Project Monday - Presidents' Day



(Ronald Reagan
Photo: Web)

I don't have any good President's Day related projects.  I would put up just another post about something I've made or something I redid, but I thought it was more important to honor our great leaders.  Keep in mind I said our great leaders and there have been a handful of not so great ones.  I honor the job and thank all of the amazing men who have represented this country to the best of their abilities.  God Bless America and never stop fighting for the freedoms we have been afforded by those who came before us and those who have risked there lives to keep it that way.



(George Washington
Photo: Web)

(Abraham Lincoln
Photo: Web)

Speaking of great people and heros here's a big Happy Birthday
today to my amazing grandma. 

Grammie, I love you!  Happy 82nd birthday!!

(My Grammie)

Project Monday - Me & My Love

(Photo by Suwanee Photography)

No project this Valentine's Day just a message on my thoughts of the day and a photo of me and my love.

I've never been one for Valentine's Day.  I think its a fabricated holiday.  Made up by women who have significant others who don't tell them how amazing they are on a regular basis and 'just because'.  What is so necessary about having a holiday to make sure you can make your honey feel bad for forgetting to get you a box of chocolates yet again? 

I will admit I am blessed, Critter not only tells me, but shows me daily how beautiful he thinks I am and how much he loves me.  That is all the Valentine's Day I need and I get it everyday all year long.

This photo was taken by the amazingly talented Suwanee Lennon of Suwanee Photography out of Spokane, WA.  It is one of our favorites from our engagement photo session.  We have a large copy framed and hanging in our living room.

Project Monday - Parma Rosa Pasta Casserole

I make a lot of 'throw it together' dinners that I end up loving and not writing down.  Critter loved this pasta casserole so much that I made sure to document it! 

*****************************************************************************
Pre heat oven to 375 degrees

Cook choice of pasta as directed
Prepare the Knorr Parma Rosa pasta sauce as directed and set aside

Add these ingredients to prepared sauce & mix well:
*1 cup of cubed pre cooked ham steak
*1 bunch of green onions diced
*1 can of diced tomatoes
*1 can of sliced black olives
*Garlic Salt to taste

Add pasta to sauce mixture, mix well and add to casserole dish lightly sprayed with non stick cooking spray

Bake covered for 20 minutes

Add:
1 cup shredded colby jack cheese over the top

Broil for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown on the edges.

ENJOY!

(Ready to Bake)



(Ready to Eat)

Project Monday - Auction Album

(Front Scrapbook Cover)

A few weeks ago I covered this scrapbook album. I have been making these albums for years, as in 17 years... wow! I can't believe its been that long. I first got the idea when my college roommate and each of her sisters were given photo albums covered in shirts that had belonged to their father. He had passed away after his body rejected the heart he had received in a heart transplant. A family member of theirs made amazing albums for all 4 of the girls and I was so moved by the simple idea that I decided I wanted to make them for people that are special in my life.

 

(Front & Back)

I started making them for weddings, then for babies and now I make them for donations as well. The company I work for does an annual 'After Christmas' Party in January in lieu of a Christmas party in December.  Instead of dinner and dancing all of the employees donate auction items.  Some are hand crafted, others are purchased gift cards and somethings are gift baskets, some are even regifted/recycled Christmas gifts.  We all gather for appetizers and check out the items in the silent portion of the auction. There is also a raffle where we can purchase tickets and place our purchased tickets into the box for the item we hope we get drawn from in the raffle portion. Then after dinner we hold an actual auction where we bid on the higher dollar items. 

(Scrapbook Back Cover)

This year my company raised over $11,000 for our local Meals on Wheels chapter. As a company we vote, usually in Novemeber for the local organization we want to donate our proceeds to. I think this is such an amazing idea. Every item is donated and then purchased by employees and or spouses of my company.  It still blows my mind we raised $11,000 buying each others donated items! 

Project Monday - Bridal Suite

This Project Monday includes the Deer Artwork from my last Project Monday.  You can see them hanging in the tent. Critter and I were married this last June in the National Forest.  I had the idea of having our wedding where we set up each year for deer camp. The forest is simply beautiful and we both love being up in the mountains. There was no other choice for us.  

The planning of our bridal suite was a project all in itself.  It was months in the making and I was extremely pleased with how it turned out!                
            

Our little piece of camping heaven in the woods
(Wedding in the Woods Bridal Suite)

Critter and I have a 12x14 canvas wall tent I decided to turn into our bridal suite.  Months worth of thought went into the decor of the wall tent as a bridal suite. I didn't want it to be too fancy, we were in the woods and needed to transport the items a couple hour drive from home.  Then again I still wanted it to be bridal suite special.  I've never been a girly girl and I ended up piecing together the perfect blend of old school camping, rustic and wedding in the woodsy.  I believe they call this glamping? Call it what you want, we just say it was perfect.  

Welcome to the Bridal Suite
(Photo Cred: Tom Russell)



Full Bridal Suite Shot
(Photo Cred: 6ix)



Newlyweds in front of Bridal Suite
(Photo by: Suwanee Photography)



Woodland Bridal Suite w/Lake Front View
(Photo by: Suwanee Photography)



Project Monday - Custom Deer Art

About a year or two ago I wanted to find some unique artwork for Critter and my bedroom. I couldn't find what I had spinning around in my head so I just decided to create something on my own.  Our bedroom walls are painted a deep olive green with a color called Pine Brook. 

It keeps the room feeling warm, cozy and dark. Since our room is small and all we really do in there is sleep we wanted a room that would stay dark even when it is light outside.  It worked. However, we still wanted to decorate the room of course. Its just one of those things. And although we have yet to complete the room decor we do have painted walls and we have art! 

I freehand drew a sillouette of a buck and a doe. They are a bit abstract, which is exactly the look I was going for. I wanted a bit of whimsy. I then found material scraps in the colors I liked and using the drawings, I cut out the deer. I then stretched and stapled material onto some old poster frames I had in the garage and then gave it a few coats of paint.  After the paint dried I glued the deer onto the canvases I created and did a light watery silver paint wash over the top. Then I aged them with some of Critter's boot polish. 

 Here's how they turned out hanging on our pre-Pine Brook colored walls. They hang above our headboard.  



(Doe & Buck Pictures)

 

Project Monday - Missing Child



(Lindsey Baum)

The project I have today is one in which the parents of missing Lindsey Baum (10) are asking in desparation for your help.  Lindsey went missing on June 26, 2009 around 9:30 at night on her way home from a friend's house in McCleary, WA. McCleary is a small town about 20 miles west of Olympia, the state capitol.  Lindsey's parents are hoping that hunters can help them scour the area and possibly locate and bring Lindsey home.  Please pass this information along to others you think could help. If Lindsey was your child you would want the same.  Go here or click on Lindsay's photo to see the full story. Help bring Lindsey home!

*********************************************************************************
The non profit, all volunteer group CUE, is asking for area hunters to adopt a piece of land and or property that they are familiar with or hunt on regularly to search for missing Lindsey Baum; registration will begin on January 10, 2011 and run throughout the month. Hunters may call in directly to the center at (910) 232-1687 anytime or visit CUE on the web at http://www.ncmissingpersons.org and click on “The Hunt” where they can enter and submit information; during the effort a map will go up coloring in areas that have been adopted. “We are also extending invitations to forestry and park personnel as well as land owners in the concerned areas of focus”, said CUE founder, Monica Caison.

Project Monday - Perception

This is a little different outlook on Project Monday.  I don't typically like to mix my work with my personal life, but I think this is great topic when it comes to projects.  I am an architectural drafter/designer by trade and right now I am working as a drafter for an engineering firm.  My high school drafting teacher showed me this cartoon back then and I just came across it again recently.  Its a humorous take on the different ways different disciplines within the design stages view the process of a project. 

Do you remember playing the game 'Telephone' with your friends at slumber parties when you were a kid?  It was the game where you sat in a circle and one person would whisper a sentence into the next person's ear and then that person would whisper to the next and so on and so on.  At the end the last person would repeat what they heard and everyone would laugh because it was so different than the original sentence.

This cartoon reminds me of that game.  I think no matter what it is we do day to day, perception is a huge part of the outcome. Its funny how a client can have a vision and each different person along the way has their own interpretation.  Guess we should all take this as a lesson of life in the ways we view the world.  We may be looking at the same things but the way we see and interpret them can be so very different in the end.  A valuable lesson I need to take in to account in my everyday life.  Its so easy to see things our own way and stepping outside of our boxes into the realm of something new is scary.  But then again its facing and learning from the unknown which teaches us to grow and how communication can be a invaluable tool for a successful outcome between all.

Project Monday - Cabinet Plans Complete

If you go here it will take you to the post I did on December 6th about the plans I drew up for my dad to make Critter (and me) a rustic baker's cabinet for our kitchen from old weathered barn lumber.  My dad as always never fails to make not only a fully functioning item but makes an incredible piece of art.  This cabinet is beautiful! 

(Pre cabinet)

I wanted to make more space in our small kitchen and Critter and I had been discussing a cabinet.  It couldn't have been a better idea and the best part besides having an amazing and talented dad was getting to see the look on Critter's face when he walked in the door and saw it filled with cookbooks and spices. 

I'm fully convinced even as an adult that if I can dream it and draw it up my dad can work miracles and make it become reality.  He is a true craftsman!



(Critter's Surprise)



(Loving the new Cabinet!)



Project Monday - Doe Color Collages

My friend Chanda got married in August.  I have known Chanda for about 10 years now and she is the reason I met Critter.  I think its great how everything happens for a reason and in its own time.  Anyway, here's the project part of the post....  the colors she chose for her wedding were navy blue, cream and paper bag brown. 

Those colors got me inspired to make some color boards adding a 4th color into the mix.  I ended up creating 4 different color boards with her colors as the base colors and incorporating a different accent into each one.  The accent colors being pale yellow, aquamarine, baby girl pink and ice blue.  Here are the color collages. 



(Bluberry Lemonade)




(Midnight in Tahiti)




(Strawberry Shake Royale)




(Iced Blueberries)

 I would like to be able to reference the photos but I lazily didn't note where they all came from other than I pulled them from several different sites on the web.  If you see of something that I should link to in any of them please do not hesitate letting me know.  I would be happy to give credit where credit is due!

Project Monday - Bathroom Cabinet

Speaking of cabinets... (last Monday) Here is one that my dad and I designed and built last summer.  This one is in our front bathroom.  I use that bathroom in the mornings to get ready.  Our house is pretty small and if I use our master bath I have to be extra quiet since Critter's day starts later than mine and I don't want to wake him.  I wanted this cabinet since the bathroom is so small and I didn't have much for storage space of my things.  I keep my perfume, earrings, lotions & lipsticks in it.  And since I still shower in the master bathroom I use the bathtub in the front bathroom for storage as well.  Its actually a pretty handy place for extras.

(Bathroom Cabinet)

Project Monday - Cabinet Plans

This post is about an upcoming project.  Critter has been bugging me for months to design and build a cabinet with my dad to put in our kitchen.  We have the perfect spot to put a handmade rustic vintange wood cabinet.  The plan is to fill it with my cookbooks and our spices. 

I will post pictures after it is built but for now here are the plans for my design.  The best part of designing and building with my dad is that typical design rules go out the window and I draw it based on the way my dad and I work best together.  We are kinda on our own plan when it comes to working together, whatever it is, it works.  He gets me and I get him. 

Feel free to use my design if you'd like and can make it work for you.

Oh and DON'T mention this project to Critter, its a part of his Christmas present from me!

Project Monday - Photo Albums

For years I have covered photo albums and given them to those I love as wedding gifts,, Christmas gifts and baby gifts.  I even covered one to give to my sister in law as a recipe book for Christmas a few years back.  Here are some pictures of the most recent one I did.  It was a baby gift for a friend's brand new baby boy.  Welcome little Carter!!

Project Monday - Fireplace

This post is a bit bittersweet.  I worked extremely hard on my condo that I owned when I lived in Phoenix.  I remodeled nearly every last inch of that place.  It ended up that real estate values in Phoenix dropped so quickly and so drastically that keeping it wasn't a realistic option.  It came down to me giving it back to the bank after I made the decision to move back to Washington.  When you pay nearly 150K for it to be sold at auction for 70K and then find that to purchase a condo in the same complex right now three years later it would cost me somewhere around 40K.  It is nothing short of heartbreaking.

One project that I wanted to share is the fireplace facade transformation.  The condo had its original gray 6x6 ceramic tiles.  I decided I wanted to bring it into the new century and choose 1x1 glass tiles, in mixed shades of brown.  Take a look at the spectacular transformation.



(Before)

(Before)



















(All Demo-ed)

 



(The New Tile no Grout)



(Finished Fireplace Facade)

Project Monday - Wedding Projects

(Directions?)

I took on a ton of projects for Critter Spotter & my wedding.  We decided to get married where Critter and his family have gone for Deer Camp since he was a little boy.  All I can say is it was the perfect choice for us.  I worked for months prior to the wedding and here are just a few of the projects I took on.  Our whimsical camping themed Wedding in the Woods turned out even better than I had planned.  My projects were such a fun and memorable part of our day and I had a blast creating them too!  Without them the feel of our day wouldn't have been the same. 

(Photobooth backdrop)

(Photobooth Bride & Groom)

(Directional Signage)