Sisters with Flair

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Office Progression

Remember my hideous office? How could you forget, right? It's probably caused you nightmares but let me refresh your memory of our hideous problem.....





Embarrassing right? So we stripped the wall paper. Major pain. Lots of windex and scraping. But that's what husband's love doing on their weekends right? I like to think so. After the wallpaper was removed then we went on to texturizing the walls with lightweight joint compound and some trowels. If wallpaper removal is a nightmare then texturizing is H. E. Double Hockey Sticks!! Again, I shouldn't complain. I didn't do any of this. But I was doing the complaining for my husband's sake...... since he doesn't complain, I have to complain for the both of us. Complaining is my talent. Next step, which I did help with, is striping the ceiling. Here's a tip: To avoid bleeding, we painted the ceiling white. Taped it with scotch painters tape. And painted over the tape with the same white paint. That sealed the tape to the ceiling and it probably bled, but it bled the same color. After it was dry, we painted on the yellow stripe.







And Voila! My finished ceiling. The white is called Moon Rise by Behr. The yellow is called Sunflower by Behr. My gorgeous off black wall is Behr (Primer +Paint) in Cracked Pepper. My fun light fixture from Ikea. (some assembly required is the biggest UNderstatement!)

My mom cut some trees in white vinyl. I love how bold they look on the black wall. Gorg!
The french doors are always open now. It just makes me happy to look up and see this wall. Isn't it fun with a side of crazy? That's how I like my rooms to feel....
Here's my office lit up with the light. It's pretty big. But you know me. Go big and go home!!
Next up, finding fabric for the drapes. So far I've struck out, twice. And then I've got 3 more walls with big DIY projects to complete as well. Looks like this weekend won't be quite as relaxing as I hoped. One day this office will be finished. I just hope my kids aren't in college before that happens.....

I linked to these fabulous sites:
Todays Creative Blog The DIY Show Off

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Happy Un-Birthday!

My lil sister, her two boys & our parents are all visiting Renee & me in Texas! Hooray! What do we do to entertain 7 little children, 2 teenagers & 7 adults? We have a faux birthday party! Since we see each other rarely, we decided that we should celebrate all the holidays we miss together. Today's schedule: Everyone's birthday. We drew names and shopped at the dollar store and a resale shop, the budget was $2 per person. We made cinnamon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. (they were decadent!) We put up Mandy's fabulous birthday banner, (she made me for my birthday this year!) our front yard party sign, a little dancing music and celebrated! The kids loved it, the adults loved it, and the teenagers even smiled a few times. Winner, winner, cupcakes for dinner! (literally. cupcakes for dinner. that's how we roll.) If it was socially acceptable, we'd walk around with sugar I.V. drips. But since it's not, we fill our purses with m&m's. Wish I was kidding....

Here is some of the fun we had:









My dad had a unique ability to guess everyone's gift BEFORE they opened it. Rich acted surprised by the screw driver anyway. I'm a little scared by his acting abilities, hmmmm....



Some might call what my child is doing in the picture below, pushing. But I like to think he is multi-tasking. He's quite talented how he can play and shove at the same time. That's my boy!





Zeke didn't seem to mind too much and was thrilled to get a ball wrapped in a happy meal container. Martha Stewart ain't got nothin' on our wrapping skillz!








We sang happy birthday and each blew out our own cupcake. Less germy that way! And if you knew Mandy and me, you know we're thinking about the germs almost as much as our next sugar high.....



See what I mean about everyone loving this? The adults got into it as much as the kids!
Stay tuned for more of our mock holidays. I think Christmas, New years and even General Conference might be in the future line-up....

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Bubbles- my new obsession

I'm searching the web, wondering what I'm going to do to entertain 3 children for the next 3 months and I've found my next boredom buster. BUBBLES! It's also a fun photoshoot idea, which makes it an UBER idea! Gotta love candid photoshoot moments, it's so much better than the many crying/tantrum formal photoshoots we've had in the past. Doesn't this look like fun?

image by Nicole Hill found here



Wanna know how to make the perfect bubbles? I found this tutorial on Under the Sycamore found here:



Recipe for amazing bubbles:


1 & 1/2 Quarts water


1/2 Cup corn syrup


1 Cup liquid dish soap


Stir water and corn syrup together. Slowly add soap while stirring. Store in airtight container.



Get your camera ready for some fun- Here's a shot from last summer I took. Now I'm anxious to get more!