Saturday, May 30, 2015

Wine Bottle Lanterns

Holy crap, this was easy! And I love how it came out. Thanks to Youtube savy alcoholics, cutting wine and liquor bottles is a snap! Me and the hubs made these wine bottle lanterns tonight using glass bottles, candle votives, chain and a key ring...


We followed this video to learn how to cut the bottoms off of the wine bottles. This, of course, was Jason's favorite part as it combines his two favorite activities, drinking and setting shit on fire. Check this out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWYjMlYH50

I plan on going to the craft store and buying many key rings and a spool of chain so we can hang these in our yard every time we finish a bottle. Which means we should be able to light the entire back yard up by next weekend.

See how I joke?

Friday, May 29, 2015

Roadside Gem

I really wish I would have taken a before picture of this one. My dad, who I get the dumpster diving gene from, found this night stand abandoned in an alley and immediately thought of me. It was in rough shape, stained, chipped and broken. Then I got my mitts on it...



Gotta say, I'm pretty proud of this one. It needed a new side panel and some holes patched. I sanded and finished the top in dark walnut. Then painted a thick layer of ASCP Olive mixed with some Antibes and white. A thin layer of graphite on top, lots of sanding and finished it off with clear and dark wax. The drawer pull was really gunked up when I got it, so I sanded it down and dressed it up with some dark wax too. Not too shabby if I do say so...getting better at this layering thing.

 
 

Big Sur

Some shots from our camping trip to Big Sur. Freaking awesome place, you should go.

 
 
 

Let's Do This

Alright, time to update this blog. It's only be 3 years, what's the big whoop! It was fun writing about my family....but you know, snooooor. Sounds bad, but this is a place to be creative AND brag about how cute my rug rats are.

Case in point...


I've recently traded in my business casual attire and 90 minute commute for a pair of yoga pants and a home office. Also slimmed down the hours so I can be there more for my kiddos. And with all my new-found free time, I decided to update my kids rooms by painting all the mis-matched furniture. In doing so, I absolutely fell in love with chalk paint.

That being said, everything, including the cat has been smothered in Annie Sloan. I have nothing.left.to.paint. So now I shop yard sales, craigslist, estate sales (dead people have the coolest shit) and my favorite... roadsideia. My grandma always used that term for pretty flowers and weeds that you pick along the road to pretty up your home. Now I have repurposed that term to mean crappy junk that you find on the side of the road to bring back to your house and paint to pretty up your home.

So, when I should be working, or cleaning, or trying to get my four year old to stop flushing entire rolls of toilet paper, I venture on in to the garage to find some inspiration.


So to start it off, here is a little spring project I recently finished. My pallet spice garden.



Took a regular pallet, had the hubs pull off some of the slats and use to create the bottoms of the shelves, add some paint and some spices, voila! Now if I can just remember to water them...