Project 52: A Photo A Week-- Mommy Style

There is this thing going around, you may have heard of it, called Project 52 (or the 52 Project, 52 photo project, 52 portraits, etc) that so many people are participating in in 2013. The titles and themes are different but the idea is all the same...One photo per week in 2013, that's 52 photos based on a different theme per week. It's so easy when you think about it, most of us have smart phones and take at least one photo a week--if your an overly proud mama like some of us *cough* *cough*, you probably take more than one a day!
So the idea is for everyone to upload their photos to the same flicker account each week, but since some of us *cough* *cough* don't care to share their photos with millions everywhere just more of their dedicated readers :), you can also post the pictures on your blog or website to share with friends, family, and readers. I decided I wanted to make up my own themes that would force me out of my box for this project, and am incouraging my other mom bloggers to partcipate too. Come January 2014 I can't wait to look back at the year in review, one week at a time. So here are my first three weeks worth....more to come people, more to come!

Here are the first 13 weeks, if you have any suggestions for the next 13 weeks by all means give me a shout!! I may even try to feature pictures from others participating as well!
Week 1: The True State of Your House
Week 2: Playtime
Week 3: Candid Shot (including yourself)
Week 4: Affection
Week 5: Photo of a Photo
Week 6: Scrumptious
Week 7: Your Morning View
Week 8: Current Favorite Object
Week 9: Find Your Happy Place
Week 10: Time with Your Kids
Week 11: The Giggles
Week 12: Inspirational
Week 13: Nap-Time

Week 1:

 

 

 

 

 

WEEK 2

 

Week 3:

Organizing Cards

I'm a pack-rat by nature. So I love finding good organizational ideas, especial those that get rid of a whole drawer or trunk full of junk. Something that always gets shoved into drawers around our house: cards. When Liam was born and on his first birthday, we received so many sweet cards- not to mention those from our baby showers- and I couldn't just throw them away. Until now they were scattered throughout our house, but with two simple rings and a hole punch, they are now nice and neatly kept together on our bookshelf. I even used card stock paper to decorate a cover sheet, and put Liam's name in Braille.

(I think I'll do another for our Christmas cards and one for the cards from our wedding/bridal showers.)

Feet Art

Okay we have all seen the hand and foot art that kids do in preschool, usually for the holidays: a turkey hand, a foot butterfly, a foot candy corn, a hand leaf, or maybe a two handed turkey/peacock. The list goes on and on! Teachers have been getting so crafty with these projects, and they are all adorable. But, until now, I have not had the urge to recreate one of these at home with Liam while he is still of pre-preschool age. I was sure one would eventually get sent home with him whenever he starts to school in a year or two (yes, they do start early at the blind school). Then I saw one with a little baby's footprints that made my little mom heart melt. I decided I needed to do one with Liam, while his feet were still (somewhat) tiny, to hang on my wall. I must say, it took several attempts--and lots of stain remover for my bathroom floor--but capturing this small moment in his childhood was more than worth the mess!

Right above our bed it hangs with Liam's first piece of art.

The Nursery to Toddler Room Transformation Part 1

Slowly but surely, we have been turning Liam's nursery into a toddler's room. It started when we moved into our new house, I knew soon we would need more storage space for toys and less space for things like a changing table and containers of Desitin. So I procrastinated and saved his room for last to be worked on. Now that I'm finally getting around to working on it little by little I think I'll share bits and pieces here and there. 

So piece no. 1 

The owl art has been removed from over his bed (though I painted it and loved the tree branch, I hated my owl) so here's what replaced it....

(Side note: we have kept his owl theme minus the old piece above his bed.)

These frames were so easy and cheap to make! I purchased $5 photo frames at Walmart....

And after removing all the mat, glass and backing, I painted them blue with few streaks of dark brown mixed in to my paint-careful not to mix the colors more than necessary. (Also, dipping a cloth in dark brown paint/stainer and strategically rubbing it along with the wood grain were needed does the trick as well!) 

After I got the effect I wanted with my paints, I attached the wires along the back of the frame. 

Then using mini clothes pins, I hung my pictures and was done!! 

Up next for his room update: 

A toy bin padded bench

Changing table into a night stand 

Pallet made bookshelves 

New bedding

At Home Coffee Bar

We have a serious problem in our new house... It's called a lack of kitchen counter space. It's very serious too as my hubby is a major chef and spends lots of time in the kitchen. He's one of those "use every pot and pan on one meal" kind of cookers too.
So what to do when you have less counter space than your used to?
Well keeping lots of appliances on them is totally a bad idea as we have found. These appliances usually end up sitting out of the way in the laundry room or dinning table were we eventually have to move them right back after clean up, and clean up never happens the same night.
Part of our kitchen appliance clutter=our two coffee pots (not his and hers, more like coffee pot and cappuccino/expresso machine). Yes we are major coffee snobs and we are totally okay with that.
So to get these off our counter top and provide the master chef with a little more room, we made a coffee bar out of our old china cabinet. All it took was a $6 board from Lowes, a $0.99 bottle of white paint which we already had, two $5 bracers, $1.99 hooks and a handy dandy husband to install it all. Five minutes later ta-da!!
Clean counters = cute coffee nook.
Cute coffee nook = clean counters.
It's what we call a win-win.

Rewind Time for a Pumpkin

So you got excited that it was officially fall, and you carved your pumpkin a little too early huh???
Well join the club--because I totally did--but now it's withering before we get to Halloween night (when everyone sets out their pumpkins and lights them up) so what now? Carve a new one? Have none?
Nope! You're going to save that pumpkin!! How?
Why soak it in a sink full of water of course! I know what your thinking because I was too when my sister-in-law suggested this...

"Won't it get soggy and fall apart?"

Nope here's proof in my photos.
Just run a sink full of water (room temperature) and soak it for a few hours (or if your like me overnight) and ta-da!! The pumpkin "re-hydrates" itself, and is ready to go!

(Sorry, no photo of the withered pumpkin, but the after photo is 6 days after the before shot!)

Happy Halloween all!!

Fun with Audio Books

An amazing invention that our family has recently been hooked on are Hallmark's amazing audio children's books. These are not just any audio books with some boring narrator, these books let you customize the audio "play back" with your own voice or anyone else's that is near by! So if mom and dad want to record themselves reading the book to their child, taking turns with every page, they can. If grandparents want to send a book to their grandkids with their voice narrating, they can! If we wanted our Hispanic sitter to help us record a Spanish version to play as we read it aloud for Liam, she could! If you wanted to read it with sound affects, funny voices or funny add-ins, you can! Any way you can think of is possible with these books; there's so many ways to record the book for your child! 

We have found that even when Liam's visual impairment keeps him from seeing the small print and the small items in the pictures, we can "set the scene" for him as we record it do that he doesn't miss anything in his reading experience. Hallmark has so many different books to choose from too! They brought us comfort when we were unsure of how bad Liam's vision would be because we knew with these books he could still enjoy reading like we do or more!  So thankful we found them!!