Image source

My friend pinned this blog post/article on Pinterest.

It's just too good and too powerful and too true not to share.

Framed

My project today came from my local thrift store. Don't you love all of the thrifted and up-cycled projects out there. It feels good to be a little green.

I've been pondering purchasing a framed piece of sheet metal to hang on the wall at the bottom of my stairs to the basement.

I thought it would be a great place to hang snapshots and some of the kids papers.

And I wanted it to be easy to switch them out so I thought a magnetic board would be perfect.

However, I've been pondering and pondering and not acting.

I was at the thrift store the other day and stumbled upon this fun chunky oval frame.

It looked as if in a former life it was a mirror with a metal back.

The mirror was gone but the metal backing was still there.

I think you literally could see the light bulb above my head as I thought about the possible futures for this frame and decided it would be perfect at the bottom of my stairs!

And at only $3 I totally scored!

I am the worlds worst "Before" picture taker. I just get too excited to get started and forget.

Sorry, my bad.

So this is the most before I've got.

I decided I wanted to do a fun semi-bright color because the little wall it would be hanging on is pretty dark and not fun. It needed a little life, a little party going on.

When I went to purchase some spray paint this color called to me so I went for it.

I didn't notice it wasn't regular spray paint, it's protective enamel, until I got home.

It went on nice but the dry time was 24 - 48 hrs.

Forever!!!!

I painted some black glaze on the frame and then wiped most of it off with a cloth.

I wanted the flowers to have a little more depth.

I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I've been considering painting the metal backing with chalkboard paint, but I'm not sure yet. I'll keep thinking on it.

Just Hanging Around - Decorating my living room.

Today I hung pictures on my freshly painted living room walls.

Can I just say Stress-Full!

The walls we'd worked so hard to patch and sand and paint were so beautiful it was hard to make myself take a hammer and nail to it.

So hard in fact I had to call in reinforcements to give me a pep-talk and tell me it was going to be okay!

Aubri's really good at telling me everything is going to be okay and isn't that what friends are for?

As I got ready to hang the pictures I realized I was going to have to use math.....good thing I like math.

Here's what I did just in case you decide to hang a semi-symmetrical-horizontal-parallel picture grouping sometime.

It really helped that my pictures were all 12x12 inch squares.

I found my center and using my level placed painter's tape along the center line making sure it was straight up and down. (the left edge of the purple tape line is the center.)

From there I decided how many inches I wanted between the edge of each picture. Horizontally I wanted each picture to be spaced 7 inches and vertically 5 inches apart.

I  knew the nail would need to be in the center of the picture (6 inches in) so if I divide the center space amount (7 inches) in half = 3.5 inches and add that to the 6 inches to find the center of the photo you get 9.5 inches.

So my first two marks were made 9.5 inches on either side of the center.

Wow sounds like I'm writing a story problem.

From there I added

6 inches + 7 inches (gap) + 6 inches = 19 inches

My next two marks were made 19 inches to the right and 19 inches to the left of the first two marks I made.

I put painters tape on the wall in the general area of each mark and then used a level to measure out and mark each spot with a pencil on the tape.

Now moving up.

5 inch (gap) + 12 picture = 17 inches

Each point was marked exactly 17 inches above the first row.

I used a level again to make sure the marks were straight vertically from each other and straight horizontally.

(This is the point where I called my friend to come and check my work.)

On my pencil mark on the tape I pushed the nail through slightly to make a small hole (indentation) in the wall and then I peeled the tape off and hammered the nail in through the small hole I'd made with the nail.

So, here's my before.

AND...

Here's my after!

What do you think?

I love it!

In fact I can't stop looking at it.

And asking my 4 year old what she thinks.

She finally said, "You keep asking and I keep telling you it looks good. Come-on-mom."

Hmmm? is she 4 or 14?

And here's my button monogram.

I love it too.

I ended up going to Ben Franklin and having them cut a mat for me.

They used some left over matting and I just had them do a basic cut so my final price was mucho inexpensive! Which I like very much, thank you!

This is one of those rare projects that turned out even better than it looked in my brain and that makes me oh so very happy!

Button Monogram tutorial - More projects for my living room

I don't fancy myself a decorator by any means. But I'm still plugging away at my living room.
I thought I'd share the project I tackled today.
Because I'm a little impatient and because I'm a little excited I'm sharing this before I'm completely finished. I still need to get a mat for it. But you understand right?

And just so you know....the frame I'm using was purchased.....ah-hum....5 years ago, to make a button wreath Christmas wall hanging....it sat for a couple of years in my closet waiting, patiently waiting to be  used. Then it sat in a box for 3 years silently lamenting it's potential gone to waste. But now here it is! in all it's glory, the perfect compliment to my button monogram. Hurrah!!


What you'll need:
Buttons (Lots and Lots of various sizes)
Background fabric (my frame was 12 x 12 so I cut my fabric 15 x 15 so I would have enough fabric to wrap around the back and secure it.)
Frame (no glass needed), backing
Cardboard or poster board cut to fit inside frame -- or you could use the glass from your frame as the insert (Just an idea!)
Spray adhesive
Masking tape
fabric glue (clear drying)
Pencil, Paper

What you do:
Probably best to have your frame and matte before you begin.
On a large piece of paper draw out the dimensions of your frame and matte. Mark your center point.
Either sketch out your letter or print your letter from your computer.
I went with sketching as you can see.
Sort out your buttons and begin laying them out along your outline,
What I think makes this project look really great is to have the buttons close and different sizes of buttons filling in gaps.
I even layered a few.
I had some buttons with shanks that I stuck in small gaps so the buttons were above the other buttons.

Backing:
Find the center of your fabric piece, mark it on the wrong side with a small dot using a pencil.
Find the center of your cardboard insert, mark it with a small dot using a pencil.
Spray the cardboard with spray adhesive following the instructions on the can.
Place the center of your fabric on the center of the cardboard.
Use your hands to smooth the fabric out from the center so you don't have any gaps or air bubbles.

Use masking tape to secure your fabric on the back of the cardboard. My 4 year old was very helpful with this part.
Pretty isn't it?

With your backing flat apply a little fabric glue to the back of each button and then place it on the fabric. Starting with the center and working out.
You can do this a couple of ways.

1. Working from your paper move one button over at a time. or
2. Transfer all of the buttons over, make sure your monogram is the way you want it and then glue each button down.

I did the second one. 

I thought about sewing each one one, which would look pretty classy but too labor intensive for me.

Also, I considered using hot glue but then I didn't want to have to deal with all of the glue strings.

So permanent fabric glue is what I ended up using.

Let dry, then insert in your frame and enjoy.

I'll update pics when I get it all finished.

Good luck and enjoy!
Let me know if you have any questions.

Update:
It's finished and hung! I love the way it turned out!

Would you like some?

I thought of serving it and calling it Cajun Style Broccoli...............

........But then it stunk so bad I decided there was no way I could subject my family to that.

The events that transpired that led to the untimely demise of this broccoli are as follows.

Wednesday is a very busy day at our house.

On this particular Wednesday I watched a friend's son for a little while and then took both boys to preschool.

After which I hurried to the elementary school so I could help in middle son's class.

Then I had a conference with the Principal, came home for a little while and then picked the boys up from preschool.

Then I trotted back to the elementary school, picked up the kids and rushed Oldest daughter to her ballet class.

While she was in class I zoomed home to drop off the boys and get them started on their homework.

Then I zipped back to ballet to pick her up and home again to get dinner started so it would be finished in time for her to eat some before she needed to be at her church activity.

(deep breath)

It was around this time that I put the broccoli on the stove.

After she ate and shortly after my husband walked through the door, Oldest daughter and I ran out the door to get her to her activity.

Ten minutes later I was back and ready to eat dinner with the rest of the family.

It was at this point the nasty smell of the broccoli hit me.
(B.T.W. no one else had smelled it yet because they were all out in the yard working and playing)

But because the show must go on and we still had a boy to get to scouts and a family to get fed.

I took the burnt pan outside (where it sat and sat and sat and waited patiently for me to figure out how to clean it.) ---

--I opened the windows------and pulled out some sugar snap peas from the fridge ---so we could still have a vegetable with our dinner. ---

---You know, balanced meal and all that.

NOW----my house still stinks something AWFUL!!!!

Which reminded me of that old Saturday Night Live sketch where someone smells something really bad like sour milk and then says, "That stinks. Come Smell This" and then they all pass it around agreeing that it really stinks. 
That memory made me laugh so I guess my Cajun Broccoli isn't ALL BAD.

The moral of the story.

DON'T COOK BROCCOLI WHEN YOU ARE IN A HURRY OR WHEN YOU HAVE 15 - 20 OTHER THINGS ON YOUR MIND.

THE END
-A-STINKY-MUNDO!

P.S. I cleaned the pan with a little boiling water and baking soda. Sometimes the old standby cleaning agents work best.

Note: I have a secret.....I have a family blog that's private....I've kept it for quite a few years....I was going through some older posts....I thought I'd share a few.....

A little of what I'm working on.

Well, I say a little of what I'm working on but really it's what we (as in my dear husband and I (mostly him though)) have been working on. Because I absolutely needed and wanted his help on this project.
Painting.....
Let's be honest.
It's intimidating and I'm scared of it.
and
He's really good at it. (It's one of the jobs he had to help pay for school.)
and
We have vaulted ceilings double scary.
So, because he loves me we painted our front room.

When we moved into this house almost 3 years ago Every. Single. Room. was painted yellow. I am so sick of yellow. During the day it's a really nice soft off-white yellow but at night it is a screaming burn your retinas yellow except for one wall in the front room which is a khaki yellow. I think the previous owners were going for an accent wall sort of a thing but it's really close to the color of the other yellows so in my opinion it doesn't work. However, I've lived with it for almost 3 years......because....well, I don't know what.....maybe refer to what I said above.....intimidating etc.

But now I have a plan.
I even ordered fabric for my plan.
I really hope when it's all put back together it looks as good in real life as it does in my head.

Living Room 

Before (6:30 AM this morning)

Yellow and Khaki extravaganza

After (2:00 pm this afternoon)

Looks a little more blue than I thought it would.

The paint is "Silver Marlin"

I was going for Grayish-Blueish-Greenish. It's more gray in real-life.

 Another Before

Another After

Final Before

 Final After

My favorite part was watching the new paint cover up the old, dingy, dirty, patched yellow. It just looks so fresh and clean! I love it!

And here's a little preview of my budget friendly photo art for this room. I'm really pretty excited about it.

It involves Modge Podge (which I've decided is my craft supply drug of choice) Love the stuff! It's good for so many things.

Hopefully the room will be back in place soon.

Davy Jones' Locker

I almost forgot to share.

We found Davy Jones' locker!

It's at Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington, USA just in case you were wondering.

Popeye the Harbor Seal was even there.

They thought Popeye was a boy until she showed up with a pup a few years ago.

oops.

Have you heard of Pinterest?

If you've been around blog land lately odds are pretty good you have.

But.

Just in case you haven't let me fill you in.

It's a fairly new social media site but not brand spankin new.

It's a site that allows you to save or "pin"and organize pictures and links you find as you are surfing the Internet.

Not unlike ripping the pages of a magazine to file away or pin on your bulletin board for inspiration later.

Or even bookmarking a spot to come back to.

Only now you can have all of the photos in one place with the links to the source.

It's oh so addicting! and fun! and inspiring!

Be prepared to spend some time looking at all of the fun things people have pinned there.

It's growing......just thought I'd let you in on it.

So, HERE is the Pinterest main page.

Here is my page.

And here are a couple of things I added there today.

mmmMMMmmm...Yummy mints.

http://kitchentrialanderror.blogspot.com/2011/05/creamy-mints.html

Here's another one

Homemade Twix......Brilliant!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/thousand-dollar-bars-recipe

And here's something I found on there today.

Cute, right?

Original source here

Pinterest link here

Happy browsing.

Good for a laugh

I saw some at a local shop today. I laughed so hard I had to share!
I think this may be just what I was looking for, perfect for the family white elephant gift exchange, even thought it wouldn't exactly be a white elephant.

It's a tradition

The tradition started years ago, in Oregon I think.

The kids were little, it was a day off work, we didn't want to spend a lot of money on an activity, we lived close to so many beautiful places to explore.

So, explore we did.......we hiked and we saw salmon leaping up a waterfall, it was glorious.

Time marched forward.

The kids are older, but our youngest is the age our oldest was when we started, that's just so strange.

Our Labor Day Hike tradition continues.

Today's hike needed to be shorter and less strenuous than in years past, we had a broken toe and lungs recovering from pneumonia among us but we still hiked.

We talked and laughed, discovered creatures and reveled in the perfectly perfect fallish air.

The landscape and our location has changed, our bodies have aged, we've added to our crew

but still it was glorious.

This Will Make you Squirm.

It would seem that Shelob or Aragog or one of their progeny has taken up residence in the frame of my back door.

Yes it has!

Shudder!

See that black thing at the front of it? That's a fly.....being eaten......my boys think it's so cool.

Me? Not so much.

Here's the thing, I made a deal with all spiders on this planet years ago. I call it "The Great Spider Treaty".  Basically what it boils down to is that if a spider wishes to live it will stay outside of my house and outside of my personal-space whilst I am outside. 

I appreciate that spiders serve a good purpose and do a fantastic job of keeping the fly population to a manageable level, and that is why if a spider is outside and doesn't encroach on my personal space (ie. on my body) I leave them alone.

However, it would seem that this spider is starting to trespass into my despiderized zone.

Luckily I have a very loving and helpful husband who relocated this spider for me.

Thank you!

Sigh of relief.