Our "New" Old House

In February we bought a house.

Day after we bought the house!

It was built in the 1950 and is fully brick. It is a small two-bedroom, one bath, 1,000 square foot home. It has an amazing 600 square foot basement (not included in the 1,000 square foot living space) and is in one of our favorite neighborhoods. And.... its a fixer upper.

Front Living Room

Kitchen

Baby Girl's Future Room

Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Awesome Basement

As you can see from the pictures - the entire house was done in paneling, it needs new windows, a new roof, a whole new kitchen, and updated flooring. Not to mentioned a new bathroom and some serious lawn help.

Like any naive ambitious first time home buyer - we thought we could knock all these out and move in by May 1st, June 1st at the latest. You know, three months seems like a reasonable time frame to tackle all those projects, right? *cue the laughing*

Well it is almost June - and this is what the house looks like today (same as it did 3 weeks ago if you follow me on Instagram) -

Bathroom, Kitchen, Tori's Room, and Master

Yeah... we won't be moving anytime soon.

We have had a few set backs - as there usually are in any fixer-upper. And we totally underestimated having a baby and trying to fix this up. Since I am a stay-at-home mom to a 6-month-old-exclusively-breastfed-likes-to-be-held-all-the-time-mommy's-girl I have been able to do little to help with the house. Baby Girl can't be over there right now with the dust and loud tools. And lets not forget that Hubby has a full time job - and takes Sundays off!

So now I am praying we move in before September 1st, feel free to pray with me - Lord knows we need all the prayers we can get.

So, there you have it, we have learned our lesson (never buy a fixer upper you can't live in while you have a young baby) and are continuing to learn lessons as we go (like everything takes at least 3 times as long as you think it will)!

I'll soon keep you updated about what we plan to do to each room and some other things we've accomplished since buying the house almost 3 months ago.

~Mindy

Going Vinyl Crazy

Over the weekend, I went a little crazy with my Silhouette Cameo.

If you remember, I bought this thing over 6 months ago. And believe it or not, I have not done any vinyl cutting with it until this post - and then again over this weekend. Using vinyl with the Cameo is ADDICTING! I seriously want to vinyl over everything -its so easy and fun.

That is why I vinyled three sides of my fridge this weekend - after this - the Hubby said "Please, stop with the vinyl before you put some on the toilet or the bottom of the sink" (which  by the way - is a GREAT idea! ;-) ).

So I got out my Cameo, vinyl, and transfer tape and went to town doing some simple projects.

On the front of the fridge which I look at too MANY times in the day - I put this quote from an amazing hymn called "Abide in Me" (click here to listen). This helps remind me that Jesus is with me - through cloud and sunshine, tears and smiles, spills and messes, failures and successes.

On the "business" side the fridge (the coupons, menus, phones numbers, groupons, etc. ) I put some vinyl lettering on my shopping list board. It looks so much better than the dry erase marker that always kept coming off.

And finally on the other side I put the words "PRAY". On this side of the fridge I put all the newsletters from our missionaries, friends, and Compassion children we support through prayer. This reminds us each morning at breakfast to pray for them and their ministries. 

Ahh.. It feels so good to vinyl. I can't wait for my next project that will call for vinyl!

 

What I Have Been Up To

Its been a while since my last post, and I have been busy having a baby!

Sorry for the hiatus, but I am sure all the mom bloggers out there can understand! Now that my little one is two months old (and super cute) - I feel ready to start getting back into some projects around the house.

In case you were wondering, I did hit a nesting phase at the end of pregency. But instead of DIYing stuff, I just wanted to buy new stuff. But fear not, I did some DIY stuff (and I did buy some new stuff).

Here are some projects that I was actually able to finish over the past few months (I'll save the WIP [works in progress] post for another day - its devestating long).

A new shower head that I love!

New Closet Curtains that match the color theme of our room (and I got it for $1.15 a yard!).

Getting the changing table ready & organized.

Figuring out this cloth diapering thing.

Slip-covering (the cheap easy way) an old comfy chair and ottoman

A new rug (and a new baby on it!)

And working on collecting stuff for Little One's owl theme nursery.

Well, thats about it. I have quite a bit WIP as I mentioned before. Hopefully getting them done within the next month.

I am off to take a nap!

Crock-Pot Baked Potatoes

Crock Pots.

Most of us get them for wedding gifts or as graduation gifts. Many people use them around the holidays, or in the winter, or when they stumble across something cool on Pinterest they want to try.

I am admit that I am addicted to my crock pot. I used in on average 6 times a month.

This surprises many people. They wonder how I can use it so much and what in the world I make. Well this is why I use it:

1. I'm busy 
2. It saves money
3. Its easy to clean up after (saves more time!)
4. Makes the house smell sooooo good. 

I have decided to share with you some of my go-to Crock Pot Recipes.  These will help you save money and time - allowing you to do the things you love!

Today I want to share one of the easiest (and prehaps cheapest!).

Crock Pot Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

• Potatoes (get enough that will feed your crew or at least that will fit in your crock pot - mine fits about 6-8) 
• Foil
• 2 T water 

 Directions:

1. Wash and scrub the potatoes really well - leave them a little wet

2. Wrap them in foil.

3. Put the water in the bottom of an empty crock- pot.

4.Then place the foil wrapped potatoes in the crock pot. Close Lid

5. Cook in the crock-pot for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.

6. Remove and serve with you favourite toppings!

Yummmy!!!!

This is great meal for the night after chili - because you can use the leftover chili as a topping.

Fall is in the air and there is nothing like some chili and baked potatoes!

 

Chalkboard & Vinyl

As many of you know, I got a lovely new toy over the summer - the Silhouette Cameo!

My love!

 Many projects you see around the web rave about the use of vinyl with the Cameo. I have never used it before with the Cameo. It seemed to hard and expensive - and partly addictive. It seems as if you start with one simple cute frame project with vinyl - and the next thing you know you are placing vinyl everywhere - clothing, windows, toilets, etc.

But when I was reading about the craft challenge of the week on CSI (the craft blog, not the show) - I knew it was time to get my hand dirty with this vinyl thing.

This week's CSI craft challenge was chalkboard.

This is the side of my fridge before:

Messy!

And this is the side of the fridge now:

Yep - my project entry is a chalkboard & vinyl dinner board. This was a quick project. Take a piece of lauan, put two coats of chalkboard paint on it, hot glue some twine - slap the vinyl on - all done. 

But this was my first vinyl try. And I made a fatal error - I didn't use transfer tape. That is because I didn't have any. And its not like they sell it together - which they should - by the way! (Don't worry I will order some today!)

So enjoy the error and imperfections - next time, vinyl,  I'll be ready! And I won't have uneven lines or uneven lettering!

Any one have any vinyl tips? Or where to get it for cheap?

I'm entering this project here: 

DIY Sunburst Mirror

Back when I started blogging over a year ago, one of the first projects I saw was this one here:

from 320*sycamore

I loved the colors and the way those mirrors looked. When I found out that Melissa from 320*sycamore   had embellished those mirrors herself - I started my search - I wanted a sunburst mirror just like that teal one! 

Finding a round mirror with a thick frame was no easy task. A couple of months later I found this beauty at Goodwill. How much was it? $4 (a little higher than I would like - but i couldn't pass it up!).

I got a pack of skewers for $1 to complete this simple project.

So you want to make your own?

The Things You Need:

• a mirror- with or without a frame (cheapest options are something like this or this)
• a pack of skewers
• hot glue 
• spray paint 

The Directions: 

1. Print out this template (thanks to Under The Table & Dreaming for this!) - which will help you with spacing. Either trace or glue it on the back of your mirror.

2. Start adding skewers in a whatever pattern you want! Hot glue worked really well with this.

3. Cover the mirror part.

4. Spray paint (I used two coats on this). 

5. Add the hanger and viola - you have a $5 (or less) sunburst mirror! 

This was a perfect one hour project (including spray paint time). And these days - with being 33 weeks pregnant - I need easy one hour projects!

This beautiful project went right up in my living room - which is in progress of being updated with a new rug, decor, and furniture arrangement.

More picture updates to come!

Happy Weekend!

Broken Camera

Well, it finally happened.

My amazing Canon T3 - that I saved for months for... I dropped it.

And it broke.

This would be the time to show you the damage - which is minimal - I mean only cracked the glass OVER the LCD screen - but I don't have my camera. :-)

Anyway, I was in the middle of one awesome DIY project  before I broke the camera. You'll be happy to know its finished.

You'll just have to wait on it though!

So I won't be blogging any projects until I get my camera back - hopefully within a week or so. But fear not, nesting is in full swing and so are my projects!

P.s. Why is Canon the only place that will fix Canons?