Before and After

I got this sweet cupboard from Craigslist for free.

It was a mess!!

The veneer was peeling off and it was missing the back.

 But it was just so quaint and cute.

 I knew it would be perfect for a makeover.

I scraped of the peeling veneer, sanded the holy junk out of it, added a back piece

 and painted it a lovely purple.

I sanded the edges and wiped stain over it. Then, finally added some glass knobs.

Done.

She's a little beauty.

She lives in Ragan's room.

Amongst the rubble.

And, yes, I shoved clothes and other paraphernalia out of the way to snap this picture.

(smiley face)

Halloween fun.

I love Halloween, but since moving to Arizona, I have a hard time dragging out all of my things.

It's because the temperature is still pushing 100* and it feels like summer, not fall.

But, they're finally out and I got a little excited. ;)

I remembered that I sold a lot of my decorations at a yard sale this past spring so a bit of crafting was in order to fill in some empty spaces.

This is a little thrifted frame that I covered in wiggly eyes. So cute and FAST to make!

 And, yes.....I saw a version of this on Pinterest.

Don't judge me.

 The picture of the owls is from some scrapbook paper that my precious son, Mark gave me.

He works in a plant that manufactures scrapbook paper.....

he gets $50 worth of free stuff a year! Hello freebies!

.

 This is another quick decoration idea.

Another thrifted frame, spray painted and distressed, with a jack 'o lantern sticker on the glass. I put a piece of scrapbook paper behind it.  

This is not a decoration but a new addition to our family.....

 Meet Cody.

(Named by Ragan)

He is a tarantula that lives outside our front door.

He's a big'un.

We were wondering what kind of a critter was making holes and burrowing in the dirt.

Now we know.

He can stay as long as he takes care of all the other bugs that lurk around the front door. 

But he can't come inside.

Ever.

cake plate love....

Lately, I have been loitering on the Pinterest sight far longer than necessary.

I'm sure some might say it's unnatural and unhealthy for someone to sit and covet  admire all the pretty things on there, but I think I will take my chances with it all!

Well.......on Pinterest, I learned a valuable skill. And that skill is.....cake plate making! Yay me! :)

All you need to make your own cake plate is;

1. some sort of pedestal.

2. a plate

3. Spray paint, if desired.

4. some special glue

So, off to the thrift store I went, in search of a plate and a pedestal.

I found this candle holder for the pedestal......

And this plate........

I loved the green and black so I knew I wasn't going to paint the plate, but the candle holder definitely needed paint. Flat black to be exact.......

With a pencil, I traced around the candle holder on the bottom of the plate.

 I eyeballed the center, but a more perfectionist type might want to measure.

I  put a thin bead of silicone adhesive around my pencil mark.

Less is more when it comes to this kind of glue.....learn from my error here, folks. :)

I let it dry for a few hours and then flipped it right side up.

Easy, Peasy.

For now, this cake plate will hold Mr. Jack.

On account of I won't be baking any cakes in the near future.....on account of my unattractive mid-section girth.......on account of my emotional eating.

But a girl never knows when a cake may be needed....like for a decoration or something.

(or an emotional break down! haha!)

With the silicone adhesive, it is safe to hand wash these babies.

If you opt to spray paint the plate, put a paper doilie or other barrier between the cake and plate.

Have fun!

a DIY chalkboard table

One of my favorite things to do is write on chalk boards.

I know, I know, that's a strange admission.

But, I just like the feel of the chalk and the fun of being able to erase and re-write.

Here in preschool we use small chalk boards to practice our writing of letters and drawing of shapes.

The chalk is easy for their little hands to manipulate and the erasing helps in building the muscles

that will help them write with pencils later on.  

Well, the time came that I needed another preschool table.

I had a rather brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) to have the mister build me one....

BUT instead of having a "normal" top, I wanted to paint it with chalkboard paint.

It works so well that we use it exclusively as a chalkboard table.

I let the kiddos stand around it and doodle to their hearts content!

AND....it was so easy to make!

Craig cut out a regular old piece of plywood the length and width that I requested.

He framed it and supported it with cut 1"x4"s.

 He attached the legs, which we picked up at Lowe's, and I painted the top with chalkboard paint.

I masked off the edges when I painted, and then after it had dried for 24 hrs.,

I masked off the top and painted the edges.

Every couple of years, I touch up the paint using the same technique.

Chalkboard paint comes in a spray paint option, as well as by the quart or gallon.

You can use the chalkboard paint on anything.....

walls, doors, cookie sheets (for a cute magnet board!), etc.

 It's so fun!

A new lamp....for under $10!

I spotted this cool looking lamp at the GW store a few months ago.

I was dying to get at the make over, but we have been so busy wrapping up

 the end of the school year that I just barely was able to do it.

Now be patient with me as I explain what I did......

I seem to have lost all the pics that went along with the explanation.

I unscrewed the top where the bulb goes. It just unscrews. No tools needed. Once that was done, everything just kind of slides apart....but I left it all connected since I knew I probably couldn't re-connect all the wires if I wanted it in all separate pieces. (make sense??)

I masked off the plug, bulb holder and cord.

Then I painted it with spray paint. It is a Krylon color called Watermelon.

I got a little bit of over spray on the glass, but it came right off with a little W-D 40.

(Sprayed it on a rag then wiped the paint off.)

After it was dry, I slid it all back together and screwed the top back on.

Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

 I bought a new shade with a 40% off coupon.

While the cellophane covering was still on the shade,

I traced around the inside of the small part where the fabric is now.

I carefully took the cellophane off the shade and taped it down on a piece of paper to give it more stability. Then I cut it out. I pinned it on some fabric, and cut 4 pieces.

Then, I used clear craft glue to adhere it to the shade.

Using a tooth pick, I smoothed the edges down,

 making sure to clip any threads that may have come loose.

Finally, I glued some fancy ric-rac around the top and bottom.

I love how it turned out.

It's going in our guest room.

The guest room that we will put together after we're done painting our whole downstairs....

which is taking far longer than I want it to.

Right now, it just looks like we turned our house upside down and shook it real good.

Clutter and mess.

The very two things that make me really cranky.

Oh. And it's getting hot.

Make that the THREE things that make me really cranky! ;)

My pin keep has arrived!

I sincerely loves swaps!

I joined a pin keep swap that Wendy at Ravenwood Whimsies put together.

Patti from Raspberry Lane Primitives was my partner.

Patti sent me this wonderful bee skep pin keep! Isn't it awesome?!

Just look at the bee. Adorable!

She also included a little bag of buttons in the package.

I wonder how she knew buttons were one of my favorite things?!

OOooo! Aren't they pretty?

Thanks so much Patti! I love it! :)

Here is the pin keep that I sent to her.

I don't think I'm done making pin keeps! They are just so fun.

some more make overs

Well, it's April 1st, and I hope everyone is playing nice April fools jokes on people.

The mean ones are just not as fun!

My Craig sure was the victim of a mean one this morning.....

One of his athletes came up to him this morning with big tears in her eyes,

asking him to help her tell her parents that she was pregnant.

As he went to give her a consoling hug, telling her that he would do what he could to help her,

she started laughing and said, April Fools!

Needless to say, he didn't think it was funny.

I have always told my kids that playing a joke on someone is only funny if everyone has fun.

Anyway.......I have a couple of new make overs to share.

This bowl was a thrift store find that I got a while ago. I really liked it's size and shape.

 It was only $1.99 and I knew I could sand the edges to get rid of the few blemishes it had.

 After I spray painted it black, I did just that. With a nice coat of stain, it turned out real purdy!

 I put some paper grass in it and it made a nice little nesting place for my new grunged eggs.

I got the idea to make these eggs from Linda, over at Parkers Paradise.

Linda is such a sweet blog friend and has the funnest blog.

These eggs are so easy and fun to make and they smell delish!

If you've ever grunged up some candles, then these will be a piece of cake for you.

I keep my wax in an old coffee can and heat it double boiler style.

I put a pan of water on to boil, and set the can inside of the pan.

I use plain old wax that you can buy at the grocery store and colored it with black and brown crayons. I have also put bits of old candles in it (I melt what's left in the jar in the oven (checking often) on about 150* until they're liquid, then pour it in the coffee can) and they help with the yummy smell.

As for the smell, I have added all kinds of spices....cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, etc.

After all of it is melted, I take the wax off the heat, and start dipping.

I stir the wax  often (with an old wooden spoon) to ensure the spices haven't all sunk to the bottom.

I use rubber gloves and just dip the eggs with my hands

and then set it on wax paper until they have cooled.

 I also rolled them in more spices that I have in a bowl.

It took about 4 dips and rolls before I got the consistency I liked.

As the wax cools, it sticks a little better.

I used my hands to help mold the wax around the egg.

 After I'm done, I peel the drips off of the wax paper and put them back into the wax along with any left over spices. SO fun! :)

The next little make over is for Ragan's bathroom.

I have been looking for a little clock to put in there for a long time,

but couldn't find the right one for just the right price.

BUT----she NEEDS one in there, on account of her chronic lateness.

I remembered this clock that my mom gave me about 100 years ago that I had out in the garage.

I figured I'd see what I could do with it.

I took it all apart......glued some round beads to the bottom for legs and painted it.

And here it is.

I painted it a hot pink first. Then I painted black over the pink. Her bathroom has bit of a shabby chic look to it, so I didn't want to prim it up too much. I spray painted the gold rim around the clock silver. After everything was dry, I lightly sanded the edges to show a tiny bit of pink, then sealed it with a spray sealer.

I think it turned out perfectly for Ragan's bathroom counter.

I have a feeling she will still be late though.

She never has really embraced my 5 minute beauty regimen.

A swap teaser......

I can't show you the whole surprise,

but Julie over at Country Girl at Heart and I have entered into another swap.

I love swapping with Julie....she is so talented and generous!

I hope she likes what I sent to her. It should arrive today or tomorrow. :)

Well, I have been busy sorting and organizing these past few days. I rarely get the "bug" to do that, so I suppose I need to go with it when I do. I spent the majority of Friday and Saturday working on my craft closet and my preschool closet. It feels so good to get rid of things and be all sorted out again.

 Next, I will be working on a couple bedrooms.

More specifically, the half empty bedrooms that Mark and Makenzie recently vacated.

(sad face)

I will be selling anything of value at a yard sale....

That'll teach 'em to leave their mother!

A first try

After making the wool eggs that I showed you in my last post, I decided that I would make a penny mat.

I have worked with wool in the past and have found it very fun and easy,

but never have made a penny mat.

 I have only admired everyone else's!

I actually bought a little kit for this one so I would have a pattern and the instructions for future reference.

And here it is.....

(I put in on this big wooden charger so it could be seen on my black table)

To be honest, I struggled just a little bit.

It's not that it was difficult.

I think it's because I tried too hard.

Or maybe it's because I don't follow instructions well, or possibly,

 because I feel compelled to do my own thing.....

I don't know, but there is probably some medication that helps people with problems such as this.

The instructions had me trace the pattern onto freezer paper (brilliant!). The circle pattern had a large circle with a smaller circle inside it.

The smaller circle was to be cut out from the larger circle......so I had 16 "donuts" and 16 "donut holes".

Make sense??

Then, they were arranged as seen above.  The problem I found was that the little circles weren't necessarily the same size as the holes. The wool did stretch as I blanket stitched it into place but they smaller circles appear to be "sunk into" the larger ones.

Is this the way it's supposed to be?

I always assumed that the smaller circles were on top of the large circles.

Mine seems to lack the dimensional look that I have seen before.

Anyway, it is what it is.

I still like it.

And, I will more than likely try making another one.

That is, after all of you professional penny mat makers, impart your wisdom and knowledge unto me.

 And since that little black children's chair is showing in the background, I will include a larger picture. This is a re-do of a children's chair I picked up at a consignment shop many years ago. It was spray painted with a very light coat of white. The color was fine when I got it, but I recently decided to wood glue it in a few loose places and give it a new coat of paint.

Ahhhh. Much better. 

Happy Saturday. :)

Some thrifty finds.........

I haven't been hanging out at the thrift stores too much lately.

I know......weird.

Explanation....

There is a chance that we might be moving and the mister has been saying words like "downsizing",  "thinning out", "getting rid of" and "reducing" in regard to our household belongings.

I suppose he thinks because his children are moving out, one by one,

 we don't need so much of everything.

So, in an effort to be a good, and supportive wife,

 I have been controlling the urge to stop at every Goodwill and/or thrift store that I drive by.

However,I did make a quick little stop the other day. I was bored and had a little time to kill. (excuses, excuses)

I didn't find much, but I did find some fun things!!!

I picked up this little bag full of star shower curtain hangers. 

 I needed some for our guest bathroom.

I had some hideous plastic rings on the shower curtain and I knew these little babies were the answer!

AND, they were only $2.99!

 

 Some black spray paint and, TAH DAH!!!

See!?  Sooooo much better.

And someone, who shall remain nameless, (but has the initials C.C.), didn't even notice.

Same day.....I found these patterns.

I almost missed them.

Had I not bent down to look at something else, I would have missed them entirely.

99 cents a piece.

Can you believe that!?

The best thing about these patterns

is that some of them came with the fabric, thread and other necessities!

Seriously...when I find stuff like this, I get a little giddy.  

See how easy it is to finish up a project when someone else does all the preliminary work! :)

These will be so cute in a little bowl for Easter.

Moral of the story-

Find thrifty treasures that are small so that they can be brought into the house virtually undetected.

A Sampler...or two.

Recently, I shared a cute little sampler that I found at a thrift store. In that post, I mentioned that I have a fondness for samplers.

I thought I might share some of the ones I have with you.

This first one I also found at a thrift store. I tea dyed it because the colors were very light. I re-framed it to suit my house. The frame was purchased at a Goodwill and then spray painted black.

I found this at a local Goodwill. It's not a sampler, but I love the little house on it! Same story with this frame. It was gold in it's former life. I would like to think it feels so much prettier! ;)

The rest I have made. I never follow a pattern.....I just make it up as I go. (Story of my life.)

 I say that so you will understand any uneven bits and counting mistakes that you might notice. :)

I saw this in a magazine and made it to my liking instead of following the pattern.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my samplers.

Happy Day to you! oxox

You've been framed.

Hey everybody! I am linking up with Kindra again for her Terrific under $10 Tuesday's.

 A few weeks ago, two of my friends and I went thrift store hopping.

None of us found anything that was blowing our skirts up and came away empty handed.

We decided to stop at this little tiny junk store at the last minute.

They have lots of cool stuff, but it's generally expensive for the shape that it's in.

Plus, you really have to dig around in this store.

But, I spotted this little sampler in a broken frame.

I am partial to samplers so I hung on to it, even though I couldn't see a price tag.

I didn't want to pay too much for it as it was dirty and yellowed.

 

It cost $1.

Bargain.

 I figured for a dollar, I wouldn't be too hurt if it didn't end up working out.

But it cleaned up real nice and I put it in a frame I found at Goodwill for $1.99. 

I spray painted the mat red, then fine spray of black over it.
Now, I love it!

***************************************************

I had been given some "old" things in a box a long time ago. In it were some old sticks of gum.

Well, I thought they were so cool,

but they were always hard to display and a couple of them got broken into tiny bits.

 I didn't know what to do with them, until one day, I got the idea to frame the last remaining pieces.

This is a 5x7" frame so you can see that the pieces of gum are much bigger than they are now days! :)

You can see where the bottom piece is broken, so I had to find a way to preserve them.

I got this frame at the dollar store and it was already painted black and had distressed edges. I didn't have to do one thing except cut the paper to fit the frame.

I think it's a fun little conversation piece, don't you?

Go on over to Kindra's blog and see what kind of fun she's having!

Stick a fork in it.

Because it's done! :):)

I haven't had a project in quite a while that I was so anxious to finish.  

I had this old denim quilt that was getting a little worn out. The back was thin and ripping and the top was coming apart on many of the seams. I thought I would just throw it away, but then decided against it.

I took it all apart and decided I would re-do it. I saw a "sew as you go" quilt idea at a quilt store on a recent shop hop and thought it might be fun to use the top to try out the idea.

It was one of those projects that sounds good in the preliminary stages.....

 I traced a dinner plate 35 times on the quilt top.

(*note to self....permanent marker does not wash off dinner plates.)

Then I traced 35 circles onto flannel.

Made sandwiches.......

Put them all together in rows.......

This is what I ended up with.

There was a lot a little cussing during this project.

I traced a square inside the circle. (I did measure and do some planning before this part)

Then I pressed along the traced lines and sewed along the crease with the wrong sides together.

Then I folded the wrong sides down and sewed them to make the flannel bits look like they were pieced. Then, I snipped the edges to make it a rag quilt.

There were so many seams to sew through and it got very heavy. There was also a lot of pressing and that was difficult to press the denim effectively with the heaviness off it.

Consequently it was hard to get the seams even.

But it'll keep somebody warm.

Obviously Rusty thinks it's comfy.

I think I might try this again....on a smaller scale.....and with NO denim.

Maybe a table runner or something.

Simply to I can see if I can do it without the cussing. ;)

some finishes.

I have been spending a lot of time with my sewing machine lately.

I think I've run the old girl right into the ground actually.

 I am hoping that if I give her a little rest, she will start acting like she should again!

The tension is all wonky and I have unpicked my fair share of tangles threads.

Because, seriously, if she's a goner, I will be really sad....and bored.....

Anyway, tomorrow is the volleyball banquet for the high school. Makenzie coached the freshman team this year and had a total blast. The coaches do a little something for each one of their players. Makenzie wanted to something personal for them. So, she asked if I would help her make a little blanket for each one of them. We went and got a variety of those soft and cuddly fabrics and made blankets.

I did an overcast stitch around 15 of those babies!

Oh,  but they are cute. And soft. And cuddly. (I'm thinking I might need one for myself!)

She also put together a little bag full of candy and a lotion for them

 and she tied it on with the ribbon that you see in the picture.

 Also, thanks to Makenzie, I got another project done.

She is always wanting to do big projects....projects like painting a room.

She suggested we recover a chair that is Ragans room that has been waiting to be recovered for a long time.

Last year, for Christmas, one of Ragans gifts was some fabric to recover it. I got the chair at a thrift store (for $5!) when Ragan was in the 5th grade. At the time, her room was full of bright colors so we covered it with purple fun fur.

But, now that she is all grown up it needed an update to match her new room.

This is how it looked purple!

This is how it looked when I picked it up at the thrift store. (except that it wasn't disassembled!)

And now, here it is......

 all

shiny and new!

The legs were really a light colored wood so I spray painted them.

Ragan loves how it looks.

 And, that makes me happy. :)

Thanks, Kenz, for your gentle nudging. :):)