August Already? REALLY??

Holy moses how this summer is going by!  It's unbelievable to me that we are practically halfway through August!   I haven't got hardly any of the crafting done that I wanted to be finished with!  I'm really going to have to get after it!  And fast!  But REALLY???  How hard is it get stuff done when you're baby is THIS cute?!?!?!  She even smiles when she sleeps!  It's amazing how lucky I am.  Simply perfect!

Headboards are Classy!

This post is going to have to be about something else I bought for NO apparent reason, but found a wonderful place for it!   Again, one magical day at the Restore, I found a wonderful cabinet door that was beautiful dark wood and loads of potential for something.  But what???  I tried to stick pictures in it, but the wood was too tight so that wasn't happening.  I walked into my bedroom one day, and realized I have dark wood in my there, and thought to myself, "Self, put it in here somewhere!!"  So, voila, I decided to put it on the wall and make a fake headboard.  

Before....

After!  It even goes with the picture!

What do you think??

Sunday Funday

I got together with a wonderful friend today, and it was great to chit chat about a few hot topic things.  Thanks girl!  The lighter conversation steered towards crafting and such, so I figured I'd throw something out there for you all to check out!   This is a printer drawer I found at Good Samaritan for $3! Whoop!  I had seen a few of these turned into jewelry displays, so I figured I'd give it a shot!  Here's what we did!

Starting out, turned out being a great photo to
have when I had taken it all apart and
couldn't remember how it went back together, haha!

Taken apart, cleaning everything, making it spic and span.

Sofia had to help out too!  Craft time is family time!

Putting back together, and adding the eye hooks. 

Almost finished product.  I still have to find more
eye hooks, but finished as far as I could!
Can't wait to decorate with all the jewelry!

Hope you all enjoyed seeing the craftiness of last week.  Stay tuned for more stuff!

Upcycled is the new recycled?

Ok, so let's be honest for just a second, shall we?  I LOVE to buy things.  And I REALLY LOVE to buy things when they are cheap!  Here's the honest part:  I still love to buy cheap things, even if I have no use for them.  Well, ladies and more ladies, I have great news!  I found a purpose for these great old windows that I can't seem to stop buying!  We have a wonderful store in town that has tons of old used windows, so here has been my latest project:  upcycled window chalkboards!

Start with a window.

Bust out glass.  (this is fun, but you MUST be careful!) 

Find a chunk of board that fits behind your window,
and paint it with chalkboard paint!

ENJOY!  Add sayings, quotes, or funny but true to do lists!

I hope you enjoyed seeing what you can do with old stuff that you just HAD to have, and if you'd like one for your very own, check out my etsy shop!  http://www.etsy.com/shop/montanawife406

Happy Birthday 'Merica!

Well what a wonderful day!  My hot husband didn't have to go to work in the daytime, so we hung out all day crafting and playing in his man cave, aka, the garage.  (Pics to come of the projects!)  But honestly, what a great holiday!  A reason to dress up like fools, a reason to eat more than my share of smores, a reason to spend all day with the ones you love instead of doing laundry and dishes.  Thank you America for being my reasons, and so much more to so many folks.
Thank you also to all the men and women who have given up so much so that we can enjoy our smores, our lives, and our freedom.  I hope someone says thank you to you today.
Mama Bear

Motherly Truths, spanning the ages

1.  It is nearly impossible to keep your mouth closed while feeding a child baby food.  (This is related to the open-mouth-while-applying-mascara phenomena that no one can scientifically prove, but everyone knows is true.)
2.  Children do have sexdar.
3.  Naked baby bum cheeks are highly likely the CUTEST thing ever.
4.  Upon returning to bed after getting one child to sleep, the minute your head hits the pillow, the other one awakes.  It is honestly unexplainable magic.
5.  God must have been in a foul mood when He created teething.
6.  If you don't give a crap about the clothes they are wearing, not one drop of food will get on their clothes.  If it's new, vintage, cute, or generally in the "liked" category, watch out for those carrots, beans, blueberries, or anything with any color whatsoever.
7.  Laundry never ends.  Ever. 

8.  The minute Dad comes home, it's almost like having different children.  Smiles, manners, and general good behavior.   Is it his pheromones????
9.  Grandparents are the Greatest. Thing. In. The. World.
10.  One smile, one "I love you", one head on the shoulder makes you want to give them another sibling.

ZEBRA ZEBRA ZEBRA I LOVE ZEBRA!

A couple weeks ago I needed a few more kid chairs to go around a kid table.  My first stop of course, was Good Samaritan.  I found a not-so-cute-but-has-potential step stool/storage container.  I'm always on the hunt for storage, especially in and around the playroom!  This little gem was waiting for me there!

Stapled the fabric right on to the existing stuff!

I thought the current inside went just perfect with the theme!

To be honest, the colors were kind of vintage, not too awful, but still didn't go with my motif, so it needed a change!  I still had some zebra left over from the chair project, (which itself is a shocker, because that is my FAVORITE fabric!), so I thought to my self, "Self, every cute chair needs a cute footrest."  Poor Mads lost her chair, but look how cute it is!!!

And in the famous words of Mads, "TAAADAAAAAA!!"

And now, I have another reason to go to Good Sam looking for more kid chairs for the table!  Everyone WINS!!!

Sunday, a day of REST?

As far as I know, it was the Lord Almighty who came up with that idea, but when does it actually get put into practice?  In fact, it is the end of the day, and I'm confident I'm more tired than when I started out.  This parenting thing is simply exhausting.  How did my parents make it look so effortless?  But let's be honest, I wouldn't trade it for a billion big ones.  Being Mama Bear is like nothing else in the world.  (In a good way.)

Father's Day, a little delayed

You could say I didn't grow up in my Grandma's house, but there are a few things I remember vividly from it.  There has been this hand embroidered wallhanging in a certain place ever since I can remember being there.  It has my two grandparents names', Pete and Dawne, and all their 9 children, yes that's correct, 9 children names' woven together in a cross word type of way.  I was always amazed by it, and as a child I wondered if Grandma and Grandpa named children based upon an area they needed filled in the name puzzle.  As an adult, I doubt that's true, but you never know.  So, for father's day, I wanted to give my Papa O something special beyond the camo pants I had acquired for him!  I wrote out everyone's names and tried to fit them all together, and miraculously, they worked!  And they looked gooooood.   I spoke with Mama Becks to double check my brilliance, and yep sure enough, I am brilliant.  She thought Papa O would like it, so I proceeded.  I found a canvas at a thrift store for around 50 cents, and painted it a background color.  I had to paint it a few times, because someone had already started using it, and I had to get my color over the mountains already on the canvas.
Then I penciled out the names so they would be straight and centered.

Parents first, of COURSE!

Direct descendants.

Spouses added.

And dang it if I forgot to take a photo of the finished product!  I'll get one with Papa O and post it ASAP!  But you can see, it's something very original!  I  hope you're inspired!

Kids will be kids

One of my favorite quotes as of late, "Mama Bear, when I turn five, I'm gonna lose a tooth, and go to college."

And she was off again.  Amazing how the brain works.

Just the Beginning

Well Hello!  

Life continues to be just crazy, so I've got many pictures for future posts!  It's taken me 3 days to even get the blog set up, so who knows how long we'll all have to wait for posts, but hopefully they'll be quicker than expected! 

Today my marvelous husband is home, so I've been working on tons of crafty things while he hangs out with his girls.  I can't believe how good it feels to have us all together in the same home, feeling like a "normal family".  What pure joy! 

Well is a favorite project from a little bit ago! 

I scored the chair at GoodSam (which my 3 year old, Madelyn, can never remember if it's GoodSam or BadSam!) for $6!  It wasn't even half price week, what a deal!

First picture of project.  Beautiful isn't it?

Scraped off as much paint as I could, then sprayed on paint stripper, and wiped all that nastiness off.

Sprayed some Kilz Primer on to hold the color well.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!  Now, if only I had a place to put it!