Master Bedroom Headboard

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Jennifer

Last time I wrote about our master bedroom headboard I left you with this picture…

Well, here’s the final product!

I haven’t bought the proper pillows for the white cases yet, but besides that I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

I went to the Habitat store and found this headboard for $45 but used a Habitat coupon and got it for $37.50. I kind of feel like scum using a coupon at the Habitat store?

The headboard didn’t have the lighter colored board in it so there was actually a large hole in the middle of it.

To say my husband was skeptical is an understatement. Though he pushed forward and inserted the board to fill in the empty space.

I only remembered to take a picture half way through painting it.

I used a black flat paint because I wanted to minimize the flowers and thought if I used a gloss they would stand out more.

When the board was all finished drying we brought it inside.

I knew there was going to be a height problem so my husband anchored the headboard to the wall using hooks.

So there you go, our master bedroom headboard.

Go here for the pillows post.

I love you because…

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Jennifer

One of my Januaray goals was to hang the “I love you because” signs which I bought from Kiki Creates when she was having an “oops sale.”

The defect in the prints turned out to be the white rim around them. Eventually I will add a little black border to cover that up, but hey, they went up in January and it’s still not done so don’t hold your breath.

I bought cheap IKEA frames to display them on the wall (I think the frames were $3 for a pair).

the view coming down our stairs – everyone sits on the stairs to put their shoes on so I thought this would be the perfect spot.

Current and previous entries…

“you love to dress up”

“you love to have stories read to you”

“you love your brothers”

“your laugh is contagious”

“you have a passion for animals”

“you have found a love of reading”

“Your smile makes me smile”

“You love to listen to NPR with me”

“You are a wonderful big brother”

The kids immediately notice when a new reason has been posted so it’s fun to listen and watch them discuss it. Which reminds me, I need to go write something new right now.

*Here’s Kiki’s original post which inspired me to put these prints up in our house*

Star Wars Art: The Final Chapter

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Jennifer

So I have shared most of the room my boys shared but I left out one key ingredient – the large wall art.

The boys found images of their favorite Star Wars vehicles in a book and I copied them onto paper. I then used the tracer to trace the image onto the painted canvas. I then took navy blue paint and painted inside the image. Relatively easy – good thing since they wanted me to make eight of them.

Here’s my favorite – an AT-AT – that’s All Terrain Armored Transport for you Star Wars novices.

The other side of the room…

To visit previous Star Wars Bedroom posts…

Go here for the Jedi Name Art

Go here for our Minifigure Storage

Go here for our Red Frame Chicken Wire Display Boards

So that’s it.

The Star Was Bedroom for two little Star Wars fans.

Let’s hope this little obsession last for several more years.

Mary Poppins Party Activities

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Jennifer

In order to celebrate my daughter’s 3rd birthday – Mary Poppins style – we came up with a few related activities that 3 year olds would enjoy.

First up, drawing on cardboard with chalk (relates to Bert and him drawing chalk pictures in the movie).

Next up, a Mary Poppins bean bag toss. We have used these boards for many many parties. We just take off the old pictures or glue right over them with the new themed pictures.

Third, racing around with stick horses (relates to the carousel horses and when they race in the movie).

These were a huge hit. I’m putting together a tutorial on how I made these.

Next, pin the bow tie on the penguin (come on, do I really need to tell you what part of the story this is from?)

Lastly and the biggest hit of the party, chimney play! (these are supposed to be the chimneys that the chimney sweeps pop in and out of when they sing “Chim Chimney Cha-roo.”)

We bought five large cardboard boxes and two small boxes for about $6.00. My husband then connected them all and cut holes on the top in order to give the small boxes a place to sit. In order to make the entire thing stable, he screwed 3 pieces of wood together in the shape of a “C,” and then put it at the beginning of the box and then another one at the end. The 3 pieces of wood touched three sides of the structure – the bottom space where the kids crawled through didn’t have a piece of wood.

Traffic jam

Even the big kids got in on the action.

Caroline had a good time popping through the top of the structure yelling, “Cha-roo!”

So those were our Mary Poppins party activities – I also bought sugar cubes in hopes of doing a relay race with a “spoonful of sugar,” but decided against it at the last moment. Another activity we didn’t use a bunch of musical instruments I had gathered. I thought the kids could play in a band like the one that plays while Mary Poppins receives her prize for winning the horse race.

Altogether I spent about $60 on the entire party. I would have spent about $40 had I planned ahead and used coupons to purchase many of the items. Oh well, I like to think I do my best work at the last moment.

Soon I’ll share her cake and the decorations.

For Mary Poppins hat instruction go here.

Free Downloads that I LOVE

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Jennifer

Wanted to let everyone know about an amazing free download going on right now over at q.a.design.

Jenna is sharing her state/country prints which she normally sells on etsy.

Kentucky

Michigan

Illinois

I have actually not so secretly coveted these prints for a long time.

I made some copy cat ones (since she didn’t have Ontario) using canvas and paints for our office/playroom over a year ago and still love them.

From left to right the pictures are 1) of Ontario, CAN where my husband was born 2) where we live now and (3) the state I was born in.

Click here to go to the free downloadable prints from q.a. designs

Do you see any prints for your house or to give as gifts?

February Goals Revisited

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Jennifer

So it’s that time again.

Time to review which goals I have officially accomplished in February and which ones I needed about 5 more days to complete.

*Get Yearly Photos Framed – Check! These will be ready to pick up in a week and I will share them with you.

*Pay Library Fine – Check! We haven’t gone to the library in six months because I was convinced I had a large fine to pay. Turns out it was only $10.

*Make Birthday Skirt or Dress for My Daughter – Check! She wore the skirt to school on Monday and I’ll be sharing those pictures soon.

*Play more Music in the House– Check! – I played some music but not as much as I would have liked, though going from no music to some still counts as a check in my book.

*Figure out How to Keep My Car Clean– Check! I think! So far so good in the clean department. I shared with you here how I started the process and next week I’m hoping to share with you some storage holders I made for the car.

*Do the Art Project with Andrew he’s been asking to do– Check! Go here to see the process

*Hang “I Love You” Signs – Check!

*Make Jeopardy Game for etsy – Fail! It’s about 20% complete – will bring this goal over to March

*Paint Bedroom Lamps and Buy New Shades – Check! But not 100% sold on them yet. Will share soon.

*Read a Parenting Book – Check! I read How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Farber & Elaine Mazlish. I have to admit, I am not a big nonfiction reader so for me to read this is a big deal. I am so glad I decided to read it. The authors provide tons of scenarios and cartoons that show positive and negative ways parents and children interact. The book is meant to be used as a workbook but I chose to read it front to back since I wanted to make sure I completed it. Now that I’ve read the book through I’m going to go back and read each chapter more thoroughly and use it as a workbook.

One point the authors try and guide parents toward is not making all of the decisions and solving all of their children’s problems. One day Alex had a friend over and this was turning out to be a little difficult for Andrew. He wanted to be involved in all of their games and was feeling left out.

He came downstairs and said, “Alex and *** won’t let me play their game.”

I took my moment and seized it, “How does that make you feel?”

“It makes me angry and frustrated.”

Here was my biog move, “Ummmm.”

“I’m going to tell them I’m frustrated with them.”

AND HE DIDN’T COME BACK DOWNSTAIRS TO COMPLAIN AGAIN!

I’m hoping for more of these moments when I read the book again.

*Host a Mardi Gras Party – Check! Go here for the door wreath and here for the decorations.

*Do not accumulate one single bag while shopping – Check! I will admit I probably stretched out my purse a bit when I forgot my bags. Other times, I simply didn’t have enough bags so I would have the bagger just stick those remaining 8 items into the cart. I found myself saying several times, “I know it’s weird, it’s just a resolution I’m trying to keep. My friend emailed me about a great bag to use when out shopping for clothes so I have gone ahead and ordered one since placing new shirts in the bags that previously held onions is really not a smart choice.

*Scrapbook 10 pages in Andrew’s scrapbook – Check! Barely. 10 pages done.

***As a side note, last month I had the goal to drop $100 from our food budget. I failed miserably since I didn’t keep an ongoing written list of spending. This month I redeemed us by spending $300 less than what we normally spend on groceries… so we are back on track.

Overall, I feel like I accomplished a lot this month so I know the list is helping me. But. And it’s a big but… I feel like the list is constantly looming over me. When I was sick for a week this month I worried about all the wasted time. I may shorten my list for March since there’s birthday parties to plan and a whole week of spring break – and we all know that nothing off the list will get done that week.

Have you accomplished anything this month your excited about?

January Goals Revisited

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Jennifer

Setting goals by the month turned out pretty well for me. While I accomplished a lot of things on and off my list, I will admit I sometimes felt stressed by the list. There were moments when I was sitting on the couch thinking, “I really need to get up and make some pillows.” While I thought this I never actually got off of the couch to work on anything but I still thought it.

Let’s review my January Goals:

*Have a Date Night with Husband – check and check! We actually got babysitters twice during the month.

*Keep downstairs clean & ready for visitors – check! – The upstairs might have looked like a bomb went off but it didn’t matter to me. My floors were vacuumed, counters straightened, and toys were off the floor. My definition of clean would probably not be what someone else’s was but the house always felt clean enough in case someone dropped by. In other words, the mad dash panicked cleaning lady did not have to make an appearance.

*Complete Valentine Bingo game for etsy – check!

*Sew pillows for my bed – check! You will see the results soon.

*Add 20 items to my 143 Acts list – check! – #1, #2, #3 – bought bags of food for homeless at store #4 – gave unopened bottle of champagne to neighbors #5 – complimented stranger on her skirt #6 – gathered carts in grocery store lot and put them away #7 – sent email to teacher I used to work with telling her we still use the baby gift she gave us nine years later #8 – dropped off clothing at Goodwill #9 – sent in supplies to teacher #10 – sent in teacher wish list items #11- complimented mom at Kindermusik #12 – told mom her daughter was well behaved #13, #14, #15, #16 – waited for a moment so could hold door open for mom coming into school with stroller #17 – shared Angry Bird Valentines I created #18 – returned extra grocery carts #19, #20 – complimented a mom on outfit

*Try one new recipe – check and check and check! Three new recipes in one month! Who am I? Julia Child? We tried the Bacon Cornbread Muffins, a Jambalaya recipe, and these very tasty 15 Min. Sticky Buns.

*Complete bathroom redo – check, sort of – the pictures need to be hung tonight

*Knock $100 off monthly food bill – Fail! In a huge way! – completely over budget – spent entirely too much money – remember those 2 times we went out by ourselves? We ate at mighty expensive places and indulged – add 2 girls nights out for me with expensive trips to Costco and it just spelled failure for us – hopefully we’ll do better next month.

*Scrapbook 10 pages for Caroline – check – I actually completed 19 pages so this is a huge weight lifted off my back. I kept stalling on working on Caroline’s baby book but always felt guilty since the boys have several books. Now I can proudly say Caroline has a scrapbook now and she’s already 5 months old in it. Hey, if I hadn’t started she still wouldn’t have anything so I figure this is a great start.

Alright, this wraps up a pretty good month for me in terms of accomplishing goals. While I felt some mild panic set in around January 20th , I persevered and finished many projects. Did you accomplish anything your excited about this month?

Semi-homemade Gifts

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Jennifer

This was originally posted over at Sunny Vanilla a few weeks ago when Jennifer asked me to be a part of her Homemade for the Holidays week. Enjoy!

When Jennifer asked me to participate in the Homemade for the Holidays series I was honestly a little worried.

You see, I’m more like semi-homemade. In fact, I’m the crafting equivalent of Sandra Lee.

I get mistaken for her all the time.

Notice the resemblance?

No? Huh. Must be a setting off on your computer.

Wait. Let me give it one more try.

See? I told you. We’re practically related. In fact, maybe “Sandra Lee & Me” should be my new blog title.

I love to create homemade gifts but don’t always have the skills to implement my big ideas so I do what I can and learn a little more each time. Hopefully one of these days I’ll move away from my Sandra Lee tendencies.

Today I’m going to share with you two crafts I will use as part of my Christmas gifts.

Both projects I’m going to share would be great used as ornaments, wine adornments, or gift tags.

The first ornament involves layering pieces of felt to create a desired shape.

It’s relatively simple and uses only a few materials.

Here are the materials needed: felt, objects to trace circles, scissors, a piece of wire, a Sharpie, and a glue gun.

Trace the circles onto the felt.

You end up with various size circles depending on the jar circumference used. Pardon the different colors shown as I dropped my camera after the picture below was taken and needed to take new pictures).

Stack your circles once they are cut into the desired shape.

Individually fold each circle and cut a small slice in the middle of it. This creates a hole for the wire to pass through.

Bend the bottom of the wired ninety degrees so the felt circle has a place to “sit.”

Take the circle you would like on the bottom of your ornament and slide it down the wire.

Place some glue on the bent wire and attach another felt circle to the glue. This new circle becomes the new bottom and the curved part of the wire should no longer be seen.

Stack the desired number of felt piece by simply sliding each felt circle down your wire.

Continue layering felt pieces into the shape you desire.

Glue on embelllishments in order to complete your ornament.

The shape and color combinations are endless. Adding wooden beads between layers gives the ornament a more rustic look.

**Christmas tree, ornament, snowman, modern design**

Since personalized gifts are always a hit, I created custom ornaments. The one below is for my father-in-law who is a proud Canadian.

Cut out a design using your scissors and felt.

I free handed the letter “a” but cut out the maple leaf using an image I printed out and placed on top of the felt. I then cut around the paper.

Glue all of the front pieces together.

Using the twine, glue a loop onto the back of the ornament. Next, glue a matching piece of fabric to cover the glue.

Add some fun and personalization to a tin of cookies…

… or use them as wine gift tag

This tag is for my sister Amanda and her husband Ben and it includes an image of their home states.

What about….A lively gift tag for the music teacher or the Saints football fan in your life? Really, the possibilities are endless.

In addition to brightening up a gift, they will look great on their Christmas tree.

Hope you’ve seen something that inspires you to create something handmade (or semi-handmade for some of us) for someone you love.

Have you been making any of your Christmas gifts?

Car Trip Survival

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Jennifer

Here’s how to successfully complete a 10 hour car ride with your 3 children.

Yes. Let them watch movies. Lots and lots of movies.

In my opinion, Redbox movies and their kiosks are perhaps one of the greatest inventions ever.

Now I am not a person who advocates letting your children watch tv all day but for car trips I make an exception.

Over Thanksgiving I drove my kids to visit my parents for the week. My husband flew in Thanksgiving morning to make a guest appearance.

Typically, people describe a road trip by the weather, the traffic, or the snacks consumed.

Our trip, however, can be summed up by one word – movies.

I present to you the first journey of our trip…

…and because the first trip was so successful, here’s our return trip.

Happiness, contentment, and serenity (there was a moment of screaming from our two year old when my son put in “The History of Space” DVD but I’ve completely erased it from my memory).

All for the low low price of $10.44 round trip.

It may be $10.44 to Redbox but to me it was priceless.