Updates

So much has been happening around our house in the last couple months!  With the school year ending, a family wedding, summer camp and a new job (for me) there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging.  The biggest (and most stressful) change was the job change.  I was at a place that I loved and could see myself for many years to come but an opportunity that was too good to pass up came by and I've entered the professional world once again.  A funny thing is that I'm actually working less hours per week than I was when I worked at the school office.  It's also a lot calmer and less chaotic too.  It's amazing how less stressed I am even though my workload deals with more complicated matters.  I'm pretty excited about the opportunity and so far it's been a good change.  I've had a lot more time and energy to get things done around the house AND start working on some long neglected projects.

A Hyena Tale – Part 1 T-shirts

At the beginning of March, I answered the call to volunteer by helping out with the First Grade Musical at Alex’s school. Somehow (maybe through cloudy judgment on my part), I ended up being in charge of costumes for 19 hyenas. The requirements for the costumes were; the shirts needed to be tan with black spots, there needed to be some sort of earpiece, a tail and black bottoms with black socks. The parents would supply the bottoms and socks but the rest was up to me. The budget was about $10 per kid for the pieces that weren’t supplied by parents. After a little bit of brainstorming, I knew I wanted to stencil the shirts. I’d done some T-shirts over the summer to put in the favor bag at Alex’s birthday party so it wasn’t completely out of my comfort zone and I had some black fabric paint leftover from that. While waiting for the t-shirt order to come in ($2.99 per shirt from hanes.com), I looked around at a few stores to see if there was a pre-made animal stencil with non-leopard, non-cheetah spots. There was not. I ended up tracing scrapbook paper with“animal” spots onto a stencil mat and used an exacto knife to cut out the holes. After that it was pretty easy. I’d put the shirt over a glass cutting board (so the fabric paint wouldn’t seep through to the backside of the shirt) and tape the stencil to the shirt. Then, I used a sponge pouncer to apply the black paint. The longest part of the labor process was the paint application but Netflix and Pandora helped me through the monotony. All in all, I think it took about 5 hours (over a few days) to do all 19 shirts. The finished product was something I was happy with too.

1. First I traced the spots onto the stencil.  I used a colored pencil for tracing and then cut out the spots with and exacto knife.  I used a cutting board beneath so I wouldn't scratch anything while cutting out spots and then later to protect the back of the shirt from paint seeping through from the front of the shirt.

2.  I found that taping the stencil to the shirt helped with stability and lessened the bleedthrough from the spots.

3.  The finished product.

 

Painting the shirts was by far the most time consuming part of the whole costume.  In addition to the actual painting time, the shirts also needed to lay flat for 4 hours (per the instructions on the bottle) so the fabric paint could cure. 

Next up: Ears and Tails

Incredibly Long Post of To-Do's

I’ve had a few posts outlining the whole 1^st grade musical hullaballoo, but my camera battery decided it didn’t want to cooperate. I don’t want to post those without pictures because they will help illustrate the how-to process.  I’ve been waiting for the replacement but it seems as though the mail system has conspired with the battery gods to keep me waiting on picture downloads.  Until it arrives, I’ll be sans photos.  I had planned on writing a few things so I could keep to posting at least once a week but I’ve been enjoying a hiatus during my spring break.  It’s been wonderful!  I’ve loved being able to catch up on housework, organization and general home upkeep.  Next up on the to-do list is to come up with a general “To Do” list for the house.  Since there are so many things that we’d like to do, it’s a little overwhelming.  My mother-in-law had some fantastic advice of going one room at a time.  We have 10 rooms on the main floor (including 2 bathrooms) and every one of them needs some attention.  Some rooms need more than other L and there is a basement with 5 rooms (including 1 bathroom down there).  Unfortunately every room in the basement needs attention.  Fortunately the basement is not even on the list right now, it’s so far down.

Mud room (not an actual room)

• remove table top like surface from alcove
• add shelving to alcove
• add hanging hooks to alcove
• add hanging hooks between shelves
• some sort of sitting structure between shelves
• Paint room (including outside entry and garage entry)
• purchase/make curtain for outside entry door
• paint trim
• artwork
• wall calendar/organizations system

Half-bath/Laundry room

• remove (or frame out) 80's-tastic wall sized mirror
• replace 80's-tastic light fixutre
• paint room
• paint trim
• replace faucet
• purchase/make curtain to conceal laundry area
• purchase/make curtain for window
• new shelving/paint old shelving
• artwork
• add area rug

Kitchen 

• paint cabinets
• paint walls
• paint trim
• remove upper cabinets from south and east wall
• add open shelving to south and east wall
• replace cooktop
• replace built-in oven
• replace counter tops
• add area rug

 
 Dining Room

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint built-in wet bar
• replace counter top on wet bar
• replace sink/faucet on wet bar
• replace track lighting
• replace light fixtures over bar and sconces
• purchase make curtains for patio doors
• art work
• add area rug/door mat 

Formal Dining Room/Office

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint doors
• paint desk
• purchase/make curtains
• add furniture (not sure what yet)

Entry Way

• add artwork
• replance lighting fixtures
• retile

Living Room

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint doors
• replace ceiling fan
• add sofa table ?
• add coffee table ?
• add area rug
• replace track lighting

A’s Bedroom

• paint walls
• replace ceiling fan
• add dresser
• add desk
• replace curtains
• replace area
• replace area rug
• paint headboard
• add artwork

Guest Room

• paint trim
• replace ceiling fan
• add bed
• add area rug
• add artwork

Jack & Jill Bath (between A’s room and Guest Room)

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint vanity
• replace counter top
• replace faucets (there are two sinks)
• replace fan
• tile shower
• replace shower doors
• tile floor (part is already tiled and part is carpeted)

Master Bedroom

• paint trim
• replace ceiling fan
• replace lighting
• add area rug
• new dresser
• new nightstand(s)
• add artwork

Master Bath

• remove 80's-tastic mirrors and replace with larger individual mirrors for both vanities
• remove 80's-tastic lighting from above mirrors
• paint vanities
• replace countertops for vanities
• replace faucets for vanities
• replace sinks ?
• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint skylight
• remove carpeting
• tile floors
• add board & batten to walls ?
• remove step-up to the tub
• paint tub
• replace bathtub faucet
• purchase/make curtains for windows & door
• tile shower
• replace showerhead

Master Closet (not a real room)

• paint walls/ceiling
• replace lighting
• reorganize shelving/rods
• remove carpet?

Gettin-er-Done

In the spirit of gettin-er-doneness, I’ve finally finished with hyena costumes and spring musicals are in the rearview mirror.  This week has definitely been a whirlwind but it’s thisclose to being over.  Here is a little snapshot of the finished product.  I wish this shot would’ve included the tail, but it doesn’t so bummer… For safety (and because I’m not 100% sure about showing pics of the boy), I’ve added the “black bar” to cover a good portion of his face.  The black bar reminds me of a Us Weekly hot or not column.

 

 

Hmmm...if only the mess in the TV room would clean itself.

Behind, Again...

Once again I find myself completely behind on everything…blogging included.  It’s public school spring break around these parts and schedules aren’t matching up.  Since I work in the office of a preschool that doesn’t adhere to the public school schedule and since I have a child in public school, our spring break schedules seldom (if ever) are the same.  So, this week Alex has been with me at school with me, at his grandpa’s and over at a friend’s.  That’s how we roll at our house, we piece things together to make it work.  I’m fortunate to have a great boss who lets me bring my kiddo to work during spring break and also a grandpa that watches my kiddo too!  They definitely help make the work/life balance thing workout.  I’ve crossed a few things off the to-do list, but I’ve added some too.  Such is life.  I was able to finish up the shirts for Alex’s musical.  I hope to share details before the weekend.

Two Weeks, Really?

Yes, it really has been two weeks of not committing to a regular cleaning schedule even though I've created one.  I'm pretty sure that makes me really lazy or a great procrastinator.  It's been sitting on my computer desktop waiting to be printed, laminated and put in a household binder.  Of course, since #2 & #3 haven't happened, I couldn't use it.  Does that happen to anyone else?  Inability to complete somthing because steps haven't been followed perfectly.  Hmmm, just me? I'm going to have to work on that.  Add in a snow day, hunting down a Marvel Comics costume (specifically Spiderman), volunteering to make/coordinate 20 hyena costumes for the 1st Grade Musical and a computer that decided to not work anymore and I've had a few things going on.  But since those are all normal parts of life, I shouldn't use them as excuses.  What, you don't volunteer to make 20 hyena costumes?  That's not crazy; that's working mom guilt!

Getting It Done

The last couple of years have been a real doozy for my household.  You see, I’d always worked at least part-time since my son was born seven years ago but was able to do my errands/housecleaning while my son was in preschool and I had a break in my work schedule.  Fast forward a few years and I’m working more hours (full-time during the school year) and there isn’t any room in the day for errands and cleaning.  All of that stuff has to wait until I’m home from work.  Of course, the household chores have taken a hit as I’m adjusting to this new life schedule.  I’m scrambling to get things done, my bills are unorganized and I’m just getting by and some things are falling through the cracks.  I’ve never had a “schedule” as far as when things would get done, I would just do it on my afternoons off and it worked out nicely.  That is so far from the case now.  I’m uncomfortable with not being “on top” of things in my house and rushing to meet deadlines that I’ve forgotten about.  I’m thinking that if I want to have things work efficiently, I’m going to have to go to a daily plan.  I’m looking through a few blogs for cleaning/life schedules and I’ll adjust them to fit the needs of our house.  It’s just so chaotic right now and the more I avoid things, the more things pile up.  I’ll keep you updated on what kind of schedule we keep, the adjustments we need to make and if I can keep up the follow-up.