Quick Change Art For .......FREEEEE!

So lately, we have been working to finish redoing my daughter's bedroom. I needed something to hang above her nightstand. I had a picture hanging around that had hung in the bathroom of our old home. I actually bought it from TJ Maxx to help stage the home when we put it on the market. It was very nice but never worked in the new house.

The scariest part about it for me was that I was actually going to destroy this picture I paid money for and just use it as a canvas. I reasoned with myself that it wasn't doing me any good sitting in the basement for the last couple years. So I got down my box of acrylic paints and covered the whole thing with a coat of white.

I then went onto my computer to look for some photos of a hibiscus flower.  B's bedding gave me the insiration.  After printing it out I transfered (by pencil) the design to my desired placement. I made my pencil lines light so I hope you can see them.

I then mixed some acrylic colors to coordinate with B's bedding and went to town. Once I started painting, I couldn't stop until it was done because I was worried I couldn't remix the colors the same again. :-)

 I forgot to take a picture after I completed all the Hibiscus flowers. It looked very undone!! So I decided to paint a flamingo in the background like he was hiding behind all the flowers. Okay, I have to admit that I was thinking to myself, "I'm about to ruin this picture after all the work I put in!" After much talking to myself, I just did it before I could change my mind again. Here's the result.....

I'm so excited I didn't ruin it!  I'm thinking about doing it again to another picture I can't find a spot for. That's if I don't chicken out.

Anti-Procrastination Project #3

So of course, these projects are taking me way longer that I've planned.  Here is the after of my B's name for her bedroom we have been redoing.

I love the way it turned out!!  More importantly my 11 year old daughter loves it too!  I found the  butterfly at Hobby Lobby.  It's a new line of package toppers. Now on to finish her desk chair!!

Homeschool Highlights

Happy Saturday!

I can't believe another week has flown by! It's getting down to the wire for J1's graduation and the end of the school year. I always seem to panic this time of year. Everything I haven't accomplished seems to be taunting me. One great thing about having my new blog are the photos I have been taking for my posts. Once I finish a "Homeschool Highlights" post I look back over it and say to myself, "We are having valuable moments!!"
We also have had a spring snow storm here. UUUGG! I am such a warm weather girl that this weather is torture! I can not wait for some signs of spring and some long hikes. Today I think it's about 20 degrees!
Anyhoo, here are some highlights from our homeschool week.

We found a wonderful book at the library for B and J3's chemistry.

The book presents every element of the periodic table like a character with a personality. It is really holding their attention! After we read about a couple of the elements we watch a video on that element that I learned about from Harmony Art Mom called  The Periodic Table of Videos. These videos make chemistry fun!!

They absolutley love it when the video has an explosion of some kind. My older boys are working on Apologia Chemistry and they are watching the videos on their own as well. Very often though they will come and watch them again with the youngers......especially if there is going to be an explosion going on. The older boys have been making chemistry videos of their own now. The latest video was of a handmade bottle rocket. I'll try and see if I can have them put the video onto my blog. 

J1 is still plugging away at his American Government course.  It's been a challenge to say the least.

I have to include a cute moment of J2 working on his LA in the office. I went to see what he was up to and had to laugh....

Our cat Lily is almost invisible on that black desk! She wants to homeschool too!

In World Geography this week we made English castles out of sugar cubes.

J3 decided his castle was going to be an old ruin. 

Last, but not least, we started using a couple new math books by Scholastic. One is called, Mega Fun Card Games and the other is 25 Super Cool Math Board Games. Both B and J3 are loving them. Excuse the Pjs :-).

Well that's a wrap! have a great homeschool week!

Homeschool Highlights

Happy Saturaday!

We had a very busy but fun week.  I thought I would share a few moments in pics.

In World Geography we are in Europe This week we studied England. J3 and B planned and put together an English tea for us.

B made chocolatechip and plain scones! The recipe came from one of our Geography books called, Eat Your Way Around the World. We are loving this book. Occasionally, we have had to look elsewhere for a more interesting or easier recipe but for the most part the recipes have really turned out well. These scones were really delicious not to mention easy to make! J2 decided to made his dish  for later in the week. He's going to attempt cornish pasty. And yes.. that's pasty and not pastry 

J3 made cucumber and watercress sandwiches.

They made a pretty nice table! They added some strawberries, jams, and cheddar cheese.....oh and of course we had tea.

We also played some geography games this week like: fishing for geography terms. Older brother J2 played as well but he did not want his picture taken playing "little kid games". The younger ones have more fun when he joins in and the nice thing about J2 is that he is always happy to oblige.



We also went on a field trip with our homeschool group to the science museum. J3 is not fond of the science museum and even though he thought this year he would be fine going, Dad came and picked him up early. J3 is a very sensitive boy and I think certain exhibits creep him out.

 My B with a friend pretending they are weather women on TV. This spot is always a favorite for my drama loving kids!

B and I love the Native American section.

My boys with the teen group. J1 is in far back right and J2 has fallen overboard. :-) I told you they loved drama!

Anti-Procrastination Project #2

I wish I had a before picture of my kitchen window. It has only taken me three years to make a mistreatment for it but here it is.  Pay no attention to the light fixture above! We replaced a light fixture from the 80's with this pocket light and we still have some sanding and repainting to do.

 The curtain was made out of a pair of 80" curtain pannels from a garage sale this past summer. I paid $1 and I still have a ton of fabric left over!! Hopefully we will get to repainting those cupboards soon!
Tomorrow I will post the TV hutch redo.

Anti-Procrastination Project #1

The wine rack is finished. It's amazing how excited I am about such a little change.

So here is the before.....

And here it is after spray painting it an oil rubbed bronze.....

Tomorrow, I will be posting the kitchen window redo.





Anti-Procrastination Week

There have been a few minor projects hanging over my head for the past few months that I never seem to have the time to get too. Maybe it was the first spring like day we had that has finally got me moving! I'm going to try to at least do one a day for the next week.

My daughters desk chair that I picked up at a garage sale for $3 this past summer.

I need to paint it to match her furniture and recover the seat. Not hard.....just need to do it!

Next ...finally paint and hang her name on her wall. Again....not hard....just need to do it!!

As you can see, I have been setting up little work stations around the house so I can dart around from project to project while homeschooling my four kids.

Then there's our TV cabinet....I never liked the finish on the hardware so I'm going to spray them an oil rubbed bronze.

Also, the finish on my wine rack has always bugged me so this is going to be sprayed oil rubbed bronze as well.

It's hard to tell but it's a silver color with some brassy sections????

Last but not least, I am finally going to put up a window treatment over my kitchen sink. Sadly, I forgot to take a before shot.
Hopefully I'll be able to post one makeover a day. Stay tuned! :-)

Our end of the quarter celebration

This year we have been studying world geography with our tenth, fifth, and third grade children and we are all loving it. Throughout the quarter each of the kids chose different dishes to make from various countries we are studying.  For our end of the quarter celebration we had a Mexican fiesta! It was kind of thrown together last minute but ended up turning out really well.

We made mini chili pepper pinatas that we found on the Family Fun website.

At the end of dinner we all broke them open and ate the Valentine M&Ms that were stuffed inside. (I had a bag left over)

My 10th grade son chose to make a taco salad as the main course....

my 5th grade daughter chose to make bean burrito bites....

and my third grade son made mexican cornbread...

Sadly, we forgot to grab a picture of him making this with dad!
We also sliced up a jicama and added that to the plate. The whole thing made such a good looking plate and it all tasted as good as it looked.  I would rate this dinner a success!

After dinner everyone takes turnes sharing with dad the different things they accomplished over the last nine weeks.

This quarter we studied Cental and South America. We created Mola art, Bulls of Pucara (Geography Through Art), Mexican God's eyes, and made fiesta headdresses from Ecuador (Crafts of Many Cultures by Aurelia Gomez) 

They also showed off their Geography notebooks they have been working on.

10th grade son's Mola

                                           

5th grade daughter's Mola

                                         

3rd grade son's Mola

My 10th grade son also made a cross out of matches (south america)

Now onto Europe!