DIY Bedroom Art

This is the real-life story of a DIY project of epic procrastination.

I had my eye on this particular project for quite awhile. Problem was, I could only find this particular image but no supporting details from its original location (you know, like within someone else's blog and such). Without the instructions I was a little nervous to try this out myself. I am soooo not a fly-by-the-seat -of-your-pants type of person. I love instructions. Detailed, numbered, listed instructions. With none, I just let the idea roll around in my head for well over a year.

Then, during one of my "let's be crafty and productive" shopping trips to Wal-Mart six to eight months ago, I grabbed 4 - 11x14 canvases and a crap ton of blue and white acrylic paint. I determined that the 11x14 was a little too big so again, I just sat on the project.

Then, on another one of my "let's be crafty and productive" shopping trips to Wal-Mart four to five months ago, I grabbed the 8x10 canvases and the rest of the supplies I needed. After determining these were a perfect fit, I let the project sit a little longer for no reason whatsoever.

A month later, I finally got down to business (with a busy boy to care for, my "let's be crafty and productive" bits don't come around too often!). I was nervous to paint the letters but it wasn't too difficult and am quite pleased with how this step turned out! First, I painted three coats of blue. Then, I painted the letters free form so if I can do it, so can you! I also painted the sides to make it look continuous (if you look at it on an angle - check out my final pic below). One thing you don't need to do is buy so many little bottles. I completed everything with one bottle of blue and one bottle of white. My bad!

The next step was to attach the hanging pieces. The instructions I had for that made it seem WAY easier than it actually was. I should have been able to twist the eyehooks in myself. Yeah, right! Three weeks after that, I was visiting my parents and decided I needed my dad's help to get this part done. Out came his handy dandy electric drill to save the day! I was able to twist the eyehooks in and attach the hanging wire easily after that. Thanks, Dad!

And now, here we are, nearly two full years later, I've finally hung up these bad boys to their rightful home. I am not so proud of my productivity to actually finish this rather simple project but quite pleased with how it turned out. Couple this new bedroom art with new bedding AND a completely painted-all-by-myself ceiling....This is much better than how this room started! (I should mention that way back when we painted our living room in December 2012, we also painted our bedroom a beige color to match every single other room in the upstairs - not sure why we did that, but oh well!)

I have dreams of adding in a small gallery wall in this large open space to the right of this picture. Given my track record, I'm sure this will be completed in a couple years or more but I've already drawn up a plan and figured out which photos I want to use. That's something right?!

What's for Dinner {29} - Simple Bolognese with a Twist

Remember when I posted about Giada's Simple Bolognese recipe we tried recently? If not, go check it out here. It was seriously easy to make and a little fancier than normal meat sauce over pasta. Gspice was especially excited about the carrots. Who knew? But do you also remember how I said that I'd try using something better than ground beef? Well, that's what I did!

I didn't stray too far from Giada's recipe. Really, I only switched the meat and added in a couple other things to liven it up. With only these few changes, it made such a big difference! SOOOO good. If ever I was afraid of using my food processor before, afraid I am no longer. Seriously, it's one of my favorite appliances at the moment and I only have a teeny tiny one! Imagine what I could do with a big one!

Back to the recipe (Since I linked back to my Simple Bolognese post and gave credit to Giada's recipe there, I will not do that here. It's more my own now anyhow!)

Simple Bolognese with a Twist

*1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil

*1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
*2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped

*1 carrot, coarsely chopped
*1 lb ground pork
*1 lb skirt steak

*1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes
*1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
*8 fresh basil leaves, chopped

*1 T Worcestershire
*1 t red pepper flakes
*s & p as needed
*1/4 cup Parmesan

First step is to grind up your skirt steak unless you're lucky enough to find some already ground at the store. No such luck for me. Thankfully, I've got that obsession with my food processor now so it was no big deal. I just cut the steak in to little strips before sticking them in the processor. It took me two different batches to get it all ground up but took no time at all.

In a large skillet heat the olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until the onions become very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the carrots and saute for 5-7 minutes. Raise heat to high and add the ground pork and ground steak. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking up any large lumps and cook until meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, parsley, basil, Worcestershire and red pepper flakes and cook over medium low heat until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. This will take approximately 1/2 hour so you can cook your pasta as well.

Finish bolognese with Parmesan (& a glass of wine!)

The end results didn't look much different than the ground beef version but the taste was far superior!

Little Mr. {Seven Months}

Here we are at month #7! The days go by slowly but the months fly. Like really fly. Owen, can you go back to being teeny tiny again?

Not much has changed from Owen's last update. He's still as busy as ever and showing us more and more of his adorable personality. He is such a happy baby. Always smiling, cooing, bouncing and squealing. Owen's a true ham. I have to say though, I may see a little bit of separation anxiety coming about. He'll be playing well all by himself with us in the room, but dare we leave - "NO!" The crying will immediately commence. And when we return - "YES!" The crying immediately goes away. I just think he wants an audience :)

Feeding him real food has been so much fun. I didn't realize how ridiculously easy it would be. Bake or steam, puree. Easy peasy. I will FOR SURE write a blog about that soon. Though Owen gets jarred or packaged baby food at daycare, we feed him all real food at home. To add to the list from last month (banana, avocado, sweet potatoes and pears) he's had sweet peas, carrots, broccoli, fuji apples and red potatoes. And by no surprise, he's enjoyed them ALL! I hope to introduce meat soon like chicken or turkey.

We hit a HUGE milestone this past month. Milestone may be too strong a word but it was huge for me. We took away Owen's swaddle! Up until this point I couldn't possible fathom how he'd sleep without it. On several occasions I tempted to wean him from the wonderful Halo Sleep Sack. We had his right hand out for quite a few weeks but got so nervous about letting both hands out. He'd roll over, get stuck and WHAAAAAAAAIL. He absolutely hated not being to roll back over. Okay, so back to one hand we went. Then it got ridiculously warm one or two nights. We then got nervous about him overheating so we took the whole thing off. Completely off. And as you have it, we haven't looked back. Now that we've had a few weeks of no swaddle under our belt, I can confirm that Owen is a tummy sleeper. I rarely see him sleeping on his back anymore. I'm totally okay with that now because he can roll freely both ways and turn his head to sleep.

Unfortunately we do not have another check up until Owen is nine months. Guess who broke down and bought a baby weight.....sorry Gspice. Seriously though, I've wanted to buy one ever since Owen got sick at nine weeks. I somehow made it until seven months. I'll update this post when I get those stats :)

Pictures!
I told you he was a ham! See that big smile on his face - rarely goes away! (Notice also that his mouth opens wider and wider with each month. Cute!)

Catch up on Owen's First Year!
ONE  |  TWO  |  THREE  |  FOUR  |  FIVE  |  SIX

Project One a Day - {May} Dump Day

HAPPY DUMP DAY!

Here's a look back at all my May #ProjectOneaDay photos - Enjoy!

Other Dump Day Photos!
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