.ta da!.

Basement project…is much much closer to being completed!!!

Watch this transformation…

Carpet ready to install:

Where the pool table was:

The cupboard/cabinet/filing cabinet corner:

The craft room with the new flooring and fresh paint:

The view of the craft room from my chair after the boxes were moved back in:

and the view of the craft room from the door. There were at least 30 boxes! So overwhelming!

I worked Friday afternoon from 3:30-6:30pm, then Saturday from 1-6:30pm (after a trip to the Tri-Cities for the cutting table top and the 2 cabinets to replaced damaged ones.), and on Sunday from 9am-7pm. My Mom worked many more hours than that on Saturday, but I quit early to chaperone prom. It was a good break. :)

This is what my craft room space looked like on Saturday afternoon.

 

The cutting table!! It turned out a little higher than I thought it would be, but I think it’s going to work great! :) Maybe I’ll need a Kamryn-step stool from IKEA.

 

Sunday afternoon….craft room, back in business!!!

This is my crafting space in the craft room.

  

The cutting table put together and bookshelves organized.

The cupboard/cabinet corner. The two white cabinets on the right are from Lowe’s and the black one on the left is from IKEA. The two filing cabinets in the middle will be replaced with one tall 4-drawer cabinet that will go against the way on the right.

 

The craft room from the door – Mom’s area is on the left, mine on the right.

 

My little decorated area. I love cake plates, can you tell?!

 

I’ve been dreaming of this shelf in this space for years. I LOVE IT! It needs a little decorating and organizing, but I’m so so happy with it! (From IKEA)

 

The view from the craft room door out into the living area and the new cutting/crafting table.

 

These are the bookshelves under the cutting table. All my projects and fabric are back….sigh… :)

 

This shelf has bolts and rolls of different types of interfacing and stuff like that.

 

These two have books, and more projects on them!!

 

 

I can’t wait to get in there and start crafting again!! Hopefully I’ll be able to tomorrow. I can.not. wait! :)     

.madison marie shipley.

We added another girl to our family on Saturday! We definitely have a girl majority in the Heider family!

Madison Marie Shipley

April 28, 2012

7 lbs, 14 oz, 20 inches

David and Paige with baby Madison

Great-Grandma Marcial – she now has three great-granddaughters!

  

My Mom and Grandma went to visit her this afternoon, but I wasn’t able to go. Looking forward to meeting Madison and getting some baby loves!

.getting my life back.

Ha! You thought this was going to be about moving back into the craft room, right? Nope – not yet!

To distract my thoughts from not being able to be in the craft room, I started reading The Hunger Games. Go ahead and cheer and pump your fists, Amy!

I bought The Hunger Games back in the fall and tried reading it….to no avail. It didn’t interest me at all and I told my English teacher friends that I wasn’t going to give in to their obsession (same story with Harry Potter and Twilight!). This winter and during conferences it seemed that all the teachers at the high school were reading The Hunger Games – even the freshman and Special Ed classes were reading it!

The movie came out and I agreed to go with Karlye, Amber, and my Mom to see what the hype was all about. I liked it well enough – didn’t like the violence, but I liked the story.

So. I decided to give the book another try. I read it in 2 days. TWO days! I finished it on Thursday evening and downloaded Catching Fire that same night and started reading it. I could hardly keep my mind on work on Friday – I even read it during lunch! I finished it on Friday night, well Saturday morning. :)

I downloaded Mockingjay on Sunday and finished it today. That’s it. I’m hooked on The Hunger Games.

With things finally coming together downstairs, it’s perfect timing. Now I can actually go to sleep at a decent hour!

.a day in Portland.

I asked Kate last week if she would be interested in a day trip to IKEA to pick up some shelves for the basement. Of course she was! I had been thinking Seattle, but she had the great idea to go to Portland...no tax AND we could see Candace! Perfect!

We left around 9am, arrived in Portland around 12:45 after a few stops, and met Candace at IKEA. We had a beautiful drive down the Gorge--no rain and no wind gusts!

We shopped, chatted, laughed, and had lunch at IKEA...
found lots of awesome stuff we couldn't love without!!
Candace found a chair that was just her size!

And Kate did too! Hehe

We found the shelves that started the crazy adventure and loaded them up!

Took a couple of self portraits...

then loaded up our goodies!
We shopped at Home Goods, Ross, and Target before having to say good bye to Candace. It was so good to get to see her for a few hours!

Kate and I got a Starbucks for the road at Target and set off on our way home. Just a couple potty stops and a DQ stop in Kennewick and we were home by 11pm!
The drive went by fast with great conversation with a dear friend!

We both agreed that we wouldn't want to attempt that kind of a day every weekend, but it was a fun adventure for one day!!
Thanks Kate for the fun day and willingness to go! :)

.oatmeal scones.

Watching the Pioneer Woman's cooking show this morning...she was making my favorite mini Vanilla Bean Scones a la Starbucks. Yum. Knowing that Starbucks is probably not in my future today, I dug out an oatmeal scone recipe I got from my friend Leah. They are a great alternative!

I tried cutting them in triangles like Ree does, but apparently need more practice and went back to tried and true dropped style.

If you have a hankering for scones...here's the recipe!

2c. self-rising flour (add more if needed)
(I had all-purpose flour so I googled it and found that you can add 1 1/2 t. of baking soda and 1/4 t. salt to every 1c. flour to substitute it. Perfect!)
2c. rolled oats
1c. brown sugar
1c. shortening
1c. milk
(I added a handful of chocolate chips too!)

Mix flour, oats, & brown sugar together, then cut in shortening with a pastry blender or fork. Add milk. Cut into triangles or drop like cookies. Bake for 18 minutes at 350*. I think a little sprinkling of white sugar on top would be delish!

.wip Wednesday.

Revenge is back on, which means WIP Wednesday is back! With the craft room still out of commission, I've had to resort to other means,

This is what Jennifer and I made today and then worked on. Creating a master schedule is so difficult...who knew?!

I've been working on sewing the binding onto a quilt...but it's huge and I'm not so motivated. I have 3 sides done so far...one to go!

.abracadabra...bathroom redo.

So, you know how one thing leads to another? In the process of picking things out for the basement, my Mom and I decided to work on the bathrooms too. Gluttons for punishment!

My bathroom is stuck in the 80's with its lovely peach & country blue wallpaper and laminate flooring. I can't wait to make some changes!

I want to go for a frilly, chic feel with gray, white, light blue, and black...crystals, ruffles, and scalloped edges.

Starting with this shower curtain from Urban Outfitters...

This is the paint color I think I've decided on. It's called "Abracadabra" by Olympic.

I like these knobs for hanging a hand towel.

I saw this on etsy--love it! It goes with the style I'm aiming for...

So now you know my inspiration pieces...if you see anything you think I should know about, please let me know! I'm still looking for lights to go above the vanity and a globe light for the ceiling. Not sure what to do about the oak cabinets...paint or keep??

.basement update.

This week the carpet got torn out of the basement and the walls were painted. The pool table got moved to it’s new home on the Johnson farm. Just the big furniture is left downstairs…

Where the pool table went and where my new cutting table will go!

This is where some desks were and cupboards and shelves…different shelves and cupboards will fill this space.

 

The craft room….looking sad and lonely. It will be repainted. The new floor was already laid…we went darker than it was before.

 

From the craft room looking toward the “living room area.” The cutting table will go under that fancy light (new light will be coming) and then beyond that will be a little living room area.

In the living room area, we’ve had a couch and some chair and this old 80’s-style entertainment center. My mom has been researching online how to paint laminate and we saw a picture of one that had been redone with crown molding on the top. We really liked how it looked and so set off to recreate it.

Mom and I went to the Tri-Cities this morning to get all the supplies plus the bookshelves for the cutting table (on sale at Target this week- score!!). We looked like the village idiots walking around Lowe’s. Victims of Pinterest – or suckers, more like. :) Came home and got to work:

There are three pieces to the entertainment center plus another shelf that we wanted to do. We ended up not doing the biggest (middle) piece of the entertainment center today. Save that for another day – plus some end tables.

 

We sanded, primed, and then painted…

     

We got two coats of paint on and they look pretty good. I think we’ll have one more day of super fun painting! :)

Samson was laying in the grass and I took the opportunity to take some pictures!

    

I can’t wait to get everything put back together downstairs – it’s going to be such an improvement!!