DIY Growth Chart

I have been impressed with the DIY growth charts in blogland.  However, I have never been very artistic which is why my home improvement projects usually involve paint rather than art or decorations.  However, I couldn't resist the growth charts. Dear friends of ours have been looking for a growth chart they like enough to buy for their daughter who is three. I decided to make her one. 

I spilled the beans and asked the parents what colors they would prefer.  They chose very feminine colors like pale pink and purple because their daughter loves princesses and mermaids. Her room has a pink theme with many brown accents.

I started with a 1"x6" board 6' long my husband helped me pick and carried.  I bought the paint with primer from Home Depot and it only cost about $3 for the entire amount. I did three coats on the front and sides.  I wish I had painted the back. Next time I will.

I started out with a small container of purple paint I had from another project.  I was using cardstock as the stencil for the lines of the ruler.  Unfortunately it was an epic fail.  The first time it was perfect, but when I re-used it for the second line it looked awful! Don't do this.  I think the stencil has to be plastic since the paint altered the paper after the first go.

I panicked since of course it was December 22nd and we were having them over December 24th. I called my husband at work, sorry honey! He gave me the number of a craft store since he suggested paint pens.  They were closed because I left it to the last minute! Finally I stumbled upon Michael's website where they mentioned paint pens.  I called and hurrah they did carry them. 

Before I headed down there I had to repaint the sign to try and cover up the hideous lines. There was a huge display of paint pens with three different sizes and many different colors.  I chose a vibrant purple and silver based on another phone call..."honey what do you think about purple?...really ok, I'll get another color. hmm too busy, how about silver? This better bleeping work!"

I can't speak to how easy they were to use on the lines because my husband did all of the marking and the paint pens on the lines.  I wrote the numbers and that part was very easy. I also chose to write her initials at the top in my somewhat scripty handwriting.

Since I am no artist, I chose to purchase some butterfly stickers and we simply stuck them on the board and have had no problems in the month since. They're still on there, but we do have a back up pack in case a certain little girl decides to pull them off to play with them or if she has a younger sibling at some point who removes them.

These pens have inspired me to finally make a family established sign. I feel like it's actually possible now. It was the most rewarding gift we gave this year. Homemade really is better!

Still Here with an updated bathroom for less than $60

Well.... it has been quite awhile.  Since my last post my husband started a new job, I went back to school, we finally upgraded his car from a 1993 Cadillac, I painted the ceiling in the dressing room and the walls, we celebrated our second Christmas together and whew I think that's enough of a broad overview.

I'm gearing up for another semester of student teaching.  I'll miss my free time and project time, but it is so rewarding to help students learn.  I'm looking forward to another wonderful semester.

In the meantime, I thought I would finally post the bathroom transformation. For just around $60 we were able to update our bathrooom. Awesome!!

Here's the process of painting the bathroom vanity we got on sale at Lowes.  I saw it, wanted it, walked away, walked back, looked it over, had Matt look it over, hemmed and hawed.  Asked a Lowes worker if I would be able to repaint it, he said no, (I didn't believe him) so I kept considering it.  Finally, Matt told me to just get it if I wanted it. So we did!

It's a laminate vanity cabinet, so first we sanded it. This was a joint effort.  We spent about $3 on the sand paper. 

Then, I pulled the vanity back into the kitchen to prime it.  This project was done in August which meant it was very, very hot.  So all of the priming and painting was done in the kitchen.  It could have something to do with the fact that I don't like the flooring in there. I can see it now oopsie! I spilled paint on the floor guess it's time to redo it!

After letting it dry for a day after priming with special bathroom paint, I painted with rustoleum's bathroom paint.


Once I let the second coat of paint dry, I sprayed it with a protective spray paint that my husband bought me.  Hopefully this will keep it dry and great forever.

Then he installed it right before we left for Disneyland.  He is sooo good to me and sooo good about putting up with my newest idea of a way to improve the house.

So here are the final results of the bathroom update...

The BEFORE

and the AFTER

This photo shows the inspiration for the entire room's colors.  I purchased these for $9.99 each at Marshalls a year and a half ago.  I chose the wall color based on the background of a few of the images.  French words, blue and brown with scroll work what could be better?

Not bad at all for $60 right? What an affordable update to a tiny bathroom.

The Office is Finished!

We completed the office before leaving for vacation. It was a good idea at the time, but while I finished painting the office on Saturday my amazing husband was working in the bathroom.  We spent the entire day on house projects and started packing for our trip at 9 p.m. eww! We would've felt great having accomplished so much if we hadn't been bone weary.
Ta-da....

Isn't he the best!?!? I'll post the full bathroom transformation later...

At least we're back to normal in the office.  Did you see the best part of the office transformation? My loving, terrific, caring, thoughtful husband put in an overhead light for me.  He is so sweet, he has spent quite a bit of his vacation completing honey do tasks. He knew I would be spending much more time in there soon, since I'll be back in school. Yikes, I thought I was done being a student. But no, one more year of being a student and then hopefully I'll be the teacher.  What a turn around that will be!

It is so great to have a light in the office.  We had a borrowed floor lamp before, but it gave off terrible light. Our friend needed it back, so we were without a light source.  Enter my saint of a husband who installed a $6 light.  Could it get any better? We already had the Romex so it was just the light and light bulbs we had to buy. What an amazing transformation.  Between that and the new paint color I will be much happier to spend time in there this Fall. Thank you honey!

Mickey Vacations

We were out of town at the happiest place on Earth. Yay for Disneyland!!!!  We went just the two of us and had a blast.  We enjoyed going on all of the rides and are amazing at hitting them all quickly. We managed to go on every ride we wanted and Tower of Terror and California Screamin' twice. This was no small feat when most rides had a forty minute wait.

Notice how one side of the car is empty? The seat belts on that side weren't working so they removed all of the riders on the left side from our car to another one.  That was not reassuring to those of us they left on this car. It was so eerie and in keeping with the attitude of the operators on this ride and the story of the hotel, that I couldn't help but feel that it was done on purpose to add to the ride. As terrified as I was, we stayed on and had a blast.

We also hit up the old favorites including the Mad Tea Party. It's so fun to be in control and make yourself feel dizzy. It also takes me right back to my childhood.  Isn't that what makes Disneyland so amazing?

It's a Small World is one of my favorites. It was especially enjoyable on a 90 degree day.

The last time we went to Disneyland was at Christmas time.  It was fun to see the more traditional version.  We didn't remember the Disney characters interspersed with the Small World people, yet we saw Peter Pan, Lilo, Ariel, Woody and Jesse and many more on this ride.  I love how there's always something new to see even though I've been at least seven times.  It also feels like a comfortable place where you are always happy despite running to beat crowds, melting in summer heat and feeling that everything is expensive.
As always, we had a wonderful time together on vacation even though the drive seemed to be unending. I am so NOT a road trip person any longer.  I felt like a five year old, are we there yet?!?!?!

Pictures from the Past

Recently I have been going through our wedding photos.  It has been just over a year since that magical day.  Looking through the pictures brought it all back. 

It's funny how you can feel that it was ages ago and yet you can remember all of the feelings of the day like it was last week. It's so powerful to look back at them. We had two flower girls and two ring bearers, looking at how young they were is really the only indicator of how long it's been. All of the stress that led up to our wedding day was worth it a million times over, but during the whole process I probably had about twenty melt downs.  Ugh I don't envy anyone the planning process. But that is hardly memorable now. Looking at the pictures, all I remember is love and excitement like I've never felt before or since. 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde office

My most recent project has been painting our office.  Like the rest of the house, it was/is a pale orange. I'm not kidding you every single room in the house was the same color, except for one accent wall and an accent cut out. Yes it was as ugly as you're thinking. 

Look at this beauty, the ceiling matches the walls. yippee my favorite!

Yikes posting this made me realize I need to organize this desk!

Slowly I've been working on ridding the house of this color.  The color itself isn't bad, but I ended up hating it because it was everywhere! Not only on the inside, the outside of the house is the same color.  I can't help but wonder what was going on in the last owners' minds when they did this. I'm sure everyone feels this way occasionally. Because of the huge desk I was only able to paint one side of the room at a time, so  it reminded me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

Here's the finished side which would make it the good one...ok so I had to look it up the good guy is Dr. Jekyll so here he is.

 It also made me think of siblings who fight over sharing a room and put tape down the middle.  My memory of it is probably from the old tv show Sister Sister, since I didn't have a sibling until I was nine, I have no personal experience. I always wished I had a twin who I could share a room with and fight over said room with. Sadly I didn't. But here is the progress so far.

Here's the gorgeous transition.  It shows a more accurate depiction of the new color a neutral gray which is Pebble Stone from Behr.

When the whole room is finished I'll show it.

The Beginning

Here goes nothing.  After two years of following many talented bloggers, I have finally created a blog! It's a bit intimidating since I have been following so many for so long.  Yet, I could no longer hold out.  I'm going to use this blog as a record of my life and a way to share my newest projects.  No I'm not a talented crafter, but I do love a good before and after.  Oh my, the things you can improve with paint!

I suppose the title isn't exactly self-explanatory.  My husband and I love poppies, our wedding theme was California poppies. It dates back to our early dating days.  While on a walk six or seven years ago, yeesh is that possible? am I old enough for that?!?! anyway... my then boyfriend who would later become Mr P and P pretended to pick one after I goaded him into it since it's illegal to pick them here in California.  Ever since it has been our thing. See our wedding cake...those are California poppies as our topper.  Our cake decorator did a fabulous job creating them for the first time ever! I couldn't decide on a cake topper for the longest time and then my mom had the wonderful idea of it being meaningful with poppies!

And we honeymooned in Paris which was amazing.  I still miss it.  We spent two glorious weeks pretending to be Parisians in our studio in the Marais.  If we could, we would go every single year. We are hard core Francophiles. At one point I even considered getting a tattoo of a fleur de lis, but I wimped out. ouch!

So here begins the adventure...