Eat Sign

There is this little corner in my kitchen/eat-in dining area that was waiting for some love. I had this arrangement temporarily sitting in the corner, but didn't want it to be it's final resting spot. 

I originally wanted to put some extra "pantry" storage in the corner. I researched, measured and found some bathroom storage units that would fit great in the space, or so I thought. We bought two of them at Ikea and only put one together to get an idea of if it would look like what I envisioned.... and it didn't. I turned it different ways, but still didn't like the look. It looked strange and stuck out funny. I decided to move the cabinet to another place in the house and took the other unit back to Ikea. 

So then I had to come up with Plan B for the space. 

I have been loving the EAT signs that I have seen in kitchen photos on Pinterest. I decided to do the dog bowls on the floor, do the EAT letters and add a menu sign.

I'm sure there are so many ways to make "metal" letters on Pinterest. One tutorial that I pinned a long time ago was found here.  But here is how I made my own "metal" looking letters.

I bought cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby for $2.50 each. I was hoping they were on sale for half off, but no luck :(  I also bought some Krylon Hammered Silver Spray paint. I used a 40% off coupon for the spray paint. 

 I spray painted all the letters. They had a good color and texture to them, but of course they needed some black paint on them. I found a feathery brush that would be perfect for what I needed. 

 I just put a little bit of black paint on my brush and dabbed it off til there was very little paint on it. I went around all the edges of the letters to make them look kinda warn. I did very light strokes on the tops and sides going different directions to add a little more texture to them. One of the letters, I ended up not liking after I did the black paint so I simply re-sprayed the top and redid the black paint.

The letters are really light so I put a few command hook stickies on the back.

I centered them on my wall and stuck them up. No nails needed and they stick great! 

Here are the finished letters on the wall. I love that I am slowing getting these small projects done to add personality to my house. The menu board still needs some love, but I got something up on the wall at least. 

Bump Photos - Weeks 23 & 24

This baby is growing! I have been feeling BIG lately...and I know that I will just get HUGE! Really, compared to how big I will be at the end, this is nothing :) 

I have also been craving lots of different foods... maybe it is because I have started to watch Master Chef. Terrible thing to watch when pregnant since they make the best looking food. Whatever they are cooking on a particular show, I crave for the next few days.... 

Cuddles

Little one usually sleeps great through the night, but at 4am this morning, he woke up fussing a bit. Usually he just needs his paci back in his mouth, but this time was different. I found a paci, put it back in and then he tried to sit up. I tried to leave, but he whispered "cuddle." I tried to lay him back down and again he whispered "cuddle." How can you resist an almost 2 year old asking to cuddle, even if it is at 4 am and you are tired? Sooo... we cuddled and rocked in his chair until he fell back asleep. I tried to soak in his embrace and the fact that at that moment he wanted to cuddle with his momma, because before I know it, he won't have time to cuddle with me anymore.

Ikea Dresser Makeover

I had this little space between my front door and wall that was crying out for a small table of sorts. I wanted something that would not only look nice, but would serve as storage. I started looking for something that would fit in the spot and I found this RAST from Ikea. It's dimensions fit exactly in the spot, it was cheap ($34.99) and made from pine instead of the usual laminate-type material so it could be easily painted.

I put the piece of furniture together, then got some paint. Originally I was going to get a little sample from Lowes or Home Depot, but while I was at Hobby Lobby, found some little bottles of acrylic paint I liked. I bought several then went to work painting. I did a few coats and then ran out of paint but the dresser looked streaky and needed more coverage. So I did what I should have done in the first place; I picked up some Mozart by Behr in a small sample size. Since I already had some coats of blue, three coats covered beautifully. I even did a pop of green on the sides of the drawers to make it more fun.

I picked up some new knobs for half off at Hobby Lobby to make the dresser look more sophisticated.

And here is the after. I LOVE the beautiful shade of blue and how it turned out. A few months ago, I found a beautiful side table at Target that was this vibrant shade of blue. $79 was a bit to much to spend when I didn't have a place to put it... but I knew I could paint something in that shade of blue!

Art work made by a friend 

This dresser is not only pretty, but practical and the perfect place to store dog treats and toys. 

Make your own Family Rules Sign

I recently made this piece of artwork for one of my hallways in my house. 

I saw a ton of cute family rule signs on Pinterest, but decided I wanted to make my own custom one so I could add all the phrases I liked on it. Just so you know, I am not usually very good with computery stuff... I don't even have Word on this computer.

This is how I made it, and how you can too! :) 

1) Opened Picasa and got started. If you don't have Picasa, you can download it for FREE on the internet here. It is a photo program you can edit your photos and has text you can add to your photos.

2) Took a black photo with my camera and loaded it to my computer. Picasa imported it automatically. I adjusted the color to make sure it was completely black. Note: I tried to crop a small part of a photo that had a black portion on it, but it was blurry when printed big. It worked great when I purposely took a black picture with my nice camera. I am sure you could use a phone camera, but it may not look as good if printing this photo big like I did.

3) The texts that are saved on your computer are the texts that will show up in your Picasa. I didn't love the texts that were originally on my Picasa, so I went to dafonts.com  to download some fun free fonts on my computer. I thought this was complicated to do, but it actually was super simple. Once the fonts were downloaded on my computer, they automatically loaded into Picasa.

4) I double clicked the black photo and the edit screen pops up.

5) Next, I opened the text button. This is where you can pick your font, size and color and start typing on the black photo. You can click on the phrase and move it around, angle it, whatever you would like to do....

6) I spent alot of time adding different phrases, switching out different fonts and arranging them on the page. 

 7) Then I made sure to save the picture in Picasa, and "saved as" to my desktop.

8) Printed the photo. I tried to do the "engineer prints" that everyone talks about on Pinterest, but it turned out really blurry. It may have been because I had cropped down a part of a black photo, making the resolution terrible. You can print it in any size. I printed mine as a poster - I believe it is a 16 x 20 - which I think many places will do for you. If you send in the photo to the store from online, make sure that none of your font is cut off.

And there you have it: how to make your own Family Rules sign for free and without any expensive computer software.

22 months

I can't believe it is only a month before Brecken is 2 years old! I feel like 2 sounds so old... My baby is gone and being replaced by a little boy. Everyday he surprises me with something new he has learned. This stage is so fun, but when looking at pictures, I get a bit nostalgic and sad that I won't get to ever go back to the baby stage with him.

Loves: Not sure if much has changed in the last month, but he loves playing with his toys especially his tools, play food, cars and books. It warms my heart when he sits and looks at books on his own. He is obsessed with bicycles and freaks out every time he sees one. He also loves popsicles and baseball. I have a feeling he will love going to the pool - we went there for the first time today and he had a ball.

Learning to do/Words: This month has brought alot of fun new phrases. One of my favorites is "Help you" (instead of help me) when he needs help with something. He has also started saying "Oh my my" when something is wrong. A couple times when I have sneezed, he said "Bless you." His newest thing is saying "Brecky do it" when he wants to do something himself - especially every night when we go to brush his teeth. 

He is crazy about weight lifting. I think Todd lifted weights in front of him and watched a youtube video with him once or twice - then he was hooked. He calls it "Oooh Ahhs" and every time we pass the people working out when we go to the gym, he points and says "Ooh Ahhs!" I found him a few days ago, with a stick from a basket, laying on a floor pretending to bench weights - saying "ooh ahh." 

Another thing that cracked me up a couple weeks ago while I was having a garage sale, is he grabbed some bags and pretended to pick up dog poop in the grass. Wow, he watches what we do, just a tad too  much! 

Bump Photos: 21 & 22

Right now I am in the good part of pregnancy. I feel good... no sickness, and I'm not huge and uncomfortable yet. Oh, but that will sure change! Just trying to enjoy this part while it lasts! 

Garage Sale

I had my very first garage sale last weekend and it was pretty successful! I made some money and got rid of lots of stuff! Win win! I ran my sale on Thursday - 8 - 5, Friday 8 - 2, Saturday 8 - 5. The forecast was rain for all the days, but in the hours I was open, it was great weather.

If you really think about it, garage sales are a weird thing. You open up your garage filled with your unused, random stuff... some things that err on the side of junk and try to lure people in to give you money in exchange for these "treasures." And let me tell you, this attracts ALL kinds of people.  I am big into going to garage sales... but it is just different to be on the other side of it.

Here are a few things I learned....

* Childcare is KEY. I thought I may possibly be able to watch Brecken and do a garage sale - nope... with how crazy busy this kid is, that would not have happened - I was SO thankful my mom and sister came to help for a few days. They also brought some items to sell as well... it was nice to have a little more variety for my sale.

(yes, my sis is walking Brecken with a leash :) He was having the time of his life!)

* Multiple days may get long, but you have more chance to get rid of alot of stuff. Thursday was a busy  day, but Friday and Saturday were slower.

* It is nice to have company - it can get long in the afternoon, but having someone to talk to and entertain you is great!

*Afternoons can get really slow. Not only is there not much traffic - you can just get bored as well. I think I should have closed up shop earlier some days - but on the other hand... maybe I would not have gotten rid of as much? Hard to know.

* Craigslist is a great place to advertise and FREE! You can post as many times as you want - so everyday leading up to the sale as well as when the sale is going on. I even added some pictures. I think it helped sell one of the pieces of furniture!

* Put things out in your driveway so people want to come in to your sale. I started out with a lot of stuff in the driveway, but as things sold, I didn't have much to put out on the driveway...kind of a good thing I guess...

* Make colorful signs and place strategically. I covered pre-made signs with folded neon poster board and felt like they were easy to see. I placed them at the two ends of the street and other high traffic areas.

* Try to coordinate sales with a neighbor or two - this will help to bring traffic. I heard the neighbor was having a sale and jumped on the opportunity to help both our sales. Another neighbor had a garage sale on Saturday as well - so at one time there were three sales to hit!

* Keep prices on the cheap side and you will sell, sell, sell! I read this tip that it is good to keep prices low and items will move... and they did! I lowered prices as the sale went on to get rid of more stuff as well!

*Don't buy your signs at Dollar Tree. They were flimsy and when trying to jam the plastic stick into the ground, bent it. I should have gone with wood sticks.

*Be creative with your garage set up. I didn't have any tables except for a patio table. Luckily, my neighbor let me borrow a couple tables she borrowed from someone else, otherwise I would have been hurting. Todd also brought two tables from work and my mom brought a 5 ft table and a card table as well. I used two book cases with a door across them from my old desk to make another large table. I didn't have a rack to hang items - but I found a random shower rod while cleaning the garage. There are weird hook things protruding out of the garage wall and I stuck the rod between them. I also stuck some push pins into the wall to display clothes and used the existing hooks already in the garage.

* Garage Sales are a good excuse to clean out your garage. Not only did we get rid of some things we were storing in the garage, but with random people coming in and out of our garage you want it looking nice. Afterwards, we can now park two vehicles in the garage! Yay! One more benefit to having a garage sale!

All in all, I felt like this sale went well. It was alot of work, but not as bad as I thought it would be. When I accumulate enough stuff again, I would totally do another garage sale... just hope it isn't for a while! :)

June Goals

Like I talked about in this post, May was a crazy month! :) 

Here were my May goals:

1. Of course continue to blog 3 x per week and exercise 3 x per week. Try to do some dates with my boys and write the two encouraging notes. ** Wasn't the best about blogging near the end of the month nor exercising either. I figure lugging around a toddler, doing the stairs multiple times a day and the normal daily household chores, I am getting exercise! Didn't do the best with dates either... 
2. Make curtains for family room and kitchen ** Nope! Maybe June! 
3. Organize all the different rooms of the house - find stuff to get rid of for a summer garage sale! I want to get the junk room completely cleaned out too! I want to start to plan and decorate some cute kids rooms this summer! *Junk room completely cleaned out!! Woohoo! It's been a mess from the day we moved 
4. Work on painting trim as much as possible. *Ummm... nope!
5. Try out a new cleaning schedule to make things go more smoothly.* Doing it this month! 

* I got everything sorted and cleaned out the junk room and had a garage sale. All unused stuff is gone from our house! :) That alone makes me feel like I had a successful month! 

June Goals:

1. Use up the Crest White Strips I have sitting around and try the Pinterest teeth whiting recipe..Maybe next month I will make a dentist appointment... :) 
2. Go on a weekly one-on-one date with Brecken and have a weekly date night with Todd.

3. House: Upstairs hallway painted, work on painting trim white on main floor, get curtains up in kitchen and family room, finish the small painting projects in the closets, get artwork done in the upstairs, and maybe start painting in the kid's rooms. I could keep going on and on.... I want to get alot done this month!  The clock is ticking til Sweet P arrives!

4. Since I have recently organized ALOT I only have the garage and tool bin left.  I am planning to do that in the next couple days. There are things that need to be organized better - but for now I am working more on decor! 

5. Stick to a cleaning plan this month! I have started the month good :)  

6. Write 2 encouraging notes

7. Blog three times a week8. Work out three times per week 

9.  Work on prepping the MOPS crafts for next year (where I will be serving at church in the fall...) 

10. Finish meal list, get better at meal planning and actually make dinner :)  

11. Focus on journaling when it comes to my devotions 

12. Finish the 08-09 Family Year book photo book

13. Read 2 - 3 Books.