Quick Takes Friday

1.  I have been known to declare (dramatically, with great self-sacrifice) to anyone who will listen once I finish any sort of project that I'm not going to blog about it because I just don't have the time: I can either do the project or blog about doing a project, but not both.  This, while mostly true, is maybe also an exaggeration, so I'm working on trying both for a bit just to see how it works out (if my hero, P-dubs, can homeschool four children, assist in the running of a ranch, star in a cooking show, write two cookbooks and two children's books, make dinner every night (while blogging about it) and still post like 5 times a day maybe I can manage a couple posts a week.).


2. I have to use my time wisely, right?  For instance, right now the hubs is going to watch The Walking Dead. I can't watch The Walking Dead (seriously I don't know why they'd make a show that is unwatchably gory) but I like the storyline.  Blogging while not-watching The Walking Dead is a perfect use of my time and resources (what's that? "Laundry?" No, I don't know anything about that.).

3. New favorite mascara alert (don't get too excited, this is a bi-monthly event): Maybelline The Colossal Cat Eyes Mascara.  It is GREAT.  My "HG" ("holy grail" for those of you who don't spend time watching YouTube makeup tutorials. I know, I'm cool.) is Clinique High Impact mascara, but I have to go to the mall to get it, and I don't go to the mall much these days (they're not double-stroller friendly).  This is a very good substitute.  

4. I have many projects floating around in a half-completed state over here, but lately I have managed to finish a few.  At one point we made a frame for a poster I had and wanted to frame, but it didn't work out (we couldn't figure out how to safely mount it with glass/plexiglass so we just had the poster framed professionally).  Anyways, we have a very large (maybe 3'x4'?) very light frame that I want to do something with, but I'm not sure what.  I was thinking one of those frames-within-a-frame projects I keep seeing on Pinterest, but I haven't quite worked out anything.  Any thoughts?

Not quite this busy, though.  Via Pinterest.

5. Ugh maybe I can't even listen to The Walking Dead. The sound effects are hideous.  But the plot is extremely compelling!  Perhaps I should just read the comics.


6. Baby picture time!  Juliana loves these "blue ice popsicles."  They're actually Pedialite pops.  I figure they're slightly better than Otter Pops? Maybe?  Sure!

7. And here's Sammy because he's cute.

We play in the playpen in the backyard so the dog will give us some room.  Otherwise he'd be licking Samuel while beating me with his wagging tail and scratching Juliana.  He's very friendly.

Go see Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

Mini Bedroom Makeover

Recently (er, the last five months or so.  I'm slow.) I've been re-doing our master bedroom.  First we got a new (old-- antique) dresser, then we rearranged the furniture.  After that I decided to paint the wall behind the bed a navy blue.   We've never had a headboard, so it was a pretty big, pretty blank dark blue wall.

Forgive the bad cell phone photography.

The creative impulses that led me to paint the wall navy (all the other walls in my house are beige.  This was a big deal.) dried up at that point and it took me until this week to decide what I wanted to do.

Since every other available frame/canvas/bare space in my house is covered with pictures of the kids, I wanted to make the bedroom more of a kid-free zone.  I bought some incredibly cheap frames from WalMart and spray painted them white and painted the mats black and framed up some wedding photos .

The frames as-purchased:

I want to say this cost $3.99 at WalMart? Nothing some spray paint can't fix!

I also wanted a quote for the wall, but wanted something custom and didn't feel like paying for a custom decal.

I poked around Pinterest for some how-to advice and cobbled together my solution.  I found a font and a quote I liked ("I have found the one whom my soul loves" from Song of Solomon and Miss Le Gatees font) printed it on several pieces of paper in size 400 font, and rubbed chalk on the back of each page and then taped them up on the wall and traced the letters (with a de-leaded mechanical pencil) to transfer the "stencil" to the wall.

It really looks magical at this point.

Getting there...

and (a few hours later) that was that.  The finished result:





And a wider view:



Ta da!

I was going for pretty and peaceful.  We're getting there.

Linking up with Leila today for some Master bedroom fun (... not that kind of fun)! I have her to thank for getting this project moving (she said to spruce up the master, so I did!).