It's a keeper.

So, I went to this cute sale here in Queen Creek the other day put on by the girls over at the me and jilly blog. If you guys haven't read them before, hop on over, they've got some great stuff. I only bought one thing, but it was one AWESOME thing. They had a fun little galvanized bucket that I wanted to turn into a foot rest and sell at the barn sale this weekend.

The only problem is, now I don't want to sell it. So I'm not. Sorry guys, this baby's staying at my house. I guess you guys will just have to find some old buckets and do it yourselves!

Barn sale inventory

Since there was so much interest in the coffee table I made for Sara's apartment project, I decided to make another and sell it at the barn sale.






Hope you guys can make it to the sale. I'll be there all day on Friday. Here's the info again.

Same frame, two ways

I cut out some frames out of scrap wood in my garage the other day. They both started out with a plain square piece of wood with a square hole cut out of the middle like this...


For one of them, I covered the wood with cut out strips of galvanized metal found in the roofing section at Home Depot. I just measured, cut the metal with heavy duty scissors also found at home depot, and then nailed it on.


I left it outside and sprayed a little water on it for a couple days so it would rust up a bit. It was kind of hard to cut out the metal straight but I figured it out in the end.



The second one, I just added some extra molding I had to the middle and painted a chevron print on it in black and white paint.


I sanded the crap out of it and wiped it down with my favorite stain, Provincial from Minwax.




I'm still getting ready for the barn sale and am getting super excited. I have tons of furniture, accessories, and a bed. I'll post pics in a couple days of some of the inventory.

New Camera!

Guess what?!? I got a new camera. I'm not going to name drop, but it's a canon rebel. Oh yeah! I'm super excited, but I have no idea how to use it.

Good thing Chris at Christopher Leigh Studios is doing a workshop. It's on November 15th in Gilbert. And I am so going to be there. Here are the reasons...

1. I think the location, Shenandoah Mill, is really super awesome.

2. It's easily the least expensive workshop I've seen in a long time.

3. He works well with complete idiots like me. (I literally just figured out how to insert the memory card)

4. It's during school so I'd only have to find a sitter for 2 of my offspring.

5. I really need to exercise my brain before it turns to mush.

All my friends in the area who are reading this... assuming any of my friends actually read my blog... come with me. It'll be rad. Here's the link. Use the coupon code CLSTUDIOS at checkout to get it for $59!

Barn sale info and inventory

I've had quite a few questions about the barn sale lately. Here's the info again!


I'm really excited for this sale, I have a TON of stuff to put in it. Starting with Paysen's bed from the 1800's. I need to put a full size in her room, so this one will be up for grabs at the sale!

Changes...

I've been thinking about revamping my blog for a while. I want to make it into a .com instead of .blogspot.com and change around the layout a little. My question to readers is this...

Is there anything that you would like to see on my blog? Do you want to be able to get e-mail notifications if I update? Does anyone even read this old thing? I would like to get input before I redesign the whole thing to make is as reader friendly as possible.

I know that my pictures could be better (send the hubs hints for Christmas, I could really use a nice camera instead of my point and shoot) and I'm also planning on tagging all my posts so you can just click on "kitchens" or "furniture" or whatever on the side bar. Anything else you think would be better? Are there any postings you would like to see more of?

Please be gentle ;)

I have tried to keep my blog very simple. I hate going to one of my favorite blogs and seeing they have switched to type pad (yes, I'm too lazy to click on the "read more" if the intro doesn't catch my eye). I hate reading an amazing post that's smaller than half the page because of all the sponsors and advertisements. And I'm getting super tired of pop up ads. Am I the only one who feels this way?

And lastly, does anyone know of a good web designer? I've been searching online but I would prefer to work with someone local that I can sit down with and handle this instead of doing everything via e-mail.

Thanks in advance for the help! And thanks for reading. Over and out.

Slip covered Ottoman

Remember my old ottoman? I bought it off craigslist and reupholstered it to resemble the Pottery Barn one.


I loved it but after a year or so, it was a little booger-fied by the kiddos. So I ripped off the upholstery and sewed a slip cover for it.


I lined the whole thing in a white cotton. Which turns out is actually like making two entire slip covers. It was a huge pain and didn't make enough of a difference for me to want to line anything. Ever again. Except maybe a see through dress so I don't scare the horses.


I love the concept of decorating ottomans with books and other things but as soon as I finished taking this picture, my one year old ran up and shoved them onto the ground. So up on the shelf they go until my kids move out of the house. Or until shock collars become legal to use on kids. Whichever comes first. I hope no one from CPA reads my blog...


And in case you were wondering, my husband's home. He told me he wasn't going to be back until next week and he snuck into the house with a bouquet of flowers and surprised me yesterday. Little stink had been lying to me all week! I quickly forgave him though. Here's what he was doing during my little photo shoot.


Teaching one of the young men from our church how to clean a gun. And by "teaching" I mean getting the boys to do his dirty work. It's good to have him home though.

Babies are everywhere

I have so many friends who either just did, or are about to have babies. Must be something in the water. I think I'll drink Pepsi from now on...

Anywhooskis, I saw a small chalkboard at a gorgeous designer store in Mesa and decided it would make a fantastic baby shower gift.


I whipped this one out of some old molding and beadboard laying around in my garage. I thought that if I gave them a rocking gift that they would forgive me for not going to their actual shower.


I HATE baby showers. With the fire of a thousand suns. I don't want to guess the candy bar melted in a diaper that's supposed to look like poop. I don't want to drop potatoes from between my legs in bowls. Like that has ANYTHING to do with actual labor. I wish it were that easy.

Boys room chalk and bead

I've been debating about what kind of wall treatment I wanted to do in the boys room for a while now. I loved the look of the bead board in their old room. Here's a pic in case you missed it.


I never wanted to change it so I knew I could live with it in the new space. But I also really love the idea of an entire chalk board wall like this pic.


If I did that, I wanted to draw shelves on the wall with books and stuffed animals, and frames. I also loved the idea of drawing on their night stands too. The possibilities really are endless.

The problem is that in that huge room, there is one tiny window. I love things light and airy and I thought a huge black wall would make me feel a little gloomy. So I decided to incorporate both things. Here's their room now...


Since my husband is still at Fort Rucker for training I decided to make the project as easy for me as possible and have Home Depot make all the cuts for me with the exception of the molding.


I had them cut up the 4'x 8' sheets of bead board in half, making them 4'x 4'. Then I had them rip a 4'x 8' sheet of masonite into 10" x 8' strips to use for the chalk board part.


I added the trim after finish nailing the bead board and masonite up and then caulked it. After some touch up paint and new lighter tan on the top, I let the kids in. They literally spent 2 hours playing in there, giving me some uninterrupted skype time with the hubs.


I love that I can showcase the kids art without having a gajillion pieces of paper on my fridge. And it's a great way to teach them what is and is NOT acceptable to draw on. Yes on chalk board. No on bedding. Yes with chalk. No with permanent marker. Kills two birds with one stone (which I'm fairly certain my 4 year old could probably do).

Why I do what I do

There are a few reasons why I DIY. I'm sure a therapist could analyze me for hours but here's what I came up with

Cost. I save WAY more money doing it myself. If you can get something that looks almost exactly the same as buying it new, or hiring a contractor at more than half the cost in most cases, would you?

I am the baby of my family. I have 4 older brothers and sisters and I'm sure they can vouch that I want to do things myself. I didn't need help getting to the top of the tree when I was younger and now I can certainly hang a sheet of bead board by myself.

Every time I work on a project involving power tools some guy I know (and some I don't) asks me if I need help. By "need help" they mean I'm a chick and shouldn't be using tools. I can read between the lines. The simple fact of the matter is I'm completely capable of using dangerous tools. In fact, I'm probably more careful than most men because I actually read the owners manuals. I don't want some gallant man to come to my aid in the garage and rescue me from a table saw. My husband rescues me by bringing me flowers and taking me antiquing. He doesn't ask me to put down the drill before I hurt someone.

I love trying new things. Sometimes it would be easier to buy something. But if I always did that how would I know how to use power tools? How would I know that muriatic acid makes metal rust? How would I know to turn the light switch off before hanging a light if I didn't electrocute the pee waddle out of myself once? Knowledge is power and I can't take over the world if I don't have any knowledge!!!

I love creating beautiful things. I love the satisfaction or recycling a pile of garbage into something cool. I love working with my hands and feel accomplished when I put in a hard day of renovating or cleaning or landscaping. And I love having my kids along side me in the garage or back yard working on projects. I'm kinda sad for the day all of them will be in school and I won't hear "Why are you banging that?" or "I wanna bang that!" all day long.

That's all I got for now. I'll let you know if I come up with any other reason why I'm as crazy as I am. Feel free to add to it!

Bring on the fall!

I've been feeling the need to fall up my house lately. I'm hoping that if I insert a few touches of cooler weather, cooler weather might come to me. And then I burned my feet walking on the road today so yeah... it's going good.

I had a plan. New pillows, a few flowers, some wheat and old tractor gears. And I had a budget. Cheap. Real cheap. So I went to the only place that never fails me. Goodwill. This time I was intent on finding some cable knit sweaters to make into pillows like these beauts from Pottery Barn...


I don't even know how much these are because they're not available anymore. I'm guessing a lot. Well, I found exactly what I was looking for AND another great find. These two leather arm chairs.


And guess how much they were....


Heck yes! And I found the perfect way to incorporate them into my new fall living room.

The only thing that bugs me is we NEVER use that room. It's basically a glorified hallway from the front door to the great room. In fact, I don't think I've ever even shared pictures of it until my union jack rug post. Here's the room now all fallish.





See that "The Vintage Bus Co." pillow? A while back my sister and I went to a home decor shop in Phoenix called the willows. I saw this pillow and fell in love.


But the price was CR-A-ZY so I vowed to replicate it. I know what you're thinking. "This girl is the cheapest person I know". And you might be right. But price is not the only reason I copy from designers and stores I love. In this case it was because who the heck would buy a $300 throw pillow, but most of the time its a different reason. I'll post more on that later in the week.

Here's my version of the pillow and the pillows I made from cable knit sweaters from Goodwill.


Here's a close up of the bus pillow. The cream part is duck cloth, the grey is vinyl and the words are also vinyl. I used my friends cricut cutter to cut out the letters. I have really got to get me one of those! I have since secured the letters in place with a matte Modge Podge. If anyone knows of a better product for fabric, let me know!


And one of the other sweater pillows...


I also got this amazing bench from the ranch last weekend. It once belonged to Tara and I think my mom won it in a hand of cards or something. So I traded it for a framed picture and now I have it! It's how we roll.


The last thing I did to the room to make it feel more fall was something I saw on pinterest. The first thing I thought was how STUPID and completely impractical it was. But it worked. I turned my books on my bookcase around so the pages are showing instead of the spines. And I like the bookcase so much more now!


Did you even notice? I'm hoping my husband won't either when he gets home. I can't imagine he's going to let me keep it this way for long. I already know what he's going to say "I know they say not to judge a book by it's cover but geeze!"


p.s. Only two more weeks till my lover face comes home to me! Wahoooo!