A little project

A few months ago, Super-dad and I decided it was time to make X-man's room a big boy room. Actually, I had decided it last summer but wanted to think on it a bit. Last night, X-man asked me if I liked his room and I told him yes and asked if he liked it. He said that yes he liked it, it was his favorite room ever.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Later I will show the entire room, today I want to show a little project me and X-man did.

I decided that he needed a cork board in his room to hang the cool things that he got at school.

So, I got a simple cork board from Target and sanded down the wood trim on it.

Then, I got out all my supplies and asked X-man what colors he wanted everything to be.

X-man wanted a green edge and red and blue letters. So, I did a few thin coats of green on the edges and then got him to help me with the letters. I will let the pictures do the talking.

(I have no idea why this picture will not rotate)

So, there you have my almost finished cork board for the X-man's room. I want to add some hooks to the sides so we can hang all his metals on it but other than that, we like it. X-man got a bit excited towards the end and that is why there is a bit of red paint smudged next to the "R" but over-all, I am very happy with the way it turned out. I already have it hung in his room but for some reason, I have no taken any pictures. Hopefully I can get some tomorrow.

Spring time means .....

Lots of things!

The trees are blooms. The bulbs are sprouting. I am sneezing. But most importantly it means a return to this blog. Who missed me?

I have very busy over here so I have lots to catch up on but I don't want to do it all in one blog post. That would not be very much fun, now would it?

Today, let's talk about the raised vegetable bed that I made this past weekend. Last year, we had a small container garden, and it worked well. This year, I decided that I did not want containers all over my back deck and I was going to build a raised bed for the yard. I picked a spot and went out to measure. 7 feet by 3 feet seemed like a good size.

X-man and I went to the local hardware store where I batted my eyes and acted lost. A nice older gentleman took pity on me and cut all the wood that I needed and even got me the nails! At this point, I should have taken a picture but I did not. Once we got home, it was pouring down rain, so we had a bit of a break before we had to get everything to the back yard.

A few hours later, the rain had let up, the sun had come out and we were on our way. I should have taken another picture here, but I did not. After hauling all the wood up the hill in the backyard and laying it all out, I turned around and found a SNAKE! Go figure, but I got a picture of that!

Since the snake was not bothering me and I certainly did not plan on bothering him, I decided to go ahead and make my box. It is 7 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 12 inches deep.

Thank goodness that it started to rain again at this point. The next day was a rainy one as well but I had a good two hour window of time that I got into there and was able to dig up the grass inside the box and also get it all turned up. That was no easy chore and my hands certainly hurt afterwards.

The next day was Monday but after work, I went and got just a small amount of dirt....like 800 lbs of it. It was 20 bags that each weighed about 40 pounds. Yep. Loaded it on the cart, then into my car and up the hill in the back yard all by myself. Don't worry, I definitely felt it the next day.

At this point, I enlisted the help of a certain 42 inches tall child. What, it is not like it is child labor or anything!



At long last, the raised bed was completed! And honestly, I have not looked at it once since then. I do have some vegetables that I have started from seed inside the house. I am hoping to get them into the box around mid to late April. By then, I should be over the trauma of building a raised bed.

Lighting

When we first moved into this house, the number one thing I noticed was the light fixtures. They were all UGLY. Brassy, gold ugliness. I finally decided that it was time to change out some lights. Let me first say that overall, it is easy to change lights. It is not hard to rewire them. The hard parts are 1-holding the new light up while you screw it in and 2-getting the wires inside the chain while still having the chain hold up the weight of the light. Overall, I will probably now hire someone to put up lights but I can say that I put up these two.

Before

Before

During - don't let the smile fool you, I am secretly hating it

After - please ignore the mess

After, much better than before!

Before - this was one my least favorite lights in the whole house

After!

If you have 15 minutes...

If you have fifteen minutes, you can help your closet go from this:

To this

Amazingly, I did not take anything out of the closet. Just rearranged. I was even interrupted two separate times by the boy. Now, to tackle other closets.

New Curtains....different room

Remember how I said that curtains can change a room? I decided to give it a shot in a different room. My dining room, while totally an awesome color, had horrible blinds. They were the cheaper plastic ones that bend and break easy. One of the dogs completely knew how to move them over so she could look out. In the process, she had managed to break and bend them.

Here, you can see how awful they were...

Much better afterwards. It makes the room feel more elegant and finished.

Playroom - before and after

I was getting super tired of the playroom always being a complete mess.

So, my mom and I took Xander to IKEA and got some great organizers. The thing about IKEA stuff is that you have to put it together. It took me and Katlyn 3 different nights and one Saturday afternoon to put everything together. Then, we took everything out of the playroom and put some of the organizers in.

After looking at it for a minute, Katlyn and I decided that we did not like them there. So, we moved them to the other side of the room.

And that worked! The room looked one hundred times better than before. I need to go back and get another tall unit for the other corner but over all I like this wall.

On the other wall is a desk that my mom got for Xander. At the time that I took these pictures, the desk was not completed. This is the location that it will stay though.

Let's talk about the lamp. Not the fact that the top is on completely crooked but the "toys" that are on it.

If we look a bit closer, you can see who resides on each level of the lamp. These are VERY important toys in this house. We all love them and thougth that they should have their own spot.

Overall, I love the way that the room came out. Xander loves it even more. He enjoys going in there and knowing where to find everything.

New curtains can change the room!

Our living room is in the process of getting a make over and I am loving it!

First, we ordered a new couch

This picture does not do it justice. The ottoman and pillows are not as shiny as the picture leads you to believe. They design is round, bubbles and I love it. Unfortunately, it does not go with the rug or the curtains. So, the next thing I had to do was change the curtains. So, it went

from this:

To this:



I think this small change made a world of difference! The walls look a different color and the room looks brighter! The next thing I need to do is change the rug. I have not found one yet that I like but I think I want to stay with one that is burgundy/red. Thoughts?

Overall, the room went from looking like this, which is nice but dark and a little drab

To this, which is much lighter and more inviting.



I am also going to eventually replace that loveseat with two arm chairs. Overall, I am happy with how the room is coming along.