The DIY Summer at our House

I am so thankful that this chaotic week is finally over.  I have been catching up on my orders while trying to piece my house and office back together!  And to top off this week, last night we got a massive storm so we are really thankful we had a generator to power our home!

The storm is coming!

The new floor came on Monday…preparing for that was far from fun!  Never again do my husband and I want to take staples out of the subfloor in over 600 sq. feet again!  Cramming all of our belongings into our office and each of our children’s rooms…priceless!  Needless to say everything in the end turned out picture perfect.  Now we are in the process of doing a quick floor change on our office.  Yay!  More staples to pull out of the subfloor but when the wood is down and finished we will be happy!  I cannot wait to jumpstart on the office.  We are keeping the wall color (peachy coral-ish) the same but lots of sweet touches to it after the floor is done.  This should make my “To Do List” for the summer completed!

One of the empty rooms with our new flooring!

The other week we painted a rug…well this past weekend we built an ottoman for the porch.  My oldest daughter and I also made matching throw pillows.  We absolutely love how everything turned out and how the colors all seem to go together.  My oldest daughter really enjoyed getting to learn how to use some basic tools, while having fun.  She also seemed to have a sense of pride after everything was finished and put in place on the porch!

All of our DIY projects together and looking great!

Last week we started to work on a mercury mirror glass jar.  Here is the one jar (not mercury-ized tho) finished.  My daughter and I both agreed for this one jar to do it in a metallic sort of way.  As we get more caught up around the house we will finish up the rest of the jars that we have. 

The metallic Ball Jar

 

In another week we are going to start getting ready for the big back-to-school prepping around the home.  Honestly I cannot wait for school to start and to get back into that routine of a super busy schedule!

The original jars that we found in the attic

 

 

Hope you enjoy!!!

 

Paint, a Rug, and a Roller

I finally got time to do the painted stripped rug that I wanted to make!  Super excited and my children had a blast helping with this project!  I have had tons of inspiration with finding enough, beautiful painted rugs on Pinterest and finally decided to leap in and do one. 

The finished rug!

My oldest picked out the color paint, which happens to be her favorite color.  We used approximately a half gallon of satin floor paint.  You need a tight woven, flat rug…basically not a piled/shag rug.  We bought a cheap, $15 rug that measures 5x6.  We placed 2” wide painters tape about 3” apart.  I had a little help from my husband with making sure the lines were ‘straight’.  

After getting all the tape down

 When painting each of the stripes, it does take time while applying it, so you may need to pace yourself!  I was so tempted to peek at the stripes but made myself wait.  That was hard.  After the first coat was completely dry, I applied a second coat.  

Painting the stripes

 After everything was completely dry we took all the painters tape off!  We sprayed scotch guard on the whole rug, with the hopes that it will ‘hold’ up better/longer.  We are still a bit uncertain as to where this rug is going to be ‘living’ at, but I am so proud of it, we may just make another!

Done and finished!

Later today I am going to try my hand at some antiqued mercury mirror glass jars.  After leaving the library today I decided to buy some of that Krylon looking glass spray.  Very excited to try that in a few!

Hope you enjoy!!!

The Lazy Summer Days

Not too much to say about the crafting front after the past few days- since we just got back from the beach.  We go to the same place every year and even stay in the same condo-room!  Kind of funny I think but it is something that we enjoy.  Eating at the ‘normal’ places, which is neat how we made this a yearly tradition for the 5^th year in a row.  The much dreaded 5 hour ride is well worth it in the end!  This is the view from our ‘every year balcony’…

View from our balcony in our condo room

This week may end up being a trying week for us, since we are preparing for the floor installation.  After all this ‘mayhem’ is done with, I will definitely be back on the prowl for inexpensive crafts to do.  My husband always asks me how come when I want to do something it always involves $, so I think the next craft I do is going to entail reusing old things.

I must finish my cleaning and make-shift decorating of my porch today.  Here is what I got done so far:

What I've done so far on the porch

The hats that are on our bistro table (3 of them), I am going to hang them up on our empty wall on the porch.  Under the bistro table there is this awesome wire bowl that I found in an attic and was planning on spray painting it silver and using it as a catchall for our kids outside toys!

Hope you enjoy!

Words of Wisdom to Live By...

Well the flooring people just came to our house and measured our rooms today!!  Very excited at this point!  Now it will be time for the “hard” work of going thru all of our junk in our closets and purging stuff we really do NOT need!  After we get those rooms done we will be finishing our office, which is what I am looking forward to.  I am aiming to have all of these projects completed by the time it is back-to-school. 

While going thru my closet I found a paper from Girl Scout Camp with the lyrics to the song, “Don’t Laugh at Me”.  Made me really happy to find it and think about when we participated in that 'seminar' at camp on bullying. We need to bring awareness to everyone that there are some people who are willing to hurt others to no end just to make themselves feel better.  People who bully never win.  

“Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me”

In light of this, I decided to create an Anti-bullying treasury on Etsy.  Here is the link!

 

Hope you enjoy and this inspires you!!!

Promote Love!

Spring 2012 in a Recap!

 Well since I have been very busy making lots of orders, and summer is surely flying right by, I will finally post some of my favorite crafts and DIY that I have been up to lately! 

First I had done a tiny “redo” in my kitchen where I went and added awesome glass tiles for the backsplash!  When I had taken these photos it was before I did the outlet covers, so I will add a newer one soon!  I am also contemplating on adding some type of under cabinet lighting- perhaps those battery ones (and yes I will use rechargeable batteries) - I hate cords hanging or lying around!!

I also gave my moss covered letter a little update.  I added it to a spray painted picture frame that I am never going to use again.  I officially s it!  On the outside door we also gave it a fresh coat of red paint and touched the trim up with some bright white paint.  I am still trying to persuade my husband that we need a gold colored kick-plate at the bottom of the door!

My favorite thing from this past spring was when we went to my daughter’s Bridging Ceremony for Girl Scouts.  I made a dessert “Bridging from Daisies to Brownies”. 

Aside from rearranging all of the children’s bedrooms to make more room (which I will post photos of that later on), we have decided to purchase hardwood flooring for a few areas of our house.  Originally this past fall my husband promised me after taxes were over we would go a buy new flooring to try to brighten up a lot of the house by getting rid of our dark green carpet!  Well it’s midsummer and we are now getting to that.  At least he is keeping his word on buying it! 

This past spring, as in April, May, and early June, we have gone an array of places with our family and extended family.  Some of these include the zoo, ice skating,  NYC, museums, the Crayon Factory, beaches, amusement parks, and just this past weekend the waterpark!  We are so blessed that we have family to partake in these activities with us!  We are a busy, busy family. 

NYC

Hershey Park

I will post about my oldest child's DIY Flower Garden on the next post along with other crafts we have been up to.  

Hope you enjoy!!