may's finished projects

these albums ended up being quick, easy, & fun - so i cranked out a few more.  it's nice to have notes and cards somewhere besides just in a box now.

this picture is my first photoshop project, and it really didn't take long at all.  wahooo!

and this pillow is technically a finished project since it is completely sewn and on the chair.  but, it has a few brothers and sisters not quite finished yet...  :)

my own version of a smashbook

i've seen lots of fun looking displays of smashbooks at various stores - even walmart and target.  they look like they'd be pretty simple to put together, like for a vacation or some specific thing you'd want to journal about.... just maybe not for this project because, by the time i cram smash a whole pile of junk into one - i know it would take several books and that they wouldn't even come close to closing nicely.  so, i decided to try something a little different:

basically, i cut some pieces of chipboard to the size i wanted and covered it front and back with paper, little notes, stickers, ticket stubs - all the stuff i'd have been putting in the smashbook.  i used one for a front cover, a few in the middle here and there (just for stability), and then one for the back cover.  the rest of the pages are letters and cards that the boy and i have exchanged during our time together.  a few punched holes here and there - and, it started to look like an album.

here's the finished product, held together with 3 rings that i've seen at lots of scrapbook shops.  i think all three of them cost around a buck, so this ended up being way cheaper than a smashbook too.  not saying i wouldn't ever make a real smashbook, because they look so fun - i just need to find the right event for one.

this project took me an evening plus a few hours, so i'd consider it a pretty quick and easy one!  i got to start on it at a scrapbook store with a friend (woohoo!), and finished it up over the next few days at home.  oh yeah, and sorry about the blurry cover in the pictures.  i know you wouldn't want to read anything personal.  ;)

thing 2's first year - a finished project!

i started on this way back here, but now thing 2's 1st year of pictures are all now in an album - woohoo! 

 

 

during a few days of brother being at school, we decided to ignore the laundry and house to scrapbook.  i've found quite the lil scrapbooking buddy, and even though it took a lot longer to finish one of my pages while helping her - it was soooo fun!  i know soon enough she'll be making masterpieces all on her own and won't need my help, so i'm soaking this up while i can.  :) 

orange you glad we painted a wall?

we had yet to get any sort of system going for an entryway, and at times the piles could get a little out of hand near this door.  (just to the left is the garage door that we use most.)

yes, it's technically part of the kitchen and not any sort of entryway, but it's the best space we had to work with (as our true entryway is across the house and not really used as such).  so, first up - some bright orange paint!

i had to look and look for a shelf that would do the trick, and we considered several DIY options too.  the main criteria:  at least 4 ft long, sturdy, not too sticky-outy since we walk thru the area, and hold all our junk while looking nice.  we ended up with this one from pottery barn.  i have a love/hate relationship with them - love their stuff, hate their prices.  anyway, i forked over the cash this time and have to admit i quite like how it's working out.

this is just a piece of pine wood that we painted "pencil" yellow.  the little test containers work awesome for this kind of thing, but i wouldn't really recommend the glidden brand.  it was super runny, and i had to do several coats.

 

added some door pull knobs for spots to hang bags, jackets, whatever, and attached it to the wall beneath the shelf.

 

wa-lah!  love that there's some color in the room now, and that there's a place to keep stuff somewhat organized as it comes into the house.

 

 

the shoe rack is something we've had for a while from IKEA, and it has stood up to being sat on (haha) by 2 little munchkins.

 

like everything in our house, i'm sure there'll be tweaks here and there - but for now, i'm completely happy with this arrangement and i'm loving having some color in the kitchen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

therapy for mama

it was super fun to get together with girlfriends and work on this painting a few weeks ago, but it just wasn't something i loved... and, this picture:

kept coming to mind that i had pinned for a future project day. there's no link to the original source from pinterest.  i tried to find it, but no luck.  i did, however, find another blogger that posted a pic of her version:

  

and funny enough, she was unable to find the original source either. 

 

anyway, back to the therapy discussion:  canvas in hand, a few leftover bottles of craft paint, and some fun paper at a scrapbook retreat for a couple of days...

 

this is one of the first things i worked on while i was there.  just painted over the phone booth and went to work on this guy.

 

 

i punched a large circle out of printed paper for the center and then made a template for the petals that i loosely followed.

 

the pieces are all adhered with mod podge, which goes on white like this:

 

and then dries clear like this:

 

once it dried, i trimmed the pieces sticking off the edges and coated the whole thing again with mod podge - so the sheen would all be the same, plus i wanted it nice and sealed.  added a few little rhinestones to the polka dotted paper and called it done!

 

 

it's in its happy little home on my kitchen counter now.  and i love it!

 

playing around

the new playset arrived and sat in a big pile of boxes in our driveway for a couple of weeks.  every time we went out to the car or to play, we had to look at the teeeensy picture on the end of one of the boxes to see what this "playset" would be like.  if we were going somewhere, excited little voices would then chatter about it on the way to town. 

while daddy and papa got to work, gram got to ride in the boat/train.

thing 2 had a fun time splashing in the water, as they were rowing...



pretty sure that there were a lot of steps in between these 2 photos, but we must not have captured them.  i have a feeling a lot of them were at night after 2 little things were getting baths and jammies.



we all love this set, and it seems to be a good fit for our abilities right now.  a couple challenging parts, a FAST slide, and we always smile about swings!

home sweet home

i saw this idea on pinterest, and decided i would try something similar. 

woooohooooo for actually doing something i pinned!!

Source: scrapstudio.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

it's been in progress for quite a while, but it was fun to work on a letter or 2 whenever i had a chance.  a few letters in progress:

crayons are my ever-trusty keep-the-project-off-the-table-holders so i can paint the edges.  u likey?

this is the back of a letter that didn't have a hanger.  a nicely placed staple works perfectly for these light little guys.  i used this lil trick on several letters.

mod podge is one of my favorites!  you *might* be able to tell by the end of this post.

used sponge daubers to apply ink from a stamp pad over the tape, and then a quick peel leaves white lines.  and the ink blended together to make a nice smooth finish as it dried - added bonus!  no marks show from the sponge.

more mod podge!

since hanging them up, i've moved them around a few times...

yes, i'll fill in all those extra nail holes when we repaint, but for now they fit in just fine with the 3,563 left by the previous owners. what's a few more?

feels great to have something up on the wall, and i love the mismatched feel!

linking up today for:

via bower power and young house love.

check 'em out!

how long does it take?

how long does it take to put something together when you've got lots of eager help?  as it turns out, a lot longer than when you're flying solo, so it's a good thing it's waaaaay more fun.  this was an all-day-long project for us, even though it would've taken some of you only a half hour.  :)

thing 1's room started with 2 twin beds, but they took up a large part of the "space" in his room because of the window, closet, bathroom door, and entry door arrangement.  and it seemed like they'd work better in thing 2's room, so we began a hunt for a different setup for thing 1.  with no designated guest room, our goal is for the kiddo's rooms to work as such whenever we have company - ideally one room with twin beds and 1 with a double bed of some sort.  i think we've accomplished it! 

the bed we got for thing 1 is a twin that extends to a king, so there's more space to play when it's just us. no separate play area in this house means the toys get carried to the living room (ALL of them, EVERY day). so, we wanted to arrange things so that hopefully there'll be more room to actually play in the bedrooms. still early, but it seems there's been some improvement in toy migration.  waaahoooo!

here are some pictures of the bed-assembling process, and the hard workers ride off into the sunset at the end (in a boat, in case you can't quite tell).

(a little work snuck in during naptime)

someone found quite the comfy perch!

trying out the newest choo-choo train...