the day for laboring.

another long weekend made for the perfect time to knock out some more of the fireplace room to-do list. this weekend, the fireplace itself was due for some lovin'. we had decided a while ago that the gold finish on the fireplace was just not quite our style, and figured that since we were doing so much in this room already, we might as well try to modernize it just a little bit to make it look more like it belonged in our house and less like your grandmother's fireplace.

our weapon of choice was a can of heat-resistant black spray paint. we taped over everything that we wanted to stay its original color, or anything that was going to be exposed to open flame at some point, to lessen the chances of lighting the house on fire. 

after the first (very thin) coat of paint, it was still looking rather shiny, and more than a little splotchy, but it wasn't drippy so i was feeling pretty confident that our investment in that one can of spray paint was going to be worth it.

since it was raining, we couldn't paint outside, so we set up a secondary spray station in the basement to spray the doors so we wouldnt have to wait for a nice day. because we're nothing if not determined to get this project done in a timely fashion. and also kind of stupid for putting that many fumes into a not-very-well ventilated area. (don't worry Mom, we took plenty of fresh air breaks on the front porch)

four (very thin!) coats of paint later, and the doors looked like this:

and the fireplace surround looked like this:

so then we put it all together and whaddaya get? a brand-spankin'- new fireplace thats what! i'm still kind of amazed that it's the same fireplace, just a different color. i'm a little bit in love. (i would be even more in love if the spray paint hadnt also left a coating of black paint/dust all over every horizontal surface in the room, but i'm just going to take a big breath and not get into that rant right now) 

while i was busy painting the fireplace and watching paint dry, Mark tackled the crown molding and trim that went around the fireplace. first, he used some paint stripper to remove some of the paint that the previous owners had so kindly left on the brick when they had painted their old trim. this was the most time consuming part of the process, and the results were subtle but i think it made a big enough difference to be worth the effort.

then, because there were no joists in the ceiling right along the fireplace and because you can't shoot a nail gun into brick, Mark made some backer pieces out of an old 2x4 and super glued them to the ceiling to make sure the nails would have something to grab into and keep the crown molding from falling down over time. oh, and those blocks on the corners were necessary because of there will be trim running vertically around the fireplace as well as the crown around the top, and there is no other way to make them look nice where they all run into each other. there are similar blocks at the bottom to tie into the baseboard and quarter round too.

because i got to be a helper in the actual putting-up-the-trim process, there are no pictures of that. so thanks to the wonder that is the internet, viola! here's the fireplace as she looks right now - all painted, doors on, crown molding up, and cove trim along the sides.

sorry the picture's not the greatest, and please ignore the tape on the ceiling and the giant mess that is the whole floor in that room. but honestly, that's what the room looks like at this very moment. we didnt have time to clean it up and stage a good shot, heck we just barely got all the pieces up before we had to rush out the door because we were late for a labor day picnic. 

Mark and his blue-glove buddy that i made him on a fresh-air break outside are proud of what we accomplished with our weekend. Mark is already itching to get to work on the last big part of this room: fix the doors.

pins and buttons.

i've had a pinterest account for a few weeks, or maybe it's been months, i dont really know. i've pinned 132 things that i like, or think are cool, or funny, or that i would like my house to look like, or look like something i could do. up until this week, i had done none of them. and then when i was hunting for ideas for Mark's cousin's birthday, i pinned this:

and a couple days later, i got excited and i made this:

i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. actually, if i could get over the fact that the fabric has a couple little wrinkles in it and there is that one button that i probably should have moved over a half an inch, it might just be my favorite thing i've ever made. maybe i should start thinking about some of those other potential projects i have pinned...

...or maybe i should focus a little more on that fireplace room project first...

stay-at-home hubs.

Things that Mark did today while he was home because his office didn't have power:

- cleaned up the leaves and twigs in the yard.
- mowed the lawn.
- swept the deck.
- checked the mail.
- did the dishes. and put them away.
- did the laundry.*
- made the bed.
- cleaned up the kitchen.
- vaccuumed all the floors.

the only thing that would have surprised me more would have been if he had cleaned the bathrooms too. well, there's always the chance that he might have off again tomorrow...
man, i love my hubs.

*well, kinda. it would have been extra awesome if he wouldnt have folded and put away two loads of dirty laundry along with the two clean loads...

hurricane weekend.

I Really Meant To...
stock up on bottled water and non-perishable food.
But Instead I...
stayed FAR away from the grocery store. did not feel like getting trampled!

I Really Meant To...
stay home and hunker down through the storm.
But Instead I...
drove to a friend's house to watch the UFC fight. and then drove home again after.

I Really Meant To...
find the flashlights and make sure they had batteries before the storm.
But Instead I...
searched for a flashlight for 20 minutes the day AFTER the storm. (for something non-hurricane related. we were fortunate to have power through pretty much all of the storm.)

I Really Meant To...
clean up all the leaves and twigs that fell in our yard.
But Instead I...
played catch with the hubs in our yard.

I Really Meant To...
make dinner and have a quiet night in.
But Instead I...
went out to eat and to the movies. (Our Idiot Brother = pretty good for a laugh. not recommended for young kids.)

probably not some of my best and/or brightest ideas ever, but i dont really regret any of them. we had a good stormy weekend, and we were extremely blessed and fortunate that the only thing we lost was our cable. (although according to my brother, that might qualify as a major loss)

my thoughts and prayers are with those who are still without power, those who sustained major damages, and with the families of those who lost loved ones to Hurricane Irene.

earthquakepocolypse 2011.

hey guys, what's shakin'?

**dissolves into a fit of giggles cuz i am so dang clever! and funny!**

but seriously, an earthquake? on the east coast? on a tuesday? whoah. that's crazy! apparently it was the first earthquake we've had of that magnitude since WWII. apparently it could be felt from ohio to south carolina to canada. apparently office buildings all over the place were evacuated and people got to go home for the afternoon. (in our office, once we were all sure that the shaking wasn't going to trigger another flood, we just went back to work) apparently the shaking even cracked the Washington Monument.

facebook immediately exploded with a slew of updates along the lines of

ZOMGEARTHQUAKE!!!1!!!!!!11 

you know, a reaction that was completely proportional to the severity of the event. major phone companies shut down because they couldnt handle the volume of people calling home to make sure their house was all in one piece. i didnt have anyone at home, so i had to wait til the end of the day to find out how our little house and our new drywall did in its very first major-moderate earthquake. and good news: it was fine and un-cracked!

our house: better than the Washington Monument since 2011.

recent reading.

i first heard of Wicked when my high-school art club was planning a trip to NYC and we were voting on which Broadway shows we wanted to see while we were there. i had no idea what it was, but it got a lot of votes so i figured it had to be something good, and i was among the disappointed when we weren't able to secure tickets for our group. we wound up going to see Hairspray and The Producers instead, and i forgot all about the other shows on the original ballot.

i next encountered Wicked in my college marching band. one of our closing numbers my freshman year was a mash-up of two songs from the score: Dancing Through Life, and Defying Gravity. i liked the songs, but it was kind of difficult to fully appreciate them while also trying to play them and keep up with the drill too. lucky for me, my BFITW was kind enough to introduce me to the full soundtrack. and then i promptly fell in love with the parallel story of the Wizard of Oz.

and THEN, i found out that the musical was based on a BOOK, and of course had to read it. i put all three* books from the Wicked Years on my Christmas list, and i read through the first book before Christmas break was over. (i only got the first one that year, because apparently the fact that i asked for anything called Son of a Witch was just too shocking!) if it was possible, i fell even more in love with Wicked. i even went to see the musical in Pittsburgh with my BFITW, and it is the inspiration for our hopefully-sometime-in-the-nearish-future matching tattoos.

all that to say, i took a trip to the library before family vacation, and over the past few weeks i finally read the second and third books in the Wicked Years: Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. and i highly recommend them to all of you. start at the beginning of course, with Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and go from there. i dare you to not get sucked into the story, and the characters, and the whole world of Oz. they're like fairy tales for adults!

speaking of fairy tales for adults, when we were on vacation, my sister loaned me another book by Gregory Maguire called Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which is a parallel Cinderella story. i read the whole thing while we were at the beach with the inlaws over the weekend. you should read it. it will give you a whole different perspective on the classic story. and i bet you'll love it.

i've read some really good stuff in the past month or so, but i'm not quite sure what i'm going to read next. have you read anything good lately?

* i hear from the very reliable source that is wikipedia that a fourth and possibly final book in the series is supposed to come out later this year! anyone else wicked excited?!

sluggish.

as part of my post-vacation funkitude of re-acclimating myself to real life, i have had two weeks worth of sluggish mornings.

which is better than i can say for this guy, who has had a lifetime of them:

(haha see what i did there? ya know, cause i don't like to wake up in the mornings, and that's a GIANT slug on my porch? get it? i'm so funny.)