STELLAR SUMMER PROJECTS!

I am really excited to share this post with you! Back in the spring, I helped my friend Katie pack up her apartment to get ready to move to Boston. As she was deciding what to keep and trash, she had this HUGE rug rolled up against the wall and said she was getting rid of it. WHAT?!? I just KNEW I could repurpose it somehow and use it in my classroom & she let me take it for free! (THANKS KATIE!)  Our building has hard tile floors instead of carpet and I have a couple rugs that don't fit all of my 5th graders.

 

So...the designing began. I got on Pinterest and pinned a bunch of tutorials of how to paint a rug and ended up meshing several of them together into my own idea. I started by rolling out the rug in the garage to see what I was working with.

 

 

At first, I was thinking I would prime the entire rug and then create my own design with painters tape but after rolling it out, the different colors are actually a variety of carpet types so it would look really weird if it was all primed and reconfigured.  I decided to keep the same design and drew it on a piece of paper and chose my colors. I looked at all the shades in the original rug and tried to stick to the same pattern.

 

Then I headed to Home Depot. I couldn't find any specific fabric paint and instead of mixing up colors and using brushes, I found these awesome spray paint colors! They are also paint & primer in one, (hopefully) eliminating the fact that I had to prime the rug before spraying.

 

Just a fun fact about me & DIY projects: Once I have an idea and the materials, I can't stop thinking about it until I get started and sometimes even finish (no matter what time it is!) Of course I just HAD to try out the spray paint to see what it would look like & to see if I had to prime first. Note to self: don't start at 9 PM with the garage closed. Whoops. I quickly opened the garage door and turned on a fan to help ventilate. The house STUNK so bad and I didn't even do that much! We slept with the garage door cracked to help eliminate the smell.

 

 

I used my marker-colored grid like a paint by numbers chart. 

So here's how the sample section looked after an hour:

 

 

Pretty cool right? I didn't even use painters tape, just sprayed very carefully at the edges.

 

So, the next super sunny & hot day, I dragged out the rug and went to town. I ended up going back to Home Depot 2 times to get more spray paint, black Sharpie paint markers and a clear spray to finish it up! I added a red spray at the last minute as well. I absolutely LOVE it! I used the Sharpie paint markers to add a border line between colors.

 

13 cans of spray paint, 2 black Sharpie paint pens, and 2 cans of clear spray later:

 



 

The final repurposed project is DONE! I can't wait to add this to my crazy colorful classroom!

 

Another summer project I finished up was our Shutterfly Photo Book of our 2013 Florida adventures. Since we moved, I have documented EVERYTHING for our blog & I wanted to make a photo book for every year that we are here in FL. I had about 1/2 of the book finished and then school started last year...so I finally finished up 2013 and ordered our book - 40% off too! 

 

So, Volume 1 is finished and on our coffee table and I am totally in love with it! I have started Volume 2 for 2014 already as well! I look forward to all the memories we can add to our books over the next few years!  

 

 

Will YOU be a part of our photo books? COME VISIT and that'll be a yes!

Kayak meet-and-greet with an Endangered Species

Clay and I decided to check out this park the morning of my summer trip back to see friends and family.  I was all packed and ready (well, packed...but way over the 50 pound limit) so we decided to go for a morning kayak run before I headed out for a week and a half.  We crossed another park off the list and had a very interesting trip.

 

 

It was so peaceful and quiet that morning. I was playing around with the GO PRO on this trip as well so you'll see a variety of pictures. The park is close to a point where two rivers meet: The Suwannee and Withlacoochee.  There was also an Endangered Species we met that day that we had NO clue even existed here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We paddled up and down the Suwannee and then went up the Withlacoochee and made a quick pit stop for a little bit. There was a natural spring and we stopped to take it all in.

 

 

 

So after our little break, we got back in and continued paddling up the Withlacoochee (pictured above) for a little while. We were talking about upcoming plans and all of a sudden I hear a loud noise behind me like a branch just fell off a tree and into the water. WEIRD. We rarely hear sounds like that when we're out. We kept paddling and eventually turned around, still talking, when Clay yells, "WOAH...did you just see that?" and of course I was looking at him so my frantic answer was NO! He quickly explained the area on the right where a big fish jumped out of the water and made a huge splash. 

 

Now, I'm pretty good with being in dark waters but once he said this, I started panicking a little bit. We moved to the left side of the river, away from the "fish splash zone" and I was scanning the surface for any signs of it coming up again.  Clay was ahead of me as usual and all of a sudden it happened again, about 10 feet from my kayak, and I literally saw this HUGE 4 foot fish jump up and splash back down. I paddled as fast as possible and continued looking behind us, afraid it would land in the boat or something next time!

 

Of course our GO PRO ran out of battery but here's a photo

I found online that was EXACTLY what I saw: 

 

After we got back, Clay started researching online and found out that our new fish friend is called a Gulf Sturgeon and is actually an Endangered Species. They swim up the rivers from the Gulf and inhabit cool waters during the summer. They can live up to 40 years, get up to 8 feet in length and weigh over 200 pounds! Isn't that crazy? We couldn't believe that we were THAT close to one! Definitely learned something new that day.

 

 

we love tubing. and playing with our GO PRO.

Clay and I decided to go tubing one weekend to relax and enjoy the sunshine at the Itchetucknee. And to play with our new toy: the GO PRO! If you are not familiar with these, they are these small waterproof cameras that can record video, take photos, etc. but it has a wide-angle lens so your shots are more open and the quality is insanely clear. WE LOVE IT. They also have a bajillion attachments so you can capture just the right moment. I have the app on my phone that enables me to control the camera and see what I'm taking footage or pictures of. It's insane. You will be able to tell the difference between the iPhone and the GO PRO. 

 

After we were already on the river, I realized my tube was deflating as time went on.  Luckily the hole was right under my left arm and that Clay was chewing gum.  PROBLEM SOLVED! :) 

 

GO PRO shots: much wider lens to take better pictures of what's around you and clearer & true colors.

 

 

I love this one of hubs:

 

My favorite underwater shot...SUCH clear and gorgeous water!

 

We did take some video footage that day just playing around with things but I may have deleted them. Whoops! I'm still learning!

USA Men's National Soccer Team....in JAX! #1N1T

At the end of June, we had the awesome experience of going to Jacksonville to watch the Men's National team play a friendly match against Nigeria. The match was at EverBank Field and there were so many people there - WAY more than any recent Jaguars game!  This was their last of 3 friendly matches before heading to Brazil for the World Cup! It was our first time seeing the Men's National Team play and it was so much fun! I'm so glad we were able to go.

 

Jacksonville Suns Stadium

Before heading to the soccer game, we went to the Jacksonville Suns baseball game that afternoon. They were giving away soccer scarves and we were a couple blocks from EverBank field so it was perfect!

We got our awesome shirts off Amazon and our other accessories came from the Dollar Tree!

 



Oh yea, and did I mention that Jackson and Becky came down from Raleigh to watch the game too!?! That was great to hang out with them for the weekend and we had a blast of course.

 



As soon as the bus pulled up, everyone was sticking up their phones trying to get photos and videos of the team coming through the crowd. We weren't close enough to the fence to see the team close up but it was still pretty awesome to be that close. 

 

Getting into the game and to our seats was another story. It was absolute craziness - they were not prepared for this many people.

There's my fave, Michael Bradley, in the middle - the one
that looks like Mr. Clean!

photo bomb!

USA WINS 2-1!

 



 

As we were leaving, we saw our AWESOME neighbor Heidi, her brother-in-law, and her son Josef!

 

There were fireworks later that night that I was trying to get but ended up getting this cute photo of these two instead:



 

What a great weekend - GO USA!