Getting Crafty Today with Spray Paint

Today is Martin Luther King's birthday (MLK), so we had the day off of school. It's also suppose to be the saddest day of the year with holiday bills due, forever gloomy weather and broken New Year's resolutions. Just hearing about this made me feel depressed, so I decided to do something fun and crafty. I thought I'd decorate for Valentine's Day on a small budget.

I got crazy with some spray paint...

and found some junk at the local Goodwill store.

This owl is kind of creepy looking, but I saw the cutest owl decorated on another blog. I just had to copy the idea. I wanted to find a larger owl, but this was the only one I could locate without using eBay. He was $3.99 and in desperate need of a facelift.

Isn't he darling now? Really..."Whooo do you love?"

Do you think his heart is little too big? I'd like to find a smaller one.

To help with the the height problem, I used two vintage books from the 1950's. The Little Women one is from my grandmother. She always wanted me to read it. I've tried, but it's a little dull with the text being rather formal and dated.

Then, I found these metal candleholders at the Salvation Army.

They were 99 cents each.

I cleaned them up and changed the charms (to hearts) since some were missing from the original pieces. I found discounted red candles at Pier One for a dollar each.

Then I filled two jars full of clear and red stones (on sale at Hobby Lobby) to create heart trees. One tree for school and one for home. Madison found the twigs from behind our house that I spray painted white. The foam hearts were hung from the branches. I used one of the extra hearts for the owl's neck.

I haven't arranged the Valentine decor exactly the way I wanted yet, but you get the idea. What a great way to celebrate MLK day!

Hope you had a fun filled, happy day also!

Happy New Year--10 Days Late

This is my first post of 2011. As you can see...my resolution is not keeping up on my blog! ;)

Here's a belated New Year's photo of two of my kiddos. Tyler spent the evening with a friend, so he wasn't included in our New Year's fun or whatever we might call it. This picture was taken at 11pm since we couldn't keep our eyes open for our own New Year (Central time zone). I guess there were lots of fireworks going off around our house, but I was sound asleep at that time.

I mentioned that I was going to come up with some resolutions that I could keep this year and here are a few.....
I am no longer keeping single socks around so incase we might find it's mate. It's unbelievable how many mismatched socks we own. Of course, I did all the possible laundry before letting go of these single socks. I used many of these for cleaning the house before pitching them.
I am also no longer picking up my husband's laundry that didn't make the hamper that is less than a foot away. He crabbed at me the other day for taking his pants to the laundry room that had his wallet and keys in them. Then he realized that they were actually in a pile on the floor...untouched by me. He can now trip over them until he decides they should be put in their rightful spot. Now if I could only do this with the kids' laundry in their rooms.

My last resolution has to do with the toilet (no photo). I thought I'd spare you the sight of one. Yuck! Well, I can't stand seeing an open toilet seat, so I'd always yell..."Who left the seat up??" This went on with me just getting crabby and the toilet still remaining open, so now I am committed to just putting the lid down by myself. Stress be gone. Ha! So, with these resolutions I can say that yes, I am still committed and living up to them!

This sure beats trying my hand at weight loss, exercising or eating a balanced meal!

On another note...I won a contest! I love charms and found yet another gal, Rachel, who makes them. Two Dog Pond has a weekly contest to come up with a title to the photo she displays on her blog on Mondays. The winner is announced on Fridays and I was picked this past week. Yay! The charm came in today's mail.

My quote for the little boy in a tutu reads "After enlightenment, then laundry". It's a Zen Proverb that I found online. I thought it was fitting with the laundry hanging on the line behind the boy.

Today was also a snow day, our first for the school year. Very exciting and good to have one since Grant was throwing up at two in the morning. His bug was short lived (thankfully) and hopefully self-contained. This allowed me to sleep in, which I thoroughly enjoyed!

We probably received 8 to 10 inches of snow. The kids scooped the walks and did some sledding by our house. Another opportunity for some snow scrapping photos!

I love this last photo of Grant. It makes his eyes look so big!