We’re Moving

It’s official…we have packed it up and moved…to another URL that is.  Gotcha!  Don’t deny it.  You totally thought we sold the house and moved on.  Yeah right…we love the house too much to do that…well…at least we love it when it’s behaving and not sporting broken sewer pipes.

Anywho…here is what is going on.  If you’re reading this at http://angiebohovich.wordpress.com I’m somewhat sad to say that this is the last blog post of that domain.  However, if you’re reading this at http://www.angiesroost.com you’re in luck, and all the fun loving blogging at Angie’s Roost will continue.  So let’s simplify it, http://www.angiebohovich.wordpress.com is going away and being replaced with http://www.angiesroost.com.

But what does that mean?  First, it means I bought my own domain name and moved the same old blog to the new name.  Second, it means that I can add new features, unlimited photos/content, and expanded control by self hosting.  I can even earn a little advertising revenue on the side instead of that revenue simply going into the WordPress.com pocket book.

Why did I move?  I really wanted complete control of my blog.  I know enough about CSS and html to be dangerous (I can royally screw up a webpage…not so sure I know just how to fix it) and wanted to be able to design the site how I wanted.  I also really, REALLY wanted to have a better domain name.  It took me awhile to figure out what that might be but I’m completely happy with www.angiesroost.com.

A word of caution….I’m still in the process of moving the blog over to the new domain.  I’m learning that it’s a GIANT work in progress that’s going to take some time.  So for the next couple of weeks the blog isn’t going to look very pretty, some of the links to older posts will take you back to the old blog, and some of the older post pages are incredibly slow to load because the images weren’t properly saved for web.  I’m currently working on fixing all these things.  I thought about waiting until the blog was completely done and pretty before relaunching but I hated the idea of promoting a domain that was eventually going away, especially with the Pinterest Challenge Fall Edition coming right up!

So sadly, no more posts on the old blog but look to http://www.angiesroost.com for the same great blogging action you’ve come to love at angiebohovich.wordpress.com.

So bear with us as we go through our new blog growing pains but we’re hoping you’ll stick with us.  Oh….and be sure to re-subscribe via email and update your RSS feeds (those were my first new blog headaches but their fixed now).

It’s Back…Pinterest Challenge Fall Edition

It’s back folks…the Pinterest Challenge…thanks to the uber genius-ness of Katie Bower from Bower Power.  It’s here and with a vengeance…the Pinterest Challenge fall edition.

What is the Pinterest Challenge yous ask?  Well it’s amazing.  Let me explain.  So you know how you pin and you pin and you pin some more really cool pictures for project ideas on Pinterest?  You know…project ideas with the intentions of someday doing the project.  And then you know how you never actually do the projects.  Or maybe you do one project but have pinned about 1,243 pictures.  Just saying.  Well, that’s the boat I’m in and so are Katie of Bower Power and Sherry from Young House Love.  And they’re here to remedy that.  The idea of the Pinterest Challenge is to pick a photo or two from Pinterest for inspiration, put your own spin on the project, and post about the result.  Genius!  Genius I tell you!  Let’s meet the players:

The Pinterest Challenge Fall Edition is hosted by Katie of Bower Power (aka the brain child of this here shin dig), Sherry of Young House Love, Ana from Ana White, and Erin from House of Earnest.  So pick your projects, do them this weekend, and report back on the results on Wednesday.  Katie, Sherry, Ana, and Erin will each be hosting a link party so be sure to link up your post, check out others’ projects, and comment away (we all love comments).

I’m stoked by the way….I adore the Pinterest Challenge and I’m having a difficult time deciding what project I want to tackle.  You mean I can only pick one?!  I haven’t picked my project yet but here are some of my ideas (feel free to weigh in with what project you think we should tackle…and by we I really mean me since it’s hunting season here in Maine and I find myself to be a hunting widow most weekends).

First option…new bathroom vanity…the pin-spiration (found here):

This vanity is very similar, structurally, to what we currently have going on in the bathroom but this looks more finished.  I’d like to alter ours a bit (add legs, a shelf, tile it, etc.) to make it look something like this instead of just a board hung between two walls with a sink in it.

Option two…a little art project for above the stairs…the pin-spiration (found here):

I have an old surfer poster that I would love to do something like this to.  I’m thinking cut it up, modge podge it to old boards, and hang it in the massive empty space above our staircase.

Option three…beaded chandelier…the pin-spiration (found here):

I’m sooooo in love with this I can barely contain myself!  Hubba, hubba, hubba!  I’m thinking something like this would look so amazing as the light fixture above the dining room table or in the hallway lofty area.  To craft this, I envision spray painted mardi gras beads attached to some wire rings.  Simple.

Option four…painted ombre balusters for the staircase…the pin-spiration (found here):

I really, really, really want to tackle this project!  I just don’t think I’ll have enough time to finish it for the big reveal day.  We’ll see!  But this project is so cute and so unique and most importantly fun!  I love a fun project and this would be adorable on our staircase.

Option five…ledge shelves for the living room…the pin-spiration (found here):

This to me seems like the boring project of the bunch but one of the most practical.  There will be ledge shelves in the future of our living room, it’s just a matter of time and whether or not ledge shelves are Pinterest Challenge worthy.

So those are my project ideas.  It’s official…stop pinning your life away and start doing!

Pssst…So that’s what I’m up to this weekend (but there’s still a good possibility that I will completely derail and do a completely different project), but what is everyone else choosing for a project?  And any weigh ins on which project we should tackle?  I’m totally leaning balusters and seeing if I can knock it out of the park in just a few short days!

Wedding Wednesday: Faking It

 

What you are about to see is real.  Legitimately awesome.  And it just might change your life.  It sure did affect mine as I’m oh so close to starting to address my save the dates (update on the save the date cards…I have prototypes and I’m searching for just the right envelope for them).  One of the most gorgeous ways to add a personal touch to any wedding invitation (or save the date) is calligraphy.  It may make your invitations friendly on the eyes but sure not on your wallet.  Enter my new best friend (What?!  A picture can’t be your best friend?!  Says who?!).

DIYing faux calligraphy!  Genius…genius I tell you.  And the best part, if end up doing this for our wedding invitations, no one would ever have to know.  That is if I didn’t just broadcast it out there in the blogosphere for all our friends and family to see.  Oh…and the picture can be found via Pinterest (go figure) and was originally from here.

I stumbled across this picture a couple days ago and it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.  I’m in the middle of our “save the date” project (I can’t reveal the details just yet…I’m actually hoping I can mail them all out before posting them on here…you know…so our friends and family can be a little bit surprised).  I was having a hard time deciding if I wanted to address them more formally or do something funky, like a patterned address label.  I essentially ruled out calligraphy because one, neither Colby or myself has the handwriting for this and two, I’m refusing to pay someone to address envelopes.  Thus I was left with making address labels.  I found some neat ideas on Pinterest for cute address labels but I was really thinking I wanted to save them for the invitations, not the save the dates.  Now that I know I can fake the calligraphy for the invitations, that means the label project is now reserved for the save the dates (more on this project later as well…I’m really trying not to kill the surprise!).  Confused?  Welcome to my world!

Pssst…But seriously, the save the date project is coming along quite nicely.  I have two designs, completely different concepts I might add, that I love.  The local envelope options I can find, and find cheaply, will determine our choice since the two options are very different sizes.  More on that later…maybe next week…or the week after….yeah…maybe even the week after that!

Stairway From Heaven

Confession to make…I now tackle house projects based on the ugliness factor.  I know what you’re thinking…what exactly is the ugliness factor?  It’s quite simple actually.  You take the ugliest thing in the house and make it pretty.  Easy peasy.  Up to about a week ago, the ugliest thing in our household was the staircase.  Warning…the next picture is not for the faint of heart.  Be sure to avert your eyes if you don’t think you can handle it.

And from another angle.

Wait…it gets uglier…let’s zoom in.

Oh yeah…that’s ugly…real ugly.  We even had some serious broken balusters going on.

Those puppies snapped like twigs.  So our staircase has looked like this for a little over a year now so it’s about time I started working on it.  It used to have ugly brown shag carpeting but we removed that almost immediately after moving in.  Removing the carpet revealed an ugly mess of stair treads and risers completely covered in some kind of rubbery, glue product which proved extremely difficult to remove or cover.  We sanded it down and covered it with about five coats of water based primer and they still looked like this.  Every coat of primer we added didn’t seem to help.  It was like the glue was bleeding through every time.  Enter the big guns….oil based primer!

Oh yeah…that’s the stuff…check out the coverage!  I only bring out the big guns (the oil based primer) for the big jobs like this.  It tends to be extra sticky, covers extra good, but is extra stinky and messy so I reserve it for those desperate situations.  Like this one.

Looking good!  Oh…and Colby helped me remove all the balusters before I primed the entire thing.  We’ll be replacing them later…I’ll break down the rest of the project in une minute.

Just priming the staircase makes a WORLD of difference.  Oh…I should probably take a minute to explain that this whole staircase makeover is a temporary fix.  But temporary in our household may mean years so it could stay like this for awhile.  The treads are in bad shape and the risers are seriously icky so eventually there will be a big staircase redo (with hardwood…maybe oak…treads instead of painted pine) but that’s not happening until we redo the remaining two upstairs bedroom (penciled in for spring of 2012).  Until that day comes the staircase shall be pretty!  After priming the entire staircase I had to pick a paint color for the treads.  I grabbed a bunch of brown swatches from Lowes and tried to match one of the browns in the recently refinished dining room floor which you can read about back here, here, and here.

I ended up choosing Valspar’s Brown Velvet mixed into a very durable floor paint.

Meow!!!  I ended up getting a gallon of the paint.  I could have purchased a quart since I didn’t end up using much it, but I’m also using the paint to do the kitchen floor (which my be my next big project based on the ugliness factor).  After a couple of treads I was instantly in love.

I ended up painting every other tread at first, so I could skip stairs and let the treads dry for a full 24 hours before exposing them to light traffic.  Unfortunately I couldn’t teach the dog to properly skip stairs so I had to protect my painting project from the Goose.  He has a knack for walking through paint and spreading it throughout the house so the Goose gates were a must.

So…a couple of notes from painting the treads.  First of all, using water based paint on top of oil based primer is not necessarily recommended.  I found the first coat of paint to be a bit spotty.  It took three thin and even coats on each tread but they turned out just as well (if not better) as if I had used water based primer.  Second, it was soooooooo difficult to paint the underside of the half round, hangover part (technical term right there).  I refuse to use painter’s tape, I just don’t like it, so the risers ended up looking like this:

Serious drippage going on.  But after a few coats of primer (water based this time for ease of cleanup) the stairs looked ah-mazing!

Back it up…back it up…you got it…you got it (what?!  A girl can’t throw in a little lyrics from her gal Gwen?!).

I can’t believe how much better the staircase looks after a few coats of primer and paint.

Ok…so as promised…here’s what’s left on the staircase refinishing project (which may take a little while to get to since it’s no longer at the top of the ugliness priority list):

• Cover the risers with bead board
• Paint the bead board white
• Install base cap and finish trimming out the staircase
• Prime and paint all of the staircase trim
• Sand down the railing and refinish it and the newell post…oh and fix/reinstall the cap for the newell post (it had a bit of an accident…there may have been a running down the stairs/grabbing it/using it like a pole/spinning situation that led to it’s breakage)
• Paint and install new balusters…we’re thinking cheap-os but dressing them up with an interesting painting technique…which we’ll announce later because I love to make you guys wait for it

So I can officially claim that the staircase is no longer the ugliest thing in our house.  The torch has been passed to the kitchen floor.  Take a sneak peak back here in this post.  Hmmmm….I see my next project looming!

Pssst….So tonight I started going back to zumba class and it hurts to type I’m so sore…seriously hurts to type!  I blame the bonus 30 minute zumba toning session for that one!  But man is zumba worth it!  Any other zumba lovers out there?!  Or anyone else work on refinishing their staircase?

Urn All About It

Last week during my Halloween decorating woes, back here, I vowed to make something for Halloween.  Armed with an urn from Kmart scored for $1.47, I was ready to convert it to a Halloween urn.

Seriously!  That was the best urn score ever!  Only $1.47…sheesh!  Back when I purchased it (in August mind you) I had intended to spray paint a cheerful, summery color, like maybe a bright yellow or green.  But I was bound to make this into a Halloween urn and chose a flat black spray paint from NH Bragg (an industrial distributor in Bangor otherwise known as my day job).

The spray paint cost me less than $2 but it wasn’t meant to be used on plastics, the material of the urn.  I took my chances and decided to live dangerously for this project.  I didn’t want to spend $7 or $8 for a fancy can of spray paint and figured I only had a couple bucks to lose if it didn’t work out.  After setting up my pizza box painting station, I was ready to go.

Pizza box painting stations are seriously my favorite painting setup.  The boxes are thicker than just a piece of cardboard and provides a great surface out in the lawn that I can recycle after using.  And it doesn’t hurt that it gives me an excuse to order a buffalo chicken pizza….my favorite!  After four thin and even coats of spray paint later, and a freak rain storm in the middle of the painting project, I was left with a Halloween-ie urn.

Miraculously, the cheap-o paint adhered to the urn even with a soaking mid painting.  Seriously surprised.  So now I was left with what to do with the urn.  I thought about planting mums in it and putting it on the front step, but I tend to kill just about every plant I adopt within hours so that plan was thrown out the window.  I thought about putting Halloween candy in it but that just didn’t seem right.  Then it just happened….this:

Just before I left for a weekend excursion in Vermont, I wanted to bring the pumpkin in from the deck.  Mostly because I was traumatized from last year’s “incident” and didn’t want a repeat situation.  You see, this “incident” I speak of included me swearing off Halloween for all of eternity thanks to some neighborhood hoodlums who decided to smash our pumpkins.  Not cool.  The urn inside the entry seemed to be the perfect place for the pumpkin to rest.

Cute…but maybe it’s time that I consider cleaning the floors!  So embarrassing!

Pssst…Does everybody have their Halloween costumes all picked out, freshly pressed and ready to go?  I do…I do!  Except I’m having the darndest time deciding between a cowgirl and a beer wench?!  What’s a girl to do!

Homage To The Deer

The other day I found myself at the antique store, imagine that, scoping out all their major deals during the store’s ginormous 8 year anniversary sale.  Store wide sales are very rare at the downtown Bangor, Maine antique store so of course I was there with bells on (AND one of the first 50 shoppers earning me a free gift of jelly…mmmm…jelly).  And it just so happened that I scored a fabulous mirror for less than $10.

Have you ever bought something before and had no idea what you would do with it, where it would go, or if the thing was even useful to you?  But you absolutely loved it, couldn’t imagine yourself without out, and had to bring it home with you especially because it was such a great price?  Yeah….that was what this mirror was to me.  I was drooling…literally drooling with puddles pooling at my feet…over this mirror.  And the price…I couldn’t get over the price!  But what to do with it?  Confession, I’ve had the mirror for a few weeks and it finally dawned on me what to do with it.  You see, there’s this section in our living room that is completely bare and is begging for something.  Here is the bare corner…angle number one:

And angle number two, which looks even more barren:

My grand vision for this space (and referencing the picture above) is mirror on the left, just above the lamp, and maybe, eventually, some floating shelves and mismatched frames on the wall directly across from the camera, kind of behind the chair.  As I was prepping the living room for the mirror’s arrival, the scale of the mirror kept bothering me.  It was so small.  Cute…but small.  I felt like it needed something to flank it on either side.  Enter these guys:

Yup, you got it, those are real deer skulls.

And they really do live in my living room.  They belong to Colby.  He’s bagged two deer during his hunting career and ironically they were almost identical.  Both small, spike horn deer.  Colby’s cousin Matt is an amateur taxidermist…more like a taxidermist in training, or a TIT (ahahahaha…ok….Angie try to control yourself…you’re seriously a nine year old boy) and mounted them for him.  And now they are permanent fixtures in our house.  I almost hate to admit it, but I do love them.  Mostly because Colby loves them, but I’ve also become strangely attached to them.  So much that I’ve become worried about their perch on top of the media shelf.  They’re a bit unstable on that shelf and I’ve been fearful for their safety.  I sure don’t want to be the one responsible for breaking those precious deer skulls.  Okay, so you see where I’m going with this?  Do I need to explain?  Essentially, the deer heads were the perfect duo to flank the mirror.

And the living room wall is no longer naked.

See…they look identical don’t they?!  Crazy great white hunter sure is attracted to a certain type.

Pssst…anyone else come home with an item that they just had to have but didn’t know what to do with?  Do tell!  I can’t be the only one.  Or have a taxidermist in training (TIT) friend and find themselves rolling on the floor with laughter from the awesome moniker?  Just me?  Oh the immaturity!

Wedding Wednesday: Giving Thanks

The other day, one of my favorite people and most amazing tennis players I know (she’s my doubles partner…I was obligated to say that) sought out an engagement present for Colby and I and gave it to me after practice.  I have a few comments about this.  First, oh my gosh she is awesome and probably one of the most thoughtful people I know!  Second, she packaged our present in a yellow box with a blue bow…our wedding colors…and didn’t even know those were our wedding colors!  This is why we’re doubles partners!  But lo and behold our engagement present:

It’s an antique dessert plate.  Remember when I told you that Lisa is super thoughtful?  Here is the story behind the plate.  She was out antiquing with her husband, came across the plate, and immediately thought of me.  See, she remembered about these amazing, homemade mint candies that I make at Christmas every year.  It’s a family tradition that has been passed down to me.  When Lisa saw this plate she thought how perfect those candies would look on it.  Cue the “awwwwwwww”.  I love it!!!  And Colby loves it too…well…about as much as an athletic male is allowed to love antique dishes.  And it looks so cute on the dining room table:

Next to my (cough, cough) fake (cough, cough) flowers:

So, this blog post really isn’t about our amazing gift.  No, it’s about thoughtfulness.  This was one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve received and I must give thanks to Lisa for it.  When it comes to giving thanks, I’m a total traditionalist.  I love a good thank you note.  Heck…I seriously have a shoe box full of thank you notes (and also a couple of extra birthday cards and thinking of you cards for emergency situations).

So I got to thinking about the thank you card in general as I sat down to craft one for Lisa.  My typical “thank you so much” script just wasn’t going to cut it.  Every wedding planning website I go to or wedding resource guide I look through, the subject of thank you notes comes up.  They’re definitely a must.  And in my book, they can’t be taken lightly.  For Lisa, I have every intention of making a batch of Christmas mints (even though it’s a little early in the Christmas season), and staging a little photo session with the mints on the plate.  Along with a note, I’ll also be sending along the picture.  I think it’s a nice gesture.  I just hate the idea of a cookie cutter thank you note.  And with every thank you note I write, I want them to feel individualistic and personal.  The reader should feel the thankfulness.

Slightly off topic, but I also wanted to mention this point about thank you notes that I found on The Knot’s website:

Traditionally, wedding thank-you notes are written in blue or black ink on folded ivory or white notepaper.

Read more: Wedding Thank You Notes Guide – TheKnot.com http://wedding.theknot.com/online-wedding-registry/bridal-registry-tips/articles/a-complete-guide-to-sending-thank-you-notes.aspx#ixzz1bHQXKvo3

So does that mean I can’t use the zebra print thank you notes with the hot pink, glittery thank you on the front?  No?  Really?!  So disappointing!

So now I’ve babbled on for 500 plus words about thankfulness and notes, but I can’t stress enough their importance.

Pssst….so I’ve got a draft of the save the dates made!  Eeeeeee….yes!  I can’t wait to share them with you but I’m hoping to send them out to our friends and family first so I don’t ruin the surprise since so many of them read this.  So exciting, so exciting!  This may sound stupid, but making the save the dates is actually making our wedding feel real!