April 2012 was not my favorite.

It all seems not so bad now that it’s over, but in the middle of it?

GAH.

After the tonsils and adenoids came out, we had a good week plus and then there was bleeding.  Lots and lots of bleeding.  Clots in the sink kind of bleeding.  Did I mention that Macy was the only one home with him at the time?  Before you start judging my parenting, don’t worry…I’ve already beat myself up over it.  Repeatedly.  I was close by and was home within 2 minutes (during which time she had already gotten him started gargling ice water) and we were on the phone with a nurse at the doctor’s office within 6 minutes and out the door to the hospital shortly thereafter.

On Easter, pre-hemorrhage

And then, because I clearly have issues, I couldn’t sleep that night.  I was certain Keller was going to choke to death on his own blood, so I had to go in and check on him every 5 minutes.

The next day is when things got really awesome.

Water started pouring in my family room window.  Whilst I was cleaning up that flood, one of my children (hint: Bennett) flooded an upstairs bathroom.  And another one of my children (hint: Campbell) gave his brother a swirly, making a lesser flood in a 2nd bathroom.  At one point I cried so hard that I had to puke in the sink.  (Not my finest moment, for sure.)  During the puking, Keller came in and told me he was bleeding again.  The adrenaline stopped the gagging and I ran to get ice.  Only some left a barstool pulled out.

And that toe is broken.

And then Macy got shingles.  She’s 11, not 80!

There were a couple of days where the pain was so bad that she couldn’t even put on a hoodie, so that was fun.

Did I mention that washer broke during all of this?  And six people make A LOT of dirty laundry.  We were getting by with a much smaller washer in the basement and doing twice as many loads…until I broke my toe and couldn’t navigate 2 flights of stairs and Macy could no longer haul baskets up and down.

Sigh.

But then…THEN, in the middle of all that, I got to be a part of SNAP! (which I have not yet posted about because it was such a blur and I don’t even know where to start).  I was surrounded by 325 INSANELY talented women.  I got to work to the point of delirious hugging with some of my very best friends.  I got toes so swollen that my shoes didn’t fit for 3 or 4 days.  I got to reconnect with people who inspire me and make me want to be better…to DO more.

(necklace available here)

I was reminded to choose joy.

So, now I’m laughing…crying gives me a headache.

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So, I’ve been a little bit MIA as of late.  SNAP! happened this weekend.  I spent the Saturday before making decorations (cut a hole clear through my CAMEO mat), the Monday loading a trailer, the Tuesday making a sign and more decorations, the Wednesday towing a trailer for the first time, unloading the trailer, decorating, and filling swag bags.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday were all SNAP! all the time.  And that’s just the SNAP! stuff.  Wait ‘til you hear about the crazy life stuff…

Today?

Today I slept.  A LOT.

I have so, so much to say, but I have to get back in the mom zone:  orchestra concerts, tonsil follow ups, properly celebrating the kid birthday I missed on Saturday, etc.  In the mean time, I’ve got a little somethin’ somethin’ for you:

As part of this month’s Lowe’s room makeover challenge, they’re giving me a $100 gift card to give to one lucky Crap I’ve Made reader.

In addition to the cheap board and batten, the headboard for Macy’s room is done, and I’ll post about it shortly.  The drawers for the thrifted dresser and desk have been wood puttied and are strewn all over my dining area.  I didn’t make a whole lot of progress last week, though, because all my trips to Lowe’s were in the name of this:

Not bad for a couple of girls with 4 kids running around, right?

HUGE props to the nice Lowe’s employee who cut the plexi glass for me and didn’t even laugh when I told him what it was for.

So, do you want $100 from Lowe’s to make over a room in your house?  Or, do you need to make a ridiculously awesome sign? 

You might be in luck!

TO ENTER:

Leave a comment ON THIS POST (on the blog, not on Facebook or in response to your email subscription) saying which room in your home could use a Lowe’s makeover.

That’s it.  Quick and easy!

Giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and over only and closes Friday, April 27th at noon MST.  Winner will be chosen at random using a WordPress Plugin (And The Winner Is…) and notified by email.  Winner has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen…I need the winner’s info before the end of the month!

And while you’re waiting to see if you won, head on over for your FREE Subscription to Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine:

Disclosure:  Lowe’s provided me with a gift card for this month’s room makeover challenge.

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This month’s Lowe’s challenge is a room makeover.  In the interest of keeping posts a manageable length, I’ll be breaking it up.

I’ve been meaning to get to Macy’s room since, oh, this post.  Let me refresh your memory with where we’re headed:

Let me also show you where we started:

Macy would like the record to show that the American Girl dolls had been moved to a bin in the garage.  She’s practically 12 now.  Geez.

As you can see at the top of the picture on the left, we already had some decorative molding about 6 feet up on the walls.  We’d also put up some flower wall decals above the molding.  They took massive amounts of the wall down with them.

(This is after I started spackling.  I love the kind that goes on pink and changes to white when it’s dry.  I tend to get a little impatient when it’s time to sand.)

After some massive spackling and sanding, it was time to paint.

The bottom portion of the walls is a semi-gloss paint that I had Lowe’s tint to match the trim in my house.

The top is a Valspar color called Icy Mint.

I picked up 2 gallons of the white, but I probably could have gotten by with one.  1 gallon of the Icy Mint was enough for the top portion of the walls and the entire ceiling (which was previously builder beige).

I looked at the selection of moldings and trims at Lowe’s, but they were all in the $3-6 per piece range.  I knew I needed at least 30, maybe more (depending on spacing) and that was going to eat up my budget FAST.  So, I needed another option.  I channeled my pal Mandi and decided to use her method for board & batten…having MDF plywood cut into strips.  When I got over to the lumber section, I discovered that the thinnest MDF was thicker than I was after.  You see, I didn’t want the B&B to stick our further than my existing molding and baseboards.  So, I went for some super cheap plywood that I believe was 5mm thick.  I had BC take it to his crate shop and cut it into 3” strips for me (the same width as my existing molding) on the big daddy panel saw.  The entire room took 2 pieces of plywood, or about $22….WAY better than $3-6 per piece of molding, right?  It WAS a little bit prickly on the edges, so I sanded the edges of the pieces with an electric sander before I got started.

For purposes of this room, I decided to center a B&B strip under the window, lined up with an outlet.  This is where your eye goes when you walk into the room and was therefore the wall I needed to have look the best.

Once I had the strip centered under the window, I decided on spacing for the rest of the strips.  I went with 15”.  BC says he would have gone for 12”, but I was the one doing all the work, so I won.  (Yes, that means I did all the sanding, cutting, and nail gunning.  Surprised?  )  I cut a scrap piece of wood to 15” in length and used that to space the rest of my strips.  The only time that didn’t work out was when I got to a corner.

I just measured 15” along the baseboard and then leveled out the first strip on the new wall.

I used 3 tubes of DAP’s vinyl spackle to caulk the edges and some more of the DryDex I used to patch the wall holes to get the B&B ready to paint.  I applied 2-ish coats of paint to the strips using a Purdy brush (they’re the best).

And I’m kind of in love.

Here’s a shot of the corner where I ended after moving out in both directions from under the window.

Next up?

Doing something about this:

($25 thrift store find)

and this:

($50 thrift store find)

and a headboard involving a pallet and an outdoor light fixture.  Also getting Macy’s mattress off the floor in my room. 

Don’t forget to pick up a FREE Subscription to Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine:

You can also find Lowe’s Creative Ideas on Facebook.  (They’ve moved, so if you “liked” them before, you should “like” them again!)

And, now there’s a Lowe’s Creative Ideas blog.  Go have a look around.  You might recognize a face or two.

Disclosure:  Lowe’s provided me with a gift card for supplies for my room makeover.  They’re also providing me with a gift card to give away to one of you this month, so look forward to it!

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So, SNAP! is next week.  NEXT WEEK!!!

I know what you’re thinking… “I’m not going, so why do I care?”  Hold on, because I’m about to tell you.

1) If you live in Utah and you like to shop, you WILL NOT want to miss Queen Bee Market.

Some of my favorites are going to be there (hint: HoopLa) and I’m sure I’ll find some new favorites, too.

2) If you don’t live in Utah, but you still like awesome free stuff, some of the SNAP swag giveaways will be posted on Twitter and the SNAP blog.  These aren’t just fluff prizes either….no sir.  We’re talking a Silhouette CAMEO and a sewing machine.  AWESOME, right?

3) If you’re coming to SNAP, leave me a comment, will ya?  I need to know who to look out for! 

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First up, because several of you have asked, the CAMEO winner is Kelsey and the Riley Blake fat quarter bundle winner is Kristen.  They’ve both already responded to emails claiming their prizes.  Yay for them…sad for you. 

Second, here’s your friendly reminder that today is the last day to pick up a Silhouette CAMEO™ PLUS a heat transfer starter kit for $269.99.  Go here to add the bundle to your cart and use code “CRAP” to take advantage of the savings.  If you already have a Silhouette, you can get the heat transfer starter kit for $24.99 and/or take 40% off of all other heat transfer material using the same link and code “CRAP”!

The heat transfer is good fun, especially when it comes to hilarious t-shirts.

Third, I’m hard at work on a room makeover for this month’s Lowe’s challenge.  It’s becoming quite the project, so plan on seeing several normal sized posts about that instead of one post that takes you an hour and a half to get through.  Here’s a peek:

And what the other side of the room looks like:

Just keeping it real, folks!

And, lastly, I hope your Easter weekend (if you celebrate) was fabulous.  I’m including a couple of gratuitous kid pics for the benefit of my grandma.  (Yes, she really does read my blog.)

Macy is MIA on account of being in Nebraska at the time (or “juvie”, as Campbell told people at church ).

See you soon with some SNAP-py information!

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have left the building.

(Heavily drugged and fascinated by the monitor on his finger.  Not thrilled about the koala covered hospital gown they gave him..)

Keller had his giant streppy pus and stone infested tonsils removed yesterday.  And, once they got those suckers out of the way, they discovered that his adenoids were blocking about 50% of whatever it is that they shouldn’t be blocking (airway? throat? whatever), so they took those out too.

So far, it’s been really really really (knock on wood) really smooth sailing.  As in, “you’d have no idea the kid had just had surgery” kind of smooth sailing.

I’ve heard days 3 and 4 are where it gets ugly.  Tomorrow is day 3.  I’m bracing myself.

So, who else has been through this?  (There have got to be a lot of you!)

Any tips or secrets?

Were days 3 and 4 the worst?

******************

And just in case you haven’t been paying attention:

You can enter to win an iPad plus a bunch of other great UPrinting products here.

You can enter to win a Silhouette CAMEO™ PLUS a heat transfer starter kit here.

Or, if you’re a pessimist/realist and know you’re not going to win, you can pick up a CAMEO plus a the heat transfer starter kit for $269.99 through the 10th.  Go here to add the bundle to your cart and use code “CRAP” to take advantage of the savings.  If you already have a Silhouette, you can get the heat transfer starter kit for $24.99 and/or take 40% off of all other heat transfer material using the same link and code “CRAP”!

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