Project 31: Lego Birthday cake

Project 30:Teaching baking

Project 29: DIY Sidewalk Chalk

Project 28: The start of canning season

Project 27: Dabbling in Art journaling

Project 26: Freezer Stock Up

Part of my Summer Organization has been getting some ready made meals stocked up in the freezer.  Many times when we're out at the pool, the beach or hiking we have to leave because I need to get home to plan dinner. I want to spend our summer DOING things.

I don't really like to cook. I can follow a recipe and obviously I do it 20 times a week, but it's not something I have a passion for. I'd rather live off of soup and yogurt. Anything with a straw really. What I'm trying to say is I need some inspiration in this area. I'm lucky to have a friend and neighbor, Chef Becky, that is a personal chef. I've helped her out on occasion when she has a big order coming up or just needs an extra pair of hands. It's been a great learning experience for me, like having private lessons from a professional chef. I've also done some photography for her when she shoots cooking segments for our local TV news station. So I've been able to see some of her great recipes in action.

For our freezer stock up I used many of Becky's recipes including my favorite, Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas.  I actually made three pans of these because we like them so much we could eat it once a week.

I also froze ready made breakfast sliders so if we are heading to the beach I don't have to run through a drive through.  

I made two huge pans of veggie lasagna that I'm having a hard time not yanking out right away to eat. 

This project was labor intensive but it really was easier to just make big batches as I was cooking. I need to remember that in the future so I can keep our freezer filled. Here's to a fun summer with less work! 

Project 25: Getting organized for Summer

I'm a list maker. Not because I'm organized or anything but because if it's not written down I'll forget it 10 minutes later. I rely on a calendar because I never remember upcoming commitments. I make regular efforts to get us organized, not always successfully, but I keep trying.

The kids have 5 more days of school left. I've spent the past week or so trying to get everything organized for summer. I'm hoping this means they won't spend every moment of the beautiful summer days staring at a screen. :) In case you're facing this dilemma as well here are some things we're doing.

A Summer bucket list. Every year we put up a huge list of everyone's ideas of things they want to do. It's usually almost 6 feet long. As we do each item we mark it off the list or make a tick mark if it is something we do more than once, like going to the dog park.

A Summer calendar. Because the bucket list gets long, we start our summer calendar before school is out. By the time summer gets here we typically only have 1 or 2 weekends free. Here is where we schedule in prepaid camping trips, summer school, road trips, camps, festivals, county fairs, birthday parties, annual barbeques and the like. Once the framework is in then we can really see where we can fill in swimming, hiking, kayaking and other fun stuff.

A Summer Schedule. This is my first year doing this. Thank goodness for Pinterest. There are so many cool ideas I don't have to come up with myself. This is a free printable you can download here. I love this idea because so many times things like museums never make it to the bucket list. I'm hoping it also means that I won't be stuck in the circle of "what do you want to do, I don't know, what do you want to do".

A Summer Learning Goal. I used some free printables again for this goal, you can get them here. I really want my kids to understand that learning is a lifetime activity. Not just for school hours but something you're always doing. They choose what they want to learn about and we run with it. My daughter Josie and I have already planned to make life size an anatomy model including removable organs out of felt. She loves to sew and draw so this is a perfect project for her. We'll do online research, check out library books and see where it leads us.

I've also spent some time updating our Bored Jar. I took out things that we're driving me crazy like "eat ice cream" and "watch a movie with popcorn". Sometimes mama just prints out ready make printables and really regrets it later. I added things that include our new puppy and some that include new passions like chalk art and playing the drums. I put in almost 50 new activities. My daughter Lili was so excited she's already dived in. 

Project 24: Harry Potter Kitchen Vignettes

Lately I've been doing a lot of vignette decorating. Doing a little display here or there with things that make me happy. Most of the time when I do this I go "shopping" throughout my house and pick up items that would belong, bring them to the spot and start arranging them. It's something that my mom used to do all the time growing up.

We recently remodeled part of our main bathroom. Previously I had it designed as a Harry Potter themed room. After the remodel last month most of the accessories were put in my craft room (except for the entrance to the Ministry of Magic ;), of course) but I moved them to the kitchen today.

I recently painted the back splash area with the same color that graces most of my home, aqua. It really needed a touch up. Once it was painted I was thinking about adding red to the kitchen so I went "shopping" and started bringing red accessories in. The largest item was my Hogwarts Express sign and that gave me the idea to bring all my Harry Potter items into the kitchen. You've seen this fabric bunting in my craft room redo  and I've moved it around to other areas of the house when I've needed it. I cut some red fabric strips out of my stash to make it fit in here.

Here's some close up shots of some of the items I previously made for the Powder room. They've really held up and still look great. 

This Wolfsbane Potion is actually just salt now. My olive oil container was reused from a cranberry liquor from last holiday season. 

This is the broom I use everyday. I fell in love with it because it looks so much like a quidditch broom. The snitch resided here until I decorate the powder room, now it's back in it's original location. 

I painted this cup at a local paint your own pottery place last year. It's my favorite cup, especially since I switched to a one cup coffee maker. 

This is my Hermione time turner necklace, I actually wore it to the grocery store this morning. When I say I go "shopping" in the house, nothing is off limits. 

It is held on to this vase with painters tape on the back where you can't see it. 

Many times when I'm doing a little redecorating I search for Printables that might fit my theme. This one is from Simply Fresh Designs and is a Dumbledore quote that I already loved since all of my kiddos have varying degrees of special needs. 

Project 23: Bug Report & Soft Sculpture

One of the things that I love about my kids going to a small school is that they often have the same teachers that their siblings had before. My son, Charlie is very bonded to his first grade teacher and has come to love school this year. Because of his developmental delays he has been in a school setting since he was 2 years old. But this is the year that things opened up for him. He is excited about learning new things and doing educational projects.

The kids have 2 or 3 big projects a year and I typically help them with the visual part of the project and my wife helps with the written part of the project. It works out well because it relies on both of our strengths so we don't get to a point where we are pulling our hair out. For this project Charlie had to choose a bug or insect to do a report and create a project. He chose a black widow spider. We've had fun learning about the specific anatomy of spiders. I never realized that the legs of a spider are attached to the small part- the cephalothorax if you're interested.

Here he is with his finished soft sculpture. He did all of the sewing except for the legs- I went back and resewed over his part because they were giving us lots of trouble staying in place.

Project 22: Garden Chandelier

I've been in the garden quite a bit. I found a quote I love in a garden book I've been reading:

 "All gardens begin in winter dreams."

 Isn't that so beautiful and spot on. I love spring when all those winter dreams begin to take shape. Our local Ben Franklin had signs up the last time that I was there that said Don't just Pin it, do it. This is one of those projects that I put on my garden pinterest board this winter.

The first thing I did with my ten dollar thrift store find is strip the wiring out. This involved dismantling the candelabras and taking the bottom off to access the wiring. The hardest part was unscrewing the nuts on the candelabra. I used a screwdriver as a pry bar to loosen it. 

Most of the pinterest chandeliers were spray painted. I knew I didn't want to do that because my style is more Grandma chic than Ikea hip. I wanted an antique finish that would weather and look better with time. I used chalk paint and didn't clean, sand or do any prep work at all. 

PS. One of the perks of using what you have: The paint matches my beachy outdoor set. If it dripped it didn't matter because this color is already in the table finish. I used a sponge brush because I wasn't concerned with coverage. I like the spots where the brass shows through. I didn't want brush marks to show though so I sponge painted it. This technique is something I mastered in 1980-something when my mother had me help her sponge paint the entire living room. I painted the chandelier and the metal parts of the solar lights. These lights are the second set I purchased for this project. I returned the first set because the size was too big and it made it look out of proportion. 

Glueing them into the candelabra cups proved more difficult. I ended up using a long set and quick set glue. 

I can't wait to see it lit up tonight. 

Project 21: Garden Art

I recently found this beautiful rusty watering can at a yard sale. It was a great find at only $2. I would have haggled but I was so giddy to find it and the little garden box beside it that I didn't even think to. I shoved money at them and hugged it all the way back to my messy minivan. I love the colors of both items. I have to remember this "white wash" over my favorite pastels. It makes it look so romantic. The color is almost a perfect match to my jadeite. I should have known. I like what I like. 

The black pouch in the photo is a bag full of chandelier crystals. Many of my craft supplies are my mother's items. She kept everything because it might be useful. I shook my head at her when she was alive, now I use so many of her items in my projects. 

I added one of the largest chandelier crystals hanging like a large water droplet from the spout. I used more crystals but I like the simplicity of just one. I haven't found a great spot to hang it yet. I think it needs a shepard's hook. But, for now I love to look at it outside my kitchen window. The crystal really sparkles in person. It's hard to capture in a photo.

It's not much of a project, but:


"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." - Kurt Vonnegut

Project 20: Veggie Garden

I have a vegetable garden every year. This year is a little different though. I usually plant starts purchased at our local home store. I may plant some easy things from seed, like peas or green beans, but mostly everything is purchased as plants from the store. Not this year. My greenhouse set up worked out so well I am growing my entire vegetable garden from seeds I started this year. 

6 flats of plants! I had to do some serious planning on paper to figure out where I was going to fit everything into the garden. 30+ tomato plants, 30+ tomatillo plants, corn, beans, peppers, squash, herbs. I've already planted my brocolli, cauliflower, radishes, peas and lettuce. Planting day 2014 is done! 

Project 19: A gift for a friend

I might be a little vague in this post because this gift is a secret. Shhhh.

Last year, we tore down an old cedar privacy fence in the back yard. This left me with a huge pile of beautiful weathered wood.

I mean, isn't that beautiful? It reminds me of a long walk down a country gravel road. I can't get rid of this huge pile of wood because I love it so. Back to the project at hand though. 

It started like this: 

I ended up taking it into the garage to cut because it was getting everywhere. 

I sanded off a lot of the texture since I was going to paint it and I didn't want all the paint to flake off. I still left the grain of the wood showing through. 

I picked out the design I wanted and printed out, sizing it according to my project. 

Using transfer paper I lightly traced the design and then "painted" it in. I use quotes because I actually used sharpies here since the grain of the wood is so pronounced. 

I think it looks great just like this, but I had something else in mind.....you know something with words. I love word art. P.S. That pink thing is a bunny tail. I'm painting on one of my kids old towels, it used to have bunny ears too. Then we got a dog. Ha! 

Here is the finished project. I added a little white paint to make it seem more worn. It is a gift for a friend that was there for me during one of the most difficult times of my life. We met on an online forum and realized that we lived in the same city.  Another friend is helping to make sure she feels her echo of love coming back to her. 

Project 18: Fairy Furniture

We have an ever evolving fairy garden. It used to be contained to one small area, but, that was before the dog. Our fairy garden is now outside the fence because of our curious, energetic puppy. It takes over a much larger area than it previously did so we needed some more furniture and accessories. My daughter, Josie, was very excited to try her hand at building a few things. Like many kids her age she's obsessed with the video game Minecraft. She liked making the fairy furniture with me because "It's like real life Minecraft Mom, I have to figure out how to build it!"

Project 17: Haint Blue Porch Ceiling

Let me start off by saying, I LOVE Pinterest! My degree is in Interior Design and one of my favorite parts was presentation boards. Collecting materials and photos to have a visual representation of your design. I'm a visual person and if I try to explain something I typically draw it for you. Having an online (clutter free) space to collect design ideas is really amazing to me.

This next project was inspired by a Pin that an old friend put on her Pinterest board (shout out to Meegan) for her new home. It was a Haint blue porch ceiling. It reminded me of my mom telling me why they had blue porch ceilings in Arkansas. So the ghosts and spirits couldn't enter your home and haunt (haint) you. Although my mom grew up just at the Mason Dixon line she was a southern girl through and through. This was a perfect quick project to spruce up our home and to connect me to my roots.