PB airplane knock off

there are a couple of versions of this PB planked airplane knock offs, but unfortunately when it comes to certain things, i can be super picky, and when it comes to copying/imitating things, i like to make it as realistic as possible. now don't get me wrong, i learned a lot from these other blogs too, but their outcome wasn't as close to the real thing for my liking. for my airplane, i bought 4 24" plywood squares from Home Depot (ab $16, thank you military discount aka hubby), i bought 1 bottle of antique white paint, 1 bottle of white paint, and 1 small bottle of burnt umber all from walmart and all acrylic. i also bought one of those sponge brush things that i used for the white paints and a SUPER OLD AND FRAYED brush for the actual plane. seriously, i looked everywhere for a brush bc i didn't want to spend money on brushes and was desperate enough to use a make up brush, so i looked for one under my sink when EUREKA! i found an old paintbrush that was stiff because the last person to use it didn't take the time to clean it off. i'm glad i used an old brush though, otherwise the lines would've been a little too perfect and i wanted to create the ragged/distressed/vintage look that PB has going on. (i have a lot of run-on sentences. ha. my english teacher would be ashamed). ok so this is what i did. i painted the planks of wood (on the knotted side bc i had messed up on the other side after trying to use mod podge to transfer an image using the directions from another blogger bc it added more character) with the plain white paint and allowed it to dry (one coat is enough, it doesn't matter if the wood can still be seen). next i used the antique white on top of it. now here comes the hard part. i looked at the different pictures PB has of their plane shot at different angles, and i drew the fuselage (i didn't even know what the crap that was until my hubby explained to me - 'it's where the people sit babe') first. the blog that does the knock off where she actually draws it on paper and then transfers it...well to me that 'fuselage' is a little too narrow, so i made mine fat. i think a little too fat, but i like 'em a little thick. hahaha. (btw the drawing was made in pencil directly on the painted wooden planks - you can erase). sooo then i started drawing the-thing-that-holds-the-propellers, i didn't want them perfect circles, so i sketched them out first and then used things around the house that were circular to make sure my circles weren't completely off. i drew the left part of the plane first, if you are facing the plane.after i finished painting the plane (i used one color - burnt umber- for the entire plane), i watered down some of the burnt umber paint and with a rag went over all the planks and then took the brush and dipped it in the paint and painted spots on the planks and then sanded those spots down a little. i took a lot of pictures and i think that's what helped the most bc it allowed me to look at my imperfections. also, i saved a picture of the actual PB plane on my iphone and then i would take pictures of my plane and just swipe back and forth between pictures to make sure they looked somewhat similar. there was A LOT of sketching. it does help if you are SOMEWHAT artistically inclined, BUT anyone can draw if they want. just look at the plane and divide it in shapes and don't look at is as a whole object. sketch it out...keep sketching until u get the shape you want. anyway, here is the finished project that will go in my eldest son's room:

this is PB:

 this one is mine:

Hello World!!

Ok so i have been absent for a few months...I gave birth to a healthy brown haired-blue-eyed boy July 8th. And yes, although it is exciting to have a new baby, it is also very very very TIRING, bc they apparently don't know how to appreciate sleeping time. Welcome back sleep deprivation. So anyways, all the crying plus lack of sleep plus constant breast feeding made me feel oh-so-tired (no time for blogging!), until a friend suggested putting baby on a routine. so i did, and oh has it worked WONDERS. at four weeks he was drinking 4oz of formula plus whatever from breast milk and eating every 3 hours and sleeping for about 4 hours. he just recently turned 10 weeks and i have changed his feeding schedule to every 4 hours with 6oz of formula (no more breast milk :( )...and the best part is...HE SLEEPS FROM 9PM UNTIL 6AM! and then he eats at 6 am, goes back to sleep and wakes up at 0930. HALLELUJAH!! in a nutshell, best thing to do with a baby - put them on a schedule. anyhoo, i worked on a little summin summin and finished today. i will post a blog on that in just a sec....