Mah Luhvah! A Dryer Sense of Humor

I know I've told you about Luhvah before. Like, when he cleaned the kitchen for me (no, it wasn't just that one time, he probably cleans it more than me!) or when he cleaned himself up and took me to the theatre.

Here is Luhvah:

And the reason I'm writing this post is to tell you how awesome he is (yet again).

Backstory: for the past 6-9 months my dryer has been on the fritz. It had been doing this:

That video isn't mine but you get the idea. It was driving me insane  crazier than I already am. Even with the laundry room door shut it was still loud enough to be annoying.

So, for the past 4 months I had been telling Luhvah that it needed to be fixed. I googled and found what appeared to be the problem (drum rollers worn out) and if we replaced them ourselves it would be cheaper than hiring someone (I'd even found a video on youtube with our exact model and step-by-step instructions on how to replace them.) The cost? $60.00 vs. $200.00. And about an hour's worth of our time. But I kept putting it off for some reason or another (okay, laziness).

Then, I came home one day to find this:



Some of you peeps out there might think that my husband replacing the drum rollers on a dryer is no big deal. But let me explain why it soooo.totally.is:

1) My Luhvah, bless his soul, is not a handyman. He just has no interest in it whatsoever. I'm cheap but he's not and I'd rather DIY while he'd rather hire someone to not bother with it at all. As you can imagine, it causes quite a difference in opinions when it comes to household maintenance. He's just not a DIY-er.

2) My Luhvah ordered the parts, found the video, and installed it all on his own as a surprise to me. He was being thoughtful and planning. And I don't know how your Luhvah's are out there but, while my Luhvah is thoughtful, he's most certainly not a planner. He's a major procrastinator. So for him to have done all this without a peep from me was awesome and wonderful.

3) I had every intention of doing this myself one day with the help of Luhvah or daughter or a friend or the UPS guy who just happened across my neighborhood. Really, I had no nagging thoughts that maybe Luhvah would do it if I complained about it enough. Mostly because--see explaination 1.

So it was a super sweet surprise to come home to find him working on this. And now my dryer sounds like this:

(And that is my finished dryer- no knob and all) This is just another reason why I love Luhvah.

Oklahoma-True Story

I visited my home state this past month for my cousins wedding (very pretty wedding!) but we also went to visit my grandma in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma population under 20,000. She lives out in the country on a little piece of land that used to be called a farm (back in the days when she was younger, my grandpa was alive, and they actually had cows and grew a lot of different fruits and veggies.)

Anyhow. We stopped at a convenience store near her house and I couldn't resist getting a picture of this sign hanging in the window along with many others:

If this doesn't scream Oklahoma country to you I don't know what does (address and phone blurred out to protect the innocent).

As much as I love bacon (the meat, not the pet) I was really rooting for Bacon (the pet, not the meat) not to be found. I sat in the car thinking perhaps Bacon ran away and is living good out in the wild praires of Oklahoma with no fear of being butchered (and perhaps he was just a pet and the owners just missed their little pot belly piggie Bacon with no intention of him being anything more- but not likely in Oklahoma).

I really wanted to call the number and ask if they ever found their lil' piggy.
And now I must go because I really have a hankering for breakfast food.

PANTRY MAKEOVER

Since I've been busy in the kitchen painting my cabinets I figured I would take a much needed break from the tedious painting job to tackle a smaller project--reorganizing my pantry:

While I was taking everything off the shelves I figured it was a good idea to paint and clean the area. I told myself that this would be an easy task only taking approx 2-3 hours-No biggie. (Can you sense the foreshadowing I am setting up for you by saying these simple words: "no biggie", "easy task", "smaller project"? Well, there it is.)

After taking the shelves out of the pantry I cleaned them well (with the help of my daughter!) and we painted a base coat of white paint that I already had.

And boy did those walls need that paint:

ICK.

Then I had the brilliant idea to do a harlequin diamond pattern on the wall. Easy-peasy, right? Wrong.

This is where it gets bad. I attribute this to my personality-high creativity levels, low execution rates.

I was thinking something like this:

I googled  various ways to accomplish this task and came up with the idea to mark with a pencil all the mid points of each diamond (I decided I wanted my diamonds 6x9 inches after drawing various diamond sizes on paper and holding them up to the wall for depth perception). So, I started marking all the points and figured it'd be a breeze to take a ruler and connect them all. Like this:

This didn't work out so well. Whether from my own impatience or lack of attention to detail, not all of the points would line up correctly. PITA. So, I erased and started over (this was what was so disheartening-erasing so many times). I tried this technique probably 2 times before calling it quits for the night.

The next day, I google some more and found a website that said to make squares/rectangles and put a diamond in the very middle. Basically, my technique from before but one additional step would help make everything uniform. To make it easier (by now I was close to giving up) I went out and bought an $8.00 chalk line to make straight lines.

This was more of a PITA because I couldn't make a long vertical line straight enough (with the help of my husband and daughter). Most of the issues here were that we were working in such a small space that 2 people couldn't fit in the pantry in order to hold the line and snap. Bothersome.

After chalking it looked something like this (the blue lines, but all the way down the wall):

I added the red diamonds to show you that I should have had no problem adding in diamonds to individual squares. But they didn't end up lining up correctly (I swore to Luhvah, more than once, that our pantry walls were lopsided). Then I had the epiphany to use an actual diamond cut-out to trace. So I made a template from some poster board I had lying around in the exact size I needed. But I don't think I measured all that accurately and my diamonds kepts getting off center from my squares. What a headache. I ended up making 3 separate templates before I got the size exactly what I needed it to be (6x9, not 5 5/6 x 8 3/4, etc, etc)

I erased diamonds from half the wall probably 2-3 times again. By this time I was almost in tears because I just don't do well with such a required attention to detail and I realized I must be messing something up (I'm too impatient to be precise). I was at the point that I wanted to paint over all the pencil markings and eraser boo-boos with white paint and just forget about a pretty pattern on the wall. But these pics kept floating in my head:

Via



VIA

This project started out Saturday morning and by this time it was late Sunday evening. So, I cried myself to sleep because according to Luhvah I'm dramatic like that and I told myself, "I'll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day!" I also had figured out part of my problem was that I needed my diamonds to be level so I taped a small level to my template:

Monday morning I woke bright and early and was determined to win this battle with the diamond pattern.

Long story so very, very long...I finished. And they were a little off but not much:

It's difficult to see but you can see both the diamonds and the blue chalk marks for the squares (which, in the end, were irrelevant - no help at all).

Enough of my blathering. You wanna see the end product? (of course you do!)

It's a little askew, and I knew it about half way through but this girl just did.not.care. It would've required erasing (AGAIN!) and there was not a chance in hell I was doing it again I opted not to stress about it. So, I have the leaning tower of diamonds in my pantry.

I'm still pleased as punch with it. In the end I didn't need perfection because, 1) I knew I was DIY for the first time and that required some trial/error to find what worked best for me 2) it was a small space so it wouldn't be a big deal 3) It was mostly gonna be hidden by piles of food so no one would notice.

I taped off every other diamond when I was done and I painted them. Then I waited an hour, taped off the remaining diamonds, and painted.

Some of the paint bled through the tape producing lines that weren't so sharp:

That was okay. I just did some light touch-ups with a small paint brush:

And then I ended up with this:

After adding everything back in and sorting my goods into baskets and such (oh, and since I'm cheap I used what I had around the house-they didn't match-if they had it might have made for a prettier picture. But I was going from cheap peeps. You know me!)

It was a tedious job and I almost gave up more than once but I am pleased with how it turned out. And maybe if I'm ever feeling extra frivolous I will go to the Dollar Tree and buy about 10 baskets that all match. But for now I just feel like my pantry is more organized and I have tons more space. Plus, the pretty wall doesn't hurt to look at either.

Total cost for this makeover- $8.00 for the chalk line I purchased. (which didn't even help! HA!) But that's an ok investment because I will be painting stripes in my bathroom in the future so I would have had to purchase it anyway.

P.S. All the cruddy pictures are from my iphone. That's why they're so fuzzy.

Kitchen project-A HOFF project

So, I've been working on my kitchen cabinets. As I've already stated in this post and this post, I hate honey oak colored anything. I call anything changed from this atrocious look part of the HOFF series (Honey Oak Furniture Flip). My kitchen cabinets were no exception. Here's a before:

I know, it's a mess but it was the only pic I could find to show you a before. I always forget before pics until I'm halfway through a project.

And here's a sneak peak of after:



There's still so much to be done but I absolutely love love love the look of them.

I still have to finish up a few of the doors as well as add hardware. I will show a finished product soon. I promise!



I've been a little busy...

Okay, so, I promise I didn't have a total mental breakdown. I am alive and well and of sound mind (sort of).  I realize the last post I wrote was a bit of a downer but since I only have like, 5 people, who follow my blog (6 if you count that annoying voyeur at work who reads just to make fun of me--you know who you are, FBP!) I figured it wouldn't be a big deal.
Anyhow...

So, why have I been so busy I couldn't blog? Well, I've been immersed in plenty of busy important things that people of my stature must attend to to make the world go 'round. Mainly:

Vacation.
Yup, since it's summer I've been busy with lots of vacationing. In between that time I have managed to decorate and craft but I just haven't blogged about it. Another reason may be because my camera finally died (RIP). I have yet to get a new one and all the above pics were taken with my iphone. (yes, even the firework pic).
Anyhow.

I will try and pick up my slack and start blogging again so if you're still here I thank you and promise to try and blog more often (cuz I do have things to blog about!)

What do you want for lunch? I'll have a mental breakdown with a side of gravy please.

Because everything is better with gravy y'all.

Do you ever have one of those out of body experiences where you're looking down at yourself and wonder, "How did it come to this?"

Suddenly I was floating over myself as I laid in bed (because today was just one of those days were I thought to myself, meh, not worth it...you can still go another day without acting like a functioning adult-- totally okay to still be lying in bed at 1:34 in the afternoon.) Which, to be fair, is like 1:34 in the morning to me because of my work schedule so when I think about it it really isn't that bad that I was lying in bed- not having showered, not brushed my teeth or hair, with possibly a food stain on my t-shirt- plenty of people do this. Let's not mention the fact that the vast majority of those people may possibly be homeless with a wide variety of mental illnesses. Scratch that. Homeless people wouldn't even have a bed to lie in so, really, I'm ahead of the game.

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes. I'm staring at myself lying in bed not showered, stained t-shirt, crazy unkept hair yelling at Luhvah about LeRoy Selmon's being the Anti-christ. The restaurant, not the man. I never knew the man- I'm sure he was a lovely person. So, there I am yelling about Selmon's food and apparently it's got a vendetta against my marriage because here it is trying to divorce me and Luhvah. Apparently Sweet Heat Chicken was made in the 7th ring of hell and well, that's pretty fitting because, see, Selmon's is the Anti-christ people so of course it would have a whole hell themed menu.

But I see myself crazily yelling about Sweet Heat Chicken and I wonder how exactly Luhvah and I are arguing about food. And I wonder to myself, "Can this possibly get any worse?"
But it can because I'm also thinking about how awful it is that we're arguing about food choices when so many people don't even have food let alone a choice of food and here it is tearing our marriage apart. First world problems. Oh, how they vex me.

And then, adding insult to injury, I wonder how exactly Luhvah is still married to me in the first place cuz I'm yelling about chicken and his choices and how pizza is that ex that nobody really wants but everyone falls back on when they feel insecure and ugly because the ex is always there hoping you finally finally love them but really it's just a ego boost because you're too emotionally stunted to behave appropriately and tell them the truth of the situation-that you're just feeling crummy and that you need to feel attractive and its easier to backslide with them- they are just your back up plan for down times.
Pizza, the ex-files ego boost. 

As I'm yelling about ego boost Pizza and Anti-christ Chicken I realize that it's amazing if this man can keep up with my nonsensical thought processes and perhaps I should cut him some slack cuz heck, at this point I'm a little concerned myself about where my mental stability lies so I should just shut up but does my pride allow that? Absolutely not. So, finally Luhvah just sighs and walks away leaving me to my convoluted reasoning.

And that's how I ended up spending the day reading a book alone in bed with only a stained t-shirt to keep me company.

Happy Hunger Games!

Confession: I am completely obsessed with The Hunger Games.

Great book (trilogy actually) about a dystopian future where our country is now controlled by a few (called the Capital) who enslave the rest (the districts) and punish them each year by conducting the Hunger Games in which 1 boy and 1 girl from each district is chosen to fight to the death for the Capital's entertainment.

It's a wonderful series narrated by the protagonist, Katniss, a girl of 16. I *heart* Katniss. She's everything I think I am but, like, 50 million times cooler. (Last January my NY resolution was even to learn archery and be a bad ass like Katniss--I still haven't given up that dream yet). I am so in love with these books I even dedicated my pumpkin carving to it back in October if you remember.

I've been a HG fan now for 3 and half years but with the movie just being released it has gained popularity in leaps and bounds. My daughter and I have been on the band wagon awhile but it's amazing how many other people are now coming to us with, "Have you read the HG?" to which we reply, "OMGosh YES!" and go on to gush about how much we love love love 'em.

It's a growing phenomenon. Almost all the women at my work have read them and even a few officers are at least aware of them (one Corporal even mentioned how his wife is obsessed with them). My family calls me up, "Hey, have you read...?"
Ummmm...old news peeps, old news.I'm already obsessed.
But I love when people approach me about it cuz then I can go on and on and on about how awesome they are and they at least get it. This Christmas my father in law even bought my daughter the HG because he had read it and liked it (not knowing she already read them and we owned them). LOL

So, since we've been waiting for the past year ("we" meaning my daughter and I) for the movie to finally arrive we were ready when opening night came this past weekend. A whole group of us were going and since I'm a fanatically crazy person about the HG I decided to do it right by having a mini party before the movie to celebrate.

First, I browsed the trusty internet to find all kinds of HG themed things to do for my little potluck party. I made invitations for those coming over:

For the main course I made pulled pork BBQ sandwiches (since they were so easy to throw together) but luckily I figured out how to incorporate the dish into a HG theme:

Cheesy but whatever... I mean we're talking about a themed party so cheese is par for the course, right?

For those of you who are not aware of HG a lot of this will be confusing so my apologies (you should totally read the books-have I mentioned they're awesome?)

We had sleep syrup for drinks:

And Prim's goat cheese with Peeta's bread (spinach/artichoke dip with bread):

And for dessert we had "nightlock" tarts (the deadly berries):

For decoration my daughter and I hung parachutes up around the house, a poster on the front door to welcome those in, and some quotes we wrote on poster board just to get people in the HG mood!

It was a blast and really didn't require a lot of effort (except the posters) or money (about 10.00 in all for decorations) but made the night just a little more exciting and special.

So, if you haven't had a chance I recommend reading the books (books first-not movie!!) and remember:
 
May the odds be ever in your favor!!!