Frames

Have you seen the Organic Bloom picture frames?  They are beautiful!  Truly beautiful.

I absolutely love this!

And must find a way to replicate it since they come with a hefty $350 price tag and up!

I must work on a plan.  A two part plan... what I would do with it and how to make it.

Jack

Friday I took my youngest son to get his cast removed. 

Before we left we took some final pictures to remember this adventure.

Although a broken arm is never fun... I will have to admit, he was adorable with his tiny little cast on his arm for the past several weeks.

Pottery Barn Inspired Artwork

I've seen on several blogs this painting from Pottery Barn.

I love this piece as well and decided I too would try my hand at making my own.

I first painted my entire 16x20 canvas a creamy white.  While the painting was drying I cut several numbers of all sizes with my borrowed Cricut that I have not yet returned.  Since my mom only has a few cartridges to select from I had limited options for fonts to use.  Okay, I had one option for font.

After the paint had dried I placed the numbers on the canvas and stuck them down securely and took the painting outside to give the entire painting a coat of black spray paint.  When the paint was dry to the touch I began to peel away the numbers to reveal the white numbers under.

I then left the painting dry over night and the next day gave the entire canvas a light sanding to give it a distressed look.

The final results... is a pretty good knock off.

Now I just need to find it a place on a wall. 

The only thing I would change is the size of canvas I used.  This is a statement piece that really should be rather large.  My 16x20 canvas seems a bit small.



To Do List

I constantly have a giant 'to do' list.  I guess purchasing a house that is in shambles lends itself to that little problem.  This week though, I am working to knock a few things off of this list in hopes to organize our home and make more time for things I enjoy to do and perhaps have a kitchen that is completed.  (Currently it is half painted in a color my husband refers to as 'Candy Land Blue' - so the blue is going.)

At any rate, I decided that the best way for me to organize and live this perfect, have-it-all-together life that I envision for myself was to put things in steps.  Steps to organization.

Step 1!

The first item on this list that needed immediate attention is the clothing situation.  Every member of this house appears to have an excessive amount of clothes, or so I'm told by friends who see it.  I'm not 100% sure how this happens considering I am NOT a shopper.  Well, not a retail shopper.  I'm more of the thrift store/garage sale/occasional E-bay lot shopper.  Perhaps that is the problem.  If it's only 50 cents... who cares?  Right? 

But, I really don't, or didn't, think that there was sooooo much, I think it appears this way from the outside looking in because my boys each only use a dresser.  Our old house did not have closets (odd, I know) so we have become accustom to dressers only.  Because of this there is a constant stream of clean clothes in baskets laying all over our house.  At any one point in time you can find a minimum of 3 clean, folded baskets of laundry containing at least three loads of laundry in each sitting in random locations.  (I like to break it up and move them to sporadic spots because 3 in the living room would just make me appear lazy right?)

So... this week I have gone through everyone's dressers, eliminated all excess in efforts to keep it simple.  While doing this I sent my husband and the kids on a hanger run so that we can finally make use of these closets that have just been sitting empty for the past few months.  Now everyone's drawers are filled with a manageable amount of clothes and bulkier items such has sweatshirts and long sleeved shirts have been moved to the closets.  My hope is that this itself will save me hours a week of picking up laundry off of bedroom floors to refold and reorganize drawers because one of the kids was looking for 'that one red shirt' and it just so happened to be at the bottom of the drawer.

Just a tip, one thing I found I could cut back on for my kids was pajamas.  Each of my kids had tons of pajamas.  I'm not sure why they had such large collections of them considering they prefer to sleep in their underwear.  They each now only have three pair, that they chose, to keep for sleepovers or trips to grandparents houses.

Now to just get this all to GoodWill! 

     

Pottery Barn Insipired Appocathary Jars

A few months ago this set of jars in the Pottery Barn catalog caught my eye. 

I had noticed them before but did not have much use for them in our tiny house with our very tiny bathroom.  For sure they would have fallen to their destiny and shattered into a million pieces.  But, when we decided to move and I was getting a much larger bathroom they crept back into my mind.  Surely I would never spend $35 - $45 per jar but decided they looked to be easy enough to replicate.

After a quick search on Amazon.com I was able to find a set of three jars for less than the cost of one Pottery Barn jar.  A quick trip to Hobby Lobby for etching cream and a trip to my mom's to borrow her Cricut and I was set.

First, I had to figure out how to use the Cricut.  Considering I never read instructions and prefer the "Christen by Fire" method on everything, this proved to be the most difficult part of the entire project.  The little critter on the side of the box looks so innocent, how hard could it be?  Without reading, moderately.

I used the Cricut to make a stencil of the monogram.  After adhering the stencil to the glass I put on a layer of etching cream.  (I made a 1" stencil for the smallest jar, 1 1/4" for the middle and 1 1/2" for the largest jar.)

Here's the etching cream I used.  Yes, $8.50 for three little ounces.  The bottle said to leave the cream on for 5 minutes for it to etch.  It actually took around 10 or maybe a little longer.  So to save yourself from washing and reapplying 3 times - just go for 10.

After the etching cream has sat for the required time you simply rinse the cream off to get to your final product.

This set should look rather cute in the bathroom filled with cotton balls, swabs and bath salts once I get the bathroom decorated.

 

Back to School

Today was my oldest two boys first day back to school. It's hard to believe the summer has gone by so quickly. It seems like school had just gotten out and now we are back already. Back to home work and bed times. I'm not sure who has been dreading this week more, them or me. I'm pretty sure... it's been me. While I am looking forward to my shrinking daycare bill, I am not looking forward to the morning hustle and night time bustle. My kids have all become very accustom to late nights and sleeping past 7 each morning.

The first day went very well for the most part. Everyone loves their new teachers but has a twinge of disappointment that all of their "best friends" are in the other classes. Thankfully my boys are always very accepting and take things in stride. My oldest is incredibly adaptable and outgoing so I have no worries for him. My middle son on the other hand, is quiet and likes to stick to a small circle of people he is most comfortable with. This may prove to be a little harder on him.

The youngest doesn't start back to preschool for another few days. He was rather disappointed today when he was looking for his back-pack and told no, not yet.

We attempted this morning to get some of those notorious "Back to School" pictures but everyone was excited and silly. I guess those make them legitimate back to school shots - not very good.

Organization

I am on a quest to organize my home, my family and my life. I am hoping that this will help to reduce the number of times we are running out the door to a baseball game that 'mom forgot about' in wet uniforms with me clipping behind three angry boys yelling back 'It's hot out! They will dry quick!' (In my defence, on top of being a mom of three boys, I work full time at my 'real job', spend most weekend with my small photography business, have an inability to say no so constantly have other people's children, have two houses to deal with as we are turning our prior home into a rental property, a husband who travels constantly for work and just have an unbelieveable amount of laundry to deal with each week.)

So I am going to put together a family calender. It is best that this information finally come out of my head and be where the rest of the family can see it, if they so chose to that is. But beyond appointments, games and practice schedules, I want this calender to also contain our meal plan, witch we currently do not have, but I will, when I get my calender figured out.

On my hunt for the perfect family calender I came across some great ideas. But dry erase boards or small memo pads just aren't going to cut it in this house. What I am looking for not only needs to be completely practical... it must have some sort of design element to it. Welcome my insparation, Martha Stewart. Hmmm... not exactly what I am looking for but I do think this is quite an adorable idea. With some of my own variations and I think I can come up with something quite swell.

Welcome!

My name is Kari.

My husband and I recently purchased this house.

We are in the process of restoring the house and turning back into something beautiful.

This is our journey.