Zero Blog Manners with a Side of Updates

Where are my blog manners?  My guess is they were lost somewhere during our whirlwind of a summer.  So many fun and exciting things happened, and the year isn't even over with.

The last post was a photo of our garage door.  Lucky you?  Happy to say the paint is holding up well during the rainstorms, and the rust isn't showing through our black door.  Another win.

Here is a quick rundown of our summer projects:

June 2016: Dug out all of the lava rock from our landscape.  Took out Yew bushes 1 & 2, another pointless bush that didn't pull it's weight in landscape appeal, and 6 enormous hostas.  Future landscape plan turned into a dirt pile.  Painted the garage door, and updated the light fixture.

It's a start, anyway.

July 2016: Transplanted a Boxwood, some Lavender, Spirea Magic Carpet, and Black Eyed Susan's to the front yard.  Laid down some very convincing (and Eco-Friendly) rubber mulch, and enjoyed a good job well done.  This was it.  I wasn't going to touch the landscape again.  It was a terrible idea to begin with- says my back, and hips, hands, arms... everything.

Then in the middle of July we hopped on a plane and jetted to Portlandia, the coast, and Washington Wine Country.

Five years together already, what?!

Bucket List - Check (Cannon Beach, OR)

When we returned, I scoped out how the rubber mulch was holding up.  At this point my only beef with the rubber mulch was how light it was.  Didn't matter the amount of rain, or the strength of a breeze, it would make its way out of it's home. Tolerable.  I could sweep the walkway a few times a month.

Then I saw it.

A perfect brown squiggle peeking through the rubber mulch.

No.

It can't be.

But it was.

A cat turd.  Layed there by the feline across the street, himself.

I grabbed a bag to scoop up the mocking turd.  To my horror, I realized there was another, then another, and then another.  Seven cat-shits in total.  I looked across the street, ready to hurl the bag of poo at the neighbors siding when I saw that cat staring back at me.  Taunting me.  I knew very well he would be back.  I did what any sane person would do.  I looked up ways to humanely kill ward off cats.  Cayenne Pepper Flakes.  I grabbed every jar we had and dumped those flakes on his doody target.  In my mind, problem-solved.

Walking into the house and feeling like I won the battle and the war, it got me thinking, this cat has lived in our neighborhood for years now.  YEARS.  Why did Catshit finally take a dump on our property?  A. We were on vacation, and Gretzky wasn't home to protect his castle.  B. Another beefy reason to add to the rubber mulch not being awesome list.  Cats dig it.  Literally.  It's called pussy-footing for good reason.  They enjoy the soft touch under their paws, dig a little, and then take a big dump.  But my problem was solved, after all.  Right?

After spending the rest of the day and night watching to make sure that cat didn't creep on over, I woke up feeling rested and ready for the day.  On my way out the door to get the mail, I double checked the doody target.  Notta.  Nothin'.  No cats ass was hanging around my mulch.  All smiles.  After retrieving the mail and walking back, I noticed the infamous squiggle, yet again, except this time it was on the other side of the door.  Another pile o' shit.  I lost it.  Not in a cat-kicking kind of way, but in a grabbing gloves and garbage bags, and man handling the remaining rubber mulch that wasn't violated by digested Fancy Feast and pneumonia, kinda way.

For weeks the landscape sat with no landscape, thanks to Catshit.  It monsooned for like, ever; the dirt splashed up all over the plants and suffocated them. Let's take inventory, shall we? Boxwood ALIVE, Lavender DEAD, Spirea Magic Carpet DEAD- hated it anyway, Black Eyed Susan's Kinda Dead, and a mud puddle, very much ALIVE.

Then something miraculous happened.  Just like that, Catshit and his family were gone.  A moving truck was parked up front, and before they even pulled away, I was back up front assessing the damage and dreaming of plan B.

August 2016: Planted Plan B plants (say that five times fast) - Russian Sage, my half-life Black Eyed Susan's, Blue Festuca Boulder Blue Grass, Broadleaf Sage, and one petite Lilac bush-- kept this from the original set of plants per Shane's request.  Queue good wifey award.

The plants have a lot of growing-up to do.  They are nested in clay-based soil, so only time will tell.

New Light Update:  Our house is tiny.  I'd gather from the posts, you may have noticed this.  Oddly enough, we like a small space, and certainly the challenge of making it work.  The past couple of years we have gone full-speed ahead becoming #basic minimalists.  The piles of unused goods initially leaving our house would make anyone with attachment issues committed.  And a lot of people got some nice, free shit.

Where was I?

Oh, the light.

Because we had a skull breaking pendant light, our dining room table had to be strategically placed under said pendant light, not leaving much room for much of anything else.  My solution was to get a flush mounted light, avoid knocking our heads, and having the added bonus of moving our table wherever the f**k we want. I went through a little shop on Etsy.  I ended up ordering the wrong light and like an idiot, didn't realize it until it was already up.  But instead of acting all miffed about my mix-up, I'm going to own this light instead.

September 2016: On September 16th, 2016, we are getting our driveway fixed.  I feel like I should alert the media.  Our driveway is rotten.  It doesn't even deserve another thought.  After some research, we called up American Waterworks to get a quote for PolyLevel.  Our meeting was a bit of a nail biter.  We assumed the project would be thousands and thousands given the terribleness of our driveway/walkway.  Turns out it wasn't thousands and thousands.  What it IS, in fact, is an extremely affordable end to an unfortunate driveway.  UPDATES to come, but I won't leave you hanging, unlike our driveway...

Studio Space Update: I don't have a lot to say right now about the studio.  Besides the fact that it's been severely neglected, until now.  There are still a lot of touch-ups, and sadly, the plywood floor is not holding up like I had hoped.  But right now, I'm not going to worry about the floor.  Instead I am going to focus on what is being done.  Exhibit A: I give you storage--

Other Summer Highlights:

• Die Antwood in concert (mind-blown)
• Rock the Garden Festival in Boom Park, MSP
• Grandma turned 90 and shot a paintball gun
• Won free tickets to Minnesota's Renaissance Festival by entering in a coloring book contest and WINNING
• Completed a tile piece decorated by patients and their families for the Children's Hospital at St. Mary's Mayo Clinic Campus
• Took some great naps
• Got a tan for once

If you're interested in seeing these snapshots of my everyday life, follow me on Instagram @slothahontas - Cuz I like sloths and Pocahontas, duh.  And I might just end up liking you.  Thanks for reading!

The Bell of the Bathroom

Running a few days behind here, but I wanted to give you a quick peek at the CB2 Bell lights from this "Updates" post, that we finally got around to putting up in the art studio/guest bedroom.  One half of the room is almost complete.  All that is left is filling and painting the wood trim white + window treatments.  Oh my Lanta!

We have also been hard at work in the upstairs bathroom.  Previously I shared a planning board of everything that was in our bathroom at this very moment--

Split level bathrooms do not give you a lot of room, or light to photograph.  Without natural light, everything just looks orange and muddy. Without further adieu- this is the best I could do.

Everything has been stripped down.  No art, no decor, no nothing.  Minimal.  I have to tell you, I really don't mind it.  I actually like it.  No fuss.

A little side-by-side action:

Then

Now

Up next on the chopping block-- our "master" bedroom.  More to come on it's progress.  Just for giggles, here is the before we moved in shot:

Redrum.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blinded by the Light (DIY Branch Light)

Helllllllo there.  Me and Shane have been gone, but certainly aren't dead.  Yet.  The past month has been filled with every activity under the sun, and lots of Project Runway watching.  Lots.  Needless to say, something had to go.  So bu-bye blog for one month.  I've got a feeling things will start to settle down here within the next, oh, five years?  Regular blog sessions will ensue after.

One, or maybe two... probably two months ago I started another lighting project.  My favorite.  I came across this idea by checking out Home Depot's DIY section.  One of my favorite bloggers from Little Green Notebook hosted the how-to class in Tempe, AZ, and documented the process on her blog too.

Let's first begin by looking at the light we did have:

I think it was just too typical and boring for our personalities.  It isn't a bad light per-se, so if you have this light in your house and love it, good for you!  There could be worse things in life!  Hooray!

Our hallway doesn't see much for natural sunlight, and the dingy flush mount light just wasn't cutting it.  Half the time you could hardly tell it was on.

Enough is enough.  This little light of mine, I'm gonna make you shine, dammit.

First things first (I'll eat your brain then I'm gonna start rockin' gold teeth and fangs) thanks Nicki.  I started out by purchasing a very simple porcelain canopy socket for around three bucks and seven socket splinters- around $2.00 a piece.  I wanted to experiment with placement before painting the unit first.  While doing this the hubby kept looking over my shoulder.  He didn't even need to tell me what he was thinking, because I already knew, but decided to anyway.  Fire hazard.

Bright Lights Part Deuce

So, I am feeling kind of bad about the last bright light post.  I gave up people!  You should only blog when you feel like really getting into it. If not, you will end up like me giving maybe 60%... maybe.  Sawwy.

But it's coo.  I drank some coffee.  Watch out for the explosion of excitement coming your way.

I love lamp.

I seriously do.  I can't won't tell you how much time I have spent searching specialty shops, department stores, antique emporiums, and Pinterest for unique lamps, floor lamps in particular.

Welcome to my vault:



So. Cool.  I think lamps have been an unfrequented form of art... I am very excited to see that this is no longer the case.  Lamps are no longer being treated as an accessory, but more of a main focal point.

Insert wanting to create a sculpture piece for my art exhibit.  It was kind of a fluke that I fell into this idea.  One day I just started drawing houses.  Once I filled my page, I still wanted to make more.  After a bit I ended up with three fairly good sized Bristol papers filled with ladders, rows of homes, castles, and broken down buildings.  I really wanted to figure out a way to display this without taking away the fact that it was a mobius image.

Bright Lights

We're back in the saddle again!

Before we majorly neglected our blog, I mentioned that there was this crazy-awesome opportunity that came up.  I was approached to showcase my personal artwork in my very own exhibit at the Rochester Art Center!  Needless to say, life was put on hold as I attempted to create around 30 bodies of artwork in about two months.  My heart rate was certainly not normal for a month there.  When people say "panic mode," I more or less thought it was a figure of speech.  Nope.

Anyway, if you feel like checking out the exhibit, like I said it is at the Rochester Art Center (here) through June 8th.  There are some rather incredible exhibits going on at this time so I highly suggest you culture yourself, if art is something that is important to you, and see it.

Culture Me

A couple of weeks ago I went to Las Vegas for a dear friends bachelorette party.  It was divinely tame, but a once in a lifetime experience at that.  Needless to say, after being in a city filled with pretty twinkle lights and then coming home to a house that clearly needed some updated lights, we knew it was time for a little DIY action.

The first light I am going to talk about it our new ceiling fan.  Ceiling fan?  Say what?  Aren't people trying to get away from ceiling fans you ask?  Probably.  However, common sense trumps all design.  Living in a split level home, the airflow in the upstairs is close to nonexistent, so as much as I would love a pretty chandelier, it just ain't gonna happen.  It would be easy to come up with 20 different reasons why the ceiling fan had to go, but the main reason is the fan had an uncanny ability to drive people insane.  We weren't aware of our ceiling fans talent until my mom and dad came to stay with us.  My momma, bless her heart, said that she would lay awake at night, eyes wide open, singing along with the tap dancing fan.  Du dun du dun du dun. Misery.

So here we go!  Out with the old:

Dust = Neglect.  Whatevs.

Complete with track lighting!

In with the new:

We ended up getting the Ashton ceiling fan from Menards.  They were having a sale on it, plus our precious rebate coupons = under $100.00 bucks, including tax.  Hell yeah! This new little gem is modern enough for Shane, and unique enough for me.  Plus it is supposed to save on energy costs.  We will see...

The process was relatively easy.  Then again, I was the one taking the pictures while the hubs did the dirty work.  We discovered that this room did not have a ground wire, which kinda freaked us out.  For future ceiling fan/light installers, it is okay to not have a ground wire.

So long dirty garbage fan.

When it was time to actually put the fan up, there were a few very important instructions left out of the steps.  This particular fan comes with a remote control to adjust it's settings.  When placing the remote box in the ceiling fan, it was supposed to go a certain way.  If we knew this, we would have saved 20 minutes trying to figure out why the cap wasn't flush with the ceiling, and don't even get me on the wires.  Why are there so many wires?  Can't you just feel the frustration in Shane's face?  Being the wife it was my duty to leave the room so Shane could cuss up a storm.  He succeeded.  The fan was indeed a piece of shit at the time.

So frustrated.

While Shaner was working on the fan, I took photos with the dog.

After a little bitchin', the fan finally decided to give in right when Shane was about to.  Such a sexy little thing, for a ceiling fan.

Lighting project part two coming soon...