My home

My home on the MLS

http://snakerivermls.com/ MLS # 170156


Take a look and tell me what you think.

FINALLY finished!

So my new thing is taking old furniture and making it current. This was a night stand that I found at the DI for $5.00. It was all the wood color and had a door that didn't lock. It was a work in progress. After priming, spray painting, sanding, staining, and applying a sealing coat, it is complete.

In his room (I need to put the knob I just bought)

I bought this really cool lamp at IKEA that is plastic and completely enclosed so Ryker can't take out the light bulb. 

HERE ARE PICTURES OF HIS ROOM

This is a magnet board that I finished. He loves to use his magnet letters & numbers. I added some hooks so that Ryker can get his coats & hats when we need to go somewhere. I love that he is big enough to get his coat and that he can put it away when we get home. 

I am really proud of this shelf. I saw one at a craft store for $60 and thought that looks easy. I convinced Dave to help me make this shelf with some wood and beadboard backing. I painted, sanded, and stained. It turned out just as I envisioned. I LOVE IT!!

 Having the window here was hard to take pictures of all our hard work. We added some boards to the one wall to make it look a little like beadboard. It looks so much better in person.

If anyone has License plates they want to donate, send them my way.

Ryker's little art center. It is a magnetic dry erase board. He loves it!

As you can see Ryker loves his new room. He is doing much better staying in his bed and sleeps through the night most of the time. I love how it turned out. I still have one project that I am working on but since the weather has been so nice I have not completed it and don't know when I will get o it. I will post a picture when I am done with it. I hope you all enjoyed seeing pictures of Ryker's new room.

Another thing I want to do

I just need to document some of the ideas that I REALLY want to do. My house was 95% completed before we bought it. We were able to pick out the carpet and appliances. I have always wanted to add something to my mirrors to make them look nice. Here is a link for a tutorial that I am hoping to use to add that little something extra to my bathroom mirrors.

http://showandtell-sausha.blogspot.com/2010/05/framed-mirror-tutorial.html

From This (I have something similar in both my bathrooms)

How different does this look? Crazy huh! I really need to break down and buy my hubby a saw so he can help me with all these awesome projects.

Something to aspire to

So one of my favorite craft blogs is All Things Thrifty. She is very creative at taking old things and making them current. I am always looking for old things at the DI or thrift shops to make over for my house but I am not as lucky at hitting the jack pot as she is. One thing that I am going to be attempting is refinishing furniture. If any of you have something that you wouldn't mind me using to try out some of my new methods, I would love to try.

This is one of the projects that I have in mind after I complete Ryker's room (yes I know it has been over a month but we have been busy EVERY weekend).



I just wanted to document this for myself so I know right where to go to get the instructions on how to complete this project. The lady who did this project only spent around $29 and it looks SO elegant and would solve the problem I have with the curtains over my sliding glass door. One of these days.... Too many ideas... not enough time but this is one project I am going to start shopping around for.

http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2010/04/window-valances.html      Here is the link for the valance.

So many ideas... so little time

So I have so many ideas running around in my head. I wish that I could just focus on one thing at a time. It seems like I get started on a project and then think of another project and so on and on. I hate that my mind gets in the way of actually finishing a project sometimes. I am excited to post some pictures of Ryker's new big boy room. We received a toddler bed from one of my sisters and I didn't really look at it until Dave had it all put together and I went "that bed needs a good cleaning & paint job" so Dave had to take the bed apart so I could go to Walmart and pick out spray paint to match what I want to do. I should have thought about it months in advance. I have been thinking about this room for 4 months now you think that I would have thought about the bed and the condition that it is in. So now I am off to spray paint on my patio (which is finally clear of snow). Wish me luck!

Clock Make Over

BEFORE

AFTER

So I have been wanting to redo this clock for a LONG time but have never made it a priority. My friend Kimberly refinished some clocks in her home and inspired me to get to work. I didn't really do that much to change it up. I took it apart and added some stain and then took a clean sheet of paper cut to size. I then crinkled the paper and added some distressing ink. I cut out some vinyl with my cricut & storybook cartridge. I then put it all back together. I am horrible in taking pictures so it looks like the clock is not straight even though it is. This was a quick, easy project that didn't take much time at all and NO out of pocket cost.

I am a BIG fan of BEHR paint

I LOVE to paint! I hear of people finishing their basements or painting a room and I am the first to volunteer to help. We just remodeled my mom's kitchen for Christmas and I painted the whole room including the ceilings and floor boards. One thing that I was unhappy with on that paint job was that it was NOT Behr paint (purchased at Home Depot) and it was SO hard to paint with. I was amazed with the difference in this other brand (from Lowes). The paintt did not go on smooth, was thinner and needed several coats just to make it look good. This other paint ran through the tape onto the ceiling (REALLY!?) so it was frustrating. 

My sister Tiffany (who happens to be a decorator for RC Willey) was the person who introduced me to this paint 7 years ago when Dave and I bought our first place (a cute condo in Cache Valley). I wish that I had some pictures to show you. The whole condo was off-white and I wanted to add some color so I asked Tiffany to come paint shopping with me. She gave me some great tips on colors but one of the most important tips was to always buy Behr paint.  When we moved out of that condo we had painted most of the rooms and most of my furniture. 

This is a few pictures of my 2nd house (I LOVE this house, it just wasn't in the right location)

The 2nd house that we bought we had built and just wanted to keep everything neutral so we did just the basic 2 tone with while and tan. If we had lived there longer than a year I am sure we would have painted more of the rooms.

In our current house (#3) I have not done a lot of painting. I have painted one accent wall in my living room.

BEFORE

 AFTER

We also painted an accent wall in Ryker's room but it is not very drastic so you can't tell a difference in the picture that I have. Dave finished a craft room/office in the basement and I was able to paint that room (which I LOVE). 

So I am guessing that you are wondering what I am getting at. I am going to be moving Ryker's room in the next month. I could go into all the reasons that I am moving it but the bottom line is this - ALL the school buses stop right in front of our house 8 times a day starting at 7 AM. I can't tell you how many times the bus has interrupted Ryker's naps and  he is up at 7 every morning except for Saturday & Sunday. So with that said, I am looking to do something FUN for his new room. I went and picked up some samples from Home Depot and am looking forward to coming up with a color before Friday so I can work on the room this weekend. I had a friend suggest that I just go buy a color at Walmart so if I don't like it I can just change it. After the hard time I had painting my mom's kitchen I will stick with Behr paint. The good news is that Behr now has some cute little sample sizes that you can buy for $3 to try on your wall before you buy a big gallon. I am SOOO excited!!! I hate having to buy a quart of paint for the small refinishing jobs that I do on my furniture. Lets just say that this is my new favorite thing. I have been working on a few different projects and look forward to posting them on this blog. 

I purchased a clipboard from a craft store that was unfinished wood. I took off the hardware and painted it black. I then cut a piece of cute paper from Stampin Up and used some glossy Mod Podge to glue it on the clipboard. Once the back side of the Mod Podge was dry I put a coat on top with a swirl design. Once that was dry I screwed back on the hardware and added the flower with glue dots & ribbon with a pen tied to the end. Easy right? Trust me, it was. If I can do it so can you!

Cute little chair... before & after

Before

After

I purchased this cute little chair from the DI for $3. I used some textured brown spray paint that I already had at home (although I didn't have enough and had to buy more). I unscrewed the top and bottom of the chair and spray painted the frame then I took some cute material that I had on hand and hot glued it over the cushions. Once the spray paint was dry I put the whole chair back together. Total cost $8 because I had to buy more spray paint or else it would have been $3
 Ryker LOVES this cute little chair and I love to look at it and think of what I accomplished. Win... win... win.

Sad News

I was released from my calling over the craft group. I am SO sad to see this calling come to an end. The good news is that I will never be finished doing crafts. I love creating new things and changing up old things to make them new. I will continue to use this blog to display the crafts that I will continue doing for my own home and as gifts for other people. I am always up for doing crafts with others and have a whole room just for this hobby of mine. Contact me anytime for suggestions or questions that you might have about the crafts that I do or anytime you would like to get together.

Thanks to all those ladies in my ward for coming to the craft group. I have really enjoyed getting to know all of you.