Done and Done

I've had this project in mind for many months and had big dreams of getting this done for our *whispers* bare-walled guest room, before we had some company in March, but alas, I am just getting finished now.

It's amazing that we've been in this house for a year and a half, and my husband is a photographer, and we still have very little on our walls.

Anyway, here's what I did.

First pick out several (I did 9) really cool pieces of 12 X 12 scrapbook paper. This is a great chance to bring some other colors into your room!

Then go to Home Depot or Lowe's or somewhere and buy MDF or plywood. They will cut it for you there, especially if you go there without your husband and pretend like you don't know what "No Project Cuts" or "No Exact Cuts" means! Ask them to cut it into 12" X 12" squares.

Grab some spray paint for the edges of your "frames", a can of spray adhesive, and some wall mounts for your pictures and go home!

Now you're ready to get your boards ready. For whatever reason white spray paint didn't work on my MDF. It might have needed primer, I don't know. $.97 wasted but luckily I had white paint in the garage. Paint (or spray paint) the edges (let dry) and then nail in your hangers and the boards are ready. Ugh. My nails were so short that I had to use tweezers to nail them in.

Now you can affix your papers to your boards. This took a little practice for me. Spray adhesive is super strong. It's like superglue but covers a much bigger area.

Now it's time to find a wall! You (may) also have to find your husband and ask for help hanging them up. This may be the hardest step of them all!

Practice arranging boards until you realize that once the screws are in the wall, you can move them around as much as you want.

Time to hang it up!

Snap a quick picture once it's on the wall and finally let your baby take a nap in the room! Admire later!

Hopefully I can get Matt to take some nice pictures later. My pictures don't look as nice as it looks in person. But now there is ONE wall in our guest room that has something on it. *whew* And it only took a year and a half!

Definitely NOT Me Monday

Good morning everyone!  If you are a member of PETA, please, read no further.

This morning I most certainly did not forget that there is wildlife in urban California as, on the end of my run, I almost tripped over a SNAKE and jumped about 3 feet straight up in the air!  Of course if a snake did cause me to jump into the air from fright it would be because it was a giant man-eating anaconda, and not a helpless little garter snake.  ugh. wuss.

A moment after passing said GIANT MONSTER, I definitely did not remember that HEY!  I am a brave woman.  Hey I have BOYS.  I am a TEACHER.  I grew up with a snake loving brother and we had Pythons for heaven's sake.  I held them all the time!  I should go back and get him!!  I would never have turned around and looked for the snake and thought about taking him home, regardless of the fact that I was no where near my car and had nothing to bring it home in.  Anything for an educational experience right??  I was not considering just taking off my long-sleeved shirt and tying up the arms, etc. to bring him home in.
Thank goodness I didn't find him.  I may be a brave woman, but I am still a woman and what if he had gotten out in the car??  SHRIEK!

On my way home I definitely did not run over 2 birds in the middle of my lane.  There's not much more to say about that one.

If I had, tragically and unfortunately run over 2 birds on my way home, in an unavoidable fashion, I most certainly would not have looked in my rearview mirror at the CLOUD of feathers and thought about how sad it was, and then thought:  "but man, I LOVE this song, and I never hear it on the radio!  I'll just enjoy the song and then be sad about the birds."

Do you think I am an awful person yet?  If "yes". please stop reading.
If "no", feel free to continue.

I didn't...ummm..... search for a picture of bird feathers in a cloud because I like to illustrate my blog, using searches like "dead birds" "flying cloud of bird feathers" and "run over bird".  


I'm not sad that I didn't find a good shot of the feather bomb that must have gone off,  in the window of the car behind me.

After enjoying my song.... I didn't forget about the birds.  You know, from 2 minutes before.

And I'm not way more concerned that you guys are going to judge me for liking loving country music than for killing 2 birds.

whew.  I feel a little lighter!  Small animals of Oakland, beware!  I might go to the grocery store later!

Studly Saturday

Hope the scenery is as nice where you are!

Fun Times

It's been a busy month since I left you.  Sorry to be SO totally bad at keeping up with the blog after my promise to blog everyday.  I guess the balance is in finding something in between posting everyday and posting every month...

So here are a few snapshots of our life in the last month.  It's been busy to say the least...

Month in review...... aaand go:

Friend Chris visits, Have fun, Joey poops on him, make mistake about when Matt's parents are coming to visit, have overlap with Chris and Beardsley family - good times hopefully had by all, Matt goes to Ski with Rob and Dad, Beardsley ladies *minus Jessie, missed you!* hang out, Laurie gets some free time (Thank you Kay!!), go to Academy of Sciences with Beardsleys, fun visit, Beardsleys leave, Fly kites with Rob, Drink with Rob, Rob leaves, test out new bike trailer (fits 2 kids!!, found on craigslist cheap!!), Joey wears training pants sometimes, no potty training yet, but pre-potty training is great!, Mocha and Ziggy up to their usual craziness, start watching some little girls from church, second income helpful, church buys a new building = BIG DEAL!!  Congratulations to Christ Church!!, Baby Matthew remains cute, rolls everywhere but no crawling yet, Matt has birthday and gets many fun toys including an iphone and cool pasta maker, make lots of fusili, have giant bee hive removed from side of the house, costs a zillion dollars and has a TON of honeycomb.  Consider going into obviously lucrative bee removal business.  whew

Intersperse Matt's classes, the business, my mom's group and babysitting, and our community group and church obligations, and the occasional housecleaning and laundry doing (but not putting away) and you have a month in the life of the Beardsleys.  We may not be South American missionaries anymore, but we are definitely

still

Beardsleys In Action!

Anyone want any honey?