Bedroom updating and Birthday parties.

We have been busy but it's great! We had the RAD race and harvested some yummy veggies then traded some of eggs and did more yard work.

So far we've harvested in April:
Belle radish:  12.4 oz
Icicle radish: 14.6oz
Bok choy: 1lb 11.9oz
Black leaf lettuce: 14.6 oz
Snow peas: 2.8oz
Asian Salad: 1lb 08 oz





 We are about 1/4 done in our bedroom for decorating and painting, I just need to get off my butt find the time to start our dresser then get paint going in the room. Here are some inspirations and a thought board I made for our room.

 I took the barn painting inspiration from houseofsmith and used in our upcycle project for barn doors in our room.

 The hubster agreed that once I get the bedroom done we could start working on a different room. I wonder if meant the bathroom was included in that agreement? Either way I can not decide on the bathroom style but I sure love these inspirations.

As for this week it is full of organizing for a garage sale in the coming weekends, prepping for my oldest sons birthday party, and finally getting all my earthboxes done and planted ... There will be a short tutorial on how to make those this week.

BATMAN!!!!  

My son loves all things batman right now and he was totally thrilled when I agreed to a batman party for him. In pure Kim fashion, I have of course already sketched out a few details on the party.

I ordered the cutest favor bags from Etsy the other day and need to rummage around to find some boxes so I can start the pinata. 

What is going on in your neck of the woods?

Paying it Forward during the Holidays

This year has brought many wonderful things and a few challenges but overall it has been AMAZING! A few years ago I was introduced by a stranger "pay it forward", she sent me a beautiful pirate themed blanket for free!! (here is her site: Spit On This)  Just for agreeing to have a caring and sharing heart to others, the only thing I needed to do was pay it forward to other people. So that year I sent out picture notepads, and calendars.

What was I going to do this year? Well December rolled around and I had done nothing to pay it forward this year. I also have 3 boys that I wanted to teach what the spirit of giving mean't (they are 3,5 and 6) in terms they'd understand. So what was a girl to do?

I contacted The Methodist Home for boys here in our town, St Marys Georgia and asked if they were in need or took donations for Christmas time. I explained that I wanted this also to be an experience that my boys could have. So I set myself on a mission to get as much things/toys that the boys home could use (they have boys from 11-18) and get it for FREE.

I went to our local Walgreens here and scored a great deal on these babies..... These are on sale this week for Buy 2 Get 1 Free.

 By using this coupon (12/2 SS) I got all 21 for FREE.

I then talked to the Store Manger Mr Dinkel and he was thrilled to help sponsor the boys home this Christmas. After a day of waiting for the proper paperwork to be faxed over to them, I went back and did a little shopping for the boys. I bought a few toys for the younger kids at the home and Mr. Dinkel donated stuff for the older boys. We have 6 Axe body sets, 3 sports balls, lego set,, skateboard toy, a remote control car and some stocking stuffers for the kids.

I was able to buy the toys and smores with the rewards points I stacked up along with their instore coupon they have right now.

 I also buy toys through out the year on major sales for near free prices so I went into my stockpile and got 2 of these Hess truck sets.

It has brought me great joy and even a tear or two to my eyes that Walgreens really does try to help the community. I am thankful for this experience and excited to see the smiles on some of these boys faces this Christmas.

All in all I spent only $17 for all this!




I encourage you all to Pay it Forward. It can be homemade, store bought or even sung but get out there and do it.

Sailing away on a Dresser

Another Upcycling Tuesday.. Well just don't sit there, applaud!

My middle son loves two things, Pirates and Starwars. There can never be enough of either in our household so after seeing this beauty from Miriam I knew he would just LOVE it for years.

After tracking down the original source off pintrest (who doesn't love that site?!) I read and admired that dresser but I wasn't going to pay $100+ for the decal needed to do this type of reverse stenciling. To me that just was not thrifty enough to justify buying it.

My first step was to find the dresser and lucky for us there is normally a yard sale or two each weekend here, so we ended up getting this.....

Real beaut huh?..... yicks! but it was only $20 and it has these neat little divers in one drawer. SOLD!

Next I had to figure out how in the world was I going to do a reverse stencil. After some thinking I decided to paint on paint my stencil and what was going to help me do it?

Frog tape. This stuff is amazing when it comes to making stripes or not wanting paint to bleed over.



Getting started I lightly sanded it then filled the handle holes in 4 of the drawers (sorry no picture). I primed it with Kilz and then painted it with a semi glossy white paint.

 After it was dry I put the Frog tape on the front and started sketching the picture.

 Once I got the picture down, I started lightly cutting it out. If you decide to do something like this use a mat cutter and be very careful not to cut too deep.

 The front of the dresser before painting it and removing tape.

 After :-) .... Almost done.

 Let that dry for a good 24 hours before putting your final coat sealer. I used Polycrylic gloss finish since I used a white paint (other will have a yellow ting to it)

After one coat of Polycrylic.

 In hind sight I should have fixed up the dings on the drawers of the dresser but for a kid under 7, I think it will have it's share of dings later.

 I ended up painting the bottom "feet" to match the paint color.

Here you go, for under $40 we have a dresser that our son loves not to mention the neighborhood kids love it too. hahaha. Once we get to our new home I might take the time to fill up the holes and have 2 handle on the remaining 4 drawer but for now I think it's okay.