Hanging Around

The Monday after our trip, Ashley took the day off work...which meant work for me, lol
She gets cheap labour out of me, all I ask for is a hug :)
What Ashley needed me for was to help her hang up some items for the baby's room.
And with her and I being somewhat of perfectionists....it took a bit for them to be perfect.

Look how perfect they are!!!
I love the prints she ordered.
They go perfectly with the theme of his room.

Then I had to put up shelves for the reading nook.
I love books and am so happy that I have passed on the love of reading to my daughters and so happy that Ashley is going to pass it down to her children.

Not only did she need me in the baby's room, but she also had me hang up these frames in her kitchen.
Also finally hung up their wedding vows in their bedroom....which was a year ago ;)

And yes I got my hug before I left for the day ;)

I hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy :)

Painting (un)Surprise.

Ashley got me a Thank You gift.

Actually she got me a few. 

 She didn't like the black mat I had, and kept telling me I needed a cuter one.

Doesn't it look cute at our side enterance. 

Ashley and Tyler went away on a little getaway...but more for an ikea baby shopping trip.

While they were away Kristy was nice enough to pet sit for them.

So I decided to surprise them with a painting project Ashley had started a few months ago, until everyone told her to stop as she shouldn't be doing any painting while she was pregnant. 

You know what is worse than looking at a project that needs to be done.....a project that is incomplete. Lol 

Here is the project.

The sides of her stairs. 

 Actually they don't look too bad here besides the yucky cream colour.

But just picture them with one blotchy coat of white paint. Ashley said it drives her crazy looking at it everyday.

Now doesn't this look nicer. 

As well as Sebastian who got in the paint twice. Black cat/white paint oh oh. 

I just need to caulk where the trim doesn't fit tight.... But that is for another day. 

 Not only did I paint the sides of their stairs, I also painted the baseboards that Oscar teethed  on when he was a puppy. 

Boy, was there a lot of teething marks. 

 The trim will need to be replaced, but this is a good cover up until that gets done.

This is oscars room...I know such a spoiled dog to not only have his own bedroom, but he also has his own double sized bed!!! 

I had to lock him out as I painted because he wanted to help, lol. 

I think he was confused that he was locked OUT of his room as opposed to inside his room. 

 As much as Ashley and Tyler love Oscar he is going to have to either give up or share his room with the baby.

My painting was suppose to be a surprise. 

I wanted to see how long it would take them to notice. 

When I asked Ashley how much I owed her for the stuff she bought me. 

She told me it was a thank you for painting 

I asked her. Who told you I painted. 

She replied. You painted?!? What did you paint?!?  Did you paint the stairs!!!! 

I asked her what painting did she mean 

The baby's dresser. 

So I ruined my own surprise. Lol. 

I also ruined my birthday gift she got me.  I helped them unpack and saw it....but at least they know I'll love it. Lol

We are at the cottage and it is drizzling.

I went for a short walk, but thinking it may be an organizing evening as it looks like rain all night. 

Hope you all have a wonderful and creative weekend :)

Tracy :). 

Laundry Room Project.

Projects. 

Like I shared with you yesterday...I have many. 

I also have many that I haven't shared with you yet.

Last month I worked on a project for Ashley's house. 

She has a sump pump in her unfinished laundry room.
There are 2 holes in the concrete floor and I wanted to cover them up somehow. 

Here is the finished project. 

Not only does this cover the holes, but it also is a nice folding table or just a place to store laundry products...and it looks pretty :)

Here is the before picture...blah.
See the high tech way the sump pump holes were hidden, teehee.

The first thing we had to make sure of is that the desk fit...it did!!

Which made me very happy as I didn't need to make a one, like I had planned.

Next thing, I had to do was cut a slot out of the desk top for the pipe.

Plus the desk had to be easy to pull out, just incase the sump pump needed quick access to.

 

Ashley had this desk from Ikea. 

Her dog, Oscar chewed on a couple of the legs when he was a puppy. 

The legs were still stable, just didn't look so pretty.  

Next, to disguise the ugliness, lol. 

See.... Not to pretty under there, and we are all about things being pretty as well as functional.

So I cut some lumber to size and nailed it to the desk 

Ashley was at work, so I was on my own with this job.
I needed another set of hands to hold the lumber while I nailed in the other side, but I'm pretty resourceful, especially since I didn't bring any claps with me, lol. 

I used a piece of my scrap wood for a spacer so the spaces would all be the same distance apart. 
Then I just kept on cutting and nailing, cutting and nailing.

Ugliness is slowly getting hidden.

I needed to rip the bottom board (cut the board the whole length down the centre). 

I inquired at Home Depot, but they don't do that :)

Remember I didn't bring my clamps...but luckily for me Tyler was home at this time, so I asked him to help me hold the board so I didn't saw off a finger or two. 

See how much thinner the bottom board is...I ripped it good ;) 

Now doesn't that look a lot better:). 

But now to make it prettier. 

Because the desk was white, I painted the boards white as well. 

So much prettier and more functional than the before picture. 

I was at Ashleys house working on a couple other projects today....but more on those tomorrow.

Whenever Ashley has a new idea for her house, she always coxes me with "This will make a good blog material". Honestly though, she doesn't need to cox me at all.
Actually these projects were my doing.....I just can't stop with the projects, lol.

I hope you all had a very creative day :)

Tracy :). 

Day with my Girls

Today was an awesome day.
I got to spend it with my girls !!!!!!
First off we went to brunch.
Here is Kristy and Heather :)

Ashley and I.
She was so sweet and treated us all to brunch :)

Then we went shopping.
Ashley picked up some cushions for her patio benches.
I bought some yoga pants, as all of my other ones have paint on them.
Walked around the mall.
When did acid wash jeans make a comeback?   And high waisted at that, lol.

Lastly we went flower shopping for Ashley's front flower bed.
She has so many small birds in her neighbourhood, unlike mine that is full of crows:(

Here is Ashley's front flower bed.
I love the stands on either side of the window with the hanging baskets in them…..I think I may need a few of these for myself ;)

It is a long weekend for us :)
Canada day is on Tuesday, but when the holiday lands on an odd day, Wayne switches it so everyone gets a long weekend ;)
Ashley took Monday off work, so she has an extended holiday as Tuesday her office is closed…as is most all stores here.

I hope you all had a Creative Day :)
I am planning on creating all next week…I'm so excited :)

Tracy :)

Outside work

Today was a beautiful day to work outside at Ashley's house.
We started with me telling her I really didn't want to make her a patio table.
She had great plans, it would have looked awesome, but I really wasn't up to making a table today.
So we washed her patio deck instead.
In that process, we decided to follow this wire….the previous owners had speakers on the outside of the garage.
They ran the wiring from the house siding, under the deck, underground and through the garage foundation.
So I pulled on the wire until we hit it underground and then cut it off.
I didn't notice that Kristy took this photo until she sent it to me ;)
We all look very inquisitive don't we, teehee.

We had to run to the hardware store to pick up a few supplies and while we were there, Ashley found a patio table that she liked.
It came with 6 chairs (which was good as the chairs she wanted she would have had to order on-line, but the chairs she really wanted where like 650.00 each…..yes for patio chairs!!! No she wouldn't have ordered them) Not only did the patio set Ashley bought came with 6 chairs, they also came with nice thick cushions….of course she doesn't like the cushions (there had to be something, lol), but she likes the blue/white ones she placed on top of them.
I see some sewing in my future, lol.

Lastly we spread some topsoil.
Well I didn't do any of the topsoil, as Ashley won't let me, as she thinks I may have a heart attack…and you know, there are still things she needs done around her house, lol.
Just kidding, she really doesn't let me do things that she thinks are too strenuous for me.

While Ashley and Tyler (Ashley's boyfriend) were getting to work on the topsoil, Tyler needed a new pair of gloves as his pair had pretty big holes in them.
He found these garden gloves in Ashley's shed…he really had to work to put them on as they are pretty small :)
I told him I needed a picture of him with his pretty working gloves, he even posed for me…such a great sport he is :)

So that was my day today.
It was so nice to actually be outside on this beautiful day.

I hope you all had a Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Closet Make Over

Ashley comes up with the ideas, and I make them happen …if I want to or not, teehee ;)

If you remember from this post from last year when we made Ashley's second bedroom into her dressing room. We never did finish this closet.
She wanted it to be her shoe and purse closet.
Can you believe a whole closet (even a small one) dedicated to just purses and shoes?!
Well it is true :)

So we started out with an empty closet.
Ashley painted the closet last night. I thought we had painted everything, but I guess this closet needed another coat.
But I see she forgot to paint the baseboards white ;)

I drew out my sketch with measurements and gathered my tools.
Actually there was another drill.
It is so much faster and not as frustrating to have one drill with a drill bit in it to drill my holes and another drill with a screwdriver bit to actually screw in the screws.
It is very frustrating to have to keep changing the bits for each screw.

To show you how tiny this closet it, Ashley took a photo of me working in it.
I was going to take a photo of her, but she was on her phone chilaxin' on her bed at the time :P

I added the wood pieces on the walls so the shelves can sit on them.

3 shelves for her shoes. We made the shelves deep enough to fit two layers of shoes on each one. So 10 pairs of shoes for each shelf.
We also added a closet rod to hang her purses on.
The purses on attached to pant hangers, then hung on the rod :)






















Pretty cool, if I do say so myself ;)
The green containers hold her flip flops and summer flats.
Ashley bought white spray paint to change the colour.

With closet #1 completed, we worked on closet #2.
This one is in her bedroom.
I did the same thing in this closet as we did in the last closet, but only put up one shelf.

I asked her to stage it for me so I could take a photo.
She is not putting her clothes in this closet….I think she has enough room in her dressing room, lol.

Sebastian was very curious with all the work we did ;)

Look…I even got lunch out of the deal ;)
Thank you Ashley

I did get to create a bit tonight.
I am in a couple of swaps and have to get them in the mail tomorrow.
I will share those on another day :)

I hope you all had a Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Being put to work

My oldest daughter Ashley has booked the week off work.
But before she did, she made sure I was available to help her with working on her new home.
Funny as Kristy told Ashley that she wanted me to do something with her this week.
Ashley told her "I have dibs on mom for this week". LOL
So today we tackled some closets.

When she bought her home, she didn't like how the inside of the closets were put together. So she asked me to dismantle them….which I did.
Ashley was so excited when she bought her home that she was all over the place with repairs and upgrades. Then she was upset as she didn't think things were getting completed.
I told her that if she focused on one job and see it completed to the end before going to the next job, that it would be more rewarding than seeing many jobs 1/2 way completed.
I think she took my advice, as today she would say "focus on the closet".
See our children do pay attention, teehee.

Now back to her closets.
I was going to just paint the wood that we removed last year, but looking at it, I could see it was cracked and some of it looked like the previous owners used scrap wood.
So we started from scratch.
We picked up new wood and I started measuring and cutting the wood.
Kristy and Ashley painted the cut pieces and tomorrow we will start putting together the closets :)

It has been raining all day today.
Wayne came back home this mooring at 8:30 am to change his clothes.
He got caught in a down pour when he started up the plant, and was soaked to the bone.
He had to run back to the scale shack to find a bag to put on his cast as the artwork I had done was started to run from the rain.
I was chilled all day from running in and out of the rain all day and I had a rain jacket on…so he must have been chilled as well.

Hope you all had a Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

A Crafty game of Pool and new doors

I have been thinking of taking over the pool table for my Friday Night Scrapbooking :)
I bought this pool table for Wayne about 15 yrs ago for his birthday.
At first we played a lot. But not so much in the last few years.
So if I do take it over, I need to make a temporary cover/table for it.

I was thinking of buying some thick wood or chipboard (not crafting chipboard, but what we call chipboard here, is slivers or pieces of wood adhered together with glue it is then compressed into sheets).
I would have to put heavy foam on the edges and in the centre of the table so I don't mark up the edges or ruin the felt of the table.

Of course now that I am really seriously thinking of doing this, Kristy and Heather played a few games last night.

Day 25 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful that I am able to be there when my girls need me.
Even in their younger years, I was lucky enough that I worked out of my home, so I was able to be there for every school outing, volunteering at the schools.
I didn't miss a play or concert and am so very thankful that I didn't miss any part of their lives.

Ashley's week of vacation time is up, so she went back to work today.
She was getting her new front doors installed today. The contractors were coming at 8:00 am.
If you know me then you know I am NOT a morning person.
So I suggested that Heather (she didn't have to work today) and Kristy sleep over last night, and I would come over when I woke up ;)
Crafty aren't I ;)
All went well, and I was so happy that it wasn't that cold out today, as not only did they replace the door, but the whole casing and trim as well.

I'm a bit of a creep aren't I, lol.
This is one of the contractors outside putting on the screen door.
I have been taking photos of the progress of Ashley's home.
I did get some sneaky photos of the men working as well…shhhhh.

As the contractors were putting on the new doors, Heather and Kristy were taking turns playing video games and stayed in the bedroom with Sebastian (Ashley's kitty), he is an indoor cat and we didn't want him escaping.
As they did that, I put on…yet another…few coats of paint on the Big Project.
I think we should do a clear coat to protect it…then it should be all done, then I will share it with you :)

I hope you all had a very creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Closet Re-do...or should I say Closet Create

As you all know, my daughter Ashley bought a home in August.
She has a bit of a dilemma, too many clothes and no closet space.
The few closets she does have, are more like a cubby then a closet.
So we have been trying to come up with the perfect way so store her clothes.

She wanted them in her dressing room.
She wanted it to look like a boutique.
But it also needed to be strong enough to carry all the weight of her mountain of clothes.
My Ashley is a great pinterest follower and pinner, and saw this idea Slanted ceiling closet
This small door leads to attic crawl space, perfect for storing seasonal decoration. So she still wanted access to it, but didn't need to see it.

Heather and I went and picked up the supplies we needed for this.
After Ashley was done work, we came back home to pick up the rest of her clothes.
Not only are they piled in the back of the jeep, but the back seats are full as well.
And these don't include the ones she has already moved, lol.

The hardest part of this was finding the studs in the ceiling.
I didn't have my stud finder, but by knocking on the walls and measuring between where the studs should be, we hit them every time ;)

Here it is, nice and sturdy.
This is also a better view of the slanted ceiling.
As you have probably guessed, her dressing room is in the attic of her home.

Do you think she has enough clothes, lol.
This isn't even all of them.
If you noticed, I put 2 supports in the middle to hold all this weight.

In the centre of her room she has two dressers that she purchased from Ikea and painted them white.
She then pushed them together and displays her jewellery, nail polish and other pretty girly things on it.
I will share more photos, once she has it perfected ;)

Her clothes are on display and easily accessible, and some of her shoes are displayed below...yes I said some of them ;)

I hope you all had a creative Tuesday :)
I am hoping to wear my lounge pants all day and create...or at least clean up my craft room ;)

Tracy :)