30 dollar living room makeover.

I realize that I am WAY over do with putting some DIY projects on the blog.

I have been wanting to switch things up around the house for a while but could not figure out exactly what I wanted to do.  Last week (Right before I was hit by strep throat) I decided to just go ahead and do it.  So I moved furniture from upstairs to downstairs and visa versa.  I pulled together my fabric stash and made a couple trips to JoAnns and in no time I was done.  It is more modern looking than the rest of the house but I don't care, I like it and plan on keeping it this way...at least for a while. 


Here are the BEFORE pictures:

Here's the after:

Elements of the makeover:

Curtains: $9 for fabric.  I have been wanting horizontal stripe curtains for a while and they were so easy to make.

Yellow Chair: The chair itself was free, it left at grandma's house (was really ugly before but I don't have a before picture) $7.50 yellow spray paint and fabric. 

Throw pillows: somewhere around $10 for fabric.  Note to self, next time order chevron fabric online instead of piecing it together.

Paintings: I already had the canvas $4 for a few acrylic paints, I copied the idea from some similar ones I saw on pinterest. They say "You are my sunshine" and "You make me happy when skies are gray"

Lantern: another of my grandma's items that I re-purposed.

Rug: IKEA rug that I moved in from another room.

So for around 30 bucks I am thrilled with how it turned out.

I am still working on getting the downstairs right now but I am hoping to have that ready soon and will try to put some photos up when I do.

Independence Day

 

 A few pictures of fourth of July.  We went to a small pond somewhere back Cheena Hot Springs road.  As soon as we arrived we were met with a huge rain shower.  Our soggy weather didn't stop us enjoying a little canoeing, a little eating, and splashing around in puddles.  You know it is rainy when you need a life jacket to splash in the puddles.

Disneyland!

Disneyland is truly magical!

I think I had as much fun this trip as I did going as a child.  Noelle and Lizzy were just the perfect age for Disney magic. They were old old enough to go on most of the rides but young enough to still believe that Sleeping Beauty actually lives in the castle.   On one of the days they were dressed in Belle dresses. (I finished sewing these the night before we flew to California)  Their favorite part was probably the princesses, Surprising huh?  We waited in line to meet Merida from the new Brave movie, who had a passable accent and was very nice to meet.  We also got to do a quick photo with Cinderella without waiting in a 90+ minute line which was great.  Then there was the parade, which had all the princesses and it was so fun to watch my girls faces light up when they saw a new princess go by. 

 Noey and Liz waving to the princesses.  If you look closely (left photo above) you can see Belle blowing a kiss to the little Belles.

Another thing that made this trip so fun was going with family.  We enjoyed getting to do so many fun things with The O's and Grandpa Terry and Grandma Lisa.  

Kai was my buddy on most of the rides and it was great watching him smile all day...well at least most of the day.

We had the fast pass system down so we were able to go on most our favorite rides a few times.

Noelle and Liz in their 3D glasses for Star Tours- which was really cool.

Ellyn taking aim

Liz shooting a bow and arrow after meeting "Brave"

This is Noelle, Kai, and Liz at Tarzan's tree house before the incident.  While the adults were riding  the Indiana Jones ride we went and explored the treehouse.  The kids loved climbing up the steps and running to see the next thing....Yes, running.  That was the problem.  The 3rd time through the maze of stairs they got way ahead of me and Noelle ran smack into a bamboo handrail.  It gave her  quite the goose egg so we went to one of the restaurants to ask for some ice.  They didn't have any bags for ice, but a clever lady handed us a food service glove stuffed with ice and told Noey it was a mickey mouse ice pack.  Whether it was the ice or the placebo of the magic mickey glove, Noelle seemed to recover quickly from her head injury and sustained no permanent neurological damage...or at least we don't think so.   She had the bruise there for a while.

 

Princess Lizzy in Pixie Hollow 

You have to have a dumbo picture to make a trip to disneyland complete right?

Noelle and Liz with Cinderella

I love how Kai is the only enthusiastic one in this picture.

Me Liz and Kai on the teacups.  This ended up being a bad ride for Grandpa Terry to go on.

Another cool thing about our disney trip was the Jedi Training Academy.  Emalise, Ellyn and Lizzy were all selected to go up on stage and learn to use a light saber to defeat the dark side.  It was great fun to watch.  

Ema, Liz and Ellyn practicing their light saber skills.

Emma attacking Darth Maul

Darth vs. Liz

Liz about ready to deal a low blow to Darth Vader

The force is strong in this one.  I love Ellyn's focus. 

 Out of all of the kids, I think she is the true Jedi master.

 The dark side didn't stand a chance.

Noey and Liz's and My favorite ride: Space Mountain

Jed's Favorite Ride: Splash Mountain

Most visited ride this trip: Big Thunder Railroad or Splash Mountain

Grandpa Terry's least favorite: Teacups

This was taken our last night at Disneyland waiting for the fireworks.  Liz fell asleep on Jed's leg here and Noelle fell asleep on top of my shoulders during the fireworks.

All in all it was fantastic trip, everyone remained fairly happy, we had minimal tantrums and meltdowns and sustained only minor injuries, that's about as good as you can get with 6 adults 5 kids and a baby.

I am already thinking of going again because I don't want to wait another 20 years before my next trip to Disneyland.

San Diego

San Diego is one of the places in the world where I could visit over and over again and I would still jump at the opportunity to go back.   I love the proximity to the ocean, the colorful burst of bougainvilleas cascading over fences and the sides of overpasses.  I love the salty sea air smell and the abundance of fun places to walk to and shop.  This visit was a little different because we were mostly trapped on the military base while we were there due to no military ID.  Fortunately, it was a beautiful place to be trapped.  Our room had a fantastic view of the ocean and was just steps from a white sand beach that seemed to have an endless number of small shells for Noey and Lizzy to collect.  We did manage to go to the Mormon Batallion exhibit, Point Loma tidepools and see the San Deigo zoo while we were there.  The weather was uncharacteristically cold for So Cal but it still felt good.  We braved the Pacific ocean a few times and got to see dolphins splashing in front of us while we were attempting to body surf.  It was nice to see a lot of Jed's family that we don't see very often and catch up with relatives.

 Noey at Seaport village

 Liz looking at the tide pools

Finn is such a cute little guy.

 The San Diego Zoo is always a treat.  Zoos are never the same from day to day.  You never know what animals are going to be out.  We got quite a show from a polar bear on the day we were there.  He was diving underwater playing with a giant bone and giving all the tourists a treat. 

Out of the 30 plus shots of all the Weight grandkids, this was the best I could come up with and lets just say there were a few tears shed to get this one.  Gotta love family photos.