My weekends are filled with children who crave excitement and fun.  They will dig it out of their closets.  Carry it through the house.  See if it is lurking beneath their beds.  They put together excitement and tear it apart.  They find fun in the quiet spaces.  They seek laughter.  And occasionally a door gets slammed.  OK…more often than not, a door gets slammed.  Because they are headed to see if the fun is hiding here…

When we bought our home three years ago, every window had custom wood blinds with matching crown molding cornice toppers…they still do.  Most of them have been embellished with drapery, swags, valences or other types of fabric adornment,  but the main door to our back patio has remained untouched.  I like the ability to open and shut the blinds to shed light on the family room or block it out for privacy.  The pretty crown molding cornice board makes it seem very tailored.  But there is that slamming door.   And sometimes that slamming door makes the lovely crown molding cornice…pop right off.

Last weekend was a doozy.  The girls were playing chase with the pups and out the door…whammo!  Off came the cornice, snap went the bracket and crack went the mitered corner.  Ruh-roh. 

Now for those of you interested in making these lovely cornice covers for the tops of your blinds, I am about to share a secret with you, but PLEASE…don’t tell my father.  I mean these are custom made solid wood blinds.  with professionally mitered corners.  Made with the finest of hard woods.  Engineered to precision.  And the dang things aren’t nailed together!  They were glued!  Well, technically they were siliconed, but it looked so much like hot glue that I whipped out my hot glue gun and shoved the corner back together.  Who knew…it held and has a perfectly beautiful, barely visible seam (Shhh, I am holding you to complete secrecy.)  So, lesson learned.  Buy crown molding of your choosing, cut to fit the width of your wood blinds at a 45 degree angle with a miter saw or miter box, and cut two 45 degree pieces for the sides and hot glue those suckers together.  Bam!  Cornice board for your blinds.

Once I glued it back together, the next challenge was replacing the plastic bracket that held it to the frame of the blinds.  I had no idea how to get a replacement, but after scratching my head for half a second, I remembered that I had these flexible hooks with the temporary adhesive backing.

I use these every year to hang wreathes to the outside of my front windows at Christmas time.  They hold up through cold and hot weather and storms, so I thought it couldn’t hurt to see if it was enough to hold the cornice in place and hook over the top of the blind frame.

So, I held my breath…

*sigh*

Fixed for free!

Update:  It has been up for over a week and because the hooks have some give to them…they handle being slammed like a champ!

I had a fabulous day today and it isn’t even Mother’s Day.  You know those days when everything is in a state of balance…well, at least at greater equilibrium?  Cocoa, the foster pup got one step closer to her forever home.  Caitlin “Creative Chaos” had her second horse show.  She rode, she quit, she rode again…and now I guess she is done quitting and has announced that she is currently one of the Three Horseketeers…big smiles.  Collin “Charismatic Chaos” actually spent his entire 13 year old day in the presence of his family…HIS FAMILY.  Well, he did have a friend over, but still!  And wee bit,  little Kalle “Curly-top Chaos” wanted to be right by my side today at the horse show.  Actually begged to stay with me…BEGGED.  All in all the most spectacular of Mommy days.  And through it all and best of all, Kris “Committed Chaos” was there.

So, in my glow of the day, I thought I would share my inspiration for spreading the joy with some very special ladies in my life; four amazing mothers and one incredible sister-in-law.  And who doesn’t like flowers?

I think flower broaches are so sweet and fashionable.  Flower hair pins look feminine and romantic.  I was never a girlie girl growing up (does my obsession with power tools leave any room for doubt?) but I do like flowers…and wedge heels…and a bright red pedicure.  I wanted to give these special women something that represented how much they mean to me. Something I made with my hands.  Something pretty.

I started with a variety of silk flowers and a some silver embellishments and buttons.  The “Chaos Canines” were on hand to ensure that everything stayed on the up and up.

The first order of business is to remove the center piece that holds all the petals together.  Depending on the flower, it can sometimes be easier to use needle nose pliers to pull the center out.

I used a thin jewelry wire to thread a silver embellishment through the center hole of the flower (along with more adoring eyes…I do believe she thinks I have a treat in my hand.)

Oh wait she called a buddy.  Guess she doesn’t realize that now she has to share.

Cripes!  Reinforcements.  I must be doing something right!

I used the threaded wire to attach the flower to a broach pin or a hair clip (again the needle nose pliers come in handy) and tucked the ends of the wire under so that they won’t catch on fabric or hair.  A tiny bit of hot glue holds the clasp in place and protect the final gift item.

Happy Mother’s Day.  I love all of my Mothers…with everything I have.

We have lived in our house for almost three years.  There were some things that were necessary to alter immediately (i.e. avacado green countertops…don’t get me started) and others that had to be shuffled to the bottom of the priority pile (i.e. replacing carpet with luscious hardwood floors.)  Although I will never see the end of my “want to do” list and wood floors will have to wait until we save a few more pennies, it is always exciting to be able to cross off a long standing wish list item.  I got to do that today.

I have always been a fan of red doors.  They are bold.  They are vibrant.  They almost jump off the hinges to say “WELCOME HOME!”

So  plans were made to paint the front door.  If I haven’t established already that we don’t do things halfway around the chaos crib…maybe this will shed a little light on it.  Not only did we paint the front door, but we painted the back door red too!  I have since discovered that red paint isn’t the easiest color to work with.  I sanded the doors with my mouse sander, then primed the doors and doorframes.   With what seemed like a hundred coats of paint (sanding/painting/sanding/painting), we went from this…

 

To this…

And so to all of those under-appreciated red doors of the world…I dedicate the following to you…

Through your frame we walk to meet

Laughter, sweetness, running feet

We barely notice your sheilding grace

When hunter green adorned your face

scraping, sanding, sweaty brow

Why is Mommy cursing now?

Something’s different, our house has flair

Mom has red paint in her hair

The foyer is blocked with hazard signs

smeared paint would make Mom lose her mind

Vigilent we paint some more

Until we enjoy our new red door!