A lil Paint

My wonderful little bamboo trunk that I got on sale at Pier 1 back in the day ended up being murdered by Sir, my son, or so I thought. Sir figured it was a brilliant idea to open the lid and jump on it, which of course caused the lid to pop right off. Now this was after he spilled juice on it, let play-doh dry up in all the cracks and crevices, colored on it, and  I'm sure he probably peed on it a time or two. But with the lid broken, I had given up hope on my little ole trunk. My husband, Ethan, being the ultimate optimist and self proclaimed "Mr. Fix It All" told me to put it in the garage and he would do his best to revive it one day. Months and months and some more months passed and finally that "one day: was here. The trunk had accumulated a impressive amount of dust during its hiatus in the garage. I grabbed some "Mr. Músculo" & a rag and got to work. After cleaning that thing until my arms ached and my nose couldn't take any more of that "frutos rojos" stench, I was a bit disappointed. My once brilliant bamboo trunk now appeared to be nothing more than a bamboo box covered in nicks and scratches. Oh, what to do?....... Paint! Yes, Paint! Paint covers up a multitude of sins! After a small debate over the perfect hue for my bamboo, it was time to get to get busy. First up, we painted it with a white primer coat. My husband assures me that primer coats are  VERY important. Now for the fun part. SPRAY PAINT!!! I grabbed a can of "amarillo oro" and  a spray grip. Spray grips are one of those things that you don't realize you need until you have one. Then you don't know how you ever lived without it before.It makes spray painting 489,379,874 times easier. Back in the day I would end up with a dent in my finger, paint under my nails, and paint drips. The spray grip eleminates all of that! Ok now my infomercial is over... With a few coats the trunk was transformed into something spectacular. The bamboo trunk now is a stylish place to store my kids ish!

Raggedy Ol Trunk

Primer Coat

Psuedo Sidewalk Chalk

400+ feet of “canvas” and my kids want to draw on my house…such is life. Well at least at my house thats how things go. If my kids eyes are open, they have to be entertained. ENTER SIDEWALK CHALK... It is one of those things that are just so multifaceted. You can doodle, sketch out your super secret master plan, or hook up a game of Hopscotch. I whipped up a batch of magical chalk using this tutorial and the whole family got into the business of beautifying our"green mile" driveway.

List O' Stuff

Toilet paper or Paper Towel Tubes

Scissors

Duct Tape

Wax Paper

Small Bucket or disposable container

3/4 Cup of Warm Water

1 1/2 Cups of Plaster of Paris

2-3 Tablespoons of Tempera Paint

Paper bag or "mess mat"

How To

• If you are using paper towel tubes, cut them in half. 
• Cover one end of each tube with duct tape
• Cut a piece of wax paper in a 6 inch square for each tube. Roll the wax paper loosely and place into the tubes as a liner. 
• Pour the warm water into your bucket. Sprinkle in the Plaster of Paris and stir with a spoon. The Plaster of Paris will start to harden in about 20-30 minutes. WORK FAST. 
• Pour the tempera paint into the mixture and stir until it is mixed well. If you want brighter colors add more paint into the mixture. 
• Stand each tube with the tape side down onto a cookie sheet (or something flat & sturdy). Pour the mixture into each tube. Tap occasionally to release air bubbles. 
• Trim the wax paper so its closer to the tube
• Allow to dry. (It took me about 3 days) Remove the duct tape so the underside can dry after the second day. Once it is all dry, peel off the paper tubes and wax paper. 
• Get busy beautifying ish!

Tico Tot Bowling

Any one who has seen my son,"Sir", thinks he should follow in his fathers footsteps and play football. I, on the other hand, would prefer that if he does want to enter into the world of sports, that he choose something that involves a little less contact. I know the joy it brought my husband but I have no desire to see my baby boy on the gridiron. In a lame attempt to be proactive in this mission, I introduced my babies to bowling! Who knows, my kids can be the next Walter Ray Williams. Don't know who he is? I didn't either. Thank God for Google!

List O' Stuff

10 Clean Plastic soda bottles

Beans (anything that can provide a bit of weight. Rice, Rocks, ect)

    Paint 

    Paintbrush

    Cup of water ( its just to rinse out the brush)

Ball

How To

• Start with clean bottles, put a little squirt of paint in each. It doesn't take too much. 
• Place the caps onto the bottles and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE until the color is evenly distributed. 
• Remove the caps and let the paint dry. If it starts to run or dry unevenly just repace the cap and commence to shaking again. 
• Once the paint has dried, place the beans inside. I filled mine about 1/5 of the way up
• Paint the bottle caps if you wish, Allow them to dry
• Bust a move and start bowling

* I got the inspiration from a tutorial I saw on Pinterest!

Nails + Yarn = Art

Pinterest is CRACK! I admit that I have a habit. Ok and not that I have done crack or anything like that, but from what I hear those who partake in the drug get a “high” from it. I get that sort of feeling from Pinterest. All of those great ideas and beautiful things to create are just there! I “jones” for a new pin that will get me all excited to CREATE!!! 

I have been on the look out for something that could fill up a big empty wall in my guest bathroom. While doing my daily stalking of pinterest, there it was. All I needed to do was gather my supplies and get to work. Check out the tutorial and do something dope!

Laundry Room Before and After

Laundry Room After/ Después

Laundry Room Before/Antes

When I was pregnant with my first child, I thought I was going to be "Captain Planet" and use cloth diapers and wipes. Well, the thing with cloth diapers if that you have to wash them, and OFTEN. Trust me if you don't, the stench is something that will surely invoke your gag reflex, but that's a whole other issue.  Once the ink was dry on the contracts and we owned our lil' slice of heaven in CR , the laundry room was a priority on our remodel list. Gotta have a place to wash all of those sucio pañales.

*I used Fuzzibunz diapers & Bum Genius wipes.

Pseudo Play Dough

"Summer, Summer, Summertime. Time to sit back and unwind"... sung in my best Will Smith voice!"

Aight so it is SUMMERTIME here in CR! Weird I know, but the seasons here are the opposite of what folks are used to in the states. I have to admit that I sort of like being able to call my friends who are busy shoveling snow to brag about how we are splashing about in the pool & getting all golden brown. For those of us with niños, this warm weather equals NO SCHOOL. To ensure my kids do not suffer a death by boredom, I turn to a classic...Play-Doh (or at least my bootleg version of it). The recipe we used was from  www.instructables.com  but there is a whole website dedicated to home made recipes for the stuff. Check it out at www.playdoughrecipe.org They even have a Chocolate "Play Doh" Recipe!!!