Friday's Finds #15

TGIF!

Our first week back to the grind simply flew right by and its amazing how seamlessly we got right back into the groove of school, sports practices, etc.  The break sure was nice while it lasted!

Before I move on to Friday's Finds, I have to take a minute to brag on Greyson a bit (poor boy is always accusing me of supporting the other two in wrestling more than I do him in basketball  :P).  We had our 2nd game of the season last night against New Hampton and Greyson was awesome.  5 Lay-ups and 1 Jump Shot.  SWEET!  I found out that I make as obnoxious of a basketball mom, as I do a mat mom. ;)  They won 38-22.  :D

And a few pictures...

Taking A Shot

Point Guard

Half Time

Course, he's a starter for the "B" team - We have three.  A, B, C.  Lots 'o sports momma drama there.  So, that might have a teeny tiny bit to do with why I stay on the peripheral of basketball and am in the thick of it with wrestling.  I don't have any use for the kind of bull I've witnessed, although after a few things that were observed last night, there are times you've got to jump into the fray for not only your kid, but other people's kids. So much for being through that cockamamie stuff after jr. high.  *SIGH*

Anyhoo...

Friday's Finds...  YIPPEE!

I didn't get much this week, with the exception of my foray into the "Mart of Doom" that I posted about yesterday.  Thanks for the advice and support!  We junkers gotta stick together!  ;)

I only bought 3 things yesterday, probably paid way too much for each of them, but you know how it is.  There's potential, potential, and more potential.  ;)

First up...

I found this desk in a dim back corner that I literally needed to borrow their flashlight to check over.  I paid $35.00 for her and she needs A LOT of work.  Probably could have bought her for $5.00 at a garage sale, but its winter, there are no garage sales, and I desperately need a computer desk.  The lady's writing table that I'm using is too small and dainty.  Crawling underneath the desk, I realized that someone at some point had taken the original top off and replaced it with a thick something or other, that might just be plywood.  Not too sure.  Then, to top it off, they put some kind of fiberboard on top of that and trimmed it off with quarter round.  Not a pretty sight.  The only thing its got going for it is the wonderfully chippy paint and casters on the feet.  I'm so hoping that a good scrubbing will be all that the body needs.  First thing I did when I got it out of the car was pull the quarter round off and pry off the fiberboard...  with a spatula.  BAH HA HA HA  Hey!  I couldn't find my hammer!  :P  And you know what?  It worked.  And with very little effort too.  LMBO!

Yummy!

What?  You don't see the potential?  LOL!!!

The second thing I bought was an old Chimney Cabinet.  Definitely paid too much for it, but I'm in desperate need for something to help organize this mess before Scott divorces me...

Wanna play I spy?  Let's see... I spy 6 spray paint cans, a glue gun, a quart of glaze, a pint of paint, 2 quarts of paint, plaster of paris, a quilt, a hand vac, upholstery, a pair of rubber gloves, a laminating machine, Finishing Paste, chipboard letters,  3 Purdy paint brushes, two candles, an extension cord, printer paper...   Might be why I couldn't find my hammer.  LOL!  Wanna see if you spot it anywhere in there?  HA HA HA! Yeah.  Can't even believe I posted this.  Now you know the depth of my disorganization.  LMBO!

And to think it used to look like this...

Which is why I decided to jump in on this...



Go on over to Lovely Crafty Home, if your craft corner/room/garage/whatever looks like this.  Its an intervention!  LOL!!!!  And I do soooo much better when I'm challenged and given a deadline!  :D

So anyway, I bought this to hopefully help with my absolute crap corner and get a lot more organized!!!!

The horizontal divider is coming out.

I guess they made these back in the day to fit in between the narrow space between the chimney and the wall.  Or, good ole Gene could have been blowing smoke up my butt to justify the $75 asking price.  :P  I got it for $50, which was still too high.  Blah...  Blah...  Blah...

And the next piece, is actually in the messy office picture.  I fell in love and managed to talk him down from $45 to $35.  That is an absolute steal, so I can't complain.  After looking at mirrors that even at 50% off at Hobby Lobby were well above my price range, I did darn good.

It was incredibly hard to keep a po-po-po-po-poker face (Lady Gaga, if you didn't get that.  LOL!) during the haggling.

Cheryl would have a heart attack, but that baby is getting a coat of chalk paint and dark wax.  Might just have to take a before and after picture to her when if I go back.  HA! :D  Can't wait to get that hung above my buffet - Ummmm, after I paint the walls, of course.  You didn't actually think I was going to break that New Year's resolution did you?  (Take all the fun out of it for me why don'tcha?)

So, that's it.  Slim pickin's, but I'm happy.  Now I'm off to go steal a pallet from Scott, so I can commence my next little project (and ignore the one in progress on the stairs.  I am sooooo ADD when it comes to home improvement, I know).

Have a fantabulous weekend, y'all!

Ringing in 2012 With Bedroom Wall Art

Happy New Year!

I hope each and every one of you reading this is abundantly blessed 

with health, happiness, and love in 2012!

Nothing like kicking off the start of 2012 with a completed project!  I actually started this one back in December, but I finally corralled Scott long enough to get him to hang it up, so I could tell you about it.  LOL!

This was probably the quickest and easiest project I have ever done.  In fact, if you want to do one yourself, the hardest part will be finding the barn door to do it with! ;)  It was only by luck that I found this one...

One day in the beginning of December, Scott casually mentioned that as he was doing some cleaning up at his parents' farm he had noticed a couple of old doors I would probably like - if he hadn't ruined them when he shoved them into the burn pile.  WHAT?!  You mean he didn't take the time to get out and drag them off to the side????  So much for all the "training".  LOL!!!!!  

A few days later, I had a chance to go over there and see what he had found.  Not only were they fantastic doors, they were BARN DOORS!  So, picture me standing on top of this huge heap of old, splintered wood and trash, grunting, pulling, and pushing trying to get those suckers out!  I'm sure I was a sight!  I was just holding my breath hoping he hadn't ruined them!  It had just rained the day before and then turned cold, so everything was rock solid and frozen together.  And since they were wet, they were H-E-A-V-Y!!!  (Exclamation Point!)  I shoved one in the back of the Yukon, put one off to the side, and had him bring it home in the back of his truck a few days later.  Luckily, they were both intact.  YIPPEE! 

I've been seeing all these lovely pallet board signs hung as wall art all through blogland, and I knew that was the direction I wanted to take the wall above our bed - however, I didn't want to have to do all the work involved with pulling a pallet apart and then nailing it back together.  The barn door was perfect for my lazy self.  ;)

Seriously, all it took was a few simple steps:

1)  First I googled "Love Quotes" and looked and looked until I found the one that spoke to me.  I chose this one by Audrey Hepburn:

"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."

Ain't that the truth?  Especially during these extremely tough economic times and everything that life can throw at ya!

2)  Then I fooled around on the computer with different fonts and font sizes until I found a combination that I liked - rearranging it in iMac Pages.

3)  I wrote down the font and monkeyed around with different sizes - blowing them up anywhere from 250 to 325 in size, printed them off, cut them out, and then placed them on top of the door to see if they looked good.  Then I tweaked the sizes some more and fooled around with the placement.

4)  Then I made stencils with the printer paper (cutting them out with an X-acto knife) and used chalk to "stencil" them onto the wood...

Until I had done the whole thing:

I have to admit that I got tired of cutting out the stencils, so "Each Other" and Audrey Hepburn is my handwriting.  LOL!

The great thing about using chalk is that if you screw up (which I do often), you just take a damp rag and wipe it off.  I wrote Audrey Hepburn crooked and my spacing between onto and in was terrible, so I just wiped it off and did it again.  Audrey's name is still a tad crooked on the finished one, but oh well.  Its authentically me.  ;)

5)  After finishing up with the stenciling, I just painted right over the chalk with my paint, giving it a hand painted look without the iffiness of hand painting. I assume that the paint dissolves the chalk.  The paint still adhere's well and holds up to some distressing.  When I finished painting on the quote, I distressed it slightly to give it an aged looked (which drives Scott nuts :P).

Finally last night, it was a family event hanging the darn thing.  Greyson and I held it up on the wall over the bed, while Scott and Ian stood back and decided up, down, right, left.  Exciting times! ;)  Scott used screws to drilled in between the boards to hold it onto the wall in five different places - two on each side and one in the center.  Here's hoping it doesn't fall off the wall in the middle of the night and decapitate us.  HA!

And the final product...

I so LOVE it.  And better yet?  So does Scott!  Best words I've ever heard come out of his mouth, short of when he asked me to marry him...  "And to think that was in the burn pile."  LOL!  LOVE IT!

The Best Laid Plans...

On my post on Friday, I was super-duper excited that I was going to be painting (and completing) the diva's room.  You know that old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men?  Yeah.  Uh-huh.  Didn't happen.

Saturday brought rain, rain, and more rain, as a low pressure system went through our state, so I should have had plenty of time to get all that furniture painted and out of the diva's room, right?  Not really.  I did start the morning with putting the first coat of paint on the rocking chair and one of the end tables.  Let me tell you...  T-E-D-I-O-U-S.  Especially the rocking chair.  Painting with a brush just takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  I probably spent 3 hours on both pieces and still managed to have running paint dried in places I didn't catch.  Grrrrrrrrr!  And they're still not done!

Then, the hubs managed to seduce me into laying down and watching "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with him.  I have to admit it was nice to snuggle up on a rainy day and watch a movie with him.  I can't remember the last time we carved out any time to just be with each other.  But that didn't get the furniture painted.

Sunday morning I got up again at 8 am and commenced painting the 2nd coat, which took another couple of hours, so at least they're that much closer to being completed.  However, I still have to start painting the other end table, which is sitting there looking all forlorn with its 3 coats of white primer.  Not to mention the boys' nightstands.   The hubs comes in and remarks, "That'd go a lot faster if you had an electric paint sprayer,"   Errrrrrrr....

You would think I had all day Sunday to get it done, so it'd all be finished right?  Nope.  Not even close.  Yesterday we cleaned out our garage.  Hey...  When the hubs is actually not having to work, or bale hay, or take care of fence rows, or feed cows, and is actually home and says he wants to accomplish something...  Well, I jump right on that.

Now, you have to picture our garage.  Really, its just a square hipped roof unattached storage building of all things junk.  The only thing that makes it a garage is that it has (well, had - more on that later) a garage door on it.  We don't even think about parking a vehicle in there.  Not to mention that his Dodge Ram won't fit and neither will my Yukon XL, but now my HHR - that would fit.  If there was room.  If you could even get into the nasty mess.

Last winter during one of our epic winter blizzards, a strong north wind completely pushed in the garage door and partially took it off its track, so it was half falling into the garage. So, for the last 8 months we've looked at a garage that we could not even think about getting into.  Now, most people would get right on fixing that.  Us?  Master procrastinators.  Too cold to take care of it in the winter...  Too busy to take care of it in the spring...  Too hot to take care of it in the summer...  Yesterday?  Perfect.  (We sound a little like Goldilocks, don't we?)  Yesterday was just right.  Highs in the upper 60s.  Gentle north wind.  So when the hubs said, "Let's get 'er done."  I said, "Okay!"

What an undertaking!  First we had to get the stinking garage door down, which was still partially hooked up.  And the hot mess that greeted us behind the door?  O.  M.  G.  Eight months worth of dead leaves, trash that had blown under the door...  Everything was covered in dirt that had blown in there too.  A north facing garage in Iowa?  Bad idea.  The boys (to their delight) even found dead bird and rabbit carcasses.  G-R-O-S-S!  We dragged it all out into the yard, sorted through all of it, and then either pitched it, burned it, or kept it.  Fun times, let me tell ya.  It'll never be a showcase garage like I see all over blogland, but it serves it purpose for the time being - until we get that 2 car attached addition we want (years from now people, years).

Seven hours later....

And the trailer full of cast offs....

But here's the silver lining to all my best laid plans being derailed...  Guess what we found in the midst of all that mess?

WOO-HOO!

When my Dad passed away, my brother and I divided everything.  I couldn't get rid of a thing for the last four and a half years.  Most of the stuff in the garage was things that I didn't really want, have a place for, and didn't know what else to do with.  I mean, it was my Dad's.  I couldn't just throw it away.  I even had clothes of his in there.  So, yesterday was kind of sad too.  I faced facts that I couldn't possibly hold onto everything and he wouldn't expect me to.  And I finally recognized, four and a half years after the fact, that's he's far passed caring about such things.  With some tears, I got rid of pretty much all of it.  However, finding the paint sprayer and even a Skil saw that I didn't know we had in all the boxes of his things - well, it kind of made me feel like he's still looking out for me after all these years.  That paint sprayer is going to make my life much easier.  Thanks, Dad.  

So, today the hubs is all rared up to get some yard work accomplished outside.  The weather is gorgeous again and in Iowa, when the weather gives you an opportunity to do something, you'd better do it!  

Today we're going to take this:

And make it look like this:

Exciting, no?

So, the diva is going to have a wait a little while longer for her room transformation.  And I'm going to have to wait a little longer to reveal my furniture rehabs.  But you know what?  The outside is going to look GREAT!