Fall Mantle

It seems like everyone but me has a fireplace mantle to decorate for the holidays.

Actually, when me and the hubby were "house shopping," we almost bought a house with a fireplace.

And a large kitchen with a built-in island.

A living room the size of my house.

Unfortunately, the owners put renters into the house right before we were going to close on the house. Renters need 60 days of notice before kicking them out on the street in our state.

Would I buy a house only to have random people living in it for two months?

No...not a chance.

Anyways, back on track!

Since I have no fireplace in my house, I decided that my new entertainment center had a pretty good fireplace-type mantle on it.

That'll do.

;)

So I decorated my "mantle" for Autumn.

I also want to show you the subject of my next project:

Just a basket.

I'm going to turn this basket into something hugely functional.

If you're an organizing freak like me, come back to see what I did with an ordinary basket!

I'm also well aware that my house needs a good dusting. Holy wah, dust bunnies multiply faster than real bunnies.

;)

P.S. 10-in-10 recap will be coming as soon as a link-up is available from the host!

3rd Time's a Charm

I'm one of those people that has to make several mistakes before getting it right.

Trial and error.

I made these tiered topiaries over a year ago...

...but I thought the milk glass bases would be better suited in my living room remodel. The moss was mostly ripped off from my daughter, anyways.

So I turned them to this:

I hated them the second I made them.

1. The flowers mimic a small cala lily, which is NOT great for topiaries.

2. The store didn't have as many flowers as I needed, so there was a big bald spot in the back, which could be viewed from outside. Not pretty.

So after whining about it to my husband for a few months, I spotted the perfect shade of faux hydrangeas.

It's finally perfect.

I will leave those milk glass vases alone now.

That's one less thing in the house that is on my "eventually" list.

I know I have been quite an absent blogger lately. I do have a nice line-up for you, I've just been having problems trying to find time to blog. It seems that I'm taking a class exam every few days.

Here's a peek at what I have in store for you:

-Fall/Halloween decor projects to do with your kids

-a few hints to an awesome project that I'm making my husband for Christmas. If you like to rock, you'll want to stick around for the tutorial!

-a Fall mantle

-progress reports on my stairs (got about 35% of the glue off)

-randoms that I will drop in. I.E recipes, Halloween pics, our trip to see WWE, etc.

A Family Treasure

Has anyone seen this at Restoration Hardware for $1,695....

...or this one from Pottery Barn for 1,299?

Using vintage (or vintage-looking) trunks as coffee tables seems to be the new "it."

My grandma reads as many home decorating magazines as I do. She called me one day and said that she saw a picture of a trunk coffee table in a magazine, and she also had a trunk in her basement. She was wondering if I wanted it.

Of. course. I. do!

When I went to her house, this is what met me:

An old, ugly, painted trunk that's lid didn't fit properly...

...with 100 year old fabric nailed to the top.

I can't even describe to you the smell this trunk was emitting....

Upon further inspection, however, I noticed the potential beauty this old trunk had.

Those are hand-cut decorative L-brackets.

I was swooning.

This was my great-grandfather Reis's trunk. I had never met him. I've heard many stories of him.

He came to the States from Russia in the early 1900's. He made this trunk, and it held everything near and dear to him on his journey.

....hey....maybe that's where I get my skills from...

;)

Do you see why I was so excited about this restoration project?

After 2 days of stripping paint, fixing the old hinges, removing rust off metal, trying to get that 100 year old musty smell out, and putting 5 (yes...5) coats of polyurethane on, I finally had my coffee table.

It goes great with the rest of the living room.

It now holds board games. The kids can just pop open the trunk and get some impromptu gaming on!

I am in love with the little details. Who knew such beauty could have been covered up by all that paint?

My grandma couldn't believe that was the same trunk. She was so proud of me for restoring her dad's trunk.

I will soon be stopping by her house to pick up a picture of her dad. She wrote all the facts about where he had lived in Russia, what year he came to the States, when he was married to my great-grandma, etc. on the back.

It's so nice to have such a functional family treasure in the house.

<3

Cost: about $15 of spray paint-stripper. I already had the polyurethane.

It might be a while until my next project post. My husband is going back to school on Thursday, and we are desperately trying to clean out the basement while we still have time at home. The finished part of the basement will be my new craft room. Yay! We have been doing small projects (like moving furniture), but nothing worth posting. I might have a furniture re-do to show you. I might do it on Saturday. I don't work, and there's no classes because of Labor Day, so as long as the weather holds up, I will get that done!

I will try to throw some recipes out there so that you don't get bored with me!

;)

Ladder Restoration

I'm first going to show you the simple restoration project that I did.

I showed you this ladder last week:

This ladder was one of the few things the old owners had left behind at our house.

I ripped off the other side, painted over the yucky yellow color, and stuck some plants on it.

Now...don't get me wrong...I'm still in love with my ladder. I believe I always will be.

However, it lacked charm.

You know...charm that only comes with something old and loved.

I decided that I needed to bring this ladder back to it's roots.

In this picture, you can:

1. See that I used to be so lazy that I didn't paint the back side of this ladder. (The part I knew no one would see).

2. The horrific yellow that they painted it.

I stripped the paint.

(Which, by the way had THREE layers. Ugh.)

I applied a dark walnut stain and put three coats of polyurethane on it.

Wala!

It really warms up the room.

It reminds me of the one from Pottery Barn.

I also got my daughter's magnets done.

She's quite the artist, hehe!

Anyways, I have a restoration project to show you in the next few days that's going to knock your socks off! I you LOVE Pottery Barn like I do, you need to stop back to see it!

Plus, it's a piece of my family history, so I'm even more excited about this project than usual!

Stick around!

Muntins Into Moulding

Oh, how I loved my faux window muntins.

The Gorilla Glue barely held up during our harsh U.P. of Michigan winters.

I started replacing the glue with Gorilla Glue Epoxy.

That seemed to work great.

One hot day last week, however, one of the kids slammed the patio door...

...and off popped another muntin.

Now, I do believe it was a muntin that didn't have the epoxy glue on it yet, but it didn't matter.

I've had it with re-gluing window muntins.

So I tore them off.

Actually, it does open up the living room a lot by having them gone....

I also tore the ones off the front window.

Anyways, so I was sitting here with a pile of trim, not wanting to throw out so much wood.

Not that it cost that much, but I still didn't want to waste all that wood.

So after brainstorming a bit, I came up with a good way to use that wood.

Moulding for the bathroom.

Best part: FREE!

I love my new moulding.

<3

Anyways, I have a bunch of projects to show you soon. I've been working day and night on another project that didn't cost me anything.

Stick around!

A Project Finished; Urban Loft Photos

It's so nice to be able to get projects done around the house.

Though we were recently blessed with a temporary income, it won't last, so we are still watching every penny we spend.

I got a chance to buy some spray primer. I was ridiculously excited to find out that I had a can and a half of white spray paint just sitting in my garage.

What luck!

So I finally got to paint my daughter's shutters.

All I have to say is:

She had better appreciate me when she gets older!

I have been super-busy lately.

(To the point that if I didn't have a wonderful husband to help cart kids around, I don't think I would make it...)

Yesterday was no exception.

My son was in a Kiddie Parade for T-ball.

Sorry for the terrible picture quality. I was shooting out of a shadow, and I didn't have enough time to figure out how to keep the flash on.

Anyways, I bring this up because while we were waiting, I let him handle my nice/expensive/favorite camera.

Here's what I got when I pulled up the SD card in all of it's UNEDITED glory:

Wouldn't those be great in an urban loft?

Maybe it's just because I'm his mom...but I absolutely adored his photos!

"Momma...I'm going to take a picture of the police car."

Anyways, I have one really cool project that I just completed. I can't wait to show you!

Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait quite a few days.

Today: Work all day, then go grocery shopping (at 10pm).

Tomorrow: Make my veggie bars for a family reunion, go to an auction, go to the reunion, watch the Waterfront Festival fireworks.

Sunday: leave to Milwaukee, WI for a Brewers game. Come back late at night.

Soooo....maybe Monday you'll see it?

Cafe-Style Shutters

Pinching pennies, lately, has been hard for me.

I don't mind not shopping. That doesn't bug me at all.

It's the lack of having a project to work on that is driving me bonkers.

After a few days of moping around the house, I realized that I have a basement full of "eventually" projects.

I would go thrifting, love something, buy it, but never do anything with it.

I have tons of these "eventually" projects down there.

A long time ago, I bought three boxes of shutters at Goodwill.

I can't even remember what I paid.....but it was probably ridiculously cheap if I bought three boxes.

;)

I wanted to make sure they fit my daughter's windows right away, so I put them up right away.

I do have primer and paint, but I've hand-painted shutters before, and it's no picnic.

So I'm just going to wait until I can afford some spray stuff.

(Yes, I'm that broke right now.)

It's going to be white, just like the rest of the trim in her room.

Wouldn't that look great with her shutter headboard that I made her a year ago?

I'll post pictures as soon as I get it done!

Stay tuned for more "eventually" projects that I unearth, recipes, and hopefully news about my life getting back on track, haha!

Beaten and Battered

Do you ever have those days when bad things happen over and over again?

Last night, I found out that my cordless drill has some killer torque. Instead of twisting the screw, it twisted my wrist.

My elbow felt like Jell-O.

My wrist made a terrible crunching noise.

It took me a moment to realize that, no, I did not break my wrist.

I shaved off a good deal of skin off my thumb.

I've hammered my thumb more times than need be.

My daughter clogged the bathroom sink with makeup wedges and flooded 3 rooms. I'm crossing my fingers that mold doesn't appear in my now soggy basement.

At one point I almost threw a hammer at my bookcases.

Count.

1....2....3...

Calm down...

My commitment has paid off, though.

The brute work of the bookcases is done.

I'm still installing the face trim, but that's easy-peasy.

My husband was a little worried about this project.

I have a habit of not writing up a detailed plan before I start.

My "blueprints" don't usually have any drawings on them. Just a ton of numbers/measurements for me to remember.

The drawings are in my head.

However, since a tutorial was requested by a reader, I did a few drawings and labeled some pieces.

I'll scan and post them on the final reveal!

A Bookcase Update

I realized that I haven't posted anything since Monday!

I've been super-busy, (okay, yesterday I went to the beach, but whatever!), but I was able to build at least one bookcase.

It's white behind the bookcase because the backing is painted beadboard.

It was cheaper than the unfinished beadboard, and it was going to get painted anyways.

So now I just have to build another on the other side, add all the face trim, prime and paint!

I have an entire Saturday off (that never happens!), so I'm cranking out as much as I can.

So, when you build bookcases, they should be properly anchored to a wall.

Portable bookcases will sometimes have a strap.

Built-ins should be anchored straight to a wall.

You can't anchor it through the backing. Backing is generally 1/8th of an inch.

That won't hold!

You have to anchor it through the main frame.

I knew that I needed a pocket-hole jig.

Kreg is definitely the way to go.

But at $149.99 for this master set?!

Wow...

I'm not a master wood crafter.

I just wanted two slanted holes!

So I found this Kreg Jig Mini.

The Kreg Tool site sells them for $21.99

I bought mine at Menards for $10.50.

It was perfect for what I needed!

It may turn out to be my new favorite tool.

;)

Anyways, I followed the instructions (different placement of the Jig and the bit stopper for different sized woods), and now my bookcase is securely attached to the wall studs.

Thank you, Kreg jig!

Greetings from the Living Room!

Yesterday was very productive.

We moved all the furniture out of the room.

Then my husband and my son did a little dance on the barren floor...

Then they started doing John Cena's "You Can't See Me."

 Then Will got home from practice, and John was still doing the "You Can't See Me."

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should watch more wrestling!

;)

Anyways, we tore everything out, pulled out all the tack strips, pulled up all the staples, and laid our underlayment.

This is as far as we got.

At 9:15 last night, when I was dragging the flooring in, I realized that I forgot to buy spacers.

Menards was closed.

Darnit!

So even though we could have easily knocked out most of this floor last night, it didn't get done.

Menards doesn't open again for another 15 minutes, so I'm just popping in to give you an update while I'm going crazy patiently waiting for the store to open.

"How long does it take you to paint a room?" -Hubs

"Depends on the room size" - Me

"What about a room like this size (the living room)?" -Hubs

"Mmmm...about a day, more if the trim is painted." -Me

"Alright then! You might as well paint the room since all the furniture's out already!" -Hubs

"Wait...what?!"- Me

Little does my husband know that since I'm the one that has to paint the room, I also get complete control over colors and whatnot!

White board and batten 5-6 feet high.

That's my decision!

He hates white anything, and I love it.

If you're not into whites either, check out A Country Farmhouse.

You'll change your mind!