Easy wall art tutorial

I had a wall in my hallway that needed something on it. While my youngest daughter were sick last year I got some foam boards that were used as insulation in the boxes they shipped her medicine in, I kept two. My mom bought me some fabric last year and it fit perfectly with the wall color. Using some scraps of batting I had all I needed for some easy wall art.

Layer the fabric (best if ironed first), batting and the foam.

 

Using your trusty hot glue gun make a glue strip down one longs side. Press the fabric into the glue.

Use your paper stapler and put a few staples in while the glue is still hot. This step secures the fabric a little extra and the hot glue also secures the staples to the board.

Continue on all for sides, leaving the corners for last. Remember to pull the fabric taut to prevent any wrinkles.

Fold the corners nicely on the short sides and secure with hot glue and staples on the back.

I was fairly happy with them as is, but felt they needed something extra. A friend of mine recently taught me how to make a fabric flower, so I used some of the fabric to make two flowers, one for each.

Now the are hanging oh so pretty in my hall way.

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Grateful Week 13

131. Daffodils nodding their head at me as I walk past them.

132. Children playing in the snow.

133. Snowball fights with my oldest daughter.

134. Blogs that inspire to change.

135. A husband playing his drums.

136. A warm new winter coat on clearance.

137. Friends taking you out shopping.

138. Heat pads for a sore neck.

139. A daughter who loves to do dishes.

140. My mom who taught me how to sew.

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The things I could have pictured

Sunday I could have taken a picture of the daffodils nodding their little heads when we passed them while walking the dog before going to church. What I did take a picture of was

 

Monday I took a picture of my oldest daughters building.

Tuesday I could have had a lot of fun pictures of the kids going to the Childrens Museum with daddy, but like me he forgot the camera. He did however use his phone, but I don’t know how to get to those photos.

Wednesday I could have pictured Cherrie blossoms (actually I don’t know if they are cherries, but they are pink little flowers on trees) covered with snow on the way to school, but again my camera went unused.

Thursday I could have pictured my two daughters, our dog and cat playing outside in the two inches of snow that we got. Oh it would have been precious as the sun was shining, the snow was glittering, both the dog and the cat was running around chasing snowballs and getting covered in snow, my youngest was actually smiling and laughing as she managed to put snow in her own face and my oldest was just wild. For a moment I just stood there taking it all in and wishing that I had not forgotten my camera. Instead I got plenty pictures of transformations I made around my home later in the day.

Friday I could have taken pictures of my youngest two hour tantrum… Me sitting with a heat pad on my neck after somehow hurting it early in the day.

Instead I will just have to try harder next week to remember to take my camera with me when I go out. I don’t know why I find it so hard as it is a very small camera.

How do you remember to take pictures of all those little moments?

Before and after

I had so much fun yesterday with the Small Thing at Home Sanctuary. If you have never visited Rachel Anne, please do as you will never regret.

Yesterdays Small Thing of Before and After invited us to do some Before and After tasks around the house. I made 8 changes in my home, but I forgot to take pictures of most of them. Still here are a few.

It looks so much better after I took my powder room mirror and put it on the mantel together with art work made by my 6 year old daughter and 15 year old cousin.

Aren’t my girls talented?

 

My dining room is finally pulled together again. The frames to the left is our school area. One shows Norwegian vowels, one English sight words, one Norwegian with English translation, one a Norwegian song and one just words we are currently working on.

My kitchen always ends up being a mess. It is our command central and I spend at least4 hours in there every day. Would think I kept in cleaner and nicer then…

I had someone help me clean the kitchen. She was so excited to get to do the dishes that she did them three times yesterday.

My youngest daughter got a doll stroller for Christmas. One day she decided that she wanted a ride in it. It was not made for her and it ripped. I didn’t feel like going back to the store to return it just to get one with just as bad fabric back again. So I repaired it.

 

I really like drop cloth. It is strong and versatile.

We also re organized all of their toys in their bedroom. Re organized drawers in their bathroom. Removed a too big mirror from the powder room. Removed a dining room table that was being stored in the living room.

All these little changes made such a huge difference in our house. As I am sitting here today I am planning on continuing making small changes here and there. I think my bedroom is up next for a small change.

Thank you so much for visiting me and I hope you go visit some of the other Company girls and Rachel Anne.

Have a good weekend.

Finding time for Exercise

One of the things I really struggle with is time management. I have found that keeping a somewhat detailed schedule on my Google calendar keeps me on track most of the time. Still I struggle with finding time for Exercise.

I have specific days I do specific things. I get up two hours before my kids to be able to write on my blog, a newsletter and do my Bible study. But at the moment the only exercise I have scheduled is riding my bike to and from church every Tuesday for MOPS and Bible study.

My biggest and worst excuse is that my husbands schedule changes so much. Honestly for someone who doesn’t mind running or riding her bike in snow or rain, I really shouldn’t have an excuse not to go out doing it.

Even if I didn’t go out to run or ride my bike, I could always just turn on my Wii and do any one of my three exercise games or just put on a exercise video.

It is time to get started scheduling more exercise on my calendar. Today is the day I go through my calendar for the next week and month and I will schedule more Exercise on it.

I will start by scheduling more bike rides and days of strength exercising at home. I will try to move my grocery shopping day to a different day and thereby find more time for biking. I will only use the car when I really have to.

Now to get ready for a snow day.

What will you do to schedule more exercise into your daily schedule? What do you do to exercise?

Chicken Pie

This is one of my favorite dishes that is easy to make with leftovers. A little bit of chicken and a few veggies and you have a delicious and healthy meal.

Pie dough

• 1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 stick Margarine
• 3 Tbsp Ice cold Water

Cut the margarine in the flour either by hand or in a food processor. It will be very grainy. Add the water and mix it quickly to a ball. Put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll it out quickly between two sheets of wax paper covered with a little bit of potato starch. You can also just press it out in your pie form.

Make air holes in the bottom by using the teeth of a fork. Bake it in the middle of the oven at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.

Filling

• 3 Eggs
• 1 3/4 cups Milk
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/3 tsp Pepper
• 2 cups Grated Cheese
• My Favorites are 1/2 a Grilled Chicken, Thin Strips of 1 Bell Pepper, 1 Onion and 2 Tomatoes. Anything goes though.

Layer the meat, cheese and the veggies on the pre baked pie crust.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper and pour over the veggies and meat in the pie crust. (at this point I was so hungry I forgot to take more picture)

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes till the eggs are all set.

Enjoy.

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What Should an Procrastinating Writer do?

Every other Tuesday I am up at 5 AM working like a mad woman on a newsletter I write for my MOPS group.

It is fairly easy. Front page: Letter from the Coordinator, info about the next meeting and a picture. 2nd page: Whatever I can come up with, sometimes I write something and sometimes I find articles from others that I request to use. 3rd page: Info on what is going on at our church for women and children. 4th page: birthdays and anniversaries, birth announcements and pictures.

I don’t know why I always end up stressing to get it done, but for some reason I keep putting it off until the day it is due and I have done it this way for two years now.

I am a procrastinator, but I want to change that.

The past couple of weeks I have tried to schedule myself using my Google calendar. I have every single little task scheduled, but I keep finding things that needs tweaking or done at a different time. So far I have tried to do blogging, Bible study (every other week) and the newsletter (the opposite weeks of the Bible study) every morning from 5AM – 7AM, there just isn’t enough days in the week for it though. How am I supposed to do all this writing every week.

Is there anyone out there with any tips for me?

I am considering having a babysitter come once a week to babysit my toddler for me while I spend the day writing. It’s just that I don’t make any money on me writing and now I will have to spend money on a babysitter. I just don’t know what to do and I really want to do it all. 

Linking up to Amy’s Anti-Procrastinating Party at New Nostalgia.

My Crafty Weekend

Some weekends just go so fast I feel like I can’t get anything done. This weekend almost ended up being just that, but I finally got the procrastinator plug pulled out and inspiration and creativity made for a productive weekend.

I have a few projects that I have thought about doing for a long time. Last spring my husband and I bought POÄNG Chairs from IKEA, but since we didn’t like the cheapest pillows and we couldn’t afford the pillows we liked, we chose some fabric for me to reupholster them. I don’t know why I haven’t done it before, but I thought it was going to be so difficult. It took me less than an hour and I know I could have done a better job and maybe done it a little differently, but we like it and it is done.

When I was a baby my mom bought a little baby hat for me and both my girls have used it. I have many times tried to find it again to buy more, but the company that made them no longer exist. A lot of my friends were asking if I couldn’t just make it because they would like to have one for their girls and I finally got to it. I changed the pattern a little bit to fit my cutting skills and from start to finish it took me less than an hour.

My oldest daughter has really long hair and I love to play with it, but she keep loosing all of her hair ties. So I made a couple for her. That took me about 20 minutes. She has also asked for more clothes for her new doll, but when doll clothes cost more than kids clothes I will rather just make my own. I bought patterns yesterday and JoAnn and having no previous experience sewing by a pattern I made one pair of pants. It took me less than an hour. Seriously and it was so easy.

I also had two pieces of foam board that I didn’t want to just throw in the trash. They got transformed into wall decor. So easy and fast, now my wall is feeling so springy.

What did you craft up this weekend?

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