This Saturday is declared official garage cleaning day, or “garage party” as I keep telling my kids. They aren’t totally on board, but you all are welcome to join in the fun! The party will consist of mostly organizing, donating items, and new garage shelves (which is the most exciting part). What i’m really hoping for is to turn this eye-sore into a thing of beauty:
I think this is the first time in the last few months I haven’t labeled a post with the category “fun projects” but it must done. And if I have to purge my garage on Saturday I’d love to do it with friends.
So, join the cause, clean your garage! (so poetic)
Happy Creating!
Christmas is here! I love the holidays, the music, the food, the religious significance, the ambiance. It’s especially magical with kids. My family has lots of traditions surrounding the holiday, today I’m sharing one of my favorites. My kids are constantly asking if they can open a present before Christmas… and my two year old doesn’t even ask, she just goes for it, I think she gets it from me. I found a great solution to this query! Each year I wrap up 25 of our favorite Christmas books (we’re a reading family!).
Beginning December 1st each night the kids take turns choosing one to unwrap, then that book is our bedtime story that evening. Whomever opens “The Polar Express” is the house hero, it’s their favorite. The kids love the tradition, I love it and it keeps the holiday feeling throughout the month. If you don’t have 25 Christmas-themed books, try it with just one on Christmas Eve!
Happy Creating!
FIRST: Crab Shack Update
It’s electrical work time. My experience in this field is minimal, but I love it. I installed a dimmer not too long ago and I think anyone can pull that off. I can’t quite articulate why it’s so fun for me to tie wires together, flip a switch and see light beaming, but it is. The crab shack has a light switch in the bedroom that accesses the light and the fan for the crab shack… with the barn doors hung I won’t have access to the switch anymore, so I had to move it.
**As a disclaimer, make sure you have an idea of what you’re doing BEFORE starting electrical projects AND SHUT OFF YOUR BREAKER before you do anything. I mean anything. Electrocution sounds terrible, I think we can all agree.**
Because the load bearing wall is staying as a partial separation my plan was to swap the light to the other side of the wall. These pics show the process of removing the box, swapping sides, the hole where a light used to be and the almost-finished product:
Since I am not an electrical by any stretch, I’m sharing my favorite electrical tip: Label all your wires with tape and even take “before” pictures before taking everything apart. It makes the process of reconnecting the wires much faster.
SECOND: Sherwin Williams announced their color of the year, it’s so pretty! Coral Reef 6606:
(Sherwin-Williams image) I truly love their paint and they were my first major sponsor on this blog, so I love them even more.
THIRD: Thanksgiving is around the corner! I am starting to think of it as the forgotten holiday, which is so sad. I am all about Black Friday… when it is actually on Friday, NOT Thursday! I wrote a post on some survival secrets last year. I have an entire shopping spreadsheet this year, maybe my organization will help me survive the mayhem. Good luck and stay safe out there shoppers!
FOURTH: I am officially HALF WAY stenciling my room! I’ll have it done soon, stay tuned.
LAST: On a personal level, check out this adorable reason why I am happily distracted these days:
His name is Fiyero and he’s a Shih Tzu puppy. I have never had a dog in my life. Neither has my husband. Growing up my family had one cat that we didn’t see for weeks at a time. It’s crazy we actually got a dog- this pet thing is a whole new world to me and so far we’re loving it!
Happy Creating!
Okay, so Rapunzel is out of my league, but still my hair was really long. Yep, I said was. I seem to often get caught up in life, family, projects and lately I have felt the need to give back to society. Like many people I volunteer at my kids’ school, give to charities and my church, but I just wanted to do something… more. Something different. The holidays do this to me every year. I have been looking for a good cause, something that I could do and finally found it. Locks of Love, a charity that creates wigs for people with cancer or alopecia (you can also give to cancer patients through Pantene, I added some highlights last summer so Pantene couldn’t use my hair). Honestly I cried once when I cut bangs, I needed a higher purpose to take the 10 inch plunge. My brother-in-law has stage four cancer, this cause just fit for me perfectly.
It’ll take some getting used to. After my hair was cut my 5 year old, and total photo bomber, wrapped his arms around me and said, “Do you need a hug mom? You know, because you’re not very pretty anymore.” Kids always tell the truth. I hope there’s a little girl out there that will soon have a pony tail from me!
I hope you create something beautiful and give something beautiful today!