Today is being brought to you by the letter K‏

Last week I was in a crafty mood. I had an idea for a small, inexpensive project.


On a prominent kitchen wall, we have a phone jack which we don't use.  It is an eyesore.  (First world problems, I know!!)

 

See it to the left of the calendar?

 

I picked up a small canvas at the craft store.

I found the K at the craft store weeks ago for $1.50.  It was cute and I wanted to do something with it.  I went through my paper stash and picked a piece of paper.

I used glue and modge podge and came out with this.

It fits snuggly over the jack and looks a wee bit better than it did before.  I'm pretty happy with it.

 

I also had some Valentines Day decorations from my time as Room Mom when The Boy was in kindergarten.  I just glued them to an extra canvas I had lying around.  Now I can use this for Valentine's Day if I so choose.

 

Simple crafts but they make me happy.

Guest Room Dresser

It's been quite awhile since I posted here.  I had given it up but I am going to try again.

Todays' post is about the Guest Room.  This summer we were expected 3 separate waves of visitors so it was finally time to get that room going.  That will be a separate post but here is the story behind the dresser.

I knew the size and shape I wanted and kept my eyes open at the online tag sale pages and when I went to thrift stores.  The closer it became to the first Visitors, I didn't think it would happen.  I figured I put a card table up for a place to put their stuff.

Then I saw his baby on my friends FB page. For $30 it was EXATLY what I wanted.  Except it was ugly.

 

 

I am not sure if this was original or if someone painted the ivy on it or what but it was not the style I was going for.

 

I took the drawers out and gave it a light sanding and wiped it all down.  As I was priming it, the original idea was to paint it white but then I had a better idea...COLOR!!

The rest of the house is fairly neutral so I thought it would be fun to have some fun with color!   I chose a light blue to go with a theme I have going in that room.  Nothing crazy but something with just a bit of sumthin.

I was thinking of some cool pulls but since there was already a lip for pulling, it really didn't need anything more.

I went with Behr Salty Tears.

 

 

So here she is in her ivy-less, salty tears glory!

 

 

Quite a difference and I am so happy it was done for our guests to enjoy.  There was a matching headboard which is primed but still in the garage.  I will get to it someday.

Stay tuned for the Guest Room in its entirety!

Desk Chair Make-Over

I am so proud of this project!! When my sister and I were in the fourth grade, our parents bought us bedroom furniture. The dressers are still in use but my mom wanted to throw out the desk chairs. Before I moved, I grabbed them, wanting to try to fix them up. I knew there could be more life lived with them.

They were originally off white, with a gold seat cushion.  They were pretty tired looking.

I gave them both a light sanding and a good wipe down.

I had to google how to get the cushions off.  Who knew it was so easy??  You just flip the chair over and in each corner there is a screw hole.  Take the screws out and put them in a safe place.

I measured the cushions, added four inches to the sides and picked some fabric.  That was the hardest part!  So many pretty choices but I ended up picking this. Then I brought it over to the spray paint section to decided what I wanted..

I placed the fabric down, put the cushion on top and stapled it with The Husband's gun.

So easy!!

Then I took the spray paint, I went with a glossy, brown tone and sprayed away!

Each chair took two coats which was almost 3 cans of paint.  If you look closely, you might see a couple of drips....

I am very happy with the results!  Even my mom asked if she could have them back.  They are now in my craft room to replace the folding chairs I usually use.

This project was less than $10.00.  The fabric was $2.50 and I had gotten one of the cans of paint for free.  Not bad for 2 "new" chairs.

sign with a sentiment

A few weeks? months? ago I saw this somewhere on the internet and fell in love.

How true is this saying? When the kids were little and they'd play with mud, color themselves with chalk, paint and food.  Well, they still are covered with food.  Even now, we come in filthy after a hike or camping or....eating.  Anyway, I loved the sentiment and thought the clothesline was cute.  I am a fan of a clothesline....

I had wished I could paint something like this but I am not a painter.  After awhile it came to me....I could use my Cricut and half-ass the project on my own terms.

I bought a canvas, picked some colors and went to work.  I arranged it the way I wanted, used some Modge Podge to adhere it to the canvas and ended up with this....

Things I learned?  If you Modge Podge over pencil, you can't erase it.  I would also have used smaller sized letters.  But since I had already cut them out, I made them work.

Maybe my color choices could have been better but I could change them if I want.  I thought about painting the clothespins but decided to leave them au naturel. 

It isn't hanging up.  Yet?  Not sure if I like it that much but it gave me a few afternoons of playing with my paper and supplies.  Doing something crafty puts me in a great mood, even if my project sucks.

Fall decor tour

I love decorating for Fall. It went from being hot here, to lots of windy/rainy days.  We even had sleet last week!!  But today feels like Fall and believe it or not, trees do change color in Idaho!

I had a coupon for mums so I picked up 3 to decorate the front door.

We haven't gone pumpkin picking yet but I did find a few gourds.

This is my favorite color of mums but I thought yellow would be a good pop since the house is brown.

Inside the house....This is the rest of the silk flowers that were leftover from the wreath.  I actually think they look really pretty in here.

We left this table by the stairs for now but it needs a better home.  I threw some of the things the kids have made over the years on it.

More orange in the family room.

I finally have a nice mantel to decorate!  At first I wasn't happy with how this came out but it grew on me.

I put my scarecrows on the "hearth".  Wasn't the look I was going for but the rest of the fam liked it so it stayed.

Happy Fall!

Apple Season!

We have an apple tree in our front yard. The kids have been eating the apples all summer but now that they are ripening, The Husband wanted to pick them and cook with them.

Very cool to go outside, pick some fruit and come back inside.  Just missing the cider and donuts from the orchard.

We cut up a lot of apples for apple sauce and cut the rest to flash freeze for pies and cakes for the next few months.

The Husband and The Girl worked together to get the apples ready for me to arrange and freeze.

We filled up the ziploc bags for apple sauce.

I filled up 8 quart size bags of the sliced apples.

Tomorrow we are going to try to can some apples. Wish us luck....

Fall Wreath

I love decorating my front door and entry. I am not sure what happened to my Fall wreath but I realized I didn't have one. People around here go all out on wreaths but I didn't want to pay $30 or more for one so I decided to make one.

 I picked up a grapevine wreath.

And a bunch of "silk" flowers.

Then I pulled the blooms off the stems.

I felt a little like Morticia Addams, beheading those posies!

I took my hot glue gun,made a pattern and voila!  Wreath!

I am pretty happy with it.  Simple, easy and about half the price of a store bought one.

I had extra flowers so I threw them in a vase and put them on the dining room table.  Now I need some pumpkins and mums for the entry!