Lazy Day

So the workers are still working on the house, which means i'm pretty much under house arrest since I don't want to leave them unattended since the front door is open so they can have electricity for their tools. But, we did make a pit stop at the local gourmet grocery store and I got an excellent dark chocolate candy bar and a Sprecher Soda this stuff is delicious and I highly recommend it to EVERYONE!

So hopefully they will be done soon so me and the girl can go back to our regular schedules before school starts and enjoy our days instead of listening to "scrape, scrape, scrape, bang bang"

new exteriors

getting a new paint job and all the wood work fixed on the house, its damn loud, and having open windows means flies a plenty... this cannot be done soon enough, plus not really bein able to leave the house due to workers....

In other happy news, the girl gave me her old longboard that she can't use so that means I get to play and hopefully not kill myself.

Also, cleaned out the cupboards, removed the shelf paper, and caulked all the holes and cracks.

And on a final note, the old 50's tv/record/radio stand that I modified is even more improved installed the VCR in it so we can watch all our old VHS.. Yes we still watch VHS what can I say? StarWars on VHS is just great!

Speaking of StarWars me and the girl are gonna try to make it to comic con next year we think. Been looking at stormtrooper and Boba Fett costumes, as well as making a Plague Doctor mask.. pictures will come whenever I do whatever it is I decide to do.

City Wide Beautification

So, I was on call at the hospital for like an entire week, and it being summer means too much free time. So I embarked on a city wide beautification project with a minimal budget.

First, I went out and picked tons of elections signs. You know the ones, and then took them home cut them into leaf shapes and painted them green. (a coating of primer helps tons with this)(cut the leaf shapes using a hobby knife) Collected enough signs for about 40 leaves in all.

Secondly, went to the store and purchased washers, nuts, and bolts.

Third, Went out around midnight on a weekday night with the girl and her sister and bolted them to stop signs all over the neighborhood, spent about 2-3 hours doin this.. came home slept, woke up and saw the flowers in the daylight glory.

Enjoy, this is an easy project just consumes a bit of time with all the painting and cutting..

Weekends

As you know equals work days for me, the girl starts school soon as do I. Will post a beautification project for the city that I recently put together with some friends.. pics and details will come soon....

Life in a rented house

So if your like me you rent, cuz well we can't afford to buy right now, and we're gonna be moving in the next few years and will buy when we move. Also if your like me your kitchen is tiny and was god awful country schemed ugly when you moved in. Well we did what we could since we rent and can't make drastic changes. A coat of paint, changed the hardware which made a HUGE impact. Also we added a pegboard to a wall to hang up pots, some floating shelves for random things, and of course the magnet knife board (WHICH I ADORE!) some erase boards for grocery lists, and a cork board for random things like coupons and what not.. anyway here's some pics to show ya that you too can turn your ugly tiny kitchen into something bearable. ENJOY!


These walls were once covered in an ivy wall paper, like I said god awfuly country ugly.


The hardware was cheap actually, searched hardware stores and that shit is pricey. Found these at Wal-Mart for wicked cheap. The original hardware was gold and UGLY! U. G. L. Y. SHE UGLY!


The girl really likes red so we have a reddish motif kinda in the kitchen.



These pegboards were from the hardware store, had em cut to size and then painted, attached the hooks and what nots then screwed to the wall.

Easy Peasy (sp?)

SO, I am on call tonight and figured that I would post a very easy yet very eye pleasing crafty project. First, goto your local thrift stores and buy up some random frames doesn't matter what kind or shape or color. Second, buy some spray paint. Third, find a poster you like a whole lot, but don't really want to frame and put on your wall because after all it is just a poster and not real art.

Take frames and remove glass and paint all the frames the same color. Then take said poster and cut it to fit the frames. then reinstall the glass and poster cut ups to fit the frames, arrange on the wall and VIOLA!! cheapo and modern-y art for the house done on the very very cheap like 10 bucks for paint and frames...



Also, you can see some of my knick-knacks on my mantel, what can I say? My house is kinda like a museum filled with old tribal masks, fossils, art, old medical supplies, and random things.. anyway enjoy the craft!

Dinner and Teargas

So, while making dinner (seared green beans, baked tilapia, and seared yellow squash with homemade basil salt) was delicious by the way... but on to the sorry... while making dinner some olive oil dripped into the oven and hit its smoke point.. OLIVE OIL TEAR GAS everywhere.. man that shit hurts... nothing built today.. too lazy to put up info on other stuff built.. soon I'll post a rented house kitchen upgrade for everyone...

New semester means new study area

SO me and the girl both have a new semester coming up... For me it's nursing process III and for her it's the first of her LPN program... goodbye life.. but hello future.

So I decided we both needed study area and the old crappy desk wasn't cutting it.. so out goes the old desk. Enter some power tools and viola a new desk.

First off found these awesome old legs from a trashed out table down the road.. stole the legs threw the beat to hell table away..

Then bought two MDF white shelving from the hardware store was 18inches wide and 100 inches long, cut off 4inches from each side of the shelf,

The four inches were for the inserts between the two shelves to give it some space between the two shelves for keyboards and what nots...

Used some heavy duty decking brackets to attach the desk to the wall, these were pretty cheap like a dollar a pop.


And here it is all put together, there is a slight sag in the middle but that is easily fixable. But, it was so damned hot yesterday that that was good enough.. 104 degrees.. was sweating my butt off out there

50's patio furniture

This is almost before pic, found it beat up and rusted badly, sanded down and a coat of primer and here we go!


Then a nice coat of rustoleum blue and its nice and pretty now!


Found this exact chair at an antique store the other day in much worse shape for 40 bucks woo for the free!!!!

Also been noticing alot of mid century chairs and old 50's metal patio chairs on porches around the neighborhood.. gonna start knocking on doors and see if I can buy them from the neighborhood and fix em up.. in the works are to finish my patio rocker bench, and a new desk for the office.. pics to come soon!!!

The life of a nurse extern

So woot! My externship finally went through.. worked most weekend, was on call last night so I made cupcakes for the girl at around 2am.. delicous mixed berry dairy free cupcakes!! I'll post some more before and after and during crafty pics soon..

Weekend work

Weekends for me equal work, I work graveyard in the ICU so that means 7pm-7am friday satuday and sunday. Last night was very non eventful till the last few hours when we ran to a BAT call which usually means a stroke. Patient was non responsive and barely breathing, took them to a stat CT scan and thought we were gonna be doing compressions on this lady in the bed in the elevator on the way back to the ICU. Attempted to intubate when I leaving work. New residents at the hospital, which if you don't know means a very scared and unexperienced new doc, didn't have them intubated when I left, we'll see how things went when I got back in tonight.. WOOOO THE FUN!!

Payday = Grocery Day

Got paid today!!! Woot! That means pay some bills and do some grocery shopping. Went to our local organic neighborhood grocery store called Forward Foods. Excellent shop, and the best cheese monger ever check out this cheese selection!!!



Then off to the local asian market, Super Cao Nguyen. HUGE market with everything ya could want, seafood, indian, chinese, japanese, everything ya want!! Love this place!!!



Attached to the asian market are lil shops such as Pho and Vietnamese BBQ joints, along with the best Boba Tea joint!!! the girl got some Taro with boba and I got coffee with black tea and boba! YUM YUM YUM

The 50's meet Futurama

This is the 1950's airliner TV/Record/Radio cabinet I picked up for 50 dollars. Beautiful isn't it? I took out the old non working TV part and mounted a new TV/DVD combo into it.. keeping the old asthetic and making it work for our needs. It now sits in the bedroom and is wonderful!!! all that was required was to cut a small gap into the front of it so the dvd player can open up.. sanded down the cut and stained to match.. Old 50's style meets the modern world...

Here it is all closed and hidden
'


On a side note we have mainly been using it to watch Futurama in bed and Carl Sagan's Cosmos.. yes I am a very big nerd.

Brand Spankin' New

Well here is my first attempt at a real and true blog.
It's like moving into a new house, that requires a lil bit of love.

I am a nursing student currently with one year left till I graduate and
get my Rn. Work in an

ICU so expect some gross stories time to time. Also, I love to
make things and upcycle stuff that is

left curbside, hopefully I'll be able to post
pics before after and etc. Also love to make other things

such as mutant bikes.. and
have a great fascination with Mid Century Modern all things. And enjoy

the outdoors.. blah blah blah feel like I am filling out a dating site or
something here.

Anways
lets get something on here to start with..

Here
is an old entertainment center that I found and upcycled into a record cabinet..

Found this
curbside, took a saw to it and cut out middle top shelf section, removed the
doors and

hinges. Sanded just a little bit since it's MDF to get the paint to stay put, removed all the

hardware and started painting

Used a simple latex paint and then began to put it all back together again
and letting it dry

Then added all the record and the record player (which is not a kickass
old one, WHICH I LOVE, but a newer model made to look like the older ones and
still f-in rocks)

And there you have it a very clean very modern looking record
cabinet that costs a total of 8 bucks worth of paint.. On a side note I forgot
to clear coat and the records peeled some of the paint off.. had to take all the records out and clear coat to to fix this problem and attach some legs in the
middle of but still hidden to keep it from sagging.. works perfectly.. loads of
old punk rock and blues to listen to how your sposed to.. on vinyl!