Mother's Day Plant Stakes

The drive to come up with something creative to give the grandmas for Mother's Day--that's what led me to wander the aisles at the Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, waiting for creativity to strike.

We found these wooden flower pokes back by the paint. I figured they would at least be recognizable, no matter how Nick painted them.

 I've also learned my lesson--we only paint outside nowadays. But Nick has really learned how to paint. His strokes aren't terribly even, but he totally got how to use the brush to get paint on the flowers.

My boy also knows his colors--and he had very definite opinions about what colors each flower should be. Nick has learned the names of every color, and he can even differentiate shades. He said he wanted to paint one flower purple, and when I went to open the little paint cup, he shouted, "No, Mommy! Dark purple. Want dark purple!" I limited him to two colors for each flower, or else all of the colors would've melded together into an unattractive shade of brown.

In the end, I think he did a pretty good job. I had to even out some of the gloppy spots, but the painting work was all Nick. Not bad for a 29-month-old.    :)

Inside each flower, I put a picture of Nick that my sister took a few weeks back. The plant stakes turned out very cute--I stuck each plant stake into pots of gorgeous peace lillies that Melissa from Costa Farms sent me, and gave them along with the plant stake and a card that I made using the pictures of Nick painting.

Here's what the final product looked like:

I wasn't sure about the construction paper leaves. I did them for two of the flowers and then skipped it on the rest. I wasn't sure if they were too cheesy, plus I knew they'd fall off. The plant stakes, however, are forever, because I sprayed them with this spray coating that makes them waterproof and fadeproof.

Before I was a mom, choosing Mother's Day gifts was easy--nice card, perhaps a dinner out, flowers and maybe something sweet to eat. I'm not sure why, but since having Nick, I feel the urge to be creative and have him make presents for holidays like Mother's Day. It's tricky to have a kid who is only two make something useful or attractive for an adult, but it can be done, usually with a lot of intervention from me.

Either way, Nick enjoys the process. Soon there will be two boys for me to make creative gifts with--two boys at very different ages. I'll have to be even more creative to make that work.

I think I'm up for the challenge. I've never been afraid of a mess.   ; )

Wordless Wednesday

Redecorating Our Living Room: Color Choices

We need a change! It is time for us to redecorate our whole downstairs. We could actually use some input, so please comment on which colors you think would work best. Greg and I are very new to this whole homeowner thing, and we're afraid of screwing up such a big space.

Greg, Nick, and I made a trip to Lowe's last week to choose paint colors and get a head start. Nick absolutely loved the racecar carts, and was happy to sit and steer the whole time we debated colors.

My inspiration for colors came from this rug  and this rug at JCPenney. Not sure if I'll use one of these rugs or a different one (more about that in another post), but the green and chocolate go well together with the blue as an accent, I think.

We brought home four colors to choose from, and Greg painted the sample colors on the walls to see how they'd look. You can see two of them on the wall behind the couch in the pictures below. We're thinking of putting a chocolate brown color on the wall behind our couch, and then doing a shade of green everywhere else. The darker color is called Pine Bark, and the lighter color is Rolling Stone.

And here's a close up. . . (Sorry, it's hard not to get the flash in the wrong spot.)

When we moved into our house back at the end of 2006, the whole downstairs was decorated largely in country blue, with floral wallpaper (an older lady lived by herself here before us). While the color and wallpaper are not hideous, the whole downstairs certainly isn't our style. We always intended to redecorate, but life kind of got in the way. This year, though, we are determined. Once you put up the paint samples, I think, you have to be pretty committed to actually painting.  ;) 

Here are some more pictures of our current living room. Basically, all of the walls except for the dark blue one behind the couch will be some shade of green. The trim and the ceiling will stay white. The only question is which shade of green to go with. I should add that this space gets a lot of light during the day, so we're afraid if we go too light with color, it will look washed out. (That's what the paint specialist at Lowe's said, anyway.) We'll be looking for another way to make the room brighter at night. (Recessed lighting, perhaps, or track lighting?)

Here are the two shades of green we're thinking about. We love the darker green, called California Roll, but we're worried that it may be too dark. The other green, Shade Green, is pretty but might not have enough green in it for us.

Greg's job in the next few weeks is going to involve lots of time on a ladder, getting intimate with the subject of wallpaper removal. Oh, and yes, we are aware that our blinds need to be replaced. We were thinking two layers of drapes, see-through white ones and some thicker ones that could be closed in the winter.

Part of the challenge of this space is that our living and dining rooms are completely connected. So the whole space has to be done in the same color scheme. Our couches will stay, since they're brand new. They look a little funny in these pictures because they have covers on them to cut down on the cat hair. Under the covers, they're all a slightly darker shade of tan.



So, what do you think? Should we go with the brighter colors or the more washed out colors? Or is this color scheme not going to work in our space? Is it crazy to want a dark accent wall the color of chocolate, Or will it make the room really pop? Sigh. Decisions like this are hard.