Ice Markers!

Has anyone seen the creative ways people are recycling old crayons?

Lucky and Charm each received a heart shaped crayon from classmates for Valentine's Day this year. They were made by melting together pieces of old crayons.  How clever is that?  I'm keeping my eye out for shallow cookie pans with fun shapes so that we can duplicate that project.

Related to recycling crayons, but on the marker front, our music teacher brought 'ice markers' to class last month and our kids loved creating art with them.  We decided to try this activity at home, so we rounded up our old markers and prepared them for a Valentine's craft by filling a $1 store plastic ice tray (they come in two packs) with water.  We placed our old markers in the tray and let the water suck out the ink.  We let them sit and mixed them up every 5 minutes or so.  After about 15 minutes we stuck them in the freezer.

Once they froze, they were ready to go:

The kids love them (making them was half the fun!), and it's a great way to get one more use out of old markers!  Let me know if you give this a try!

P.S. Please no peanut gallery comments about the posting of a 'Valentine Craft' after St. Patrick's Day.  Clearly, we are challenged in the holiday order department around here.  Also, I was too busy enjoying the nice weather this weekend (80 degrees for St. Patrick's Day!!), eating green pancakes and drinking green milk shakes (and green beer:)), and reading this little book called The Hunger Games (COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!) to write up a fresh post.  Those are my reasons why this post in the middle of March is about Valentine's Day.  Really, it's about hearts.  Hearts are year round shapes, so maybe I'm good after all!

Regardless, I hope you all had a splendid weekend!

Gallery Wall Art

Last year, we purchased these lights from Pottery Barn for our stairwell, and I was immediately inspired by this image:

Pottery Barn

Rustic Glass Sconce

I love the black and white photographs with gold accents! 

I decided that I wanted to make a gallery wall(s) in similar fashion in our all too bland stairwell.  Here is the blank slate I wanted to work on in our stairwell leading from our main level to our bedrooms upstairs:

I measured out the wall space I had to work with and taped out the area on the floor in our front room.  Next, I laid out picture frames I had on hand (including Target clearance frames, frames purchased at Goodwill, and frames or items I had around already) until I found arrangements that I liked.

I traced the frames onto newspaper and cut out the pieces so I could play with the arrangement on the wall a bit.

And now it looks more like this:

Can you even believe my 'nail in the wall' phobic husband let me do this?  I had originally planned on using Command Hooks but instead decided to just go for it and use nails aka 'railway ties', according to Bill who insists I could have used smaller nails:)!

While I have a good chunk of work to do in this area (lots of the pictures in the frame are the wrong orientation or the frames are empty, etc), I like where it's headed.  And I love making personal art for our home.  This post shows the art work that I made for Bill for Christmas this year.  Now and then, I'll post changes or updates to the walls, including any artwork I make for this little part of our home.

And with that, go put a hole in a wall to hang some fantastic art this weekend!!  It'll be so worth it:)!  And Happy St. Patrick's Day too!!  See you next week.

Linking up to The Rooster and The Hen.
Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick.

Pottery Barn Teen Look-alike Pillows

I had mentioned in my birthday post that I was really liking these alphabet needlepoint pillows from Pottery Barn Teen:

Pottery Barn Teen

Alphabet Needlepoint Pillow

$29.00

I have yet to purchase or make an 's' pillow as of yet, but I did tackle the four letters that begin our family's real 'formal' names-w, e, l, h:

It was a simple project that used white duck cloth that I had on hand already, pre-made black piping and a couple sheets of black felt for the letters that I hand sewed on the pillows.

Cost Breakdown:

White Duckcloth $7 for a yard (on sale) ( I used a little over a half yard for 4 pillows)
2 sheets of black felt $1
2 packages of black piping $2.40 on sale
Stuffing was an old king sized pillow that was too flat for my liking:)=FREE

4 pillows cost just over $10 or roughly $2.50/pillow saving me over 90% off the retail price (mine aren't needlepoint, I know, so it's a loose comparison:))

Has anyone else been sewing lately?  I've been finishing one project after another, and I am loving it!!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick.

The Trouble with Rugs...

is that there are too many good options!

I just picked up this guy from Marshall's on clearance for $199.  It's a 7'6" x 9'6" 100% Wool Rug.  I couldn't believe how well the colors worked together for our front room.  I also love that this rug could work equally well in our very neutral great room, in our sun porch (which has reddish cushions on the chairs and couch), or down the road in our basement if I want to switch things up...it has both the yellow and blue colors we used on our walls in that space.  For a person who likes to change things around as much as I do, versatility in a rug is a definite bonus!

I should note that I originally was thinking of a black and white striped rug like this for the space, and I would have tried to track down some sort of fabric to make curtains with a color scheme that included black, white, green and blue.  Now, I'm searching for some black and white striped curtains or fabric that could be made into curtains.  Black and white striped fabric should be much easier to come by!

In addition to curtains and a curtain rod, I'm also working on coming up with an artwork plan for the wall behind the couch.  I'd like to settle on something personal and inexpensive, and I'm mulling a couple options around in my head:).  Regardless of what curtains and artwork I settle on, it sure is exciting to look back on the progress we've made in this room already, considering we started with an empty room and a green couch:)!

The Hello Goodbye Series: Sauce Pan Replacement

As March rolls in, I'm starting a new blog series about the healthy household changes we are making around here.  Essentially, I'll be highlighting products that we are either introducing or removing from our household because of potential health benefits or risks involved in their use.  Since replacing all products in our house that we'd like to at the same time would be prohibitively expensive, we're taking it slowly knowing that every small change we make will have a positive impact on our overall health.

I think you'll get the idea pretty quickly with this first post.  Here goes.

Hello Stainless Steel Sauce Pan:

Home Goods

$24.99

Good Bye Teflon coated sauce pan:

Garage Sale Bound

While the jury is out on the potential risk of using Teflon coated pots and pans.  It is known that if the Teflon surface is scratched, chemicals can seep into the foods you are cooking in the pans.  Stainless Steel is very inert.  Teflon is questionable.

Result:  Goodbye old Teflon pan, hello stainless steel beauty!

Note:  Many of our changes have been brought about after reading, The Healthy Home By Dr. Myron Wentz and Dave Wentz.  While the authors admit that there isn't science to support all of their suggestions, common sense tells us that less inert products and all natural products are better for us.  Also, they encourage readers to question the products that we use on a daily basis.  Just because a company manufactures something, doesn't mean that the product is safe.

And as always, I appreciate any kind of feedback you may have.  We are very much learning as we go, and we're eager to educate ourselves and make our home as healthy as possible!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Basement Updates including Crazy Big Clipboards

We've made several changes to our basement in the last few months.  Back in November, it was looking like this:

During IKEA's big sofa promotion this past winter, we picked up a Karlstad sofa that I hemmed and hawed about.  There were parts I liked about it and parts I didn't.  One of the parts I didn't like was the birch legs.

We spray painted them oil rubbed bronze, Young House Love style, and I like them much better now!

And then I came across this pillow (and a few others) from Pier 1 that I needed to have:

Cool Chevron Yarns Pillow

Pier 1 Imports

(You might recognize it from my Christmas Wish List.)

And with the pillow came an overall color scheme for the room: blue, green, white and brown.  The room was looking like this:

After adding a bit more furniture we already owned:

(Most of the furniture (aside from the couch) is temporary since we'd like a cushy ottoman instead of a 'coffee table' and the white rocker is intended for Charm's Room once I no longer need the ugly but comfortable rocker that is currently in his room:).  

You also may have noticed there is blue painter's tape on the wall indicating there is something planned for the wall behind the couch:).  

If you've been reading this blog for a long while, you may remember that way back in September, I wrote this post inquiring about sources for huge clipboard clips so that I could create some enormous clipboards for displaying artwork or large photographs. Well, I never found any big clips, but that didn't stop me from ordering the ones that I linked up to in that post.  

I also picked up a 4' x 8' Eucaboard 3/16" thick from Home Depot that I had cut to 22" x 32" rectangles.  I was able to get 6 rectangles out of one piece of Eucaboard.  Bill and Lucky worked together to get the clips attached to the boards using a few parts he picked up from Home Depot.  I honestly have no idea what he used, but could find out if anyone would like to know:).  It was cheap though, costing only a few bucks for all six of the boards.

Then I filed down the corners of three of the boards using a metal file to create rounded corners.  Finally, we hung them up using 4 medium 3M picture hanging strips per board.  I spaced the boards 5 inches apart.
  

I love the display options these boards will allow in the future including the display of kids' art projects, black and white photographs (Sam's Club offers 20" x 30" prints for about $9) and even something simple like this:

I painted the numbers using acrylic paint on IKEA art easel paper rolls, which are a great width for the clipboards.

I love how bright and kid friendly this space is turning out to be.  The pop of blue on the walls is exactly what the space needed.  And I cannot wait to get some great photos of the kids in the near future blown up for display.  I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I make that change!

Now, I realize this post is getting ridiculously long, but I must mention that I thought I had the rug picked out for the space.  I posted about the rug I wanted in my birthday wish list post.  I even ordered that rug...Happy Birthday to Me (Thanks Oma and Opa!)...but then it showed up, and instead of being Kermit the Frog Green, it's Oscar the Grouch Green.  I love everything else about the rug...texture, pile, material, but the green is a little 'off'.  

It's not horrible, but it's not what I was anticipating.  I haven't even unrolled it yet, because I'm scared I wouldn't be able to get it packaged back up to return it (at the cost of $46!).  Oh decisions!  I don't know where else I would be able to find a similar 100% wool rug for the same price...I got it on sale for $300 with a coupon and sale combination.  So...who knows what's coming next for the space (except for those individuals who attended our Halloween party this past weekend, because I wrote this post a week ago:).)  What I do know, is I love those clipboards!

Clipboard Cost Breakdown:

1 4' x 8' Eucaboard 3/16" thick for $13

6 Clipboard Clips for about $5 shipped

Attaching Bolts/Nuts 'less than $5' per Bill :)

Total for 6 clipboards (I have 3 more that I don't know what I'll do with...yet.) = $23 or $3.83 per board!

Anyone else have a color 'fail' while ordering online?  What a bummer that is!  Overstock has never let me down before!

Linking up to The Rooster and The Hen.

Charm's Gallery Wall Including T-Shirt Art

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Today, I have another 'old' project to share with you.  (The holidays really made things busy around here, so I apparently got behind with posting updates as they happened, so this is another catch up post:).)  We installed this artwork in Charm's room in November, along with the gutter bookshelves.

At the top is an antler set that Bill and I picked up at a Hobby Lobby in Des Moines, way back in June.  It was $20 on sale 50% off.  Below the antlers is a square frame picture that I picked up at Target on clearance for $4.98.  The clock was $5 from Walmart.  The canvas feet are Charm's.  We inked up his feet with black acrylic paint on his birthday last summer.  I just love them!  The little canvases are from Michael's and came in a 4 pack.  I believe they were about $5 or so for the four pack combining a sale with a 'take an additional percentage off coupon' (about $1.25 each).  The metal 'H' is from Urban Outfitters and was on sale for $6. 

 

Below that are the two brand new IKEA Ribba frames that I picked up from Goodwill for $10 each.  I filled them with t-shirts that I found on clearance for $4 each at Target.  I like the vintage feel of the images on them and since they are size small boys, Charm will be able to wear them in a year or two. Multipurposed art:)!  I probably should have ironed them a bit before sticking them in the frame, and I still might do that.  Finally, there is a magnet board from IKEA that we've had around for a long time. I'm telling you that magnet board has provided hours and hours of entertainment!  Charm has several different sets of magnets and he uses them for his 'ship' or 'car' buttons.  A little boy's imagination is truly an amazing thing.

The table and chairs are from IKEA.  

Total cost for the wall art: $65-ish

Anyone else stick something unconventional in a frame and call it wall art??

P.S.  Check out how our house looks right now:

 And how our kiddos looked on Saturday:

Hooray for Halloween in March:)!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick.