An art gallery

I finally accomplished a project that I have been planning for well over a year. I actually bought some of the supplies just before we moved into this house last year but they've been sitting around waiting for the art room to be ready.

Have I explained the 'art room' ever? It's technically meant to be the formal dining room in our house but the dining area in the kitchen is so large that I can't ever see a need to have a formal dining space. Partly because I'm lazy and don't want to drag my food all over creation just to eat in a fancy room. Partly because we are too large of a family to have two rooms for the same purpose. That's just silly. I currently have two full size dining tables in the kitchen with room for stools at the counter and the girls' backpacks hanging. There's no need for a whole other room. There is obviously a need for me to build a larger dining table to remedy the two tables situation but that's going to require me to wake up in the mood to build a table. Hasn't happened yet folks. Someday. I have the building plans pinned so it will happen. I should probably build a bed for the child who sleeps on a mattress on the floor first. I have priorities.

So we have what we call the art room. Others might see it more as a craft room. It's where we keep my sewing table and supplies which doubles as my desk for filing, the kids' easel, their coloring and art supplies, a couch for reading, and the toy box/ottoman that was never being utilized in the living room. I figure what better thing to put on the wall in the art room than an art gallery.

 I'll link to my inspiration post below in case you want another take on the project but the short and simple is that I bought the clipboards in a set of 24, used a tape measure and level, tried hanging them by nails and realized that was not going to work, then I hung them all using 3M picture Velcro thingies.

I started with just the clipboards to the right of the thermostat but quickly realized that it looked silly and totally unbalanced so I decided to cover the whole wall.

I love this art gallery! There are plenty of spots for all four girls to hang their works and I can very easily rotate things out as they present me with new work. My older girls go to an arts magnate school so I get to change out the art quite often even when I'm being picky about what I put up. You'll also see that I put up a few snapshots of the kids at first as fillers but those will probably get replaced with original art soon.

How do you display scribbles in your home? Do you have any simple projects that have been sitting around for a year waiting for something to fall together? I needed to paint the art room before I could put up the clipboards. Before I could paint I had to find the budget to buy paint. Before I could check the budget for paint I had to remove the hideous wallpaper border that was gracing this room. If you give a mouse a cookie amiright?

I've been busy working on other things around the house so hopefully I'll be back soon to share some of those updates. It just always seems like I have to do 90 things before I can go back and finish the first item and obviously I can't just clean everything up and put my tools away if I'm still in the middle of a project. Even if I'm in the middle of twelve projects and don't finish any of them for several months. My poor poor husband.

Inspiration here: Baby Rabies

Accidental Cavegirl

I've decided to start chronicling our journey through food sensitivities and a modified paleo diet in another space so this page can remain dedicated to my diy projects and crafty things. That space is going to be for those who are interested in a new way of looking at food or who are struggling with food sensitivities in themselves or a family member. Baby B and I would love to have you check out our new digs at An Accidental Cavegirl but make sure to stay tuned here for me to finally get my act together and tell you about the projects I've been working on. I miss you guys!

6 weeks

Soooo, it's been awhile. We have a baby yo! A real live, cranky ass baby making our lives all kinds of difficult. She's beautiful and healthy and I feel horrible for complaining but this child is what one might call high needs. We're not sure if she has a food sensitivity like big sister W or if she's just not happy with her lot in life. Either way, we do a lot of bouncing and rocking and even more breastfeeding. That all leaves very little time for DIY and home renovation. But never fear! I still have two furniture builds to show off and we're hopefully going to start searching for our next house soon so that means I need to get my butt in gear and get this house ready to sell. I also have a giant hole in the wall that needs to get a bifold door installed so you can watch me struggle through that. But here is the reason for my radio silence.

 Her arrival neccesitated some room switching. We currently have three bedrooms for our four girls so someone has to share. Baby B is still sleeping in our room but I wanted to make all the transitions before her arrival so that the older girls could adjust without blaming this new kid for disrupting their lives.

It was decided that our five year old would share a room with our two year old and that the baby would have her own room but all the toys in the nursery are for everyone. All the girls spend a lot more time playing in there now than they ever did before, which is just par for the course with these contrary ladies. This room sharing meant mama needed to build some bunk beds. I'll get into that project a little more next time but it was my first major solo project and it's still standing so I'm pretty proud.

The girls are doing really well sharing a room but closet space is lacking a little. So of course mama thought 'I can fix that' and out came the Sawzall and crowbar and now there's a big hole in the wall. The projects just never end because I never finish one before starting another. I can't wait to share more pictures and projects with you soon!

But right now my thoughts are trending more towards food and babies and so shall this little blog of mine until Baby B is big enough to give me the time to work on my projects again. I'm itching to stain some cupboards and build some stools but I'm struggling to shower on a regular basis so extra things will have to wait. I'm off the watch Season 3 of Breaking Bad while the whole country flips out about being so frickin' cold. Ta!

Chachacha changes!

We've been working on a little project over here that has little to do with home improvement but a lot to do with why I haven't had the energy or ambition to write anything or do any home improvement lately.

Baby number 4 is due to arrive around November 19th and we're very excited. I hope that now that morning sickness has passed I can share a few pictures of what I have managed to do around here lately and then get working on some new projects. There is a bed to be built very soon before I get too big to want to haul around heavy boards. But first I really need to clean my house because my poor family has been living in filth the last few months while I laid around like a lump of uselessness. I'm not good at being pregnant or being in labor but we make such amazing children that we just couldn't stop at 3.

Thanks for not abandoning me during my lack of posting. I might do better. I'm not great at follow through so I make no promises. :)