Good News!

I promise I haven't been ignoring you for naught - we've been pretty busy the last few weeks and I'd run out of prepped posts.

So - the good news in chronological order:

1. We helped celebrate our friends' marriage in Massachusetts this last weekend, yay!
2. While there we got to hang out with other friends who are expecting their second child, yay!
3. We also got to see Max's Grandma, Grandpa, and Mimi! (he's still talking about them)
4. On Monday we rested, yay for a day off! (and I downloaded over 300 photos off the camera...)
5. Tuesday morning Max had a follow up with the allergist/asthma specialist - and he's doing SO. MUCH. BETTER. Lungs are clear, they sound up to capacity, and we've weaned him down to just one puff of one inhaler a day, a single dose of a chewable asthma medicine (for his cold/virus induced asthma), and a single dose of heartburn meds a day. That's a HUGE improvement - and the doctor is optimistic that if we keep on through the winter (aka cold season) then next spring we can start weaning him off all of the meds!
6. Yesterday hubby got a great promotion at work - he starts Monday! I'm so proud of him and so happy for him, this is the first job that he really loves and it shows - he just started in this department in February.

Yay for good news!

I'll try to get back to the blog soon, I have a lot of photos to edit and posts to write. (like I said, over 300 downloaded...)

Iced Tea, One More Time

It's the end of summer, and the end of iced tea weather. I'll miss you, my favorite beverage - but this is not good bye, this is merely a pause until we meet again.

(BTW - that's my DIY travel lid on that jar)

Album Art

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There are some really fantastic album covers out there. When I buy records I buy them for the art, not the music. For example, the album art for The Mamas and the Papas Farewell to the First Golden Era inspired the dusty blue wall color for the dining room, along with the white chairs and tan seats. From there my dining room took on its own character (and some healthy doses of walnut brown), but it was nice to have a starting place to draw inspiration from.

Some other album art that I particularly like (don't hate me if the music is awful, I just like the artwork):

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 A few of these proudly grace my walls, while others I'm waiting on the right spot. Do you have any favorite albums that would make nice artwork?

Personalized Sign

One of the assistants at Max's daycare is particularly crafty. Check out the sign she made - isn't that great? She had her vision, then had the daycare kids help to paint each of the letters in the colors she wanted, and had one of the older kids help paint the background. She assembled it all, added hooks on the bottom, and I added the ribbon trim and hanging hardware. Isn't it great? And I love that each of the kids got to contribute to the gift for their friend!

She also made me a jewelry holder... I really need to take a picture of that.

Bucket + Spray Paint =

This:

+ green spray paint =

A handy bucket to collect Max's small toys. I knew that bucket would come in handy someday.

Cost: $0 for a gifted bucket and leftover spray paint

Frames

I feel like I should be able to think of a clever title for this post, but I'm fresh out. It's been a long few weeks.

You may have noticed that all of the frames in Max's room match (kinda). Thanks to local yard sales, I picked up a few dozen frames here and there for no more than a dollar each. I grouped them out into categories: dark brown or black, vaguely metallic 5x7's, and other.

(Notice my super sorting system: a giant pile of the black, brown & metallic frames that I crossed my fingers my 2-year-old wouldn't topple)

All of the "others" got a fresh coat of paint. I started with a coat of light gray latex paint that I had in the cabinet.

But the light gray just wasn't doing it for me. So I dug around in the cabinet some more and found a can of dark gray metallic spray paint - score.

A quick coat later, and I had some pretty awesome frames!

Cost: one dollar or less per frame (not including the content, though the art was inexpensive too!)

Fabric Art

I fell in love with this fabric but haven't figured out a sewing project to use it in. In the meantime, I incorporated it into Max's room as artwork.

Cost: $1 each for the frames, and less than a dollar for the amount of fabric used

Beribboned Curtains

I love the fabric for Max's curtains. It's masculine and feminine all at the same time and will easily grow with him.

The only problem? No blue to tie in with the accents in his room. Such a minimal problem...

I got some blue 1" wide ribbon and ironed it on with some hem tape. Ta-da!

Cost: $2 for the ribbon, $40 for the fabric (a splurge), $20 for the hardware

Mirror Mirror

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the craftiest one of all?

Not me.

But I did turn this:

$5 yard sale mirror

Into this:

hello, aqua spray paint

And finally, into this:

I flipped the base upside down and it became a shallow wall shelf, perfect for pictures!

Cost: $5 at a yard sale for the mirror, $7 for the spray paint