{vroom vroom}

You know what's better than a good DIY project?

A free one!

By free I mean that I already had all of the supplies, most of them for so long now that I don't remember what I paid for them. So in my mind, that made them free. :)

Now on to the project. Ben's room needed some more art, and something to cover up the radio/intercom system on his wall. I wanted it to be graphic and bold, and coordinate with his car bedding. So I took a cue from the words on his comforter...

And I gathered my supplies:

• 16x20 art canvas
• light blue craft paint
• discarded CVS card (I'll show you how this comes in handy in a sec)
• paint brush
• pencil
• patterned paper
• white paper
• mod podge

I downloaded a free font from dafont.com that reminded me of the font on the bedding, and printed out the word "vroom" in the size I wanted. Then I cut out the letters, traced them onto my patterned paper {backwards on the back of the paper} and cut them out again.

To paint the canvas, I used a little trick that I learned from Melody Ross to speed up the process. I squirted a long line of paint across one end of the canvas, and used the side of my CVS card to drag the paint across it...

 This technique gives you an even and thin coat of paint super quickly, and it dries a lot faster. Considering I started this project when the boys were begging me to play with them, tricks like this are a lifesaver. I then used a paint brush to do the edges of the canvas and do the finish coat.

Once the paint was dry, I laid out my letters and some cute clouds I free-handed on white paper on the canvas. Once I had the arrangement I wanted, I used my new best friend mod podge to glue everything down, making sure I covered the entire front of the canvas with a thin coat of glue.

And here is the finished canvas!

It really gives his room the pop of color I was looking for. And I'm so proud that I was able to create this without going out and buying a single thing!

You never know what you might have laying around your house that you could turn into awesome art.

And I think Ben likes it too..

Linking up with...

{nostalgic}

Now that the boys are on the verge of moving into big boy beds, and they are anything but babies, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic (and OK, a tad weepy) thinking about their first nursery.

I loved it.

I guess every Mom would say that. It is the room you put your heart into decorating and the room that your little one (or ones in our case) sleep peacefully through the night (a mom can dream right?!).

So if you don't mind humoring me, I'm going to take a trip down memory lane and share the boys' nursery in our first home. Maybe some of my readers weren't around two years ago so this might be just as exciting for you! ;)

The room was actually my scrapbooking room when we found out I was pregnant... (yes I once had a room solely for the purpose of crafting. Sigh.)

We turned it into this...

The cozy brown walls...the modern but simple green bedding (which was from Walmart!)...it all just made me smile...

The room had a very natural feel with lots of owls scattered around....

This was an antique drying rack that I painted and used as a photo display. It is now in our family room being used for the same purpose...

And here were the boys the first night they slept in the room (they were 1 month here). So hard to believe how tiny they were...

So that's that.

Now I need to move onto the exciting world of toddler beds. And crazy little boys who will no longer be prisoners in their rooms at night.

Cue the action/adventure movie music

It should be an interesting ride.

{slowly}

Slowly, but surely, I am making this new house our home. It is so frustrating not to be able to get decorating projects done when at the pace I would like. Thank goodness for my mother-in-law, because I don't know how I would have gotten anything done without her help. She took the boys for half the day on Saturday and I got a few more projects knocked off of my list.

First was painting our front door. It was a bad shade of burgundy when we moved in (and a bad paint job as well) Here is the before:



Now it is a nice warm shade of brown:




I also had time to do some decorating and re-arranging in the boys' rooms. I hung up some new artwork in Landon's room including the autographed Ben Harper poster that the hubs won, and a very precious photo of Landon with his Great-Granddaddy. Landon loves this area now...whenever we are in the he goes right over to it and points at everything. So adorable.



And a new little arrangement on his cabinet:



I also switched out some owl prints in his room for "L" and "H" alphabet cards (his middle name is Harper):



I think his room is a lot cozier now. :)





In Ben's room, I got a few shelves installed in his cute little nook, as well as a collage frame and some knick-knacks.



I framed a "B" alphabet card for him, and hung that over his dresser.



I moved the bird canvas that was previously there to over his crib, where it now hides the useless intercom that's smack dab in the middle of the wall.



I also put up my fun new chalkboard wall decal a few days ago. A wire shelf I already had will serve as a great chalk / pretty decor holder. I love how it greets us as we walk down the stairs. A great place for positive reminders.







Now all I need is to buy some chalk! What quote do you think I should christen it with?

Happy Monday everyone...it is going to be a busy week!