Aged Pallet String Art

Have you ever wondered how to age wood?  Well my sweet friend Staci taught me how and I finally decided to try it out.  It’s really cool and I was so surprised but how well it worked.  How do you do it?  Vinegar.

 

I decided to make a pallet sign but instead of just painting it, I wanted to age it.  Then I thought it would be fun it make a G for it using nails and bakers twine. 

This is how I made it:

I took several pieces of wood and cut them all to the same size.

With some gorilla glue I glued some thin pieces of wood onto the back. 

I put some paint cans on top so it was dry and stick to the wood. 

Here it is all ready to be aged. 

I put a steel wool sponge into the vinegar and let it set for over 3 hours. 

Then I just put the vinegar onto the wood.  I did 3 coats. 

I let it dry and it turned out like this, awesome huh?

I then hammered some nails into the wood in the shape of a G. 

I took some yellow bakers twine and wrapped it around the nails. 

Using some green bakers twine, I wrapped around the edge of the G. 

And that’s it!  I put it up on my wall and I love it!

It’s so fun!

I would love it if you followed along.

Baby Blow Out Bag

My little boy is now at the horrible blow out stage.  If you've had a baby, you know exactly what I am talking about.  It's horrible, especially happens when you are on the go.  Or if it gets all over you, my baby's first one got all over me.... it was lovely.  I always have an onesie in the diaper bag, just in case of a blow out.    But I don't have something to put the soiled clothes into.  So I made a bag to put them into so they don't get my diaper bag all dirty.

This is how I made it:

I cut fabric into two pieces, one 10"x12" and the other one 10"x9".

Then I cut another fabric into the same sizes.  I also cut some clear plastic vinyl to the same sizes.  The plastic vinyl will be in the inside, so the fabric doesn't get ruined.  

I rounded all of the corners.

Then I put some Velcro onto the inside 10x12 piece and vinyl.   And then onto the outside 9x12 piece.  

I put all of the fronts together and then sewed the three sides together, leaving the bottom open.  

I flipped it inside out and then did a top stitch on the three sides.  

I placed the outside pieces together and then sewed the three sides together, leaving the top open.  

I flipped the bag inside out and that's it!

So the next time my little guy has a blow out, I can just put his clothes into the bag  and close it.  

I can toss it into the diaper bag and not worry about everything else getting dirty.  Then when I get home, I can just throw the whole thing into the washer.  

I would love it if you followed along.

Backyard Night Games with Energizer Headlights

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You all know that I have young kids, very young kids.  Sometimes it's a challenge to keep them entertained so I'm always trying to come up with fun activities to do with them.  My kids are VERY active and don't like to sit still for longer than 2 minutes, so I knew they needed a game to play that would keep them moving and entertained.

When I was a kid, we would play night games all. the. time.  We would get all of the kids on our street, dress up in all black and play games.  We played kick the can, ghost in the graveyard, swinging statues and just plain tag.  Now that my kids are getting older, I thought it would be fun to teach them how to play ghost in the graveyard.  And let me tell you, it was a huge hit!!

Whenever you play night games, it's always fun to have flashlights.  So what better way to play than have one on your head so you don't have to worry about dropping it or it falling off, so you can run super hard and fast.  I headed to Walmart and bought some of the Energizer night headlights.  For my whole trip, check out my google+ album here.  

We headed over to some of our good friends' house and I gave each one a headlight to play.  

Ghost in the graveyard is a mix between tag and hide in seek.  One player goes and hides.  I made them turn off their headlight so no one could see them.  These two wanted to hide together.

The rest of the group has their headlights on and they count to 10, 50 or 100.  (Clearly these pictures were for different games :D).

The kids go and search for the one that is hiding and when they think they have seen the hider, they yell "Ghost in the graveyard."  And then they run to base.  The hider can either start chasing them or continue to hide.  

When everyone sees the hider, the game turns into tag and it's a race to base.  Then the person that gets tagged goes and hides and you start the game over again.

As you can tell by the kids' faces, they had a BLAST!!  And the headlights made it even funner for them.  Especially since when the sun goes down they can continue to play.  Summer nights have the best weather, so it's the best time to just play outside so these lights will definitely come in handy.

I am so excited to use the night headlights for other things too.  Living in the country, it gets really dark at night.  Like really dark.  Our garage is about 30 feet from our house so when I have to go out to the garage at night, I have to hold a flashlight.  It's not great when I have to carry something out there.  So these will be perfect to use so I can use my hands.  They are also great to have in our emergency survival kits.  We get black outs here that can last for days, so it's great to have something on my head for light so I can use my hands, like cooking.  Oh and I'm totally going to use them for when I go running in the morning or at dusk to help #LightMyWay.  

I would love it if you followed along.

Motivate Me Monday #178

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all of those fathers out there!!

How was your weekend?  We headed down to Kansas to visit our friends there. I love all the fun little vacations that we get to take in the summer, even if it's just a little weekend trip to visit friends and family.

Thanks to everyone that linked up last week!  I really do appreciate you all!

Mercury glass lamp by One Day at a Time

Angry Bird M&M Cake by The Joy of Boys

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes by 2 Kids and A Coupon

Patriotic Mantel by I dig Pinterest

Spinach, Cilantro, Avocado Pasta Salad by Tastes Better From Scratch

Tire Ladder  by Exploring Domesticity

Toppling Pots by Reduce, Reuse, Renew

Patriotic Kids Bag by Crafty Journal

And now onto the party!

I would love it if you followed along.