DIY Twine Balls

Yoo hoo, bloggers! ;) How are ya'll?! We were hit with some minor setbacks these last two weeks, but we are slowly picking ourselves back up and brushing it off. Adoption hasn't happened yet... was postponed until Monday. We were notified 2 hours before it was to happen, so naturally we had this huge cake we had to eat. Couldn't throw it away right? Hahaha.

Anyway, to ease my frustration, I was finally able to work on some crafts! I've seen these done before and can't remember who did it first, so if you know, please tell me so that I can give credit where credit is due. ;) It all started with an inspiration that I found at GW. A dirty lonely platter seeking a table:

For $4, it was mine. Now, I had someone awhile back leave a rather... rude... comment about how my thrift stores finds seemed pricey. I recently discovered a thrift store on the opposite side of town that priced their items significantly lower. However, since I don't want to be making that 30 minute drive there and back, I will take my over-priced items instead. Thankyouverymuch! To me, the price STILL beats new, store-bought prices.

Anyway, after a couple of coats of some brown spray paint, it looked better:

Remembering the post I read ages ago about creating twine balls, I wrapped some jute and twine around balloons and coated them with my tacky glue spray can.

Once they were dry, I popped the balloon and removed it. The twine looked great and held strong, but the jute turned white and easily lost shape. I purchased that particular twine months ago at the dollar store.

LOVE the crazy looking twine ball, not so much the jute. Throw in some dollar store moss balls, jute wrapped around styrofoam balls I made here, bada bing, bada boom, and you have yourself a cute table centerpiece:

Remember that burlap table runner? I promised I would wait until fall to use it, but I couldn't resist! I blame it on the BHG magazine that was delivered to me today. Did anyone else see it? The fall leaves on the cover? *sigh* Be still my heart...

I had nearly all of these supplies on hand, except for the platter. Total project cost: $4! Yeaaa buddy!

Regrets, I have a few...

Hubby and I are approaching our 1 year anniversary from the day we bought our house. I can remember how envious we were when friends would talk about working on their yard during the summer. We longed for the day we could work on our own yard. Ah, to be young and dumb.

Back in May, we decided that our "major summer redo" would be our front yard. It has an odd layout, pathetic dead grass, and these tiny "lava rocks" that we would kick up whenever we stepped in them. After receiving numerous quotes on what it would cost to get the yard we wanted, we decided to roll up our sleeves, and do the work ourselves. Easy right? Did I mention we live in the desert where temps reach 100 plus in June, July, and August? Did I mention our particular city reached a record drought period? Here is the yard: I can't believe I'm friggin showing this to you

Oh! Did I mention the lone rosemary plant? See those stepping stones? They lead to a corner. A rosemary corner. ???

"Where's the rosemary," you ask? It died when we had a record breaking freeze. Yes, this is the city I live in... record breaking freezes AND droughts in the same year.

Working in the yard has SUCKED! There. I said it. Here is where we are at, and it ain't much:

First, where there is grass, we don't want grass. We wanted to create a divide, where one side would have broken concrete pieces (made to mimic flagstone steps) and the other side would be our desert landscaping.

Using our garden hose (technical work here, people), I laid out the design I wanted for our "wall." Once we were happy with the design, we started digging. We dug about 4 inches deep, and flattened the ground as best we could. Then we started laying in our rocks (reused from the rosemary section of the yard) and making sure it was all level. Lastly, we filled in the gaps with dirt.

Is this how to properly build a wall? Probably not. It works for us and cost nothing. THAT makes me happy. I don't have a photo of what it looks like now. We added a second layer of rocks and planted a Japanese Boxwood at the end of the wall. The plant is nearly dead and I am annoyed.

Any suggestions from readers? Photoshop would be awesome if anyone cares to play around with our yard. Anyone know of some desert plants/trees to save me from a project fail?

Porch Redo Pt 1

Our little home in the desert is alive with 100 plus temps, and I feel a strong desire to be OUTSIDE and working on our little porch. Is that not the nuttiest thing you've heard all day? This area hasn't been touched since the day we moved in and I want it to reflect us. Before I could begin throwing paint on the walls, I needed some inspiration to guide me. I already had this pail hanging up there, but it was a bit lonely. So, I painted a piece of scrap wood white and freehand wrote the word "love" on top.

I have been seeing these "love" signs all over blogs and I don't know who the original creator is. I don't know who to give the credit to! Well, anyhow, thank you, "insert name." So, once my sign was painted, I sanded it quite a bit to give it an old, worn look.

Next, I drilled some holes at the top, and double strung it using jute. Really, I think any kind of rope will do, but I just used what I had. 

The finished look:

So cute! It took me about 20 minutes to whip this together (not including drying times) and I had all the supplies, which made this sign 100% free! Now, my little pail has a pal (cheesy joke) and I have my inspiration set for my porch transformation.

Up next will be a new color on those walls!

Linking up with: House of Hepworths, Sisters of the Wild West, Keeping It Simple, Made By You Monday, Good Life Wednesday, Christina's Adventures, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, DebbieDoo's Newbie Party

End of School Year Gifts

My baby is entering the fourth grade! And just like I did at her age, she will be starting the fourth grade at a new school. I am saddened to know that tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to the teachers, nurses, coaches, and principals that have been there for her since she first attended daycare at the age of four. Since this is our final goodbye, we wanted to make a special gift for some of her favorite people.

I have seen this particular craft all over blog land, but wanted to share it with some of my hometown friends and family. Many of them have school age children and have also been wondering what to make/give their teacher as a "thank you" for educating, loving, and caring for their children. Here is what you will need:

clay pot

clay saucer

permanent marker

paintbrush

acrylic paint

glue gun

gumballs

small round vase

ribbon (optional)

small wood dowel

You will be making a "gumball machine" for your special teacher, nurse, principal, etc, and the entire project costs less than five bucks! Michael's only had one short clay pot left, so I grabbed it along with two taller pots. Personally, I think the shorter pots look cuter, so grab those if you can.

First you will want to paint your clay pot and saucer a color of your choice. Once dry, paint a second coat to really cover up the deep terra cotta color. Next, wash your vase (because unwrapped candy will be in there) and glue it to the bottom of your clay pot, like so:

Next, paint your wood dowel a different color (again, two coats), and when dry, glue the dowel to the painted saucer. Your saucer will be upside down as well so that it looks like a lid and not a dish.  

Once all your paint is dry, fill your vase with gumballs and place, not glue, your "lid" on top. Here are the three we created and you can judge for yourself whether you prefer the taller pots or the smaller pot for your own project:

The ribbon is optional but I thought it gave the whole project a special touch. You can also specialize your gumball machine by adding the name of the teacher:

Good gracious, I wish I had cute handwriting like some of my female friends. Here is the cost breakdown:

Gumballs (already had) - $0

Paint, brush, glue, marker (already had) - $0

Clay pot - $1.19

Clay saucer - $0.89

Round vase - $1 at the Dollar Tree

wood dowel - $1.49 for a pack of 4

ribbon (already had) - $0

Total Project Cost per Gumball Machine: $3.45

and that, my friends, is a cute gift for those on a budget!

Linking up with:

Simple Wall Decor

Hello there, bloggers! Since we celebrated my littlest ladybugs' birthday this month, I thought I would give her empty walls a little attention. Here are two simple, inexpensive, DIY crafts you can hang in a child's room for under $5.

First craft was creating a monogram for her room. I found a craft wood circle at Michaels for under a dollar and painted it with colors that matched her room. I glued a ribbon on the back and hung it above her headboard. Easy peasy and under $1.

For the next project, I wanted to hang a "Paper Fan Banner." I first discovered it here and I loved the simplicity of it (that and I already had all the supplies).

The link gives a FANtastic step-by-step tutorial and I don't know WHAT was going on with my camera that day, but I couldn't get a decent shot. I used soft colors for my scrapbook paper but they came out very dark and shadowy in the pictures.

The banner is cute and will do for now, until I can come up with a better way to fill up her wall. She, of course, at the innocent age of two has no clue on how much work I put into her banner and keeps wanting to grab it (this explains why I put it high up). My tween, though, loves it and wants to hang one in her room. ;)

Summer Mantel

As soon as I heard TDC and 3 other ladies were going to have a combined link party for next month, I knew I had to jump on board with the "summer mantel" and "spray paint project" train! Here is how I combined the two, to create my thrifty, summer mantel.

First, I needed a focal point for my mantel. I have been looking for a mirror to place over it for longer than I want to admit. I bought one on Craigslist that I thought needed just a bit of TLC to bring it back to life. I was dead wrong. That mirror was going to cost more to fix than I bought it for. Well, luck finally came on my side when I found this at my local thrift shop on Monday:

A perfectly sized mirror for only $9.10! All it needed was some white spray paint to cover up all that dated brass and it would be like new again! On the same trip, I saw this cute birdcage that I couldn't pass up.

Although it wouldn't fit on my mantel, I knew it would look adorable in my living room. The birdcage was only $3.50!

Here is my finished mantel with items I already had, and most of them were blogged about since I found them at thrift stores.

 Yes, those are sticks... that I found... and spray painted white. The moss balls and birds were from the Dollar Tree. I spray painted the birds, mirror frame, and sticks white.

Remember my birdcage? 

It looks precious on my side table. I'm still debating whether I want to fill it with anything or leave it as is. What do you think? Is anyone else getting ready for the link party? Well, I'm off to the gym. Got to get in that last workout before the royal wedding!

Linking up to: Christina's Adventures, Funky Junk Interiors, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Thrifty Decor Chick, Keeping It Simple, House of Hepworths, Christina's Adventures



Happy Easter!

What a glorious, wondrous day this is!!! Happy Easter, everyone!

I just finished doing some last minute Easter preparations and I'm getting ready to HOP into bed. First, I wanted to share a craft that my daughter created and she was pretty excited that I would be sharing it with all of you.

Felt Easter Frame!

She used items I already had in my craft storage and I bought the foam eggs from the dollar store. We cut them in half and glued them to the felt. Then, she adorned the border with all things pretty! We glued some heavy duty magnets to the back and attached an Easter photo. Sweet, easy, adorable Easter frame created by a nine year old for under $1.

Have a wonderful day!

Oh death, where is your sting?

Oh hell! Where is your victory?

Oh Church! Come stand in the light!

Our God is not dead! He's alive! He's alive!

- Matt Maher "Christ is Risen"

Twice Owned Pail

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at some decorating projects, posted on a link party. It was during my "craft rut" and I was looking for anything to light the fire in me again. At that time, I was so exhausted from all the home renovations that the last thing I wanted to do was something for fun. I just wanted sleep.

 Well, after some R&R, I was finally able to work on a project that was inspired by The V Spot. Check out what she did to a pail using spray paint, sticks, butterflies, and crepe paper streamer:

Seriously, I was hooked on how cute and easy this was. LOVE!! Remember this metal pail I found at a thrift store for $3.99?

I spray painted the whole thing with 2 coats of primer, followed by 2 coats of "Harbor Blue" by Rustoleum. I gathered some sticks around my neighborhood and stuck them in some floral foam that was placed inside my pail. I didn't have paper streamers, so using coffee filters, I rolled them in little "buds" and hot glued them to my sticks.

 I didn't add too many flower buds because I thought they looked more like spit balls than delicate buds. I attached a burlap bow to the side and voila!

Cute outdoor spring decor for our front porch! I want to add a farmhouse sign next to the pail. The front door is a dark (fading) brown and I'm desperate to paint it white to match the inside. Perhaps when that's done, you will get a "bigger picture" of our cute porch.

I already had most of the supplies for this project, so the total cost was $3.99 for the pail. Sweet spring!

Linking to: A Vision to Remember, Christina's Adventures, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Hookin Up With Hepworths, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Young and Crafty

Girls Bedroom Makeover

Ever since we moved into our home, I have been trying to accept like the color my daughter picked for her room. It's called "Himalayan Mist" by Behr and it's..... an okay color. Her walls were painted this color but with the dark brown carpet, dark brown doors, and black ceiling fan, it just made the color look dirty blah.


Last month, we tiled her room and I was thisclose to repainting her walls. However, she insisted she still loved the color and I decided to give it one more shot. After all, we were about to add light colored tile, white baseboards, white doors, and bright wall decor.


Boy, has her room brightened up now.


Here is the before:

Those chest of drawers have been asking for a new paint job for a year and a half now. One day I will be brave enough to tackle them.

That brown carpet is all over our house. I was told by a friend (who liked it) that it "hides all the dirt." WHAT? No! I want that nasty dirt revealed so I can clean it up! Ew, buh-bye dirty carpet.

 helloooo tile!

After:

 

Look at how beautiful and clean that looks.

Cute wall decor from Savers. Each one was $2.99 but I had a 20% off coupon for donating a bag of items. Tip: I always leave a bag of donations in my car, specifically for unplanned Savers visits.

Also, Hobby Lobby had all their wall decor on sale for 50% off. I grabbed these mirrored words for $6 each. They really reflect light from her window and her room doesn't look like a dungeon anymore.

Her room isn't "done" yet. Seriously, are any of the rooms I've started "done?" Will they ever be "done?" I still need to paint her windowsill, fan, door frames, and put in some updated doors and knobs. Little at a time.

Linking up with: Motivate Me Monday, TDC Before & After Party

Tile: How To (Warning - Lots of Pictures)

Back in October of 2010, my husband and I had so much fun tiling the nursery in our new home. To be able to be on your hands and knees, killing your back putting labor into a room you owned (well, will own in 30 years), made the entire experience a boxing match bonding one. When we tiled the nursery, I told you there was no way I could ever explain how to DIY. However, I am nuts really wanted to share with everyone that DIY Tiling is not as intimidating as it looks.

I have tried my best to capture the tiling experience in photos. I couldn't take a picture of everything (hubby would strangle me if I got grout on my new camera), so I will try to explain as best I can. There are far better tutorials out there (even video), so please use this as a "general explanation" of what to do. ;)

Here goes...

I showed you how we removed carpet in our garage. In fact, it was my very first post! I can't believe everything we have done since then. Basically, there isn't any technical way to explain it, carpet is not that difficult to remove.

Once the carpet and tack boards are removed, you will want to remove your baseboards (floorboards? Which is the correct name?) Now, the way you remove them depends on what you plan on doing with them. We are broke wanted to be eco-friendly and decided to reuse our boards. So, I had to remove them very carefully using this tool:

You have to crank the board at the top and bottom, very gently, and the boards SHOULD pop right off.

The boards in our hallway were aged significantly and snapped in half when I tried to remove them. Now I need new boards for the hallway.... darn. ;)

If you will be reusing the boards, like we did, mark on the back of them which wall they belong to.

Tap the nails out of them from the back with a hammer and they should slide right out.

Dispose of these nails. A box of new ones are super cheap at Home Depot. Ask an employee for a box of nails for floorboards (or baseboards?) because if you get too thick of a nail, the wood will split.

Once this is done, you need to scrape off any gunk from your cement. You don't have to scrape off every tiny little drop of paint (courtesy of your builder), but globs of goop need to come off or your tile will be uneven.

For this job, a simple putty knife works wonderfully. Basically, I ran my hands all over the cement. If I found a bump, I scraped it off.

Next, sweep the room really well until it's free of any nails. Go over the floor with a vacuum to suck up any dirt. At this point, there should be a cloud of dust in the room. Haha. There will be things under your carpet you never knew were there.

Disgusting. Once the floor is completely clear of nails, dirt, and debris, mop it with vinegar.

I pour the gallon directly onto the floor and mop away. The vinegar will make a funny "hissing" sound as it makes contact with your concrete. Once the floor is dry, you are ready to begin tiling. Half the battle is already over. No, I'm serious. The prep work sucks.


Now, I live in the desert, so I can put my tile directly onto the concrete without having to worry about moisture. In some areas, depending on where you live, you will need to create a sub-flooring. Sorry, I can't help you there.

The room we tiled was a tiny bedroom so I needed two bags of thin-set (adhesive, mortar). With the thin-set, you don't want to go cheap. The cheap stuff is made of mainly concrete and will break apart in a few years, meaning you will need to re-tile. The bags I bought are highly recommended for tiling.


Also, for about $15 per bag, not as expensive as you would think. The color of adhesive doesn't matter because this stuff won't even be seen. I grabbed two bags of Home Depot's gray thin-set. Follow the mixing directions on the bag. You'll need a 5 gallon bucket, a drill, a mixer, and water.

Here, I have my bucket, my mixer that attaches to hubby's drill, a bag of spacers, and a notched trowel. You will need the spacers and the notched trowel!

Once the thin-set is mixed, you are ready to start laying it on the concrete. We had a three man team doing the tile. One person would lay the thin-set, another person would lay the tile, and the last person would measure corners, closets and do the cutting.

When you lay your thin-set, you will want to use the notched trowel. Use the flat side to push the thin-set into the area you want, and the rigged side to create grooves into your thin-set.

The grooves will help the tile adhere to the thinset. You create the groove by holding the trowel at a 90 degree angle and do a one handed "Wax on, wax off motion." Sorry, that's the best way I could describe it.

The adhesive dries pretty quickly and this is why you will want help. When a small area is ready, your helper can lay the tile while you lay the thinset on the next area. Basically, lay down enough thinset for maybe 3 tiles at once.

This is tile that has set and ready for grout.

Typically, you want to wait 24 hours before laying the grout. If it's humid, then you might want to wait 48 hours. For grouting, I only needed one bag and the color is a personal preferance. I have seen grout in many colors. My in-laws have a near-black grout, my kitchen has a pink grout (we bought the house like that and it's going... trust me), but I prefer my grout to blend in with my tile. So, I like a color called "canvas."


Mixing the grout is much like mixing the thin-set. Follow the directions on the bag. With grout, the mixture will dry out your hands like OMG! Use heavy-duty rubber gloves when working with this stuff. Don't touch it! Mix it in your 5 gallon bucket.

Grouting doesn't take nearly as long as laying the tile, but it's still a bit tedious. Using a grouting tool (I believe it's called a rubber float), scoop a pile and start doing a sweeping motion over the gaps in your tile. Go back and forth and diagonolly. The grout should start filling up in between the gaps. Work one gap at a time and work yourself out of the room. The grout should not be stepped on for 24 hours. Once a gap is filled, put the tool at a 90 degree angle and move and excess grout to the next gap. Continue doing this all throughout the room. My husband helps me with this because it's a bit exhausting. If you have three rubber floaters and two extra friends, you can finish a room in a couple of hours.

After you have waited 24 hours, you will want to seal your grout. First, sweep your floor of any debris or gunk. You will want to apply two coats of a sealer to protect your grout. Just read the instructions on the bottle to find out the waiting time.

Your floor might look a bit gross for a couple of days. After all that grout and sealer, it will look as if your floor was sprinkled with flour!

However, after sealing the grout with two coats and waiting for it to dry, you are all set to mop away. It might take about three or four tries, but eventually your newly tiled floor will look fantastic! Congratulations!

TIPS: Don't step on your tile once you have laid it on the thin-set. You might shift the tile and your grout line will be crooked! Wait 24 hours before stepping on it. So, when you start laying the tile, work your way OUT of the room.

We worked with tile that was 12 X 12. Any bigger tile than this and the job is a bit harder.

When buying tile, buy an extra 30%. You will be doing A LOT of cutting, some tiles are chipped, some may break, and it's always wise to store at least 4 boxes for future emergencies (a tile that has cracked or chipped).

You want to make sure the tile you buy is stone throughout. A lot of tile has the stone at the very surface and then has red underneath. You can see this by holding your tile and looking at the edge. If you get the tile that has red underneath the surface, then be aware that if you drop something heavy on your tile, and it chips, the red will show through. Your call. Budget wise, we bought the red tile for the bedrooms because nothing heavy SHOULD be falling on them. However, when we do the kitchen and bathroom, we're getting the "stone throughout" tile ($$$).