Shadow box/Memory board

Two of my favorite projects so far for the boutique.

 The big beautiful black one:

The pretty little green one that I so want to keep for my girls' room:

Boutique Season

We are getting ready for a big boutique that runs the week before Thanksgiving.  Our house is a wreck but we are sure having fun.

The state of the living room

Kitchen table.

At least I have some cute pumpkins to show for it. I got this idea from another blog.  I can't remember which one at the moment.  

All other projects are at the midway point, waiting to be painted.  Hopefully this week will see the rest of the projects finished.

Altered Halloween Book

Just a cute little Halloween project I wanted to share.  This is an old book from the thrift store.  I had a lot of fun jazzing it up for Halloween.  It turned out so cute I can't wait to make one for Christmas!

I'm linking up to Just a Girl.  Go check her out.

Halloween Table

I got the Halloween decorations out the other day and played around with them a little bit.  I had lots of fun putting this table together.  The picture is kind of at a funky angle but that is because it is so hard to photograph in front of a mirror and not get the rest of the mess room.

I found these weeds on my morning run.  It is kind of hard to see in this picture but the tall ones are a pretty orange and the shorter ones are a rust color.  The ones in the bottom of the vase are sunflower heads.  We have a ton of sunflowers growing around here and they are all drying out now.  I just lopped off their heads and put them in the vase for filler.   I looked like I was carrying the Olympic torch running home with them in my hands.  I kind of messed up my back in the process but it was definitely worth it. The bird is from dollar tree and the cute jack-o-lantern kettle came from a yard sale.

  This cute sign was painted by my mom last year.  I love the simplicity of it.

 The boots!  Aren't they the cutest things?  Megan and I made these last year.  She came up with the idea.  They are so fun.  I really love the moss growing out of them.  The burlap pumpkins came from a yard sale. 

I hope you like it. 

Sweet lamp

I found a cute lamp at a yard sale for 25 cents.  Score!  The gold parts were spray painted white, then it set around for a year waiting for the perfect lamp shade.   Finally, I found the perfect flowers to cover the shade.  I pulled the flowers off the stems and hot glued them on an old lamp shade.

Here it is all lit up.

Now I have the sweetest lamp for the girls' room.

Taming Counter Clutter

I can't stand having clutter on my kitchen counters. Especially dirty dishes.  The kids will get a drink and put the dirty cup on the counter or in the sink.  When they get thirsty again they can't remember which cup they used before so they grab a clean one out of the cupboard.  This process is repeated several times a day.  Multiply that by 6 kids, and you get the picture.  The counter and sink were always full of dirty cups.  Then I walked into Anthropologie and found this:

Could this be the solution to my dirty cup problem?  Then I looked at the price tag.  At eight dollars a pop I knew this was not my solution.

I started thinking.  Why don't I make my own monogram mugs?  So I did.

I went to a thrift store and found eight matching mugs for 25 cents each.  Took them home and gave them a nice bleach bath.  Then I had the kiddos initials cut from vinyl with a Cricut and slapped them on the mugs.  (I didn't really slap them on.  More like I carefully lined them up to make sure they were straight). 

The vinyl has held up great to washings in the dishwasher and by hand.  They look so cute all lined up on the counter, and everyone always knows which cup is theirs. 

Cute DVD Storage

It seems like I am crazy about blue these days. 

I got this old metal storage container at a thrift store for 2 dollars.  I wanted to spray paint it but couldn't find the right color of blue in a can.  I mixed some white paint with a blue sample I found at ACE and came up with this color.  It is perfect for holding the kiddos dvd's.


Before

After

I LOVE IT!

Hutch re-do

I promised crafts over a week ago so here goes. 

This is a little project Randy and I worked on together.  I picked up this Hutch at a thrift store quite a while ago and finally got around to painting it.  Originally the back of the hutch had a mirror that was broken and the glass shelves were missing.  I am assuming they had been broken also.  You can see the bottom piece in the background with a coat of white paint already on it.

We spray painted it white and added white bead board to the back.  We purchased new glass shelves, and added new white ceramic knobs.  Then we sanded it to give it that shabby look.

I love the way it turned out.  Guess what!  She is for sale.  I am asking $300.00 for her.  Please contact me if you are interested and you live in Arizona.

Thanks for looking.

Hello!

Is anybody out there?    I decided to give this blogging thing another go.  School will be starting soon so maybe I will have a little time on my hands.  We will have to see.  I thought I would post my favorite picture from our Oregon vacation this summer.  This is Dad and some of my brothers out on the lake doing some fishing.  I don't think they caught anything but they sure had fun. 

I have lots of fun craft projects to show so check back soon.

Candle Holder

I made another cute Valentines craft. 

Here is how you can do it too.

Look for these candle holders at the dollar store.

Simply glue the large candle holder to the taper holder with some tile glue.  Let the glue dry for 24 hours.  It dries clear.

Tie some cute ribbon around the base. 

Stand back to admire and ask yourself why on earth you didn't buy candles while you were at the dollar store.

My first 10k run!

I ran my first 10k yesterday.

I can barely walk today.

I have been training for a couple of months to run in London's Run in Queen Creek, AZ.  I figured it would take me about 1 hour and 20 minutes at the pace I have been running on the tread mill. 

I was very excited and surprised when I finished in less than an hour!

Here is a link to my picture from the run .  Don't laugh, I was just finishing running 6.2 miles.

It was a challenge but lots of fun too.

Valentines Craft

I found this cute Valentines craft Idea on The Creative Crate. This blog has so many cute craft Ideas.

It was super easy to make. My friend Megan cut the wood for me, and I used her cricut to cut stencils for the letters and the heart.




Go check out The Creative Crate. I'm sure you will be inspired too.