First Day of School

A day of Firsts.

First day of Grade 12 and the end is in sight.

First day of Grade 5 and the first day of a new middle school with hundreds of kids.

First day of Grade 4 and being the oldest in the small elementary school.

First day of Grade 2 and no Hunter there to play with.

All up and eager to get back to school!

Storm's Love

Storm has a love. A love of color. A love of paint chips colors. So much so she comes home with another handful every time someone takes her to the hardware store.

She was fooling around gluing some of them together the other day. She had plans of putting them on the wall in her room. I figured I better re-direct some of that creative energy before I ended up with glue all over my walls. I showed her a post I had just seen over at YoungHouseLove where Sherry had made some art out of paint chips. Storm thought it looked pretty cool and I succeeded in persuading her into doing that with her chips instead. We started out with an old picture frame that held some of our wedding photos in the laundry room.

Oh, hello Hunter!

We also made a trip to the hardware store, where I pretended to shop, and she helped herself to a whole bunch of chips. She decided she definitely needed orange. And blue. And green. And purple. And yellow. I told her I liked the way the shades looked on display at the store and we decided to replicate the same order in our frame.

I had Ryan cut down the mat from the frame from four 4x6's to one big rectangle. Then I wanted him to figure out where I should start so that I would have the same size of blocks on each side. He, of course, took it a big step further and drew out lines for me to follow while gluing.

We ended up having to go back to the store to grab one more of each color, as Storm decided she didn't want the paint chip number showing so that moved them all up just enough that we came up short. Well, actually Grandma was going to the store anyways, so she picked up a few more chips, and then we went back down again to grab one more, and a milkshake. Hard work pedalling all the way downtown you know!

She loves it. As you can see, we ditched the mat and just put up the colors solo. I hung it in her room, but no word if the placement is final. I'll have to wait for the boss to come home from Grandma's and approve.

And as for the mat, never fear, it didn't end up in the garbage.  Blade claimed it and made his own art out of it!

I love the creativity of kids.

100 Things

I'd like to think I keep a pretty purged out house.

So, when I thought about trying to purge out a 100 things before Spring (at least), I wasn't sure where I was going to come up with this stuff.

Sure there is a little mountain multiplying in the dark of the storage room.

There is probably a little pile multiplying in the back of my kitchen cupboards.

Maybe  a wee pile multiplying in the bathroom.

Still, I wasn't sure I could find a 100 things to give away or sell before Spring.

Ahem. 

I give you my 'storage and staging' room, also known as Gigi's room* to the kids. 

 

Like I said, I just don't know where I'll find a 100 things....

I still need to haul up the stuff from the storage room.   Ryan and I decided it would be better to bring up the stuff to this room, find our storage room again, and have some space to paint projects!

Plus, this will hopefully make me get off my arse and get this stuff either sold or gave away.

Anyone want any of this stuff....anyone??!

*This was Clayton's room that we gave to Grandma while she was living here.  The kids started calling her Gigi so they would know which Grandma we were referring too.  They still call it Gigi's room even though she hasn't lived here for a month.  Blade says she needs to move back, so that when Clayton is at work during the supper hour we will still have 6 at the table!

Getting things done

When asked what I was possibly going to do with myself now that all the kids are in school fulltime, I always answered "Get a job I guess."

Well, it's been almost 4 months. No job.  But somehow the days are still busy enough, and once in a while I actually get something done.  Hmm.  It may not have been those kids slowing me down....

Yesterday's Projects:

Fix a poor dog's tail

Patch the holes in some well worn ski pants

(It is indeed winter in Canada this week!)

Today's Project:

Painting some subway art, my way

I'll let you know how the art turns out.

Ryan just wanted know if it would be done by Christmas.

Funny man, that husband of mine.

A amusing story to end this very short post with.

Yesterday, I did fix Hunter's ski pants.  I also fixed Blade's.  He had a rip in the butt of them.

Blade was sitting at the table, having a cup of hot chocolate with Ryan after playing in the backyard.  I was discussing that I had sewn double layer patches on Hunter's pants.  Blade perks up and asks me if I sewed his pants.  I said that "Yes, I sewed the hole in your bum."   Blade looks happy at that thought and then says "But not the real hole in my bum".   ....  Ryan and I just looked at each other dumbfounded, then laughed our own arses off.

You can't make this stuff up.

New painting

Well, one more painting done. Two or so more to go. Although I may not get them done before vacation, what with Storm wanting to paint herself a Hello Kitty painting now that I am done my current one.

This one is on Blade's wall to go with his Star Wars theme.

Ahsoka Tano

Blade's Make-over

For quite a while, the boys have been sharing a room. Okay, for their whole lives they had been sharing a room. With the basement finished, Hunter moved to his own room and Blade has the original room to himself! Well, let's say separation,after living together their whole lives, just didn't take. They are back to sharing a room, (voluntarily this time!) or rather just sleeping in each other's rooms while keeping their stuff separate. In any event, it was time to fix up Blade's paint and his closet. Here's a before pic of what the closet looked like with two kids in it when we first moved in....

Then we re-vamped the closet and made it look like this,which worked better for two kids with expanding wardrobes.

He also had a 'Cars' theme going on in his room and a rocking blue wall, with a purple closet...

So, in preparation for moving (eventually), Blade got a re-vamp on his closet and a new paint color and 'theme' for his room.

The purple closet..eek!

Brown! After only 6 years of living here!

The "almost' final closet look. Ryan has to put up the upper shelves still.

I also dug out my paints and made Blade a Darth Vader painting. I'm still working on a couple other reverse paintings for him. Let's hope they work out!

That's it :)