Interior Tour | One Year In

HAPPY EASTER!  It was one unlike any other, right?  Since we couldn't go anywhere, we made the best of it with our little domestic church here and it actually ended up being an Easter we will never forget.  We forged some new traditions and, because it wasn't quite as busy as it usually can be, I feel like we were able to soak in the tradition and could be even more mindful of Christ's sacrifice for us.  I hope you felt that too.  There really is beauty to be found in this whole pandemic situation if you have the eyes to see.

There is also beauty in the fact that Lent is OVER!  We are obviously still very much living a pandemic lent of sorts but I feel a breath of fresh air has filled my lungs with the Easter season.  I gave up being on any form of social media during the day for Lent and, while it was surprisingly hard in the beginning, I'm resolved to make it my new normal going forward.  When I did take the time to post something at night during Lent, I felt like it was much more intentional and not based on some passing whim or obligation to show the internet something during the day.  Maybe that makes no sense at all but I feel like overall, I ruled social media instead of it ruling me...something that I think happens all too often these days with all of us.

Anyway, I'm here today with a big update - how we've progressed on our house thus far!!  We closed on the house a smidge over a year ago and so I've been slowly taking pictures of the current state of each room over the past few weeks to put together a slew of comparisons.      

Hopefully this barrage of before and so-fars is as fun for you as it is for us.  :D  A lot of times, we get stuck in the thought that we're not really making any real progress or we're not progressing and changing things fast enough.  Yes, our pace is slower thanks to the DIY nature of how we do things around here and the fact that we pay saved-up cash for every upgrade, but sometimes it's hard to accept that the before isn't going to be blown away by the after in a matter of days or weeks.  But then I write things like this post, where we can actually see the progress we've made from the start, and all of that not-going-quick-enough fades into the background because really, we've made some good progress over the past year.  Scraped, smooth ceilings are probably the biggest winners but also the most understated because the ceilings aren't usually the first to be noticed.  In their new state, they help bring more light into the house which amps up the after-factor.  Everything else is a matter of new paint in a lot of the rooms and just bringing in furniture with a little bit of styling on the side.  We've still got a long way to go (and really, we'll never be totally finished because you know those winds of change can getcha...) but we have had so much fun planning and making and designing in between that we're almost glad we're not there yet.  ;)

So, come on in!

The entry before:

It's hard to see, but there was wallpaper all over in here.  The pattern is too small for my older phone to pick up but it was straight outta the 80's.

So far:

Before:

Camo Utility Boxes

We are on a house painting ROLL!  Well, we were.  We got a little side-tracked mid-week this week with another project that kind of took precedence...more on that later.  Our goal was to start painting the exterior trim sometime this spring and thanks to the craziness going on, we got a head start and are halfway done.  I'll share more pictures when we're done but we started on the least seen side of the house last week and are now almost finished with the back (which includes the big car port).  This is what that first side looked like before we started:    

After painting, it looks like this:

Kids (and Toddlers) Making Art | DIY

I do not like crafting with my kids.  There, I said it.  I feel it so much I could probably have used stronger words.  I like the idea of it but when it comes down to physically getting down and dirty, nope.  But, I love my kids.  Love, love, love them with that I-will-die-for-you kind of love but crafting with them?  It a mess waiting to happen and one that I'd rather skip out on by just finding other ways of having fun.

The unfortunate part about that is that my kids love painting.  LOVE it.  I don't know if that love will transfer over to painting walls and furniture because you know one day they will get roped into that, but for now, give each of them paint, a brush, and paper and they will sit and paint allll day long.  But, like a lot of kids, they make a MESS.  Even with me right there (breathing into a paper bag...kidding...maybe) they still manage to make a mess.  You moms know.  You see me.  And I see you.  A lot of times I feel like the paint is fun to create pictures with for awhile but if they keep going, it becomes this thing where they keep piling paint on paint on paint just to see what happens and that's where things go awry.  It's like playing with mud.  They're cute at first making these pretty little mud pies and cookies and 20 minutes later, they're an entirely new, unrecognizable species.  That's painting with kids.

But, BUT, I pulled the paints out with a plan a couple of weeks ago and, not only wasn't there a huge mess to clean up at the end, but we actually came out the other end with two pictures that were worthy of a hammer and nail.

Gianna's:

Seb's:

(The twins were at school when I did this so it was just a project for the 6 and 3 year old.  Had I had four kids at one time doing this, I'm not sure it would have gone quite as smoothly.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Probably won't ever try that because I'm not that much of a glutton.)

P.S.  I didn't plan on this being something you could do while being couped and socially distanced for (possibly) weeks on end but it totally is so I'll chalk one up on the coincidence chart.

House Exterior Update | One Year In

Whew!  March 2020, you are one for the books, right?  April and May etc etc will probably get the same association.  Yipe.  I hope you're tucked away from it all!  We are just trying to lay low and distant but have high hopes that this social distancing will allow us some good family time and maybe let us get a few more things done around here quicker than we expected.  For one, we grabbed exterior paint this morning so we're planning on a few weeks (or more) of sticking close to home and painting.  There's a bright spot in everything, right?  If you haven't never considered yourself a DIYer before, Covid-19 might bring it out of you!  :)  

In other news... 

We closed on our house one year ago!  That's seems wild to me.  Like, really.  And maybe it's because technically, we've only been living here for 10 months so we haven't quite hit the year mark there yet.  If you don't remember, we closed on our house a couple of months before we had to be out of our rental.  That gave us time to scrape all of those popcorn ceilings and paint before we moved in all of our furniture, which would've made scraping ceilings 100 times harder.

I'm going to write up a picture-loaded post of the inside and how it's changed in the past year but first, we're going to start outside.  The backyard hasn't changed much (here's a little update on some landscaping) but the back patio has and all with the addition of furniture and a little feng shui.  ;)

Before:

Currently:

How to Slim Down a Shirt | A DIY Refashion

It's been a good while since I took on a refashion so I revved that engine back up last week and finally started going through my small pile of to-be-sewns...the small pile that was a large pile before I counted my losses and donated half of the clothes before we moved last year.  Can't say I miss them...

Anyway, I found this shirt on a clearance rack at Target, oh, maybe two years ago, for something like $6.  I snatched it up even though it was two sizes too big for me because I loved the print and I knew I could easily take it in.  So, it went straight to the refashion pile.  Straight to that pile were it sat and sat...

I'm pretty sure I've written a tutorial on how to do this before but I'm also pretty sure it was a maternity top and I've gained some efficiency knowledge since then.  So, round two.  One of the easiest, beginner-level sewing things to do when you're talking refashioning shirts, is taking them in at the sides to fit you.  Really this is easiest with sleeveless shirts like the one I've got here today but sometimes you can follow up and along the sleeve of a shirt to get the same result with sleeved tops.  I'll make a mental note to do one of those someday too.

There are two easy ways to do this.  1)  Use a shirt you already have, and like the fit of, as a template or 2)  inch your way in little by little until you get the fit you want, following the existing edge.  For this post, I went the template route.

Things you'll need? 
Well, I wish I could slap a "no-sew" label on this one but alas, you'll need a sewing machine for this unless you're an Olympic hand seamstress.  If you're a beginner and just want to start slow and with straight lines, this Brother* is reasonable, has good reviews, and will do ya just fine for lots and lots of sewing projects.  This one* is even cheaper but without many stitch options.  If you've got a little bit of sewing skill under your belt or just want to jump in head-first and with a good machine, this one* is the newer model of mine.  I've had my dear Brother for oh, six or seven years now and LOVE it.  I've had zero problems with it.  It sews everything I've ever made and even embroiders so I've been able to make our Christmas stockings and then monogram them all with one machine.  Two thumbs way up.
You'll also probably need a sewing scissors* (I'd write "sewing" on it so no one thinks they can use it for anything else), a seam ripper* just in case, a sewing pencil* (I always use my kids' washable markers) and of course, a shirt that's too big on you.

Here's my shirt in it's original state:

It could've had a chance at flowy if the arm holes weren't the size of Texas on me.