Éirinn go brách

My 2nd fave holiday!!!

Spreading Joy Around the World

Last night I was going through my ATCs & decided it was time to part with a few. I spent 2 painstaking hours sifting through them all (with the exception of my Paris ones) and finally found the perfect ones to share with my friends. I placed them in my handmade envelopes, found some pretty notecards & began addressing, all the while imagining my friends' faces as they opened such a sweet & unexpected gift! Thinking of the joy that this little gesture would bring them is heartwarming! And it's enough. NO thanks are necessary, although, I'm sure my phone will be ringing off the wall in a few short days... of course it will take a bit longer to hear from Nikee, in Hawaii and even longer for Liz, in Australia ~ it will definitely be wonderful & worth it to hear my friends' voices!! Happy Spring!! xoxo

Step 1~ check; Step 2~ 1/2 check...

There are 4 easy steps to any project.
Step 1~ planning. I'm REALLY good at planning. I can plan for days... sometimes months, even!! lol
My kitchen project is planned...that was the easy part! Just had to stand in the middle & jot down everything I don't like & everything I wanted to change... which was pretty much everything! lol

Step 2 ~ buying materials. I'm on a limited budget for this project, so I can only get a little at a time. I now have brushes, gloves & painters tape. I think I'll start with the floor, it's going to be the easiest & cheapest... all I need now is the paint & glaze.

Now comes the 2 hardest parts. Steps 3 & 4... preparing the surface & actually PAINTING the floor. These steps take TIME, which I have very little of...
I will have to "lightly" sand each peice of flooring that I will be painting... uhm... down on my hands & knees after a long day of work is not exactly sounding pleasing, but I will have to do a little each night or this will never get done. And then a light dry mopping to remove dust... and then, oh joy: back to my hands & knees to tape off each sqaure to be painted...

Then, comes the fun part... on my hands & knees painting an entire floor. Ok, NOT an entire floor... but 1/2 the squares on the entire floor. I'm making my daughter help with this part!!! lol

But, I'm almost there. Over the weekend I'll get the paint & Monday night, we will begin preparing the floor. That will take a couple hours each night after work but we should be finished by next weekend. Then we can move on to step 4... wow... I can see a new kitchen floor in my near future!!

{{**Welcome, Ellen**}}

I'm so glad you're here... procrastinating on crafts & projects... just like me!! lol

Just for you, I thought I would share a few more ATCs that I made when I had

some major creative juices flowing!! =D
hugs & loves xoxo

To Do Something or Not to Do Something... I Should DO Something

Spring is finally in the air! At least during the day... the nights are still cold & frosty. You know I've been itching to get started on some major projects, but I haven't had the time to do much more than just plan it all out.

I thought I would be able to start something this weekend ~ my daughter would be going to her first non-family sleepover & I should have been able to at least paint something...

BUT... my friend called me Friday to go on a girls night & see Alice in Wonderland. Ok. So. Johnny Depp?? FAVORITE ACTOR of ALL TIME... FAVE! Since 21 jumpstreet... I've seen every depp movie but 2 (Secret Window and Sweeney Todd)... own all depp movies but 2 (Sweeney Todd & Dillinger... yes, I OWN Secret Window, but it's still neatly wrapped in the plastic it came in... I just can't bring myself to watch it for reasons I may or may not discuss at a later time)... soooo, YES, I took a break... went to see Alice & WOW ~ LOVED It!!! I know the critics have not been kind, but really ~ what do they know???!!!

I digress... Saturday I should have been able to do something. But instead, I went to work for a few hours (overtime is extremely important at the moment) and then came home and... took a nap! I haven't napped in months & it felt great!! I slept 2 hours... got up in just enough time to get my daughter from the sleepover & have a quick dinner at Dairy Queen (bad unhealthy mamma)... and took her... to see... Alice!!!!! lol (yes, I think it's THAT good)

So, here we are. It's Sunday morning... we just had breakfast & now she's watching cartoons, waiting for her dad to call & get her for the day. So... what am I going to do???? hmmmm... I have endless possibilities... I COULD go see Alice again, but really, that would defeat my purpose for needing the overtime money... lol... so I think I will start a project ~ but which one??!! At any rate, I WILL DO SOMETHING!!

{{ Musings of a Jumbled Mind }}

ARRRRGGGHHHH. What to think about FIRST??!! So much going on, so many things to think about. I often find myself, mid-thought, stopping to think of something else... then stopping THAT thought & trying to remember what I was thinking about first. **deep sigh**

Right now, with spring on the way & feeling a deep urge to start my redecorating projectS & wanting to create more ATCs & the hockey play-offs on the way & St Pat's Day (my 2nd fave holiday) & the New Moon dvd soon to hit the stores & Paris (always Paris) & my daughter & work & pets & this & that...

There really isn't enough time in the day for each direction my mind wants to take. I can imagine what the brain waves in my head look like right now... like a traffic jam??!! a train wreck, perhaps??!! Even my dreams have taken the same route ~ jumping from one scene to the next, without any rhyme or reason ~ I wake each morning feeling exhausted from the many adventures I "took" during the night.

What I need is ORGANIZATION. HA HA. Don't think I haven't tried THAT! It goes pretty much the SAME way my mind does. Organization only works if I can keep my thoughts straight...

Meditation, maybe??!! Yeah... right... been there, tried that... doesn't work for me either... LOL

SOOOOOO... the best I can do is write it all down in my trusty & somewhat abused notebook... you should see it... page after page of STUFF. Thoughts, pictures, reminders, lists, ideas... oddly enough, it seems to resemble the traffic jam in my head!!

It's Almost Time for Painting

The weather is warming up & I'm itching to start painting! I went to the store to price paint & pick out my paint chips! I have a really sweet light aqua, called "water dance" for the living room with accents in an even lighter shade, called "seacrest spray"; How perfect for that beach cottage I'm trying to achieve??!!

For the foyer, I've picked out a really light green shade called "sweet pea", which will also go nicely with my Paris "shrine" (see earlier post)!

My kitchen/dining will be a bit more challenging, as I've decided to paint my counter tops (I found wonderful directions online) and all the cabinets. They are going to be in 2 different shades of off white; one is called "vanilla creme" and the other is "cashmere white"! So beautiful! I'm still not sure about the walls in that room, but I will probably go with the "sweet pea" green... I already have a shabby chic theme in there, complete with Rachel Ashwell's shabby chic linens & tablecloth, so I think the green will give it just the right touch!

BUT, also in the foyer & kitchen/dining... I decided to paint my linoleum floor... yep!! Just squares of black, to make it checkerboard... and yes, found those directions online too!! ;)

I can't wait, now I just have to decide which project to start first!!!!