Let there be light!

And Steve said, "Let there be light!" ... in the dining room!!!

When we moved into the house a little more than a year ago, there was no light in the living room. That's pretty average for most homes. But there was also no light in the dining area that is just off the living room. There was a ceiling fan, but no light. What? Am I supposed to eat dinner in the dark?? It always irked me -- even though it's really not that big of a deal.

When we painted the living area, we went out and picked up a light to attach to the ceiling fan from Lowe's. We fiiinally got around to attaching it. We Steve were a little unsure about it because we are not very handy in our household. We try really hard. And it turns out good probably about 60% of the time. So we were nervous about our first encounter with electrical DIYing.

But here is my handsome handyman:

And it worked!!! Steve was very excited that it worked and was so uneventful. (Read: we didn't burn the house down.)

Here is a close-up:

What? You noticed that the two brass finishes don't match? Actually you can't tell that much in this picture. But the brass on the fan part and brass on the light part are different. We knew we wouldn't get an exact match. So we were glad we had painted the fan blades. Now it's just a quirky little fan that we can replace whenever we have a little extra cash. (Read: Whenever we have a little extra cash -- in many, many years.)

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have light somewhere in our living area! Now I can actually read my music when I play piano. (Major plus!) I love the light, no matter how funky our fan looks.

The hang up

I'm getting closer to getting my living room to be more like a home than a sterile room that we sit in.

I debated quite a bit what I wanted to do on this wall in my living room. Originally I wanted to paint this entire wall (that goes from living area into the dining area) an accent color or something bold. After finally figuring the color for the entire living area (which took many hours days) I was sooo tired of deciding on paint colors. So I just decided I would paint it like the rest of the room and do it a different color some other time if I really wanted to. 

Then I decided I could just paint right above the fireplace -- to make it look like a chimney and make it have something bold on that wall. I even got some paint for it. Then I painted the mantel brown and loved it so much that I didn't want to mess it up with anything else. Oh well. I'll have some pretty paint for something else. Perhaps for that end table I got from my mom-in-law....

Here is a before the of gross tan mantel: (with suuuper awesome lighting)

Here is the after of the brown color: (luurrve it sooo much!)

The day after painting the mantel brown, I had gotten a couple glass vases from DI for flowers. I decided to make the mantel area about family/faith. So I got some old pictures of family to use (I still have a couple more to add.)

I used frog tape to measure my pictures and put it on the wall to get a sense of what I wanted. I was going to try and go for the asymmetrical/perfectly imperfect gallery type of look. I just centered the biggest picture and randomly arranged the rest around it. It stayed like this for a month:

I told Steve I didn't want to start anymore new projects until I had at least hung up the pictures above the mantel. (We still have all the pictures in the hallway and at the top of the entry/stairs.) But at least this part makes me feel more homey. Here is the possibly-temporary look:

I've already changed it in the last 24 hours since putting it up. And I know that I'll change all the things actually sitting on the mantel many times before I'm totally satisfied. I'm not 100% on board with this asymmetrical look, but right now, I'm loving it. It's taking all my courage to leave it this way. But when I come up the stairs and see it, I smile. So I think it's good for now.

I love the antiques and old pictures I got for this. Especially love this picture of my grandpa and my uncle. We are a John Deere family. Also loved finding those books to help me add some height and horizontal interest on the mantel.

And I super duper love this antique hummel of my grandma's that my mom brought out for me to keep. So sweet looking!

So we'll see how long this whole asymmetrical thing lasts. Right now, I'm digging it even though it makes me a little uncomfortable. But maybe that is a good thing!

The time that I ...

This is the story about the time that I threw my sister-in-law's keys into the dumpster.

It was early Fall of 2012. My sister-in-law (Kristin) was on bedrest, being pregnant with her 3rd child. I tried to work my schedule so I could help out with her other two kids at least once a week. So I went to her house and decided I'd be nice and take out her trash for her before we went anywhere. Or maybe it was when we got back from where I took the kids. I can't remember. But it is important to remember that these were not my keys -- they were Kristin's.

So I have the keys hooked onto my finger so I won't drop them. I pulled the garbage bag out of the garbage can and started tying up the top. As I made a knot, the keys fell off my fingers and straight to the bottom of the garbage bag. Really??

Now - you may be asking, "Lynnette, why didn't you just put the keys in your pocket while you did this?" Well, yes, that seems logical. But I remember being in a hurry. And I have a slight paranoia that I am going to lose keys. Since these were not my keys, I wanted to keep them in my hand so I wouldn't lose them or lock them in the car. (I was using Kristin's car since it had the two carseats in it).

Back to the keys in the bottom of the garbage bag. They had hit something slimy on the way down, and I was super grossed out. Not having kids yet, I am not used to touching slimy things and being okay with it. But, being in a hurry, I mustered up my courage. I rolled up my sleeve and reached in the bag, using all my maneuvering capabilities to not touch other garbage in the bag. My arm came out of the bag untouched, but my hand had grossness on it. I quickly washed my hands and used a rag to wash the keys. I also put a teensy bit of soap on the rag so I could feel like I was washing the actual germs off the keys.

Okay! Back on track!! I tie up the bag and take it out to the mostly-full dumpster. I hooked those trusty keys on my fingers again, thinking they wouldn't fall off. (You would think I would've learned by now, right?) I toss the bag up and over the ledge, and in falls the trash bag and IN fly the keys! REALLY?? This was not happening. This is one of those movie moments that I think never happen in real life. And it just happened. I simply stood there on tip-toe, trying to peer in the dumpster, praying they had just landed right on top of something and I could simply reach over and pull them out.

Not the case.

I could not see them anywhere. Luckily, I'm part-ninja. I climbed up the side of the dumpster and looked in. I could see the keys!!! They were sitting right on top of a piece of cardboard, that was teetering on top of two skeewompy-placed trash bags. Also, they were right in the middle of the dumpster. They couldn't be near a side - no. Smack in the middle - teetering - ever so near to falling to the abyss at the bottom of the dumpster.

This is when the true panic set in. There was no way I was going to be able to get the keys on my own.

Many options went flew through my head:
1. Stand on the side of the dumpster and dangle my niece/nephew by the leg so they can grab the keys. (Yes, this was the first thing I thought of.)
2. Just ask for the second pair of keys -- I wasn't sure if there was a second set.
3. Find a rope and use it as leverage so I can just kind of lower myself in to get the keys - but how would I get back out?
4. Just jump in and hope for the best.
5. Call Steven (the hubby) and see if he can help me ...

Well, I went with option 5. It's obviously the most rational option. But I remember he was doing something so I wasn't sure if he would be available. Luckily he was. And I know that he probably laughed at me the entire way over to help of the ridiculous-ness of the situation. (Please keep in mind that my 4 year old niece heard me telling Steve over the phone what happened, and she immediately ran upstairs to tell her mom. There was no chance of keeping the embarrassment to myself...Thank goodness Kristin has a sense of humor!)

Well, after looking at the keys and dumpster together, we came up with a way to step on certain trash bags/piles so that we wouldn't make the keys totter off their little ledge. It took some serious Indiana Jones skills - I felt like I was in the cave with him finding the holy grail, making sure I step on the right letters...trash.We eventually got them out and all goodness was restored to life!

I'm so thankful for my husband that will make fun of my silliness for a second, but then help me get out of what I got myself into. He's a real catch!!!

I'm hoping to make this "The time that I..." a regular thing. I just realized there are way too many ridiculous situations that need to be recorded. And maybe my friends/family will join in. I think it will be fun to look back and laugh!

I ain't lion about these crocheted cuties

Are you kidding me with how stinkin' cute this guy is? No, I ain't lion. :) I feel so clever that I thought of that right when I finished this. 

Sorry for the bad quality pictures - these are all from my phone because I have temporarily misplaced my real camera in all the Trek unpacking mess. Whoops.

We have appropriately named our new friend Aslan.

Got this awesome, free pattern from Amigurumi To Go, in the Little Bigfoot patterns.

It was designed by Sharon Ojala and Melissa Trenado.

Here is a darker version (not racist ;)) of the elephant. This was for my friend who will be visiting a niece soon. I added that cute little bow to make it look a little girlie-er. I call her Ellie.

Once again, I got this free pattern from redheart.com.

Now, here is the story of this next yarn. My cousins recently had a baby girl. They are fans of the Chicago Bears. So when I saw this Bears-colored yarn, I had to get it to try and make something for their new little one. I thought a hat would be really cute for game nights and stuff. So I tried to make this one baby hat that I have made many times before. But with each round, it wasn't looking like a hat ... just a big flat circle. I don't know what is up with that yarn, but it didn't stretch right and it wasn't shaping right.
So I thought maybe a blanket would be cute. Oh wait, I already made a blanket for them. Then I thought about a scarf - but I wanted it to be for the baby. I don't think I've ever seen an infant wearing a scarf.

So that yarn sat in my stash for a long time - hoping I would suddenly see something online or in a store that I could use that yarn for. Well that day finally came! I was looking through one of my favorite crocheting blogs (allaboutami.tumblr.com) and found a cute little bib. She had seen the free bib pattern from another blog (knitlessknitter.blogspot.com). I followed that pattern and it turned out quite lovely. And the two-colored yarn kind of made its own stripes - which was faaaantastic!!!

So here is my Bears-colored bib. Super cute. I just need to add my button and I can send it away to my cousins' new baby girl.

Seen originally on allaboutami.tumblr.com

Free pattern on knitlessknitter.blogspot.com

I love crocheting. It's relaxing, but I can see quick results. Perfect for my down-time, but my need to have a quick project with good end results. Shaweeeeet!!!

Trekkies - picture overload

And I'm not talking about Star Trek. I'm talking about our amazing family that we got to have the Trek experience with. We called ourselves the Trekkies and our motto was Trek Long and Prosper.

For now, I am going to just give you a picture overload. I will do a separate post about my experience. It was something I will never forget.

Here are the kids just getting started pulling our cart. (You can tell it just started because they still have such big smiles.)

The first night we had a dance. Here are some pictures of a few kids from our ward, and Steve doing some dancing.

We had been sunscreening all day long, and at the end of the day I thought I had still gotten a burn. But then I was washing my arms and legs with baby wipes, and realized I just had a really sweet dust tan.

One of our kids found a cool caterpillar. And it had the design of a penguin on it. Funky!

Sweet sunset from our camp.

Here is the start of our third day. They were sincerely the best ever.

 We had guides on horses the whole time we trekked.

This area was almost like a preserve - they just let nature take its course here as much as possible. So there were bones/carcasses along parts of our trail.

Walking and walking and walking some more.

Ooooh mornings. We will never be friends. (Believe it or not, I was smiling in this picture.)

We look pretty good for the third day.

Look at those girlies kicking butt pulling that cart!

There was a lot of going up and down hills. It got a little crazy at times, but we did it. It really made you appreciate the experiences the pioneers had.

And we're done. (That's the only reason I'm smiling.) Just waiting for the closing devotional and then to go home.

We hiked three separate days. After the 2nd day, the soles fell off of my shoes. These were the only tennis shoes I brought, so I had to be resourceful for the 3rd day of hiking. (Also, like my leg dust tan?)

All our handcarts lined up. Can you tell how tired we all were??

Driving home. A few of the boys from our ward zonked after about 15 minutes of driving. I won't lie, so did I.

The ceiling fan

There is a fan over our dining area, and here is what the fan blades looked like:

The person that lived here previously was apparently a smoker. Seeing that shadow of the white that the blades used to be really grossed me out. So I cleaned the blades as best as I could and suddenly decided I was going to paint them!! It was totally spur of the moment at the end of the day when we were done with painting for the day.

So after cleaning them off (and being totally grossed out with the orange/brown crud that came off) I taped each blade a different pattern.

I didn't measure anything. Mom was freaking out about how not the same the lines were. So we agreed that I would make each blade a little different. I didn't care because I just wanted it to be a cool new quirky thing in my house.

I painted them the wall color (twice, to cover the gold flourish stuff). Then taped, them spray painted them black. But it was not looking so awesome, but my mom was thinking quick! She got a brush and brushed the spray paint so it was all evenly black. And it wasn't really for wood, so I was afraid it wouldn't dry. But it's just fan blades, right? So I wasn't too upset if I had to buy some more.

BUT - they turned out pretty shaweet!!

And they make a really cool psychadelic [sp?] pattern when I turn it on. LOVE IT.
Next goal: put lights on our fan so we not eat in the dark.

Painting the day away

So my mom came to visit from Indiana, and I obviously put her to work while she was here! She so lovingly agreed to help me paint my living room/dining area/hallway/entryway. And the reason I have to ask her to help me whenever she is here is because my dear hubby does not enjoy painting AT ALL.

So here are all the paint colors I was trying out. I ended up using the one that is like, right in the middle of all the colors. I won't tell you the entire story of how I chose the colors. I wanted a gray color. But I wasn't opposed to it having a blue tint. But I didn't want it to be TOO blue (like the color second from the left).

This is the biggest area of the house, and it's all connected. So I can't just paint part of it. I was very intimidated to start the project. But I did it - with my wondrous mom's help.

Here are some before pictures:
(I had to paint sample colors all over the walls because the light is so different all over where I was painting. So it looked a little ridiculous for a while, but it helped.)

Look at that form!!

You can see the new white on the ceiling and the old tan color that was painted EVERYWHERE in our house - baseboards, ceilings, bookcases, railings, EVERYTHING!!!

Good thing we had my awesome hubby that was still willing to help us on the parts that mom and I were too scared to do on the ladder. Mom was nervous and hovered over him most of the time he was painting.

I got brave enough to paint the walls in the entry.

I just realized that I don't have a legitimate "after" picture of the painting. So when I get everything back in place, then I'll post that.