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One of the biggest things I have going on right now is that I am very, very keen to find a house to buy. But what I have learned is that apparently everybody else seems to also be looking in my price range. I get an email every morning of the new houses listed the day before and my most recent email had 12 houses listed in my target areas and price range. But wouldn’t you know that at 7 a.m. the next morning all but 2 of those homes were already under contract? Isn’t that kind of insane? How are these people getting on these so quickly? Because it makes NO SENSE to me. It’s a little disheartening because even if you leave the house as soon as you get the email, by the time you drive by the house to see if it’s something you’d like to look at, it’s already taken.
And I don’t really know the area as well as I’d like so it really is important for me to go to these neighborhoods to see if I like the area and if I feel safe there. Because I want to be able to ride my bike and walk my dogs and, you know, just generally feel safe in my home. And sometimes a house looks PERFECT in the photos but then you pull up to the curb you might see that, yes, this house is nice looking because it’s on the market, but the neighbors have 4 cars on cinderblocks filling up a dirt-covered front yard where grass had once grown. And though my dad keeps telling me to buy a house because it’s what I love and want I am still going to be concerned about neighbors and school districts (even though I don’t have kids) because the resale value of any new home is important to me.
Because I don’t’ know areas very well when my mom or dad thinks of a neighborhood I might like and we’re already out nearby, we will go ahead take a spin through to see how it goes. And, as it turns out, we just happened to find a neighborhood that my parents had forgotten about that they just love. And a house is being renovated that is right on a lake and it’s GORGEOUS. It’s far too big for me but I really, really think they should buy it. Initially, my dad said he’d jump on it, but after being at home where everything already is for a while the idea cooled off for him a bit. I get it. Moving sucks. But, dude, waking up looking out over a lake with a nature preserve just across and no neighbors to peep in? That just sounds like heaven to me.
And with Mother’s Day coming up, I really, really wish I was in a place where I could buy something like a new house for my parents. Because my mom LOVES that house and she’s a move to it in a heartbeat :)
But the thing is, I’ve got a great Momma. And I don’t think she’d ever be happy with me buying her something so extravagant, even if I had the means to. She’d much rather I make her a lap quilt that internet trolls called ugly and sent me nasty comments about :) because it was made by me and made with love. And just for the record, we both STILL love that quilt and think it is so colorful and cheerful and different and pretty. And also for the record, internet trolls are the worst!
These days, since I moved to Houston this year, I get to spend A LOT more time with my mom and I’m really glad for it. Because when I was so far away from everyone and so isolated I was sad. And even though I was not alone, I was incredibly lonely. But, as my Momma told me, everything happens for a reason and I went through an experience that helped me to know what I do and don’t want for my future. And since I have made the decision that I will always be close by, my mom will make darn well sure that I will never be lonely again.
And so, today to celebrate all of the fabulous mamas out there, I’m wrapping up this fun, floral and free coloring series with some MASSIVE and totally JUMBO coloring pages. Seriously, guys… I’m talking 2 feet by 3 feet ginormous coloring sheets you can send to Staples to have printed as blueprints for just a few bucks apiece. How flipping cool is that? We’ve also go your traditional letter-sized coloring pages you can print at home, too, but if you’re looking for some DIY artwork or some one-of-a-kind wrapping paper for mom, why not print some and color them up? It will be fun and mom is sure to appreciate it! Want to get after it already?
Here are the different FREE Coloring Page Sizes Available to Download:
- 8.5″ x 11″ – Letter Sized – 5 page PDF
- 18″ x 24″ – 4 individual PDF printables
- 24″ x 36″ – 4 individual PDF printables
The small, 8.5″ x 11″ coloring pages use regular letter paper in your household printer BUT there is a lot of black ink you’ll be using and it might be a little more cost effective to have them printed at a copy store, instead. I just print at home because I prefer the ease of it and if you do to, here is a quick tip for your print settings at home…
The file for the smaller coloring pages has a cover sheet and 4 different designs behind that. You don’t need to print the cover sheet so under Pages to Print select the “Pages” option and then type in the numbers for each of the pages 2-5 that you want to print. Under Page Size & Handling select “Fit” and under Orientation select “Portrait”. Now you’re ready to print!
If you’re printing the larger sizes, once you’ve got these downloaded you can go online to Staples to print up B&W architectural or engineering prints and start an order. Select the size that you want to get going with, making sure to select the B&W option because it is so much cheaper than full color and we don’t have any color in our files, anyway!
Upload each of the individual pages that you would like to print and send them in. You can have them delivered to your house or you can run out and pick them up if you have a store close by.
Name the job something you can remember and change the orientation to “Portrait” as you see above. And would you look at the price to print that one 18″ x 24″ coloring poster? That’s freaking awesome, isn’t it? All in all I spent just under $12 and I got one 18 x 24″ print of all four designs and then I also printed my favorite coloring page as a 24″ x 36″ (2 FEET by 3 FEET! isn’t that awesome?)
There are other printers you can use and I have no affiliation with Staples, I just know they do a good job with the prints, relatively quickly and super CHEAPLY! If you have another printer to suggest, please hit us up in the comments so we might find another printer that will rock these out for us!
Boom! Would you look at HOW BIG that sucker is? I mean, check out the scale of that sucker in relation to my arm. And I’ve been told I have long monkey-like arms by far more than one person, too! :) It takes a while to color one of these jumbo floral coloring pages but the thing is, it’s SO MUCH FUN.
If you’ve been keeping up with these fun floral freebies you’ve already gotten my spiel on my favorite new markers, the Tombow Brights Dual Brush Pens. And if you’ve heard the spiel once before (or more!) go ahead and scroll on down after the next picture. Go ahead. I totally don’t mind!
Still here? Excellent… Okay so I had seen these brushes on Instagram and some of my fave bloggers use these markers pretty much all of the time. But I’m not an artist and I’ve never pretended to be so even though I’ve seen these markers I never bought them because, why? But now that I’m on a coloring kick, these markers are FABULOUS. Like, I have 5 SETS of them now and I love them all. And because I’ve talked about these so much here is what I had to say (in recap :)
Tombow Brights Dual Brush Pens have, like a ton of ink. The colors are gorgeous and they have lots of preplanned sets if you’re not the best at pairing colors. They don’t streak for normal projects (although they do a bit when coloring in HUGE expanses). They are blendable without the tips being ruined or the colors muddied. The brush tips stay nice and beautifully brush-like even after tons of use. Now just to placate my nephew we need to hashtag this business #nonspon because he insists this is vital (dude is telling me how to do my job these days and he’s probably not wrong — love him! #NONSPON :)
While the regular letter-sized coloring pages are fun, the JUMBO coloring pages are, like, JUMBO FUN. I’m so serious. I busted out a TV tray and colored these suckers in from of The OA and I was pleased as punch.
And then, when I wrapped up a medium sized box as a gift with my colored floral poster DREAM I really, really loved this project. And my mom did too. Ant that’s sort of what this is all about right now, isn’t it, with Mom’s Day right around the corner?
Yep, gorgeous!
Did you skip out on downloading these until you got down here to the bottom and realized just how amazing these jumbo floral coloring pages actually are? No problem-o – snag them all right here: 8.5″ x 11″ – Letter Sized – 5 page PDF ** 18″ x 24″ – 4 individual PDF printables ** 24″ x 36″ – 4 individual PDF printables