by. the. way.

A wise friend once told me to be careful choosing a partner in life. Make sure that person is moving through life with the same purposeful speed and motion that you are so that when you cross that finish line, you do it together. It makes sense more now than ever before. You cannot drag others behind you, hoping they will catch up if that means they are slowing your progress and potentially making you turn around to see where they are. I have had a difficult time trying to make sense out of relationships that have ended over the past year or so. At times I question if those people thought they were spending too much energy on me, pulling me from the front to ensure my clearance of the finish line and decided enough was enough. Or, perhaps, it was simply time for us to go our separate ways and it was mutual. I do not know. Regardless of how hard I try, there is a significant hole left that still feels like a raw wound. I would like to know when that will heal. I ha...

well! slacker blogger that i am decided today would be a good "catch-up" post day. since the last blog post i successfully grouted tile (and it looks amazing, might i add) and my parents helped me lay about 1,000lbs (ok slight exaggeration) of mulch along the front/west side of my house.  so! on to the bathroom -- my bathroom is an amazing original demonstration of 1950s tile. oh, and not just any tile ::: light green and big bird yellow tile. the major redeeming quality is that the grout is impeccable and the tile is all in one piece, no broken/cracked pieces. however, the sink, toilet and tub are all original and other than the tub they are in terrible condition. rusty corroded plumbing and disgusting yellow fixtures. voila! the project that followed my grouting success! below are before and afters. i decided it was most financially wise to remove the toilet and install a water-saving toilet and then get a new sink in there with some storage because the bathroom had...

my new dahlias i'm in love with my projects. love. well, perhaps it is more like infatuation. i suppose that i've replaced a personal life with a house project life :) i decided today at work that the only need for a man in my life is perhaps a lawn guy to cut the grass that is finally growing! i'm supposed to be grouting right now but after a not fantastic start to my work week i'm nursing a headache and watching bull durham (love). i recognize that i should not become to attached to my patients, but when you see some of the same ones 4-5 times within a 9 month span it is difficult to not become attached.                    luscious pink mandevilla i have these amazing 1950s slat windows in the bathrooms of my place and lately have noticed little creepy, crawly things like to enter through them. unacceptable. replacing those windows just jumped to the head of the "to-do" line. window world here i come :) of note, parents comin...

laundry project is going well. last week i prepped the floor with primer in preparation for the self-leveling concrete. other than some annoying lumps of concrete that would not mix into the proper consistency it was pretty easy to do. i did end up with one area that wasn't entirely smooth with regard to the transition, but my dad said it is absolutely good enough to tile on. sweet. photos below of self-leveling work....  not a fantastic picture quality, but you get the idea. self leveling compound while it dried marked middle of room with chalk lines starting to lay out tile pattern. decided to stagger them... excited!  first three rows after thinset applied me! excited to tile... learning how to use the trowel all tiled and ready for grout in a few days my dad did all of the tile cuts with the wet saw and i was in charge of the thinset process and spacer placement. we were quite the team.   ----------------------- meanwhile, my mom ...

house. house. house. i bought my first house. a house with a yard (errr, area of dirt, sand, and sandspurs lol) and project opportunities galore. love it. parents visited and we uncovered what appears to be the ormond beach version of the garden of eden -- i say this due to the plethora of beetles, roaches, snakes, flies, and other creatures inhabiting the six inches of leaves in the yard (front and back). i'm hopeful the yard can grow some grass to fill in the gaps, as it has produced some although sparse. after raking, the second project was tackling some gnarly, vine-choked former shrubs that occupied the entire south portion of my property. (see below the "before" photo)  a little clearing done in this second one, but still frightening....  serious clearing performed! leaving the cute palms that were hidden underneath the vines  two of these piles... one on the east and one on the west part of my yard... 40 bags total we did some serious w...

apparently when you say to the home improvement paint girl, "hey i need this color in acrylic" that really means "please make this in latex so that you RUIN my whole project". please and thank you. and that is exactly what happened. homegirl mixed my "heart's desire" in latex so my first two layers that were supposed to be acrylic and then followed by a single layer of latex were actually latex, ruining the primer aspect. efffff. needless to say, my project is absolutely ruined beyond repair. fail. i should have known better than just trusting pumpkin mixed it correctly. i should have checked it before i left the store and started painting. oops. so now it appears i'm going to be attempting an upholstery project. pray for me.

ok... so when the chick from the blog i got my inspiration from said that the first coat was scary she was not lying. the current shade of pink my chair has become is HORRIFYING. sometime during the application of paint to cushion number one i realized how terrifying the color was and was thrown into an uncontrollable fit of giggling which then led to crying. the chair is so ugly it is fugly. no bueno, people. the pink is a shade of pink i could not have even attempted to imagine. as it dries i believe the pink is becoming more magenta (which is, in fact, the shade i am trying to achieve in the longrun). they say this first coat is simply the primer coat and the next layer will be the beginning of the color taking shape. let's hope so. if there are furniture gods, i am praying to them tonight because this has me more than a little concerned that my final result will be 1. unpublishable and 2. an expensive trip to an upholsterer. i'm posting a pic so that if someone else wants t...

i would like to start off by saying if last night serves as any sort of foreshadowing regarding how the rest of this project will go, i'm scared. yesterday after wet-vacuuming the first chair i began vacuuming the second chair after i opened my front door and balcony door leaving the screens open for ventilation and a salty ocean breeze. at one point i ended up soaking myself, because apparently i am not skilled in using the wetvac, and when i turned off the vacuum i heard this alarming knocking noise against the glass balcony doors. as i turned to assess what was making this noise i caught out of the corner of my eye a buzzing, black, t-rex sized insect chaotically flying around the lamp in my living room. i quickly decided to find the closest item i could use to "shoo" him back outside when i noticed the deafening hum of buzzing coming from my balcony. to my disbelief, there were 30-40 equally monstrous dragonflies trying to ram my screen door open and attack. at this p...

i like projects. anyone who is even mildy acquainted with me knows that without a project i am a bit of a wandering soul. true story. lately it has been a compilation of smaller projects (id badges for my office girls, paper flower bouquet for a friend in the hospital, fancy cakes, valentines gifts, cornhole game boards, etc). with that being said... i have been scouring the internet and pinterest for my next project when it became clear what my project should be: grandma's furniture. now you may laugh and say, don't be insulting and call it grandma furniture. however, it really was my grandma's furniture until she had her house redecorated and they were passed down to my parents who then bought their own furniture and these beauties were bequeathed to me and my brother. needless to say their travels are extensive: chicago to jacksonville to ft myers to orlando to ormond beach. i have been itching to reupholster them, but have realized that perhaps reupholstering them right...

1. Dog - sometimes pees on the carpet while he is being house trained.     BF - will still occasionally pee on the toilet seat even though he's potty trained. 2. Dog - appreciates every meal and treat you give him.     BF - often starts to expect dinner to be made. 3. Dog - always happy to see you when you come home.      BF - may or may not even be there when you get home and potentially will not look away from the tv/PS3 when you walk in the door. 4. Dog - consoles you when you are sad, mad, etc.     BF - too often is the cause of your sadness, anger, etc.  ....to be continued.