Picture Frame Transformation!

Last week I went to Goodwill to look for some things we needed for our Halloween costumes. While I was there I did some browsing and saw this picture frame for $1.99. I thought- SCORE! I can make something super cute out of this. I actually don't hate the gold frame, since gold is back in style again, but I wanted some turquoise to go with my kitchen/dining room decor. And these flowers don't exactly go with it… 

Turned over this beautiful work of art and took my scissors and cut around it! $34.99 originally.. hm..

After tearing off the paper, it had about 1 million staples keeping the picture in.. maybe not quite that many but it seemed that way.

Using a flat head screw driver and pliers I was able to easily get them off. 

Take out the glass and ugly picture and VOILA you have your base (like my feet in the picture?)

Put that beauty on some newspaper and get to spray painting! You may notice this color is the same color I used for my filing cabinet last week. You can read about it here. It is called Sea Foam and I purchased it at Wal-mart.

Give it a few coats until you think it looks covered. 

I purchased these adorable mini clothespins from Wal-Mart too ($2!) and spray painted them the same color! Super easy!

Next use a tape measure to measure out the distance between each of the wires, I did 4 1/2 inches, 9 inches, and 13 1/2 inches. It will depend on the size of frame you purchase and what types of pictures/art you want to display as well!

Get out your power drill and drill in the screws! :) I love using power tools.

Next get your beading wire, which I found in the jewelry making section at Wal-mart as well. It's just easy to find them at a place we have in town.

Tie the string on the screws. I wrapped it around a few times and then double knotted it. I'm not hanging super heavy things, so it worked well. 

Last step is to add your clothespins and pictures! I used Instagram magnets that were originally on our fridge. They are nice and thick so they won't bend over time. 

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. I was going to put it up in our office but I love it so much I put it right in our kitchen. I can see Christmas light maybe hanging around it or display some small works of art from Lola. You really can do anything.

The total cost for this whole project is:

Frame: $1.99
Spray Paint: $4
Clothes Pins: $2
Wire: $1.50

Total: $10.49

You can't beat that!

File Cabinet Makeover!

It's been a few weeks since I have done any projects so I thought i'd share a quick and easy makeover of my filing cabinet! I've been itching to do another project since I haven't done much with spray paint since my Little Tykes Playhouse Makeover which you can read about here. Spray paint is such an easy thing to do to spruce up something. 

Here is my before picture of my filing cabinet. I scored this for $15 on our local buy-sell-trade site. We needed something in our office to store our files (old taxes, etc) so I thought this size would be perfect for us right now. Of course it's the drab gray color that most come in. I picked up the spray paint at Wal-Mart. I just picked a bright color that looked fun. I don't really have a theme in our office/craft room. But I'm going to use this color as a starting point of getting some more decor up there. 

On another note - don't the trees in my backyard look so pretty! I love fall!

 This color is called Sea Foam. It actually almost exactly matches the 3 walls in Lola's room. I guess this color just calls to me.

First thing you will do is take apart all the drawers of the filing cabinet. My were simple enough to pull right out!

Next look at your hardware inside the drawers to figure out which tool you will need to take out the handles. I had originally thought I might have to tape around it but they were super simple to take off - so less taping is better for me!

Love my pink screw driver??

 Ready to paint!

I purchased 2 can of spray paint, because after doing my other make overs I know that one can does not go very far, and I HATE to run out of paint in the middle of a project. Here is a picture after two coats. 

In total, I did about 4 coats of paint. After painting the large piece I would paint doors and then alternate. It dried super quick and it was a little windy which helps speed up the drying process.

I only painted the front of my drawers, because that's really all you see! 

Here is the finished product!

 I purchased the pen holders from Target a few years ago because I like the color and they matched perfectly (not on purpose!)

Here is a before and after!

I was able to complete this in one day during Lola's nap time. I thinking of adding some white vinyl designs from my Cricut so I will have to update when  I find something I like. 

Tot School- Week one!

Last week we officially started "Tot School." Since I am lucky enough to get to stay at home with Lola, and I am a teacher I figured it was only natural to start some schooling of our own at home. We only do "school time" about 20-30 minutes a day which is appropriate for an attention span of a 2 year old. Some days it's less and some days it's more. 

After doing some research here and here I got some great ideas on age appropriate activities and a loosely based curriculum of doing the color of the week series. It is overwhelming at first to see all the wonderful activities, but I just picked ones I knew would interest her and skipped over ones that didn't look like they would work for us. I am planning to stretch ours out and do a color/letter every 2 weeks because there are so many fun activities and I think we can spend longer on each letter. 

Here are some of the things we did last week: 

We started the week with a dot activity that can be found here. I was so impressed by how well she used the dot painters and corresponded with the capital and lowercase A! The next morning we did this printable and we did the capital A's first and then the little A's next. So proud of my little student! 

For our fine motor activity, I used an old parmesan cheese bottle (a big one from Costco) and some Q-Tips. She had a blast working on sticking them into the little holes. This activity was done several mornings during the week. We even were able to pick out colors and "feed" them to the bottle. 

Throughout the week we also played with her color of the week sensory bin. This is so easy to make and I didn't have to buy anything (which is wonderful!) All I did was go around the playroom and put everything in the bucket that was red. Play food was a place where I got a lot of the things, but I was surprised to find puzzle pieces, Little People accessories and other things that we could use. 

The first day I just let her explore the bucket and take the toys out to play. The next few days we would take out an item and I would identify it "this is the RED apple, you have the RED truck." Other days I would ask her to find the RED ____. We also worked on counting the red objects as well. 

A big part of this color of the week curriculum is just using what you have and making a point to orally discuss items. When we went grocery shopping last week we discussed the red foods we saw. I made an effort make red meals (such as spaghetti, things with ketchup, apples, etc) and wear red clothes. It's not an intense curriculum as you want it to be fun and enjoyable for you both. 

We also are currently reading these books that are related to our theme: 

• Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss
• Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray
• Apples Grow On A Tree by Mari Schuh
• Apple by Nikki McClure
• Little Apple Goat by Caroline Jayne Church

Other fun things we did this week:

We had a red themed bath! I bought some red bath finger paint and I drew some red things on the bath wall. Then I let her paint things red with the paint and brush! Simple and fun!

At the end of the week we went on a field trip to the Apple Orchard with Grandma Lisa! We had fun finding red apples in the trees and tasting some yummy apple snacks!

This week I am planning to make an apple scented sensory bin and continue to build on our skills of the color red and letter "A." 

Punkin Patch!

With the official start of fall, we had to make our first trip to the pumpkin patch! We met some other moms from a stay at home mom group I recently joined to pick out some pumpkins. It was so much fun to let Lola run off some steam with other girls, and we got an awesome group rate which included a tractor ride to pick out our own pumpkin, admission into the kid's coral area, food for the goats, a juice box, and a bag of goodies (coloring book, postcard, and crayons.) We went  a little early to snap some pictures before we got dirty and sweaty. 

Lola had fun picking up the heavy pumpkins and toting them all around. She's getting to such a fun age where she really gets excited to do things. Her new thing is when we pull in somewhere I'll say "We're here!" and she will yell "EXCITED! EXCITED! EXCITED!" It is super cute.

Top: Carters Pants and Shoes: Target 

For the next two pictures, I asked her to show me how strong she is…

The weather turned out to be overcast and perfect for a day at the pumpkin patch. She picked hers out from the patch, and we grabbed a few for our front porch as well as one for mommy and daddy to carve. My favorite part is having the roasted seeds- yum!

We have our halloween costume ideas all set and I'm working on getting them all put together. We are going to take Lola to Night Eyes at the Zoo and possibly the mall to do her trick-or-treating. I think she's still a little young to be able to go from house to house. We always have a little party with soup and cider on Halloween with family.

I'm also working on getting a curriculum together for Lola's Tot School. We are planning to start the second week on October. Stay tuned for ideas on activities and crafts that we do!