Hello there!

I’m slowly making progress on the bathroom.  It’s just crazy how long this trim has taken me to paint!  I always think things are going to take an hour and then, BAM, 4 hours later…. I’m scratching my head, like wtf???

Okay, so it hasn’t been exactly 4 hours… but it FEELS like 4 hours.  And when I only have 20-30 min here and there…  Well, you get the idea.

I decided to go with the Cameroon Green paint color.  Aaannnndddd, I decided to paint the window sill (even though my lazy butt really didn’t want to).  I bought a quart of high gloss for the trim and the walls will be an eggshell finish.  As you can see I even painted the ceiling!!  And I put up the tape.

Damn gurl.

Moment of truth?

I’m kinda panicking.  Is it TOO green?  Is it too dark??

AHHHHHHH!!!

Alas, I’ve decided to continue with the original vision… I mean, I already bought the paint and what’s another few hours of my life wasted, right?!?!?  You know who convinced me?

You’ll never guess.

Taylor Swift.

If you haven’t seen the Me video, you must go NOW and watch!!  What am I saying?  Of course you’ve seen it.  Okay, so you know the first part where they’re fighting and the cat is watching them??

Do you see that wall color?!  Gah!

Look what you made me do.

It’s like she’s trying to tell me something.  Lol!!  Paint your walls green and it will be beautiful.  So, I’m going to paint ’em up and then see what I can do to bring in the warmth… I know that if I get the balance right it will be good.  Very good.

That’s it for now peeps.

Hi there!!

It has been a minute.  You’d think I’d be done with jerseys – not yet.  And you’d think I’d be further along with the bathroom, but again, you’d be wrong.  I did happen to have a VERY nice birthday (I’m staring down the barrel of 4-0) and I finally met my goal of having 200 items for sale on Chairish!!  Yay!!  I think I actually hit 204 one day, but then some stuff sold, and it’s been varying around 195-200 every since.

I’m happy.

Anyhoo, shall we dive in?  I totally need your help picking a paint color.

I took the side part of the granite off!  It actually wasn’t all that difficult and the wall damage is fixable.  A definite score, in my book.

My little one bought me a heat gun for Christmas and mama finally put that sucker to use.  It. is. fun.  I love new toys that I get to play with.

I heated the stone up and then used that gigantor screw driver as a wedge to pry it from the wall.  Then with a razor blade, I sliced the silicone bonding the two pieces together and bam, stone was buh-bye.

I was able to get the glue remnants off using a spackling knife and my trusty heat gun.

I even took off the old bamboo decals from the shower glass…

 

Since then, I’ve been patching holes, testing paint and procrastinating.  My next step is to paint the ceiling and upper part of the wall gray.  I think I’m just going to use a gray that I already have to keep it simple and not have to add another color to the list of things to keep track of in the house.  My plan is to do the walls a green, but leave about 10-12″ of the top gray.  I’m even thinking that the trim and door will be green too…

Here’s where I’m stuck…

1.  Should I paint the window trim green too?
2. Both sides of the door?
3. Which green?  The top color is Cameroon Green, bottom is Juniper Ash
4. The finish… I want the look of a matte paint, but is that too risky in a bathroom with this many boys??  On a door?

That right there, is the door and it leads out to the triple bunk room.  Here’s an old photo I just dug up, (I don’t have the strength to tidy it up right now… or ever…. hahahha)

There’s actually furniture in there now and bedding, but at least you can get an idea of the wall color.

I’m kinda leaning towards one, so fingers crossed you are too!!

Smell ya later!

Insert crinkle nose.

Was that not the most boringest title ever?!  You don’t even have to say anything, I know that it is… well, until you are faced with a 100% polyester fabric shirt that you need to get embroidered.  Then you will be all like, thank you Jessica!  Because of you, I had this seemingly worthless information in the back of my brain muscles.  Win-win.

Sooooo… some of you may know, but twice a year I do a bunch of embroidery and vinyl work on hats and jerseys for my kid’s baseball league.  It’s become quite a little money maker, and gives me a few months of moolah for the snack bar and cleaning lady.  Two things I’m VERY much about.  This season I’ve already done 20 team jerseys and hats, with 12-13 kids each, I’ll let you do the math.

Well, this season my friend was in charge of the actual uniforms for the whole league and asked me if I could embroider shirts for all the umpires.  Of course!  I’m awesome!  No problemo!!  (Give it a minute) Wait, what fabric are we talking about here?

100% polyester.  Slinky, stretchy, thin AF.  Oooobbbvvviiooouuussslllyyy.

Here’s how I got em done on my little SE400 step by step, with photos of my trial and error.  You can try these changes one at a time or all at once for the best result – Up to you!!

GET A THIN NEEDLE

Like a size 10.  On my first attempt, I switched out needles and used a tear away stabilizer.

Yikes!!  So not good.  Actually, it’s REALLY scary.  It’s puckering all over the place.  That tear away stabilizer was a piece of crap and absolutely worthless.  Begone!

GET A CUT AWAY STABILIZER AND USE A SPRAY ADHESIVE

These two changes were game changers.  Finally, the fabric stayed put, without slipping and sliding all over the place.  The stabilizer I picked up was pretty thick and I just grabbed a temporary adhesive they had at Joann’s for embroidery.  The other change I made the 2nd time around was

BASTE YOUR DESIGN

Yes, I basted the design and I was able to do this easily on Embrilliance.  What this does is sews a little square around your design first, and it’s an extra measure to keep the fabric secure.

You can see that this is a very big improvement.  I still wasn’t thrilled though… do you see the fabric around the stars?  So, then I

REDUCE YOUR TENSION, JUST A LITTLE

You don’t want to go crazy here.  Just move the dial a few clicks.  And when you’re done, put ‘er back.  I hate playing with the tension because I have it right where I like it, but man, I had to fix that puckering some way.  Lastly,

LOWER THE NUMBER OF STITCHES IN YOUR DESIGN

I saved this for last because it’s the most drastic.  Usually, you’re buying a design and it’s not possible to even do this, but I ended up switching out the N.  I went from one that had over 4k stitches to something in the 2,500’s.  The original N was sent to me, but it was just way too thick for the material.

This was the final test before the show and take away my lousy trimming, this shizzzzz looks good, baby!!  Phew, I didn’t have to hang my head down at the field amongst my people.

It’s been a long time since I felt this triumphant.  Dang, I was damn near proud of myself.

Final product!!

THIS GIRL IS ON FIRRRREEEE!  Sorry. I was pretty stoked on this.

And I got to make a teensy bit o’cash.  I’m totally going to blow it on something fun and amazing and I don’t know, but I’ll let you know when I get it.  So. Excited.

Hope this helps one of you out there in the world!