Archives for September 2014

My Front Door Just got a Little Moodier

September 3, 2014 By amusingmjblog 1 Comment

So this is one of those projects that I finished right before I had to go out of town and didn’t get around to posting… or really finishing. But say la vie… I’m going to post about it anyway. There will be more of these to come… get excited.

So my front ‘hallway’ looked a little like this:

Inspiring huh? I mean… really mixing white and cream is the new color scheme right?! Kidding… kind of. Our front door opens into our dining room and I painted that room before I had met my husband to give you an idea of just how long this has been like that. I decided at the time that I wouldn’t paint the door because I would come back soon and finish it off… and three years later… I painted the door!! (but have no fear friends… the door frame is still cream)

So even the painted door isn’t complete because it was 102 when I painted, and that is not conducive to painting outside… so I still need to paint the other side of the door.

But I love how dramatic and moody it looks! I think it makes the whole space look a little classier!

And it was a super easy project. First I painted the recessed parts with a brush:

and then rolled on the rest with a small roller.

The first coat was SUPER thin.

And the second coat covered the rest really well.

I still need to paint the trim to match the rest of the room, paint the other side of the door and replace that doormat (which btw I inherited from the previous owners and don’t really like but haven’t found anything to replace it with).

The paint is an interior exterior paint from Benjamin Moore and I think the color is true black. The guy at my local hardware store recommended replacing the white with black in the mix… to get a truer black, and I think he knows what he is talking about! This color is pretty true black!

Have you jumped on the black interior door bandwagon? I don’t usually like trends, but this felt like a total success of a project. I might have to jump on a few more bandwagons because every time I come around that corner I think… MAN that looks so much better!! And that my friends is a successful project!

Filed Under: Paint

A Piece of the Mass House

September 2, 2014 By amusingmjblog 3 Comments

When I was in college my parents bought a house that they then rented to my brother and several of his friends over the next few years. I lived there with 5 guys for about 1 month during one summer (and ps that was about as good of an idea as it sounds like it would be… hence only being for one month!)

But over the course of several years at KU, several of our friends lived in that house and it is a cute little yellow house on a busy street. It was the perfect house for the guys to live in, and I have a lot of good memories there. For several reasons my parents kept that house for several years after we were all gone from Lawrence. They have sold it now, but during all that time it was discovered that the big tree in the backyard needed to be taken down. When the guy came to cut down the tree, Mom had them save two sections of the tree stump for me in case I wanted to do something with them.

So for about 2 years those tree stumps sat in my garage (one is still there) waiting for inspiration to strike. Well, one day inspiration struck in the form of a blog called The Art of Doing Stuff. I’m not sure really how I got there, and it has been about 2 or 3 years since I found it, and my memory doesn’t last that long!

But she has a fabulous tutorial on how to do this, and since I did it pre-blogging I have no in process pictures for you all, but it is such a neat project and has a great memory to go along with it!

I did not stain mine because I liked the variation already in the stump. And I will say it is not very easy to sand a round log, but I think the whole project took me only a few hours from start to finish.

And as you can see in the photo above, if you don’t have control over cutting the log so that it will be even, the adjustable legs from Ikea are key… otherwise this would be a VERY uneven table. It is still mostly decorative, but pretty close to level.

Filed Under: Wood

Labor Day Respite

September 1, 2014 By amusingmjblog 1 Comment

Did you guys miss me? Is there anyone still there?

I can’t believe it has been over a month since I posted last! Actually… scratch that, I can. It has been an insanely busy month in my life. I unexpectedly had to take care of an emergency at work which has required me to be in Kansas for about 6 weeks. I’m facing down my last week here, so I’m getting back into my normal life… and that means I have a little extra time to blog! But not being home means I have done zero projects at home, so I’ll be catching up on a few that I haven’t had a chance to blog about yet, and a couple that I left half done 6 weeks ago and will be returning to when I finally get home this Friday. I’m anxious to get home, and pretty excited to get back to my normal life!!

This weekend my husband and brother came up to Kansas to join my parents, grandmother and myself at our little lakehouse out in the country in Kansas. It has been a relaxing weekend of skiing, swimming, playing fetch with the dogs, sleep and board games. This place is a dog’s paradise, so Lexie and my brother’s dog Q have had an excellent weekend!

The dogs played fetch until they basically passed out.

I caught this funny picture of Lexie and my husband as Lexie was shaking all her water off.

This is one of those places which has been a constant in my life and some of my best memories are here. I learned to ski here, I spent countless 4th of July’s setting off fireworks, played hours and hours of board games, took long walks, brought friends, and spent time for family. So after a crazy month of long work hours and high stress, this weekend of relaxation was exactly what I needed!

lake6

I also got the chance to practice some of my photography this weekend, just getting to play around a little bit. And I definitely had some great natural subjects! I was playing around with long exposure after having such good luck at Fourth of July with them, and I have to say I love the way the long exposure turns out!

This was of the outside looking in last night of a beautiful and peaceful night! Then after some storms rolled through overnight, I woke up early and saw the most beautiful sky with a double rainbow and an amazing sunrise. (both are completely unedited except for size)

Kansas is definitely one of the best places in the world for sunrises and sunsets! And after living in the city, nothing is quite as amazing as a calm clear night with amazing stars!

I hope you have all had a wonderful and relaxing Labor Day Weekend!!