I'm back and busy

Well, we made it through the whole Dallas and 7am flight thing. It was an experience. Not all of it good. I wrote about some of that over on my other blog. If you care to read it - check it out over there. I don't want to write any of that unpleasantness in here. 

Anyway - we are home and I am BUSY!

I went to Ace Hardware this weekend for their big Memorial Day sale and bought 2 of those $25 Adirondack chairs. They are awesome for the money. BUT they are raw, natural wood. So my big holiday weekend project is that I'm staining them (and their bizilion pieces) a dark walnut color. Then I'll poly them. Then after they are fully dried we'll put them together. When all of that is done I'll do a reveal post! I'm starting to get excited about our back patio space!!!

In the meantime though I'm going to give you a teaser of another project I just finished. I just have to get it hung up and I'll do a whole post about it. 

So for now here is something to tied you over

It is a hanging quilt rack I got at my Fav thrift store for $5. Except I don't need a hanging quilt rack.

Just a tease of what it is becoming!

Hope everyone is having a fun and SAFE holiday weekend! 

Wear Sunscreen!!!

some trash turned treasure!

I will admit that I have no problem whatsoever snagging something off the side of the road marked "free" OR something clearly waiting on the trash truck. 

In fact, I love finding cool things this way and giving them a second chance. 

It makes me happy. 

Very happy. 

I've had some luck with this over the past couple of weeks too. 

First, I found this in the alley next to the trash and it was marked FREE.

 It was in perfect condition physically - it just needed a little love!

So a bit of sanding, some primer and a coat of Satin Black later and I have this!

Sitting along with this chair were 2 plant stands.

I got to work...

And now I have these!

And lastly - I found this sad little cart...

Again, in good physical condition - still sturdy and the wheels rolled perfectly.
Now it looks like this

And it sits next to our grill to hold extras like plates and tongs and grilling what-nots!

LOVE my freebies!

Oh and 1 more
I found this guy two days ago and haven't had a chance to do much to him yet

*squeeeaaaalllll*

I have sanded him down 3 times so far and I still have a lot of work to do.

But that's ok. I've wanted some of these chairs forever. My grandparents had these out on their front porch and I grew up sitting in them. They remind me of laughter, and family, and homemade ice cream. I'm thrilled to have found it!
Will post pics again when I get it done!

I'm linkin up!

real quick like

The kitchen island is DONE - I even have it in the house. I'm just finishing the drawer pulls and it will be totally finished.

In other news I just scored some AWESOME finds from the trash. An old, metal porch chair. I'm totally psyched. I have to get all the rust off of it and it is COVERED. So that is my next project.

Pictures to follow in a bit!

All sorts of Good Things

It's been a few days!
First of several Good Things - my husband got our heater working again! HOORAH! It took 2 different trips to OKC and 3 different blower motors but he finally did it. He is awesome like that - I think I'll keep him!

Second Good Thing - I got a job writing for a website online! YAAA!!! It is challenging for me but also very cool.

Third Good Thing - Alec tried out for a part in the school musical of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and got a part! We don't know which part but he got one! YAAAA!!! Go Alec!

Fourth Good Thing - I have been a crafting/re-doing fool! I'm also linking up to 3 different parties - Kendall over at Finesse Your Nest for Shop Your House Sunday, Kimm at Reinvented for Trash to Treasure Tuesday, and with Maryann over at Domestically Speaking for her Power of Paint party! I'm having another MRI tomorrow for the Meningiomas ( I talk about that over here, here, and here ) and that means that I have had a TON of nervous energy to burn. That equals me being almost manic and getting a bunch of projects finished! So WOOT for me on that account! So hold on to your hats ladies - there are LOTS of pictures in this post.

First off are the Shop Your House items:

 

This old sewing machine used to sit in the middle of my looooong living room wall where the console table sits now. It is beyond thunderdome heavy so when we rearranged the living room the husband did not want to move it far - much less down the stairs into the basement. So we tried it at the side of the sofa - where we needed a table anyway - and it worked!

 This is the console table we moved down and now it is sitting just about where 

the sewing machine was - this needed to be here. It is holding several items I "shopped" for in my house. The little glass doodads and the clock on the left side were scavenged from other areas as was the skinny buffet lamp!

 Close up shots of the items! That bamboo wood frame also came from the Salvation Army. It was 50 cents.

Now on to Trash to Treasure and the Power of Paint!

First off are the mirrors!
A couple of weeks back I had posted a picture of a large round mirror I had found in my basement on another Shop Your House Sunday with Kendall. Well - I had a vision and it included LOTS of mirrors surrounding that large one on my dining room walls. I finally got it finished! 

 

This is the left side of the large window.

This is the right side.

This is a shot of the room. 

It is a work in progress! I still need to re-cover those chairs cushions but that is a future project!

I only spent a total of $12 on all of those mirrors - other than the large round one on the left as I already had that one. 

First - I taped the mirrors off. As you can see they were all sorts of types and colors!

 

Then I spray painted them Satin Nickel.

Then I went over them with a mixture of black craft paint and glazing medium, wiped them down and Voila! New, old mirrors! All came from thrift stores, Goodwill and the Salvation Army! Gotta love spray paint and glaze!!!

And a closer look at the other side too.

Excuse the finger prints on the mirror - my 3 yr old had been "helping". ;) 

Now the next project was my very looooong living room wall. I had NOT been happy with it since we moved in 5 yrs ago but I could not figure out what to do with it. I went on a rearranging kick and then it came to me - I'll showcase some of our family photos on that wall. 

Before

I know, a very 'tired' sofa and part of the blah wall behind it

Then I added a slipcover - BETTER - but not there yet. 

So I rearranged....

After

 All the photos are in Sepia (except the one large photo of Piper and I right after she was born) and everything is in a shade of dark brown frame.

  

These frames also came from thift stores, the Salvation Army and Goodwill and only cost me $8 total. I painted some of them dark brown and glazed with black and others I left as they were.

  

The husband thought I was crazy at first - hanging empty frames on the wall and then putting framed pictures inside those frames....but now he likes it. I dig the architectural element of it.

Trying to get the entire wall here...see it is still a bowling alley of a room but I think this helps break it up a bit and give it interest. I still need to get another basket for under the console table...or possibly an old suitcase to hold throws and pillows...still working on that one. 

  

And this is the After picture, with a cameo by Max, of where the sofa ended up. The picture frame wall is to the right. Still a work in progress here too. I need something large over the sofa...so I was thinking maybe 3 large photos of the kids, blown up and framed out in 11X14 frames???? Possibly???? I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for looking! I know it was long but I told you - I've been burning off nervous energy!!!