Happy Birthday Hubby!

So today was Le Hubby's birthday.  The big 22.  Yep, I robbed the cradle. ; )

I'd been trying to figure out what to do for him for MONTHS!  And a few weeks ago, I finally decided on a project:

Organize the MAN CAVE!

We live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house by ourselves...and our cat.  So we each have a room to do whatever with.  Mine is my Creation Lab, yay!  Le Hubby's however, has been a tool room/storage room that had tool boxes (and loose tools!), rubbermaid boxes, cardboard boxes, tackle boxes, speaker boxes, amp boxes, and 5 fishing poles.  It was horrid.  Hubby would kind of do the whole 'walk in and put down what I'm holding anywhere' thing.  I'd go in looking for a screw driver and trip on a monkey wrench and poke my foot on a drill bit. It was just not pretty.  It was so not pretty that I dare not show you a 'before' picture.  

In the end, I wanted Hubby's room to be useable for him again and for it to officially be the 'ManCave' of the house.  Hubby could have all of his boy/friends over to play COD anytime and have their own little space to burp and fart and be a boy in.  haha.

I also thought it'd be really cool for him to have a sign, so that wherever we live he can claim his own 'Cave' again.

And the adventure began.  

I needed a few storage racks to organize everything on that wouldn't break the birthday budget bank for us.  I looked everywhere!  My bff Courtney even helped.  She'd take pictures and msg em to me of possibilities she'd find while in a store.  I scoured online.  I ran around Wal-Mart for a quick bit while Hubby & I were grocery shopping.  Nothing.  On top of that, my only day off of work this past week was TODAY.  That meant I'd have to plan everything and then attack it after Hubby left for work.  To make things even harder, I've had a headache/neckache since at least Tuesday.  Then yesterday, things started looking up when I found these after work:

Score!  I bought 3 in Black.

Then, I found all my sign making supplies at Michaels and was home in time to make supper!  I had planned on starting on the sign in my Lab last night, but the neckache had me knocked out.  Courtney had volunteered to come over & help me after class, so I prayed we'd have time to do everything.  Boy, we cut it close.  

I got up late and had to run some errands with my aches lingering in the background noise.  Got home to eat a yummy san'ich for lunch and got started right before Courtney got here.  I thought I'd start with the sign, so we could organize in between drying steps.  Here's the progress.  I originally got this awesome wall canvas idea from Oopsey Daisy's London Canvas.  I studied in London for a semester of college and LOVE what Alison did! 

First touches:

This wood took the color of the paint sooo well!  And with pretty much one coat.

Then came the letters.  Now, I DON'T have a loverly Cricut that will cut out any fonts from my computer like Alison does (uber jealous).  So I always have to do this by hand and paint my cardstock letters.  My first try at it with a 'Jaimie Paris' wall hanging I made for a friend of mine almost ended disastrously, but I haven't posted about that now have I?  It went much better this time.

Just a drop of black made my spring green perfect Grr Green.

More organizing...more drying.  Then when everything was ready, all I had to do was figure out the layout and Mod Podge it down (btw, I am IN LOVE with my Mod Podge and get a little defensive when people call it Modge Podge, haha).

Eeeck!  I was super excited by this time!  Added some fishy stickers.

Stickin' down some...

A little more...

Added the little Fender for my own personal 'Shane & Shane' and the tool belt...

Courtney thought it'd be cool to have the knobs look like you could adjust the board.











As the last stroke of MoPo went on, we still had an hour before Hubby got home.  Enough time to put finishing touches on everything and tidy things up.

When he did get home, I made him cover his eyes like a little boy...haha.  He LOVED it!  Gave me a sweet kiss and a big hug!  And then we went out for dinner and hang time with friends...and Hubby had a Happy Birthday.  The End....




Oh!  Wait!  You wanna see the final product, don't you?  Here you go:

Enter the ManCave:

Like it?

Complete with recliner and ps3 station.

Room for all the Hub's hobbies including Nerf and his CO2 powered Airsoft pistol.  

And our bikes.  : D

Happy Birthday Hubby.  Love you with my soul.