DIY

One thing (but not the only thing) that frustrates me as I find myself living the long but short years of having little kids that are completely dependent on me for everything is that the fun and creative projects I crave have to be moved to the bottom of the list of things I do every day.  I know this time is fleeting and I will, one day, be able to do projects again. And I don't mean that I will be able to do them when my kids are teenagers.  Since my earliest memories my mom was sewing, wallpapering (yes, you read that right) and doing projects with me and my siblings in the house.  And she had three kids in four years so I do believe that when Ben and Tessa get even a few years older and are able to play with each other or at least entertain themselves for longer than a few minutes at a time I will be able to spend more time on things that interest me and not just endless bottle washing and diaper changing. And hopefully I will be able to share the projects with them!  How do you think I became interested in this stuff anyway?  It started from watching my mom I'm sure! Of course, I might have a job or something...but I will worry about that when the time comes!  For now, I feel ecstatic when I accomplish anything above and beyond the standard daily household maintenance.  Or even a small percentage of it. 

 

So, with that in mind, I present to you a project!  This is it...before...

 

 

What is it?  It is a small shelf intended to hold whatever collection or assortment of knick knacks that a person would want to display.  It was built by my great uncle a long time ago.  I don't know when but I'm sure it was the 70's or 80's.  It is a remnant of the past from a time when people really liked to dust.  For the last, oh, twenty years I would guess, it was hanging in my childhood bedroom.  Since the early 2000s it held various souvenir shot glasses.  Before that, it held girlish 1980s and 90s clutter such as Precious Moments and other breakable figurines that I packed away after I went to college because I got sick of spending several days of every long school break clearing off shelves and dusting.   I was close to sending it to my sister's rummage sale when I realized it was decent quality wood and quite solid.  And then my mom told me her uncle built it so I was really glad I saved it. 

 

After that, it sat in our basement for two months and last weekend I finally decided to do something about it.  I went to Menards and chose paint on a whim and the next day during a glorious shared nap I quickly applied a coat of paint and after a few more coats it was ready to hang!  I hung it in the bathroom by my sink!

 

I think it looks great.  What bathroom doesn't benefit from a splash of swimming pool blue?  Also, the mini OPI nail polishes, or I guess I should say laquers, look really cute lined up on the top. 

 

You might think that a woman with that many bottles of nail laquer always has the perfect manicure and pedicure.  You would be wrong.  I do enjoy switching my toe nail colors whenever I get a chance though. 

Here are a few fun pictures from the last few days.  On Monday a violent storm passed through.  We were in a tornado warning but the worst of it was just a few miles North of town.  It got pretty creepy for a few minutes though. 

 

Although photographs of weather never really do justice to what it really looked like here is a picture of the wall cloud and the dust getting sucked up in a rather tornadic way.  Eeek.  The storm continued to gain strength as it moved across the state and sent a second hand playhouse that we brought to the farm flying across the yard in pieces and sent my dad running for cover in a machine shed as he was outside investigating the clouds. 

Here are a few recent pictures of Tessa in all her cute glory.  I meant to do a post for her 8 month birthday but now she is almost 8.5 months so I will wait for 9. 

She has been a very busy and loud girl lately. Yesterday Justin took Ben on a road trip he had to make to work so Tessa and I had the whole day to ourselves.  We had a great time going to the mall and cleaning.  Seriously, I felt like one very busy 8 month old was the easiest thing in the world to manage.  Here is a picture of Ben "in the field" with Dada!  That water in the background is Lake Sakakawea. 

What a lucky boy!