A Quick Fix

Finding the leash for the little pup isn't incredibly difficult but can be frustrating to dig through a pile of rags while having an anxious puppy ready to go for a walk hopping on you. We also had the need for a new storage space for her electric fence collar as previously it hung on the sink faucet (nightmares of it getting inadvertently soaked and short-circuiting danced in my head) so when I came across this handy-dandy solution for half-off at Hobby Lobby I couldn't resist.

As the title suggests this was a super quick fix and was done really easily in about 5 minutes. I had an empty space on the garage wall right as you enter/exit the house that would be a perfect fit.

I lined up the hooks where I wanted them and added in the first screw not really worrying about whether or not it was straight.

I lined up the piece so it looked straight and put in the second screw, voila! Done and another project checked off the list.

Oh, Yes He Did

In all of the celebration of Tim being cancer-free plus it being his birthday weekend he got, shall we say, a little loopy. His loopiness brought on a bout of instability causing him to run into to wall of the laundry room which provided a domino affect of knocking the ironing board down and breaking off a chunk of the molding on the door casing which I discovered the next day and luckily found the missing piece.

Tim being the not-so-handy-man just chuckled at it and left it to watch ESPN. I've tried coercing, threatening and even pleading but I keep getting the brush-off from him about getting this fix. So I decided to do it myself (he in return will be doing my laundry the next two times).

First I went out and bought some Elmer's wood glue. I don't know if its the best but it was pretty darn cheap and I remember my dad using it growing up so I went with it.

Next I put the piece back into place to see which way it needs to face, luckily it fit in there pretty well still.

Next I put down a towel and put glue on the piece (note to self: next time put the glue in the hole so you don't get it all over your fingers and have your finger stick to the piece).

I put the piece on the wall and held it for about a minute. As I was removing my hand I realized the piece was stuck to it when it came with it so I did the previous 2 steps again...awesome. Finally it was stuck up there.

You can still tell something happened but at least I don't have to worry about losing the piece now. We need to caulk it, sand it and repaint it but for now I'm just glad there isn't a gaping hole.

You Can Paint with all the Colors of the Rainbow

But what's your color personality?

I saw a quiz on Real Simple's website about Color Personalities and thought it would be fun to try. Lets see if soft blue/green really is my favorite. I typically think these types of things are kind of hokey, I mean really, you can predict my personality/favorites in ten questions or less?

Well, they got pretty close, I mean I do like yellow and have incorporated it in bits and pieces in the house. Not to mention that yellow is an undertone (I think) to brown and browns & neutrals are everywhere...

In closing, I'd say its a fun 3 minute waste of your time but here is my result :)

RESULTS
You Are an Air Personality

Grant Cornett

Warmhearted, lively, and cheerful air personalities have a positive approach to life, says Gillian Rose, a New York City–based interior-color specialist (colorourworld.com). Air people are most attracted to yellow, "a very warm color," says Debbie Zimmer, the director of communications of Coating Materials for Dow. "Yellow, translated into human personality, conveys attention and warmth." Carol Tuttle, author of Dressing Your Truth: Discover Your Personal Beauty Profile ($20, amazon.com), says that this personality type is "animated," outgoing and gregarious. People with air natures, she says, "like a lot of sparkle, a lot of movement. They like to catch your eye." However, air personalities can be impulsive, and they can be perceived as a bit flighty, unserious—literally "airheaded." According to Rose, the study of color and personality is age-old, based on the theories of the ancient Greek physician Galen, who designated four personalities he linked to bodily fluids: choleric (yellow bile), phlegmatic (phlegm), melancholic (black bile), and sanguine (blood). Early physicians and philosophers came to assign colors and characteristics of the natural world to these four temperaments; they linked sanguines to air and yellow. (Note that the category that you fall into according to the quiz might not reflect you 100 percent: Many people are a combination of categories.) In the home, yellow can stir up positive memories, says Toby Israel, Ph.D., the author of Some Place Like Home: Using Design Psychology to Create Ideal Places ($60, amazon.com). “Perhaps your grandmother had a yellow kitchen—if you paint one of your rooms in this color, it can bring back memories of being loved and cared for,” she says. Rooms with “sunny yellow undertones suggest an environment of warmth or excitement,” says Sandy Dumont, a stylist and the author of the Image Architect blog. Bright colors can give you an energy boost.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

It's already been an excellent week this week. Some great friends got married in a beautiful and incredibly sweet ceremony on Saturday, the new neighbors are working with us to get the issues resolved (I think attempting to get a face-to-face meeting was what swung the pendulum in the right direction, more on that later), work is working itself out (for right now anyways), the fundraiser for local cancer research (a lot of the money goes directly to Tim's oncologist) we attended Monday night looked to be a huge success (YAY!), Tim's grandparents surprised everyone by driving down from Pennsylvania to attend the fundraiser (LOVE them!) and meet their new great-granddaughter (my niece - not my child), its ALREADY Wednesday AND I just won my first blog giveaway! I haven't had a week this excellent in some time!

So about that giveaway, I read a lot of different blogs every day to get ideas, be inspired and entertained. I've seen various blogs posting things like this for some time now but just recently started to enter them. Aubrey & Lindsay's Little House Blog is one that I've been following since I started this little adventure and they put up a great post about having curtains made by Tonic Living who has some really neat fabrics at really reasonable prices. I won a $50 gift card to Tonic Living, now what to do with it....

Here are the 2 ideas I'm working with:

1. Put it towards getting some curtains made for the master bedroom. If I go this route I want the thick wooden curtain rods with some round finials and this gorgeous Adorn fabric in Olive.

2. Get the Tiny Dots in Kiwi fabric to make a bench for the end of our bed. I found an AWESOME tutorial at the blog Oeil Prive for a tufted bench that I think this could look great with some pretty wood legs and fun buttons in the tufting.

I think I'm going to order samples of both (and well maybe a few more I think are great as well) since their fabric samples are only $1!

Make sure to pop over to Aubrey & Lindsay's blog to check out all of their awesome ideas, here are a few of my favorites:

1. I LOVE these headers above the door and may have to incorporate that above our 3 doors leading to the great outdoors: New Backdoor Trim

2. I have a new organization system to keep Tim & I on the same page and putting it on a bulletin board rather than the fridge would be a much better home for it. Here is an idea for a prettified bulletin board: Bulletin Board Project

3. Privacy is an issue (as I'm sure you could infer from Who Do They Think They Are?) so adding some of these screens to the side of our porch could be a great way to keep everything pretty but remove the feeling of being on display: DIY - Privacy Screens, How to by Aubrey

4. I've been sketching out ideas for our built-ins and have every intention (as of right now) to build them myself (well with my dad's help) but the company Aubrey & Lindsay found to build theirs looks as though it could have some great inspiration for me. And if you aren't as lucky to have a dad who you can con into building things for you (albeit you have to wait 5 years for him to get to you) then they look like a great company to build your pieces for you!: Adding Bookcases

Also, Tonic Living is providing a discount by following the directions below, check them out!
 
Get 10% off your order enter AUBREYANDLINDSAY when checking out. Also....get FREE SHIPPING for all orders over $50.00 (CAD) before taxes if your postal code starts with an "L", "M", or "N"!

Thanks again to Aubrey & Lindsay for this great give-away! Thanks to you I've added Toronto to my "places I need to visit" list. :)

Quick Shoutout to Pops

Here's a pretty little bad-a cabinet my dad made for my mom's kitchen. Keep in mind that this is his first furniture building experiment and my mom has been quite the saint for the three months (possibly more) it has taken him to build this. In my humble opinion its pretty amazing and I'm glad he has the practice in so he will be good to go by the time he gets to our built-ins! Now he just has to reface every other kitchen cabinet and build new doors & drawers for all. Best of luck to my mom's sanity!

The Depths Below

We're lucky enough to have a walk-in crawlspace underneath our house. Its been awesome for storing lawn equipment, random piece of construction stuff such as extra siding and for housing our water heater. One of these days we will install a little sink and some storage shelving for gardening tools & the like but for now it does its duty well.

Deck the Halls!

Last year we moved into the house right before Thanksgiving so we skipped the Christmas decor. Tim was not happy with me about it.

This year I plan to do the basics, stockings and tree. We can bump it up each year after. I like crafty looking ornaments so I've been on the lookout for those kinds of things lately and here is what I've found.

Pottery Barn Selections:

I can't remember where I found these (maybe etsy) but I like them:

A little button garland to go along with the quilted tree skirt (except in green) we already have:

Although I really love this one a little more:

We've got this wreath and hopefully it can make it through another year with us and we can get a mat to match:

Now we just need to collect more than just the farm animals for this set, find stockings and holders and a tree-topper.

One last and very important thing, we have to get our annual Willow Tree ornament. We started getting these the year we started dating (2007) and have collected them each year since. Its fun to have a reminder of each Christmas we've spent together.