A Look at My Craft Room

Ever since we moved out here to Silverlox (the name we've given our property), I've been hesitant to share a look at my craft room. It's considerably smaller than the one in our other house and a constant work-in-progress. But, Cat at Cut Out + Keep has very nicely asked (several times) for a tour and interview. So, I cleaned it up the best I could and gave in. You can find the pictures and my interview for Hope's Craft Room on their site. 

In addition, while I had the room in some semblance of order, I went ahead and did a quick video tour of my craft room. It's wobbly and a little rushed but was needed before I expand (hopefully) in a few months. 

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions about how I store things in my room or if you want a better idea of what all I've got packed away in here. It's a big, cluttered mess. But, it's mine! I'm very fortunate. 

Oh, and if you want to see what the craft room in our other house was like, here's the post I did about it. 

Our New Home - one year later

Yesterday, Facebook reminded me that it's been one year since I painted the craft room. Wow! We've been here just over a year. From the start, I had hoped to share with you the changes we've made. However, I really haven't done a very good of a job of that. Oops! In reality, it doesn't even look like we've done all that much, but I assure you we have worked our butts off. Since we've hit the one year mark, I suppose it's time to show you where we're at now. Let's start like we did last time, with what you see when you walk in the door.

Besides the addition of real furniture, we painted the room a slightly deeper shade of yellow. We tried scraping the popcorn ceiling, but it's absolutely cured on there. We're going to panel it eventually anyway so not much has changed.

From the sunroom, you can walk right into our bedroom.

This is the room that has seen the most drastic changes so I've got quite a few pictures to share. From this angle, you can see the bulk of the renovations: walls painted, ceiling scraped and painted, and light fixture/fan changed.

The fake shelf is now gone. It had to be sanded off. And, the blue is more more soothing and more our style than the previous wall treatment.

The red brick just didn't go well with the blue paint. The white is so much better.

Here are some pictures from the 'during' process of this room.

Scraping the ceiling was a seriously difficult task. We had a hard time removing all of it. However, the flat paint we put over it takes away from it some. Now it just looks like we have a slightly textured ceiling.

This brick wall used to be the original exterior of the house. Painting brick is also no easy task, getting into all those nooks and crannies is a real pain!

Here you can see the faux shelf sanded and ready for painting,

While all that work went into the bedroom, there are still a few decorative things to be done. However, it's still the most complete room in the house.

From the bedroom, you can walk right into my Craft Room.

It looks so much bigger in the before picture. Alas, it is a tiny room. Hence, the DISASTER! One day I'll get it all organized and pretty, but for now I just want it to be functional.

Pat's office is similar.

It's loaded down with so much stuff but not all of it.

Our front room. . .formal living room. . .foyer room - whatever that room is, we call it the box room because of this.

Everything we haven't unpacked and everything we don't have a place for and everything we're not sure we want to keep is in this room. Fortunately, we don't use the front door so this room is kinda out of sight and out of mind. It's mostly books and knick-knacks. . .mostly.

The last room with some real change to it is the living room.

Like the bedroom, there are still a few decorating things to be done (like add a rug, change the overhead light/fan, and add some other lighting). The gray walls are an upgrade to the weird peacy-tan ones. For the most part we are happy with this room, especially since we added the new couch.

One of the main things I still want done at the house is to take out the large wall above. There's a wall in the kitchen that needs to go too. Opening up those two walls will make the living room, kitchen, and front room one large room. Oh, and the wall unit in the first picture above is the same one we used to make our custom TV stand.

I didn't show you any of the bathrooms, the guest room, or the kitchen because we haven't started in earnest on any of them. Of course, I'm anxious to tackle it all, but need to try to exert some patience for our sanity as well as our pocketbook.

I could show you pictures of the pool and property as well. But, in looking back at the pictures I shared in October - not much has changed. . .at least, not much that anyone else but us would notice. In fact, we've spent the majority of our time and money working on outside projects. We've had a few trees taken down. We replaced the roofs on the two main out-buildings. And, we've cleared out some of the overgrowth and trash on the property. But, in pictures, it looks a lot like it did last year.

Both inside and out there's a ton of more improvements and changes to be made. I try to remind myself that it will take time and money to get these tasks done. And, since this is our 'forever home', we've got the time. Now to figure out the rest.

Anyway, that's the bulk of it. Pat and I are actually hoping to start filming some of the improvements and projects we have going on around here before too long. I'll let you know when that all goes down. For now, we'll just keep chugging along. Thanks for all the questions, support, and interest we've had in the place since we moved. We are indeed loving it out here. And, I'll try to do better about sharing the changes. If y'all are still interested. . .

We're Not the Romantic Type

Yes, that really is a toilet.
No, my husband didn't give me a toilet for Valentine's Day. Don't be silly. He installed it for me for Valentine's Day.
Seriously.

Let me start by repeating the title, we are not the romantic type. Yes, every girl likes flowers and chocolates and proclamations of love, but Pat and I celebrate our love for one another every single day. Again, seriously. So, when Valentine's Day rolls around there's no need for a big production. However, I do like a reason to craft something for my honey. This year was no exception. When I found this list of 5 Cute Valentine Ideas, the wallet suggestion gave me instant inspiration.

Pat needed a new wallet and had given me the Silhouette Cameo for Christmas. Putting his monogram on a hard case wallet would make him happy by fulfilling a need and using his gift as well. I had intended to put some items in the wallet, but figuring out how to cut the vinyl took more tries than I had anticipated. And, if you notice in the picture, I put the darn letters on upside down. Oops. He still likes it thankfully.

I also made him a simple card using the Dollar Valentine Stamps I carved a few weeks ago and cooked a dinner of Chicken Tikka Masala and Homemade Naan. (They were delicious! The food, not the stamps)

I'll admit that I wasn't expecting anything from Pat, but when I made it into the living room Valentine's morning, I found this sentiment on my computer.

Awwww! You need to know that this pertains more to the fact that the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead was coming on that evening than to any of his anatomy. Get your mind out of the gutter!

On the back of the card was a promise to replace Myrtle. See.... Myrtle was the toilet in the master bathroom. She wasn't in the pictures of the house tour. However, she made her presence known often.

See her there peeking out between the two showers (TWO SHOWERS - WHAT?) in the master bathroom the day I took the other pictures.

She was named Myrtle by a dear friend after Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter. And boy could my Myrtle holler. She made this horrible high-pitched ten-minute-long squeal EVERY TIME she was flushed. We knew after her first use that she would have to be replaced. In fact, we bought a replacement just a week or two after moving in. However, the task sat undone while a toilet in a box sat in my bedroom. And, Myrtle's squeals continued to echo through the house day after day after day.

Replacing Myrtle didn't take long (Pat had it done in less time than it took me to cook dinner), but the rewards will be long-lasting. My sanity is saved to say the least. Oh, and, I don't have to deal with a wood toilet seat any longer. Thank heavens! YUCK!!

So, despite the fact that the rest of that dark, dingily painted bathroom still needs lots of work. I don't have to hear it talk back to me anymore. True Love knows when you can't take an ugly, screaming toilet any longer, romance is not required.

Our New Home | Pool and Property

Over a month ago I shared a look at the inside of our new home. I guess it's time that I show you some of the FIVE ACRES we also bought, including the pool area. He're what I was able to capture on camera the other day first thing in the morning (the lighting was weird so the pictures are a little odd, but I think you'll get the idea). Of course, I also filmed a video if you'd rather just go to the bottom of the page and watch that. This is a little picture heavy, bear with me. I'm excited to show you some of my new space.

The view off the back porch. Pat's already cleared away a bunch of the vines and overgrowth that had been covering that fence.

Also from the back porch you can see this shed. Again, the fence was covered in jasmine that we are slowly working on clearing out.

Taking a left off the porch, there's this little walkway to the pool, and a nice grouping of  banana trees and split-leaf philodendron. 

On the other side of the banana trees is this little area. We've decided to make it a fire-pit area since we found that fire pit in some weeds.

THIS is our pool!! It's kinda large and goes to 8 feet deep. It's also well-shaded which makes for quite chilly water. It'll be perfect during this sweltering Alabama Julys!

Okay, so back in the fire-pit are is this arbor (that was covered in air potato vines- eek!) and a few lampposts. It seriously feels like Narnia out here!

Out past the lampposts is this open area where we plan to plant our garden. You can see the light on the other side of the trees in the back, that's where out property ends and a large farm begins.

Next to the open area is this wide path that cuts through an area of bamboo and the back of the 'backyard'.

The path also cuts behind this pole barn. My husband says it's in better shape than it looks.

The pole barn hold all kinds of stuff that was left on the property - some treasures and some not so much.

Circling back toward the house is this basketball goal covered in overgrowth, I think it really speaks of the rustic nature of our new home.

I'm completely smitten with the variety of plants and flowers we have all over the property (with the exception of the air potato and jasmine). We joke that we've got one of everything. Take a look:

There are tons of gardenia bushes - it's a good thing I love them so!

As well, there are hydrangeas scattered across the property. I actually found this tiny bloom on one of them.

For the most part though, the majority of our hydrangeas look like this right now.

The previous owner had planted some mums. This is one small bunch like you would get in front of the grocery store. However, it's blooming. I don't mind!

In addition to lots of pine trees, we also have a few large oaks. This large, majestic one sits toward the back of the property.

There are beauty berry bushes scattered all over. I adore the color of the berries. Isn't it divine?

Elephant ears are mixed in with all the other plants. These are right outside the pool gate, giving that area an even more lush feel.

Also near the pool are several palms. This is the biggest of the bunch.

We've even discovered a few citrus trees. Though, this lime is the only fruit I've found on them. We think the other plant is an orange. I can't wait to find out for sure!

And that's just a partial look at the property, I didn't take you to the front of the house or the way back. I mentioned that it feels like Narnia out here but we're now joking that it's more like the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter. We've found some many cool items on the property, some we had recently mentioned we needed - like the fire pit. I plan on sharing a bit of a peek at some of the cool items we've discovered, but that's for another time. For now, here's my video tour.

I do apologize for making y'all wait so long for this reveal. It's been a ton of work trying to catch up and unpack and manage the property and enjoy the pool and excuses, excuses, blah, blah, blah. I do hope you understand.

Our New Home | the beginning

The time has come! We're almost settled in our new home. Before I share some of the changes we've made to it and its current state, I thought I should give y'all a peek at what our house looked like the day we got the keys. I made a little video tour (if you can handle my walking and talking while video taping), but also have some pictures below to share of our new oasis.

This is the sunroom and the main entrance we use into the house from the back door.

From there, you can walk straight back into the master bedroom. It's HUGE!

The previous owner had the room decorated in a Tuscan-theme, Check out the wine bottle applique that was on the wall! Those two rooms are the master bath (left) and closet (right).

The applique came off easily, but the little shelf was made of plaster and raised off the wall. (not as easy to remove)

Here's the master bath. It needs some serious updating, but we can live with it for now.

Oh, both the sunroom and the master bedroom are additions to the house, so they both have brick walls along one side. Interesting, right?

From the bedroom, you can walk right into the craft room.

There's even a cute little half bath in the craft room (the main reason I chose that room.)

Across the hall from the craft room is Pat's office. It's got better light (with two windows) but no bathroom.

Here's the guest bathroom. It's tiny and that wall technique HAS TO GO, but it's workable!

The guest room is pretty small too. The duck border is awful. But, it's a project for another time.

There's a large front room, what I'm guessing is supposed to be a formal living room. However, we're going to turn it into a dining room eventually.

This is my kitchen as you walk in from either the hallway or the sunroom. 

And, here it is from the living room. (Double ovens!!)

We've got a large living room with split brick floors.

The huge, custom-built cabinet was in there too. EEK!

So, that's a bit of a tour of the inside for you. However, if you want to see a bit more, check out my video tour.

I still plan on doing a video and picture tour of the pool area and some of the property soon, especially now that the grass has been cut. We've already made so many changes in the two weeks we've been here that I'm glad I took these before pictures to remember where we started.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek and hope you hang onto your hats as I begin this new adventure. You are coming along for the ride aren't you?