painting tutorial

Do you get to paint your house? If you own it - duh, of course you can do whatever you want to it. Renting, on the other hand ... I went through my entire lease today to find what the rules are about painting walls and there was nothing. So I called the management office and was told, "Probably not." The girl is checking with the head manager but was doubtful.

SAD! Especially after finding a fantastic advice post on the MADE blog earlier today about painting the inside of your house. (It's not just sewing!) So I'll just refer it to you instead:

Home improvement: everything you need to know about painting walls, vertical stripes, paint tools, and a little crown molding

Isn't her daughter's room FANTASTIC? Not the color scheme I would use - I'm required to have pink in my girls' room. But it looks amazing. Can't wait to see Dana's posts on painting furniture and do-it-yourself artwork ... I'm still staring at my computer armoire trying to figure out what I want to do with it, and the kids' dressers haven't been touched yet either. (Cooler weather, I'm waiting on you to haul this stuff outside!)

One thing about not being allowed to paint means that whatever I do in this house, it has to move with me to the next one. That's not so bad. I have one idea for some artwork on our walls. We figure we're going to move around quite a bit, and I think it would be a good collection to start of nature photos from each state (and DC) we live in. What do you think of these to start?

Washington DC: the White House Rose Garden

Maryland: the botanical garden at Wheaton Regional Park

Mississippi: magnolia at the Vicksburg National Military Park

My dad shot the pictures in DC and MS, and I took the one in MD. I'd like to have them fairly large - an 11x14 at the smallest. You can't get that size printed at Walmart, so I need to find an alternate location. And printing on canvas is EXPENSIVE - 40 to 60 bucks at Walmart, and that's just for a normal-sized print. I saw this post a while back on How Does She that tells how to mount pictures on foam-core board, which you can do of any size photo because you cut it yourself.

family room picture displaying

Yep, I think that will do it.

Homemade Granola Bars - very yummy!

Have you noticed that recipezaar.com changed it's name!! I miss the old site - but I guess I will get used to the new one eventually. The new site is food.com and once you figure out the new sifter tool it is almost as good as recipezaar was :)

My gripping aside I did find this the other day and they are amazing!

http://www.food.com/recipe/no-bake-rice-krispies-peanut-butter-granola-bars-lower-fat-73754

I rarely have corn syrup around so I used honey instead - they were a little too sweet - but of course my kids love them!

I can't wait to try them with corn syrup - honestly they are just as yummy as kudos bars, super versatile, and sooo cheap to make!