a potential future project. That's how I came into this gray with a hint of lavender color.}

It should be noted that because I didn't do anything to protect the opening of the box, I had to run a straight razor along the door opening to break the paint. Two coats and it was ready for a background.  To line the back of the box, I cut a piece of cardboard the same size.

Then, I wrapped it in a simple wrapping paper. {Sidenote: if you aren't buying wrapping paper from the dollar section of Target, what is wrong with you?} I taped it to the back of the box (in case I ever wanted to switch it out) and weighted it overnight.

Finally, since my theme was our trips, I printed out some of my favorite pictures from our travels, arranged them, taped them in place, and weighted them down overnight as well. My favorite part is the quote. It's actually from Winnie the Pooh. I found it in a separate pin on Pinterest and typed it up with some flair in Paint. It's hard to read in the picture, but it says, "As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen."

Here's the finished product!

Now, the numbers. Here's a breakdown of what it cost to make this:

• Shadowbox from Michaels: $11.99
• Gray Interior Paint: Free
• Background paper: $1.00
• Prints of us: Free (free promos of photo printer paper)

Grand total: $12.99. Not bad, not bad at all. I have yet to find a place to hang it and to fill it up with our ticket trash, but I'll update this post when I do!

UPDATE (2/25/2013):

I finally got around to finding it a home! It lives in the guest room! I was a little afraid at first to hang it there because it's a different shade of gray than the walls, but I don't think it looks bad at all. Also, it's now the official home for all my fortune cookie fortunes as well as tickets. We've already been pretty organized and collected our tickets from the basketball game, our Underground tickets from London, and my train ticket from Oslo! It's not clutter anymore! It's art!

Project House Update: The Curtain Mistake

I will be the first to admit that I am not good at sewing, but after the mistake I made while trying to make curtains, it's clear I'm not good at measuring either.

We bought simple white curtains from Target to hang in our dining room for some privacy. If the door to the dining room is open, anyone in the front yard (or probably from the street, for that matter) can see right through the dining room into our kitchen, making cooking in your underwear slightly embarassing.

So, off we went to Home Depot to buy a wooden curtain rod (we love Home Depot's wooden curtain rods because it makes the curtain rods look like part of the house). Dan cut the curtain rod to length and mounted the brackets. All that was left was for me to trim the curtains to length and sew a hem.

Here's where I made my big mistake: I should have hung the curtains and then measured how much they needed to be shortened. What I did: I measured the window so I could match the length of the curtains.

After about an hour and a half with my mom's help, guess what we ended up with?

Yep, they were almost a foot short. Ouch.

Thankfully, we saved the extra fabric, I meticulously measured how much material needed to be added back, and we made it work.

The bottom ruffle almost looks intentional, right?

Halloween 2012: Part 2

Sorry to drag this out over two days, but I sure as hell wasn't waking up early yesterday morning to add these pictures to yesterday's post.

Dan and I spent a fun night out, playing trivia, with my bud Mitch. Mitch was a Pi-rate (get it? Because his shirt has pi on it. Ahh, gotta love geek humor.)

Apparently I don't let Dan make any of his own decisions anymore, so he didn't even think to plan a costume for himself. As a last minute costume, he threw on his Power Rangers shirt, which matches mine. He refused to wear his autocross helmet, though, so it looked like he had actually morphed. Party pooper.

My costume is actually my Halloween costume from sixth grade. My mom made it herself (isn't she talented?) It's hard to see in the picture, but she used a sewing machine to outline the Queen of Hearts playing card on the front of it. It was a dress back when I originally wore it in 1998 and it still had some of my face paint smudged inside it.

We placed lower than we'd ever placed before, but we knew we wouldn't do well with Halloween trivia. Still a fun Halloween! Now, off to Target to scoop up all the discount Halloween decorations because I seriously have none and I hope to have awesome creepy house pictures to post next year!