Griffin's room remodel

Even though Griffin still fits in his toddler bed it was time for a big bed and a room remodel.  Bill and I were tired of the old blue and wanted a more grown up look for the room. 

I bought these letters at Hobby Lobby, lots of buttons and hot glue sticks.  It was a process but I love the way the colors of the buttons on the wall pulled in the colors from his quilt.  G is for Griffin S is for Sawyer.

 We changed the color of the walls.  I bought these white bins for his dresser at Ikea to have extra storage for little toys.

 

 

I kept the sign that a girl at work bought me for Griffin's baby shower and also these star chains I made years ago. 

Bill and I bought this map at a toy store in Flat Rock and Bill had it mounted on a board (made of almost Plexiglas material) at Hobby Lobby.  The map and board are actually screened to the wall so it is very sturdy.

A new bed from Ikea and a quilt set from Target completed the look.  We have had the canvas bins from Pottery Barn since he was a baby. 

 

What do you think?  Griffin loves his new room!

Closet organization

Our house is challenged in the way of closets- both the kids rooms have walk in closets but our room has two small wall closets. I store numerous things in both of the closets, seasonal items, games, craft supplies, wrapping paper, gifts, baby items and more. Every so many months things just seem to get out of hand and it is hard to even walk in the closet and then hard to find what I am looking for. So the kids and I decided to completely empty, and organize the closet.

 

Can you see Griffin trying to hide? Once the closet was empty I vacuumed and dusted the shelves.

 

all the stuff spread out

we threw away a few things and organized some things better, for example all the rubber stamps were mixed up and Sydney helped me categorize them

 

Everything back in the closet- ah I feel so much better when things are organized.

Do you enjoy organizing?

Advent again..crafty post

Tonight I am repainting my scratch off advent calendar.  My kids had so much fun with the scratch off part and we are ready to do it all again, starting Saturday!

Face lift

Our house before face lift.......... new windows and shutters

we already has a new storm door, kick plate and door knocker put up

the old windows are painted shut, have snap in grids, no screens and the trim paint is peeling

the shutters are also in need of paint or replacement

the house with all the shutters off

obviously our house used to be red and when the old owners painted it they painted around the shutters

all new windows and shutters on the front

 

can you see a big difference in the before and after?

we are so excited to have one more side of our house with new windows, two sides down two to go

Mailbox

One of our recent projects at our house was putting up a new mailbox. Some type of carpenter bees had damaged our existing post and our mailbox was about to fall over. We decided to go for a new style of post and also changed the flowers around the post.

I forgot to get a picture before we pulled out existing post

Bill at work on the new post

My job was to help stabilize the post while Bill added cement and attached support piece

new mailbox!

we had some monkey grass in the back yard that we transplanted

it feels so good to see our work and to have another project checked off our list

Sunday Afternoon

Last weekend we decided to go out to eat after church, so we headed to Bravo, one of our favorites in Greensboro.

They always have fresh flowers in the bathroom

the kids get dough to play with while we wait

Bill always orders Spaghetti and meatballs

and I vary but this time I ordered a favorite

Chicken Parmesan

we share with the kids which makes it very affordable

after lunch we went furniture shopping

this chair looks fun but it is not what we were shopping for

we thought this was wild and yet classy but not right for our home and style

we actually ended up ordering two chairs in this style, but a different print

 

We have two bulky, old (how old I am not sure, Bill had them before we met so at least 12 years plus) recliners that we need to replace.  The seam in the seat has torn and the stuffing is coming out. We have been putting it off and keeping the seats covered with afghans but it is time. We were not shopping for recliners, we wanted more of a sitting chair because the recliners tend to be so bulky. Lazy Boy has these chairs that we did not even realize were recliners but they are! So we are waiting for our new chairs to be delivered and we are so excited.

we have several projects going on at our house, some big and some small

I will share more pictures soon

project

I saw this idea on another blog and decided to give it a try. I went to Lowes Hardware and purchased 1 2x4 and then had it cut into 14 inch pieces- (I have some pieces saved for another project) I sanded the wood smooth and then used Modge Podge to glue on my paper. Using a makeup sponge and ink I added some color to the wood and the edges of the paper. Then I used sandpaper again just to add some character. I attached glittered sticker letters and tied ribbon. (I could not find the clips that she used but I may still find them and tweak it a bit) 

I had just gotten these pictures so it was perfect timing.

What do you think?  Of course Bill loved it and it is in the center of his desk.

Ribbon frame

I picked this frame up at Good Will for just under 2 dollars.
not quite my style

I unscrewed the screws to remove the back and the glass

then I painted the entire frame with acrylic paint

I glued pretty ribbons across the back at even intervals

and Bill hung it in the kids bathroom so we can display some of Syd's hairclips

I think it would look a little better if the walls had some color but their bathroom is white with stenciled creatures.

Wreath

I saw this beautiful wreath in Woman's Day magazine and since I did not have a Christmas wreath for my front door I decided to make one.

I already had two colors of felt so I went and bought another shade of green.  I made my circle patterns out of cardboard and started tracing felt circles and cutting them out.

the Styrafoam wreath is wrapped in yarn- which I believe makes them glue stick better

Each circle gets cut like a spiral leaving a small circle in the middle that you glue to the bottom of the rosette

the finished product!  It seriously took me 10 hours, maybe more- but it will be reused year after year so it was worth it!

Do you make a wreath for your front door?

Materials:

1 skein green yarn

12" styrofoam wreath (I bought a 14")

fabric scissors

ballpoint pen

scrap cardboard

3/4 yard each of felt- red, light green, dark green

hot glue gun and glue sticks

TIME AND PATIENCE

Cover wreath with yarn, wrapping around and tying to secure.  Draw and cut 3 circles from scrap cardboard- 3.25" (small), 4.25" (medium), 5.5" (large) in diameter-I used a compass.  Using cardboard circles trace on felt and then cut out.  The directions say 18 small, 16 medium and 5 large of each color- I gave up on counting and just made lots and then had to make more!  To make a rosette cut a spiral into each circle leaving 1'" to 1.5" circle in the center.  Starting from the outside end of the

spiral coil the felt inward until you get to the circle in the center and dab glue on the circle and then press the coiled felt onto it and hold until dry.  Once you have all the rosettes made glue them to the foam wreath alternating colors and sizes!

Mantle

This year I wanted to change my mantle a bit from the usual decorations- I was inspired by Lisa Leonard.

So I headed out to Hobby Lobby as usual and bought several Styrofoam cones in various sizes

I already had Christmas fabric and a hot glue gun

so all you do is tear the fabric in strips and wrap it around the cone, gluing as you go

easy craft and I think they are so cute

I did not make the candle holders because I already had a few
my Christmas sign was a gift from Laura years ago and I love it

instead of my green garland I used a lighter beaded garland and a few pine cones I glittered

what do you do with your mantle?  same thing each year or do you change it up?

Tree Study

I was inspired by Ginny to do our own tree study. I tried to find several of the books Ginny listed and only a few were available at our library. We did find a few others that have been helpful. Bill has always been able to identify various trees and he learned about trees in 4H. I however can probably identify 2 trees. So the kids and I set out on an adventure to learn.

Sydney carrying her bucket to collect leaves. Notice we got 2 inches cut off her hair.

She is more than happy to pose for a picture.


Griffin happy as a bug to be riding in the wagon. He was in charge of holding the book.





I just love trees and leaves, so pretty and peaceful.




After roaming around our yard, our neighbors and down the road a bit collecting leaves we sat in the sun room and used our books to try to identify the leaves.

Sydney drew pictures on the bottom of the paper, she loves to draw and color.

This book was helpful.

This book had a great bit of information on trees and how they grow and all the layers of the trunk. It also talked about animals that live in trees.

Sydney pointing to different leaves.


We still have lots to learn but I am a little wiser in the tree department and we all had fun! It is not too late for your family to go out and learn about trees!

Jar Project

We have plenty of baby food jars at our house. I was rinsing them out and saving them to recycle when I decided to save them and come up with a project or two. I found acute idea for pumpkins on eHow.
Of course I let my little helper assist.

First we sponge painted the outside of the jars brown.

Then we added orange




I painted the faces

and added some ribbon

or raffia

We think they turned out cute. I am not sure how I am going to use them, some will be gifts maybe with a tea light inside or candy corn.

I have a few more ideas for more jars!

Have you done anything creative with baby food jars?