Marvelous Mess #2 Feature!! Chaps!!

The second week of A Marvelous Mess party has past and we had a total of 77links!! Woo hoo....that is 27 more than last week. Aw yeah. :-) 

Here are some of my favorite projects from this past week:

Antique Silverware Mold Knockoff from Vintage Skye

A beautiful Ballard knockoff with a great looking patina!!

Lego Star Wars Cookies from the Domestic Sugar Bake Shop

I totally cracked up over these. SO funny....and, yeah, they look super tasty. :-)

Mocha Brownie Torte from One Happy Little Farm .........and, I think there should be a warning before viewing such deliciousness that it may cause quick trips to the grocery store for ingredients not on hand. I just gained, like, 15 pounds. 

And, the project I have decided to feature on my sidebar for a week is.......dun dun dah:

Rodeo Chaps from Lilybug Designs. Are these not the cutest, sassiest chaps you've ever seen. Go on over to Lilybug and get the quick and easy tutorial!!

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up. Tell your blog friends to join you next week for 

A Marvelous Mess!!

 If I featured you, feel free to grab this button for your blog:

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Britax Frontier 85 CSN Review!!!!

I was lucky enough to participate in a review with CSN Stores (did I mention I LOVE CSN??) and I used the gift code they gave me to go towards buying the *incredible* car seat you see above. It's the Britax Frontier 85 and it is the new thing in my life to be thankful for. You see, I was diagnosed with OCD a few years back and one of the many ways that it affects me in my day to day life is with checking (and rechecking and re-rechecking) the safety of locks, buckles, straps, etc. I'm quite capable of spending 15 minutes trying to buckle my Munchkin into the car seat. I just haven't found a seat that I feel totally comfortable with. After some exhaustive research, the best brand that I came up with by far is Britax. 

Here is what I LOVE about this booster seat:

- the 5 point harness (the same buckle system used for infant seats) can be used up to 85lbs....this is incredible!! Tests have proven that the shoulder belt is no where near as effective at safely containing a child during a collision as the 5 point harness....it makes so much sense to keep it as long as possible (this was the BIG reason why I dreaded switching to a booster seat). You know who else uses a 5 point harness?? Race car drivesr and fighter pilots....because it is the safest way to contain a body during a crash.

- has True Side Impact Protection which shields against a vehicle intrusion, helps to contain a child's body during a crash, and also keep the child's head an neck in good alignment. This is done by have a good frame around the shoulders, energy absorbing foam with a firm layer underneath to help distribute the energy, and a head restraint (also lined with the energy absorbing foam)  to keep the child's head and neck in alignment. 

 - HUGS. Harness Ultra Guard System. This are chest pads for the harness that are made of an elasto polymer with treads on the back. They minimize the movement of your child during a crash.  

- Ease of Use: it is so easy to adjust this seat to fit your child!! The harness has ten different positions it can move to and the buckle has three. Simply pull a strap to tighten the belts. 

Here is what I don't LOVE about this seat:

- It is not incredibly easy to install this car seat into your car. You definitely need to fiddle around with it for a while (maybe 15+ minutes) to get it to perfectly fit. 

 - It is heavy....you won't want to be hauling this car seat around (say, in the airport....) it weighs almost 20lbs. (19.6 lbs to be exact) 

All in all, this car seat is wonderful. I am really pleased with it....and my munchkin and I are both pleased with the fact that it doesn't take me so long to buckle up!!

So, what are you waiting for?? This car seat is worth it. You child's safety is DEFINITELY worth it!!

Britax Frontier 85

~I was provided with a gift code from CSN Stores for the purpose of a review. All opinions in this post are written in my own words and entirely my own.

A Marvelous Mess #2

Flower Pot Color Wheel

Don't forget to link up your project to my Monday Marvelous Mess party!! One project will be picked from each party to be featured on my sidebar for a week!!

 I was totally inspired by my 1st feature this week on my Marvelous Mess party. It involved tin cans and paint to make a crayon organizer. SO cute!! I took it a couple of steps further and used mini flower pots (found at the Dollar store) and a plastic tray and painted it, mod podged it, and made it into a color wheel crayon organizer. :-) It's handy and it encourages some artistic thinking and education about color theory at the same time. Making something like this for your child (or having them help you!! ) and then teaching them about Primary colors and secondary colors (made by mixing primaries) will  be a learning experience for both of you. Here is a little overview of Color Theory:

Primary Colors:

red yellow blue

 

Secondary Colors:

(red + yellow) = ORANGE

(red + blue) = PURPLE

(blue + yellow) = GREEN 

Tertiary Colors:

Made by mixing one Primary Color + One Secondary Color =            

The possibilitites are endless!!

Complementary Colors:

Colors opposite each other on the color wheel. Example: Red and Green. Just because the colors are complementary does not mean that they look well together....but they help something to "stand out". 

                                               

Analogous Colors:

Colors right next to each other on the color wheel. Blue and green for example. These color usally go well together and make for a comforting peaceful feeling.

                                     

Warm Colors:

These are colors that subconsciously make us think of warmth and fire.

                                                            

Cool Colors:

These are colors that make us subconsciously think of coolness and water.

                                                                                                                                          

                                 

Neutral Colors:

Browns (which are made by mixing the three primaries) and Grays (made by mixing black and white) are considered to be neutral colors. They are also called Earth tones. You will not usually see them on a color wheel. On mine above, I have painted the center pot white with gray and black polka dots and the plastic container has been painted brown.

                                               

Hues:

A hue is a "pure" color. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet are pure colors that have not been modified by white or black. 

Shades:

A shade is when black has been added to a a hue (or "pure" color). This progressively darkens a color.

Tint:

A tint is when white has been added to a hue. This lightens a color. 

There, now you know enough about color theory to teach a very short class. :-)

I'll leave you with another picture of my fun little potted color wheel:

I shared this post at these fabulous funky link parties:
Get Your Craft On

Where have I been?? Revamping my Bathroom.

This is one of the bathrooms in my house:

It is smallish and oldish and has a stand up shower-ish. We actually use it quite a bit because it is just so accessible (right next to the kitchen) and because our other bathroom is upstairs and we spend most of our time downstairs.....well, it's just not as convenient. 

The downstairs bath has this warped and peeling vinyl that needed to go. We just haven't had the motivation. Well, those days are gone my friend.....a nice little gift card to lowes for Christmas changed all that. :-) We're going to tile the bathroom and repaint the walls and put up some new sheet rock and tile over the shower.  Here are the tile colors:

The larger tiles are for the floor and the white tile will be going above the shower. I have to say: I would not have chosen that brown tile without some serious coercion. Coercion in the form of money.....we don't have a lot of it and this stuff was the cheapest. So, i have to make do with what we've got. After shopping for all of our supplies I picked out some paint to go on the walls. I was so proud of myself. I brought it home and immediately painted the walls (two nice thick coats) and then pulled out a tile from the box as an afterthought to see if it matched........nope. It desperately does not match. 

It came out so much more *peachy* than sandy. It's actual name is Imperial Sands (I've been humming some of the Star Wars marches since I brought the paint home). Back to the drawing board. My hubby said, how about blue?? and I said "................................" 

Blue is not an option on the table. :-) 

Any ideas??

Here's how the bathroom looks now:

Washer and dryer are out and the cement board is down for the most part. We had an unfortunate situation with some plumbing.....so, we've got to wait for a plumber before we more further on this project. In the mean time my living room looks like this:

I can promise you that this does nothing for the feng shui of the room.