Pinterest to Real Life

Isn't Pinterest the best thing ever!  I love all the fabulous ideas that are just waiting to be discovered.  Usually the things I pin don't make it into my real life but it is always so fun when they do.

I just came across this Pinterest to Real Life link up over at Simple Organic and thought I would share one of my favorite creations that came from a Pinterest idea.

It is a canvas that I stretched myself in college oil painting class and never loved what was painted on it.  So after coming across this pin for a wall paper pattern template, courtesy of Jones Design Company, I thought why not do it on the canvas and see how it looks.

I painted over the previous mistake of a painting with acrylic paint.  Since the original art was done in oil, some of the previous color bleed through which was an unexpected but nice effect.  Once it dried I traced the template onto the canvas.  The template was super easy to trace with a pencil and then trace again with a paintbrush.  After it was dry I traced again with my Krylon Gold Leafing Pen (which is awesome!) and voila!  A really cheap and really big piece of original art for my bare wall!  Thanks Pinterest!!

An Organized Home: Creating a Chore Schedule

When my home is clean and decluttered it gives me a deep sense of peace and certainly more energy.  I feel like the day holds more options and potential when I wake up to a clean home with everything in its place.  Unfortunately this does not happen often enough!  I have found that between caring for a toddler and trying to feed our family three wholesome meals each day, keeping up with the laundry and dishes are sometimes all more than I can manage.  I knew I had to find a way to schedule all the chores that I want to have done into my week, especially before welcoming a new little one into our family in November.  I came up with a list of all the things that I want to do each week and then a smaller list of all the things that should be done monthly.  I then ordered the weekly chores into a Monday through Saturday list, assigning smaller tasks to days that are more hectic than others. 

Here is what it looks like:

• Monday:
• Vacuum
• Clean out refrigerator (our CSA pickup is Monday afternoon)
• Tuesday:
• Meal Plan for the week
• Clean mirrors, sinks, tubs and toilets
• Empty trash
• Wednesday:
• Water plants
• Thursday:
• Dust and clean surfaces
• Dry Mop floors
• Friday:
• Pay bills and update budget
• Saturday:
• Change all linens
• Catch up on laundry

For my monthly list I have included:

• Mop floors
• Wipe down entire kitchen
• Dust blinds
• Dust light fixtures
• Vacuum upholstery

I have been using this plan for a few weeks now and love it!  Even when I miss a day I am still getting so much more done than I used to.  I no longer feel overwhelmed not knowing where to begin and I no longer feel guilty that my house is dirty!  Even my husband has let me know how much he appreciates the extra effort I have been putting in lately.  Housework is never fun, but by breaking it down into manageable daily tasks it is so much easier!

Make at Home: Simple Display Solution for Children's Art

Arts and crafts are such a fun part of childhood but can be a challenge to display.  My daughter LOVES for her art work to be appreciated and cherished!  I will never forget the time I was decluttering our (cluttery) art display during nap time and forgot to cover the evidence before Audrey woke up.  She saw her prized creation in the trash and I wanted to sink into the floor.  I felt like the worst mom ever!  I just had to weed out some of the art to make room to display new pieces.  I had no idea it was such a special piece and we immediately made a new one.  Thank God I had the supplies we needed!  I learned how special her art is to her and will never make that mistake again!  I have been trying to find a way to show off more of her art in a way that is playful and fun just like the art itself.  I didn't want to spend a lot or be stuck with something unattractive so I decided to just stick push pins in the wall and string ribbon between them.  Art can be clipped to the ribbon with clothes pins and they can be easily changed out as new pieces are created.  I am also planning on buying a large acid free box to store the pieces that I take down (most of them anyway).  The art adds a fun, child friendly feel to her play room and makes her feel so special!

Make at Home: Simple Art for the Artistically Challenged

I have a degree in interior design and when I was pregnant with my daughter I was really excited about getting her nursery just right!  I knew I wanted it to be girly and creative and not feel cold and uniform as so many nurseries today are.  I wanted bright colors and beautiful decor that would not be outgrown too quickly.  I found the most beautiful art online from Oopsy Daisy.  If the sky was the limit I could have placed quite an order with them, but I decided to keep it simple (I purchased a growth chart and two small bird prints shown here and here- LOVE them all!)  As I thought of ways to fill the other walls I had the idea to make my own art for my daughter, something personal that would hopefully be meaningful to her.  I took oil painting in college and was not all that thrilled with my work and I also didn't want to use something toxic in the nursery. 

I noticed that so many of the pieces I loved were simple shapes layered over each other.  I have stacks and stacks of paint chips from hardware stores and I went and got even more.  I purchased a large canvas (24x36 I believe) and some mod podge from a local art store and that was it (total cost was under $30).  The paint chips were free and gave me a great selection of colors to work with.  I decided to do the tree because it was cheerful and because of the associations with life that trees have.  I included our dog (at the time) and some birds and butterflies. 

The flowers were a pain, but the whole thing was worth it!  It was fun to work on something like that, anticipating my daughter's arrival!  I hope to do more art like this in the future and maybe even incorporate other elements (shells, buttons, ribbon, glitter, etc) so it is more of a collage. This is such a forgiving project- so easy to just cut out another piece if one doesn't look right.  If you try this let me know how it turns out!  I would love to see your creative ideas!