Our Playroom Revealed {Sort of}

Here's the thing...when we moved to this house, I was uberly excited at the thought of having a PLAYROOM!  A place for all of the toys to call home...other than the middle of our living room.  No more scrambling to clean up 3,249 dolls and tractors so that the our visitors are welcomed to a  (very loosely used form of this word) somewhat "organized" home!  No more stepping on little cars in the middle of the night and holding your breath while you die in pain so that you do not wake up a sleeping child from your screams.  No more pushing toys on to the floor just so you can find a place to sit on not-so-inviting couch. 

So, yes, I was ECSTATIC to have a PLAYROOM!  More so than the kids, for this I am sure. 

However, I was hitting a bit of a wall when it came to choosing a paint color that would work.  As you may remember, it started off a lovely shade of poo green.  Then, with my great ability to pick out paint colors, I chose the wonderful color of pee yellow to paint over the said green. Yes, the room looked like the kids had been decorating with a dirty diaper or two.  Sorry, for the analogy, but it's the truth!

Fast forward to this spring when I became in LOVE with the color orange. Actually, I have a hidden obsession with orange although you may never know it...unless you're Levi.  Poor kid is dressed in orange pretty much EVERY day!  Though, I will say that he looks rather smashing in beautiful shades orange and blue. 

Anyway, my point...I finished painting the room some time before summer, but then that was it.  The top half of the walls were stark neckid.  As Merisa said, "They're screaming 'PAINT ME'".  I was at some sort of standstill and couldn't decide what to do with the upper portion of the walls.  I wanted something funky...something bright.  But what? 

Then, the other day it came to me.  I thought about painting this design, but decided that would take way more time that I had. See, the boys were sleeping, which means I have a small window of opportunity.

So I grabbed some scrapbooking paper (which I already had) and sliced the sheets into triangles.  I made 6 triangles per 12 x 12 sheet of paper, which means I ended up cutting quite a bit of paper in order to trim out the entire room. 

I adhered the triangles in a pattern on the walls with...umm...not the best choice...scrapbooking adhesive.  Hey, it's what was available.  Don't judge.  Also, don't try this at home 'cause it won't last!  I recommend spray adhesive or something similar so that the triangles do not come falling down like snowflakes while you're playing in said room.  (Yes, I'm currently working on updating this portion of my design.)

Anyway, here's the finished project.  Well, almost finished.  I still have something I need to add to one of the walls.  Just haven't gotten there, yet. 

Oh, the framed artwork and sculptures on the shelf are courtesy of a future Monet...Miss Merisa.  Seriously, that girl has talent!  She's very abstract with her art, and I love it!!!  

 

 

 

 There ya have it!  A bit of our playroom revealed!  The curtains are circa Goodwill 2012, and the walls display custom artwork. Could it get any better?

*Disclaimer:  My dreams of a toy-free living room have been shattered!  The toys have a stupendous ability to migrate to EVERY room of our house in a matter of seconds.  Seriously, it's mind-bending!

Eggs, Eggs And More Eggs...

It's like we've become some sort of "Egg-land" around here.  Seriously, there are EGGS of every sort and color scattered throughout our homestead.  It's crazy, y'all!

Exhibit A:  During Spring Break, Merisa made eggs out of embroidery floss and glue.

The finished project looked a little like this (minus one yellow egg):

I intended for it to be a fun FAMILY ACTIVITY, but Logan wouldn't have anything to do with it. Guess the glue-goo was more than he could handle. Funny, since he's the kid who requires FIVE baths a day!

Once the eggs were dried, a certain little someone decided one of the eggs would look much better like this:

Exhibit B:  We colored Easter eggs, which is always quite the experience around here.  As always, Merisa had a blast.

As for Logan, he didn't want anything to do with the "mess" at first, but he later changed his mind. 

Me: Logan, see how your sister is nicely dipping her eggs in the dye using the DIPPER?  Why don't you try coloring some eggs.

Logan translates this to: My mom has no clue how to dye eggs the MAN way!  I think the wooden spoon would be a much better choice. 

Me:  Umm...let's try something different.

Logan decides:  Oh, wait! The TONGS.  I MUST try using the tongs!...BEST. IDEA. EVER!

Me: Be careful!  You might drop your egg if you use those tongs. They're not meant for EGGS.

Logan again translates this to: Guess my mom wants me to be inventive and save the eggs.  I'll just dunk my entire HAND into the green dye!  That should work!

One day I WILL be one step ahead of my kids....right?!

Exhibit C: Merisa decorated the ENTIRE house will Easter egg cards that she made. There is at least one egg for every person under the sun.  No joke!  Each egg has a nice little note...or...silly joke.  Does this remind you of anyone?!

I typically don't do a lot of photo editing, but the writing wouldn't show up any other way!

Exhibit D:  Remember those eggs the kids dyed? 

Well, Logan is obsessed with them!  He carries them around ALL. DAY. LONG!  Seriously!  He runs to the frig, looks anxiously for the egg carton, carefully removes them from the frig, cautiously walks them to the nearest destination, and gently removes each egg so he can line them up in one single row. 

Then, he places the precious eggs back into the carton and returns them to the frig.  Moments later, this said process is repeated over and over again!  Guess he'll be getting a carton of eggs for his birthday.  I'm certain he'd be more than ecstatic about this.

Exhibit E:  We...okay *I*...decided to invest in Easter Egger chickens.  Let me tell you that chickens grow extremely FAST!  I'm so glad my kiddos aren't chickens. (Yep, I'm just going to leave that sentence like that.  Odd, I know!) 

So the other day, I look down and notice the chickens' legs are BLUE!  What?!  I panicked a bit!  I mean, last time I checked blue extremities meant bad circulation!  Ya know, like their legs were about to fall off! 

I'm thinking Man, I've somehow managed to kill the chickens' LEGS!  How did I possibly do that? Maybe it's the fact that I know absolutely NOTHING about farm animals. 

So I did some checking...aka: texted my friend with all the chicken knowledge.  Keeping my anxiety on the down-low, I casually asked what her chickens' legs looked like. 

Gasp!

GREEN legs are NORMAL! 

Yes, I said green.  Yesterday, the chickens had blue, but today, they are definitely green. It doesn't look too odd on the dark colored chicken, but on the cream colored ones...not so good!  It looks like they were helping Logan dye his eggs...or possibly...they need a leg amputation! 

Anyway, all is well!  The chickens are okay!  Gasp.

Project Life 2012...

Thanks to the never-ending wealth of knowledge found on Pinterest...I've started 1,523 projects!  Seriously, if you somehow don't know about Pinterest, keep it that way!  Do not pass go!  Do not collect $200!

It's terribly addicting!

I decided to share ONE of the projects on my current to-do list!  I'm always adding/changing that list...since I have no ability to stay focused on ONE project! 

Anyway, I've started a little something known as Project Life by Becky Higgins. 
*Brief explanation:  Pictures and journaling showcasing your life on a weekly basis.*

I've always "tried" to be a scrapper...strong emphasis on "tried"!  I own a lot of paraphernalia, and I really want to use it.  For some reason whenever I got together with friends to scrap, I would just stare in awe of their work and NEVER accomplish anything!  No joke!  I even went to a few weekend scrap-a-thons only to bring home maybe ONE completed page!  Seriously, how is that possible?  No kids there to distract me, yet I did nothing!  All I wanted to do was look at everyone's creativeness and not work on my own.  Pathetic!

So I came across Project Life and was immediately sold on the idea.  I take A LOT of pictures (in case you didn't notice), and I've always journaled!  Put the two together...and voila...Project Life!  Plus, it's a way to use up the materials I already own. 

Here are a few of the pages that I've completed.  I have more, but I didn't want to post too many this go round.  Warning...they are NOT scraptastic, but that's the beauty of it.  I was able to be a little creative, and it didn't take a lot of time.  Sitting down with little pieces of paper, ribbon, and glue dots does not pair well with active children! 

The best part...combining pictures with journaling in order to capture the little ones in all of their cuteness.  Hope they enjoy it one day!

(Please ignore the reflections caused by the page protectors!)

Week 3:

Week 4:

Week 5:

My Homemade Resolution...

Had to add some sort of picture.  Aren't they cute?!

12 Homemade Items for 2012

I've decided to publicly blog about my New Year's Resolution...to make things myself!  This way you can hold me accountable.  I always need some sort of motivation so I'm hoping this works.  I've chosen 12 items...one item for each month.  I would like to do more, but I'm guessing it will be hard enough for me to keep up with 12!  I have the whole EYES ARE BIGGER THAN MY STOMACH syndrome!  So here it goes...

January:   Homemade Bread
Now that I have a bread machine, making bread from scratch is definitely at the top of my list! I'll try some of these recipes along with some from my new cookbook!  I can't wait!  This family goes through a TON of bread so this has to be a good thing!

February:  Homemade Meal Planning  
No link here as I'm going to either do this solo or use a bunch of different recipes/menu ideas.  Please wish me luck!  I think this will be the hardest one for me to do...as you know, cooking isn't my thing so planning ahead may cause internal combustion!

March:  Homemade Laundry Detergent 
A friend of mine has been doing this for years so I thought I'd give it a try.  With the amount of laundry that we do, surely this would save me some money.  Will see if it's worth it!

April:  Homemade Dishwasher Detergent  
This sounds easy enough, but I'm sure something will go wrong.  I'll let you know in April!

May:  Homemade Veggies  
Okay, so I don't have a link for this one either since I'm going to do this with a little help from my real-life friends.  I'm going to have a REAL garden this year...ya know, start the veggies from seeds and grow everything under the sun!  I tried this last year, but when you're belly is so large that it's next to impossible to bend over and weed the said garden...things get a bit out of control!  Hoping to have a much better garden this year!

June: Homemade Rag Quilt  
I'm more than excited to try this!  I might have to start this in a day or two in order to have it done by June, but that's okay.  I have so much down time that I'm always looking for something to do! =)  

July:  Homemade Chore Chart
I'm hoping this will help me out around the house, but I'm probably being a little too optimistic!  A clean house + shopping money for kids = ONE happy family!

August:  Homemade Lavender Wand  
I HEART lavender, and this should be an easy way to showcase it...plus, make everything smell yummy!

September:  Homemade Applesauce
I know what you're thinking...this will NOT end well!  You're probably right, but I really want to learn how to store food and thought that this might be the easiest way for me to get my feet wet!  Of course, I'll blog my results.  Bet you can't wait! =)

October:  Homemade Picture Canvas
Pictures on canvases seem to be all the rave...expensive to purchase, but look fun (and inexpensive) to make.  So I'm going to give it a try.  This may prove to be a total disaster, but I'm game!

November:  Homemade Shadow Boxes
I've ALWAYS wanted to make these for the kids.  I thought that by adding it towards the end of the year might make it more likely that it will be accomplished!  Plus, they would make great Christmas gifts.

December:  Homemade Ribbon Wreath
These are SO adorable!  Merisa would LOVE this for her door.  Can't say the boys would want one, but I would only need one for their door since both of their names start with "L"!  Clever, huh?!  Don't answer that!

Please keep me on-task...ask me how my projects are going each month!  I'm such a procrastinator, and I get easily distracted so I can't make any promises!  See my real resolution should be to learn how to "follow through", but I'm not sure if that's possible! =)  What's your resolution?

Gotta LOVE Great Ideas...

I just wanted to share this.  I found a great way of entertaining my extremely busy 2-year old!!  He doesn't like to sit for very long.  I think his brain must go a mile a minute...LITERALLY!  So I've been trying to figure out a way to keep him busy while I feed the baby or heck, just so he will stay off the kitchen counter!  (Side note...he is able to climb onto the kitchen counter without using a step-stool, chair, the occasional toy car, etc.!  And he's been doing this for a year...NO JOKE!  He's part monkey...I am quite certain about this!)

Anyway, if you have little ones, you might want to check out this idea.  Why I never thought about it, I don't know.  I guess I'm still new to this whole parenting/stay-at-home-mom thing.  Maybe one day I'll learn! :)  Three kids later, you'd think I'd be an expect...in case you didn't know, I'm NOT!  Let's just say I've been known to leave the garage, drive down the drive, and hear Merisa yell...THE BABY IS NOT BUCKLED!  Really?!  Next thing you'll know, I'll be grocery shopping and realize that little Levi is at home by himself!  Poor kid...good thing Merisa's looking out for him; for his mother has no clue! :)

So check out this post if you want to know more about Quiet Time Bins!!  (Hope it's legal to link to other blogs like this!  I don't know anything about "blogging etiquette"!)