Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Thrift Store Fab

I am way excited about my Thrift Store Fabulous find.

The girls at work had a creative idea of doing a Christmas gift exchange.

But wait...........

there's a catch..............

you can only buy your gifts from the thrift stores AND you only get $10 to spend!!!

This seemed like such a challenge at first, until I got to the thrift store and realized all the wonderful treasures I had been missing out on. Who knew???? Even little Liam was in thrift store heaven.


Case in point!!! We had to have it!


Moving on to our next treasure...............I found this................look down........................



It
is
cool
.
.
.
right
Or could be.

When I saw this wonderful tray my idea was to take some antique white paint I had left over from our kitchen project and to.......WELL........ paint the tray of course.


I was very happy with how the white paint looked on the tray. It really made it look fresh and new. Even though I loved this thrift store find, I still felt like it needed a little something else to make it have that old and new feel and to give it a little more meaning and warmth. So I decided I would add some stenciled words to the tray and use some art paint I already had from previous projects. I just made up words, it's not rocket science. Then after the words dried I took sanding paper and scuffed it all up to make it have a more antique feel. Finally I added a thin layer of mod podge over the words and the entire inside of the tray and let that dry. I used a matte finish. The mod podge will help protect the painting done on the tray.



It turned out like this before sanding


And after


I wish I could have gotten better pics.....way cooler in person. Oh and I was too excited to take a picture of the cute Christmas mug and revamped (I spray painted it silver) candle holder I got to go with it! $10 bucks baby.


I love it. Kind of too much. I didn't want to give it away. I hope my person loves it as much as me!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Good Bye Pink

New carpet rules!


Especially when it was PINK before. That's right, I said pink, no judging!


Yikes...remember this...I try not to either.

Good Bye Pink!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

A DIY Vision

What's this you ask???? Good question.....................


What do you think it might be???? Any guesses????

Ok, so many of you may already know because I can't stop talking about this project. Maybe I can't stop talking about it because it seemed simple at first and then as in any project it WASN'T, or maybe I couldn't stop talking about it because what I thought I could do by myself, wellllllllll, really didn't work out that way either and I ended up needing A LOT of help from my hubby, or maybe it is because, like all my GREAT ideas, my hubby and I about killed each other through the process. Any way, whatever the reason is to why I can't stop talking about this project, who knows, but I am finally happy to say IT IS DONE!!!! It did make a good story along the way.
Oh and nobody was harmed during the making of this project. Now.....on to what IT actually is......

It started out as a girl with a vision. That girl would be me if you didn't already know that. Any way, I had a vision about doing something unique and interesting in our dining room to replace our existing chandelier. The girl with the vision searched and searched for that perfect lighting and couldn't seem to find the right thing or the right thing was not the right price and the right price just couldn't be compromised. I just couldn't justify, or excuse me, this girl with this vision just couldn't justify spending $100 or more on lighting, or at least for this particular room. I know....CHEAP....but what can I say. Then when my head was hung low and I thought I would be stuck in chandelier hell forever.....
See what I mean.....

I found this link http://madebygirl.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-finished-diy-pendant-light-via-made.html and this awesome string pendant light. You should check out her site too, Made By Girl, so much great stuff!

Pinned Image

Amazing right???? So of course I wanted to try making it and I thought I had the skills to make this simple yet amazing light. I mean really,  how hard could it be?

****Note**** Ask yourself that question at least 20 times before starting this project and then if you still feel like attempting it....ask yourself again. Trust me. You will thank me for it.

Ok so it wasn't as simple as it sounded or as it appeared. I will admit that this could be that the project is truly a little more challenging than it sounds or it could be operator errors, lots of operator errors, probably not, but could be. Just saying!

Here is what this girl with a vision did, just in case you are curious to see:


First you need supplies. On the blog mentioned above she used wall paper paste. I considered using that as well but also found out by reading several other DIY blogs, where some brave individuals attempted this project too, and found out that you can use glue, corn starch, and hot water. All you have to do is mix those components in a bucket and you are set to go. Oh, and it might be handy to have some disposable gloves which my hubby just so happen to have....hmmmmmm. The next thing you will need is some yarn or twine or really whatever you fancy and feel like using. I bought some really cheap white yarn that is a medium weight at good ole Wally World! $2.50! Can't beat that price!


I finally am getting some use out of my exercise ball. I can feel the calories burning right off.

You need a ball. I read that some people used beach balls, balloons (not sure how that would work), bouncy balls, or their beloved exercise balls, which is what I had handy so that is what I used. I am not really sure the exact size of the ball but I think it was a medium size. Draw a circle on the ball in black marker. You want the circle to be large enough to be able to put your arm in to change your light bulb. I made a circle that was the size of the circle you can already see on the top of the ball. After it being all said and done, I would recommend a little larger circle.


 And you will need a Diet Coke. Or maybe that is just me!


Ok moving forward NEXT.........

Lube up baby!!!! You can use either vasoline or cooking spray (which is what we used) on your ball. This shouldn't sound weird butttttt.....I can't help it, it does. Ok anyway, this will help so the string doesn't stick to the ball and it will also make it super duper slick....which makes the string move around a little bit or a lot.

You need to run your yarn through your glue or paste mixture and wrap it around the ball. This is where you can spice things up a little and get a little crazy because the pattern is totally up to you. Make sure you don't wrap yarn over the circle you drew on the ball. You need to leave that open.

Now please read this part carefully because it is very important that you understand that if you ask your hubby to help you wrap the ball with yarn that it may cause him to resent you a little because you interrupted him while watching Sunday Football and he may or may not hold that against you and proceed to not be so careful when trying not to douse you in glue when wrapping the ball. I wouldn't know, I'm just saying.

The easiest way that I found to wrap the yarn around the ball was to cut it in long strips and run each strip through the glue and wrap. It also helps to have one person hold the ball steady while the other person wraps.



I first tried this:


And welllllllll.......that didn't work for me. Lots of swinging. So one person held and one person wrapped to create this:


 And I got messy like this:


So now it is just time to wait. You want to let the ball dry for at least 24 hours, however we let ours dry for about 48 hours. This was partly due to the fact that the part that was sitting on the bucket was sealed by actually sitting on the bucket so it maintained it's moisture and didn't get hard. Which meant, we had to flip it to dry. You have to be smarter than the bucket. :)

Once the yarn dries, then comes the tricky part, well one of many tricky parts, removing the ball. You will want to deflate the ball and then remove the ball through the hole that you left open. I ended up having to cut the exercise ball into pieces to get it out of the hole. I am assuming this is because the exercise ball is heavy and I couldn't get it to roll up small enough to get it out.

When the ball is removed it will look like this:


My wonderful hubby handled the electrical side of this project and I supervised. He might call it something else......any who......It took, not one trip, but one trip to Lowes and one trip to Home Depot to figure out how to make just the right cord and light fixture. You can make your own or find a little cheap one already made that you have to strip and maneuver a bit and cuss at a little to get to work just right and to hold a stronger bulb than the 60 watt restriction. We need 100 watts baby! Lets just say it took a lot of little tweaks!




A Vision is Born:



****Note**** The light is actually really white, but the picture and color of the room makes it look a little yellow or blue in this picture. I couldn't get it just right.




It might not be for everyone, but it certainly is something I love and am proud to say I made, with my hubby's help and some good blog tutorials. Good bye brass chandelier and hello modern string pendant light.


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Baseball is Love


Click on the photo to make it larger and to check out those beautiful blue eyes! More pics to come from our little baseball photo shoot.


Saturday, January 15, 2011

Movie Birthday Party

Happy 7th Birthday Liam!
I just can't believe little Liam is 7 years old. His actual Birthday was January 12th. Which was a Wednesday. You can't have a Birthday Party on a Wednesday.....it's a school night. My friends simply can't come on a school night. What are you thinking???...said little Liam. So the next best thing is to have it on a Saturday. Which is exactly what we did. We had not just any party today......we had a TRON LEGACY 3D MOVIE PARTY. Yep, that's right. We invited our best pals to spend the afternoon at the movies. It was a blast. Anyone that knows Liam....well....knows his love for movies and the theatricals! He has had that passion as long as I can remember. Which would be all of 7 years!!! He loves movies, movies, and more movies. He loves to be in full character and act out his favorite movie scenes. He is quiet the little enthusiast.

Liam and his buddy Coby. Coby is also our neighbor. He is one of the summer bunch. They run back and forth from each others houses all summer long. In one pool one minute.....in one back yard another. It is a tough bunch to keep up with. They are all over the place.

Tron Birthday Cupcakes! So yummy. And yes.....I did bring wipes because you can only imagine with that color of icing what little hands and faces look like after devouring a decadent cupcake like one of these.
On the menu.....Cheese, Meat & Crackers, PB&J Star shaped sandwiches, Puffy Swirly Cheetos, Tron Cupcakes, Apple Juice, Pink Lemonade, & Water.
Party Favors.....Ironman pencil & notepad, Transformer coloring kit, Star Wars stickers, Animal stickers, Batman boomerang, Glow in the dark alien, Smiley face slinky, Peanut butter M&M's, & Scooby snacks.
Perfection!
Hanging Out
What a group!!! My Sweet Boys!
Snacks before the movie starts. I slipped a Diet Coke in the cooler just for me.....I saw one kid trying to sneak off with it.....but luckily I was able to catch it just in time! You can imagine how badly I needed my DC. I might be the only parent of a 7 year old (probably not) that doesn't let him drink pop. He hasn't ever had any....and as many of you know I have an awful addiction, which could be why I don't want him to get hooked, well and the fact that it isn't healthy! Any way, Liam said something right away..."Hey you can't drink that Diet Coke. You have to be 32 like my mom. " Good job Liam!
Liam and his good friend Canon. They are like brothers....you never know what to expect!
Liam and Devin. They have known each other for a very long time. 7 years! Devin went to Grace Baptist Daycare and Preschool with Liam.
L ove
Gifts.
Liam and sweet Hailey
N eed I say more!
Before the movie, the kids got to take a tour of how the movie projectors work and behind the scenes. Liam kept thinking he was going to meet the actors from the movie Tron. Sorry dude.....Mama couldn't pull those kind of strings.
My son....may or may not....have been involved in an incident where a hand was put in front of a projection of a movie that was already in progress. Whoops!!!
So cute
Before the movie started, our movie and party host (very sweet man, but he talked eeeexxxxttttrrrreeeemmmmeeeellllyyyy slow), introduced Liam and announced his 7th birthday. The crowd went nuts. Well.....our 10 party guests went nuts! :)
Our host gave me a hug before I left.
Here's how the movie went for me.......I spent every five minutes taking a child to the bathroom, switching my seat from one end to the other depending on what kids kept talking, passing out drinks, gathering garbage, helping find 3D glasses that had fallen under seats, telling kids to put back on the glasses and that is why they couldn't see the screen clearly, shhhhhhhhhhhhhing kids, telling Liam to quit throwing his slinky around, and trying to get my husband's attention to see if he was aware of any of these things going on.
So.....if you ask me what Tron was about.....I'll get back to you on that!
What a day. Monkey had a blast and is fast asleep as I type away about his perfect 7th Birthday!