Chalkboard Stencil

We have been working on transforming the office space in our home into a playroom for B...and mainly a space for all of his toys. We only have a couple of more things to do and it will be finished. This past weekend I worked on creating a chalkboard train on the wall. I took photos as I walked through the process. It began with me traveling back in time to my 8th grade art class...

I first printed out a couple of train silhouettes from the internet and since I didn't like the direction they were going in, I used their negative. Then I taped down a huge piece of wrapping paper on our dining room table. I knew that I was going to need to establish some markers for the size the train will end up being relative to the printed train. I decided to use salad plates as the train "wheels". I was then able to use the wheels as a basis for all of my other dimensions and only had to freehand a couple of parts. As you can see from the photo below, I used several things I had lying around...a level, a Harry Potter book, a boot box lid, etc.


Once I had it all drawn out in pencil, I went back over it in black marker and then cut the stencil out. By this time it was late at night and I knew the project could be postponed till the next day.




I then taped the stencil up on the wall and traced around it in pencil. Then I removed the stencil and started filling the shape in with chalkboard paint. I ended up doing 2 coats of the paint with a large brush and then going back around the edges with a smaller brush so that I would have as even of lines as I could muster.


Voila! B hasn't seen it yet but he did carry the printed train pages around the house all weekend after he saw them. He kept saying they were his choo choo trains.

Ben 'n Boots

Well, Dreamworks took a pass. They decided to go with that smooth talkin' cat with the fancy hat. But I think they made a big mistake. This little guy is going places...

Before and After

I recently picked up a simple, small wood hutch from the ReStore for a makeover. The hardest and most time-consuming part was picking the paint color and fabric to back it with. Now, I just have to fill it! I'm keeping my eyes peeled for some wire baskets for the bottom shelves.





Isn't my model such a cutie?!

Demo Time

We had a demo crew over the other night...we had been thinking about remodeling a little...the crew was cute...but a little demanding. But, they did come highly recommended and they had a pretty fair price of a handful of animal crackers each.

Put Me in Coach!

Hmmmmm....what's it going to be?

Center?....


Receiver?....


Quarterback?....

It Was the Best of Times...It was the Worst of Times

Last weekend, B and I headed south to check out a park that many had lauded as the best kids park in the area. We hit the road around five-ish, planning on eating a picnic at the park. I had heard that this particular park had quite the concession stand with reasonable prices. Looking back, this was the one part of the plan that I would change. Once that little bugger caught sight of all of the raging fun rides and jungle gyms he didn't want anything to do with standing in line to get food let alone sitting still long enough to eat it. At that point I knew there was going to be a storm brewing in the distance, I just didn't know how long it would take to get there. Hurricane "B" had been spotted off the coast of the swing set. When we were walking up to the jungle gym, we passed a family who was leaving and they stopped and asked if I wanted the their ride ticket which still had one punch left on it. I of course said yes, since I was planning on letting him go on some rides while we were there. BTW, this particular park had little kids amusement park rides. Pretty cool, huh? Anyways, once he spotted those rides he was off. I whipped out the ticket and he happily climbed into a little airplane to ride around.



Mistake number two for Mommio. I should have went and bought more tickets before we even started with the rides. I found out pretty quick this kid does not like lines...one bit, or looking at the camera...




Needless to say, I ended up dragging a screaming kid to buy more tickets, stand in a couple of more lines and then eventually out to the car. Should of ate that dinner....

Reunion Time

Last weekend we met a couple of friends from our old college days at ONU in Ft. Wayne, IN. We hung out at the hotel pool, ate dinner, caught up on what's going on and had a blast at the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo. If you have kids, are ever in Ft. Wayne and have time to stop please do. This zoo is AWESOME for kids.