Here’s our latest piece

So, we made a beautiful coffee table a couple of months ago. We were thrilled with it until we realized it had twisted. Ugh! What happened was that Ed thought it would be nice if I didn’t have to get down on the dirty garage floor while staining the table so he elevated it on the saw horses. Big mistake. When we took it down we realized it had twisted but thought it would fix itself after a little time. It did not. We tried to straighten it out to no avail. If anyone has an idea how to straighten it please let me know. Well anyway, we needed a coffee table that was level so we built another one. lol We did not put bread board ends on this one like we did the last one because I want to make the end tables with the bread board ends and thought it was too much “matchy” for me. Here is out new table.

It turned out really nice and we have almost enough scraps to make the 2 end tables now!

BTW…we put the twisted table in the basement hoping that one day we will be able to untwist it but if not the boys have already ‘distressed' it so they can’t hurt it now. :)

Certificate

Back in July I made this wreath and my BIL asked if I could make one for his local VFW to auction off. Seeing it was already the 4th I wasn’t sure I would find the garland but I did find one that was similar so I made one for him to take back to Texas with him after his visit.  Then this week I received this in the mail from the VFW. It’s a certificate of appreciation. Wasn’t that nice of them? This is definitely going up in my craft room! lol

I am hoping to post our newest project tomorrow, if it’s done by then. :)

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Giveaway @ Decor Chick!

Hello all! Just dropping a quick note to everyone about a giveaway Decor Chick! is having. It's for a $50 Visa gift card! Now who would love to have that to take to the craft store??? I would! lol Check it out here.

Have a great day!

SERIOUSLY???

We have the worst luck with weather. We chose to move to Indiana because it wasn't supposed to be so hot. Well that's not really true. Today the temp is 95 but it feels like 107!!! Yes, 107. What is up with this??? Last summer was almost perfect with the highs mostly in the mid 80's and only a few hot days but the heat index never got this bad. OH and to top it off, we are lacking rain. Ugh. Our grass is brown and grass here only turns brown due to lack of water, it even stays green under the snow so when it's brown it's dry. REALLY DRY. This happened one time before, when we moved to Europe-it was unusually cold in winter (last 2 winters here have been unusually cold and snowy) and the summer was so bad thousands died from heat stroke throughout Europe. Maybe it's us??? LOL

I hope y'all are having better weather luck than we are!

New table for the front entry

When we moved into this house I didn’t really think about what to put in the front entry by the stairs. I figured the coat tree and a basket for shoes would be fine. I was wrong. It looks horrible and I had enough of it so I asked Ed to make a table to go in that spot. I wanted 2 shelves under the table so that I have more space to decorate. I was inspired by this table at Pottery Barn.

I stained the table a dark walnut. I was planning on doing 2 coats plus poly but I decided one coat was perfect and I am not going to worry about poly right now. If I decide to do poly I will not do a glossy finish.

I am in the process of decorating it now but I don’t have much to use to decorate for summer. The decor on this table will change constantly with the seasons and holidays and Fall is right around the corner! The mirror came from GW last weekend and started out with a gold frame and the lamp was the lamp I showed you here.

Off to ‘shop’ my house now! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Newest wall art

This is a neat eye chart from http://www.eyechartmaker.com/. I traced it out onto my board after painting it and then painted the letters by hand. I aged it with a dark stain I just bought for the table in the entry that is not quite finished yet. Ed made the frame for me, very simple and I sprayed it with ORB instead of black. I like how this turned out and put it on the other side of the fireplace from the family rules I made a couple weeks ago. By the way, those are our names in age order. :)

OH and I added the spectacles and scroll work at the bottom to keep it from being so boring. Marisa actually painted the scroll work and she did a wonderful job!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. We are waiting for it to rain, praying it does because we REALLY need it right now.

Lamp

I have been searching for a lamp that I liked for the table that Ed is going to build for the front entry. I had not found one, even new, that I liked. While at GW I spotted this shade but passed by it seeing that I did not have a lamp yet and was not sure it would fit whatever lamp I eventually ended up with. Well, when I got to the lamps and found this one I knew the shade would be perfect so I sent Jessica back to grab it for me. She is so helpful when shopping! lol So here is a before and after of the lamp.

It is so much better this way! I sprayed it with ORB and I love it! (Excuse that light in the background, it will be getting a coat of black paint eventually!)

Awesome finds at GW!!!

So today I was over by my friends house, where the other GW is, the one I really like so we stopped in. I have been looking for more frames to use in my decorating, another mirror and a lamp for the table Ed is going to make for the front entry. I found 3 frames and a lamp plus lamp shade (yay!). While I was searching through lamps and things Jessica was wandering all over and spotted this   (not yet put back together, lol) and I KNEW we had to have it. Ed and I have been talking about getting games for the basement and I even contacted someone about an air hockey table on craigslist but never got a response. So I called Ed and he said to go ahead and get it. I hung up with him, turned around low and behold there was this . Yes that is Jessica, Edward, Ethan and Jessica’s friend playing air hockey in our garage!!!! I just could not believe the luck we had today! I paid for both of these what we thought we would pay for the air hockey alone off of craigslist. How awesome is that?

I will post the lamp and frames when I redo them. Still looking for a nice mirror for the entry…I will keep at it and I am sure I will come up with one!

Hitting the garage sales in the morning. Happy hunting! :)

Sharing….

I am excited to announce that 2 of our projects have been shared on other blogs! I am thrilled that they thought enough of them to share them with their own readers. :) Check out The Hand Me Down House and Life as Lori. These are 2 of my favorite blogs and blogs I check out almost daily. Thanks so much to both of you!

Chris

Cabinet door repurpose

When I came across this blog (Nikki’s Nifty Knacks) I knew I wanted to make this. It took me a couple of months to get myself to the ReStore to find a cabinet door but I found one that was perfect. I also picked up some knobs.

Supplies:

• cabinet door (I got mine for $3 at the ReStore)
• paint
• knobs for hanging jackets (also got those at the ReStore)

I forgot to take a picture of the front of the door before I painted it but here is the back. :)

After filling the holes and lightly sanding I used flat black spray paint as a primer. Once that dried I put on a coat of Black Satin finish. The wind was blowing quite bad and the paint job is not the best but that’s okay because I don’t want it to be perfect. After the entire thing was dry I distressed it with sand paper. I really love the brown showing through.

 

Originally I was planning to hang this in our entry way from the garage but I thought it would go much better in our room.

Movie with the kids

Tonight Ed and I took Marisa, Edward and Ethan to see Shrek Forever After. I was so impressed with the way the boys behaved, especially Ethan. Even though he has been diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum (recent) and does not like loud noises or new situations he handled it very well. He did not melt down or cry at all. He did say a couple of times he was ready to go home but that was it. Of course he held his earlobes when it was too loud or something bothered him but he did not do that for the entire movie. They sat and watched the movie, ate their popcorn and drank their soda. I am so proud of the way the two of them handled it. It was the first movie we have taken them to since they were 2 and we took them to see Wall-E, which we had to leave early due to screaming. They both said they would like to see Toy Story 3 when it comes to this theater (it’s the discount theater). What a huge step for Ethan today was. :)

Oh, Jessica did not go with us because she was at Guard practice plus she saw the movie yesterday with her boyfriend.

A couple of this weeks finds

Monday I was out doing a favor for a friend and stopped by the GW near her house. They always seem to have better stuff there than the one near my house. Anyway… I went in looking for a mirror for my dresser, which I found and I also found a perfect piece of wall art for the boys room! I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I picked up a couple of picture frames as well (not pictured). I will have to go down to that GW more often for sure! Here are pics.

Mirror, after I painted it with ORB. It was silver.

Picture hung in the boys room.

Did you find anything good this week?

Typewriter keys art

Hello everyone! It has been a busy weekend for us. We had Ed’s brother from Texas visiting, we got the new light up in the foyer, we finished one art project and I started working on the next one plus we went to the zoo! Wow!

This project was fun and I had some help from Marisa (remember her-the one who jumped???) with the painting and Ed made the frame for it. It’s large (3 ft. x 3 ft.) and took a while to complete but we all love it!

Our inspiration came from Pottery Barn (no surprise there) and with our own touches it has turned out to be one of our favorite pieces thus far.

Pottery Barns version:

Our version:

We started with a 36 inch square piece of plywood. Ed cut grooves with the table saw to make it look like individual squares. I then painted it with some paint we had laying around (an off white color). Marisa and I painted the circles, then the letters, numbers and symbols. The last thing I did was stain on top of the paint with some stain we have. Ed made the frame, which I painted with ORB. It wasn’t really hard but very time consuming and definitely worth it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Pictures and video from Charlie’s visit

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My first award!

I was shocked but thrilled to receive my first award from Jen @ Decor Junkie! I just recently discovered her blog and I am lovin’ it already! You should go check her out! Thank you so much Jen!

(The award. :) )

The guidelines for this award are:

• thank the person/people who gave it to you
• share 7 things about yourself.
• pass the award on to 15 bloggers, whom you have recently discovered, and think are fantastic

7 things about myself:

1. I have 3 tennis balls in my dryer.
2. I can touch the tip of my nose with my tongue. LOL
3. I have a button collection. Not because I WANT one but because I can’t throw out the extra buttons that come with new clothing.
4. Ed and I have a freckle on the same toe on the same foot in the same spot.
5. I can’t stand sand on my feet.
6. My favorite number is 17.
7. I suffer from panic/anxiety disorder. It sucks.

Blogs I recently found and love

• Nancy’s Tidbits
• Creations by Kara
• Savvy Southern Style
• It’s so very Cheri
• Little Blue Chairs
• Tatertots and Jello
• Domestically Speaking
• A Little Lovely
• Making Lemonade
• Cupcakes Kisses and Crumbs
• House of Hepworths
• The Hand Me Down House
• Posh Pieces
• Holy Craft
• Make it and Love it

It was hard for me to just choose 15. There are so many creative and talented people out there! Please check out their blogs and you will love them just as much as i do!

Chris

Our new foyer light

Here I go again, copying someone else’s knock off but this was just too awesome not to! Amanda at The Hand Me Down House has a great tutorial on how to make this.

Here is what we started with:

Here are pics of the process:

And here it is hung up:

We love our new light! (Now we just need to get rid of that hideous thing in the dining room!)

Thank you Amanda for being so very creative and sharing with us!

Rooster plates

I bought 4 of these plates a couple months ago at Dollar Tree for 25 cents each.   I knew I wanted to use them to decorate but wasn’t sure what I wanted to put on them until the other day. I had painted one brown and one red a few weeks ago but they just sat unfinished since then. When I decided to use roosters on the plates I knew it would be perfect for my kitchen but could not find any vinyl roosters or roosters I could Mod Podge on the plates. I finally went searching for images on the internet and found a few I liked. I chose three, printed them and very carefully cut them out (which seemed to take FOREVER!). Then I applied Mod Podge to the front and back of the rooster and put it on the plate.    I am thrilled how they turned out! I still have 1 plate I have yet to decide what to do with but I will probably put a rooster of some sort!

Have a great day!

Chris

Floor Candlesticks

I saw these candlesticks made 2 ways on 2 different blogs (Impatiently Praying for Patience and A Little of this and a Little of that) and loved the idea of making them myself. I used ideas from both blogs to come up with my own version of them. Here is the PB version:

Here are the newels I picked up at the ReStore for $4 each. Newels are the large posts at the end of a staircase.

Ed cut them down for me then I glued fence post toppers to the bottom of each one and round wood plaques to the top of each one to hold the candles. Then I lightly sanded them and painted them black.

Total cost: $11.50 each candlestick

• Newels $8 ($4 each)
• Fence post toppers $4 ($2 each)
• Round wood plaques $3 ($1.50 each)
• Black Spray Paint $8 ($4 each)

I think they look awesome! We saw similar candlesticks at Hobby Lobby that were $40 and up EACH!

Have a great day!

Linking to:

First day of swim lessons

Today was Edwards first day of swim lessons. Ethan is afraid of water and refuses to swim in a large pool. Here are some videos.