Why Won't My Printer Print In Red?

I was so close to looking on Craigslist Ads for a used but in working order printer. However, I gave Google a chance and found a YouTube guy who was able to fix his printer by printing. Who'd have thunk that one, huh?! Not me. I did a Nozzle Check and a Head Cleaning twice and the printouts were worse each time! It has been a month or so since I've noticed the printer did not print in blue or red. When I did the nozzle check, blue barely showed up and red, nor yellow showed at all. Only black was working without any issues.

I had no idea until this evening browsing the web and reading how a printer works that all a "head cleaning" really is is a "dump" into some ink reservoire. Once that bucket is full of ink, your printer will shut down, forcing the owner to buy a new printer. At that point, your printer is beyond repairable. This is what companies want you to do, hence why a clean is really a dump. I don't know how much ink I have in this "reservoire dump" but hopefully I am just in the nick of time for saving the printer all-together.

As for how to actually get your printer working right, there's a few super easy steps involved. First of all, I have an Epson Workforce 610 Printer that are notoriously known for FAILING to print in red. I didn't know that either until I myself had issues with the red ink. Other than this super common issue, I love the Epson Workforce. It has done great printing jobs and rarely jams. Also the SD card and scanning function is superb. Gotta love that!

Here is how I fixed my printer in just one hour (but if you don't have the supplies, it may take longer):

1. Print the Nozzle Check only under Maintenance Settings. Do not hit "clean" once the nozzle check is done. 
2. Notice what color is NOT printing. For me, there was no red or yellow ink on the page. There was some blue but it had streaking (where the line is not solid)
3. Make notice of your inks. Are they genuine? I had a spare CYAN ink cartridge that was genuine Epson. I noticed the original one in the cartridge was not genuine and immediately assumed that this was part of the reason my blue was not printing correctly. 
1. Once I had snapped in the new cyan cartridge into it's correct slot, the blue started working again! 
4. Place only genuine cartridges in the ink slots. If you have all OEM versions, trash them. They are not working in your printer; maybe your printer has been designed to unrecognize it... you never know how the Engineers over in Japan think...
5. Open up a Word document. Write the colors you intend on printing. Start with the basic colors. Red, Yellow, Black and Blue. Make the font large, bold and underlined. It helps to clearly see the yellow when your document prints. Go to File > Print but before hitting "okay" on the Print, select your "Printer Properties" button and choose "Best Photo" for printing. It will spill the ink onto the page rather than into an ink reservoire within the printer. 
6. It may take more than one print job to get the ink flowing but it shouldn't take more than three. Get that ink out of the printer and onto the paper. I now have 3 working colors. I just know that when my Magenta comes in (just ordered); it will work again. I know this because the two colors I was using under OEM were Red and Blue. I had a genuine blue one laying around and now used it. Blue is working again. So Magenta / Red is all I need to get the entire printer working again. 
7. Never do a head clean. It just spits junk into your printer. Only commit to a Nozzle Check when things aren't printing well. 

Hope this helps everyone! 

DIY Patio Cushions (Part II) - No Sewing Machine

Yesterday my fabric came in the mail from fabric.com. They ship their fabric on poly mailers which surprised me. I think they purchase those in bundle on eBay since they are super cheap; however, the fabric itself does not look cheap at all! The fabric is beautiful. I will definitely order again. To remind my viewers, I ordered Richloom Solarium Outdoor Fabric. That link shows you the search results for all the choices you have for that brand of outdoor fabric. I ordered the styles in Kiwi and Navy.There are others but I truly love the Richloom Solarium the best because it's designed and pre-sprayed with Scotch Guard or some other equivalent fabric protection spray from UV rays and other weather conditions.

Now let me just tell you, I am probably one of the serious newbies on re-covering old cushions. I have never taken a class or learned previously on my own how to work with fabric, needle and thread. I don't like to spend a lot of money and even at a store like Ross and Marshalls, outdoor cushions were as low as $25 per cushion (minimum $100 for 4 cushions)!!! I spent $35 on 4 yards of fabric (my cushions are pretty much $8.75 each) that I plan to use to cover 4 to 5 cushions. I am estimating to have a small bit of leftover fabric as well for other projects. I think I need another yard; however, in a different fabric design for smaller cushions for back-rests. It would look adorable!

Okay let me tell you how I actually did this project with ZERO experience and NO sewing Machine. (I've owned two but got so frustrated using them since my foot could not control the speed at all and my sewing got out of control... so I prefer to go by hand until I get comfortable with stitch). Baby steps...

Here are my steps:

1. Watch some videos on YouTube about how to cover patio cushions and/or make pillows
2. Buy your fabric: 2 Yards in each Fabric will cover about 3 cushions if they measure 19.5 x 19.5. 
3. Know how much a yard is in fabric. I learned that it's about 36 wide and whatever length the company designates the length. When you order the fabric they will tell you on the listing or description the length is 54" or 64" etc. 
4. When you receive your fabric, get super excited and squeal at how awesomely pretty it is!
5. Use a long quilting needle (its about 2.5 inches in length) so you have firm control over your needle and no issues with breakage on the needle or thread. 
6. Use heavy-duty thread. Use a color that goes well with your fabric because your last seam will have to show the thread. 
7. Lay your cushion over the fabric and re-adjust its position until you feel your fabric will cover the entire cushion. Make sure you have a minimum of an inch on each side of the fabric too for the rounded part of the cushion. You wouldn't want to be short on those sides. 
8. I used a ruler on the backside of the fabric and marked a straight line that I want my thread to run on. I created a second line above that about a centimeter apart for my second lined stitch. I did a straight line all throughout the fabric and then a criss-cross stitch between the two lines. It may be over-stitching but I was worried it wasn't going to be durable enough and fall apart on me. I wanted to do it right the first time. 
9. I had the back-side of the fabric facing me and sewed the two sides together on the lines I had created. I didn't want to have a crooked stitch and it helped to have a place to pinpoint the needle quickly. 
1. On each knot that I had created when running out of thread, I used fabric glue to seal the knot and let it dry for 10 minutes. 
10. On the last open side, I flipped the fabric to the correct side and checked my seams. Then, I stuffed the old cushion inside (did not remove the fabric on that cushion at all since the interior of that cushion had horse hair in it instead of foam... kind of grossed out by that discovery but didn't want to deal with removing all that hair)
11. I folded the fabric about an inch inward (toward the cushion) and held it tight. I began my stitch like that and did one line all the way across first. I went back since I had extra thread and did another line across and tied the thread with my initial knot's excess thread. I knotted it like 5 times. 
12. Again, even on the outside, I had glued together my knots to seal them really well and protect them from breaking. 

Here are the cushions that I used to have. They were green and brown but have faded into a terrible and hideous color. 

Here is my upgraded cushion (and remember, I have zero experience and no sewing machine). It took me a day and a half to complete just one cushion. I know, I know... with a sewing machine, it'd take me a few hours but like I said, I'm not too good with a sewing machine. 

When I'm totally done, I'll upload a picture of all 4 and on their proper chairs. For now, it's back to work... on cushion 2....

My Husband Just Trashed the Patio I Cleaned!!

UGGGGHHHH. I'm livid right now. His one day off he just destroys the really cute sitting area I had made! I spent all day working on it yesterday trying to get ready for summer. I would like to have people over and the kids sit outside. It would be nice to look out and see a NICE yard. Now it's back to it's crappiness view that we had before yesterday. Like are you kidding me?! He's like "What'd I do?!?!!?" and he spent less than 10 minutes moving the crap back into view of the window so everyone can see the awful marble table he also ruined. We bought the marble table 2 years ago slightly chipped on the corners. Now the legs are peeling their original stained color so the table is completely icky. I was going to Craigslist it next week and have it on curb-alert. I probably still will but he just moved it even farther from the side door in the yard so I got to work ten times harder. Last week he had put this disgusting residue paste onto the chipped marble table and all over my drywalls that had holes. It dried looking like SHIT. Even the kids are like... "what is on the wall dad, it looks like poop!!!?!" It's embarrassing how an engineer can destroy things. He didn't even smooth it down so I could just paint over it. It's all clumped together and dried hard as a rock (which was the point) ....

Now I got empty bins, someone else's lawn mower, and more crap outside. I just don't get men. I had cleaned out his garage too and guess what? That looks like shit again. Everything is everywhere, he has no idea how to put anything back into its spot. He just leaves everything a mess. And the weird thing is he wasn't like this before  we got married. He cleaned up things and helped out. Now it's just TV and video games. It is driving me nuts and I just want to cry.

I feel like he keeps ruining all my hard work. I know I don't bring home the money but I keep the house in super-nice condition. And he's home for a weekend or a holiday and the house just gets disorderly. He doesn't even do laundry. He mowes the small patch of grass that we have... that's it. And leaves me the rest to clean up. I'm just sick of it. I can't talk to him about it because I get so upset and angry at him. When we did our front lawn last weekend, he had trimmed a tree but left me ALL the branches to clean up. He would not work on the project with me when we got home. He just said, "Yah! You rock!" and while that's a great compliment, it really sucks cause I waste time cleaning up his messes.

Does anyone else have these husband problems?!?! I just don't get it. Why can't he be CLEAN?! He had an awesome house before me back in Florida and yes, we are renters here in AZ but still. Freakin' aye! Keep it darn clean! And don't move my projects... please!

Patio Updo: Painting the Wooden Swing

I rain out of my Minwax Polyshades "American Chestnut Gloss 475" before I could even get 50% of the swing done; however wanted to post what the difference in shades look like. The swing came with the house and seems firmly planted into the ground. I sanded the cajolla's out of the "legs" of the swing. This is what the swing looked like yesterday... and all the times it's been around not being used....

Yeah, dull, boring, looks about as ugly as the rocks below it. Arizonians love rocks. Ugh! Why?! Oh yea, NO maintenance. But they tend to look kinda ugly and boring. Anyhow, this is what I'm doing today and probably tomorrow if I can get more stain.

The color is much richer and more appealing to the eye. Once the whole bench is done, I think this will look very nice and finally be used! Let's cross our fingers and hope that somebody besides me will sit in it! Now I know to mix the minwax paint too. Ha, oops. 

DIY Patio Chairs and Updating Private Panels

A new summer is around the corner and it's time to update the patio. You want friends and co-workers to come over and be impressed, not shun in disgust because your chairs have rusted over the winter season. I know mine have. I don't mind the metal chairs though since I can re-use them almost ever summer. I would love to have wicker but I have learned over time, wicker is prickly. When I sit in other people's wicker chairs, I remember exactly why I don't like them during the summer; however, in winter, I think they are great because you're wearing jeans to cover your skin from being poked around.

I have four (4) metal chairs, (1) table and (1) side table that is used for drinks. It would be great to find a circular tray to seal to the surface but I will have to keep an eye open for any ideas on how to make it more accessible.

Here are the photos of today's spray-paint job. I am using Rustoleum Gloss Enamel in "Smoke Gray".

The others are still in progress. 

As for my private panels..I don't really like them but there's not much I want to really do to them right now since I have no image in my mind of what they should look like. However, I did decide that since I had one too many fake plants, I am trimming them with wire cutters and placing them in and out of the panels; the way vines would look if they were growing on them. Below you can see the before and after image. I am also putting my christmas white lights within the vines so at night we have some extra patio light (since it is super nice out lately!). 

The bottom planters will either be sanded and stained or sanded and painted a certain color, possibly light blue to match the patio decor. Not sure yet. I stained the bottom planters (3/25/2013 update) and they look like this but I realized that I had not actually used the colored stain in the bottle as the stain was not mixed with the paint (oops, my bad). Probably going to re-do this! 

  

DIY Patio Cushions (Part I) - Fabric Choice

It took me forever to finally settle on two different color choices for fabric! I shopped at fabric.com and while browsing through their large catalog of fabrics, settled for Richloom Solarium Outdoor Carmody in Kiwi and Navy. I had thought I was going for a gray/yellow/blue pallet for the outdoors but my husband went to our local grocery store, Fry's... that also sell some basic patio furniture items, and purchased a navy umbrella at $39.99 + the insanely high 9.1% tax here. While navy was not in the pallet of initial choice (blue was going to be like sky blue) ... I decided to look online for navy fabrics to match the umbrella and found the Richloom design. I purchased two (2) yards of each. I may need more but this is my first time upholstering cushions so I will need to spend lightly before I get the hang of it.

KIWI

NAVY

Aren't they nice?! Everywhere I look all i see are nature print red and green fabric as the design for patio furniture. I think that is so 10 years ago still so I decided instead of dishing out on things I don't like, I'd attempt to make my own with the help of other bloggers DIY tutorials and youTube users. I am spray painting my (four) metal chairs and (one) metal table with Rustoleum Smoke Gray spray paint that is supposed to keep the chairs and table from rusting so easily. I think the gray / blue / green pallet will look really nice and sociable once it is all done! 

Will get back to you when it's all done. Not sure how long it takes for fabric.com to ship their product, but once I get it I will surely be ready to begin the task of making my patio awesome! 

Paid off the Vehicle

Oh hurrah! My hubby stupidly bought a used 2004 Nissan Titan in 2008, with an $18,000 price tag. I'm never quite sure why he needed or wanted the truck but we had it and were stuck with it since the market collapsed right after that.

About two weeks ago, he put his Mazda RX-7 for sale on Craigslist and finally had one viewer two nights ago. He wanted to sleep on it and see other cars but came back and said he wanted our car since it was in great condition (meaning, not roached!). Why is it that Americans treat their expensive or classic cars like garbage? My dad did that with his ancient Austen Healey and Viper. Yes my dad had old cars. He never drove any of them but it did collect dust, had oil leaking issues and piles of newspapers in it. It was quite gross, even I admit. Such a nice car just trashed. I also find it funny when people store their $10-60 items in the garage and their $40,000 cars outside. Ha! Good ole Americans we are!

Anyhow, this guy who was pretty large for this small car bought it. Guess he really liked it. We used 67% of the funds to pay off his loan on his 2004 Nissan Titan. Now we can save $310 every month and use it for ... oh... fixing his smurf step which I swear is gonna break someone's ankle soon as it pops off, fix his rusted muffler (yeah, florida cars)... and I dunno, put $150 into savings. Either way it's totally fab! I was ecstatic that he was willing to put all that money into paying off something! I didn't think he would but he totally came through.

I think it helped for him to talk to his co-workers about their car payments. One guy makes $1,100 in total car payments, $700 for his wife's Lexus and $200 for his and $200 more for his sons!! His son doesn't pay for his own car?! That is totally wack. Talk about teaching kids to be dependent on their parents for paying off their debts. When my hubby heard the $1,100 number, he felt this immediate relief when he sent the final check to the lenders. Of course they are going to say you owe us $5 in interest that accrued from the time we posted pay off amount on this date to the time we actually received your check, but that is okay! No biggie. So what if we owe an extra $5.00. We don't owe $310.79 anymore! We can live more comfortable and within our means now.

Our monthly loan repayment amounts were $832 and now they are $521. It's a huge drop. We still have his dad's $400 to pay off that we borrowed from him and IRS Taxes. After that it should be like $200 in Student Loans. Then we can tackle that and pay that off as soon as realistically possible. It's in the 110,000 range and slowly growing because our minimum payment isn't even covering the principal yet.. we've paid $9,000 or so in interest alone since 2012... nuts. Oi vey. But... save that for a new day. Not today. I'm just so happy we get our Title soon and can finally spend some money on fixing the poor truck. It really is in excellent condition despite those two issues I mentioned earlier (muffler and smurf step).

Okay well this was the easiest way to pay something off... you gotta sell something big in order to reap the reward later. Selling small items work too but they take so much time and effort it's almost like a second job. Best thing to do is open a separate account (from your spouse) and put all your selling profits into that account. Wait for it to add up to a certain number that you are willing to pay and it will help. That or you could just use those extra funds as a savings account. It all depends how you want to tackle (and if you really want to tackle) your finances.

Also when you pay off your vehicle, other costs are reduced. Our car insurance on the vehicle for 6 month term is $258. Once we show them the Title I will advise what the new insurance cost is. The car insurance cost has already been reduced by $30 by selling his Mazda convertible. So paying off the vehicle really does help, especially if you have another one that you can sell to pay off (or pay down a large amount) of the own that's owed.

DIY Hang Your Guitars

I had two guitars that were constantly in the way, I spent more time moving them than actually using them. I had them in my closet and that proved to be dangerous for the guitars since my clothes would often move them. Fortunately no damage sustained but I finally found the missing guitar hangers we had and got them up on my office wall. I had to put them away from window view since I have no blinds or window treatment up right now. The natural light in here is quite nice but I do need some sort of privacy. That will have to be next month or so since the budget is maxed right now for "upgrading home". I want picture frames in peach and blue all around it showing good "success" and other "office" quotes that are inspirational.

Here's a pic of the guitars hanging. The upper one is a kiddie guitar which I haven't been able to sell lately since people keep asking for a practically "free" price. I decided to keep it for a while and just use it as decor now that it's out of the way (meaning off the floor). The one below is a rare 1990s Di Giorgio Brazilian guitar made out of Rosewood. It's illegal to import that type of wood into the US now since Brazil keeps cutting down their forests so this one stays.

Tada! 

I will probably move the black filing cabinet. I am figuring out a way to convert some of my files into binders so that I have some binders on my desk instead of too many files stuffed into my drawers (only have 2). And then maybe convert the filing cabinet into a basket holder in entry way or something. I'm not sure yet how I can convert it into something else. I will figure it out soon enough though. Thanks for looking. 

Artwork for the Office

Started this today. I have a crappy white wall.. the primer just won't turn white like the other side. I had brown on there but Base 2 is as if there's no pigment in the primer. I don't have enough to do another round so I need to put artwork up and just get some other things on the walls to avoid the trouble of priming the entire area and only the non-covered area. Need to return extra primer from Walmart tomorrow or Monday. Probably will return on Monday. Don't think I needed to buy that right now.

Anyhow, this is sort of what my artwork is going to look like. My theme colors are aqua, coral, dark gray and sky gray.

Any how, the project is slow going since the stencils take forever to dry underneath. I can't get more paint on the canvas. It already has one spot I need to recover with the dark gray. This will go over my white walls. It's a 3 x 3 canvas (meaning 3 foot) so it should cover enormous space. The sides of the canvases will have to be painted gray too but that will be last. I am have the design meet in the middle and the only design on the other corners will be the leaf. The stencils were $3.88 from Walmart and if you shake them to dry... the paper starts to crease which I know will lead to a tear in the stencil... so I gotta wait. I'm alternating colors on each stencil and each side so the pattern is reflective of the other side. The aqua or should I say "China Blue" ... looks a bit too light but it is doable for artwork. The Enamel paint was $0.57 at Walmart for each bottle (I got four, two of each) and $6.67 for the primer which again, I'll most likely just return. Don't need that right now. I didn't think of making the base color gray until I left the store... how typical. Ideas always come at the wrong times. Any how, hopefully this will look really nice on the walls and less "manly". The entire house is dark colors with rich colored furniture and while I admit it looks great ...  I would like the upstairs to be bright and happy colors. Should be a cool transition, right? Yeahhhh... also the office is the first room anyone sees. I want it to say "wow, that's really nice" or "wow, that's so awesome"! and of course "your wife rocks." That would be great. However, that time is not now. Maybe by Friday next week it will be. I can't do too much though since we're on an extraordinarily thin budget for each month until things are paid off. I have to be creative and shop at Goodwill for my supplies (like curtain fabric). Okay.. well tata for now. I gotsta go watch some TV and relax. I'm a little tired today so gonna rest up. 

Redoing the Office...Still

I don't know if I can get this done in just one week! I have so much in mind to finish! I need something over the windows... since there's a road RIGHT THERE !! People see cute little me! Oh by the way, listening to Alphaville and their hit song, "Big in Japan". Great song. I recommend Spotify for anyone who doesn't want to spend over $10.00 a month on music. They have pretty much everything, even that gosh-awful song by Britney and Will.I.Isn't. Yah, that song is the worst I've heard. Doesn't even sound like Britney, sounds like a  machine that you'd find at those high-tech airports that talk to you when you pass them by. So gay.

Any how, the office is ... still going. I don't think I'm going to get done by tomorrow. I got no blinds on there either. Poo. I have extra curtains but I really have curtains everywhere, gets kind of old to see curtains. And they are just blue, nothing super fabulous. I am about to put a shelf up over the window to allow for extra storage space. Not sure what I'd put up there but I have a shelf laying around and have no idea where else to put it. The shelf is like King size and the kids rooms have twin size windows. Know what I mean? They're tiny. And the shelf would be too overwhelming for them. It's too high too. Here in the office I can at least put up some random things we own for no apparent reason and make it look like they have a real home. That may be cool. We'll see. Anyhow these are the images of the office... and it's amazing how a camera can make the room look like total crap but it's really not. I can't get a picture of the whole room... unless I use the panoramic on my hubby's phone. I may do that... but when it's done.

This is the office and that's actually the computer I'm on right now, ha! That's my desk and I know the wall above isn't painted all the way through. I can't reach (only five foot) so I gotta figure a new way to reach it or just put pictures there... not sure. Anyway, yes we have rockets. I really don't know why either. They just collect dust but the hubby likes them. At least I got his plane collection situated. The heaviest one crashed off the wall today ... gotta figure out how to make it stay there. The 5 lb adhesive tape is apparently not enough even though I had put some on each engine and the flattest surface that would touch the wall. Still crashed. None of the others have though. May have to work with this one. 

BEFORE

AFTER... well, so far...

The wall has been painted white... it was a poopy brown but that clashed with the gray too much. I really wanted navy blue walls but it's $30 for a gallon at Home Depot and I can't afford that right now. The wall needs an extra layer in a few spots but I'll wait until its super dry. The window is so bare, I'll have to see what works ... that we already have. I don't want to buy any more things for this room. There will be pretty cool lithograph golf frames up on the wall on each side. They are large so they will take up most of the space. If it's too manly once they are up though, I think I'd sell them for something else. I don't want it to look ALL man here. Most of the house already looks like it's all man... except for the guest bathroom which the idiot renter beforehand used cement paint on the walls and ceiling! It's truly the ugliest color for a small bathroom... I just haven't gotten to it yet. Oh, btw, the color is like peach puke. Yah. Terrible.

I think the doors need to stand out the most and match the window treatment. Looks like it just needs that boom boom. I may be able to figure out a cool pattern for that. The black office chair needs to go. It's so big for me. It's made for a giant. Seriously. It's not even something I could DIY upholster. 

PS. The Dyson vacuum cleaner stays in the rooms I work in since I vacuum the carpets daily. It's so I'm not breathing excess crap. 

Okay, time to rest and save up energy for tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by on my oh so wonderful work. It's a pain to paint white... so many layers. Fo shizzle. I used to hate white walls... but I think if it is accented correctly with cool stuff on the walls.. it turns out very nicely. Keeps it light in here too... the dogs are actually in this room. They love sun spots. 

Financial Woes: IOUs

I have a lot of financial woes. None of the IOUs belong to me, but that of my husband which was acquired before we married. I knew about it and it wasn't an issue when he was making excellent money. Due to an entire year of incurring a substantial home business loss, it took a hit on our personal finances since we had to pay people out of pocket that the business did not have. The money dwindled fast. We had no savings either. It was pretty brutal. They always said 2012 was going to be a bad year and for many, I believe it was. It certainly was for us. However, my husband (fortunately) had a 9 to 5 secondary job which paid well but it's still not what we are used to.

Here are the items below that we have to pay off sooner than later because $732.57 is going out the door every month to them. Last month it was $882 so we thankfully reduced it since with our state tax refund, I spend half of it on paying off the doctor's bill. The other half was spent so my husband could see his mother on her last few days here on Earth. It was tough, but the refund covered it. Now that it's been reduced to $732, I am hoping to reduce it even more to $220 and raise by $180 in order to pay off that last debt faster. On the student loans, we owe more than what he borrowed since he did too many deferments. That's where you say you cannot pay right now but interest still accrues. That interest was $9,000 or so and now it's down to $1,000. 

These are the monthly outgoing numbers:

1. Nissan Titan - $310.79
2. IRS - $200
3. Student Loans: $154.17
4. More Student Loans: $67.61

On top of this, we have RENT at $1,288 (which I got the landlord to agree to have us pay her mortgage instead of a rent of $1,425... that was an awesome moment); and Child Support at $1,721. While I truly believe we are being ripped off on Child Support, the husband wouldn't dare negotiate. He is a lawyer but when it comes to his ex, he turns into a turtle. Sorry, but he does. I have calculated his Florida Child Support  number should be $1,556 which may not sound like much of a difference but that extra $165 would take care of at least one loan. Oh and he gave her $20,000 before the official Child Support Order was given so it's not like he never took care of things. Also he paid off every credit card he had and took a hit on his foreclosure. She took none of that hit since she doesn't have to file taxes. Her income is supposedly $0 and Child Support is not considered income since it's for the child. However, I suspect she's paying her bills with it than her kids. She is married to a man who probably makes $30K-$35K annually. He can't afford the kids either so they have piles of credit cards blatantly on their tables... I've noticed. Tough situations but no reason to rip my husband off. 

Fortunately, his Ex is nice enough to let the Child Support payments be late. We are usually 10-15 days late since Rent falls on the same day Child Support is due and never ever ever do we have $3,009 in our accounts at any given time. But I think we could if we reduced other outgoings to $0. I'm attempting to do the Dave Ramsey debt snowball but it's very difficult considering he's always got something to pay for that's new, like Bar Exam fees of $580 and trips to FL and etc. We have had to ask family members for a loan and add that on top of our repayment loan spreadsheet. Yes, we do pay our family members back. It was their money to begin with, not ours. It is only righteous to return it so that they would be willing to lend again on any other situation. We would do the same.

So after all our expenses... we only have $1,100 to spend on essentials: food, clothing, home supplies, etc. And it may seem like a lot... but come 1st of every month, we just barely have enough to cover Rent. Then the second paycheck comes in and it goes to Child Support. The business money is the only money we get to keep. Poo. 

Showing Off Collection of Model Airplanes

I've been pretty busy and a bit too tired to blog lately. However, today I'm ending the day early and wanting to share what I've been up to. I am remodeling my home office. It's really a guest bedroom converted into office. It's the room next to the master bedroom which I find kind of weird. I don't know if I'd want guests right next to me... but any how. I had to move a seriously huge office desk in front of the doors that would lead to the master bedroom. Yes it cuts off all access from the guest bedroom to my bedroom but that was pretty much the point. The hutch-like office desk blocks the doors nicely. They are almost the same length. After moving that, I'm pretty sure I did some bone damage to my wrists and right hand after moving it. It felt kind of sprained but more sore than anything else. I didn't do any lifting for the remainder of the night.

The room has a weird shape to it. This is the "before" picture of what my office looked like. Not the best, I know but we are probably on the tightest budget ever since 33% of our income goes to rent and another 39% goes to Child Support. Yeah, it sucks but the hubby won't even try to mediate with the Ex. I think it's because he's scared of her and doesn't like confrontation... just with her though. We have $2,797 left to spend. Food is an automatic $300, and his monthly outgoing on loan re-payments is $772 and people he HAS to pay for side business is $495. You can see how that number dwindles down extremely fast. We always feel like we have no money. We're already at $1,230 (for our MONTHLY living costs) and the crappiest part is that the day/week he makes the money ... it is also the time rent or child support is due so his one paycheck pretty much goes out the door. Any how, I'm living on a budget and I know it's not the best and not the worst, but based on our numbers, I can't really afford to spend on furniture, artwork or home decor. I make my own. And do with paint we have. Okay, sorry I got carried away with finances for a bit. My apologies.

So I took down everything in the room and pretty much trashed other rooms, but temporarily!! I painted the walls gray as you'd see on the runway (thinking planes here). The closet wall went from a coppery brown to a lighter blue-gray which actually looks very "sky" like. It works well! PS. Sorry about my female model showing in the closet, she's for eBay.

Here's the after picture of just the little area where the planes and degrees used to be. Actually the planes stayed there, just got put on the wall with some super duty Scotch 3M Mounting Tape that you can buy online here at Amazon. I am going to recycle the bottom 2 shelves and use them in the garage. That can store paint and etc as long as it's sturdy... gotta make sure I can do that.

I painted the top wood shelf with just white primer. It's an all-weather kind of primer we had laying around. The planes atop have actual damage to them so they are angled in a way that someone viewing them wouldn't know until they pick them up and see the engine missing... ha.

The golf-course photo on the floor is going to be on the walls soon. I'm looking for a dark blue paint but not about to dish out $30 for two walls (opposites). Hopefully I'll figure something out soon. Want to get this room done! Oh husband just came home, gots to go and make dinner!

DIY Downstairs Hallway Closet - Remodeled and Organized

For some reason, closets seem to be a dumping ground for many people. It's like "oh well the door is closed so no one knows it's bad in there" and you're wrong because you and your family (esp your kids) know what it looks like in there. If you can't find what you are looking for in a closet, chances are you don't have the system down yet. If you can't close the door because something is on the ground, then you really need to reconsider your closet space and its poor situation.

Here's my sneak peak at my closet now. I forgot to take a before picture but overall it was white and overcrowded with winter jackets, a 3-tier shoe rack and a lot of hats.

 I painted the inside closet Hunter Green. Why? Well, a closet is technically a room as it is a space for storing items within the home. The key though is necessary items. I had a lot of jackets in here and took them all out and dumped them, yes, dumped them on the couch. All dumping was temporary. I cleaned out the entire closet. Everything was removed from it, including the wooden clothing rack.

It's very difficult to get a picture of the room in whole since it is in the hallway and space is limited. It is also a triangular space which makes for an odd-shaped closet. The table that used to be in the family room was moved into here to create a division line for storing things underneath and overhead. It keeps things tidy too. The basket underneath stores the kids shoes only. Everyone else has their space elsewhere. The mirror is temporarily being stored there as I am unable to figure a good location for it. Sometimes mirrors creep people out when they are placed in an odd location but I will find a spot for it.

The Salvador Dali painting that was just sitting around in the garage finally found a home up on the shelf. Shelves that are too high for daily retrievals need decor instead of everyday items. I cannot reach up there and while my husband can, I don't think he would like to. The boxes up there are items I am asked to sell online by a local friend. They will be gone (hopefully) soon!

To your right in the pit of the closet are the dog leashes, harnesses and water pack. All of these essential dog items used to be tossed in the basked along with kids shoes, shoelaces, toys, etc. What a cluster-F. I didn't even know extra shoe laces existed in this house! Now that these items have a home, I think I can bring down at least two more jackets since I don't think the winter season is officially over yet.

My Garage Organization

A lot of the Pinterest pictures that show garage organizations look pretty, but at a closer look I ask myself, how would I be able to get to that at a moments notice? Sure it looks pretty way up high ... and 3 ft over my head. Yet it's not convenient nor reliable. Another cute but totally inconvenient idea (or look) is buckets hanging from the wall to allow for what you believe to be easy access to gloves, tools, etc. Except if you are in a rush or completely exhausted at the end of the day and that glove falls down twice after attempting to place it into the sideways bucket, you're gonna start cursing yourself (or your wife) for putting it there. While the images are yes adorable, they are not man-friendly.

Here's the before pictures of my garage. Oh and before you say or think anything, the pictures below were all taken by my cell phone, so the quality is not amazing but the image is at least transparent.

The photo below may look sort of organized ... but honestly, I couldn't access anything or get to it all. I'm only 5 feet tall so many of the items were and (still are) out of my reach. I would need to have a ladder on hand to reach the high-end things, or just ask the hubby to get it.

Here are a few pictures of my work during the process. The pegboard had been there prior but not a lot of pegboard hooks were there. I bought two extra packages at $6 or $7 each and filled up the whole space available to me on the peg board. 

I made the cheap (and ugly) white cabinets into a dark gray finish. I think it made the cabinets appear more expensive and "custom-made". The handles stayed white but I did clean them with goo-gone and regular house cleaner. They had black finger prints on them which wasn't appealing. 

In between the two cabinets, there was an empty hole there. My hubby had an office chair there which has now been removed. Like what man sits down at his workstation, seriously? No man I know or have seen when working in the garage. They all stand up while they work. 

The empty hole was replaced with an old bookshelf that used to be indoors and upstairs. It held a variety of language books my hubby collected (I guess?) and some CDs. The CDs were donated to the library as they are now my new media storage units. If I want my CDs, I'll just loan them out from the library but I don't think that will happen anymore due to Spotify having all my music selection for me. Back to the bookshelf. It was one from Target. As you can see in the image the last shelf of the bookshelf closest to the concrete floor has no bottom end. All it has are legs. That used to be the top shelf, which was attached to an ugly arch design that had a rose design carved or plastered onto it. Once I figured out how to dismantle that from the bookshelf, I flipped it and painted the shelves the same exact color as the cabinets. I like how it appears that it came with the unit. It holds his larger electric tools nicely. I also like how that space between the cabinets is  no longer a waste of space. 

This is the end result and while I know there are still things atop hanging by the garage springs (top left), I didn't want to do that without my hubby's presence around so that needed to wait. I added shelf racks (see center top of image) but the shelves I had currently on hand were too short. I figured I'd measure up and find ones that fit... eventually, but not today. I think I'd put items that aren't used often up there. 

Odd angular section but it works for hanging miscellaneous things. I couldn't take the nails out at all so had to do with how they were put in... which by the way was awful. None of the nails lined up or evenly spaced out. I tried to take them out with the hammer but to no avail. I dealt with the the setup for now and hung miscellaneous items up. As you may have noticed now, the garage wall was painted! It definitely makes for a cooler-looking garage! My only issue is when I had to get another can of paint... the girl did not match the color correctly and it dried a different shade of gray. The paint can was not returnable either since I had opened it and used it without realizing until it dried that it was a different gray. It looked terrible and I wasn't about to spend another $10 on a can of paint on her mistake. I decided to create a middle line to make teh switch look "intentional" ...

See the switch? I do.

I painted our white dirty door also made it a glossy brown so it looks super expensive now. And while it seems like everyone on Pinterest has stairs that lead to the door, I do not. Poo.

Here's the rest of the garage. Huge space but just doesn't seem to be 100% working for me yet. I still have lawn materials that need to be found a home out by the A/C units by the side of the house. I have no idea where to even begin thinking of putting those! My man has a lot of things. In FL that was required (where we used to live) yet here in AZ... lawn items aren't a priority considering it doesn't rain or snow that often, but it does! 

The one bin in the middle is the only one i cannot find room for... he'll have to help me out with that one.

DIY Acrylic 3x3 Retro Canvas Art

I didn't realize my acrylic colors were going to be so bold. On the bottle... seeing it under Walmart lighting, they looked like they were going to be pastel colors with the exception of my blue and black. I thought I chose colors that were in my step-daughters duvet cover so that the canvas over her wall would slightly match but as the acrylic paints dried, they looked like they were better suited for boys room as the design looks soccerball-ish, as you can clearly see below.

The canvas was already a used canvas. It had house paint on it. I took some primer and made it mostly white. That primer took two days of layering alone. Jeez. The rest are $0.57 Acrylic bottles of paint from Walmart and $3 pack of brushes from Big Lots. The bristle brushes get super annoying as they fall out very easily. I had tweezers nearby to take out the loose ones so they did not affect the painting too much.

Yes, my kitchen counters are the only space big enough to paint. I had to do it there. So, while my canvas looks like a cow at the moment, I had created a football like design (even though my real intention was a leaf). I started out with black since black brings forth all colors nicely. This is a 3 foot by 3 foot canvas by the way, it takes a lot of footballs. I used a dishware lid to create the circle on some thick drawing paper (possibly watercolor) and cut it out. I traced the design onto the canvas until it was filled.

It helps to work with one color at a time and to write in pencil (very softly) what color goes where so you don't mess up while you're jamming to an awesome song on Pandora... or iHeartRadio. And if you listen to the actual radio, lame. 

As you can see, the circles are designated for green paint at this time. I had already done teal (which was a bit darker than I expected it to be) and blue. My blue paint needs another layer of paint when it dries. 

This is my end result. While it looks to be completed, it isn't. The green and blue is very much crappy still. It is not solid. I can still see through. Needs its third layer tomorrow. The yellow paint still shows the pencil line in which I'm afraid if I try to erase, the paint will get messed up. So, as a result, I may take a sharpie to it if I cannot cover the line with its natural acrylic paint by tomorrow. 

A picture of it hanging will be posted tomorrow. Hope you enjoy. Do you see the soccer all in there now? It's so there! And now it looks like it belongs in a boys bedroom rather than a girls. If you are wondering what my inspiration was, it was a Pottery Barn pastel leaf canvas art image I found on Google and their website. However that totally did not happen. 

Edit: This is the same canvas art hanging in sons room

Now I just need to find a long entertainment system and turn it into a very cool kids storage unit. Time to craigslist it up!

Three Lyrics T-Shirts I Want

Okay so I don't see too many of the songs that I listen to but without naming the artist or song title itself, these are a few of the T-Shirts I'd love to make/buy/steal. Just kidding on the third one.

See if you can guess the songs.

Mackelmore & Ryan: And We Danced

The Offspring: Cruisin' California (Bumpin in My Trunk)

Cazette: Beam Me Up