Reunion Crafts

So this past weekend I attended the 21st Annual Bullock Reunion in Paris, Arkansas. Part of what we do is bring a craft to "sell". The money helps fund the reunion for the following year. This is what I decided to take, although not all I made, lol.

This "set" included a cork board, magnetic board, dry erase board, and a chalk board.

The large frame was $1 and the cork board inside it was a free roadside find. The tacks were cute little erasers that I glued with E6000 onto plain thumbtacks.

The chalkboard was a platter from the Dollar Tree. I used a pop tab on the back to hang it on the wall. I already had the chalkboard paint of course.

The dry erase board frame was 50 cents. I already had the burlap I placed behind the glass and the pen was from the Dollar Tree.

The magnetic board was from a cookie sheet I already had. I had the paint too. This paint is Exotic Sea Gloss from Valspar, I LOVE this color! Again the magnets were made from cute little erasers from Dollar Tree that I glued on magnetic dots with E6000.

I also made these bubblegum "machines" to take. Aren't they cute?!

To make these all you need is some pots from the Dollar Tree.

Painted your choice of color. Here I used the same paint from Valspar. I also used glossy red from Rustoleum but don't have pictures of painting in process, hmmm.

Then you'll need some glass bowls. I bought both from the Dollar Tree but in the end decided to go with the fish bowl look.

Then you'll need pacifiers. I picked up this 2 pack from Dollar Tree. Cut off the nipple and handle.

I painted these with some left over paint from Rustoleum that I used to paint my dishwasher with.

I had these little plates that "came with" some other dishes I bought and were just sitting in my craft supply hutch along with these knobs. I still have a few left but I'm thinking if I want to make more, some toy dishes would be about the right size for the lids too. I only painted the top, food safety and all.

Glue on the pacifier (again with E6000, isn't it fabulous stuff?), add gumballs and voila! Your very own gumball machine!

I had a LOT of fun at the reunion and made some "purchases" myself  I will share later on. Can't wait for next year!

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We got a new door, well, kinda

When we first moved into the Big Yellow House, the neighbor across the street said he saved the front door that came off this house and asked if we wanted it.........of course we did! After last winter, the plan was to put it on as the front door since the front door was mostly glass and move the front door to the side since the front is north, brrrr.

But then since we caulked and winterized more and realized (and this is the big one) that we'd have to carry around the skeleton keys to lock the door we use the most (side door) from the inside AND out, we'd leave it and put the OTHER door we got from the neighbor on the side. Either way that side door had to go, it was just a boring, ugly door. Guess that explains why I don't have a picture of it, LOL.

So here is the new and improved inside view of my side door as they were putting it in, and messing up my new paint job I might add.

And here it is hung. It was white when we got it. I thought I might like a red front door, but since it didn't go on the front door, I decided I'd like it better white.

And I do! This was right after they hung the new screen door we got at ReStore KC for $15! It also needed painting though. Oh, and see those screws around the 2 frames? Those are for the inserts.

 

Yep, I still got my red! I read somewhere, maybe Pinterest, on how to clean screen doors but have yet to go and find it. What? I've been busy.

I had a little trouble staying in the lines, but I think it finally turned out ok!

Isn't it fabulous? AND, I'll still get some red on the front because this weekend we found a 105 year old screen door off a farmhouse on craigslist for the low down bargain price of $5! And even with all the horrible experiences many of us have had with craigslist, this lady held it for a week for me AND left it outside her garage for me to get since she wouldn't be home and told me to just leave the money under the front door mat, thanks Jane!

 front

Inside

I can't wait to get it on the house! It also has a removable insert, but we don't have anything else to insert into it, LOL, so that part will have to wait till he builds me something.

Do you make your own laundry soap?

I started doing it a few months ago and love it! I was in the process of making some more the other day when I realized I still had a LOT of borax and super washing soda left, and I've already made 5 batches!

And ok, maybe my scoop IS a little bigger than a tablespoon, but it's cute so who cares, right? And it still lasts for SO long!

This is all you need:

1 cup borax
1 cup super washing soda
1 bar Fels-Naptha (grated)

1 tablespoon per load

Speaking of Dishwashers

I got tired of looking at mine, and I'm not ready to purchase a new more efficient one yet

 

So I painted it. (ignore the camera spots please?)

 

I didn't even move it

 

I might have done it sooner if I had found this color sooner.

 

But I'm happy with it for now!

Confession Time Again

I'm not the neatest painter in the world. Sometimes I get lost in the project and ignore everything else, like what I'm touching, walking in, etc. Let's just paint, right!? Latex isn't so bad, it washes right off with soap and water and a little scrubbing. Oil, well, that's another story. I've actually shown people my paint colors by showing them my arm. Recently I was working on some lampshades and had gorilla glue all over my hands. It was horrible! I tried everything I had to get it off and nothing seemed to help until I tried this.

This is the pumice sponge that I use on my feet since I am barefoot 99% of the time. But it worked wonderful on removing the glue!

Recently, I've been painting this red which is an oil. My hands were still raw and sore from the chemicals I had put on them trying to remove the glue so I thought, why not try the sponge again?

Wonderful! You can see the bits of white and red paint on the sponge. If I keep this up I'm going to have the smoothest, shiniest hands in town.

My second confession is that sometimes after a full day of projects, I'm a little lax about dishes. Ok, I'm downright lazy about it! This was true the other day and dishes sat in the sink overnight without even a rinse! Gasp!

I had just the day before ran an empty cycle with this. Yep, koolaid! Supposedly the citrus in the lemonade flavor super cleans the dishwasher and for only 10 cents versus around $4 for the commercial cleaner, I thought why not?

My dishwasher isn't the newest on the block. (2 choices for washing, really?) It was here when we moved in and we have yet to get another one. But it works (probably not as efficient as a newer model though) so we go with it.

Anyhoo, I packed those dirty yucky dishes in that dishwasher, turned it on and went shopping. When I came home, they were so super clean! I have had instances before where I had done that pre kool-aid cleaning and had to take dishes out and scrub them and put them back in. But not this time, the kool-aid worked!

So do you have any confessions that maybe you learned something from?

The Lampshade

Last Christmas I made (re-did) some lamps for my daughter that started out as a horrid yellow color. I painted the base a brown color and added some brown trim along the top and bottom of the lampshade. Then she got a new couch which was red and some new coffee tables that were black and glass. Yep, time to redo the lamps.

I quickly painted the bases a black with little flecks of gold in it. I then removed the trim on the shades, uh oh, the glue left an ugly color on the shades. *sigh* Well I read about someone painting their shades once so I decided to paint the shades first and then add some new trim. I picked out an ivory color and went to town. I finished up a second coat and left them out to dry.

Uh Oh again, it rained, no, it poured that night and I forgot all about them. They now had some lovely water stains on them and were basically ruined. I was all about ready to throw them out when I decided to keep them to play around with. My intention was to remove the shade and keep the wire and play with some ribbon or something, until one morning I was digging around the craft room and saw the Mod Podge. !!!

I then dug out an old dictionary I used for making Christmas tags with and started ripping out pages. I then put them on the shade and liked it! I thought it was still missing something though.

Danglies! My first attempt at attaching them was with Gorilla Glue, take it from me DON'T DO THAT! The second shade was much better with my handy dandy glue gun. I really liked them at this point but they still seemed short of being finished.

The only black ribbon I had in the house was currently tied around some candle sticks and since I was anxious to have some, I stole it! I then had to iron the wrinkles out before using though.

Yes! I love them, what do you think? Ok technically they still belong to my daughter and I'm still waiting on her to look at them to see if she wants them or not. If she doesn't though, I'll get her new ones and use these myself! :)

I accidently bought a couch

It looks like this

(sigh, one of these days I'll clean off that coffee table before I take pics)

 We were really just killing time waiting on a store to open and thought we would wander around a thrift store. When we got there we discovered everything was half off. When we walked in the door, there she was, this couch. It was marked $100 so it was only $50. We sure didn't set out to buy a couch but it seemed that we must because our other couch looks like this.

The material is an exact match! So now, our living room looks like this

It wasn't easy getting to this either. We moved those couches in several positions AND rooms before we landed here. So this now means I have a recliner and a cush chair and ottoman hanging out in my bedroom looking for a new home since they no longer fit in here. We only kept the huge white chair I fell in love with in here.

I also added a couple of other chairs but only because while we were moving that couch all over the place, I had to move those chairs out of the way and I kinda liked where they were so I left them.

One of these days I'll realize I have to remove some furniture we already own before buying more.

Details

Did you catch that brass and white ceiling fan up there? I have a very strong dislike for brass and eventually one way or another it all leaves my house. This brass is no exception.

 This is the new ceiling fan in the living room.  It's not the same one, but one we purchased at a garage sale for $3, with a brand new paint job. The globes are some I found lying around the house when we moved in. So much better than the tulips.Problem is, I can reach the switch without stretching (I'm 5'3). (Oh, and please excuse work attire and hair)

 And it's close to his head. Guess that pole was a little too long?

So we (he) had to steal the one out of the bedroom so we could use the short pole and then had to convert the one in the bedroom to a hugger.

And TaDa! Here it is in motion (well, stop motion once I clicked). The original fan in here also got a new paint job though and it will eventually find it's way into the guest room.

Speaking of the guest room, I can almost see the top of the bed again.

I can almost see the top of the table too. My house was covered in things from the project and things from the living room.

The kids used to be in black frames. These now are some I had lying around. I haven't decided if I like this or not yet. I also haven't decided if I like one color over the other. And I'm not sure if I used white if it would be too much white. The lampshade is also temporary.

I am happy with the way this corner turned out though. And yes, I'm aware I have spring and fall flowers on display, LOL. This weekend we will hopefully install the crown molding and trim around the fireplace to complete the room. I will probably never finish the details, I'm crazy like that.