Little Things

Sometimes the little projects make you the happiest! When I painted the mantel white, I noticed that the paint was not in the best shape. The cans were old and flaking into the paint. I paid good money for the paint and had a lot left, with projects in the works that I could use it for, so I needed a new plan.

I've seen a lot of people using mason jars, so I went with that. I like that I can clean them and reuse them when the current paint runs out, they are clear so I can see the color at a glance, and I went ahead and bought the plastic lids because they are easier (and I'd read the other lids can sometimes corrode like the paint cans did).

I popped on some Martha Stewart labels that I had on hand with the brand, color, and type of paint.

I've still got a lot of paint cans to transfer, but I've got a good start.

In other news, on the first day of August I finally swapped out my Spring printable for a Summer version. Better late than never! I'll have the Fall version up in December, I'm sure.

I cannot believe it is already August!

Newest SWAT Team Member and Some Playroom Organization

Mike and I were shopping at Costco when we saw that the Halloween costumes are already out--say what, this was July! Anyway, Ben wasn't with us, so we didn't want to choose his costume for him (plus he had previously requested Batman and they didn't have that costume). But when Mike saw this SWAT costume, he could not resist. Especially since it was just $15! What a great price; it came with the uniform, baton, hat, glasses, whistle, handcuffs, and badge.

Ben LOVED it. He put it on immediately and cried when we made him take it off at bedtime. All he had to do was add his Batman boots to make the outfit complete. How cute is he?

I won't lie--I sort of wish that they had not included that whistle. It got really old really fast. Dee hid upstairs at one point.

Here he is when Mike told him to make his "tough guy" face. Look out, bad guys!

Ben's latest costume led me to reevaluate our costume organization. He has been playing with all his costumes a lot lately. I love that he is into dress up and has such a vivid imagination, but I don't like the mess. And I really don't like that he couldn't open the bin that the costumes were stored in. He was constantly asking me to open it for him. Enough of that.

Our sad system before. A bin Ben couldn't open himself, so the lid was always off and things were always thrown about. (Not sure what was going on with the tiger.)

Enter our new system. I relocated the few things that were hanging on these hooks before, purged a few costumes that he didn't ever wear or had outgrown, and hung up his most used costumes (Superman, Buzz Lightyear, fireman, SWAT guy, and a random horse head that Ben still loves). The basket holds the Buzz Lightyear accessories in a storage bag, a sometimes played with pirate costume in a plastic bag, and accessories like Batman glasses, cowboy hats, princess shoes, etc.

That upper shelf is just dying for some organization. Right now it is a dumping zone for stuff that I don't want little hands messing with. Need to fix it up soon.

Much better! Ben can now access his costumes on his own, and everything for each costume is kept together so that we don't have to dig around for things. We'll see how the putting away process goes. Cleaning is NOT Ben's strong suit, but with such a simple plan, I'm hopeful.

I realize that when Little Miss gets older and is into dress up, we'll need to come up with a better (i.e. larger) solution, but for now this works and it was free and easy.

Walking and Riding

Here is a short video from last week of Liv walking around outside while Ben rides his bike. You can see better here how she walks (toes turned out, falling down often, but unphased). She also loves to carry stuff with her. She goes NO WHERE without that doll and loves to gather up toys or clothes or whatever she can find to carry with her. Such a cutie pie!

Slide

Livvie loves the little kiddie slide. She prefers to walk up it more than to slide down it. As I've said, she definitely has her own way of doing things.

We've had this slide since Ben was a baby, and he loved it too. What's not to love?

A few things to note in this video:

- The disaster that the kids made of the playroom. Mostly this was Liv throwing all the kitchen food out of the bin. She likes to sweep it all out with her arms very animatedly, and then crawl into the basket or bin.
- Liv's ragamuffin look. It's mostly the hair, but she just always looks like some homeless child who we picked up off the street. It would help if she'd leave a hair clip in her hair. It looks so cute that way, but you wouldn't know because she won't leave a clip in long enough for me to get a picture.
- How she starts crying and then moves on to something else in about 6 seconds--so Liv. The dramatic crying (sometimes throwing herself down on the floor) and then moving on a moment later must be a girl thing. Ben to this day has never thrown himself on the floor in a crying fit. We may have a drama queen on our hands.



And here's another one, if you're really bored. She gets distracted and starts playing with the kitchen food. All the while, I'm trying to get her to walk because that is the real reason I pulled out the camera. But no dice.

Mantel Makeover and To Dos

Our fireplace wall has been the bane of my existence lately. As I mentioned before, I've hated the rag roll paint since the day we moved in. I tried a few test paints, but nothing looks right. I threw up those swatches back in October, so we're closing in on a year--time to make some progress, I'd say!

I have so many "started but never finished" projects going on, and I'm just sick of looking at all the mess. I am trying to just force the time to get a few done. (Easier said than done, but I'm trying.) And I'm really going to try not to start any additional projects until the following in-progress messes are complete (in no particular order):

1. Paint the fireplace wall.
2. Paint the downstairs bathroom. I tore down most of the wallpaper but never got to the top portion and never painted.
3. Paint the kids' bathroom. I've always hated the bright green that the previous owners put up. I tried a few sample colors but never liked any of them. There are also holes from where I put up the hooks.
4. Paint the laundry room/garage entry. I started to paint, didn't like the color, tried several more colors, and haven't found a winner.
5. Create "mud room" in garage entry closet. I took down the door and relocated our winter stuff to another closet, but I need to paint and find a bench with storage. I'll also probably take down the wire shelf and replace it with a "real" shelf and add some hooks to the wall for coats and bags.

Do you see a theme here of struggling to find a color. It is what is holding me up in almost all these projects. I've never been great at making a decision, but also it is just hard to find a color with our ugly orange wood trim. Which brings me back to the fireplace wall and mantel...

I tried a few more paints, but they were both too "cold" with all the brown and wood trim. So I decided to paint the mantel first and see what that does to the space. I think it made a huge difference! I have avoided painting our wood trim because I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle such a big project, but I figure the mantel can be white even if the wood trim isn't painted. I tried to convince Mike that we should also paint the brick white, but he wasn't buying what I was selling. Why do men like ugly red brick so much?

Here are the Before and In-Progress photos. I can't really call it an "After" due to the state of the wall paint.

BEFORE:

An up-close shot so you can see how orangey and hideous the wood is.

PROGRESS: white mantel

I followed Centsational Girl's tutorial, and it was super easy. And the best part was that I had all the supplies already on hand (primer, Swiss Coffee in semi-gloss, sanding block, etc.), so this project was free!

I think that next I'm going to tackle the weird "shelf" on the wall between the kitchen and family room and the chair rail in the dining room. I know I said no new projects, but I consider these an extension of this project. ;-)

My only change will be to use some Floetrol the next time to eliminate some of the brush marks. The brush marks aren't too bad, but if you look closely, you can see them.

Pool Party

We all headed over to Nana and Papa's house last Sunday to enjoy the pool and a BBQ with them.

Unfortunately, due to a ton of rain lately and some unseasonably cool weather, the pool water was a little chilly. But that didn't stop us all from diving in and enjoying.

Liv loved floating around on this raft and hanging out with everyone.

 Ben was particularly fond of this shark that belonged to Uncle Brad when he was a kid.

Once Liv had had enough of the water, we dried off and had a snack. She discovered ice cubes and kept shoving her little hands into my diet coke and digging out ice cubes. She also grabbed Mike's cigar from him at one point. That could have been disastrous. Liv has fast hands!

After she was dry, we got her dressed and let her explore.

Ben convinced Mike and me to get back in the pool at different points during the afternoon. Mike went off the diving board to convince Ben it wasn't scary.

So Ben finally jumped in!

Trying to get up on the chair to sunbathe, I guess.

She's Walking (Finally)

Ben took his first tentative steps at about 10 1/2 months, and was walking at 11 months. I sort of assumed Liv would be the same. I should have known better. Little Miss does everything in her own time and in her own way. This one has a personality, to say the least.

Anyway, she took her first steps several months ago (around 12 or 13 months), and I thought great, finally she'll start walking. Nope. It took her months of building her confidence and skill before she decided to walk fully. She just knew she was faster and more stable crawling, so she always reverted to that.

Well, in the last few weeks, she finally is walking most of the time. She's 16 months, so not the latest walker ever. But pretty close! :-) (And she will still crawl if she's tired and gets frustrated, but mostly she walks.) Yay, Livvie Bean!!!

The best part of her walking is how completely ungraceful she is; her walk is ugly, but so ugly it's adorable. And she gets this look on her face like she is really doing something amazing and almost like she's pulling one over on you. I don't know, but the face just melts my heart.

This video isn't the best, because she just always starts doing something else as soon as I get the camera out. I'll try to get a better one soon.