Color Wonderful!

Right before Zane's second birthday (with the help of a couple friends) I tackled painting a mural in his bedroom.  It was complete with adorable animals and palm trees, however that was not my original plan.  The plan was to do vertical stripes on the lower half of the wall and it all went great until I removed the masking tape and half the paint came off with it!  I cried and cried and wanted to scream.  It took days plus hours and hours to scrape and sand all the leftover bits of paint off.  (I'm sorry but I don't even want to look for the pics of the disaster on my computer)  Then came the hours and hours of painting the mural.  It was totally worth it though, it looked great.  Alas, Zane is growing up and it was time for a new paint job.  I took him to Home Depot and let him pick a few colors to do test spots with before we made a final decision what to pick.  We ended up with 3 very vibrant colors and I was nervous.  We decided on a pattern and I went back to go get the full amount of paint I needed.  We were only going to need one quart of the orange color which it turned out was not available in the kind of paint I wanted in a quart size.  I asked the staff if it went on nicely like the other one and she assured me they were basically the same.  Boy was she wrong!!!  I love using Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint.  It goes on thick and covers great; I could get away with one coat if I wanted to.  This CIL Smart crap was HORRIBLE.  It took 4 coats for it to not be see through and it went on like I was smearing on dish soap.  When I sat and thought about it for a minute, all of a sudden a light bulb went off - I had used CIL paint the first time I painted Zane's room and had such horrid results!  Note to self and others:  CIL paint sucks so don't use it!

Before - cute baby boy's room

I have used this primer on a few things, and while I don't use it for the coverage (it is pretty transparent) It goes on nicely without drips and does it's job.  It was about $18 for the gallon at Home Depot

This is the paint I LOVE using.  It is thick and creamy and goes on fantastic.  I like using a flat finish with darker/brighter colors.  It is less intense.

This is the paint I will NEVER EVER EVER use again.  It was horrible horrible horrible!!

And there is his bed with the new Avengers bedding we surprised him with.  If you look just under the edge of the blanket you can see some of the fabric that I had recovered the box spring with about 3 months ago.  Funny, the colors are the same as the ones we put on the walls!  I might have to go use some scraps of that fabric and put them on something else to be all matchy matchy!

Still need the closet door on, but I love it!

Bookshelf was made by Grandpa for Christmas 2009, and I built the desk thanks to plans from Ana White - Knock off Wood.  She has fantastic plans for building things and it is all geared towards women and making things easy, cheap, and fabulous!

I guess they all love it!  The nightstand was something I threw together after I built the desk and had some leftover wood.

This project took a VERY long time.  Zane was displaced from his room for 3 days while I did this all.  The whole time I kept reminding myself how much I love my son or I would have stopped. Haha!  Bye-bye to the little baby boy's room and Hello to my little man's room!  If you are curious, the colors I used are in the Behr Premium Plus lineup:  Intense Teal: S-G-490, Opulent: S-H-300, and Green Acres: S-G-440

Happy purse day!!

New purse day is the best!! especially when you find a fantastic deal on ebay!

Pursey and I had a wonderful first outing to Taste of Saskatchewan this evening with the family :)

Powdered peanut butter? Yes, have some!

So a while back I discovered PB2 powdered peanut butter made by Bell Plantation on amazon.com.  I held off ordering some because I just wasn't sure if I was willing to try it.  Well, I finally got some and I LOVE it!!  It has all the oil sucked out of it so it has 85% less fat and calories than regular peanut butter!!  First I tried it reconstituted and was pleasantly surprised at the taste and texture of it (though I used just a touch more water than they suggest on the package).  I can't even take credit for Zane's idea to try making peanut butter cookies with it but I can completely take credit for the following recipe!!

PB2 Hugs cookies

PB2 Hugs Cookies

1 c. margarine
3/4 c. white sugar
1 c. golden yellow sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 3/4 c. flour
1/3 c. PB2 powdered peanut butter
1 1/2 c. Hershey's mini hugs

Combine margarine, sugars, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, salt and eggs and whip up until fluffy.  Add flour, PB2 peanut butter, soda and powder and mix well.  Add mini hugs during last few seconds of mixing.  Drop by tablespoonful or cookie scoop full onto non stick baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

p.s. this is what the PB2 powdered peanut butter looks like in the compressed brick

Wonder what peanutty creation will be next!! These sure turned out well!!

Have a "KOOL" summer!

Zane is a few days from the end of Kindergarten!  Not only am I feeling older now, I am also realizing Zane is really growing up too.  So much so that he wanted to give all his classmates an end of school year treat because it is the nice thing to do.  I had seen a while back on Pinterest several pins that had a pouch of kool aid drink mix and a crazy straw together tagged with "have a kool summer", but if other kids are anything like mine, they would be choked that they couldn't drink it right that second.  Hence, I bought kool aid jammers premixed drink pouches!  We tagged them with labels I printed, and for under 5 bucks we had a super end of year git for the kids!

I elected to make two separate labels, one for the front that says "Have a KOOL summer" and another for the back that said "From Zane".  The text ended up too small when I crammed it all on one label.

Concentrating so hard on getting it on there right side up and straight-ish.

Finished product!

So proud!

Might as well have some fun with it!

So on Monday, after a long long search, I finally bought myself a new (to me) van.  It is everything I was hoping it to be.  It has stow and go seats, so we decided it is like a transformer and is worthy of an autobot sounding name.

 I have christened her Optimus Pearl.

XL Tshirt to fitted tank transformation

I have been seeing cute tutorials all over pinterest for different ways to transform a T-shirt into a cuter T-shirt, but none that looked just how I wanted it to.  Enter a cheap (read: $1.95) XL T-shirt, some scissors, my sewing machine, and an old tank for a pattern.  Note: While this shirt went together super easily and looks great, I may have forgotten that the tank I was using for a pattern was super stretchy, and this new T-shirt fabric was NOT.  OOPS! Too small!! In other words, pay close attention that your fabrics have similar stretch!  I ended up making a second one, but using a different tank for a pattern, and this time it FITS!

1 - Lay out tank you are using for a pattern on top of larger Tshirt and trace about an inch larger all the way around.

2 - Cut out tank.  Note that I cut a lower neck scoop but was careful to only cut through the one layer, not both on this one, but on the second one I made I cut the same scoop on the front and the back.

3 - Sew the sides back together folding over after the first seam and stitching again 1/4" beside for extra strength.

4 - Hem the arm holes with two rows of stitching, again for the added strength, not to mention the seam will lay much flatter.

5 - I took a piece of the side of the T-shirt that I cut off, hemmed one side and both ends of it, and pinned it around the neckline with some gathers to look ruffled, not necessary, but pretty. :) Make sure to pin the right side of the ruffle facing down onto the wrong side of the shirt facing up as you will be folding the ruffle over and overstitching after.  Stitch around the ruffle, stopping at the shoulders.  

6 - After attaching the ruffle, fold it over so you now see the right side of the shirt and the right side of the ruffle.  Do a row of stitching to hold the ruffle down and make sure it doesn't flap up into your face every time you wear it.  Then hem the back of the collar with a double row of stitching.

Finished product! Each one with a cost of $1.95! 

We all need to just vent sometimes.

I need to vent.  I figure since this is MY blog, I can put MY opinions on here.  When I started this blog I didn't intend on voicing any opinions on here, but I just want to YELL about some things for making me so mad.

Yesterday, my son came home from school with a note.  Yes, I got mad at a note sent home from school.  Very mad.  And Zane wasn't even in trouble!  Let me be perfectly clear here, I think teachers are great, and we need to appreciate them, but, I have had it up to my eyeballs with all their stinking whining!  It started out with them asking for a 12%, yes 12% pay increase in one year.  They went on strike to try and get it.  They didn't get it thank goodness.  What better example to teach our children than if you whine about something enough, and stop doing your job, you will get a raise? (can you tell that was sarcastic?)  I fully support the job that teachers do, however, what other job could you name that would ever get a 12% pay increase in ONE year???  They did get an increase, I believe of around 5%, which is nothing to sneeze at either.  I remember it being an amazing deal when I was working EMS (as part of a union) and we got an increase of 3% each year for 3 years. Anyhow, I am veering off topic, this note had nothing to do with that.  What it did have to do with, was the school board WHINING about how they didn't get a big enough increase in funds allocation in the last provincial budget.  Excuse me?  They even go so far as to outline for us exactly what we should say to the government and how to contact our MLA or Premier and complain about this travesty.  They put the onus on the parents to WHINE and complain to get their way now?  They say the bulk of this increase is going to come from the division's anticipated growth of 500 students come fall.  It is going to put a strain on the budget to teach the new students who will require "additional language support" meaning they don't speak English.  They tell us that our division must "spend extra money to meet the needs of these children".  They talk about eliminating full day Kindergarten and going to half days as one cost cutting measure. When we were deciding what school Zane should attend, one of our biggest deciding factors was which school had full day classes!  The other nearby option had only half day Kindergarten, which for us, was not an option. I don't believe a child can learn to his/her full potential in just a few hours at school.  If they are thinking they can cut Kindergarten to half days, they must be placing little value on Kindergarten learning.  When Zane comes home at the end of the day and I ask him what he did at school, he almost always says "we played".  The teacher assures us that they actually do learn things, and I'm sure they do, but would playtime make up half a day? It better not! That is not why I send him to school!

I have been taking a very active role in providing my child with a solid well rounded education including everything from reading, to math, to science and everything in between, and I will say that as a family we are very interested in politics and elections and how the government works.  As such, Zane has gotten interested and actually watched the provincial leader's debate with us last election, and even got to meet the Premier.  We try not to show bias to any one political party, though I am sure it is obvious whose team we are on.  We don't force our beliefs on anyone, however I have heard nothing but WHINING and complaining from teachers about the SaskParty and Brad Wall and how he is the devil.  What has the SaskParty government done so wrong to make teachers so upset?  Oh, that's right, they didn't give in to their childish demands.  I am sure as individuals, teachers are smart, but as soon as that UNION gets involved, they are sheep.  They all join together and try to make the rest of us feel like we are devaluing them if we don't support them.  They were even willing to spread filthy rumors in the school that it is all The SaskParty and Brad Wall's fault if the school year doesn't include a February break, since it was mandated that the school year shall not start before the Labor Day long weekend.  Really? How much school work is actually done in those 2 or 3 days before the long weekend anyhow? It certainly can't be a full week's worth. Take those days as your prep days and be happy to enjoy one last long weekend before you work for how many days now?  A whole lot less than the rest of us!  How many other jobs get an entire summer off?

It isn't that I don't totally appreciate the job that teachers do, I just think they need to stop whining so much about their job, start enjoying it again, and stop making it other people's jobs to stick up for them when they don't get their way.  I know people may not appreciate what I have said here, and they are totally entitled to their opinions, as I am mine, and my opinion is that sending this note home from school was crossing a line.

"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. "

-- T. S. Eliot