A Piano

I got a piano! I posted last that I wanted a free piano off of Craigslist, and I got just that :) It's in rough shape and probably really out of tune, but it's an awesome piano, and it was free. So I'm excited. I've started to learn to play, and tomorrow I have my first lesson! I told Miles that when we moved up here that I'd become a 12 year old girl: take horse lessons and piano lessons. Now I'm riding a horse and taking piano lessons. Haha.

This is it! A tall upright. All wood. I used a lot of Murphy's Oil Soap and lavender essential oil and cleaner on it. It's a ridiculous story where we got it... from a guy in Northville (a nice suburb up here) who raised guinea pigs and chinchillas as a side job. His house smelled like a cage. He also raised turtles and had a 4' alligator in his basement! Pretty ridiculous, but I totally enjoyed it.

I feel kind of bad for the big strong men we dragged along and my friend Alli, but we got them lots of pizza after. Did you know pianos are really heavy?

We moved it in our friend's truck. So thankful for big, strong friends and a big, strong husband :) We had it strapped down and it didn't move at all once it was in there. Helps to have three engineers strap it down.

Grinnell Brothers were a huge manufacturer back in the day, reaching their peak when this piano was made, in the 50s. Detroit!

The ivories have come off in the places where I'm guessing his kids played/beat it to death. I need to figure that out.

Like I said, lots of lavender oil.

And lots of cleaning. It was in a rather dirty house, so these were from the first swipe.

The bench opens! Of course, right? But it's kind of fun. I'm excited for the day when it's filled with good music. And maybe I'll upholster it into a comfy bench at some point.

Once Miles moved it into the hearth room I covered it with fun crap that I had laying around. I love it. Just temporary but we'll see. Once I put something somewhere it tends to stay there for another couple years.

Plus I got an Asparagus Fern from Lowe's and I was really excited about that. I've wanted one for awhile and they're supposed to like indirect light, which that part of the room has a lot of, so it's perfect.

And now onto the random fun stuff. My wonderful friend had this wingback that she gave me :) Her husband found it on the side of road for dump day and they had it sitting in their basement for forever, and their dog's hair stuck to it horribly because it's velvet. I'm hoping that since it's in a room we don't use a ton and my dogs won't be allowed on it that it will be okay.

And it's got my quilt which I love on it. The quilt has been done for a month and deserves its own post soon.

Also, we're fixing the brick really soon so we can get the fireplace working! So next winter I can play the piano or sit in the wingback with a fire blazing next to me. Sounds pretty perfect to me.

Two pretty, free, new things. I'm happy. And blessed.

I said this was the random section, right? I got this ancient printing press thing at an estate sale, and I love it. For the record, I think estate sales are the absolute best because 1) things are cheap and 2) it tends to be good stuff because the people lived with it for however long and now their relatives just don't care.

Some friends and I threw a baby shower this weekend and I got this pack of tissue puff balls for decoration for it, so it would be fun to find something to do with them. I think they're really cute. I have five, two large and three medium size.

I got a lemon tree :) I've been wanting one for awhile now and finally got one. It's an Improved Meyer Lemon, which are supposed to be excellent in containers and the lemons themselves are supposed to be sweeter than average and delicious. It's three years old, which means that it can start producing lemons now. It's got blooms on it, but I'm not supposed to put it in the sun yet... we'll see. I really hope it grows.

I also got basil and cilantro, two spices I totally love. I also hope they grow :)

I put up these old license plates that I've been collecting over the years, one for the places where we love people. I need an Illinois one and it'll be a lot closer to being complete. Seen any, Jesse? :) I can see them from the front door and from the sink. I like them.

And finally, here's a ridiculous picture of Tucker. He likes attention, and I like to mush his face. Did you know he has a huge underbite? Good dog.

A to do list, kind of.

I almost deleted the blog. I've gotten a LOT of spam comments on the dang thing since last October and get emails with the stupid things every time I get one and I'd just about had it. Then Miles suggested that I put one of those Word Verification things on here so we shall see. I've been resistant to it so far so I apologize if it's slightly more inconvenient if you do comment. I could just delete it, of course. I don't mind doing that.

Because I have TOO MUCH else on my mind. I had an interesting and inconvenient health circumstance from November-December. If we keep up then you know, but feel free to get ahold of me if you're curious.  But anyway, I think since I've recovered from all that I'm overly passionate. About everything. And I was pretty passionate before, so watch out now. Especially if I have caffeine, which makes me feel like I can EXPLODE out of my skin.

And because I seriously love lists, here is some of the stuff I'm excited about/want to do:

-Make a spring wreath. Even if we're supposed to get snow tomorrow it's almost April and time to do this.
-Buy a Meyer's lemon tree. It started here. Then went here, then led to the real thing, which is this.
-Read my Bible more.
-Be more thankful. And intentional.
-Eat healthier.
-Design more. For work and my house. Stuff like this.
-Exercise more. Including walking/running/biking with my dogs. With their ridiculous and awesome new backpack.
-Repair the deteriorating brick on our house. That's a long story, but it'll happen.
-Research composting and build a compost bin. Like this one.
-Get a free piano off Craigslist (like this one, only free) and learn to play it.
-Get to bed earlier and rise earlier. This is not natural for me. Since I was an infant I've been a night owl... you can ask my family. But I need more hours in the day.
-Make a lotion. Like this one, kinda.
-Make my house prettier. Add wallpaper like this and embroider this and build this.
-Do crazier stuff on a horse. Like jump more and this.
-Sew more. Like this and this and this.
-Garden more. Granted it's 20 degrees outside and supposed to snow tomorrow and my gardens will continue to look like crap, but I'd love to plant them and make them pretty. Also, aside from the lemon tree I really want in my girly room and compost thingy outside, I'd like to have herbs in a window garden. Probably in the kind of cute terracotta pots that abound on Pinterest. Wouldn't that be nice?
-Make pillows for the girly room. Like this and this and these and with this on it.
-Keep seeing friends a lot. Intentionally grab the ones who we don't see enough.
-Read again. I just finished this book tonight and it was pretty cute.

There's definitely more but I'll stop for everyone's sake (like travel more and take Miles to Montana, etc). I have too much to do. And I just got back from skiing in Utah with Miles' family which means it's 2:42 am and I'm wired. And bruised, but that's beside the point. I'm afraid to drink caffeine tomorrow for fear of getting fired just to shut me up. Oh the conundrums.

Also, I apologize if you opened up even half of those links, even if I do think they're fabulous. I think I spend too much time getting excited about stuff online, and that's my real problem. If you agree... I don't know if I want you to tell me.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and that we get to talk soon. And I've done some stuff I could update on the blog, so we'll see. I made a triangle quilt, which was horrible but I love it. Story of my sewing life... But, it's worthy of a post so maybe it'll get that.

Okay, what I'm trying real hard to focus on:

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:13-14

“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked... Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.” Psalms 84:10-12

Plates on a Wall.

I know I neglected the blog for a couple months, but I haven't completely forgotten it. Thus, this rather random post. But it's an improvement I made to the house, so there you go.

Plates, collected over the last year or two from various thrift stores, antique malls, etc. And now put on the wall in my hearth room with a fireplace that doesn't work, or my girly room as I keep calling it.

If you've ever been in Susan's house, you'd think I was totally copying her by putting plates on my walls. She's got hundreds. But it was just Pinterest, I swear...

I haven't changed much in the actual room... I'd really like to repair the brick and thus get the fireplace working, because I think the room will be fabulous once it's working!

Here's a close up of some of the plates. The picture is a bit washed out but it was cloudy all day so I wasn't sure what to do about it. I wish I had gotten more colorful plates now that they're all the wall, but I just need to paint the room. Also, I just got generic plate hangers at Lowe's. They cheap and obviously do the job!

One of the plates. Most of them I got for 99 cents at thrift stores.... not too bad :)

Here's all the plates hung up. I put them around the sliding glass door in the the hearth room.

I can see the plates from the hall, which makes me happy :)

Here's a preview for probably my next post... I've been sewing for about a week straight. But I adore the result.

Hello Again

Well, hello again. It's been a long hiatus on the blog. But you know... I've been busy. And stuff.

Lots of stuff.

Anyway, for some reason lately I have wanted to do ALL THE PROJECTS. Which, you know I was fairly gung-ho before, so now it's a bit of an issue. For Miles, anyway. But I've done everything in budget, so aside from all the mutual labor, he doesn't have it too bad :)

The main project was the kitchen. I've been wanting to paint the cabinets since we looked at the house since the floors were an orange-y oak color and the cabinets were an orange-y maple color.

So I did. And here ya go, pictures:

Before. Pretty, but lots of orange. Not a cute orange, either...

And now! So much brighter and happier.

I still have work to do, since somehow this one cabinet door didn't get painted, just primed. Looks great.

Aaaand the primer pooled in some places so some of the doors have this (above) nasty crustiness on them. So I need to sand them and repaint them. But it's a lot of work and they look good now, so... ya know. Could be awhile.

Part of painting the cabinets was adding knobs and pulls. 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I love love the pulls.

The knobs I don't really care about, but they go with the pulls better than anything else did and Miles really liked them. They look fine, I just don't love them.

We also installed a new sink and faucet! The color of the cabinets and the sink/faucet were the only things lacking practically in the whole house, so we fixed that :) Miles was the manual labor. Good man.

I wanted a cast iron sink with white enamel... I just found out that my sister bought the exact same sink today!! Great minds... :)

And a close up of the faucet for my sister. Since she still needs to buy that. Brushed nickel since supposedly it's easier to care for than stainless steel (and stainless steel is a PAIN), and we got a pull down that had a magnet so it'll never wear out. Important.

I also updated the gallery in the kitchen. Before it was those botanical prints, which I liked a lot, but my friend Heather came to visit and we found some cool stuff when we went antiquing and I wanted to see it more often. Also, on the right bottom is this brass hammered version of the Last Supper which I got at the one super cheap thrift store that was right next to our last house in Texas.

I've come to the opinion that if it's in my house I better love it. And I don't need to be acceptable for the few people that would see the weird stuff. So. I like ships.

This is one of the projects that Heather and I did. We had a lot of fun. Isn't this cute?? She describes everything better than I could on her blog.

It ended up by the front door. And even though I put some of my stuff on it for the pictures, Miles uses it all the time. See above picture.

And now we're really getting random. I got an English saddle off Craigslist and I just think it's gorgeous :) The lady gave me the saddle, pad, girth, stirrups, and stand with it. Made me happy.

And okay. Here are some pictures of the dogs. I thought it was cute that they went in the only sliver of sunlight they could fine. Then Tucker chewed his bone.

Then he was just ready for the sun. So Molly chewed the bone next.

And this is how the dogs sleep. Under Miles. Tucker can handle any weight, but Molly likes to curl around him. For the warmth and just because they love him.

I've got more projects to feature. So, I'll hopefully put those up soon. I'm back in a groove.

Instagram Accessible

This is random and I know I've been horrible about posting, but you know. I've been busy.  Not that you can tell from this. Instagram has a way you can look at profiles online now! So that's handy.

http://instagram.com/kaegbert

Since Facebook bought them I'm not surprised. I was surprised they didn't have something like this before.

Anyway, Instagram is on Droid now so I think a lot of people have it, but it's my favorite social media of them all. Not that I have an exciting life or anything, but you can look it you want. This is crossing a bit of a line for me, putting social media on my social media. Oh well :)

My Husband, a Carpenter.

Yes, wow, a second house post in just a few days! I might be getting back into the blogging groove, though I'm not promising anything. More changes are in store for me:

I got another new job.

Yes, pretty ridiculous considering I only recently got my current job, but I was approached for a dream job at my church! I'll be operations coordinator AND graphic designer with an awesome staff (I'm already good friends with half of them), working part time, and did I mention it's for my church? I adore my church, and I'm so excited to be so much more involved.

It wasn't hard to say yes, especially considering that I really, really didn't like my last job. I tried hard to like it, but the daily tasks combined with the long stretches of boredom made it probably the least enjoyable job I've ever had. But that doesn't matter anymore, it just makes the new job that much sweeter! :)

So, back to fun house things. I've posted some small updates for our bedroom, but not much changed for awhile. I painted some of the furniture, made the free headboard from a moving pallet, and then sewed my linen duvet cover, but I just really didn't care for our room.Which is a bummer. I want my room to be so pretty.

As you can see from the swatches on the wall I was considering painting it a charcoal color to make it feel really cozy, but that never ended up happening.

Over the months of living with it, I came up with a game plan: switch our duvet cover (the linen one was too hot and wrinkly), add pretty curtains, build a bed frame, and paint the room.

Building the bed frame was easy, since it's turns out my husband is a carpenter!

He ended up building our bed frame like it was no big deal. I love how talented he is and how he can just pick up new skills. We found a good building plan online (Ana White has awesome plans), then went to Lowe's and picked up some lumber. Then Miles made all these perfect cuts, and together we started putting it together!

Here are the headboard and footboard in progress. They already look so nice :)

This is the back of the headboard, prior to paint.

We added a coat of primer and three layers of paint for extra durability and to hide those knots...

And voila! All done, and so huge and pretty and solid :) It was a surprisingly fast, easy project! It probably took 3-4 hours to get the frame all together and then another couple hours for the four coats of paint.

The lighting is kind of hard to capture in our room, but the wall color (Behr Castle Path) is a very neutral gray/beige. It's really soft and cozy, but doesn't make the room feel dark. I love it!

The duvet is from the Simply Shabby Chic line at Target and I got it on a huge sale. It's a cotton/linen blend and super soft and cozy. Sometimes I wish it looked a little more smooth and tailored, but I'll take comfortable over that for our room.

The headboard has a little arch to it that Miles cut with the jigsaw. I was super impressed with his method for getting a perfect arch. The man is smart :)

I may try to tea stain my euro shams since they don't stand out from the soft white headboard now.

I made these curtains back in January! I love, love them, and they cost me only $35 for all 4 panels, which is impressive, if I can say so. I got the least expensive muslin from Joann and used a coupon, then followed this simple tutorial. They're a little time consuming to make all of those pleats, but they're so worth it.

Isn't the texture fabulous? And I think the soft cream looks pretty with the walls.

I still don't feel done with the room by any means, but I love it so much more now!