(And All My) Work Be Praise

When we first moved into our home in 2009, I painted (or, more precisely, had my parents paint, because I was 36 weeks pregnant) an accent wall in my living room: dark blue against the three khaki walls, a moderately-striking background to our giant wood entertainment center. A year or two later, we rearranged the living room furniture, putting a cream-colored couch against the blue wall in place of the entertainment center. Needless to say, the couch didn't take up nearly  as much wall space as the cabinet had, so suddenly I was faced with a big, blank, blue wall. I browsed Pinterest and schemed and planned and even went so far as to send my husband to Home Depot for materials. Four-ish years later, the materials still sat in the basement, the wall still blank. Until yesterday. My mother-in-law had a great picture of the boys turned into a picture canvas for us for Christmas, and the logical place for it was above the cream couch. It was lost in the sea of dark blue, howe...

As I mentioned yesterday , the big boys moved into their new room on Tuesday! Our house has four bedrooms: the master bedroom with bathroom, a smaller room that was first the nursery and then became Levi and Owen's shared room, an even smaller room that first housed random furniture and then became Silas's nursery, and a giant room that contained the king-sized mattress (sometimes set on twin bed frames, sometimes on the floor) that someone gave us for free. It was the only room of the house (besides the den and basement, which are paneled) that I never painted, since I wasn't quite sure what it would become. With baby #4 on the way, I knew we'd be needing our second crib free, so it became time to move Owen into a big boy bed, and thus began the transition from un-decorated guest room to official big boy room. As a Mother's Day present to me, Isaac corralled my dad into helping him paint. (I'm kidding -- Dad is always extremely willing to help, especially wit...

I've said it before, I'll say it again: pinterest is running my life. There I was, with my regular Christmas decorations scattered all over the house, totally content to hang the usual wreaths in the usual places. And then: oh! I have wire hangers and dozens of extra gold ball ornaments! I must  make that wreath immediately! That's pretty much what happened. Here's what happened next: It turns out I'm really bad with ribbons and bows. I'd love to make this a little neater, but I just don't know how. I also didn't have quite enough gold balls, as evidenced by the fact that you can see the wire hanger peeking through. At night, though, with the Christmas lights shining in through the glass front door, it sparkles nicely and you can't see the imperfections. (Please excuse my truly horrible picture-taking skills.) Another trick gleaned from Pinterest: to hang a wreath by a ribbon, hang a command hook upside-down on the back of the...

I own a small blue glue gun. It was lost for a long time. Like, years. In July or so, I decided it was time to get a new one, so that I could do a few crafty projects for my kids. The next day -- I kid you not -- I found the old one. In a place that I was so sure  I'd looked before. Go figure. I took the new one back to Target. Armed with a glue gun and an addiction to pinterest , plus a desire to scrapbook but no time to work on a project that large, I've been hankering for little crafty projects to complete in an afternoon. Finally, a few weeks ago, my gaze happened to rest upon the Lenten-themed wreath still hanging on the closet door in my entryway. Definitely time for a seasonal update! A quick trip to Hobby Lobby confirmed my desire to "DIY" this wreath. Did you know fake floral wreaths can cost $100?! I did not. For about $15, I picked up a straw wreath, one small bunch of fake fall flowers, a cardboard letter G (for my last name), and a mini can of b...