fun paint.

First, I feel the need to tell you that I have a twitch in my cheek that isn't going away.
I'm just sure that everyone I talk to is staring at that twitch.
I hate that.

I had some time by myself today, which was awesome.
I went to Target alone.  Bliss.
I also ran errands alone.  Bliss again.
There's this fun shop in our town that sells Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.
Have you heard of it?
My sister-in-law told me about it several months ago
and I've been wanting to try it ever since.



Isn't it pretty?
I'll show you soon what I'm working on,
but I'm loving the paint so far.
I'm trying to get our guest room done before next week.
Did I tell you one of my closest friends will be visiting from Portugal?
I'm so excited.
She has requested eating at In-n-Out and going to sushi while she's here.
It'll be rough, but we'll get it done.

Also in the guest room: a little something for over the bed.
My dad made me this wooden slat board quite awhile ago,
and I just recently got around to painting it white.



I printed out the letters I wanted to paint on it in the size I wanted,
and then taped them to the board.



I traced over them as hard as I could with a pencil,
and the trace marks left a faint imprint on the board.



Then I just painted.



Blessed.  It's true.

I might actually repaint the letters in the slightly darker Annie Sloan paint.
We'll see.



I've been making pillows, and I think the bed needs one more...
maybe a bolster?

Back to painting tomorrow.
I have two Project Runways to watch while I paint.
Perfect combo.
And my cheek twitch is gone now.
Happy day!

ten on {february} ten.

...up at dark o'clock.
to the coffee pot first, every morning.



...once breakfast has been made
and lunches packed,
it's time for some dishes.
{yeah...from the night before.  it happens.}



...a quick attempt at a cute heart hairdo for her valentines party.
thanks to pinterest and this video.



...the kids were off to school
and i was off to run.


{i love these lululemon pants.  pricey, but they are very bootie friendly.}

...straight from running to registering a certain girl for kindergarten.
"please bring three forms of documentation proving that you live where you say you live."
they don't mess around.



...and, just like that, it's time to grab an apple and pick her up from preschool.
those couple of hours go by so quickly.



...later in the day, my parents picked up the kids.
when they left the only thing i wanted to do was sit down.
it felt so good.



...no kids meant date night.
date night means dinner...



...and a trip to guitar center
{can you see me?}...



...and a trip to home depot.
we were the dorks buying two ginormous trees at 8:55pm.
they loved us.



**********

...and that was the tenth of february.

cork boards: my craft weekend contribution.

I didn't want to show up to craft weekend empty-handed.
So I took my plethora of burlap and some embroidery hoops and went to town.

I gave you a little sneak peek in this picture from a couple of weeks ago.
I made for each one of the ladies at craft weekend.

All you need is an embroidery hoop, some cork (from any craft store),
some burlap (or fabric, if you prefer), craft paint, and letter stamps.
And your glue gun, of course.
{What did we ever do before the glue gun was invented?  I shudder to think.}

I painted some of the hoops I took to craft weekend,
and then realized that maybe not everyone is as partial to aqua paint as I am.
So I left most of them unpainted.

But I painted the one I made for myself with 'Bahama Blue' craft paint.
After it dried, I cut out the cork to fit the inner circle of my hoop.

Then I cut a piece of burlap just slightly bigger than my hoop,
and put it inside.

The back doesn't have to be pretty.
Just hot glue down the excess.

Stamp whatever letter you choose.
You could even do an ampersand or no stamp at all.

That's it!
Then you can hang it on the very cluttered wall in your craft room
that you keep meaning to paint, organize, and rearrange.

And if embroidery hoops aren't your thang,
you could do the same process as above in a picture frame.

Ugh.  Paint chips.
The never-ending wall paint selection process continues....
{dining room.  martini shaker.  thoughts?}

Pottery Barn Eggs {diy}

My house needed a little Easter-izing.
I would have liked to do some Pottery Barn Easter-izing.
But I wasn't in the mood to pay $19 + shipping
for their eggs.

Last week I bought two packages of
foam eggs at Joann's at 40% off.
I think they were around $5 total.

The eggs + a trusted Sharpie + the PB catalog.

I just kept dotting and dotting the letters
until it looked right.

Once all of the letters were finished,
I cut some twine
and decided where I wanted to place the eggs.

I pinned them to the twine,
and strung them up.

I like them.
And they match my teeny little hummingbird nest.

And since I had some eggs leftover,
I decided to put some on my silvery stick tree.
{I feel like it needs a better name.  Silvery stick tree isn't working for me.}

For those I just cut a piece of embroidery floss,
tied a knot,
and pinned through the knot into the egg.

Easter-izing, phase 1...check.


{linking up with Today's Creative Blog}

Psst...I'm not here today.

I'm guest posting at Julie's place.
If you don't know Julie...you need to spend an hour or fourteen over at her blog, Joy's Hope. 

I heart her, too.
Hop over to Joy's Hope and say hello, won't you?

A new old shirt.

I have seen so many tutorials online for making dresses out of men's shirts.
Oh how I love tutorials.

So when Gary cleaned out his closet awhile back I stole a bunch
of things from his giveaway pile.

I finally got around to making something this week.


I took an old button down green plaid Gap shirt of Gary's
and turned into a shirt - {or short dress?} - for Avery.


I wish I could tell you how I made it,
but it was a total trial-and-error thing
and I'd be shocked if I could do it again.


She loves that part of it used to belong to daddy.


I love that it didn't cost me a dime.

The best kind of project!

The {non-naked} Picture Wall

I have had this naked wall by my front door for a long time.
It bothered me.
I knew I wanted a picture wall there, but just hadn't got around to doing it.

I'd been gradually getting my frames together,
and painting some of my old silver ones black.

Then...I came across the most genius method of putting together a picture wall I've ever seen.
{I really wish I could remember where in blogland I saw it. If it was you...let me know!}

First I measured that naked wall,
and I taped together some old wrapping paper in that same dimension.
Then I played with the layout until I was happy with it.


Then I traced around the frames,


and hung that wrapping paper on the wall.
I nailed the frames directly onto the paper to make sure they stayed where I wanted them.


Then I just removed the paper.


I still have two frames to spray paint black,
and five frames to fill.

But at least it's not a naked wall any longer.

Me + Chalkboard Spray Paint & Lemon Squares = Love

I had this one picture over our mantel for a long time.
I didn't really like it all that much, and replaced it with something different back in December.

I hung on to the picture and frame, though, because I figured I could turn it into something else.

All it took was a can of red spray paint, and a can of chalkboard spray paint.


{Did you know you can spray paint chalkboard paint on glass? So cool.}

And here's where my picture lives now.


I love it...the kids love it...and Gary is keeping his opinion to himself. :)

And speaking of love...
Today we had an Easter party to attend.
I knew when I saw them on her site last week that
I was going to bring PW's Creamy Lemon Squares.


They were so easy to make.
Really.


And my assistant gave them the finger lick of approval.

If you like lemon bars, you should make these.
I think I'm going to make another batch for Easter.

{Along with twice-baked potatoes. My holiday meal must-have.}

Projects, Projects.

There's really nothing like waiting till {almost} the very last minute, is there?

The boys' class parties are Friday.
So I have declared today and tomorrow Valentine Making Days.

Today I began phase one:
crayons.


I asked for broken crayons on freecycle...and bought some at the dollar store.


Bake at 300* for 10 minutes of or so or until they are melted.


Tomorrow I'll be going *back* to the store to buy the card stock that I forgot to buy today to print out cards to attach the heart crayons.
{Along the lines of this. So cute.}


Oh...tomorrow is also Finish The Costumes For The Kindergarten Play day.


I think it might also be Starbucks Grande Skinny Hazelnut Latte day as well.

Tomorrow's going to be a lovely day.