PLAY Wall Art.

This simple reminder and good use of scrapbook paper hangs on the wall in my home. I bought sixteen wooden squares from Joann's ( I had to special order).  I bought some yummy scrapbook paper with lots of different textures and some wooden letters to spell one of my favorite words... 

P L A Y. Then I grabbed some left over fabric and embellishments from around the house and went to work.

1. Paint the sides of all squares. Make sure and paint the face of four of the squares that will hold the wooden letters on the rest, it doesn't matter. I chose ivory paint.

2. Paint the wooden letters to the desired color. I chose black.

3. Cut the paper/fabric to size for the face of the squares. I used both fabric and paper on mine.

4. Use Modge Podge to adhere papers, fabrics, and letters onto the squares.

5. Use any flowers, charms, ribbons, stickers, to accessorize... should you desire! 

This quote to live by 

"Never underestimate the power of acting young silly and crazy"

was a sticker mounted on light green solid scrapbook paper and mounted again on my original polka dot paper

The blue paper had a cool little BE YOURSELF design already in the design so I just cut it to make sure I had that part showing and then added three self adhesive silver embellishments

Make sure you paint all the sides of the squares! As clearly, thanks to this pic above, I missed a bit on the toile square. OOPS! I have to go back and do that one...

I used command strips to hang these up.

(YES, they really DO work!)

I want to make more! Imagine the possibilities!

I'VE MOVED! COME FIND ME AT MY NEW HOME...

I am linking up with

 

Scrabble Magnet Board.

A cute alternative to the typical classroom magnet board. I saw the scrabble letter idea here and was able to incorporate it with the board that I already had done on my wall. Since I have ditched the generic plastic magnet letters, my older two kids (and sometimes me) play with the board too. Since there are points on each letter, you can create some pretty fun games.

Supplies needed are:

To make the board:

The board was made by nailing metal sheeting (an 18x24 piece that was purchased at Home Depot) to the wall. I bought pieces of wood (that Home Depot cut down to size) and used black stain to finish them off. The wood was nailed over the edges of the metal

To make the letters

:

Magnet tape (sticky one one side, magnetic on the other). I used 1 roll that costs 1.50 at Home Depot.

Wood Scrabble pieces. Target has a kit to make a card in the Valentines section. It was 9.99 as opposed to the 19.99 version in the game aisle. They both had 100 pieces.

Cut the magnet tape into little pieces.

Adhere to the back of each letter.

Get help! My 5 year old was a brilliant little helper.

Place on board and have fun!

My Armoire.

My first time of doing a BIG piece of furniture. I fell in love with Eddie's delicious blue armoire and had to attempt it. You can see her fab creation here and get a tutorial. It was a bit hard for me to do because I LOVED the current piece as it was, but knew that love would be taken to a level of obsession if I could pull of the deep turquoise color with half as much skill as Eddie. I will probably be playing with the final finished look for days. Sanding, dry brushing....its kinda addicting to find just the right balance.

It lives in our classroom now and is a great addition. It is surrounded right now by other half finished projects that I need to complete. The color is so fabulous, it makes me happy.

I did not sand this piece to start with and clearly should have. So the candle technique as explained in Eddie's post, did not really quite work out this time.  In addition, the post sanding attempt is a bit tricky as well without peeling the paint. So, I had to resort to some dark brown paint and dry brushing. Live and learn.

And p.s. I am in desperate need of photography lessons, but you get the idea. I am saving for those as we speak....I need someone to verbally teach me. I am too impatient to learn from books (and yes I am homeschooling my 3 kids, kinda scary huh?)

Here was the before,

I am linking up with 

 

My Laundry Room.

I am in a full scale clean my house operation over here. Garage, Master bedroom closet, and laundry room were the top 3 on my list. I am happy to say the laundry room was completed yesterday. With Ralph Lauren paint running $7 a gallon right now...it got a fresh new coat of Tapestry Green to go along with the unpleasant task of cleaning the room itself.

I have a question? How many of you regularly pull out your machines and clean under them? Up until this home, my husband and I had never lived in a home for longer then a year (except one home for two years), and many of those were apartments...so this whole cleaning under the machine thing escapes me. I decided to tackle it.

For the queasy stomach, you may want to avert your eyes for the remainder of this post.

Here is the before...

bye bye copper brownish color...that kinda grates on my nerves..

embarrassed to say this is four years of not cleaning underneath. um gross!

How did I paint that brown, without moving the machine? I sat on the machine and leaned down behind it of course.

yuck...and more yuck...

and the after...

ahhhh....nice and pretty.

simple and clean.

home for one puppy Brooklyn, as well...

Project completed in 4 hours.

Time well spent.

Now, off to take care of that new white curtain I hung up, without ironing....

My Completed Closet.

O.k. I'm done. Whew. THAT was a project. Everything got dusted, sorted, cleaned out...and prettied up. If you didn't see the before pics, make sure and check out them out from a few days ago....

I want to move my bed in there. My favorite part? The chandelier without a doubt. It was a Christmas present from my hubby, from Urban Outfitters...Hard to photograph, but beyond fantastic.

Budget breakdown is more than $30. lol. I found an extra shelf from our bedroom armoire and decided to make a vanity...this made my project budget go up!

Total $54

not too shabby....

Project specifics:

Mirror came from ikea and I added some chain and tulle that I had at home. $15

Vanity table is the extra shelf from my armoire. Free

Vanity chair ~ a diy make over $5

Vanity light ~ ikea $10 (one half is broken! Still have to replace that)

Earring holder is an old frame I had in cupboard with chicken wire stapled to the back. $5

Necklace holders from ikea $6

Purse holder is a long chain from Lowes (1.00 a foot) with S hooks hung up and down to hook my purses on. $13

I added some scrap fabric around the closet pole and pinned on the back side. Free

Everything else was stolen from somewhere else in my house....

Happy New Year...

Hobbylicious.

I have been working on my closet project and tomorrow will have pictures up. I ended up building a vanity in there with some extra shelving from my armoire in my bedroom. I may skirt it tonight using my tree skirt. We'll see.

For now here is my sneak peek chair that will sit at my vanity. I bought this chair last year off of craigs list for $5.00. I recovered it will some fabric that I had in my closet. It has been at the built in desk in our upstairs hall ever since. I stole it for my closet.

$.96 cents for spray paint and $3.25 for a yard of delicious stripe-y fabric from the Calico Corners Outlet in Sac....and Voila! A cutesy little white distressed chair for me to sit in. It was my first time to try rubbing the candle wax on the chair first, to aid in the distressed look. It rocked. My photography skills are lacking, but its fab...and seriously for less then $5.00 (o.k.$9.21, if you count the original chair purchase price)...My heart skips a beat when I see it...

What hobbies do you have that make your heart go a flutter?

and more importantly....DO YOU DO THEM????

Coming Out Of The Closet.

Mom shlumpiness has set in. I'm living in a rut. It would be nothing short of a miracle, if you found me at any given moment, in my home adorned in anything other then my black yoga pants. You might even find me venturing out in them "just for a quick errand."

It's hard enough to get out the door on a school day to drop the kids off "done" for the day. Try staying home all day and getting up and "done". Hmmm. What's a girl to do?

I am only speaking for myself, but I do have a feeling hundreds of others might agree. I feel so much better when I have some sort of a hairstyle, make up (at least the basics), and clothes that have at least one button on them and preferably a zipper as well.

A few days ago, I stood in my closet and looked around. I then came to a B R I L L I A N T revelation. I decided that it's the closet's fault, not mine. Nothing about it is inspiring to spend more then 2 seconds in. Why would I stay in there and try and put an outfit together? It's clearly not my fault. The Little Tykes garden (which used to be handy while getting ready, when Emma was like 2 and would play in it), dirty mirror, and stacks of black clothes aren't really callin' out any kind of pretty.

I am redoing my closet....save your laughter, you may end up copying me later. I have a budget of $30 to get this done. Pictures to come....Here is the before. Bleh....

The Pantry.

I came up with this idea, almost a year ago. It's not really all that spectacular in and of itself, but the time it saves is quite impressive. I bought these big baskets at Costco. Three for 19.99. They are kind of a paper material, so there are no sharp edges inside. They are labeled and live in my pantry. Whenver I get home from Costco or the grocery store, all snack type foods get put into individual size portions in baggies. I usually make the kids do it. I taught them to look at the serving size on the box, find the right measuring cup and have at it. This goes for goldfish, dried fruits, almonds, cashews, crackers, marshmallows anything that can go in a bag!

The amount of time it saves with packing lunches and kids grabbing a snack during the day, really really surprised me. It also is teaching the kids an appropriate size to be eating. I definitely do not want the kids to become neurotic about food and dieting. However, they should learn what a healthy amount of food is. I want them to start to own that now, instead of me constantly saying, "oh that's too much." Too many times I caught them reaching into a big box of goldfish and grabbing handfuls and mindlessly eating. No more!

This is working....

My desk.

I think I have mentioned I am an Ikea fan. I have had this shelf for about three years. Last year, they came out with the desk attachment. It all rocks. The amount of things this mother of all organizational systems holds is astounding. It's the little things in life, I tell ya.

All of my craft supplies, scrapbooking supplies, photos, etc., along with all of the kids school curriculum, class store materials etc... are all tucked away in organizational bliss.

I highly recommend!

Subliminal messages.

As a little girl, my 80's decorated bathroom, had a poster of a little girl framed and hanging on the wall. Every time, I sat down in that bathroom for any reason, I seemed to find myself reading it... "Wherever you go, and whatever you do, you'll find special magic in just being you." This poster now lives hanging in my garage. If I ever find extra money laying around, I will have it reframed and put back in my house. It looks almost perfectly vintage. I always remember that poster. I am kinda nostalgic that way.

I love the walls of my house filled with all kinds of sayings: heartwarmingly cheesy, fabulously romantic, and incredibly witty. I read them often. They make me happy. I hope my kids are reading them. I hope that when they are 38, they can recite things that are hanging in our home today. My subliminal messages to them.

In our classroom, I have made a collage of them (stole the idea from a dear friend). I truly think that this covers all the major things that I hope my kids remember in their life. Humor, dreaming, love, courage, and faith...I am not sure that hanging them on the wall, will actually instill these values in my kids, but it couldn't hurt...and it looks cute.

What if the hokey pokey really is what its all about?

Live a good life

I wish I may I wish I might

Chase your dreams

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.