this is happening

OH BOY. The hardwood has arrived! We have to let it sit in the house for a few days to acclimate, and then we'll seriously get this ball rolling! I had to pull out a few pieces to make sure we got the right product. It looks so. good. I am thrilled.

We got a quote on having a professional install it... and it was very expensive. We are still going to go ahead with it ourselves (and hopefully some friends' help!). We will be buying some equipment for the process, and then looking to sell it after the project is complete. If you know anyone in the triangle NC area looking to add wood floors in the near future, let them know they can get some gently used tools & stuff from us.

the final countdown

Yesterday, we ordered all of the wood for the floors. Oh. My. Goodness. I am nervous and excited. The house is going to be a wreck for a while, and I am trying to mentally prepare for this. We had not moved much of anything back into the living room since the ceiling project, so the room is clear. Now we have to rip up the carpet and padding. Ew. I am not looking forward to this part. It is going to look SO good though. And I am ordering FLOR samples today. We are going to put a big rug in the main space to denote "living room" from the "kitchen and dining" area.

Who wants to help us??

stay tuned for project progress photos...

progress report

Projects #1 and #2 COMPLETE!!

It only took 5 men and 3.5 days to get this done. SO worth hiring people for this project. Was it expensive? Yes. I cannot even imagine how we could have done this on our own though. The pictures don't really do it justice. The kitchen ceiling seriously feels a whole foot higher. Even the 17 foot ceilings in the living room somehow feel more open and airy.

Aaahhhhh! So fresh and so clean. On to the next project... wood floors! We peeked under the carpet, and it doesn't look too bad. We will pick out our wood this weekend and let it acclimate in the house next week. We decided to go ahead with this next step while all of the furniture is out of the way. Here goes nothing!

Spring 2012 House Project Extravaganza!

1. Scrape the popcorn ceilings - in progress as of RIGHT NOW. We are hiring folks to do this for us as we cannot reach our 17 foot ceiling, and its popcorn. We are just doing the living room and kitchen... the main awake-time living areas. We will have to save up for a while in order to get more of the house done.

2. Paint the great room - again, hiring folks to do this. We do not have a ladder that big. Since the room is clear, and they are already here, the drywall/popcorn peeps will take care of this for us.

3. David's desk - we sold the big ol' metal desk that was in the office. He is MAKING a new one! More on that in another post...

4. Wood Floors - I have to say, I am most excited about this one. I hate our dingy, dust-collecting, old carpeted floors. We chose a bamboo wood flooring, and will put it down in the next few weeks as the living room and kitchen are already cleared out.

5. Kitchen Makeover - we LOVE our green kitchen, but after the ceiling project it will need touching up. We may change the color slightly, but it will still be something bright and fun. I can reach everything in the kitchen, so we will do that ourselves!

6. Guest Room Makeover - we cleared out this room in order to store things from the living room for the ceiling project. Once the living room and kitchen are put back together, this room will be a blank slate! We want to make it into an office/movie room. David's new desk will go in here, and we will try to find a smallish couch or love seat.

from the top of the stairs

The living room projects begin. I will try my best to take progress pictures, but I need to stay out of the way. I packed my snacks and have most things I need up in the bedroom and craft room. They assure me that I WILL be able to get in and out of the house after they tape off everything and bubble me in.

hex marks the spot

I finally found time to finish the bathroom wall project! Basically, I was just too lazy to bring the big ladder in from the shed.

I originally wanted to do wallpaper on this vanity wall... bridging the bedroom and bathroom together. Then, we chose a few different shades of grey paint to redo the bedroom, vanity, and bathroom areas. I still wanted some kind of visual interest on this wall, so I got the SAME color grey that we already had but in a glossy finish (rather than the flat or eggshell we already had). David made a cardboard stencil for me. I traced it with pencil, then hand-painted the hexagonal pattern with the glossy paint.

I think it came out great! I love it. It gives the vanity area depth and texture, without taking up any extra space.

Previous stages of bathroom redo: part 1 and part 2

smokin'

David and I got to go to Myrtle Beach earlier this month. Shopping was AWESOME because it is off-season and nobody was there. We got so many great things for cheap at the outlets. We got coordinating air-brushed t-shits at a flea market. We also stopped at a Tinder Box store (one of few stores open at one area). They had cigar boxes for sale, and I couldn't resist. Sure, they were probably just going to throw them away, but I was OK with giving them $4 for the lot we got:

The colors are awesome. Condition is flawless. I have some stacked on the dresser under a lamp, and I plan to use some as gift boxes... but I will let them air out a bit first.

copycat

I copied my favorite salad from Panzanella in Carrboro... YUM.

Romain with Caesar dressing, goat cheese, tomatoes, bacon, chick peas, roasted eggplant & onions. Pita and hummus on the side, and nice red wine.

let the games begin!

Here we go... we are ACTUALLY going to do this stuff.

1. This weekend we got wood floor samples.

2. This weekend we also got quotes from 2 painters for scraping our 17 foot popcorn ceiling, and painting that same room. (more quotes coming later this week)

I will continue to update as we embark on our first major home project!! I am excited, anxious, nervous, and I am going to try and remain calm and not take out all of my stress and frustration on David.

Next step for this week is to clean up the other rooms so we have a place to move the furniture while the living room becomes a mess. I will take 'before' pictures, too.

new year plans

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOWELL & LOUISE!!

Two years ago today, we opened our etsy shop. It was a little idea to keep the creative juices flowing... kind of like this blog is for me. Something to provide accountability for us to keep thinking/designing/creating.

We definitely neglected the shop in order to focus on planning a wedding, and taking some pretty awesome trips in 2011. This year, I aim to get back on track. There will be plenty more sewing projects and I intend to keep the shop more updated and looking spiffy.

Apart from Lowell & Louise, we have a LOT of house projects planned for 2012.

*scrape popcorn ceilings

*paint great room

*wood floors on first floor

*back yard detached studio/office

I have already started a wall treatment for the upstairs vanity, and I have several other small interior decorating projects coming up soon. 2012 is off to a great and creative start!

rings

wedding DIY - wedding bling

My engagement ring was a collaboration between David and JewelSmith. He knew I would like something unique. I love it. And I know that nobody else will have anything like it.

When choosing our wedding bands, I thought I wanted something simple, easy, and "off the rack." But the little creative bug wouldn't let me just PICK something, I had to have a say. So we went back to JewelSmith and designed a wedding band to coordinate with my engagement ring. I really love that they "go" and not "match." The tiny flower below the diamond is the same flower used as a pattern on the wedding band.

For David's band, he picked something we found on etsy (a seller in California). I also picked something from etsy when choosing jewelry for the big day (a seller from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK). Supporting DIY-ers around the world!

cookies

We went to a holiday party at Tamara's house earlier this month. She made some delicious chocolate sugar cookies with little thumbprints of jam on top. I tried making them... and it was less successful. Also, I set some parchment paper on fire in the oven. oops!

I found a different recipe for "hot chocolate cookies" and decided not to give up on baking just yet. These turned out VERY well. The base/dough recipe was similar, but these had more chocolate. Plus, a toasted marshmallow. And more chocolate. The recipe made 5 dozen, so David's coworkers got some, my coworkers got some, and we took some to another holiday party. They were a hit!

quickie- part 2

And by "quickie" I mean this one took a LOT longer than the first one. First of all, I wanted pockets. I used a dress I already had as an example, and traced the pockets. No biggie. I had everything all lined up and ready to go, and sewed the best seam ever... to realize then that I sewed the pocket on inside out. Doh! I got good use out of the seam ripper, and everything turned out fine. The second side I was sure to attach in the correct direction. I love the fallish color and pattern. Although I am sure I will be rocking this all year round with boots & tights, or flats or sandals.

This is the same fabric I used when making Mary's nesting bowls. More bowls to come, and I am working on a schmancy beaded boudoir pillow!

textiles

We used some of our Crate & Barrel wedding gift cards to buy ALL NEW window dressings!

For the living room windows:

For the office/craft room windows:

We also got this fabulous heavy & cozy throw using a fab.com giftcard from the Elders:

The interior is starting to come together. In 2012, we plan on having the living room popcorn scraped & painted. Then we are going to install wood floors.

My goal is NOT to panic during the process.

*images via Crate & Barrel and Happy Habitat

fabric bowls

Here is another project from Sewing in a Straight Line: fabric nesting bowls!

I made these for Mary for her birthday. I think they are perfect for holding pins/brooches or other chunky jewelry right on top of the dresser. The bigger size could be good for keys & things right inside the front door.

pop tarts

I found this cookie-cutter/mold thingy at Williams-Sonoma. We had some money left on a giftcard, and this little purchase helped us use it all up.

I followed the dough recipe from the box. I filled some tarts with Nutella, and the others with strawberry jam. HOLY COW these are good. Bigger than a store-bought pop tart, and soo so much tastier. I barely finished one for breakfast. It was perfect with coffee. I only used half of the dough so far, so I will be making them again on Sunday to have my treats set up for the mornings of the workweek.

favors

Wedding DIY - favors

The container store had plenty of choices for boxes in several colors and patterns. However, they ran 50 cents to one dollar each. That can really add up when you are making over 100 of these things. So, I got the cheapies on sale at Michael's, with a coupon. They ended up costing me less than 10 cents each. I hole-punched some of them, and the others I glued on the punched-out pattern.

On the inside, we placed a paper muffin cup which held a chocolate truffle, and a custom designed magnet favor. David and I designed 3 different patterns for the magnets. We used some of the same symbols from our invitations (made by Tamara). We added a cute little C & D on the edge with our wedding date.

ceremony

Wedding DIY - ceremony

We put together a little slide show for guests to watch while they got seated and ready for the ceremony to begin. We chose old family photos, as well as pictures of us as a couple when we were first falling in love (awww!). We paired this with some of our favorite love songs.

David and I picked our ceremony music as well... Then David chopped it up and mashed it together to make a beautiful instrumental processional.

Together with our super awesome officiant, Erin, we created a ceremony PERFECT for us. This was a fun process. It was so nice to have some creative freedom here. We chose some excerpts from a lovely poem called "I like you" by Sandol Stoddard Warburg. It is really sweet. Read it.

cake towers

Wedding DIY - cupcake towers

Yeah. This did not go quite as planned.

I wanted to make several cake stands since we ordered mini cupcakes for the wedding reception. I planned on these going with my "colors." Turns out I really didn't pick "colors" for my wedding.

I used a guide from the wedding craft book I got in the spring. (There are a lof of fun ideas in the book, and they all can be done in a non-wedding-y way). I had trouble covering the edges of the support pieces. It was looking a little too arts & craftsy, even for me.

Then, the cake table ordered by the caterers would only fit ONE big tower of a cake stand. So, my multiple cake stands would not fit.

The project was fun to play with, and now I have some fun ribbon with which to decorate holiday gifts. However, I have a surplus of cardboard things just taking up space in the craft room.

Since I did 6 weddings in 2011, I think I am going to give the wedding stuff a rest for now.

invitations

Wedding DIY - invitations

When we got engaged, I knew we wanted to do something unique for our invitations. Our obvious choice for screen-printer was our friend Tamara. A lot of ideas floated around, and we settled on a subtly nautical theme, in a natural & neutral color palette. We had to bring in our love of maps as well. I found the envelopes online, and Tamara did the rest.

I had the idea to do something funky for the reply... we asked our guests to get their creative juices flowing. These replies serve as a kind of guest book for us. We get to have a keepsake from so many of the special people in our lives, even if they were unable to attend the wedding.

Getting the reply cards back was SO fun for us. Thank you to all of our friends and family members for sending us creative, cute, silly, and colorful responses.