Farmhouse Fun

My son was lucky enough to be able to rent a farmhouse that was built in the late 1800s. It still has some of the original charm mixed with some really bad remodeling from the 1950s. There was an addition put on at one point that the  kitchen is now housed.  In my last post I told you that I was helping him get it ready to move in.  Some of things we can't change for obvious reasons so we got creative. How about a quick tour of what we did. 

The before of the living room.

 

After:  They went with a light grey on the walls and the landlord got new carpet. Thankfully.  If you look at the ceiling above my son the ceiling was wallpapered. Eeeek. We decided to leave that alone because I knew it would be a mess if we pulled it down.  There were a couple spots that were sagging so we used spray adhesive to "glue them back up." We then painted the ceiling in hopes of disguising the brown old glue from the paper. It looked great until... the paint was too heavy and pulled the paper down in places.

This picture with the TV was the night my son told me he used white duct tape to fix the sagging pieces. 😂 You have to do what you have to do.  The ceiling paint really lightened the room and made it look clean.

The next room was a room they would be using for their bedroom. It is on the main floor of the house. The tenant before had a daughter who used it.

View from the living room.

Before:

The white board was used to board up a window.  The window faces an added on porch and is an original window.  There is insulation in between. You have to love the ceiling light 😂. Did you see the vintage wall light?  Every room is quite small.  

After: 

My son's grandpa, on his Dad's side built the bed and night stands for him.  He also came and had to put up the trim around the window because it was missing from when they replaced the windows.

I know since I was there last they have done more decorating so I need to get more updated pictures.  

These two rooms were the main ones we did so they could get moved in.  I have more pictures of the house to post that we didn't do anything to yet. They have only been in 3 weeks so we have plenty of time. It is definitely a new experience for him and myself. I'm not quite an empty nester, but it sure is different.

Laundry Room Makeover

It has been super busy around here the last few weeks. Hence, why no posts.  Between my laundry room make over and helping my son with his new place.  (That will be another post.)  He is renting an 1800s farmhouse, which has not really been upgraded very recently.  I have to help him this weekend then he will be ready to move in and I will post pictures of what we did.

But for now I will show my laundry room makeover.  Since I moved in my house I never touched the laundry room other than to put down peel and stick tile.  Literally this room has not been touched since the house was built in 1995.  It still has contractor cream walls and 90s style hardware on the cupboards.

Pretty blah and standard. It needed a little love and I've been itching to do a project.  It isn't completely done but I can share what I have done.  

With a little help from Lowe's I decided it might be fun to try some peel and stick wallpaper.  Way back maybe 20 years ago I used wallpaper in my kitchen, but haven't used any since.  I figured if I don't like it, well I can peel it off.  I did not paint my wall that I put the paper on.  They said if I did I'd have to wait several weeks before I could put up the paper.  Uh, no, we want this project done!  It is very easy to use.  While I did not start in the middle of the wall like recommended I did draw a straight line down the wall to be sure I did not hang it crooked.  I even checked several times with my level.  I started from the corner and hung as many full sheets as I could until I had to start cutting and going around the cabinets.  I am so pleased with it and it looks very realistic.  The other walls got a fresh coat of paint Magnetic Gray from Sherwin Williams. The peel and stick tile was removed because it was not sticking to the floors very well and the linoleum is perfectly fine underneath.  (Another post on how I removed it and all the glue residue left behind).  

I have a new light to hang and a new towel bar.  As for the toilet paper holder I'm thinking I want one that doesn't attach to the wall, but I'm still deciding.  As for decor, I'm still thinking about that too.  Not too many people will be visiting my laundry room when they come over. 😂

So this is the current laundry room.

Obviously it is still a work in progress as you can see.  I think the black hardware looks so much better than the shiny 90s gold.  The sink area still needs a lot of help.  I think a new faucet is on my list and I need to figure out how to reattach my sink to the counter because it moves around and shifts.  Maybe new caulk will help, but I need to secure it.  Off to Google it is to find the solution.

Stay tuned as I will have a lot to talk about soon.  Have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting.

Week 4

 This week I have been able to finish up some rabbits, chicks, and carrots.  I have decided I will create at my own pace.  I am normally driven by customer requests and buying trends because I don't like disappointing anyone.  Well, I just can't do it.  I get way to burned out.  I don't want it to become a chore to create.  So, here are some pics to show.  I so enjoy creating these guys.  But as you can see it could probably get overwhelming and boring creating the same ones over and over.

I am also happy to report I'm still doing really well eating and have finally figured out my Fitbit app and how the calorie counting works.  It's great because it works in real time and tells you how many more calories you can eat without going over.  My progress... Since Jan 3rd... I'll take it!

Stay tuned as I have been doing some rug hooking in my spare time on weekends.  I'll update that soon.

Week 3

This week started out a bit rough. After I posted last week my weekend was a bit emotional. I hit a wall. Not literally, but I just couldn't function. I had no desire to craft, to get dressed, to leave the house, no anything. I analyzed my entire week, and while I had a busy week running here and there, I just couldn't figure it out. But then it hit me.  I was counting calories with my app and I had been undereating everyday all week. I had 0 energy, had not lost weight, and on Saturday binged all day. I felt horrible. But. This week I stepped up and have done much better. I'm down 1lbs and figuring out my food much better. 

That being said I'm getting busy this week. I felt like crafting so I am doing a little bit at a time so I don't get burned out. I have sheep, chicks, and rabbits in the works. 

Then today I drew out a hooked rug pattern. I want to do a hit or miss pattern with the hearts, but keep going back and forth how I want to proceed. I like tohave other things to do other than painting. Sometimes Bill and I will binge watch Netflix so I sit and hook or whatever in front of the TV. I can't do that with my painting. Plus I don't want to get burned out.  I also cut some wool last weekend hoping to get inspired and it helped.  I have so many ideas swimming around just not enough time to draw them out. The story of my life. 😊

Stay tuned for more updates. 

Week 2

 What a week! It has not gone as planned and I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped.  Oh well, life happens and I'm learning to roll with it.  I'm trying to do what I can and not beat myself up over it.

I have been keeping up with eating better, but the exercise didn't happen this week. I truly just didn't have time.  Monday I took my Mom to an eye doctor appointment where the office motto is "hurry up and wait."  Once I brought my Mom back home I had to do a few odds and ends for her and my Dad.  I got home at 1:15pm just to turn around eat lunch and leave for work.  Tuesday my daughter and I had hair appointments.   We didn't get home again until after noon.  I ate lunch and left for work.  Wednesday was grocery shopping day.  Yesterday was my first day completely at home before work.  I baked a loaf of banana bread, laundry, loaded the dishwasher, and all the other stuff that I couldn't do before.

So, here we are Friday morning.  I'm going to look at the things I have been able to do.  I have learned to meal prep for work.  (This blog may be more for me then some of you because I am trying to track my journey. ) Anyway, this is a chicken and rice bowl with cilantro lime rice, taco seasoned chicken, peppers and onions , and kidney beans because I didn't have black beans or pinto beans.  I don't mind eating the same thing a couple days in a row, BUT by the last day, today, I'm ready for something else.

I have tried overnight oats before and wasn't a fan.  I have been looking for recipes and ideas to make it better. So far, using oats, almond milk, chia seeds, honey, and salt have made it better.  I don't care for the yogurt in it at this point.  I come home from work at 11:30p and prepare my oats for the next day.

Today I added some fresh berries and it was really good.

I also had time to make a salad in a jar.  I am new to this bandwagon.  Normally I just throw everything in a Tupperware bowl and go.  But I like the idea of prepping it ahead and just grabbing and going.  There is a method to it so certain things don't get soggy.  We'll find out if I did it right.  I did forget to put my eggs in the jar and didn't realize it until the end.  Guess I'll just take them with me and put them on when I dump the salad out on the plate.

I had originally bought these jars to craft with, BUT... don't they look pretty?  

I'm hoping to do some molding of some chcks and rabbits today so I'm going to cut this short.  Have a great day and stay tuned.

What IS Helping

 I know it's only the first few days of the year and everyone is gung ho on resolutions.  We start out strong and as time marches on we fizzle out.  So, I am not calling them resolutions.  These are goals I NEED to reach.  It's not a race to see how fast I get there.  In my heart I know this.  However, I'm very impatient!  I don't care what it is in my life I have a hard time waiting. I want it yesterday.

Things I have accomplished since Jan. 1

1. I have walked on my treadmill 3 days in a row.

2. I have cleaned out most of my kitchen cabinets.

3. I cleaned out the bottom of my dry sink.

4. I cleaned out under my basement stairs.  This will all be donated. YAY!!!!

5. I have made 1 trip to the thrift store.  I just need to load my most recent things from today. See above.

6. I am tracking what I eat and cutting back. This is actually a serving of soup. 1 cup... ugh. I'm going to starve before I get my house organized.😂

I think I have made great strides so far.  I only work an hour or so a day on it so I don't get overwhelmed. I think that planning my day, before I go to work is helping immensely.  I now work 2nd shift so I get more done during the day before work then I ever did working 1st shift.  I never felt like doing anything after getting dinner for everyone in the evenings.  Weekends were always spent running around doing errands and I still got nothing done.  

Tomorrow is a new day to make progress. I'm so proud of myself so far.  I am now going with my Dad to doctor appointments so I need to plan accordingly.  

Motivation

 Some people have a lot of motivation and some don't.  I think I'm in the middle somewhere.  Some days I can get a lot done and others I sit on the couch endlessly scrolling through my phone.  How do find motivation?  How do you make it last?  I wish I had an easy answer.

I can tell you watching videos of already fit people telling me how to lose weight doesn't work.  Obviously I know lose weight quick schemes don't work either.  For those who follow me on FB know 2 years ago I went on WW (Weight Watchers) and lost quite a bit of weight.  What was my motivation?  I was getting ready to buy new pants in a larger size than the current 16 I was wearing.  I walked into work one day and told my coworkers I needed to do something.  I found out our insurance covered part of the WW fee and I signed up.  A couple other coworkers did as well once they found out.  I did great... for awhile.  I stalled out after I lost about 35lbs.  As of today I have put a few pounds back on and need to get back at it.  So, today I got back on my treadmill.  I just need to be consistent. But what will help me do that?  I listened to old country music while I walked and let my mind drift.  It helped pass the time.

Yesterday, I cleaned out under my kitchen sink.  I felt so accomplished.  So, after walking away from doing that I remembered a video I saw about organizing and cleaning out clutter.  Listen I know you should break big jobs into smaller tasks, but that is hard for me.  I tackle the big thing and get burnt out and then it sits undone.  Back to the video.  The woman took a single cardboard box and filled it with stuff to get rid of.  Then that was it for the day.  Right now, I have a lot of boxes around here.  You'd think I was moving or something.  Anyway, I got myself a box. 

I began with one cupboard.  The one that has all of the drinking cups, glasses, mugs, travel mugs, and all that sort of stuff. I have my favorite mugs, cups, and glasses I use all the time.  I loaded up my box with those I haven't touched in YEARS.  What is my motivation?  HOPEFULLY my son will get this house to rent and he needs kitchen stuff. 

I ended up gaining momentum and did all the cabinets EXCEPT the plastic Tupperware/Rubbermaid cabinet.  That is a very overwhelming task that I will have to do by itself. I ended up with all kinds of stuff and told my son and his girlfriend to come look through it before I loaded it into my car to donate.  As I type this the box is sitting next to me and has not been loaded into my car. I have to run into town so I will load it and take it or else I will end up changing my mind and keeping it. 

I guess the point to this post is find something, someone, podcast, music, book, or whatever it takes if you need a push to be more motivated or productive.  How do you get motivated?  What helps you get things done?  I'm always looking for new ideas. I have got to clean the clutter out of here.  I am drowning.