Went looking for a nightstand...

So I wanted to make my youngest a play kitchen out of a nightstand. Got the idea on Pinterest, big shock I know. Anyway  I headed over to Tiffany's, aka the Goodwill, and there were no nightstands in stock...but I ran across this beauty for $15.

It needed a little elbow grease, I sanded the whole thing down, primed it, panted the base a black gloss & the top a flat white. I did flat on top so the stenciling would adhere and sealed the whole thing when I was done.

I got the stencil online just by typing in train track stencil. I painstakingly traced out the track design I wanted onto think plastic "paper" and used a stencil cutter to cut out my design. http://www.plaidonline.com/stencil-decor-accessories-stencil-cutter/118/34008/product.htm

Then I laid it all out on the table and started stenciling my tracks. Except for the cows all the other details I did freehand using stencil paint.

To the right of my "helper" you can see a smaller version that was my first attempt. It was just to small for my kids to play on at the same time.

So in all I spent $15 for the table, about $10 for the cutter, $5 for the plastic, $20 for paint.  So the table cost me $50 in all and I have the satisfaction of knowing I made something for my kiddos!

For Daddy

So this year my husband and I decided we have everything we want/need so we weren't going to exchange gifts this year and just focus on the kids. Somehow that seemed a little sad & I wanted to have something under the tree for him to open. So I started browsing Pinterest for homemade gifts for Dad and got some inspiration.

I decided to make him a picture of the kiddos. I have this super cool software called FX Home, http://fxhome.com/, that uses a green screen. I wanted to use an old barn door for my background so I typed that into google images. Soooooo easy!

I cut the letters out of scrapbook paper, which I have an abundance of now that I primarily use Project Life to document but that's a whole other story!

The boys were good sports & I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Elf on a Shelf

Is there anything better than the magic of Christmas? I don't think so. My grandmother recently taught my boys all about Leprechauns and they couldn't get enough. I thought it was a sign that they would really enjoy Elf on a Shelf. I was right! We named him Candy Cane Gingerbread & he gets into tons of mischief.  Before they even rub the sleep out of their eyes they want to see what ol' Candy Cane was up to in the night. My hubby & I fight over who's turn it is to come up with an idea. This is what w've done so far...

The soul of a dresser.

So my mom calls me and says I've found a dresser & it's free! Then she proceeds to tell me it's a little junky, what do you think? Um walk, no run away. But she didn't. You see there isn't a dresser that my precious mumsie can turn away from. She see the potential, she see the soul. Since she wanted this Charlie Brown dresser to go in the kids playroom at her house, I mean how generous is it for her to have a room devoted to my kids at her house?, how could I refuse?

I'm not going to deny this was a hell of a job stripping the not one or two but three layers of paint off! Invest in a power sander for about $30 at Home Deopt.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this free dresser so I decided to use the original pulls.  The only problem was how to paint them without the pull hitting itself & marring the paint. So I rigged up a clothesline, pinned them up by their screws and laid underneath & spray painted them. 

I painted the whole thing a semi-gloss, for cleaning little fingerprints, buttery yellow. I  did put a coat of primer on first. 

Once it was dry I stenciled on flowers and butterflies for my two nieces and snails, ants & grasshoppers for my two boys.

Each kiddo has their own drawer.

Where do you think you sprouted from?

One of my grandmother's favorite sayings is "where do you think you sprouted from?" She'll say it when she's admiring my sister's good looks, or when one of us does something extraordinary. If she pays me a compliment then I say it back to her, where do you think I sprouted from? So I got this idea on Pinterest of a generational photo with the oldest being the last picture, http://pinterest.com/pin/167266573630727863/, but I thought given our family phrase I'd put my Grandma at the bottom, aka the seed we all sprouted from. Keep in mind if you use the same frame each time then you will most likely want to put the finished product in the same frame, wish I had used a nicer frame & that I had bought a few so that I could give copies to my mom, sister & grandma all in the same frame.

Add my beautiful mumsie to her beautiful mumsie. My mom is 1 of 4 girls but currently the only daughter that has the 4 girls generational line.

Throw in my sissy, who is by the way pregnant with her second daughter  in this picture.

And add my beautiful nice and viola...where do you think we sprouted from! It appears a bit blurry here but the finished product turned out great. If it had been cheaper I would have gone with 10 x 12's instead of 8 x 10's but I was still happy with the finished product, as was my Grandmother which was the most important part!

Re-purposed Candlesticks

I am blessed with an awesome Tiffany's aka Goodwill down the street. In fact it's on the way to the kids school so it's awfully convenient to just pop in on the way to pick them up. Anyway red ticket items were 1/2 off, I spotted a bunch of candlesticks with red tags. I also picked up a bunch of tea cup saucers of different sizes. My total bill was $4.34. Took my loot home and spray painted the whole lot hammered bronze. I did 2 coats and when everything was dry I hot glue gunned the saucers to the candlesticks. Viola, instant display holders for my fall splendor! My mom wanted some too but the candlesticks were gone so I used different size & shape wine glasses. Totally cool too! With the splurge on the spray paint with primer in it the whole project cost me about $10.

The only prep I did was washing everything off.

Hammerd Bronze is my new favorite color!

The different sizes/heights worked well for a fireplace display

Like Butter....

I have to introduce my new favorite product...Butter London. It's the best nail polish on the market, in my humble opinion! It's free of the big bad 3-NO Formaldehyde, NO Toluene, NO DBP, and NEVER have.  The best part is I can get a manicure to last about 4 days. I'm very hard on my nails and if I could get through 2 days I was happy so 4 is jackpot! The other bonus is the dry time...very quick. Of course you have to use the Butter base & topcoat but the results are well worth it. Now it is a little more spendy than the other stuff out there but with my family history I don't want to tempt fate & carcinogen free is worth the cost. Ulta 3 routinely has buy 2 get one free & Butter sells the Top Coat/Base coat as a pack $10 off. The colors are divine. My current fall favorite is Royal Navy. Anyway check it out for yourself at http://www.butterlondon.com/

So why start a blog? Everyone has a blog, does the world really need one more blog? (I actually have 2 others but they're all about the kiddos) Here's the thing, I'm addicted to DIY projects. I'm not that good at them but love them all the same. I get a ton of inspiration from Pinterest.com but there are times that exact thing that I'm looking for just isn't out there and I have to "tweak" someone's brilliant idea to make it just right for me. So you think ok still why do you need to blog about it? Well I'll tell one of my girlfriends, or my aunt, or some of the gals at MOPS hey I just made this and inevitably someone wants to know how...once I explain something twice then I figure ok this might be interesting to someone out there.  Plus I find when I talk I a. don't get to complete a sentence because one or both of my kids NEEDS me or b. I'm talking to another mom and her kids just NEED her. This gives me a space to complete my sentence! And that is why I decided to join the masses with a blog of my own.