I've Got the Back To School Boy Blues

If you are a reader of my blog you know I only have boys.  To top my creative misery off, they are older boys.  I don't get to do all this cutesy, yummy, goodness to any of their things.  I can't embroider their bags anymore, I can't send them to school with hand made bows in their hair, or with shoes that I have bedazzled to match their outfit.  Do you pity me yet?  Do you have some cheese to go with my whine?  Well, as much as I whine about not having a daughter to share all my creativity with, I did manage to sneak a little in here and there with my boys this year, and with out much grumbling on their part I might add.  I guess this year, I have finally started to learned balance, some give and take if you will,  when it comes to jazzing their belongings up, sprinkling them with as much of my creativity as they will possibly allow.  My days are numbered, but until then I will test their limits every year just so I too can enjoy some of this back to school creative bliss that you mothers of girls and little children get to enjoy.

This post is dedicated to my small attempt to cure my back to school blues with my boys.

This first picture is of their new lunch bags.  I bought them from the company Thirty One, which my friend, Amelia, is a seller for.  Love this company.  Great prices and monogramming.  I know I said I couldn't monogram anymore, but I snuck it in this year with great success.  Not one grumble.

Ya, Mr. B thinks he is funny.  Just like his father.

Mr. N got a red N on his, school colors are black and red.  Great for boys!!!  And Mr. B received a black B on his.  He is a teenager now so I made it black to be less obvious.  As you see I still got to jazz up their gear a little bit.  Yea for me.   Less whining coming from my lips.  :D

My next few pictures are of Mr. B and his school supplies and room we got ready for his freshman year.  {Good grief, I choke even typing that.}  Here again, I got to sneak it in a bit.  

Where we live they aren't allowed to use their lockers.  Because of that we have to minimize as much school supplies as we can, because they carry it on their backs all day in their backpacks.  I hate it for them.  When he came home the first day he had written, scratched in pencil the word Spanish on his binder.  "This will not do", I said.  I took his binders and told him, "I will be back."  "MOM!!  What are going to do to them?" he asked with concern.  "Don't worry, I will make them look awesome."  With my black vinyl and my Cricut I cut out his class names and stuck them on.  Now, I at first started to put the vinyl on the outside of the binders.  He looked at me and said, "Those will be off by the end of the day from me pulling them in and out of my bag."  Duh!!  Why didn't I think of that?  Back to my machine I went and cut the words out in the mirror image and stuck them on the inside of the binder.  Here we are in week 3 and so far so good.  He has not mumbled anymore about me "bedazzling" his binders.  Yea, for me again.  This brought my creative side much joy. 

And for the grand finally.  Remember his desk redo?  I told you I was working on his peg board.  It is finally done.  Even though it is not how I want him to have it used or looking, it is keeping him more organized and I think as the year goes on we will tweak it here and there to use it better. 

We painted the peg board black and I added his blue wall color to the baskets to make them pop more.  I bought shelf brackets so we could add a book shelf to it.  I bought a small white shelf at Lowe's for $4 and sanded it then spray painted it black.  All his hooks keep his para-cord organized for the bracelets he makes.  This new peg board at least helps start him on the road to being more organized for high school.  Yikes, that word makes my heart hurt. 

The top black stripe on his wall is painted with magnetic paint {several coats} and then painted black.  It goes all around his room.  He can stick whatever he wants on there with magnets.  

There ya go ladies.  This is how I tackled my back to school blues with boys.  I hope you have enjoyed my little post.  If you are a mom of older boys and have any more ideas for this momma that loves to add a little creativity to her everyday life, please, please pass them along.  Maybe this has inspired you to sneak a little jazz to your boys school supplies.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  

I'm glad you could come for a visit.  

{Kelly} 

You can find me over at...
 




  

 

YOUR TRASH, MY TREASURE

I will admit I am not much of a trash digger.  I am secretly one inside.  I wish I had the nerve to just pull up to the side of the road and grab your discarded junk treasure.  I will pass stuff by and think, 'wow I could use that', but I'm too shy, nervous, scared, whatever to get out of my stinking car and grab it.  What if you see me?  What if it won't fit in my car?  What will the neighbors think?  

The nerve is slowly creeping up inside of me though and this post is living proof of that.  

My neighbors discarded a desk onto the side of the road during trash week.  I admired that thing from a far for a few days.  It was a little trashed but it had lovely lines.  I wanted it for my entry way. I already envisioned it for my entry way.  Yet, there it sat.  And then it rained.  IT RAINED!!!!  I was kicking myself.  I was mad at myself for not being braver.  I must have finally gotten mad enough because I strolled down there in the cover of darkness, a true ninja skill acquired from 

being a mother of boys, and picked it up brought it home.  

My youngest thought I had lost my mind.  

It was in worse shape then I had thought.  I was determined to not be discouraged.  With my years of crafting skills surely I could 

make it special again.  I mean why else would God have given me these skills. Right?

So enjoy this post of my first ever dumpster diving, trash picking, curb stealing adventure. 

So, as you can see it's a little beat up. No drawer, it was broken off.  It had a metal thing on the top, that was maybe at one point a light?  Great lines though right!!!

This is a better shot of the top. YUCK!!!

How does one remedy this?  The first challenge for me was to find something to replace the drawer with.  I just needed a faux drawer.  Something to cover the hole.  We had all sizes of scrap wood laying around, but nothing really fit.  Then I remembered I had some chip wood that my father in law gave me.  It was worth a shot.

Ya, it didn't fit either.  It wasn't wide enough.  So I sawed, yes I said sawed, the bottoms of where the drawer would normally be and it made the desk the perfect size for the chip wood.  If you look at my before you can tell what parts I sawed off.  I used tack nails to nail it into place.  Can't you see it taking shape?  I was giddy by this point!!!

Now for some PAINT!!!

 It's getting there. 

And drum roll please....

Remember how I said I wanted this for my entryway.  Well... my dear friend's daughter who recently got her first teaching job fresh out of college needed something by her classroom door to place info for the kids.  I knew right then and there this desk was meant for her.  Black and red are the school colors.  Perfect!!!!

Sooooo pretty, right!!!!

I hot glued a wooden drawer pull on that I painted red.  Just a little extra zip ya know to show true school spirit. ;)

Here is it's final resting place.  I love the quote she picked out. 

Thank you for indulging me as I shared with you my first time curb stealing shopping. The best thing about this project...desk{free!}, paint{already had}, knob{already had}.  Yep, it was basically a free brand new desk by the time I was done making it pretty again.

Good luck Megan on your first year of teaching.  May you never loose the spark that made you want to venture into the very hard but rewarding job of teaching.

{  Kelly }

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TATTERED AND INKED GUEST BLOGGER TODAY!!!!

Hello all you Creative Chickadee readers!!
I'm so excited to be here today!

My name is Kelsey and my little piece of blogworld is called Tattered and Inked.

I'm a craft blogger and am addicted to furniture redos, free printables and spraypaint :)

I was so excited when Kelly asked me to guest post and I thought I'd show you a recent furniture makeover I did.

I found this awesome beauty at our local Goodwill for 25$.

It was solid, had good lines and was a great size!

The top had quite a bit of wear on it, but not too much damage so I just gave it a good sanding to bring it back to life a little.

I painted the base in my new favorite color: Pottery Barn Cream

and after several coats, I gave it a good distressing with my sander.

I love the look of the dark wood underneath, so this piece got a good bit of distressing.

It really gave it a lot of character.

I painted the top in a creamy espresso brown to give it a two-tone look.

Since the top of the table was just MDF, no grain would have come out if I had stained it,

which is why I decided to paint it instead.

I love the creamy brown against the white.

It had a great drawer on it and I kept the original hardware.

I also made sure to give it several coats of clear gloss to help protect it against youngsters and drinks :)

I actually ended up putting this piece up for sale and I'm hoping it's new owners love it.

Much better, huh?

It's amazing what a little paint can do :)

I'd love for you to come and visit me over at Tattered and Inked!

You can also join the fun with me on Facebook where I post sneak peeks and other fun blog finds I come across!!

Here's a peek at some of my other past projects:

Yellow Harlequin Table

Free Laundry Printables

Yarn Chevron Canvas

Hope to see you soon!

And thank you so much, Kelly, for having me!!

"I have always known it was you." Giveaway

See this man ladies?  This is my HB, my Mr. Mr., my "be still my beating heart" husband.  I just love this man. He is my best friend, my biggest cheerleader and challenger, he is an amazing father to our boys, he is an amazing provider and leader, he is the belly ache to my laugh and he is all mine.  I am posting about him today because it is our Anniversary.  Our 15th Anniversary!!  I still remember our wedding day so clearly. *sigh*

I am not just posting to ramble on about my hunk of a man husband, although I could. (wink wink)  I wanted to share with you some of the things I have been making for our master bedroom to romance it up a bit and to help celebrate out 15yrs of hard work.  And, that's not all.  One of you lucky ladies will be receiving one of these romantic canvases.  I mean why can't we all celebrate my Anniversary right?!!  Follow along on all the fun projects and at the end will be the rules on how to enter the giveaway.

I'm not sure how many of you are on Pinterest, but I can't not get on it at least once a day.  I love it.  There is a point to all of this.  I came across the below image and my heart instantly went pitter patter.  I was smitten.  Just my style of project.  "I must copy this." I said to myself.  And this one little picture is where I got the beginnings of my inspiration for this post.  The rest of the projects are inspired through Pinterest posts.   Let's begin shall we....

This is the inspiration piece.  Isn't it just lovely.  Are you as giddy as I?

I wanted to make our master bedroom all about us on this anniversary.  It already kind of is, but I wanted to shout a clear message that said, "Hey you talk, dark and handsome!!  I am in love with you!"  Here are the things I have done.  I will walk you through a few but then just post pictures of the others.  They were all done in the same basic format.  I don't want to bore you with too many tutorials.

All projects were done on 12x12 canvases from Michael's.  I got them on sale in a pack.  Jack pot!!  This first one I have used chip board to mimic the wooden lettering from the inspiration piece.  I am on a tight budget because of school shopping, our anniversary and a formal banquet we are attending so I had to make due with what I already had.  These were self adhesive but I put glue on the back anyways.  I am not precise on measurements but I eye balled this to space it out.  I hope it's even.  Project 1 down, well somewhat.

The saying for another canvas.  "I carry your heart with me; I carry it in my heart."  One of my favorite poems from E.E. Cummings.  I fond a font that looked Jane Austinish and printed it out.  I printed the mirror image of it so it would transfer correctly.

I transferred it old school by penciling over the letters to make a carbon copy.  When I flipped it over I traced over the letters and it transferred onto the canvas.

This was one of the most time consuming.

Next comes the heart outline in our names and our wedding date.  It's not a completed heart and I like that it's just the outline.  I cut out a heart and laid the letters on it then glued them down.  I traced over the wording with bubble paint.  Hey, I had to use what I could find.

After I spray painted all four canvases I let them dry then hung them on the wall in our bedroom. 

So pretty and romantic.  Forgive the picture quality.  I should take a class.  ;D  I do like the chipboard look better than the puffy paint I must say.  More prominent. 

Which canvas is your favorite?

found a home on either side of my dresser mirror.

A few of my favorite wedding photos.  And the plaques says, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be."  That song was in our wedding.  I love that it is such a popular phrase. 

I framed an anniversary card that is one of my all time favorites that my HB gave me.  It sits over my crafting station. 

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Thanks for sharing this day with me!!

Now for the fun part.  THE GIVEAWAY!!!  

How to enter...

Mandatory: with out these you will not be entered

1.  You must be a follower of my blog and leave me a comment that you are.  If you already are you must leave a comment telling me so.  

2.  Tell me which of the 4 canvases is your favorite.  If you are chosen this is what you will win.  Customized for you of course.

Optional, but extra entries:

1. Like me on Facebook: The Creative Chickadee on Facebook

leave me a comment that you did here on my blog, even if you already like me.

2.  Follow me on Twitter:  @creativechickad

leave me a comment that you did here on my blog, even if you already follow me

3.Blog, Facebook, Tweet about this giveaway and earn 2 extra entries per type.  If you do all 3 that is 6 extra entries.  Leave me a comment with a link back to your post so I know you did it.  :D

This contest will end at 11:59pm on Sunday, August 14th, 2011.  That will give you plenty of time to enter as much as you can.  I will announce the winner on Monday.  The winner will be chosen through a randomizer.  

Good luck everyone and thanks for stopping by!!!!

~Kelly

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