Saturday, November 28, 2009

Busy, Busy, Busy!



Well it has been a while since I posted last. I have been busy eating turkey, Christmas Shopping (yes I went out for a whole 3 hours in the am on black friday), watching my sisters kids, and tonight we are going to my husbands 20th class reunion. In between my husband and I put together a project I dreamt up a few months ago.


A while back I posted here about my husband and kids painting. So I had an idea to make a display shelf to put their artwork on display in my dining room.  So we started by buying some bead board, a small sheet of oak plywood, some liquid nails and some trim. I already had some white primer and paint so we did not have to buy that. We started by having

 my husband cut the beadboard to the height of the ply wood. After he cut them all to match we put all the pieces of beadboard together and used liquid nails to attach it. We did have a little over lap which we cut off with an exacto knife (ran the knife right down a bead and snapped it off).



After we let the liquid nails set my husband cut the trim using the miter saw.  I then used the liquid nails again and glued the trim over the beadboard. I then used our staple gun (loaded with brads) and nailed the trim onto the beadboard. Oh I should mention the trim I bought is made to go over beadboard or panelling. It does not have a flush back. I think it was called panel trim.




Ok so now we added our "shelve" which is actually another piece of trim. The kind you would use to cover your drywall corners so they don't get chipped. Yet again I don't know the name. I promise next time I will do better! We again used liquid nails and brads to attach to the beadboard and plywood. I filled all the wholes and cracks with wood filler.  We let the whole thing sit over night and the next day I took on the priming and painting. Just 1 coat of primer and two coats of white paint.





Finally we hung it in our dining room(that is a weird shadow on my wall, not a bad paint job) We used large wood screws and finishing washers - right into the studs as this is rather heavy. We added some art and now we are good to go. Obviously the art showing is a little small for the shelves. I have given directions for 5x7s, 8x10s or 9x12s for future artwork.




I think it turned out pretty good, but let me know what you think?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Stare at my Staircase Party

Well the day has finally arrived, beth@ thestoriesofa2z.blogspot.com is having a party and I was invited along with another 456 people. I am not taking it personally though. My staircase has been done over and the process took about 3 year! Ugh, actually when we bought our home 3 years ago we had hardwoods put in through out. However we ran out of the green stuff and had to put the bannister and railing on hold till just recently.

It is not quite as fancy as some of the other transformations but when you see where it came from I think you will see why I have been staring at my staircase! Here it is MY STAIRCASE, TA DA!










I am thinking of putting stair treads- nice ones- or a runner down the center but I have not made it to that project yet! Maybe it will be done before next years party!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A Baking Day


Ok I can't stand it when Halloween goes by and the kids have tons of candy! My kids argue over who has more or who has a better selection. I just let them have at it until it is gone. Well today I can finally say it is gone! So in celebration I baked today. I know, are baked goods better then candy?  I think so. They don't stick to your teeth,  My kids get the same exact thing and number and I have more control over what goes in it. Well at least I do with my cookies which I make from scratch with butter eggs flour sugar and all that other good stuff. My brownies I make from the box (Ghirardelli) because I don't think  I can make them any better.   My husband loves it when I bake. He is known to get up in the middle of the night, sneak downstairs to the kitchen and pour a cold glass of milk, and stand over the kitchen sink having chocolate chip cookies and milk.  Only thing that gives him away is the chocolate breath when he gets back into bed.  Oh and all the noise he makes taking the tin foil off and getting the milk and glasses out. He is not very sneaky!





Kids have the day off for the holiday tomorrow so I am trying to come up with something fun to do. I am thinking we may go to visit my husband at his new office in the sky ( in a skyscraper). The kids have not been there yet and there are lots of other fun things to do in the city for the day! 

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Crafty Me!







My house is a work in progress and I guess I am too. I like to procrastinate but as of late I am hard at work on projects around the house. I was driving through the center of town the other day and noticed someone was getting rid of a brass coat rack. So being me, I grabbed it and threw it in the back of my car. I brought it home primed and painted it and now it is a place for my daughter to hang her robe, and scarf collection (they always seem to be on the floor). My daughter loved it! Even after I told her I took out of someones trash.






and I just had to try it myself.
I did it a little different but the idea is the same.
I used contact paper (which I had already) and taped the printed letter (which my husband supersized for me) to the contact paper. I then used an exacto knife to cute through both layers. Then I pressed the contact paper down firmly and spray painted the S, my rug already had a black border around it.. I love the way it came out.






















 Last but not least I did a simple switcharoo to my candles. Just a change of color from black and white for halloween to cranberry  and white for fall/ christmas.


Hope you like my projects!




Oh and here is one interesting one of the vacuum truck coming to pick up our leaves. Of course one of my trees lost all its leaves today!  A day late. Oh well! I know how lucky we are to have this available in my town.



Wednesday, November 4, 2009

It is an early turkey day around here





I just came back from dropping my daughter off at school. When what to my wondering eyes should appear but seven turkeys walking through my neighborhood with no fear.  I have seen them before but not a group this large. Now we do live in the suburbs but not in the boonies and it still surprises me to see wildlife roaming around. A few years back I saw a red fox in my neighbors back yard and we hear coyotes once in a while at night. I just think it is so cool to see turkeys at this time of year...  I am now officially in the mood for Thanksgiving.