My Two Loves Together At Last

So I haven’t been really crafty as of late.  My worries over my health and the health of others really has been keeping me from being creative as of late.  One of the crafts I’ve really been missing is crochet.  Since finally learning it, I’ve just fallen in love with the calming rhythmic pattern of yarn over pull through the loop, but I just can’t find the time, energy, or creativity to sit down and do some.  Nothing created a strong enough need in me until I found my way onto a crafty young lady’s video on Youtube.  What did she create?  A character from one of my FAVORITE video games, Animal Crossing.  Along with that she made the character some clothing that reflects the clothing in the game.  So cute.  No really, it is.  Have a look.

Isn’t it, dare I say it, kawaii?!?  I know, I’m a goober.  LOL!  But seriously, it’s such a cute idea and I can’t believe I didn’t think of trying something like that myself.  But the good thing is she has resparked my need and want to crochet again.  I have these gloves I want to make out of this beaded pink yarn I’ve had for a while now.  I think now is the time to try them out.  Wish me luck. I’ll update you on how things are going. 

And once again I am off.  I need to get dressed now to go out…on no sleep.  Ugh!    Oh well, I guess I can sleep when I’m dead…hopefully years and years and YEARS from now.  Ok, be good ladies and gents.  And I’ll talk to you all again soon.  Bye for now.

Wishing she could slip under her covers,
Michelle

This Is Halloween

As the creepy  and cool holiday of Halloween nears, a lot of people are letting their creepy and cool sides hang out.  From cool decorations and costumes to awesome…Halloween lights?  Humm, I understand lights for Christmas, but Halloween?  I’d never seen a big Halloween light display, until today that is.  Seems this family Riverside, CA really likes Halloween.  On their Youtube channel they have videos dating back to 2008 of their Halloween extravaganzas.  Here’s their light show for this year.  It’s pretty awesome.

12 Years Ago Today

January 5, 1997-October 12, 1999

And I still can’t believe you are gone forever.  You are always in our hearts and thoughts.  We love you.

Love always,
Michelle

Hey guys! Guess what?!

Halloween Countdowns at WiddlyTinks.com

Halloween will be here soon!  Just a little PSA from your friendly mousey gal.  Are you excited yet?!  I know I am. 

Can’t wait to go look at Halloween decorations,
Michelle

Maillardville Manor And Bathroom Transformations

So my friend has this problem.  She has to many bathrooms.  I know, anarchy right?  To many bathrooms.  She literally has two bathrooms in her master bedroom.  She has another in the house for her girls and guests to use, so she really doesn’t need another bathroom.  But one thing she could use is a craft room.  She uses a corner in her bedroom to craft in, but that bathroom is just calling out to her, and no not in a pee-pee dance sort of way.  She has visions of taking a sledgehammer to her garden tub and taking out the toilet and making the 7x7 room, with an additional walk-in closet, into her dream craft room.  But there is one tiny catch.  She want’s to leave it so if she decides to move she can quickly whip it back into a bathroom for those couples that demand their own bathrooms.  Totally makes sense, right?  Right. 

So, are you guys following me so far?  Or are you having some trouble envisioning this awesome bathroom space?  Troubled?  Never fear, I’ve come prepared thanks to my friend’s super drawing skills. 

Ok, so the black line at the bottom is the door into the bathroom.  On the right is the sink and counter area.  Go around the corner and you have a walk-in closet that my friend says you can easily have four people sitting down in there.  Awesome storage options!!!  Then in the upper right corner is the garden tub I can only imagine is itself awesome. Then to the left of that is the toilet.  I think  she said in between the toilet and tub is a window, there are some mirrors in the bathroom that look like windows.  I must go over there and see this room…but can I do it without being roped into manual labor, that is the question.    But my friend and I were looking around trying to find pictures of before and after bathroom transformations.  I couldn’t find any, but she found this crafty gal who managed to do so and it turned out…well…awesome.  LOL!  Sorry. 

Anyway, so this gal who writes the blog Maillardville Manor explains how in her last house her and her husband took a bathroom they barely used and changed it into an office/craft area.  It was small but it was functional.  Have a look.

They went from this:

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To this:

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I know, impossible to believe this was a bathroom in a former life.  And see what I mean, it’s small, but functional.  And my friend has more room than this to play with so she could have a pretty nice craft room.  You need to go check out the post on Maillardville Manor about this amazing transformation.  But do you want to hear the extra cool part about this transformation?  They wanted to leave the bathroom so if they move, which they did, they could whip it back into a bathroom, which they did.  They hid the pipes in the cabinetry by cutting holes for it and plugging them so it was a easy switcharoo.

So in the end they ended up with this:

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I promise you that’s the same room.  You can see it in this post on Maillardville Manor.  Who am I kidding, it’s still hard for me to believe it’s the same room.

But I love how even though she had so little room she still had everything in it’s place.  Her yarn, her scissors, her ribbons, and her office stuff.  So it just shows you that your only limitation is your mind.  I’m in such awe what this couple was able to accomplish and it just drives me to think outside of the box and really try to see my true vision in things.  Sometimes I think I have crafter’s block, but it really just is all a mind thing. If you think you have crafter’s block then you will because you think you do.  But if you just relax, take some deep breaths if needed, and let the creativity flow through you.  Sure you may not recreate a room, but I guarantee that whatever you do create will be, dare I say it, awesome. 

I’ll talk to you lovelies later.  Stay crafty.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Lazily day-dreaming about craft rooms and crafty things,
Michelle

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Part 2)

So a while back, about one or two years ago, on my doll blog I was pimping out this house across the street and to the left of my house that was just finished being built and for sale.  I was encouraging my hobby buddies to move in and be my neighbor.  That house was finally bought by a young guy in the military, his girlfriend, his baby, girlfriend’s mother, and his roommate.  Yep, packed house.  LOL!  But the same builder who built his house built the one directly in front of my house.  So now I’m offering this one to you.  LOL!  But I don’t know how excited you will be now knowing I keep such a watchful eye out.  LOL!  But look at it this way, you’d have the neighborhood watch right across the street from you.  What’s not to love???  You’re welcome. 

So I guess I should show you the house you will be buying then.    Here goes, here are some pictures of what it looked like while being built.

Sorry for the blurry picture, this is how it was on the site.  This is the house’s early beginnings.  Before this much was done we were trying to figure out which way the house would face.  This house is on a corner and could face either way.  Usually houses on the corner in this neighborhood faces the side street that connects with the main street.  But this house faces out onto the main street towards us.

 

Side view of the house from the street it connects with.  The garage is huge.  Much Bigger than ours.  And those windows on the side are I believe two of the three bedrooms.  Funny, these pictures were taken about a year ago.

 

 

Back view of the house.  This lot it is on used to be wooded, so a good bulk of the trees remain on it.  So what you are seeing is the back door and a living room window and kitchen window.

 

 

 

Ok, so the next pictures are the outside view after it was finished being built.

This is a distance picture of the house.  This past December or January my mom took an awesome picture of the port-a-potty covered with snow.  Just had to mention that.  I think it is horrible the relator decided to keep that in the picture.  Why didn’t they photoshop it out?  But I digress.  So this house is a heather gray color.

 

 

A little closer view.  The door has a little window next to it, two big windows up front from I believe the kitchen, don’t quote me on that, and a double garage.  And it has a security light in back.  Please don’t use it, it’s bright and annoying.  I might have to stop being your friend if you use it.

 

 

Now we pop inside the house.

Walking in from the door you can see the living room with a lovely fireplace.  Perfect for those cold autumn and winter nights.

 

 

 

 

The spacious and open living room, dining room, and kitchen area along with the back door.

 

 

 

 

Just look at that crown molding.  Gives a special look and class to the room, don’t you think?

 

 

 

 

Here’s the kitchen.  Big and open with plenty of storage space.  And so brightly lit in the daytime and opened into the living area so you can stay connected with the whole house.  Now if you’ll just follow me down the hall to the guest bathroom.

 

 

 

A good size bathroom for guests and the rest of the family to use.  You have a bathtub and shower combination, standard toilet, and sink with counter space for odds-n-ends.  Let me show you the master bathroom.

 

 

 

A double vanity. Isn’t that nice?  No fighting for the mirror or sink with your husband or wife, you’ve got your own space. 

 

 

 

And of course you have a toilet, and bathtub and shower combination.  Kind of wish it was a garden tub like the house next door and it doesn’t seem like it got the frosted glass like the house next door either. Bummer.  But still very nice. 

 

 

And then the umm…walk-in closet in the master bedroom?  Humm, doesn’t look like much does it?  Kind of a bummer also, but has room for tons of improvement, or you can maybe change it to a crafty nook if you have other closet options like a wardrobe.  Be creative. 

 

 

Thank you for touring the house and I hope you saw something of interest that makes you consider buying it.  What?  Oh you want to know the price?  Ummm…well umm…keep in mind it used to be $139,950.  The builder recently dropped it to $136,950.  Pretty awesome right?  Which means you only have a monthly payment of $805.    So, what do you think?  Want to be my neighbor?  Let me know in the comments and I’ll get the needed info to you asap. 

Ok, so I had to be playful today.  I was joking with friends today that they needed to come buy the house so I could stop wondering who will move in.  It’s been on the market for months now and I just want someone to move in already.  And it seems the builder feels the same way since he dropped the price in July.  They recently had an open house, and still no takers.  Who knows, maybe one day soon someone will move in and the mystery will be over.  But I swear, if they use that security light, there’ll be a price to pay!!!  *shakes fist in air*

And I’m off people.  I’ve got another house related post for you, but this one is actually craft related.  No, I’m serious.  Give me a bit and I’ll post it for you.  Trust me, you’ll be in awe.     Until then, be good.  Bye for now.

Still wondering who will move in,
Michelle

Knock, knock. Boo’s there???

Sorry, being my candy corn self again today.  Fall is officially in the air and with that comes the holidays.  Although technically Columbus Day is in October, I don’t really celebrate that for several reasons.  No, the kickoff to my holiday season starts with none other than Halloween.  Boooooooo…  And aren’t these leafy ghosts so cute?  It took me a second to realize they were actually silk leaves. Cool idea huh?

Halloween, for me at least, has been a hit or miss with me over the past couple of years.  At first I loved it because of trick-or-treating, but then my mom stopped taking us and would just buy us candy so it didn’t mean much to me then without the trick-or-treating.  Then we got to throw Halloween parties in our teens so it meant something again for me.  But after my brother passed away, 12 years ago on the 12th, it changed Halloween for us.  He really liked Halloween and he died so close to it.  Honestly the whole end of the year is a sad time for my family.  Seems a lot of beloved people and animals passed away in September, October, and November.  But with the death of my brother it kind of made me give up on the holidays.  But times passes.  Wounds heal.  And then you want to give it another go.  So I want to try to do a little something fun this year.  I’m thinking one or two scary movies, something I have not done in literally years.  Some Halloween treats that I whip up myself.  And spending time with a family friend I haven’t seen in about a year.

And speaking of whipping things up, one of the things I want to whip up is this.  A Chocolate Pumpkin Cake.  Doesn’t it look spooky as well as chocolaty?  I love the black cake stand, it just adds to the Halloween feel of it.  I don’t know if this cake will make it on the list of to-dos this year since I really want to make some homemade Butterfingers, but it’s certainly on a to-do list.  I’m already thinking of different colors to celebrate other holidays.  Like today it’s slightly warm, feels like a Spring day.  I’m picturing a pink cake with light green frosting dripping from the top.  Maybe some candy eggs decorating the sides of it.  It’s a thought.  Ohhh, or a slightly darker green, a slightly darker red, and then spots on the red to make it look kind of like a strawberry.  Ideasssss. 

Sadly my ideas are about as crafty as I’ve been getting as of late.  I’m trying to work my way through organizing my computer and my “haunts” online so I can better socialize and finally open my freaking shop that has been in a “coming soon” state for years now.  But I hope with this fall my life slowly going back to normal that I can start planning and achieving some goals.    I’m hoping that 2012 will be an awesome year.  Even if it ends being our last year, be sure to celebrate Christmas big this year seeing it that some people depict that it will be our last.    But seriously, I am ready to move forward with my life and see my goals start to come true.  Each day the goal list grows with things I want to try to achieve, but  I’m starting to logically see that I can’t reach them all, at least not in this lifetime, but I’m going to shoot for the stars and grab as many on my way by and be happy with my haul once I reach the end of the universe. 

And so I’m off peeps.  I needed this post to reenergize me and my quest for happiness.  I’ve got plans.  I’ve got goals.  And I’ve got determination.  A nice little arsenal to have if I do say so myself.    Ok, I will talk to you lovelies soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Planning her next big crafty caper,
Michelle