On A Roll

These days I feel like I am on a creative roll. I have tried many new recipes and organized a few spaces in my house. I am feeling quite accomplished. Never mind that I still have 2,307 more square feet that needs cleaning and organizing. I'll just focus on the positive--which is soooo not like me. Normally I am a big complainy-pants!!!

But not today! I won't complain about the piles of dirty cups my kids generate in a short 14 hour time span, day after day. Nor will I complain about the wet towels that are mysteriously piled up in the laundry room. You shan't hear a word about how my kids do only one of two things;

A. whine incessantly the phrase "I'm booooooored".
B. watch Netflix non-stop ALL DAY LONG, and if they are not watching it, they are fighting or doing letter "A".

Nope-ity nope. I'm not complaining. I'm not sick to my teeth of having kids milling about. I'm okay with the fact that I can't even use the bathroom without hearing someone scream bloody murder in the next room. At least I don't have to help anyone with their homework or wake everyone up for school. It's all good.

I have a couple projects to show here. The first one was devised to combat letter "A".


We really bummed our kids out when we bought our house and didn't order a pool put in. I mean they were really bummed out. You'd think after 5 and a half years they'd give up the dream, but they don't. They are constantly bringing it up.

 "Why don't we have a pool?"
"Why don't we put in a pool?"
"We should put in a pool."

News flash: We won't be putting in a pool. Ever. Ever. Ever. I'm too lazy to take care of it.

But we did do  the next best thing, we built them a "Backyard Water Park". We even call it "Our Waterpark" to trick them into thinking it is amazing and to draw attention from the fact that we didn't buy season passes to Wet 'N Wild like we did last year. Do you think they'll notice

Here is my main man. He is so sweet. Saturday morning when we woke up I told him I wasn't going to make him do any projects for me. It was Father's Day weekend, after all. When he asked me if we had any errands to run, I said "Only Home Depot". If it would have been any other weekend we would've gone to Lowe's, but that store is too 'girly' for my man. He hates it, so Home Depot it was.

And a project we did. Though I didn't make him do it. He wanted to do it. Pinky swear.
Luckily we bought extra pvc because we had to revise our plans a bit after we hooked it up to the hose and found out just how much water pressure we actually have, and how much we needed.

The kids have had a lot of fun playing in it. We are going to try putting a slip and slide under it to see if that increases the "illusion" of fun. Our own "Desert Racer". It really didn't cost much and was easy to put together.

Each piece is 2.5 feet except the two top pieces that the kids walk under. Those are 3 feet. We drilled 3 to 4 holes in all the upper sections (originally we had drilled 5-6 holes but we didn't have enough water pressure to push the water through the whole thing). We bought 3/4 inch pvc but 1/2 probably would have been better. We needed 3 "elbows" and  9 "T's" as well as a hose connector piece that screws directly to our garden hose. I didn't keep track of the cost, but I estimate that it cost us about $25 total (the shower curtain was $10 of that total).

To make it festive and bright just like "Wet 'N Wild" I bought the fun  noodles and cut them to fit over the bottom legs (there are no holes drilled there). I also got a plastic shower curtain and cut it to fit the one side, and hung 4 sponges on the other end.

My hubby is taking it to his cub scout activity: Bicycle Rodeo. After the boys do their activities they will be able to drive their bikes through the "Bicycle Car Wash". It should be fun!

We just need to get a few bags of sand to place on the bottom because it does like to tip over if the kids push into one of the sides. Totally worth the time and effort!!!

Next up is actually two projects in one room.

I have been wrestling with where to place my ironing board for years....YEARS I tell you!!! It has mostly resided in the skinny spot between my washing machine and the wall. It was an okay spot for it, except it was hard to get out sometimes because I have some little pictures on the wall in the laundry room and they would either get knocked off the wall and fall into that skinny space or I would scrape my finger on the nail that is holding up one of the little pictures.

Big pain in the rear! So I decided to hang that old ironing board behind the laundry room door. I bought the utility hooks at Wal Mart for about $2 each. I hung it up really high so the hooks wouldn't interfere with the door when it is opened. A bonus is that my swiffer mop has a ring at the end that fits perfectly over one of the hooks.

Why the heck haven't I done this sooner?!?!?!

Now I need a new ironing board cover. I've had that bad boy for coming up on 20 years (I got it from my sis in law as a bridal shower gift and our anniversary is in September).

The second project is also in the picture. I saw an idea on Pinterest where someone used an over-the-door shoe holder to put all their cleaning supplies (spray bottles, etc) in. I decided to use it for hair stuff. With four daughters we do ALOT of hair. We have had a bucket full of accessories and sprays in the laundry room that is constantly getting knocked over and left out. It drives me CRAZY!!!!!

Here is my handy solution. I was feeling all proud of myself so I showed my friend Amy Rae when she was over this morning. When she saw it she said, "Girl! I already did that in Grace's room!!!" Stole my thunder right there, that did.

But I didn't mind too much. Amy Rae is one of my most fabulous friends, and if I did something that she has already done in her house, then I am on the right track!

Next up, our dining room light fixture. I like the fixture but hate the polished silver color, so I painted it. As soon as I get my hubby to hang it back up, I'll post a pic!

:)