DIY Sandbox

This is a quick 1-day project my husband and I came up with back in December that I am just getting around to sharing with you.  It all began at nap time on a Saturday afternoon.  We were hanging out in the garage in order to not make noise in the house and wake the baby.  Yes, we are THOSE first-timers.

We had taken apart the steps up to my old turtle enclosure=claw foot bathtub.  Sadly "departed" pet turtle of mine, that I had for 10 years all through my college years and early married life.  Her name was Frankie and I had her since she was a hatchling.  I so loved that turtle :-(  She would have lived for another 25 years if "natural causes" hadn't interfered.  It was a horrific thing to watch and I won't put you through the details of her passing-ANYWAY, moving on...

Easter 2011

Sorry y'all, but we already gave the tub to a friend in the valley who was going to turn it into a planter bed.  But the wood from the steps was ready to be recycled into something new:

I forgot to take pictures of the box construction, but I think it is simple enough to figure out.  The picture above was taken after the majority of the work was completed (and "Nap-Time" had obviously run out, since there are little feet shown here) but I digress.

We bought this chalkboard oilcloth (how cool is that?) at our local hardware store.  Until this point, we had been clamping it to a cheap plastic adult size table, and would have to have the baby on our laps in order to let him draw on the table.  But putting down at his height, AND covering a useful lid for the box, was a much better solution.

Staple down all four sides- starting with opposite sides first, then turn the board 90 degrees and finish the remaining two.  The corners took a bit of origami folding action, as shown above.

We also screwed in two blocks of wood in the corners to help guide the lid to a snug fit to the box.

Next step: fill with sand and toys and begin play!

Be Mine

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy New Me!

Hurray for 2012! My family was eager to say goodbye to 2011-to put all our health problems behind us-and we are embracing a new year with hope and determination. Yep, we got some BIG home projects on the horizon and I can't wait to share them with you.

In the meantime, while we plan out these projects, I'd like to share some recent fashion purchases I treated myself to during the after holiday sales. Well, first I want to point out what my loving husband got me-the iPhone 4, and as you can see I'm making good use of it. I'm even using it right now to type out this post!
I am in love with this new shirt from Land's End Canvas. I would never have thought to check out LE for updating my wardrobe, but this post by my girl crush Emily had my attention and so I clicked my way over to their sale at their hip Canvas sister store to see what I could save. I was actually surprised at what I found: cool, yet still classic, looks for both men and women. I bought myself a cream ribbed long sleeve ($15), and a floral poplin button up shirt ($15). I even found this flannel workshirt for my husband for $20, and he has received so many complements from his co-workers on it. I paired the cream shirt with my jeggings and new leather riding boots to wear to a recent baby shower and I loved the casual look. Today is the first day I'm trying out the colorful floral shirt:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it has my three favorite colors: french blue, orange-red, and poppy pink (ok, that last color name I made up ;-)  It was told to me by a marketing co-worker in my office that the print reminded him of the 60s.  Not sure if that makes this a vintage remake or not, but I'm loving it either way!

Do you ever ponder if you should hang on to clothes that no longer fit, but maybe they will in time to come?  My body has been through so many size changes in the past 5 years that I don't know what to do now.  It has grown and shrunk, grown and shrunk, so now I don't know what my size really is anymore.  Most of my closet doesn't fit my body these days, which makes getting dressed hard to do most workday mornings.  I have work pants in 3 different sizes, tank tops I originally bought as maternity I wear regularly, and over coats that I swim laps in.  I guess I'm all over the place with how my clothes fit.  It makes me pretty self conscience when I know I really could be looking put together if I had the right sizes on.  Maybe this sounds like a rich man's crying, but it has semi-importance to my life: to look good = to feel good about myself.  I want to hold my head high.

Casa Granolé

Not long ago I was invited to a friend's Holiday Gingerbread House Party.  I could hardly contain my excitement.  You see, my dad gave me this book years ago:

and I just couldn't wait to make a real gingerbread house out of it!

The "Pueblo House" was perfect since my family had just gone to visit Casa Grandé National Monument during the Thanksgiving holiday

But my excitement was tripled when my husband and son both put their architects' caps on and sketched me out this:

I made sure to pick up some extra materials I would need, and didn't think my friend would have thought of for the more "traditional" gingerbread house.  Assorted sizes of pretzels and a few graham crackers was basically all I needed but that didn't stop me from buying gourmet marshmallows, fruit bars, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, and granola!

When I arrived at my friend's house, she was still in the midst of setting up and I helped her in the kitchen.  We made a simple Royal Frosting/Icing out of:

2 egg whites

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

All beat together-but found we needed to add 1/2 cup more powdered sugar to get the consistency right.

Then the other guests started to arrive and so I found myself a spot at the table and set up.

I mixed crushed up graham crackers into my icing to give it that "stucco" or "adobe" look.  Then I just spread out the mixture with a knife on the rough side of the modified IKEA kit walls.

I started with the typical four wall base, added a roof/entry from a piece of wall with a window.  Then built a smaller three wall box to fit over the roof top entry.

Next I added skinny pretzels to make a ladder (to climb the wall to the roof/entry of course!), half pretzels on the sides for the ends of adobe-style framing beams (I'm a practicing architectural engineer mind you), and a large pretzel door header (strictly architectural façade here, not doing much structurally for the opening ;-).

I tried my best to add some color by making a cactus out of large pretzels and green icing, but it looks pretty sad leaning against the house in the corner.  

Going back to my architects' plans:

A marshmellow "Peep" Snowman was provided by another guest to the party, so that took very little effort on my part.  (My husband DID think I made it myself though when he first saw it...he gives me far too much credit)

Red licorice and red gum drops came in pretty handy for a side yard fire pit.  And Mr. Frosty felt a bit lonely so he asked over his friend Giant Rambo Man to come frolic in the coconut snow!!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my fun holiday activity~Merry Christmas!

If at first you don't succeed, Tie Dye Again!

I have wanted to try my hand at tie-dying for months now.  My eye was on a pair of purple jeans that I always wore with a solid top, and I thought the pants would look great in a fun tie-dye pattern on the bottom.

So the term "tie-dye" is not correct usage in this project.  There was no "dye" involved, only a "taking out" of dye by using bleach.

WARNING-SIDE RANT::  Who knows why I kept putting off completing this project...it was so EASY!  A few months back, when the idea first came to me, I picked up a bottle of hydrogen peroxide at the drug store (thinking I would use that as my beaching agent).  Why H2O2?  I don't now know why.  My brother used to use it back in high school to lighten his hair, but I don't know why I just didn't go straight to using bleach.  DAH!  :FINISH RANT

I found what I was looking for yesterday when surfing blogland: Katherine at MakingChickenSalad, tutorial for bleaching out denim.

As soon as naptime commenced, I was gathering up my materials and starting on my project.

Problem is, I have a real deficiency in following directions.  As soon as my pants were ready to go in to the washing machine, I threw them in and then turned on the water.  Wrong!  By the time I added the bleach (and I threw in the H2O2 for extra power, not sure if adding that was really was worth it) the jeans were already soaked with the hot water...I didn't allow for them to properly soak-up the bleach solution.  DOH!  As soon as I realized my mistake, I went back to the tutorial and read everything sentence by sentence.  What I decided to do was just finish out the wash/rinse cycle, post wash with detergent, and throw in the dryer to see what I got:

Some parts were not bad, but the good areas were mostly up at the waist and nothing done to the legs.  Well I did manage to get one star-burst on the leg, but it was much more subtle than I wanted.  So next naptime, back to the beginning (which included a trip to the grocery store to purchase more bleach) .  I re-banded and this time I added the bleach (I used maybe one quarter of the bottle) to the hot water BEFORE adding the jeans.  I left it to soak for about 2 hours.  When I went to check on it, what came out was entirely pink!  "Oh no!  I've OVERDONE it this time"  But, again, I went through the rest of the steps (wash, rinse, repeat with detergent, and dry).  I'm pretty happy with what I got in the end.

Now I can't wait to wear these and show off my handy-work!  :-)

Closet Wrap-Up

So over a month ago I decided to join the DIY Bloggers in their summer challenge.  I failed at completing the project on time, but eventually it did get finished.  I think I managed to have it at 98% by two weeks past the original date.  I still have some sewing to do at the top, but here it is-in all it's glory...

My closet is now a place of inspiration for me.  I'm not the best photographer, so maybe this picture doesn't do it justice, but I love the combination of gold, hot pink, and tomato red.  The white molding just pops, although I can see it sort of clashes with my off-white dresser a bit.  I finally have a shelf to keep my purfume bottles and earrings up away from my little explorer's hands.  I did leave some items on a tray though that he can get into.  I have a case filled with plastic bead necklaces, big ol' shiny plastic rings and braclets, and bright sunglasses that he loves to play dress up with me.

Some "in-progress" pics:

It's very important to have a "spotter" in case you miss something:

My first time painting stripes on my walls!  More Pinterest inspiration for that:

Source: None via Petra on Pinterest

I painted the shelves as well and installed contact paper on the tops:

I'm so happy with the result!

Before

After

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn...

Oh boy.  Summer is usually my favorite season-just not this year.  I laugh now to see an old copy of InStyle magazine in the bathroom with the headline: "Your Best Summer!"

Should have clued me in to have picked up the magazine at PHX returning home from my grandfather's funeral- not off to a good start.  But after my family of three makes it to the emergency room four times this summer, I think it's safe to say this one was not my best.

So HELLO Autumn!  Thank goodness you have arrived.  I was about lose it.

With the fresh start of a new season, I feel the need to begin again-specifically back to blogging and getting my projects completed.  Now where'd I leave off?

Oh yeah, my closet.  A post will be arriving soon to show off the completion (almost).  I asked my husband last night what he thought of me blogging, and he said it looked like I needed to concentrate more on my projects-less on getting a blog together-and I think he's right.  I noticed during the Pinterest Challenge I was more busy trying to write the final blog post, when where I should have been was with him working on the closet project.  As the blog was finished and posted, I realized my mistake.  I guess that maybe is why I haven't posted anything since.

But I want that to all change and I've got a plan.  I will set longer deadlines for myself, to give ample time to complete projects.  I will limit my projects to one large one a season, with maybe a handful of quick ones throughout.  I will not work on writing the post until the project has been completed.  

What I decided to work on first -my large project- is not another @em_henderson challenge (although this does sound like fun), is a bookshelf for my son's room.  I've wanted to make one for some time now.  I thought maybe I'd go to the home improvement store and buy some plywood and brackets to start, but then I saw this blog post by The Thriftress:

She used her old laundry room cabinets and repurposed them by adding legs and molding around the top edge.  We scored some old kitchen cabinets from my father-in-law, and they have been taking up valuable space in the garage for way too long.  My husband already used what he wanted and was just going to haul away the leftovers.  So tomorrow I'm planning on going to check and see if I can turn them in a child's bookshelf.  We will soon see if they'll even work (keeping my fingers crossed!).

Another project I had in mind involves cut outs.  Our walls are in desperate need of artwork and I got inspired by the cover piece to the AIASF event booklet I've been carrying around with me in my purse:

I'm pretty sure this one was made with a high-tech laser cutter tool.  I'd love to do the same San Francisco map as this one, but that is just too much for lazy me.  But see the Ferry Building sketch in the background of the cover?  I think that is much more attainable.  Plus, I ate there for lunch today so it was meant to be!

Alright Blogland, as if anyone other than myself will read this, I'm back.  Bring it on Autumn!