Some Fun Home Art

I've had this red Buxton leather picture frame for years.  At one time it held one of my favorite pictures of Connor in it, but I like to mix things up from year to year and photos get moved from one frame to another.  It was in my "things that I could possible do something with" basket in my craft closet so I pulled it out and starting working.......

I had some Jenni Bowlin chipboard vintage buttons, so I tied some crosstitch floss on the button to finish them off and using my fabulous and favorite Stabilo pens, drew some graphic stems and outlined the piece.  I decided to get out my puffy craft paint and do dots on the frame to mimic the round of the buttons.

It now resides on top of my red armoire in the guest bedroom.

Making my Morning Routine Easier

I found this idea on Pinterest and my OCD kicked in and I said to myself "I must do that".  I took Technique Tuesday white chipboard rectangles and using my own handwriting, wrote the days of the week on each rectangle.  I punched a hole in the top of the chipboard rectangles and using remmants of black ribbon I had, threaded the ribbon through the hole and tied them to my closet rod.

I can now put together my work outfits on Sunday and each morning just go to the day and there is what I'm going to wear.  I only have to think about it once.

I even used scrapbook supplies to boot! Yay Me!

Upstairs Hallway

Our upstairs hallway needed a fresh coat of paint BADLY and I finally decided it was time to tackle that project.  Instead of the contractor white (Sherwin Williams Dover White), I decided to go with the same light mocha that I used in the downstairs bathroom.  It's Valspar's "Nomadic Plain".  

Since everything had to come down from the walls, it was also time to change up with I was doing.  I had a stack of pictures in our spare bedroom closet that I had taken down from various places in the house and I wanted to use some of those with a couple of new things along with a couple of art pieces of Connor's.

I also wanted to change everything to black frames, but it was too costly to change them, so the ones that were not in a black frame that I wanted to use, I spray painted the frame black.  Worked perfect!

Here's the finished project!

I had thought about painting the small bookcase I have at the end of the hallway black also, but then decided against it. I keep Connor's school portfolios, some art work of his and some favorite tabletop framed photos on that bookcase. Above it is a print from the art gallery Sticks that I framed. It's "Why We Love Iowa"

Kitchen Cabinet

I found THIS at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago and decided I wanted to cover a couple more of my upper kitchen cabinets.  I had painted one cabinet and my pantry door a couple years ago and have loved it every since, but this product makes it even easier and you can remove it.

Here's what I did with one of the cabinets -

I think it turned out cute!

On to the next project........

Surprise! I'm back......

I decided that I need to start posting on my blog again.  It's been a rough couple of months for my family and I need an outlet to offload some stress.  You may all find me a couple cotton-headed ninny-muggings if you decide to read my ramblings, but I promise I'll show you some fun home projects and craft projects.  I may even share with you some favorite recipes and definitely what I'm reading, which at this exact moment is the latest James Patterson's Alex Cross novel Merry Christmas, Alex Cross.  I'm hoping if I commit to sharing my projects, it will be enough to get me off my butt and get them done.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lookie what I found!

Can't wait to get started on this.......but alas, it will probably be at least October before I can start....I got some other things I need to get done, such as painting our upstairs hallway and getting an estimate of how much it would cost to have our 2 story staircase painted.

I'll keep you posted to my projects!  Maybe I'll actually get a few of them finally done since some of you may be checking in and YES, you can leave comments......I know you're out there....lol

I'm such a Flake!

I completely flaked out on updating my blog at the end of my last vacation.  Almost a month has gone by, I've been on another stay at home week vacation and I'm getting ready to leave for San Francisco Monday.

I'm heading to a professional conference and decided to bring Fred along with me.  He has only tagged along one other time six years ago, when I had to attend a forum in Orlando, so we tacked on a bunch of vacation days and brought Connor along so we could experience Walt Disney World.

Connor isn't going on this trip because he has a job now and Fred and I need some time away.  This is the first time Connor will be home by myself, but at almost 17 he hasn't given us a reason to not trust him, so between my sister, my brother, my Aunt and Uncle, our best friend and neighbors, he'll be looked in on frequently and is even going to spend the night with a sister a couple of times.  It will all depend on his work schedule which he gets today.

Yes, I'm a bit nervous about it, but I was the same age when my parents, brother and sister went to Canada on a fishing trip and I didn't want to go, so I was left alone and I'm still alive.....LOL

I'll try and update while I'm in San Francisco and share what I'm doing and some photos.....I adore that city and I'm anxious to be visiting again and exploring some more.

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Eleven and the last true vacation day :(

I woke up to the feeling of a kitty washing my nose with his rough little tongue.....Kirby never does that but for some reason he wanted me up at 8:00am....they had food and fresh water, but he would not leave me alone.

Stayed up late last night reading and I was surprised I was as motivated as I was when I got up this morning.  I had Connor and I go outside just as soon as my coffee was ready to water everything in sight.  All the containers, the flower beds, the vegie garden, the tomato garden, all the hanging planters.  In this heat, it has to be done every day.

Much too hot for two days in a row at the pool, so I spent a few more hours purging and organizing my craft room....wouldn't you figure, I'd get motivated to do this during the last part of my vacation.  I'm starting to get quite the pile of stuff to sell or donate.

The other day when I was at my girlfriend's massage center, she sent me home with this wonderful flower water.  It's the perfect thing to spritz your face with when it's hot.....and I love the lavender scent.   Thanks Di!  It's very refreshing!

I headed up toward Ames in the afternoon, with a pit stop in Ankeny.  I needed to pick up some green cardstock for a couple of pages that I'm working on.  I couldn't believe I didn't have the right shade of green that would work with the pattern paper I am using.  I hadn't been in Memory Bound for at least a couple of months and it was fun to see what all was new.  I did pick up some new DoodleBug Fancy Frills border stickers and a few sheets of a summer themed "Sunshine Happiness" by Bella Blvd, but that was all.

Couldn't believe I got so much done in a short amount of time.....I ended up running out of pages to do...now, I couldn't completely finish what I'd done til I got back to my craft room, but the pages were 80% done.

Made more headway in my craftroom.....the scrapbook sale pile is growing......

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Ten

I had a doctor's appointment today so I had to set the alarm to get up.....I guess I better get used to that again.   :(

After my appointment I went to Staples to find book rings for another mini album I'm finishing up and I found the cutest little desktop cube organizer that found it's way into my shopping cart and it rang up even cheaper than I thought.....yay!

I had Fred put it together and it resides on my work table and it's perfect.

Decided that I wanted to get some sun and swim some laps, so off to our local pool I went.....glad I was in the water for the most part...IT WAS FREAKING HOT!  I only stayed about an hour and forty five before heading home to a nice cool refreshing shower.   My guys gave this to me at Christmas and I've been anxiously awaiting the summer months to use it and it is heavenly.....but you must like the fragrance of pineapple and coconut.

I got to meet up with a dear friend for dinner tonight.  I've known Becky now about 12 years.  We met through scrapbooking and then found out that we only lived about 4 blocks from one another at the time.  I've also got to know one of her daughters quite well and enjoy seeing Laura whenever I can.  I've hosted both of them at my house to scrapbook a few time and we always have a great time!  Becky and I like to meet at the same place (Hilltop Restaurant) and order the same thing....two Diet Pepsi, two dinner salads with the dressings on the side and a Medium Mushroom/Green Olive pizza that we devour like raging animals....lol!  We also do A LOT of talking.......lol

Stayed up late again reading....I started two new books....Fast Food Nation and Room.  I alternating between them as they interest me.  My last true vacation day is tomorrow......sad face.....

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Nine and July 4th!

The teen spent the night with a buddy of his and is going boating at Red Rock with his buddy and his family, so Fred and I slept in and took our time having our morning coffee.

It's suppose to be 104 degrees today and that's not heat index, so all of plants and gardens got an early morning watering again.

Our plan was to go see "The Amazing Spiderman" but I guess a million other people had the small plans and by the time we got to the theater, the show was sold out, so back home we came and hung out here until our company got here for our cookout.

Since I had a couple hours to kill, I did some more reorganizing and purging in my craft room.  I think this fall I'll have a mini garage sale to get rid of just crafting supplies.......then I'll buy more with the money made...lol!

I really needed to address the closet in my scrapbook.  It's quite large and I use it for crafting stuff, so I pulled everything out of it, made piles (to go through later, to sell, to donate) and put what I wanted to keep back.  

Much better!

The bottom shelf with the magazine holders will house whatever issues I decide to keep once I go through what I have left.  I got rid of probably 60% of my magazines and idea books a couple of years ago, but still hung on to most of my Scrapbooks Etc....those need thinned out.

My sister, her b/f and my nephew Gunner came over for a cookout.  The b/f had to work, so we decided to wait on him before plowing into grilled burgers, hotdogs, baked beans, cherry fluff, corn on the cob, chips, homemade vanilla ice cream and smores........it was an awesome spread!  and very easy to put together.

After dinner, we all watched the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynold's movie Safe House.   It wasn't bad....I got distracted by my nook.....finishing up that Steve Berry book that I probably didn't pay attention like I should have....lol

We were going to go back over to my sister's place once it got dark to watch another fireworks display, but even at 10:00 at night, it was hot and I didn't want to sit outside in it again and then have to come home and take another shower.....so we flaked out.....but it was a VERY relaxing 4th of July!