The past year and a half has been one huge transition for me, and I really just didn't want to talk about it. It was difficult and confusing and stressful and silly and so uncertain. Change is hard, and just about every aspect of my life has changed. Anyway life seems to be stabilizing out now, so I don't mind documenting my life again.
Currently one of the chief occupations of my time has been "putting the house together". I started this process long before me and Corey got married, and has proven to be quite addictive. Corey let me do all kinds of things to his house, which is one reason why I married him!
Here are some samples
I had to use a flash for this picture and it looks bad, but I'm still proud of the boxes I made. (they look better in real life) I was able to buy this shelf with some of the target gift cards from the wedding! Right now I have to interrupt my thoughts to say, the generosity and support of our friends and family during this time has been, like a warm fuzzy blanket and slippers with hot cocoa by the fireplace for us. Ok, back to furniture. For this shelf they have boxes you can purchase, but I really didn't want to spend $12 on a box, so I got some boxes from the Fed Ex, and took my collection of maps that I have been hoarding away with my art supplies and covered the boxes using modge podge. (of course) I then put a brownish glaze over the top to age them.
The super fun part was choosing the maps though. All the places I have traveled or want to travel are on those boxes. Except one, I have an Arctic box, not because I want to go there, but because I think that it is marvelous that they are still exploring up there and finding new things. There are these under water volcanoes under the Arctic Ocean, and each one has a unique ecosystem with its own creatures that exist nowhere else. How cool is that?
Reupholstering this chair, is one of the hardest crafty things I've ever done. I've never seen so many darn staples in all my life. Anyway, I'm very happy with it, but it kinda burnt me out, I haven't been willing to tackle the next furniture pieces. I still need more time.
We re did all the common areas in the house, but this was probably the biggest eye sore in the house. The fire place was so ugly. It had textured, yellow brick, that was so dirty and covered with soot that it didn't even look yellow anymore. So the first thing I did was cover the brick with joint compound to fill in the texture. It took two layers, and with the second layer I created a new texture, because I didn't want to just paint the fire place white, I wanted to have some kind of interest. I then painted the bricks the same color as the celing, which is a very pale green, but it looks beige-ish.
I then took a silver glaze and added a bit f green to darken it, and rubbed it into the new texture. I like it because it gives the bricks and aged look, but its subtle and still looks clean.
The final touch was when Corey replaced the teracotta tiles that matched nothing in the house with some faux wood ceramic tiles that look pretty close to the same wood as the floor!
It was exciting doing this project because it was the first time I really got to use the new skills I have been learning for my job at Chell Design in my own house! (We do faux finishes (fancy painting) murals and sometimes commercial art as well. Very fun!) I also did a pearl glaze on our living room ceiling, which used my faux finish skills and turned out quite lovely, but I don't think that a picture of it would have turned out.
Alright! That's all for now!
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