craft

Candle holder repurpose…candy jars

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I combined two pinterest inspirations into this latest project.  Please note I am not a perfectionist, there will more than likely be no magazine shoot for my projects, I just get excited when I see other people’s great ideas and have to do it myself, DIM, or at least give it my best shot.

Here are the two inspires…color and idea…in that order:

   

The wonderful yellow frame photoraph above I saw on pintrest and belongs to Kara May photography

The apothecary jars in that amazing green color I also found on pinterest and are the handiwork of Kayleen from This old Chair.

Yellow candle holders painted in a vibrant yellow and repurposed as candy holders, I held off on using a vessel with a top because in this house that would just not work, little hands need to be able to just reach in, I would probably find the lids under the couch.

I am so happy with the color and how they look, I am going to leave them out until after Thanksgiving and restock with fall candies.

I was so happy when I found all the pieces that I needed to make these all at SAvers, I spent a total of $16 dollars and some change on these, not including candy.

I laid these out, cleaned the stickers off them and laid a tarp underneath the metal stand, and painted them on a vitually wind free day.

Thrift Store Sewing/Craft Finds

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Recent thrift store goodies that I am thrilled to fully organize and start making some
fun little projects with.

I found the three of these plastic bags full of random sizes of neatly folded fabrics, perhaps someones quilting cast aways?  I was really drawn to some of the vintage looking prints, each bag was $2.99 plus I am sure I had a 20% off coupon from a previous donation.

These look like some great colors for Halloween!

My hubby found this little treasure box at the SAlvation ARmy for $7.99, I have yet to get through all of the treasures that are in there…can you see the needles for 30 cents…so cool, I am thinking this was from an estate, it has a bunch of name patches and random lace ends, bra hooks, zippers, can’t wait to get through all of it;

It is like a golden treasure box of sewing/crafting booty….arrgh;)

And look at these pinking shears, man they are sharp and give you a perfect zig zag edge great for the pennants that are so popular right now:

I hope to have some fun things to show you from all these goodies in the near future!

White plastic globe birdfeeder upcycle

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I am having trouble fitting all the pinterest ideas that inspire me into the short 24 hours per day, unless I go without sleep some will just probably never get done.

However, there was this amazing chicken house that was pinned, which led me to Karens’s blog: The Art of Doing Stuff , where I saw these:

From The Art of Doing Stuff

I knew this was a doable project and the next time I was at Savers I scored one of these orbs.

The orbs in the picture above are glass, and on her blog Karen shows what can happen if one slips out of your hands while crafting one of these, I lucked out and got a plastic one.  With 4 young ones around the house I knew a glass orb did not stand a chance.

So you will need, a plastic orb and some sort of strong string, we used twine:

You can see this is not going to be a  spendy feeder so if some hoodlum decides to snag your bird feeder some night, it won’t be a huge loss, except for the birds:

Take your plastic orb and drill 2 holes across from each other on the top third of the orb:

Next take your string, twine, rope or what you are using and string it through the two holes you just drilled, you can ties these in a knot and hang it from your tree.

Tie the string in your preferred knot and hand from a tree limb….also pretty important to fill with birdseed, which you can see we need to put on the list.

Total cost: $1.99 since we had the twin already, who know how much the bird seed will cost, but you can factor that in.

Total time, about 5 minutes.

Renewed floral chairs.

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The narrow farmhouse table I made here via some slight modifications from Anna White’s amazing website was in desperate need of some chairs.  Luckily I had a set of chairs that I has snagged from an estate sale for $10…for teh pair, I thought this was such a great price.  then I got them home and they just did not fit anywhere.   I have had them for sale at 2 maybe three garage sales and even moved them from one house to another.

Perservenece….or maybe just an inability to let a good thing go for fear of wanting it again someday has won this battle, I recovered these chairs with some cushion and fabric from Hobby Lobby and am totally in love!!

I am sad that I can’t find a before picture to increase the wow factor, I am sure I will find one in the archives at some point, anyway here are the chairs:

There’s a new Godfrogger in our yard…

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Found this little frog chilling on the shelf at Saver’s and picked him up for $2.99 is he not the most chill frog you have ever seen? Plus there are daisies around him, I suppose you could argue they are water lilies but daisies are my favorite, so I am sticking with daisies.

Anyway I envisioned him as a metallic green color, lurking somewhere around our yard. Here is his new coat, I love the color, I think I want him to blend a bit more.  So now I am not sure this color is a keeper. Should he get a new coat?
What color would you paint him?

 

 

Farmhouse Table….New Kids Desk

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one thing I love about all the wonderful people blogging out there is that there is no shortage of amazing inspiration and the generosity of the same people sharing the how-to’s for said inspirations.  Once again I fell victim to a must create over at Anna White’s Site.  This narrow farmhouse table here, sent me into the garage once again to recreate the table.  I even had a place for it!!  Under the windows in the office, a perfect place for the kids to do homework and e near Jon and I when we are working in the office.

We made the legs out of reclaimed pallet wood, the top we bought the top and side boards.  I sanded the crap out of the top to make it look as much like a solid piece as possible.

I stained the top and put 3 clear coats over the stain.

I painted the legs white, then I distressed the paint with a hand sander.

I did a top coat of Trewax mahogany wood wax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Markers, colored pencils, a small light, plain paper, lilacs and lillies out the window, bring your imagination to this table and put it on the paper kids:

I do have chairs for the table that are in teh process of being reinvented…I will add a post about them when they are home….but here are a few more shots of the table:

Growth Chart…Done!!

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Let me just say that as often as I think…oh I can do that….often it takes a lot more work to  make something than a person would think.  I am proud to say that from start to finish RAiven and I completed this DIY growth chart by ourselves.  I posted about our start here and yes just the girls with our power tools, oil based stains, paint, brushes and girls abilities completed this project.

I had the board in the garage from another project,  I bought a vinyl tree decal from Target, but thought it was too heavy so I painted an outline round the vinyl, then we stained the whole board in our chosen green stain.  after the stain had set but not completely dried we peeled the stickers off.

Then we added the numbers and lattering….we distressed the stain and hand painting a bit and then did an all over clear coat.

To hand it I did the pop tab hangers, I saw this on pinterest and thought it was a great way to reuse and the price was perfect…free!

So now we have it hung on the wall and everyone measured!!

The black splotch is where I took out our last name..it does not really look like that.

I have updates coming on the fireplace and the garden plot.  Plus I am working on a narrow farmhouse table inspired by Anna White , so I will post pictures when I am done.

Easy, Beautiful, Inexpensive Teacher Gift

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In the words of a dear teacher friend, “please no more coffee mugs…they are great….I love coffee…not that much”. So I asked her what she would really want from her  students as a thank you.

Gift cards to places like Barnes and Noble, this way she can buy books that she can add to her classroom. Also teachers like to read adult non-curriculum books during their break.

Gift cards, to places like Panera or other little shops so she can pick out a fun treat during the summer. Pick one out to a fun boutique in your town, does not have to be much even $10.00 is a treat.

Movie passes so she can see a movie during the summer.

A bottle of wine, or other spirit, perhaps a parent should bring this in, yes teachers like to relax a bit too.

A hanging plant or potted plant that she can put outside to bloom all summer, or get really crafty and put together a small container herb garden.

So here is what we did, we went to Savers’….of course, to buy a vase. There is almost a whole aisle full of flower vases that are donated, the budget 99cents. Whatever one they wanted.

Next stop, Trader Joes’, LOVE this place and their flowers are amazing. $7.99 for each bouquet.

We cleaned the sticker off the bottom of the vase, the kids all trimmed the flowers to fit their vases:

I helped Tanna with her cards…she hepled cut them out;

Solomon went out to the yard and got some Hosta flowers to fill his vase in a bit:

Then they made their own cards, this is truly the sweetest part. I think flowers brighten everyone’s day, I know they will be enjoyed for a bit, and not left on a shelf, and totally not included the paper we had here for the cards, 99 cents for the vase $7.99 for flowers plus a little for the taxman = $9.70….handmade card = priceless…of course.

Flower Power Ottoman

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I zoned in on this ottoman and my pulse starting racing with excitement, as I got closer I just  prayed that no one else had eyes for my prize.  I was even more in love when I saw the flower pattern on the top of this Daisy’s are my favorite flower.  So I hefted this bad boy/girl? into my cart at Savers and it was mine…victory.  Price: $24.99 but I redeemed a 20% coupon I earned form one of our many donations so $20.00 and I was a happy girl!

I think this is one of those pieces that is old and kind of a vintage cool, but can be incorporated in a mod way as well.   I have had a bit of an issue deciding exactly where to put it, since we do not have an club chairs.  Since it is on wheels it just moves around to whever people want to put their feet up.

And then I went to IKEA………

Before:

Wheels:

I went into the seconds/bargain area and I found these for $5.00 50% the regular price and all the parts were there, I thought they were like a wall hook.   I could have mounted these onto the inside of some garage lockers we are working on, but then I got the brilliant idea to update the ottoman.

Helpers:

TA-DA!

Not sure why that last photo seems blurry..

Total cost for this was $25.00!!!  Not a bad price for a sweet upcycled flower power ottoman man (in my best chong voice), I will add more photos when I decide on the perfect at the moment home for it.

Rainbow Birthday Party

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Our oldest daughter just turned 7, this is always a very busy time for us, all the kids schools are having music programs, and family picnics, it is a week before the girls dance recital and soccer practice is 2 nights a week with games in Saturday mornings.

I just did not have it in me this year to have a big birthday party at our house like we typically do.  So we decided to have her party at a local nature canter and a tour of the on site cave would be included.  We are all major nature aficianados as well as avid learners so this sounded perfect.

Right on cue a Parents magazine showed up in our mailbox, I am not sure why we get this, no complaints, jsut one of the wonderfully curious thigs.  So she deicdes this is the cake for her:

So also in this article they have little water bottles with skittles candy sorted by colored and layered as treats for the friends that come to the party.  This seems so easy, I delegate the Cake to Jon becuase he is really the domestic god of our lives and I take on the “easy” skittles job.

14!!! Bags of skittles later I had finally filled 20 tiny bottles with a rainbow of sugary goodness, maybe the cake was the easier job…or maybe it is the worker.

We set teh table with multiple colors of paperplates, cups, napkins and forks after we got back from the cave tour so I do nto have a picture of teh complete table but we used the bottles as a centerpiece and the cake was a huge success!

Everyone got to take one home, these were not the easy project I tougth they would be, but all the kids were thrilled to get them!

Jon’s cake….uuuuummmmazing!!!

Happy 7th Birthday Miss Raiven!!!