Operation Home

Woot!

I’m totally back!

And happy to be here!

We got a brand spankin’ new laptop last week and I couldn’t be more stoked to be typing, uploading, and saving at a normal, nay, dare I say… rapid rate thanks to this fine piece of machinery.

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I’m almost overwhelmed as to where to start to catch you guys up. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you probably have a good general idea of what’s been happening decor-wise, but for the sake of continuity, I decided to take some (waitforit) non-grainy shots with my trusty ole’ camera. You have no idea how long I’ve waited to type those words. Wait. Yes you do. Two months. That’s how long since I’ve been able to UPLOAD PICTURES. All caps really says it all regarding my excitement level here.

So, in organizing my thoughts here, I’ve decided to basically brain-dump all the decor stuff that’s gone on over here lately over the next few posts. I’m gonna start with a project that I recently finished in the living room. After that, in no particular order, I’ll be showing y’all some dining/foyer updates as well as our nearly finished breakfast nook. I just took all the pictures I need and am SUPER excited to show you guys everything. GIDDY, even.

So, let’s get started, shall we??

It actually took me quite a while to get to this project even though it wasn’t super difficult. You may remember from my last post that I herniated a disk in my back a few months back, which was a huge reason for my recent break. For a while, even the easiest of tasks felt insurmountable, but after a few months of physical therapy, I’ve had a pretty decent improvement. I’m still not running or anything, and I occasionally have exacerbations if I’m not conscious of my movements, but for the most part I’m feeling WAY better. So, you can say that getting started on this project was like a breath of fresh air (aka. normalcy).

Remember this blank wall over the TV??

Well this wall stumped me for the longest time. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.

Then, one fateful day at Ikea, I spotted the Pugg wall clocks, and it was all over.

I had a plan. I purchased my clocks and went on my merry way. See, what I wanted was to hang four clocks to designate each of the time zones that mean something to us. Oregon (where Joey’s from), Texas (where we live), New York (where I’m from), and Paris (one of the coolest trips we’ve taken).

Now, please excuse the next few progress shots. They were taken in a rush (and many at dusk) with my phone.

Anyways, once I got started, the key was getting them lined up perfectly. And I’m proud to say that I managed to do it without punching a single excess hole in the wall. And here’s how…

First, I traced the clocks on wrapping paper, cut them out, and used these templates to determine roughly where I wanted them above the TV…

Then, I used a laser level and a yard stick to measure the exact center (at the location where the hanging holes in the clocks were). This is where I would punch my holes. It turns out that my holes were exactly 18″ apart from each other, so I simply measured and marked along the laser level line every 18″ and marked them on my templates…

Then, I hammered my nail in through the paper. I tore off the paper and hung my clocks…

They turned out perfectly aligned and straight. I couldn’t believe I’d actually succeeded in this the first time around. That almost never happens. See that blue painter’s tape in the pic above? This would be the next part of my project. And this was the part that I had to wait FOREVER to get to because of my back. It was literally up there for about 6 weeks. And weirdly enough, it started to grow on me. Heehee! So strange.

Anyways, once I felt well enough to go for it, I went to Home Depot and had a 1″ x 4″ cut to the length of my painter’s tape (73.5″). I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out, then gave it 2 coats of white paint. I mounted the wood to the wall using 2 claw hangers. Then, I waited.

Because this was the point where I needed to print, but we hadn’t replaced our computer yet. Oy. So many blogging barriers that I’m happy to have busted through lately.

So, basically that blank piece of white wood hung in place of the painters tape in a state of limbo for another 2 weeks.

But then, BAM….

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A post shared by Christina Spragins (@christina_spragins)

And it was on. I’ve seen this technique on many blogs before, and have always wanted to try it, so…

I chose a font that I liked ON MY NEW COMPUTER (:D) and printed my labels on plain computer paper in my preferred color, cut them out, then scribbled lead on the back using a pencil…

I perfected placement of them on my wood with scotch tape, and chose the color of oil-based paint pen that I wanted (as seen in the scribbles above the wood)…

I removed the wood from the wall, then traced the outline of my font with a ball-point pen, giving decent pressure…

Which left this…

Then, I used this navy blue paint pen to fill it in…

And cleaned up the excess lead with a gummy eraser. Once this was done, I rehung my wood, which left this…

And as per usual, I can’t NOT put a before shot from when we gained possession…

Gosh, I’m a fool for before and afters. And here’s the other direction…

You can see that I replaced the Fort Worth print above the chair with a vintage painting that I found for $7 at a thrift store. It’s PERFECT there and helps tie in the hanging planters on the other side of the doorway. Plus, I love that the vintage style contrasts with the more modern clocks.

A view of that entire side of the room….

And a before…

And a few closer-up shots of that newly revamped corner…

I scored that plaid pouf at Target in clearance for $14.98. That was a happy day for me. #andcheaposrejoice

Here are some more close-ups of the new clock wall….

I LOVE that technique for transferring font. Now, I want to monogram everything in my possession.

Now, I just need to actually put batteries in the clocks and set the times. Joey keeps joking that for a room with so many clocks, we never seem to know what time it is. Haha!

Anyways, I am super thrilled with how this turned out. It’s exactly what I wanted. Something a little different that suits us and is actually meaningful to us. I think finally deciding on this project as our wall decor was well worth the year long decision-making process. Yes. It took a YEAR. And many, many ideas until this one came about and stole the show.

Oh! And just to update y’all on the last issue from my last post… The roof patch worked!!!!!! (fingers crossed that it continues) AND we had a new drain system with industrial-strength sump pump installed in the backyard, which meant ZERO flash flooding with the last storms we experienced. So, although our roof is old and will eventually need to be replaced, we’re now hoping that we can hold off for a while (please) and get to some other fun projects instead. So, it’s good news all around!!!

So, anyways, I hope y’all have had a fabulous holiday weekend! And thanks for not giving up on me. 🙂

Hey guys! So, you’re probably wondering why I fell off the face of the planet… At least here on the blog anyways. I thought I’d pop in to give y’all a quick update as to what’s been going on.

I guess the lull started shortly after I published my last post. I was tweaking the guestroom and went to shift a piece of furniture (with my back not my legs…. DUMB) when felt something pop in my lower back. I experienced instantaneous nausea and thought “well, that’s not good”. Then, I promptly decided to forget about it and pretend that nothing had happened. (That works, right? 😉 ) I swallowed a few ibuprofen and went about my business. Two days later, I carried a heavy case of Boost to my car to bring to another clinic (I’m an oncology dietitian for my day job) and I felt that same area in my back scream in resistance. I knew I’d injured it for sure, yet instead of being smart and, ya know, resting or getting it checked out, I made another poor decision …

I went for a 5-mile run.

(I can totally hear that guys voice from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in my head right now “You chose poooahly!” (Sigh…) Tell me about it…)

See, my mom was keeping Lucas that night, so I figured that I may as well make the most of my free time and get some exercise in. And I reasoned that my back would “loosen up” as I ran. **coughcoughDUMB!!**. About 1/2 mile from the finish I felt these crazy shooting pains down my leg and it was all over from there. No sleep for days. Crazy pain, both in my back and leg. Really, really dumb. I knew better every step of the way. After two weeks of being nearly incapacitated by pain, I finally got checked out… Turns out I have herniated a disc.

Awesome.

So, I’ve been unable to do much since then, which has been extremely difficult for me. I’m one of those people who doesn’t stop moving and I’m very self-sufficient, so it’s been challenging/annoying having to constantly ask people to do things for me. And I still haven’t gotten used to “overdoing it” with just simple chores around the house. I’m 34 years old but feel 90 right now. Such a bummer. I’m currently doing physical therapy and just finished a round of oral steroids. The next step is likely an injection if there isn’t decent improvement soon. Ugh. I refuse to consider surgery as a possibility at this point. NO. Just, no.

One thing that I can say for sure is that I couldn’t have hurt my back at a worse time. It happened just a few weeks before an amazing benefit that my family organized in memory of my brother, Alex. It was the 1st Annual SSG Alex Viola Memorial Car Show.

My brother loved cars and actually rebuilt a 1968 Chevelle with my dad when he was younger. This seemed like the perfect fundraising event to honor him. And it was so, so great. Many of my brothers Green Beret teammates came into town to act as judges of the car show and they awarded these awesome trophies to the winners.

We had over 180 cars register and a over twenty others that showed up after registration closed. We’re still waiting on a few things (contributions and expenses) to be finalized before we have an exact number for how much we raised (and can make an official announcement, so consider this unofficial) …. but at this point, we think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $20K. These funds will be distributed to the Green Beret Foundation and Special Operations Warrior Foundation once everything is finalized. Not too shabby for our first go at it. We’re already stoked for next year.

And we were so incredibly honored by the support that we received from local businesses, car enthusiasts, and the general public. We’ll be posting pictures of the car show on the SSG Alex Viola Foundation website once they’re available, so check back there if you’re interested.

After the car show, things haven’t slowed down much. The weekend immediately after was Thanksgiving (fun, family, and a LOT of food) and this coming week we’re hosting a Christmas party for my book club, followed by Lucas’s birthday the next week. All of these things are great fun and stuff we’re totally looking forward to, but it’s definitely busy (and somehow doing it all with a herniated disc makes it seem way busier).

Oh, and did I mention that a week after I injured my back our computer finally died?? Like, stick a fork in him. Done. We knew it was a matter of time, but still… We’ve been so busy since then that we haven’t had time to even shop for a new one. So until that happens, I have no way of uploading pics from my camera. Obviously, this has been a huge blogging barrier. Hopefully, soon we’ll have a replacement. Hopefully.

Then, there’s the house. I feel like I’m such a downer lately in this area. Don’t get me wrong, we love our home but we’ve had so much go wrong over the past year that it’s become a bit exhausting. I posted this explanation of stuff back a few months ago when I took a “discouragement-induced” break due to the expensive, boring things that have wreaked havoc on our humble abode. Well, here’s another… Two weeks ago we discovered a roof leak in our dining area which caused this damage (in addition to more, not shown) as well as an influx of water to enter our home through the wall.

Ugh. We’re waiting now for our roofer to come and patch it, but to be honest, we’re to the point where we just want to replace the whole roof and get it done right. This is about the 4th issue we’ve had with roof leaks since we moved in. So, our kitchen renovation may be postponed… again. (Ugly cry)

With everything that’s going on, I’ve decided to continue my break until the holidays are over. Not that I have a choice until we replace our computer, anyways. 😉 I am, however, continuing to add home decor updates on Instagram. I do wish that I had better pictures from my camera, but my phone will have to suffice until I have a way to upload camera pics. It’s been okay so far, so I’m just gonna stick with what works and continue the Insta-fun. (see the Instagram icon link in my sidebar to follow)

So, that’s where I’ve been. And I’ll be back. No worries about that. I love blogging too much to quit entirely. So, stay tuned. And thanks for understanding. 🙂