Rapunzel's Gown

The following is a post I started, but never finished, so I am posting my progress now!

Big Goonie said she wanted to be Rapunzel for Halloween (2012), so I set out to make her the perfect dress. Here are some pics of my progress along the way.

Parts for the bodice

Bodice assembled with silver sparkly gimp laid in place

Cutting out the sleeves

Adding some sparkled strips to the sleeves

Time to gather the sleeves with elastic

Sleeves and bodice assembled

Deja Vu

About a month ago I told you about how my sister and I painted a couple of walls in her bedroom purple. Well guess what? We've painted them again!!

It all started when she laundered the new comforter she bought to go on her new king-sized bed. Her top-load washing machine DEVOURED the comforter, ripping a hole in it, mangling the filling, and even wiping grease on it! What a shame! It was such a pretty comforter!

The new comforter prior to being devoured ...R.I.P.!

So Sis got smart and opted for a new duvet cover instead of a comforter—much easier to launder (if you aren't familiar with duvet covers, they're basically like a big pillowcase for a comforter)! The new duvet is very similar to the old comforter in design—white background with grey and back accents—except the new duvet has some lovely wine-colored embroidery on it. Regrettably the embroidery didn't coordinate with the purple wall color very well, so we set off to find a new color!

We finally settled on a beautiful color called "Plum Harvest" by Behr (my absolute FAVORITE paint brand!). It's very hard to tell here, but it actually matches the embroidery on the throw pillows and the duvet very nicely. In fact, it looks a lot like Welch's Grape Juice (yum!)!

You can see a glimpse of the wine-colored embroidery on the duvet in the lower right corner of this picture! Also, her new headboard was delivered since my last visit and she got new lamps! What do you think?

And... VOILA!! Here is the room with the new paint color! I hope to get better pictures of the room during my next visit. As it was, I was walking out the door to return home as I took this shot. The furniture was still out in the middle of the room, painting gear scattered all over, and the paint on the walls was still wet!

I wonder what color we'll paint her room the next time I visit?? ;P

Something's Fishy!

My kid has been pestering me about getting some fish for quite some time. "What's the fun in having fish?" I said, "After all, you have a fuzzy kitty you can pet and love on and a big ol' dog to play chase with and pester. All you can do with a fish is LOOK at it!" After months of debate I finally caved.

Sandy Cheeks is a squirrel from Texas,
but lives in an underwater tree dome in
Bikini Bottom. She wears an astronaut-like
suit since she can't breathe underwater.

So two weeks ago we bought a 10 gallon aquarium. Next we added some black gravel mixed with some neon stones for a splash of color. Then we added some faux plants and air stones for bubbles, and finally we put in some super cool SpongeBob aquarium accessories to fashion our aquarium after one of my kid's favorite shows—SpongeBob Squarepants. Here you can see we have SpongeBob and his pineapple house, his neighbor/co-worker Squidward and his Easter Island moai house, SpongeBob's best friends Patrick and Sandy, and SpongeBob's pet snail, Gary.

And... VOILA! Here is Bikini Bottom* in our dining room!

*Bikini Bottom is the name of the undersea town that SpongeBob lives in.

There's Gary, SpongeBob's pet snail, hiding behind SpongeBob's pineapple house!

Gilley

We conditioned our water and waited a couple of days before adding our fish. Our first inhabitant was a blue and turquoise Crown-tail Betta we named Gil, but we tend to refer to him as his sweetie-pie name, "Gilley", instead.

Then we added some Neon Tetras. We got five of them since this fish likes to school. What better name for them than the "The Furious Five" based on other beloved characters on another of my kid's favorite shows, Kung Fu Panda?

Meet "The Furious Five"—Willie, Silly, Billy, Nilly, and Sarah.

We also added a couple of ghost shrimp. They are very peculiar looking. You can see right through them! In fact, while the one in the image below appears to be pink, it is in fact standing in front of a neon pink pebble. In person, you can see it's stomach pulsing, sending food down to the next station in its digestive tract. The shrimps usually just crawl around the bottom of the tank scavenging and hiding (they're supposed to help keep the tank clean!), but yesterday I watched one of them swim vertically from the bottom of the tank to the top! ...oddly fascinating...

No name ghost shrimp   : (

Lastly, we added some GloFish, but sadly they are messing with the harmony in the tank. There are two of them now (there had been three—Strawberry Shortcake, Orange Blossom, and Lemon Merengue—named after some of my kid's favorite dolls. Regrettably, Orange Blossom went "belly up" the other afternoon.) and all they do is bicker all day long while everyone else just enjoys the tank and gets on with living. So they're going to be evicted—don't worry, I won't flush them. The pet store has a 14-day return policy on fish (dead or alive). Perhaps I'll post an update if we get new occupants!

So while I haven't been doing my OWN home improvements project per say, I have been doing our new fishes' home improvement projects!

So what's the fun in having fish (as you may recall I asked my kid)? I must admit, I do enjoy staring into their tank watching to see what they'll do next. The Betta is especially fun to watch—his tail is so magnificent—and I keep studying the Neon Tetras to see if I can see any imperfections, but I truly can't find a single difference to distinguish one from another! Now that I have the fish fairly settled, maybe I can get back to my own projects!

Living the Dream

A year or so ago I came across a website that really got me excited. It was a website begun by a fellow stay-at-home-mom and DIY'er named Ana White. Long story short, she began building and drawing up building plans of expensive furniture pieces she had admired in popular home decorating catalogs and started a blog on which to share them with fellow DIY'ers like me! In reviewing her site, I found SO MANY projects that I would love to try and build one day—bookcases, headboards, night stands, etc.

Well Sis and her handy husband have been looking around for a nice headboard for one of their guest beds. I told them about one of my favorite finds on the site (Ana's Farmhouse Bed) and he decided to make it for their guest room (I am so jealous!)!

Here sits the pile of lumber that will become the Farmhouse Bed.

I was too busy painting the master bedroom to get pics of Handy Hubs building the headboard and footboard, but here Sis is sanding away on the assembled pieces. I think they turned out pretty good!

That headboard is SO HEAVY!

I caulked some of the gaps where the boards came together.

Time to get the pieces painted up! Big Goonie wanted in on some of the action too, so we let her do some priming.

And... VOILA! Here they are with finish coat painted on them!

Sis will put on a second coat of finish paint before the pieces get moved to the bedroom.

I had to head back home across the mountain before they were moved into the room and can't wait to see them in place! Will post a pic of the finale when it comes!

Passion for Purple

Yesterday's order of business was to bring some passion into the bedroom... PASSIONATE PURPLE, that is!

Sis bought some new bedding to go with her new bed and wanted to change up the colors in the bedroom. The new bedding is white with silver and dark grey accents, so we'll bring in a splash of color by putting some purple on the walls!

We'll paint purple on these two walls, so we taped off the baseboards so we'll have a nice crisp line between the purple wall and the white trim. 

This hallway in the master suite leads to some closets and the bathroom. We'll paint it a light silvery grey so it won't be like a dark tunnel.

Here's the happy homeowner rolling away! Doing good, Sis!

WHOOPS! Not doing so great over here! I managed to drip on the carpet! Egads!

The happy homeowner did a good job cutting in close to the ceiling!

A new large black headboard is currently on order. Can't wait to see it all put together! 

And... VOILA!! A master suite with purple and grey walls!

Comic Relief

I picked up a package of play fingernail tips from a $1 bin for my kid. Best dollar I've spent in a while! She played with them non-stop for days! They cracked me up, so I thought I'd share with you here...

Big Goonie models her manicure.

Feeling Blue

As you may recall my sister's fondness for gold from my previous post, it wasn't long before she decided she wanted to have her living repainted. I was recruited to come and help!

Big Goonie and her furry cousin model color choices under review. We chose the middle shade of blue.

My supervisors checked the equipment before I got started. Looks like the ladder is good and solid!

First I hit the walls with some Kilz to seal up that gold paint. Normally I'd carefully cut in with my brush along the sides of the moldings, but since we were going to have a darker color up against white, I wanted to have a nice crisp line, so we taped those parts off.

 Finally time for some blue!

 And... VOILA!! A beautiful new living room!

Home Sweet Home

Despite having not posted lately, I have actually been quite busy!! My sister and her husband bought a new house, so with my kiddo in tow, we left daddy at home and went to visit for a few days to help them get settled in their new place.

My sister immediately put me to work. First thing on my task master's list? Change hardware. You see, my sister is not a fan of brass hardware—doorknobs, cabinet pulls, hinges, etc. Her attitude towards brass hardware is very reminiscent of the scene from Mommie Dearest where Faye Dunaway's character yells, "NO WIRE HANGERS!", only with my sister, it's "NO BRASS HARDWARE!!" (This could be an exaggeration—or not—but it's funny to imagine nonetheless.)

So, just as they did in their last house, the first thing to go was all of the brass hardware. Now it is nickel, and admittedly, quite nice.

Later while my sister and I had some downtime, we ventured out into the front yard and delved into yard work. Her husband had just purchased some electric hedge trimmers and I was demonstrating to her how to use the tool. Like a masterful Jedi warrior I wielded the trimmers easily like a light saber, shaping the overgrown boxwood bush into a perfect globe.

She was so impressed with my technique that she implored me to trim all of the boxwoods for fear that she might not trim them with such expertise (did I just get scammed into trimming all of her bushes?!). Unsurprisingly they looked terrific when I was done. It was agreed that I could probably get on at Disney shaping their bushes—a second career, perhaps?

Another project we conquered during my visit was painting the garage floor. My BIL picked up one of those cool garage floor epoxy kits that are available at the home improvement stores.

I cut in with my paint brush around the edge of the room and he rolled paint/epoxy. Then before the floor dried we sprinkled teeny colored paint flakes that we dubbed as "Man Glitter" onto it. It turned out really nice. Now I wish I had a garage so I could do mine too—it's that nice.

I've been up to a lot more since I drafted this entry... will close abruptly for now to move on to another post!

"You Rock!!"

At least that's what someone passing by told me today as I was happily setting stones! I finally got the portion of the wall that faces the yard pretty well wrapped up. I might do some additional tuck-pointing to this area again later, but overall am pretty satisfied with how things are turning out.

Now that I have the side facing the yard done, I can focus on the side of the wall facing the street. Just a few more stones to set! I ran out of mortar and had to call it a day.

My back is ready for this project to be done. It doesn't think we should be mixing 180 lbs. of mortar. I couldn't agree more!

So much tuck-pointing to do in other parts of the wall! This should keep me busy all summer! Imagining how much money I am saving by doing it myself is so satisfying!

Today I am a Mason

Our home's property sits on a corner of two streets that join at a "T" intersection. The yard is sunken and a lovely stone wall runs adjacent to one of the streets. Earlier this week a vehicle made contact with the wall and damaged it.

This part of the wall has been reduced to crumbles. (shot from the street looking down into the yard)

It may be hard to tell in this shot, but the damaged portion of the wall is now slightly bulging near the rust-colored horizontal and the white triangle stones. (shot from the yard looking toward the adjacent street)

I think this might be a project I can handle... first—clean the area and stones of old mortar.

I moved a small chunk of old mortar and the whole section collapsed! Thankfully the stones missed my feet when they fell!

Thankfully I took pics before it collapsed. Hopefully that will help me figure out where all of the pieces go when I go to reassemble it!

Another section of the wall has some loose stones too. I decided to start down there so I could get my bearings and work out the technique before tackling the larger problem.

A car hit the corner of this wall a couple of years ago and loosened up some stones at the end.

Another "before" shot.

 And... VOILA!  This is what 60 lbs. of mortar looks like (my back is not happy about this project)!

Only the top layer of stones has been reset here.

Not too bad for my first time at masonry! I'm feeling pretty good about the process and am looking forward to getting the other section of the wall started.

The rocks behind the iris are for decoration and not part of my construction project.

Check back in a couple of days to see my progress!