One of the things on my “2011 To Do List” is “paint a painting.”

The kids and I are going to start working on some painting projects next week, but first I needed to see if the acrylic paint would do okay with watercolor paper. (I didn’t really want to have to buy a bunch of the canvas boards if I didn’t have to. Not at first anyway…

So here’s my test:

The boy wanted me to do an underwater scene with a submarine:

And then I wanted to use up the rest of the paint on my palette so I did this:

And so begins our journey into painting! I can’t wait for next week. =)

I’m still on the prowl for frugal (and picky family friendly) recipes so if you have any good links leave them in the comments please!

Here’s what is on the menu for this week:

• Monday – Easy Peasy Crockpot Lasagna
• Tuesday – Lemon Pepper Chicken and Pasta
• Wednesday – Homemade Waffles, Turkey Bacon, Fruit
• Thursday – Family Casserole
• Friday -Tostadas
• Saturday – Beans, Smoke Sausage & Cornbread

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura @ I’m and Organizing Junkie!

Today I went over to my MIL’s house and finished an apron for Drama Queen. She helped me pick out the fabrics and colors. She really likes it and its really cute on her.

However, on the way home one of the ties got stuck under the booster seat and broke!!! Here’s a picture of the front (these images can be enlarged by clicking):

I’m still a fairly novice seamstress, and this is the first time I’ve messed with rick-rack, so it’s not that great but overall I’m happy. It’s also reversible:

The back side is pretty plain though, so I’m thinking that maybe it needs some sort of appliqué heart or something. Since I now have to replace the waist ties, might as well take care of that, too, while I’m at it. Don’t you think?

So I guess I’m not really finished yet, huh?

Tackle It Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

Fabric.com Coupon Corner

Yup. Still working on my kitchen.

No, I’m not tearing down walls or installing new appliances. (Oh-how-I-wish!) But you know those little capsules that you put in water and they expand and grow into little sponge animals? Yeah, my little organizational project grew into a BIG organizational project, something like the expanding sponge capsules. So when I moved one thing to one cabinet because it would be better grouped there, I realized there were other things that would be better stored somewhere else, and so on and so on. It’s like musical chairs for your kitchen cabinets.

So I’ve still been working on getting it all done. I’m almost there, honest! I’m just fitting in a piece here and there as I can. But a couple of days ago I took a break from organizing to work on some decorating. Sunday I spent about four hours working on new curtains for my kitchen. It shouldn’t have taken me that long, but the sewing machine was giving me fits at one point and eating my fabric – ack! And then I ruined my first valance (no, believe me, it was ruined) that curved down on the sides, so when I made the second one I was tired and frustrated so I just made a straight valance instead. All in all, I’m happy with it!

Here’s the before…

I didn’t think to snap a real before picture, but I had the one above that I took and sent to my mom after the ladies helped me clean a couple months ago. There’s more in this post from last June when I did a previous reorganization project. The kitchen (every kitchen we have ever had) has always been the hardest for me to organize and clean and my least favorite place to be. I liked the red curtain, but I didn’t realize how much it was adding to the dark feel in there. I knew that I liked to open the curtain during the day so I could see better, but I contributed that to the poor lighting in the room.

But now… I think my kitchen looks pretty!

It’s amazing how much difference window treatments can make! And for the first time ever (I really don’t think I’ve ever said this before).. I LIKE my kitchen! Even though it’s still not perfect, it’s a happy kitchen. Now how about that?

I also got rid of the sunflowers and the ivy at the tops of the cabinets and the grapevine on the other side of the kitchen because I don’t think it was helping nearly as much as it was hurting. PLUS, now I can actually hang my hummingbird back in the window again because you can actually see it now (and the hummingbird windchimes outside, too.) Ahhhh, what a happy tackle.

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom… what did you tackle this week?

Fabric.com Coupon Corner

This month I have been working on reorganizing my kitchen (as a part of Laura’s Organizing Round Up, but I intended to work on it at this point anyway.)

This week I tackled the project of making a basket for the top of my refrigerator. I had two open weave plastic baskets up there (like miniature laundry baskets) but I decided that whereas see-through baskets are usually preferable, in this case I actually want an opaque basket. It’s all a part of the bigger picture and it will all make sense when I get to the point of writing my “Round-Up” post.

Originally I intended to go to the Dollar Tree and buy a new basket for the top of my fridge (love the DT!). But then I walked into my bedroom and saw this:

Somebody gave it to us and I didn’t really like the fake flowers in it but I did see potential for the basket so I hung onto it. Aren’t you glad I did? Unfortunately, the Styrofoam was hot glued in the bottom of the basket so first I had to spend twenty minutes a few scraped knuckles do this:

And then I decided to line it with some spare fabric I had (also free, included in a big tub of spare fabric from my costume-designing mother-in-law), so then on day 2 I did this:

And viola! There’s my new refrigerator basket!! On day 3, I cleared the top of my fridge and put a handful of selected items inside the basket up on top and put all the other things away in their homes (or the trash can, whichever that may be.) It looks so nice up there. You’ll see when I do my “Round-Up” post with all areas in my kitchen that I’m decluttering and reorganizing.

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom!

Sponsored Link: DeClutter Fast! Get Your Home in Order.