A New DIY Project
We have a 1950s style house with LOTS of paneling. Little by little I have been painting the entire house as opposed to ripping out all of the paneling which can get messy.
I was itching to do a small project yesterday. I have been slowly working on my kitchen for the past three years, painting a section of it at a time. I decided that the shelves above my kitchen desk needed a makeover.
We had some leftover paint from our living room project so I decided to use the same paint we used on the bookcases in that room. I choose a medium gray color for the living room bookcases because not only is it soft and comforting but it hides the dust!
After spending an hour or so scraping the old blue painters tape off that I had left on there since the last project (Note to self: don’t do that again!) and clearing the shelves of all of the junk on them and cleaning them and removing any of the screws and hooks attached to them, I got down to business.
With three shelves, sides, tops and bottoms I got a first coat on everything. Then my shoulder ached so I figured that was enough for one day.
I plan on digging a few pieces of my Granny’s Milk Glass out of the attic to display them on one of the shelves. Hopefully that will give me incentive to keep the shelves clean and organized.
I will post pics when the project is finished. What kind of projects are you working on right now?
12 Goals for 2015 Update
Week Three
1. Renovate our only bathroom and replace the window in our son’s bedroom.
I am still in the “finding a contractor and getting a good quote” stage of my bathroom reno but rest assured we will have a new bathroom by the end of the year come heck or high water!
I did get our son’s window replaced in his bedroom last week though. Yippee! It was an old single paned window with a storm that was not pretty, especially with the big hole in it from a roll of quarters flying into it one day. (Gee I wonder how that happened?) It took all of an hour and a half to get the old window out and the new one in and at a cost of $396.00 including labor and tax I say that was pretty good!
2. Catch-up on and read my favorite daily blog – “Feed Your Family for $100 a Month” by Mavis Butterfield. Also catch-up on and read a really great e-magazine “From Scratch”.
Mavis Butterfield’s blog is a daily blog and if I don’t read it at least once a week to catch-up I tend to get way behind. I am so behind in fact that I am currently reading October blog posts from her. So I have a little catching up to do. I have gotten about 15 read this last week so I might get caught up by March. Maybe.
From Scratch is a bi-monthly e-magazine and currently I am 3 months behind. I guess I have some reading to do there too.
I could just delete all of the emails and start from scratch (no pun intended) but I would really miss out on some great information as well as deals that both publications offer.
3. Journal Daily
So far I am only one day behind and that is amazing for a person who has never consistently written in a journal. I will keep you updated.
4. Pay off one of our two credit cards
At first my goal was to pay off both of our credit cards but after thinking about it I knew I would struggle to pay off one much less two. I called the credit card company for my Old Navy Card (the one with the highest interest) and they would not budge on the interest rate. So I have a different plan and we will see how that goes in the coming months.
5. Organize our attic
I haven’t done anything yet
6. Exercise 3 times a week
So far I haven’t exercised yet this week but after painting yesterday I might just count that!
7. Read one book a month
The book I am reading right now is Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett. It is an epic novel set during WWI. It sweeps over Russia, Germany, England and the US with a set of characters in each country. I have been listening to it on CD because it is such a long novel. With my schedule there are some books I would never get read if it weren’t recorded on CD. This book is a whopping 24 CDs long which is exactly why I chose it. I am on CD 15 and I have had it since before Christmas. I hope the library will let me renew it for a third time! What are you reading at the moment?
8. Send out birthday and anniversary cards each month
I have always wanted to be like my mom and mother-in-law in the way they have always been so good about sending cards out to everyone on their birthdays. So far in my life have failed miserably at it. I decided that this year would be different. I would get organized!
I have taken two different steps to make sure I get birthday and anniversary cards out to people in a timely manner.
One: I subscribed to Hallmark E-Cards. I set up an account online and for a small yearly fee you can input all of the recipients’ names with birth dates and when you would like the e-cards to be delivered. You can choose from many different styles and gender specific cards. The recipients receive a notification via email that they have a card to open. It was easy and affordable! Here is a link to their site https://www.hallmarkecards.com/
Two: I ordered a mess of paper cards from CURRENT Catalog. Our church used to use Current as a fundraiser when we were young and it has been years since I have ordered from them. I found them again on-line and I ordered a variety of cards. Some I ordered were for kids, some were for men, some for women, some for old and some for young. I purchased 48 cards for less than $35 including shipping and tax. Not bad! Current also carries wrapping paper and stationary and all kinds of other fun stuff. Check out www.currentcatalog.com for more info.
I have January birthdays ready to go now I need to work on February’s.
9. Make copies of my Granny’s recipes and give a copy to each of our family members.
So far I have done nothing towards this goal but the year is young.
10. Digitize my Dad’s family’s photos and make photo books and give CD copies to each of our family members
I own and live in my dad’s parents’ house. In the attic are the family photos from my dad’s side of the family packed neatly away by his mother, my grandmother. Both sets of my grandparents have been gone for quite a long time now. I have really wanted to go through all of my family’s photos from both sides to digitize them. Since my dad’s family photos are in my attic I decided I would start on his side first. So far the photos I have found have started with photos from the 1940s during WWII.
On my day off which is Wednesday I have been taking batches of photos down to my local Walgreens to scan them and put them on a CD. I have to admit I had never done this before but it only took once to have someone guide me through the process and now I am a pro at it.
Last week I spent an hour and a half scanning in 36 photos and cropping and saving them.
Here are a couple of the photos I scanned.
My dad is the one with the puss on his face in the photo on the left. He is turning 70 this year.
The CD has a 36 photo capacity and costs $5.99. After I scan in my photos and input my payment info the CD is ready to be picked up in less than two hours. You can also make prints of these photos and there are lots of other options. It’s a great gift idea at an affordable price.
It is so much fun to work on this project. I will show you some more photos as I progress with my project.
11. YouTube/Blog at least once a week
Originally I wanted to create YouTube videos of baking and cooking and canning but I am a little scared after my one and only attempt to make a video. For now I think I will just stick with getting the hang of blogging. I hope to post on Wednesday and Sundays but will have to see how that goes.
12. Read the Bible from cover to cover with my husband
I have never read the Bible from cover to cover. There are quite a few of my church family that have read it more than once so I figured this was the year I was finally ready to receive the words of the Bible and I wanted to do it with my husband.
I downloaded a book to my Kindle to help guide us in achieving this goal.
The Bible Challenge, Read the Bible in a Year, gives you a daily schedule of readings along with a short devotional and questions pertaining to the text you have read.
We really like our nightly readings. Instead of waiting until bedtime, we read right after dinner, at the dining room table, otherwise we get sleepy and tend to want to stop. My husband and I read aloud to each other sharing the reading. It has sparked some interesting conversations between us!
I feel good about my progress on my 2015 goals. Do you have goals? What are they and how are you doing on them? – MMR
The Professional Domestic 