the mud

My brother taught me to play with guns.  Not really.  And in this day and age I really shouldn't joke about that.  I had used a rifle twice before shooting skeet and thought that was my claim to fame, shooting skeet in southern Virginia, but I recently learned how to use a nail gun and now I'm much more proud of that.  I thought I'd share the process.  After we finished painting and hanging pictures in the hallway, we realized it lead to a dead end at the top of the stairs. I had seen some seemingly simple ways of dressing up walls with bead board and decided to give it a try, well really to enlist my brother to teach me how to use a nail gun to put up wooden boards.  I wanted to create an effect of old board and batten.  Here is a link to my inspiration site, Thrify Decor Chick , where she explains step by step how to do this.  I had estimated the cost of this project at about $75 (and we had a gift card from Ch...

There is a sign in my family room that says, "Winter - A calming white renewal."  This winter did not feel like a calming white renewal.  It felt like an anxious awaiting.  I thought we were waiting for snow, but none came.  Each week I anticipated the weather forecast for a sign that all was well with with world, that there would be snow.  After all it snows in winter.  I really needed to see that snow, to see that beauty. This winter was out of the ordinary, not extraordinary in the awesome sense, just out of the ordinary, and honestly it left us all feeling a little out of the ordinary. Everyone in our house got some sort of sickness, which was unusual. No healing days of school cancellations came to calm us and renew us. It was like the groundhog woke up day after day and said, no winter, no spring.   Snow makes us pause, catch our breaths, and look.  Not having that opportunity made it feel... rushed.  We never got to slo...

This week is definitely taking on its own theme, with all these little notes about paper.  But in the meanwhile, I am cooking up something big for next week, adding trim work to the upstairs hallway, so stay in touch! Paper is so fun.  I think it's one of the reasons I became a teacher.  I just love playing with all things paper.  I could spend hours in the stationery store.  A few years ago at a conference at Penn State, I visited the bookstore and found all these new "teacher toys" for school:  blank hardbound books, highlighter tape, rainbow paper on rings, and tons of other goodies.  Here is one little notebook I love that sports the logo good thinking ! I'm afraid two of my children have the same addiction, one doesn't stop making paper airplanes and the other just loves paper.  This morning on his WAY OUT THE DOOR, my son stopped to grab a piece of paper out of the printer to MAKE AN AIRPLANE to fly on his way to school.  (...

This is our old book case.  It used to house books.  But when we moved, we left behind two corner cabinets, only because they were built into the walls and couldn't be moved.  (Though my one friend took hers with her, framing and all!  You go, girl, cause I'm wishing I did that!)  I loved those corner cabinets!  They had beautiful glass window-framed doors and in the lower cabinets, well,  you could throw anything in there when the doorbell rang!   When we first moved into the house, we painted the interiors red and the trim white.  Below the chair rail we did a cool painting technique of blue with poly-acrylic stripes so that it looked like real wallpaper.  We thought we were so patriotic until a few months later, after trying to get used to it,  we realized it looked ridiculous.  Anyway... you get the idea.   I loved those cabinets! So here we are in the new house with no place to store our china and...

Last year I had the incredible opportunity to go on a writer's retreat for teachers sponsored by AROOM. The retreat was held at one of the most peaceful places I've ever been - Pendle Hill in Swarthmore, PA.   At the retreat center there was an art studio that I wish I could somehow replicate.  Imagine a large light filled room with huge windows overlooking a garden.  Shelving lined the walls floor to ceiling and each shelf was filled with papers, pens, and all sorts of wonderful embellishments to add to your work. A few friends and I snuck away for the day and had so much fun creating!  We made these wonderful layered books where layers of different torn papers were glued together and folded in upon each other.  Words or poems could be written on each 'page.'  Talk about connecting to your inner child it was playful and fun -  like kindergarten for moms!  I was looking for new inspiration for my book this ...

Well, I was going to show you some more stuff we put in the boys room last night, but we've all been fighting the cold/cough for a few days and my little guy is asleep in there right now and I can't go in and take pictures.  It's not earth-shattering, I'm sure it can wait another day.  So today I had a surprise day off - he couldn't go to school.  This kind of sets me in a tizzy.  I'm lost without having my clear objectives for the day set and done and checked off the list.  Which is really sad when you think about it.  I took a test online called the Enneagram, to learn more about myself as part of my coaching practice, and the one area that came in really low was "PLAY."  I  wish I could make that a priority, but you know what happened last week with the swing... well I've got some hangups... So today on my day off I did manage to take a nap, make two important phone calls and then go into the blogosphere to play.  Here's what I found, th...

 When we moved into the house, my husband and I set the kids' rooms as a top priority.  We thought that by creating spaces for them, we could kind of get them out of our hair as we worked on the rest of the house.  ;)  We had paint, window treatments and furnishings up in the first month.  Then we gradually added the personal touches.  Both boys love the outdoors and exploring, so we started with that as a focal point.  We found sticks in Massachusetts that became curtain rods and wall hooks.  If you paint the hooks with a clear acrylic, they are actually much stronger and will last longer.   Charlie made the explorers' map in art class! (This area is still a work in progress.  The old chair is going up to the attic.  Our plan is to put up the hanging chair and then see what else it needs.) These twill curtains were a real steal at Lowe's last August.  For 4.99 a pair we bought them for all the kids rooms!  I think t...

The other day I drove past a newly sold house down the street and I can see the boxes piled up in the windows.  I remember those days.  A year ago I thought this move would never happen.  Now here we are seven months after moving in and we are reasonably comfortable.  Actually, I should cross that out, we have more blessings than I ever dreamed possible and we are happy and content in our new home.  But I thought before we get to the fun stuff, you might like to see what it looked like this time last year when we were coming in with inspectors to see the house.  So here we go:) Hopefully you get the idea.  Clockwise from top left, the family room, the blue room, the dining room, front bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen.  The theme throughout:  lots of creamy white paint, nice wood floors, old lights and the need for a fresh look.  Tomorrow I'll show you the "Boys will be Boys room," complete with rock wall and (mayb...

One thing I love about the cold January days is all the new awards that are given out.  I'm not talking about Emmy and Oscar, I'm talking about the new Pantone 'Color of the Year.'  Are you ready for it? ORANGE.  Bright, bold red-orange that is.  In colorist jargon, Tangerine Tango.  I think I'm in love.  "Consumers look to spring for renewed energy, optimism and the promise of a brighter day," according to Leatrice Eiseman, director of the institute at Pantone, and that's the message sent by this color of choice for 2012. The interesting thing about this is the amount of time and energy spent by the colorists at Pantone creating this color of the year.  They literally travel around the world to see what people are doing, what they are wearing and talking about, and how they are feeling.  This year they have taken all that wonderful insight into our lives and added this great splash of orange.    Marketers,...

I think my fascination with hallways started when I was in college.  I'll never forget the description of the entry way  in James Joyce's Dubliners as all the guests arrived for a party.  Growing up we didn't have a hall or entry way and our old house didn't either.  It's always been on my list for the perfect house.  Maybe that's why I am so excited.  So now for the picture gallery!  I am almost done my one, two, three day project and haven't done anything else on the list! Looking up the stair well I just knew it had to get done now and that it would put the finishing touches on our new space.  So just to recap, here is the before: This is how the picture layout began:  All the pictures laid out on the floor... a tape measure to try to measure... Then I made templates of the frames with old newspaper and hung them approximately where I thought each picture should go.  The blue painter's tape helps with nailing into plaster wall...

My project began at 8,9, actually 10 o'clock.  But don't think I was laying in bed.  I got my husband off to work with packed breakfast and lunch, made breakfast, made kids brush teeth, which hasn't happened in about a week, and then got caught up in my new book.   I had a plan in mind to paint the hallway,  and this is what it looked like to start. So, I took down Christmas (tear) and then began.  I thought I would just paint the wall over the stairs in one of the paints we already had in the basement.  I took out my old paints left from other projects.  By the way, I always look for mismixed Mythic paints at the store.  They sell for about $10 a gallon (bargain!) and they are eco and family friendly.  I can usually find something to do with whatever color they have!  We didn't have a full gallon of anything, except the paint I had used in the closet and Annie's room were mostly full, so I got creative and started mixin...

I love looking at all the January magazines featuring great new tips for getting organized in the New Year.  I think I've probably read all those articles before.  Of course  we all go through cycles in life and mine usually revolve around purging, nesting, then creating.  I can feel the creative energy beginning to flow.  I am ready to take it all on, but the list grows higher each day.  I have 3 more days off this week and I am planning to climb Mt. Everest and tackle about 8,000 projects in this house.  So, first I'm going to make a list.  Then I'm going to prioritize.  Then I'm going to see what I can do with what I already have in the house at this moment.   Then I'm going to see what I can do if I use the coupons I have for Ace Hardware.  Then I'm going to see what kind of time I have because the kids have made plans to see friends, go ice skating, go to the movies, all those fun things I should probably be...

Our house is not done yet, but day by day I am finding new places for our old things.  After staring at a pile of greenery on the dining room table for about a week, you kind of get motivated!   Here's the dining room window with wreaths.  A snowman wreath, which I had planned on dismantling, on the back door in the kid's playroom. In the kitchen I hung decorated balls from the chandelier.  I like the lights on the window sill and I like the wreath on the stand.  I've thought about spraying this wreath with the snow spray, but not yet... Mini-wreaths decorate each door.  As I was going to ask one of the kids to put this out in the shed, I realized I kind of liked the look of it here, because why not?  It might just need a ribbon though.  As soon as they start sledding in the family room, out it goes!