I love Contact Paper

This is just the beginning of my love for Contact Paper, I put it on everything I can think of, the stuff is awesome. I am in the process of making our garage a decent place to be, it will be a LONG process, it was a destroyed mess when we moved in. This week my project was to make a cheap old shelf out there look kinda cool.

 It was just a dirty white shelf with visible screws all over it. I cleaned it up, covered the inside with leaf print Contact Paper and now it's looking pretty snazzy, more than suitable for a garage.

Next project up: chalk board wall

Peach Art

I was working out in the garden a few days ago and Scarlett was outside with me exploring. She ventured under our peach tree, found a bunch of fallen peaches, gathered them all and created her first piece of outdoor artwork.

 She took each peach she had found and placed them in a pattern on the top of a little table we have out back, taking her time to place them just right.

 If given the chance, children can create she amazing things. To me it looked like a pile of peaches needing to be thrown out, to her it was the perfect material to make table art.

 She spent well over an hour working on her design, which is a LONG time in a 2 year olds world and I was so proud watching her.

Refashion-Sassy Summer Skirt

I found this dress at a garage sale for $.50 and had to pick it up because I loved the print. It was a girls size 6 dress but had a very large skirt so I knew I could use it to make something wearable.

 I cut the bottom half of the dress off and re sized it to make a skirt for myself. I used a skirt from my closet that I like the fit of as my guide and did an elastic waistband.

 I don't like to waste, so I made sure to remove all the buttons from the dress and save them for other projects and hung onto all the large scraps of fabric for the future, maybe a matching accessory for Scarlett?

Now I'm ready for some summer weather!!

Ten minute tablecloth

Last week I had planned a lunch at our house for my mom, her best bud and my best bud (who just so happens to be the daughter of my moms bff). They have all been to the house several times, so to spruce it up a little and make it feel like they were having a fancy lunch I wanted to set the table as nice as possible. I didn't have a tablecloth so I went out to my fabric stash to see what I had that would work. I ended up finding a white eyelet fabric that was almost the exact size of my table top. I used a plate as a templet to cut out rounded corners, serged the edges with white thread and in ten minutes I had myself a tablecloth. Now I want to go out and get some different festive fabrics and make one for every holiday and occasion.

 Once the tablecloth was in place, I added our "fancy" plates, wine glasses and flowers (from my wonderful hubby for Mothers Day), set Pandora to a big band station and welcomed our company in.

 We had grown up grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, which are such a good time, sparkling pink lemonaid and apple cake for dessert.

 Amazingly the kids fell asleep at the same time that day and both slept for 3 hours!! We were able to eat lunch and chat uninterrupted and it felt like a girls day out even though it took place right in the comfort of home. We spent the rest of our day doing what we love best, bargin hunting! We hit up a big antique sale and the Goodwill and all found treasures of our own.

 I got this cute little sign to hang up in my laundry room aka my garage, to bring a little cuteness to it.

I also found this food net which I fell in love with because of it's added bling around the edges.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Tile Art

Whenever I walk into Joann's I head straight for the clearance isle. The last time I was there they seemed to be getting rid of a whole line of art kits and they were on clearance for $2 and $3 each, I was so excited.

 I ended up picking up a tile art kit that had enough supplies to make 2 tiles with 2 wooden frames for $2, score!!

 I love when my kids take naps at the same time because then I get a little quiet time but I also enjoy the days where they are on opposite sleep schedules because then I get to spend special one on one time with each of them. I waited until one of those days so that I could sit down and do this project individually with them, much less chaotic that way and boy did they have fun.

 I wrapped the table in butcher paper so I wouldn't have to worry about any paint spilling and had the kids work in just their diapers and the fancy plastic apron that came with the kit.

 I let Scarlett have complete freedom to paint hers how ever she wanted and I think it turned out beautiful. I aided Taylor a bit but still let him do the painting and he surprised me with how much control he used.

 Once the tiles were painted and dry, I glued them into the little wooden frames they came with and now they are hanging in our room, I love them!

I just love good finds like this!

For the locals: Escondido Children's Museum

I love children's museums! I love how the kids can run free and interact with everything all the while learning something. I recently drove down to meet a friend at the Escondido Children's Museum to see what they had to offer.

I let each of the kids have a little snack on our drive and Taylor fell asleep mid-snack. What a sweet boy!

I had a little trouble finding the museum at first and I would recommend NOT parking by Grape Day park and walking over. Park in the parking lot next to the museum, a lot of homeless people tend to hang out in the park and it's not ideal to walk through with little ones. Once we got inside the kids ran straight for a little table with a scale and box full of things to weigh. I had to pry them away from it and convince them there were other cool things to look at.

They have a little building that looks just like an old classroom with a large chalkboard for the kids to write on and play school.

There is a small building with easels, paint, paintbrushes and complete freedom to do what you want with them. There is paint on the walls, the floor and some made it onto the paper supplied. Scarlett loved painting in there.

There is a table with buckets full of bubbles and giant wands for the kids to swing around. When Taylor discovered this I was hardly able to get him interested in anything else.

They have a very fun water table that is full of Lego's.

There is a puppet theater for the kids to play with, art tables, a tree house, a garden and a special area just for toddlers.

Scarlett really enjoyed the light tables and seeing what colors she could make by stacking the plastic pieces together.

I think I got the biggest kick out of watching the kids play dress up on the stage they have. Taylor picked out a pirate hat, which was funny considering he was wearing a pirate shirt, then paraded proudly around on the stage showing off for anyone that would look. Scarlett tried on different hats and shoes, including a pair of wooden clogs and my friends daughter dressed up like a penguin.

It's not the nicest children's museum I have ever been to but we all really enjoyed it. The kids imaginations went wild, it wasn't super crowed while we were there and I thought the staff was friendly. I would totally take the kids back.

Fairy Building

 I was hanging out with my little sister and she asked if I wanted to do a craft with her. I'm always up for crafting so I jumped at the chance and let her pick what we were going to do. She pulled out this fairy making kit that she had received as a present and we looked through the book together. Once we had an idea of what it was all about we set to work making our fairies.

 I would have to say this was one of the most addicting crafts I have ever done. I could have sat there for days making new ones, it was so much fun. The kit comes with everything you need to make several but you could also make them with your own supplies. We used beads, floral wire, embroidery floss, petals and leaves from fake flowers, and little wooden beads for the heads but you could use anything that inspires you.

 This craft was a little too advanced for Scarlett and Taylor to do but I would love to get it all out for them when they are a little older. Scarlett sure loved the end result though. She played with them and carried them around the rest of the day and was so gentle with them.

 I now have them hanging out by my sewing stuff, overseeing my work and they are reading any time to play with Ms Scarlett.