Tag: Creative Stuff (Page 3 of 4)

Climbing Walls

June 26, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

With a new addition to the family, comes a lot of new stuff. First thing we got was

a Litter Kwitter. I told the Judi if she’d toilet train the cat I’d pay her $50.

It’ll save us probably $1000 in cat litter and I know I’d be the one cleaning it

for years to come if I weren’t paying her..

so I am actually feeling guilty about the steal I am making.

The cat in the add photo is a Russian Blue like George. I am even more hopeful.

Then we got her some flushable litter, food, food bowls and a collar.

We looked around at food bowls. The ugly ones designed for pets cost around $5 each.

I decided to look at bowls designed for humans in Target. They are so much cheeper!

I knew I had this fir at home, and had planned on making her a bed.

I remember when Mamalene used it to make Ruthie a cat costume one year.

I made it so that it opens at the ends and can be used as a tunnel, too.

She loves it; knew it was hers right away.

I knew I needed to do something about a scratching post.

I don’t want my furniture torn to shreds and I’d prefer not to have to declaw her.

Have I shown you the lamp I got a few months ago? We needed some light

on this side of the living room. George thinks it’s great. She even climbed up from

the inside of it one night when it was turned on and made a cool shadow.

Sorry no picture.

She’s also been climbing the curtains next too it.

See the threads she’s puled? I trimmed her nails.. it’s helped a little.

I knew I didn’t want one of those monster climbing trees.

They are ugly, take too much space, cost a fortune and

I am sure that the moment George climbed up it

Sally would chase her and it’d come tumbling down.

So I discovered these cat walk climbing shelves and thought to myself,

“I could make those.” I tried to make it a Father’s Day surprise for Mike,

but he noticed right away all the money I was spending at Lowes.

I think I spent around $60 total for all the supplies. It would have cost less

had I not been low on sand paper and left

my wood stain and mineral spirits at our old house.

I found a rug for $12 at TJ Max for the scratching/climbing boards.

I used velcro to keep the mats on the shelves so she won’t slide right off.

George loves it! She was climbing it before I had it finished.

The first day she climbed up and took a nap on this shelf.

I made her a ball with some left over fur and she like’s it, too.

Here she goes.

I purposely put the shelf at a height where

she can bat at the kids heads as they walk by.

So if you’re tall, Beware!

See Joel in the picture below? He’s working on Trig/Calculus.

Anytime he asks for help, I just laugh.

I took the opportunity to use Georgia’s play place as graphic/prayer art.

It’s centrally located where if we catch her clawing

one of our couches (or lamp or curtains) or jumping up on a counter

we can easily take her over to her scratching post.

I told the kids that it’s her time out spot.

James put her other ball on the top shelf.
Georgie not quite big enough to climb up there by herself,

but she’s already twice as big as when we got her so it won’t be long,
and she can jump from shelf to shelf to get down.

Hope you’re having a great weekend.

Love,

Closet Organization Projects

April 13, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

I rarely wear any of my jewelry..

Mostly because I am too lazy to pull it out from my drawer.

I saw some jewelry boards when we were in TN last

and I thought ‘what a wonderful idea’..

I had a mini bulletin board that I wasn’t using..

Looked in my fabric/linnen closet..

I am so happy to have it all out where I can see it and not in boxes anymore.

Found this stained dresser cloth..

Put them together… and added some push pins and jewelry

Doesn’t she seem to be saying, .. “Don’t forget your jewelry.”

It’s so accessible now.

I found some extra space behind my closet door while I was there.

When I found the idea of hanging a packed toiletry bag in my closet

on “Organize Your Stuff Now”, I was very excited.

I used keep this bag under my sink..

It was very messy and unorganized under there and I had

to sit on the floor to dig it out.

Taking it out and packing it.. made room for me to organize

the rest of the stuff under my sink..

Leeanne suggests buying travel sized bottles of the stuff you use

then refilling them with your large bottles when they get low.

I do that but I also collect trail sized bottles from our hotel rooms.

With a family of 6 you can use a bunch in a few days.

The toothpaste and floss samples we save from dentist visits.

I take new toothbrushes with us.. just incase someone forgets theirs.

All I have to do when we go on a trip is grab my makeup etc. from my drawer.

Yay!

I bought this over the door hanger at the same time I bought

the popup hanger thing for the laundry room.

I didn’t need it in our new laundry room so I am using it to hang

my extra purses and a straw garden hat from Thailand.

Thanks for taking my closet tour..

Love,

Sunday Go To Church Hats

April 13, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

My Mamalene’s hats hung in Judi’s room until she out grew her “girly” room
and got a fancy new red comforter for her bed for her birthday a couple of years ago.

We never unpacked them our last move, but since this time I am bound
and determined to unpack and use everything I own or throw them out
I decided to spruce them up and find a new place to hang them.

A few of them had some water damage (not sure how),
so I googled “how to clean vintage hats.”
No one would suggest anything to try except to take them to a professional.
My dry cleaner wouldn’t touch them,
so I brought them home and cleaned them
in the sink with some water and spray and wash..

They came out OK.. better than they were.. I discovered that the hats have
an inner liner that I think is starched.. when it gets wet it gets sticky
and the hat looses all it’s shape.. but when you blow dry it it stiffens back up again.
I used one of my tupperware canisters as a reshaping block.
I only washed the off white ones.. then I used a permanent marker
to touch up a couple of the colored ones..

The veiling on most of them was very brittle and in bad shape
and I couldn’t find any new veiling locally so I found a great millinery supply
store on line called Judith M. Millinery Supplies. I thought that was a great name.
They had all the colors I needed and more for only a little over 2 dollars a yard..
and they shipped them to me supper fast;
I ordered them on a Monday and received them by the following Wednesday.

Before.. this is one of the ones I touched up with a permanent marker.

After with new veiling.

I had most of them finished and ready to hang Friday and asked Mike if I should hang them over our video cabinet or in the foyer… his answer was neither.. “Hang them somewhere I won’t see them.”

Thankfully I had a back up plan.. other wise I may have reverted

to acting like a two year old by throwing a tantrum.

Yes, I occasionally still do that.. but not as often as I want to.

Here are all the hats together.

I learned a trick of stuffing them with tissue paper to help them hold their shape.

I wanted to hang them above our video cabinet. I thought it would be fun

to have them near my vintage pictures of my grandparents.

This was my back up plan..

luckily it was in the one place Mike wouldn’t have to see them, my closet.

It’ll be fun to see them first thing in the morning when I get dressed each day..

I thought it would be fun to have some ladies over for tea and to pull them

off the wall to wear sometime.. of course then I was thinking my prayer room wall.

I did a couple of other projects in my closet today too for my mourning therapy..

I love how I feel when I get something organized.

.. to be continued.

Introducing the Laundry Room

April 11, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

My laundry room is usually the last room unpacked and the one I am most excited

to have done; there’s something about weeks and weeks of

trying to get the wash done admits chaos.. then wa-la.. order!

The lack of storage and the fact that the mirror/coatrack (a garage sale find)

that’s hung near our backdoor for the last seven years broke in the move

inspired me to buy some paint and shelf paper and go a little over the top coordinating.

Our laundry room is right off the kitchen.. here is a view from there.

The door straight back leads to the garage.

Here’s a close up of the back wall. I made the clock for our kitchen in FL.

All my left over decor ended up in here so it’s mix matched.

See the tall plastic thing with the polka dots?

I bought it at the Container Store for our last house. It opens up.. (see below)

A family of six can never have too much space for hanging clothes.

Here’s a view from the garage. The door on the left is a pantry.

I use it to store our vacuum, light bulbs.. etc.

If I re-mat the “Train up your child” verse over the

window in blue, it might go a little better.

This is what the shelves looked like before I recovered them

with the new polka dot shelf paper I found at Target.

The shelves held Josh’s rock collection and dinosaurs among other things for years.

For the last two houses, Josh hasn’t unpacked the stuff

that goes on the shelves, so I repurposed them.

My friend, Suzanne, gave me this cute breadbox

that she found at a garage sale in Germany (I think).

My dusting supplies are in it now. I hung the selves so it’d just fit.

The little covered can next to it is a little trash can for my dryer lent.

I found the canisters years ago at Goodwill.

They are too fussy for my new kitchen,

so I am using them to hide my dry cleaning supplies etc.

I labeled them so I can remember what’s in which.

I found the plastic carafes at Target and made labels for them on the computer;

there’s one for bleach, softener, vinegar.. and several for detergent.

Two or three times a year I buy this huge bottle of Ecos laundry detergent

at Costco that washes a whopping 150 loads.

My new front loading washer (love my new washer & dryer) uses half as much

detergent and washes almost twice as many clothes in a load than my

old washer and dryer (that broke in our last move).

There are so many small detergent bottles because I divide up

the large, heavy bottle of Ecos into smaller bottles to make it easier to manage.

I moved my gift rapping supplies from my closet into this basket in the laundry room..

I am not real happy with the way the two baskets look together..

I moved two Raggedy Ann ornaments from my bathroom vanity

to the window sill to make a collection. I like them all together.

I made the message board from a frame I found in the trash.

It’s hung over my kitchen sink in our last two houses.

I need to find coordinating fabric to re-cover it and dress the window.

I use the trash cans between the washer and dryer for sorting whites etc.

I got the wash rags in a white sale at Kolhs. They cover the washer drain hose nicely.

The rags I’ve had for 20 years all but bit the dust.

I bought the mail box years ago as a place to put videos in

that need to be returned to the store.

We have Net Flicks now and I am not sure what to do with it.

I bought the laundry baskets years ago to sort the kids’ laundry into.

I color coded them with ribbons. The idea was that they were to take their basket

and put their things away once a week, but instead they just use them like drawers.

They hardly even use their dressers for clothes anymore.

The posters are from DoorPost.. I don’t use them any more..

I need someone to give me a rule about what to keep and not keep for grandkids.

I am keeping plastic shopping bags in the container with the blue lid..

found it in the neighbor’s trash a couple weeks ago.

I made the shelf from left over parts from a porta-crib I slept in as a child.

I used most of it when I made Joel and Josh’s beds a couple of years ago.

Here is my inspiring mirror. I had a new piece of glass cut for it.

It was a darkly stained, oak mirror with brass hooks before I painted it to match.

I used dots from the shelf paper to dress it up.

The raincoats are handy for we have to walk Sally in the rain.

The door on the left houses our AC and the one on the right is to our half bath.

Judi’s claimed it as her bathroom and keeps it locked so no boys can use it.

If it were up to her, it’d have a shower, too.

One last piece of the porta-crib is currently holding family photos..

One day when my photos are more organized I’d like to change them up.

Last photo.. I love this broom/mop holder..

so nice to have the stuff up off the floor where it won’t fall over.

I miss it when it’s packed away.

That’s a lot of photos for one of the smallest rooms in my house.

Don’t know if you’ll ever really be able to get a sense

of the lay out without coming to visit in person.

We are sure looking forward to Mom and Dad coming next week.

Miss you all,

Playing With Rocks and Things

April 3, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I decided this dresser needed a little something.

Wana come play with my rock sculpture?

I shopped around the house and garage

to find some more rocks and things to add to my fireplace.

The kids got the drift wood as a gift from one of their friends years ago.

I don’t think they want it anymore.

These candle holders were half off at Hobby Lobby this week.

I used them to display my sand and shell collection from FL.

I love the way my Texas photos look in the bathroom.

It’s the one room that I can’t look out the window to the lake.

They are like little windows into TX.

Another window ledge for rocks and shells.

This is the window we used to sneak into the house when it was being built.

I think Mike gets to look at this one more than I do.

I have one last window scape to share with a new scripture photo

and photos from our trip to DC in mason jars over my kitchen sink.

Love,

Piano Photos

March 24, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I spent Spring Break working on photos around the house.

I made these scripture photos of the kids for the hall of our last house.

They looked great there in their red mats and I love reading the verses over and over,

but ever since I hung them over the piano in our new living room

I’ve been very unhappy with them..

The frames looked dirty next to my builder’s paint wall and

although I love red, most everything in this house is green.

I re-matted them in some scrap charcoal-gray mat board, and still didn’t like them.

Then I saw some similar frames painted my favorite color green

and was inspired to buy some paint a few weeks back.

It took me a while to get up the courage to actually try painting them.

Before and Afters

It was a cloudy day and my picts could have turned out better.

I watered down the paint quite a bit

then wiped off the bronze highlights so they would show through.

They don’t quite look like the ones I saw but I like them much better now.

They go better with the wall and I think the pictures stand out more now.

I may regret painting them if I ever get around to painting some color on my walls.

I bought these glass frames for a dollar each last week.

I used as many pictures as I could find with a music theme.

I used Savannah’s fb picture matted with this verse:

More house picts to come…

His Banner Over Me is Love

February 11, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

I wanted to do something special for Valentine’s Day this year.

I didn’t used to be a big Valentine’s Day girl, but years of faithfully being

unconditionally loved by Jesus and Mike has brought me around.

I was inspired by a collection of cards and letters that I’ve kept since before I was married.

This move I decided that it was time to up grade from the

three overflowing shoe boxes I had them in to something prettier.

I wanted a couple of those large decorative cardboard boxes to store them in

on the top shelf of my closet, but I couldn’t find one that I liked for a good price.

So after weeks of searching, I bought this tin chest for $14 at Marshalls.

So many sweet letters and cards

It doubles as a side table and almost all my letters fit in it;

meaning I needed to go through them all and weed out a few.

The ones I like best are the ones that are about everyday stuff

that was going on in the lives of my friends and family.

I carefully read all the ones with Bible verses, too for their rich encouragement.

I was so inspired that I really wanted to send all my friends and

family a Valentine’s Day letter. I spent hours looking for the perfect verse to share

and trying to think of something to say.

I decided that Song of Songs 2:4 was the perfect verse.

Then I ended up playing on photoshop and learning some new tricks

with some free brushes and made this banner.

Here’s a link to the brushes I found..

if you google “free photoshop brushes” you’ll find tons more.

http://www.easyelements.com

It’s my very first Valentine’s Day decoration.

It says, “His Banner over me is LOVE. Song of Songs 2:4

I wasn’t quick enough to print out and mail the banners to everyone,

so I uploaded a pdf file of it for you to print and make your own

I printed mine on card stock, cut out each heart with different fancy edged scissors

and used a large needle to tie the hearts together with ribbon. Here’s the link:

His Banner is Love

Happy Valentines Day!

Enjoy!

Love Jenny Quilt

February 11, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

The very first thing I learned to sew in homemaking class was this quilt.

It’s made with two sheets, batting for the middle, and yarn to tie it together.

I embroidered “Love Jenny” on the corner and gave it to Mike

to remember me by before he left for CFNI.

After just one year at CFNI, the quilt had worked its magic;

Mike came home to court me, and we married the following June.

The quilt is now over 26 years old and has lived a very full life of miracle making.

It kept us warm in our first apartment, through four babies,
many camping trips, and has now made it to our newest and hopefully last house.

When I was unpacking this time, I noticed that when you hold it up to the light
you can see right through it and decided that it’s time for it to be put to rest.

Good bye, old quilt. Thanks for catching me such a wonderful man
and for the many years of love and warmth.

Our Game Room/Den

January 23, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Here are more picts of our house.

You can see the foyer and Prayer room through these doors.

Just outside and to the right is our front door.

This is our game room/den.

It’s basically the kids’ TV room. They enjoy watching shows like

“Everybody Loves Raymond” while doing their math homework in here.

The French doors keep their TV noise separate from the rest of the house,

while allowing us to check in on what they are watching.

Each flower pict has part of the Love Chapter printed on it.

Did you know that love is so many things? I love the garden effect.

I am still trying to get the hang of gardening, so I enjoy my love picture garden year round.

The blank wall is reserved for my family quilt. I need to get to work on finishing it.

I got the lamp in Gatlinburg last year. I love the colors.

The cord wasn’t long enough to reach the ceiling and back,

so I created the arm from a piece of molding and a dowel from HD.

Here is my collage of C&W’s families. Do you like it?

Minus the frame it only cost $6 to print at Costco.

I was very happy with how it turned out.

I’d like to update it from time to time so I can remember how big the kids are getting.

Like my scripture/photo art? I cut the mat to fit and printed the words on sticker paper.

Moving around the room to the game amore.

I have a small collage of Mike’s nephews and nieces on the TV shelf.

I am hoping one day to find the perfect fabric for curtains and the pillows.

I hate the brown pillows that came with the couch.

It’s my bright, red, white, blue, orange and green room.

Sowing Seeds in the Kid’s Bath

January 22, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I was able to finish the photos in time to order and pick them up

on our weekly shopping trip after gymnastics.

I decided to put the parable on the photos and the explanations in brackets

on little cards like at a museum.

I thought that printing them that way would draw more attention to them than

if I put both on the photo and that it was actually easier to read that way.

It’s kinda a long story so I thought it was my best chance of getting it read.

I edited my first post about the parable and put in the words I used if you’d like to read it.

I’d like to put “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” above it.

But that will be a while later.

Anyone have one of those vinyl letter making machines I can borrow?

I will be taking all the kids into the bathroom for a tour of the story

and make sure that we have a family devotion where we discuss

the things I learned from Joseph Prince. 🙂

I made the numbered birds Sunday. What for??

When we were selling our house in FL, I bought the new

silvery sage towels and rainbow shower curtain to help stage the house.

For years I had a different color towel for each kid,

so that if there was a towel on the floor there was no question who left it,

although they’d like to argue that there was.

Since I replaced the old ratty towels, no one can remember which towel is theirs

and they almost always choose a new one from under the sink and,

of course, throw it on the floor when they are done.

It took me forever to try to think of a way to identify their towels. I thought about sewing on colored ribbons.. but then they’d have to look through the towels to find the right one.

So I am trying the numbered birds. The odd numbers are a little lower than

the even for the towels on the lower rack.

So far I think it’s working. 🙂

Here’s the rest of the bathroom.

I know their getting a little too old for Murdock the talking duck, but he’s so cute.

Thanks for looking at my hall bath parable. More house photos to come.