dragonfly days

lamp redo

I bought this lamp a few years back for around $5 at the thrift store.

After I had finished painting the room, I noticed that the shade color was too close to the wall color and it just felt kind of off for me.  I had also just painted my bedside shelf an awesome turquoise color. It seemed like the next logical step was to pump up the shade. I turned around and saw the bag I sewed up  a few years back and thought it would be perfect.

 

So after some deconstructing and a lot of fabric glue, this is the end result.

I love it! And it's going to get more use than that bag did!

lamp project

Last week the hubby and I were thrifting and found a pair of lamps for $15. 

It's hard to tel, but the bottom part is red, cracked glass with a black iron surround.  We knew the pair had good bones.

After finding a pair of shades and a little rewiring we were left with:

Much better.  :)  They now reside in the living room.  So now I am rearranging all the lamps in the house so that I can keep my favorite ones. Which also started the furniture moving project.  

 

Another project

The new cork board.  When we were redecorating after the painting spree, I didn't want to hang the old ugly cork board back up.  Zac suggested cutting it down and putting in this barn wood frame that I had picked up at a yard sale.  I ran over to the fabric store and picked up a piece out of the remnant pile that would match our current colors and ta-da!  Ignore the crooked pictures on the side, I just barely got those painted and inside. I still need our resident straightener to fix them all. :)

I like the cork board better at this size too. It's big enough but also small enough that we will have to keep on top of what is on it.

 

On a happy note, there wasn't a bit of whining today. I'm hoping that trend continues.

 

scenes from the weekend 9/11

An old school map we picked up this weekend. I have no idea what I am going to do with it. It's huge adn we have a serious lack of wall space already. But we love maps and it was a steal.

The microscope. I have been searching for months for a used one at an affordable price. We saw this at a yard sale this weekend and I took one look at the price and started walking away. My dear husband, knowing how badly I wanted one, offered them half. They took it. I was so excited.  The boys played with it all day yesterday. So cool. Now to order some slides.

 

salt and pepper

A work in progress.

A $5 find that has been entertaining someone all weekend. 

We had a fun, busy weekend. We found a new to us, amazing resturant. My new favortie words are "red wine reduction sauce". Oh my goodness. We've had no internet yesterday which threw off my weekly planning and I actually had to go old school in order to do it. :)  We also enjoyed a refreshing thunderstorm. I think fall is finally here.

On the list for this week:

• yoga
• nursery for fall seeds and a terrarium plant.
• learning: Israel, water cycle,  and a new to us science co-op, Signing Time, building a terrarium.
• library
• internet fixing- our computer ahs been having some issues the past week and we have someone coming out to hopefully fix it once and for all.
• Saying goodbye to dear friends. Sigh. :( 
• fall decorating
• Soup, banana bread and homemade bread.

And whatever other fun things we can fit in there. :) 

What's on your list?

April 20 2010

Today started off with a walk down to the river. The water level is up a lot from where it was a week ago.

 

Jack and Alex couldn't help but do a little wading in the cool water.

After that Jack spent most of the afternoon with his jelly crystals. He loves playing scientist!  The older kids and I were running here and there switching off so that someone was home with Jack. At one switch off we exchanged on the street. I hate days that seem rushed like that. It's all good though. Talisa stayed for an after school club for the first time. Steven had his latest doctors appointment and it looks like we have the clear to slowly start resuming normal activity, including practices. Then, I think to celebrate, he went to watch the varsity lacrosse game with his friends.  While he was there Talisa, Jack and I did some thrift store shopping--can I tell you how much I am loving that my girls are finally getting how fun thrifting can be. Then it was off to finish up birthday shopping for Alex. We still had time to spare so we went to watch the rest of the game.

To finish it all off, Alex and I continued our movie marathon. We've both taken up handwork projects during the movies. She is crocheting a purse.  And I am doing some mindful embroidery. What's mindful embroidery? Well since we are studying WWII, I decided that while we were watching the movies I would make a set of prayer flags. I've wanted to make some for a while now and while watching and learning about the things that happened, I needed to be working on something with meaning.  

Finally found some

I've been looking for these for years.

 

Our neighborhood was having a garage sale day. We picked up 2 backpacks--the hiking kind, 10 xbox games, another hiking fanny pack, the set of books above, a new coat for Jack, a harley jacket--to go with the mohawk, and various other clothes for him, all for next to nothing. Love those kinds of days.  The Childcraft books are already being put to use.

thrifty Thursday

Today I had a few extra minutes while running errands and no 4 year old so I decided to hit the thrift store. It's been a while since I found anything good there. I also lucked out and they were having an end of the month 50% off everything sale. I didn't know they had 50% off sales. Hello?!

These first two I got for Montessori activities. No idea what as of yet.

And then... I saw this cute thing...

For $1.50. I had a great orange lamp that I bought there a couple years back that broke and I've been missing it. So this one made me happy. Almost as happy as...

This stinkin' cute owl trivet. Made my day.

Only spent $3.50.