Hello, my name is Mary and I’m a craftaholic

I recently stumbled up a blog called Craftaholic Anonymous. It is a fabulous site of all things crafty.  I have found oodles of inspiration.  Anyway, a couple of days ago, Craftaholics presented the “Great Pinterest Hunt with several other awesome blogs.  Now, anyone who has ever read my blog (all 2 of you) know that I love me some Pinterest.  So I have been stalking their blog and Facebook posts, playing along.  Today the hunt is sponsored by Kaboo Tech Bag – which are bags & purses with a tech pocket to hold your iPad or Kindle.  Coincidently, I just got a Kindle Fire.  I think it is fate for me to win one of those beautiful bags. 

Chores

When I was a kid, every Saturday was chore day.  My sister and I would wake up to find a long list of chores for us to do waiting on the kitchen table.  We knew those chores needed to be done by the time mom came home from work, or there would be hell to pay.  Sadly, I have not trained my kids to do chores like I had to.  I have tried several different techniques to get the kids involved in the housekeeping, with minimal luck. 

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I think I might have come up with something ( more accurately, someone on Pinterest came up with something). 

Isn’t it fabulous?  I started with an old frame without glass.  I cut a piece of plywood to fit, then sanded and painted it white.  I cut out the  stencil of the quote on my Cricut, then painted it on in brown.  (Don’t look too closely, the edges of the stencil leaked a bit).  I added the kids names in vinyl and screwed in the hooks. 

I then thought of every single chore the kids could do around the house, printed and laminated them, and punched holes in each one.  Each day, either K or I go through and pick 3 or so chores for each of them to do.  The rules are they have to be done by the end of the day, or the next day they lose privileges (usually technology) and have to do those chores plus whatever was assigned to them that day.  Once they do their chore, they move the ticket to the bottom hook under their name.  The hook labeled “extra” has chores they can choose if they want to earn some extra $$.  

The house has never looked better.

Father’s Day gift

Sooo, I’m a little late in posting this. That’s what happens when you ignore your blog for months.
K gave me an belated but awesome Mother’s day gift of a Kindle Fire.  I received it about a week before Father’s day.  I think his timing was planned so he would be sure to get some good loot for dad’s day, instead of the usual ‘here’s a card and oh, yeah, you can choose where we go for lunch after church’ type of gift.
I had seen this idea on Pinterest (of course) and decided it would be a good father’s day gift.  The kiddo’s were not too thrilled with the idea of a photo shoot, especially one where they had to actually change their clothes and comb their hair, but they did it after extensive beatings minimal threatening.  I picked the letter “A” and “D” at a craft store.  The store only had one “D” but that didn’t matter for this particular project. (By the way, if your initials are A.D. or D.A, I can hook you up.)

You can’t tell from this photo, but the pictures are in a clear frame, connected on the back.  I think it turned out pretty cute. 

Laundry Room Re-Do

For some reason, I’ve been diligently working on projects around the house.  I’m not sure what has gotten into me – as I am usually content to sit and play on my computer.  I blame Pinterest. 
So I am going to try to get pictures up of some before and after’s going on around here.  First will be the laundry room.  It is one of the only rooms in the house that I had not yet changed since moving in.  The previous owners of this house had a love affair with the color purple.  And green.  And teal.  Often all together.  Not my style.  So here are a few before pictures:
Lovely, isn’t it?Close up of that wall paper border. 
I got tired of that border several months ago and tried ripping it off.  I didn’t get too far as it was attached very firmly with an abundance of glue.  So I gave up for the time being. 
Recently, I tried again, this time armed with a wall-paper scorer thing (yes, that is the technical term) and some spray.  Finally, after two days of a little hard work and a lot of cussing, I finally finished.  Here are the results:
Much better, don’t you think?

Who Said?

Whoever said that 40 was the new 30 was lying.  Liar, liar, pants on fire lying.  Since turning 40, my body has decided that it has had enough of being healthy and has turned on me.  Last August I broke my ankle just by stepping off a curb wrong! Who does that?  Not 30 year-olds, that’s for sure.   My memory has gotten worse.  The only way I can remember things is by writing them down, but just where did I put my pen?  I don’t know!   And now, my appendix has decided to jump ship.  It decided it had enough of this old body and got all “hot” and Ouchy, demanding to be removed.  So with the help of a few medical staff,  a brief hospital stay, and most likely several thousand dollars, I got rid of that thing.  Sayonara.

Pinterest strikes again

I’ve stated here before that I am addicted to Pinterest.  I love looking at all the home decor and craft projects.  It is inspirational and makes be want to get my craft on.  However, I think there is some weird time warp that happens whenever you log on to it.  Time flies and you have no longer have any time to actually DO the projects you were so inspired by. 
I overcame that time warp this weekend and completed my 2nd ever Pinterest inspired craft.  It is a growth chart inspired from a Pottery Barn chart.  It was relatively simple to make, and my only wish is that I had done it about 13 years ago.  The supplies I used were a 6 foot 1x8 board from Home Depot and some interior wood stain. 
             
I stained the board; front, back and sides.  I didn’t need to sand, as it was already very smooth.  After the stain dried, I made small lines (with pencil) every one inch.  I went back over the lines, making them one inch long, the 1/4 foot line 1 1/2 inches long, and every foot mark two inches long.  I went back over these marks with a black paint pen.  After those marks dried, I stenciled on the numbers.  I hung the board six inches from the floor (I started the first foot mark six inches from the bottom of the board.
              
I transferred some of the measurements from the last couple years that had been written directly onto the wall in the hallway.  All three kids were excited to get measured again.  Like I stated, I only wish I had this years ago.  It is something that could have moved with us from house to house.

A new year

I can’t believe it has been over seven months since I’ve posted anything here.  A lot has happened in that time.  Recap:  broke my right ankle and sprained my left at the same time, (I wasn’t even drinking, or anything); had surgery on said right ankle – am no longer all original parts; started working part-time after 13+ years of being a stay-at-home-mom, and began a nine week fitness challenge which includes clean eating and butt-kicking workouts.  I think that pretty much brings you up to speed.
I have decided that 2012 will be a year of organization for me.  I have two projects in mind to start out with; both of them a bit daunting.  The first is to go through all of the kids school papers (8 years worth) and try to pare it down to one large expandable file folder for each kid.  The other is to completely overhaul our office and turn it into my craft room/office.  Jacob is getting to the age where he is wanting is own room, so he would take over the room in the basement, which is currently my scrap room/exercise room.  My current scrap room is big and has two large tables in it.  I am not sure how I am going to get everything into our office, but it will be a good opportunity to purge myself of unnecessary supplies.
Wish me luck!