My front porch looking in

I love that song by Rascal Flatts and I love porches.
Porch is a funny word now that I am writing it out here on this post. don't you agree? Porch.

We currently have a slab of concrete, wonky steps and no railing.
The railing was pulled off 4 years ago to get the fridge in the house. I told Brandon to hold off on putting the railing back because we wanted a porch and we were going to build that spring 08'.
Fast forward 4 years. we are in spring 2012 now and drum roll please....
No Porch.

Winters have been scary getting in and out of our house with no railing and uneven steps but I tell myself it could be worse...

We have the idea of a wood porch that is 10ft. wide and 5ft. deep. the stairs will be the same width.
I saw a house with a porch that I love and would work great for us. I live close enough that I went for another walk the other day and snapped a photo. Is that illegal? ha

If you visit Lowes online, they have a deck planner that is fantastic.
This is our 'plan' that i did up quickly on lowes' website.

We hope to do this porch while the weather is warm. Since spring has already sprung, that gives us 6 months of nice weather.

Spring Has Sprung

I went on Pinterest yesterday and typed in Easter.
I wanted a few colourful decorations to make that could light up our house this next month.
I couldn't find a wreath that I loved, So I bought some present bows ($1.00) and pinned them to my current wreath on the front door.

This egg garland was really cool.
Those paint chips (free) I briefly showed you yesterday... well here they are. After tracing an egg, and cutting out 5 of each colour and hand sewing them together. Our very own easter garland.

Colourful. Easy. Cheap-I spent $1.00 on both projects.
I love it.
Are you decorating for easter? Are you already out the door getting paint chips? I don't blame you :)
Have a egg-tastic day!

Green Envy

I need your help with accessorizing a table but first I will show you the table journey...

I was given this table and I was debating whether to keep it like it was or paint it. It didn't last long before I knew I wanted to paint it, I don't like too many woods or dark colours in our house.

So I spray painted it yellow. Now I know you just asked why? Don't worry it didn't stay that way.

It was than white. I did yellow first because when I distressed it, the yellow would show through. see below.
I put it in its place in our home but I didn't love it, so it sat a few days before I knew what to do with it.

I was at Walmart getting these. More about that later.

And I found the spray paint aisle (not hard for me to miss)
Found a colour and wasn't sure how I would like it. Loved the colour but on a table?

Why not!

I than did a method called glazing. Glazing is where you take stain, rub it on the furniture and rub it off. The stain will stay in the cracks and dents and give it a great distressed look. Glazing works really well on furniture that has carved detail.

Now for the accessories. I don't have a lot of "knick knacks" so it is hard to find items to place on this new table.
I have numbered the pictures. Let me know which one you like best or should I not use any of these arrangements?

1

2

3

 

Wrapping 101

For those who do not know how to wrap a present, I am going to attempt to teach you how. For those who know or don't care, please come back another time :)

Cut paper to fit generously around your gift

fold one side of paper (this side will fold on top and create clean edge)

Clean edge

At the end top/bottom piece in like above. do both right and left

once you fold, you are left with two arrows. fold down top and bottom up and tape

or you can fold the end like this... Top piece down so sides become on an angle

Fold both sides in

and fold bottom piece up and tape

there you have it!

ADDING DETAILS (bow)

take a long piece of ribbon ( I used about 4ft) place the middle of the ribbon on the box and pull it underneath, twist it and bring it back up on opposite sides. It should create a cross. tie a knot and then a bow

tie more bows, as many as you can.

cut the 'bridge' of each bow, so they are not loops anymore

arrange pieces so its more spread out. and there you have it.

Did that help anyone?
Anyone?
Beuller?

Water Play

Another baby post.
Mason looks at everything now with a facial expression full of discovery. So I have started to give him activities other than playing with toys to develop more and discover more... and let me tell you it is not easy to find activities where he won't find a way to eat something.
Anything in his reach goes straight to the mouth. So what activities will not harm him? So far I made edible paint and the other day we did water play!
Did you play with a water table when you were young? I remember this from kindergarten and I also remember loving it.
I took a large container from the kitchen, poured warm water in it and threw in a few of his bath toys.

He loved it, take a look.

P.S. I used big bath towels on the table and on the floor under him.

What other activities can you suggest?

Baby Painting

As a mom, I want my son to love crafts... because I do.
He is only 6 months and seems to eat anything in reach. So what kind of crafts can he do? I went to Pinterest to find out.
Over at this blog -the imagination tree -I found the "recipe" for homemade edible paint. While Mason was sleeping, I prepared his paint station and made the paint.

Once he woke up, I changed him into painting clothes and a full body bib. And he had a blast!

And his final masterpiece...

Try out baby paint (if you have a baby or if you feel like eating paint? ha)
What other crafts have you seen babies do? let me know, Mason needs more to do!