no more tape on the walls

So, here’s that magnet board I’ve been dreaming up for the kids’ side of the art room. We got a big 3′ x 4′ piece of sheet metal from Home Depot, some inexpensive base board molding, some things to hold the corners of the frame together, and a box full of thumb tacks.

Barry made a frame from the molding and we painted it white, then used thumb tacks to hold the sheet metal to the back of the frame. (If you try this be VERY careful with the metal. My poor husband really gashed his finger at Home Depot just trying to slide the stack of metal back into place after he got the piece he wanted. Before he even took it out of the car at home he taped all the edges to prevent another cut.)

When we first lifted the whole thing up with the metal on the back a couple of the corners of the frame came unglued and we were afraid that the whole thing was going to be an unsturdy failure, but we put some more glue in the corners, wrapped a band clamp around the whole thing, and let it dry for a day. That did the trick! It turned out great!

We just screwed picture hanging wire to the back and used 2 of those crazy picture hangers that can hold 50 lbs. to hang it on the wall. This was a good solution for us because we’re renting this house and don’t want to have big screw holes in the walls.

A couple of my boys and I used fabric scraps to make some covered buttons, then hot glued round magnets to the back of them. They turned out really cute.

And while I was taking pictures of it I thought I’d show you a view from the kitchen with my pretty calendar (from Paper Source) and our chore chart. It makes me happy that everything looks so neat and pretty.

Anyway, that’s the magnet board story. My art room spring cleaning is complete. (And it’s a good thing that I documented it since it’s a little messy now. I’m helping Brenna make a quilt…)

No Manners Dinner 2011

On April Fool’s day we’ve started the tradition of holding our “No Manners Dinner.” We have breakfast for dinner and get random kitchen implements to use as our plate, fork, and cup. Here are some highlights from this year…

This year one of Brenna’s friends stayed for the fun. We decided that next year we should invite a family. Would you come?

(Click here to remember last year, if you’d like.)

some nest-feathering, but with pillows

I’ve been having fun redecorating the family room walls, but I’m not quite ready to take pictures of it all and say I’m done. I decided today that I need to do something different in my fireplace mantel/ cubby thing so I’ve been looking for inspiring mantel arrangements and dreaming up what I could do with what I already have instead of the family photos that have been there for a year and a half. (And, to be honest taking photos of just one corner of the room is much easier because I can keep the baskets of unfolded laundry and explosion of k-nex behind me.)

What I can say is done is the sewing of these pillows and some quotes to hang on the wall. I have a friend who had a pretty quote printed as a photo at Costco, framed it, and gave it to me for Christmas– and I thought it was genius! So, I took some sayings I’ve wanted displayed in my house somehow, made them into big images using Inkscape (which is kind of like Adobe Illustrator, but free), printed them as photos at Costco, and framed them. They’ve been done for a while. I just decided they should go here.

The top one is from Doctrine and Covenants 29:34 where the Lord says “All things unto me are spiritual.” It’s a good reminder when I’m cooking dinner, picking up toys, helping with math, ignoring laundry that even all the mundane things that need my attention have a purpose– they’re spiritual. The second is a quote from Charlotte Mason that says “Education is the atmosphere we breathe, the envelope of wonder that surrounds us, held by the gravity of our daily habits.”

The 2 colorful pillows were so fun for me to make. They’re basically 4 little quilts, pieced and quilted and turned into pillows. Here’s one side of the first one:

I used the Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow fat quarters I had been saving to make another quilt like this. I never was really going to get around to making that quilt, and I decided this is a much better way to enjoy the fabric anyway.

This is the other side.

I got a little crazier with the second pillow.

This one is just quilted with straight lines.

I loved making these because I got to do everything involved in making a quilt, but on a much more immediate, instant gratification scale– and I can see and enjoy them every day.

I also used some home decorator weight fabric I had in my stash to add one plain pillow. It took all of 20 minutes (invisible zipper and all).

Here’s all 3 again in a different corner:

Obviously these are usually on the floor being jumped on or laid on, but they looked pretty here for a little while. I’m hoping at some point this year I can get a few Rollie Pollies made for jumping and rolling and reading. We’ll see. I probably really should be replenishing my supply of baby girl things– and will probably be more excited about doing that as the days go on.

So, anyone have some favorite mantel photos they want to send me links too? Feel free to leave them in the comments!

Art room tour

Want to see into my art room? I tidied it last Saturday and it’s stayed in pretty good shape for a whole week! I am certainly organizationally challenged and always have been. In high school, my best friend always bought me some containers and went through and decluttered and cleaned up my bedroom for my birthday. Now I live with a different best friend and he generally has a big hand in helping me keep my space under control (like throwing a quilt-in-progress over my drafting table to cover the mess).

But this time I did it all by myself! This is huge!

This is the view from the front room of our house. Our creative space is what would normally be a formal dining room, but I need to be able to work on making things right in the heart of our home throughout the day, so this is the perfect place to have my craft space.

I’ve got a big Expedit shelf from Ikea with a desk attached. There’s plenty of room for bins of fabric, boxes of precious metal clay stuff, printmaking supplies, knitting stuff, other crafty odds and ends, our little Tivoli stereo, and some pretty things too.

I’ve got some other Ikea cup things to hold pencils, markers, scissors, pliers– you know, all that stuff that needs to be right there for the taking.

In the big window is my drafting table. It was a dumpster find of Barry’s when we were in college and I seriously could not imagine life without it. It is easily one of my very favorite pieces of furniture in our house. My gecko lives in the corner over my Gocco and block printing stuff. Underneath my drafting table are rolls of paper, interfacing, contact paper, and baskets of mending, batting and foam. Oh, and a couple of quilts destined for Humanitarian Services.

Look up, and there are the birds!

Opposite the window wall is the kids’ drawing table. One of these weekends we’ll make a big magnet board so that Ian won’t need to tape his paintings to the wall.

Here are a few more pictures for good measure.

I love the old Singer from Barry’s aunt. It needs rewiring to work, but it’s really fun to look at anyway.

A shelf of pretty stuff. I spun thread and then needle punched the fabric for that little bear years ago. I still really like him.

I love these under-shelf wire baskets I found at the Container Store.

And here’s a sneak peek to another room I’ve been rearranging and hanging new artwork in. I think I’ll be ready to show it to you next week.