Craft Room.....Almost finished!

Honestly, I can't believe how long this project is taking! It's driving me crazy. The main reason it's coming together so slowly is because I have to wait until my hubby has time to help with all the projects that require power tools, and it's been a lot. Don't get me wrong, he has been FABULOUS, and I'm not complaining. He is just really busy. So let me just show you some of what we've been doing.

Here is the before of the bookshelves. Remember, they are particle board and laminate. My husband thought I was crazy when I said that I would just paint them to save money instead of finding new, nicer, wooden ones.



And here is the after! We (I should say HE) added crown molding and bead board backs.





Don't they look awesome?! Nate was pretty much blown away by how they turned out, and so was I to tell the truth.



Okay, now remember my filing cabinet. I really wasn't sure on the color, but I wanted to be bold and put some color besides turquoise and white. I painted it with the Krylon spray paint Ivy Leaf and glazed it with a brown glaze. I sprayed the hardware with an oil rubbed bronze paint. I LOVE IT!! I got the technique and the idea from Brooke on All Things Thrifty. That is a fun blog to spend A LOT of time at!



Just a quick reminder of the before on this one.



Okay, so something else that drives me crazy is the weather! Yesterday was 69 degrees, and today is 40?!! What's up with that? It's too cold to paint (darn it--I have some chairs to work on!) so I may just work on this instead:



Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. That is 3 cases of strawberries and 4 dozen half pint jars. Not to mention a dozen packages of pectin. Speaking of pectin, this really is the BEST pectin ever! You should try it!

Most of this jam will be Christmas neighbor gifts. It will be so sweet (literally and figuratively) come December when my neighbor gifts are all done :)



The pectin can be purchased by the pouch at almost any grocery store or Walmart. The best deal is to get it by the box (2 pouches) at Walmart. It's by the Jello. At my Walmart it costs $2.32 for 2 pouches, as opposed to $1.79-ish for the individual pouches at most grocery stores.



But, I may not get to it today. I'm tired! Afterall, I was up at 6:00 am to make these:



I love it when I can get my bread baked before school! Then it doesn't interfere with projects that I'd rather be doing, ya know?

Busy happenings

Okay, so I know I've been kinda quiet this week. But it's not because I haven't been busy! Here are a few things I've been working on:

A frame for the bulletin board in my mudroom. We were going to make one but I found this one at Savers for $10 and it was almost the perfect size, plus it saves us all the work of making one. I'm going to try glazing it. (A technique I found on this blog).

I finished painting my office last Saturday, but before I moved everything back in, I decided I hated how my bookcases looked. (Look here to be reminded how bad they looked). I thought about buying new ones, but then decided that I could just fix these guys up, following the instructions from this blog.

My sister in law, Angie, told me that I couldn't paint everything turquoise. I know she's right, but I just LOVE that color! So I thought I'd be bold and try a different color that wasn't "safe" on my filing cabinet. We'll see if I keep it.

I began to strip this chair. Getting all the old paint out of the crevices of the flower details is alot of work!

Here you can see my paint color in my office (thanks to Shelley from this blog for the paint name, and my pile of books waiting for the bookcases.

My $249 pottery barn medicine cabinet (that cost me $8!!) sans door received a fresh coat of paint. It is going to be hung on the wall, and I'm going to be putting that thread holder in at least the bottom section.

Hopefully soon I will have my completed office to show you, along with my many other projects (that list just keeps growing, while the time just keeps shrinking, darn it!)

Yard Sales!!

Who doesn't love a good yard sale? Come on! The thrill of the hunt! The joy of the find! Not to mention--saving $$$! This weekend was my first official yard sale weekend of the yard sale season. (At our house there are two Saturday morning seasons: Yard sale and basketball. From April thru October I get Saturday mornings for yard sales. From November thru March, Nate gets Saturday mornings for BBall. Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?)

Okay, here are some of my great finds this weekend:

These two chairs: $3! Not each, but all together! Check out the details! Aren't they so cute? Don't they have great potential?! Yes, they need work, but they are going to look soooo good when I'm done with them!

This nightstand was $10. I thought I'd put it in my daughters room, but she decided she didn't like it. If I can't think of somewhere else for it, then I'll sell it on KSL. I'm sure I can make a profit.

This POTTERY BARN medicine cabinet. New from Pottery barn it is $249! Yes, $249! My cost? $8!!! My sister in law spotted it and suggested I hang it in my office. It has great shelves inside and could hold paint, ribbon, etc.

Here's another item I bought with my daughter in mind. I thought it would be soooo cute once painted. She has now decided that maybe she doesn't want a new dresser after all. Her other one is really cute and matches her room, but is a bit on the small side. I was going to give her this and use the smaller one for baby Leah. I'm sure I can sell it on KSL also.

This photo doesn't do this shelf justice, but it is EXACTLY what I had been envisioning for my office redo. It is 4 feet long and three inches high. It's perfect! The price: $2!

EDIT: I just discovered that this is a Pottery Barn shelf that costs $75 new!!

This is another item that is EXACTLY what I had been hoping to find. It is a wooden (aka paintable), small filing cabinet for my office. I wanted a two drawer filing cabinet to replace my montrous, ugly, metal one. Since it's wooden I can paint it and make it really cute! $10

Other great finds: a 50 cent purse (in *turquoise*) to replace my $3 yard sale purse from two years ago that's about had it. Lots of clothes for little Leah, and for Eliza. A wheelbarrow for my hubby. And one that I can't name just in case my daughter sees this, but I paid $20 for a practically new item (brand name: Brother, hint, hint) that would cost me $75 right now on Amazon, and $50-ish if I bought it the day after Thanksgiving.

And yes, I am also painting my office/craft room today. I am posting this between coats, so I need to go put on one more coat and get the room put back together. Pictures will be coming soon!

Spring Break

Hi! I know it's been a few days since my last post, but you'll have to excuse me because it's spring break! We've been spending the last few days at Hidden Springs Lodge. Nate's grandpa and aunt paid for our lodging as a Christmas present. It's been sooo fun!

We've gotten to spend the time with Nate's extended family. I love being with my sisters-in-law and cousins-in-law! (Sorry to those who I didn't get in the picture. I didn't mean to leave anyone out!)

Nate's sister, April, is starting a company where she makes cute flower hair pieces and etc. She brought a bunch of material and taught us how to make some cute stuff. Our cousin, Heather, has recently started a blog called A Thrifty-Nifty Year. She is going to buy ONLY secondhand items for a whole year, starting May 1! I can't wait to see how she does. I also started working on my new diaper bag! I'm using Amy Butlers Reversible Sunday Sling pattern for this. I told you I LOVED this fabric!

We'll go home tomorrow and I hope to get my office painted this weekend! Can't wait to show y'all!

Craft Room/Office Redo: Phases 1 & 2

The last room in the house that has never had any "fix-ups" is the craft room/office. It is down in the basement and there is no window so this room often feels like a dungeon. It's been very disorganized and it's basically a place where things get piled up instead of put away. Half the stuff didn't have a place to be put away! I've hated going in there because I couldn't stand the mess and because I didn't want to be in the "dungeon". Besides the mess, the other major problem is the lighting. As I said before, there's no window, but the lighting is awful too. Not to mention the duct that hangs down which goes across the middle of the ceiling. This duct work causes lots of shadowing.

So, first things first. I needed to declutter, organize and contain the mess. (Not to mention throw away much of it). Here are some before and after photos of my decluttering job. Oh, and I also rearranged a bit. It's hard to tell how good the "after" feels when I'm in the room from just looking at the photos.

Phase two: We spent Friday evening painting the ceiling. They were a dingy-whitish color. I need to do whatever I can to brighten up this room, so we gave it a coat of bright white. While we were at it, we quickly painted the laundry room ceiling as well. Here's my husband, hard at work. Thanks, Nate!

On Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday I spent much of my time painting the doors and the trim in the room. Bright white again. That's FIVE doors, count them! I'm really excited to paint the walls (you can see where I've been testing different samples). But the lighting is so bad that I don't dare choose a paint color until it's improved. This weekend (hopefully) we will be attempting to install either recessed lighting or track lighting. Something that will give a lot more light to this cave of a room. So stay tuned for phase 3!

New Look!

I've spent the better part of yesterday and today redesigning my blog. What do you think? Any suggestions? Thanks!