new designs from lauraGdesigns

Every time a new design comes into being I think "Oohhh...this is my favorite", and this one is no exception!  My niece and nephew wanted a gift for a family wedding....something to signify the big day for the bride.  We threw around a few ideas, and this is the one we both fell in love with.

This is a full 1 inch disk hand stamped with the bride's new name, and the date of the marriage.  They asked for it to be accented in two crystals: one for the colors of the ceremony, and one the stone for the month.  Two pearls is also an option. 

Wedding season will be here soon!  Let me know if there is a new "Mrs" in your life that needs a gift!

PS: I have a store now in progress on my Facebook page: wander, shop and checkout right on the page!  Here is the link: Facebook Page or check out the store on Storenvy here.  Not all designs are up yet, but I'm working on it!

Loft Bed: Day 2

I have pictures somewhere, but I'm too tired to go look for the camera. 
Day two: All EIGHT support posts are cut and bolted!  I even started to put one end together.  Next: the big room cleanout of 2013 begins before we can start putting the parts together in the room.  Hmmm....not sure how exactly that is going to affect my timeline!

Sanding is also taking a lot of time.  The 2x4's were of better quality that wall studs, but there is still a lot of sanding to be done.  And I hate sanding....it's one of those projects that seem never ending.  So that will add quite a bit of time to the whole project.  Otherwise, it's proceeding at a pretty good pace! 

Pictures? Tomorrow. Maybe.

Loft bed build: Day 1

Yep, these are the plans for the loft bed.

To the left is the design for each vertical support rail. 
Each rail is two 2X4's attached with 3.5" carriage bolts.  A 2x4 will rest on top of that, running horizontally, that will be the base support for the bed rails.  Each of those is shown in the two pictures in gray/slashed areas. 

Today, I was able to make four of the eight supports! Woot!
It might not sound like a lot, but after planning this for months, I'm psyched!

rail #1!
 

carriage bolts at top of rail #1

 

Day one tips: 
First, remember that 2x4's do not measure 2" by 4" at finish: they measure that before they are planed, and end up more like 1.5 by 3.5 or so.  So to get carriage bolts through 2 2" boards, you would think I would need a 4.5" bolt, right? But no, together they only measure 3 inches, so I bought 3.5" bolts.  As you can see, they worked perfectly.  Since this part of the bed will be inside, where kids will be playing, I will probably cut these off with my Dremel and make sure there are no sharp edges left.

Second, keep your tools charged. 'Nuff said.

Third, as always, stop when you are tired.

I can't wait to keep at this tomorrow!! 

A Day of ..... Rest?

That was my intention...Sunday is usually a big day of rest around here.  It started out that way.

I slept in.  I took my time and still got to church on time.  Nice lunch (breakfast) out; short little stint under the covers with the kitty.  And then ... it was over.

DH (dear husband) wants his hair cut.  Laundry is sitting in both the washer and dryer.  Dishes need to be put away...

...and then....

Ds (dear son) and DH decide they will, in fact, help me load some lumber for our (my) next project.  The loft bed we bought for Car 5-6 years ago has gotten more and more wobbly: not a good thing when your son is sleeping 4 feet above the ground.  And some old re-runs of Drake and Josh have him drooling over a much larger loft bed, one that is more like a tree house in the house.

So the lumber is bought.  The carriage bolts, washers, nuts and clamps are purchased.  They are all sitting here, as is the laundry and dishes and a floor that needs to be vacuumed.  Not to mention the head of hair that is yet uncut.

I hope you had a restful day.  Tomorrow begins the loft build day of fun.  I'll keep you posted!

I really am a different kind of mom.

It's 3am somewhere

People ask why my computer always has a date of 3am when they get emails from me.  Well.....I guess because it's 3am?  Yep, I've been in the 3am wakeup and have lots of energy schedule for a while now, and I'm trying to figure out how to take advantage of it.  So here I am.  Facebook:check. Weather report:check.  I can't really do anything of substance because I don't think the men of the house would like to be awaked by hammering or other power tools in the middle of the night.

We are preparing for the big birthday bash tomorrow for my dear husband.  Carter is SO excited and can barely contain himself.  We went birthday shopping today, and had to pick out a theme for the party: he settled on Sponge Bob.  In the checkout line the lady behind us asked what age the child was we were buying the Sponge Bob items for; I smiled and said "the little guy will be 48 tomorrow!"  She didn't answer.  I guess we're a little different around here!

It's also the 2nd birthday of our baby puppy Nichole.  It's going to be a good day!

I've been working on such odds and ends of projects, but hope to have something to share soon.  I have a c.u.t.e Valentines project to finish, a wreath that is drying that is on its way to my mom tomorrow, and a list of other projects big and small also under way.

Biggest project? I sketched the design for the boy's loft bed and made an estimate of lumber and costs on Wednesday.  I ran the design by a good (handy) friend who signed off on the safety and logisitics of the design, and we are OK'd for building.  I can't wait!

What a difference a year makes

Yes, a year. It took me a year to get this project done.  Sometimes projects are fun and they just roll on and are finished.  Sometimes not, and this was one of those times. As I was finishing the basement floor last year, I just knew the carpet on the steps had to go.  It was dirty, ugly, cheap and uncleanable.  Ripping it off was not a terribly easy task, but once I saw the first of it off, I ripped away.  Underneath was wood that was in decent shape, and the nose was rounded off nicely.  I knew it would be so much better painted. 

And it is.  It just took me a while to get there. 

It's not that the project in itself was hard, I just ran into issues along the way and got sick of it quickly. 

The first color I picked wasn't great, and when both the husband and the kid agree that it looks like throw up, you know it's not the one.  I finally got back to Sherwin Williams and picked out a nicer brown color: I used porch and floor paint per their suggestion, and am very happy with it. 

I'm not a neat painter though.  Trying to make nice lines between the white and the brown was a test of my patience.  Too much white on the brown; too much brown on the white; a painters tape fail (and no, I won't mention "blue or green", because I think it was user error!)

It is just OK.  If I was doing this for my main stairs in my house, it would have to be fixed.  But the reality is these steps are not well lit (hence no great pictures), and mostly small kids will be running up and down, and I'm sure they will not notice the issues.  I will, but I'm happy to move on to other things than deal with my perfectionist issues on this one.   The awesome result is that it's clean, spruced up, easily swept off and kept nice. 

So, for this one, stick a fork in me, they are done.

List-o-lution week: Here we GO!

List-o-lution week one: Let's get right down to business:

1) Get moving and get in better shape.  I am ON.IT.  I have an appointment at the local gym for a 60 day test run for a great price, and I meet to sign up tomorrow.  ON. IT.

2) Eat Better/Plan Meals: I am NOT on it.  Yet.  But I will have a plan for the next two nights before I leave and post this page.  (I now realize I have a beef roast, potatoes and carrots in the refrigerator ready to go....I'm set.)

3-4-5) House List: In a perfect world, I would like each day to have three things to accomplish inside the house: One item of cleaning, one item of organization, and one item of a new project. 
Tomorrow's cleaning item is: laundry.
Tomorrow's Organization item is the Christmas Tree.
Tomorrow's making/improving item is the steps to the basement that I've been working on since last January.  I know...it's embarrassing to me too. I started with dirty ugly carpet, and hauled that to the dump.  Then I started painting the steps (wrong color), and it took me a long time to figure out the right color....some brown porch paint from Sherwin Williams that was great.  I was sloppy with it, and got way too much on the white primer on the risers.  So last week I finally taped off each step and primed, but I had a two-part tape fail: It didn't keep the white from running onto the brown, and, AND it took off part of the brown paint on the steps.  No, a happy camper I am not.

So I'm hoping tomorrow's list will say "Done with Steps", clean laundry,  tree is away (check!), and settled down at 6pm for a nice pot roast dinner with the family.

We'll see how that works out.

I know each day will not be this neat and crisp because life has a way of sneaking in.  For instance, this week I will be out of town one day to assist my mom in your radiation treatment; this will be my usually Friday day plan for the next six weeks to get her through this.
And of course the kids have been in school for one WHOLE week, so they have two days off coming up this Friday and Monday.  We play those days: no work.  Just playtime.

And somewhere in here I have to fill a few jewelry orders: Here is my current wish in the midst of our 65 degree January day:

 ....or, if that is not possible, I'll just be here: 

Here's to organization and lists for the next year so we can all THRIVE, not just survive!   And if that doesn't work, I'll see you at the beach!

New Year's List-o-lutions!

I agree with www.thriftydecorchick.com: I don't believe in resolutions on January 1, but I do take the time to make new lists!  I love lists: Lists for work, lists for to-do's, lists for the day.....lists really work for me!

So my lists this year?  Here goes:

TDC asked on Facebook if we had any "major" house plans this year.  I wouldn't call it major, as one person, I can't add a two story addition to my house or anything, but one room that still needs to come into the 21st century is our hall bath upstairs.  Builders grade huge mirror, ugly cheapest lights you can buy, stock oak cabinets: it all needs an update.  Add to that the cute little boy fishy theme for an almost ten year old, and it needs a new look.  I would say that is my biggest project at this point.  I want to explore the scary world of open cabinets in there: doors be gone!

Every other room in the house also has to-do's and I can't wait to make a new list for the new year.  I'll share it when I do!

Otherwise:  Big needs life-wise are as follows:

1. Exercise. I know, pretty resolution-ary, huh?  But seriously, having just received my annual health report (cholesterol up...again; weight up....again!), I seriously have to attack this.  AND....I have an appointment at the gym as a doctor's prescribed health referral on Monday!  Check!
2. Eat better: see #1 above.  
3. Plan meals: See #2 above.  I have some thoughts on this I'll share in another post.  
4. Spend quality time with my family, which may impinge on the time I'm on the computer.  Whatever will be, will be.

In the meantime, I'm still doing part-time accounting work, looking at a new client, still trying to work on my jewelry business (lauragdesigns.com), and then the mundane every day things like laundry and stuff, getting 4 rooms organized enough so I can get the carpets cleaned, and organize a list for the plumber to come and attack (our water heater is way past its life expectancy, and the handle to one of our sinks fell off in my hand last week. It's time). 

On top of that. I will be travelling to Richmond once a week for the next six weeks to keep my mom company while she undergoes radiation treatment for breast cancer. 

So, what's on your list? Resolutions, or just to do items?

It IS a new year! Welcome to 2013!

Today was the first day back at school, and my first non-playday with my favorite boy, so it's been quiet in blog-land. I do look forward to getting back here.

I pondered whether I would resume blogging or not: to blog or not to blog, that was my question. 

So, why not? 
I want blogging to fit in my schedule, not my schedule around blogging.  If one day this would become my job, that would be awesome, but right now it's not.  I spent way too much time on a few posts stressing over getting the "just-right" picture and not enough time on the projects.  There are so many things I "should" be doing, and I don't want writing this blog to take up time from what I need to do.

So, why am I back??
Well, the bottom line is I enjoy writing!  Go figure!  My (late) college professor Dr. Kirkendall would be shocked, I know.  My first class in college was English, and he failed me on my first paper.  I take that back: His exact words were "those without any grades didn't even deserve an F".  Huh.  I was a straight A student in high school, and had no clue what I had done wrong.  I do have to say that by the time he finished with me, I did know how to write a paper. 

But in the ten  um....twenty , ok, a long time since then, writing has never been an interest of mine. 

Until I started blogging.  At first it was to keep up with family that wasn't in town to see Carter's first years on a regular basis.  That was in 2004, and was mostly pictures and a "Hi Grandma!" tag line or two.  Slowly it evolved into stories, and I enjoyed that more than I could imagine.

I started "house bloggin" a little over a year ago.  I had my name picked for ages, but didn't take the plunge.  One year the anniversary post from John and Sherry over at www.younghouselove.com just gave me the extra push I needed to jump in the pond.  They jumped in when they were just doing what they loved, the rest is history, but I think this part of the story is the most important.  Take that step in doing what you love and enjoy; whatever comes with it is what it is.

What I love:
This has been a great way to keep me progressing around the house and getting projects done.  When I first started thinking about what I was going to post about first, I was embarrassed to say it was a project I was posting about a year ago, and hadn't finished.  And it's something we use every.single.day.  Yep. Embarrassing.  So what better way to get over that than to get it done!  Then I'll post about my beautiful new xxxxxxx    when it's all done!  But getting it done for the blog is the push.  I like that.

Second, Writing is a great way to work through thoughts and connect with other people.  I want to do more of that this year.  I wrote one past last year, deleted it, reposted it later.  I think it was my best post.  And their were no photos, big "reveals" or lovely vignettes created in my house.  It was sharing my heart in issues of infertility and loss in a way that I think honors the memories of my babies and the pain of the journey my family has travelled.  I know there are you out there that have or are still travelling that road: I want to facilitate a place where those issues, pains, losses and griefs and be heard.  The first step is for me to share my journey: I plan to do that.

I also plan to include my daily family mishaps and fun and laughs in the midst of this: the title is "A Mom with Nails" but it really should be "A Mom first, with hammer and nails at the ready" but alas, that doesn't fit on the header.

Throw in a major health crisis of a close family member that lives out of town, and ladies and gentlemen, we have a blog.

What to call it? Where will it fit?  I have no idea where this will fit in the blogging circles of "types of blog".

But it is me.  This is my blog, my life, my struggles, my child, my family.

Come along for the ride into 2013!