THIS IS THE DOOR THAT TONY BUILT

Isn't it beautiful! As soon as it was hung up it made the room feel more comfy. Mike's dad laughed and looked at us like we were lunatics. He also said, "Well, in Holland the barns are connected to the houses."

Mike and I both loved the idea of a barn door that we could pull across the opening between the kitchen and the living room and lucky us, Mike's good friend is very handy with a hammer and happened to have some barn wood on hand. In fact, the wood on this door is from the first farm Mike's dad owned. A cool bit of history.


I love the detail with the strip of wood here. It's like a tailored suit.


These wheels (need dusting) are from Tony's old clothes line in his back yard. He built the entire track, which is amazing.



Thanks Tony. We still love it as much as the first day.

HOW TO BUILD A RANGE HOOD

Well, I figure we may never get our remodeling done, so maybe I should post something that is mostly done; the range hood.

Range hoods are expensive, and when you don't want something everyone else has you pay through the nose for it, unless you build it yourself. Then, instead of paying a thousand or five, you pay $250 or so. And, you probably need to sacrifice some quality... unless you are a fine woodworker.

Step #1.
Never use inspiration from magazines to model your range hood after. This will cost you lots and lots of money. Or cause your husband lots and lots of agony as you decide to try and build it yourself. OR it will cause you to compare your finished range hood to your inspiration and let's face it, depression will set in.

Oh zinc, why do you taunt me so. WHY are you so expensive?? I refuse to faux paint zinc. I would just do a poor job.


Chalkboard then, a nice alternative to zinc. Between these two I decided to go darker on part of the hood. (These two photos are from the book Beautiful Kitchens by Better Homes and Gardens)


This hood I've shown before. I love the scallops. I don't know why!!! I don't consider myself a girly girl and I blame Stampin' Up! But, I think a few scallops can hang in the kitchen for a while.


Step #2
Design your hood, have your husband frame the hood, cut your design out of MDF and go to town baby. Horrible description I know. Oh, I also cut out a paper pattern (non-3D) and taped it to the wall to see if I liked the size and how high I wanted it.

Step #3
Buy a hood fan. Ugh, this is almost as hard a decision as deciding on the look of the hood itself.

Step #4
Prime it.


Step #5
Paint it and cross your fingers. Lucky it's just paint and you can change it.


I did have a shelf at one point, but it was bowed so I removed it and frankly, never found the energy to make a new one. I was also very unsure about the part descending down the wall. I really liked thicker corbels but decided to go this route. I think it's just okay. I may saw them off one day. That will be the same day I remove the scallops, so this means probably never.


I'm surprised how faintly the scallops show up, but not disappointed.



At certain times of the day the scallops are more pronounced and I'm not disappointed in that either.


I think when the kitchen is done and the crown molding goes up with will look better. But as it stands now, I'm pretty pleased.

(If you would like to see better, but still not great, instructions I have posted them here)

So there you go, next up, the barn door.

OH MY

These roofs and houses are amazing. Loving Feldmen Architecture.

SOCK MONKEY

Holy cow this is cute! Someone make this for me STAT. Oh, and one for Casey too. Vintage Umbrella even posted the pattern she made.

PATTERN DONE!

And it took me less than a year and a half to write it. Oh well.


You can find it in my Etsy shop.

I WISH I WAS A BETTER TREE HUGGER

(I need to justify owning this van. I will hug more trees.)

Mike and I had a quick trip down to Montana and a couple of nights we got takeout or we had a leftovers from a restaurant. We don't do this very often now that we live out of town, but it's incredible to see the amount of waste produced from eating out. The tiny little garbage cans in the hotel room were beyond full and I automatically thought, "They need bigger garbage cans in here." Wait...what?

Last year I was all determined to decrease the amount of waste I created. I love making these big bold commitments and setting myself up for failure because all I have done is move out to Mike's farm where we burn our garbage. That is a reduction because it isn't going to a landfill, but we are still burning it, and that has it's own problems. I barely used the cloth diapers I got. Big failure.

Then, Mike tells me last week that the fleece from our clothing is sloughing off in the wash and contaminating the oceans. You can't even safely recycle plastic into fleece. Sometimes you just can't win in life.

This morning I was again inspired by the Zero Waste Home. Not only have they cut their waste, but supposedly 40% of their costs as well.

First resolution of the year, start cutting back on waste. Again.

QUILTS

I've been writing directions for my quilt over the past few days and in the midst of it have been admiring and been inspired by other quilts designed by amazing people. One thing I miss about being in a work environment filled with creative people is seeing their work. Creativity feeds off of creativity.

Katy Jones is not only a very cool looking tattooed artist that I would like to be friends with, sewed this amazingly beautiful quilt which colors keep me coming back for one more look.


She had it quilted by Angela Walters. Um...wow.


I've been watching Kellie Wulfsohn for a while. She does amazing raw edge applique and her quilts are artistically exciting to me and the colors jump. She recently finished this Animal Alphabet quilt that I wish I had created. Those yaks are killing me.

This is the quilt that inspired me to design a quilt. I saw this hanging on the wall in a great quilt shop in Utah and couldn't get over how rich it was. Sue Spargo uses her own hand-dyed wool on her quilts. My next quilt I want to do as separate blocks like this seems to be. I also really want to use wool. Could be fun!


And her embroidery completely inspires me. I love this extra element on quilts, which is why I used it too.


I have recently discovered Denyse Schmidt. The simplicity of her designs are very current and I love that. There are many, many, many country quilt designs out there and it gets a little tiresome. It's just great to see fresh beautiful design.




I really admire Lori Holt's design. I love how her quilts tell a story and the different elements she uses in the appliquéd top. There is a real 50's vibe to me. I'm going to aim for a quilt that tells a story next I think.


These images were found at Diary of a Quilter.


And there you have it, inspirations for the night to keep me inspired and hopefully you too. And now to bed.

KINDLE SHMINDLE

I've said it before and I'll say it again, nothing beats a real book. Love this bookstore's logo and signage too.

TINY HOMES

This has been on my mind a lot lately. Well, houses are always on my mind, but lately it's tiny houses. Mike and I have been dreaming of relaxing by a lake somewhere and I would love to do it in a small cottage. No need for a sprawling McMansion to take up beautiful outdoor space.


I love this house from Creative Cottages, LLC. Most tiny homes are just a plain rectangle, but this rectangle has such great style. It's amazing what can be designed with just a little more thought.



I can just imagine walking into the light interior with it's whitewashed exposed beams and gray fireplace. The perfect getaway.



I think it is immoral how developers, banks, cities, whomever, pretty much forbid you to build anything smaller than 1200 sf anymore. And we are brainwashed too! I often sat in my 1000 square foot house, (huge compared to what I have been looking at lately) thinking I needed a second bathroom for when company came. WHY?? Company came two or three times a year and then it was just me and my dog and he didn't require another bathroom. In fact, he insisted on being in my tiny bathroom at the same time as me.


To bad Southern Alberta has a real shortage on lakes.

DEAR LIFE...

I have a problem. Everything I like turns out to be expensive. Please fix this.

Loving this beautiful green tile. Yours for $77/sf.

I WANT

Oh Wacom and your geniusness. The Inkling.