Mad Scientist Monday #22: Renovations to the Lair

Day 288
If you have seen this movie from the 80s you know how many things went wrong with this house and how much money they kept spending to repair it.  Determined NOT to go down that road (of course our house isn't that old either) we have been wanting to make some low budget renovations.

If you want to see a tour of the house used in 'The Money Pit' movie adventure over to the Between Naps on the Porch Blog~I love her movie house tours.

Our first decision was to rip up the downstairs carpet and paint the cement floors.  We live in the desert and  quite frankly having carpet where sand blows in the house almost constantly is just a waste.  We saw the evidence of this one we pulled up the pad and there was sand all underneath, ew-no wonder no matter how much we vacuumed it just still felt dirty to walk on, ew.

Click image to be taken to the IMDB site for  more movie info.

We regularly scour our local Habitat for Humanity's ReStore to get ideas on how we can incorporate inexpensive projects to change the look of our home.  If you have never been in one of these stores not everything is used, I often see new tags on large things like kitchen cabinets.  Its like a candy store to walk around and see the old hardware and fixtures.  For this renovation we were able to get some painting supplies and will be heading back to check out their trim for the edges of the walls and where the floor meets the tile.

By far the hardest part of this renovation was moving everything out.  We worked on one room at a time and since it took less than a week to harden and dry completely so 2 weeks were not really too big of a disruption.  After pulling the carpet and padding up we had to scrape up the tacking strips and glue bits along the edges.  We filled in any gouges or cracks with a cement filler~we did find some long cracks in the sewing lair but they were not that wide and we felt like they were not a function of the foundation cracking but a more natural result of cement drying~cracks happen.  And if the cracks do widen we can see that with them being painted and visible now.  Once the cement filler dried we then sanded that down.  After laying on 2 coats of a mildew, water resistant primer and letting that dry for a few hours it was time to put on the turquoise.  We did put 2 coats of this down as well.  Both of the paints went down smoothly with a roller and were really consistent and even.  Neither of these paints smelled hardly at all and they both cleaned up quickly with water.

We did not put on a top sealer yet, we are going to wait and see how this holds up, my girls and I are VERY sensitive to smells and chemicals which could trigger asthma attacks.  Right now we have found some little nicks that we will be touching up this weekend but those are from moving furniture back in and are seeing it stand up well to traffic and spot cleaning.

We chose turquoise because we love bright colors, you can see our walls are painted similar to what we see in the desert around us every day~dark green, golden yellows, an orange spice~so we decided on adding in the color of the sky at our feet to the mix, with over 300 days of regular sunshine and these bright blue skies to see in Albuquerque we wanted to bring that indoors to remind us of the beautiful things in life.

Primer: Zinsser Bullseye Primer for all Surfaces
Paint: Behr Premium Low Luster Enamel Porch and Patio for Cement
Cost < $150

Trim and some sort of ceiling tiles to be added in later.

My sewing lair sits in the front room where you walk into the house.  I was tired of this area looking jumbled and disorganized when clients come over so we moved everything out, painted and then moved things in selectively getting rid of a lot of clutter and arranging the largest furniture pieces in ways that made the space look more open.

One more future project will be to repaint these file cabinets.  I am thinking some bronze or silver spray paint.  These cabinets were originally in a corner behind my large cutting table and were not easy to open and search through. 

Here you can see the view of my desk towards the front door.  I placed a painted piece of MDF (Med. Density Fiberboard) across 2 bookshelves to consolidate space and give me easier access to patterns and books stored on the shelves.

I painted the MDF that I used for my desk an Ebony Glossy Black.  I don't normally incorporate black into my color schemes but I am in love with this desk now.

Originally I had these tables combined into a large cutting table but I decided to separate them and I am finding that I enjoy working with the multiple cutting areas more since I generally have more than a handful of projects going on at a time.  You can see I have a better view of the Frog and Lizard Terrariums now and this weekend I noticed that they were more actively coming up to the glass and watching the outside world too.

Here is a view of the overall space and how I have the light table, my serger, sewing and then planning areas all comfortably spaced out with a large walkway to the right side from the front door.  My family even likes this space better and my girls kept coming in and digging through patterns and books or just to sit in the chairs and talk.  The only other piece I think I might add is a small bench for clients but we shall see, right now I am more than happy to have the open areas for now.

I have been decorating my space with bouquets of roses from my garden every day and they look stunning against the black desk~its just such a nice clean and calm color.

Surprisingly even with all the moving around the sewing continued here and as you can see by my lack of blogging I have been busier than ever.  

What will you create today?

Crafting of Ginormous proportions

Day 79

This past week was taken over by prep-work for a crafting experience for an estimated 165 people! It took place during a Mother Daughter tea at a local church and it was a BLAST!

Everything came together as planned--EVERYTHING...no smoke alarms went off, no fingers burned...

....friends on Facebook questioned my sanity after I told them we had cut out 600 5" squares of slippery organza fabric BUT nearly every single piece was used....

...I even made 25 babyfood pincushion jars to store stuff but also to have a place to park the needles for each table...this is one of the homelier jars that did not poof like I wanted it to, so I adopted it for my beads at home...

....our table for the tea because of course the girls and I were invited to partake...the green is just the cutest color and look at that adorable bear....

...my girls wearing their flowers....

...here is what amazed me the most EVERY and I mean EVERY single flower came out as unique as its creator, people listened when I said there were no wrong ways to make these...I was just stunned at the art and beauty everyone was wearing when they were finished....

....even my non-girly girl made one for her hair....

Lovely satisfied sighs at the fun I had...I hope this inspires you and you have a lovely art filled day! If you want to make some of these flowers and live in Albuquerque you can come to my Momtasterrific Craftery night in May!

Not complaining about temps in the 40s in the Spring...

Day 76 New term Bloglazy: a condition where one forgets or puts off daily blogging

....just saying that it snowed the past 2 days on the mountain here in Albuquerque and was really cold...but I am not complaining that we had to get out our winter clothes again because soon it will be blazing hot and I will be whining about that.

So yesterday we went to the Albuquerque Biopark's Botanical Gardens and Aquarium BEST place in Albuquerque hands down. Most beautiful and peaceful place to walk around.

In the meantime finishing up the last of my hand stitching kits from the 70s, next on the menu is to create something with them!

And making lots of flowers both the yo-yo kind and some lovely organza ones. Note: when melting organza over an open flame keep your pinkies in, this is no time to be fancy, I believe I successfully blistered off one corner of my pinkie by touching the edge of the melted flower and searing plastic fibers to my skin OH THE JOY!

And I managed to get all my Creative Lair moved downstairs where I have more space and more light AND I can be around the family when working but also have a separate space. Next on the menu shelving and decorating the walls! So no big pics of my space till then! Did I tell you I have more light, way more light and I can open the front screen door for breezes!

view from the front window!

more Botanical Garden pics because I find them so inspiring

love this one...

this is an Orchid Mantis, isn't it cute?!

Is it really Spring?

Day 70

Cause here in Albuquerque it was C-O-L-D all day...and the winds are crazy icy cold and besides the dust devil that engulfed our house and made it shake the gusts stayed at about 40 all afternoon. But this AM we put on our jackets and went outside to clean up the drifted garbage and tumbleweeds that yesterday's windstorm brought us. The cats are wanting to come outside too but we had work to do!

The blossoms all over town are pink and white...this is the ornamental pear in our backyard..small but growing!

I received yet another box from my mom who must be cleaning out everything she owns...these are various tree paintings that my Grandfather did--I have got to find a way to preserve all this art she keeps sending me, think I will have to come up with some sort of large display on a wall downstairs.

also in the box were more old craft and sewing books...I have not had time to flip through them though as I had a schedule of things I wanted to accomplish today. There were so many things that she sent in this box and so many memories.

I did manage to complete the scarf-my scarf- from the scrappy bits sent to me from Scott of Blue Nickel Studios...I put bamboo on the back for softness and just threw in some loopy free machine stitching

This is how the hand embroidery on the t-shirt turned out. I am pretty happy with it, next time I will use thinner thread, but for this particular design I was looking for something more raw but it was not suitable for seeing the details...if I do this again I will enlarge the design. I even used real safety pins which I though was cooler than stitching them!

Long day and off to bed...well really to sketch and read and play a mystery game on my Nintendo DS....lots to do tomorrow with the kids, egg dyeing and deviled egg eating woohoo!

Type-A Nibbler makes an appearance with some Organza beauties

Day 65

Meet Type-A...an obsessive Nibbler of the rabbit variety....he is the prototype for the craft we are making this Friday at the Momtasterrific Craftery night --the other samples of what we actually will make will be up this week I just wanted to give this little cutie his own page since he was a work-in-progress and is different from his brethren. Doesn't he remind you of something out of one of Leo Leonni's books? (FYI beautiful piece written by his Granddaughter here can you imagine being raised by someone so talented?) This likeness is completely unintentional but apparently I was subconsciously channeling him...I read enough of his books as a child and then to my girls. So many favorites that the books were literally loved to falling apart. Wherever the inspiration came from I will take it because it was so much fun to draw him and make him completely my idea come to life from paper!

Next was a simple white crocheted shawl that I thrifted last week and wanted to add to it with some Spring color--most likely just a wish to not be cold for a few more months....unfortunately did not get a good outdoor picture today because I forgot but tomorrow I will get some good pics of it...

OK so mine did not turn out just like one of the many tutorials I found on the web--here is a good tute-- but I used differently qualities of organza and I really felt like the higher quality melted better and I know that I want none of these fabrics near my body and a heat source they melted so quickly! This is an after picture....

This is a before picture...or after being melted and before being put together as a flower...AND I did not cut them into flower shapes merely a circular shape because I wanted a poppy type look. This was one craft though my hubby could get into and he had a glint in his eye watching me hold it over the flames--playing with fire, burning things BOYS!--anyway he said if I cut him some more this weekend he will do a few more trials so I will be excited to see what he comes up with, he is actually very artistic and I love working with him!

Anyway this was a nice distraction but we are on some pretty tight deadlines this week as well as all the homeschooling still going on.....be inspired, stay creative!

I know its almost Spring cause I see flowers everywhere....

Day 62

Here are some closer pics of the quilt handmade by the girls Great Great Grandmother...I could only wish for my hand stitches to be this good

Even the quilting in the white parts is all hand done. And can you imagine piecing stitching this thin like the stems? Truly a gem.

The girls and I love going to the Dollar Store and getting fake flowers in the colors of the season....so we purchased quite a few and then created a centerpiece for our kitchen island.

The glass jar is full of marbles and fortunes collected over the more than 13 years my husband and I have been together.

Message hearts on sale after Valentine's Day--love cheap candy...

Inside the large blue jar I put fossilized coral. Way back when I went to university for Paleontology I regularly went to hunt fossils in the spoil piles of the phosphate mines in Florida....so a lot of my fossils are from an ocean more than 1.4 million years old! The curvy coral outside the jar is modern, not a fossil. SIGH I miss the beach and try to put a little bit of it back in every room in my home as a reminder.

How do you know if your business will succeed?

Day 55

OK well you don't and you won't....but if you have something you think you might want to do you owe it to yourself to at least explore the opportunities! And um well I can with much confidence tell you will NEVER know if your business is going to succeed unless you try....

I am not very scientific about things, OCD maybe with my lists upon lists (thank gawd for my note app on my Droid phone, shhh I still keep my paper pad in my purse too) but when I am interested in something I sort of just go for the gusto....

I did not start checking out books on businesses quite at first or even websites for that matter, first I needed to gather my thoughts on exactly what and how I wanted to work balancing the needs of my family at the same time because as a homeschooling mom that is my first job.

Pilfering supplies from our school stuff in the form of an unused notebook, a blank journal, sharpened pencils with good erasers, my favorite ball point pen, etc.. During down time in the bleachers at swimming or even in the car while waiting for a kid to get out of a class, I wrote down goals and random thoughts about this journey I was undertaking. I sketched out some ideas I wanted to create. Lots of randomness.

Goals were what really has made the difference or I should say goals AND expectations. I know all this will change as I grow and learn but that is part of the fun right? Succeeding, failing, scratching out old goals and squeezing in new ones. Maybe it is just me but I like to fail or do something wrong-I would not feel like I was learning if I didn't. LOL So make sure you rise to your expectations or realize they need to change. Pay attention here--->>> Changing goals and expectations is NOT a FAILING!! If this is not a part of your plan you are NOT doing it right!

Take a month or so to do this, talk to supportive friends and family, listen to the naysayers too but don't let those voices get in the way of how you want things to work. It might turn out that after thinking it all through you are not ready to take the next 10 million steps and that is OK, really OK, you have not lost anything by inspiring yourself!

What writing all this stuff down has made me realize was that I could go forward....and you can too...go on, be inspired.....just go sit on a rock (especially if you have a loverly Japanese garden like we do) and close your eyes with your face to the sun oh maybe even a nap (I dream of naps)

Tomorrow some amber beaded goodness teaser of my fairy tale quilt block....hey sewing on individual seed beads takes time but I find it very relaxing EXCEPT when I spill the teeeny beads on the floor-SIGH always happens no matter how careful you are...and remember when I said there would be needle pricks well I jabbed my finger tip pretty good yesterday luckily NO BLOOD on the fabric ya know it's like spaghetti sauce blood is flippin magnetically attracted to white fabric.....but you can always use ye olde Quilter's trick of spitting on it (if it is a teeny drop not a CSI spatter--ask me sometime about how I was going to have a career in Forensics BEFORE the cool show started) to get it out just--enzymes, proteins blah blah blah.... make sure you WaSH the item before selling or gifting lol

Blog Slacking.....

yes yes I will admit it I have been blog slacking-no reason other than just got out of the groove after the passing of Misha and the long list of things that have to be done when prepping for winter as well as kid activities that pile up in the Fall!

So once again let me show you some of the last roses this fall....yep go ahead drink them in...and yes they DO smell as good as they look


Our poor Sunflower bush (maxmillian sunflowers) it was time to take it down--I will get some pics of the front yard winterized tomorrow but we take this down to the ground and it regrows this large every year...sometimes I think it gets larger I believe it got to appx 5' wide in a square and 10+' tall.


Swim meets galore G1 swam a 200 Free and loved it...crazy kid...and she loves butterfly


Go ahead and stop reading if you want I am bragging again about my fall flowers that I picked from my garden....don't you love the colors


Also hit up the pumpkin patch where we got some humongo pumpkins for a good price and we are carving them up tonight...all I want are those sunflower seeds

see ya tomorrow when I start showing the stuff I have finished whilst I was blog slackin'..... prepping for a winter storm tomorrow might have to do a snow dance cause I would really really like to see snow against the sage greens and browns of the desert.....but mostly cause I have a terrible head cold and need yet another excuse to snuggle warm on the couch with a book