Home Goals 2012

The Nester is hosting a linky party on our Home Goals for the coming year. Honestly, when I started to think about my list, I couldn't get past my living room. It's all I can think about lately, so I decided to do a detailed list of the things I need to do in there and then a more general list of the rest of the house.

The living room list will also serve as a bank of before photos because I fully intend to have before and afters of that space! This is my living room.

Thanks to Ashley at The Handmade Home, I have a whole list of ideas to do in this room. Click on over to see her creative take on improving this room. I think she pretty much nailed it!

Changing wall color.
Paint a floor canvas to replace the rug.
Art on the walls.
Adding a gallery wall to the empty space you can't see to the entry way.
Possibly hanging some curtainy things from the ceilings on either side of the columns.
Slipcovering the Craig's list couches I got to replace the leather ones.
Something for above the fireplace mantle.
Panel the ceiling in wood planks.
Update/replace ceiling fan.
Add/Update lamps.

Turn this old thing into a coffee table on casters.

Paint and slipcover this chair and table combo.

Paint this bad boy a lighter color and remove the arch thing from the top to update the piece.

Now, on to the rest of the house:

Dining room - paint, wainscoting or board and batten, turn the thrift store table I got into a farmhouse table, some kind of window treatments, paint the bookcase.

Laundry room - clean out completely, install some kind of lockers or benches with storage for kid's stuff, install a counter top and plugs as a work surface for ironing, crafts, etc.

John's room - paint, new bed, gun rack, shelving.

Girl's room - paint, chair rail and wainscoting, artwork for the walls, closet organization, paint dresser, update fan/light fixture.

Outside - landscaping, bordering driveway with a concrete curb, planting hydrangeas, hollyhocks, garlic, redo garden with raised beds, update chicken coop, flower beds around trees.

I think that should keep me busy for a while. I might be able to do a project every few months, maybe more if I'm good with my time. We'll see. Regardless, it feels good to get it all down in writing.

P.S. This list doesn't even include all the areas I want to purge and clean. That actually needs to happen before I do any decorating/improvements. I have Jules @ Pancakes and French Fries for encouraging me in that area with her William Morris posts. You can read more about it here and join in here.

What are your house plans for this year?




I'm linking up to the following blogs:

The Nester

Jules @ Pancakes and French Fries

One Bite at a Time: Bite #29, Switch to gentle, eco-friendly haircare

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up. We had a city-wide power outage this morning that slowed everything down. And this is a small town so things already run a little slow.

I mentioned last week that I'd be doing a weekly post on the One Bite at a Time project. You can still get the e-book by going here. It's only $5 and you can print it out or keep it on your computer's desktop, however you roll. I've got mine in a trusty binder because I have a love affair with binders.

The bite I'm starting with is #29, Switch to gentle, eco-friendly hair care. This was the perfect place to start for me because I haven't been happy with my current hair care regime for some time now. When I was single, I had a roommate who was a hair dresser and I got Aveda products at cost so I was a little spoiled. Now that I live with 5 other people, we're on more of a Pert Plus budget. The problem with most shampoos, from cheap to expensive, is that they are full of chemicals. And with skin being our largest organ, and extremely porous, all those chemicals can enter the bloodstream and stay there for quite a while.

There's a lot more you can read on the subject here. It's the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep site and it has loads of information on all the products we use on our skin from day to day. You can even look up the products you're currently using and see how they rate.

So, at the beginning of December, I stopped using shampoo. Yep, I quit cold turkey. I figured with the holidays being just around the corner, I wouldn't be going out as much so I could try it out and see what kind of results I got. I don't get out much anyway. I started by using baking soda and water mixed in a squirt bottle. I can't remember the amounts I used, I just poured a couple of spoonfuls of baking soda, added water to the top and started squirting it on my head. Be warned, there are no suds. That was hard for me to get used to because I've been programmed to think suds=clean. I couldn't really tell if it was doing anything so I rinsed with a mixture of vinegar and water that I had poured into another bottle. That was it. I had read on some sites that your hair can easily become dry while you find the perfect amounts for your hair type. Well, mine stayed a little oily for a while. No matter, I kept going. I didn't leave the house for a few days unless my hair was up in a pony tail and I washed it again about 4 days later. I gotta tell ya, even after those 4 days, it wasn't much oilier than the day I washed it. Not near as bad as when I let my hair go an extra day on regular shampoo and conditioner.

This was my hair before I washed it.

This is after I dried and straightened it. I'm obviously not all that impressed yet.

Over the next few weeks, I kept at it, tweaking my recipe each time until I found the perfect combo for me. I researched a lot of sites and YouTube videos to see what others had done. There's a lot of advice out there. Eventually, I settled on what this girl does.

It's been over a month and I have to say, I feel like my hair has adjusted and I've settled into a routine. In case you didn't watch the video linked above, I'll share what I'm currently doing.

I have a bottle with a small squirt spout that I use for the baking soda mixture. I add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and fill the rest with warm water. Then, for the vinegar rinse, I fill it about a third with apple cider vinegar and the rest with water. I marked my bottle so I wouldn't have to measure every time.

 

When I first started, I was washing my hair in the sink. This got to be pretty messy because the baking soda mixture splatters everywhere. And you can't tell where it's splashed until it dries.

Little white water spots on everything around the kitchen sink.

Plus, I knew I wanted to eventually do this while I was already taking a shower. So this is how I do it. I get in the shower and instead of wetting my hair down, I use the baking soda mixture to wet my hair completely. That way, I know that when it's wet all over, I've got the baking soda everywhere. Then I start scrubbing. I do this for a few minutes and then squirt the vinegar mixture all over my scalp. That part is actually kind of nice. The vinegar acts with the baking soda and creates a fizzy sensation all over the scalp. Once that's all worked in, I just rinse with water and continue with my shower.

Here's Mr. Park feeling my hair to see if it's too oily. He's a pretty health conscious  guy, but he doesn't get the shampoo thing. And he's a little afraid if you start telling people you don't use shampoo anymore, they'll think you're one of those people. Too late. When I told my sister what I was doing, she rolled her eyes at me as if to say, "You're always doing something weird." She's right about that.

Yesterday morning was the first day I was really satisfied with the way my hair felt. They say that it takes several weeks for your hair to adjust to this new method. You won't be stripping away every bit of oil on your hair every time you wash it so your body won't need to produce extra oil to compensate. I curled my hair before church, got a few compliments and it felt great. I will say that the squeaky clean feeling you get after you wash your hair in shampoo is long gone. That took a little getting used to. I would say that washing your hair this way takes it to a 2nd day feel. You know, the first day your hair is squeaky clean and then the next day it has a little oil in it. I could never get my hair to cooperate with me until the 2nd day anyway, so this works perfect for me.

 

 

 

My hair really is soft and manageable and all the things you want it to be while being healthy for my skin. I'm sold. One bite down, 51 more to go!

52 Bites: A schedule

Alright, I've made a decision. In keeping with my 'fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants' theme for this blog,  I've decided that starting this coming Monday, I'll be posting the current 'bite' I'm working on for the 52 Bites project. This all started back in November when I discovered this wonderful guide to simplifying your life. I love the idea of working on something for 52 weeks and hopefully, at the end of the year, I'll have a completely transformed and simpler life. You can read more about the e-book here.

If you want to follow along with my progress and maybe even do a little simplifying yourself, you can get the book for a whole dollar off until next Tuesday, January 10th. Click here and enter the coupon code HAPPYNEWYEAR and get it for $4! Your copy will arrive in your inbox and all you have to do is download it, print it out and put it in a binder or read it on your desktop. What could be easier?

Get it here!

On Monday, I'll be starting with bite #29. This bite has been quite an experience so come back Monday for all the gory details!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and anything else I missed

Wow, what a break! My last post was a craft project I did as a Christmas gift to my girls and I didn't even end it with a Merry Christmas! I guess I was thinking I'd be back before now. Oops, I took a longer break than I expected.

This past holiday season was a little different than any I remember. Everyone I encountered seemed to be extremely laid back. It was like the Christmas season was happening in slow motion. I decided early on not to stress about the things that I normally stress about so that meant some things inevitably fell off my list. Things like putting out my favorite vintage silver Christmas tree, sending out Christmas cards and making salt dough ornaments. Oh well, in the end I didn't really miss those things. I just enjoyed relaxing with my family and doing a whole lot of nothing.

I'm not sure what I want my blog to look like this year other than a meandering stroll through the daily minutia of my life right now. I'd like to post my 52 Bites progress and maybe a craft now and then. I'm probably going to just let it happen as it happens. I'm learning to be a better planner, but right now, this blog is not one of the things I feel called to be intentional about. In saying that, I'm giving myself permission to let it go sometimes. I don't want to be up late trying to get a post finished for the next day when I have lesson plans to work on. Or laundry to finish. I don't want it to be an afterthought, it's just not at the top of my list right now.

That being said, I'd like to start this year off with a list. You know I love lists, and evidently, I'm passing that on to my children. Here's a list I found when I was cleaning my daughter's room over the holidays. It's one that my middle daughter, Autumn, made.

I don't know if she got distracted and wasn't able to finish it or if that's it. If it were me, I'd consider it done. After eating fudge for lunch, what else is there?!?

DIY Christmas gift: A Barbie carrying case

Earlier in the fall, I found this glorious find at my local Goodwill.

What, you don't think it's glorious?!? I know the pink is a little alarming and it is, after all, just an old suitcase, but I looooove old suitcases and can't get enough of them lately. I actually didn't have a plan for this baby. I just saw it on the shelf, checked it for broken hinges, gave it a thumbs up and threw it in my cart. Pretty much every time I go into any thrift store, I check the luggage section. Not to give away my secret or anything but if you've been on Pinterest lately, you've seen how often repurposed luggage is showing up. From a stacked suitcase night stand to kitty beds. So, no, I don't ever pass up a cheap piece of luggage.

When I pulled this piece out of my car, I noticed something familiar about that particular shade of pink. Where had I seen that? And then it hit me, Barbie! It's the perfect shade of Barbie pink. And then I knew what I was going to do with that suitcase. It would make an excellent carrying case for the gobs of Barbies my girls have laying around their bedroom. Let me tell you, I have 3 girls, ages 5, 8 and 9 and with them being in the height of their Barbie-playing years, they've got a lot of junk. What they don't have is a trunk for all that junk. All I needed to do was stencil that familiar barbie logo on the outside and viola, I'd have it! Here's how I did it.

The inside of the case, as you can see, is already perfect for holding all their dolls and the little pouches on the sides will hold all those shoes and clothes they have. So let's just go straight to the outside.

First I went online and looked up Barbie logos. I found the name and the silhouette logos I liked and printed them out.

One thing I noticed with this suitcase is that it was a little faded on one side so the pinks were just a shade or two off from each other. I know my girls would never notice, but let's face it, this project was just as much a present for me as it was for them and I wouldn't stop noticing it so I decided to do the silhouette on the perfect pink side and do a reverse stencil of the name logo on the other side. That way, there wouldn't be enough of the faded pink to really notice a difference.

I bought some black spray paint made specifically for painting plastic and created two stencils. Let me just say, if I had a Silhouette, things would have been a lot easier and less time consuming, but I don't have a Silhouette so this is a true DIY project.

I tore a piece of wax paper big enough to cover the image I wanted to cut out. Then I took green painters tape and stuck it to the wax paper, overlapping as I went, until I had an area slightly bigger than my image.

Next, I taped my image over the green tape/wax paper and used an exacto knife to cut it out. What I had after everything was cut, was my stencil. All I had to do was peel away the wax paper and stick it down. On the barbie head side, I masked off everything around the stencil so the only black would be the silhouette and on the other side, I stuck the letters on and painted everything else black.

One mistake I made when painting over the barbie head stencil was that I put several layers of paint on at once and this caused the paint to bleed under the tape a little. No worries, though, I just used some goof off, a toothbrush and a sharpie to clean up the edges. On the other side, I learned my lesson and did one coat at a time for a nice clean edge.

I'm so happy with how it turned out. This was one of those once in a lifetime lightbulb ideas for me, so I'm hoping my girls love it!

The next time you see a suitcase in a thrift store or a garage sale, look at the color and think of the toys your kids play with. Is it Ninja Turtle green? Star Wars blue? Lego red? Almost any color suitcase could be turned into a great carrying case for all those toys with accessories out the wazoo!

Linking up to these blogs:

A Perfectly Random Thursday

This past week has been a hodgepodge of activities. On Friday night, I wanted to take my girls to the movies since Mr. Park and my boy were hunting. At first, I planned on taking them to the dollar movie, but the only movie playing there was the smurfs. Thankfully, I remembered the historic theater in town that usually plays old Christmas movies around this time of year. I checked their schedule and sure enough, they were showing White Christmas. Oh, how I love that movie. And to see it at The Paramount really makes it an experience. Here's a shot of the girls before the movie started. This was taken right after April said, "Oh my goodness! This place is so romantic!"

I was really proud because the place was packed. It seems like so much is vying for our attention these days, especially with movies, so it was refreshing to see a theater almost completely filled to see a Christmas movie from 1954. And the audience ranged from little kids to senior citizens with lots of college students in between.

On Saturday night, our family had a date to watch Rudolph on CBS. Of course, we all know the words and say them out loud along with all the songs. When April was just 2 1/2, she cried at the part where Rudolph didn't get to play in all the reindeer games. We thought it was just a fluke, but when we asked her what was wrong, she said she felt sorry for Rudolph because he got left out. Now, whenever we get to that part in the movie, everyone looks at April to see how she's doing. This year she got a little irritated and said, "Stop looking at me. I'm not gonna cry this time!"

After Rudolph, we watched It's a Wonderful Life and I cried like I always do. It's such a good movie to watch to reset yourself if you're feeling overwhelmed with the commercialism of the holidays or just hopeless in your situation. It reminds me that I always have something to be thankful for.

Speaking of being thankful, I got my Christmas present early this year. And this is it.

As you can imagine, I've been making smoothies like a mad woman. I'm sure one of these days I'll get around to watching the DVD that came with it so I can get my money's worth out of it, but for now, I'm happy to make a delicious smoothie every morning for Mr. Park before work and have him tell me that it really hit the spot and he didn't even think about food until well after noon.

One evening this past week, Mr. Park played a game with the kids where he would hide a little elf ornament while the kids sat on the couch. Then the kids would open their eyes and try to see who could spot it first. It turned into a story time where Mr Park told the kids about the mean side of Santa's elves. And then my boy, who is always looking for an opportunity to liven things up, dressed up as what he imagines a scary elf would look like, quietly went out the back door, walked around the house to the front door and knocked. The evening ended in screams and running around and eventually a request to be walked to bed because they were scared. I always say our kids are either going to be the most well-rounded kids on the block or they're going to need therapy.

This is what I found when I walked in from taking a short trip to the store yesterday. I wonder if this is what the rapture is going to look like.

Here's some random things I've heard from my kids this past week.

On music:

(With Kenny G's version of Silver Bells playing on the radio)

Autie: Can you change this, please. I don't like jazz.

Me: I didn't know you even knew what jazz was.

Autie: Oh, yeah, I know about jazz and I don't like it.


On travel:

April: (with a sigh) I can't wait to go to France someday and see the awful tower.


On being efficient:

The kids' Papa came over to cut some wood and when April went out to see him he had his foot propped up on his truck tying his shoe.

April: Hey, Papa, whatcha doing?

Papa: I'm tying my shoe, darlin.

April: Why'd you come over here to do it?


On respect:

Me: Anna, I need a response from you. When you just shrug, I think you're ignoring me.

Anna: Yes, ma'am. (rolling eyes)

April: Ahhhh, I remember when I used to say, yes ma'am. Yes ma'am, yes mam, yes ma'am."

My favorite Christmas cookie. Period.

Hey, everyone, I'm guest blogging over at Tales of a Clyde Woman today. I'm sharing my favorite holiday cookie recipe. They're yummy and easy so you need to be making them this season. And Leilani is posting cookie recipes all this week so if you don't have a go-to cookie recipe, you need to go to her blog. ;) That, and the fact that she is a really funny woman with stories that will keep you snickering to yourself all day long!