Harry Potter "Lumos" canvas (Wordless Wednesday)

The kids and I are a wee bit addicted to Wizard Wrock.  Yes, it exists and it has for some time.  Yes, some of it is painful, but much of it is fun and some of it is actually very good.  Among our favorites are Roonil Wazlib ("Bookworm" and "Not the End" are our very favorites), How Airplanes Fly ("Sidekick",  "To Fall in Love",  "Forget the Girl", "Believe" and "Purely Educational"
 are among my favorites, but honestly, all the songs are fantastic) and the Hermione Crookshanks Experience (Go listen to this album. It's amazing.  Along with that, we love "Not the Messenger," "Train Doubts and Dreams" [My youngest will often ask for "Not An Owl" and "My train song."], and "Lumos").  I just love "Lumos."  I knew I wanted to create a wall hanging for the kids using that song, but I wasn't sure what to do exactly.

Through Pinterest, I found this which gave me the inspiration I needed.  I decided I wanted a wand in the darkness with the lyrics in light.  I stumbled around my boards on Pinterest until I found the map I had pinned from the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter.  That's my background and I also used a picture from one of my very favorite HP artists on Deviant Art.  Seriously, have a look around at her gallery.  I've been through all things Harry Potter on Deviant Art and hers is some of the very best.  Her character sheets are perfect.  I LOVE how she draws the characters.  Her Ginny is exactly as I imagined her.  If you read the books, you know that this is exactly how the long-awaited kiss should have been.

I used the library card generator to create one with the "Lumos" lyrics.  The call numbers are 62442 (M-A-G-I-C).  I printed a copy.

I found 8x10 canvases at Michaels on clearance for 89 cents plus I had a 20% off coupon.  I stocked up because I knew I wanted one for this and I wanted some so the kids could make their own art.  I painted the edges of this one black.  Then I used Mod Podge to attach the map, the art, and the card.

I painted over the map using Mod Podged tinted with blue paint.  I did a few coats with different amounts of pigment.  I wanted to make sure you could still read at least portions of the map and see the picture of the trio.  I did the same over the card using just a bit of yellow paint.  When it was dry, I coated the lyrics with a few coats of glow-in-the-dark nail polish.  That way, the lyrics glow in the dark.  I also gave Ron a crown using that nail polish, but you can only see it in the dark.  Weasley is our king, after all.  I tried adding a dark blue swirl in the upper right corner, but I hated the look.  So I painted over it.  I dabbed on gold and copper translucent glaze which is left over from when I painted our bedroom wall.

I found this great tutorial for creating a wand from rolled paper.  So I used scrap paper and created a small one.  I followed the directions and painted it, then did a wash of black and wiped it off.  I used gold paint marker to highlight the raised decorative lines.  I then attached it to the canvas using tacky glue once all the paint was completely dry.  I should have taken pictures of the wand before I attached it, but I was so anxious to finish that I didn't.  So I don't have a good photo, but you'll have to take my word that it looks so cool.  You'd never be able to tell it's paper by looking at it.  It really does look like wood.

Not the best, but some detail on the wand.

Closeup of the tip of the wand

Here's the back of the wand. 

I like how it turned out and the kids seem to as well. So woo hoo!  I'll hang this up in the basement soon.  The plan is to turn our huge basement playroom into Hogwarts.  I've been collecting ideas for months, but we haven't had the time or effort to create it just yet.  One of these days...

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(not so) Wordless Wednesday

Not Just A Housewife: Show Me What Ya Got #45

An open letter to the former owners: WTF?

Dear Former Owners,

Why?  Please explain to me the thought process that went into your color choices for the humble abode which is now ours?  Cranberry red?  Really?  Why?  And why in the world is one wall in the front room that monstrosity of red while the other two are puke green (I swear that really must be the official name of the paint)?

What is the name of the demon who possessed you to paint the ENTIRE DINING ROOM in that awful dark red?  I would like to send him a firmly worded letter (full of expletives).  Nothing says, "Let's enjoy this delicious dinner together with our lovely family" quite like walls that look as though they're drenched in blood.

SIX FREAKING COATS OF PAINT is what it took to cover just one of those red walls (including 2 coats of primer).

This entire house has me wandering around asking, "What were they thinking?"  So please, do tell, what WERE you thinking?

Moose?  Really?  Why?

I want a 2 page essay explaining the motivation behind these firmly attached horrors.

Please explain your love affair of the ugliest shades of green and peach.  It is not 1987.  CUT THAT OUT.

Baffled,
the New Owners
who will be painting for the next three months to cover these horrid colors

P.S.  Our sincerest thanks for taking that awful ceiling fan with antlers with you.

ETA:
The infamous antler fan (at least a portion of it) at the top of this photograph.

Please note: don't blame me for the furniture or colors.  Those are all the fault of the former owners.

It was actually far worse than it appears in this shot.  There were even MORE antlers than you can see in this shot and there was a large log replica at the base against the ceiling.   Um...ah...no!  

Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness

I've had a great couple of weeks. I've been very upbeat and positive.  I've played wack-a-mole with the Drama Llama and won.  I've enjoyed the company of great friends.  I've had an endless stream of potential buyers in the house.  True, sleep and I aren't BFF's lately, but I've still been in great spirits.  I realize how blessed I am and I've been pretty happy.

Out of absolutely nowhere tonight, I found myself having another one of those nights.  It's not even a whole night, just a sudden heavy heart in the past few minutes.

Miss the beard, but he's still hot.

I miss my husband.  It's not just the usual, "Wish you were here," type missing.  It's the, "I need you beside me RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW," type which should really be accentuated by ridiculous amounts of fierce punctuation.

Sometimes, I can pinpoint something specific that causes this longing;  a song, a phone conversation, seeing a sweet couple, an old photograph.  Tonight is not one of those times.  I have no idea where this came from.  It gave no warning.    Suddenly, out of nowhere, I had the overwhelming urge to be in my husband's arms.

I'm trying to stay positive.  I can't acknowledge this longing without realizing how blessed I am to have him in my life.  I know we won't be apart forever.  He's NOT in a combat zone this time.  Sylvr lynings, I haz dem in spades.

Still, I miss him and that's both wonderful and awful all at once.

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling into at night. I miss you like hell.-Edna St. Vincent Millay

UPDATE (most likely a totally useless one, but I'm sharing it anyway) :

My husband and I met over an X-filed themed Rolling Stone cover in 1997 (we were both big X-philes, although I'm probably the only one of us who would willingly use that phrase and do so without rolling eyes).  While I still have the magazine (packed away now), we could never remember when exactly that was.  Turns out, the date on that issue is February 20, 1997.  So exactly 14 years ago.

One Of Those Nights

It's one of those nights.  I hate these nights.  I miss my husband.

We've done this distance thing before.  We're used to it.  Honestly, now that the kids are older, it's not that bad anymore.  We have our routines.  I have help from the bigger kids.  I have fantastic friends who help out when they can.  I can handle this stuff on my own.

I don't need my husband to function.  I can handle the day-to-day stuff by myself without him around. The fact is, I LIKE my husband.  I actually want him around.  I know this, combined with the fact that he's not an asshat is a shock to many folks.  It seems to be the standard belief (and often practice) that husbands must be awful and wives should want to spend as little time as possible with them.

When he returned from his last deployment, he had a month off--a whole glorious month home with us.  We loved every minute.  A friend of mine, though, countered with, "You only feel that way because he just came home.  By the end of the month, you'll be dying to ship him back."

Um...no.  By the end of the month, we were sorry to see him go back to work.

I've known people who anxiously count down the days until a snippy spouse gets a vacation only to then immediately start counting down the days until their over-bearing spouse goes back to work.  We've never been one of those couples.

I like having my husband around.  He's smart.  He's funny.  He's hot as hell. He has good taste in movies.  He's a genuinely nice human being.  He's a great father.  He really is a partner--we're in this together.  We really do work together in most things (okay, so I wind up as the only one who cleans the bath tub 97.5% of the time no matter how many times I ask him to do it).

Yeah, obviously I love the guy.  We've been together 14 years (OMG.  I just realized that this year marks 14 years.  Yeah, I gasped at that realization) and this year will mark our 12th wedding anniversary (Why yes, that was another gasp you just heard escape from my mouth.  I knew last year marked 11 years so I have no clue how 12 managed to surprise me, but it did).  But the simple fact is, I like him.  After all these years, I still like him--really truly like him.

I don't know why tonight turned into one of "Those" nights.  I'm not even sure how it did.  I just know I suddenly and achingly miss my husband.

I'm trying not to let myself get too down.  "Always look on the bright side of life," and all that jazz (and yes, if you heard the Monty Python version, you're doing it right).  I really do know how lucky I am to be married to someone I still respect, still love and still like.  Still, when I remember how fantastic he is, I get a wee bit frantic and I get the urge to yell at the sky, "Then why the hell can't I be with him?"

*sigh*


This house will sell.  This house will sell.  This house will sell quickly so that we can move and our family will be together again.  


Could we just have that happen sooner rather than later, though...please. 

Today is February 1st. 5 months apart

The (far too many) steps to prepping a house for sale

Our house is back on the market.  After a period with no potential buyers, we took the house off the market in December.  We knew we wanted a new agent (ours was perfectly lovely and a very nice person, but she simply wasn't aggressive enough), her contract was up, plus house traffic apparently slows way down in December.  

It went back up with a new agent (someone my husband worked with when they were both in the military) earlier this week.  

For those who haven't sold a house or who haven't sold a house while children were living there, or who haven't sold a house with children who are homeschooled (and therefore, the parents get absolutely no kid-free time to prepare), or those who haven't sold a house with homeschooled children always underfoot and a spouse 2000 miles away; let me tell ya, it's rough. 

Among the list of things to do to prepare to sell a house:

1. Repack existing boxes (stashed in the biggest kids' room).
2. Open children's closets and see an endless array of clothing and accessories strewn about the floor.  
3. Scream.
4. Remove endless amounts of clothing from children who insisted on leaving it lying all over the freaking floor.
5. Remove all socks from those same children for the same reason (yes, my kids are currently sock-less in Winter.  They deal).
6. Remove all but four pairs of shoes from said children.
7. When said children leave one of those four pairs of shoes lying in the middle of their floor AGAIN, remove yet another pair of shoes. 
8. Look under the big girls' bed.  
9. Repeat step 3. 
10. Move the repacked boxes (which now also contain much of what was stashed under that bed) to storage (which, if you're lucky, a dear sweet friend will let you use her garage for and you will be forever indebted).
11. Call new agent and set a date to meet to sign paperwork and take pictures of the property.
12. When one of the children gets sick, cancel said appointment.
13. Repeat step 11.
14. Step 12 may also need to be repeated depending on the number of children and the season.
15. Pack more boxes.  
16. When you think you're done, look around again and revisit step 15.
17. Repeat step 15 more times than you think humanly possible.
18. Just as that dear sweet wonderful friend is about to show up to help you move more boxes, find even MORE  things to throw in boxes.  These things will most likely be stored WAY up high.  You only truly understand the frustration of this step if you are roughly the size of the Keebler Elf.
19. Repeat step 15.   
20. Profusely thank said friend.  It's only proper if you offer to bow down in homage.  
21. Open cabinets and sort through the things the kids have hidden there and forgotten all about.
22. Clean up anything fragile that the kids stashed precariously in the cabinet so that it fell and broke when you tried to rearrange said cabinet.
23. Replace the caulking on the bathtub.
24. Curse.
25. In an attempt to clear out the coat closet, sort through the mess of coats the kids have tossed on the floor (despite the many empty hangers hanging within their reach).
26. Find a can of interior paint knocked on its side when those children threw those coats.
27. When you struggle to put the can upright, discover a 1 foot wide and about 1/2 an inch mostly hardened pool of WHITE interior paint on your dark hardwood floor.
28. Repeat steps 3 and 24.
29. Text/call the spouse with threats to sell the children on Ebay.
30. Scrape up the paint as best you can.   Beware, this is very messy.  Some will be left behind.
31. Cry. 
32. Vacuum.
33. Spend an entire week clearing out the laundry room that no one has sorted through in nine years.
34. Shout with glee when you find the alcohol you sealed up in a box and stashed back there for Pesach (Passover).
35. You just found tequila amid the hell that is house prep.  Do I REALLY need to tell you what to do next?
36. Now that you have more space in the laundry room, use it to stash the kitchen appliances before pictures are taken (You can wait until you sober up from Step 35 or you can do it while buzzed.  It's entirely up to you).
37. Hide vacuum in the laundry room.
38. Clean kitchen counters.  
39. Clean stove.  
40. Drag vacuum back out and repeat step 32 in the kitchen where all the crumbs have now collected from the counter and stove top cleanings.
41. Move any furniture around to desired placement.
42. At least one piece of furniture will break upon step 41.  When that happens, repeat any combination of steps 3, 24 and/or 31.  
43. a. Mop kitchen floor or  b. have child mop kitchen floor.  If b., repeat 43 yourself after.
44. Clear off the weeks of paperwork that have gathered on the dining room table (and by, "Clear off," I mean stash them on a chair where no one can see).  
45. Have child put table cloth on.
46. In an attempt to adjust said table cloth and find the child simply threw it on over a mountain of crumbs.  
47. Repeat step 24.
48. Remove said table cloth.
49. Hand child a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
50. Repeat step 45.
51. Find the baby destroying something you had already prepared.
52. See steps 3, 24, 31 and perhaps 32 if necessary.
53. Veg out on Facebook for a while.
54. COFFEE!  
55. Repeat any combination of these steps.
56. Toss everything left in a box and hide it under the desk.  
57. Take a deep breath.  You're done 15 minutes before said agent is set to arrive. 

While completing this list, you should also stop often to text the spouse to ask, "WTF do you want me to do with this ('This' should typically refer to CD's, games, video game-themed magazines from the late 90s, boxes and/or electrical cords--none of which have been used in years)?"  You should also include numerous occasions of preparing food.

And yes, this list is based on actual events.  Any resemblance to people or situations is purely purposeful.

Eat me. Drink me. BUY ME!

We had another house showing today.  I'm getting so annoyed with busting our butts to get the house ready only to have everyone pass.  This is a great house.  It's bigger than most others on the market.  It's bigger than any other one in this price range.  Most of the house has new hardwood floors.  We have a great sized yard.

I don't understand why it's not selling.  It's so freaking frustrating.  I just want to sell this place and move already.  I want my family to be back together.  I'm ready to move on (literally and figuratively).  Apparently, no one else is ready to move IN, though.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, "It only takes one person," people tell me in an attempt to give me some comfort.  It doesn't work, though.  It just frustrates me.  Sure, it only takes one right person to decide this is the house for them.  In the mean time, we have to bust our butts to clean for tours for all the WRONG people.  The only thing worse than that is not having anyone come for a tour.  You can't possibly find the one right person if no one is coming to see it.

Pardon me while I go pout in the corner--the corner of this lovely house that could be all yours if you get your butt here now and give us an offer.  Please, pretty pretty please?

This IS the House You Are Looking For

We have potential buyers coming to look at the house tomorrow.  This has the potential to be perfect timing.  

I'm really done with the whole living apart from my husband thing.  I would really love to move along already.  

Please, please please please PLEASE. 

Help me, Obi-wan, you're my only hope.  

*Yes, I realize the "These are not the droids you are looking for" line was said by old Obi-Wan, but I like the lego version of the young one better.  So :-p to the accuracy sticklers.

**Just FTR, it kills me to use the screwy Star Wars grammar.  I love the movies, but I love grammar too.  

We've got grammar, yes we do.  We've got grammar.  How 'bout you?

For Sale

Photo by julia.picturetaker via Flickr.

For Sale:

Hurry and scoop up your 1300+ square feet of happiness.

Beautiful home in a nice neighborhood. It's not Edmond. It's not Norman. But hey, it's nice enough. Excellent home for a young family.

Corner lot means a large yard with plenty of room for children to play. Great for entertaining on summer evenings. This yard has been home to pools, swing sets, barbecues, parties, slides, handstand competitions, and bike races. Its potential is limit-less. This enchanted outdoor area possesses the magical powers which helped not one, but two children learn to ride without training wheels. Try your luck and see what magic this yard holds for YOU.

This back yard is famous. It was featured both on CNN and Washington College Magazine. CNN featured this yard (via a photograph taken in it) on the front page of their website as part of their "Coming Home" special report in honor of Memorial Day 2006. The yard was featured in a different photograph published in the Spring 2004 Washington College Magazine. No other yard in Oklahoma can claim these honors.

Formal dining room where countless family dinners have been eaten and an endless stream of crafts have been created.

1 bathroom which may seem like enough when that family is just a gleam in your eye, but will quickly become a bit of a nuisance. It's only a slight one, though. Because, as the last inhabitants and their four children have proven, it can be done and no one is going to explode RIGHT THIS MINUTE no matter how much the little ones may bounce up and down when it's already occupied.

Spacious playroom, fabulous for impromptu dance parties. Carpeting throughout this area to best cushion children and their attempts at gymnastics. In this room, you'll find the memory of three babies' first steps. This is the room where the military wife alone with only her twin babies first learned of the war in Iraq. As an added (happier) bonus, the walls of this room still contain the laughter of that same wife when she lost her ever-loving mind and decided to try hula hooping on the Wii Fit at 9 months pregnant.

Off the playroom is, what should have been the master bedroom, but instead is currently a huge office.  Are you a writer?  Then this office is calling your name.  This office is where one of the former inhabitants wrote a number of published parenting articles along with her first novel and where the other inhabitant wrote a constant stream of critically acclaimed screen plays and graphic novels for which he won some local fame.  If the writing bug alludes you, this office could still serve you well.  Do you need a home office?  Well, here ya go.  Do you just like the sound of referring to, "My office?"  Then this house has you covered.  

The front door opens to a Great Room with gorgeous hardwood floors. This makes an excellent formal living room as you can keep kids' toys (and messes) relegated to the back playroom. The layout of this fabulous home allows you to convince your friends and random people determined to sell you things (like Sonic cards, cookies, and/or Jesus) that you are actually a far better housekeeper than you might actually be.

The Great Room also opens to the kitchen. Storage space in this kitchen was doubled in 2003 with the addition of extra cabinets and counters. You will never be without a place to store food or kitchen containers in here. This kitchen boasts a breakfast nook. If you use it as such, the current owners request that you send pictures because that's what they always intended to do, but never did. High cabinets means you'll always have a place to hide snacks from the children (or your short spouse).

All major kitchen appliances are included. With your purchase, you'll receive a fridge, oven and dish washer. All of which, have been meticulously scrubbed and cleaned every year for Pesach. 

Just off the kitchen is a small laundry room. More than comfortably fits a washer and dryer and either a deep freeze or large utility shelf. The last owners had a freezer. Current owners have a large metal utility shelf. See how creative you can be with the space. Can you top their ideas? Do you want to put up a rock climbing wall? Snap this beauty up and install the most beautiful climbing wall you've ever seen.

4 bedrooms filled to the brim with memories. In the master bedroom, a baby was born. In one of the front bedrooms, a baby boy took his first steps. In the other front bedroom, twin girls spent many nights reading the Harry Potter series, saying prayers for their daddy while he was deployed and writing letters to friends. The large back bedroom works well as either a master bedroom or an office (see above). Its proximity to the playroom allows for easy surveillance of the children playing in there. It's distance from the rest of the house allows for peace and quiet even when children are arguing with each other elsewhere (i.e. in their bedrooms over who wears the blue sweater or in the kitchen over who gets to eat the last of the Cheerios).

Make an appointment today to see this dazzling jewel of a home.

"Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."--Oliver Wendell Holmes