The Curtain Calls When It's Pouring Rain!

Looooooong time no see! How have you been? Hope you had a wonderful Christmas this year. I normally try and post Christmas crafts and decorations but this year things have been too hectic and I just ran out of time to fit it all in.

My cat(my furry baby) of 14 years recently became ill and I was afraid I was going to have to come to the decision of putting him down. Fortunately testing and change of diet has helped tremendously. He lost a pound and a half in a month and we learned he has kidney disease. He's doing much better and is eating again!

Then our toddler dislocated his arm for the third time and a week later got stitches just above his eye. I had the stitches removed only to find that one was accidentally left in and so I had to go back to have it taken out. The whole family has been sick and I have spent most of my Christmas vacation taking care of everybody trying to avoid getting sick myself. Today I woke up to the oldest having a sore throat (hopefully not Strep!) and the youngest woke up with pink eye. I woke up to a car that won't start. So my car was towed off and everyone in the family besides me has a doctor appt. this afternoon.

This is why I have disappeared. Not to mention I have kinda taken a hiatus to get my health and fitness in order and make it a part of my everyday routine. So far it's going well!

That being said I haven't had the time I'd like to make a lot of house improvements but here is one small change I made in the living room. Curtains!  I love my DIY curtains with the iron-on stripes but I wanted to add some color to brighten things up. The room has been feeling a little dingy lately. I found these burnt orange curtains at Target and love them. I don't normally change curtains seasonally but I really do like these and it adds another dimension and warmth to the room. What types of curtains do you normally use in your living room?

Shower Power Against MOLD!

Good Morning! Happy Thanksgiving a day late! I hope your day was wonderful. I've been off for a couple of days and I must say our house has never been cleaner than it is right now. Before our big feast yesterday I spent the day vacuuming and steam cleaning all the carpet upstairs and let me tell you why I LOVE the Internet! It had to do with the steam cleaner I bought a few years ago.

Geesh, leave it to me to start using the steam cleaner and then have it crap out and think I broke it. It just wouldn't suck. It SUCKED but not for the reason of actually sucking. The darn thing would spray the water and then BLOW air out instead of sucking the water up. Instead of being impatient like I tend to be in times of stress, I hopped online and Googled the steam cleaner to trouble shoot the problem.  Come to find out - I didn't have the lid hinged properly on the receiving water tank so it didn't have full suction and caused the air to go out instead or suck. YES! Thank goodness for the Internet. I was back on track quickly and got the whole upstairs carpet steam cleaned. It's the little things indeed.

Can't believe I'm up so early on a holiday but I am and it's so peaceful with the whole house in bed still.  I just got back from my 5:00 am workout at the gym and man did it feel good! If you've read along for any length of time, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf. It's been about three months since I've had a soda and since I started back at the gym! It feels so good and I'm just thankful to have found my way back to exercising regularly.

Okay, this might gross you out so if you have a sensitive stomach, go ahead and turn back now. We have a basic box shower and separate tub. I think they are fiberglass. The master bath is nothing special and one day we hope to redo it. Anyhow I try to be clean and sanitary and all but this is one place in our house I have been ashamed of for a loooooong time. It's called MOLD and it was in our shower. It was so bad we were talking about forking out money to replace our shower sooner than later. I hated it. Mold is unsafe and it was trying to take over our shower. I finally researched and fought back with the proper steps and won! It's so easy, I wish I had figured it out long time ago. Let me show you!

See how nasty. I'm sorry and now you can see how gross things get behind closed doors. GROSS, SICK and DISGUSTING! This wasn't even the mold at its worst. I jumped to clean and didn't take any real before pictures.

What you don't want to do is scrub because you'll just spread the mold. No one wants to spread mold.

Need:Mask
Paint brush,
Baking soda,
Bleach

Using a glass bowl or jar, mix a little bleach and baking soda to make a thick paste and paint on with a paint brush. Let it sit overnight and air out the room. Keep kids and animals away from room. The mix will eat away the mold. You may have to do this a couple of nights but it works fast! To maintain the clean shower, I use a spray bottle of hot water and bleach every once in a while. Another tip to keep mold out is leaving the shower door open after showers.

I can hardly believe how clean the shower is now. It feels like new and it feels more sanitary and now we can put off a bathroom redo longer. - I need to re-post an AFTER picture. I have lost some links to the blog and am currently working on it! - Oh and the hint of orange in the bottom corner is not mold. It's a little bit of rust but I am so happy to have removed the nasty mold. I'm working on a solution for the rust! It's always something but I hope this helps you! It sure helped me! Have a great weekend!

Off Your Rocker!

I try and correlate my project titles with things going on and I'll tell you why I feel like I'm a little off my rocker lately! I have been catching my two year old talking to something or someone I can't see. Guess it's an imaginary friend but it spooks me out. There is a lot of expression in his body language when he sees, points and talks to whatever it is he sees. Does anyone else have any experience with kids and imaginary friends? I'm ready for this stage to be past tense.

Onto this little rocking chair redo. I inherited one of my cousin's little rocking chairs, which is over 20 years old. I wish I had a good before picture but I got too excited over the redo that I didn't take pictures. When I got the rocker it was oak and it had an outdated blue and white country hearts pad that was tied to the chair.

I printed several H's in different fonts and chose my favorite. I traced it to contact paper.

I cut the letter H out to use as a stencil.

I painted the chair in an off white. After the paint dried overnight, I painted the H white using the stencil I cut out.

Here is is! The kids love it! So please tell me - When have you ever felt you were off your rocker?

Trying To Decide On Lamps

They say a  creative mind is a crazy one. Hmm. That includes indecisive, right? I've got THAT covered. I am so indecisive! My mind is always going on high gear and trying to change things until things are settled, which can be very annoying. I have this thing too where I come up with ideas for something, may it be a craft or piece of art or anything that you make with your hands, and I get stuck because I am simply fascinated by the mere fact that there are so many options and solutions to the final result.

So here it is folks. I got this lamp and told you I would show you a few posts ago. I got two of these lamps actually. I like them but sadly am already thinking about what I can do with them and how I can change them up. They're brand stinking new and I am already scheming on what color to paint them. This kind of thinking is why I rarely get projects done in any organized fashion. I spread myself thin and think of different ways to do EVERYTHING. I need to break out of that!

Honestly, does this lamp look Grandpa-ish? OR could it look beachy? I am considering giving it a nice cool coat of light blue to stand out more against the wall.  Whaddayathink?

Any opinion whatsoever?

Add Some Flair To Your Cabinets With A Stylish Paper Liner

I'm so excited about how neat my bathroom cabinets look that I want to leave the cabinet doors open all the time. Well, not really but I do want to open them and take a peak at the little bit of eye candy when I'm in there. I just feel pumped when I've done something I have been wanting to do for a while! 

I mean, I have had this on my house to do list for a loooooong time. Sad huh. I have been browsing the kitchen aisles for a while waiting for some cool pattern of contact paper. I've checked out, Wally World aka Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree and Tarjay. I almost broke down and got a roll at DT even though I wasn't settled on the pattern. It was more froo-froo and ornate but I waited and I think this was worth the wait!

The floor of the cabinet was GROSS. Gross and stained from I don't know what. They just get like that after cans of crap sit there and rust.I was considering covering the bottom of the cabinet with cheap vinyl flooring tiles but I'm so glad I didn't. So are you wondering where I found this? It was one of the places I visited several times. Yes, it was Wally World. Can you believe it?

It's Peel and Stick Laminate covering. It's pretty cool stuff and washable, which is MOST important. Putting it down was a challenge but I DID IT!

I could have measured it out with a tape measure but impatient me didn't. I just stuck the roll in there, make marks with a razor blade and used scissors and a x-acto knife to cut. It's pretty forgiving but you want to be sure to cut a little more than you need to compensate for any shrinking that might occur.

So I flipped the roll upside down to figure out how big to make it. There was an awesome measurement graph on the backside so that was HUGE! I used it to fudge my measurements. Then cut it down.

It looks to nice and easy but what you don't see in my presentation (ha, sounds so formal and formal is soooo not me) is the mis-measuring and then the numerous attempts and the wads of two different pieces of paper before I got it right. Once I got it right, it just made the whole experience worth it!

If you try this at home, have patience, do it slowly and don't let sticky touch another area of sticky or you're DONE! It's a little tricky.

If you read this I hope you got some enjoyment out of it and please excuse the dusty cabinets. I didn't realize just how dusty they were until I saw these pictures! Everyone, have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!

Garbage Bag Ghost Covering A Bird Feeder

Today was an awesome day! Our little ones did a basketball clinic at our alma mater and got to slam dunk with the team players. Then they got to run through the smoke from the locker rooms and slap all the players hands on the court. What an awesome experience for little kids. It's all about seeing smiles on their faces!

This kitchen tall Hefty made their eyes light up once we got home. It's so simple, anyone can do it! I folded up a garbage bag and cut the whole top end off, to remove the red drawstring. Then I cut up one of the sides to split the bag. I covered the bird feeder and used about 4 pieces of duck tape on the back side to close up the bag. Once I had the bag up, I used a permanent marker to color in the eyes and mouth. My neighbors were probably wondering what I was doing on my step ladder!

On Halloween night, I'll drop a battery operated candle inside the bird feeder to light it up! The kids were so excited to see the ghost go up! Do you have any ghosts in your yard?

Bedside Medicine Tray

How has your week been? Hopefully GOOD! It definitely feels like Fall here and with the seasons changing our whole household has gotten the icky, snotty crud.

So the past three days I have have spent my time in bed or on the couch sleeping and catching up on movies and this little doodad below has come in handy for all my meds. Yes it just so happened to be a little Good Will DIY redo. :)

It started with this old wooden tray that had some sort of writing (maybe Chinese?) with pictures. It was pretty worn and had several stains but I liked the shape of it and I think it cost about $1.00.

I used a Krylon White Primer and let it dry.

Next I painted it Krylon Glossy Blue Ocean Breeze.

I think it turned out nicely and it sure has helped me easily take my meds up and down the stairs depending on where I decide to plant myself.

I'm sure I will find another good use for it too! Hope you have a wonderful weekend and stay well!

linked up at CraftyHappyScrappy

Fall Into Autumn and Avoid the Flu!

Yeah my right arm is sore but not as bad as it has been after the flu shot in years past. Do you get the flu shot? A couple of years ago a nurse administering the shots advised us at work to get the shot in your dominant arm. You use it more therefore you'll work it out and it won't be as sore as it would if you got it in the other arm. Works like a charm. However I find it ironic to get the flu shot today and come home to a bunch of sickies at home. What a fun weekend I have to look forward to.

Are you getting your game on with Halloween decorating? My closest girl friends are all decked up but our neighborhood is really lacking. I feel like our house is lonesome with the ghost milk jugs from last year and the ghost lights and bat hanging on our front porch. What happened to the Halloween spirit?  There is just something so magical about it that I couldn't NOT decorate.

I don't like to overdo but here is a little fall decor to get us in the spirit. Ceramic pumpkins from the dollar store and mums from Michaels. Nothing fancy or too nick nacky but a little fall color adds warmth to the house.

What are you doing to decorate for the Fall?

Recap: Beyblade Birthday Party

I'm backtracking to last month's big Birthday party. My son wanted a Beyblade Birthday so I did it up Beyblade style. Weeks before his party, I didn't even know what a beyblade was. It's a cartoon and they are spinning toys that battle until one stops. Little boys go nuts over them.

I did my research and we had a beyblade tournament for his party. As each child walked in the door, my son and I greeted them with these Beyblade lanyards I whipped up on the Cricut. I looked for trading cards to laminate but instead I used the cricut with a marker and did a pattern of the letters and used ribbon and velcro to make the lanyards. I wanted it to look somewhat official to get the kids hyped up.

I made 10 of them and did two sets of ones, two sets of twos, and so on. We gave the first child who walked in the door a number one. Then the next child a number one, then the next a two and so on. The ones battled each other, the twos battled each other, you catch the drift. The winners battled until we had an ultimate winner. Sure in my mind it would work, but in reality these kids just wanted to play and the tourney kinda of fizzled. It was fun though! That was the most important thing!

We set up two arenas for the kids to battle it out. They played in them at random. That wasn't so organized!

"Let It Rip" is what you say when you pull the zipper off the beyblade to make it spin so "LET IT RIP" was my mantle.

Party favors were a few pieces of candy and a small trophy for each child.

Red and Blue Streamers - No Birthday is complete without streamers!

Red and Blue confetti make a fun addition to a balloon. I was a little worried the stars would pop the balloons from the inside but they didn't. However the kids popped all the balloons by accident, so we wound up with a confetti explosion and stars all over the carpet. I am still finding stars!

More red and blue decor. Cut outs with the Cricut!

I think all the kids had fun but next year we are keeping it simpler!

Craptastic!

Crap, crap and MORE crap! My six year old would say, "That's a bad word, Mommy."  I usually don't say that word at home because of little ears but I found Craptastic fitting here. To finish off my last post, I am stoked about having all our papers filed. Working to keep on top of it now!

To simplify the filing cabinet, I made a tiny change to simplify even the most minor thing about filing. I used to keep all my tabs in different positions 1-5 on the file folders. If I had to make a new folder then I would spend time shifting all the tabs around. How ridiculous twas thee!

So I moved all my tabs front and center to keep all files uniform. Not a big deal, but yes a big time saver for someone who is way too particular for her own good.  Please don't judge!

This is a picture of the piles of crap I had collected around the house before I did the filing session. Nice huh. Laundry, two bags of paperwork, a small bin of paperwork... all the crap in the house that didn't have a home. I did however find a home for everything.

Here is a picture post crap. Post(after) my piles of crap, post the droppings of crap from our sick cat. I haven't been posting my projects this week because I've been trying to nurse my 14 year old cat back to health. Poor guy. A lot of people can take cats or leave em but my cat is my baby. He's been with me for years. Anyhow tonight I steam cleaned the carpeted rooms where he has been sick and this is probably the cleanest the carpet has been in a while.  How was that for random!?! Hope YOU are having a better than craptastic week!

What Style Are You? Take The HomeGoods Stylescope Quiz!

I just took a style quiz at HomeGoods and my result was "Sassy"! See two images below.

I think "Sassy" fits more of what I want to be but I'm more of a chicken with color and fall into the category of classy. Heck I'm like that with the design of my blog too.  Take the HomeGoods Stylescope Quiz and see what you are! I'd love to hear!

Cricut CrAzY with Vinyl!

Yesterday we had a large crowd for our son's Birthday. I got a little carried away with vinyl and my Cricut cutter. Uh I think I got A LOT carried away! Just Scroll down.

See which tea was most popular!  I hand washed so I could leave the stickers on for a while. Whatever you do, Do NOT run through the dishwasher!

Can't believe I am showing you the next pix because it was overkill but I thought it would be helpful because people usually can't figure out our kitchen trash can. The trash can opens when waving your hand over its sensor. We didn't buy it for the sensor, it was  a purchase because of its shape. It's easy to shimmy a full bag out! We're dorks and research minor things like this.

Self-explanatory.

Yeah it was overkill but my dorkiness took over. I took the wall "help" down as soon as the party was over. My hub's buddy was making fun of them, that he half expected to see a sign in the potty room saying flush the toilet. Nah it would have read, "leave the seat down!"

WHAT NOT TO DO!

I'll just go ahead and say it. I am an idiot. Or I feel like one at least. Queen of STUPID. Got myself into another situation!

If you have been reading along please take note because I offered some simple advice on an easy way to clean your car's floor mats.

Stupid is as stupid does! It worked on my cars mats but NOT on my husband's. Crap and now I have to make sure I didn't totally just ruin our washing machine. Please say a small prayer.

You see, my mats are smaller and have a fabric backing. His have a rubber backing and are pretty big and MELTED onto the inside of the washing machine. So now, at a desperate attempt, I am running the machine with warm water and vinegar to try and help loosen the rubber stuck to the inside of the tub. I am scrubbing and scraping to get the gick off. This is worse than accidentally washing a disposable diaper in the washing machine. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has ever done that!

See the black rim! I think my heart was in my throat when I noticed this. Doh!

These are actual flecks from the rubber backing. Oh I could kick myself.

let you know how it goes. :(

A Quickie DIY Burlap Curtain For A Block Glass Bathroom Window

Oh I am up WAY too early on a day off so what better to do than show you what I did yesterday. My husband is a little under the weather and so I have been taking care of the kiddos all weekend but I was able to fit in a little home decorating fun. We have a tub with one of those big block glass windows over it. I'm not crazy about how these types of windows look but I guess it skews things from the outside if looking in. ; )

When we bought the house, this bathroom was pale pink with a hand painted flower vine border around the top of the room. As soon as I could I changed it to make it my own. There were also big hooks on either side of the window with a piece of fabric draped along the top of the window. It reminded me of I Dream of Jeannie so I quickly took it down.

I hung a brushed nickel spring pressure tension rod and inserted inside. This is great because there is no drilling and if I change my mind about the curtain, it's easy to change out. I used a pack of silver curtain rod clip rings that I have had for a while. I hung a piece of burlap I had to see how long I wanted it.

I started cutting the length I wanted. No real system here. After I began cutting I took the burlap and using my t-square cleaned up the edges. I glued the wide strips of ribbon only after trying stitch witchery, which did NOT hold.

 

How is that for a quick DIY solution? I like the way the valance turned out. It still lets the light in and is a very casual addition to the room. Have you ever used burlap as a window treatment? What kinds of fabric makeshift piece have you used in lieu of a store bought solution?

Have A Heart OR Not! Turning Country Into Cutesy.

Updating a YUCKY old country wooden shelf, found covered in dust and cobwebs was FUN! Plus I got to post about it in peace! My whole family is asleep so I have the entire downstairs to myself and it's sooooo nice for a change! GRINS ear to ear!

 Here is the AFTER because I am so excited to share!

BEFORE - ICK!

When I was a few states away visiting my folks several months ago, my mom asked me if there was anything in the garage I wanted. I found this baby that she used in the 80's and thought I would do something fun with it for the kiddos!

I pulled out the knobs, painted and sanded and glued them to get 'em back in their holes! I had to do a lot of sanding to the pegs to make 'em fit!

Using painters tape I masked out the areas I wanted to paint. I used leftover wall  paint, which was awesome because I knew it would flow with the colors we have in the house! I had these cute little wooden cars from a craft store. They cost about a quarter a piece. I hot glued them to cover the hearts.

I hung it in the play room so the boyeeeeeeees can hang their medals and awards! They love it! What boys don't LOVE cars, helicoptors and buses! It goes great on the pale yellow walls and they love to display their medals!

This cuddly little creature is my furry friend. I call him my little dust bunny! Teehee! He's my baby and he actually stayed out with me tonight to enjoy the quiet!

Soooo what kinds of things have you updated lately?

Saying "Goodbye" to Facebook but NOT to my friends!

Happy hump day! Hope your week is going well! Things are looking up on this end. Trying to get in a good routine, get organized and have some fun with a newbie kindergartener, which means lots of work for this working momma. Lets just say I struggle to juggle a bit but make the best of it! I have to give it to all the stay at home moms out there though... I seriously don't know how you do it!

Right now there are sooooo many things on my To Do list of things I want to do, on top of my TO Do list of things I have to do! Gotta Birthday party coming up, consignment sale, Halloween costumes, decorating for the holidays, making changes to the house... the list goes on. I have a notebook full of projects to share with you and I can't wait! I'm getting back in the groove.

Having said that I have decided to say "Goodbye" to Facebook. I don't see it as a negative thing but more of a positive and I can put more focus on more projects. Facebook has been fun and has allowed me to stay in touch with people plus make some wonderful new friends and I am so excited and grateful for that. Everyone I have met has been so supportive and I hope to keep those friendships alive. So I'm not really going anywhere just leaving Facebook but I wanted to give anyone who might follow the chance to bookmark me and continue to read along for lots more home decorating and organizing fun!

It may take me a few days to sign off completely but I wanted to give all my friends a heads up! We can chat through the blog and you can still find me on Twitter and Pinterest. Have a good night and we'll talk soon. :)

Cleaning Car Mats the LAZY (But Effective) Way! YAY!

WOW it was a whirlwind of a week. I have got to tap the brakes and try and slow myself down. SERIOUSLY.

This was a first for me and somewhat alarming but Thursday I rushed to the doctor from work mid-afternoon after experiencing sharp pains in my chest. My neck was bothering me, I was achy all over... Quite scary when you google the symptoms! Come to find out I must have injured myself trimming our bushes Monday night and strained the joints in my chest.  Hurts like a mug if you have never had this happen and it takes a couple of days for the pain to set in after the injury. The name for it is Costochondritis. I've always tried to be a tomboy with yard projects but I guess I overdid it trying to hack the bushes like the HULK with the trimming shears. ; ) How do I always do such stupid things? It never fails, I feel like the Queen of STUPID yet again. So now I am on anti-inflammatory meds for 2 weeks. Thankfully it was not my heart just a minor, self-inflicted injury!

On to the car mats! I am excited about this one. Tonight I washed my car for the first time in months and man did it need it. It was horrifying how many raisins and cheerios and smashed up food littered the floor boards. Before kids I washed my car every other weekend and took so much pride in it. Nowadays I don't have time to wash the car because I'm always running but tonight it sparkles and shines. The car is 12 years old and I really enjoy it and especially after it gets a bath like this. No "new car" fever here!

The interior is not the best color for dirt and grime and spills. It is tan and shows everything! While I was vacuuming I told my husband I wanted new floor mats for Christmas, I just couldn't look at them anymore. Then I jokingly said I wondered if I could just throw them in the washing machine. So a light bulb came on and Google it was!!!!! Cleaning car floor mats just got easier! I added a few steps to this process but it worked like a charm!

I only washed two at a time and turned mats carpet-side-in to avoid damaging the backing. Each mat was placed on opposite sides of each other. I washed on "hand wash" cycle using warm water.

It's jumping the gun but below is a picture of how clean the mats got!

Below is a before shot. GROSS!

I pre-soaked using a generous dose of OxiClean powder and warm water and scrubbed.

I covered the mats with the OxiClean and warm water mixture and let soak for about 15 mins before throwing them in the washer.

I used liquid detergent and OxiClean in the actual washer too. The mats came out super clean. I sat them out to air dry.

My car is going to feel like new! Can't wait to get them back in place! Do you have carpet or rubber mats and how do you clean yours?

MISC! Label Another Basket

How have you been? It has been a while. I usually try to post a couple of times a week but for a while now it hasn't been happening. Just too much going on. Getting ready to send a child off to Kindergarten and so leave it to me to run around like a chicken with my head cut off b/c I waited until the last possible moment to purchase school supplies.

MISC! I soooooo try to get away from this word in everything I do. Miscellaneous  just seems like the file ALL our crap gets dumped into. Miscellaneous to me is the L-A-Z-Y that I become when I don't want to label something for a specific thing. This little basket is my hub's dumping ground when he walks in the house each day though so I found it appropriate to label it as such. Plus it makes a great statement and looks mighty cute across the room from the etc basket of toys!

All you need for the look:

-small wooden letters
-acrylic paint
-glue gun

I think it cost me $1.00 for the letters. They are so cheap! You can buy them in the color you want but I had to buy them in white and paint b/c there weren't enough black ones. Until next time!

Am I Going Bananas?

I think I might be! he he. So I did my bi-weekly trip for groceries this morning after church and I'm stocked up again on food. We love bananas and go through them in this house but sometimes not fast enough because a couple will go bad from time to time. This afternoon I came up with an idea to help them keep longer and give me a little more room on the kitchen counters. I will say that I am not much of a gadget keeper so I didn't want to buy a banana hanging thingy. I have read that it's best to hang "nanners" up to lengthen their shelf life and I had a 3M hook in a drawer just waiting to be used. Yeah boyeeeeee!

I wouldn't dare poke a hole in our tile back splash so hanging this sticky 3M hook is pretty safe. Plus if the hubs notices it and thinks I have gone totally bananas, I can still take it down!

Do you have a special way to keep bananas or any other food for that matter?

Warm And Fuzzy With Craigslist Success And Such

How are you? I'm sorry it has been a while. Things have been a little busy around here lately but I'm trying to catch up on some projects I've started.

There are really a lot of nice people in this world!!! I just had to say that. As many bad things that go on in the world and with all the sad things we hear about, it's uber encouraging when GOOD things happen.
 

Yesterday on my drive home from work I was greeted by a crew of neighbors at the front of the neighborhood who were collecting money to send to the families affected by the shooting in Colorado. They stood out in the heat handing out bottled water to people who donated.  They didn't have to do that but they wanted to and it struck me as such an awesome thing to do.

Then today I had a really good experience with Craigslist! I don't mean to sound like a goofball but I have had some not-so-great experiences with Craigslist and today I sold a train table and train set and met a really nice family. I tried to sell it at my Spring yard sale but not much luck. I'm excited to have the play room cleared somewhat but even cooler was to sell something that our kids had outgrown to another child who could use it, and meeting new people was a big plus. Warm and fuzzy thoughts and Craigslist was a boost.

 

An Uplifting Beachy Craft

How are you? I've been bummed so I made beachy craft to lift the spirits and give to a girlfriend who moved away. Things have been a bit sad with goodbyes. One of my closest friends just moved away and I miss her so much already. I know, I know. Change is inevitable and things will continue to change as friends come and go throughout your life but it still doesn't make it easy. Takes me back to childhood when my best friend moved to another country, sniff sniff. Oddly enough I am filled with a sense of relief after dreading saying goodbye to her for so long. I know it's not "Goodbye"  but more like "See You Later", it's just one of those things that time will heal. Anyhow this craft is one I made for my friend. She loves the beach and is decorating using beachy decor herself so I hoped she would like it. From her reaction I think she did.

I picked up a simple frame that had a whitewashed look at IKEA. It was about $3.00.

I slipped a piece of burlap in front of a sea green piece of decorative scrap book paper so you could see the bluish tint of color through the burlap. The matte framed it nicely. Then I cut some ribbon to fit the frame and glued it down.

Next I found a shell that had a hole and looped some light weight sheer ribbon to hang over the glass. The backing on the frame secured it. If our friends find a sand dollar or a special shell some day they can always change it out! It was a fun craft and helped me tell my friend, "See you later", not "Goodbye". : )

Easy Trick To Remove Crayon From Walls

So my child finally did it. Boo hiss.  I was seriously hoping that one day I could say my kids never took a crayon to a wall. Think again! Yes my little one has used a permanent marker on my parents' dog and a highlighter on my husband's face when he was sleeping but now he has attacked the walls. Darnit. I asked my friends what would remove it and got a couple of responses, one of which was surprising!

 WD-40! They should add "crayon removal" as a bullet point on the can!

A good friend of mine told me this trick . It works well and I already had a can.

Dampen a wash cloth and use moderate pressure. The faint marks on the left did come out.

The wall dried completely AFTER I tookd this picture and you would never guess it had crayon on it!

Label A Basket

WASSSSSUP? It's Monday night and I am pooped. How about you? I'm glad Monday is over and believe it or not I actually got some things accomplished tonight. Pat on the back! Lately I have been a S-L-U-G when I get home from work. I admit it. I think I have every right to become a slug once in a while though. Don't get me wrong, I have been busting it but at night I just wannna vedge (or however you spell it) some too!

Have I ever told you how many TOYS we have? We have too many to count. It's ridiculous. I go through them every so often and weed them out. Don't tell my kids though! ;- ) I am not so mean that I'm blatant about it. I do have to get a little sneaky and do it when they are sleeping or out of the house but I try and go through things they've either outgrown or ignore. Sometimes I put them in bags and just hide them in a closet to make sure they won't be missed. I even go as far as putting things in the attic for months at a time to pull them out and surprise them all over again with certain toys. The toys are stored in the play room and their bedrooms but we do have one basket in our living room too to corral some.
 

My oldest asked me the other day if I could label his toy bins like they do at school and I thought SURE  I could do this. I would LOVE to. I'm an organizational nut that way!

I started the label project with the basket in the living room.  I realize this isn't exactly what he meant by labeling his toys but it is a start and I thought it was cute for decoration too. It's Pottery Barnish! Or so I think!
 

I picked up some wooden letters at Michaels and painted them black. Can you guess what I spelled? Come on, see if you can guess!

I used the hot glue gun to attach the letters. My youngest has plucked the "E" off once already and I had to re-glue but I thought it turned out nice!

At least this way we can use the basket for something else later on when they outgrow toys. Or do you really ever outgrow toys?!?! Hope you have a great week!

Out With The Brass. In With The Brushed Nickel.

How are you? It has been so busy here. I'm sure you can relate! Between work and trying to keep up with things I have been running myself ragged. I'm excited with some recent progress on the house and am so glad to finally sit down to show you! I just finished up switching all of our interior doorknobs from brass to brushed nickel. I decided to do away with the brass b/c we've changed all our fixtures to silver instead of brass.  So grunt grunt like Tim the Tool man! I'm just a TAD excited! I LOVE door handles as opposed to knobs but they were not in the budget so some simple doorknobs it is!

Here is a sneak peak at one type of doorknob I used. This is the master bathroom. I picked out all the other doorknobs without any trouble but had to do some research to find these. They are dummy doorknobs, which means they screw into the door on each side of the door and do not turn at all. These are a simple ball type of doorknob and they go so much better with the overall decor style of the house.

What kind of doorknobs do you have in your house? Do you have a preference?

Fresh Flowers From Far Away

How are you? Hopefully good! This weekend was good. My parents came to visit and it was a really nice visit.

I have been working on a big outdoor project and will share the progress soon. I had to share with you how awesome my dad is though. You see these flowers??? Well they came quite a long distance in a bucket. I adore my parents and am very fortunate to have great parents. Anyhow my dad was so sweet to think of me. He plucked several gardenias off of their bushes and put them in a bucket to bring me. It was very special to me.

The flowers are so fragrant that they freshened up the patio very nicely. I put a few in water for a simple decoration.
 

It's a nice way to decorate!