The $1.00 Yard Sale Crate

One of my favorite pieces is a crate I picked up at a yard sale for $1.00. So simple yet every time I look at it it puts a smile on my face. Maybe it was the fun day of thrifting I had with my mom. Either way it works for me.

It houses my DVD’s and my recent lamp redo.

For $1.00….I think it’s a handy little crate.

Love simple transformations like these.

This was my line up after my first day of serious thrifting. The crate before…

{all of these little finds have been up-cycled and a refinished dresser now sits in this spot.}

After

And another after…

I’m looking forward to getting back out again. Bring on the warm yard saling weather!!!

Chest Of Drawers Redo {In The Works}

I found this dresser about 3 weeks ago at a local thrift shop.

It has large drawers that hold a massive amount of my ‘junk’. I was going to keep it for myself but decided on selling it instead.

So now the question is how to refinish this bad boy.

 

I was thinking of painting it white and then antiquing it with my wood stain method. Sometimes I get a little paranoid about the wood stain though. Once it’s on, it’s on.

The pulls will probably get sprayed with the rubbed bronze spray paint I used on my chalk paint dresser. I really like how it made those pulls look brand new. You’d never know they were spray painted. 

This project will be completed by the end of the week so check back for a final reveal :)

Little Step Ladder

When I found this little ladder at a local thrift store…I could barely contain myself. It was dirty and gross {sorry I forgot the before picture!} but that didn’t stop me.

And what’s even better is that it got a facelift while I was doing my retro dresser. It took about 10 minutes total to glam her up.

The initial thought was to put her on a wall for shelving. But instead she sits on the floor as shelving.

And you know what? I will be so happy when the day comes we don’t have cords laying all over the place. I swear!!!

If anyone has a tip on how to hide cords when there is no place to hide them…please contact me!

Linking to these fabulous parties :)

Music Magnets {with bottle caps}

These little magnets turned out way better than I expected and didn’t take long to put together at all. I love them….and you can personalize them as much as you want to make them that more special.

What you’ll need:

Music Sheets

Bottle Caps

Writing Utensil

Scissors

Mod Podge

Magnets {self adhesive}

Quarter

Paint Brush

Trace the quarter with your writing utensil.

Cut out.

Apply mod podge inside bottle cap.

Insert cut-out. They liked to curl up so I used the quarter to press it down.

I liked the look, but wanted to make it a little more personalized.

I used Microsoft Word to create numbers and words. Then I printed it out on my music sheets.

To apply the magnet, just take the white side and peel it off.

Stick it on the back of the bottle cap. (FYI: They stick extremely well.)

And put ‘em on your fridge.

Notice the yellowing of my pictures? Ran out of daylight. That’s how different pictures look at night in unnatural light. Crazy!

Linking to these awesome parties.

Coffee Filter Mirror Tutorial

So I have seen a ton of projects using coffee filters. And since we drink a ton coffee, there’s always an abundance of filters on hand. Now they can serve a dual purpose :)

To do this I used the following materials:

A full-length mirror

A glue gun

Coffee Filters

Scissors

I had all of these things on hand so this project cost me zero dollars. Love it!

Just scrunch the little guys up….

Apply glue and stick to the mirror frame.

Keep going all around.

(I initially spaced them out….)

Then decided it looked better filled in.

The glue adhered really well.

It turned out just how I envisioned and perfect for my little girl’s room.

Linking to these parties.

Thirty Handmade Days

Craigslist Lamps Get A Makeover

A couple months back I became the proud owner of some gigantic lamps I found on Craigslist. I had originally planned on them being about half their size, but I made do with what I had.

You can read the purchase story here if you like :)

They were pretty ugly before.

Now they are a real statement in my living room.

 

And I really like them. Thanks to my little girl for picking out the fabric. Who knows what they would  look like if I had picked it out :)

Retro Dresser Turned Mint Green

Last week was spent working on a dresser for my mom {read about that here}. During the week I had fun painting anything that got in the way. The dresser, my entry stand, a little step ladder, a wooden serving tray, and my jewelry box are now mint green :)

This one was what I like to call a retro number.

It had chunks of wood missing form the drawers but otherwise was in good condition.  A couple of wood filler applications fixed that problem.

I used my electric sander to lightly sand the entire dresser and then I applied two coats of my homemade chalk paint.

The color is something I came up with mixing my teal and white paints I had laying around. I just love chalk paint! I make mine pretty thick.

I used my sander to distress the edges and am happy with how it turned out.

So far I’ve only used Minwax Poly on my projects. I was looking into using a wax on this but read that it wouldn’t apply very well to a flat paint. Makes sense.

Oh and I also learned a dollar saving lesson while working on this dresser. When applying a sealant, it’s cheaper to buy the $.69 sponge brushes and discard them after each use then it is to buy a $12 paintbrush and $8 paint thinner :)

I really started to become attached to this dresser. It was hard giving it back!!

You can find this project at these link parties.

Happy Twenty Twelve {and some resolutions}

Wow…did 2011 zip past or what? Was it a good year for you? Did you accomplish everything you wanted? Was it fulfilling and rewarding? It sort of left me in the dust.

While everyone else is doing 2011 “Reflections” I figured I’d be better off with a post about what I want to accomplish in Twenty Twelve. I didn’t get into blogging until October 2011 so I don’t really have much to reflect on. I do however, have so much I want to cram into 2012 it’s ridiculous.

My main goal for 2012 is to create a better balance between work, hobbies, family, and myself. I always feel like I’m running on edge with everything I want to do vs.. everything that I need to do. I’ve learned that extra dishes in the sink or a toilet that’s a bit dirty isn’t going to hurt anything. There are so many things that are out of my control it’s ridiculous to spend valuable time pretending they aren’t. So relaxing a bit is priority!

2012 is going to be the year that I create a better me physically. I’ve already purchased my 2012 gym membership and am going to work on being in shape by the time my 30th birthday roles around. In 2011 I ran my first 5k and went on to run two more throughout the year. I’d like to increase that number in 2012 to five 5k’s.

With that said, it would be pointless to go on without mentioning that I would like to expand on my passions in 2012. This whole blog is about my passions. But it’s not coming as easy as I thought. Blogging is a lot of work and I’ve found that while I really enjoy it I need to work on my content. So 2012 is going to be a year of playing around with what works and what doesn’t. But most of all, my focus is going to be about what makes me happy and what I love to do.

So here they are in list form {not in any particular order}

1. Make a better schedule that calls for more quality family time, me time, and hobby time.
2. Work out 3x a week minimum.
3. Run five 5k’s.
4. Work on being a better writer.
5. Work on building a better blog.
6. Learn to sew.
7. Post more frequently!

Not a bad list. Shouldn’t be that hard to achieve…no? I can’t wait to get started :)