Star Wars Bedroom

Just a quick catch up from the last time I posted - my husband and I bought a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home and moved to Lake Stevens, during which I broke my left fibula in the middle of the move. My first few days in our new house were spent sleeping on the couch because I couldn't get up the stairs. 

Fortunately, we had painted the living room, kitchen and our bedroom the weekend we first got the keys. I'm now six months past the break, 3 months out of the cast, and still a little tender, but I'm told it will probably be Christmas before I'm back to 100%.

 My black thumb continues to plague me. The dogs are as adorable and feisty as ever. But the house is lovely, and we are so blessed to have it.

 A few weeks after we moved in, we got a robo-call from an exchange student program saying if we wanted to host a student, press one. I asked my husband, and we pressed one! We filled out an application, had a background check and a home visit, and were approved to host a 16 year old student! Our guest room was a nursery, and the former owners were faux painters...

The sewing machine and Peter Pan Prints.

 

The bed with the beach pillow, stuffed aquatic animals and Disneyland throw.

Since our kids are of the Pug variety, we use this as our guest room.   My husband's grandmother gave us an industrial sewing machine, and that pretty much dominates the room.  The room is fine for a craft room/guest room, but not so cool for a 16 year old boy.

So, given that our student says he likes science fiction, and I'm a big geek, a re-design was in order!

We cleared the room.  The sewing machine came to our master bedroom.  (They meant business when they built that thing.  It weighed as much as a tank!)  The wicker and crate organizer came to our living room, and we dismantled the bed.

My lovely assistant!

Using paint I had left over from the living room, we painted the bottom half of the room a rich creamy tan, called Fudgecicle from Valspar (2004-9C).  When we bought it, we got the paint plus primer eggshell formula, and it did very well in here, covering the faux wood panelling with one coat.  The former owners had left a level line when they did the nursery, and I followed that line, cutting in with an angled brush and rolling section by section.

First color done!

It only took one coat.  If you notice, I didn't tape around the trim - as long as you take your time, and don't drink too much coffee beforehand, you can skip that altogether.  Don't put too much paint on your good quality angled brush and you'll be fine.  Keep a wet rag on hand just in case.  I cut in a three inch band around the trim and the wall sockets and rolled the rest, working in three-foot sections, keeping a wet edge as I moved around the room.  The bottom half of the wall took about an hour.  Maybe less.  (I cranked the Mumford and Sons channel on Pandora, so I really have no idea how long I was painting...)

For the top section, my husband helped me.  In retrospect, I think we should have probably taped around the trim and ceiling.  I cut in around the ceiling, trim, corners, and the line.  He rolled the rest of the walls.  I know now that he should give me a 10 minute head start, because he rolls faster than I can cut in.  I kept reminding him it was quality vs. quantity for my section...still, with the two of us working together, we got it done in an hour.  We ended up doing two coats, especially around the trim.  If you're keeping score at home, the color is Valspar in Misty (5002-9B) and we used paint plus primer for that one as well.

Top section with what's left of the tree on the ceiling.

After the second coat.

The next day, I painted the ceiling.  Our former owners had taped when they did their brush technique on the wall, and there were spots where the tape had pulled down little specks, lines where the faux painting on the walls had ventured beyond the tape, and the corner, where they deliberately filled in the tree.  It took two coats since the gallon of paint I had is slightly darker than the color already there.  If I ever start painting professionally, I'm charging triple for ceilings!  But now that it's done, it looks good. My hubby took down the pendant and taped around the fixture before I painted.  We pulled down the smoke detector for painting, and put it back up before we moved the furniture back in.

To finish off the walls, we put the wainscoting back up.  (I had numbered the boards as I pulled them off, so they were easy to put back up in order,)  I had a can of Valspar in a Kitchen & Bath finish called Mark Twain House Bark (2004-9B) that I used.

No sign of the tree!

Looks so finished and professional!

As I was washing out my angled brush in the guest bathroom (the one the student will be using), I glanced over at the shower curtain.

Look familiar?

I'd like to say it was deliberate, but no.  I've had this set for at least five years, and all I can say is I must really like it!

After a few touch ups (fewer than I expected, I'm happy to say!), we put the bed back in, added an end table as nightstand and added a re-finished dresser.

The original color.

 The dresser was a labor of love - I used a product from Klean-Strip, a gel stripper that had the consistency of slime.  It easily removed the Latex paint, but took a lot longer to strip the primer.  I worked a few sections at a time and to get the dresser to the condition it's in below.  This took two weekends, and any time I found myself bored.  It's really therapeutic for as boring as it sounds...

Stripped off most of it's paint and now it's ready for priming!

In perhaps one of our most romantic gifts ever, Hubby bought me a power sander.  A small one that uses 1/4th of a sheet.  I used it to clean up the residue that wasn't removed with the odorless mineral spirits and to level the wood filler I used in a couple of places with obvious gouges.  I used two cans of Zinsser spray primer and rolled on two coats of a Valspar semi-gloss paint in Deep Walnut (2004-9A).

Primed and drawers painted!

I used a foam roller for cabinets, however it made the paint bubble up like soap suds (?) so I followed lightly with a brush to smooth it all out.  If I was to do this again, I'd take the time to find a paint conditioner for latex paint, which gives it a longer drying time, and allows it to level out some.  There are brush marks in the finish, but I still like the way it ended up.

So, by now, I bet you're wondering where the Star Wars comes in to the Star Wars Bedroom?

I am on Pintrest, and have an entire board dedicated to Star Wars (and Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek...and other stuff...) and in my browsing, I came across a wonderful artist named Steve Thomas who had done a series of Star Wars travel posters.  I bought a bunch of different 8 x 10 frames from Dollar Tree in black and printed the entire series on my color printer, using Photoshop to blow up the images from his website.  They will be replaced with actual prints as I can afford them.

To hang the prints, I lined up the frames on a table and put painters tape on the back, level with the top edge of the frame.  I used a Sharpie to mark the nail holes, and then pulled the tape off the frames, then stuck it on the wall, using a level.

Blue tape!

I hammered in the nails, then yanked off the tape and hung the first row.

First row done!

Success!  I used the same technique on the second row.

Second row done!

My next project was a lamp - a Boba Fett lamp to be more precise.  I found a desk lamp at Home Depot for $15 that had a green cylindrical glass base and a light green barrel shade.  I found Crayola Fabric Markers and using a pencil, I sketched out the design on the shade, then colored in the face mask on the drum.  I think it turned out pretty cute!

Boba and the Sabers!

Finally, my husband and I had a few collectibles that were sitting in a box that we pulled out to finish out the walls.

Dollar store shelves with Sar Wars Pez dispensers, an X-Wing and the Star Wars Radio broadcast!

As you can see, the dresser turned out great, and is the perfect platform for an X-Wing and any other collectibles we find.

Boba Fett in the package and a Storm Trooper and Jedi minifig.

This wall is directly across from the door, and needed a little interest.  If I put up curtains, it will look a little more centered than it does now...guess I'll start on that next!

That's no moon!

My brother and I collected these dangling figures of the Millenium Falcon, a TIE Fighter, an X-Wing and the Death Star (which is sitting on the windowsill because the suction cup would have to be five times the size to support it).  I had the whole set at one point, but two inter-state moves and more years than I care to admit have taken their toll.

I have a few pillows that will go in the room in the next few weeks to finish it off, and I'll post the pictures when I'm done with them!

I'm really happy with the way the room turned out, and I hope our student will be happy here.

Mania, for mania's sake...

We love all things Disney and Harry Potter here at my house. More correctly, we love amusement parks and reading. Some day, we plan on visting Orlando to see Disney World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

For now, however, we have to make due with books and movies.

When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, I dragged my husband to Third Place Books, wearing a costume, and hobnobbing with the other Muggles pretending to be wizards. I read the book the following morning and finished it in one sitting, sobbing at the sad parts, laughing with the jokes. I am looking forward to the last two movies with rabid anticipation and a creeping sadness. Daniel Radcliffe said there were lots of tears on the last day of shooting...There will be tears at my house as well.

Of course, I looked at the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with the same trepidation, and now I'm faced with having to buy the 10 year anniversary editions on blu-ray.

What will replace this my Harry Pottter mania, the way Harry Potter did for my Lord of the Rings obsession?

At the moment, it's Lauren Willig's The Secret History of the Pink Carnation series. Historical romance and fiction. I am waiting for The Betrayal of the Blood Lily to come out in paperback.

I'm also enjoying Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. I am a few chapters in to Dawn of the Dreadfuls, and so far it has been hilarious. My next purchase will be Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

How can a girl possibly go wrong with Zombies & Regency romance?

Basil, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme...and peanuts?

I have a notorious black thumb. My mother wanted to give me a plant for a housewarming, and I had to ask what the plant had done to her?

However, I am trying to fix this, and now that I have a patio that gets a little sun, I am growing some herbs. I bought some starts of sage, thyme, rosemary and onions, and a couple of pots and the helper potted them up for me. I have the sage and thyme in one pot and the rosemary and onions in the other.

The rosemary isn't doing well. Hubby thinks rosemary is indestructible, so I feared my black thumb was at work again! It lays there, anemic and shriveling while the onions quietly expand to block out it's light.

I brought home some live Basil from our local grocery store and decided I would try to plant it with the onions and throw out the rosemary - I'll make a fresh start with an established plant in it's own pot.

When I pulled the rosemary out, it had one pathetic little root that had extended from the original root ball. I put it down and decided to see what the onions were doing. The root ball came out in a very large clump and it looks healthy. Win!

I noticed a few bugs in the pot, which isn't surprising. And a lot of water, which also isn't surprising given our recent weather. Then I noticed something that looked like a rock nestled in the potting mix.

I dug it out and discovered a peanut.

Ummm. What? I'm no expert, but I'm almost positive peanuts are not used as filler...

I pondered the mystery of who on earth would toss a peanut into a pot filled with onions and rosemary while I re-distributed the potting mix. I planted the basil and decided to give the rosemary another chance, so I planted that too. The onion root-ball just fit in the pot I was going to put the basil in, so I'll let that stay there.

After I came back into the house and washed up, my dogs started going bananas at the door.

A fat grey squirrel was digging in the pot with the rosemary and basil, replacement peanut in his cheek...

Running Away from Home, Part I.

There are times when I am driving and the freeway opens up and I am sorely tempted to just keep going...The freedom of the open road, the unending possibility.

What usually stops me is the limited amount of money sitting in my checking account and fuel in my gas tank. The open road doesn't seem so open when you are four days from payday and on a quarter of a tank...

We all dream of running away from home every once in awhile. Sometimes it's out of desperation, sometimes out of frustration. Sometimes, it's because of injustice.

Children are especially prone to running away from home out of perceived injustice. I don't remember the exact injustice I perceived when I decided to run away, but whatever happened, it was the last straw. I wrote a note and woke up early, made my bed, packed a suitcase and tried to sneak out to the car.

My mother is an early riser and caught me standing in the hall with my suitcase, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

She looked in my room and saw the note sitting on the bed and told me to wait in the kitchen for her.

With what I now suspect were tears of laughter, she brought the letter in to the kitchen and we sat at the table and read it aloud.

I am sure I gave my reasons, but the part that I really remember was my genius plan to get from my house in the 'burbs to my Grandmother's apartment 20 miles away. I remember I had it all worked out where I was going to move in with my grandmother for a few days and then rotate moving in with my friends for a week at a time. I'd hide in their rooms and they would sneak me food and my parents would call the house I just left and they'd say, "no she's not here" and I'd live out of my green and blue flowered suitcase forever.

In my note I said I wanted my parents not to look for me, but they should still stop at Granny's house on their morning commute and then open the trunk of the car without getting out of the driver's seat. When they heard the trunk shut, then they should drive off immediately and not look in the rearview mirror.

To Mom's credit, she didn't yell at me, but calmly explained how hurtful it was to them that I wanted to run away from home and how scared they would be for me. And, of course, how terrible my plan for getting to Granny's actually was. She crushed my hopes even farther by telling me Granny would be on their side. We cried and hugged it out and never spoke of it again.

I'm not sure my mother even remembers my attempt to run away, since my younger brother's effort was so comical. But that's a story for another day...

It's the End of the World as We Know It!

After watching Life After People on the History Channel and watching I Am Legend I find myself wondering what I would do if I was ever the only survivor of a worldwide plague that wiped out humanity.

I have given it a lot of thought, and the answer is: it depends. Was all human life eradicated in one event that made everyone drop dead where they were standing, leaving rotting corpses littering population centers? Or was it a slower process, and people died in the privacy of their own homes?

The best-case scenario, for me, would be a massive event that happens at 3am, and turns everyone into little piles of compost, so that me and the dogs could move to the Mall, and not have to deal with rotting death.

Benefits: A food court full of industrial sized refrigerators and freezers, and (hopefully) stocked with food, a generator, a movie theater, a bookstore I could use as a personal library, a Disney Store all to myself, and all the clothes and Frangos a girl could need...although I'd probably spend the first few weeks breaking into David's Bridal so I could wear fantastic wedding gowns as I forage for shelter and learn how to disarm emergency alarms.

Downside: I'd have to learn optometry since I already wear glasses, and my prescription is getting worse. I'd end up like Burgess Meredith in The Twilight Zone and finally have time to read everything, and not be able to see...

Any other downsides? Tell me in the comments!

Welcome!

The title of the blog is shamelessly stolen from Legally Blonde and Elle Woods' plan to get into Harvard Law school, despite her seeming lack of qualifications.

I intend to explore many topics, including Harry Potter, Zombies, and my 12 step plan to take over the universe...more to come! :)

Update: Typical of my memory, I suddenly remembered that the line was "It's a completely brilliant plan!" I'm such a genius...