1st Metamorphosis Monday

I'm so happy to have finally joined a great bunch of ladies for Metamorphosis Monday. Be sure to visit Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch to see everyone's transformations.

Since it is scorching HOT already before 8am, I need to get outside and paint and work on projects before it gets really hot. 108 degrees yesterday.Let me share some posts that I did last week of re-purposing things around the house. I figured since I'm new to Blogland it could work for my first time joining. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fireplace Transformation

Charging Station for cell phones, Blackberrys, etc.

Globe...scroll down to the bottom and see what I did with a $3 thrift store globe.

Thanks again for stopping by! I'm off to paint. Once it's too hot to handle I'll be in to check on everyone else who has joined Metamorphosis Monday. :)

Thrifty Monday

Make sure to stop by and visit Rhoda & her friends at Southern Hospitality for Thrifty Monday. What were your finds this weekend, whether thrift stores or garage sales?

Here are the things I came across while visiting garage sales on Saturday with the kids. Yes, all 4. Hubby was at a golf tournament. Boy, was it a HOT day. The sweat is still pouring off me. Or as my Gran-mom would say...perspiration.

Ignore the lighting. It was too hot to go outside and photograph. For $40 (spent more this week than last week's $5) I got:

• A rug for in front of the kitchen sink
• Teacup & saucer (to hold birdseed in one of the potted plants outside)
• 2 brand new books for the children
• 2 sets of Scented Markers (not photographed...scooped away the moment we got home). One set had 30 Crayola markers, while the other set was 8 Harry Potter ones by Elmer.  Strange scents in that pack...Dirt, Sardines, Quidditch (sp?) Field Grass...
• 2 Gumball machines...one on a stand, one tabletop
• Pottery Barn telephone (have always wanted one, but couldn't see myself spending $60-$80)
• Flag Box (my most excited find!!! These go for $58 at our local art supply store - I like to support local businesses - but, even if I had a coupon for a chain store it would cost at least $25-$30 ) I have been wanting a black one, but I'll sand & paint this one. It is for my great-aunt Charlotte's memorial flag
• Egg Dish
• Frame

I hope everyone had a relaxing and COOL weekend!! :)

Glidden FREE Paint

Have you seen this promotion? Glidden Free Paint 1 Quart

If you haven't be sure to hurry. Promotion ends on the 2nd of July.

If you have, what color did you order? I ordered Rich Navy. I was torn between getting a color I needed for a project OR getting a fun color to give a splash of flash somewhere in the home.  I went with getting a color I could use now, rather than later.  If I hadn't chosen Rich Navy, it would have been Fresh Tangerines. As my daughter said, at least I was going with the complementary colors.  She is our budding artist. ;)

Have a terrific Sunday!  Hubby has taken the whole week off to work on his Honey-Do List. WOOHOO!! I may go to some thrift shops today. Went to garage sales yesterday. Spent $40. Will take a photo of everything and share later this week. Ohhh, we are going to the King Tut exhibit too. I'll share those photos as well. ;)

I'll leave you with some images of our cuties.

PINK Saturday

My first time joining Beverly and her friends for Pink Saturday!

I don't think my blog background counts, does it? :)

Let's see we have 5 males in our home (including the two furry ones) and one tomboy that do not like pink. However, Gregory does find a love for it when Bridget forces him to play dress-up.

Here is a photo of MY pink.  My Nintendo DS that hubby bought me while I was recovering from my C-Section in the hospital. The other is iPod Nano. Don't you love my "charger" that hubby made me?

The chargers I see are either really expensive or seem like they may cause more clutter. We, of all people, do not need more clutter. Instead I had hubby install surge protectors in the narrow top drawer of our Secretary.  He drilled a hole in the back to plug the wires in and to add my lamp cord to the mix.  In the basket we have a Blackberry wire, 3 iPhone/iTouch, 3 Nintendo DS and camera chargers. No more fighting over whose device needs to charge faster and it is all HIDDEN!!

How are some ways that you HIDE/ORGANIZE clutter???

Chalkboard Creations Party

Make sure to stop by The Shabby Chic Party to see lots of other ideas. Also, I'm hooking this up with Hooked on Houses. Both are kind enough to offer up giveaways/prizes. Checkout what everyone is doing with chalkboard paint and what they are "hooked" on.

Where to start?  I absolutely love chalkboard paint and recently came across PLAID colored chalkboard paint. Along with glittery/sparkly paint too.

However, our tour will only be representing good ole' black chalkboard paint. We start with the toy closet door. Living in CA we don't have a need for a coat closet. That one coat we all own can be stored in our bedrooms, since we have way more toys.  My hubby built shelves to hold all our board games, puzzles, etc.  I wanted to add something else to it, since we don't have a playroom or basement (our house is tiny for 6 people and 2 dogs) for the children to play.  I decided on making the backside of the door a magnetic chalkboard. The children love drawing and playing with letter magnets (note: when taking photos, collect the alpha magnets that are strewn all over the floor). 

We now move on to the infamous chalkboard labels. This bookcase used to store encyclopedias from the 40's that belonged to hubby's grandfather. Realizing we aren't using the encyclopedias we put them in storage and decided to use the bookcase for something more useful.  I went to Target and bought these baskets. I added these labels to identify the items....Library books, Rodger toys (easy for him to access), wooden animals, etc.  I did a dry "rub" of paint on the bookcase to give it new life and then added the red to the labels too. The paint was leftover from our front door. Again, two of the baskets were in use. However, we have Copper joining in on the fun!!

Let's move over to kitchen. My silver platter chalkboard to write "Happy Birthday", "Merry Christmas", etc. Click on the words "silver platter" to read about it.  All about re-purposing! ;)

Last, but not least...our chalkboard globe. All credit is given to this post I saw on Makezine. I was going to use the globe to hold family phone numbers for the kids to easily locate. However, I can see Gregory spinning and spinning it til it breaks. So, then I decided to use it as a mini-lesson for learning  about geography. With the raised continents we can outline them in chalk, identify the continents, oceans, and countries. It is resting on top of my Scrapbook Armoire, as a decoration. Don't look at the crack at the bottom. I found it at the thrift shop for $3. Instead of going to the dump I've re-purposed it for our needs. On top of the armoire you can't see the crack, and the kids don't really care.

Thanks for taking a look and joining me on the "Chalkboard Party" and "Hooked on Chalkboard Paint" tour. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for "Pink Saturday".

With a Little Paint...

Look at what a difference can be made. 

When we moved into our tiny, and I mean TINY, rancher 9 years ago our fireplace had a wobbly shelf and made of brick.  You couldn't put anything on the shelf for the fear of it collapsing.  The doors of the fireplace (that has never been lit in this warm weather climate) were brassy, clunky, and had some contraption coming out the side.  

BEFORE

This past year we had our living room, hallway and kitchen area painted.  We decided to paint the fireplace. Gone with the red brick. Gone with the clunky glass doors. Add a black screen to match new rubbed bronze hardware in the house. Add new mantle that can hold pictures and candles, without killing someone.  The clock had always been there, but was down for the "BEFORE" photo. We also changed the ceiling fan too.  

AFTER

An accident happened when painting the fireplace and I actually like it. Our ceilings are a cream color...thinking...Western Accoustic! All trim is White Linen with our walls a creamy yellow.  The fireplace was painted Western Accoustic and so was the mantle. However, when the mantle needed another coat White Linen was used. Very subtle difference, but I like it! We didn't add any fancy scrollwork to the mantle, because, well...we aren't fancy people.  I felt like it had to reflect us.  As much as I LOVE looking at other people's home, I have to remember to make our house a home, it has to reflect our personalities.

For now the fireplace mantle holds B&W B.R." photos (Before Rodger) and candles.  I kept to a B&W look, because there is so much color in that small sitting area. Oh, you may not be able to see in the before picture, our living room is rectangular. The TV is mounted to the wall on the other side of the room.  We made the area into a sitting area. We have our chair and half and leather chair over there. To the right of the fireplace is my Scrapbook Armoire from yesterday. I did add some albums on the hearth so the children can easily reach and look at them.  Don't worry about Rodger though...he has a gallery of 20x20 photos with his siblings lining our hallway. I can share those one day, if you're interested.

Thanks for looking and be sure to stop by The Shabby Chic Cottage to see other transformations!!! 

Scrapbook Armoire

Besides my family, grandmother's jewelry & photos, this is by far my prized possession. Gregory was born on the 30th of Dec. For 24+ hours of his life during 2005 he earned the family an added deduction. Wasn't expecting the deduction for that year, but who is complaining. Certainly not me! With that extra money we bought a scrapbook armoire, since the last of the 3 bedrooms was now to be G's room. I couldn't believe how much scrapbooking supplies and arts and crafts I had.

Last summer we had the living room painted and floors stained darker. We had not only move ourselves out of the house for a few days, but our furniture too. I had to pack the entire armoire. As much as I wanted to play with my supplies, call it sheer laziness, but I didn't want to create another mess of re-organizing and sorting to unpack. Finally, after many months it is all unpacked and even purged some things. Freecycled them, along with idea books. Do I really need books from 2000?

Here are some photos (excuse the poor lighting) of the armoire in all it's glory. I put a lot in here, things to hide from the kiddos, and other craft supplies. Plus, my Epson photo printer, Cricut, Sizzix, Quickutz, idea books. Everything, BUT our photos and albums. This is a photo w/o the doors being seen.

Here a picture of the left door. Some smaller-type embellishments are in the bigger slots sorted by "girl", "boy" "baby", "season"...you get the point.

The right door with a piece of sheet metal for hanging rulers, mementos, etc.

Here are the 3 drawers that pull out at the bottom. 12x12 hanging folders in one, embellishments in another and tools at the top.

Here is the table, yes table, that folds out!! :)

Here is a close-up of my 12x12 containers from The Container Store. I have one containing all Christmas stuff, another is Disney (including CDs from our trips, punches, stamps, paper, etc.), Jenni Bowlin kits. *Check out that canvas that Morgan painted last year!* :)

One thing I changed from the last time...have the items I use the most handy and convenient. I put my adhesives in this box that I've had forever (decorating it is on my LONG list) and other things in the basket. Helping the girls with projects made things run more smoothly. Grabbing paint, adhesive or scissors for them.

And these are just some close-ups.



The drawers in the middle of the armoire hold stamps and ink. I also have some faux leather containers on the top that hold Sizzix dies, punches, and things to alter. SInce I don't use them as frequently they are stored up there. Oh, who am I kidding...I had so much stuff that I HAD to store things up there.

How do you organize your photos?? This is one of my projects to do and I'm at a loss.

One Man's Trash...

is another man's treasure. Isn't that the saying?

Here are some things I picked up this weekend from garage sales and a freecycler. So, how much did I spend?

$5!!! Can you believe it?  

1. The chair in its prime had to be gorgeous. I figure it can't be that hard to add some paint, nailheads, fabric and cushion. Right? I think this would look darling in the girls' room.
   
2. The pig and sheep hooks are up for grabs. Since Bridget was my partner in crime she has first dibs on them. However, it appears that Gregory has been eyeing them.  Maybe I can find a space near our front door for them.  
3. The snow mugs were 25 cents each for 8. Never used. She had a set of 12, but I did not need that many. I thought of Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch  Our table settings are very juvenile. Hers are sooo beautiful! I thought the snow mugs with some blue plates would look very pretty in the winter. Considering we get NO snow.
4. The tiny drawers I thought I could put in the girls' room or in the kitchen.  Needs some TLC.
5. LOTS of vases.  I realized during Teacher Appreciation week I had given my vases away.  I was going to wrap the flowers in a wet towel and then in aluminum foil but wasn't sure if they would make it to the end of the day. Instead I gave the teachers my vases to use. So, when  a freecycler was offering up glasses vases I snatched them up. I picked up 2 others for 25 cents each. Maybe I'll try glass etching on them too, if I can get a Michael's coupon to purchase the etching creme. Look at these great ideas over at Living with Lindsey.
6. Mason jar to put Morgan's paintbrushes in after she cleans them.  She has some long paintbrushes, so she needed  a tall jar.  I was using a pretty cup from Mexico that the grandparents brought back, but it wasn't tall enough.
7. A brass cup that I hope to paint and use for spare change, paper clips, etc.
8. A planter for the pretty plant that Morgan's teacher gave me.
9. Pretty milk bottle for my collection.
10. Sundae dish. Not sure why...had an idea for it, but it doesn't appear it will work.  Need to put my thinking cap back on.
    
11. (not pictured) 3 cans of "mis"paint from Lowe's"T" for 25cents EACH! I got a cream, turquoisy blue, and meadow green. You can never have enough shades of paint.

Just wanted to share this darling photo of a boy and his dog.

Stop by and visit Rhoda at Southern Hospitality for Today's Thrifty Treasures.

Wake-Up!

I'm sure you've all fallen asleep since I haven't updated in almost TWO months!  See, I knew having a blog would be really hard to maintain after wrangling 4 kiddos and 2 dogs. In that time, the girls have finished school and Spanish classes (not even a week and we've had endless playdates, art camp, 2 birthday parties and R's well-baby appt.). I'm longing to sleep, start AND finish projects, and clean.  I know, cleaning is no fun, but it has to be done.  Can I just enter a housekeeper giveaway? Forget vacation, get me a housekeeper, and maybe a gardener! ;)

Speaking of giveaways, have you seen/read Everything Etsy blog? I love reading them, because they have a lot of Etsy sellers that I sometimes overlook. Often they have giveaways too.  Hop over and see Dew Garden Crafts. She makes terrariums...beautiful ones. Check out this clever terrarium idea.  

Isn't that the coolest!? A traveling terrarium! I have terrarium on my wish/want list when things start looking up.  

Crossing my fingers to improve my blogging. I want to add two projects that hubby and I did over the weekend.

Mother's Day Ideas

No, not for your mother or grandmother, for YOU!  What would you like to receive for Mother's Day?  I've come across several things from Etsy (hint, hint, Tim) that I'd love to have as an expression of motherhood.  

Goosegrease   I just love how you can custom order a family that looks like yours. These could grace your mantle or book shelf.
Sjengraving is another seller I've been admiring. Don't you just love the idea of the engraved rocks in a nest? I can see this sitting on a tall platter or under a bell jar.

Dolamakes has been a favorite for a LONG time. I love this silhouette plate.  Does anyone remember making these in grade school? I have a question into her now and just waiting for a response. I can see these hanging 2 on each side of my dining room window.

Please share with me your ideas for Mother's Day. Maybe I may want it at a later day or for another occasion. 

Honey-Do List

Buried deep in the fine print of every wedding vow is a clause that legally enables the creation of what is commonly known as the “Honey-Do” list. For those not familiar with it (read: all unmarried men), the “Honey-Do” list is a compilation of tasks, chores, repairs, and improvements that wives would like their husbands to accomplish.

Continuing our quest to remodel and decorate our home I have made a "Honey-Do" list for Tim. He has the NFL Draft at 1pm and then a hockey game with a client at 5pm. Too bad the Sharks couldn't lose ALL 5 games instead of 4, then he'd be home tonight. Do I sound bitter? Yes, I am. Tim's been working hard on a deal for 6 straight months. Long hours, late nights, calls to China in the evenings, not focused on conversations, and very stressed. Crossing our fingers come Monday that all the papers will be signed AND delivered. Morgan has been asking about this deal for weeks. See Tim promised to take a week vacation WITHOUT his cell phone if the deal came through.

Back to our "Honey-Do" List. Do you make one for your husband? I can't live without my lists. My kids know me for writing lists on everything. Back of envelopes, scraps of paper in the car, schoolwork (already graded, of course), backs of magazines, and my notebooks for lists (yes, you read that correctly...more than one notebook).

Today's agenda includes building a sofa table. I don't want people using the windowsill for a place for their drinks and typical sofa tables are too wide for our very small living room. Also, we are repainting an old toybox and making a cushion for the top for storing our shoes and putting them on. Cross your fingers we get it all done AND looks good.

Off to read Five Little Monkeys to one of my other men in my life. So, what's  on your "Honey-Do" List?

Frugal Friday

Over at The Shabby Nest is Frugal Friday. I came across Wendy's blog through a series of reading many other blogs in search of being frugal. 

Our frugality started after lots, and lots, and LOTS of medical bills. Last year, though a great year with the birth of our 4th child, we were burdened with many medical bills. I had pneumonia at the end of the pregnancy, then the delivery expenses (C-Section), then Gregory had a febrile seizure (5 days after Rodger's birth) and rushed by ambulance to the ER, then I had hernia repair surgery, followed by Gregory breaking his arm (the SAME day as my surgery), and then Tim having shoulder surgery with physical therapy. *SIGH* Of course, we thought we were in the clear for this year only to have Bridget need extensive dental work and be under anesthesia, Gregory had an allergic reaction and swelled up like a balloon and Morgan has been hit by allergies and taken to the doc to find some relief. Of course, being a new year we have to hit our deductible. 

So, my quest for repurposing items, using freecycle, shopping Craigslist and thrift stores began. Here is my repurposed silver platter that my cousin and his wife gave us for a wedding gift. It has sat in my garage that entire time. Silver- just not my thing. We are not fancy people. We don't have china (except for my grandmother's which is still packed). Finally, I came across Phillips Phamily Phive. I went out to the garage grabbed my platter, grabbed some chalkboard paint we had and went to town. I didn't even tape the edges. Just went with the flow. I did 5 coats, since there was a pattern underneath and let it cure for 3 days. Placed it on our secretary (Craiglist $150) with a plate holder I already had. I can change the wording for holidays, birthdays or anything else I may fancy. VOILA!

Teacher Appreciation Ideas

I had to laugh this morning. I woke up to an email from my friend, AM, that she had posted to my Facebook page. It said, "Pam....I know I can count on you for ideas, so link me up!" Yes, it is true. I've been bookmarking and jotting down Teacher Appreciation ideas since before Christmas and sending them to Morgan's room mom. Morgan's room mom is AWESOME! Sends monthly emails with updates, took donations at the beginning of the year and shows us how she is spending the money, asks for ideas, and uses them! If I ever chose to be a room mom when I have the boys in school, I aspire to be her.

Some ideas for Teacher Appreciation week that don't require creativity.

1. Buy her a cup of her favorite coffee/latte.  To take a step further (we did this for the teacher's birthday) include doughnuts for the students and teacher.
2. Bring her in lunch. No teacher will object to that. Find out their tastes, restrictions. and favorites. One of the moms owns a deli shop. Sometimes when she brings her daughter lunch, she brings the teacher lunch too. I know I would  not object to any food from that deli, it is YUMMY!
3. Find out her all-time favorite treat. Maybe it is chocolate? Our teacher loves dark chocolate. Another teacher loves a specialty chocolate with raspberries from a local candy shoppe.
   
4. You can't go wrong by giving flowers either. Visit your Farmer's Market or your own garden. The children and I clipped roses yesterday and this morning they are beautiful and sweet smelling. In 2nd grade I visited the Farmer's Market for Gerbera Daisies and had each student hand to the teacher as they walked into class. Then another mom and I went in and and put them in a vase for the teacher as she started class. I got this idea from another mom who did it on the 1st grade teacher's birthday.

All these things can be done throughout the week. However, if you want to make something for her I have some more ideas. Bear with me...I'm going to try and figure out how to post pictures and links. Obviously, it didn't work yesterday. I'm sure you all know how to cut and paste though.

• Flower pens. You've all seen them, maybe in the drs. office. I saw the idea 8 years ago in our office, bought the materials and finally made one this year. Buy your supplies at any craft store or repurpose ones you have around the home. We used an empty soup can, sprayed adhesive on it and slapped one of million sheets of scrapbook paper I have on it. Then Bridget picked out some ric-rak and punched out flowers. We used some glitter glue, Stickles (love that stuff!) and stickers to decorate the can.  We also added a bumblebee, because that is the class mascot.  For the flowers glue (hot glue is best) the tops of the flowers into the pens. After it dries apply florist tape to the pen in a spiral motion.  This will be the stem of the flower. Our tape was sticky on both sides so I applied cornstarch (tad bit) so it wouldn't be sticky to the touch. We did this project days before Bridget's teacher's birthday. Something we learned is that the edges of the tape was peeling up, so we applied some adhesive to keep it from pulling up. We had everything on hand, except the flowers ( I trashed the ones we bought years ago). Also, you'll have plenty of florist tape left over to make plenty more!
  

• This is idea I came across awhile back. Simple, easy, and inexpensive. Great idea if you are doing something everyday. Plus, every teacher needs hand sanitizer. I got this idea from Just a Girl   
• Another place to look is at the Tip Junkie Blog. Scroll all the way down for tons of ideas to fit your needs.
• I saw this one at the 2Peas gallery. Cute and well-done. Teacher's Survival Kit by JoSchmo
• ETA: Personalized Plates by Sugar and Spice Mommy. Wouldn't these be great to use the teacher's monogram and put some brownies or cookies on top? She's also doing a giveaway. Stop by and visit and maybe you could win a plate for your teacher. 
• Last, but not least....visit my friend Clair. She makes the most wonderful, gorgeous handmade cards. She does custom orders too. We did legal -sized cards this year. Her cards come in all different sizes and shapes. I just ordered 20 cards (10 for B's teacher and 10 for Mo's teacher). You can see some of the cards HERE. I spoke to her back before Christmas for this order. They are going to be end-of-the-year gifts. I may be too lazy to make my own cards, BUT at least I'm organized to order them. ;) I ordered these last year for Ms. R and she LOVED them. Teachers love them for teacher birthdays and parent thank yous.

One last idea, if you are being charitable. Visit DonorsChoose   A gift of one dollar can help a teacher in need. All money goes back to a teacher to buy supplies. You can also donate books. 

The Shabby Nest

Since I said one of the reasons I started my blog was for giveaways let me lead you to a blog I read.  http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/ If you leave a comment for yesterday's post you can be entered to win a personalized bolster pillow. If I won, we'd have to pick the #13. What number would you pick?

Happy Earth Day!

Woke up to my daughter upset that none of her "green", Save the Earth, Hug a Tree, etc. shirts were clean.  Instead we opted for just a green-colored tee. After last year with Ms. R., Morgan is very much for the movement of going green and recycling. We already were recycling, because of curbside services. However, after Rodger was born we had a tankless hot water heater installed and solar panels on our roof. What a difference this has made!!! We are always looking into new ideas, esp. when your 10 year tells you that the universe is going to collapse if we don't get on board. We may not be 100% green, but we try. We do what we can do. I'm not going to go out of my way to do something if I don't have the time. Call me selfish, but I need to see a (immediate) benefit for me to do something. The two large projects? Well, they save us money and time. How can time be saved, you ask? We don't have to wait 20 minutes after someone takes a shower for us to get hot water. I can run the dishwasher, washing machine AND take a shower all at once!! 

Re-purposing items not only saves the world, saves us MONEY!  Also, I LOVE Freecycle! Have you tried it? You must do it! I find things we can't use, instead of wasting gas running to 5 charities to see if they will take it, I post the item and someone comes to ME and picks it up. Can it get any better? I just place it on the porch and it's gone.  I really enjoy it, when it is a family that really needs the baby clothes or baby items I have. I usually will email if I find something later on just to see if they need it.

So, onto Earth Day...do you have any plans to do something "special"?  The girls and I have a project. Tim laughs when he hears that, because that will mean a mess, a big one at that. I'll be screaming, Morgan will be rolling her eyes, and Bridget will eventually cry over something. We have been collecting paper and shredding it. Instead of recycling it, we are saving it to make garland.  I saw this great idea where you save a bunch of paper, soak it overnight, and make small balls that you paint after they dry.  Then you poke holes in them to string. I think it's a great project for the girls that are always asking for something fun to do, we're recycling paper (junk mail, school papers, etc.), and we're decorating the house!  Once we are done the project, I'll be give you the step-by-step process if interested along with photos.

I'm still trying to tweak things with the blog; picking a template, wondering why some links are not showing, etc.  Frustrating when I only have a few moments to do anything, but I'll get there. Hopefully, you can bear with me.

New Journey

It has been years since I last posted to my old blog. Looking back at it I was pregnant with Gregory (#3) and was running a business. Now we have #4 and the business is long gone. I've been debating for some time about starting a new blog.  I didn't want to just jump right into it, because I'm not one to follow through. I have a lot on my plate and I find it very difficult to prioritize. Shoot, I can't find time to type a status on Facebook. However, this blog will allow me to journal things about the children (allows family and friends a peek into our lives), enter giveaways, and share ideas on repurposing,  arts & crafts and being frugal. I've learned so much from other bloggers, that I want to give back. Maybe I can share an idea that others may find useful.  Are you ready to go on this journey with me? I'd loved to have you! I just need some time to get photos posted and learn the ins and outs of Blogger. Occasionally, I may need a "push" to blog, post a photo, etc. I give you permission to remind me.