Turquoise Piano

I never thought we'd get a piano.  Our house is not very big and the layout doesn't leave us a lot of options to play around with.  But the little girl is 1.5 years into lessons and LOVES it.

Really loves it. Like puffy heart loves it. Which is really strange for this tone-deaf mama.

But I found a free piano on Craigslist, so I sent my army of males off to retrieve it for us.

They were actually pretty funny.  All these men, grunting and heaving and talking about their poor backs and stuff.  Meanwhile, they said the couple they got it from was telling them about some couple they knew who were piano movers and the wife was a little old lady and the husband only had one leg and used one finger to lift it.  Or something to that affect.  Point being, all in the technique, boys... all in the technique.  My boys did not have the technique down, let me tell you.

But the piano made it into the house and it was in pretty rough shape.  Wood was splintering, 

there were sticky spots on the wood, and it hadn't been tuned since 1986.

So I turned to my favorite can of $5 Oops blue paint that I used on my front door and got to work.  This was one of the easiest things I've ever painted.  Almost all straight lines and I didn't tape anything off. Two coats later and I was done!  For the bench, I used some old padding I found in a bin in the basement and the fabric that was left over from my living room curtains from last spring. 

Grand cost for bringing a piano into my home??  $120 for the piano tuning!

Everything else was leftover from other projects or laying around the house!  And piano tuning 

is one thing this DIY girl will gladly pass off to the experts. (did I mention I'm tone deaf??)

This is the old fur something-or-other I found in the basement and used on the bench.

I cut, trimmed and glued until it covered the whole seat.

I love in this picture how the green in the fabric picks up the green from the kitchen that's hiding around the corner.  (Soon I plan on getting all those doors painted white!  Soon, soon!!)

I love my little 60 cent Elfman that I picked up at a thrift store. And it fits her personality perfectly!

and I thought it would be funny to make her stare at her brother's handsome 

face every day when she practices.  I'm that kind of a mom.

I'm so in love with it and the way it fits into our house!  And she actually plays really pretty music! It's not just banging away, because that was my biggest fear.  Please don't let her just bang away.

Linking up to:

The Frugal Girls, Miss Mustard Seed, The Shabby Nest, Uncommon Designs,

Share & Wow Wednesday!!

Time to show me what you've got!  Wave it, taunt it, flaunt it.

Whatever you do, blow me away with your awesomeness.

I'm in the mood to get stunned.

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Come Visit CraftOManiac!!!

Remember how I told you I was picked to be a contributor on the fabulous...

Well, today's my first day over there and I REALLY hope all my lovely readers will come visit me over there and leave me lots of nice comments, so Jen can feel all the warmth.  Yes, I'm absolutely begging and I hope it works!  I'll be checking MANY times throughout the day, because I'm neurotic like that. 

Plus, there's a super easy and yummy recipe that I'm sharing!  

Yanno, since I'm the food contributor and all.

You might even have all of the ingredients in your house already!

The Kids' Chore Chart

I actually finished this little beauty a couple weeks ago and have totally procrastinated wanted to make sure it worked before getting it posted for you guys!  But I'm ready to share!

Best part??  Well, besides some help around the house... everything I used to make this, 

was found around the house!  I didn't have to go out and buy anything!

It started with this snowman board that I picked up at a thrift store last spring. It was during 

one of their clear-out days and was sitting on the loading dock outside for free. (I've got 

many more posts to get up using the items I picked up during this free day.  Honestly, you 

should have seen me come home that day. I've never seen my husband's eyes roll back so far).

I popped the back off and covered it with green scrapbook paper.  I just left the frame painted white.

Then I took some clothespins and Mod Podged some scrapbook paper on it.  Then 

hot-glued the clothespins onto the side of the frame.  I used 3 regular sized clothespins 

and then one large clothespins for the "more involved" chore.  Also because I just liked 

the way it looked being anchored at the bottom by that bigger clothespin!  Cut some 

letters out using my Cricut for the names and just used a glue stick to adhere them.

For the middle section, I just cut the flaps off the top of a crayon box and glued a piece of scrapbook paper around it.  I also taped a piece of paper about half way down on the inside of a box, so that my smaller chore cards didn't get lost down in the box.  Then I hot-glued it on to the scrapbook paper.

As they finish their chores, they flip the card over to the blank side, so I know they're done!

So far it's working exactly as I planned... my son never mentions it. Just walks over, checks out what's up for the day, and gets it all done in about 15-20 minutes.  Never hear a peep from him.  

My daughter. Oh, my daughter.  She needs to be led over by the hand, where she is astounded every single day that there are 4 things to be done by her name.  Seriously, it amazes her every day. 

(and let me just say that during the week, her 4 things are really not that big of a deal)

A little while ago, I was telling the kids that I was making them a chore chart and I 

was going to have 2 columns- 1 with the chore that needed done and 1 column 

where I would check if they did it with a smiling face or not.  

Didn't the girl sigh and say, "Are you serious, Mommy?? You must just want me to fail!!"

Linking up to:
Today's Creative Blog, The Frugal Girls, The Shabby Nest, Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons, Uncommon Designs,

Operation Smile

A few years ago, a close family friend of ours had a niece born with a cleft palate.  

This was my first time seeing a cleft palate up-close and I was amazed at the things it 

affected, beyond just the obvious.  Here was this little baby girl, who couldn't even be fed 

the same way you would expect.  Because of her cleft palate, she was gulping way too 

much air while she was eating and had pretty bad reflux.  Luckily, her family was able 

to afford the surgery while she was still extremely young and she doesn't now have any of the other 

side affects that so many born with a cleft palate do, such as  speech problems and social ramifications.

 

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, when I was contacted by CampusBookRentals.com

and asked to help spread the news about Operation Smile!  I gladly agreed, and 

after digging into both sites a little more deeply, I am SO glad I did.

According to Operation Smile,

"Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft — often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In some places these children are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can't afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life."

I'm pretty sure I read that section no less than 16 times.  That's amazing to me.  Let's take a random guess and say it takes you 9 minutes to read this post. Boom, 3 kids were just born with a cleft.  What's even crazier to me, is that the operation to fix the cleft, and completely change this child's life, only takes about 45 minutes and costs $240.  That's so little. So, so little to save or change a life.

My kids and I have been poring over the website, for the last week or so and they've been amazed at the before and after pictures.  We've decided that as a family, we are going to start saving 66 cents a day.  After a year, we will have saved enough to provide one free surgery to a child.  That's all it's going to take, 66 cents a day.   That's only about 16 cents from each of us. 

Completely doable.

I don't expect everyone reading this to do the same (although wouldn't that be grand!!! 

If this blog could be a platform to help change children's lives!! Yes, absolutely 

grand!!).  There's another way to get involved and help, though, as well!

 CampusBookRentals.com has committed to donating enough money to cover 1,000 of these life-changing surgeries.  For every book rented, CampusBookRentals.com will donate a portion of their proceeds to Operation Smile with the hopes of meeting or surpassing their goal of 1,000 surgeries.   And, the reasons why you should help spread the word about CampusBookRentals.com??

I could list them here or you could just watch this hilarious video.  I wasn't expecting to, 

but I actually chuckled through most of it.  My daughter walked up about halfway 

through, and said, "Is that Nana?".  Now I do realize that most of you have never 

seen videos of my Nana dancing, but this is as close as you might get to it.  It's 

worth it to watch and to click on the links.  What an awesome company! 

 

Please, PLEASE visit Operation Smile's website to read more about how they are saving 

lives and to see the amazing before and after pictures.  This is real stuff here, people!  

And now that you're fully convinced how important this is, pop over to CampusBookRentals.com to rent your textbooks for fantastic prices and contribute to Operation Smile at the same time.  

I love win, wins!!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of CampusBookRentals.com.  I have received some form of compensation for this post.  All opinions expressed are 100% mine.

 

Sunday Spotlights!

#1 Most Viewed Link (and my personal fave, as well!!)

Shabby Quilt from NatSprat

These colors are gorgeous, and I know Natalie says it took her forever, but seriously, she made this in 3 days!!! It takes me 10 times longer than that just to pick out the fabric! 3 days!! It's stunning!!

#2 Cake Stands from This Little Home of Mine

I love these DIY cake stands and her comment about centering them gave me a smile.  

It's the little things like that, that us crafters take notice of and appreciate!

#3 Irish Coasters from Bliss Images & Beyond

Any play on words is always a favorite in my book!  These are so easy and cheap to 

make... you've got plenty of time to whip these out before St. Patrick's Day!

#4 Two-toned Dresser from Tattered & Inked

I love that Kelsey went with the two-toned effect!  It works perfectly for this dresser!

#5 Choco Mint Cookies from Claire K Creations

A round-up of my favorite posts, wouldn't be complete without some food teasing.  These chocolate mint cookies (or biscuits as Claire calls them) look delicious and my son would love them!

Thanks so much to everyone who linked up and I'll see you all back on Wednesday!

Dr. Seuss Cookies

Quick and easy cookies to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday! 

(and this is going to be a quick and easy post because I'm tired.)

For these super simple cookies, you need small sugar cookies, red fruit roll-ups, marshmallows and some icing.  I cheated and used a bag sugar cookie mix.  I got exactly 36 out of it and I think they were the perfect size!  For my fruit roll-ups, I cut them into about 12 strips each.

Then you just roll the fruit roll-up strips around your marshmallow and it will stick to itself.  

A front and back beauty shot of this lovely...

Then you just ice that cookie and place your "hat" on top!

I also made some easy cupcakes with some free printable toppers that I found online, but I absolutely cannot find the link to the printables anywhere (which means that I looked for 2.4 seconds and then my eyes started crossing, so I gave up), so I'm not going to share them here since I can't link back to the source.  If I happen to find it again, I'll share the cupcakes then. You know, when it won't really matter because his birthday is long gone.  It's how I roll.

Please take note that I used Yertle the Turtle for my backdrop since this is 
A Turtle's Life for Me.  This book was one of my "turtle gifts" from my 
MamaTurtle for Christmas right before my first son was born! Love!  

"And the turtles, of course... all the turtles are free. 

As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be." 

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! and thank you!

Linking up to:

 The Frugal Girls,  Design Dazzle,Tatertots & Jello, Positively Splendid, I Heart Naptime,