Busy Bee

Alright, so here's my excuses for my absence:


1. I made some awesome cupcakes. No recipes. I just used the boxed stuff. They didn't last long. I left the house for a while, and my "garbage disposal" took the liberty of eating most of them.

2. We went to my cousin's wedding. It was by far the most gorgeous wedding I've ever attended. I'm so glad to have welcomed a lovely lady to our family. Pictured left to right: Elisa (my sister-in-law), Ethan (my nephew), Will, John, Hailey (my kids), Joe (my husband), and me!

3. The morning after the wedding, we brought my family to the zoo!

4. I've been staining parts of my railings. I did this on my front porch earlier this summer. It's a very tedious, annoying job, so I've put off doing my back deck. But since I had the stain out for my faux french door, I decided to start the railings again.

5 & 6. A before and after of a pot that I spray painted an aged gold. It looks much better in my kitchen. I've also re-potted 4 other plants in my house. The poor buggers were choking themselves in their roots. It seems like all I do is re-pot when I have 28 house plants. (Jungle?)

So there's a little recap. Today I'm working on a very small project, and I'll give you a how-to on how to do this simple procedure flawlessly tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Faux French Door

I've been gone a while, haven't I?

I will show you what I've been up to tomorrow. A lot of little projects. No how-to's. Just little things to keep me busy.

But for tonight....

I've finally finished the patio door!

This is what it looked like before (half the door, other half was under construction)...

This is what it looks like now....

Here's the door from the outside...(remember the faux planter?)

And here's a wider shot of my patio...

I absolutely love it! I used the same technique as my front window.

Tomorrow I'll let you see a few things that I've been doing. A little recap.

Oh, and have you noticed that the Challenges posts are gone? No one seemed to dig it, so I trashed it. Not every idea is a winner!!

New Button!

New button design! Ya like it? Copy and paste the HTML code to put it on your own page!

Garden Birdhouse

I found this decorative birdhouse at Goodwill the other day. Though with the Christmas lights attached, it was ugly, but I knew it had awesome potential.

So I took off the Christmas lights and gave it a good coat of spray poly...

made a stake by cutting angles using a miter saw, then attached it to the bottom using wood glue...

stuck it in the ground in my corner garden, and BINGO! I love it!

And that's why you always buy something you love. (If it's a good price!) This bugger only cost me $3. The poly, stake, and glue I already had.

Notice the crazy plants that invaded my garden? It's sunflowers! From my birdfeeder. Though I will love having boquets of sunflowers in my house in a few weeks, I'm hoping that I get my post-light next summer to avoid this in the future.

Growth Chart

Here's a cute little idea if you have kids:

You know how people mark their children's heights onto door frames?

<----Isn't this cool? It isn't aesthetically pleasing to the eye (terrible yellow!), but it gives the room a quirkiness that I will love and cherish as I watch my children grow, my grandchildren grow, and hopefully my great grandchildren.

Growth Chart

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This can be done on any straight surface. Doorways and walls are your best bet.

• Glue
• tape
• flexible tape measure (find in the sewing section) ***You will probably buy the 10' one, and you will need to cut it down to the size of the surface.

1. Put a dab of glue on the backside of the tape measure, placing it at the bottom of the doorway with inch #1 at the bottom.
2. Keep running glue on the backside of the tape measure, going up the doorway, while placing tape at intervals to keep the tape measure secured to the wall while the glue dries.
3. Let dry for designated glue time.
4. Start marking the kids' heights!

I have a some how-to's (lattice door, roll pillow, pocket pillow), some home-improvements (garden birdhouse, closet hardware, new mailbox redo, more faux muntin windows and doors, and new curtains). It's going to be a busy week, but luckily I will be doing Challenge #1 on Sunday, so I'm not worried! Have YOU been planning for your Challenge Day yet? Better be!