Whimsy Loses

I have not written in a very long time, creative and fun things have been happening but I just have not been in the swing of writing.  However I have been making some life changes, so to document these changes and challenges I am going to blog them! 

I am becoming healthy. 

Approximately four weeks ago I started a healthier living program and I am happy to say that it is working!  The program is simple and I think the simplicity is part of what keeps me involved in the program.  I have also started exercising again and am committing to running a 4th of July 5k!  "Eating Healthy" has always been a challenge for me and will probably always pose some sort of a challenge for me but my goal is to live in the moment and to continue to look toward a horizon of healthy eating habits.

Challenges: 
This morning just putting on my workout gear was a challenge, but I did it and I hit the pavement. 

Overcoming the Challenges:
As I was moving across the pavement I didn't choose a point to focus on and pass, I focused on the horizon.  In my focusing I realized that the challenge/journey is day by day, hour by hour but there is no end goal just a horizon to move toward, a horizon of "betterness."  If a day or an hour are ruined, there will be another where the wrongs can be come rights.  As a car came down the road toward me I began to focus on it instead of the horizon, when I focused on the car (read: obstacle) my posture became slouched and I felt exhausted, when I changed my line of sight and focused on the horizon I stood straight and was stronger.  I came to the conclusion that I need to focus on the always moving, always changing horizon instead of on the daily or hourly obstacles.
  
Feelings:  My allergies are driving me crazy, so that's not good but I am feeling strong this week and for some reason relieved. 
Favorite "Healthy" food: red peppers 
Favorite exercise song: Eminem "Not Afraid"
Favorite "Un-healthy" food: Easter Candy!
Couch to 5K update:  Week 3 and loving every step

Motivation:  Look toward the horizon.
Loses: 2.2

Kepping busy with crafting!

With a lack of internet at home I have had trouble posting some of my creations, but without internet I have been able to create a lot of lovely things lately. Which is nice since I will be a part of my first craft show on the 19th of November!  I'll be selling some very fun things that I wave wanted to sell for a long time, I will share pictures of my merchandise before I head out to the craft fair but for now I would like to share two other projects I have been working on.  

 

This is the first project; I used two framed screens and cleaned them well, first with soap and water then with bleach and water.  After rinsing and drying the screens I spray painted them, they are a nice bright addition to my room.  I used paper clips as hooks to hang the necklaces, I was a little worried about how the paperclips would look, but you can barely tell they are there and they hold my necklaces well.

I have also been working on this lamp, I found the the actual lamp a few months ago, at that point it was a dirty looking white color so I decided to change that and painted it pink!  I found a couple of really neat lamp shade ideas the first one I found was with ribbon, then while reading the paper I found the idea for this coffee filter lamp shade and loved it!  The lamp shade is a little big for the lamp so I do think I will find these two new mates eventually, but for now they work well together!  Doesn't my bed side table look happy?

dressing dressers

This summer, along with a few of the other projects I have already shared, I refinished this dresser!  

It isn't an antique or anything special but it was a fun project and ended up being pretty cute.

Like everything else I started by sanding all of the pieces.  

This project was simple, I just had to choose a paint scheme and get down to painting.  

I love this green color and how it alternates with the white. 

I also repainted this side table, which I love! 

The happiness of finishing these projects is very fulfilling and each piece makes my bedroom look better than the next!

Happy Desks

I have still been working on multiple projects to keep myself busy and here are five of them! These children's school desks were my mom's and she gave them to me to refinish.  

I started by sanding all of the desk, which was a task, because they were not in the best of shape and needed a great deal of sanding to remove the rust.  After sanding I started by painting the red desk with regular old paint and quickly moved on to spray paint realizing that regular paint with take forever on the metal and would leave streaks.  The spray paint was very messy, but I was much happier using it than the regular paint and paint brush.  If you look close to the black and teal desk you'll see they still have the tape and paper on them from the spray paint.  

The wood tops of the desks and the seats and backs of the chairs were, like the metal parts, not in the best condition so they also needed to be sanded.  I chose to paint the wood parts with a clear polyurethane, giving everything a nice finish.  What I am going to do with five school desk you ask?  I am going to try and sell the pieces on Craig's List or possibly at a Craft Bazaar in the next few months.       

A New Chair: Part 2

This is the second project I tackled this summer, another chair, but one with a lot more work.  In its previous life it was the Elton John of chairs, I mean check out this purple velvet, you cannot be serious?  While the fabric on this chair was in better condition than the other chair, it smelled horrible and had to go the chair was also missing an arm, so I decided to remove the still existing arm to make things a little easier. 

There were a ton of tacks and decorative tacks in this pieces so it took a little more work than the other chair. I also had to remove all of this chairs padding.  

 This chair was then sanded and repainted, I chose white - obviously I am really into white furniture lately - then a few coats of polyurethane for shine and added staying power.

I also added the detail of the last piece with the decorative chair tacks.  

While posting these projects I am working on others, currently I am painting metal, which is a huge pain in the butt.  I am starting to think it is not worth my time to use paint and a brush, spray paint would be a great solution and a time saver.  So while I work on my fourth coat of paint I'll also be planning to buy spray paint.  I hope you enjoy the cute a comfy chair!

A New Chair

I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping myself busy lately and one of the things I have been doing is refinishing furniture.  I have really been enjoying the furniture projects, they certainly give me something to focus on and I think the outcome is pretty great too.  Here is the first project I completed.

 This is what the chair started out as, pretty ratty.  The fabric on the seat obviously needed some changing, so did the padding and the wood. 

 After I dismantled the chair I sand it, keep the board and the hardware to use again later.  Nothing else on this chair was really worth saving, the next step was painting.  I choose white.  Then I put new padding back on the chair and covered it with fabric. 

This was the outcome of my project!  This was simple and I would gladly redo more chairs like this, I think I will be on the look our for a few more like this more to make a mismatched dining room set.  I love the finished result of this project, and was very proud of myself, who's ready to see my next project? 

A cross country move

At this point is it obvious that I made it from Iowa to Portland Oregon, with Winston, Nana, Papa and all of my things!

The trip was eventful and full of driving (obviously). 

I finished work around 11:00am on the 31st of May and off we went, driving through Iowa and about 300 miles through Nebraska.  On June 1st we headed out early in the morning and made it the rest of the way through Nebraska, almost all the way through Wyoming.  Then at mile post three I smelled smoke and saw a huge plume coming out the back end of my car, EEEK!  We stopped and took a look at things, luckily the car still drove - just no power steering.  As we got back on the highway Nana got out her GPS and we found that there was a Chevy dealership a mere two miles away!  God was smiling on us, we were very blessed to be so close to a place that could help us so much!

After stopping at the dealership and making an appointment for the morning (Papa made the appointment, as I was a sobbing mess "my car, my car...") we drove another 2 miles to a hotel. The next morning we got up early and waited at the door of the dealership to open, come to find out the power steering line had come loose and the engine burned a hole in the line causing the fluid to hit the exhaust pipe which the caused smoke.  It would be another day until we could get the line from Denver and repairs would cost $500, there  was also no guarantee that the pump would work after the line had been run dry.

We opted to pay the pretty penny for a U-Haul truck and trailer, throwing my things in the truck and pulling my car with the trailer.  We left Wyoming around 11:00am, drove through Utah, Idaho and Oregon, making it to Washington around 2:00AM.  Exhausted but happy we collapsed in to bed, WE WERE HOME!

Along the way we did see some sights, including this list of license plates:
Iowa
Texas
North Dakota
Kansas
Nebraska
Indiana
Oklahoma
Illonios
Missouri
Florida
Arizona
Pennsylvania
California
Wisconsin
South Dakota
Colorado
North Carolina
Georgia
Utah
Idaho
Michigan
Washington
Tennesse
Ohio
Maine
Oregon
Arkansas
Mississippi
New Jersey

Canadian Provinces:
British Columbia
Ontario
Manatoba

Special Vehicles: 
The OSCAR MAYER WIENER MOBILE!!!!!

That's thirty states, three provinces and ONE Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile, all in three days!