2010 Ornament For Kasi

Here's Kasi's ornament for this year.  Cute, right?

Office Warming Gift

Ever since Junior started going to therapy over two years ago, every six months he would get a new therapist.  The place he goes to is a teaching facility, so as students graduated the program, he would be shifted to new therapists.  I felt this was counter-productive,  because it seemed to me that as soon as he got comfortable with one therapist, and that therapist was familiar with his situation, we would have to start all over again.

Our current therapist, Elizabeth, has been with us for about eight months now, I think.  A couple of months ago, she told Junior that we needed to start talking more about his childhood, to see where his current issues have come from, but he was reluctant, because he knew our time with her was almost over.  I expresses this to her, and she said that she had already graduated the program, but was staying on as a fellow for the next two years, so as long as we felt we needed her, she would be our therapist.  I was so happy, because I honestly think she is the best we've had so far.

So, for the past few sessions, she has been telling us that she was getting her own office, and the things she was doing to make it feel "homey".  Last session, she finally had it all set up, so we did our session in there.  It was decorated in blacks and reds, which I love.  After we left, I told Junior that I wanted to get her a "office warming" gift, but I wasn't sure if that was appropriate or not.  I put a call out on one of my blogs and Facebook, and everyone agreed that it would be a nice gesture, so I went yesterday and got her a plant.  A cactus, because I think they are easy to care for and hard to kill.  I bought a clay pot and painted it black and white with some red thrown in.

What do you think?  Will she like it?

Painted Ornaments

These are the gifts for my nieces and nephews. I took regular glass craft ornaments, and painted the insides. Then I wrote each kids name and the year on them, and there you have it. Simple, inexpensive Christmas gifts.

Now I just have to figure out how to wrap them...

I'm So Frustrated

The past couple of days, I have been using a program called paint.net. I am having the hardest time with it. I want to save a picture I made and upload it here, but it won't let me. I know there are tutorials I can watch, but I don't understand half of them. Have any of you ever used this program? Can you offer suggestions on how to change the saved picture into an upload able picture?

What Else Is There To Do While Waiting For The Snow?

Aren't these little magnets cute?
I love this little butterfly.
I think the googly eyes make a big difference.

This cute little lady bug and googly eyes, too.

This is a flower...all the magnets are clips, too.

These are two more little note holders.

My New Storage Unit

I got this on clearance at wal-mart to hold all my paints and painting supplies.
The only bad thing is that I have no where to put it, so it is standing beside my desk in the living room.

The top drawer...brushes and shiny paints...plates and little paintables

Another drawer...tubes of paint...poster paint...glues.

The paint drawer.

Wood paintables.

Nothing feels better than being organized.
Now it's just a question of how long it will stay this way! lol!

Love

This is what I painted yesterday.

It's a cute little note holder.

The hearts has a clothes pin between them, so you can hold little notes or whatever with it.

I have another heart, and two flower ones, but I'm not sure how I want to paint them.

Not red...because that's too normal, you know?

Brandi's Monkeys

These are Brandi's creations from the other day. I love the green/pink/orange monkey. It's more her personality. She had fun painting them, and I love letting her be creative. I bought some magnets we're going to do next...

Art

Instead of school work, we did crafts. She painted a jewelry box, and two monkeys. I will post completed pictures when they are all done. I painted a little, too, and will post pictures of what I did as well. I know, you just can't wait, right?

New Shelves

These are the new shelves I bought at Michaels. They are three different sizes, and I painted them different colors to brighten up a completely white room. The girls still haven't finished putting their stuff on them, because they are not a sturdy as I would have liked. I think it is the brackets that they are hung with. I'm thinking about removing the ones that came on them and replacing them with picture hangers, so they are snugger to the wall. We'll see.

Painting

We finally got the rest of our tax money today. Junior wasted no time going and getting the new van he has had his eye on. The one he's been driving has so many problems, it's just not worth fixing anymore. The kids love the new one because it has a television in it. I like it because it doesn't shake when we go over twenty miles per hour.

Tomorrow we are going to go so I can get the supplies to paint the bathroom. Junior thinks I may need to hire a general construction contractor to come in to scrape the paint off the ceiling and make some shelves, but I'm pretty sure I can do it myself. I won't be filling out any subcontractor forms in the near future, but I can paint a wall. I probably told you all that I decided to go with white walls and purple accessories. I think it will look great. I will definitely take some before and after shots. The bathroom is pretty small, so it shouldn't take me too long to get it done. I'm crossing my fingers that Saturday will be long enough, because I have plans on Sunday. I won't be doing any medical construction, but I will be hanging out at Colleen's. My brother will be there with his wife and kids, so it should be fun. My kids love hanging out with their cousins.

My Weekend Project

I think I am finally going to paint my bathroom this weekend. I decided to use white for the walls, and do purple accents. My mom is really good at painting flowers, so I might ask her to paint some purple ones on the big wall. We'll see. I still have a few more days to think about it.

Bathroom Walls

This is what the walls of my bathroom look like. I love the purple, but the blue is getting old. I want to repaint it in a couple of weeks, but i can't decide what to do. I'm leaning towards white walls, which will look really clean, with all my purple accents. Or I could do white walls with the purple sponge look, but I'm not sure how good a job I can do.

What would you do?

Brandi's Creations

These are what brandi painted the other day. The paint by numbers she got from my mom for Christmas. The ornaments were left over from her party. I love doing crafts with her. I think she did a great job!

Puzzled

This:

Becomes This:

Pretty cute, huh? I got this at Hobby Lobby after Christmas for about a dollar. I still need to paint the board, but I think it looks cute. Brandi and I spent yesterday painting, because she was bored. Kasi went to spend the night at her friends house, and poor Boo was left to fend for herself. Somehow it ended up being my job to entertain her, so we painted. I'll post pictures later of what she painted.

Christmas Signs

Let It Snow

I am so excited about this sign. I didn't use a stencil for the letters, it's all me!

AND...I added glitter glue over the paint to make it sparkle like snow.

I might just keep this one for myself!

Ho ~ Ho ~ Ho

Doing the checkerboard on this was sooo time consuming, but I love how it turned out!

More Key Holders

For Jenn

I used the same ribbon for the bows, but different colors...even though they are twins, they are individuals! I wish this was a better picture...the name is actually purple with a green border...and it's beautiful!!
I have to figure out something to put on the boys...bows and ribbons just won't work!
I hope you love them! I wanted to just mail them to jenn, and totally surprise her, but I suck at keeping secrets! lol!