Message Board

We have plenty of message boards in my house.

Remember when I made this one?

It's great for tacking on coupons or phone #'s. Sort of like the face of a fridge.

Or how about when I crafted this one?

I use this one a lot less. I guess because I don't yet have a great place to put it...

The kids have one MAJOR rule at my house. (Well...at least my oldest does because he's the only one old enough to go places by himself...).

If you go somewhere, make sure someone knows where you are.

About 3 years ago, I had to quick run to the store. I grabbed my toddler son and went outside to get my oldest.

He was nowhere in sight...

I tried calling his name, I checked the neighbor's houses...

Couldn't find him...

I started panicking!

I strapped my little guy in the van and started driving all around the neighborhood, yelling for him.

(Got some strange looks on that one!)

I finally drove home so that I could call my husband....

There he was, crying on the front porch.

He never told me he left our yard to play with a friend, he came home, and I was gone! (Out looking for him, lol!)

That event was a great teaching tool. It showed him that my rules aren't meant to be mean, but for safety!

Now he always lets us know where he's going ;)

Anyways, so I figured I would help give my kids options for this rule. My oldest is 10, and before I know it, he'll be old enough to be at home by himself. I know that I need a good place to write notes to each other to communicate.

I remember writing my mom notes all the time, to tell her where I was going <3

My mudroom was the perfect place!

I was working with this:

Yes, I know I still have St. Patty's Day decor up.

See that lime pastel green color?

I changed it out to white.

That way if I ever get bored with the room color, I will never have to paint the door again!

Oh, just a warning, the picture quality on this post is going to be terrible. I was in too much of a hurry dealing with a setting sun to care about getting that "perfect" picture.

I found this old clipboard in my basement. It was my husband's.

I think I'm going to stop nagging my husband about being a pack rat.

I seem to find a lot of cool stuff in his "junk" bins =)

It even had a cool map of the city on the back.

No cool history on this one.

It was his clipboard from his pizza delivery guy days!

So I found a pencil and drilled a hole near the top.

I threaded it through, tied it off, then tied the other end to the clipboard.

I purchased some velcro and stuck that on the top and bottom.

Then I smooshed it on my door.

It's also a perfect place to write love notes to my husband!

Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about the playhouse! I'm just waiting until I get further along for more "WOW" factor!

It's almost ready for paint, so stick around to catch that!

I am also about to start 3 MAJOR projects, two requiring building permits. I have only a two week window between the end of my spring semester and the start of my summer semester (yes, I take classes in the summer!), so I'm going to try busting butt to get as much done in that window as possible!

Cutest Dog Leash Hook!

Before I made my new mail center, I had a place for my dog's leashes.

It wasn't a great place, but it worked.

Then I made a more functional mail organizer.

And I love my new mail center!

But I lost a place to put my dog's leashes.

I thought about adding a hook right here, but as you can see, that small wall would get pretty cluttered.

Then it dawned on me....

Why would I put the dog's leashes in the kitchen when I have a mudroom?

Wouldn't that be the best spot for it??

So I got a cheap wood plaque from Walmart and painted it white.

I screwed that into the wall using 2" screws.

Sorry for the blurry picture!

Anyways, I found this cute hardware at Menards. It was $3.99, which is a bit steep for a hook, but I loved it. Plus, the total only really came to $5 for the project, so I wasn't really that upset.

Cute hook, right?

I love how it turned out!

This is part of a recent mudroom redo that I've been undertaking.

This is the....3rd?....time that I've redone the mudroom since we bought the house 4 years ago. Haha!

The last time I redid it, a person at Walmart mixed my neon pastel paint wrong. Since I came home with a funky color, I just decided to go with it and make a modern mudroom.

I never loved it. I sorta liked it.

I even got compliments from it.

I'll show you the color of what the paint was supposed to be soon!

You'll get a charge out of the Walmart employee's mistake!

(Oh, and I'm determined to get the color right this time!)

Coming up:

-a vintage, more functional message system!

-playhouse progress

Knock Off Wood Patio Table

Did I ever tell you how much I love Knock Off Wood?

Have I ever told you that I'm slightly addicted to Ana?

Well I am!

Here's a great little story for you;

My husband and I had our anniversary this Wednesday. Instead of relaxing for the day like sane people do, I decided to get some yard work done. After raking my entire back yard, I noticed my umbrella for my patio table underneath my deck. I hauled it out, slid it through the hole in the table, aiming for the umbrella stand. I must have missed. By the time I noticed my error by the umbrella tipping, it was too late! I shattered the glass. Like a waterfall type shattering! I was almost in tears. I've only had this table for 2 years!

So I pulled myself together and called the only glass cutting business in the area. I love the place! I actually have his business on speed dial!

Anyways, he laughed at me and said, "Honey, it would cost you less to buy a new table than to replace the glass." Ya know, because of the specialty cuts.

So I searched local stores and online. I scoured Craigslist.

Nothing.

Nadda.

Low price=ugly

Pretty=not affordable

Awesome. Great. Grand. What am I going to do?!

Then it hit me. I've made Ana's furniture before. I'll just check to see if she has something that would work!

Of course she does!

I wasn't a big fan of the different leg sizes. I also wanted to reuse as much wood that I already had in my scrap bin, so I decided to use 4x4 legs instead. I thought it would bear the load better.

I went to the lumber yard and picked up my wood.

This is the best part guys:

Since I had wood glue, stain, screws, and some scrap lumber, my total cost for this project was only $16.52!!

Can't beat that, right?

So I cut up all my stock...

I assembled the frame.

I put the supports on.

Then laid my tabletop boards down.

I placed one on top of the other and screwed it all in place.

To make sure that the boards didn't warp with age, I screwed 2 screws into each board on each support.

That's 64 screws!

Then I attached my legs. Ana's plans have 2x4's and 1x4's, and they are screwed in from the inside. Since there are no 4-5" screws (haha!) I just screwed it in from the outside. Wood putty conceals everything as long as you countersink the holes!

Then I attached the braces for stability.

I set it upright, then used a spade bit to drill a hole for my umbrella.

Then I stained it and enjoyed it!

See those chairs? They were given to me by an awesome neighbor last summer. He works as a local school bus driver, and one day he and his crew were cleaning out an elementary school basement. He was able to snag them!

They sat in his basement for ages until he realized that I have a love of all things vintage and handed them down to me!

What a sweet guy!

I love having a piece of my city's history in my backyard!

And I love that I'm finally able to use them! They've sat in my own basement for a year now!

And what luck! He happened to give me 8 chairs, the perfect number for my new table!

And you betcha I'm keeping the writing on the back of these chairs!

I just have to spray poly the crap out of them to make them capable of standing the outdoor weather!

And it's a great size for my "holy crap this is huge" umbrella!

Ugh, the tilting mechanism busted on it. It's always in tilt mode! Haha!

I should probably fix that....

And ya know what?

After building this table and falling in love with it, I realized that my dinky 4 person glass table was pathetic. Why did I like that thing so much?

Holy crap! I found a picture of it in my blog archives! Haha. It was when we were still building out patio!

And unfortunately I can't zoom in and get a decent look at it.

Actually, I do love those chairs, but no longer need them.

 I might store them for a while.

I might Craigslist them.

I'm not sure yet.

But I wasn't sad to see this go.

I built this all in 3 hours, so I had the rest of my day to enjoy with my husband!

Thanks, Ana, for the awesome anniversary present!

Pedestal Bowl

I'm going to show you a simple project that I threw together.

I saw an awesome candle holder at Goodwill yesterday.

I don't really use candles much.

I already have a cake plate.

Then I saw the perfect bowl to go with it.

Total price= $3.00

I simply glued the two together with Gorilla glue epoxy.

It makes a great stand for fruit!

Make sure you come back on Saturday! I'm going to show you an awesome project! You don't want to miss this!

Working Hard; Plans; Anniversary

Wow, fixing up a pint-sized house is a lot of work! Who would have knew?

I got the windows done, and I'll show you how I did those.

These were the old windows. Well, lack there of. It was two smaller pieces of plexiglass that would slide on a track similar to closet doors. With only 2 pieces of wood holding them in, it was quite easy for the kids to pop them out.

Not to mention that 2 tracks were broken...

This let tons on bugs in. Bees and spiders were the worst. I'm not a fan....

Anyways, so I made a basic from of 1x2's on the inside.

(yes, the screw holes still need to be filled. I'm working on the inside now, so it will be done soon!)

Then I put in my piece of (sturdier!) plexiglass. I made another 1x2 frame to sandwich the window in.

I filled in the screw holes and stained it.

It's starting to come together!

(Ugh...I really need to touch up this paint on the trim....)

The inside was the worst part of this playhouse.

I just added some 2x2 firring strips to the walls.

It's hard to explain the reasoning of why I did that. I guess you'll just have to see the end product!

I'm hoping, if everything goes right, that the walls should be done by next weekend.

On another note, I just picked up my first raspberry bush! So in between working on the playhouse, I'm FINALLY starting my berry garden that I've wanted so badly since we bought this house 4 years ago. I will have my entire back fence all raspberry and blackberry bushes!

It won't bear fruit for 2-3 growing seasons, but once they do, I will be in heaven!

And lastly, I just want to say, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY HUSBAND AND ME!

He's my world.

Photo Creds

"His" "Hers" wall hooks

I've always loved "His" "Hers" stuff.

Like this one from an etsy dealer.

But I don't want them in the bathroom. I have kids, and I don't want them to think that I'm excluding them in a spot to hang their stuff.

I do, however, have two fabulous hooks in my bedroom.

I toyed with the idea of putting them above these.

But with very little wall space between the hooks, the lettering would have to be very small to fit above it.

What's the point if you can't read what is says, right?

So I settled with the idea of putting the lettering vertical.

I still didn't like how uneven it was. I figured that maybe I could squish the "Hers" together more than the "His" to try making it more even.

I was crossing my fingers...

So I began setting up my Cricut with this cartridge. I bought it on clearance a while back, but still haven't used it.

I love the Gothic lettering!

But I still didn't feel right about this project.

Then something caught my eye.

Hey....look at those crowns on my Home Decor cartridge!

A king and a queen!

Perfect!

So I made my crowns on my Cricut with contact paper.

I carefully placed everything on my wall.

(Which took an hour since these have tons of little "jewels" that have to be individually centered and placed!)

Then I started blotting on my paint.

I had to start peeling fast, because you want to peel off the contact paper while the paint's still wet to have better lines (same goes with painters tape!)

After hurriedly peeling everything off, I was finished.

I like my version better!

I've been diligently working on the kids' playhouse. The windows are almost done, so I'll be showing you how I did that in a couple days!

Stick around!