My blog

McBaby turned one! This year went by so fast, and we have a lot to be grateful for.  Some of you may have seen the super-awesome Batmobile/Cozy Coupe my mom, and my sister, Sara, painted: I wanted to give McBaby something to go with it so I was pretty excited when I bagged this prize for $1 at the thrift store:   Yeah, I know, it wasn't exactly screaming "Awesome Batmaness!!!!" yet. It was in good shape, rolled straight, and didn't have any cosmetic problems, (other than some nasty sticky residue on the handle). After a serious cleaning it was pretty much as good as new. Time for the paint job. First I stuck painter's tape to some wax paper and cut out some bat symbols: I just free-handed one side and folded it in half to make it symmetrical when cutting it out, but you could print a bat symbol and trace it if you aren't lazy like me. Then I sprayed some parts of the bike yellow: Then I stuck my bat symbols on and covered the yellow parts with saran wrap and ...

Today marks the first guest post on McEwen and McEwen. I have internet-met a brave lady named Heather who overcame Mesothelioma, cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Her story is frightening and inspiring. Thanks Heather!  “You have cancer...” I heard these fateful words during the happiest time of my life: I was a proud new mom of an almost four-month-old baby. How can I have cancer? I thought. Specifically, I had malignant pleural mesothelioma cancer caused primarily by asbestos exposure. The first question people ask me after I tell them about my cancer is “Asbestos? Isn’t that banned?” (No.) And the next question is always “How were you exposed?” (Secondary exposure.) It didn’t take me long to trace the origins of my exposure. You see, my father worked in construction and did mainly drywall taping, mudding and sanding. As a result, his work clothes accumulated dust throughout the day. This dust contained asbestos, and he brought it home not only on his clothes, but also on his ...

I found this adorable cream colored vase at the thrift store for $1.00, and I have been trying to find something good to put in it. Yesterday McBaby and I went to the dollar store and bought a few bundles of fake flowers (the classiest ones the dollar store had to offer!) and a foam football. McBaby was probably thinking this football was for him to add to his collection of foam footballs, but I made him  take a nap and then sliced off the top of that ball like it was a loaf of bread. I don't know how much it costs to just buy a styrofoam ball, but I know they don't sell those at the dollar store and we didn't have time to drive around town hunting for one. Also the football has a nice semi-pointy bottom that helps it sit in the vase. Then, as if lopping off the top did not shame this football enough, I took the hot glue gun and started sticking flowers all over it. First the big ones, and then the little ones. I put it on my shelf with my stick arrangement (which I also st...

 I told you in an earlier post that I like to paint over canvases I got in the thrift store. Here is another canvas that I got:   It didn't have black edges, but I couldn't wait to start painting this ugly thing.   The Rolling Stones and I painted it black. Then I painted this on it: Ta Da!!! I am pretty happy with how this one turned out.

While we were living in our little apartment, waiting for our house to close, I was so so anxious to be in our new house. I worked on a few projects to keep me busy and to get ready for our new place. The trouble with buying a house, though, is that houses are expensive and that leaves only very little money for decorating them. So all of my projects came from thrift store finds. Above are two shelves that I got for $3 and $4. They were not in bad shape, but they weren't really great either. The cheap finish was chipped, exposing bright white wood. I liked the grain of the wood though, and wanted to keep it. I used General Finishes gel stain in "Java" and I was so happy with the results! The stain is pretty cheap considering how far a tiny bit can go. I had planned on doing a few coats, but they looked perfect after one so I stopped. Then I sealed them with a satin finish, (also from General Finishes).  One of the last days in the tiny apartment, McBaby decided to pour hi...