Burlap, Felt, and Fleece, OH MY!

Can you guess by the title of this blog post what I have been up to all week?

 Wreath making!!!

 I started with a yarn wreath with fleece flowers...

 Added some OSU letters for all the Buckeye nuts around here...

Then I moved onto burlap... 

And more burlap...

And the weeks not over yet!!!

(Yes, the hot glue love affair continues.)

Quick update!

Bad bad blogger. I've been MIA and will probably continue to do so. I've been busy having a love affair with my hot glue gun. Check out the FB page for occasional updates!

And just for fun here are a few of the things I've been up to...

You Dirty Snowman!

I apologize in advance for posting about snowmen in September. How dare I!

Good Monday everyone! This past week I officially decided to do two upcoming craft shows. I'm so excited! They are both in November so that should be perfect for Christmas decor and even some fall decor. So to Pinterest I went, in search of inspiration. I tell ya, I think I Pinterest is my new Google!

So here is what I found. Love him! I have a soft spot for snowmen.

Via: Pinterest

And a after a few hours put into it, here is my version!

I had painted it white but ultimately decided to make them "dirty snowmen" with a little glaze that I already had on hand.

I'm so in love I already have a dozen snow babies and 2 snow families cut, sanded, and painted! Can't wait for naptime when they all get to get the "dirty" treatment!  

Now I need to think of some great fall decor ideas. I'm sure something will come to me!

Funky Turned Beauty

Boy have I got a makeover for you! Are you ready for this before? It's kinda extreme.

Right?! Wow. Speechless! A friend of mine gave this to me thinking I might be able to do something with it. It sat in my garage for a few weeks until I had just the right plan. By then I had dubbed it "Funky Dresser".  And over the last week (yes, a whole freaking week!!) she got beautified!

Before:

Love the back. Such a good bones and a nice old piece.

It all started with me thinking I could just sand off a bunch of layers... little elbow grease and wa la! Magic! But wait... no magic here. Just more funk.

At that point I knew I had to get my paint on. Two coats of paint should do me. I was not sure if I would distress but in the end my motto pushed through: Distress, because you know your kids will.

Oh and did I forget to mention a little decoupage action went on too! This is old wallpaper from our first house. I loved and miss that dining room and still have a few rolls and scraps of my all time favorite wallpaper.

After all the painting and papering it did not jive with me. So I mixed up some glaze and slapped it on. The dents and dings in this piece looked soooooo much prettier when they were accentuated with the glaze.

I have not quite decided what to do with this little funky turned beauty dresser. I thought about sticking into a craft corner in my playroom or possibly trying to sell it. For now I'll try her out and see what I think. I actually quite love it in my dining room.

Linking up at these great blogs:
Not Just a Housewife

Ivy and Elephants

AKA Design

Child Sized Easel

Almost two years ago now I made this easel for my niece for Christmas. It was really fun to build and not too time consuming.

So last week I got to thinking about making another one with the intentions of trying to sell it (or many). Everyone loves to spoil their kiddo's, right? And this was my inspiration (from Restoration Hardware at a tiny little cost of $119! That cost actually seems like a bargain for them.)...

And THIS is the finished product!

Complete with dry erase board instead of chalk, because really, chalk is so dirty!

Mister Monty

Remember Monty and all of his adorable puppy-ness? And our DIY Crooked Doghouse?

Want to know a secret? Our little Monty puppy is not so little anymore. :( At five months old he weighs more than our almost 7 year old son!

And another secret.... he doesn't use his doghouse!!!! He still manages to somehow squeeze underneath the steps of our deck. The same steps seen here when he was all adorable and only about 8 weeks old. How does he do that?!? Lots of wiggling, that's how!

The only time he can been seen entering his doghouse is when is eating or on the rare occasion that we tie him up while the kids to play. So when I found him in his house the other day I had to snap these photos through the bathroom window. Aww.... he looked to comfy!

 Isn't he great?

It is almost September. So that means it is almost time to make sure his little house is ready for the winter. I'll be closing off the roof gaps, maybe adding insulation, putting on a door, and maybe even adding a little porch.  Brrrrr... wish I had not just thought about winter. YUCK!

Love him.



The Bedroom Dilemma

I am a mom of three boys (ages 6, 5, and 2). We live in a tiny 1400 sq ft, 3 bedroom ranch with no family room.  When our baby turned 2 I decided it was time to save my sanity, combine their bedrooms, and turn the baby's room into a playroom. 

At that time I had no extra time to build bunk beds and had stumbled upon a heck of a craigslist deal that came with 3 twin beds able to be configured all sorts of ways, a dresser, a desk, and a book shelf. It was amazing!

So this is how the beds have been set up for the past few months...

It's so... blah. The room is small-ish. And I would love to move a few of their toys into their room so I can carve out a craft space for myself in the playroom. So you know what I need??? A triple bunk! But there are so few decent ones. :(

Like seriously, this is the only one I even come close to loving... (photo found via google but sorce not correct, sorry.)

Now this I love! It would be perfect!! But I would need to do a trundle and I am not sure I want a trundle. But I am open to it in order to have a room that looks this good!

Via: The Obsession: More Built-In Bunks

Looking at my photos of my current beds again, I wonder if I have enough parts to turn it into a triple? But still, I just don't love it. It's so... farmy and barn like. Like a horse stall.

Hmm... just another thing for me to think about. If any readers have idea's I'd love to hear them!



Toy Chest

A few weeks ago my aunt asked if I could make her a toy chest. Always wanting to try something at least once, I said yes. I had several different challenges, mostly with building materials. I ended up deciding to make panels for all four sides using 1x12 and 1x4 pine boards. The image I had used as inspiration used plywood but in the end I think the way I did it has a lovely result.

By the time this little toy chest was ready for finishing I had said more than a few curse words (maybe I should have found a plan) and I had mumbled many times about never doing one again. But as soon as I started to stain I fell in love.  A lot of people find the finish work daunting, but for me it's the best part. It's when all the hours of cutting and sanding and assembly become a beautiful finished product built  with my own two hands. And with each layer of stain and poly all those mumbles and curses go away.

For those of you who may wonder, the finish is two coats of Rustoleum Kona Stain and 2 coats of polyurethane. The final size is about 16" deep x 33" wide and 20.5" tall. Inside there is a little over 4 cubic feet of usable space. While photographing this in my kitchen I could not help but think about how great something like this would be as a bench at my table. It could be great for storing linens or other kitchen items.