What shall I do today?

So the local news stations have issued a "Deadly Heat Advisory" for this weekend. I'm already not enjoying the heat, thinking of frozen cocktails to make and ways to occupy my time indoors. With the kitchen construction done now, we need to start filling the gaps (ie: shopping). I needed trivets and napkins, so I came up with a way to make use of what I already had.

A couple of yards of fabric and my serger and I had four sets of napkins in a jiffy!

Then I moved on to some trivets. For this I used a few leftover tiles of cork, some fabric scraps from the bin at Jo Ann's and my trusty Eileens Tacky spray glue. Lo and behold, I had several trivets in bright, cheery colors and patterns.

How are you being creative today?

Until next time, Think Happy Thoughts!

The Fabulous Pool Build

***   This is a delayed post from last summer ~ 

For years now, I have dreamed of spending my summer days and nights in a lush, tropical paradise of my own. When we purchased our home, we were happy to see that there was a lovely backyard, full of green grass for our two young toddlers to play. We had our share of playhouses and swingsets, too. Our favorite was the one my boss gave us......As you can see, it gave the boys endless hours of fun!

 

Yet, our yard was destined for change....much like every other square inch of our house!

We began our journey - researching pool builders, combing through photos of pools and backyards online and in magazines, finally deciding on a local builder rather than a large national company. We started with removing the lawn ourselves - not fun - and I highly doubt we would do this again. The equipment was hard to use and required much more labor than we anticipated, but it was certainly worth the savings.

Once the yard was clear of all the grass, it was time for the builder to come and spray paint the outline of the pool. That was fun - we watched the shape change as we made adjustments on the spot! And then a week later, after a very long battle with the city over a public easement resting within our property lines, the big trailer arrived........

And five hours later.....we had the beginning stage of our pool and a missing section of fencing.

 

The next few weeks were all about the electrical lines, plumbing and rebar. We made only slight adjustments in these stages and the crews moved along quickly. 

Within a few weeks, one failed inspection and one very grateful passed inspection, we were ready for the cement. The truck arrived on eldest son's birthday - pretty cool and exciting! Within a few days we had the gunite stage complete and all the cool deck poured.

Finally, the tile and pebble tech finish was applied. We moved through this stage very quickly. The wall had been replaced by the time the pebble tech crew arrived and within hours we spraying down the pool with water to keep the finish wet. It cured overnight and they came to "clean it" the next morning, washing the blue away and revealing a beautiful finish of pebble tech.

The next day, we were swimming! Note, very happy boys......and a very happy Momma! My dream has come true. We can now enjoy endless days of fun!

Tween Bedroom Reveal

It must be that age, right around ten years old - not old enough to be a teenager but too old to be a little kid anymore. They start negotiating and sometimes, even will bribe given the opportunity,  for bigger and better things to entertain themselves with. In addition, my boys have started negotiating for bedrooms that are not considered "boyish." 

We started with paint colors, of course - it's the easiest way to change the look of a room! The red-headed wonder decided on red, white and blue. He wanted blue walls originally, and with my master negotiating skills (maybe that's where he gets it), I was able to convince him to either a stripe or one wall or half way up the wall. He had to sleep on it.

Glidden offered some really great choices of red and blue and we were able to play with the "paint your room" app on their website. The color decision was made painlessly - rich navy
and cranberry zing.

The decision on stripe versus one wall required one more night of "sleeping on it." The next morning over a bowl of Cheerios, it was announced that a stripe would be pretty cool, but could it be a racing stripe? I figure how hard can that be? I must not have been awake yet.

After realizing just what I've agreed to, I decide to start researching painting racing stripes on Pinterest (yes, where else would I go?) and lo and behold, there's lots of advice! Once you get past the hurdle of measuring and taping, according to multiple pinners, you MUST paint the base color over the tape, so as to prevent the colors from bleeding through. Silly textured walls!

My favorite and most helpful post was this one: http://homeandawaywithlisa.com/blog/tag/man-cave

While paint was drying, we started shopping for football "stuff" for the walls. If I haven't mentioned it already, about one thousand times, Hobby Lobby is my FAVORITE store. They carry really great products, there's lots of stuff on sale ALL THE TIME, and they are closed on Sundays. Yes, I did just say that! When I first heard that, I thought WHAAAT? But, I have come to appreciate the fact that they allow their employees time to observe Sundays with their families. It's the way it used to be and quite frankly, we can use a little more of that nowadays.

Shopping with a tween boy can be quite challenging. They have formed their own opinions by this stage, and sometimes their tastes are not quite aligned with ours. But, we had fun. It's football decor, after all. I mean, that was a given fun experience for me! I think I was the one who had to be roped in a couple of times!

 Absolutely LOVE this quote!

After all, moving into the teenage years, this is going to become VERY important!


First up was hanging the new headboard on the wall. I used the fabric covered headboard tutorial found here: http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/02/diy-tufted-headboard.html. We had previously completed a headboard for our older son's room using particle board and drilling the holes for the buttons, but this was SO MUCH easier!

The secret is pegboard! Yes, pegboard has all the holes pre-drilled. Like I said, so much easier.

Jenny's tutorial was fabulous and the headboard was completed in one afternoon. MINUS the one incident! I should start by saying I consider myself to be a pretty handy "DIY" person. I am not afraid of power tools, I know my way around a workshop and I am brave enough to tackle most projects solo. However, on this particular day, I will admit that I was racing through - trying to finish in time for school pickup, and I made one grave mistake......I mistook the nail gun for the staple gun. Now, in my defense, they look pretty similar. And I skipped my usual step of making certain there were enough staples in the chamber. Had I done this I would not have needed to call one of my bestie girlfiends for her nursing expertise.

Yes, I used the nail gun and shot a finish nail STRAIGHT through my index finger, missing the bone by what I'm certain was only millimeters. At first, it stung and I thought it was a volt of electricity (the nail gun was hooked up to the air compressor, loaded with about 90 pounds of pressure). Not good - have learned a lesson here!!!!

I think the headboard looks great though!

Over the last few years, we've been replacing the blinds throughout the house. Proudly, I can say we are two windows away from every window having the same type and color of wooden blinds. Of course, once I changed out the blinds in the bedroom, I realized I really didn't care for the valance. It was one of those Target special buys hanging on a skinny curtain rod. It really didn't look "right."

I decided to use the same type of window valance that my friend's mom made for one of her kids' rooms. Seemed pretty easy and I just love the look of custom window treatments! We chose coordinating fabric to match the headboard and I was certain I'd have enough fabric leftover to do pillows for the bed.

 

After a few hours of our own version of TLC's "Clean Sweep" and piles of donations, we were ready to move everything back into the bedroom. Here's a peek at what it looks like....

When my son arrived home from school, and the big reveal took place, he shouted "This room is SO MUCH BETTER than before." So glad I was able to make him happy!

Now, off to my oldest son's room..... he has been dreaming of all sorts of cool stuff to do in there! I heard mention of a chalkboard wall the other day......hmmmmmm.....

Have a crafty day!

Chores for Hire

It seems we've tried every chore chart known to man. We do really well with the system for the first week, then we forget about it. I scoured the blogs looking for something that was not too childish, but still was easy to follow. After all, chores are not fun - no matter how you spin it!




A few years ago, we had something similar to this, showcased at Money Saving Mom. The boys very quickly outgrew this, but it is perfect for the little ones.
 

 

Over at Home Made by Carmona, there is a new twist on the boring old chore chart. This seemed to appeal to everyone in our house, so we decided to put it into action.

We made individualized charts so the boys can keep track of what they need to do. It's all about helping out around here, and showing responsibility. We used the "Work for Hire" that Ursula Carmona designed as incentive for doing extras. These are grabbed up pretty quickly (although you can see that there is still one lonely one on the chart above. Apparently the door trim and doorknobs are NOT getting wiped down this week! For the most part, this has worked very well for us!