Crafty Niche

What I Have Been Working On

The laundry closet is done except for some holes to be spackled and touched up with paint. Hubby got the floor down and all I need to do is organize it and add some nice decorative accessories. When I am done with that project I’ll show you the end result. For now, I’ve been busy working on painting my bedroom and a couple of craft projects. Here is a peek:

craftyniche | 02.01.10 | Crafts, Crafts | No Comments |

My Giveaway Goodies!

I received my giveaway goodies from Tammy at The Tinsel Shop. The Nester had a huge giveaway day last fall and I was the lucky one to win Tammy’s giveaway! My goodies, my Christmas Village and snowman, I have chosen are so cute! My package even came with the star ornament that I will be putting on my tree. I can’t wait until I decorate for Christmas this year! Be sure and visit her shop and see a lot more cute items she has in her shop. I will be shopping there in the future for more decorations for my home. Tammy is a pleasure to work with. Be sure and check out her shop!

craftyniche | 01.29.10 | Ramblings, holiday, giveaway, prize, Tinsel Shop | 2 Comments |

Coat Rack Makeover

We have had this coat rack since we bought the house. I’ve been wanting to repaint it because I really didn’t care for the brass hooks. I was outside painting the laundry closet doors and went ahead with this mini makeover. I like it much better, but am not sure if I am going to keep the glossy black paint.

Before

After

I am currently trying to finish my laundry closet doors and complete some craft projects that I have been working on along with make thank you notes from Christmas! Plus I received my giveaway goodies from Tammy at the Tinsel Shop and can’t wait to show you that! I also plan on repainting my bedroom this weekend and trying to do all of these things with a spirited 4 year old and curious 17 month old has proven to be a challenge!

craftyniche | 01.27.10 | Before and after, Decorating, Before and after, spray paint | 1 Comment |

Red Velvet Cake

As promised, I made Hubby a yummy Red Velvet Cake topped with a delicious Cream Cheese Frosting. Instead of making the cake from scratch I got a boxed mix and I can’t believe how good it turned out.

We’ve been consuming a piece of cake each night. I better get busy at the gym to burn off the high calories of this fabulous cake! We are done with the laundry close and hallway except to spackle some holes and touch up on paint. I also have to clean and paint my folding doors too. I’ll show you later this week the result. I still want to accessorize it, but the freshly painted walls and trim make it look so much better! I also organized a bit too. But for now, here is the cake I made for Hubby and family.

craftyniche | 01.25.10 | Ramblings, baking | No Comments |

Paint Remover Tip

I’ve discovered a tip on removing paint from mirrors: nail polish remover! This past weekend while painting my countertop I smudged some paint on the mirror. I took a cotton ball and soaked it with the polish remover and wiped off the paint from the mirror. A nice and easy trick to removing paint if you get some paint around a mirrored surface. I believe I got this tip online somewhere. On that note, I did paint my countertop, but Hubby and I do not like the color. It will be back to Lowe’s and get another lighter color that will complement the bathroom colors.

before

after

craftyniche | 01.22.10 | Ramblings, painting | No Comments |

New Kitchen Floor and Paint!

After a long week of scraping, painting, priming, and putting down a new floor we are finally done with this portion of the kitchen. I need to go back and touch up some areas of the trim from when we took the old vinyl floor off and I still have plans to paint my doors both interior and exterior sides as well as the inside of the window sills. I also need to put a fresh coat of paint on my kitchen cabinets as well as bathroom cabinets. I LOVE my new floor! It’s super easy maintenance and looks so nice! There are some slight imperfections, but like the Nester says “It doesn’t have to perfect to be beautiful.” I love to walk in and stare at my new floor.

My wonderful Hubby did most of the scraping and putting the floor down. I am so appreciative of all of his hard work. He requested a Red Velvet Cake so I will be baking that after the laundry area/hallway is done as a thank you gift. Here are some befores of the paint and ugly torn up floor.

Hubby had to fix the rotten subflooring underneath the vinyl floor due to too much water seeping in and had to fix the threshold at the french door. We plan on replacing the french door or get gutters one day in the future to prevent rain water dripping in. He used adhesive to patch the floor back together, but over time it became worse. I had put two rugs to cover it up, but my 17 month old son kept pulling on the vinyl and I was so afraid he would eat any pieces that came up.

And now the afters!

I am currently working on painting in the laundry closet/hallway area. Hubby and I hope to get the flooring done in there by this weekend. My laundry closet is a disorganized mess and I plan on getting it organized again. For now, it’s my paint supply area and as I finish up my paint projects I’ll take the paint cans to the shed out back since we don’t have a place in the house to store the paint. I think I am going to be painting for a while!

craftyniche | 01.20.10 | Ramblings, Before and after, Decorating, painting, Renovation | 1 Comment |

In Progress

I am almost done with half the kitchen and have almost all the vinyl pulled up. Next to finish painting the other half of the kitchen, remove the old adhesive, and put down the new floor. I will then paint the cabinets and maybe get new cabinet hardware. I will be painting the little hallway that goes our bathroom and bedroom and the laundry closet. We plan on ripping up the vinyl there and putting down the new plank flooring. Then it will be finish decorating/painting the bathroom and continue with our bedroom! Lots of projects in the coming weeks! Here are some progress photos. I used Behr Paint + Primer and it has worked out pretty good. I had to do two coats, but it went on nice and smooth. I used Sherwin William’s Rice Grain and really like this color!

craftyniche | 01.16.10 | Ramblings, painting, Renovation | No Comments |

Busy with the Kitchen!

I know I am supposed to be working on my bathroom and bedroom, but I can not stand looking at my floor that is literally falling apart any longer! I was so excited that Hubby got a nice annual bonus and we each took $500 to do whatever we wanted. I took my $500 and purchased new flooring for the kitchen, hallway and laundry closet. It is Novalis and the color is Golden Oak, a vinyl plank peel and stick flooring. I am sure some people will wonder why I got a cheap floor, but we needed a new floor NOW and didn’t have a huge budget so we got what we could afford. I am sure it is going to look nice. You can see Kristi’s awesome kitchen floor that she did in her home that she recently sold. And here Jennifer’s floor looks fantastic for vinyl! I would love to have had Bamboo or some other eco friendly flooring, but have a budget to think about.

It’s probably going to take me all week to paint the kitchen walls. I think I either cracked or bruised my ribs when I was sick during Christmas and had that horrible hacking cough. I also will be repainting my cabinets and maybe my counters to freshen them up. I plan on getting some butcher block counters, a nice new deep sink, new faucet, and installing beadboard when the budget allows.

craftyniche | 01.11.10 | Ramblings | 2 Comments |

Sick

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas. My family, especially my children, had a great one despite coming down with head colds on Christmas Eve. We went over Mema and Pop’s (great grandparents) for Christmas breakfast and presents. Both Sugarpop and Sugarbear had runny noses and I woke up with a scratchy throat. I hoped it would go away, but it seems we have caught some sort of head cold/touch of flu. The kids are on the mend and I am slowly getting better. I have a nasty cough and a bit of nasal congestion. The kids sneezing, coughing, and runny noses have slowed down quite a bit. Hubby finally is getting better after having a sinus draining and cough for over 2 weeks. He is off for 12 days and instead of getting to relax and help me with some home improvements we all have been sick. My mother in law and grandparents in law (Mema and Pop) even has a cough. My mother in law was diagnosed with bronchitis! Hopefully soon, we will all be on the mend and I can get back to working on some projects. My biggest project that I will need Hubby’s help will be the taking up the old falling apart vinyl flooring and replace it with a nice new one. See you soon!

craftyniche | 12.29.09 | Ramblings | 1 Comment |

Merry Christmas!

It’s Christmas Eve and I’ve been baking and doing some cleaning. I made Delilah’s Frosted Cut-Out Sugar Cookies and frosting and they are delicious! I’m going to be giving this plate to my cousin for Christmas along with a Target gift card. I hope she likes it!

We wish you a Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

craftyniche | 12.24.09 | Ramblings, baking, Christmas | 1 Comment |