Hello everyone and happy Friday! Another week has gone by, and it's been a week where I feel like I haven't gotten anything done. Of course that's not true, what with a toddler, four animals and a mountain of housework everyday. But project wise, not a lot to be had.
I do have a really cute recipe to share with you guys today though, it's from Dessert for Two. I mentioned forever ago that Luis loves carrot cake here, but I hate making a whole cake or batch of cupcakes because most of it gets thrown away. His birthday just passed and I wanted to make him carrot cake, so this was perfect. Enough cake for just the two of us, because you can't not have cake on your birthday.
Hello everyone, hope everyone had a great long weekend. I just love Family Day, it's a great excuse to be lazy.
Today I want to share a little organizing that I did to a cabinet that had been driving me nuts. We have a very small set of upper cabinets above our range hood (over our stove), and because it wouldn't fit too much I decided it was a great place for my baking supplies. I love to bake but have just recently started again and let my cabinet go to shambles. Don't believe me? Take a look:
Hello one and all! Well this is a pretty late post, but it took me forever to read my January book. I was trying to get way too many things done and it just fell on the back burner. But better late than never, so I want to share my review with you guys.
I bought this book over 10 years ago
with the intention of reading it, but just never did. I was too caught
up in certain authors and series that I just kept myself busy with those
books. But since setting my 2015 goals
and trying to read a book a month (to ease myself back into reading), I
figured this was a great time to give this book a chance.
Nancy Pickard - The Whole Truth
The book is about a true crime author and the case she is currently writing her book on. She gets immersed into the case and finds herself crossing boundaries she would never normally cross. There are a few plot twists that even a seasoned reader wouldn't see coming.
It's not a gruesome book, but it does involve a horrible (fictional) crime. Even with the main story centering around crime, the book still manages to stay pretty light. I would have liked it to get a little deeper into the story, as I found that by trying to keep it light the story lost something. As well, the character development on the main character could have been expanded on. You don't really learn anything about her.
That being said, it was still a very well written book. The story was great and was something I had never read before, or anything that I have watched before either. It was very original. I will definitely be looking into other books by Nancy Pickard, and will try to find the sequel to this book.
Hope this gives you guys a book to either add to your list or take off. Feel free to add any books you are currently reading or have read, I am always looking for new authors.
Kerby
Hello and happy Thursday to one and all. I know that Valentine's day is quickly approaching and lots of other blogs are just riddled with great ideas for crafts and recipes, but I just cannot get into it. We have never been ones to make a big deal about it, so it's hard to find things that I want to do. At least next year Braxton will be older and give me a reason to find fun things to do.
So after getting that off my chest, today I want to share an idea that is about a year in the making. When we decided to do the basement, one of Luis' biggest requests was to not have the gallery wall back up in the basement. He hated how the pictures would move if the volume was turned up, or my complaining about the pictures moving. Jury's still out on that one, and Luis is not telling the truth.
So once it was decided that the basement was no longer the location for the gallery wall, I needed to find a new home for it. After sitting on the couch with a newborn/baby for a few months in our living room, and idea dawned on me. Enter the wall that I have never known what to do with (view from the living room):
Hello there and happy Friday everyone! I've been busy painting and I am so glad to show you what I've been up to. I have finally finished the mural in Braxton's playroom!
I've always wanted to have a playroom that I can paint a mural on, I used to look at pictures and think "I want to do that". It's a weird thing to want to do, but I am weird that way. Anyway, this playroom has been the best thing we have ever decided to do. Braxton loves that room and spends about 85% of his day in there playing with his toys and reading his books. I love that I was able to add something personal to his room for him.
I chose the two walls that were not visible from the rec room, mostly so that the playroom didn't look too busy. First thing was to paint the sky, which I just drew all willy nilly by hand. I used the Behr colour Rio Sky, it's a great light grey-blue:
Sorry for the bad pictures, it's hard to take a good picture in a room with no windows/natural light at night (and also please excuse the wet paint in most of the pictures as well. I have limited time to paint, so it's usually late at night).
After two coats of the sky, I painted the grass a darker green. The original wall colour it just too light to be part of the mural. I chose Sage Brush, also by Behr:
I decided that I would also use this colour for some trees, so I drew those in as well. My mom came in the day after I drew these and said that she liked my clouds. Alas, they are not clouds just very cartoon-ish trees. I decided to keep the mural simple, and I thought that I would draw everything they way I used to draw when I was younger. It is for a playroom after all:
After two coats of the Sage Brush, I went into my stash of paints and mixed about six different greens and white for a darker colour to finish off the trees. Again I did two coats of the darker tree colour and had a ton of paint leftover, so I decided to put some bushes in the grass. I was trying to break up the light green area, and I think it worked out pretty well:
I used a brown I also had in my stash for the tree trunks. I wanted the trunks to all be a little different, so I did a few styles. I love how the "y" trunks turned out. I wanted to add an evergreen tree in as well because they are very common around us and keeps things interesting. Four of the exact same trees on each side might look a little boring.
Here is a picture of each wall:
If you didn't notice before there is a tree wrapped around the corner. I had no idea how to make each side looked balanced without being crowded, so I took a chance and used the corner as the centre of a tree. I think I worked out great:
I cannot express how happy I am to have this done and with how it turned out. It's like a weird bucket list item I can cross off. Here's one more picture because I am just that happy with it:
Maybe down the road if I feel really ambitious I will try to add a squirrel or bunny into the mix. If I'm ever feeling wild and crazy maybe I will try to draw some apples into the tree. I know, it's hard to keep up with this wild girl.
Have you guys painted any murals? They are a lot of work but look so good and are more than worth it in the end.
Kerby
Linking to:
A Night Owl - Monday Funday 2/15/15
Naptime Creations - Create, Link, Inspire #216
I Heart Naptime - Link Party Palooza #85
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #197
A Handful of Everything - Great Idea Thursdays #90
Hey there! Sorry for my little absence, I've been extremely busy trying to get a few big things done around here. Hopefully I will be sharing them soon (And I have to say, I completely didn't notice that the title rhymes until about the third time I read it).
Anyway, today I want to share a quick and easy craft for Valentine's day. This was actually pretty fun to do, it reminded me of paper mache. You only need a few supplies and about 10 minutes of your time. Easy peasey.
