Removing Stripes From a Wall

Ever have one of those moments where you look at a finished project and say, "What was I thinking?" This was one of those moments!

I decided a while back to repaint my bedroom and in the process create an accent wall. I debated over what to do and finally I decided on a striped wall. I matched the colors to my bedspread and got to work. Once it was finished I was overwhelmed by the stripes. I thought that over time they would grow on me and I would like them.

 Well months went by and I still felt overwhelmed by them. I felt like I was in a circus tent. No joke!! Not the greatest feeling and the room was not warm and inviting like I wanted.  I couldn't hang anything on the wall because the stripes made it look funny. So I decided to paint over them and make the room all the same color.

However, this is not the greatest job to do. You see you have to sand the line edges down. So for a week I spent my time sanding each stripe edge. My arm hurt so bad by the time I finished. Note to self....never do stripes unless you are sure that is what you want! Once I finished sanding I washed the wall, primed the wall to cover the dark brown and then painted it the same color as the rest of the walls.

Here is the end result shortly after painting it. Can I just tell you how much better it is! I was finally able to hang something on the wall and not feel like I was sleeping in a circus tent. Never do stripes on your walls unless you really want them!

Calendar for Kids

My son lately has been asking what day it is and has been learning his holidays at school so I decided it was time to teach him the months, days, weather and what day things are. This way I don't get asked multiple times a day what day it is or when a holiday is, we look at it in the morning and talk about it and then he can find it later if he has a question.

So here is what I came up with. This year if you recall I am all about using things I already have. So I pulled from my resources and got out my Cricut and paper and got to creating. (I did have to cheat with that rule and buy the poster board and get it laminated but that was only about $6 total)

Each month has a header and two objects with it to represent that month. Then if the month has a big federal or state holiday I created a day tag for it. (So I left out things like Flag day, Presidents day, etc.)

I also went through each month and determined the max number of birthdays per month that already exist and then created a few more tags just in case we grow in numbers. I created 10 total birthday tags.

I also created an airplane tag to show when we would leave on vacations so that I don't have to tell him how many more days or have him ask if it is today. They can see when you leave.

 On the side I created a weather spot so that he knows what to wear that day based on the symbol. We look outside every morning and see what it is like and he can change it and then dress accordingly. I have also seen him change it mid-day if the weather happens to change.

 Here are closeups of each month.

This system hangs in the hallway by his room and it has worked great. We don't have any problems now with all the questions about what day we are on and what holiday is coming up. It was practically free too since I used what I already had on hand.