Impulsive? Me?

Maybe it was the few afternoons of sun we had last week but I am back on my project wagon.   Spray paint has been flying and I've been to the thrift stores 3 times in the last 8 days.   I'm enjoying it again and I am getting things done.  Not all great but all very interesting. 

My latest "inspiration" was our hallway.  I have always planned on doing something there since the time I took down the mirror hanging on the far wall, but I didn't know what.  So it stayed blank and empty for months. Then one day I saw something I liked on a blog Vintage Revivals and so just decided to go for it.  This small wall was a great place to try out a new look.  It took me 2 days and just a little money since I most of the supplies on hand.

And I think I like it.  I spent money on a stencil I ordered online, but then I had this yellow paint from when we first bought the house.  Sidenote: being impulsive doesn't always pay off. I wanted yellow in our family room when we first moved in and bought 5 gallons of a yellow I thought I liked.  (The right yellow can be tricky to find.)  And, wow.  Canary-retina-burning yellow, way too bright for main body of our home.  So we took it back to have it toned down a bit, but it came back McDonald's yellow.  Eek.  No good again.  So after painting the room twice, my husband being the sweet and patient man that he is, knew I wouldn't be happy living in a fast food joint, let me go back to the store yet again to start over with the current neutral color seen today.  But we kept the yellow paint out in the garage. And now 5 years later I am putting a fraction of it to good use!  See honey, I knew I wanted this yellow!

I first painted the wall yellow and then used the stencil to paint the white design.    Went super smoothly.  Until I got to the corners.  And 2/3 of the project is corners.  Frustration ensued and I ended painting a lot of the corner design freestyle.  You can definitely tell so you remember my motto.  "Don't look too closely!"  But from far away it looks great!   Kind of different for me, a little funky.


I hung back up the mirror that literally came with the house and I actually like it.  Aaron wants me to paint the frame another color, not the dirty gold.  But it I actually like the gold frame.  I haven't decided yet so we'll see what I end up doing to it.

I would  love to use the stencil elsewhere, maybe the kitchen on the wall where we hung the chalkboard.  Plus that only has one side of corners to mess with.  But until then if any one else feels impulsive, I have a fabulous stencil you can borrow.  I'll throw in a free gallon of yellow paint.

Tiger Stripes

It must be in the genes.  Both of our boys love to draw.  Yet it's not the kind of art I usually sanction or appreciate.  Lucas, when he was little, was a body artist.  Any time he got a hold of a marker, his face, arms, and hands were never the same.  He called them "tiger stripes" and boy, did he l.o.v.e. his tiger stripes.  No matter how many times we hid the pens and markers, he had an innate ability to sniff them out and go to town.  I have to admit it usually made me laugh because he created some great warrior tattoos and he himself could not have been prouder. Luckily it was never something a good bath or a few days couldn't wear off.  (I know I have other pictures of more self-graffiti instances but for the life of me I can't find them.)

Jonah, with a propensity to color as well, loves to leave his mark on everything around him. Like marking his territory. His art is usually done in stealth, left to be discovered at some random time when the ink has a chance to set. We've found pen on the sofa, pencil marks all over the wood floors, permanent marker on the table and today was his gutsiest move to date-he actually colored ME with chalk as I was brushing my teeth.
Lucas grew out of his phase, graduated to paper and still loves to draw.  Jonah will hopefully move quickly to paper as well.  But I might have to repaint all the walls and refinish all my furniture before he does.

Obsessed much?

Jonah is obsessed with "Chickens."  Or what the normal world calls "Angry Birds" on the IPhone.  He craves it like a junkie, morning, noon and night.  At times, it's been the first thing out of his mouth when he wakes up from a nap. 

It all began so innocently.  A last ditch effort to entertain him while I was in the doctor's office and then again at the grocery store.  It has turned into a full blown obsession that borders on needing an intervention.   And he can't even really play it.  All his birds end up flying backwards just knocking themselves out.   But he doesn't seem to mind.  He navigates himself around the game well enough to satisfy his delusion that he. is. awesome.   

I remember when we first got Atari and thought Pong was the ultimate in games. 

Yep. I am old.  And our two year old is a gaming junkie.

Why swim diapers were invented

{Something's peekin'!}

It's no secret I am not a lover of Seattle winters and for some reason this winter especially I've been day dreaming of sun and warmth, backyard pools and dripping diapers.   I think it's because the wet winter puts a damper on my house projects.  It's too cold and too wet to do much with my BFF, aka spray paint.  I have a chandelier, a jewelry box, a table and numerous frames just waiting in the wings for their makeovers.  But I don't have room or the energy to get them beautified.   SAD is a real thing my friends, especially when the winter gets between me and my makeovers.

Out of creative desperation, I did make myself get out this week and got a few projects going that didn't include spray paint and I should finish them this weekend. If they are any where near presentable (one is pretty far out there for me) I will post them.

Until then , I hope you enjoy memories of sunny yet soggy bums that make me smile.  

Bucket List

I never realized this was on my bucket list until we decided to go.  I grew up watching the commercials and then when they came Seattle, the commercials still didn't really even register with me.  But now that we have an 11 year old boy who does "register" with sports, especially basketball, and who couldn't stop talking about them, I realized I have always wanted to see them too.  And "them" are the Harlem Globetrotters!  I mean, who really wouldn't want to see these American icons?! (Except maybe my father-in-law :)

We decided  to go for it and instead of a birthday party this year, Lucas could invite some friends.  When the time came, I was just as excited as all the 11 year old boys that came with us.  We got a babysitter for Monkey Boots (that's his new nickname because all he wants to wear are the rubber boots the Friess' got him for Christmas, yep they have monkeys on them) and that made a huge difference in parental enjoyment. 

                                     

It was actually a great show and a super fun afternoon.  And who would have thought it would be something I could cross off my "Before I Die" list.  I sure didn't.  But there you go. Life is full of surprises.

Like I said...Style with a capitol S

Accessorize with the swim trunks.  Genius.

(Seriously, he loves them and has been wearing them on his head daily.)

A Boy & His Blankie

Maybe it was something I did or it was because both our boys were major spitter-uppers, but they both latched on to these cloth diapers as their blankies.  And I have to say, I love it.   Most kids have something like a blankie of some sorts, but this way I have 20 of them, one is always clean and if we lose some we can always buy more.  I am always covered.
When we're out and about, his favorite way to wear his security blanket is around his neck.  He asks, "Tight?  Tight?" and wants me to tie it around his neck, ascot-style.  Maybe it's to keep his hands free for toddler destruction or he just likes the Fred Astaire look.  Man's got style, what can I say? (I do have admit I lost a little respect for dear Fred when I saw him playing a villian on a rerun of Battlestar Galactica. Fred Astaire in cheesy 80's space travel just does NOT have a place in my brain.)

Like Lucas, Jonah is also a huge pacifier man and does not want to live without it.  I am slowly trying to wean him from this security appendage but if he is anything like his brother, this is going to be a battle.

For now I 'll let him have his comfort. Life is hard enough. And who couldn't use a little snuggle that makes everything right with the world?