A Little DIY Fun

Many of you who know me {for real} know that my mind and my hands never rest.  I have a need to create constantly whether its crafting, photographing or DIY-ing.

Usually I paint canvases or make clipboards or redo things in my home.  Well, I hit the jackpot.  After my mother died and my dad remarried, there was an overabundance of stuff.  Furniture, crystal, china, silver, not to mention all the antique furniture my parents had.

It was time for my dad & his wife to move closer to town and downgrade the size of their home.  What does this mean?  It means that I unpacked 13 boxes of crystal, silver and china in my kitchen along with gaining about a gazillion pieces of furniture {and mirrors} of various sizes. 

I got to work.  And I used my handy dandy chalk paint.  And I'm in love.  And I'm using really bad grammar.

I first took some of the silver platters and made chalkboards out of them.  Hubby drilled a few holes and I strung some jute through them, and Bam!  All done!

This week I chose a mirror to work on.  This mirror...I know I looked into about 15 times a day growing up.  It's one of the pieces that I just had to keep.

I love love the green.  Hubby walked in and said, "well, it's green"! Hahaha!  He'll get used to it.  I think next week I'll work on the antique buffet...stay tuned for that one, I have the matching table and china cabinet too!  So for now I'm in DIY heaven.....ahhhhhhh.

In the Thick of It

So during June, I'm a little crabby because the girl is gone for the month.  Which means that
a. I miss her terribly
and
b. that I can get tons done {if I don't sit and mope}.

I've been swamped with "stuff". 

We had a yard sale.  Too much stuff and not enough space.  Some of it was hard to let go of.  But it had to go.

And we've been getting ready for our annual beach trip with my inlaws.  We go every 4th of July to the TX coast and we literally veg on the beach for days.  Like, we tent camp.  Like beach bums.  And we love every minute of our time there.  We cook on the beach, we bathe, sleep and play on the beach.  Well we shower in the inlaws camper, but it's on the beach.

Every year the hubs and I drive up and down the beach and swoon at the vintage campers we see.  For several years we've said we'll get one.  We finally decided it was time after last year and got to work hunting one down.  We're strange and really wanted one that was different.  We love the old Shasta's and I love Airstream's but hubby really has a thing for vintage campers with odd shapes.  Yeeeesh. 

His dad stumbled on one right down the road from us and we took off to see it.  But we didn't get warm fuzzies when we saw it.  We decided to wait.  Then his dad calls us back and says he bought it!  He loved our idea so much that they wanted to restore a vintage camper too.  So we all set out to make it happen!

 

I've posted a few pics of the process on FB, but there was so much more to be done.  His dad handled all the interior and we did the exterior.  I still have some finishing touches I'll paint on eventually, like pinstriping the back "V" but that can wait.

I was in charge of making the canopy and the outdoor shower curtain.  The canopy is finished!  The shower curtain is in progress.

Today and the rest of the weekend I'll be packingthe camper with the goodies we'll need since we leave on Tuesday!  Beach Bound or Bust!

Once we get to the coast and all set-up I'll do a post that does this baby justice :)

And since we go for the 4th of July, that calls for new mani/pedi's and cute outfits.  I finished C's sash that she'll wear with a romper that she has.   And I'll do our nails the day before we go, you can check IG for those pics in the coming days.

That's it for now friends...have a fabulous day!

Room Renovation

Our house was built in 1983.  Not old, like turn of the century, but old like totally out of date.  29 years.  Now, I can't complain really, my sweet father-in-law built this house.  Lots of love and time went into building it. 

My favorite part...it's solid rock.  Hubby's mom would place a row of rock everyday, then when his dad got home, he would mix the mortar and place each rock where she had.  It was built with love, devotion and family.  I love this house for all that it stands for.  I happen to love the style of it, it's just dated.  We've been planning out renovations for it for the last few years. 

I decided that most of it was fine except for the wood paneling all the way through, but that I really wanted to start with the bedrooms.  Caroline's was 1st on the list.  

Of course, it would have been great if I had remembered to take before pics...blonde moment, ahem.  But I found one from Christmas that showed a little of what it looked like.

Horrible yellow walls.  The paneling was painted years ago, and really needed to be re-done.  And I have to admit, the orange carpet brings back childhood memories.  But it had.to.go!  I added the chalkboard heart a couple of years ago for some fun, and really wanted to keep it.  So I decided to paint around it...

So I made the whole wall a chalkboard wall!  Not that having a black wall thrills me, but I figured she would love it, and it would be tons of fun for her and her friends!  3 more walls...she wanted lots of color.  I'd been buying quarts of discarded paint when I could find them.  Very cheap way to get paint, and very effective when you need multiple colors. 

We had pink, lavender, baby blue, and the yellow is really lime green in person.  I couldn't figure out how to use 4 different colors, but decided if I followed the panels, I could stripe it.  A little out there for me, but she's 9.  If I had a striped wall when I was 9, I would have thought my mom totally rocked.  Just sayin'.

I only striped the one wall.  The other 2 walls are two-tone.  Blue on top and green on the bottom.  Oh, and a pink stripe in between :)  These are painted horizontally. And I didn't take pics of that either. Oopsies.

We're putting up white molding top and bottom.  Then in between each stripe there will be a 1-inch white trim board.

I still have to tackle the floors.  That horrible orange carpet.  Uggghhhh.  I ripped up the carpet, hoping that the concrete wouldn't be too bad and that maybe I could just paint it.  I didn't want to put in new carpet, because hopefully in a couple of years I can talk the hubby into wood floors through out.  So I figured painting it would work too.  But what color?  She thought it would be "cool" if they were white and then splatter painted with all the colors on her walls.  When we ripped up the carpet, this is just a small taste of what I found.

Hubby and his brother used the floor as their very own canvas while they were building the house!  So stinking cute!  I almost don't want to paint over all of it.

Ohhhh.  It might help if I mentioned that she had NO clue what her room was gonna look like.  I did it while she was at her dad's for the month of June.  So when she came home, it was a big surprise.  Which she loved.  Adored.  Screamed like a banshee when she saw it.  Yay me!!!

We still haven't finished.  We've been too busy playing.  We're finishing the floors and molding next week.  I'll take pics then and show the final result of our craziness.  I have to mention that one of my best friends and her 2 kiddos helped me do ALL the work!  If it hadn't been for them, I couldn't have done it!

Once it's all finished, then I get to start on her new pieces of furniture.  I have a lot of furniture that I'm re-doing to put in her room.  Her bed was my grand fathers, possibly my great-grandfathers.  It's old, haha!  It's getting a new vintage look as well as the antique buffet that's been in my family for generations.  My guess is that it's getting within 10-20 years of being 100!  It's gorgeous and one of my favorite pieces from my childhood home.  It makes me unbelievably happy to put it in her room.  My mom would be so happy.  Then she has my antique vanity.  And I still have to find something to use for her TV/radio.  I'm on the hunt!

A Little of This, A Little of That

Just when I think I'm going to get a break and get things all scheduled out, I get swamped again.  Which isn't a bad thing, because I like to be busy.  I do however, hate the things I have to put on the back burner!  So yet again my poor blog and bloggy friends have taken a back seat not to mention my poor house, which does make me sad :(

Can I just say that I LOVE working from home?  I love being able to get to eat lunch with Caroline whenever I want to, run errands whenever I want to, and work at my own pace on the things that I love!  Seeing her face when I pick her up from school everyday, spending time with her in the afternoons, making dinner with her so we can eat when the hubby gets home and not at 7pm makes everything worth it!

Now, me being a little over advantageous and piling a million things on my plate, that makes me a little crazy, haha!  But I do it because I love to and I want to cherish these things while I still can!  

Caroline's school has been planning our Annual Carnival which includes a huge silent auction, and that has me up to my eye balls in details.  So I've been recovering ticket cans, gathering donations, and working on the student part of the auction, which is always a huge hit, so 

I'm hoping I do a good job!

 

Normally the kids help make something from each class, or take a class picture or something similar that includes all the kids from each class.  In years past, they've painted huge potted plant containers, made picture frames they all signed, well, you get the picture.  This year I decided to do canvases that the kids can all sign or paint something on.  Here's a little sneak peek!

Needless to say, I've been quite busy with PTA stuff!  And I love being able to do it!  And you'll be so proud I've even got some posts scheduled!  Thank the Good Lord I'm getting back in the groove!  With all the change that's been going on, I lost myself for a bit there...but I'M BACK peeps!  Or at least I'm pretty sure I am :)

Deck the Halls

We were a little late in getting our Christmas decor up this year, but it's been up for a few weeks now and I just love to come home to our cozy house with all the pretty decorations!  I've been carrying on a family tradition with Caroline when it comes to decorating for Christmas.  We get everything out, make hot cocoa or apple cider, put on the Christmas tunes and go to town.  I love going through this ritual with her, it brings back such great memories of doing this with my family when I was little.  I hope it's a tradition that she'll cherish too and carry on with once she's grown up with her own family.  Another tradition we have is going to buy a new ornament each year.  We each pick out a new ornament for the tree!

From top left: Caroline's new ornament front & back, My ornament that I got from a childhood friend when we were in the 2nd grade, my family ornament when I was a kid, Caroline's ornament that was made from a painting she did, my new ornament, and our 2010 family ornament!  Center: One of my all-time favorites...it's just so darn cute!

Our tree doesn't have any specific theme, or color pattern, it's just a mish mash of everything!  I have ornaments that were given to me when I was a little girl, some of my mom's, new ones, ones Caroline has made over the years and ones that have been given to our family.  Most years I make new ornaments.  It's just a collection of memories and I love that about our tree.

This year when we started getting ready to figure out what kind of ornaments to make, I was stumped.  I happened to be reading a friends blog {Nicole} and she had the best idea for ornaments, so I copied them!  LOL!  Nicole is reinventing her family's Christmas this year and it has really inspired me.  In fact, I'm really thinking about doing this next year.  You should stop by her blog and read her series called, "The 12 Days of a Simple Christmas".   I would post the links, but there are lots {duh, she's doing 12 of them}so I just linked to her 1st post of the series.  Seriously, you have to stop by!


Back to making ornaments....she had this "recipe" for crystal ornaments using basic household things.  I did have to go to the store to buy Borax, but the rest was easy peasy.  I have to say this was one of my favorite ornament projects.  They were fun to make, fun to watch, and we learned a little in the process!  Basically, it's a simple science project that turns into sparkly crystals to hang on your tree!  And watching Caroline's face as we checked on them and she saw the crystals forming was such a blast, she was full of awe and even had to take one to her teacher and tell her how we made them!

And here are a few of our decorations!  We don't have a fireplace and mantle, but we do have an old wood burning stove and rock wall which makes everything all cozy!  I especially love the feel of it all decorated with our stockings and garland.  Speaking of stockings, we have 9 hanging!  We have our 3 and then we have 6 for our fur babies.  Squirt, Shimmer, Bobby {the lone cat}, Betsy, Heidi & Daisy Mae!  That's a lot of stockings!  And each of them get a treat in their stockings to enjoy while we open our presents on Christmas morning.

 I'll leave with a funny Caroline said the other day while watching TV with Tab when a Victoria's Secret commercial came on and Tab tried to cover her eyes, "It's okay Tab, Victoria's Secret is a place for ladies to get new under clothes"!  
We both started cracking up because she just sounded so matter-of-fact!  I love that girl!

A Little Bit of This and That

Hope everyone is having a good week so far....it's still up in the air for me!  But we'll get to that in a little bit!

Over the weekend, I was working on a big project.  My brothers dad {yes, that makes him my step-brother}  has a girlfriend who has a resale store with one of her friends.  Did I lose you there?  Haha!  The store needs a sign.  My brother is very creative and talented, and he suggested that we work together on this sign.  I was super excited to do this with him!  So, we got together a few weekends ago and got started.  The 1st day we just kinda got our plans together, I sketched out an idea, and we got it all laid out.  Wanna hear the fun part?  This thing is 4ft. tall and 8ft. long {big} and we have to do both sides!!!  Yikes!  So we got to work again this weekend and made huge progress on this thing.

The Sketch

Just starting...

Ron working on the letters

Puppy {I have got to get his face done so he doesn't look like a bunny anymore!}

The kitty cat

The really cool part about the store is that all the proceeds go to a pet rescue one of the ladies owns!  How cool is that?  I think it's such a great idea and I'm glad to be a part of it!

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We went to visit Tab's parents, they also live out in the country, and they were telling us about a creek that was a few miles away from their house.  Of course we had to take a bunch of back roads to get there, but boy was it worth it!  Caroline just happened to have on her swimsuit and jumped right in to explore!  I just love watching her play like that...it makes my heart smile!

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And don't forget to check out my GIVEAWAY!  You could win a $40 gift certificate!!!!  I'll pick a winner later this week!

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And one last favor sweet friends.  I have a very dear friend, Frugal Jen, who is having some serious issues in the last few weeks of her pregnancy.  The latest news is that there may be an infection in-utero, and they are suggesting that they go ahead and deliver the baby.  This is a very scary time for her and her husband, and the rest of their family.  She's only 34 weeks and they had already given her 2 steroid shots to help develop the baby's lungs {she's been on bedrest for several weeks now} in case of early delivery.  So could you pray with me?  I'm praying for wisdom for the doctors, peace & strength for Jen & Josh, and health for their sweet baby.  I know she would also love to hear from people who are thinking and praying for them, so please feel free to stop by and give them your words of encouragement!

Thought Filled Thursdays are Back!

 Thought Filled Thursdays has been gone way too long!  I loved doing it because I could just list all the totally random things that enter my head on a daily basis.  So, it's time for me to bring it back, and unleash all these pent up thought and ideas!

I figure we'll start today with some of my wants!  Fun stuff right?  Now, wouldn't I look totally super cute in this little red jacket?  Thanks!  I thought so too! {Just kidding people!!!}

Old Navy

Old Navy

 

Brighton

 Banana Republic

 

Banana Republic

 

Banana Republic

 

Banana Republic

Ohhhh....how I love dreaming!  I haven't even hit up some of my favorite sites yet!  I'll have more goodies for you later!

On to my pain in the a..hmhmm sweet little stinker pot, AKA Caroline!  Can you please tell me what normal child goes to Whataburger and gets this for dinner?

And here are a few pictures from her birthday, which, she had so much fun playing and bouncing around with her friends!

 

I made Cake Pops for the party.  I thought it would be much easier for the kids and less of a mess...but apparently not!  They were everywhere!

Since there was no where to put the candles, I made Caroline a centerpiece that we put the candles in.  She loves this thing, and the best part is it doubles as a super cute decoration for her room...we just took out the candles and put it on top of her dresser!

 

Sweet Friends

 

This was for her actual birthday at home.  We had family over to celebrate!

 

Eventually I'll catch up on everything I have to post!  But, I'll leave you with a picture of a name plaque that I just got done with!  And when I'm done with the other pieces in this order, I'll have a super funny story to post about them!