Crayola Heaven

My 8yo son is a budding artist.  If I want a quiet day, all I have to do is to hand him a ream of paper.  He will draw and draw all day.  However, he favors certain color schemes.  My husband is a fireman so often D’s drawings have fire in them.  And since he is an 8yo boy, military and Army guys are also popular. 

This results in the cry of, “I can’t find a Red crayon.”  “My Black crayon is too small for me to hold onto it.”  I have often wished that I was able to buy a box of red crayons.

On a whim, I visited the Crayola Store website this morning.  And what did I find you ask??

You able to create your own custom 64 box!!!  You can choose up to 4 different colors per box.   In my box that equals 16 reds, blacks, brown, and olive greens.  Although this box is $10.99 + shipping, this is totally worth it to me.  You are able to choose from 136 different colors, including Metallics, Neons, and some colors that were never in my box of 64 including Purple Mountains Majesty and Outer Space.

So if you have a crayon artist in your house, this is for you.

 

** this is not a paid endorsement.  Crayola has no idea who I am but if they want to hook a Mom up with some Crayolaness, I wouldn’t object.  Just sayin’**

Inspiration Halted

Hey All,
Just wanted to say that I am still inspired but lack of funds and some nasty weather have slowed me down. I am talking NASTY!!! weather. Like need 2 showers in 1 day because being outside for a hour made me sweat that much. YUCK!
And now I have that feeling that you get before you get really sick. That kinda sore throat, heavy chest headachey feeling.
Hopefully it will be nothing. But I should have a post later this week.

Bedroom Started and Stopped

Hello all.
Thanks to all who left sweet comments about my Fathers Day project. I know that my Dad loves it but he is just not the kinda guy to show/share his emotions. He Said that he liked it and I could tell by the crooked little smile that he did and that is all that matters to me.
I have been pondering my bedroom project. I spray painted a temp headboard, but I just discovered that I didn't upload any pics to my computer yet. I thought that it would be a permanent solution to the headboard but it doesn't attach as it should and is very wobbly. If you bump it when rolling over, then it hits the blinds behind it and makes a clattering noise that wakes us both up.

BUT never despair. I was surfing blog land yesterday and INSPIRATION STRUCK!!!!!!! I can do what I want for almost free. And I hope to have it to post(complete with Tutorial) this weekend.

I am having a garage sale on Fri & Sat so while I sitting there (wo)manning that, I should be able to post.

Thanks again for all the sweet comments.

Master Bedroom Before

One this that I really have a desire for is an Adult bedroom. A room that I walk into and sigh with contentment. No toys on the floor, no moving stuff around on my nightstand so that I can set down a glass. I would really like everything to match. I have never lived in a house with any sort of matching furniture. Seriously.
SO today, I am going to show you what it looks like now, what I don't like about it and what my dreams are for it.

This is the view from the door. I actually just moved my bed here because I wanted it to be the centerpiece of the room. Before it was on the opposite wall and when you walked in you saw the piles of garage sales stuff. As you can see, the night stands are nothing alike. Franks is that little tiny plant table with an alarm clock and the charger for his FD pager. Mine is a $5 garage sale TV table. It has all sorts of stuff on it as I read in bed, paint my nails here, take out my contacts, make lists and so on. Now I know that you are all super envious of my stylin' comforter. Looks like it belongs in a hotel you say. Why that would be correct. Before the kids were born, I managed a hotel and this comforter was "ruined" by a guest. Ruined meaning several cigarette burns. So it was either going to the mission or an employee could take it. And since Frank and I were using a queen comforter on a king bed, I brought it home. Been on the bed for several years, for a while there was a un-declawed cat that slept on it and then there was a dog. Neither were very nice. To say that it needs to be replaced is a major understatement.

If you turn to your left, there is my dresser. We got it and the matching low one when my parents bought some farm land with a house on it. The woman who owned the house had been moved to a nursing home and her kids sold the house with most of the furniture included. The matching low one is in G's room and it will make it's way in here. I am thinking that they should be chippy distressed white.
Beside the dresser you see the mirrored closet doors that I CANNOT KEEP CLEAN!!!! There are smudges everywhere. All the bedrooms have these closet doors. Mine should be replace with these. Which may or may not need to be chipped up and distressed. The other wall is pretty much blank except for a wobbly dresser holding the TV and the aforementioned garage sale piles.
I am thinking that I want this room almost all white. I want white bedding, a white duvet (which I will make) White flowing curtains (that I will make), a bed skirt either a burlap or white flowing in either box pleats or ruffles (I will make this too). I want this style of lamp for each side of the bed.
Matching white chippy nightstands that suit both Frank & I. A farmhouse bed like this From KnockOffWood.com (I can also make this bed.)

Seriously, I don't think that it is too much to ask. Do you??

Fathers Day gift for my Daddy.

My Dad is vet of the Vietnam conflict. He runs and owns a 3 generation Dairy farm with his brother and nephew. To say that my dad is a proud American would be like saying that the surface of the sun is slight warm. But he is a very hard man to by gifts for. His fav gifts are a large container of cashews and several cans of smoked oysters. LOL
I saw this project in one of the Link partied that I peruse. And I loved it. I definitely wanted to make on for my home. We are atop a hill and get enough wind that a fabric Flag would be shredded quickly. But then I was also looking for a meaningful gift for my Dad. So that is what this turned into. Frank receives lots of orders of things on pallets so I knew that I could get a couple dropped off at the house.
To say that the pallets were not nearly as pretty as the one used by Sweet Something Designs is a major understatement. The ones I received had been used and reused for years. You could see the nail hole where wood had been taken from old pallets and reused to make this one. I was doubtful about it in the beginning but it turned out all the better.
First I took all the cross beams off of the pallet. I laid them all side by side and re-arranged them so that they complimented each other. I then turned them all up side down. I happened to have enough scraps from another project to make 3 braces across the back. If I hadn't, I would have just taken more wood from the pallet and sawed it to length. I applied wood glue and then nailed the braces on from behind just to hold things together while the glue dried. I actually started out with all the edges even but, I was getting hot and tired and the kids wanted dinner and nailing into a through 2 pieces of wood that have a good amount of glue between them was quite the job. So as you can see, the wood was all cattywampus.

The next morning I removed the nailed that I had put in from the back. I purposefully used nails that were way too long so that they would be easy to remove. Then I flipped it up to the right side. I then nailed each piece into the braces from the front. I used 1.5 inch nails with no heads. I nailed each piece 6 times. 2 per brace. Because the wood was warped, the glue didn't make good contact with each board and wasn't going to be enough to keep it secure.
Then I taped it off for the stripes. I measured the height and divided that by 13 to get the width of each stripe. Then I Googled "American Flag Measurements" I found a site that said the Star panel was .4 of the whole width. I wanted to make sure that it looked proportional.

I didn't have the deep red color that I wanted so I mixed some. I Googled "Mixing Frosting Colors" Weird I know. But I knew that there was a mixing guide to get almost any color in existence that had been put out by Wilton. I found it and it said to mix bright red with purple. I just want to add here that, as with frosting, it is better to mix more than you think you will need, because you will NEVER EVER be able to mix the exact same color again.
(just cause it is pretty)
Got it painted.



I was going to go over it lightly with a palm sander but honestly, the wood had so much character, there was nothing I could add by sanding it.
I mixed some burnt umber acrylic paint with water and put it on with a sponge brush then wiped it off doing small sections at a time and wiping with the grain of the wood. I let the kids help with this part of the painting because t
here was little that could be messed up.



The Finish just brings out all the character and texture in the wood, and that makes the whole thing in my opinion.

I loved it so much when it was done and the only reason I was able to give it away was the fact that I knew that Daddy would love it as much as I do. And he did.

What I did today... By Jess

So today, I was prepared to have the kids inside all day and to not be able to spray paint anything. We were supposed to have almost 90* temps and thunderstorms. However, today was nothing short of perfect.
I was sitting with my coffee sharing my mp3 with this beauty.

I can see the woman will grow into sometimes. And I can see the baby she was.
Frank got home and this ensued.

I saw a blog post somewhere about using spray bottles instead of water guns. My kids (Frank included) love water guns but they are expensive and tend to break quickly. And they are a pain to fill and don't hold much. So the other day at Dollar Tree I snagged 3 spray bottles. I could kiss whoever blogged about it. LOL

Gianna was right in there, not afraid of anything.

But Dominic took the safe route.

Then they moved onto this. and this
Frank just took off the training wheels the other day and Dom is riding like a pro. I have felt bad that we haven't gotten him riding on his own yet, but at the last house there was really no place to ride. The stroller was the one that we got when I was pregnant with Dominic. It has been used and abused and she loves it. She still loves to be pushed in it and loves to push her dolls and bears in it.

So we did the above, and there has been lots of cleaning, sunburning (yours truly), car washing, trampoline jumping, sidewalk chalk drawing, ice cream sandwich eating and generally loving the God given Goodness.

Hello Again

Forgive Followers for I have sinned. It has been 48 days since my last post. I have no excuse really, just kinda lost my blogging mojo. But I have about 8 projects swirling in my brain and cluttering up my craft area kitchen table. So I have decided that I am going to be blogging again. Not everyday, but often I think.
I don't have any great pics for you today but I do have an idea. That I totally stole from someone else. I am taking a new med that I have to take twice daily with food. And I can't take it as late as dinner time because it will keep me up. SO that means that I have to eat breakfast and lunch. And normally I don't eat until about 4 pm. I don't like buying cereal because if it is anything that the kids like, it is the only thing that they will eat until it is gone. I was making my own granola which is SOO good but incredibly caloric. So I have been making oatmeal. Which I often forget about on the stove and burn. But then I saw a recipe on 'Zaar for making oatmeal in a rice cooker, which I already have on the counter because I eat a ton of Jasmine Rice ** Just a note here. if you only eat generic white rice, you are missing out. Jasmine rice is a totally new level of rice. Crazy good.** But you can cook oatmeal in it too. Dump in 1 part oatmeal to 2 parts water and push the go button. Walk away for about 25 min and you have perfect oatmeal. Yummy.
So I should go do something so that I have something to show ya'll. Currently I am working on the following.
*magnetic chore charts for the kids
*Patriotic door wreath
*Flag banner for Fathers Day gift
*Family Rules Board
*Summer Dresses for Gia
And I really would like them all done for the family party that we are hosting on Sunday.
Oh and I need to clean the house up for said party. I also need to make homemade ice cream, a large salad, and deep dish apple pie.
~~Jess~~

Mother Nature, Please

Come on. Mother to Mother. Give a girl a break. Freezing temps this weekend??
Firstly, if you are gonna do nasty weather, I would be happy to take it during the week when the kids are in school and have some other outlets for their energy. I NEED them to be able to go outside on the weekends.
Secondly, pick a temp range. Seriously. Every morning I wake up to check the weather to know if I will need the heat or the AC that day. I can't pack up cold weather clothes but I had to unpack the warm weather clothes. This is making for way too much laundry.
Just so I don't seem terribly ungrateful, I want to say Thanks for the Beautious Lilacs that my mom cut from her yard and brought me. That is my most fav scent of summer. (After the beach, and grilling chicken, and campfires).

What I want for Mothers Day

" Hey Honey, What do you want for Mother's Day?"  He asked me last night 6 whole days before the event.
Hmmm Good question.  I can think of lots of things that I would like.  I really want a new camera.  I have never received jewelry from him (unless you count the earring that I bought MYSELF last Mothers Day, and I DON'T!!)  I would love to get a Compound Miter Saw, or a great drill that I don't have to charge every couple hours.  A garage door opener would be great.  But since we don't possess any credit cards and the paycheck that will be received this week is already spent on car payments, insurance and food, well, let's just say that I am not holding my breath for any of the aforementioned items.

There are free things too, you say.  A nap, a dinner not made by me, a foot rub.  I am not holding my breath for these either.  I already get to take the occasional nap, am not a big fan of ramen noodles, and he has arthritis in his hands so any massage leads to big sighs and big shows of hand flexing and moaning.

As I type this, I feel ungrateful for all my husband does for me and my family. And I not. He works about 130 hours every 2 weeks so that I can be a SAHM.  He helps tidy the house on the weekends, he takes the kids outside to play for hours on end, and he does the bedtime routine every night that he is here.  He has no objections to my attending numerous church related meetings in the evenings when he is tired.

So where am I going with this?  Honestly, I am not sure.  I think that I want what every woman wants for a Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas, or Mothers Day.  I want to receive a gift that I really want without having to tell him exactly what to buy. (or telling my Mom what I want so she can tell him.)  I want to know that he listens to me when I talk and knows me well enough that he can go buy something that I will really like.  It doesn't have to be diamonds or a limo ride to the spa.  I want him to think about it more than 6 days in advance so that if it requires saving a little money out of each check, then he can.
And since we have been married 12 years, I don't think that it is really too much to ask that he knows my likes and dislikes.

So What Do YOU Want for Mothers Day???

Easter Table

Hi all,
I saw this post and knew that I wanted to do something similar for my Easter table.  I wanted the candles elevated so I went and got a scrap 4x4 from Home Depot.  I think that it was about $2.  I measured it and it was exactly 2 feet long. 

So I cut it in half and then cut one of the halves in half.  So I had 1 1ft piece and 2 6 inch pieces. 
Gi was kind enough enough to document it for me.

She thinks that we need to have constant pictures of craft projects now.  I have no idea where she go that from.
I used my palm sander to level the ends a little so that they weren't wobbly on the table.  Then I sanded them a little more just so that there was no way that anyone could get splinters.  Then i threw them down onto the concrete driveway and beat them up with both sides of the hammer so that they had a weathered look.  The kids thought I had lost it and tool off lest I should start chucking the pieces at them. 
I like how they looked but I wanted to add a little something more, so this morning, I took out my steel stamps and stamped John 3:16 on the tallest one.  Then I colored the stamped letters with a black sharpie, which of course, bled.  I expected this though, so I didn't freak out.  Back outside, I used a superfine sandpaper on my sander and went over the letters.  Since the letters are recessed, the sander took off all the excess ink and the pencil lines and letters that I had drawn on to guide me. 

Then I arranged them on my cluttered counter and put 2 red candles on the small blocks and a white candle on the taller one and then put yesterday's crown of thorns around the candle.

Here they are lit, but at 11am, the effect is less than spectacular.  I think that I will take them outside to distress them more, and maybe rub some mineral oil in to darken them up a little, so they don't look so new.  
I think that they will look great on my natural wood table for Easter dinner and remind us all the Real Reason for the Season.

Thorn Crown tutorial

Hi All,
 It is spray paint weather 'round these parts.  LOVE IT!!!  It has been a little windy so I have been doing it in the garage with the door open.  I have no less than 4 projects in different stages of drying. 

I host Easter dinner for my Mom's Family every year.  I love it.  I was looking through blogland a while ago and I saw a candle arrangement that I loved.  I will be posting my version of the completed thing tomorrow, but I needed something to make a crown of thorns.  The original used a small grapevine wreath, but I couldn't find one that looked right, so I thought about how to make my own. 

These are the tools that I used:
20 gauge wire  1.99
16 gauge wire 1.99
needle nose pliers
wire cutters
small coffee can


I took the 16 gauge wire (the fatter one)  and wrapped it around the coffee can about 3 times to create the size that I wanted and to give it a shape. 
Then I cut the wire with the wire cutters.

Then cut several 2-3 inch lengths of the thinner wire.  Keeping a tail out, wrap the wire several times around a section of the "wreath" that you made with the large wire.

I then used the needle nosed pliers to squeeze the wrapped wire together so that each wrap was touching the next, and to flatten it slightly so that it didn't slide around in case I didn't wrap it tight enough.

I continued around the wreath until it looked the way that I wanted.  I was going to a kind of a barbed wire look.


Then I took it outside and spray painted it with Dark bronze.


It looks just the way that I wanted it to,  Plus it only cost about $4 to make and I have tons of wire left over for other projects as each package came in 25ft spools.

Have a great day all!!

Contentment

We had a guest Pastor today and I was so glad that Frank & I were able to listen to his message.  In the month of Feb we provided coffee service, greeted, taught Sunday School and worked in the nursery.  This was the first Sunday in a while where we just got to go to church and listen.

The message was based on Paul's letter to the the Philippians.  He was imprisioned and was writing to thank the Phillippians for their past generostiy.   And also to tell them that he was content with his circumstance.  He had learned to be content in any circumstance.  He had been rich and poor, fed and hungry.  But he had made the decision to be content.
The Pastor made the following 5 points:
1) Being content runs Counter to our sinful nature.  Satan wants us to want more, more, more.  Becuase then we have lost sight of God.  Think of the original sin.  Satan promised Eve that she would be "Just like God" if she disobeyed and ate the fruit.  Pastor told a story of a rich man who walked by a fisherman sitting beside his boat daily.  Finally the rich man asked the fisherman why he was never out fishing.  The fisherman replied the he had caught all he needed.  The rich man told him that he should catch all that he could catch, not just what he needed.  Why would he do that?  Then the fisherman could buy bigger nets. more boats, and become rich.  What would he do if he was rich?  Why then he could just sit and relax and enjoy life.  Which was exactly what he had been doing when the rich man walked up to him.
2) Being content has to be learned.  It doesn't come automatically.
3)Contentment comes from a heart of gratitude.  I am happy with what I have, not thinking about what I don't have.
4)Contentment grows in proportion in how we truly love and trust Jesus.
5)Contentment grows when we value relationships more that things.  Both our relationships with God and with friends and family.

Well, I bet that you didn't come here for a sermon today, but I really felt the need to pass on this message.  It truly touched me and I needed to hear it.  Maybe someone else needs to as well,

Laundry Bags

Hi all,
In my previous house, I had a basement laundry room where I had plenty of room to sort laundry where no one could see it. Sure that room flooded from time to time and wasn't heated ( winter wasn't nice), but there was all that room.
In our wonderful Forever house, our washer and dryer is on the main floor in the entry way. So this is the lovely view when we walk in.
Yes, we will be painted the walls in the summer and the floor if I get my way.

Anyway, not the best view. In our main bathroom, we have a fairly large closet but not big enough to have more than one basket. So this is what that looked like most of the time. Because I am the only one capable of locating a basket, obviously.

The home owners had a laundry sorter in there, but A) I didn't really want to spend any money & B) I have never owned a laundry sorter that could stand up to my kids.

I popped the bottom shelf out of the closet and this left a ledge around 3 sides of the closet. I had some curtains from houses ago that had gotten stained and the mice had gotten into them when they were in storage. So, they were just so much fabric, nothing that I would be hanging in common areas.
I cut them apart and sewed them up on 4 sides to make 3 bags. Because I wanted the clothes to be sorted in the closet so that I could see when a load needed to be done, and we sort our clothes by person, I wanted the bags labeled by person. Because I don't have a Cricut or Silhouette (but I entered the giveaway over @ "How Does She") I printed the names off my printer onto Freezer paper that I had cut into 8.5*11 size pieces. I printed onto the Non-shiny side. I put the paper down on my self healing mat and used my Exact o knife and cut out the letters.
Then I laid the paper down on the bags where I wanted the names to be, shiny side down. I used a warm iron to iron the paper onto the bags. I wasn't sure what temp to use so I figured that cooler was better. The iron melts the shiny side of the paper into the fabric to make a perfect stencil that doesn't move. I then used a stencil sponge and Burnt Umber acrylic paint and painted in the letters.

I let them dry a few minutes then peeled the freezer paper off. It doesn't leave any residue @ all. It just adheres enough to allow you to paint with out bleeding.

Then I threaded the bags onto 2 3/4' dowels that I had spray painted black. I put the dowels on the little ledge in the closet that was left by removing the shelf.

I did put 4 finishing nails right beside the nails so that they didn't roll around, but the dowels and bags are easily removable if they need to be washed.
The kids were so excited to have laundry bags with their names. Now there is NO QUESTION about where dirty clothes belong. Notice that I put "Mom & Daddy" in the middle so there was no squabbles about who got to be next to who.

Fun Bucks

Hey all,
i have a couple Crafty things that I plan to blog about here shortly but tonight I have an amazing story.
I have 2 very high energy kids. They run circles around me on a daily basis. As a SAHM with a DH that often works later than 6:30, I am the primary caregiver. And often I am too tired to enforce rules. I know that it is said to pick your battles, BUT! I feel that the kids know this strategy and know that I have to pick certain things to enforce. And the more things that I have to choose from, (the more ways that they are naughty) the more that fall by the way side.
Last week, I started a punch card system. Kinda like a frequency card that you get at the salon or the coffee shop. They were eligible for 5 daily punches. Morning, afternoon, evening, bed time and a bonus. It seemed to work well for a couple days. The threat of them not getting a punch seemed to work well. But there was no way to take back a punch if there was a major incident. The thought of a reward after they had accumulated a number of punches was not working.
I have been surfing through some of my Fav mommy blogs. Amy over at had some great ideas. She keeps a "Store" for her kids to purchase from. I kind of liked that idea but wanted to keep it simple. I am trying to decrease chaos from my life.
SO, I created Fun Bucks. I just made some generic Bucks on my laptop and printed out about 50 of them. Cut them apart with my Fiskar paper slicer. (love that thing)
Then I made a list of what could be purchased with their Fun Bucks. I told the kids that there were things on the list that they had previously gotten for nothing. Such as trips to Chucky Cheese and bowls of ice cream every night.
It has been amazing. LOL My kids were both off of school today for Teacher Inservice and I have never had such a great day with them. They were both willing to fork over 2 bucks each for a bowl of ice cream and didn't whine or cry or throw a fit when informed that they didn't have enough bucks to sleep on the couch tonight. Even though Daddy had already told D that he could. It is has been nothing short of a miracle.
I will keep you informed of any changes.

Pure Bliss

If I could afford just one live in servant type person, it would be some one to wash my hair. Daily. Or several times daily, depending on how the kids were acting.
I am trying to wear my hair naturally curly lately as that is how Frank likes it. And since it is much faster than blowing it dry and then doing the flat iron thing, and he has to look at it and I don't.
Anywho, in this effort I have to get cut regularly because if it get too long, then it is too heavy for the curls to do their job. I am lucky enough to have found a salon in my home town just down from where i drop Gianna off for school. There have never been any other clients when I am there so I can be spontaneous as to when I go get my hair cut. The girl who has always cut my hair wants to wash it to get out the product that I have to put in to enhance the curl.
I am telling you, if this girl opened a shop just to wash hair, she would be the Trump of her field. She knows that I really enjoy the washing so she prolongs it and gives my scalp a gentle but firm massage. I can actually feel the tension leave my body as I sit there. By the time she is done, my toes are tingling.
I wonder what she would say if I just stopped in and asked her to just wash and style my hair. Am I to young to be among the "shampoo and set" group?
Do you think that I could adequately teach my kids to wash my hair? HMMMM

Menu Board

In the old house I had a very very large white board where I put up my daily routines and our menu for the current pay cycle. This way, when Frank asked what was for dinner and I asked what he would like, all the options were right there in front of us.
But in this house, not only is there no good place in this house for the white board, it just wouldn't look right. But we were suffering without our menu posted. I had to keep track of a piece of paper with the list so I knew what meals I had the makings for. I tried keeping the list in my planner but 1/2 the time my planner is out in the car in the garage. Not the best thing.

I had this section on one kitchen wall that was just screaming for a menu board. But I wanted something classier looking then a white board.
Then I found http://shanty2chic.blogspot.com/. Love that blog!!! There I fell in love with burlap. Hmm burlap. I grew up on a dairy farm and burlap was for the 100 pound bags of feed that arrived for the cattle. Not exactly a decorating medium in my mind. But I have been re-educated. Burlap and their generous use of spray paint. I have also never been a user of spray paint. I always thought that was the "cheap" way to do things. But cheap is awesome. LOL

So with these thoughts in mind, off I went to the thrift store. I was looking for a big ugly painting so that I didn't have to spend $$$$ on a new frame and glass. What I found was so much better. I found the ugly painting in a beautiful frame.

I took out the ugly painting and flipped it over so that the back was up. I lay it on a piece of burlap (which is soo cheap) and brought the burlap up on the sides and hot glued them down. Sorry I don't have any pictures of this. I was not yet blogging when I did this project. Then I got out some stencils and some black (or burnt umber can't remember which) acrylic paint. I let is dry overnight then stuffed it back into the frame. The burlap make it a very snug fit.

Here is the finished project.

Sorry for the picture. The kids have dropped my camera one to many times and there was no place where there wasn't a huge reflection in the pic.

Now, when I make my menu plan, I just write it on my "board" with a chisel tip black dry erase marker. It serves both as a functioning piece and as a decoration.
I love it.

It's all a state of mind.

We have had very beautiful weather here in SW MI for the last couple days. Cold (in the low 30's) but the sun has been radiant. I couldn't have the blinds open wide enough and I seemed to get so much done. When I needed to run out to get the mail or pick up a child from school, I was perfectly content in a lightweight Old Navy sweatshirt.
Today however, there is no Sun (despite being Sunday). The temps are in the low 40's but I just want to curl up with a cup of coffee and an afghan (made by my mom in my FAV!! Color) and close the blinds. I can see the eaves dripping and the snowman tipping and that means that the temps are up and Spring is nearing. But without the sun it seems like late November without the promise of Christmas lights.

But with the sun came another project. I def need some sort of window treatment in my west facing kitchen window. While I know that it was not his intention, God's beautiful light gave me quite the headache as I was walking back and forth past the window to prepare dinner. I am thinking of the cute Roman blinds that I have seen all over blog land.

Boy's Room tranformation

When Dom was born, I made a cute Noah's Ark theme in his room. Then as he grew, I just painted the whole thing blue. Then we moved to our interim home, where we were not allowed to paint because everyone thought that we would just be there a short time. So the kids lived in rooms that were better suited to elderly folks. LOL When we Finally got the new that were would be able to move into our forever house, we also learned that the rooms that would be the kids rooms needed to be painted as the previous owners had used those rooms for storage. We let the kids decide what they wanted their rooms to be and went from there. G wanted a princess room so hers is pink, but not totally completed. D wanted red because that is his fav color but I anted something a little calmer as he already doesn't want to go to sleep. I settled on Camo. My sister offered to by the paint in lieu of Christmas gifts for us this year and we happily accepted. She & I went to Home Depot only because they carry the Disney color line, and where better to get pink for a princess room. DSis and I wandered around not having any idea about how to pick out colors for camo. This great guy Greg came up to us and asked us if we needed help and we poured out our needs. He was AWESOME!!!! There is a spray paint line that carries "camo" colors. He ran over and got those for us and then matched those colors to wall paint. He explained that we wanted the flat paint and went and got it for us and got it all mixed.
Here is the before. ( the owners left this huge desk in the room)


I painted the whole room the lightest color and then taped off the room so that the camo was on the bottom of the wall. I used the bottom of the room's windows as a guide. Then I used a pen and drew some shapes. As I drew I labeled the shapes as to what color they would be so when I had the paint out I wouldn't have to think to much. To outline each shape I used a small craft paint brush and then filled in with a 1" foam brush. I just did 1 color at a time so that they didn't run together. Each color took 2 coats to cover well, so I scooted around that room on my booty 6 times. On hard wood.
Here is the after:


I searched the Internet for weeks before I got up the nerve to do this. And it was so much easier that you would think.


I think that at some point I would like to put up a chair rail so the transition looks better. And if you notice in the first after picture, the plate covers in that room were white. And they just stuck right out. So I went to Hobby Lobby and got some camo scrap paper and Mod-Podged that on to it. I will have to show you those in another post as I don't have any pic's on the computer.
The colors used were:
Behr Twig Basket (Main wall color)
Behr Beluga (black)
Behr Evergreen
Behr Stone hearth.
I needed a gallon for the main room and got a quart of each of the others and still have plenty left over for other projects.

Linked to Met Monday