Color Splash

I finally refinished my little kitchen island. It adds just the right amount of fun to my kitchen. It was a boring worn out black with natural wood top before its little makeover. Can you tell I love it?

I used two colors of stain and then topped it with tinted polyurethane. The top comes of for even more storage :)

The base was primed and then spray painted aqua, distressed, and then glazed with tinted poly that I lightly wiped off so it wouldn't look too dirty.

I want to add a ruffle to the bottom like my curtains, but I think it will be too much. Step away from the ruffles...

Next up will be painting a hutch for my little dresser-turned-buffet! It will be a new home for my growing collection of milk glass.

Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

One man's trash

First , we take the case of an old, ugly cake plate. The picture actually hides the brown distressed smears that just make you want to eat off of it, yum!With just a coat of spray paint, it becomes a chic little dish!

Milk Glass Vases

One time after a very successful trip to the thrift store, my husband asked me, "you do know why this stuff ends up there, don't you--it's junk." True enough, every time I go to a thrift store, I find myself coming home with a few (bags of) little treasures. The next problem is what to do with it before it just becomes clutter. Here I used mismatched vases to create a little window display. I think my junk is great!


Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

Monthly Guide to Fruits and Veggies {FREE PRINTABLE}

So, you know what I've been getting into lately? Fruits and veggies, that's  what.

I love cooking with fresh produce. Love it.

But I had a problem. You see, I never quite knew for sure if I was getting a good deal on my produce.

So I did some research. I read a lot of websites. I compared a lot of charts.

And I'm happy to present to you my first ever Monthly Guide to Seasonal Produce Trends.

My research tells me that this is enough to give you a general idea of what could be in season in your area--well as long are your area falls within or around the continental USA. It varies regionally, of course, but it should help you out, if you're like me and feel completely clueless.

 I think it still needs a little work though. A few sites reported Bananas as a year around fruit because they're always imported from tropical areas. I'm going to watch these "year round" claims, and see what really holds true.

I printed mine out on some card stock and keep it on my fridge. That way I know what to expect from the grocery store that month, and can even scheme up some possible recipes!

 Let me know if you see anything that needs to be corrected.

Dresser Makeover

Yesterday I finally got around to painting an old dresser I....found on the side of the road 9 months ago. I'm not sure which aspect I should be more ashamed of: The fact that I'm posting back to back trash projects, or the fact that this dresser sat in my house in this condition for 9 months.

I've decided not to worry about either. Can't win them all, right? 

I wanted to retain the true "cast-off trash" aura of the piece, so I decided to redo it only using items I had leftover from other projects. I like to do projects this way every few months to use up leftover crafty stuff.

 I succeeded, so this makes this total project cost: ZERO dollars. 

I'm pretty excited about that.

Here's the big reveal:

 What do you think?

There were a few problems we had to overcome. The right side of the dresser looks liked like this:

While the left side of the dresser looked like this:

At first, this seemed like a deal breaker. But once I looked a little closer, I realized I could just take the ride side molding off.

Easy peasy.

Then I introduced our dirty little dresser to Mr. Clean.

I filled in the gouges and nail holes with a little bit of Elmer's Wood Filler.

Someday I'll invest in a putty knife.

Once the filler dried (it took about 15 minutes), I ran the mouse sander all over it to prep for painting.

 It took about three coats of white paint to cover it all. I ran out of paint towards the end...but I had enough ivory spray paint left over from another project to finish it. "Good enough" is becoming an increasingly popular motto around here.

A few months ago I bought some pink vinyl shelf liner from Micheal's. It was on super sale, and I wanted to use it to cut stencils with the Cricut. I decided to use it in this dresser instead.

I roughed up the edges a bit for some distressed effect...something that baffles my husband, Cory, every time I do it. I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with how the distressing looks now, but it definitely helps the cute details on this dresser stand out. Right?

Here's a look at the side molding trouble spot:

I use this dresser to organize my crafty stuff. Pretty paper, unused picture frames, at least nine different types of adhesive, etc. I love the versatility of dressers! It's right next to the desk/closet where I keep my desk and sewing machine for easy access during projects.

That's how I filled my spare time on a busy Saturday! It feels so good to get that long awaited project DONE. You should tackle that project you've been putting off. I know you have one.

Lindy

Take a Seat

Things have been crazy around here lately, but I finally have made some crafty progress around here. Let me show you the best college graduation present I could ever ask for.

A few months ago I found this sweet chair (Click here to read the full story):

Last week my my parents were in town to visit, and I enlisted their help in a little re-upholstery project. They are the ones who bestowed this DIY, crafty attitude on us, so the least they can do is help us out every once in a while, right Mom and Dad? :)

 I sanded and stained my little heart out on Wednesday night, so we'd be ready to put on the new fabric Thursday.

Look at them go! The skills our parents possess never fail to amaze me. We grew up refinishing furniture together, so it was a nice little jaunt down memory lane to have us all working together again.

It basically turned into the lord of all crafting sessions, when Tanya and Jesse stopped by and couldn't resist the fun.

How many Hansen's does it take to reupholster a chair?

As  many as we can get.

We worked hard, and whipped it up in no time! Check it out:

I stained the wood with Miniwax Dark Mahagony, left over from a previous project. I finished it with Miniwax Finishing Wax.

I wanted the hand-rubbed, vintage effect of the Finishing wax for this chair, rather than the ultra glossy finish of varnish.

We used a painter's drop cloth for the chair seat cover. We purchased a 9 ft. cloth at Lowes, and it only cost about $12.00!

For more drop cloth ideas, you really need to check out Miss Mustard Seed. She is basically the queen of all things drop cloth, and has an awesome drop cloth slipcover tutorial.

Sometimes I thought I was going to lose my mind (I forgot how much work it is to refinish wood! I thought the sanding would never end!), but once the reinforcements arrived, things moved right along.

Seeing as how this project was pretty much completely inspired by the amazing Miss Mustard Seed herself, I'm linking up to her Furniture Feature Friday Party! You guys need to check it out!

Lindy

Hippity hoppity, Easter's on it's way....

Finally, progress has been made on the Easter front. I've officially decided, DYI, not so easy, not when most your ideas are coming form "eggs-cellent" fellow bloggists and Martha Stewart.

Martha, honey, you come up with the most difficult crafts, bless your heart (which excuses the fact I am blog-ttacking you for the moment). Gorgeous, but no easy task. Like your glitter eggs. "Blow out 10 eggs, rinse, wait for dry time, primer the eggs for better adhesion, drench in craft glue and then carefully dip in fine glitter. Now place on your drying rack ( homemade by you of course, by taking a slab of Styrofoam, pinning in in grid-like fashion and being sure the pins are at the same depth so your eggs sit ever so carefully atop to dry). Repeat process to other side of egg" (or as you may be referring to it by now, 'the dark side of the egg'). So, fine crafting glitter is SUPER expensive. And it comes in tiny bottles. TINY bottles.

So, I opted for plastic eggs, big chunky glitter (read--> on sale at Hobby Lobby, 50% off) and ALLLOTTT of craft glue.

Personally, I like the chunky glitter: Siiiiiiiiigh, I love pretty hydrangea flowers (was impressed with the quality of fabric flowers at Michael's, especially with the 40% off price):Yes, I cheated and got out old glass Christmas ornaments and did the button thing again. Don't judge, you try being creative after your bedtime. I needed quick and easy and something I could leave up for summer:

LOVED the sheet paper covered eggs over at Miss Mustard Seed Creations

Didn't have any antique, old, new or used sheet music, so I used scrapbook paper and mod-podged it up. Helpful hint, the skinnier your strips of paper, the prettier your egg:

And now for the coup d'état. It nearly over-ran, over-threw and held hostage every rational thought in my mind at one point. But I had to have it. First, it was simply the "wreath windows" idea. Then I started scheming, plotting and nearly stood by as my thoughts staged the ultimate betrayal, running wildly throughout dreamland. Visions of handmade banners, wall worthy wreaths and hanging handmade eggs rampantly berated my "keep it simple" train of thought. Finally, "hippity hoppity" made the cut, as did the wall worthy wreaths and a few handmade carnation flowers. Simple in theory, we won't talk about the Cricut machine doing some weird voo-doo on my letter sizing (most likely my misunderstanding) or the mod-podge trying to swallow my paper into the wrinkled, slumdogging it underworld.

And I wanted a little "natural" corner. FYI, while not the easiest to use, all the eggs used in these DIY projects, are indeed plastic, cheapo, break in half to fill with candy eggs. And coffee filters, my new best friend. Is there anything you CAN'T use them for? :)

What have YOU been doing for Easter? Hope it's a great Easter celebration for all!

Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!

Pile o' Cake

It seems I have a problem with obsession. February was a month of making hairbows. I think I made more than two dozen different hairbows. No child needs that many, but I just couldn't help myself. March happened to be a month full of cake making. First, I made a sculpted goetrax train cake for my three year old's birthday. It was an easy cake to do, and he talked about it for weeks. Then I made a bug cake and a Toy Story cake all in the same week. I would not recommend trying to do two intricate cakes at the same time, but it made two little boys happy so it was worth it in the end!

Jackie

Don't forget to check out the "Party Central" tab to see what parties we love linking up to every week!