2012 Summer Olympics

Today is the eve of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and my household is over the moon excited! We love watching the Olympics and cheering on the underdogs. I had never really paid much attention to the Olympics in the past, but my non-sports-watching man enjoys them and has inspired us all to get involved (from our sofa.)

Yesterday, in the midst of summer boredom, my little sis and I sat down with the kiddos and helped the them pick out 6 countries each. Of course, their only criteria on country choices stemmed from how 'awesome' the flag looked. She helped them draw out the flags, then the kids colored them in. When finished, it was my job to attach said flags to a stick... or straws since I have an abundance of them on hand. Now we have 12 random country flags to use to cheer on teams. YAY! Bring on the official start to the Olympics!

This festive & educational little craft took about 30 minutes and minimal supplies while sparking their attention to countries they may not of heard much about before. *Win/Win*

• paper cute into 1/4
• colors
• we used straws as our sticks
• staple flag to straw
• countries participating in the 2012 summer Olympics

easy peasy.

Pool Party Essentials

Pool Party With a Splash of Awesome

o   Veggies

o   Fruit

o   Hotdog Bar with all the trimming

o   Hydration – Lime Water

o   Lemonade (+ Vodka for the adults!)

o   Sun Block! Sun Block! Sun Block!

o   Pool Party Playlist

o   Ice cream

o   Games

o   Friends

o   Did I mention the Vodka?

o   Pool Noodles

o   Extra Floating Things

 

I learned, by way of Pinterest, that if you put a package of hotdogs in a slow cooker on low and without adding water, they plump up like gas station hotdogs! This was music to this less than classy girls ear! PERFECT! What kid doesn’t like a hotdog? … so it turns out my friends kid doesn't… but I had cheese sticks on hand, so all was well with the world.

Cup Saver Tip: Sharpies

Write some names on the cups a head of time and leave a sharpie near by to help eliminate unnecessary disposing of half drank drinks.

I stashed extra cups, napkins, plates, etc. in a picnic basket near by. Handy and tidy :)

 Gosh, I love me some Mason Jars

Preview of the sunroom makeover!

 Minty green looks tropical and reminds me of Tybee Island.

 

To dress up the dogs we had:

o   Chili

o   Pickles

o   Relish

o   Jalapeños

o   Cheese

o   Ketchup

o   Mustard

o   Mayo

o   Onions

With a freshly painted sunroom (more on diy hell coming soon,) friends, a birthday boy, and music, I’d have to say that the day turned out better than expected. I had completely anticipated chaos, but the kids were pretty chill.  

DIY Day

Today, I am determined. 
I will do something. 
I will do more than one something. 
I will finish each project I start.

Confession: I'm posting this from my Draft's. 

I didn't even finish the blog post last night. Whoops! 
Oh, and my 'Pinteresting Canvas Art' is not complete either.
I'll finish it up today and post my results. So far, I have a few Pinterest Fails under my belt and no real success stories.

Lookie what I got! A complete color chart thingy from Behr. How awesome is this?!

Flowerpot Makeover:
$1.98 flowerpot from Lowes
$3 scrapbook rub-on's from Michael's
Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Clear Gloss Finish from Wal-Mart

Disclaimer: I can not vouch for the longevity of this little DIY, but I will update this post when/if they start to come off. So far so good.  

 This damn thing both infuriated me and completely grossed me out. I did learn, however, that the next time I buy a house (if there is a next time) I will require the previous owners to remove their own black garbage disposal thingy because holy freakin nasty! I couldn't even get the damn thing out. There was so much grossness that I had to soak it with Goo Gone for a good 20 mins and pried it out with a butter knife and scissors. Gagging the whole time. But...

VICTORY IS MINE

and yes, because of my struggle, I deemed this blogworthy.

Next up, the guest bathroom. 
This is a job for the Mr.
Changing out the ugly old faucet and adding a way cute new one.  
P.S. How bout the $2.99 Pier 1 toothbrush holder.
THRIFTED - Score!

(ignore the mirror - thinking about 

doing this to it later, but that's a whole other post)

 

Its going to be

HOT HOT HOT!

I'm so going to love it!!

Cannot wait to post the AFTER pictures of this Home DIY.

 Aww, My Mr. hard at work! ^^

Sparkle Power!

Never underestimate the power of Sparkle. My husband will never again steal my keys when he's running late and cant find his :) Passive aggressive, maybe. Effective, absolutely. 

Love me some ULTA!! 

Sparkle nail polish, its not just for nails anymore.

However, make sure you seal it with clear top coat. Trust me.

I painted my house keys and my key to the hubs truck. Oh yea, and my D ring too. 

~~ Sooo pretty ~~
 

♥

♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

 

Ah, much better. I have to have a little color in my life at all times.

Sharp-ieeeee

Currently in the Sharpie collection:

But I really have my eye on:

 Fabric Markers! Um, yes please!

Q: How much fun would these bad boys be? 

A: TONS!!!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

VALSPAR held a contest via their Facebook page. Remember me blogging about it? Here (#6)

Valspar Paint

" Thank you to everyone who participated and voted in our Play to Spray contest! Congratulations to our winners - Becky W, Matt K, Marie S, Anne H, Cheryl M, Pamela S, Belinda H, Holly E, Dorene W and Karen F! You will receive an email with next steps. Happy Painting! "

It came on Christmas Eve. 5 cans of paint: Blue, Gold, Red, Green, and White. A basket, and a couple $1 thingies from Michael's.  - . - Thanks again, to everyone who voted for me!! You rock my socks! 

I'm already brainstorming. What to use the gold one... hmmm... 

I'm melting! melting! Oh, what a world!

Here I will share my little step by step on how to do one of those 

charming melted crayon on canvas art projects. 

I decided Dollface could use something pretty for her empty walls. I let her pick everything from start to finish. 

AND I even remembered to take LOTS of pictures along the way. Yay me!, right? ... you'll see...

*****************************************************

Step 1- Give the child canvas and paint and get the heck out of dodge.

Step 2: Let her work of art dry and pick out your colors. Dollface was digging the garden look and wanted to do greens for flower stems. Easy Peasy. Time to bust out the crayola stash from the back to school sale when crayons were like .25 each. Now the kids will be happy. The crayon basket has been replenished. Just hope they have no need for greens anytime soon.

Step 3: Attempt to come up with a pattern with the colors found. Then allow child to come along arrange them her own way. Clearly she knows best.

Step 4: She decides that no garden is complete without the sun shining down. So gather up some yellows and oranges and bash the crap out of them to melt in the microwave.

Step 5: Glue the crayons on canvas. We used a hot glue gun. It seemed to work wonderfully.

Step 6: Get your hairdryer and go to town melting these bad boys. I did notice that HOT on HIGH works best, but it also causes a bit of a splatter effect. I used my COOL button for bursts of cool air to stop some of the melted color from going further than I wished it to.

Step 7: DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO TALK YOU INTO ADDING A SUN. 

I REPEAT, DO NOT FALL FOR THE CUTENESS. DO NOT DO AS I HAVE DONE!

 Step 8: Try like hell to get that orange eye sore off the pretty canvas! Do it now and do it fast.

Step 9: To Late. The damage is done.

Step 10: On a new canvas, repeat the first 6 steps. Skip step 4. SKIP STEP FOUR!!!