Ty's room...art project

Ty's Spiderman room needed a little something to dress it up a little. He has a new big boy bed, and to make him want to sleep in it, I agreed to buy Spiderman sheets. I bought them from Pottery Barn and added a red and gray comforter from Kohls.

We put up a Fathead Spiderman on his wall...but it still wasn't enough.

 

So, I searched the web looking for something not too tacky and I found these...

 ...but they were the wrong color, and the wrong price ($350 for the set of 4 large ones).
So, I decided to make them. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought 4 stretched artist canvas for around $12 (30% off!), some more paintbrushes, and a few bottles of paint. My total cost for the project is less than $20.
So here's how I did it:
Step 1: Paint the base colors

Step 2: Draw the background shape

Step 3: Paint the background shape

Step 4: Draw the words

Step 5: Paint the words

Step 6: Outline everything in black and shade the letters

Step 7: Put 'em up!

After we had all of this put up, we had a blank wall in between the windows. So, we moved Spiderman there and ordered a Batman to go where Spiderman used to be. I figured that Spiderman deserved to be seen first when you walk in the room since Ty has Spiderman sheets. I'm sure it didn't matter where I put them, but I like the colors of him better than the Batman colors. I didn't take a picture of him in Ty's room, but here's what he looks like from a pic I found on the web.

Ty's room....dresser project

I have had this dresser for a long time....since I was a teenager, and maybe before that. My uncle Joe built it for me, so I'd like to keep it. Anyway, when Ty was born, Mom asked me if I wanted it and I snatched it up. After moving a couple of times and after some crayons attacked it, it needed some love.

Here's a before picture with gold hardware:


A little sandpaper, new handles, and the same "Dover White" trim paint we used in our house...





 ...and a LOT of help from Ty....


...and we've got a lovely little dresser for Ty's big boy room. 

 

...

Before:After:

July 2nd...It's been a while...but I've been doing yardwork!

So, the pictures I'm going to show you today span a month or two. Starting out, we have our messy yard after the house construction was finished. No topsoil and a bunch of trash and building stuff everywhere.


So we had some topsoil delivered and someone come in and spread it with a dozer.
 




We have a lot of tree stumps with their roots left from doing the pad for the house, and since we don't have a tractor, Doyle strapped the stumps to his jeep and hauled a bunch of them away from the house to a clear spot so we can burn them later. We didn't get them all hauled away...but he did a bunch.


We also burned a bunch of brush (and poison ivy....ugh!).


 I don't have any pictures of the mega-ditch that we dug, but after a bunch of rain we discovered that we needed a drain in the front of the house. So we spent a LOT of time diggin' a LONG ditch so that we could put in a drain to funnel all of the rain out of the yard. That took us several weekends.

And we found a turtle in our driveway...

So after our dirt was all smooth, we seeded the yard but it washed after several hard rains. So we are now in the process of putting down sod a couple of pallets at a time. 4 down ~15 to go.
Here's a picture of the front yard before sod (and with Ty's new pool. I know, great spot right in front of the house..but at least he likes it.)

   ...and a picture after some sod. Flower beds and landscaping to come later. Much later...