It's been a while...

I haven't posted here in over a month.  I could blame the kids, family, work...but the truth is, I didn't have anything super-interesting to write about.  My mantel is finished.  It looks so much better than before.  I had three black lanterns, as shown in pictures, but I painted the small one silver to see what that looked like.  I wasn't too thrilled with the outcome, so I just left two up there.  I think it looks better with two and the Husband agrees.  See?  Boring.  Boring.  Boring.  I finished painting the bathroom.  It is now a nice light gray and totally brightens the whole room.  No pictures, yet...I did a shoddy job because I just wanted to get it done before people come over.  There are mistakes everywhere!

So, my steam from wanting to decorate my house has died down.  Another thing that died?  Our poor little Betta fish.  She was so social and lively and happy to see us!  We killed her by overfeeding her.

PET STORE EMPLOYEE: You only have to feed her 2-3 pellets a day.
US: Yeah, right...Look at her!  She's so excited to eat!  And she chompa-chompas the pellets like PacMan!  She should totally eat more than 2-3 pellets a day.  Let's give her 6-8 pellets twice a day!  That pet  store guy is so cruel starving these fish!!

Pretty flowers for our
 poor fish.  RIP girl.

The thing that put her over the edge was the blood worms I purchased for her...as a treat.  Poor thing.  She couldn't even float to the top when she died.  Just filled with pellets and fish poo.  And the thing that ticked me off (as though I have the right to be mad...fish killer!) was that last weekend, we bought her a big tank (2.5 gallons) with a filter and all that jazz.  $65 on a $2 fish!!  Anyway, I am taking my sad Curly-Toes to the pet store to get more fish (to make use of the new tank...and to console his hurt heart).  And this time, I am putting them on a strict diet!!

I did it!

Check one thing off of the to-do list!  I finished my "AAHHT"-work.  My above the mantel masterpiece.  This is how I spent my afternoon today...

I purchased a 24"x36" blank canvas, paint, and stencils.  I used the Martha Stewart Crafts letter stencils and paint.  I painted 3 coats of the "Lake Fog" on the blank canvas so that I could come back and touch up any mistakes.  I got that tip from Jackie and her tutorial on her blog Teal and Lime-thanks!  Without reading that tutorial I probably would have just stenciled on the white canvas and then been screwed later.  After my base coat was dry, I busted out the letter stencils and black paint.  Now, I thought that by purchasing the Martha Stewart brand stencils, I was getting the top-notch stuff because Martha is the queen of crafting.  But, I was a little disappointed to see that the stencils were a slick-slided cardstock.  And they are a teal blue, so I had to "guesstimate" the spacing between letters and words.  Next time, I think I will get the clear plastic letter stencils.  I would like to say that I have never stenciled anything and I am sure that there is a proper technique, but I just kind of winged it.  The canvas is rough so the letters didn't come out with smooth edges, but I liked the look so I ran with it.  I did erase some mistakes with a wet paper towel and I did paint over some boo-boos with the base coat color.  I started out using a foam brush to stencil, but then switched to a small paintbrush in the middle of the project.  I found that I had more control with the smaller brush.

I purchased a dandelion stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils (for my depressing guest bathroom...I thought I could stencil some light in it) and they are having a special where they send you a free stencil with each order.  They sent a butterfly stencil to me and I thought that it would best illustrate being free...right?  Butterflies flying away=freedom?  Anyway, I purchased some iridescent scrapbook paper that matched the base coat color and  cut 5 butterflies out.  I bent their wings and hot-glued them onto the canvas.  I'm still debating whether they are cheesy or add some dimension to the over all piece, but they should be easy to remove and repair if I decide I don't like them.

So, that is my story.  Husband smirked and laughed when he read the actual words.  He feels imprisoned by love, I suppose...Total project time=about two hours.  If I didn't have Honey Badger and Curly-Toes running around trying to help, I think I could have knocked it out a little sooner!

(Sorry for the dark photos...I should have waited until daylight to take the pics)

Another item on my to-do list...

Anson Mount and Common

Sunday nights are MY television nights.  That's when all the good stuff is on.  Or should I say hot stuff?  My new show is "Hell on Wheels" (AMC).  Lordy, Anson Mount is zexy!  This past Sunday, there was a fight scene and the song playing was "Timshel" by Mumford and Sons.  The episode is actually titled "Timshel."  I love Mumford and Sons.  Therefore, you can imagine how GLUED I was to the t.v.  Awesome.

SAD! :(
Another goal is to replace the surrounding tile

So awesome that I have finally figured out what I am going to do for my above the mantel art.  My fireplace/mantel is such a sad little corner in our living room.  I used to have some fabric covered panels up there, but the walls were blue then, and now they are "Practically Beige" (name of paint color-I am not a fan but chose it so we could sell our home...that's another story) so the panels didn't match.  Now, there is a blank space with my sad candlesticks that are really for the dining room table.  Ok, back to my idea...I like this lyric from Mumford and Sons "Sigh No More": "Love it will not betray you Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free."  Somehow, I am going to apply those words to a canvas and stick it up there!

To be continued...

It's raining...it's pouring...the honey badger is snoring...

It's Monday.  Husband at work.  Curly-Toes at school.  Honey Badger passed out.  HB started having a mild fever last night, so his temperament has been subdued.  More honey, less badger.  You've got me where this fever is coming from.  Husband made the statement last night that it seems HB is always getting sick.  I said it is from being exposed to CT and whatever CT is exposed to.  When CT was a baby, we just stayed home and his exposure to other children (diseases) was limited.  Plus, I think CT has a very hearty constitution, like my husband.  HB and I are not so blessed.

yes...that is carpet in the bathroom!

Ugh, my list of things-to-do...I accomplished not a darn thing last weekend.  And, I have decided...today...that I do not like the color I painted the guest bathroom.  So silly to think a bathroom that we rarely use is the one room I need to do so much work on.  I blame Pinterest and all these SuperMom/Decorator blogs.  Really, I should blame myself for trolling these websites.  Anyway, I painted half of the bathroom (it is divided by a door; shower/toilet on one side, sink on the other) a sort of french blue color.  Initially, I couldn't decide on dark blue or dark grey, so I thought "I know!  I will merge the two and paint it blue-grey."  But, I didn't pick blue-grey...and I think it looks dark and just BLECH.  I purchased some pretty yellow knobs from Anthropologie and a yellow and grey striped hand towel from West Elm thinking these items would brighten things up in there...but, no...I picked a FUGLY color.

bye bye pretty knobs...keeping the towel, though!

So, I am scratching off "install knobs" and "finish painting bathroom" on my list and adding "re-paint entire bathroom pretty color that brightens the damn place up."  *sigh*  And, although I didn't accomplish anything on my to-do list last weekend, I did have a massage, manicure, and pedicure...so I really can't complain!