Borax Slime, Makes for a Great Time.... (that was cute!)

This was so quick and easy.... And provided hours of play time... You can't beat that for a snowy evening inside! On my way home from picking up all the kids from school we stopped by the store and bought four bottles of Elmer's School Glue, or one per kid. Glue was only $1.30... Can't beat that!

We used borax that we used on another project I'm not sure I ever ended up blogging about! So it was perfect that we had it on hand. All you do, is in a bowl mix 1 teaspoon into 1 cup water, stir until borax quickly dissolves. I think the kids (ages 3-7) all loved this because they were able, with supervision to do this all by themselves.

Then pour out the full 4 oz glue bottle into 1/2 cup water, add food coloring to make any color you like. Stir until color and glue is completely diluted. Then mix borax water and glue water together... Slime will immediately begin to take shape.... Drain out excess water... And voila!

Slime! Perfect for newspaper copying... Or as the kids called it, the Alien Gazette! Clever!

 

 

Then of course I had to send a picture to my brother because he hates this stuff!

 

Polly vs The Car..

Woah woah woah.... What a day! After my last 'Ode to Polly' post Polly decided to test Drew's love for her. While she was at work with Drew she was standing on the curb of the driveway. A lady wanting to pass the line of cars turning left... Passing them on the right she hit the curb and our sweet Polly. She ran into Drew eyes swollen and mouth bleeding. Drew rushed her to the nearest vet.

Amazingly there were no broken bones, no fractures teeth, just a really really swollen head. When I made it up there we went to check on her. She sat up when she heard drew and her left eye was the size of a tennis ball, and facing the wrong way. Drew grabbed the doctor to show her and she said we need to start preparing for the possibility that she will lose the eye. She couldn't give her anti inflammatories because her liver enzymes were to high. So a shot of steroids and we waited.

Poor banged up pooch...

No matter how sedated she knew exactly when Drew was coming. As soon as he left she was whining for him. When Drew went out to pay the bill Polly would not take her eyes off the door waiting for Drew to come back in. She is smitten for that guy!

Three hours later, plenty of fluids, a steroid and $900.... Our pup is home! Both eyes and all of her limbs! As we were checking her out a nurse ran in with a dog that had just been hit by a car. The doctor couldn't find a heart beat. He looked up at me and said you have one lucky pup. Oh we know.

A boy and his dog... These two are the boy and dog people base stories on. Think, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows and Hachiko .... Hopefully without rabies, and premature death. Best of buddies!

Big Sister Love...

My love for Oprah grew exponentially when I saw her talking to her pooches. I knew she loved dogs, but it was so sweet to see her interact with them. Calling her pup her "daughter dog".... I get it! These dogs Make us so happy....

We now have his and hers dogs... Cleo is still a little bit more of a lone wolf... No one has been able to take the place of Caesar. Little Miss Polly is a definite daddy's girl. Drew took her to work for two days and after that she would sit at the top of the stairs and howl if he ever dare leave her.

She now comes home after a long day of work with matted down hair full of caulk and sheet rock dust. But fat and happy from street tacos and pizza. Everyone loves to feed that sweet face.

She loves to sit on top of the roof and watch the cops pull people over. Scares me to death but she's a super pooch. Drew even takes her up on the scaffolding and when they are done she leaps off into his arms! No fear.

 

Drew filmed it sideways but we love that girl!

Last Summers Art... Becomes Wall Art...

Last summer while nannying we painted these canvases...

Why not make another project out of them?

I had some leftover Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue paint from a swatch I was trying out on a wall. Some painters tape from the trunk of my car... And that's all we needed! I masked off a square in the middle of the canvas and free handed a K and an L. I then went back through with an exacto knife and trimmed out the letters.

I went back through and pressed the tape down all over...

 

Then we did several light coats of paint over the tape, and as soon as the final layer was dry to the touch I went back through with my exacto knife and cut out the letters.

Slowly pulled off the tape... Pull the tape off up and over itself... I ended up pinching both sides of the tape while I pulled. It worked out really well. I only had a few bleeds, that were easily scratched off with the exacto knife.

Love the underlying texture.... Especially the hidden grass blades.

 

Then back they went in the wall!

Leprechauns Gold and Treasure Hunt....

I love St. Patrick's Day... Always have... We always woke up to green pancakes, green milk... Green everything. It's just a fun holiday with no expectations and for us no deeper meaning you have to feel guilty about not giving 100% focus.... Why do we do that? Why is there so much pressure for gift giving during Christmas, but then all you have to hear about is the real meaning of the holiday. If you are truly as horrified about the lack of spiritual meaning behind the holiday, stop buying into the material version of it! Drew and I stopped giving gifts on Christmas.... And you should see the look of horror on people's faces when we tell them we didn't do gift exchanges or give gifts.... Anyway, give me a second as I step off my soap box....

Back to just some good clean leprechaun fun! I wandered aimlessly around Michael's looking for a shamrock or heart shape stamp with no luck. So I bought a pack of corks for $1 and made my own. I just drew the shape I wanted on the cork and cut out the outside of the shape with an exacto knife.... All the cork shapes took about 3 minutes to complete... Easy...

Then we bought some air dry clay... I would probably by the clay you bake to shorten the waiting process...

We stamped three hearts (or that was the plan.... These little artists decided to interpret the shamrock in a lot of different ways)

Lots of fun shapes, sizes and stamps...

When they dried we slapped a coat of gold paint on them... And waited a little longer...

 

 

Then came the fun... We chose a leprechaun and they were in charge of hiding the gold around the house.... And then whoever found the most gold was the new leprechaun.... Literally hours of easy easy fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

(No Longer) Pink House Tile...

The is almost completely installed... Which means cabinets will be in shortly! How pretty is this tile? I love the linen texture it has. I laid it out in a brick pattern that extends from the mudroom, vertically all the way out the back door. It really helped to enlarge the feeling of a pretty narrow kitchen. It is amazing how much can change with materials.

Now to pick paint colors!

I love white tile, but wanted a change from white subway tile. This tile is a 12x24 tile, with an overall white color, however the smaller detail has tiny grey, and white squares.

So subtle, but detailed...

To blend the bathroom floor tile, and the shower stall walls, I chose a stone mosaic, that has a lot of brown and grey in it. Perfect for a shower stall floor. Now onto the grout!

Saturday Date Night!

Drew had an unusual early day off work this Saturday.... What does he do with his free time you might ask? Well... He decided to try out a new hobby and changed our oil, oil and air filters, tightened our belts, cleaned and shined our engines....

Not bad for a Saturday evening!

Who is Joseph Kony?

I didn't know who he was until I saw this video... And now I want to make him famous!

 

Jumping Cup Rockets...

On a frigid day inside I was flipping through the family's Family Fun Magazine.... Inside was a little blurb about jumping cups that must have been a feature a while ago... All off the materials we needed we had on hand... Perfect!

Hank worked on drawing and gluing on his rockets... I cut out some flames for the bottom cup...

The final artistic touches on the top cup... Then on the top cup we cut four slits, and cut two rubber-bands and slid the, into the slits and knotted the ends...

Easy Breezey.....

 

Then you're ready to launch. You simply put the top cup with the rubber-band bottom, on-top of the flame cup.... Push down on the base of the top cup, and let 'em rip!

 

 

House Treasures...

I stumbled upon this couch at a thrift store and fell in love.... I had to have it! It has the perfect peacock inspired colors.... I have a real thing for peacocks.... It also folds out into a bed... After our sweet pooch Caesar ate our beautiful Chesterfield from heaven... We haven't had a big couch.... And Cleo looks at us while we sit on the settee like, "which one of you is going to get up and lay on that dog bed.... Because it's certainly not going to be me!". After a lot of pleading Drew let me buy it! I can't wait to paint our walls and get carpet so I can see this beauty in all it's glory!

I went on a treasure hunt at the Habitat for Humanity store.... Amid boxes and boxes of light pieces... Digging through for an hour... Disassembling four other lights to see how they work, and what pieces I should be looking for... I came out triumphant with this milk glass hobnail light! Two of my favorite things in a light! The best part was the whole thing cost $1.50!

I bought this dresser, that has great potential at Savers for $7.... All she needs is a little TLC and paint and she will look amazing in our living room or office!

 

My favorite find so far has been this giant travel trunk. I ended up tearing the leather of my car door cramming it in..... But now that its home and being used as our entertainment center it was all worth it. It just needs a little cleaning and buffing and polishing and it will definitely be a focal point.

 

All of the metal is intact and in great shape.... Nothing a little WD-40 can't bring to a shine!

it has these awesome tags and stamps on it from all over the world! Does it get better?

With my thrift ing goggles on I almost passed on this beauty... $20.... No way.... I just kept coming back to it and couldn't live without it....