Wall Art Fail & Success

Last June I was inspired by Amy from My 3 Monsters.  She was guest posting over at Under the Table and Dreaming about some fantastic and CHEAP wall art.  I have seen these before in stores and on Etsy and they can get pretty pricey so I was intrigued...  Could I make one of these on my own?

I went to Leo Reynold's Flickr Photostream.  Go and look.  The sheer number of photographs can be overwhelming! I downloaded everything I needed to spell out my last name and when our family was established.  Then I opened Scrapblog and prepared to work my magic.

Riiiight...  I couldn't get it looking how I wanted.  I added my full anniversary to make it fit in my square {even though it wasn't my favorite} but even still none of the lines were lining up correctly...

Do you see how it is uneven?  How none of the lines are matching up?  Maybe it is hard to see but I knew it wouldn't be when it was blown up and printed out. After hours of messing with it I grew tired.  And I forgot about it.

Until... Sarah featured Stephanie. {BTW, is this enough linking for you?? :) }  She had an in depth tutorial on how she created one of these collages.  It was BRILLIANT! {That's for you Babe!!}  I swear Stephanie must have known I needed this tutorial.  And here is the kicker all she used was a Microsoft Office Program.  No fancy schmancy software or downloaded programs here.  Woot Woot!  If you want to see just how I did it please go and look at Stephanie's tutorial. 

And for my success?

Ok, I know what you are thinking- it looks pretty similar but look at those LINES.  So clean and crisp :)  I know I should have been a good blogger and given you the big reveal once it is all printed out but I couldn't wait.  With Hubbie gone I only have you to show :)  I ordered my print online and hope to have it matted and framed soon.  Please let me know if you make one I would love to see...

Despicable Me

How's everyone doing today? 

We had a day off of school for a teacher workday and it was so much fun to hang out with the boys. We did a lot of snuggling followed by lots of playing.  We even managed to film a few short movies. Has anyone seen the movie 'Despicable Me'?  It is so adorable. I'll let Wikipedia summarize it for you because I am unable to succintly explain it.  I keep writing the whole story out. Oops :) "...a supervillian named Gru plans to use three orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, only to find that their innocent love is profoundly changing him." At the end of the movie everyone dances to the Bee Gee's You Should be Dancing and Gru busts out some old school dance moves- including putting his hands on his tush and shaking what his momma gave him :)  Nolan thinks it is hilarious!  Here is what has been transpiring around my house today...

Once again, sorry for my nasally, coughing voice- I am still trying to shake the plague :)  Hope this brightens your day {it sure did mine!!}

Hockey Basics

I just want to share some love for my little Buttonnose!!  Today was his last session of Learn to Skate and he was AMAZING!  It was if everything he has learned over the last eight weeks clicked.  He was doing glides, dips and swizzles better than he has done them before.  His teacher Miss Erin was so impressed she asked the Hockey basics Coach to watch and see if he was ready to move up next session...

He's moving up!!  I am so proud of all his hard work :)

Here are some pictures of my sweet boy in action...

Daddy helping Nolan with his skates for his first lesson in Novemeber

Waiting for the Zamboni to finish

Getting a pep talk

Out on the ice for the first time

Nolan had to be helped stand up

Now here was Nolan skating two weeks ago

And if you are still with me there's one more :)

And because I am not all there lately I completely forgot the camera today.  I was pretty mad at myself because he was doing so much better.  Oh well, I guess I will remember it next weekend on his first hockey lesson :)

Oh and I cleaned my kitchen today so I should be able to take some pictures of the kitchen and put a post together on what we have done already and what we still plan to do :)

Thanks for putting up with this proud Momma as I bragged about my son.  Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. :)

A Crown Update

Hi Everyone!  Sorry it has taken me so long to post about the crown molding/moulding my Hubbie put up weeks ago but things have been a little hectic here.  First off, Ryan left over a week ago for his first deployment in years!  The days leading up to his departure were crazy with us trying to accomplish everything he needed to do in the house before he left, packing for six months, trying to tell me how to fix a leaky toilet or catch a mouse {you know just in case} and spending as much family time together as possible.  We have now officially made it past our first week and I am relieved to say we have achieved a rhythm that makes just having me and the boys in the house work.  On top of all this deployment chaos, the three of us have been battling evil, nasty colds since Hubbie left. Nolan finally beat his fever but has been left with a runny nose and a gross cough.  Poor little Kyler is still trying to get his fever down.  And I am left with a runny nose that never ends.  Beautiful, huh? :)

Well, the other day I tried to take pictures of the crown molding and it is kind of difficult.  I am in no way an experienced photographer.  I just pretty much point and shoot.  But I still try to do my best.  I am sorry that these were the best I could get.  Hopefully, you will get the idea and focus on how gorgeous the molding/moulding is and NOT how bad my pictures are.  And to top it off I don't have the during pictures to show you.  Bad me for not taking pictures of Hubster hanging all this molding/moulding.  But because I promised I would share and because I think he did a awesome job I will share my less than stellar pictures with you anyhow. Here are a few random pictures that show the crown completed.

The Charming Anthony DiNozzo {we are faithful NCIS fans}

This corner gives the the best view of the pieces coming together.  You can also see how my husband has installed the surround sound for our new BluRay player.  I was told it was a necessity ;) And to give credit where credit is due my husband hung the speakers but had a friend who is a licensed electrician run all the wires.

 So there you have it.  My craptastic pictures.  But I hope you get the idea.  The crisp white of the crown sets off the room so nicely.  It makes my heart go pitter patter and I am anxious to install crown in the rest of the house.  In this picture you can see the kitchen in the background.  Our whole kitchen is painted a neutral tan but then our bumpout is a beautiful green.  I think it is going to look fantastic with crown molding.

can you see it in there??? 

Sorry about that view. I tried taking a better picture but our kitchen has bright, blaring sunlight in the morning and I cannot get any pictures to turn out.  However, I will take some later today and post about our kitchen next time. 

 And just because I think my little Bubby is adorable- here he is with is Daddy before deployment...{And I apologize in advance for my annoying voice}

Filling in a Hole Part 2

I win points for originality, right? :)

When I last left you we were here...

And I'm pretty sure this little hottie hubbie of mine was doing a great job :)

Now once he sanded the dry wall smooth, Ryan primed and then painted the enitre wall.

And here is another action shot...

Ryan is threading the wires for our surround sound and other electronics through so once the TV was mounted we wouldn't see any wires.  Make a note that you need special wires for anything in the wall.  I didn't know that.  But yeah you do :)

And here is the final money shot... The TV mounted on the wall with small cubbie for front middle speaker and other necessities like the DVR and Wii :)

And a close up of  the electronic cubbie...

Yeah baby!  I am so proud.  It looks fabulous.  We are thinking of using a thin molding {still think it should be moulding} around that outer edge of the nook to finish it off.  What do you think? To mold {mould} or not to mold {mould}??

Coming up next.... Crown molding :)

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe it is 2011.  It seems so strange. I just got comfortable saying twenty-ten. Geez... now I'm on a whole new year.  :) It doesn't help that right now I am in sort of this weird timeless limbo.  My hubbie leaves in ELEVEN days.  I write that and I know it is so close but it seems so far away.  He is on leave right now so we are together 24/7. It is really nice having Ryan here to spend some quality time as a family.  Every time I try to {mentally} prepare myself for the day he ships out I just can't do it.  I just have to put that away in it's own little compartment and leave it shut.  See right before my husband deploys if I think about him leaving too much I start to get sucked in to this never ending vortex of sad feelings.  Every activity we do, every good laugh we have, every time we do our bedtime routine with the boys I will think to myself this may be the last time we do this or therre aren't that many of these moments left before he leaves.  It is so depressing.  It can really ruin whatever family moments we were just enjoying before those thoughts snuck in.  So instead I try to let it go.  Enjoy every single thing we do.  Live these last weeks to the fullest.  And know that in six {short?} months we will be super excited for a fabulous homecoming. Totally smiling in that freaky forcing yourself to be happy kind of way right now. Ha!

Well, I will be back soon to post pictures of our *completed* living room. No more media niche!!!  :)