Happy Father's Day!!

So here is the collage I did for my father-in-law with the grand kids. Just a little story behind this. First off, Jeremy and I were the first of his kids to get married. We waited for 3 years to have a child and Jeremy's mom and dad would always say that they needed a grandchild... stat. My father-in-law, Jeff, used to say that he was tempted to send off money to those commercials to "adopt" a child in a third world country. Well, when Zoe came along they were thrilled! Because I had such a great relationship with my grandparents I am so happy that my kids have such great grandparents from Jeremy's folks and my mom. So then last year my sister-in-law, Jeremy's only sister, found out she was pregnant and a few short months later we found out we were expecting Cooper. So the grand kid count tripled in less than a year. And because the in-laws are from the south, Pawpaw is his name now and he wears it with pride! Jeff is such a proud grandpa and will teach our children so many fun things, like the song Zoe came home singing on Friday, "B double E double R-U-N, Beer Run! Beer Run!" Yes, I can't wait for all the other fun things that he will teach them and I will get notes home from their teachers.

Happy Father's Day!!!

My Version

I have seen lots of blogs doing this and I just loved the idea, so I went with it. Here is the Father's Day gift for my husband from the kids. I just hope that he doesn't look at this blog before Sunday!

Teaser

I have been working on my kids nursery for... well ever since we found out we were having #2 in January, but being put on bed rest the last 2 months of that pregnancy has prolonged the finished product a wee bit. We decided to have both the kids share a room because it is just across the hall from our room and the third bed room is all the way across the house and I just don't feel comfortable having my babies that far away from me. I know, I'm weird. But here is a little teaser of the room with a small project that only took me an evening/afternoon to finish.

Have any of you seen the Pottery Barn Kids room with the Dr. Seuss decals and prints? That was my inspiration. Yep, I am doing a Dr. Seuss theme room. I like Pottery Barn's concept, but I think that how wild and crazy all the Dr. Seuss books are, things could be done a little differently and for WAY cheaper!

Now because some of the room is not complete yet, I am only going to give you just a taste of the entire room with this lamp. It originally was a really dark brown that we spray painted white for Zoe's uber pink room with a chandelier and everything. But with baby boy moving in, the pink and chandelier had to go and the lamp needed to be taken up a notch.

So I printed off a few pictures of Dr. Seuss characters and cut them individually. Then I Modge Podged each character onto the shade.

Then I took it outside, taped it off in stripes like the Cat and the Hat's hat (if that makes sense.) And TA-DA!!! Cute little lamp that didn't cost me a penny. Already had the paint, lamp, shade, paper to print the pictures, Modge Podge and scotch tape.

Now if you look behind the lamp and see the writing on the wall... Dr. Seuss titles. But you will have to stay tuned for the rest! Aren't you so excited?!

I Ventured into New Territory...

...And said a lot of swear words in the process. First, let me apologize for not posting for the whole week. The reason for this is that all the projects that I was working on somehow blew up in my face. Let me explain. I learned a few very valuable lessons this week.

#1 Have all your ducks in a row and do your research before diving into a project!!!

&

#2 Be Patient (So not me, but I learned that slow and steady is better than fast and ruin everything and have to start at square one after hours of work.)

How did I learn these lessons, you might ask. Well, if get too in depth with it all I will just start to get angry want to throw things, so I won't. Plus, it would turn into the longest and most boring "vent" post you will ever read.

Now because I am not totally in love with one of the projects that I did, I won't show you all of the letters. I saw this post on Joys of Home and I loved it so much that I went out and got the letters of our last name and was going to do what she did. Well I didn't know how to use Modge Podge, I had never used it before so I just assumed that it was so easy that I could just wing it. BIG MISTAKE!!! I ended up having to rip up everything that I had spent hours cutting and gluing and all that jazz. So here is what I learned on my journey with Modge Podge.

#1 It is SUPER easy to do, but you have to do it right or you will be swearing.

#2 Apply a healthy coat of Modge Podge to the back of the paper, fabric, whatever and get it as flat as you can and get all the air bubbles out. I used a butter knife and worked from the inside out (didn't do this the first time and that is why I had to redo it.)

#3 Apply layers of the Modge Podge on the top only if the the back of the paper is dry first (again, didn't do this!)

So here is a picture of my favorite letter, still deciding if I like the others.

I also finished a project that was inspired by countless blogs and their love for numbers. We have had these two stools since we got married and they are just your basic stools.

I had some paint left over from painting my kid's room and thought I would just use some of it. So I sanded down both stools, not much, just roughed them up a bit. Then I primed and painted them. It was so hot out today that I had to work fast because the paint was drying too fast and that is never good.

So after I got them all painted (one coat of primer, two coats of color) I got out my transfer paper and my paint pen and went to work. I first printed off my text that I wanted and put the transfer paper underneath the page and traced it.

Then I used the paint pen and followed the lines from the transfer paper and filled it in. It looks a little whibbly if you are looking super close to it, but they look great I think! And when I paint my cabinets they will be that perfect pop of color.

Now I don't know about you, but when I am gettin' my craft on, I like to listen to a movie. I usually pick one that I have seen a gozillion times and I know what is going on without looking at the screen. Now I got this movie for Christmas from "Santa" and if you have not seen it yet, go and rent it. "Dan in Real Life" with Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook. You will laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time. My favorite line in the movie is, "YOU ARE A MURDERER OF LOVE!!!!" I still cry in this movie and it still makes me laugh.

Arch Nemisis Conquered!

This is my Frugal Friday (even though I did it on Thursday) for the Shabby Nest 

Do you have that room that whenever you walk in it you hear a scream, the kind you heard on Ren & Stimpy when something gross or disturbing came out.  Well I have a few places like that in my house that I just keep the door closed and don't look in there very often.  My biggest area that has been bothering me for a while is my pantry.  Exciting, I know, but the other day I opened the door to put stuff away and I heard that scream, then I realized it was me!  So today I rolled up my sleeves and went to work.

Now this is a very rare look for you all.  I normally would freak out if someone (especially my mother-in-law!) saw these pictures.  This is my pantry as it was this morning.  I was angry and shocked at how bad I had let it get!  

Before:

After:

One of the things that was taking up room were 4 big cannery cans that had stuff in them that had expired years before and/or had just barely enough to make one little thing with.  So I dumped them out, took the labels off (soak them in warm, soapy water and take a Brillo pad to it, great way to get out some aggression!).  Then I let them dry in the sun for a few minutes and spray painted them red (my favorite!)  Then I took chalkboard paint and painted on a label so I can change out the contents if I need to and not have to change the label.

Now I put mixes such as Lipton Onion Dip mix, fajita mix, gravy mix, and Jello in this so if I need something, I just look in the can first.

I kept the lids to a couple of them and it came in handy because I just dumped my noodles that I had in there.  I actually found 4 half full bags that had been baried, I hate that!!  I am wanting to get a glass jar for these and then I can add more (we get lots of things from Costco, so we have lots of bulk things, but it works great for now!)

If you are like me, you have way more cooling racks than you know what to do with!  I think we got 5 for our wedding almost 6 years ago and I have never used all of them at the same time.  So I pulled one out and put all our spices... well not all of them, but most of them on here and then I put the yeast, food coloring and muffin papers under it, saved on space and it didn't cost me a dime!

It died an organized and somewhat cute death!  And the best part was that it didn't cost me anything!  Just some elbow grease, spray paint I already had and chalkboard paint that I am borrowing for another project.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog where I transform a door into a chalkboard for added organization and keeping the critters occupied while I cook and clean!

Nap Time Craft!

My mother-in-law showed me this blog http://j-a-girl.blogspot.com/  She had the cutest idea of painting plates and putting them in your kitchen.  Well that got the wheels turning for me and after reading some of the suggestions in her comments I made one during nap time!  Here is what I did.

Things I used:

*Transfer Paper

*Letter Printed off of computer

*Pen

*Black Paint Pen (Big Fat One)

*Odd-ball Plate I had lying around

My Process:

I printed off the letter that I wanted, I had to enlarge it to 350 size font to get the right size for the platter I used.  I cut the transfer paper and the page with the letter so it would fit on the plate, then I taped it in place.  I used a pen and the edge of a greeting card (because I couldn't find our ruler, it got grounded a few days ago when Zoe smacked her brother with it and I can't find it.)  Then I took the papers off and traced with the paint pen!  Here is the finished product and where I put it!  Good luck!

Therapy?

So it is 2:02 am right now and I am writing this little note.  Usually crafting or making things is therapeutic for me as I have had a rough couple of days and I had this brilliant idea to make aprons for my sister-in-law and I for our garage sale.  Well, I got all the fabric, got everything ready, cut everything, feeling confident about my time and then I sat down at the sewing machine and it all went down hill.  One seam that should have only taken less than a minute stretched out for over an hour.  Somehow my bobbin and the needle weren't working together correctly.  And because it was so late I couldn't call my trusty mother or mother-in-law to ask for advice, so I had to go it alone.  Everyone is asleep and luckily they are because I was possessed by a drunken sailor.  I was swearing in different languages and then translated them into English!  I even made up a few of my own that made absolutely no sense but it just made me feel better.  So I am now waiting for the iron to get hot so I can finish the first apron and I still have mine to make and I am eating cookies.  I will post pictures of these super cute aprons that I was inspired to make by a friend of a friend's blog and I just had to make them.  Hopefully I will be a happy camper for this sale even though I might only get an hour or two of sleep tonight.