Treehouse inspiration

 Our family spent Saturday afternoon at Cheekwood Gardens.  Currently, they have a tree house exhibit.  And they are not your average tree houses.

This is a conk shell tree house from Lord of the Flies.  I humbly admit that I haven't read the book...but some people were a little wierded out by this treehouse theme.

Abby loved it.






























































 The "Jolly Roger" pirate tree house was a huge hit.  It had the most transferable ideas for our treehouse.  As soon as Abby saw the pirate ship, she ran to climb aboard.


Caleb was our navigator...he wanted to check the map, and decide where we would go after the pirate ship.

























This was a fish tree house made out of CDs.  Who thinks of these things!

The last tree house was...well...Caleb's favorite.  A rubber band tree house, in the middle of water, connected by "rubber bands" to surrounding trees.

The kids ran ahead of me, and by the time I got close, I noticed a pair of shoes sticking out from the top.  I looked closer, and it was my son, hanging upside down in the middle of the rubber band ball.





























Then he found a "window" and stuck his head out.  I was still thinking he was safe...and so cute...so I told him to smile for a photo.







































A little more nervous..."just hold on, smile...okay, get back in the rubber band ball!"



















I turned around for a few minutes, and when I glanced back, my heart dropped.

Have you ever felt proud of your child...and scared to death at the same time?  I wanted him to get down, but I really wanted to take a photo of him.  Even strangers were starting to take photos of Caleb on top of the rubber band ball.  I didn't want him to see me happily taking pictures, so most of the pics are when he turned his head.

I had to walk away.  Mark was watching him...and I knew that Caleb was an excellent climber.  But my heart was racing.

But he is a pretty good climber, don't you think?

 It was a great day.  We loved all of the tree houses, the weather was beautiful, and even Nate had a great time.

My dog and mayonaise

This is our dog, Rusty.

He is a 9 year old Vizsla.  There are times that I love having a dog and there are days when I swear we will never get another dog.  The past few days fall into the latter category.
















This is an antique desk that belonged to Mark's grandmother, Grammie.  When we got it, it already had numerous scratches.  And I think we added a few more.


























































My friend Amy inspired this project with this post on her amazing blog.  Go check it out.


I took mayonnaise and slathered it all over the scratches and water marks.  It needed to sit for at least 1 hour.  After about 15 minutes, I noticed that it started to smell a little.

The smell peaked my dog's interest.  I had noticed on Amy's blog that her dog had licked the mayonnaise off the table.  So I thought I would be ahead of the game and lock Rusty in our playroom with the big kids while I took a shower.  I told them not to let Rusty out.

When I came back to check on the cabinet, this is what I found.

Tons of deep claw marks all over the front of the desk.  I was so mad.  Not only had Rusty decided to lick the mayonnaise off, he jumped up on the desk and clawed away.

I am never getting a dog again.

Even if he looks like this as a puppy.  I swear I won't cave.

I will remember my cabinet and try really hard to ignore those floppy ears and big paws.

Sigh.  He was a cute puppy, right?

Well, I went back to the desk.  The scratches blend in after another coat of mayonnaise.  But I can still see the claw marks.  Life goes on.

Here is what it looked like before I started...



And here is the top of the desk, even after Rusty's mayonnaise feast...

The end result - the desk looks better than ever.  The mayonnaise works...just remember to keep your dog far away.

Mommy therapy round 2.

I just finished my second pottery class.  I don't know what I am going to do for the next month as I wait for the fall session to begin!  Even though I learned a lot during this session, I still have soooo much to learn.

Here is an example.  This is the first mug I ever made.

Sad.  Lopsided and lumpy.  Now...here is the progression of the next 4 mugs...










You can't tell from the photo, but this green mug is a child size mug.  I love the glaze, but wish the handle was angled different.




























This cute red mug is Abby's mug.  The handle can only fit 2 of my fingers.  I love everything about it; just wish it was twice the size.

Next up, a giant blue mug.  You can't tell from the photo, but this one is a beast.  Mark likes to use it because it is so big.  Next time I will choose a different glaze combination.  This blue on blue isn't my favorite.



This last one is *almost* a success.  The glaze ran in the kiln, and a little spot on the back had to be hammered off from the kiln shelf.  But I LOVE this mug.

I look at the mugs and see all the mistakes.  But I must admit, I am not as bad as I use to be!








I always love bringing home a piece of pottery knowing that I created every aspect of it.  And I love throwing clay on the wheel.  It is methodical, artistic and calming all at the same time.  And I need all of those things.





My favorite part of this particular class was our Raku night.  Raku pottery is very unique.  We heat the pieces in small propane kilns, and then light them on fire.  Literally.  Here is a picture from Raku Art.












Next session I am taking my camera.  The class got to choose crackle, horse hair or copper.  I chose to make a copper Raku piece.  Here it is!

It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted.  The copper glaze can look different based on how fast you dowse the flames with water and how much water.

I love that this clay luminary looks like a hammered copper piece.  I can't wait to get back on the wheel!

School has begun

School has begun.  I know that seems crazy, but our district is moving towards a year round school calendar.  I must admit, I am a big fan.  Our family does best with routines and structure.  The summer is fun, but the last 2 weeks have been a little crazy.  Not crazy busy...but stir crazy.  It was time for routines.

Here is a flash back...5 years ago, I snapped this picture.

And now, I have a 1st grader and a kindergartner.  Wow.  Here they are on the first day of school.

Tomorrow is Abby's first full day of school.  She was a little disappointed that the kindergartners only had 1/2 days in the beginning.  I think she just wanted to experience the real deal.









A new school year brings new backpacks and more clutter.  I wanted to create a place for backpacks and all of those lovely papers that come home from school.  When the kids walk home from school, we go up the garage stairs.  Just behind the door is a little nook that serves no real purpose.  Until now.


























I was tired of the backpacks laying on the kid's floors.  I found a few pieces of wood in the discount section at Home Depot.  I love that barrel.  It is always full of goodies.  I decided to try spray paint this time.  It actually worked really well for this project.

 I didn't like the selection of hooks at Home Depot so I went to Lowes as well.  I personally prefer the orange box store because of their better selection of building supplies and employee knowledge.  But if I need something more in the "design" department (lamp shades, shelves, hooks, etc), the big blue box store is my choice.

Now, I couldn't do this project with out a few mistakes.  The board and hooks on the left wall went surprisingly well.  The studs were in the perfect spot and I was able to hide where I screwed the board into the studs behind my hooks.  The right wall was a different story.

As soon as I tried to drill my screw into the board, the wood split.  Ugh.  I could have avoided this by taking the time to drill a hole with a drill bit and then putting my screw in the pre-drilled hole.  But I was going too fast, as usual.

My next frustration was not caused by my hand, but by my old house.  When I put my board on the wall, I realized that my wall is not plumb.  Not even close.  Not only were there NO STUDS in the whole length of this wall, the drywall buckled in the middle.  I tried to take a picture, but it might be hard to see.  There should not be a shadow behind my board.

I had to drill drywall screws through the board and into the wall.  Then I took spackle and covered my nails, and I plan to paint the spackle with the same white paint as my boards.

So now my little nook looks like this.  And I am happy to report that the hooks are pretty strong.  I have a spot for Mark and for Nate.  I have a plan for a basket for all of those lovely papers that come home from school, and for Mark's mail.  Maybe this week I can get to the finishing touches on this project.

 I think I am just as excited as the kids are about school starting again.  I am ready for routines.