my first portraits!

i decided that i needed to paint portraits of my boys.

of course, with no real training, i did the best i could.

here is parker.

here he is in oil paint.

i even got his eye colors right!

nathan

nathan after paint.

i think i captured his attitude nicely!

i think nates turned out better. but i love them both!

heart healthy instructor gifts

you all know that i LOVE jazzercise.

and if you attend with me, you know that im not good at it.
yet i wake up at 4.30am most mornings to go.

i always like to give a 'thank you' christmas gift to the instructors. sure they are getting paid to be there, but the class i take is at 5:30am and in the winter, it is REALLY REALLY cold.

last year, i scored some sweet coupons for olive oil, making each bottle practically free!

yes, i could have stocked up on a months worth of oil for my family, but instead i gave each of my instructors a bottle for a christmas gift.

hey-olive oil is good for my heart and so is working out!

did you know you can SPRAY PAINT fabric?! me neither!

but at v& co last year she does a whole post on it!
IT LOOKS AWESOME!

i mean, really...who wouldn't want this?

(you can tell i made this last fall...nice pumpkins ba!)

i would suggest washing the fabric after the paint drys. the fabric won't be hard and easier to sew.

i just cut the fabric to fit the bottle in and tied it at the top. the fabric i just had laying around, so that was free.

the berries i did pick up at michaels, but they were on sale and topped it off nicely.

when chris saw the bottles on the counter, he asked when i got to pier 1.

THAT TOTALLY MADE MY DAY!

and he wasn't even trying!

ah-love that man!

me finishing coming out of the closet!

we last left me alone (with the kids) with some power tools and spray paint and chris out of town.

i primed a painted this shelf

(because the one in the last post that i marked as not painting wasnt measured before i left the thrift store and was too big!)

i know...dumb dumb dumb!

this replacement one only cost $1.99 so score for me!

after priming my shelf and a pair of mug holders (99 cents each!), they got a nice spray of yellow.

then i got out my power tools and put holes in my closet wall.

i had to go thru sheetrock and into the studs so i wanted to make sure things wouldnt be falling down.

and it turned out pretty sweet!

(and no trips to the er!)

this is the bottom. the boxes are filled with tights, belts and hair scarfs.

the monkees lunchbox isnt filled with useful stuff. i just love it.

top shelf!

i have my bracelets out so that i will wear different ones, instead of grabbing my 'usuals'.

yes, i do have a bracelet issue.

above the top shelf! more bracelets, some long necklaces, and some things i just love.

(including a photo of my nana and pop pop)

i got the mug racks from di for 99 cents each. and i HAD to make them match everything else...

the hanging things were there before and i left them there.

so there you go-

this was taken from the floor of my closet looking up.
(scavenger hunt for bonus points...who can find all 5 aunt peg's items that are in view?-i havemore but they are in the jewerly boxes)

coming out of the closet!

here are some before (well-they sure as heck shouldnt be 'after' shots!) of my closet.

then chris went out of town.

and i got this out.

you see, years before i met chris i used to act. and when i wasnt at rehearsals or directing, i helped build sets with my friend 'mr purple paul'. in addition, i was also a display employee for a department store chain called 'the bon ton'.

so i know my power tools.

then i got married, and wanted to make chris feel useful and didnt use them. and i bet until we built our first time, i used a power drill more than he had.

well, this week he is out of town. and just like before, i make projects for me to do.

this week, it was my closet.

after i went thru all my clothes and decided what to donate...

yup...all gone!

then i got out some spraypaint. and tagged this...

not this...

but yes on this.

you will have to wait for part two (mostly because im still spraypainting!)

what i do when chris is out of town!

these are some older photos, but i wanted to share what happens in my home when chris goes on a business trip. (which, by the way, he is doing AGAIN today! stay tuned for some fun!)

parker was very interested in space at the time, and since his walls were blue-it seemed only logical that we paint on his walls the planets!

i wish i would have taken photos of the process, but i was so freaked out that i would mess up and chris would kill me for painting the walls that i didnt. (you see, chris used to paint walls professionally while putting himself thru college. he is VERY PARTICULAR about his walls. yes, my hubby is a paint natzi.)

parker picked out the paint colors from my craft paints (yep-i just used acrylic paints!) and i found bowls and cups to use to make circles.

that is the red spot on juipter.

we made pluto as a protest of it being down graded from from a planet. it will always be a planet to us!

if you look closely you can see we used glow in the dark paint and an eraser to make stars all over the wall.

and of course you need a HUGE SUN. we used sponges to give it that look.

we have his bed positioned in the middle of the galaxy and put glow in the dark stars over head.

yes-im the coolest mom ever!

and no-chris didnt have a fit!








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and its so very cheri