S Club Mama

As I've just repainted the boys' bedroom, I really want to do more DIY and painting in our home to make it more "us." Not 100% sure how "us" looks but beige walls aren't what I'm thinking. I was more than happy to review "A Beautiful Mess: Happy Handmade Home" by Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman . They are bloggers at A Beautiful Mess and really have crafted their homes into "them." The book itself is beautiful - full of bright, colorful pictures, a few recipes, DIY tips. It's just a book that screams "fun!" However, the content was less than I was hoping for. image via Random House A few of the DIY (do it yourself, for those not up on acronyms) projects are completely do-able - the quotable wall art, hanging plants, flower faces 9 ways, update your old refrigerator. OK so most of the DIY are do-able but then there's a few that are out there (mostly in the time realm): yarn throw pillows (making your own loo...

This morning we had a 10am late start for school due to icy conditions. Squirt asked me to "make the bwown fing [brown thing] that Hawley Quinn [Harley Quinn is the Joker's girlfriend in Batman stuff sometimes] has." Um...what? He showed me a picture in a Lego Batman book of Harley Quinn using a catapult to launch a pie at Batman and Robin. He loves when I make things. I've been working on a sling for when he wants to be King David. I made one the other day but it doesn't work well. I'm thinking Christmas gift via Etsy. The catapult was as easy as searching "DIY catapult" on Google. Here's the website I used. Moose had fun but he really just wanted to eat the marshmallows. And yes, we did eat some but folks, it was 8:30am! I plan to make some more for partial Christmas gifts. I think these could be hours of fun!

Welcome Heather from Shutterfly! Thanks for hanging out at the S Club. While I'm hanging out with my mom and sisters at the College World Series, enjoy her vision for Kitchen Remodeling! It seems everyone is on the do it yourself (DIY) kick lately, thanks to home remodeling television shows and social networking sites such as Pinterest. Why not jump on the bandwagon and remodel your kitchen? The kitchen is a central gathering place in the home, where food brings people together. But remodels are hefty in price, right? Not necessarily.  In fact, it’s completely possible to do a budget-friendly kitchen remodel , but you need to set the highest amount of money you’re willing to spend and stick to it. Make sacrifices in certain areas and prioritize what you really want the most. For example, are granite countertops most important to you? Get those and buy blank appliances instead of the typically-more-expensive stainless steel. If something is really essential, splurg...

Command center. What a silly name, right? But it seems to be all the rage on Pinterest. I've seen several tutorials on there of beautiful command centers. What is a command center? A place of organization where your house comes to thrive! I love organization. I've never been to Ikea or Pottery Barn (scratch that, I've been to PB...I think), but I imagine it'd be a little slice of Type A heaven for me. After seeing all of these lovely organizational pretties online, I decided a little DIY was in order in the S Club. After scouring online for hours...yikes...I decided on simpler (and cheaper - whoa prices can skyrocket on organizational items). Below is the main part of our command center. The largest frame is one we had an engagement picture in where everyone wrote well-wishes on a mat. I got a poster board from Dollar General and put a generic calendar on there (no numbers, just days of the week). Then I use a marker board marker to write up our schedule. The file folde...