Shutter Displays

I love having a way to display the boys' artwork in their rooms and for a while we have been using a length of twine and clothes pins to hold the masterpieces. They were due for an upgrade and I was trying to find a way to add pops of color to their rooms to give them more personality. Thanks to Pinterest an idea was sparked to use old shutters as an organized display.

I found the shutters at the Habitiat for Humanity ReStore in the area for $3.25 each (Do a Google search to find one in your area, you can find some amazing items there, and help support a great cause.), we gave the boys free reign in the spray paint aisle at Home Depot to pick whatever color they wanted, and we used S hooks and small binder clips to hold the art.

Below is the work in progress and finshed products:

Shutters - Before getting sanded down

After a coat of paint - Kaleb opted for bright blue, Julian opted for bright yellow

No picture hangers? Just use the tabs off of soda cans!

"S" hook and binder clip 

Finished product before artwork is added.

Finished product with artwork.

 This was a very easy project to complete with the boys, and really was quite inexpensive. Here's to many more projects to brighten up our home and hopefully inspiration to tackle a project or two of your own.

Flu-mageddon 2012



Odie getting a bath.

You may be asking yourself: "What does the title of this post have to do with a picture of our cat in the bathtub?" The answer can be found in the picture below:




One sick little boy.


Julian had the nasty stomach bug that has been going around last week. I thought maybe the rest of us dodged the germs and were not going to catch it. Poor Kaleb started feeling crummy around lunchtime, and this evening managed to throw-up on the cat. Odie was an innocent by-stander, just trying to comfort his buddy and found himself in the line of fire. For now things are quiet, Odie is clean and Kaleb is asleep; we'll see how long it lasts...

Here's hoping that we all get better soon and you and your family stay healthy too!

Art For Sale

I finally made some time for myself to work on some paintings and today I took them over to Claymama's Art Workshop and put them up for sale. Claymama's is an art studio and gallery that is on Elmore Street in Lecompton, just across from the park. Cindy teaches art classes of all types (painting, pottery, jewelry making, etc) to all age groups. She also has her own creations there for sale as well as various types of art and other items from artists in the area, they also have a clothing consignment shop too. I am pleased to be included among the other artists that are selling their work there. If you are in the neighborhood you should stop by there and check it out, they are also on Facebook, if you friend them on there you will be kept up to date on upcoming workshops and know of any special happenings going on there.

Here are the paintings that I took down there today ($35/each just in case you are interested):