Randomness

Whew.  It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks here in the Rutledge home.  We've had a lot going on and I'm not even sure I can remember what all we've been up to.

Up first - Will is playing t-ball again this year.  He's really enjoying himself.  Similar to last year, he loves to run the bases & bat.  His swing has improved quite a bit this year, and he does at least attempt to go after the balls in the field.  Most importantly - he's having fun and that's what counts.

I also did The Color Run Atlanta with some friends a couple of weekends ago.  It was fun.  Traffic was HORRENDOUS and for that reason, I'm not sure if it's something I am dying to do again.  I had "color" EVERYWHERE.  

We've also been making a few changes around the house - we've painted our kitchen (no photos yet) and we also took to painting our interior doors dark (Pinterest inspired).  My walls are not green at all - more like a dark toffee brown.  Poor lighting I guess.  I do love the look though.  I'm happy with it.  My husband, the painter - maybe not ;)  We used Benjamin Moore's Dragon's Breath.  It's really a charcoal gray.  It looks black in the hallway, but gray in the kitchen on the pantry door where there is more natural light. 

We also had Will's class pet at our home for spring break.  Hermie the Hermit Crab had many adventures while he was here, including attending Easter dinner at my parent's home.  Will was very enthusiastic about the crab but let him go back willingly to school (which was surprising).  He had to write about Hermie's adventures while at our home.  He wanted to write "Hermie slept in my room while mommy was painting the kitchen."  (For the most part, I kept Hermie in the kitchen on the bar-top table to avoid the hands of one very mischievous 3 year old, but moved him to the boys' room while we were painting.)  But Will eventually decided it would take far less time to write "Hermie is shy."

And we've also been enjoying lots of time outdoors with our neighborhood friends since Spring finally decided to join us Georgians.  

And just because we need ANOTHER something to feed in our home - daddy brought home our first pet yesterday - a baby turtle.  He found it in a box under his desk at work and knew the boys would love it.  I prefaced our conversation with the boys by saying "if this turtle gets too big, we may have to return him to the pond."  I'm hoping they remember that if this thing bites the dust and/or gets huge.  They are very excited and are brainstorming names - so far they've suggested "crabsy, heidi, and kermie."  I think its cute that Will is trying to make it rhyme with "hermie" from school.

And just because I didn't include any pics of Tessa - here is a recent one of her playing in the playroom with a toy that we just unearthed from her pile of Christmas gifts that we never opened.  The boys usually steal it from her immediately.  Why is it that the older kids want to play with baby toys when they see them??

I'm sorry for the long post - we've just been crazy busy lately.  Next week is both Brandon and Will's birthday and I haven't even THOUGHT about what to do for them.  sigghhhhh.....

The Mystery Mural Reveal

Remember the mural I told you I was doing in the boys' new playroom?  Well it's finally finished.  After lots of debating with my real artist friend, she convinced me to try it myself.  I didn't know if I had the time, patience, or ability to do something so permanent - I mean it's going on the stinkin' WALL for cryin' out loud!!!  But after wasting a LOT of time, I ultimately decided to give it the ol' college try.

I found this canvas on the internet a while back, and thought hmmm- that would be cute in a playroom.  Our new playroom is a big room.  So big in fact, that a small canvas wouldn't look right on such a big wall.  I decided that instead of paying close to $200 for a small canvas, I would just pay my friend Kimmie to paint it as a mural.  And, well, you know the rest of the story.  So let's take a look at my progress :)

This is what I wanted to the finished product to look like.

Artist Kimmie told me that because the wall or, "canvas" if you will, was so dark I would need to paint everything white first.  Otherwise, my color wouldn't show up over that dark wall.  I'm soooo glad she shared that little pointer with me, because I would NOT have thought of that myself.  Whew!  Crisis #1 averted...

(No - we have no ceiling or carpet yet - coming soon!)

I'll be honest and tell you that the wall stayed like that for a few days.  I had to work up my nerve to add color.  Once I finally decided that I was brave enough to add color, I picked Saturn to start with first. 

I figured out really quickly that once I picked a color to start with, I needed to stay with that color for a while.  So I just continued on with the "warm" planets...

This is how the mural looked at the end of my first night....

On the second night, I started with the sun...

After the sun, I went on to Jupiter, since it still had yellow and orange in it...

Next I added the asteroid belt, the stars, a rocket and comets...

I realize I'm no artist.  My artist friend is probably cringing right now.  I am really happy with it though.  Not because I think it's perfect, but because I think it's just what I wanted in the playroom - colorful, happy, child-like and educational (poor ol' Pluto didn't make the cut).  And I'm pretty proud that I took the chance on doing it myself.  I will always have a new appreciation for artists, and for people that have that crazy God-given talent for things like this.  I wish I had several hundred ounces more of that kind of talent.

So here is the finished product - two weeks, several hours and about $30 later - 

Feel free to give me your honest opinions!  And no, all of the walls in the playroom are not this dark:)  I will do a final playroom reveal in (hopefully) just a few more weeks when the ceiling and carpet are installed. We're waiting on three more rooms to be painted.

A Little Guessing Game

Many of you who know me know that I love to dabble in DIY projects.  I'm not claiming to be good at the DIY projects, but I do love to try them.  The basement project has turned into one HUGE DIY project.  There's so many projects to be done down there that sometimes I'm not even sure of what I should start on next.

As soon as I started envisioning our boys' playroom, I knew I wanted this certain mural painted on the wall.  It's cute, childlike, and educational all at once.  Win-Win.  I just needed someone to paint it.  You know me though, I've talked myself into doing it.  So for the last two weeks I've been mentally preparing myself.  Last weekend, I bought the supplies.

Yikes.  The only excuse I have left is the time issue, which has bought me a few extra days :)  I do foresee tomorrow evening being a good night to start.  We shall see!!  I have a friend who is an artist and I've already warned her that I may be calling her to repair what I've done.  Let's hope I don't have to do that.

So what do you think?  Anyone wanna guess what I'm painting on our playroom wall??

Ch Ch Cha Changggeesss

And by chaos I mean total and complete disaster zone.  The basement renovations are coming along very nicely.  We're at the part of the renovation that is no fun for me though - plumbing, wiring, blah blah blah... I did however get to pick out the bathroom tile and grout today!!  So exciting!!  We're going with porcelain slate tiles.  So we'll have the look of natural slate, but the low-maintenance of porcelain.  And you know I'm all about some low-maintenance :)  The tile will look similar to this (but not exactly)-

Brandon is actually in the basement right this very moment making some crazy noises that I am 90% certain will wake at least one, if not two, sleeping babies up and let me make this clear - that would NOT be pretty.  Anyhoo - he said something about bull-nose.  If you're not sure what that means, let me fill you in - it's a round piece of plastic that you attach at the corners of the (unfinished) sheetrock, so that instead of a square, pointy corner, you will have a round smooth corner.  After the sheetrock is finished and painted, you're corners look like this (this is not our house, just a picture hacked from the internet):

I've been working on a stenciled wall in the boys' playroom too.  At first, the stencil was a breeze.  Easy Peasy.  Until I reached the corner.  Then my perfectly stenciled wall encountered it's first boo boo.  I discovered (through trial and error) that it's best to let the paint dry before you try to maneuver the stencil around to reach the corner.  I just ended up smudging the paint, so I stopped to let the paint dry.  That was on Saturday.  I have one more corner to do (plus a little touch-up work from my trial and error session) before I'll call this little project complete.  But as a mommy of two young boys (and a husband who is just as eager to finish his projects in the basement) it's super hard to knock out a simple little project without the help of a babysitter, a cook and someone to do my laundry ;)

So what's next?  The general to-do list looks something like this:  install tile in bathroom, paint a hallway, 4th bedroom and 3rd bathroom (and 3 closets), install trim and door moldings, install doors, hang the dropped ceiling, install lighting, and (finally) have carpet installed.

My personal to-do list is:

• Pick out paint colors for a hallway, a 4th bedroom, and a 3rd bathroom (and then paint them!)
• Pick out trim and door casings (and then paint them too!)
• Finish my stencil
• Paint the built-in bookcases in the playroom
• Paint the existing trim in the stairwell
• Paint the hand-rail in the stairwell
• Pick out our sink and toilet
• Pick out carpet
• and finally start decorating!! 

I'm guessing a few of you are anxious to see pictures.  I assure you that I am taking lots of pictures of our progress.  I really want to wait to show you our pictures until the big reveal :)  Believe me when I tell you that it is a HUGE mess right now.  Think dust, concrete, tools and paint cans....  that's what it looks like right now.  PLUS our playroom is a little eccentric and although I truly believe it will be AMAZING when it is finished, it's a little bit overwhelming right now ;)  Hang in there with me though.  I'm hoping that since we are finishing the major components now (plumbing, wiring) that the remaining parts will come together quickly soon!

Busy Busy Busy

Hi there!  It's been a week since we got together last and a lot has happened since then.  Nothing too major, just lots of little things consuming this momma's time and NOT allowing her to blog as often as she would like.  Here's what we've been up to (without pictures because I just don't have time):

1.  Finishing two rooms in the basement.  I can't believe it actually.  After 5 years of wanting to finish the basement and three years of needing to finish the basement, we've finally started.  The framer came last weekend and started with the framework and had the sheetrock completed by Monday.  The two rooms will be a playroom (the biggest) and a "guy's" room (the smaller).  Brandon has a pool table that needs a home and the boys have an abundance of toys scattered from their bedrooms to the dining room to the living room and they need a "space".  Up next is to finish the sheetrock, paint, hang the ceiling, build the built-in bookcases for the playroom and lay carpet.  I've got PLENTY of ideas for the space and I'm already on Etsy and Pinterest daydreaming.  I'm sooo very excited.

2.  Cleaning out the rest of the basement.  Let's face it - our basement is cluttered with crap.  We kind of started finishing the basement before we cleaned it out, so we've just been moving the junk from space to space while working around it.  This weekend, the hubs and I have a date with the dump.  A few lucky passerbys will likely score some awesome finds because I'm putting stuff on the curb labeled "FREE".  I'm over it.  I want my basement organized and I'm not looking to make $20 by haggling with a bunch of weirdos over candlesticks and ugly wedding gifts :)

3.  Relay for Life.  This is an awesome event that so many communities are doing now and our's is tomorrow night.  Obviously, we have a special reason to celebrate this year and Brandon and I will be attending the survivor's dinner, as well as hanging out with our friends at the Relay.  The company that I work for will have a tent, as well as other local businesses and churches.  It should be a fun time!

4.  Buttons and Bows Children's Consignment Sale.  This is a local church's children's consignment sale. I've shopped at these events before, but never sold in them.  This will be my first year as a seller and boy do I have a TON of stuff.  I'm actually blogging to you now from my partially finished basement surrounded by bins and bins of gently-used (and adorable if I do say so myself) baby clothes, baby gear, and toys.  Don't let anyone fool you.  As a seller, you earn every stinkin' dollar that you make by doing this.  You have to hang them a certain way and tag them a certain way...... Whew!  I'll be glad when it's OVER!  By the way, I also volunteered to work at this sale because only God knows why.  I must be mildly insane...

So hang in there with me blog readers.  I promise to give you plenty of pictures of the basement (when it's decluttered) and maybe even some pics of the fam at the Relay for Life.  Night!