Above-The-Door Daily Reminder

Like so many others, I fell in love with the Pottery Barn Typewriter Key wall art and wanted to make my own.  I saw Nikki's version over at dream.design.create and absolutely loved it! Seriously, she did an amazing job! And she is kind enough to email you a copy of the keys if you just ask.  So, I have to admit that they have been sitting in my inbox since May!  I LOVE the typewriter keys, but I decided I wanted to do something different, but didn't have any inspiration. Then other day, I went to Marshall's and saw a cute little sign that said "Have A Great Day". Ok, so I know that is nothing new, but it got me thinking that something like that would be perfect for above the front door because everyone could use a little reminder.

I went home and found a scrap piece of wood, then cut out all my letters and realized it didn't fit! Then I tried "Have A Good Day", even thought that isn't as exciting.  Still didn't fit. Then I had to come up with a 3-letter word that would describe how I would like my day to go...Sad?...No...Mad? Uh-uh...Ooo, Fun? Perfect!

I painted the board Rustoleum Heirloom White, but I wanted there to be a little more interest, so I painted the edges black.

I also painted a little tiny bit of the front edge with black, which I completely eyeballed.

I still wanted more goin' on, so I did about a .25" strip of black just inside the outer black edge.

Next, I stained the piece with Dark Walnut to give it an aged look and so that the keys would 'pop'.  I usually use a piece of an old sheet to stain, but I was feeling lazy and went ahead and used a napkin. To my surprise, I really liked how it turned out because it is so completely uneven. After that dried for a little bit, I just decoupaged the letters on then finished it with a matte spray.

And now we have a little reminder to have a fun day!

Tool Tote

Remember how I told you a week ago about the free tote offer from vista print?  Well, my tote already arrived!  I'm super duper impressed considering I paid for the 21-day shipping, yet it got here in a week.

Wanna see it?

Now Elijah knows exactly where his tools go. Seriously, when I was taking the pictures, he came up to me 3 different times with tools saying, "Put tools away". Mission accomplished!

Just Around the Corner

I have a confession to make. A real shocker. You ready?...I really dislike summer.  Yep, I said it. I'm pretty sure I'm the only Californian who doesn't like summer. But there is actually one thing I like about it - when summer is coming to an end, I know my FAVE season is right around the corner. Ahhhh, Fall.  What is there not to like about it? Ok, that's just a rhetorical question, folks.  I don't need people raining on my Fall parade =)

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few Fall pictures from my inspiration files.

Seriously, how cute is that apple bouquet?? So simple yet elegant at the same time. And how wonderful would it be to entertain friends under a tree with orange and red leaves while taking in the crisp Fall air?

This one is for all of you white lovers. This room is so bright and cheery, yet the orange pumpkins and candlelight warm up the space. Talk about bringing the outdoors in!  Those rakes are just adorable. And of course I'm lovin' the jack-o-lantern. He totally reminds me of Jack Skellington..."And I, Jack, the Pumpkin King".

I love this next picture for it's simplicity. A lot of the decor can be found outside and in the garden. It looks so simple to put together, yet it brings so much color and texture to the table.

Is anybody else impatiently waiting for Fall like me? Or are you all Summer lovers? I'm already working on putting together my Fall decor and I haven't even moved yet!

P.S. I honestly can't remember where the pictures came from, but I wanna say Country Living?

Bamboo Ladder

I have been an admirer of bamboo ladders for quite some time now, but the price for those puppies is usually more than I would be willing to spend, so I figured I would try my hand at making my own. It can't be that hard, right?

I started out with three 6' bamboo poles from Michael's, which if you use a coupon, I think they come out to under $4 a piece.  Make sure to buy the straightest poles possible!  Mine were fairly crooked which does show with the finished product.

TIP: I had a hard time finding 3 of the same color, but you can totally buy different colors if you plan on painting the ladder.

You'll want to figure out how many rungs you want and then do the math to figure out the spacing...or you could do like me and enlist the help of someone who is actually good at math. Once you have that figured out, predrill your holes going all the way through each side.

Unfortunately, the bamboo split on mine. Eek! We just made sure to make that the backside. The front did split a little too, but not nearly as bad.

TIP: If the bamboo does split, you can drill a tiny hole at each end of the split and that should prevent it from splitting more.

Ideally, you will want the holes to look more like this =)

Next, cut the rungs. I made mine 12" long.

You will want to measure it all out and predrill a hole on just one side of the rungs, then screw it all together and you're done!

This is where the bamboo split on the front, but it isn't too noticeable with the rung covering it.

If you want to get all fancy, you can buy the vertical pieces a little bit bigger than the rungs and you can drill large holes into the vertical pieces and fit the rungs in. But if you are ok with a rustic look, you can just screws the rungs in on top of the vertical pieces like I did.

I'm not sure how long this poor ladder will last with my destructive 2 year old around. I really hope he doesn't attempt to climb on it. Knock on wood...er, bamboo. Ahhh, who am I kidding. No amount of knocking will keep him off!

I'm honestly not quite sure what I will do with it yet. I got this safari hat from a local party supply store for $2. I might leave it on and pair it with some old (I think WWII era) binoculars I got off of ebay. Or maybe I will use it to hang blankets during the chilly months.

What would you do with a bamboo ladder?

FREE Tote!

If you head on over to vista print, you can get a free tote (plus s&h)! They have 36 designs to choose from, but you can pay a little more for other options and to get something written on the tote. I chose to get this design for my little guy.

All of his 'tools' are currently residing in the box that his Elmo Live doll came in, which he refers to as 'Elmo's house', so I thought it would be nice for him to have a bag to carry all of his tools around in.

I paid $2 to not have their website address at the bottom, but you can skip that extra cost if you don't mind it. The cheapest shipping cost was around $4.50, but won't arrive for 21 days - It's ok though 'cause I'm not in a hurry.

Anyway, just throwing the idea out there if anyone is interested. And no, I am not getting paid by them to post this =)

Custom End Tables

I have to admit this idea has been floating around my head for a looong time. Seriously, like, over a year!..So I am very happy to finally have these end tables done! It started with my love for luggage racks -something about them makes my heart sing - so when I found a pair of luggage racks at Ross a year ago, I didn't even hesitate to get them. I'm lying - I did hesitate because I'm stingy - but the price was only $12.99 each and I knew I probably wouldn't find them cheaper anywhere else, so in the cart they went!

I had no idea at the time what I was going to use for the top, but knew I would figure it out later.

I'm kinda lame and forgot to take a 'before' picture so I took a picture of the box =)

I have these great picnic baskets that I thought would work great on top, but they ended up being too small, so I decided to ask my dad to make some trays that would fit on top.

I was originally going to go for a little bit classier of a look that the rest of my rustic furniture, but I knew it would be hard to match the stain, so I went with my love of all things green - meaning I painted it Behr's Lucky Bamboo (Yes, I love that color!).

And of course I had to add some Minwax Early American to tone down the color a bit.

Next came the tray making. Pine was used for the sides and I want to say the bottom was some kind of plywood...but I could be wrong.

Ahhh, lookin' good already.

I stained them Early American and did 2 coats of poly, but they were still missing something.  I wanted them to look like old crates or maybe something you would use to transport supplies from the garden shed to the garden. That's where I got the idea to attach handles.

I got these from Home Depot for a little over $3 each. I think they are supposed to be used on screen doors, but they worked perfectly for this project.

And here is the finished product:

The place mat came from Target. It was on clearance for under $3 and I bought 2 of them months ago, knowing I would be using them for this project.

I sanded the handles to bring down the shine a little bit and I think they will get a natural patina over time.

Since I wanted this to look rustic, I purposely didn't fill in the nail holes.

They aren't actually attached yet because I am waiting until after I move, but when I do attach them, I am planning on using some simple L brackets.

I hope you enjoyed this project and found some inspiration!

Craft Dresser

Do you guys remember a while back when I posted about my mini picture frames?

Well, I don't expect you to remember because it seems like it was ages ago, but I said it was just phase 1 of a 2-phase project...and now I have phase 2 finished!!

And it also involves this guy:

So, I started off with this dresser that I got from my grandpa's.

As you can see, the corner of the top left drawer broke off in transit and one of the drawers split too. It's not the highest quality dresser (we're talkin' particle board drawers. Eek!), but it was free so I can't complain.

I didn't take any pictures of the painting process because it was pretty straight forward.  I just did my signature (that sounds so fancy!) combo of Behr's Lucky Bamboo topped off with Minwax Early American stain and some poly.  Then I slapped the mini picture frames on the drawer fronts and topped it off with my cubby and I ended up with some super duper craft storage!

So maybe that doesn't sound very exciting, but if you saw my 'craft storage' from my last place, you would understand why I'm so excited over this.  We had a little nook with some random shelves that were falling apart and I hid it all with a curtain on a shower curtain rod. And since nothing was actually organized, I had a tendency to just leave things out which made for, ahem, a little bit of a mess.

I just love how the picture frames add a bit of whimsy to an otherwise boring dresser.

As you can see, Elijah got to the '1', but I was able to rescue it before he tore it to shreds.

I didn't have as much luck with the corner of the drawer. I had my dad glue it on, but you can definitely tell it broke off!  And I didn't put as much stain on it as the rest of the piece. Oops!

But overall, I love how it turned out and think the 2 pieces look like they were meant for each other. It's true love I tell ya!

Ok, so the crummy part about this project is that my 12x12 scrapbook papers don't fit in the drawers! Ha ha. But it's ok because I have plenty of other items to fill the drawers with =)

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I bought the basket-type thing (hanging on the wall) at Z Gallerie a few years ago on clearance for $10 bucks!