11.28.2010

Today I'm giving you a look at one of my latest big projects.  I'm calling it DIY dining.  Most of what you see here was made or altered by me.

WARNING: this is a very picture heavy post.

Here's a good look at the table I built by adjusting the plans for this narrow farmhouse table to make it a little wider and added some trim around the edges to make the top look chunkier.  L.O.V.E. it!!  It seats up to 10 if we add a chair on each end.

Another look at the end of the table you can also see the bench I made to match.  There was no plan for a bench to match the table so I had to make that up, but I was really pleased with how it turned out.  I'm working on some matching chairs, just ran out of time before Thanksgiving.

Here's a look at the bench.

I've got to find the before picture I took of these candle holders.  They were this ugly, shiny, old looking gold.  I picked them up for 50 cents each at my local goodwill.  Add some spray primer and black patina spray paint and voila, pretty matching candle holders.

This was the first year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the whole family (both mine and my husbands) and I wanted to make a good impression.  We bought some pretty white plates from Wal-Mart as well as some red cloth napkins.

I found some napkin rings 2/$1 at Michaels, they had leaves and turkeys on them.  Those wouldn't work, so you know I had to decorate the napkin rings.

and a close-up of the napkin ring.  I used a bunch of my Papertrey Ink supplies: a leaf prints die on simply charteuse felt, a pure poppy button with silk ribbon, a limitless layers die, the sentiment from 2009 autumn tags.  As well as some Martha Stewart chunky glitter and practicing creativity's houndstooth background from retro christmas backgrounds

One last look at the whole ensemble.

I love my dining room, and hope you like it too.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

edited to answer a couple questions

The table is 37 1/2" wide and 8 feet long, I basically just added an additional 1x8 to Ana's plans.

The trim I used around the edges is from my local Lowes.

It looks like this, only for my table I flipped it upside down so the chunkier part is at the top.

 

It's EverTrue Pine Modern Casing.

The high gloss finish ends at the edges of the table, it's self leveling so I was afraid it would just drip off the edges if I tried.  It's a polymer compound that starts in two different bottles and you mix them together and pour it on.  Then you smooth it out and it self-levels.  The brand I used is EnviroTex Lite, I found it at Menards but I'm sure you could find something similar at any home improvement store.

I used a gel stain by Varathane called Early American and two coats of wipe on high gloss polyurethane on the rest of the table and bench (not the top). 

10.19.10

Today's card was made for a friend of the family who retired after 37 years of working in the local mine.  37 years!!

This card features leaf prints form PTI and I was looking all over for a retirement sentiment when I remembered Practicing Creativity's Chatterbox.  Love that sentiment set, there's a lot of different sentiments you don't find frequently.  The size was perfect to fit on this tag with my leaf.  I rock and rolled the leaf with orange zest and terra cotta tile and the background is stamped with terracotta tile on orange zest CS.  The tag and ribbon are the beautiful fine linen, I'm more and more in love with this color each time I use it!!

I've also got my very first knock off wood project to share with you today.  It's a bookshelf adapted from this amazing wall bookshelf.

The original sat on the floor, but because of that radiator, mine had to be wall mounted.  What I love best about this bookshelf is how the books face outward.  My kids always had a tough time getting the books put in library style so they would sit on the floor in a sort of stack until I picked them up.  This way they can put them away so easily!!  As you busy Mom's know, anything they can do themselves is always less work for us!  I also simplified the tops and cut them rounded off, because this was my very first wood project ever and I wasn't quite sure how I'd do with a jig-saw.

This was seriously so easy and fun to build and it cost $27.72 including screws!!

and because I have two rowdy boys....

 you can see that before I could even photograph it they did this.

Which is the entire reason I didn't want to pay big bucks for a bookshelf  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

10.13.10

Hello Everyone!

Sorry to leave the blog unattended for so long.  I feel guilty not stopping in, but you know how it is, life just gets busy!  So what have I been up to? 

Well I got distracted by

  

Knock Off Wood

Which got me into building furniture!!  So far I've built this Kids elementary table and these storage chairs, then a variation of this book shelf.  I used this farmhouse table plan to make a workbench for my husband, and I'm working on a dining room table using that plan too but I adjusted it to be wider.  Just yesterday I built these totally fun Truss shelves.  Using my own plan I also made a side table for the living room and am working on a bench for the dining room table. 

So, yeah, I got a little obsessed!  Haven't taken any pictures of them yet, but if you'd like to see anything just let me know.

Besides that, the wood for our wood boiler so we've been cutting and hauling that like it's going out of style!  There's been no crafty time for this girly, but I've got a couple more cards from Practicing Creativity.

This one uses the tree and sentiment from Retro Christmas and the presents from The Whole Cycle.  Fun isn't it?!

Here's a tag using hte deer and striped tree from Retro Christmas and happy birthday sentiments from you're the man.

Here's a clean lined masculine card featuring the striped tree from Retro Christmas and sentiments from Chatterbox.

Thanks for stopping by!

10.4.10

Last day of the Practicing Creativity sneak peeks!!  Today we made anything but a card.  I'm trying to simplify my Christmas craft to-do list this year so I made this sweet little hot cocoa packet holder to tie onto a gift bag.

If you pull up the bow it reveals the cocoa inside.

Don't you love this little reindeer?  He begged me for googly eyes, so that's just what he got! :)  I love that the antlers and nose are separate pieces and they are so easy to line up.

I glittered up the tree and put him on some felt snow.

Make sure you check out the DT gals blogs!

Courtney

Karen

Dana

Paulina

and my fellow guest DT members

Heather Pulvirenti

Christina Maclaren

Thanks for stopping by!

10.3.10

 Got another peek for you from Practicing Creativity!!  Today the DT gals and I are featuring spray ink in our projects. 

Using an oval nestability I cut and embossed some white cardstock.  While it was still in the die I sprayed some glimmer mist to create my background.

The background is stamped with versamark and this sweet little tree was just begging for some bling.

Make sure you check out all the DT gals blogs for some more peeks!

Courtney

Karen

Dana

Paulina

and my fellow guest DT members

Heather Pulvirenti

Christina Maclaren

See you tomorrow for one more peek before the release!

Thanks for stopping by!!

10.2.10

Sooo I can finally tell you all... I'm guest designing at Practicing Creativity this month!!!  I'm a huge fan or Courtney Bakers and I LOVE, love, LOVE their stamps.  I am thrilled beyond belief and honored that she'd have me!

Today I'm sneak peeking one of the new October release sets, Retro Christmas.  It's amazing, you're going to fall head over heels for this one, I know I did!!

The ornaments are heat embossed with some gliter and bling thrown in for good measure  ::wink::

Here are a couple close-up shots.

Make sure you check out all the DT gals blogs too, they're amazing!

Courtney

Karen

Dana

Paulina

and my fellow guest designers

Heather Pulvirenti

Christina Maclaren

Happy World Cardmaking Day!!  I'm hoping to have a little fun time in the studio today, hope you can too!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll come back tomorrow, I'll have more sneak peeks from Practicing Creativity!

you're the man

Today I've got a masculine card for you featuring Practicing Creativity's You're the man and PTI's It's Official.  The bolts in the background are heat embossed on simply chartreuse cardstock.  I stamped the ruler on kraft cardstock and stamped some woodgrain in dark chocolate over it.  I stamped the sentiment, also from you're the man, on a fillable frames #4 die. 

I really like the simplicity of this one.

Now I've got to run, there's a full 3 hours of quiet until my boys gets home from pre-school.  Got to check some things off the to-do list and enjoy the peace and quiet! :)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic day!!

Happy Birthday Kiddo

Today's card features some of my favorite stamps from Practicing Creativity, the whole cycle and chatterbox.  I am so in love with this little tricycle, it makes me think of my youngest son.  He has a little red tricycle like this only his has a little storage box on the back.  You can always find it filled up with something, dirt or trucks or apples from the apple tree.  Makes me smile just to think of it, then it makes me worried that I should check how many rotting apples are left in the back of it, haha.

Anyways back to the card, I stamped the tricycle and the ground on a mat stack 4 die cut.  Then colored the tricycle with a copic marker.  The sentiment is actually "a happy birthday" but that wouldn't work for this card so I just didn't ink the "a" and added the word kiddo after that.  I sponged some aqua mist around the edges and tied some bakers twine to highlight the sentiment a little.  Matted that onto some patterend paper from Echo Park.

Well that's all for today, thanks so much for stopping by!

26.2

Yesterday was an important day for me.  Yesterday I did somethings that not too long ago I would have considered unattainable.  Yesterday I ran a full marathon!  That's 26.2 miles people!

When I first started running I couldn't run 1/10 of a mile without stopping to catch my breath.  I was so seriously out of shape it was pathetic.  So I would run a little farther the next time and eventually I could run a 5K (3.2 miles), which to me was pretty great.  Then I decided I was going to run farther, so I did.  I've been training for a while, but I didn't want to start something I couldn't finish so I waited until I felt ready.

The Marathon was held in Marquette, Michigan.  Wow it's a gorgeous course, the weather however, was not gorgeous.  It was cold and rainy with 20-30 MPH winds.  Luckily, much of the course has trees and buildings to block the wind.

My whole family was there through the cold and rain to support me.  They helped me immensely.  Here is the best part:

My Son, Dylan, wanted to run with me for a little while.  Right before he ran with me I wasn't sure I could keep going, but he helped me through.

Here I am crossing the finish line with a time of 5 hours 15 seconds.

Now I wasn't the fastest, by far.  But that's not at all what it was about for me.  I wanted to prove to myself that I can go above and beyond anything I ever thought possible and guess what?  I did!

A huge thank you to my family for supporting me through it all:  My amazing husband and both of my boys, My Sister, My Dad, My Mom who was sick, My in-laws whom I adore.  Thank you again.

Now if you made it through that I have a pretty card to show you.  It's for Courtney Baker's sketch challenge over at Practicing Creativity.

I chose Courtney's sketch, which looks like this:

and this is my card. 

This one uses a bunch of different sets from PCD.  Sentiment is from the whole cycle, clouds are from you're dandy and the balloons are from look up.  I love the subtle vintage feel of this one, it's so different from what I've been doing lately.  It needed some glitter on the balloons and clouds so that's exactly what it got, hehe.

Oh and I FINALLY jumped on the Nestability bandwagon, and now I know what I waited so long...  They're fantastic and now I want to buy them all!!!  yikes my wallet hurts already!

I sure do appreciate you stopping by, especially if you made it through all of my ramblings today!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Look Up, The Whole Cycle, and You're Dandy (PCD)

Papers:  Vintage Cream CS (PTI), Patterned  Papers (October Afternoon)

Ink:  Noir (Palette), Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse, Dark Chocolate (PTI)

Other:  Buttons (PTI), Twine (PTI), Labels 1 die (Spellbinders), Ripe Avocado Grosgrain ribbon (PTI), Glitter (Prisma)

You're Dandy

Today I've got a fun little card for the Practicing Creativity sketch challenge.  The papers are Echo Park: a walk in the park and I am SOO in love with this collection!!  The colors and patterns are fan-tas-tic!  What better to pair it with than the fun kite and sentiment from PCD's You're Dandy set.  Add a hawaiian shores bow and some felt clouds and you've got a little taste of summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best Wishes

Just a quick post today, life has been crazy/hectic, but in a good way.  We're heading out to a girlfriend's camp for the day today and it is HOT so we're bringing the swimsuits. 

This one uses Practicing Creativity's You're Dandy set.

Well, better go or my kids just might take off without me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Color cue kite

WPlus9 has a color challenge and this week I got a chance to play along.  Now let me tell you that these colors are completely out of my comfort zone, but I enjoyed it.  The colors are PTI's Melon Berry, Spring Rain, Summer Sunrise and white.  The kite is from the You're Dandy set from practicing creativity and I added a little glitter to the kite and it's bows.  Just a cheery fun simple card.  Oh and check out the woodgrain in the background, I love how it adds a subtle texture to the otherwise plain background.

Thanks for stopping by!