Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Tippy Tuesday

I think I failed you all....I promised pics from Tippy's birthday party and all I got were two pics of the decorations and cake.  I tried to get a pic of all 3 dogs around her cake, but do understand how impossible that was?  She had a monkey and banana theme since sometimes I call her my little monkey.  I also made some tacos....I always have Mexican for her birthday.  She (I) opened presents and I think all the dogs had a good time.




Since I didn't get any other birthday pics, I thought I'd share this one again since it makes me laugh so hard.


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tippy Tuesday

Our first house guest of the week has made his arrival.  The other one will be here on Wednesday.  Tippy and Alex haven't seen each other in 4 or 5 months so it took a couple of minutes to get reacquainted.

Tippy doesn't understand why Alex is already getting so frisky in the first 5 minutes.


But then they started playin' just like old times.....

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Seashell Keepsake Box

You may or may not have heard or seen all over my Facebook, but my brother got married in July in Lido Beach, Florida!  The last day we were there, my sister and I collected a whole bunch of seashells for a little project I had in mind.  When I got home, I went to Hobby Lobby and got one of those wooden boxes that come unfinished.  Sorry, but I forgot to take a before pic but surely you know what I'm talkin about.  The biggest dilema I had was figuring out what I was going to use to glue the shells to the box.  I knew hot glue wouldn't hold it, silicon would take too long to dry, and I was afraid that Liquid Nails wouldn't dry clear.  I went to Lowe's to see what kind of adhesives they had and next to Liquid Nails was this Power Grab stuff and guess what?.....It dries clear.....Bingo!  The best part about it is I got to use my gun thingy again for this stuff.  Ya'll know when I use this thing like I did for this project, I feel like a bad @$$! I was all excited at first but after applying it to 500 shells, my hand started to hurt.  The only other thing I used was textured spray paint.  It actually made it look like there was sand on the box. 

After I primed and painted it, I got to work and started gluing on the shells one side at a time.  I allowed 30 minutes to an hour for drying time before I moved on to the next side. 


I wanted to make them a box so that they could put little momentos from the wedding in the box....and that's exactly what they did. 


And I am happy to say that no shells have fallen off!  I was pretty worried about it but the stuff I used really stuck like glue (ha!) and dried clear.  Success!

Garage Makeover

A few months ago, I decided to give up one family member and gain a new one.  Yes, that's right, I said buh-bye to Carly the Corolla.....


And hello to Camryn the Camry! Oh, and by the way...Camryn is a girl. 


I'm kinda diggin' her but not in a lesbian way even though she sure does have a nice rack on her.  See for yourself.  Whatta beauty.  

Before I got Camryn, I knew I had to do something that I had been putting off for the last two years.....cleaning/organizing the garage.  If I was gonna get a pretty new car, I wanted her to have a pretty new home.  Plus, Camryn is a bit more voluptuous than Carly so I wasn't even sure she would fit if I didn't clean it out. 

Yep, there was really only enough room for a Corolla and that's about it. 


Let me take you on a little tour.  First we have the right side with my old headboard, night stand, weedeater/leaf blower and boxes with random stuff that I never bothered to unpack. 


Then I have my bike, Shari-oke machine, my lawn mower and more random stuff.

In this corner, we have some boxes that I didn't even know what its contents were, my old projects from my Interior Design classes, a bag of extention cords and more random stuff.
 

Once I dug into those boxes, I found THESE!


Seriously, what am I supposed to do with these?  Throw them away??  The thought is like a stab in my heart.  I've hung onto them for the time being until I figure out what to do with them. 

Moving on to the other wall, I have a bunch of random plywood in case I could use it for a project, an old canvas that I thought I could save and paint over, a ladder....and yep, more random stuff. 


I wanted to start with a clean slate so I went through every single item and did just what all the organizers say to do.....I made a donate pile, a keep pile, and a trash pile.  Thank God the garbage man was coming the next day because I had that sucker piled up!  Then I was left with this.  I even took the time to sweep out the garage and spray it down with a hose.



Then after about 8 hours of work, I was left with this.  I kept the old headboard because it's about 18 inches deep and I can use it as a work surface but I donated the nightstand to Goodwill.  I have the ladder hanging with potting soil below it.  All of that other stuff that was on the headboard went to Goodwill too.  

I ended up buying this shelf at Lowe's to give me some vertical storage and it's pretty sturdy for the price.  I don't remember how much it was because it was 3 months ago, but I'm thinking it was in the $30 range.  In the bottom is where I have all of my extra pots.  The next shelf up is where I keep my gas cans, weedkillers and my grass cutting shoes.  My dad bought me a caddy with all of the car cleaning supplies I need for Camryn and it lives on the empty shelf but this pic was taken before I got.  Then I bought a couple of cute storage bins which I haven't filled yet.  I will probably put extention cords in one (once I have labeled them) then maybe spray paint cans in the other.  Oh, and I kept a few of the plywood scraps just in case I need them for something.  I almost threw them away but couldn't bring myself to do it. 


Beside the shelf is my lawn mower and a grapevine Christmas Tree that I store in the garage. 


The other thing I bought was this rail that I can hang my shovel, weed eater and leaf blower on.  Note: Hanging this thing up is really a two person job but since Tippy couldn't reach it, even from standing on the ladder, I had to do it myself......and that's why it's not level.  Oh well.


The other side of the garage is my favorite part!  Look how empty and clean it is!  The only thing that lives on this side of the garage is my bike, which I'm planning on selling on Craigslist, and some left over cardboard for my spray painting projects.  Oh, and there's currently a giant spider with 6 legs that are each about 3 inches long that's living on that wall too.

And this is what I see when I pull into the garage everyday.  Ahhhhh.

Much better from this, huh?

                    

Column Switch-a-roo and a Great Yard Sale Find

My sister is in the process of changing up the outside of her house.  One reason being she had hail damage earlier this year and she's getting a new roof and the other reason being....well, it's time for an update.  So the first order of business was getting rid of those out-dated iron scroll-work columns. 


Aren't they a sight?


Can you guess who the one was to remove the old ones and rebuild brand spankin' new ones?  Yep....my dad.  The night before, we scoped out column sizes in her neighborhood and decided that 8 inch columns would look best on her house.  So the next day, dad cut away the old iron, constructed the new columns, installed them on the porch and painted them.  That man can do anything!! 

So....out with the old and in with the new!



It makes the house look so much more like it's living in this century. 



And a view from the street....


That is one good-lookin' column!  Just look at how strong and column-y he is.  Please excuse the beer bottles in the background.  The handy man hadn't cleaned up his mess yet.  Isn't it a requirement for men to drink beer when they work outside?  Oh, it's not?  I guess it is for the VanHoose men.


So next on the list is new roof, paint and windows.  We looked at colors over the weekend and I think she's going with a green, beige, and black combo.  All of the brick will be painted green....not so much of a lighter, neutral green but more of an army green.  The roof will be black and she's even thinking of possibly doing black windows.  Ooo la la!  The rest of the house will be the same color as the columns.  I can't wait until it's done because you don't understand the love I have for a good before and after.  It makes me just as excited as witnessing UK win a football game!

Just when you thought I was wrapping this post up....I got a little somethin' else to show ya.  While my dad was working away, my sister and I went to a Zumba class that morning.  On our way home, we saw a huge yard sale just a few houses down from my sister.  I literally had my face pressed up against the window as we drove by looking at all the goodness in the yard.  I hopped outta the car and walked my still-sweaty self down to the yard sale and fell in love about 4 different times.  But the piece that really stole my heart was this beauty....


It came with a mirror but I didn't want it so I was able to get them down on the price.  This piece is solid wood and the drawers have dove-tail joints so it's a high quality piece of furniture.  They were wanting to sell it for $100 but I got them down to $75.  Not bad for such a great piece. 


I mean, just look at the detail on this baby!


As for where I'll put it, I originally thought it would be my bar but it's actually too long for the space so then I thought I would replace it with my current dresser in my bedroom since my current dresser is small and I still have those clear plastic drawers in my closet from college.  This will hold a lot more of my stuff so I can get rid of those ole plastic drawers.  I'll probably end up repainting it since it's got some chips in it.  Then I'll replace the hardware.  I'm debating whether or not to remove the brackets on the legs.  It's a neat detail but it would look more streamlined without them.  Who knows when I'll get around to doing it because....well....it's still in my sister's garage in Louisville....and it's been there since June.  Hopefully I can get it before the weather gets too cold.  Oh I can't wait to get my hands on this guy!

Paper Kutz: June.....and August

I'm back with some cards I made in my card making class, Paper Kutz.  A couple of them are from back in June, then I skipped July because I was in Flo-rida for my brother's wedding but came back for the August class.  Please forgive me for just now posting something other than Tippy Tuesday.  What is it they say about kids?  They take over your life?  Well Tippy takes over my blog.

So without further adieu, here are the cards from June.... 



Moving on to August, the first one wasn't a card per say but a template (with directions) to make envelopes.  Here is the template.....


And here are the envelopes I made.  Since maps are all the rage right now, I was kinda diggin' this one....




Then I made another one that had super heroes on it.  Once I saw this paper it reminded me of my sister-in-law's brother that is kinda into super heroes.  Yes, he's 31 years old but he is the cutest. thing. ever.


I love the words on the front....


The thing I loved about making these envelopes is you can customize it to whoever you're sending it to.  The map envelope was literally from an atlas and the super hero envelope was wrapping paper.  The map would be really cute if you found a map of the same place you were sending the card to or even where you're sending it from.  The possibilities are endless!

And here is the second card we made.  Simple but cute. 


I was a little distracted by this bundle of cuteness the whole time.  His name is Buddy and he was just adopted by my friend Margaret.  He was only 8 weeks old here but he stole my heart!


Tippy Tuesday

Yesterday was Tippy's 4th Birthday!  Yep, the big 0-4!  I usually have a party with cake, presents, balloons and Mexican food but her party is going to be delayed until next week when I will be dog sitting her daddy Rocky and her other chihuahua friend, Alex.  I was going to have a party last night but she begged me to postpone it for them.  So even though we didn't have a party, I still documented her birthday and even had a little birthday photo shoot.  

So here we go.....

Tippy eating her birthday bacon for breakfast.


Tippy doing some birthday yoga....a little Upward Dog, anyone?


Tippy taking a little birthday pee....even though it kinda looks like a birthday poo.


Tippy taking a birthday nap....that I interrupted so I could get a pic.
 

And now the fun (for me, not Tippy) begins!  Since she won't get her birthday cake until next week I picked up a UK treat (to also celebrate the big win this weekend) and little ice cream cone treats with sprinkles.  Oh, and of course I threw on her birthday hat.


Mama, will you please put the camera up and let me dig into these treats?  The look muy bueno!


 I still kept taking pics so that little rascal stuck her tongue out at me!!


Mama....pweeeeease!


Ok, this is the last one.  Happy Birthday, my little Tard Dog!