Catch up and handmade picture frame

So it's been about a 100 years since I last posted. Ooops! I really do enjoy blogging. Lately, life has been really busy and I've been doing a bajeelion home projects. I've been working a lot on our bathrooms, and as of recently, a TV stand. And honestly, after the kids go to bed, I just want to relax and use that time to get stuff done.

Some quick updates.

The bathrooms are ALMOST finished. I just need to prime some more boards to put up and fill in the nail holes and really that's it. It's been too cold lately to prime and when it was warm, I was priming the tv stand. And truthfully, I'm kind of burnt out on the bathrooms. But I can't wait to post pictures of them. They look soooo much better now.

Anna is potty trained! Has been for almost 3 months now. It's definitely had its ups and downs, but hallelujah, she's trained!

Alex is getting bigger and bigger and into more and more trouble every day. He's a climbing machine and seriously goes from getting into one thing to getting into the next thing. It's hard when she has to go to the bathroom during the day. I don't want to close the door on him, because I don't want him to cry/get into trouble while we're in there. However, when he's in there, he's trying to climb in the tub, stick his hand in the toilet, open all the drawers, get stuff out, etc. I'm just trying to rush Anna along, which rarely happens with a 3 year old. Lol.

Here's my little stinker in the bathtub.

(excuse the ugly bathtub, we're planning on redoing it)

He's so smart though. He can make about six animal sounds (moo, ruff, meow, bzzz, quack, baaa), says cracker, hi, nana (banana), car (gah), go, he said Jesus on Sunday at church. He said it almost perfectly three times and now will just say the first part. I think that's pretty good for an almost 15 month old. He can also blow kisses, by putting his hand over his mouth and removing it, like he's blowing a kiss. So cute...

So, I've been kind of working on a picture wall for above our piano. I got a deeply discounted vinyl sign that says, Families Are Forever. I'm working on putting frames in a rectangle shape and putting the vinyl in the middle. This project is sloooowly coming along. I had some frames already, bought two almost brand new ones at the thrift store and decided I didn't like two of the ones I already had. I've had some leftover trim for a couple of years now, that I've always wanted to make a picture frame out of. So I finally got around to it!

It was so easy to make. It took some time with the glueing, but other than that, it was easy peasy.

I forgot to take a before picture. But I basically had 4 pieces of trim, about 8-10 inches long. I wanted a rectangle shaped frame. I cut two pieces the same length and two other pieces the same length. I used what is called a miter saw. What's cool about this thing, is it lets you cut wood at an angle. All you do is lay your wood in the middle, and there are slits that your saw goes through, so you're automatically, cutting at a 45 degree angle. Make sense? If not, just know that it helps you cut wood at an angle.

I was then left with four pieces of wood with angles that would match up and make a frame.

I now needed to glue them together with wood glue. I talked to my father in law about the best way to go about doing this and he suggested laying the frame on the table, with wax paper underneath and pressing the corners as close together as possible and then clamping them down to let the glue dry. It worked. Since, the miter saw didn't make every angle, completely perfect, there were a few gaps between the corners. I just filled those in with putty and painted over them.

I then spray painted it black and there you go, a brand new frame, for practically free!

I don't think this is the picture that will go in it, I just put it in there to see how it would look with a picture. I need to make another one of these, but larger, to fit an 8x10 picture. That is what is holding me back on finishing this project. Hopefully, next week I can get around to it.