Friday, February 20, 2015

Every cloud has a silver lining

I promised the kidlets when we moved that they would be able to pick the colors to paint their new rooms.

I lied.

Peanut chose bubblegum, baby girl, pretty pretty PINK. Bjorn chose red.

Um...no.

I casually steered them towards other colors, all the time making them think it was their idea. (Parenting win!)  After promising Peanut that we could have PINK PINK PINK all over her room (just not on the walls), she chose a pretty lilac.

I was hoping it would be purpler, but at least the girl is happy and it's not PINK!

 I had to promise Bjorn he could paint his side table red (!!!!) before he settled for a sky blue. Because he also now wants clouds.

Note to self: Old sheets triple-folded are not thick enough to be used as drop cloths.


I tried to tell him that Mommy was no artist, and clouds on the wall, while they look easy, were more than mere circles, and had the potential to be the biggest Pinterest failure of 2015. He was insistent on clouds. Then my amazing aunt sent me a link for creative DIY rooms and I hit the jackpot.

I can make him clouds that actually hang from the ceiling.

It looked easy, so I ordered the supplies from Amazon (love me some Prime!!) and the boy and I got to work.

Yup, he helped. Because it is that easy.

10 white paper lanterns (I believe they are 8") for $8, a baggie of stuffing for $5 (at first I ordered quilting batting, but that is totally wrong. You need the stuffing that goes inside teddy bears and such.) and Elmer's Glue (hot glue would have worked better, but then the boy couldn't have helped).

$13 for clouds. A steal.


Technology confounds me. I can't turn this picture. Just tilt your head. 
 
I put together the lanterns, and Bjorn drizzled glue all over the outside, section by section.



He grabbed big wads of cotton batting and stuffed it onto the lantern.


Then repeat from the next section. Turn, repeat. Turn, repeat. All the way around. Let dry and hang from the ceiling with a thumbtack and some string. Voila. Clouds.

He wants the clouds to be shapes. Like the ones in the sky. "Look, Mom! An elephant tap-dancing!"
 

I have three more clouds and I'm pretty sure he will want them over his bed. Except we are putting in a ceiling fan next week, so......

Not to be left out, I picked up a little something at a local resale site for the girl, too.

She asked for either butterflies or Rapunzel princesses on the clouds. Whichever, I smell a craft day soon!

 By far, this was the easiest DIY we have done since we moved into this house. It also makes Bjorn happy, so it is a complete win in my opinion!






Friday, February 13, 2015

How a Few Walnuts Saved my Marriage

In my defense, I've never had real wood floors. Laminate, yes. But real wood? I had no idea how soft they were.



See that shoe there? It's not there because I couldn't take it another 6 inches to the shoe basket. Unlike some people who shall remain nameless, I can take my items an extra 1/2 foot to get them to the right spot.

That's another story.

Do you want to see what's under the shoe?

I know you do.

Yes. This.

Oops. Big oops.

We had been in the house exactly 2 days when I tried to move the furniture by myself. Our heavy, long, 7 drawer dresser that still had all the filled drawers in it. I had no idea it was so heavy, and absolutely no frickin' clue that hard wood floors were so insanely soft. I have moved my furniture dozens of times in our past home, with its laminate floors!

2 days. Can you imagine my husband's face if I told him I put a big long scratch in our floor after only 2 days in?!

So to save my marriage and my husband's sanity, my shoe has not moved from that spot in 2 weeks. Until today.

(And of course he didn't notice!)

I had read somewhere - I bet you can guess where; it starts with a P and rhymes with Hinterest - that walnuts could be used to restore wood coloring on old furniture, and, yes, on wood floors. When they showed up on sale at Sprouts, I threw a few in a baggie and $.38 later walked out with the equivalent of a marriage life vest.

 
 


At home, I took those walnuts, got down on my hands and knees and found......

that it worked.



It worked!



See, the scratch is still there. There is nothing I can do about it except pray that we keep our furniture in the exact same spot our entire time in this house. Nothing can take it back. But the walnut did make it so much less noticeable. It is not glaringly obvious when you walk into the room that THERE IS A SCRATCH ON THE FLOOR. Now you must look for it.

And he is none the wiser. Unless he reads this blog.....