A 20 min. Before and After

Ł So I have a before and after for you today. 

Aaaaaannnnd, it's a good one.  :)

My neighbor recently moved out and didn't want these old shutters.

COME ON!!! Who wouldn't want this???? (If there was a sarcasm font, these words would be written in it) :)

 as you can see you they are not in the best shape....

but I saw potential! Even if Tyler might have seen something annoying that kept falling out of the stroller on the walk home.  

I thought maybe a coat of paint would do it- so I set the kids down and broke out the paint. Yellow. Because, I looooove yellow :) neighbors joke that they know which house is mine.

In fact, I used the same paint can for the shutters :)

 And it only took. . . . .  

Get this,  one episode of Arthur. 

I know!!! That is about 20 minutes people!! I painted as if my free time depended on it. 

At first I was getting really frustrated because each little shutter was taking Foreva!! but I just kept telling myself, "Even though this is taking forever, I'll be glad for the end result." It totally helped me stay on task and motivated.

Pretty right?? :)

Totally worth the slightly tedious part. I have a hard time keeping with one project till it's done. Sometimes I just want to jump from thing to thing to thing to thing for from project to project to project. 

 For example I have the two rocking chairs I talked about my last post that I'm working on.

Then there's the laundry room that's still half painted. 

Oh yeah and the gallery wall that still needs more pictures. And the couch that I decided to recover.

 And those chairs I started way back when that just need the top part recovered.

 Oh and of course how can we forget.........

 Yeah that's still going on strong I'm talking wood chips and sawdust everywhere. I think I vacuum every day. Okay not really. I vacuum once a week. Maybe. :)

 And then there's this extra carpet that I'm going to make into a rug. 

So basically I just need help. I think I just start too many projects. I'm just ready to get rid of them so I don't have the added stress. But projects are fun! And they're supposed to be fun.  I guess I just really love the fun things! :)

 If you don't hear from me in the next week please come and pull me out from all the projects I'll be working on, give me chocolate milk, and throw away all the projects toppled on me. Please. 

 There is one project I really want to work on that I think will be beneficial for everybody not just for the prettiness of the house. I really want to work on a morning schedule for my oldest daughter. She is really structured and loves schedules and order. I love that about her! So I want to encourage her in her strengths. 

 So I'm thinking of creating a little morning schedule that when she wakes up in the morning she can start to follow right away. Something thank goes kinda like: prayer, brush hair, make bed, get dressed, feed the chicken and get the egg. 

 That's really the one project I should focus on even though all those other ones are driving me ca-ra-zy! :)

One more before and after pic for you:

 Well until tomorrow love you all!!!!!!!! :D

Jamie 

Update on Chairs and Gallery Wall

Just wanted to give an update on these chairs (oh, these chairs) and the gallery wall I've been working on.

So, if you haven't noticed- I like to jump from project to project and from idea to idea.... :)

these chairs have kind of been a headache. not because they've been hard but because I put them in my front room,and now they're just staring at me.

 mocking me.

 Because I haven't finished them yet after all this time! 

 Oh, don't you worry chairs, you'll get finished and you won't know what hit you! 

 I got ready and motivated to again tackle these chairs.

 And THEN! .....I saw..... my two-year-old daughter ...... with a permanent marker ......

  

I know, I know. I shouldn't have let the marker in reach. 

But it was actually a blessing in disguise! Because I needed to recover the seats anyways. Let's just say, my first time job of covering the seats wasn't the most professional looking job. 

 

 The old covering is on the left and my new covering is on the right. You can tell the folding looks a lot more smooth.

 Here is a look at the bottom of the new covering. You can see that it covers the entire board instead of just partly covering. That way it won't hang underneath the chair.

 

  It was a lot faster and easier to recover it the second time. I wonder if it's because everything was already held tightly together or because I'm just that much better at it. :)

 So I decided what my plan is with the rest of the chairs. I think i will recover the top part with batting and fabric. Because it's just not as soft without some sort of covering. And we NEE D soft and comfy. otherwise no one will sit in it! And that kind of defeats the purpose a chair....if no one will sit in it.... ( Other than obliging strangers that won't tell you that there's wood sticking into their back! Haha)

 Next up is the Gallery wall I'm working on. I have a few more pictures put up. Buuuut it's just not done yet. It's getting close. I just have a few more to put up. Here's what it looks like now. 

 And here's all the other random things I'm working on:

these two rocking chairs are on my hit list. I also recently restored (I guess restored is the fancy way of saying it-but really just painted) an old window shutter that my neighbor didn't want. I'll be posting about that next week. As you can see my mind goes everywhere at once and I have lots of projects and ideas that I just can't wait to accomplish. so hopefully my husband will be able to keep me in line and only work on one or two at a time instead of eight or 10 ! Haha! :)

Jamie