overheard...

We were working on rhyming words in school with Grae and Ellie. I asked them to tell me the first word they thought of when I gave them a word.

Me: "Grae what rhymes with school?"

Grae: "Cruel."

Me: "That's the word you thought of? How about cool?"

Grae: "Yeah, that too."

Me: "What rhymes with winter?"

Grae: "Umm...."

Me: "Okay, what do you get when a piece of wood gets stuck in your finger?"

Grae: "Hurt."

a little busier...

Look at who is living with us now...



Meet Arnie and Hannah, our new 3 year old whippets. They are from Whippet Rescue, are brother and sister and needed a new home. They have never been around kids before but are doing really great (as are our little kids).

Hannah:



Arnie. Doesn't he look like a goof ball. If there is a hole to fall in or a table to smack his head on, he will find it!


And Grae with his little "wooden boy" he made:

fast cabinet makeover

I bought the coolest green contact paper at Home Depot and finally lined my open cabinets with them. It only took me 45 minutes to do it but I was interrupted by a quick trip to Urgent Care for Brian (a story for later).

Here is what they looked like Saturday morning:


And now..






I now walk into the kitchen and yell "Bam!". I'm thinking of painting the brick the same color as the paper but I'm not sure. It's not like I have nothing else to do around here :) Oh and I need to replace that dinky shelf with something more substantial and maybe a natural wood color. I'll keep looking at Goodwill, something is bound to turn up.

a little movie making...

My girls are very creative and have recently began making movies so I bought Lauren a Flip video camera for her 15th birthday (on major clearance on ebay!)

They decided to do a detective comedy in the vein of Get Smart and named it Get Buckles. You will have to watch the first episode to find out why "Buckles". They plan to release a new episode every Friday and I will link to them in my sidebar if you want to watch (I know they would appreciate it).

Here is a direct link to the first episode:

Episode 1: Help Wanted

Enjoy!

things are getting done and it makes me happy...

No project (save the mudroom) is done. We have several projects in transition but they are getting done.

I painted the living room and hallway yesterday and actually love the paint colors. How often does that happen to me?

Here is the progress on the stairs. All that is left is to paint a bigger frame around the chalkboard and find some frames to put on the wall. Oh and pull off the carpet, paint the stairs and refinish the stair rail (which you may be able to see I already started. You may also see some clean clothes that need to be taken up. Hint, hint girls.

Here is why we did the emergency chalkboard wall redo. Click here...

That is Darth Vader on the large chalkboard in case you were wondering.

The girls and I made this today for the stairs hallway window. This idea has been in my head for awhile.



And I finally sewed a curtain for the mudroom door (the side in the house). I know the trim isn't done yet but we are waiting to build in some school bookshelves next to the door.


We are almost done on the stairway wall emergency revamp and are starting the built in bookcases in the hallway. The upstairs bathroom is just waiting for us to buy one more sink at the reStore and then we can lay down the counter top. The front concrete steps are coming out on Saturday in anticipation for new steps and a new front door (that actually closes all the way, how about that!)

Linked to:

 

shrinky dinks

I found a box of Shrinky Dinks at the Goodwill outlet store for $.25 and thought the kids would enjoy them. Boy did they ever!













Now I'm on the lookout for more. I've read you can use #6 plastic so we're looking for that too. If you haven't tried Shrinky Dinks, I would highly recommend it!

okay, new idea...

Remember I did this a few days ago?


Well it is a fun wall but there is chalk dust all over the stairs and since I just stack the clean clothes on the stairs, chalk all over those too.

So new plan...I will keep some of the chalk wall that is not over the stairs and do some board and batten treatment all the way up the stairs. That was our original plan when we moved in but never got to it.

Here is an idea board I put together using my mad Fireworks skills. I have already primed and painted the upper wall the gray (looks tan in the picture) to match the rest of the hallway and the bottom portion Decorator White in semi gloss. Just waiting to get the wood to make the mouldings.

We'll paint a yellow frame around the upper chalkboard using the same color as the mudroom door. Then I'll leave some chalk board showing below that.


I am glad I painted the chalkboard on the wall as it forced me to do what I really wanted. Sometimes you have to go for an idea, fail and then figure out something better! Story of my life.