Split personality ahead....

So I've decided to divide myself. Oh yes. This blog, Party of Five, is going to be reserved for my family-type postings. All of my crafty business (such as it is) will now be posted on the other side, Crafty Like a Fawn. You can catch my first crafty posting about my dresser re-do, over there right now.

 I'll have links to both sides, but feel free to check both out :) thanks, ya'll, and peace!

Grandbaby alert!

I've been getting complaints from a certain Grandmother that there is a lack of pictures on my children lately. So, so satisfy her-who-will-remain-nameless, here's some loveliness for you....

Sam:

Sofia on the run....

Sofia at her Children's Choir Christmas program:

A backseat photoshoot with the boys, Sam:

Ben:

Ben:

Sam:

Ben:

Just keeping it real, ya'll....

Almost too big for a ride on the Daddy Horse...

Game Night....

Ben contemplating his next move....

Sam's dealin'

Chistmas Eve dinner

In the Christmas PJs

Sam loves his Jelly Belly ball

The kids playing their new (to us!) V-Tech game from our friend Ivanir

Ben:

Sam:

Sissy Sue

Bathroom update

So this has been a long time in coming. When we first moved into this 1990 house, the kitchen had been updated nicely, but the bathrooms, not so much. The kids' bathroom was wallpapered in blue country floral, and the floor was dingy, yellowing sheet vinyl flooring.

The cabinets were that pink-toned light colored oak or something.....

I had already repainted the doors from that nasty contractor beige to a nice crisp white, and changed the door handles from brass ugliness to satin nickel.

We had also already replaced the toilet with a two-stage-flush water conservor (that we got free--yes, free!--from our water company. You never know what you'll find on your utilities' websites in the rebate section. We scored two really nice toilets. Love it!) but still had those rental-quality towel bars.

Oh, and the yellowed plexiglass under the light fixtures has cracked, so we just had a gaping hole there for a couple of years.

Yuck. The masterbath was also papered, a nice pink something-or-the-other, and when we (tried) to take it down, it was awful. They had not sized the wallpaper, and had put it up directly on the drywall. So that came off in chunks. Nice. I did not want to go through that with this one, so I researched painting over wallpaper. Not ideal, but best under the circumstances.

I ended up priming with an oil-based primer (didn't really like it, I hate cleaning with mineral spirits. It was also very thin to apply). I did this because if you use a water-based primer, it could at some point loosen the wallpaper underneath, and then you'll have peeling, painted wallpaper coming down on you in the shower. Not fun.

I then painted two coats of Oops! paint from Lowes. After I stood back and looked at it, I hated it. I had gone from 1990 floral blue to 1993 Florida peach. On the can, it had looked more brown, but no such luck on the walls. I tried to live with it, really I did. For several weeks. I couldn't take it any more. I didn't have any budget left for real paint, so off to the shed I went. I found a lovely gallon of partially used tan left over from another part of the house... not peach, this time! I painted the cabinets dark brown, and voila!

You can see that I also framed out the plate mirror.

A fun new shower curtain

And because I believe that every member of the family should contribute to household projects, Sofia did the tiling ......

Didn't she do a great job??

Linking to Transformation Thursday at Shabby Chic Cottage

A sneaky peaky....

Got tired of my blushing pink bedroom. When I saw two gallons of  oops paint at Lowes, I grabed 'em. Here's a peak, because the room isn't exactly clean yet.

Oh, and I lack curtains. And bedding.

All in good time....

The Lumps Don't Lie....

Santa knows me better than anyone...

And I got not one, but TWO lumps of coal in my stocking.

Fortunately for me, Santa must have been feeling sympathetic this year, because he tempered that bad news with a Lowe's gift card.

I guess Santa really does know me best after all.

From floral to festive in one fell swoop

Remember when I did my botanical wall in the living room? Love it! Looks so pretty with those natural prints.... but definitely not Christmasy. It stood out like a weed with all the other decorations around. But I didn't want to take them down after all that hard work. And there's also those nine nails in the wall to think about. So what to do?

Make it Christmas! After careful calculations, I determined that "Christmas" has exactly nine letters in it. Don't ask me how I figured it out, it's complicated. You'll have to take my word for it. Originally, I was going to buy some scrapbook paper, but when I was at Target, I found these delightful rolls of fun wrapping paper in the dollar spot. So I bought a bunch of those, put them with some I had on hand already, and was ready to roll.

I printed out the letters to make a stencil on Word. I used Courier New, because it was easy, fun shapes.

I then traced the letters on the back of different wrapping paper, cut them out, and glued them on contrasting paper. Easy!

Now my wall looks like it belongs to the festive room!





Linking to Trash to Treasure on Reinvented

Not as dramatic as planned.

I found this fabulous chair at Goodwill the other day marked $6.99. I grabbed that sucker and hauled it around the store with me, not trusting its fate to the hands of another. My original plan was to sand & paint it black (surprise!) and reupholster it with the black & white damask from my laundry room. But as I ran my hands over it, feeling for rough spots I would need to fill in, the chair almost cried in my palm. You see, the wood was lovely. Not in perfect condition, mind you, but so rich & good. I know I like my spray paint, but I have no illusions as to the profession nature of my abilities. I instinctively knew that by painting her, I would cheapen her. So I decided to leave the wood & just reupholster her.
I found my fabric today in the Red Tag Clearance bin at Joanns. $6/yard, and some quilting batting later, and this is what she looks like now:

So while she may not be the dramatic transformation I had planned, the colors actually look really nice in my neutral living room. Welcome home, little lady!