Hold on... let me just grab my cape.

Hold on... let me just grab my cape.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Project Night... Again.

Well, tonight was project night yet again. This time was much more productive than last time... (Probably because I chose not to even try the tedious puzzle-painting project tonight... I'll save it for some other time.)

As I was packing up my project bucket with all my supplies, I came up with yet another idea to pile on top of the others. Long story short, I completed two crafty things off of my list tonight - one less successful than the other.

My intention was to try to make one of those distressed wood signs. I thought - sounds easy enough - so I got some free wood scraps off of freecycle.org and a pretty kick ass tutorial here to work from. I figured if it didn't take me too long to make then - boom - everyone gets a thoughtful homemade gift for Christmas this year. (I need some practice on this one, as you'll see later)

As I was neatly arraigning all my stuff in the Tupperware bucket, it came to me. My little guy loves Blue's Clues and has this brush from Build-A-Bear that has a blue paw print on it. He puts it on the floor and yells "A clue! A clue!" and it's the most adorable thing ever. Why not make him his own Blue's Clues game and try to teach him to play for real? Exactly. (Thank you Adderall.)

I started with my supplies for the distressed wood. I had picked out a quote to use (which I think is where I got a little too ambitious) and a font that I liked and printed a mirror image... Please don't ask me how... I barely figured it out for myself and I don't think I could remember if I tried. I also had my wood, some sandpaper, scissors, paint (I ended up using a different color than the silver so never mind that...) and a paint brush.

 
 
I then sanded the wood down just a little to make sure no one got splinters and there was a few rusty nails that needed to be removed for those of us who aren't big fans of tetanus. Then I got all my supplies ready to do the base coat.
 
 


Don't get excited... that shot glass has water in it for me to use to water down my paint. This is where I made my first mistake. I chose a color that was too dark and I didn't water it down nearly enough. Which really just means more sanding later but it threw me off for the rest of the project.


The wood was darker to begin with. But I went with it. I set this out to dry and moved on to start (and finish!) my Blue's Clues project.

For this, I had printed out 20 color copies of the paw print "clue". I realize that 20 is a little excessive, but it left me room to make a mistake or two and it means that my little guy can destroy or lose a few along the way and I don't have to start all over again. I also printed a blank "handy dandy notebook" cover. I found a small notebook with a hard cover and - bonus! - it has an elastic to hold it shut and an elastic pen holder on the side. I also used duct tape, my laminating machine and crayons.


I cut out the paw prints and the handy dandy notebook, colored the notebook in with crayons and mounted it on black construction paper. The small notebook that I found had my mom's work logo on it and was a different color than I wanted to I wanted to cover it up as best as I could, so I covered it with a layer of duct tape all around. That stuff comes in super handy!


Then it came time to use the best tool of all time... my laminating machine. Best $30 ever spent. I use it once a week at least. I didn't do any research on brands before I went to buy it, it was the only one they had at Walmart and I bought the corresponding laminating pouches. Here's what I use:


Had to wait for it to warm up...


I use the 5 setting when I put construction paper through because it makes me feel better about how it will come out. I also put each sheet through twice... It might be OCD. I had concerns that the crayon on the notebook that I colored would melt, but.....


... it didn't! Everything came out perfectly and all that was left was to cut everything out and attach the "handy dandy notebook" to the front cover of the duct taped notebook. Tadaaaa!




Super cute! And finished!

Next came the hard part. I cut up my quote for the sign and put it in position face down on the board and started brushing water over it to transfer the ink from the paper to the wood.



 
 
 
Well, I didn't take any more pictures other than the (somewhat) finished product because I thought I screwed everything up. I neglected to RUB the wet paper with the edge of a Sharpie (oh yeah, I forgot to include that in my list of supplies... sorry) so I couldn't understand why it wasn't transferring. After several attempts - and several close calls - I figured it out. I then went through and outlined the letters on the wood with the Sharpie and then went back through and painted them. It came out looking like this:
 


Not a great picture, I know, but these were all taken with my phone so I apologize. This needs to be sanded now to lighten the paint and make it look more weathered. Once I get it right, I'll either attach picture hooks on the back or nails with some kind of rope or yarn to hang it with.

Whew. Busy night. It's now 6am and I have yet to go to sleep. My little guy will be home from his dad's in about an hour so maybe I should think about packing up and getting the house ready for his arrival.

Thanks for reading! More soon!

 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Project #1 of many...

I got it in my head that I needed a project (along with everything else on my plate...) and instead of just one, I have a whole list. I've started with this one though... basically I've decided to paint a bunch of puzzle pieces red, yellow, blue and light blue like the logo they use to represent autism. Then, when I get enough, I'm going to mix them all up in a pile and photograph them with my sons name spelled out somehow. Or put a quote. I'm going to see if I can sell them either personalized or with quotes and donate all the money to Autism Speaks or if I sell them at the farm that I volunteer at then I'll donate to them. You'll see in the pictures that I chose to paint them on a canvas so the overlap would cause the outline of the puzzle pieces. Figured I could make something out of that too. I'm all about being creative lately. Haha. Tomorrow is project day so look out for whatever comes next!
P.S. I'm typing this from my phone so please excuse any errors and what seems like lack of effort. It's a lot harder than it looks! :)










Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Day I Ate Fried Pickles For The First Time

Today's adventure took me, for the very first time, to Texas Road House. How I have never been there before is completely beyond me. Absolutely my new favorite restaurant. Peanut shells on the floor? I'm in.

That wasn't the only first for me tonight either... We ordered fried pickles for an appetizer.





Really? So good. Especially with ranch. Whoever came up with the idea of frying a pickle needs to be given some kind of award if they haven't already. Then I ordered one of my all time favorite things to eat - country fried steak. I'm used to the processed shit that they sell at IHOP and Denny's (a taste which I acquired in basic training) but this was the real deal. And a lot of it. This picture was after I had already eaten HALF of it. No joke.




This place meant business and I loved every minute of it.

Speaking of things that I love, our car is having some issues so my mom got a rental car in the mean time. Brand new Ford Focus. This thing is like a spaceship and I don't know how I'm going to go back to driving the POS Mazda that I have been chugging along in for the past year. That is not going to be a fun transition and here's hoping my mom decides to buy a new car and that it is exactly like the spaceship. Fingers crossed.

 Okay. Here we go:

THINGS I NEED TO DO BEFORE BED:
1.) Find a place for the transition board I made for my son
2.) Go through the free clothes that I got for the little guy off of Freecycle and wash the ones I'm keeping and bag up the ones I'm donating
3.) Fold laundry
4.) Make Bubbles
5.) Write letter to adopted soldier
6.) Remember to drop off paperwork at the farm next time I'm there (Monday)
7.) Practice speech
8.) Go through buckets in basement
9.) Make covers and spines for binders
10.) Make blank family schedule for fridge
11.) Put together "organizer" - binder, clipboard, note pad, notebook, schedule book, folder, pencil case (put current contents of pencil case in gallon ziplock)
12.) Blog    

Probability that any of this is going to get done: 5%
Probability that I'm going to put it off until tomorrow and just go to bed instead: 95%

Thank you ADHD for making me go to bed in a messy room. Really appreciate it.