Changing Table -Turned Dog Bed

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a beat up, run down changing table on the side of the road. It was no longer safe to put a baby on. It was missing two shelves, and was super rickety. Because it was made of real wood and had interesting spindles, I felt the need to bring it home and make something out of it.

The hubs was obviously unhappy that I was bringing more junk home;o) Story of our lives, right?

Anyway, I thought it would make a perfect pet bed.

 This is how it started out. 

I used an electric hand saw and chopped the legs off. That was definitely an experience. Note to self...use a sharp blade next time. I was literally shaking so hard that I had blurred vision while cutting this piece because the blade wouldn't cut through the wood:o) 

I sanded down the feet to get a nice edge.

I then ripped the safety buckles off of the bottom.

And then spray painted it.

The cushion is made from painters' canvas and two large pillows from my couch in the bonus room.

I made the cover removable by adding a zipper to the back. That way when it gets dirty, I can just throw it in the wash.

Not bad for a roadside rescue?

Coffee Table Redo-Part3

Our coffee table serves many purposes. It's the place where the kids do homework, make crafts, sometimes eat their dinners. It's also a foot rest, and occasionally used in pillow/blanket forts.

It's used A LOT, and had been showing lots of wear here lately.

This coffee table has gone through a couple of transformations.

To see the actual before, you can go here.

I had not been planning on re-doing the coffee table. It sort of just struck me last Friday that I needed to strip all of the nasty paint off of it. 

This was part two...the center is chalkboard paint. I had found some inspiration on Mrs. Mustard Seed's blog with some chalkboard tables she had created. At the time of the second re-do, my children had a nasty habit of writing on furniture. I came up with what I thought was an ingenious idea to paint chalkboard paint on the top of the coffee table; that way they could have at least one piece of furniture in the house to write on with out mommy fussing.

Well, it's been a few years and the kids are past the graffiti-on-my-furniture phase, thankfully. However, this table has been put through the ringer.

 As you can see there are tons of nicks, and scratches all over the top. There was also this weird film that developed...not exactly sure if it was from the chalkboard paint, or if we're just that nasty.

Regardless, it needed to come off. 

After two coats of paint stripper and a little bit of sanding, I was able to restore the wood to it's natural state.

 I applied the same stain I used for the old bench.

I let the stain sit for 15 minutes before wiping it off. I'm not one for waiting hours to reapply coats of stain to get what I think is basically the same result.

And this is the finished result. A beautiful stained wood top.

A much needed improvement.

I haven't applied the coats of poly yet. We had way too much going on over the weekend to get that done.

I love my big coffee table, and love that it serves so many purposes. Styling it, is an issue all on it's own. Because it has so many jobs, leaving things on it isn't an option.

But, the kids and the hubs are away, so mommy gets to play around with some fun styling:o)

 I love these old Bibles. I think they are so beautiful. The thicker ones belonged to the hubs' grandfather. The smaller one was my mother's cousin's Bible that was given to him when he was fighting in the war. They were to put them in their pocket to figuratively and literally protect their hearts.

Definitely a treasure.

 I can't get enough of these old blue mason jars either.

I have them scatted throughout the whole house. 

I have three more projects that I am in the process of finishing. I can't wait to share them with you all!!

Ladder Quilt Rack

I have so many projects I want to get started on, but I am still having to wait on the doctor's approval to start lifting heavy items. I am reminded several times a day that where once was a gallbladder, now resides a slight tinge of pain when I try to over-do it.. I am not a patient person. If the mind is willing, so should be the body, is my thought;o) 

So I have been piddling around the house, trying to clean things out and make things a little more organized.

I love to organize.

 I cleaned out a closet this morning that had tons of junk in it...it was the hubs' junk closet...shhhhh! Don't tell him I threw away a ton of boxes that had absolutely no purpose what-so-ever;o)

He's never been one to throw away boxes that electronics come in. Some of the boxes have been hanging out in that closet since before we moved here...mind blowing, right?;o) 

That last statement is absolutely impossible since we are the only owners of this house;o) A slight exaggeration. 

So anyway, here is another way I have been organizing.

I found this cute ladder (1/2 a ladder to be precise), on a Facebook yard sale page.  I have been able to find so many great deals on our local site. If you guys aren't apart of one, I highly recommend it; from a buyer and seller standpoint. 

It's so much easier than having to get up at O-dark-30 every Saturday morning. 

This little ladder has been a great way to store our blankets in the living room, and it's super cute. And guess what?!? I only paid $10 for it. Awesome, I know.

Now to teach the kids and the hubs how to properly fold the blankets and re-hang them...one can dream, right?

Front Porch Fall Decor

 It's Friday!!! 

Yay for 3-day-weekends, and yay for football season kicking off. 

We have a busy weekend ahead of us with lots of food, friends and football. But before all of my guests arrive, I have a long list of to-do's. 

I can check the front porch off the list though. It's done. For now at least. 

We have a tiny front porch...I'm not even sure you could really call it a front porch. It's more of a pass through. 

It's not big enough to have big beautiful displays like the front porches below:

 source unknown

source unknown

However, it looks barren when nothing is there. 

Everything has to be small in scale when decorating this porch because I want my guests to feel welcome at the front door, not claustrophobic.  

I couldn't really get a good full scale picture of the porch. The brick wall kind of takes up the picture, but in person it's much more inviting...I promise:o)

And, yes, I did just water the plants before taking the shot. It looks like my pumpkins got a little excited;o) Guess this photo won't make it to Pinterest;o)

The mums really make the bench pop, and keep it from blending in with the massive boring brick wall behind it.

To try to keep things symmetrical, I brought a small teak chair from the backyard, and used it as a plant holder. The old granite ware pitcher has holes in the bottom of it, so it makes a perfect planter now.

I will most likely be adding more pumpkins and a possible mini hay bale, but that's where I will have to be patient. The pumpkins aren't quite ready, and we'll have plenty of pumpkin farm field trips to collect those:o)

Partying Here:

Painting a Pillow

Is anyone else being hammered by hot temperatures right now? Even though it's blazing hot here in the South, it hasn't deterred me from working away on Fall decor. I'm so glad you are back here today with me. I have a little tutorial on how to spruce up a plain burlap pillow using stencils and fabric paint.

 I found this image on Pinterest. 

I fell in love with the pillow and thought "how fun would that be on my new bench". 

If anyone knows the source of this photo, please let me know so I can give them credit. Thanks!!

So I gathered all the supplies I needed. 

A pillow form(purchased), burlap(purchased), stencils, black fabric paint, and paint brush. 

 I made the pillow cover, and added a zipper. I am really into adding zippers to pillows because it makes it easier to clean the covers. If you are able to do it, I would highly recommend it!!

After the pillow cover was made, I taped some paper to the width of the cover and traced the letters on the paper to see what it would look like on the pillow.

One word...dumb.

These are the only letter stencils I have, and they were waaay too big for the pillow, and waaay too swirly. I could barely read what they said. So I nixed the "Fall Greetings" idea and searched through other stencils I had.

 I found this one in the stash. Obviously it's been used before, but I can't quite remember for what..oh well:o)

I centered and taped the stencil to the burlap cover and painted away making sure not to push the paint under the stencil. If you have some spray adhesive for stencils, that would work great, but we don't use that fancy stuff around here...we just stick to the trusty old Scotch tape:o) 

Here is the finished stencil. Now you should wait until the paint dries before inserting the pillow form...or be like me and go ahead and put it in anyway:o)

And here is my new pillow on my new bench. The hubs keeps telling me I need to bring the bench back inside because it's too nice to be outside..he's so sweet. It's staying put for now:o)

I plan on sprucing this little area up some more with mums and pumpkins...can't wait to finish that up and share the final reveal.

On another note, say a little prayer for me. I go tomorrow to have a scan on my gallbladder. It's been acting wonky, and I have been feeling sub-par for the last 3 weeks. I'm hoping the doctors will find that it's only the gallbladder and get that sucker out of me. I'm ready to feel normal again!

Fall Centerpiece

About two weeks ago, we had a little cold spell. The humidity was gone, and the weather was perfect. Just enough chill in the air that you had to grab a light jacket in the evenings. We actually built a fire and roasted marshmallows a couple nights in a row. It was wonderful!

Now we're back to the sticky-wearing-the-outside-weather..blech!

That cooler weather made me want Fall here in a bad sort of way. Fall is my most favorite time of the year, and I love decorating for it. Even though it's still August, I'm busting out the pumpkins, y'all!

September will eventually get here, Lord willing, so it's ok to have the pumpkins out, right?

Last Christmas, I used this planter for our center piece, and filled it with the same greenery, but just added Christmas-y stuff.

I wasn't sure if it would work for Fall because it was so green, but it seems to be working. 

The pictures are slightly over exposed, so the green is screaming right now, but in person, it's toned down:o)

 I found all of the little add-ins at Hobby Lobby.

 The sprigs and pumpkins are 40% off right now.

 I've had this little wire pumpkin for ages. Another yard sale find. It's the baby. Momma pumpkin is outside sitting beside the newly made-over bench. 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot..I made the table runner too. It's made from painter's drop cloth. I had a little extra leftover from a project I did for VBS. There was just enough length and width, thankfully. My other table runners were too skinny. I wanted this one to stand out, and not be hidden under the planter. I plan on fancying the runner up a bit, but that will be another project for another day.

I will have more Fall decorating and tutorials in upcoming posts so make sure to check back!

Burlap Wreath Tutorial

I.am.ready.for.fall.

Since Fall is around the corner, and I have a few spare moments with the kiddos back in school, I have been able to catch up on some decor projects I have been wanting to tackle.

One of them being a burlap wreath. 

You can't have Fall without a burlap wreath. It's in the rule books somewhere...I'm sure of it. 

There are so many different styles. Raggedy, bubbly, smooth, etc. I went for more of a shabby look...sounds better than raggedy, right?

Today I'm sharing how quick and easy this project is.  

Your list of supplies:

3 yards of burlap(I used two colors)(Burlap is $3.99 at my Hobby Lobby. I used a 40% off Q)

Wire hanger(Joan Crawford would die)

Needle Nose pliers

Scissors

Tape Measure

Start off by cutting your strips. I cut mine at 5" wide.

Then you will want to straighten out the wire hanger.

 Once all of the burlap is cut, do a fan fold. When finished, you will roughly have a 5x5 square.

Thread the wire hanger through the square. 

 While threading, the wire hanger was flopping around. This was driving Max bananas..it was fun to watch;o)

After all of the burlap is threaded onto the hanger, twist the ends together. I ended up snipping about 3" off of each side.

Twist it all together as best you can.

Flip, and hang on a wreath stand.

This project took less than an hour from start to finish, and was less than $10. Easy peasy. I'll have some more step by step fall decor coming your way soon!

Drawer-Turned-Bathroom Shelf

School is back in session here, so I actually have time to sit down and do some posts. I realized today that there are several projects that I talked about on Facebook, but never posted about them, so I 'm going to have to get with it:o)

Speaking of Facebook, the LEGO Table has been unbelievably popular. Y'all have been blowin' up my feed! It's already more popular than my Menu Board...cuh-razy!

So today is all about this cute little shelf that's hanging in our newly remodeled half bath.

This is where I started. I found this drawer, along with another on the side of the road when I was on my way to drop S.R. off for preschool last year. The hubs wasn't happy about it, so to the attic it went and sat for over a year. 

I've seen a lot of drawer-to-shelf makeovers here lately but I really didn't know where I would put one until I was in need of a shelf for the bathroom. Awesome!

 I was not about to sand this piece down because I didn't know what kind of paint was on the drawer, nor did I know how many coats there were....now I do..there were 4 coats people! Yowza!

I used a paint stripper that I purchased from Lowes. I have never used it before, and even though the directions said WEAR A MASK,  I didn't listen. If you're going to use paint stripper, WEAR A MASK! The fumes are horrendous, and you feel like you're lungs are on fire. I thought that by having the garage doors open, that it would provide plenty of ventilation...um, that would be a big fat NO.

So, lesson learned.

 This stuff worked pretty quickly, thankfully. 

 What are those dark spots inside the drawer? Mashed bugs...gross, I know, but I figured if this stuff could strip paint, it would definitely strip a dead bug...and it did;o)

 My original intent for this shelf was to spray paint it after getting the paint off, but after applying two different coats of the paint stripper, I decided that I really liked the way the older colors were popping through. I gave it a light sanding, and then had the hubs add the shelf because I was having a time with getting it level. I spray painted the shelf white, and distressed it a bit for attaching it to the drawer.

I found the robe hook at Walmart and the hubs added that as well.

This is such a neat shelf, and adds a lot of character to this small space.

So who's going to go dumpster diving and find themselves an old drawer? If you decide to take on this project, I would love to see how yours turned out!

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