Welcome home

It’s been one month since we moved into our forever home! We are really loving our little rambler in the canyon. It’s so quiet and peaceful, especially compared to our rental the last 4 years which had a major city road behind it. Now, instead of hearing a constant flow of traffic or motorcycles roaring up the hill at 3 am we hear birds, wind blowing through the huge pine and redwood trees surrounding our home or silence. We love the natural light and single story – no more stairs! This is our 10th home or apartment we’ve lived in together since getting married and we are so happy to finally find a city and home where we want to spend the rest of our days.

Our home was built in 1978 so there were some updates previously done (like new windows) but some things we’ve contracted out to do like removing popcorn ceilings! We also got new interior doors on half the house, new carpet, painted the insides of all the cabinets which were dark brown and this week we are getting our kitchen and bathroom cabinets refaced and they will be white! It’s amazing what a can of white paint can do, not only to brighten our kitchen but the previous all green bathroom, bold accent walls in colors I’d never choose, and a bedroom that was floor to ceiling covered with wall paper. Another thing we’ve really been excited about is getting our garage interior painted and epoxied (the floor). It feels like a much cleaner space than the previous gross floor and walls that were just dry wall. Here are some pictures of the house so far, including our half unpacked kitchen. We didn’t want to unpack everything since we knew the cabinets were going to be refinished so we’ve been half using stuff in boxes still. Lots of work has gone into this house to make it ours and lots to come!

a few before and afters and then just random pictures of our lovely little home:

 

Here’s our dark kitchen that will look so much brighter and modern hopefully by next week!

 

Create

The main reason I started making jewelry a few years ago (before I started my Etsy shop) was because I could picture the jewelry I wanted that was my style but couldn’t find it in physical shops or online. I experimented with several different methods, designs, materials, suppliers, etc and through lots of trial and error and google, was able to design and create the pieces I was looking for. While my work needs a lot of practice and work, it makes me happy to be able to turn my vision into an actual product.

Here are a few new earrings I’ve been experimenting with – my first experiment with wire hoop earrings. The top pair has details of tiny gold geometric seed beads. The bottom pictures are similar design with a leftover herkimer diamond (from a necklace I made) paired with the same gold seed beads as the top pair of earrings. I’m pleasantly surprised with how they turned out and that all my tinkering and manipulating the wire turned out ok 😉

gold hoop earrings

gold hoop earrings

gold seed bead wire hoop earrings

gold hoop earrings

gold hoop earrings

gold seed bead wire hoop earrings herkimer diamond

 

How to remove dried paint from wood

We’ve been painting our entire new home here in Austin (pictures to come!) and one super useful tip I found is how to remove dried paint from wood. I’m not the cleanest painter and we have wood (laminate) floors in the whole house. After a google and Pinterest search, here’s a successful and super easy method that’s worked for me:

Pour a small amount of rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball or cloth with . Scrub.

how to remove dried paint from wood

Ta-da!

how to

(I’ve only used this method on laminate wood, test first in an inconspicuous spot)