Chalkboard Clock

I'm a little late of this post but sometimes projects just don't work out the first time, right?!
I saw this clock idea in the newspaper and thought it would be perfect for my sons astronomy room. You know we are a bunch of nerds at our house. I thought this was sooo cool. My boys take after dad. Numbers just click for them! They excel in math and science. I am always amazed at what they can figure out in their minds. Me, yeah, well, I have to write down 2+2. Really. You think I am kidding- ok maybe just a bit but math is NOT my forte!

So here is my fantastic clock. My son thought it was pretty cool too.

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I picked up a simple wood circle from the craft store and the clock innards. I used chalkboard paint but you can just use black paint too.

After the paint dries I had to prep it with chalk for the chalkboard paint.....

When I was done I had a nice surface to play with.

It was a good thing I tried with chalk first. Not all of the equations were shown on the newspaper. Some of them were a bit long for the size of my clock too. Remember how I love numbers. Yeah, uhm, well it took me a few tries to get the right equations on there. Thankfully the chalkboard was perfect for erasing over and over and over..... again.

This is what I ended up with. Not bad. I was proud of myself....until dear hubby got home and dear son who follows in his dad's brain steps.....more on that in a minute.....

My only problem with the chalk was I couldn't spray a finish on it. I tried several different tricks but the chalk just washed away. I ended up painting over the numbers with antique white paint. It still had some flecks of chalk so it retained some of the chalk writing effect. 

So proud of my project, I sprayed it with a nice coat of sealer then left it to dry. 

That evening I showed it to my sweet hubby. 

"Look at my project honey! What do you think"

Yeah, it didn't take him long to point out my mistakes.

Can you find them?

Each number is suppose to be the result of the equation right?!

Apparently I got some of my equations wrong. 

48 divided by 6 is not 7.

When I finished painting the numbers I made the 4 on 64 a 9, thus not resulting in 8.

And the 9 on 109 should be 8.

See I told you I wasn't number savy.

At least we he caught it before I put the clockworks in place. 

Back to the sander, painting and finishing it off.

What can I say the right brain just wouldn't let the left work.

The end result is fantastic. Thanks boys for keeping mom on track!

What do you think?

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A Clean Freeze

What could a pair of gloves....

a shop vac.....

and chunks of ice possibly have in common?

A clean freezer.

We try to purchase meat from local ranchers. It has a flavor that the store stuff can't match. It is from hormone free and grass fed animals. Plus it is much less expensive!

This year was the first year we purchased a pig. I am already LOVING it.

When I got back from the butchers I had to spend some time cleaning and organizing the freezer.

Winter is a great time to do this. You may get cold- just keep that coat in place- but you don't have to worry about anything thawing while you arrange your goods. It is also a great time to clear any ice buildup. My freezer had quite a bit.

I took a chisel and gently knocked away at the ice along the edges. I just let it fall to the bottom of my near empty freezer. The trick then came to how to get all those ice shavings out.

Out came the shop vac. If it didn't fit it stuck to the hose allowing me to toss it to the side. I pulled most of the baskets out. It didn't take to long. Most of the ice fell off in chunks. The gloves kept my fingers warm.

Before I knew it the ice was gone and my baskets could once again slide along the guides.

I organized the pork on the left side, chicken on the right and our soon to be purchased beef in the middle.

 

Larger cuts of meat all went in the bottom.

Smaller cuts and packages of ground meat went on the next row in baskets.

Popsicles, gogurts and other quick snacks for the boys go on the top. They will help to hold in the cold for the meat down below.

Organizing my freezer this way helps with temperature control. During the summer my boys are constantly getting in the freezer for ice cream and other cold treats. I don't want meat at the top exposed to the heat. It also helps with rotation and what gets eaten fastest.

Now I just need to make a bunch of pumpkin treats to use that frozen pumpkin before I get a new crop going this summer.
Pumpkin cookies or pumpkin bread? Hmm, maybe some of both.

Go ahead and clean out your freezer BEFORE your spring cleaning starts. You will be thrilled with the results. It just makes ya feel good. I love to look in my organized, clean freezer!

A week of pictures- almost

I have had a very busy week although I didn't get many pictures scrapped. 

I worked on my blog, revamping the whole thing. I still want to add better feed buttons but am not sure how to do that. If anyone has suggestions please share.

I also did some Valentine wordart.

I planned on catching up a few more photo pages last night but got side tracked a bit.

Never fear. I will be making the most of my weekend and have more (hopefully) to show next week.

I'm expecting another book sale sometime this spring so I want to be ready. 

I am also hoping to learn a few more tricks in photoshop. I am wanting to do more and need to expand on what I have already learned. It's an ongoing process right?!

So here are the next 3 pages. I am up to 18 now. Let's see....today is the 26, yeah just a touch behind. 

I may have to use some of my quickpages to catch up. They are great because all the work is already done. All I have to do is insert the picture and add a bit of journaling or wordart. 

FAST and SIMPLE!

Gotta love that!

 

After working on Valentines I didn't get any wordart done to share so instead I am sharing my  favorite wordart site.

Elegant Wordart 2

Bethany is great. She had a ton of wordart to download for free and some packs put together to buy too. She even takes requests. Here are some examples of the great stuff she does.

Check it out and be ready to download some great Wordart!

Valentine Freebies

There are lots of great Valentine ideas on Pinterest.  Just check out all these ideas I pinned. I love them.

These were the ones we put together for my friends kiddos.

 She picked up the Pop Rocks at the Dollar Store.

 Kinda fun, huh~! These are for her son. Fun but not too, uhmmm, PINK!

 Girls valentines are always easier. They love pink and hearts. Maybe that is why men say Valentines is more for us ladies. In any case this is what we came up with for her daughter. "S'more" love!

 The bag will be filled with Graham snack crackers, a valentine marshmallow, and a Hershey kiss.

 Love it!

So, here are the tags for you to download.

It didn't take much to make them so I thought I would share. 

For the Pop Rocks there are 18 on a sheet. All you have to do is cut them apart and tape or staple them onto your Pop Rocks. I hope you enjoy them too. 

Here is the Pop Rocks Valentine. Download it HERE.

And for S'more Love....Download it HERE

Grab some bags, fill with your smores goodies then print off your sheet and cut them apart. They are set so that they are 2 inches plus a 2 inch blank back. Just cut along the bottom of each tag. That will leave you the 2 inch top to fold over and staple to your bag of goodies.

I hope you like them.

Leave some love if you download 'em. Make sure to follow me, help me reach my goal fo 100 followers.

Scrabble Tile Boys Decor

I have been wanting to do this project for quite a while. I am thrilled to have finally been able to. It is a simple one and doesn't take too long....

Scrabbled Tiles for Mr. T's room. Not bad for a $2 craft eh?!

So here's the low down on how to do this....

Grab your paper and pen. Start jotting down descriptive words for what you want; girls, boys, bathroom, whatever. Then you have several words to play with. Pick the ones you want and plan your scrabbled board out.

Then stop by your local Home Depot. Head to the back of the lumber section. They usually have a cart with wood scraps in them. This is called the "cull" lumber. It is unusable in building but they know us crafters can still use it so they spray the end to mark it and sell it drastically reduced. My Home Depot sells it for $0.67 a board. I grabbed a couple but only needed one good size piece.
These are 1x2's.

Measure off to make a square then make your cut.

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat...

Keep going until you have all the blocks you want.

Then head over to your trusty sander. Sand off the grean and smooth the corners just a bit.

Ohh, and don't forget to get that blanket that should be in the van nice and dusty so you have to wash it before it can be used again......

I cut my letters from black vinyl with my cricut and "George and Basics" cartridge. The letters are 2 inches and the numbers are 1 inch. I didn't paint my wood at all. Just apply the letters and numbers.

Oh, and don't worry about number values. Google is a great tool! Here they are....

• 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
• 1 point: E ×12, A ×9, I ×9, O ×8, N ×6, R ×6, T ×6, L ×4, S ×4, U ×4
• 2 points: D ×4, G ×3
• 3 points: B ×2, C ×2, M ×2, P ×2
• 4 points: F ×2, H ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2
• 5 points: K ×1
• 8 points: J ×1, X ×1
• 10 points: Q ×1, Z ×1

I finished it off with a matte finishing spray. This helped to seal the wood too.
Now, how to hang them.

If you haven't used Command hooks yet give them a try. I love these (and noones paying me to say so) I use them all over my house, especially around the holidays. They are easily removable and I don't have to worry about holes in my walls.

I opted for the velcro tabs. They can be placed entirely behind the wood tile but I can still get to them when I need to change things up a bit.

See, you can't even tell what's holding the tiles up.

Beautiful!

Dear hubby likes it a lot. He said that if I was going to do so many great projects he should have finished my craft room sooner. Uhmm, YEAH!

I think it's time to add some color to little mans room. These tiles would really pop on a Navy wall!

Linking up here:

Blog revamped.....

What do you think of the new look?

Last year I revamped my blog. I wanted to make it look more like me. Now I wondered if the red and black is hard on the eyes. After reading some tips on blogs and layouts I decided to do a little remodeling again. I created a my own background but I'm having problems uploading it. I will have to play with that a bit more. For now, I found this background on Cutest Block on the Block. I am please with it.

I created a new header that will hopefully define what my blog is all about a little more. My goal is that you will see right away what fun stuff there is to be found further down. It was interesting to think about what I want to say and how I to portray all my thoughts and ideas. I like to do a little bit of everything but my boys guide so much of my creativity. How could I spotlight all this in a moment. A blog banner seemed just the right way to do this. Using some of my favorite projects and my inspiration- the boys- I put my banner together.....

Let me know what you think.

Do you like the new or the old?

Are the colors better?

Do you get a better feel of what my blog is all about?

Making memories, 1 pg at a time..

Here is the next installment of my 365 page challenge. I now have 15 pages done. I am still behind as it is the wee hours of the 20th. That means I am only 5 pages behind now. Hooray! 

I plan on posting my pages each Thursday (I know, I'm a bit late with this one). I will also include a free wordart download. Something fun to say thanks for stopping by.

I spent some time organizing my pictures a bit too. I had copied them but somehow managed to get double files of some of them. I think I am finally winding down on the doubles. I have ended up scrapbooking some photos twice but I figure that is still ok. It is interesting to see how different, or same as the case may be, my photos/pages turn out.

It is also fun to see the memories. Isn't it amaing how quickly they grow and change.

Such fun, reminiscing about the pictures and events in each one of them. Most of all, it's fun to see the people we miss.

5 years as Bear Cubscout leader....yeah, I miss it. Each of the boys became one of MY boys. Funny how anxious I was starting out......

Of course....amongst all that changes, some things stay the same!

I am trying to go in chronological order with this challenge so that I will have a set ready for the next book sale. 2009 is the year in the spotlight now, although I can't resist straying to other fun pictures once in a while. Like our family photos from last week.

Have to say though, I am getting quite excited at all this. It just feels good to get memories down on paper! 

Here is the Wordart I promised.....

Download it HERE