Just your typical manic weekend...

Jack challenged me to a duel. Or needed to see that mommies can do anything daddies can do... Please note my leveled perfection: Jack's new closet is finished and awesome and spacious. I am Mommy, hear me use power tools.

I taught myself to knit this week so this weekend I started making a woolie. (Which is a wool diaper cover and is waterproof. It's also fuzzy and precious.)

I celebrated International Handstand Day on Sunday, June 26th.

And I went to yoga class this weekend for 14 hours.

Cheap Upgrades

The couch needed some color so for $30 I picked up some fabric and re-used some old pillows and voila! New trendy pillows that match the colors of the room! Fabulous!

The dining room wall needed some interest.

A bunch of old unused picture frames, 2 cans of white spray paint, and some black and white photos.... TaDa!

I love that trying to do thins inexpensively forces me to get creative with what we already have. As an added bonus this means I'm keeping old things out of a landfill by giving them a new purpose!

I made that!

Hanging clothes and diapers on the line to dry is great. Trying to juggle clothes pins and wet clothes is not. Move over June Cleaver! Problem solved.

Perfect!

Cold at night while watching TV?

No problem!

Okay, I didn't exactly make this but I grew it and it was delicious!!

How Eric Carle and Vincent van Gogh teach recycling

I was going to save this till Monday, but I just couldn't wait!

Friday was a busy day! I'm finally feeling pretty much better from my earlier hernia surgery. So to celebrate in typical Emily fashion I took on entirely too much at once.

I saw a "Make art like Eric Carle" blog somewhere in the vastness of the web, but I don't remember where I saw it so my apologies. But since I don't remember where I found it other than the inspiration to do the project and to use an Exacto to cut the shapes out the ideas are entirely my own so that's something I suppose. (If you've done an Eric Carle project feel free to link it up.) First, I took down the reigning space painting from Jack's room and decided to reuse the canvas. I do this ALL THE TIME. 1. because artists have been reusing canvas for centuries and 2. because a good canvas is not cheap! You should sand down excess paint and rough the surface before 'clearing' the canvas. (Photo credit, Jack)

Second, you recruit some slave labor... I mean... a helper to paint over the original work in Gesso.

Then you celebrate your artistic victory.

Streak some paper (Eric Carle uses high quality tissue paper but you should really see how he does it- trust me, you WANT to click that link!) Construction paper with acrylic paint was what I chose because it's sturdy, easy to cut and easy for my pint-sized assistant to work with.

Then take a breather while you watch 'the boys' work together to saw off the legs of your bar stools. (Because I asked, not because they're trying to destroy my barstools or anything).

Then you watch Jack finish painting his dragon and help him glue the fire in its mouth. This was a great project- but if you don't want to do some of the mache yourself don't try it with a 3 year old! Hah! We had a blast with this one! Jack asked me to make Night Fury from How to Train Your Dragon. He loved this project from start to finish.

After putting the kids to bed I busted out my brand new Exacto and new fangled cutting board thingy and got to work. I free-handed my cuts but what makes this brilliant is you could pretty easily print a coloring book page and cut the shapes and then trace them on your painted paper.

After a great debate on facebook about the color the background should be, a Starry Night inspired background won over the white and black options I had thrown out there. So I got to work with some watered down blues, greys and a black.

I 'glued' the shapes on to the canvas using a matte medium, which is basically paint that is clear so it was the perfect glue and top coat for this project. Then I added some crayon to create atmosphere around the planets. The final photo is the best we could do but really does not do the thing justice at all.

I need a better camera... I think I'm one of the last hold-outs to get a D-SLR. Tell me I'm not alone!!

And If you're thinking to yourself "She never added Henry's 11 month picture, you're right! But it was not for lack of trying. Every. Single. Photo. I took was total crap, bad light, out of focus, so frustrating! (See my earlier comment about a new camera.)

Wall Flowers

They're not just a euphemism for shy people anymore!

With the new paint in our master bedroom and new floors the walls needed something to spice them up. Our ceiling slopes with the roof peak so I wanted some wall art that would highlight that. I really wanted the art to be three dimensional and repeating, so my usual go-to of buying a canvas and whipping something up was a no-go.Then I found myself watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Normally I find that show to be really tiresome... it's just weird that the designers are doing more acting than they are designing. Anyhow, they made a flower out of scraps of fabric and I thought to myself "I could totally do that."

And here we are.First I went to the fabric store and hunted down fabrics that appealed to me. I wanted the pattern to look good even if I was using a tiny little piece of fabric; the colors needed to coordinate with my 'neutrals' bedroom, and I felt like I needed at least 7 different fabrics so the pattern was sufficiently random. (In total, I spent $8 on this project!)Then I went to our gigantic pile of empty flooring boxes and pilfered some cardboard. Used one of my beloved Sharpie markers (my love runs deep) and sketched out the flower. I cut the cardboard with heavy duty kitchen scissors but a box cutter or Exacto would work too.Then it was time to cut the fabric. After quite a bit of trial and error I found that a triangle piece of fabric worked best. This piece is about 4inches wide at the hypotenuse. I did use a variety of sizes and none of them are cut measured or cut to perfection.Here is how I folded the pieces. (It kinda reminds me of a diaper!)This is what a piece looks folded and glued at the pleat.Here are a few in place. I put a dab of hot glue on the back of the 'petal' shape and glued it directly to the cardboard. The task itself was repetitive so once I got the hang of it I was set!

Here is a finished flower. I worked from the outside towards the center and used curled ribbon for the center, but it would also look cute with a button placed there.

I used cotton and canvas fabrics because that was the look I was going for but you could mix it up and add silk/sateen or lace or felt. I'm thinking it wouldn't look right with fleece, but that's just my opinion!

I glued a loop of ribbon to the back to make hanging them a breeze. They are so light-weight that I was able to use push pins to hang them. Which means I could do it during nap time- Score!

Making the Alphabet

I wanted to create a 'found' alphabet for the wall in the playroom. Here's how I did it:

I started this project in my head a long time ago (October) and I even made the letter O out of willow tree branches at that time. The letters J and H hung in Jack and Henry's rooms but when Jack's room became an Outer Space room and Henry's room became a Dinosaur room there was not space for their letters. So I held on to them thinking I might find a new home for them in this little project.

The idea for this originally came from that Pottery Barn alphabet bedroom. I'm not one to squee over Pottery Barn normally. They have cute things, no doubt, but I don't think they sell things that are so cute that they justify the price. The cutest things in the catalogue are designed by room stagers for the product photo shoots and they're usually the things that aren't for sale (except for that dinosaur pillow sham).

Anyway, I digress.

So the idea is from Pottery Barn (Kids). I started by going to my local craft stores and buying letters I liked. I tries to pick letters far apart in the alphabet (as you can see the layout of the letters was toyed with quite a bit) so I wasn't sure which letters would end up above or below others but if I liked a particular design I picked up a few hoping they'd look hap-hazard enough.

Hanging them on the wall was tricky. Not gonna lie. I decided that letter N should be the center and then measured and hung the other letters with mostly equal spacing. I made my husband help me with this part because sometimes I needed the letter held at the wall to eye-ball the spacing.

I used paper with the missing letters written on them and wrote a note on the bottom what the letter would be so for example: Letter C says- "C, painted buoy". Letters F, K, L, Q and T are vinyl and were ordered online. My mom got a buoy for me near her home at the beach, and the last by not least to arrive is the letter I, the magnifying glass.

In case you can't tell (because sometimes my photos are enlargeable and sometimes they're not): letters B, S, and Y are wooden letters that I glued buttons to the front of- I love how they turned out. Letter U is a horseshoe. And Letters N and R used to be a brassy/gold color but I didn't like how it went in the space so I coated them in silver paint.

I don't love that the letter L and T are the same and so close together so I might make the T out of two sticks of wood from the woods near my house. Also the spacing between the A, B and C is a little wider than I'd like so I'll probably scoot those in a bit. As with all good artistic endeavors they are never truly finished.

If you're thinking to yourself...

"She's been a little manic about the projects lately" -you're not wrong. I've had quite a bit craftyness build up because the whole time we were trying to sell our house I wasn't working on anything. We didn't do anything around the house and I wasn't doing any of my own lil' projects because I was too worried about having to clean them up if someone came for a showing.

So I'm working it out of my system! (That and in the winter I'm stuck inside alot so I get bored, which is always dangerous.)

Back to School

Friday evening if my first day of school. I haven't been inside a classroom since 2005 when I finished my Masters Degree. I had been in school from when I was 5 till I was 24 non-stop. Now, after an almost 6 year hiatus I'm starting an 11 month Hatha Yoga teacher training program.

I thought I'd be more zen, because it's you know Yoga and it's not like I'm getting grades or working towards a GPA- if I complete the program I get certified. I'll be able to teach Beginner, Level 1 and Level 2 Yoga. But I'm not so zen. I have first-day-of-school butterflies, big time! I always get butterflies before the first day.

I'm anxious about the workload. I'm kinda worried because I don't know what to expect from the curriculum or requirements. I'm anxious about doing my best. I'm excited to learn and grow. I hope that the whole breastfeeding thing won't be a challenge because classes run kinda long: Friday 6-9 Saturday 12-6 and Sunday 12-6. Henry's not feeding very often but we've made it this far, so I'd like to get all the way to a year.

I have all my books.I have my new hand-stitched yoga mat bag. (I'm so pleased with how it turned out and how little it cost me!)
I wonder if I should bring an apple for the teachers?

The Making of a Table

I really enjoyed this project. If I'm being totally honest, it was something to do and I really like working with my hands because at the end you get to enjoy a finished product and say "I did that."

Also we were looking to put a piece in our kitchen but because it needed to sit in front of the window we didn't want something that was visually substantial. And this piece was one of ours from way back and it was a choice between giving the table new life and reusing it or donating it and getting something new. The reuse option seemed greener and cheaper, so away we went.

Step One: (Not Pictured) We (meaning I told my husband and he did it) cut the legs of the table down to the height we wanted.

Step Two: (Not Pictured) Rough up the wood. The piece is from Ikea where everything is modern and the lines are clean so it required some wearing in using a file, hammer, pliers, and nail setter.Step Three: (Pictured) Prep for paint. Wipe down the wood, tape off the clean edges (I wanted to keep the butcher block top).Step Four: (Pictured) Oil based primer. Only one coat needed!Step Five: (Not Pictured)Paint in color of choice. I liked this slate blue because it goes well in our kitchen. I chose to use polycrylic instead of polyurethane because polycrylic is more colorless and better preserved the blue.

Step Six: (Pictured) Add a layer of furniture glaze.In retrospect I would have only glazed part of the piece before moving on to the wiping it off step because it dried fast and then was really hard to get off.Step Seven: (Pictured) Wipe off glaze. Wipe off as much as you want to leave the piece looking as distressed/aged/dirty as you like. I actually had to wet a wipe down and use both a wet and dry piece of scrap because it was very hard to wipe off the dried glaze without re-wetting.
Step Eight: (Not Pictured) The piece got a final coat of poly before we put it in place. The final coat protects the glaze from accidentally transferring to clothing or curtains and makes it easier to wipe-down in the event of an inevitable spill.

In total it took about a week to do and the basic instructions I used were from Blue Cricket Design.

Outer Space

We talk about outer space often in this house. All. The. Time. For Christmas Jack got a model of the solar system and he wanted to play with it right away. Well we started working on it together right after the new year. (Note: Jack suited up for the project.) And by together I mean that I painted many many layers with modeling paint while Jack watched, asked me what color I was using, which planet I was painting and occasionally flew around the room in his space ship.

Finally all the planets were painted (sitting in halves on the box) and we were ready to assemble. Well Jupiter and Saturn, true to life are much larger and much heavier that Uranus and Neptune which meant I was not only stringing planets on fishing wire but I was stringing washers and old bolts on the fishing wire and encasing them in the less dense Uranus and Neptune in order for the mobile to hang flat. If Jack had only been a little older this would have been an awesome discussion & experiment on mass.

Then while trying to hang it we got locked in Jack's room.

But eventually we escaped and we are now free to marvel at and discuss the planets as we please.

Now I've moved on.

Tonight I started the dinosaur project for Henry's room. One Stegosaurus down, several other dinos to go.