When you care enough to send the very best!

Yesterday when Nick went back to school, the girls all got together and made a card and wrote him a song. It is so touching. I can't tell if they like him or hate him. Here it is.



Nick's Song

Nick is a retard he broke his freakin arm.
He was slippin and a slidin on freakin dirt bike and crashed into a barn.
YOU ARE AN IDIOT!!

GET WELL!....

And try not to do anything stupid!

But we all know that won't happen. K

hey Nickle butt, eye wuv yeww! D

But it will (do something stupid) Love Mental

You are the BIGGEST retard ever! Hope you get well! Luv U bunches! NOT! C

Memo Boards

Have you seen the Memo Boards on all the blogs? They are cheap, easy and you can make one in less than 10 mins. Here is my first attempt.

I had a huge blank wall in my pantry. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to hang in there. I knew I did not want a big piece of art or a mirror. I was thinking about going to a thrift store and buying a neat old frame and painting it black and putting a cork board in the middle.

The other day I was reading Nester's Blog and came across her Easy Memo Board. I had everything on hand, except the ring hooks. I found them at Hobby Lobby for $5.99. Over all each board cost under $10.00 to make. When Hobby Lobby has their painter's canvas half off, I'm going back to get one more, maybe 2. I think 3 or 4 boards on the wall would look really nice.

Here's how I started.


First I started with painter's canvas, fabric, ring hooks, ribbon and staple gun.



Then lay your fabric on your canvas and staple to the back. Can't get any easier than that. at this point, you are 3/4 of the way done.


Next put a piece of ribbon through a ring hook and and staple to the back of the frame. You will want to put several hooks on. I stapled some across the top of the back. I also stapled a ribbon going across the board about half way and 3/4 of the way down. I slid my hooks on the ribbon and stapled going across the board. If you enlarge my first picture you might be able to see. (Sorry I don't have a photo of this).

Next find a big blank wall and hang it.

Vinyl Letters

Ok, I'm back. My post belows talks about how I bought jars at Wal-Mart. I organized my pantry and wanted to label my jars. After walking around Hobby Lobby, trying to find something amazing to use, I decided to use what I had on hand. My Silhouette maker would be perfect. So, I came home empty handed.

Here you can see, plain old jar. Not very exciting.

Next I cut out my letters..... then apply to jar.

Wow! Look at that. Completely changes the jar.

GOSH DARN IT! Cereal is not in that jar, it has Powdered Sugar in it. Hold on, I will be back.


Hopefully everything is labeled correctly. Wouldn't it be something if they ate bird seed instead of cereal?

If you would like to learn more about the Silhouette maker....go to Youtube and do a search for Quickutz Silhouette. Here are couple of ones that I like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TAtsMLeStA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei68tyyj7EQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyOjnn1Qr10

Cleaning the Pantry

Before

Those that follow my blog know that my youngest son, Nick, broke his arm. For those that don't know, Nick loves to stay home. Now that he is injured and has an excuse, there is no getting him out of the house. I'm about to go crazy, we have not left the house since Wednesday when he had his surgery. Yesterday I decided to clean out my pantry. I have been wanting to clean it out for the last month. Might as well do it while I'm stuck at home.
After

Oh, this is so much better, I can see everything we have.

Last week Wal-mart had their jars on clearance, I bought every single one they had. In the above picture I put cereal, powdered sugar, bird seed, anything that was in a bag, I'm now storing them in the jars.

I have been looking at different blogs and all the cool things they have done to their jars.
Thrifty Decor Chick labeled her jars.

She even painted rulers with chalkboard paint and labeled each section in the pantry. Too CUTE!!!


Kimm at Reinvented painted her jars with chalkboard paint and then labeled them with chalk. Love this idea also!


My Sweet Savannah labeled her jars also.

I have some ideas, I'll be back later to show you what I did. :)

Yard Visitors

These were the visitors we had this morning. I looked out the bedroom window and there were 10 deer in the middle of Nick's RC track. By the time I ran and got my camera, some of them had left.(Don't they know they are to remain together and standing still until I take their photo?) The photo is not that great. Taking it through the screen blurred the pic. And then when I opended the window, the deer that were still there ran off.

Home from the Hospital!

Hey everyone, we finally made it home from the hospital. Nick crashed his motorcycle last night and broke his arm where it attaches to the shoulder. They sent him home last night and wanted him to come back today for his surgery. Of course I had to take the camera. I don't know if the look on his face is from the pain or if it is because of the camera stuck in his face. Notice his half of a wave. Anyways, now that his arm is back in place he feels 100% better.
And this is how he has been since we walked in the door. All of his friends have been calling to see how he is doing. He must be feeling better, he has a grin.

The leprechauns made a visit

Happy Saint Patricks Day! During the night the leprechauns made a visit to our house.

My mom was reading a blog the other day and the poster showed how the leprechauns stopped at their home and left a bunch of green candy. I did not see the post, so sorry if this was your idea. If so, let me know and I will give you credit. Anyways, I copied her idea. Here is what we did.



On each of my sons' bedside tables we left a bunch of green candy, oops, I mean the leprechauns left a bunch of green candy.
Then from their rooms they left a trail of gold coins leading into the bathroom (if you follow my blog, yes, they are using their new bathroom).
In the bathroom the leprechauns left a pile of gold coins on the bathroom sink. They must have been playing in the water because the sink and toilet both had green water.

Update- The boys just left for school, of course wearing green. Since they are both older, 14 and 12, I didn't know if they would get into the leprechaun thing. They did, huge hit. Nick even came downstairs and said the leprechauns messed his room up (Ummm for some reason I think the room was already a mess before the naughty leprechauns stopped by). And then when he couldn't find his jacket, you guessed it, the leprechauns must have hidden it. Mom in High Heels just left a comment about her blog. They are several hours ahead of us, she posted about the green food they had for Breakfast and lunch. Now I'm off to the store so we can have a green dinner.

Once upon a time there was a plain beige bathroom

Thanks to Susan for hosting Metamorphosis Monday. Click the butterfly to the right and it will take you to Susan's site for a list of other great projects.



Before


This past week I have been very busy trying to take my sons' boring beige bathroom and turn it in to something they would love. Their rooms are upstairs and they share this bathroom. They hated it and would never use it, even in the middle of the night they would come downstairs, at 2 a.m., turn on all the lights and use the bathroom downstairs.

One day I was reading Nester's blog and she said something about, "it doesn't have to be perfect". Nester also had a post about how they fixed their kitchen up to sell the house and how she wished she had done it long ago so she could have enjoyed it. I decided I wasn't going to wait for a carpenter or someone to come do it for me, I was going to do it all by myself, it didn't have to be perfect. Thanks Nester!

This is what I started with, a boring beige bathroom

One week and $400.00 later, this is the after.

At first I was just going to paint the bathroom and buy some matching towels. Well, you know how one thing leads to another. One day while reading Karla's blog
It's the little things that make a house a home I came across this. (Hi Karla, hope you don't mind I stole your picture)
I knew this look would be perfect in the bathroom. Go check out her blog, she gives directions.

I called my friend, Cindy, told her to come over I had a project and this is how we spent the day. That is me in the photo.



By the end of the day, this is what we had accomplished. Is it perfect? No. Does it matter? No.




Next came the paint. I found several old looking sports pictures, I pulled the colors for the paint from those pictures. I love the red.


We started out with the cheap premade cabinets that you buy at Lowes or Home Depot. Even though this bathroom never was used, the cabinets looked pretty sad. I painted them black. So of course, they needed new handles and hinges. I can't believe what a difference the handles made, cost was around $30.00
Before
After

The nice new paint job on the cabinet made the big plain mirror look terrible. I bought trim, cut it to the length I needed and attached it to the mirror with Velcro. The trim for the mirror was $30-$40. The nice new trim around the mirror needed a new light, $100.00. I called the electrician to come hang it for me. He couldn't come until next week, so I did it myself. And Hey, it works!!
After
Before

Next came the accessories. I knew my kids would never fold towels neat and place them on towel bars, so I put up hooks. I think they were around $5- $6 each at Home Depot. I am loving these, I will probably put these hooks in all of my bathrooms.



To finish the bathroom I hung shelves, place hand towels in old locker baskets I got from our local grade school, added old tins that I bought years ago, placed soap and other bathroom items in jars that I found at Wal-Mart on clearance, added a light because that was one of the things you need in Nester's post on "Having a bathroom you love". And there you have it, hopefully a bathroom my kids will use. And I can not tell you how satisfying it is to be able to say that I did everything in there by myself (My friend, Cindy, did help me hang the boards).




Thanks for stopping by my blog. Keep scrolling down to read each day's progress and the "how to" on framing the mirror.

Wild Thing......I think I love you!

This morning when I looked out my bedroom window this is what I saw. 19 turkey hens and 3 Toms. (Don't you just love my son's motocross track through the middle of our field?)



Surely this big guy in the middle will find at least one hen that thinks he is attractive.


Update.......The tom turkeys strutted their stuff for about 10 mins. and then left with nothing to show for it. Maybe next time guys!

Boys' Bathroom- Lights

My husband worked late and the kids went roller skating. I have the house to myself on a Saturday night, what should I do? Well, of course, put up a new light.

I called the electrician but he won't be here until next week. I can't wait that long! So I decided to do it myself.


Here is the before, Yuck, Ugly, Bad!


This is much better. The light is centered. The angle of the picture makes it look off to the side, but I assure you, it is in the middle of the mirror.


Yes! It works!


Granna: if you have a light there, you are going to have to put your new light in its place. Otherwise you will need to patch sheetrock, and that's a lot more work than I want to do. If the location of your old light is in a bad spot, I would suggest hiring it done. They will need to move wires, patch sheetrock.

Boys' Bathroom- Frame the Mirror

Today I framed the mirror. My mirror is 4' x 3' and I have less than $40.00 in this project.

Here's the before, Boring!

And here is the after. I can't believe the difference. Oops, sorry about the white boards to the left of the picture, I should have moved them.

And here is how you frame your mirror. It is so simple you will want to frame every mirror you own. I buy the little, fancy squares so I don't have to do a lot of angle cutting. By using the squares you can make a straight cut.

Here you can see I have all of my boards cut the length I need. Next place your vel-cro to the back. You don't need much, this stuff will stick FOREVER! I have it in my master bath and tried to pull it off a couple of months ago to take a picture. I didn't think I would ever get it pulled off.

Then just stick it up. How simple is that?

And you end up with this.


The only things I have left to do in here is hang the new light fixture above the mirror and find some boards for my shelves. Check back Monday. I'm going to try and post it on Metamorphosis Monday.