to my one year old:

You let me hold you this morning while you took a short nap on the couch.  For an independent, squirmy kid, this was quite a treat!  It was only a year ago that I got to hold you for the first time and you fit perfectly in the bend of my arm.  Today, your legs draped over my lap and your arms spanned across my body.

You're quickly turning into a little man and it's hard to accept.  On the other hand, it's exciting to see you forming your own personality to mix in with the traits you've got from me and your Daddy.  Like him, you are sweet.  You instinctively know who to trust and aren't shy about showing them your affection.  You like to test your boundaries and make sure to investigate any and all nearby gadgets!  And like Daddy, you're a rascal!

Like me, you are stubborn.  You want to do things your way and you don't want help from anyone - you love your toys and books so much more when you get them off of the shelf yourself!  (Just to warn you, these qualities might frustrate people when you get bigger but understand who you are.  Own who you are and appreciate yourself - and know that Mumma will always be proud of you!)

I wish that you continue to explore and continue to find humor in everything.  I wish that you stay happy and confident.  I wish that you stay strong and stay brave.  I wish that you'd make time stop moving so damn fast.

Happy Birthday, little buddy.  I love you!

camera bag

As mentioned in an earlier post, the main lens I use on my camera was involved in a tragic accident and went on to a better life.  I ordered a new one and it arrived the other day.  Woo!  Seeing that I carry two different lens in my small, cramped bag, I figured now is as good of a time as any for a new one.  Unfortunately, decent looking camera bags cost a crap-load of money for some reason.  I'd love to have a Ketti Handbag but I would also like my son to eat for the next few months.

So, I decided to make my own - for a fraction of the price.

Supplies:
A purse - preferably one that is sturdy and has a large main compartment (as opposed to a purse that has a few dividers already built in)
Batting
Headliner fabric - thats the stuff you'd probably find on the roof of your car (inside, duh) but they sell it at any fabric store.  I probably used about a 1/2 yard.
Velcro
Cardboard

Forgive me in advance but I don't know the technical terms for any of this stuff.  Also, I'm not much of an instructions gal so I pretty much just winged it.  As with all DIY projects, you can find a zillion tutorials online if you want to attempt your own bag.

Here's the purse I started out with.  I think it was about $15-20 at Marshalls.  (I don't remember the exact amount but I try not to spend more than $20 on anything so I assume that's how much it cost.)

I cut a few rectangular pieces of cardboard out of a box from our recycling bin.  I then laid the pieces inside of the purse to make sure they were the right size.  One piece lays flat on the bottom of the purse and the other two lay horizontally on each side.  I made sure the horizontal pieces weren't too tall so that I can still make use of the side pockets in the purse.  I wrapped the bottom piece in some batting.  The headlining fabric has some cushion to it so the batting just added some extra smoosh to the bottom.

Next, I laid out a long piece of the headlining fabric, the same width of the pieces of cardboard I already cut out.  I figured out where I wanted to secure a few pieces of velcro and then sewed it on.  I forgot to take a picture of that step but here is a picture from later on in the process but it shows what kind of velcro I used:

Next, I folded the piece of fabric in half and then sewed seams in where the folds/bends in my camera bag insert would go.  I hope this picture explains it because I don't know how I would with words.

In the picture above, I already sewed two straight lines where the insert would fold up along the sides of the purse.  The opening that I am holding up will be at the bottom of the purse and won't show - so I wasn't worried about doing anything major to hold it together.  To close up the ends, I just sewed a straight line down the two sides of the insert.  Here it shows how it will look inside of the purse:

Disregard the horrible sewing job but James was napping and I knew I probably only had another 10 minutes to finish this project.  Yes, I was rushing.  No biggie though - all of this would be inside of the purse and not-so-visible.  See...no more wiggly lines!

I've seen several tutorials online that make sides for the insert but that would have been too fancy for me.  Instead, I just made three dividers to slip inside.  Because they have velcro on the ends, they can be adjusted to fit whatever it is they are dividing:

With these all sewed up and inserted into the insert, it looks like this:

I could make additional dividers if I wanted to tote around additional lens or other items.  For now, it holds a spare lens, my camera (old camera is in the pic above for staging purposes along with some rolled up batting in the 3rd compartment) as well as a wallet, phone, etc. can all fit!

Much better than what I used to have to carry around in addition to my regular purse!

not-so-quick bathroom fix

I have yet to share any pictures of our main bathroom.  There's nothing terribly wrong with it...except for the nasty green sponge paint it was sporting.  It made me cringe every time I've gone in there since we moved in this past May.  Sherwin Williams was having a 40% off sale this weekend so that gave me a good excuse to go buy a can of bathroom paint and fix 'er up!

It was supposed to be an easy project.  There's wainscoating on the bottom half of the walls so the area that would actually require paint was fairly small.  To make sure the green didn't sneak through the light colored paint we chose, we decided to throw a quick coat of primer on the walls.  About 20 minutes later, the priming phase of our bathroom makeover was done.  (Joe manned the roller while I took to the trim and cutting in.  For someone who admittedly isn't very patient, I really enjoy that tedious task for some reason.)

A short while later, I went to check on the primer to see if it was even close to being dry.  It was...but I also noticed something else...bubbles.  There were bubbles forming on two of the walls.  Uuuugh.  That horrible green sponge paint was actually over a layer of wall paper.  People who paint over wallpaper should be thrown in jail.  We couldn't ignore the fact that there was wallpaper under the paint and we certainly couldn't ignore the bubbles on two of our walls.  After several curse words and a few attempts at pulling off chunks of wallpaper, we realized two things:  1.  Whoever papered the wall did an amazing job.  We couldn't even see any seams.  Without the bubbles we never would have known that crap was even on the wall.  2.  The wallpaper was only on two of the walls.  It appears that the paper was only on the walls that were a part of the original bathroom.  We think the original bathroom used to end about halfway between these two windows.  (Warning:  Horrible green sponge paint + still having to use my old, junky camera = a nasty sight...)

So, we spent 20 minutes priming the entire bathroom and another 5 hours trying to scrape wallpaper off two of the walls.  Luckily, the walls underneath the wallpaper were white and in perfect condition so no repairs or additional priming was necessary.

I still want to paint all of the orange-y wood work, replace the fixtures, replace the vanity and install a new steam shower - and Joe wants to install a $5,000 toilet.  We dream big.  For now, we'll settle for a fresh coat of paint.

Scroll on and off the pictures below to see the before and after...

Despite the sweat and patience that was lost during this 'quick" project, it was all worth it.  The bathroom feels twice as big and I don't have that sickly green glow when I look in the mirror.  Well, I still have a sickly glow but that's attributed to pure exhaustion and not green sponge paint.

(In case you aren't able to see the before and after pics above, here's what you missed...)

 

 

new shoes.

It's been several days since I've made an update on our mudroom & laundry room progress.   We finished everything up in the mudroom last week but I just haven't had a chance to take any pictures.  It's a shame that I waited to take pictures because there was a tragic accident with my camera today so it might be out of commission for a while.  By "tragic" I mean "got caught up while taking the stroller out of the trunk which led to the camera going flying which led to the camera smashing on the ground which led to my lens shattering.  Just thinking about it makes me ill.  Yeh, I know it's just a thing and it can be replaced...but it's a pretty damn expensive thing.  I have another lens but it isn't as versatile and will limit the types of pics I can take for a while.

Aaaaaanyways...that's the reason for the poor photos below.

Our mudroom started out like this...

We added a board and batten treatment to the walls and painted the top portion a chocolate brown.  (Side note:  the chocolate brown paint was an "ooops paint" find at Lowes for a whopping $2.50.  Yeh, $2.50 for an entire can of paint.)

We still have to hang some coat hooks and paint the doors but that will be a quick project one of these days.

As for the laundry room, it started out looking like this...

We painted the walls, stacked the washer/dryer, added some storage and built a tabletop for the long wall opposite the window.  The paint from this room was another "ooops paint" find for $5.00.  I guess I'll put my dollars saved on paint towards a new camera lens.

 The table top is just made out of a few tongue and groove boards.  We used liquid nails along with our nailer to secure them together and they are resting on top of some ugly storage cabinets.  To hide those cabinets, I used some discount fabric I bought a few weeks ago and made a skirt.  The skirt is secured to the underside of the table top with velcro so I can remove it easily if it ever needs to be washed or switched out.  (This is another shining example of the fact that I don't iron.  As the wrinkles are flattening themselves out, it has also come to my attention that I need to hem the skirt an inch or so.)  Oh, and we also need to re-hang the clothes rod as well as a few shelves in this room.  I'm not sure why this picture makes the skirt look mustard-y but it totally isn't in real life.  It's more of a lively, lime green.

 I also used some more of that discount fabric to make some curtains.  Again, horrible camera = horrible lighting = horrible picture but you get the idea...

So there's our mudroom and laundry room....approximately 83% done.

On a personal note, James got his first pair of sneakers today.  It's amazing how such a minor thing can make him look so much older.  Sigh....