Sunday, February 19, 2012

Spring is in the air...

Or at least it was yesterday! We had beautiful weather here yesterday. Temps were in the 40's! It was almost hard to believe. Then today mother nature decided to slap us back to reality and as I type this, it is snowing! I know right, I live in North Dakota and I shouldn't be so shocked by the fact that it snows in February, but COME ON! We have had such a gloriously mild winter, that one can dream that we might not see snow again until next winter right!?!


Although on a side note, my grass seed I'm sure is happy to see the snow. As well as my water bill and shoes that may have to trudge through the mud to set out the sprinklers! I was becoming slightly concerned that we just threw a boat load of money down the drain on grass seed that wasn't going to get enough water. I'm also envisioning water shortages and only certain days that we will be able to water. I would say to heck with it, but as there are about 3 cops that live within 1 block of me, I think that I may get in trouble if I didn't obey!


Due to the lovely temps the boys and I headed out to play on the driveway with some bubbles. Both were in heaven to be able to get outside and run a little. Big found a squirt bottle that I filled with water, with one stipulation, he couldn't squirt his brother. To my surprise he obeyed!




Here is Littles attempt to blow bubbles. He doesn't quite understand that he doesn't need to eat the bubbles in order to blow them. We tried to give him several lessons, but he was having more fun putting the wand in his mouth.





Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Heart's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a great day today! The boys got spoiled with all sorts of Love. From Grandparents to cousins to friends at school. They have lots of valentines, candy and toys to last them awhile. Below is one of the few photos that I got of them together sitting relatively still.



Monday, February 6, 2012

LOVE Sign

This is a project that is a long time in coming (a few months that is), PLUS this will help fulfill my mommy craft for the month!


I originally saw this project on I Heart Nap Time's Blog, made by Tam over at Sew Dang Cute Crafts. It's a knock off Pottery Barn NOEL Sign. I fell in love with this and knew that I wanted to make it for our home. I bought all of the supplies to make it. Then the months started slipping away from me and before I knew it, it was the end of January! I debated making it now and having it ready for NEXT Christmas. Although the thought of being prepared next year intrigued me, I was lacking Valentines decor for our new home. So I opted to change this up a little bit. The best part, I already had everything except the red glitter spray paint and a letter V!


First I gathered all of my supplies. I hopped on my computer and googled a top 100 list of love songs. Found a few of my favorites (or at least some that I knew), then I printed out the first page of the sheet music. I also added an extra personal touch, by adding the sheet music from mine and my husbands song!




Next it was off to our unfinished basement (The garage just seemed to cold) to spray paint my letters. Lucky for me, we are lazy enough that we hadn't removed the large box from our water softener we had installed. One side of it worked perfectly! Here's to procrastination! I do not spray paint, there are many things in life that I can do, and do well, but after this experience I decided spray painting is not one of them. I was desperately wishing my youngest brother (who is a spray paint expert from wanting to paint anything and everything he could get his hands on when he was younger) lived closer. That way I could have gotten a lesson, or better yet, he could have just done it for me!




In the end, I used the whole can on my four letters. Luckily I used my 40% off coupon on the paint, so the cost wasn't horrendous.


While I let those dry, I started to Modpodge the sheet music onto my canvas.


I'm a planner, and so I laid all the sheets out first and arranged how I wanted them to look when the project was complete. Making sure our song would be visible once the letters were attached.



Next came the fun part. I mean, who doesn't like Modpodge right? I coated the bottom half of the canvas and then laid the sheets on top, making sure to go back and recover the pieces that would overlap. Once all were secured down, I did one final coat over all of it. Just remember that if you cover over the print outs to much the ink will start to smear a little. At this point you will have some bubbles, but don't worry, as it drys you can poke a push pin into the bubble and then flatten it out with your finger. If you continue to do that while it's drying, you will hardly notice them once it's dry.


While I let this dry, I had the pleasure of picking the Modpodge off of my hands and fingers. Ahh, it brought back childhood memories of putting glue in the center of your hand, spreading it out and trying to wait long enough for it to dry so that you could pick it off. I know I'm not the only one who did this!


I was originally planning on wrapping the sheet music around the canvas, but in the end decided that I wanted a little accent color and would paint the edges black instead. I used a scissors to do this, although an exacto knife would have worked better. That laziness in me, and the fact that my children would be up from naptime soon, made me just use what I had in front of me.


Next it was time to paint. I had dug out my very old Making Memories black paint from my scrapbooking stash to use for this. It hadn't been used in so long, I was sure it would even be any good. But alas it worked wonderfully! I ended up needing to put 3 coats on the canvas, as it was soaking the paint in.



I also put two coats of black paint around the edges of my letters. I had planned on these being all red glitter, but when I failed at spray painting and the edges were very spotty, I had to go another route. In the end I was very happy I did. I loved how it turned out!


I found some fun ribbons in my stash and choose one to ad to the E for an added touch. Next I fired up my trusty glue gun and went to work gluing down the letters.



When it was all complete, I hung it on the wall in our entry! I was very pleased with how it turned out. And now our home finally has a photo hanging on the wall! We have lived here 5 months, and that still hasn't been completed.



I linked up to: I Heart Nap Time Sundae Scoop.