Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Saftey First.

So. There is a story to preface this P.S.A. I babysat my nephew the other day while my sister went to a meeting at work. Now, he is about 18 months old so he is INSANE. He is everywhere all at once. He flails his arms and hands around like a NUT JOB. He was super tired when he first got here, which would just not do. I only see him about once every two weeks so we need to cram a whole lot of fun and play time into a small window. So he caught his second wind and it was Crazy Town up in here. I picked him up at one point and put him in my lap, then the crazy arm flailing began and he ended up poking me in the eye. He didn't just poke me in the eye, he got right in there. Straight up little kid hand INTO my eye socket. This was two days ago. My eye has been hurting since then. Today I went and looked in the mirror to see if my eye was actually still attached to my face and I ended up finding a little surprise. Yes, we have reached the point of the story. I figured it was just sore from the previously mentioned assault, but NO, I found A PAINT CHIP in my eye. Just hanging out, you know, drinking some beers with my contact lens. 
This, folks, is the importance of eye protection when sanding/scraping things. 






Monday, January 30, 2012

Impatience..

Lets talk about how I am THE most impatient person on the planet. I. Cannot. Wait. For. Anything. It drives me insane. For example: as I mentioned before I placed an order (OKAY! TWO orders. Jeeze..) with e.l.f on Friday night at about 11:55 PM. It is now Monday at 9:35 AM and I have probably refreshed my email  800 times since I placed my order hoping for the shipping confirmation email. I am that little kid that starts bugging you two weeks before Christmas, "PLEASE, CAN I OPEN JUST ONE PRESENT?! JUST ONE?!" or the famous "ARE WE THERE YET?!" (or my boyfriends favorite "Have you fixed the internet yet? Is the wireless working? Why wont it work? Is it fixed yet? Now?"). I think I have passed this horrible habit onto one of the dogs. They get fed at 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM. Since she is lazy as hell in the morning she doesn't wake me up or anything (which is fantastic). She wakes up with me, goes out to pee and then darts to the dog food bag. I cannot have coffee. I cannot go pee until I feed that dog or she will blow a gasket. Then she starts bugging me around 2 in the afternoon and the countdown begins. "No, Riley. You still have two and a half hours until dinner." Then she sits there eye humping the dog food bag for 10 minutes and starts whining at me again. It's honestly like having a little kid that can't talk yet. "No, little dog. We just talked about this." and she just stares at me. If I fed her every time she begged for it, I would have a 24 inch tall, 380 lb dog.

This is about the third round of begging yesterday at about 4pm:




And this picture is what I feel like at the new Dunkin Donuts up the street. Granted, I have only been there twice since they opened, so they cannot possibly have memorized my order yet (like every other DD I have ever lived in close proximity to) , but when I have to tell the 15 year old girl at the register my order, then repete it to the person actually making the coffee, then AGAIN to the cashier because the other one didn't make it properly, I get a little irritated.





Now that we have THAT  out of the way, lets talk about nail polish. I have amassed quite the collection. I'm going to need a spice rack to hold all these bottles pretty soon. The bag I used to keep it all in got too small and started to overflow about two weeks ago.They are just hanging out everywhere. The 75% off sale at the Rite Aid down the street doesn't help keep this in check at all. I got three bottles for .49 cents each. I didn't actually do the math when I picked it out, which resulted in me saying (under my breath) "Holy shit, seriously?" while at the register. You better believe I mauled them for all the good colors after I found that out.   


This is what the collection looks like:





30 bottles (and growing almost daily). Clearly, Pinterest is not the only thing I am addicted to.





Sunday, January 29, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things..

My mother has always collected old furniture. Whether it was hand-me-downs through the family or something picked up on the side of the road or the dump. She picked up this whole bedroom set at the dump one time. It all goes together...and it has all been sitting in the garage/attic for about...7 years. It looks like it started out white, then gray (ew) , then a beige color. All this paint is chipping and peeling (there was even some mold!). I have a headboard, footboard, mirror and bureau. It has a side table as well, but I've already done that. I didn't take any before pictures of the side table because it was a rushed refinishing project. We won't get into why it was rushed as it is a very long story.  Here is what it looked like after:


I just finished the headboard. Here are some before pictures:




Not cute!!!

After:


Pristine! (Yes, I like to toot my own horn...who doesn't?)

Refinishing old stuff is fun for me. Its amazing how three or four hours, some elbow grease and a coat of paint can completely change something. Its like shopping without spending a ton of money. 

Trial and error has taught me one thing: You need one of these

Throw some 60 grit on that bad boy and you are GOOD TO GO!


That is a block sander. Its made out of super heavy duty rubber. You just hook the sand paper in to slots at the end. There are some aggressive looking nails that hold the sandpaper and away you go! This makes it SO much easier than holding a piece of sandpaper with your hand for hours and hours. I tried that and it lasted about 20 minutes before I thought all the tendons in my hand snapped. You get much more even pressure so things move along pretty quickly. You can also buy sanding sponges but once they're used up you need to go buy new ones and I see it as a waste of money. The sponges range anywhere from $3-$10, whereas you can buy five sheets of sandpaper for $4 (and it lasts for about 4 - 5 projects). Also, I like the block sander much more than a palm sander. Its less of a hassle and less dust flying around.

putty knife is also a good thing to have on hand.

This is the one I use (its my Mother's favorite...now its MY favorite and she is not getting it back) it has a sturdier 1 1/2 inch wide blade. I'm fairly certain that putty knife is almost as old as I am, hence why it looks a little rough around the edges.

 If you have a ton of chipping paint, just cruise the putty knife along it and it will come right off. You can find ones that have flexible blades and others have more sturdy blades.  Its personal preference, really. I tried to use a wider, flexible one and it tended to dig into the wood and then fling paint chips everywhere.  The 60 grit sandpaper really comes in handy for the stubborn stuff that the putty knife just doesn't get without gouging the wood.

After I have sanded down with 60 grit, I like to jump up to 100 and go over everything quickly. Then go up in grades of sandpaper until its SUPER smooth. I've gotten to be a perfectionist with the sanding, I guess you don't HAVE to do it that way, but if you don't skip the fine details it will come out FANTASTIC! 


In closing, Pinterest always knows how to crack an egg of knowledge:






On the Bandwagon!

Hey, there!
I'm starting this blog as a way to chronicle my love of DIY projects, makeup/beauty products, clothes, shoes and life in general. There will also be A LOT of bitching and complaining.

My mother recently moved out of state and I have moved into her house in rural Maine. It is old and needs some TLC, but that's just all part of its charm. I grew up in this house and I love it despite the work that needs to be done. I'm not a carpenter or construction worker, more of a weekend warrior trying to make it cute again with some paint and new hardware. This is where the DIY part comes in! Lots of before and after pictures of furniture and home decor! That is my (and, I'm pretty sure, everyone else's) favorite part!
I am a Pinterest ADDICT! I will be posting all sorts of awesome ideas on here taken from that website. I work from home and we have recently been granted grown up privileges and can surf the web without a filter. This has just fueled my addiction. Seriously...I think I need help. "My name is Maggie...and I am an addict."

Aside from doing the DIY thing, I LOVE makeup and nail polish. I'm still working on the makeup skills, but its getting there. I can finally paint on a DAMN GOOD smokey eye. That's right. Suck it, Kim Kardashian. I paint my nails almost every day. Again, I work from home so in between phone calls, I have some extra time for such things. My new favorite websites for these things, you ask? Both of them I heard about from my friend (and fellow blogger) Helen. First, which I honestly need to stay away from, is e.l.f . On Friday I made two separate orders in one day. That is excessive. Everything is so cheap. Seriously. Mascara, eyeliner, nail polish, concealer you can get for $1. The most expensive thing I bought was a foundation brush for $5. These were my first orders from them but word on the street is they make some good shit. Also, BirchBox seems to be a good one as well. I ordered some toner from them, has not arrived yet, but I am looking forward to it. Everything that I've seen is all natural (For my annoying skin this is almost necessary) which is fantastic. And for being labeled as "All Natural" the prices don't seem to be ridiculously expensive like almost everywhere else. They also have this cool thing where they send you a box of sample sized, high end products for $10 a month. I am currently on the waiting list and I NEED to be accepted soon. NEEDS to happen.

I love shoes. I LOVE shoes. I don't get the opportunity to wear fantastic shoes too often, but when I do, I like to buy new ones. It's silly, but it happens. Who doesn't like to get a pair of new shoes? If you said you don't, then you are lying, for sure.



So that gets the "get to know me and what my deal is" phase out of the way. I will be posting more fun and (obviously) insightful things later on. Subscribe now!