luvmysubmariner

Finished!!!! For Now

2010-07-01T10:06:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of the projects we've been working on.

This is the front yard on the right side of the porch.

I love my old bike, thank you Patrick for letting me dig through all your good junk.

Our back porch.
I got these chairs from Chad's mom. She had them out in the barn, so I brought them home with me, cleaned them up and put a coat of white spray paint on them. I found a cute little white table in a magazine and Chad took some scrap wood we had and built this for me. The wreath is actually my summer wreath that goes on the front door, but the colors are perfect for the screened porch so I moved it.

Since I can't keep the damn deer out of my tomatoes I decided to put them in pots on the back porch. So I painted the pots in bright sunshiny colors and just set em out here.

Got this one from Aunt Pam.
She posted this flower pot idea on her facebook page Beehind Thyme Garden & Wares (check it out, she always has great stuff on there) and I loved it, just had to make one for my Red, White, and Blue Patriotic theme in my front yard.

I originally came up with this idea for the front door, but Chad said NO because we would have to leave it when we move and we are not spending money on a house we don't own.
So I decided to put it in my kitchen.
The laundry room is off the kitchen beside my fridge. When we moved in the original door was in the garage and we soon figured out why. The door opens into the room as does the garage door and the room is so small there is barely room for a washer and dryer.
Also, once I got the room painted I loved the color and didn't want to close it off from the rest of the house.

Of course, Chad being Chad he couldn't figure out why I would want to put a screen door in the house and thought for sure it was gonna be a bad idea. But, since he is such a great husband he just went with it and built it anyway.
And once again I won. We both love it.

The color in my laundry room was just to add something different.
It was closed up and claustrophobic til we took down most of the cabinets that were all hung crooked and looked like they would fall off the wall at any moment. It still needs more work, but at least it takes away some of the laundry dread.

This was our final project (for now). Since our buffet turned out so great I have been wanting a table with the same style. Just needed the right parts for it.

While back home in KY and going through all Patrick's great treasures I mentioned wanting some old wooden boards . So he went and hunted down these for me.
Thank you again.

I showed Chad my idea and as always he made it more fabulous than I imagined.

It is perfect sitting in our dining room with the buffet, but now my chairs don't go at all. Guess I'll be adding those to my list too. I'm gonna try to refinish them in the ebony stain, hope it will work. If not I will have another project on my hands (actually Chad will) :)

Home Sweet Home AGAIN

2010-05-11T17:51:00.001-07:00

Well here we are in Georgia again and finally getting the house somewhat organized.

The entire house is in need of some TLC. All the walls need paint and a few other upgrades would be nice, but when you rent you make do with what you got.

Here are some pics of what I have done so far,

This is our MASTER bath.

Sorry no before pictures, I forgot to take them, just wanted to get it done.

We painted the walls, done all the trim in white.

I also painted the light fixture over the mirror, it was a horrid gold and did not fit the room at all.

so a coupla coats of white spray paint and it looks like a brand new fixture.

I would love to be able to do all the cabinets throughout the house in white, just to give it a more updated and fresh look.

This is our second bathroom (our designated bathroom) before the makeover.

And after my ducks invaded.

The walls got a coat of Blue Raindrop, very fitting for my duckies in the rain. A coat of white on this outdated cabinet to match the trim and my own personal touches to make a library fit for a king.

Now to the living room.

The fireplace itself is great, I love the way it is made with the big, flat rocks, but the mantle and screen are not my taste at all.

Some (Hot Chocolate) on the fireplace wall and a little (Cream in my Coffee) on the rest.

And Granny’s quilt as the center piece behind the couch and it’s a warm and cozy living room.

Yes those are the sides to my tv stand. I had to put them there because….

The tv hookups are all on the wall beside the fireplace for some reason and they won’t fit in the tiny space.

And here it is the room you’ve all been waiting for. The kitchen with probably the ugliest counter tops ever.

And ya’ll thought I was just over reacting didn’t you.

All hope of ever getting this to look good is lost, so I am just gonna have to live with this one.

More to come later still got alot of work to do.

2009-12-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

here is my anniversary present, the pics are kinda crappy, but if you click on them and enlarge you can see it

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

The dining room and buffet we built.

The kitchen tree.

Yes, I have more than one.

I have my mamma to blame for the double trees. She use to put one in almost EVERY room in our house. We even had a small one in our bathroom.

I tried to get another one for the

dining room, but Chad wouldn’t go along with that.

There’s always next year.

Went out back of the house and picked up all this greenery to make swags for my front windows.

But putting holes in the house is NOT allowed, so I just put most of it up in the house. I also have four hanging swags to put on the porch posts outside.

I saw these letters in a catalog, eleven for 20 bucks. Yeah right, made these for less than 6 and that was the cost of two yards of fabric.

Spent all day yesterday painting this window for the front room. Last night as I was getting ready to do the letters “Let it Snow”, I look out my window and it was snowing. We just got a light dusting, but it was snow.

This is the tree in our front room, my favorite. The rest of the house is all grown up, but this one makes me feel like a little kid again. I always do this tree and the outside of my house in colors. The white just doesn't feel as much like Christmas.

Most of the presents are for Angel & Solomon, I swear they are gonna have a better Christmas than us this year.

Here is Solomon; he is kinda a camera hound. He wouldn’t leave me alone til I took his picture. And when I say "wouldn't leave me alone" I mean bouncing up in my face and crying. We should have named him Tigger, cuz he can bounce, just not on his tail.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

Found some trees that were cut down and dumped and tied them up with fishing line. We made our spider web out of clothes line dipped in blue black light paint, then hot glued it to chicken wire. The spider is a couple of black toilet seat covers and sticks for legs.

The bats I cut out of black felt and glued up. Found this idea online.

Our buffet

2009-11-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

While walking on the beach back this summer I found this board that had washed up. It looks like it may have come from a boat or something, it still had a metal strap and big rusted chain attached to it. As soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to do with it, so I sat down and drew out my design. Chad cut off the chain and metal, then cut the board in half.

That was 6 months ago.

Yep, it has taken that long to get this started, but he took leave for Thanksgiving and this is what we have spent that time doing.

We made about 6 trips to home depot in 4 days just to get the right supplies.
Probably could'a saved alot on gas if we'd just built it there,
don't think they'll let you do that tho.
These are pics of the whole thing coming together, Chad wanted some at every stage to show the process.

I originally picked out stain to match my dining room table which is red mahogany, but when I put poly on the boards it turned the grain into this fabulous black, so back to Home Depot we went.

The box, doors and drawer.

Went with the ebony stain to match the top.

Ah, finally getting somewhere with this thing, it felt like it was taking forever to get it built. I wanted to get it done so I could get my Christmas decor done.

We are no where near being professional builders and our tool chest is below redneck standards. It consists of a skil saw that we've had for about 12 yrs, 2 very cheap drills (one that only holds a charge for about 20 min., a router we bought to build our nightstands, and a $25 Wal-mart sander.

The entire time we worked on this Chad kept trying to convince that "my old ugly board was gonna make this beautiful piece of art look like crap"
I never gave in tho, that was my inspiration and it was going on.

Then we laid on the top
and
"Honey you were right, it looks great."

I tried to tell him.

We finally got it in the house last night and I am still amazed.
It looks so much better than it did in my head, I knew it was gonna be beautiful, but this is above my expectations.
These pics do not even show how fabulous this thing turned out.
And to think it all started with a piece of crap that washed up on a beach.

As soon as I get my decorations done I will post more pics. Maybe I can get some better shots.
I have decided our next project is gonna have to be a dining room table, because the one I have just looks horrible with this in the same room.
Maybe I'll find some more crappy wood on the beach:)

Fall Decor

2009-09-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Finally got my front porch finished for Fall.
Our front porch is really great for decorating, but I haven't really had the urge to do it til now.
I think it has to do with the colors, they are perfect for this time of year.
(clic the pic to enlarge)

Put the finishing touches on yesterday.
My favorite part is probably the crows that are perched on everything.

I also love how my sign turned out, even if it did take me two days to get it right.

yes it is suppose to be crooked

And then we have Floyd and Maude. They started the whole thing.

Thank you Aunt Pam for helping with the faces. :)

house pics (downstairs)

2009-08-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

You can enlarge pics by clicking on them.

Dining Room

downstairs bath
this one came out a little dark, but the colors are blue/brown/white

Front Room/ Entry

Living Room

Kitchen

Family Photos

2009-06-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

Mini Golf

2009-06-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

And the winner is......

Deception Pass and Sunset

2009-06-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

On the beach at Deception Pass.

Deception Pass Bridge

Watching the sunset

Twilight Trip

2009-06-12T11:50:00.001-07:00

Ferry ride

Edward's House

Bella's Truck

La Push Beach

2009-06-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Fort Casey State Park

Lighthouse

2009-06-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

Mt Rainier

Seattle Aquarium

On base where Chad works.

At the beach.

One of the trips to Seattle.

Duck Bathroom Art

2009-05-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I re-decorated our "library" in ducks.
This week I made art work for over the toilet.

I used an old window, laid it on top of my shower curtain and outlined with a white craft paint pen. Then painted the back side in layers, starting with the highlights. And finishing with the overall colors.

(click on image to enlarge)

Flipped it over and this is the finished art piece.

(click on image to enlarge)

And here it is in the bathroom.
I'm also going to redo the frame with a white wash effect.

(click on image to enlarge)

Momma's Project Friday

2009-05-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

On the Thursday before Easter, my husband came home from work with......

A baby brother for Angel. As you can tell after being the only child for 5 yrs she is not too sure if she wants to keep him or not. It took us a few days to come up with a name and decided on
Solomon.

When Angel was a baby I made her a pink camo blanket with her name on it so I figured I'd do the same for Solomon, but could not find blue camo anywhere. So I picked up some blue doggy fabric and decided to make him a bed instead.

1 yrd each of dog print and blue polka dot
Lay fabrics print sides together, cut batting to fit.
Stitch all sides, leaving an opening at the bottom to flip right side out.

I sewed mine then decided to embroider his name on it, I recommend doing the embroidery first.

For his name I used a piece of striped fabric with doggy bones on it. Printed out letters from the puter then traced onto fabric. Outlined with brown thread, then used brown, blue, and tan thread and hand stitched inside letters.

As you can see I had help, making it very difficult to actually get the letters sewn.

Did another outline around the name and cut off excess fabric.

Used stuffing from a couple of old pillows, then sewed up the unfinished edge.

The finished bed is a hit.
Angel doesn't even sleep in her store bought bed anymore, guess I'm gonna have to go shopping for some pink fabric now.

Angel has also decided that having a new baby brother isn't so bad after all.

Our Getaway

2009-04-16T11:35:00.001-07:00

Monday, Chad and I took off on a minny “weekend” getaway. Yes, on Monday. With his schedule we take them when we get them.

So we headed out across US 2 which is part of the cascade loop through the Cascade Mountain Range here in Washington State.

Some people at work had told Chad about a little German town, on the other side of the mountains from us, called Leavenworth. We found a cute little B&B (Scandinavian Escape) online and made our reservations to stay a couple of days in their Valhalla Suite.

This is the Bed and sitting area with fireplace in our room.

In the morning, we were awakened by the smell of fresh ground coffee served in a separate sitting room just outside our door. Then, this Beautiful, delicious Breakfast was served in our room By our faBulous hostess Linny.

The french doors opened onto a Balcony with views of the Enchanted Mountains.

Our private Bath with two person shower, jacuzzi tub, and my favorite part a heated tile floor.

Downtown Leavenworth, town center, and the Maypole.

We went out driving toward Wenatchee on Tuesday just to see the countryside. These are pics of the apple and pear orchards that cover almost all available land in this area. For miles on either side of the road all you can see are rows and rows of trees. The houses are just sitting in amongst these trees, with no more clearing than the area around the house and up the driveways. It’s a pretty cool sight.

This is the ColumBia River and Rocky Reach Dam area.

Don’t have many pics caus my Batteries died and I didn’t have any more on me inside. You have to go through a metal detector to get into the viewing area and museum at the dam and I was not about to go Back outside.

The picnic area and playground outside the dam.

This is proBaBly the coolest tree I have ever seen. It is called a Camperdown Elm and I just love the way it looks.

Everything here in WA is just starting to Bloom so these pink trees stand out against all the pines and leafless trees everywhere. This one was all By itself on the corner of the other wise empty flower Bed.

These white Birch trees are every where on the other side of the mountains. I don’t know what it is aBout them, But I looovvee these trees. They are just Beautiful.

The B&B we stayed at actually has a Bed in one of the other rooms handmade from these trees. They have pics of it on their weBsite.

Some pics of Chad goofin' off.

These were taken on the way home. We decided to drive a different route and took I 90. This is at the ColumBia River.

Some wild flowers on the side of the road, I thought they were dandelions until I got up close. They look kinda like miniature sunflowers.

The drive home.

The scenery on this road was pretty awesome. It went from the high 60’s, desert terrain to low 40,s and snow within about 30 min. It was proBaBly one of the prettiest drives we have ever taken.

Momma's Project Friday

2009-03-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Magnetic Picture Frames

What You Will Need:

material, scissors

templates (you can use aBout anything for this)

card stock, ruler or straight edge

glue gun, fray Block, utility knife, magnets

First, measure and trace out all your frames.

Use scissors to cut along outside and utility knife for the insides.

You can Be very creative with your shapes and sizes on these.

(I used my old shredder and a couple of old iron pot holders for templates.)

Cut center so that you can wrap toward the Back of frame. Lay card stock onto Back of faBric, lining up with center. Glue down corners, sides and then inside flaps. Trim excess faBric.

Use fray Block on all your cuts to make sure the faBric doesn’t fray. (Best to do this Before you glue and let dry.)

Glue magnet strips onto Back.

EmBellish, Being careful not to overload what magnet will hold.

For these I cut out the floral pattern and glued to card stock, then trimmed off the edges and added to my plain green frames.

Print out pics, trim, and hang on fridge.

I made these for Chad's filing caBinet in his home office.

Momma's Project Friday

2009-03-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Project Friday everyone!!!

I finally got my project that was supposed to Be posted last week done.
I’ve had this caBinet for 6 or 7 years (another trash shopping find) and have used it in my kitchen until the last couple of years, But could not throw it out. My excuse was that I might need to use it someday.

Well, today was that day.

I have now recycled aBout 90% of this caBinet.

This is also the caBinet I took the doors from to make my canvas for my mud room.

Over the last few years I have gradually Been Building my Bedroom set.
I designed my nightstands and have drawn them out more than a few times
to get them just right.

So a couple of weeks ago I was in the garage and was looking at this caBinet and it came to me. I graBBed my pencil and paper and sketched out my idea. Then I headed out to Home Depot.

What you will need:

A cutter, measurer, and Builder.

Oh yeah, and some wood, and tools n' stuff. :)

I used the top, Bottom and drawer from the caBinet, a piece of pressed wood, and a piece of thin, pretty, plywood. The legs I cut out of a few pieces of wood I had laying in the garage.

This is the first one. We cut out sides, Bottom, and Back, then put it all together.
Measured, cut out openings in front for drawer and shelf.

For this one we used the Bottom of the caBinet as the top.

Attached top and painted a coat of primer.

(should use the same color as your final coat, the white did not work for me)

I had to go Back and put a coat of Black paint on, then used flat Black spray paint for the finishing coat.

(I have to give credit to Aunt Pam for the idea to use spray paint on furniture.)

Spray paint is cheaper, goes on smooth, and leaves a clean finish.

We routed the edges of a piece of wood for the drawer front, and attached to drawer.

Five days later, the finished product. I put this one on his side of the Bed since he spent his entire weekend doing all the hard stuff so I would finally have my nightstands. I'm pretty sure it was just so I would leave him alone aBout Building them. :)

The headBoard we Built a few months ago.

The second one we used the top of the caBinet and it only took us aBout 6hrs to Build. 24hrs later and it was in our room.

The only thing I need now is my dresser, already have the design in my head, But since Chad has worked so hard on these and gave up his weekends I think I’ll give him a couple of weeks to recover.

Duck Bathroom

2009-03-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

I finally got this bathroom done. And it doesn't look like a kids bathroom. (too much)
I have been wanting a duck bathroom for awhile now and Bonnie sent me this shower curtain so I thought why not.

I built this cabinet a couple weeks ago. I whitewashed some wood flooring slats that I have moved around for the last 6 yrs. (I knew I would need them some day.) When I started it I did not intend for it to look like an outhouse, it just turned out that way.

Momma's Project Friday

2009-03-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

I didn't get my project for this week done in time so I decided to post our flag instead.

This is a project that my husband Chad and I did last summer. I am a proud American and Navy wife so I always make sure that my colors are flying first thing every time we move.

I'm not sure where the idea came from, I just thought that it would be cool to collect some drift wood from the beach and make this flag.

We went and got about 15 pcs of wood, cut the pieces to about the same size with a hand saw so the edges would still be jagged, then attached two one by fours to the back to hold it all together.

Then I covered up each area seperately and spray painted the red and white. The blue aera was painted white. I cut out small stars from an old pair of jeans and taped them onto the square. ( if you don't tape them down, they will fly off when you spray)

This is the finished flag on our front porch. I have two spot lights in front of it and at night they illuminate the flag with a faint blue light.

"Momma's Project Friday"

2009-03-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

We moved in to this house in Sept. and I have Been trying to figure out what to do with this room. When Momma asked me to do Project Friday I figured it would Be a good reason to get it done.

It's just a small little nook between the garage and the rest of the house that we call our mud room. Since we moved in, it has served as a place to put the things that don’t go anywhere and of course Angel’s food.

I have had this desk for about 5 yrs. It was a great find while out “trash shopping” one night. (this wonderful hoBBy runs in the family) I had sanded and stained this piece, But I had a paint color in mind for this room so I decided to give the desk a new look. I spray painted it flat Black and added new handles to the Bottom drawers.

By the time I finished my “project” it had turned into a few.

The two pieces of art on the wall I made from a couple of cabinet door frames wrapped with an old pillow sham to make a canvas. Then I painted them using satin black and sour apple paint. The sticks I got out of my Back yard and painted myself (I never really saw the point in Buying them when they grow for free everywhere).

On the other wall I made special for Angel. The words were printed, transferred onto the wall, and then painted with craft paint. I really liked the idea of putting polka dots on the wall. My husBand on the other hand wasn’t thrilled with this idea. He is in the Navy and since we live in housing and will Be moving in less than a year he didn’t want to have to paint over them. So, a compromise, I cut out cardBoard dots, painted them, and stuck them on the wall with putty. I think this was a Better idea anyway, Because they stand out.

The screen Behind the door was a last minute throw together. After putting the room Back together I realized I still had to put all that stuff in there so I hot glued these pretty tree Branches to it. You can't see them in the pics, But there are tiny little pink and green Buds on the tips and yellow green moss all over the Branches. The colors go great with the paint colors in the room.

2008-12-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

Angel chasing snowballs. It is hilarious watching her fetch snowballs, she'll dig forever trying to find them. These kinda show how deep the snow is.

This is the Nissan sitting out front of the house. If you look really close you can see there is about a ft on it.

White Christmas

2008-12-23T12:30:00.001-08:00

Snow, snow, and more snow. We are a little under the weather up here, literally. It has snowed here for most of the last 10 days. Yesterday was the only day we haven't had any. It has started up again today, just a few mild flurries here and there. It is gonna be a white Christmas this year. Our guesstimate is that we have anywhere from 10in to 2ft depending on where your standing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

2008-10-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is what Chad bought me for my birthday.

Our Flag

2008-09-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

Admiralty Head Lighthouse

2008-09-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is the lighthouse at Fort Casey State Park. There is a lot of cool history at this park and the lighthouse. I did my writing profile on this and found that history is very exciting. I think visiting a place as your learning about it gives you a different perspective on the history.

A gentleman that volunteers at the lighthouse told me that the lighthouse was the first house on the island to have a bathtub. Because most people had never seen one, the lighthouse keeper and his wife would throw parties to show off the tub.

These pics were taken at sunset, of course.

Our Back Yard

2008-08-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my back porch. This is the best thing about where we live.

This mountain is miles & miles away, it can only be seen on very, very clear days. We've lived here for almost a year and I think I've seen this a total of 4 times. We think it might be Mt Rainier, but not real sure.

The moon rise over our back field.

This one is at sunset, the sun sets at the front of the house, but sometimes on the island it engulfs the whole sky.

This picture is from my front porch. Pictures do not even show how spectacular this was.

Just Us

2008-08-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

Since everyone always complains that we never send pictures of ourselves, here are some pics of us.

This was taken at Fort Casey State Park. We are standing on top of the fort.

Walking on the beach, this is a once a week trip. We try to find a new one every week. Chad is getting really tired of going to the beach, but it is my favorite place to be.

This one is us on the cliffs by the lighthouse at Fort Casey.

This was pretty cool, you can't really see it, but this tree is growing out the edge of a cliff at Fort Ebey.

Chad at Fort Casey State Park beside one of the 10in disappearing guns.

Our Baby Girl Angel

2008-08-14T12:18:00.001-07:00

Angels favorite place to be, curled up in bed with daddyAngel loves walking on the beach. Her favorite part is exploring
the driftwood for hidden doggy treasures.

For some reason, she has a fear of the ocean. It took Chad about 20 min to get her up on this log. If we try to lead her to the water on her leash she will grab the leash, dig her paws in and drag us across the beach away from the water.

Angel and Chad exploring at Fort Ebey State Park.

Sunset

2008-08-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

My favorite place in the world is the ocean at sunset. There are no words to describe how I feel as I watch nature paint the sky with the most beautiful shades of color. Listening to the sounds of the ocean as it washes away the day, and the endlessness of the two wonders. No matter how many times I see it, it is always different and amazing. Even with a beach full of people I feel as though it was put there just for me.
When I’ve had a bad day, it is my escape. Sitting and watching the sunset is so peaceful and serene; it melts away the stress of the day and clears my head. All my worries and problems seem so small compared to the immensity of the sun setting slowly into the ocean. I am always in awe of this majestic scene.
I don’t understand how such splendor is in our everyday lives and we just allow it to slip by without notice. In my opinion nothing can compare to the vastness and remarkable beauty of the ocean and sky meeting to say goodnight.

April D Edwards

2008-07-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone Chad and I went to the beach the other night to watch the sunset. The weather here has been unpredictable; with the cloud cover there was no sunset, but this was much better.

Check out what we saw instead. :) This is a Harbor Seal Pup chillin' on the beach.

Harbor Seals give birth "pupping" along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands during the months of June and July. Harbor Seals are the only "pinnapeds" that breed along the Pudget Sound.

This one is adorable, you can see him sucking on his toe. :) From the information I have found on the web, this pup is not very old. Most pups are born with there adult coat, but this one still has the white furry coat which means it was pre-mature.

Not to worry though, mom was close by. This is her out in the water, she was swimming back and forth about 50 yards out.

71 Chevrolet Camaro

2008-07-11T14:20:00.000-07:00