Li'l Surfer Dude Gets a Lamp

Ahhhh, I'm making progress. VERY slow mind you, but bit by bit my little guy's room is being upgraded to suit the big boy 3 year old that he now is. I mentioned the surf board we picked up recently in California ... which is still just standing guard in his room, patiently waiting to be hung on the wall ... well, this weekend my lovely assistant and I made this surfer dude lamp: I decided to swap out the current lamp on his dresser for a custom accent lamp made with (1) a lamp base leftover from a photo shoot, (2) a red checked lamp shade also from days gone by and (3) several surfer magazines picked up near the beach:
Since I wasn't sure how my photos would cover the checked pattern of my shade, I gave it a quick coat of white paint. Then I started to layer torn beach, surf & surfer pics on top. Several pieces of mostly blue water formed the base:
I went with the rough, torn edges look on this. Tearing the excess photo away from the part I wanted, exposing white edges of paper:
One of the magazines was a real score - several features on kid surfers! So I chose pics of other little blond guys that he could really relate to. My daughter did all the brushing on of the decoupage glue and was so thrilled to be making little brother a "secret surprise!"
I sealed the decoupaged lamp shade with two spray coats of clear satin polycrylic; painted the lamp base with a few coats of "Beach House" from Valspar Waverly Home Classics (same color used elsewhere in his room and the playroom photo canvases); and now it's all dry and waiting for tonight's story time!

Howdee, New Neighbors!

Time to welcome more new neighbors into our 'hood...My daughter helped me bake chocolate chip cookies while my son napped. Ya know, she is such a good helper ... once she knew we were not giving away ALL of the cookies, that is!! We picked out a dozen of the "prettier" ones and tucked them into a big parchment paper envelope. I punched a hole in the top and held it closed with a curly ribbon and an enormous homemade "Welcome" tag. Added our names and phone number to the back and away we go!

Please share your fun ideas for welcoming new neighbors in the comments. Last summer when ... coincidentally ... we welcomed a different family into that same house, I posted about the muffins I brought and Barbara left some superb ideas in the comments! In this new case, the family has lived in our town longer than us, so I don't have too much advice for them! :-)

Chocolate chip cookie recipe:
I believe this recipe came a van Houten bag of chocolate chips a LONG time ago ...
makes ~5 dozen; oven 375.

Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cups unsifted flour (I now use whole wheat flour - as if that's a "healthy" choice with all that sugah! - which does seem to make the cookies flatten more)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz. pkg semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Cream together: butter, sugars, eggs & vanilla 'til fluffy. (personally, I think the people who don't do this and just mix everything at once {KM!} get the super flat cookies ... But I'd eat them either way!)
In a separate bowl combine dry stuff: flour, salt & soda.
Stir into creamed mixture.
Stir in chips (and nuts if desired.)
Drop from teaspoon 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes. (I do about 8, depending on my oven as we prefer them super soft and ooey gooey!!)
Fill a glass with cold milk & dig in!

(In)couraging Wrapping & Decor

Sometimes a simple word says it best - Hope:
To see what's wrapped up in these cute scrapbook papers, and how I re-purposed the ribbon & Hope tag, pop on over to (in)courage to read my guest post!

HOPE for 9/11

To remember the victims of September 11, 2001 and their families ...A simple project to honor the lost, the heros.
I have hope in Christ that He will continue to heal the hearts of the families and guide their futures. I think of and pray for you all today.Thank you to all who serve and sacrifice.

Road Runners, Nail Polish, & Tea Parties

Last post I promised I'd tell you what I've been working on lately... and BOY it's REALLY exciting!! Or not, but it is the reason I've not gotten to my list of fun, creative projects, so here you go. The lazy days of August with a SAHM:

The start of some MAJOR window mistreatments that would horrify The Nester enough to drop her glue gun and fly Oprah's plane right to my back door:
Family fascination at this road runner who ever-so-softly cries "Beep Beep" each day as he passes through our yard:
A little nail polish clean up from when the now 3-year-old painted his own toes while I packed the car for our May road trip to the beach:A "color" treasure hunt around the 'hood ... an idea - one of many - I stole from the Uber Mommy Cara at Livin' the Yeh Life:She does ALL the cool mom stuff ... and I attempt a few of them after she blogs to tell me about what I'm supposed to be doing. We invited a neighbor friend and they LOVED IT!! Next time I think we'll bring wipes & a trash bag! :-) The loot was truly treasured: Re-org of this hall linen/game/misc closet ... 5 down ... ? to go:
Tea parties with Spiderman and Ariel creatively using our beach treasure:A little laundry room clean-up:
Enjoying the beautiful backyard bushes blooming again now that the temps are getting down close to double digits again:
Hmmm, a little more nail polish in the jacuzzi. Didn't notice it through all the crayon:

Reminiscing about the one book I read this spring and wondering what ever happened to "summer reading?" My one book was actually a devotional by the golden-penned Holley Gerth - Rain on Me - which I highly recommend:Holley is a REAL writer who is too nice to tell me "golden-penned" not only doesn't make sense, it's not grammatically correct.

Oh, let's have a sip of "sea glass" and call it a day!....................

If you'd like an Inspiring Idea, try this: When short on time and money, create a semi-homemade gift or decor like an updated version of this wreath I used to sell in my shop a few years back. It was paper maché roses embellished with the Bible verse Joshua 24:15