New flooring and Sasha's bedroom

Wow, it's been hectic around here the past few weeks! First, my second cousin whom I had not seen in about 30 years (she was 5 or 6), came to visit. She arrived on a Thursday noon. Then my good friend from South Carolina arrived Friday evening. We had a great time, just joking, cutting up, staying up late, and sleeping late every day for about 10 days! They both left July 2nd and suddenly the house felt so quiet, not peaceful, just quiet. I loved every moment they were here!
I, being the ultimate procrastinator, had received 26 towels to embroider for a customer. Of course, I waited until the day before they were to be picked up to embroider them. In my defense, I had sprained my wrist a week before, so hooping the towels was difficult. And for some odd reason, my computer decided to crash every time I brought up the designs onscreen. I figured out a workaround after 3 hours of messing with the computer.

This week was all planned out as well. We were scheduled to have new tile installed in the bathrooms on Monday and laminate throughout the upstairs on Wednesday. Here is what I had picked out:

Isn't that the most gorgeous tile?

The tile installers come Monday morning, show me 4 tiles, then open a new box. What? No green on a single tile! Grey, white, brown, but no bluish green. I take 3 tiles to the Flooring store to show to the Salesman, who calls the rep. Several hours later the salesman from the tile store calls me to say he spoke with the rep and guess what? Only 1 out of every 32 tiles will have that coloration! That means I'll see maybe TWO tiles in that color in the entire master bath. Maybe NONE in the smaller bathroom. OK, I'm sad now :-( Time to select a different tile. And it's not getting installed this early in the week.

Here is the closest I found with sort-of the coloring I want. Sorry for the poor picture, I don't know why I always try to take them at night

The small paint chip is SW Watery, the 4 color swatch card is Behr Swan Sea at top, Gulf Winds below that. Gulf Winds matches the taffeta I'll be making our duvet out of perfectly, but I have not decided which paint color I'll end up using.

Tomorrow is laminate laying day. And we were told it could take up to 3 days to install it in the gameroom, 4 bedrooms and the hallway. About 1400 square feet, I think. I hope there are no other hiccups.

Any recommendations on the paint color I should use?

Well enough whining. Here is a past painting project, in my daughter's bedroom.

I made her a canopy bed of sorts. I'm going to paint that bed frame with my handy-dandy Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Old White. That tan color is sooooo over! I love the paint color on the wall though, a soft sagey green (Behr Sage Leaf), which is no longer available (or so I was told) cause the company no longer makes that base! Now where is that huge Ball jar full of paint for touchups? And what do you think of the leaf pattern? It's been mistaken for wallpaper so many times, but it's just stamped on with a giant sponge by Sponge Prince. I love it, only took 2 hours for the whole room. And it took that long cause I would remove the excess on a sheet of paper before I stamped the wall. Got the lamps at Lowes for $5 each, you know, when they put clearance stuff outside for cheap?

 a slim shelf unit to fit between her 2 closet doors, embossed wallpaper inside the sides to cover the scratchy plywood. Sandpaper? What's that? Crackled the sides and passed a paint and opal glaze mixture over the whole thing.

Whatcha think?

My Sewing room and the painted desk

Well, I knew it wouldn't last. That great looking room has seen some changes tonight. Not bad, just different. Since the desk is so wide, it almost needs it's own wall. But that can't happen since I have this sewing cabinet that opens up HUGE! And I have an extra cubby to put on the left side which creates a large U-shaped cabinet!

And the space beneath the built in shelves is not that wide leaving me very little space due to the french doors (wish I could replace those with bifolds or something). The only thing that fits in that space is the cutting table. So some rearranging has occurred. The desk is almost finished so it's already sitting in it's new space. I've been looking for some fabric for the roman shade I want to put on the window, it's like a giant black hole at night. I have found two I like but cannot find the name or manufacturer of the second. Any ideas?

I'll bet you guessed that the huge open space in the middle of the room is for opening up the cutting table, right?
One day, one day, like when I win the lottery (oh, do I really have to buy a ticket), I will replace that Albany Oak cabinet and the cutting table for this, if it's even available by then.

And when I do, I can empty the drawers of the Ikea cabinet and use it in the kitchen!
Or I could go work some shifts somewhere and buy the combo table/cabinet. Nah, I'll wait for the big lottery, LOL!

Cedar Hill Ranch is giving away a gorgeous tea set!

How generous is that?

http://cedarhillranch.blogspot.com

Follow up on the desk....

Howdy! Just sitting around thinking I need to post something while I've got your attention from Saturday's post! I've been working on my desk (off and on) since Saturday evening.
First I cleaned off the greasy grime (you know the kind, the slimey kind like over your stove?) on the keyboard shelf and the front top of the desk. Wiped down the rest of it which wasn't bad. And removed the keyboard shelf so I could access some areas to paint.
Didn't bother to sand anything, I was too anxious to try the chalk paint! It took hours (no joke) to paint every area that was visible and it swallowed up 1/2 of my quart of paint. I decided to paint over the Louis Blue top of the desk with Old White, so when I sand it, the blue will show through. Applied clear wax to everything I could reach (not done, need help to turn it over), and followed with dark wax.
Let me tell you, that wax is THICK and DARK! Here is how the desk looked after I swiped it with the dark wax...

Being the lazy busy woman that I am, I seriously was considering leaving it like that. I mean I could deal with it, but what would the majority say? That I was being sloppy. Why should I care? Why indeed, but I figured I would put in the extra work and see what happened. So, this is what the other side looks like with some of the dark removed. *Note: I have not removed the excess wax from the entire inside area marked with arrows...

Whatcha think? Am I on the right track or do I need to remove more dark wax? Add more? Please don't say "Distress"! Remember I'm soooo lazy uh, busy, I mean. Opinions please?

New used desk

Hiya! It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sooooo sleepy! I taught a class this morning and since I only had one person attend, it went by quickly and we were done before noon. I teach the guide classes on Pfaff sewing machines at the local dealer's shop.
Anyhow, I made my first Craigslist purchase this past Tuesday morning. I found this awesome, solid pine desk, but had to drive clear from I-10W to I-45S to get it. I was nervous that it might be a lousy deal after driving so far. And when I arrived, the home it was in was so dark, I couldn't hardly tell what was what. The seller assured me it was solid wood, but I couldn't tell in the near-dark! I was still wondering about it the whole trip home, hoping it was a good buy and not a mistake. Until my son came to get it out of the car and had to use a dolly to bring it inside. I tried to lift one side of the desk while it was in the SUV and could not budge the thing! It IS solid pine, massive and heavy. I'm pretty sure it is made in Mexico as I have seen that kind of furniture before when I lived in Del Rio (3 miles from the Texas/Mexico border.
So, I paid $60 for the desk. And since I had the class this morning I knew I could not go to Wonderfaux Studio to pick up some Annie Sloan Chalk paint to paint this sucker (longest sentence ever?), I went yesterday just before they closed. The paint cost more than the desk! Well, the brown bag special plus extra wax and a wax brush did. Here is a pic of the desk before I get started (same pic from Craigslist). See ya in a bit, I'm off to start painting!

The Den: The Great Reveal!!!

First, I saw this awesome bathroom with board and batten installed. Then I saw this room and this little boy's room (which btw, helped alot with installation of the hardboard)!
Finally! It's taken me a full 2 months to get to this point. Ripping out old baseboards, cutting panels of hardboard, cutting more MDF than I care to ever work with again, and PAINTING! So much painting! Layers and layers of paint, I really believe this room has shrunk by at least 2 inches in every direction :-(
But, it is worth it. In the end, the room is awesome, I know I will enjoy every minute I spend in it, whether I'm planning my next home project, drafting a pattern or sewing, and of course, playing games and watching Netflix the whole time.
My favorite color is BLUE. Always has been. My bedroom at our home in Portland, TX was blue. EVERYTHING was blue. My Dad built desks for us, mine was blue. My Mom bought these pretty glass sconces to hang next to our desks, Daddy painted the inside of mine blue. First house my parents bought, I painted all the mismatched furniture a Turquoise Blue so they would sort-of match. Even the inside border of the mirror (which I still have) got a coat of the Turquoise paint.
Well on to the show, huh? I love leaving the best for last so if you are really impatient, then just skip the middle and go to the end of this post, LOL!
In it's last life, this room was my Dad's room. He had had a stroke in March 2010 so when we brought him home, this was the only room downstairs that we could use for him. And someday, when he is able to come home again, it will again be his room. But in the meantime, I've prettied it up and will use it for my studio. So this is where we were 2 months ago:

Here are some pictures taken during the makeover.

Oh, I can't contain it any longer! Please keep in mind that I'm not done "decorating", or bringing in all my sewing stuff yet. And one day I'm going to replace that long sewing table and the cutting table with an all-in-one. My camera is not that great AND it's after 1AM in the morning. But for now, this is my dream space. Hope you like it :-)

And here are the shelves I built and installed, just for fun!

In case you are wondering, the colors are: Benjamin Moore "Cotton Balls" for the board and batten, and Behr "Sonata" for the upper walls. I would love to hear what y'all think!
Love and hugs, Edna

There IS an end to this job after all!

Oh my Gosh! Almost finished! Next step is to paint the window sill and baseboards with my nifty Benjamin Moore "Waterborne" oil paint that cleans up with water! How sweet is that? Hope to start moving machines and cabinets in tomorrow evening :-)
I am LOVING this room. Great reveal coming up ASAP!