Stencil, paint, or subliminal messages to my kids?

I had this odd space right next to my french doors leading to our backyard.  It has moulding around it because there was a very large sliding door there at one time.  When we had the french doors put in, they were smaller - hence the need for something to disguise the lack of fit.  Ya, well, anyway - I painted it with chalkboard paint.  Then I have been patiently waiting to win a bid for a CHEAP overhead projector.  SCORE!  I won not one - but four!  Anyone need an overhead projector?  I know someone that has an extra!
                                                         

Merry Christmas to me!!!


So this is my idea -

  Before:

After:

It doesn't look like anything really - but up close - as my kids are randomly walking by, maybe these messages will soak into their brains.

The quote on the left is from Elder Uchtdorf's talk (he is a leader in our church)  "...holding grudges, judging others, hating, wanting to cause harm, withholding forgiveness, gossiping, ridiculing, ignoring others, withholding mercy, throwing stones - STOP IT."

YIKES! STRIPES?

My hallway was like a bowling alley - long, narrow, and kind of unremarkable.  A hallway can be thought of as another room to decorate, so I took the advice from a blog - 4 men 1 lady - and I striped it.  I think I'm in love!  It still needs some details, but it already adds interest to the bowling alley look.


                                                                       from this

                                                                        to this

Yep - I prefer bowling in an alley!

Happy Father's Day

to the men in my life......

My two sons - Spencer and David
Even though they aren't fathers yet - they WILL be.  AND they will be great dads.  I LOVE it when they do things together and help each other out.  They are both so thoughtful and fun loving.  I have learned much about patience, hope, and love from them.  I am so lucky to have them in my life.

My father-in-law
He has always been wise in his advice and counsel to us - I ESPECIALLY like the advice he gave hubby when we were first married - "Always have enough money to get your wife a new frock!"

My two stepfathers 
Because of premature death of my dad, my mom has remarried twice - to men who were and are wonderful grandpas to our children.  They are quick to help with any and all projects that we get ourselves into.

My hubby
ALWAYS supportive!  Whether is was my desire to go to Interior Design School, stripe the walls in our hallway, or raise five children whose genes swim in different pools, he supports me.  He is always prepared with extra paint brushes (I don't like to clean them) or rollers (those either).  He makes time for whatever I drag home from a yard sale or thrift store to redo.

My dad
Due to diabetes, he left us at the early age of 42.  How I want to tell him I'm sorry for a couple of things.  Because he had three daughters and no sons, he would ask me to play catch with him.  I always did, but sometimes I didn't really want to and I hope he didn't know how I felt.  Years later when I moved away to attend college, he called me every morning at 8 am - just to hear my voice.  The conversation would always be the same - "so what did you have for dinner?"  I'm sorry that I wasn't always excited to talk with him. I'm sure there are many more things I've done that might have made him feel bad.  He can take comfort, however, in the fact that I miss him everyday.  Sometimes I feel shortchanged by the fact that he isn't here for me, but then I have moments that I KNOW he is!  

Babies!!!

My hubby and I have the privilege of associating with MANY newlyweds in our church.  We all know what newlyweds like to do - YOU know!  So I wanted to make a small gift for each baby, and since they come at a rapid pace, I needed something easy and fast - and not too expensive.  This is what I came up with:

I used my little grandbaby's bib as a pattern and put a piece of chenille on back and flannel on top.  I liked the look of shabbyness around the edges so I just clipped about 1/4" cuts around the bib and washed them a couple of times to get the fray. The closure at the top is velcro with a button sewn on top.  I have done eight so far - only about 42 more to go!

Circles of light

During the course of building the bookshelves, we realized that the top shelf was too short for anything other than dust, so we decided to put lights up there for a type of light box.  We wanted to add something more interesting when I remembered a DIY project from Vintage Revivals.  It was so easy and I love the look.  We cut 2" PVC pipe into 1/2" segments, glued them together with sprinkler pipe glue, spray painted them with white paint and Voila!  The most time consuming part was the clean up.  It looked like Christmas with the white shavings all over the garage. 

                                                                    Without light

         With light on except that while I was doing this, two bulbs burned out - typical of my day!