Summer Craft Day 2020

One of the items on our summer bucket list was to have a craft day, so we cashed in on that item this week.  We made tie-dye shirts (another item on our list) and sun catchers.  Here's a little rundown of what we did.

TIE-DYE

For our tie-dye shirts, I just bought a tie-dye kit at Michael's and plain, white, cotton t-shirts.  We did this last summer with my family, so I had a bit of experience to help me.  The kits couldn't make it much easier, too.  It came with gloves (that the boys refused to wear), all the colors we wanted, and rubber bands.  You just add water to the colors and they're ready to go.  I bought plastic containers to put their shirts in so we didn't ruin anything with the dye (it's very unforgiving), and then we headed outside.  I put the rubber bands on with no rhyme or reason, so it's a random assortment of patterns.  

The boys picked four colors of dye each and got busy.  They squirted the dye wherever they wanted, flipped them over, and squirted some more.  Once they were done, we soaked up the extra dye in the container to make sure the shirt was covered.  Then I bagged them up, let them sit overnight so the colors would soak in, and finally washed them in cold water after I removed the rubber bands.  The longer they sit, the more vivid the colors.  

SUN CATCHERS

Our second project of the day was sun catchers.  I bought pony beads (like the kind you'd make bracelets out of) at Michael's in assorted colors.  The color options were endless... I already see Christmas ornaments in our future.  I labeled our muffin tin and let the boys arrange the beads however they wanted.  Once they did that, I put them in the oven and baked them at 400˚ for 30 minutes.  The boys and Andy said the smell was terrible while they baked, but I couldn't smell it.  

Once they were done, I let them cool for a few minutes, and then they popped right of the muffin pan.  I didn't use any nonstick spray or anything.  Once they cooled, they looked like glass!  Abel added more beads to his, so his were really thick.  Coop didn't add many, so his were really thin.  It was cool to see how each one turned out.  Andy drilled holes in them so we could hang them up.  I used duct tape to hang mine up in our kitchen window.  I didn't want to hang them on my curtain rod because I close those curtains every night, and I didn't want to use anything too permanent to hang them from the top.  It worked well, and you can't see it, so I'm happy with the results.  If you can get past the smell, this is a really cool craft with very little cleanup.

2014 Advent Calendar

Every year I put together a little Christmas advent calendar for the boys.  It gives us some fun things to do leading up to Christmas, and some things to do to kill time while we're waiting on Andy to get home from his late nights at work.  This year's advent calendar is very similar to last year's, but I didn't try to put date specific things down this year.  I know of some parades and things like that that I want to take the boys to on certain days, but sure enough, if I put those down, something happens and we can't go.  
 

I used the same premise as last year when making the calendar.  I typed up a Word document, printed the dates/activities out, cut them up, glued them onto construction paper, put the dates on back, laminated them, and put it in a vase for the boys to grab them from every day.  There are a million, much cuter, DIY advent calendars on Pinterest, but I wanted something quick, simple, and efficient.  This worked last year, so it'll work this year!  

 

We start our advent activities the day after Thanksgiving, we the arrival of Pal (our Elf of the Shelf) and go through Christmas day.  I'm really looking forward to it, and I know the boys will love doing it.

 

Friday

November 28^th

Look for Pal’s arrival

Saturday

November 29^th

Watch a Christmas movie

Sunday

November 30^th

Take Christmas pictures

Monday

December 1^st

Listen to Christmas music

Tuesday

December 2^nd

Write a letter to Santa

Wednesday

December 3^rd

Look at Christmas lights

Thursday

December 4^th

Read a Christmas book

Friday

December 5^th

Make a Christmas craft

Saturday

December 6^th

Make a Christmas dessert

Sunday

December 7^th

Make an ornament for the tree

Monday

December 8^th

Make hot chocolate

Tuesday

December 9^th

Drive to a different neighborhood

to see Christmas lights

Wednesday

December 10^th

Have a Christmas music dance

party

Thursday

December 11^th

Read a Christmas book

Friday

December 12^th

Watch a Christmas movie

Saturday

December 13^th

Buy a gift for your brother

Sunday

December 14^th

Make someone a homemade

Christmas treat

Monday

December 15^th

Deliver our homemade treat

Tuesday

December 16^th

Get milkshakes and look

at Christmas lights

downtown

Wednesday

December 17^th

Read the Christmas story

Thursday

December 18^th

Read a Christmas book

Friday

December 19^th

Watch a Christmas movie

with the fireplace on

Saturday

December 20^th

Buy Daddy Christmas

presents

Sunday

December 21^st

Go to the church Christmas

play

  

Monday

December 22^nd

Make Jesus a birthday

cake

Tuesday

December 23^rd

Christmas movie and

PJ night

Wednesday

December 24^th

Go our the church

Christmas Eve service

Thursday

December 25^th

Cook a special breakfast

and open presents

DIY Laundry Detergent

This week I made my own laundry detergent for the first time.  I jumped on the bandwagon about a year or so late, but I was excited nonetheless.  I'd seen several recipes floating around Pinterest, and I knew several people who had made it, so I just followed those directions and made an easy recipe.

Recipe I followed:
*When I say "large box" I mean roughly the same size as a normal cereal box.

• 1 large box of baking soda
• 1 large box of Borax 
• 1 large box (but not the largest) of OxiClean
• 1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap

I found all of the ingredients side by side at Walmart in the detergent aisle.   I probably spent close to $20 on everything.  I bought two canisters that are meant to be used as a cereal holder.  This recipe filled both of those up almost full.  

The first thing I did was combine the baking soda, Borax, and OxiClean into both containers.  I just poured half of each in one container, then half of each in the other.  After they were combined and stirred together, I got the bar of Fels-Naptha and grated it into each container.  I put half of the bar of soap in one, half in the other.  This wasn't fun, but it didn't take me long.  I just used a normal cheese grater to do that part.  After the soap was grated, I mixed it up again.  I didn't add anything extra for fragrance as I can't smell it anyways, and for Clark's eczema... I didn't want anything to make it flare up more than it already is.

*FYI- I did all of the mixing on my kitchen table and it made a mess!  Next time I'll do it outside or in the garage.

It took some trial and error to figure out how to use it best when I washed my clothes because I was used to liquid detergent... this is powder.  The first time I used it I washed with cold water, and used a lot of powder, and it didn't all melt/dissolve well.  I was warned by a friend that if I didn't used hot water that the grated soap wouldn't melt, and sure enough, it didn't!  I think I had way too big of a scoop in there too (I was using a full scoop of the scooper that came with the OxiClean).  The clothes it hit first it still hung onto a bit after they were washed.  The second time I washed a load with it, I used hot water, but still too much powder, and still put it directly on my clothes.  I had to rewash one shirt from that load, but the third load I started my water, put about a tablespoon of powder directly in the water at the bottom of the washer, before I loaded any clothes, instead of putting it on top of my clothes once it was loaded (maybe that's just common sense anyways with powder detergent?).  The third load turned out much better, with nothing sticking to our clothes.

Anyways, I'm hoping this will last us awhile and be a cheaper alternative to running to the store every other week for detergent.

The Newest Home Project

My mom and dad have been slowly replacing all the windows in their house recently.  When I knew the next set was coming out, I requested one.  I love those old windows, and my dad and I have made end tables out of them before, right before Andy and I got married.  I wanted my next window project to involve pictures, and after looking around at Pinterest, I found the perfect idea. 

Before I started the project, I had my dad put a wire on the back so the window would hang on the wall.  I didn't paint it or anything because I really liked the way it looked already.  I used pictures from our vacation, in 5x7 and 4x6.  I used 9 pictures in all, and had to cut a couple down to fit.  I used Elmer's Adhesive Glue, and let me tell you, that stuff really sticks.  My fingers are sticking to the keys as I type this.  I had originally glued the pictures behind the glass, but you could see the glue on the surface of the pictures, so I moved them to the front of the glass.  I then sprayed the glue on the back of the pictures and glued them down.  I really wanted them behind the glass, but wasn't sure how to do it and not ruin the front of the pictures from the glue.

Once I finished gluing I hung it up on our bedroom wall.  It looks great!  It's very rustic/shabby chic looking, and goes perfect with everything in our bedroom.  When I'm ready to change pictures out I think it should be fairly easy.  Maybe by then I'll have figured out a way to put the pictures behind the glass.

The window before, with just the wire on the back.

 Placing the pictures before gluing.

 The final product in our bedroom - it's not crooked on the wall, I just took the picture crooked.

New Front Door Decor

When I painted the front door last week I also made a new welcome sign for it.  I had seen a ton of these this style on Etsy, but didn't want to pay $45 for one.  So, I used a little bit of creativity and made one myself!  I got on Etsy to find an unfinished, wooden cut out of the state of Georgia.  I found a shop that specialized in wooden cut outs, ordered a 15 inch one, and got busy.  I think the cut out itself was $5.50, and the shipping cost more than that.  

The first time I painted it, it looked awful... the boys would've done a better job.  I tried to paint the words freehand with a paint brush, and it wasn't pretty!  After that I went and bought some paint pens and spray paint and started over.  We're not Georgia fans at all, so I tried to avoid making it look like that.  I painted it pink, then added the phrase (with a paint pen) "Hey Y'all!"  I also added "Welcome!" and our names, plus a heart over where we live.  Andy found the center of gravity for me, drilled a hole, then I put some burlap ribbon through there so I could hang it up.

All in all I'm pretty happy with it.  I wish the cut out was a little bigger and a little heavier, but it doesn't bang the glass on the door when the wind blows, so that's a plus!  I think it's a good fit for summertime, and it'll be easy to paint over if I want to redo it in the future.

Front Door Makeover

Ever since we moved into our house almost 3 years ago, I've found our front door very plain and boring.  I wanted to replace it, but we never seemed to get around to it.  Finally I had had enough, so I decided to paint it.  Now, I'm not the best painter on the block, so Andy was understandably a bit apprenhsive about my plan.  Also, when I told him the color I wanted to paint it I got a few nervous faces thrown my way.

The door was originally white, the epitome of boring, and I knew I wanted to go with something bright and cheerful!  Our siding is brick & off-white (looks white until you put something stark white up next to it), and I painted our shutters black when we moved in, so I knew pretty much anything would match with our "neutral" canvas.  Brightly colored doors aren't quite all the rage yet in Flintstone like they are in a lot of the Southern beach towns, so I went to my faithful Pinterst account for some inspiration.  If you search for "painted front door" on there, you'll find an endless amount of photos and DIYs.

Now, Tiffany Blue, sea foam, robin's egg blue, light turquoise, whatever you want to call it, is usually my go to color for any project (or clothing, pillows, etc.), so I really had to fight the urge to paint the door that color.  The few doors I've seen painted around here are that color, so I wanted to go with something different.  I settled on a light, apple green color and got busy.

I got all of my supplies, including the paint, and the Ace Hardware down the road.  The paint I got was the brand Clark Kinsington, and it was a paint and primer in one.  All I did the prepare the door (it's metal) was wipe it down and lightly sand it.  I then taped off around the window, knob and deadbolt, and around the edges.

I painted it with small roller and a paint brush.  The hardest part was keeping two busy toddlers out of paint and keeping bugs out of the house while the edges dried.  I ended up putting three coats on.  I got a quart of paint, not a gallon, and didn't even use a fraction of it.  I also got a semigloss, so it doesn't have much shine to it at all.

I'm happy with the result.  It turned out more lime than I wanted, but it definitely got rid of the boring factor our door had.  Also, you don't drive by and think "Wow, that's a bright green door!"  It sits back under the porch a good ways, so it's not the first thing that pops out at you.

Since it was such an easy project I foresee myself doing this more in the future.  I'm sure it'll end up a pretty Tiffany Blue color before too long.  Here are the before and after shots via the ole iPhone.

Sorry for the dated picture... for some reason all the pictures I took during the remodel are gone from my phone.

 

Yes, the hardware on our door is two different colors... it was like that when we moved in.  I have no idea why someone would do that, and I have no idea why we haven't replaced it yet.



DIY Chalkboard Coffee Table

Our coffee table in the middle of our living room is a high traffic area for toys, sippy cups, big cups, plates, food, baby hands and feet (they jump off that table to the couch), computers, phones, ipads, and much more.  To say that it had seen better days would be an understatement.  The coffee table was originally just a wood finish that was in my house growing up, but the Valentine's Day before our wedding I painted it a cream color and distressed it for our new apartment.  I really loved the look of it, and it's pretty sturdy, so it's been with us ever since.  The boys have made it super dirty, and I always wiped it down with a Clorox wipe.  Well, after enough times of doing that it developed a nice sticky residue that WOULD NOT go away.  That, coupled with how nasty it was staying all the time, I knew something had to be done to it.

 

This past Saturday the boys and I (mostly me) were going stir crazy so I loaded them in the car and headed to the Ace Hardware.  I had been throwing around the idea of painting it with chalkboard paint and the hardware had it in stock.  To save a trip around the store with Cooper touching EVERYTHING and me carrying Clark (who was fighting me tooth and nail to get down) I scooped it up and headed to the checkout.  We ran up to my mom and dad's to get primer, paintbrushes, and my dad's electric hand sander (I should've asked for one of those for Mother's Day... I loved that thing!).  Once we got home I got busy out in our garage.  It was a fairly simple task (ok, really simple since I did it by myself).  Here are the pictures of what I did;

 

 Here is the table before I did anything to it - I know you can't tell, but it's really nasty.  I wiped it down before I started sanding.

 Here it is after I went a little crazy with the sander.  I took a lot of the cream layer of paint off and some of the original primer.

 Here it is primed with the thickest/gooiest/stickiest primer I've ever used in my life.  It was like super glue.  I let each layer of primer/paint sit for an hour in between coats (with the garage doors open).

 I probably didn't stir the chalkboard paint up enough, but that stuff ran out like water.  It was a mess!  This is after the first coat - I ended up putting 3 coats on because it was so thin.  Oh, and no, our cars don't have a bad oil leak, the floor was that way when we moved in.  : )

 After the 3rd coat had dried I cured the chalkboard surface with a piece of white chalk (basically I just rubbed the side of the chalk all over the whole table, where I had painted).  Really, I don't know what this does, but everyone and everything I had read told me to do this.  I erased it off and took it in.

 The boys loved it, but after they went to bed that night and I started erasing our artwork the "We love Daddy!" wouldn't come off.  It erased, but you could still read it plan as day (I'm about 100% sure that's why you cure it... I didn't use enough chalk or cover the surface enough).  So, about 10:30 that night I threw another coat of paint on and let it dry over night. 

 

The next morning I covered every single centimeter of the painted part with chalk and then covered it again.  I let it sit while we were at church and then came home and erased it (which made a huge mess on my wood floors).  After that everything erased perfectly.

When I got home from work yesterday the table looked like this!  Cooper told me he drew me some "peacocks, turkeys, and roosters with my sidewalk chalk!"  We use normal chalk though, all he knows is sidewalk chalk.  I absolutely loved it, and I can't wait to see more creations from the boys... that's the reason I painted it this way!

 

Making the Slow Transition

This past week Andy and I have began the slow process of transitioning Cooper's room from a "baby" room to a "big boy" room.  Besides adding a train table, we haven't changed his room at all since we moved in (he turned 1 the week we moved in), and it was in desperate need for some changes.  He can't physically climb out of his crib yet, and with the way he jumps/plays/fights sleep, we've waited as long as possible to move him to a toddler bed.  He's got a ton of toys and books, and we were running into some major destruction issues with them (as you can see from the pictures below).  He could tear that room apart before we even realized he had snuck back there.  We hated to lock him out of his room, so our only other option was to make some adjustments to the furniture layout.

 

 

 

Thanks to Ikea we made some major improvements to his room, and where there is still a lot of room for destruction, it isn't quite as bad as before.

 

Thanks to those shelves all of his books are out of reach (so when we read we pick them together) and he's not tearing them all up.  We've also put some the lesser played with toys up there, and some of the messier ones.  The bookcase that originally held all of his books now holds toys he plays with a lot, and all the smaller ones are kept in sturdy baskets so we can just throw them in there when he's done playing.  All of the toys are up off the floor now, besides two toy buckets that hold stuffed animals and other random toys.  He can still make a mess in less than two minutes, but it's been a lot easier to clean up with this arrangement. 

 

Here in the next couple of weeks we're going to get a twin sized bed from my sister, a mattress, and new bedspread for him.  Then, the transformation will be complete!  We're really dreading switching the bed over because we're afraid we'll never sleep again, but it has to be done at some point in the near future.  I hate seeing my baby grow up, but I guess it has to happen sometime!

Why I love Nap Time and Spray Paint

With part of my Christmas money I bought a ladder shelf for our living room.  We took down our tree, and that corner of the room looked lonely and extremely empty.  I usually have an end table to put back where the tree goes, but Clark shattered it to a million pieces with his hard head when the tree was up (it was made out of an old window).  To make a long story short, I ended up getting a "new" end table from my mom and dad that was a different style, and I liked it better in a different spot.  So, that kind of sent me into a mini-remodeling spree of the living room.  This is what my shelf looked like after we assembled it - I didn't have hardly anything to put on it.

 

So, with more Christmas money I went to Hobby Lobby to find picture frames and some odds and ends to decorate my shelf with.  I didn't buy anything that wasn't at least 50% off, so I ended up saving around $100 by being cheap!  Here's the finished product - I love it (sorry that the picture quality is awful, I snapped them on my phone).

 

 

 When I bought the "4" at the top (for our family of 4) it was just a regular wood finish, ready to paint.  I wanted to paint it a color that would compliment everything else, and my sister had some gold spray paint on hand.  A few days ago, when the boys went down for their nap, I got busy with the spray paint.  I had originally just planned on painting the 4, but I had some other things in the house that needed blinged out as well!

 

 These frames never matched anything in my house, so I painted them.  I also painted the owl (it was an ugly green color) and "love" sign on the ladder shelf.  Spray painting is so easy that I could've really let myself go, but I didn't want the house to look too ghetto-fabulous!