lego my messy legos

I wrote this post a few weeks ago, knowing I would be too busy to blog for awhile. The table's been finished for almost a month now, and we are still loving it!

if you have boys, then you know what i'm talking about. legos have taken over our lives here. my 8 year old son LOVES them, asks for them for every birthday/christmas. the problem is, with so many different sets, how do you find the teeny tiny specific piece that you need when making a particular project?

you dump out all 240,000 legos all over the carpet in your bedroom and dig through them. then when your mommy comes in and says it's time to pick up and get ready for bed, you cry because you just spent the last 6 hours hunting for that piece and still didn't find it, and now you have to pick them all up and start over tomorrow.

my kids may tell you differently, but i really am a compassionate person. i TOTALLY understand the frustration of not being able to find something when you need it. believe me, a good portion of my childhood was spent searching for things and then giving up on whatever game/craft/school project i was working on because our house was a black hole.

this boy is so creative and i don't want him to give up on that. coming up with a lego solution was on the list, but lots of other things were coming first, until my friend Kathleen needed to go to IKEA and even though i didn't need to, i went along (because i can always find something to buy at IKEA) so the project began, even though it was probably not as urgent as some other things on the list.

here's how we did it:

i bought two TROFAST units in pine and primed them.

eric and i went to Lowes' and got some 1/2 inch MDF and 3x1 birch boards, and built a top for the tables.

then we painted the TROFAST units black using a gloss latex enamel and a sponge roller (and lots of Flotrol)

two coats

he spray-painted the table top - it needs to be a bit more durable.

we sorted all of the legos by color, as well as people and wheels, and any other categories that make sense to the kids. (there is room for 18 small bins)

Eric went to the Lego store and got some of the flat gray base pieces. he was going to glue them down, but then we wouldn't be able to use the table for games or other stuff, so they are just sitting on top.

i made some labels using clip art from Just Something I Made, cut them out and taped them on with packing tape.

the kids were thrilled, and I love that the legos get put away! there is a huge resurgence of creative building in our house thanks to this simple and awesome organizing tool!

everybody makes mistakes

and i make lots. especially when making paint choices.

how 'bout this one?

what the h*** were you thinking, you crazy woman? hello, it's the worst orange i've ever seen. it looks like a school bus. or a hunting vest. or a school bus full of hunters. in a construction zone.

egads.

but, the nice thing about making mistakes, is there's this thing called repentance.

1. sorrow for sin - i think i felt sorry the moment i opened the can. and continued to feel sorry while cutting in, painting 3 coats, and then each time i walked in there.

2. confession - i confessed to my husband (who was nice and just asked me if i really liked it), to my kids (who thought it was very bright) and to everyone who came to my house and saw my boys' room. and now i'm confessing to you. i made a really, really, big mistake.

3. abandonment of sin - i will never, ever, ever, ever, ever paint a room this particular shade of school bus orange again.

4. restitution - done! i did it! i have repaired the damage that my actions caused!

5. righteous living - i went beyond just making it right! i made it awesome! i not only fixed the ugly orange walls, i also fixed the ugly orange-y bunk beds, and the ugly mismatched bedding! it's not perfect, but SO much better!

i feel like a new person!

goodwill peacock

i don't think i had been to goodwill (or salvation army or d.i.) for probably 10 years until i moved here. i shopped there all the time when E was a baby, we were poor and it was a good place to find cheap stuff. i don't know why i stopped - i'm guessing i went in there pregnant and morning sick once, and the smell almost sent me over the edge.

well, the goodwill in our little town here is quite good, and sometimes i take my kids in there when we need to kill half an hour while waiting for karate class to finish.

we found E's halloween costume there a few years ago. i wish i had a better picture - she had a walker and knee-highs and orthotic shoes and an old lady purse. (i know you're catching a whiff right now, just from looking at that picture!)

i now go in every few weeks. sometimes i totally strike out, and sometimes i hit the motherlode.

i found this treasure about a month ago, just after i finished repainting and paneling my dining room:

i loved his mottled turquoise coloring. but he had some very special blue rhinestones glued to the center of each tail feather. i wasn't so sure about those, but since i wash everything i bring home from goodwill (you REALLY never know where it's been!) i stuck him in a sink full of sudsy water, and the blue sparklies fell right off.

he still smells like goodwill, though. i think its coming from inside, where the ceramic has not been sealed, and therefore absorbed stale cigarette/old person smell in his previous home.

i wonder if i can spray some polyurethane inside and seal the ceramic. what do you think? do you think that will stop the smell?

in the meantime, he is sitting in my newly painted dining room, making me happy. i just use a lot of air freshener.

Dining room

I've had a busy month or so. Late winter can be really depressing here in Ohio, so every year I make a list and try to keep myself busy until spring comes. A few weeks ago I changed a few things in my dining room.

before

after

I really love how light and fresh the room feels now! I love the contrast between the white walls and the dark furniture.

Bathroom remodel

I finished redecorating the downstairs bath, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. I need to remember to take REAL before pictures next time, instead of in the middle of the mess, but I think you get the idea.

I had the hardest time deciding what to do with this space, and it was always a little embarrassing that it was so bland and boring, but I absolutely LOVE it now! (I'll even come downstairs to use it, even though I have 3 bathrooms upstairs!)

before

after

The shower curtain fabric is from IKEA, I used 6 yards, but not really. I cut the center section out of 3 of the yards (I didn't want it too billowy and crowding the toilet) and used that for my kitchen cupboards. The edge pieces left over were sewn to the outside of the other 3 yards. I mounted the rod almost to the ceiling, I hate it that most shower curtains are way too short, like J's jeans. The artwork on the closest wall is a piece of cut stone from Indonesia that Eric brought back from a business trip.

I built the shelves. Well, sort of. Eric had started building me a bookcase for my office when I found the perfect thing somewhere else, (much to his relief) and these were made from the leftover pieces from that project. He had already faced the MDF with mitered birch, I just had to cut them down to size and add a small piece on one end, prime and paint, and then mount to the wall. They turned out great, but it was really hard to get them level from front to back, floating shelves tend to want to sag forward a little, but as long as I don't place eggs or pens on them, it shouldn't be a problem. The glass bottles are from IKEA as well (LOVE that place!) and the little horse is from China (another business trip find).

I moved the mirror downstairs from the master bath, the one that was there previously didn't fit inside the molding, but I think it looks better this way anyway. It's not perfect, but it works for now while I keep my eyes open for something better. The lacquered box is for holding girly items (no cupboards) and if I had remembered I had it I would have made the shelves deeper so it fit on them, but oh well, I think it looks nice on the tank. The towels are also from the master bath, they look better here too. All I need now is a basket for magazines and extra TP and it's perfect.

One thing I love about winter...

I'm not a winter girl. I was born in Minnesota, but have never liked the snow. As a kid, I liked it for about one day, and then was ready for spring. As I've gotten older, it's only gotten worse. I grit my teeth and bundle up if everyone else insists that I come sledding, to be a good sport, but I'm really in agony the whole time. I prefer to stay at home and make hot chocolate for them all.

It didn't help, living in California and Arizona for a combined total of 8 of the 15 years that we've been married. It thinned my blood, and moving to Utah was a hard adjustment. And then we came to Ohio, which Eric claimed was "almost the South" (being across the river from Kentucky).

But there is one thing that I absolutely love about winter. We'll get a big snowfall, and then the next day, vivid sunlight which reflects off of the glittery snow and makes the whole world so bright. These are usually the days when the kids are home for a snow day, and the temperature is in the teens, but inside my house, it is glorious.

My living room faces south, and all that magical sunlight floods in and reflects off the white walls and makes me HAPPY!

I love to just sit and fold laundry, in a clean, bright, quiet house, and bask in all the light.

Kitchen Cabinet makeover

I've always hated how the glass cabinets in my kitchen just didn't seem to have much of a wow factor. So I used some of the leftover fabric from my new shower curtain and made them a little more interesting.

I took out the glass shelves, hot glued the edges of the fabric to the back of the cabinet, and then put the shelves back in (that was the hard part)

I love how they make my kitchen a little more modern and fun!