Happy Laundry Room

The next house I live in will have a bigger laundry room.  I technically don't have a laundry room right now its a laundry closet.  It's kind of a pain to wash clothes in there because its so small.  Whoever built our house, put the dryer hook up on the left side and the washer hook up on the right, doesn't make a whole lotta sense to me, kind of backwards.  Enough ranting, I decided to cheer up the space and make it a little more inviting so I painted it a light yellow color, pantone pale banana to be exact.  Chris asked me why I would want to paint a room no one sees, my response "I see the room everyday".  Yellow is a happy color, so I'm hoping it will cheer me up when I'm in there doing laundry.  Everyone could use a little cheering up while doing laundry, right?

It's kind of hard to photograph a closet with no natural light, but I did my best.  If you've been in my house or seen pictures it was like most of the other rooms, beige walls and ceiling.  I started by clearing the room of everything except the washer and dryer, then I primed the walls and ceiling.  Next I painted the ceiling a standard basic white ceiling paint.  Then I painted a few coats of Valspar Signature Pantone Pale Banana on the walls, in a satin finish.  The pantone paint colors at Lowes require you to use the Valspar Signature paint that has  the primer in it already, so I didn't really need to prime the walls first, but I picked the color after priming the room.  Oh well.  It took me a little longer to paint the room because I had to work around the washer and dryer and move them around as I was painting.  It was a little tight, but it was kind of nice having them in the room because I was able to stand on them to paint, so I didn't need a ladder.    

I love how the room closet turned out.  It definitely makes me smile when I go in there.  

I'm loving yellow right now!  Here are a few other yellow projects I've worked on recently.
Last year I painted Parker's dresser yellow and I love how it turned out.  Yellow is Parker's favorite color.

I recently painted this tray a bright yellow.

I bought this fun outdoor, yellow table and chairs from Target for our patio, this Summer.  It brightens up our backyard a little. 

And I'm loving these yellow stools from Target.  I wish they went with my kitchen.  

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

I Got A Pickle

I crossed something off my Summer Bucket List from last year.  Making pickles!  I didn't make pickles last Summer because when I bought plants for my garden, what was labeled as a cucumber plant was actually a zucchini plant.  Needless to say, I didn't have any cucumbers in my garden last year, just a ton of zucchinis.  This year I started my cucumber plants from seed, so I wouldn't have the same problem.

Ryder likes the pickles!  

The pickle recipe I used, I found on the Organic Gardening website.  They are refrigerator pickles, so they don't require any special canning technique, which is super nice.  Any jar will do!  It took me about a half an hour to make these pickles.

Refrigerator Pickle Recipe

1 pound cucumbers
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon whole mustard seed
1 teaspoon fresh dill weed
1 whole dried bay leaf
2/3 cup organic light brown sugar
6½ tablespoons white distilled vinegar
6½ tablespoons white-wine vinegar
¾ cup water

Tip - If you are buying cucumbers, make sure to buy organic cucumbers, these won't have the wax coating on them.  Other cucumbers usually have a wax coating making it difficult to absorb all the pickling flavors.

Directions:

Wash and cut the cucumbers, then place into jar.  I cut my cucumbers into spears and circles.  

Add the garlic, peppercorns, mustard seed, dill weed, and bay leaf.  Feel free to add any other spices you want, I added red pepper flakes to a couple of my jars.

Mix together brown sugar, white distilled vinegar, white wine vinegar and water.  Pour mixture over cucumbers.

Put the lid on and shake the jar.  Place in refrigerator and chill.

The website said you could serve the pickles after 24 hours, I tried mine after 2 days and I didn't think they were that great.  Then I tried them again after a couple weeks and I thought they were great.  So, I definitely recommend waiting a little longer if you can.  The pickles will keep up to 3 months in the refrigerator.

Makes 2 quarts (about 18 servings)

I got a pickle, I got a pickle, I got a pickle!   Hey hey hey!  - Just in case you need a Little Rascals reference

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Domino Rocks

Last week the boys and I got to spend the whole week at the lake, then Chris met us there for the weekend.  It was an amazing week spent with lots of family and friends.  I would love to live at our cabin during the Summer.  It's a beautiful place!

Parker and I made some domino rocks while we were hanging out on the beach.  We found a bunch of somewhat flat, similar size rocks.  I kept it pretty simple and dotted them with a permanent marker, but you could paint them if you wanted.

0|0 0|1 0|2 0|3 0|4 0|5 0|6 0|7 0|8 0|9
1|1 1|2 1|3 1|4 1|5 1|6 1|7 1|8 1|9
2|2 2|3 2|4 2|5 2|6 2|7 2|8 2|9
3|3 3|4 3|5 3|6 3|7 3|8 3|9
4|4 4|5 4|6 4|7 4|8 4|9
5|5 5|6 5|7 5|8 5|9
6|6 6|7 6|8 6|9
7|7 7|8 7|9
8|8 8|9
9|9

We made dominoes up to 9's for a total of 55 dominoes.  It was a fun beach activity!

Probably the most exciting thing about our time at the lake was Parker jumping off the diving board and feeling very comfortable in the water.  In the past he's been a little timid of the water and has wanted to stay near the shore or in shallow water, but not anymore.  He probably went off our diving board 100 times while we were there.  He started jumping off the side, then worked his way to the end of the diving board.  He would also jump off the end of our dock and swim to shore.  *He was wearing a life jacket the whole time.  I'm so proud of him!

Can you spot my little fish out there?

A few highlights from our time at the lake, in no particular order:  hanging out on the beach, swimming, jumping off the diving board/dock, campfires, making popcorn and s'mores on the campfire (we made s'mores with reeses peanut butter cups - delicious!), slip-and-slide, painting/coloring rocks (and our bodies), watching a cool lightning storm, checking out Wild Horse Island, going on a pontoon boat for 7 1/2 hours (the boys did great), playing in the dirt, eating apples, reading books, drinking bubbly by the lake, wooden boat parade, throwing/skipping rocks, Park & Ryde sharing a room, spending time with family....)

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Garden Hose Holder

I got another project crossed off my to-do list this week, a garden hose holder.  Last week I got my inspiration from the ladies at Shanty2Chic for my fun wine rack and they have inspired me again this week!  I made a super easy garden hose holder for our backyard.  We are s-l-o-w-l-y updating our backyard and this garden hose holder helps clean things up a little.  

I got both items I needed for this project at our local Home ReSource store.  I love wandering around that place, there are so many things to look through.  I had actually bought the post there a while ago for another project I was going to do and never got around to, it was only $2.  Score!  I bought the metal hose holder there last weekend for $2 as well.  Double score!  I've seen similar hose holders for around $10, so $2 was a great deal.  I had everything else I needed for the project, so I only ended up spending $4 for this project.  

The post was previously used, so it needed a little sanding to smooth the sides out. 

After sanding, I screwed the hose holder onto the post with a couple screws.  Then I primed the post with some outdoor primer and some Rust-Oleum metal primer on the hose holder.  Next I used a few light coats of Canyon Black Rust-Oleum spray paint on the whole thing.  I chose black because our outdoor light fixtures, tiki torches and a couple planters are all black, so I'm hoping to this helps tie it together.  

Next, I dug a hole about a foot deep and installed the post.  Finally, I got the hose off the ground and wrapped the hose around holder.  Finished!  I love projects than I can get done in a couple of days!  

Cheers!

Happy Champagne Thursday!