A Fun Family Craft - Family Flags!

This post is brought to you by my five year old son. He has an imagination and a sense of creativity that I like to think I have something to do with...although his Daddy is no dummy...so who knows where he actually gets it. Anyway - he asked me to take him to Michael's last weekend. He had a list of what he needed - below is the list. It turns out it was all just different colors of felt, but he had it very well planned out and even though he's just now in Kindergarten and learning to read - he wrote the first and last letter of each color so that he'd remember what he wanted. I thought that was pretty resourceful!
So, here it is part way through the project. There was a lot of planning, cutting and gluing going on. He worked for at least an hour (which, you know, in kids years is like 4 hours).


Have I mentioned I got him his own hot glue gun for his birthday last year. Sniff - my little boy makes me so proud. ;) Look at him wielding that dangerous tool. (BTW - Steelers jammies made by yours truly).

Here's the finished product! It is a Team T family flag. He planned it out with one T in the corner for each family member. The middle is a tiger - his current favorite animal. Not too shabby, huh? He plans to take it up and hang it at our summer get-away in Pennsylvania next year where the "T" side of our family gathers. I love it.

AND - this is one that my three year old and I made together. She - of course - had to pick out some felt too when her brother was doing his shopping. She's not quite as skilled with the hot glue and scissors as her brother (yet) - so she did the planning and I did the cutting for her. She did most of the placement and gluing though. Pretty cool, huh? I'm sure any of you who have young kids recognize this guy.

All in all a fun and successful family craft time that didn't end in tears or cost a lot of money... can't ask for much more than that. I can also see doing these with a theme for holidays, etc.

A Place for My Dog Toys

My little furry dude was feeling blue because both kids have fancy toy boxes and his was just so plain. Look at that face - he obviously felt like he got the short end of the stick. Even though he does have his own little recliner... I mean - really... the galvanized metal bowl (score for like 6 bucks at Home Depot) is nice... but it needed something more. And because I am a good mom - be it to kids or dogs - I obliged. I used some sponges from the dollar store, cut little letters out to spell his name, glued toothpicks as holders (not necessary, but made them cool looking) and fancied it up a little by sponge painting his name to his toy bowl!

TA DA! Now - every one knows that these toys are for MIGHTY! His full name is Mighty Boy - but this works. ;)

Hope Mighty Boy doesn't mind I'm linking up to Creative Cats. ha ha ha.

Wow! The power of a pressure washer!

Today - may be very boring for some - or for all ... but for some reason I LOVED watching my husband pressure wash our patio this weekend! As I mentioned last week, we're considering trying to sell our house soon. So, we're doing all the little things that one does when they want someone to buy their house; decluttering, sprucing up the landscaping, cleaning windows, touching up paint... and pressure washing! Check out this transformation! The lower right square is the completed one (duh). I love this before and after. The stuff on the patio wasn't just loose dirt or anything it was stained, discolored - way more than we even realized. Anyone wanting to do something to get a lot of bang for their buck - try this out. This was one rented from Home Depot for a few hours and it worked great.

This isn't pretty like the other stuff you'll find here... but it is a metamorphasis! ;) Check out a bunch of other cool projects at Between Naps on the Porch!

The making of a beautiful nursery!

Phew - long time no post. I think that is the first time that's happened to that extent since I started blogging here. I was out of town for work and have also been undertaking some big things around my home. First, I have been asked by a good friend to sew some of her decor for her nursery for her upcoming baby! She has chosen a very cute owl print and coordinating patterns. I'm very excited about seeing it all come together and getting to be a part of the project. So - that is where the artistic piece of my brain is going to be for a bit. I hope to get some before and after pictures of the nursery and will share soon!

Here are the fabric choices:

Purdy, huh?!

In other BIG undertakings... I'm toying with the idea of putting our house on the market and renting a house closer to our kids school. I say "I" because my husband seems luke warm to the idea as he is ear-deep in dissertation writing. However, the move would also benefit him (we'd be very close to campus) - once we actually completed it. The tricky part is the selling of the house and moving of the stuff. The part that makes this decision difficult is that we will, undoubtedly, be moving at some point in the next 2 years. If we knew we had 2 years left here - I'd jump in and move in a second... but what if we only have 9 months left? That's a lot of work for 9 months. Our location has become increasingly inconvenient since our son started kindergarten on the other side of town and I'm just looking for some relief. Plus, the idea of not having to sell a house when we do get ready to leave town is very appealing.

I'm blogging about this here because I know some of my readers have experience with moving AND with making rental spaces look lovely... both of which I'm going to solicit ideas on when the time comes. Perhaps even a give-away involved. Stay tuned!

Trash to Treasure Coffee Can

Life has been busy. I have some big projects in mind that I hope to share soon (valances, closet reorganization, painted dresser) but in the meantime I have just been trying to catch my breath since getting the kids started at school and soccer and everything else that seems to pop up.

Yesterday my son had to stay home from school because of a little cold. So - as he drew pictures at the kitchen table - I tried out my new silver contact paper. It's FUN. I want to cover everything in silver now! But, knowing my husband would think I lost my mind...I just spruced up my little coffee station. I've had this coffee container for several months and keep refilling it because it is a convenient shape, size and my three year old can open it (she loves to make her momma coffee and I'm not going to discourage it). So, to make it a more attractive permanent fixture on my counter top - I covered it with silver contact paper, a paper bag label, decorative paper on top, and some mod podge to seal the label. So easy and silly - but a fun little project to do while my son did his thing - and it got rave reviews from my personal barista daughter this morning.

My reusable coffee container

All spruced up with it's silver self. Notice the matching cinnamon?

This is a view of the whole area a couple months ago before I also redid the mail spot and medicine spot.

See? Looking better! I love getting things organized, a little cuter and simpler. A little change goes a long way in making a busy household feel manageable!

Linking up to Poppies at Play to give you a chance to see some way more creative projects! Also, for some impressive Trash to Treasure - check out Reinvented!