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So as I stated in my last post we are backdoor people.  We never you our front door it comes straight in to our living room.  We use the back door which comes off the garage and a 3 season porch.  Not only is it the entrance most used by everybody it is also stairwell to our basement area and area where our kids coats hang so it is a high traffic area. We live in a rental house built in the 50's and it is full of charm.  We have the best landlord-friend you could ask for.  She lets us update and make things pretty.  Here is a before photo!

Blah !!!

Not only is it blah, it is dated and the border is scratched and peeling all over. 

So what is a girl to do?????

She needs to hand her 8 year old a scrapper and tell him he gets to do some "Man work" with Mommy!  

Yes, he loved helping me.  We saturated the border with window cleaner, peeled off the vinyl top layer.  Then we sprayed the paper and glue layers with window cleaner again and let it sit for about 5 minutes. 

 It took us about 30 minutes to get it off and another 10 minutes to clean up.  

Woo Hoo!  Wall border is gone... Thank goodness! 

As you can see the wall is really dingy.

Now we need to get a fresh coat of paint on this! 

Have some really cute ideas to make this area more functional too.  Thinking a bigger coat rack and a dry erase board for all the fun school stuff I need to keep track of. Maybe wall pockets for all the papers the kids bring home.  Maybe a few frames to show case all the art work they make.

More to come later :) 

Pinterest Freak!!

I have become a Pinterest freak, yup I admit it I think I need a 12 step program.  But, honestly you can't go wrong with lots of do it yourself craft projects, home improvement ideas, and cooking ideas on the cheap.  I am getting spring fever which for me means giving the house a huge overhaul.  I like to do a super clean and then I like to re-arrange and re-do and plain old freshen up a few things around here.  Blame it on these loooooong crappy Michigan winters.  It is April 20th today and yes we had snow this morning.  Ugh!  So I have been not looking out the window and pretending we really are in the midst of spring.  These are some of the cool things I have been up to! 

I made this the night before the bombings at The Boston Marathon.

My 10 year old princess said to me the night of the bombing "Mom this is very appropriate today."  

So sad that we live in such a fallen world.

I made this pretty little wreath last week at a "Mommy and Me Craft Day" at our church.  I am going to be re-doing our entrance/stairway which is the main way we come into our home.  We never use the front door.  We are backdoor kinda people.  More to come on that project later.  For this I used a foam wreath and wrapped it in chenille yarn and then added handmade flowers.  Love them I also added the welcome banner made on the Cricut.  The banner is stuck on with stick pins so I can decide later.  

The princess made these projects on our craft day. 

She took a canvas painted the back ground and then cut out and layered flowers.  This was a craft idea found on Pinterest too :)  

Back to pinning :)