The distractions of Spring

I've been a little remiss in my indoor creative endeavors lately. Spring has arrived to the Pacific Northwest AND there was a break in the rain. This means I've been weeding, planting, dividing, mulching and just in general out enjoying some nice weather with color bursting all around me. It still isn't warm enough for planting any veggies but peas and lettuce but my rhubarb and asparagus are poking their heads up making me want to plant more, more, more! We moved into this house a year and a half ago and I've been building the garden since then. Gardening is full of surprises, my favorite here has been peonies. Growing up with a gardening mother I had never seen a peony until one bloomed here at our new house (and a tree peony at that!). I am hooked! I've since planted 8 more. I received another surprise this spring that the two boxwoods I've been trying to dig up and remove (then gave up and pruned to a round ball) are in fact, compact azaleas. Poor things have been too stressed to bloom until now. Okay, okay...they can stay. :)

The rain returns tomorrow so I'll be back inside crafting away then.

New Etsy items

I've been working on some new items for the Etsy shop. I love these little trinket boxes and am experimenting with both painting and woodburning the tops. What do you think? 

Nailed it!

Like many creative folks I'm a huge fan of Pinterest. I found a great tutorial at Design Folder that dyes glass bottles and even makes them waterproof so they can be vases. Fail. Hers turned out perfect, streakless and beautiful. Mine are splotchy, spotty and in general a mess. Well, I should say....literally a mess. Every time I touch them my fingers blue and I had to throw away a paint brush I used on the project. So ya....nailed it! Not. 

Little Details

I still haven't been able to get back to anything really creative because I'm still finishing up the details of our floor installation. Our baseboard trim in our bathrooms previously was the same tile that was on the floor. Since we removed and replaced the tile I'm now cutting and staining trim. The cutting part I can only do first thing in the morning because for some reason even though I'm measuring and double checking my angles and lengths - they are not turning out the way I want. Frustrating. But it is slowly getting done. Good thing I bought an extra board. I'm going to need it. 

Enjoying THIS moment.

It's been hard to sit back and enjoy our new floors since we've had so much chaos with the downstairs flooding and the upstairs bathroom leak (and did I mentioned now the check engine light is on in the minivan?) but I love them. The entry foyer used to be tile and the kitchen used to be laminate and now it is all the same flooring. I love that. It is so many shades of gray, tan and brown that it doesn't show a speck of dirt. I love that. It's not too shiny so you can't tell if someone spills something. I love that. It is a perfect mix of country barnwood with our cottage modern style. I love that.

I love our new floors!

Valentine's Day present

Things have been so chaotic I haven't been able to share the watercolor I did for my sweetie for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure if you can see the details but in the scribbles of the branch are names of all the people that love her. It is framed and on the back it says. "You'll Owl-ways be loved." 

Not all Roses and Sunshine

Just so you know that it's not all roses and sunshine when doing something creative here is a dose of reality (and my personal stress) for you to see. When pulling up the old bathroom floors a small leak was found. Tracing the leak back the the faucet valve stem I found that a LOT of the drywall behind the shower wall was black, moldy and crumbly. Ah what fun! I have fixed the leak and now I get the new experience of installing a new shower surround and shower doors. I purchased the shower surround. 

The real source of chaos though is this. We're redoing all the flooring on the upstairs level of our two story house. The downstairs is bigger and is, in general the children's domain. That means the carpet is already partially ruined so why not let them finish it off right? A water heater down there flooded two rooms of carpet.  We've sucked the water and lifted the carpet and have been drying it with fans for a few days but it smells like wet dog.  We have a carpet person coming today to possibly replace the pad and decide if we can put the carpet back or need to replace it.  Fun!