Valentine's Craftiness

I saw this post of The Peanut Paintshop on Pinterest.  She's selling these and if you don't have the time or the inclination to make your own, you should head over to her shop at www.thepeanutpaintshop.com and buy some.

Still, I'm always on the lookout for new crafts, so I decided I had to make my own. 

Five $0.79 hearts from Hobby Lobby and $1.50 in ribbon from Hancock Fabrics and I was ready to go for less than $6.00.  We had the paints at home and Buttercup and I enjoyed an afternoon of crafting and chick flicks.  What could be better? 



The names are painted on, instead of using vinyl letters.

Anyway, I used my Silhouette machine to cut vinyls of everyone's names and used the negative space to create stencils.  (I could have just used red vinyl, but I decided to practice the whole "painting with stencils" instead.)   So, the names are painted on the hearts.
 

I played around with the colors of conversation hearts,
just made them deeper.

A quick clear coat and they were ready...I sewed the ribbon to a D-ring I had in my stash, stapled the hearts to the ribbon and, viola!, a super cute (and super inexpensive) Valentine's decoration.

Oh, and they turned out so well, I made another set for my sister-in-law, paying special attention to the baby arriving this summer. 



Boy or girl?  We've got it covered!

The names on the little hearts?  If it is a boy, my nephew thinks it should be named "Lightning McQueen" and if it is a girl, "Sparkles".   Works for me!



Doesn't every home office have an xBox?

P.S.  In case you're wondering what Superman was doing during all my craftiness, I'd have to say he was embarrassing his son...yes, he's trying get up to speed on the latest xBox games.  Valiant says Superman is a "noob", poor guy!

Because Superman Can't Wait!

So, we've been working on a few projects since Superman came home for Christmas break.  Since his return to work, he's been clamouring for pictures of our progress.  While we're not completely finished, I can't make him wait any longer.

Today's pre-reveal is the transformation of the room formerly known as the "Macaroni & Cheese" room.  Now that the kids are older, we don't need a "kid" room anymore, so Superman and I picked out a new "grown-up" wall color. 

To remind you, here is the before:

Bye-Bye, Macaroni & Cheese!

And here is the after:


Hello, Celery Sprig!

The view from the other side of the room...this is where I do all my sewing
and crafting and blogging...notice the bright white ceiling...it looks fabulous.



This is where the kids sit to watch television.



I still need to cover the ironing board in new fabric and we still need our new baseboards, but doesn't it look fabulous?   It is a much more relaxed space, that I, for one, am really enjoying.  I am so pleased with how it is coming along. 
Did you notice that we only changed paint?  Isn't it amazing how much of a difference a new wall color and freshened ceilings can make?

So, Superman, are you pleased?  Doesn't it look good?  Thanks for supporting my desire to change up this space.


 

Lots of Irons in the Fire

When you read DIY blogs with any regularity, you are presented with beautiful "before and after" pictures of amazing projects.  These blogs make it appear that these talented people live their lives sequentially, going smoothly through one project start to finish before they begin their next amazing project.

My life doesn't work that way.  Not even close.

Right now, I have a lot of irons in the fire.  If kept a photo log of them all, I would present them in nicely laid out progression of completed projects.  But I don't...I'm lucky if I can remember to snap ANY pictures along the way.  Still, I'm doing some fun stuff, so I thought I'd share some of it with you.


Finishing the garage gave me space to start working on others things.  In addition to the bathroom off the laundry room, I've decided to tackle the red bathroom.  Yes, red.  Learning to put on make-up with a red bathroom was quite a challenge, let me tell you.  This bathroom is the only room in our home that hasn't been painted in the five years we've lived here.  Why?  Because the paint was so horrible (it bled red every time I wiped it down), I was just sure that I'd have to use oil-based primer and it would be a horrible job.  When I was at Home Depot earlier in the week, though, the girl at the paint counter encouraged me to try Behr Ultra, Home Depot's new paint with primer included.  Painting meant the weird chair rail needed to be removed and, look, there is a strip of wallpaper that needs to be removed.  Yippee! 

Why did they leave this when they put up the chair rail?

  A lot of work needs to be done before I can think of actually painting, but still I am thinking about it.

For $2.50, I brought home a "flat" sample of the color I'm thinking of using.  She promised it would cover and I think she's right. 

There has been no bleed through. I'm so jazzed!  Maybe this won't be the horrific project I think it will be.  Yeah, I know, it will still be a big project.

While I was upstairs, I decided to add this shelf to our closet.  I love it.  It finishes the closet perfectly and gives me some much needed storage (which, you might notice, I already filled).

Love this shelf!  Only $12 and some effort!

In between all of this construction, I've been raising this cute girl...

and turning her into a crazy cat lady.

Should I be worried that Valiant took this pictures of his sister and the cats?

One of my cats thinks she's a dog and sleeps on the dogs whenever she can.

Cat-Dog?  (She's certainly big enough!)

She also heard that I'd decided to add pictures of my shoes to their respective boxes to make my closet more organized and wanted to be in on the project.

Needless to say, the project isn't done yet.

Oh, and Buttercup and I started volunteering at a local animal shelter two days a week.  (Valiant says he can't do it because he'll want to bring all the animals home.)

Still working on the laundry room and the attached bathroom.   So, here's the truth...I don't think anybody's life actually flows neatly.  I think we can make ourselves crazy holding ourselves to those "after" standards.  Life is messy, even when the pictures aren't.  The fun starts when we embrace it all. 

Yep, a lot of irons in the fire.

Shoot Me: 22 of 52 - More Painting Edition

Got these lovely polished brass planters from my friend and neighbor down the street.  I saw them and thought, hey, these will work on my patio.  I just didn't think polished brass would work on my patio.  So, I painted them.

And that brings me to this photo.   It was a bright, shiny day and the sun felt fabulous.  I decided it would be the day I tackled the planters and so I headed outside and grabbed my trusty can of spray paint.  Little did I realize that Valiant decided to help me continue my participation in Shoot Me.  Yep, he snapped a picture of me before I knew what he was doing.  I decided he was right and so here you have it, my 22nd Shoot Me.  Only 30 more to go!

Oh, and while I'm more than willing to have my snazzy for-the-yard-faux crocs and overalls photographed, Valiant wisely deleted the picture he took of my rear!  There is only so much reality I'm willing to deal with.

Shoot Me is the brain child of Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans.  As she puts it:  Shoot Me! It's time to stop hiding behind that camera of yours. Your family is missing you in the picture. So it's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And just jump in now with 1 of 52, you can do it!

PS.  Hey, Superman, it was black paint so the over-spray won't leave much of a mark.  (Now, the bronze I used last month?  That is a whole different situation!)