Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Definately a Treat!

While we don't really celebrate Halloween in a big way at our house, we do like to dress up for our trick-or-treaters and Pickles does go out for candy. Our get-ups are usually DIY cuz that's the best kind isn't it?

Here you see Mother Darling as a Mexican native in a beautifully embroidered Mexican dress. Sister C made those braids for her.

Pickles was, in her words, a super hero...she went as a Nerd Girl (tag line: her BRAIN is her super power!) She was thoroughly delighted and THREW herself into her role.
 
I dressed as the fabulous and flighty Effie Trinket of The Hunger Games. It wasn't much of a departure, though. I can be fab and I'm known for being flighty.
 
Good times, good times. Well, Happy Halloween AND May the odds be ever in your favor!
 
 
 


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Monday, October 29, 2012

O Mais Oui...Oui

This was a project weekend. A good one.  I don't deny it, it's been a long time coming. The kids' bathroom has been a dull, sad space for quite a while. I know; what kind of mother lets their kids poo in a boring bathroom, right? I believe Charmin said it best when they said "why not enjoy the go?". No more lame poo-ing in this house!
Pickles and I decided on a a black and white theme (which of course I was rooting for since the bathroom is already white...don't tell Pickles). She also said she wanted it a little bit frilly and she wanted it "french". (Mind you, two boys use this space as well, so let's not get too frilly or frenchy)

We scoured the webs for decor ideas (you can see the stuff we liked on this Pinterest board) and settled on some fun elements.  So here are some before pics:

What happened?!?! This all white bathroom actually used to be so cheery with a rainbow ribbon shower curtain, sunny yellow window curtain and a circular rainbow rug (not pictured). And what do we see there...THERE, in the corner of the window. Is th-...is that FLORIDA?
I promise, there are no bodily excretions on this wall. I don't know what it is, but I know what it's not. Let's move on. Next we see the view looking out toward the hallway
 
Yep, nothing to see here. Just plain white. Just the shower, the cabinet and the bathroom door. I can't really say why the cabinets and the door weren't painted plain white when the rest of the bathroom was...somethings will remain forever unknown. Like that Florida thing at the window.
 
More plain white (I think I'm typing that phrase by pure muscle memory now...plain white, plain white, plain white. yep.) I think the point has been made. So, ready? Here it is:
 
I loved the curtains I found on the web and decided to make my own. I bought two curtains for $13; one was $5 (for the window) and one was $8 (for the shower). I sewed on a black ribbon I got at a local supplier and voila!
Oh look at that lovely black trim breaking up all that PLAIN WHITE. And that baker's rack? I shopped that from another part of the house. It was the typical wire and wicker baker's rack. All it needed was a quick spritz with some black paint for the shelves.
 
I'm sure the neighbors loved looking at junk hanging from the porch as the paint dried.
Now, the same simple black broke up the opposite side of the bathroom...
 
 
The Eiffle Tower print was $5 at Ikea and the frame came from the attic.
 
Letters from the craft store were sprayed with black paint and we hung them up with ticky-tack (that's what Pickles calls it). It's that tacky, stretchy gum for posters and such.
 
Why, yes, the tile around the shower is black! No, I can't possibly afford to re-tile. I confess to having painted it. I call it my Franken-tile. 
 
I painted it with outdoor, all-weather Krylon paint. It's a Franken-tile because when you get up close (and we won't be doing that today) It's a bit messy and patched up. Safe to say....I learned a few lessons about painting shower tile, painting in the bathroom, SPRAY painting in the bathroom, proper preparation for a job like that. BUT it can be done and I'm pretty much happy with what resulted.
 
I love it, Pickles loves it, the boys well... they don't hate it. And they have a nice place for Oui Oui!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Just a touch of Halloween

While there are Halloween-o-philes out there who go bonkers with the creepy decorations, I have to admit that there is not much at our house by way of  spider webs, gravestones, or ghosts. I did want to give a little nod the the season, however. I added a little creepy touch to our front door wreath.

Using a styrofoam ball, bandana and black craft foam I made a small decoration.

 
I cut the styro ball in half and cut a large circle from the black foam. Then I wrapped the half and secured it with just pins til I was ready to glue.
 
Last, I cut out and attached little black legs
 
It's a great embellishment to our wreath.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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Friday, October 12, 2012

Thanks Pinterest! Bookshelf

It wasn't exactly hideous but I rearranged our living room bookshelf based on a cute pic I found on Pinterest. The books are lined up in a fabulous lil' reading rainbow.  From disheveled to delightful!

 
 


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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Creepy and Crawly

It's icky, but it happens...LICE! Pickles came home with the bugs about two weeks ago. Of course, I went into full research mode scouring the inter-webs for different home remedies to treat them. In the meantime, I washed her hair with dog shampoo. Now, somebody out there is all "eeewww, dog shampoo?!?" Yes. Many people use it because it has the same chemicals that the more expensive lice shampoos have. It's not too harsh since actually, dogs have more sensitive skin than we do (which is why you can't bathe them every day or every other day. If we could, Pepper would smell MUCH better). Alas, it turns out that today's lice have become resistant to these chemicals (pyrethrin and piperonyl butoxide). Yeah, that's awesome. Just what I want, some mutated, death-defying super bugs crawling around on my kid.

After sifting through a many articles all saying what I just summed up, I found a forum in which one parent said she used Listerine. LISTERINE! For some reason, it just struck me and, hey, I have to do something! Game. On.

I bought a bottle of the old fashioned yellow Listerine. The green and blue ones listed sugars and sweeteners in the ingredients and didn't want a sticky mess on my hands...or in Pickles' hair.
Without washing first, I coated her scalp with it, cap by cap to make sure I was getting every inch. After I had covered her entire scalp and rubbed it in a little, I poured Listerine into her hair, again, cap by cap. 



Now, the parent who recommended this said her kid had it in her hair overnight. But we had plans that evening and quite frankly, it's my M.O. to rush through projects I'm super eager to see the outcome of... Did I just refer to Pickles as a project? I left it in her hair for about 2 hours.

The results? EXCELLENT! As I was rinsing her hair out, I could see the little buggers floating away in the water and down the drain! I had to make sure she didn't get her hair in the water cuz I didn't want them sticking again. Duh! Now, there's two things I should mention. 1) this obviously does not deal with eggs. When I went through Pickles hair before washing, it seemed all eggs were empty. But you never can tell and you don't want newly hatched nits to just roam free like they own the place. So 2) I did a second treatment about 4 days later.

Pickles has been a happy camper since the first treatment. Before I did the second treatment, she commented that her head had not itched since the first time. So, if you're a desperate parent who has tried dog shampoo, mayo, olive oil, tea tree oil, petroleum jelly (Vasoline), coconut oil, vinegar or Dawn dish soap...well, you've already rubbed all that other crap in there, you might as well give this a try!

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