Simply DIY 2

Happy New Year !   I haven't been blogging for quite a while due to working one of the biggest DIY projects of our life: a baby ! We are due in February and are extremely excited for our little person to join our family.  The beginning of the pregnancy was rough but it has gotten much better.  We have been working on the nursery and I'll reveal some photos once it is finished.   But on to the book I made.  I know it's a little soon to be teaching our Peanut  (yes...we are waiting to find out the gender)  his or her colors, but I couldn't pass up making a book like the one on this wonderful  blog post  I found via Pinterest.  I love colors and ROY-G-BIV and thought the idea was the cutest ever to help teach colors.  I think it is great that there are different shades of each color to help the kid see differences in the same color.  Plus I had some stickers and scrap paper lying around that needed to be used.   ...

This is Kerry - I've decided to take over Steph's blog for a post and talk to you about something near and dear to my heart.  No, I'm not talking about Stephanie - I'm talking about good old classic Nickelodeon television.   If you were born in the mid 80s, you were a  kid of the 90s  and know exactly what I'm talking about. Growing up, I religiously watched Nickelodeon Guts.  For those who don't know what Guts is - it is American Gladiators for kids…except with Ghostbuster Mike O'Malley hosting, and "Mo" refereeing.  Kids would compete in various events with the finale being the  Aggro Crag ,  Mega Crag , Super Aggro Crag (ok they seriously renamed it enough times).  The Aggro Crag wasn't just any ol' event - it was a treacherous mountain climb (28 feet) with rock avalanches (foam boulders), nuclear flying crystals (glitter), and strobe lights.  The winner of the game got a piece of the "radical rock" and hoisted it above th...

On September 13, Kerry and I celebrated our five year anniversary.  I can't believe that we have been married for that long !  We actually aren't big gift givers for our anniversaries and we usually try to take a trip to celebrate.  In the past years, we've gone to Arizona, Tennessee, Colorado, and this year we went the Lone Star State - Texas ! So, the suggested gifts for five years is wood or silverware.  We really don't need any silverware and I couldn't think of any furniture needs either.  But while I was in Texas, I did some shopping and spotted a block of wood with some twine that was used as a picture "frame."  I figured, why buy it when I can make it, DIY style. Materials: 8X8 wood block canvas (got mine at Michael's) Brown paint Modge Podge Thick twine or hemp cording Tools: Paint brush Staple gun Glue gun and stick Hand sander (or a piece of sand paper) First, I painted the front, four sides, and part of the bac...

This post is SOO long over due.  I started this about a year ago, before last year's school year… The end of August brings me to setting up my classroom.  I got this little idea from my school's fantastic art teacher. She has sets of IKEA plastic dishes connected by fish string and hung by color above her tables. So I just borrowed her idea, got myself some IKEA dishes, drilled some holes, added some fish string and got some pretty cool ways to group my students by colors.   I just attached the fishing string to a paperclip and shoved them in between the ceiling tiles.   Each color hung over either a row or a group of student desks…depending on how talkative  well-behaved my students were at the time.   I actually never got a chance to stand on top of a chair all last year to take a picture, so you won't actually see a final result - but it was a great way to add color to the room and divide my students up. How do you divide and label y...

Hello again !  We are finally getting some nice, warm weather down here in Virginia !  So glad !  Here is another post about my spring break projects.  This one is about our master bath.  Even though I put up a new  shelf and word cloud  in our master bath, above the bathtub was in dire need of some artwork.  See how bland looking this is???  This big, blank wall has just been begging for something to cover it since we moved in and I haven't been able to find the right piece of art…until I came across this gorgeous picture: Source It was love at first sight.  I knew that I wanted to attempt to make this for the bathroom using sea blues and greens to match the teal in the word cloud I made a couple of months ago.  Plus, I think that blues and greens are soothing and calming.   So, I gathered my materials and went to work. Materials: Canvas (any size you'd like - mine was 24 in. X 30 in.) Painter's tape P...

This summer will be our third summer in the new house.  Each year, I start a beautiful garden in the back with hopes of a fruitful harvest and each year (well, just the past two since we've lived here) I get  squash  squat.  Actually I do get a zucchini or two, but my tomato plants rot from the bottom and only a handful of beans will grow.  It is a pretty pathetic site.  This year, I am set on not letting it happen again.  I've decided to take a different approach this year.  Beans in the back up against a trellis, tomatoes in the front, and lots of potted veggies, like lettuce and bell peppers.  Also in pots will be my herbs - but I always grow some hearty herbs in a pot...I suppose you can't really mess up herbs (Hopefully I didn't just jinx that). I have already started my garden in the little newspaper pots  like I did last year, in hopes of planting them into the garden in a few weeks.   By the way, Punxsutaw...

Boy, did spring break go by fast ! If you celebrate Easter, I hope you had a wonderful weekend full of family, candy, and eggs. I'd like to make a quick post about some coasters that I made.  This is a fairly popular project around the internet and it is easy to do.  Last year I made a bunch of these as Christmas gifts but now I'd like some for our house to use outside when we entertain. Materials:  Scrapbook paper with the design of your choice (I've also seen people use pictures, maps, or pretty cloth) White 4.25 X 4.25 inch tiles (got mine at Lowe's) A foam painting brush Mod Podge Sealing spray Cork Tacky glue Cut your scrapbook paper into 4 X 4 inch squares.  Then brush some mod podge on the tile to "glue" the paper on. Place the paper on the tile and carefully smooth it out with the brush.  Make sure there are no air bubbles in the middle. You might also need to hold down the corners and edges for a few seconds so t...