Category: Projects
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Decorating
I’ve updated my “branch of many seasons” for December. I decided to display my collection of Feliz Navidad ornaments, which was started by my friend, Peggy, the other Spanish teacher at my first teaching job, one each Christmas during the years we taught together. It was a clever gift, I’ve always thought. The cool branch…
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Día de Muertos
Since Bryant and I are raising our kids as Universalists/ Secular Humanists, (if one insists on a label) we embrace a variety of religious traditions, and we use them to teach the kids about the world. One of our favorites is the Mexican/ Central American holiday, the Day of the Dead. It combines traditions of…
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Halloween Costume photo tree
This year I had to find a new branch to use as a photo display. The old one was taking too much storage space. I lucked out since this stick had been scavenged during a walk in the woods last fall and stashed in the kids’ bedroom. I came across it while cleaning their shelves…
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Bathroom Remodel
The remodel of our upstairs bathroom, which we intended to do when we first moved in 8 years ago, is finally done! Unfortunately, I didn’t take “before” photos until the project was underway and Matt, of Matt’s Tile Works, had already pulled out the old shower insert and taken down the short wall that came…
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The Madsen or “Jen is a Wimp”
We occasionally ride bikes to school. Hillary rides her own, and I carry Lily in the Madsen or “bucket bike”. A few reasons I don’t take it more often: 1) It gets heavy up the hills, and it feels like everything is a hill! 2) I have trouble starting the loaded bike from a full…
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Framing Children’s Artwork
This post is inspired by my friend, Penny, in part because she asked me about my process for displaying art or photos on a wall, and in part because I love the way she arranged her daughter’s work in her new kitchen! I am borrowing her multicolored frames idea because I thought it would be…
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Painted Chairs
Yes, you can paint upholstered furniture! One sample-size container of latex wall paint mixed with several bottles of fabric medium was enough to cover two chairs. I had these chairs professionally cleaned before brushing on several layers of the paint and fabric medium. When dry, the texture is more like outdoor fabric, but it’s pretty…