Magnolias

Spring is here and everything is blooming.  I've been trying to remember to take my camera with me whenever I go anywhere right now.  Inevitably, if I don't have it with me, I run across beautiful flowers and I'm kicking myself because I can't get photos. 

On Monday, Babe Jr had gymnastics.  They hold it in the school gym at 5:00 and we got there early with about 30 minutes to kill.  There is a magnolia tree on the edge of the parking lot; of course I got out to take some photos.

I had to hop a guard rail to get to this tree.  The principal was leaving just as I was climbing over it; he stopped to see what I was doing.  I think he recognized me and as soon as he saw my camera I'm sure he figured out my intentions.  I'd love to know what he first thought when he saw me climbing.

Lamps & Spray Paint

The latest project in my quest to update our master bedroom is lamps.  They can get pretty pricy, so I decided I would try to find a couple at thrift stores and spray paint them.  I picked up this orange one a few months ago for 4.00 at Goodwill.  I had been scouting around for shades, and I finally found some I liked at Lowe's for 15.00.  I haven't purchased them yet, but I know they have some that don't require a harp.  After finally locating the shades, I figured I could start looking for another suitable lamp.

I ran in Goodwill last Friday to see what they had, and found the brass and white lamp.  Ironically, I had a lamp just like this in my bedroom as a teenager.  My mom probably paid about 12.00 for it at Walmart in the 90's, I got this one for 6.00.

When we got it home, I realized it was about 2 inches shorter than the first lamp, and I wanted them to be the same height so they wouldn't look completely asymmetrical on our night stands.  I started looking around for something to use to add some height to the base.  I was thinking I might have to cut a few pieces of wood but I found this black plastic thing in Mr. Backwood's hoard of random junk.  He said it was an end cap used on large water pipes to protect the threads from being damaged during transport.  Apparently he'd picked up a few of them out of a trash pile or something somewhere and was going to use them as containers for who knows what.  It was the perfect size to add to my lamp base, so I confiscated it, cleaned it up and gorilla glued it together with the base.

I covered the sockets and cords with paper and tape so they wouldn't get paint on them.  Then I took them outside and coated them both several times with Krylon Gloss Sun Yellow spray paint.  I used the whole can and brought them in once they were dry.  After looking at them for a day, I decided they needed a few more coats, the paint was thin in spots.  Also, there was an unsightly visible gap between the smaller lap base and the plastic cap I had glued to it.

I found some paintable caulk and used it to seal the crack.  We stopped by Walmart again Saturday night and I picked up another can of yellow spray paint.  Here they are after I got a few more coats on today.

A tip for painting anything bright yellow, do it in the winter when there are no bugs or in a garage or something if you have the option.  I had to keep picking gnats and things off of them while they were wet.  I think the bugs thought my lamps were huge flowers or something.

I left the tissue paper and tape on one of them so you can see how I kept from getting paint on the cord and socket. The tissue paper was a lot easier to wrap around than the note book paper I had used the first time.  I'm pretty happy with them, so far my total investment for lamps and paint is about 17.00.  Lamps this size without shades would probably cost me at least 40.00 each new in a store.  I didn't really want an exact matching pair, and I think I got pretty lucky finding 2 that were fluted vertically, so they are similar and should look pretty good together.  Once I get shades and dust my bedroom furniture, I'll update with photos of them in place.

Photos of the lamps with shades here.   Shades were 15.00 each bringing total cost to 47.00!

Blingy Mirror

I love the sunburst mirrors that have come back into style.  I already had a large round mirror that I'd bought at Lowe's a few years ago.  It was frame-less, but pretty big - 28 inches across, and was only $40.00.  At the time that was the best price I could find on a round mirror large enough to hang over a dresser.  But I digress.  I've been finding projects to DIY sunburst mirrors (they tend to be $$$ in stores) on Pinterest.  Here's a few I pinned:  meijosjoy mirror, thriftyandchic mirror, bystephanielynn mirror

The first one really caught my eye; I love the sparkle.  I was at a friend's house a few days ago talking this project over.  For the sake of internet anonymity, we'll give them the super secret blog names of Squirrel and Mrs. Squirrel.  Squirrel and Mr. Backwoods have been friends since they were kids.  Mrs. S is my craft buddy, she totally DIY'd her wedding and reception decor last fall.  She's also really into blingy stuff, too and for her wedding decor she ordered a roll of this stuff called diamond wrap from save-on-crafts.com.  It looks like rhinestones, but its actually molded plastic that's faceted and painted chrome so that it sparkles but costs much less than yards and yards of rhinestones would have.   We decided that the diamond wrap would be great for sparkle on the mirror and we could just peel the strips off of the jars she had used in her centerpieces and not have to cut any of the new unused stuff.

 I knew I had some leftover PVC in the crawl space from when we ran waterlines from the well last Spring, so I had some material on hand to fashion my border shapes.  I dug out a piece and the next day when I stopped by their house, Squirrel was nice enough to not only cut about 300 slices of it (which was actually way more than I needed, I didn't get out to the garage to tell him how many until he'd already cut a ton), but he also found a scrap of pipe he had with a smaller diameter and cut some of that, too. 

My supplies:

I took that shot after I'd already glued the pieces I used for my frame together, so those are some of my extra rings, not the actual amount I used.  I wiped each slice with a wet rag before gluing because I forgot to before he cut them and it had been laying under my house for nearly a year.  If I had this to do over, I would have taken some acetone or nail polish remover and tried to get the printing off the outside of the pipes.  You'll see later why, it would have saved me a few steps and blunders.  Here's a shot once I had laid out my pattern and glued the rings to each other.  I haven't attached them to the mirror yet.

This is the point where you would paint the rings if you wish, if you manage to remove the printing before gluing its not completely necessary.  Spray paint would be the ideal thing to use.  I was impatient; I didn't have spray paint, the store is far away, and I had a bottle of silver craft paint and a foam brush on hand.  It didn't work too well.  Craft paint adheres to the rough cut sides, but the curved sides of the pipe where the writing is that needed covered the most, were too slick.  I sort of just tried to slap it on a little heavier wherever there was writing and went with it.

After all that handling, the frame came apart a few times in places.  I had been going to just hang the frame separately over top of the mirror, but it wasn't sturdy enough.  So I glued it directly on the mirror.  Then we cut the diamond wrap into 1 row strips and started carefully hot gluing them to the face of the rings.  I say "we" because after sitting on the floor for a few hours my back started to hurt and Babe Jr. offered to take over.

Here's a closer shot. Since the diamond wrap is plastic, the strips conformed to the curves easily with the hot glue as long as we glued a little at a time.

 

You can see my paint job issues here.  Thankfully once it was up on the wall its not noticeable.  

I had started the project in the evening as soon as we got home from the Squirrels' house.  We put it away when Mr. Backwoods got home from work.  The next morning Babe Jr started back as soon as she got out of bed and had it finished before I'd drank my first cup of coffee.  

There is a mounting bracket on the back of my mirror since this one is large and meant to hang on the wall. In a lot of the pinterest projects they use smaller craft mirrors, so you would have to come up with your own method of hanging.  I had to screw mine into a stud and use a drywall anchor for one of the screws, this mirror is heavy.  Here it is all done hanging over my bed.

I love it!  For my wall space, I couldn't do a huge elaborate frame.  With a smaller mirror I probably would have used a lot more circles and made it more "sunbursty."

I'm getting a new comforter set and curtains SOON.  So this is the beginning of my bedroom makeover.  I'm thinking of selling my bedroom suit.  I definitely want to replace that headboard with an upholstered one and the dresser mirror is huge and has the same wrought iron on the top.  I want to get a flat screen TV to replace the 20 year old one we have and hang it over the dresser.  Rather than try to store the headboard and mirror somewhere, I may try to get rid of all of it and just buy a new dresser.  If you know me in real life and know anyone who wants to buy them, please let me know!!

Snowy Night

We had a pretty big snowfall today, areas near us got up to a foot.  Based on how many times I swept off our steps today I'd say we got 8" but I'm betting the official count will be closer to six. We always seem to get more up this hollow than everyone else, I guess because the wind can't blow strong enough to scatter it and we have no traffic to wear it away.

Babe Jr. had never been sledding.  We never got as much snow in our old town, and when we did there really wasn't anywhere to sled.  Here she is, not so successfully trying to come down the driveway. 

It's a bit too rocky and I'd worn some of the snow down when I took the jeep to borrow the sled from a cousin.  (I never think about buying one of the things until the weather is too bad to go shopping.)  We had better success in Dad's yard, but I didn't even attempt to get my camera out until most of the sledding was done - I wanted to have some fun, too!

It was mostly dark by the time I started taking photo's.  But I sort of like how everything under the sodium vapor light takes on a yellow tone.

And the shadows magically turn purple.

Sweater Wreath

Yesterday I posted for the first time in a while and wanted to give a little bit of explanation as to why I haven't been around.  I really appreciate the kind comments.  I hope I didn't leave anyone with the impression that I've been sitting around in my house robe drinking schnapps alone all winter.  Normally I like to constantly have a project of some sort going and recently I just haven't been super motivated to do them.  Any time and extra energy has gone to running Babe Jr around and keeping mud out of the house.  It's been a rainy winter.  But a really awesome thing came out of that post.  I linked up to a blog party I came across, on DIY by Design appropriately titled Winter Blues Wednesday.  One of the other entries was this super cute Valentine Sweater Wreath.  I was so excited when I saw it, I pinned it immediately and ran around gathering things to start a new project.

Ta daaa!!

I've seen wreathes made with pool noodles online a lot recently.  I've had an extra piece of pipe insulation squirreled away just for this purpose.  By squirreled away, I mean, its been laying behind my trash bins outside since Mr Backwoods used some to cover our water lines around the pump and under the house.  The piece I had was about the same size as a pool noodle.  I just needed half so I used a steak knife to saw it in two. 

I have a bin of clothes Babe Jr has outgrown in our storage room; I knew there were several sweaters and scarves.  For my wreath I used the sleeves of 2 sweaters (mine were kids size 8, the other blogger used adult sweater sleeves) 3 scarves, and a couple of fuzzy socks.  I had to cut the toes out of the socks to slide them over the noodle, the scarves are just tied on.  I spent the most time arranging the order of the scraps because I wasn't really sure how many I would need.  I really like that I had a variety of colors so this can stay on the door past Valentine's day.

 I was afraid packing tape alone wouldn't hold the shape of my wreath since the circle was fairly small and that foam stuff is tough.  This piece was hollow in the middle since its meant to cover pipes, I'm not sure if pool noodles are or not.  But I straightened out a wire hanger and ran it through the middle then twisted the ends together tightly with pliers.  Then I taped the foam ends together over the wire.  The wire hanger gave me the ability to bend the whole thing and shape it just the way I wanted.  Once I had it secure, I used the last scarf that had not been cut to tie the bow right over the seam.

I'm so happy with how it turned out, and even more so that I had all the materials on hand.  Yay for being thrifty and using what you've got!!

Tablescape update

My goal for December was to update here twice per week. I only managed that the first week giving a whopping total of 2 posts for the entire month.  Sadly this is my first post for 2012.  The winter blues hit me hard this year; unfortunately I've been slacking in a few areas of my life.

Yesterday and today we got a few hours of clear sky and sunshine, so I finally dragged my butt off the couch and out of the house in search of pine cones and branches to update the apothecary jars on the kitchen table. They've been empty since I put away the Christmas decor a few weeks ago, so I searched "apothecary jars" on pinterest for some inspiration.  I mixed up a few of the ideas I found.

I wanted something cheap/free and I like a natural look.  The pine cones and branches were both collected within a few steps of my drive way.  The little do-dads in the bottom of the branch jar were borrowed from a mix of potpourri /decorative balls that normally reside in a basket in the living room.  I tied the branches together with a bit of fishing line and the do-dads keep the bunch from leaning.  I was going to look for a fake bird's nest and eggs for the stemmed jar next time I'm out shopping, but I already had the mossy rocks on hand.  If I still find a nest, I think I'll just set it right in on top of them, then I can even use a small one and it will still fill up most of  the jar.  I think it works perfect for this time of year, post Christmas but not quite spring.  I'm not big on blatant Valentine decor other than maybe a wreath.

I took photos of my Christmas decor in addition to the tree, but never actually made it to posting them anywhere.  This is what the table looked like through the holidays.

The little mirrored tray had been borrowed from my bathroom.  Now it's back in its home corralling miscellaneous vanity paraphernalia.  I want to find one to keep in this spot permanently, I'm keeping it in mind next time I hit the flea market or a thrift store.  It not only looks nice, but makes moving the everything off the table for a meal or project one easy step.

The days are finally getting a little longer.  If I can stay on the winning side of my allergy battle, I feel like I might someday return to the ranks of productive members of society.  Unfortunately, when you're depressed your immune system isn't up to par and you can get stuck in a vicious cycle of feeling down because your sick or being sick because you're so down.  I'm fighting not to let the cycle totally set in.  The holidays were rough because of some financial issues and living this rurally you don't get out of your house nearly as much once winter hits.  A few times this month I've had days when I've been feeling especially peppy and I've tackled big jobs I'd been putting off in the house, like reorganizing our storage/spare room.  Twice the chores involved stirring up a lot of dust then I spent the following several days feeling awful from the allergy flare up and doing nothing but laying around.

I know Spring will bring pollen and probably high mold counts, but warmer weather and more sunlight make up for both.  I'm so ready.  I'm anxious to pick back up on projects that I've set aside, maybe start some new ones.  Right now my main method of social interaction has been Babe Jr's games.  It's been a good way to get me out of the house interacting with other people, but I miss spending more time with my non-sports-mom friends and family.  I definitely need to make it a point to nourish those relationships as soon as basketball season is over.

So basically, I'm still around.  I just haven't been the most motivated person the past few months.  I'm looking forward to more interaction with friends family and blog readers.  Until sunny days return for good, hopefully I can make due with antihistamines and Vitamin D supplements.

Edited to add: It's been awhile since I've entered a blog party, but I though this post was particularly appropriate for this party.

Unexpected Visitors

Sunday morning the Terrible Terrier woke us up wanting to go outside.  Mr. Backwoods opened the front door to let him out and noticed horses in my Dad's yard.  My Dad doesn't own any horses.  Apparently the semi wild ones that normally stay on top of a nearby mountain/ reclaimed strip mine had wandered down in search of green plants to munch, and possible warmer, less windy areas to hang out. 

The Mister let Terrible back inside and 10 minutes later he was barking at the front window again.   I opened the front door to this:

They didn't seem too terribly concerned about the Terrible Terrier.  (Say that 5 times fast.)  He barked and jumped, but they just sort of looked at him, like "What?"  So I wouldn't recommend using a Yorkie for any sort of herding.  Unless you are herding really small plush squeaky things.

Some of the horses that hang out on top of the mountain are so tame they will walk right up to you, even to the point of being pests.  We've had to shoo them away before when I've been trying to take people photos and they kept getting in the way.  I think people must feed them frequently.  These were a bit more shy.  I slipped on some shoes to go out and get closer shots, but I spooked them.

Late last night Babe Jr looked out the window and saw them in Dad's yard again.  Its kind of cool to have them wander in, but I'm afraid we may have an excess of unwanted fertilizer by spring.