Cheery Mother's Day Card

Mother's Day is just around the corner... are you prepared or do you still need to rush to the store? 

I'm a little of both, this year. My cards are done, but the gifts have yet to be purchased. 

(Mom, if you're seeing this, you can just pretend to be surprised on Sunday.) :)

Chevron Wall Art

  Am I the only one who wants to spruce things up in their home in Spring time? Rearranging furniture, bookshelves, pictures on the walls... Spring is a time of CHANGE. Last week, I showed you my family room & a list of small things I wanted to tackle to spruce it up a bit. Here is my first completed project from that list.

  The art in our family room was feeling kind of tired to me {Yawn}. Definitely time for a change. Something fresh & springy.

  I had these 9 canvases that I got at the dollar store several years ago & I covered them with patterned paper to make my own "art". After changing them a couple of times, I was ready for something new again.

BEFORE

  I started thinking chevron... something in chevron. But what colour? How about a few colours? My idea was born: take the existing canvases, take off the paper & paint a chevron print onto them with craft paint. Three rows of canvases, three different colours. Yellow, grey, & aqua.

  I found a chevron template printable here & got all my supplies together.

 After tracing & cutting two stencils out of cardboard, I started painting. Let me tell you from experience that you should first paint your whole canvas your background colour first. It would have made touch ups go much faster. Alas, hindsight is 20/20. :)

Here is the finished product:

  I also moved them to the other side of the room over the couch. Please forgive the poor photos as there is no natural light in this room.

  The total cost of this artwork was very small. I had the canvases already so there was no cost there. The only thing I had to buy was the yellow & aqua paint - a cost of under $5.

  I love being able to cross things off of my to do list!

• New artwork above the couch 
• New artwork for T.V. wall 
• Makeover the little table my map lamp sits on
• Paint the dress-up box (to the right of the couch)

Now on to the other projects!

Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

This project was featured on:

Home Tour (Part 7) : The Family Room

  Wow, it's been several months since I shared the next instalment in my Home Tour. It's about time I showed you another room! 

  I must admit to you that the reason I haven't showed you this room is because I'm not in love with some of the furniture. We are hoping to be able to replace some of it soon, but for now it is what it is. 

  So here's the family room as of last week...

  Sorry about the bad lighting. This room is hard to photograph since it's in our basement & there's no natural light.

Here's what this room looked like when we bought the house. 

Pretty much a blank, boring, & somewhat dirty slate.

(And look how little my daughter is! That was almost 5 years ago now...)

 
  So, as you can see, we ripped up the old, dirty carpet & laid laminate flooring. We painted the walls & trim (No more periwinkle door!) and we updated the lighting.

My Ikea Expedit Bookshelf which I love!

Here are my ideas of how to spruce up the space while we wait for some new furniture:

• New artwork above the couch (I'm in the middle of working on this one & should be able to show it to you next week.)
• New artwork for T.V. wall
• Makeover the little table my map lamp sits on
• Paint the dress-up box (to the right of the couch)

And because we all enjoy before & after shots...

Ta-da!

So, be sure to come back next week for the art project I'm working on for this room.

Here's a little sneak peek:

Haha! Can you guess what it is?? :)

Have a great weekend! See you next week!

Coconut Bounty Bites

Okay, friends, if you like Bounty candy bars, raise your hand...

I see those hands! :) 

Then have I got a treat for you!

They only have 4 ingredients & there is no baking required... so easy!

Mother's Day Free Printable

I've created my first printable for Mother's Day!

You should be able to click on the image & print it off. 

Or, click HERE.

Enjoy!

Check out the great parties I link up to here!

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, feel free to become a follower, 

subscribe by email, or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

This printable was featured at:

Mission: Kid's Toy Organization

As a part of our Easter break & spring cleaning, our kids & I had a mission:

To sort & purge all their toys, games, puzzles, books, & other loot.

Look at the mess that had been going on all winter...

Audrey's room:

Ponies, Princesses, & Pet Shops, oh my!

Messes scattered everywhere because all the storage space was full!

We came to this conclusion: they just had TOO MUCH STUFF! 

So, before we started, I explained to the kids what we were going to do & that they would have to make some choices as to what they wanted to keep & what they were willing to let go. 

As an added perk, I told them that if there were toys & other items in good condition that they no longer wanted, we could try to sell them on Kijiji & they could use whatever money they made for spending money on our vacation this summer.

I must say that the kids totally surprised me in the amount of toys & stuff they were willing to let go!

They did SO well!

Here are my daughter's bins after we sorted & purged...

I also googled & found pictures of the toys she wanted to keep. I printed off those pictures & used packing tape to label the bins so she can see what goes in each bin, since she can't yet read.

In the middle of the job, I ran out of tape, so that's why the top photo doesn't show them all complete. :) 

Off to the store for more packing tape!

Labels for her bins:

Purses

My Little Ponies

Littlest Pet Shops

Crowns & jewelry

Strawberry Shortcake

Balls

Doll accessories (bottles & clothes)

Tea set

I left a few bins un-labeled just because the toys that she had left really didn't fit into a "category". 

Those toys I leave up to her as to which unmarked bin she wants to put them in. 

Parker's room:

His toy bin was pretty full so the top of these drawers was always a dumping ground... 

hence the housecoat, gas mask, parrot, & play back pack... 

only in a boy's room would you find such a random assortment of items in any one place.

  After organizing all the books, toys, games he wanted to keep, throwing away all the broken toys, & making a pile of toys & books to sell or give away, here is my son's closet. 

Even though he can read, he was happy to have the picture labels on his toy drawers too.

Labels for his drawers:

Top - games

Middle - electronics

Bottom - colouring books, activity books, & markers

The rest of his toys go in the big bin on the left. He has a smaller, separate bin just for his lego as well.

All the other places that were dumping grounds are much neater. 

They are finding that it's a lot easier to keep things tidy when everything has a home that isn't overflowing. :)

Look at the huge amount of toys, books, games, & puzzles that the kids gave away or sold!

And because we all like before & after shots...

So much better!

And another thing I can cross off my spring cleaning list!

Enjoy your day!

Check out these great parties I link up to!

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, feel free to become a follower, 

subscribe by email, or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Spray Paint & the Frog

Do you remember this guy?

No? Then let me refresh your memory. :)

I purchased this ceramic golden toad on a thrifty adventure last fall. 

At first, my kids informed me that it was a poison dart frog, but after some more research, 

we discovered that an orange frog is actually called a golden toad. 

You needed to know that, right? ;)

I finally got around to giving this chap a few coats of black spray paint...

He now holds a place of honour in my kitchen with his pot scrubber at the ready. 

He sure adds a touch of whimsy to the kitchen. And a touch of nostalgia as well. 

I remember my mom having something similar next to the kitchen sink when I was a kid.

Good memories. :)

Another successful mini makeover!

Enjoy your day!

Check out these great parties I link up to!

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, feel free to become a follower, 

subscribe by email, or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Chickpea Salad

  Welcome to a new week! Are you ready to take it on? I am. We had a beautiful, productive weekend around our house. Everyone had a to-do list to knock off on Saturday & we just about finished everything on the lists. I think I was a bit too ambitious with mine & put on a few too many things, but that's okay. I'll just finish next weekend. 

  The weather was beautiful & the kids enjoyed lots of time outside. We got in some family time outside too. 

  My 8-year-old son even learned to vacuum this weekend! Can I hear a WHOOT, WHOOT?! I'm *hoping* that my vacuuming days are now few & far between. 

  The warm(ing) weather has me pulling out my barbecue & salad recipes... Time to enjoy the sun! 

  This is a great make-ahead recipe... it's even better after it's been marinating for a few hours!

Chickpea Salad
makes 8 servings


2 cans of chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1 bottle green olives, drained
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 cup cherry tomatoes

Mix all salad ingredients. Set aside.

dressing:


1/3 cup olive oil
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Whisk all dressing ingredients. Pour over salad. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

So easy & delicious!

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day!

Check out these great parties I link up to!

This recipe was featured at:

Catching Up

I'm kind of laughing at the title of this post... 

Is anyone EVER completely "caught up" when it comes to scrapbooking?

Oy.

I continually have to remind myself that this is a hobby & it's supposed to be fun. 

I don't have to be caught up... ever. I chose this hobby & it's a part of my life to be a creative outlet, not a burden.

With that in mind, here are a couple of layouts I accomplished at the recent scrapbook fundraiser I was at last month:

Vintage Layout:

• All supplies by My Mind's Eye

First Day of School Layout:

• Cardstock - Bazzill Basics
• Patterned Paper - Basic Grey (Oxford collection)
• Tag - Simple Stories
• Stickers - October Afternoon
• Alphabet stickers - Making Memories & American Crafts

How do you treat your creative hobbies? Do you ever feel like you're behind & try desperately to catch up? 

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

Enjoy your day!