Lego Manual Notebook

I don't know about you guys, but around here, Lego is big! Lego's everywhere and it seems that every time I vacuum I pick up lots of little Lego's before the vacuum sucks them away or the vacuum does actually suck them away and then the fun begins, picking through the dust and crap the vacuum sucked up looking for those little Lego's.

If Lego's are laying around, then the manuals are as well. After all, if you aren't building with your imagination (which happens alot, kids come up with some awesome buildings and vehicles!) then the manuals are out being used. The manuals are tough to keep neat if you ask me, I have tried putting them in tubs with the Lego's that go with the manual and somehow they never seem to make it back into the correct tub and the pages begin to wrinkle and if you want to be able to build it correctly you more than likely need the manual (at least for the more complex sets). Which got me thinking that I needed to come up with a way to make organizing these manuals an easy and simple process.


My solution:

 

 

A 3-Ring Binder (with the clear plastic pocket on the front/back & side), Lego Logos (from a Lego box) and some cute American Crafts paper. I cut the paper to fit in the front of the binder and a small slender piece for the spine of the notebook. I glued the Lego logo to the middle of both papers.

 



I slid both papers into the notebook, added some plastic page protectors and inserted all the manuals into the page protectors. (I made sure to put sets together  and inserted at least 2 manuals into each protector, one for the front and one for the back of the protector)

 

For this notebook, I used 25 page protectors and all but 4 are filled and I believe I will have to upgrade to a larger ring binder....

 

 

I have to say that it has worked out well, so far. If it continues to work well and the boys keep the manuals in the binder then, I may organize it more by adding sections and labels to be more specific and make it easier to find a particular manual, for example: a section for trucks, police, homes, fire, etc. and alphabetize them. 

 

 

 

Also, I am considering a new method for the Lego's as well, should I keep all sets separate or separate the Lego's out by color and have a bin for each color? Do you guys have a method for sorting/storing Lego's?

 

Linking up to Design, Dining & Diapers Organization Week

 

 



Halloween Wreath

Yeah, I know that Halloween is still over a month away, but I just wanted to get everything ready so when Oct. 1st arrived, all I had to do was take my fall wreath down and replace it with this one.

To make my wreath, I began by recycling this grapevine wreath, I just removed all the flowers, twigs, etc. and since the grapevine wreath was still in good shape, I decided to use it again this year as the base for my Halloween wreath. I spray painted the wreath with gloss black spray paint (love it!).

 

After the wreath was dry, I gathered a few items, paint, plastic Halloween goodies and black duck tape.



Here is a close up of the paint I used, Martha Stewart glitter craft paint from Michaels (love that stuff!) and orange acrylic paint I picked up at Wal-Mart a while back.

I painted several spiders, a bat and a skeleton and left to dry.

For the "Boo To You" I used Hemp Cord from Wal-Mart as the string to hold the banner together and made the flags out of the black duck tape. I folded the tape over the cord and cut a V into the bottom of the flag. I used my Cricut to cut the letters, then glued the letters onto the duck tape and tied the banner onto my wreath.

I knew that my wreath still needed a little something, so I used more of the Hemp Cord, this time in white and made a spider web. I cut the cord into lengths that I wanted and placed them into the shape of a spider web on top of wax paper, then used a paint brush and painted regular school glue on the cord to hold the web shape together. After it dried I peeled it off the wax paper and hot glued it onto my wreath.

After placing the web on the wreath I filled in spaces with the painted Halloween spiders and bats.

 

 The completed project:

 

 

 

 

Linking up: ItsyBitsyPaperBlog 2012 Wickedly Creative Halloween Ideas Linky Party, TatertotsandJello & BrassyApple

 



Fall Dining Room Table



Simple fall decor for our dining room. Fall flowers, leaves and pumpkins.  The burlap runner, I made sometime last year, it was my first sewing project with my new sewing machine that my husband got me for Christmas (the year before). The flowers in the urn came from Target a few years ago and the vine of leaves came from Hobby Lobby last year.

The pumpkins came from Wal-Mart last year made my Better Homes and Gardens (it was a box of assorted pumpkins). The bronze pumpkins you see in the photo above and below were Dollar Store pumpkins that I spray painted bronze and after they dried I spray painted a coat of glitter spray on top to add a little shimmer.

I love looking around my home, seeing fall decor,smelling the apple pie baking in the oven, which was eaten devoured before I could snap a photo. Now if we could just get some cooler temps to make it "feel" like fall.

Stay tuned...more fall decor to come!

Painted/Stained Desk

Remember this desk from a post a while back? A cute find! The perfect size for our little one.
As you can see, it was red and need a little bit of TLC.

So my handy, handsome husband removed the top, he had the fantastic idea of removing the top and replacing it with wood we could stain to the shade of our choice. The top was a mess.

After my husband removed the top, I sanded the desk and began to paint. I had to paint about 4 coats of paint to get the dark color that I wanted. My original plan was to use spray paint but I knew that it would take alot of cans so I bought a quart of paint instead. I thought the color was going to be darker but overall the color has grown on me.

I bought a piece of stain grade wood at our local hardware store and they cut it to the size I needed, my husband stained the wood, added a coat of polyurethane and he put the top on the desk and we were finished!

The knobs on the drawers are not my first choice and I will be on the look out for what I have in mind, but until then, these work just fine. The chair was purchased at a local antique shop, it is an old school wooded chair that was spray painted gloss black. (I love gloss black!)

Here is a look at the top of the desk, it turned out so well!



I like how the desk looks with the contrasting top and our little one loves his new desk!

One more look, shall we?

Painting furniture is one way to instantly change the way your piece looks and it is so simple! We have painted several pieces in our home, but my first color choice is always, gloss black! So you can say that I am changing things up a bit and trying a little color!

Linking up to Liz Marie Blog.

Fall Wreath

 

 

This fall wreath turned out so cute! I am excited about cooler temps and pumpkins and even though it is still about 90 degrees here, I just could not resist hanging this on our door.

 

 

I started with a few items that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. (Love Hobby Lobby!)



When shopping, I just picked up a few things that I liked, still not sure exactly how I was going to put my wreath together. When I got home I had some left over burlap and I used it to cover the straw wreath. I cut strips and wrapped them around the wreath and hot glued the strips.

Then I started just placing items on the wreath. I decided not to use the pumpkins/gourds and just used the ribbon and leaves.

I made 2 bows out of the ribbon(just like you would make a bow to put on a Christmas gift)and I used the string from the pumpkin package to tie my bows together. Wanting to use more ribbon, I cut strips and stacked them together and then spread them out, like I was making a star. Then added some triangle burlap pieces to the top of the star in a random pattern to my liking and then finished it off with a P. I hot glued all the bows to the wreath and added my leaves and I was finished!

 

One more look at the finished product!

 

Link up to:

Tatertots and Jello

 

Itsy Bitsy Paper

 

 

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