Thursday, January 31, 2013

Picture Hanging and Redecorating Part 1

     A few weeks ago, I rearranged most of the walls in our house. This is something I tend to do often. I don't know why. I like my scenery to change, I guess. Maybe that's why I married a military man! ;) I have always been this way. I remember when I was little, I used to always be rearranging my bedroom. It probably drove my mom nuts. I think now I may drive my husband nuts sometimes. I always seem to get the urge to move things (like heavy furniture) when he is away at work. Then, of course, when I get this urge, I can't just sit around and wait until he gets home to help. I have to do it NOW! He has come back home more than once to see things not how they were when he left. This time, it was just things hanging on different walls; no furniture...yet ;)
     We have this wall that greets you when you enter our house. I forgot to take a photo before I took everything down, but I will give you an idea. On this wall, there are things resembling what my husband has done in the Coast Guard. There is no denying when you walk through the door that we are a Coast Guard Family. I really like this wall. But, after staring at it for over two years now, it had to move. So into the hallway it all went! I started by hanging the biggest piece in the center of the wall. I wanted this to be the focal point since I didn't have anything large enough to balance it out.  Here is a somewhat before picture. I thought halfway through that I should take pictures! All the frames are leaning against the wall in the hallway ready to hang!       
     Then, I took all the other frames and traced them. I have seen this done before on nice heavy plain colored paper. Yeah...I didn't have any of that. What I did have was an overload of leftover Christmas wrapping paper. I flipped it to the plain side, traced all the frames, and labeled them so I would know which one I was using, as well as the direction it was supposed to go. Then I got to work arranging them all on the wall!
 I measured where the nails would need to be and nailed right through the paper. Once I was ready to hang, all I had to do was tear the paper down.
 One half done! On to the next!
 I made a bit of a mess. Don't worry, I recycled it all! Could you find my scissors for me please?
 Next half done!
 Here it is all finished. It was hard to get it all in the frame.
 This is from the other side!
    
Now, this was not a blank wall when I started. There were lots of family photos hanging here. guess where they got moved to??
That's right- the living room! I will be sharing another post on how that all turned out! I am so happy I changed everything around! I can't wait to share!!

See you soon!! :)





Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Go, go, go

     I have been SO busy this week! I am sitting down now for the first time since Sunday! I don't know what has been going on in our house, but it all just seems "off." Know what I mean? I feel like I haven't been home much, and of course, neither has the hubs. We were out all day Monday! By all day, I don't just mean we were out for a few hours. I mean ALL.DAY. We went and met some friends in the morning for a playdate, had lunch, went to K's 2 year check up, got home and i left to go shoot a wedding, came home and had to get ready for a Tupperware meeting! And that was just Monday!
     I missed posting my menu plan for the week-nothing exciting, so you aren't missing anything! I missed posting Tupperware for yesterday- this just means I will have something awesome next week. Maybe even a big sale!
     And here it is Wednesday, and I have nothing "usual" to post. I ahve lots of things in draft, so I will work on finalizing them and getting them out over the enxt few days. Maybe tomorrow.
Friday and Saturday it will not happen, though. I am going to Connecticut for a photography meetup. I am SO. EXCITED! I can't wait to get back and share everything!
But for now, I must go get some sleep!

Until next time,

Thursday, January 24, 2013

50 States, One by One

This semester, I added something new to our lessons. *J* was getting a little bored with some of the Social Studies assignments he had, so I thought this might add a little fun for him. We have gone over the 50 states in the past, but after a few of the bigger, more interesting ones, we moved on. This time I am taking it from the beginning, in ABC order! We have done Alabama and Alaska, and are now working on Arizona. I found this great little collection of books at our local library. They are full of enough information to tell you about all that state has to offer, but no so full and boring you feel like taking a nap! There are lots of photos and visual guides to keep the little ones interested. I go through the book beforehand and put random questions on post-it notes on each page. This gives J something to guide his reading and lets meknow he actually read! The post-it notes with his answers then go into his Social Studies notebook/journal. We have one for each subject so he can take notes, and so I can add fun little things for him to do. After he is done with the book, I have a page of "Fun Fast Facts" that I make for him. I leave space for his answers, and it is way more visually appealing than black and white print in a textbook! He is enjoying it so far, so we will see if we can make it through all 50 states! We are averaging about two each week!