Task #1: Established Family Sign

Well, I am not crossing off things from my list like I would like to.  My time is running out seeing as I am now on day 8.  Blah!  But, I am getting some some stuff done.  The first, semi-completed task is a family sign for my niece's upcoming wedding.  She is getting married this weekend and I wanted to make her a sign for their new life as a couple.  I had intended to have it simply read, "The Soto Family, Est. July 2, 2011".  However, a cute play on math had me go another direction.  See the thing is, she is marrying a guy with the same last name.  Yup, lucky her....no annoying paperwork to fill-out!  The other thing is she is a math teacher.  So, I took the sign in another direction and decided to have it read, "(soto)^2=7.2/2011".  Okay, okay, I know...it's not a real mathematical equation and it's probably makes no sense at all mathematically, but I thought it would be a cute way to use their wedding date.

I started out with wood from an old IKEA bed we used to have.  When we moved two years ago, the bed frame broke and we saved these slats of wood from the bed base.  I just knew we would use them eventually for something.  They were connected with a fabric cord/ribbon that I just cut off.  (I left the small piece of cord between the two staples to use as part of my ribbon hanger...keep reading!)

Next, I painted this turquoise as my first coat of paint (Got all of the paints at Micheal's.  Pretty inexpensive, too).  My origianl intent was to paint it this color then black over that.  I was then going to sand the edges to distress it.  However, the sander my mom let me borrow was way to powerful and I didn't like the it came out on my practice sign.  So, I ended up using another technique (keep reading).

 Once the turquoise was dry, it was time for the black paint.  I didn't worry too much about getting all the corners perfectly painted since I was going to distress the edges.

 I did a little practicing on a sign for our family before I did my niece's.  I didn't like the first flat paint brush I used on this sign and ended up using a smaller pointy one that gave me better lines.

For a distressed look, I used a small paint brush (not a art brush, but one you would use to paint house trim) and ever so lightly dipped it in some turquoise paint.  I brushed it over the edges very lightly and then wiped away with a paper towel.

I found some great ribbon with thin wire in the edges at the Micheal's dollar ribbon bin (Score!).  It was actually the reason I chose turquoise as my highlighting color.  I attached the ribbon to the back using the staples and cord that were left over from the wood's bed days.  After I cut off the cord it left a piece of cord that made a loop in between two staples, so it worked out great.  You could also use picture frame wall hanging hardware.

Here is the finished product.

From another angle.  The 7.2/2011 was the most "mathematical" way I could think of writing the date without it looking too much like a date.  

 

I figure the sign could be a good conversation starter too. I thought it came out good.  I really hope they like it!  May God bless their marriage and can't wait til' they multiply! (Silly pun, but I couldn't help it!)

10 Things in 10 Days!

Well, as previously mentioned, I am addicted to blogs.  I love seeing other people's creativity and just overall wealth of information.  Well, while clicking away at one blog link after another I came upon this post from Cha Cha at Sit, Relax and Read.  She recently inherited a yearly blog post called "10 Things in 10 Days" from another blog owner.  Her challenge is to come up with 20 tasks and to do at least 10 of those in 10 days.  They need to be things that you keep putting off or never get around to doing.  They could be easy or hard as you wanted, but the point is to get-up and FINALLY get to at least 10 of them.  I decided to really commit to this one.  I am such a procrastinator and there are quite a few things I need to get to this summer, especially before our big secret family vacation.  So, here is my list to share.  At the half way point I will post an update.  Here we go!!

My 20 Things for 10 Tasks in 10 Days
1. Make "Established" Family Signs for my niece's wedding present and one for us.
2. Go to the church where we held our Girl Scout meetings, drop off key and pick-up our stuff.
3. Set-up Build-A-Bear Party
4. Donate Hotel Toiletries to Church
5. Refinish Table
6. Sign-up for Baptism classes
7. Take magazines and plastic bags to recycle.
8. What are in those boxes in the corner of the dining room?
9. Clean out hall closet.
10. Clean out baby's closet.
11. Put away clothes that don't fit baby.
12. Find charger for baby monitor.
13. Clean out under bar.
14. Clean out China cabinet.
15. Clean out clutter basket in kitchen.
16. Take cookies to USO.
17. Mail book log for oldest to receive free t-shirt.
18. Make an itinerary for Florida Trip and find out about discounts.
19. Make packing list for trip.
20. Clean out and organize my own closet.

Blog Crack!

Okay, not the most creative of titles, but it's true!  Ha!  Here's the thing with being a writer of a blog (at least for me)...it is so hard for me to post because I get so caught up in other people's blogs.  Michelle over at Faith, Trust and a Little Pixie Dust has been having linky parties every Friday which has only helped feed my addiction of blogs.  This last Friday Lauren at West Furniture Revival posted a couple of her awesome restored furniture.  Check out her beauty, Miss Helix!

The lovely Miss Helix!

Miss Helix and her wonderful furniture siblings have inspired me!  I have this cute little antique pedestal table that I got a garage sale for $5 a couple of months ago. I have decided that I want to give it a makeover now that I have been so inspired by all of Lauren's awesome furniture.  Once I do it I will post pics!  Wish me luck!

Shhh, it's a surprise!

So, my husband and I are brewing up quite a plan.  We were inspired by the new Disney Parks commercials showing actual videos of families surprising their kids with trips to Disney.  It turned out that we had some hotel points and card card points and decided to use them towards a vacation in Florida which ends in Orlando.  Our kids do not know where we are ending up and just think we are going to visit friends.  My eldest even asked if we could go to Disney World, but I explained that we couldn't because it was expensive and on the other side of the state.  She was sad, but understood.  I can't wait to see their faces!

p.s. This commercial that I posted is my favorite.  I cry every single time I see it.  As cliche as it sounds, they do grow-up too fast.  We wanted to go to Disney while their imaginations are still so big.

Franklin's Flying Circus

This last spring break we went to visit some family in Brownsville, Tx, my hometown.  During our visit, the Brownsville Air Fiesta was going on.  We had drove-by and admired the planes that flew over us.  We went back to my mother-in-law's home (which is about 2 miles from the airport) and about 45 minutes later we heard the sirens.  Then more sirens and then more.  We knew something had happened.  It wasn't long before my friend's status updates from the air show let us know exactly what happened.  A husband and wife wing-walking team's plane had crash landed after the engine failed.  Amanda Franklin, who was the actual wing walker (her husband Kyle is the pilot) had managed in their quick decent to get off of the planes wings and into the plane.  However, upon impact flames consumed the front end of the plane where Amanda sat.  Her husband tried to get her out and he was burned badly on his arms.  Amanda suffered burns over more than 70% of her body and was air lifted to a burn unit in San Antonio.  She fought through multiple infections and surgeries.  Sadly, last week her husband made what is hands down one of the toughest decisions anyone has to make.  He put her on comfort care and she passed away last Friday.  I started to follow this couple of Facebook after the accident.  Kyle wrote such touching updates about his wife.  It is quite a love story.  I just wanted to share their story because the RGV Chapter of the Confederate Air Force (the organization that puts Air Fiesta together) will be holding a great fundraiser for the Franklin's this weekend.  They have multiple items in a silent auction.  The best part is you can bid online through their Facebook page HERE.  Make sure and "like" their page for more details.

Thankful Thursday....OUCH!

Well, sometimes you should take your own advice.  If you read the post below this one I talked about how important it is to take care of your skin.  Well, apparently that advice went in one ear and out the other.   Today I was helping out at my daughter's school.  They spent most of the day outside enjoying awesome water activities and huge water slides.  I was in the shade for the most part, but I did take few minutes to walk around to check on some stuff and even told some kids to put on a shirt or some more sunscreen.  Well, that is enough to get a small sunburn on my shoulders.  Thankfully, it is small and thankfully I bought some aloe vera gel this past weekend.  I had placed it in the fridge and have been enjoying that awesomeness since I got home.