What Sound Does A Centaur Make?

This Monday was Matt's birthday and I'm so excited to finally get to share what I've been cooking up for him! Since this particular present is what it is, I will save myself from trying to write a proper introduction for it because, well, that would be impossible.

I mean, how do you prepare someone for this? You don't. Even Matt wasn't prepared for it and we have almost identical senses of humor. (If you don't see a video, click through to see it)

My bff Ali was in on the gift and predicted that he would be experiencing a wave of emotions upon seeing it. She was right. But all in all he loves it.

We're not really sure where it will end up. Mike's (Ali's husband) thought it would be funny to leave it here and invite people over for dinner and see who cracks first.

Where ever it ends up it will stop people in their tracks. Also, I couldn't have done this without my friend Naomi. Actually, I couldn't have done any of this. She painted this whole thing. All I did was buy a canvas and tell her what I wanted. If you'd like to see some of her other work she has a blog that with all kinds of artsy fartsy adventures. Also, she has a son named Rocket (for real), so that should be a quick preview of how cool she is.

Anyway, back to the lamest project in the history of projects painting the exterior of the house.

Nikki Kelly

Worst. Paint color. Ever!

Ok, it's probably not the worst, but is pretty boring. Since I would never purchase this khaki green color willingly, it can only mean one thing. We are painting the exterior of our house. Lame does not even begin to describe how I feel about this project, but I'm sharing it anyways.

 

 

We've decided to break up the house painting into manageable sections, although after doing the first section it still seems like a lot of work. Basically we are spending one day doing all the prep work so that the next day we can just paint. Prep includes scraping the peeling paint off (this part sucks), washing the house down with TSP (less sucky), and then rinsing scything off with the hose (least sucky).

 

 

Breaking it up into two days gives the wood and siding a chance to dry out before we paint anyways. After that we have to spackle, sand, and seal up any little cracks with caulk. There's a lot of little cracks since we have those little vertical strips of wood all over our house in addition to the regular door and window trim.

 

Once the caulk was dry we primed all the bare wood and patches for better adhesion and stuff. As you can see those stupid strips of wood peeled a lot. Some of them were left with no paint at all.

 

 

Here is the after-ish shot. We still have to get some trim paint for around the door and window. Actually, we still have a lot to do, we only painted the lower half soooo, yeah. What's even more disappointing is the difference between the new paint and the old. As in there's not much! Hopefully the trim paint will help in that department, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

 

On a more exciting note, are any of you working on a Spring Pinterest Challenge project? I think I've figured out what I want to do, I just hope I have time before Wednesday. It's my last week of school and I've got some stuff to finish up, but I hope I can squeeze it in. Do you have a project picked out? If not I've got a few suggestions: DIY paint by numbers, fancy staining technique (maybe for a wall hanging), or maybe somewhere to hang your jewelry! Can't wait to see all the Pinspired projects on Wednesday!

 

Nikki Kelly

 

Crafty Fun Times!

Recently I mentioned that I'm attempting to embrace my self imposed title as a blogger (you know, because of this little old blog), and I've been trying to step outside my comfort zone a little. Anyway, after going to the Eat, Drink, Create event I wanted to keep the stepping out of my bubble momentum rolling. First up was actually the very next morning! Anthropologie was hosting a little crafty event to get their display ready for Earth Day, and since Anthro has the most amazing window displays I was pretty stoked to be a part of that. The display that we were helping with was going to be a vertical pallet garden, so they had us cutting out leaves galore, making strawberries, cabbage, and kale. Now that Earth Day has come and gone and their display is up I wanted to share it with all you fine folks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is their finished display! This is the tomato garden.

 

 

These pallets have cabbage and kale "growing" in them.

 

And here's the cutest little strawberry patch ever! Bonus, they'll never go bad!

 

 

Ok, my next event is a little more recent but also in celebration of Earth Day. Ikea along with the Denver Craft Ninjas hosted an event called Reduce, Reuse, Recraft. Anyone that has ever entered through the doors of Ikea knows that one thing they're not short on is cardboard. So instead of bundling it up to be recycled Annie decided to save some of it for crafts! This is Annie showing just one of the projects available for the day, a cardboard pendant light!

 

 

This is Becky of Denver Craft Ninjas showing off some of the other projects available, faux mounted antlers, cardboard deer head, a moose cut out to decorate however you please, and there was a cute little shadow box with a little bud vase inside.

 

 

 

Since I had already been down the mounted deer head path before I chose to make the pendant light and a moose cut out project. There weren't very many mooses (mise?) so I grabbed one of the scrap panels that they were cut out of. Here are all my supplies that I gathered up. It was so nice that Ikea gave us a big variety of fabric, paper, and decals to spruce up our cardboard with.

 

 

Here's my (almost) finished projects! I glued some of the pink striped fabric to one side of my half circles and have them oriented all the same way. I really love how the moose silhouette turned out with the same fabric behind it. I think I'd like to get a little bit of batting to put behind the fabric before I glue it to the back piece of cardboard. That way the moose will be a little poufy. Oh, and IKEA threw in the light cord and LED bulb for anyone making the light, pretty sweet! Now I just need to find someone to give these things to.

 

 

So have you ever gone to a local crafty event? Make sure to check out Becky's post to see some of the other projects of the day, I'm a little jealous of the black moose with the rainbow fabric background. Now that I've been to a Craft Ninjas event, I'm excited to go to another!

 

Nikki Kelly

 

Happy Caturday!

 

I have officially crossed into crazy cat lady territory! Saturday my beasties and I hit up our local cat show in our finest cat shirts, and it was amazing! If you are unfamiliar with what goes on at a cat show prepare to be informed. First up, judging. Just like those dog shows they put on tv there is the equivalent cat shows. Unlike a dog show where the dogs are supposed to be taken seriously, cats are rewarded for their adorability. There is no prancing around on a leash, but there is a playing with stick toys portion to the judging. I would like to know more about what it takes to be a professional cat judge, because they basically get to play with purrfect kitties all the time.

 

 

 

In order to be presentable the cats are fluffed within an inch of their lives.

 

 

 

Then, if its not quite their turn to be judged they get a bib made from a coffee filter thrown around their necks.

 

 

Or, if their owner really loved them, a custom bib with lace trim like this cat. I guess the other cat is being shunned.

 

 

Now, while all these cats look so precious and cuddly (which I'm sure there are) you need to keep your hands to your self. Apparently your dirty hand oil will ruin any of these cats chances at being Best In Show. You can't hug every cat.

 

 

 

 

 

Of all the cats this little lamb was my favorite! It's a Dornish Rex. They have short curly hair and the sleepiest looks on their faces. This one was just so content, her biscuit making and sleepy eyes just killed me. No more mutt cats for me! My next cat (probably not for a long time, T and B are only 7) will be some fancy breed for sure.

 

 

We also collectively fawned over this little playful British Short Hair kitten. It was so feisty and that tail is so fluffy!

 

 

 

There were also a few booths pedaling their cat wears n' such. I thought these cat bed/slings would be an easy project. Maybe I could make one with some sort of mesh fabric and put it over one of the heating vents for Babbs.

 

 

Then, because one cat related activity does not a Caturday make, we visited some hobo kitties fresh off the streets at not one but two cat shelters. We had some time to kill before the grande finale of Caturday. I felt bad for all these kitties, and even texted this picture of little Miss Portia to Matt to see if he wanted another cat. She is a little crusty looking here, but I think all cats at animal shelters look crusty. She just needs a bath, a fresh lion cut, and some love. I think if I had really wanted to adopt her she would be living in our house right this second, but I feel like once I bring one hobo kitty home I would be opening the flood gates, so it was my internal resolve to not want to bring her home as much as I would like to. Matt even asked me the other day if I really wanted to adopt her in a way that led me to believe he would be willing to get another cat. Oh Portia, I hope someone scoops you up soon.

 

 

Now, on to the big cats! There's a animal sanctuary 40 minutes outside of Denver that our friend Harmony wanted to visit with her friends befor her birthday party. Most of these animals have some crazy stories about where they came from, but long story short: people are dumb! Seriously. Why would anyone think keeping a giant male lion in their garage and feeding it cat food would be a good idea? I mean really! Lucky for these animals they have been saved from their neglectful and abusive owners and get to live out their days in peace. Thankfully Matt came along for this part of Caturday and is pretty handy with a zoom lense. (Hey honey, I swiped some of your pictures while you are out of town! Love you.)

 

Lions!

 

 

 

 

A quick note about this guy, he was being sooo melodramatic! He was roaring for quite a while then got up and did this. After that he walked probably 20ft, flopped on the ground, and let out a huge winey moan. Maybe he didn't like that the other male lion was getting all the attention from the lady lions.

 

 

Tigers!

 

 

And bears!

 

 

There were even some wolves.

 

 

Just to finish things off nicely, here is everyone (who wore a cat shirt) in our awesome cat shirts for Harmony's birthday!

 

 

All in all it was a purrfect Caturday! If you haven't had enough cat business (is there ever enough) check out Jenna's trip to last years show!

 

Nikki Kelly

 

DIY Plant Stands

Well, I was finally able to upload pictures of these little plant stands Matt made last week without accidentally deleting them! In my defense, the import button and the delete button are right next to each other AND it doesn't ask you if you're sure you want to delete the pictures. Come on iPad, you're supposed to know what I'm thinking even when I tell you the opposite. Anyway, if you remember back when we bought a big old beam to make two mantles from I mentioned that we had quite a bit more than we needed. It turned out to be a good thing for two reasons. First, cutting through a 4" beam with a saw that only cuts 2-3" deep is tricky. Secondly, these cute little plant stands!

 

 

They were really quite easy and you could pretty much make them out of any decent sized chunk of wood you've got lying around. Sadly I took no "in progress" pictures. Not a one! But since they are so easy, I don't think they're really necessary.

Step 1: Cut a hole in a box Sand your chunk of wood.

Step 2: Seal your chunk of wood.

Step 3: Put legs on your chunk of wood.

We used some Polycrylic that we already had to seal the wood and we picked up two different sizes of CAPITA legs from IKEA to vary their elevations.

 

 

I think Barbara approves of the addition to her favorite spot. Now she can feel like an exotic jungle cat while she snoozes ontop of a heat vent. Treats n' snoozin!

 

 

Later this week: more cats (I went to a cat show and a big cat sanctuary) and crafty fun times at IKEA! So make sure to check back for that.

 

Nikki Kelly

 

Forget Winter, Spring is Coming!

Now that we have officially crossed into the spring season, my green thumb has started twitching. Wait, that's a lie, I don't have a green thumb. The only reason we are surrounded with living plants is because of Matt's diligent watering. I do have to put in more effort to water outside in the summer, but I can just use a hose and it takes all of 5 minutes. Anyway, back to that twitchy green thumb. Since we've been getting a few days in the 60's here and there we have started perusing the gardening centers looking for a small tree like plant to replace the contorted filbert we bought two summers ago that pretty much died. We planted it in the wrong spot and it got a bad case of bark cancer, and by bark cancer I mean it got burnt by the sun. While we were checking out the trees I came across my dream tree! It's a Dwarf Ranier Cherry tree! Maybe I'll call it Cherrion Lanister. You know, since its of the dwarf variety. Oh, and don't you love how we got it home?

 

I felt really luck to find this little tree since 1. this is the first time I've ever seen Rainer cherry trees for sale and 2. I found a dwarf version for our dwarf sized back yard. Seriously, our yard is 260sf, thats smaller that most decent sized living rooms. The little tag said it should only grow to be between 10 and 15 feet tall.

 

 

Matt spent the previous day digging out dearly departed Phill to make way for a new tree, so planting Cherrion when we got home was a snap.

 

 

And because I was waiting for a few leaves to sprout before taking an after picture (or I just forgot) I only have this picture during from our last spring dump. If you look on the very left side of this picture you can see our little bird feeder we picked up too. Sadly we haven't been getting any bird action yet, but I'm hopeful it will be the new trendy/overpriced eatery for those hipster finches.

 

 

The earliest bird feeder patrons can move into this adorable little ombré bird house that we picked up from Crate&Barrel. I am really hoping to drive the cats nuts with the two additions.

 

 

I also had some pictures of two plant stands that Matt made to share today, but when I ment to import the pictures from my card I accidentally hit delete instead. That's ok, they were just quick pictures and they weren't that good anyway. I'll try again this weekend. What kind of spring projects are you gearing up for?

 

Nikki Kelly