A Home Decor Post?

A midst all the craziness lately, I managed to get a few little projects done to make our new house feel a little more home-y.  Actually I started them a couple months ago, but life happened (as it is known to do) and I couldn't finish them til the other day.  I was proud of myself so I decided to share here on the blog.

Believe me, I am no interior decorator or blogger who has beautiful pictures of projects and step by step.  I am just excited about what I did in the kids playroom. Lol 

The playroom was pretty bland and boring.  We had two big white cabinets in there that are used to store home school materials, toys and other things. The walls are white, and there were no curtains on the windows...  

I found some hot pink and lime green curtains and decided to try them, not knowing if I was really gonna like them. They turned out okay and may end up going eventually. But, they work for now....

So I decided to paint the cabinets multi-colored....from a decorating idea book I had. Plus I didn't want to make it too girly or pink because the boys didn't appreciate that. Justin was a great little helper! The other boys helped paint the cabinets as well...I just didn't get pics.

 Then we covered the paint with some sparkly Disney clear coat (shimmering glitter paint).  You can't see it in the picture, but it looks kinda cool. Throw on some Mickey Mouse & company stickers and call it good!  

Here's another few angles of the room.  The door in the shot below opens to the boys rec room. They have a little foosball table, legos, etc plus the puppies sleep in there.

The two pictures above show a shelf that my handy hubby built. It was originally built to have cubbies and hooks for school stuff plus hold books. Now it's multipurpose and works great in the playroom.  Mark is pretty handy to have around most of the time.  :)  Can you see my sweet puppies in the picture?

The girls have their kitchen set in there plus all the baby dolls they could ever need. Lol  You can also see the curtains in this pic.  The trampoline has been around a couple years now and was the best $140 we ever spent. Inside in winter and outside in the summer.  That thing has seen alot of use!   

 My other little project was the chalkboard/magnet board you see between the cabinets.

They have a lot of fun with it, but it's not quite finished yet...I'm waiting on  Mark to make the frame so it can hang on the wall.  

For the board:  All I did was buy 2 boards the same size from Home Depot. One was already chalkboard sided (although you can also just buy chalkboard paint) and the other was just basically particle board. Can't remember exactly what Home Depot called it, but both boards were 2' x 4' and about 1/4 " thick. Used some wood glue to glue them together, painted the magnetic paint on one side, then covered it with the silver metallic paint to make it prettier. The chalkboard on the opposite side...obviously.  You are welcome to comment on this post if you want more details.

 

The picture below shows a magnetic spray paint, but I don't recommend it.  I ended up having to buy another type of magnetic paint that I rolled on.  It worked great, and the spray paint didn't so much.

Magnetic roll on paint.

This is the Disney shimmering glitter paint we used on the cabinets and the magnetic primer we rolled on for the magnet board.

Oh and just a cute picture of Justin playing on one of the swings.  He and all the girls absolutely LOVE to play on them...so do the big boys if they can get away with it. Behind him is the playroom.  :)

Oh, by the way....

Our playroom NEVER looks that clean! I took those pictures on a day that all the other kids were in school and I had just cleaned it.  

I wanted to mention that lest you think my house looks that way all the time. NOT!! 

Well it's already February! We haven't had much snow and the weather has been really warm for winter in Colorado. Yesterday we finally got a bit of snow, but not enough for our poor dry state.  We definitely need some moisture to avoid more forest fires this summer... 

The girls have enjoyed the warmer weather and being able to get outside a little bit to play...

 And to talk...

And dig in the dirt.

The boys have loved getting to ride the horses more, and always of course the four wheelers and dirt bikes. Sorry no dirt bike pics. Sam has a dirt bike, but it just makes me too nervous to photograph.  Lol

The girls absolutely LOVE riding, too!  

To add to our busy family life, Samuel is playing basketball and we've been trying to make it to all his games when possible. Daniel has been managing the girls basketball team (7th grade), and recently started wrestling so we'll be adding that to our schedule soon as well. 

One of our favorite things has always been watching our kids in all their activities/sports which have traditionally been football and wrestling. Samuel has chosen to play basketball this winter instead of wrestle, so it will be something new for us. He is doing great as a freshman and plays on the JV team.  Of course basketball is my sport so I have enjoyed "coaching" him from the sidelines.  

Here's just a few more random favorite pics.

Love these silly girls!  They are all doing well and staying healthy for the most part this winter.  They LOVE school and apparently adored by everyone there. But then again, who couldn't adore these faces??

I would like to ask all of you for prayers for my family.  My father just recently had surgery for a blocked intestine.  He is 79 and does pretty darn well for his age, but became septic during his surgery and is now in ICU on a ventilator. He is slowly making progress, but not out of the woods yet. Also, please pray for my mom.  She was recently diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer (breast cancer from 2001 returned) and had been trying to cope with all that when this happened with my father.  

He is the most wonderful loving kind man and a precious soul!  My mom is so loving and caring and giving and would do anything for anyone in need.  She has had a tough time and needs prayers for strength and peace and healing for both of them.  Thank you so much!

This is my sweet dad loving on Madalyn after her open heart surgery.  

And this is my mom talking to Madalyn before her OHS and then with all the girls.  I love both my parents so much and it is so very difficult to see them in pain.