I Love Birchbox!

 

Does anyone else love Birchbox? 

It’s so fun!  Here’s the deal.  Every month you get a box of beauty products delivered for $10.  Most are sample sized but a generous sample size and sometimes you will get a full size.  You set up a beauty profile so you can decided what kind of products you want to get.  Like I said “no perfume”.

I have lots of beauty products now and there’s some stuff I don’t have to buy anymore because I get them enough.  Plus- it’s way more fun to try before you buy.

They also send a card that tells what everything is, how to use it, and how much it costs for a full size.

Here’s what I got this month:

 

 

1st up- a lip balm- great for this season of cold and dryness.  I’ve used it and I really like it!

A mascara- it’s works well, don’t know how much curling it does but I really like it so far!

 

Dry shampoo.  I was soooo excited about this one because I love me some dry shampoo.  I’ve only used suave so it was great to have a fancy brand to try.

 

Sometimes they will throw “lifestyle” products in.  I love it when it’s chocolate or tea.  This is my least favorite product in the box but it smells really good… like Christmas even.

 

I haven’t tried this face mask yet.  You look absolutely ridiculous when you put it on so I have to wait for everyone to be gone. 

 

So then when you get your products you can write a review on them on the birchbox web site and earn points, then with 100 points you get $10 towards your next purchase.  It adds up quickly and it’s fun to pick out free stuff!

Here’s the link to check them out.  Birchbox Web Site.  There might be a waiting list to get boxes but put your email on it and they will let you know when there’s a spot. 

 

I didn’t get any bonuses to write this.  I wish I had but I just wrote it because I really like getting beauty stuff every month!  Do you love birchbox too?

Mid-Century Side Table Makeover

 

 

About a year ago a friend found a dresser and a side table at a garage sale and it was exactly the kind of dresser I had been looking for to use as our entertainment center.  Of course, I didn’t document the before picture but if you look to the left of this adorable boy, you can tell how it turned out. 

So after the dresser was done the side table sat in the garage for a year because we didn’t have time to get to it.  I had a vision though…

 

A friend sanded it for me to save some time. 

I painted the doors and drawer white and stained the wood all the way around and the legs.  Staining furniture was apparently new to me because I did it wrong a few times and had to re-do it.  Even with the unprofessional stain- I really like how it turned out! 

Here’s a picture of the bedroom that it goes in.  This is before I had finished the side table but you can imagine how great it looks :-)

Fun, Easy, Affordable Art... That doesn't look like it

This story is pretty typical for the way things go around here.  

It's not necessarily how i WANT them to go but it's just how it works.  

I start a project.

It's super cool in my head.

I get mostly finished.

Life happens.

1-7 years later I finish the project.

This particular project is special because when I was painting the bathroom that this art is in, I got a phone call about a baby girl that needed a foster home.  I was literally holding a paintbrush talking to my foster agency and thinking "We aren't ready for a baby, when would I ever finish this bathroom?"

Well, baby Z came to live with us a few days later and she's never leaving.  Which means I may never finish the bathroom, but she's worth it!

So here's the project.  

I had this canvas that I believe my sister painted for her college apartment.  it's super cute but I needed it hanging the other direction and I was hanging it on a dark wall so I always imagined that it would be light in color.  I had this idea for a project in my head when I was working on the bathroom.

In March.

March 2013.

To start I pulled some colorful pages out of magazines and cut them into strips- about 1/4" in width.

I cut approx. 1,459 more than I needed- but I didn't know that.

I had printed a pattern that I wanted on 11x17 paper so I knew the size that I needed to create.

My plan was to use mod podge to take the strips and glue them to the canvas then cover the mod podge over it for a thick clear coat.  

I was out of mod podge and instead of waiting to buy more I just used some glitter glue I had laying around.  But it was lumpy.  So that wasn't a great idea. 

 

I traced the pattern I printed onto contact paper and cut it out- then I applied the contact paper on top of the magazine strips.  The glue over them kept the stickey from ripping the magazine paper when I pulled it off.

You can kind of see the clear contact paper on top.  

 

Then I took it outside and sprayed the entire thing white.  I used the whole can of spray paint.  I wanted it really white!

See how it's rough where the design is... well, I didn't count on that... and I'm not sure how to fix it yet.  But I will work on fixing that sometime.  

When it was all dry I pulled off the contact paper to reveal the beautiful design below!

Here it is hanging in the bathroom.  You can't really tell from here but some of the edges are not as crisp as I would like so I'm going to try and touch them up somehow. 

But, given my history, I went ahead and hung it in the bathroom and I'll get to finishing it in the next 2-5 years.  

I have 37 other projects to work on!

Happy 2014

 Happy 2014!  

Only a month late.  

I like to have a brunch on New Years Day.  Once we had kids it became really hard to get out on New Year's eve.  Finding a babysitter, affording a place, staying out late.  It's just too hard.  However, I don't like to miss an opportunity to have a party, so I do a party on New Years Day. 

It turned out so fun!

 I found this punch recipe on pinterest.  It's something like sprite, pina coloda frozen mix (no alcohol), banana orange pineapple juice, and maybe some other stuff.  (You can see all my oils in the background- love them!)

 These were pears with bacon on top sprinkled with paprika and cinnamon.  Delicious!

 Salad served in martini glasses = super fun salad.

The chalkboard in the kitchen.

 I love these snowflakes so I had to take a picture.  I got them a few years ago 1/2 off at pier one. 

 Super easy cardboard numbers sprayed with silver spraypaint!

 Yummy coffee cake made with those rolls that are frozen then rise when you set them out. 

I made some photo props because I thought it would be fun!  

Life of a Foster Parent

I thought I would take this moment to put off cleaning a bit longer, and give you a glimpse into our life as foster parents.  This is just a part about our monthly visitors.

So every month- we have approx 5 different people coming over to the house to visit baby J.  Therapist (times 2), CASA worker, CPS caseworker and foster agency caseworker.  Oh, and someone comes by twice a month to pick her up for a visit with bio parents.

Mostly everyone comes in to play with J  and stays in one room or a couple of rooms.  Once a quarter we get to have someone come over and inspect all the rooms for safety and to make sure our kitchen soap is not sitting out.  Wouldn't want someone to drink it and then poop bubbles or something :-)

So I've kind of gotten over having my house clean for every visitor- I mean- who has time to clean their house 5 times a month?  Not going to happen.  But I do feel like I should have it clean for our quarterly inspection.  And that's today.  So I officially have 5 hours to clean.  For a normal person that would probably be perfectly acceptable.  However, I am very bad at cleaning. 

Maybe I will take a before an after picture.  And if I'm not too embarrassed I will post it. 

Painting Tips for Painting Your Own Artwork

Don't get your hopes up.  If you have ever taken art before, even if it was in jr. high, you probably know more about painting than me.  I do a lot of creative things but I'm not a great artist.  However, I believe anyone can make their own artwork and can paint beautiful things if they want to.  So here are a few easy tips to help.

 1) Pick your paints.  They don't have to be expensive or even from a special art store.  I usually use the apple barrel paints from Hobby Lobby that are like .50 a jar.  Today, I'm using some paint from Target that I got for Cason but I love it so much (because it shimmers) that I wanted to use it for this project.

 2) Pick your colors.  Paint your whole background.  

Don't try and paint detail and background at the same time.  

I choose 2 colors of blue for the background with a hint of green.

So that's part of tip 2.  Pick up more than one color of paint with your brush and use big strokes.  Solid even color- not good... at least not for this!

3) Once that dries.  Use chalk to draw your main image.  It doesn't have to be this simple but simple is easy!  Also, off center is better.  It is easier because you don't have to be perfect- plus it looks like you put extra thought into it.  You thought so much about it that you made it off center to make other people think more.  Awesome.

 4) Paint your main image- again using 2 different colors on your paintbrush at a time.  It really helps make the art look dimensional.  When it's dry you can wipe the chalk off as if it never existed.

 

5) I wanted to add another layer to the painting- text.  Text is hard because it's hard to get a smooth line with paint.  I wrote the words in chalk and used a tiny paintbrush and carefully wrote everything in.  It's not perfect but it's real.

And here's the finished piece.  It's personal and it's homemade and you can do it too!  

So if you make awesome things please pass on this tutorial.  Hopefully, it will inspire you just a little to start making your own artwork and saving a little $$ in the process.