One Fish...Two Fish...

My Baby Boy is ONE!!!!

Graham had a party suited for any Dr. Seuss fan, such as myself and him.  We read his Dr. Seuss collection everyday, he owns them all!

I had fun making all his birthday decorations and treats for his party.

For party favors I had Dr. Seuss pencils, bookmarks, rulers, bubbles, and puppets for all the kids who attended to make their own buckets of goodies to take.  The party favor bar was a hit!

The whole party was a hit and most all of all Graham had fun playing with all his friends. 

Kitchen Chronicles: The Begining

With six weeks until we host Thanksgiving at our house I should be creating a menu, shopping for centerpieces, and starting to invite friends and family. That is the rational Amanda talking; instead we have decided to tear apart our kitchen for a kitchen "facelift."

Since moving into our 1991 house a year and a half ago, we always knew that we were going to remodel our kitchen.  It will probably be another 10 years or so before we take on the full remodel, so we planned to give the kitchen a facelift until then.  I have been putting this job off for a while now due to the size of our kitchen and what I want to do.  The problem lies within painting all 28 oak cabinets, inside and out!  Doesn't that sound like fun?!?!? So this weekend we made the first move...sanding!

 

Which then turned into priming last night. Well one side at least.

 

 

Since this is the beginning of my Kitchen Chronicles a picture to reminisce over. Oh terra cotta floors, how I DON"T miss you!

 

 

On to more priming tonight...

 

 

 

 

 

All Dressed Up

Who doesn't love to get all dressed up?  Slip on a cute little skirt, put on your high heels, and top it off with a tiara!  However, the fairy wings and the boa are what really make the outfit come to life.  As my niece is approaching the "pretty, pretty princess" stage I made her a special present that every kid her age would adore, a dress up chest.

It took some time and many stores to finally find the perfect chest, not only in size but to coordinate with her bedroom as well.  Since it's near impossible to get all dolled up without a mirror I added one to the lid.  Then with some pink metallic puffy paint a little flair was added to get "all dressed up." 

 

I can't wait to dress up and get glamorous with her now!

 

 

 

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Monkey See, Monkey Do...My Niece is turning 2!!! I can't believe how fast time flies; it seems like just a few months ago when I went up to the hospital waiting on the arrival of my niece, and now she is her own little person with a big personality. 

It has been my pleasure the past two years to get to design her birthday party invitations.  The invitation is a critical piece of the party; it is the first thing everyone will see and it sets the theme of the party.  With guidance from my sister on what she envisioned I was able to put together the first glimpse of Shelby Grace's second birthday party.

 

 

I think this little monkey will have a great second birthday party! 

 

 

 

Not made in Sweden

I feel so grown up, I no longer own any furniture from Ikea!  The last piece of furniture that I was working on replacing was our media cabinet.  While on the hunt for a replacement I had to fall in love with Pottery Barn's Andover Media Cabinet, but at $1200 it was a little unrealistic to me.  I began to search Craigslist for a new media cabinet but come to find out, most of those are from Ikea as well, or the dimensions wouldn't fit under our TV.  So I started to look for ones that I could refurbish, that was until Trevor decided we were going to build one!  I ended up finding on Ana White's website building instructions for the exact same Pottery Barn media cabinet I wanted (project instructions here). SCORE! 

I did not take many pictures through the work stages of the project, but here is the completed garage phase of our new media cabinet.  Archie decided to photobomb the picture.

Apparently my fur kids want to be seen! And I need to learn not to take pictures at night with my iPhone! I am so excited to no longer own any particle board, falling apart, cheap furniture! So long Ikea!

Steal this Look: Metallic Pedestal Table

Metallic pedestal tables, who isn't obsessed?  But when on the hunt for one, on the cheap, they are near impossible to find.  So with my trusty can of spray paint and a 40% Hobby Lobby coupon in hand I was able to snatch up two of these pedestal end tables and "Steal this Look."

 

Easely Amused

For Christmas this year my sister and I gave our aunts gift cards to a local painting studio.  You know the ones where you bring a bottle of wine and attempt to get in touch with your artistic abilities.  My sister and I went earlier this year to one and we thought it would make a great Christmas gift for our aunts; we plan to go with them and make it into a Aunt/Niece evening...a little bit of paint...a little bit of wine...a whole lot of fun!!!

Instead of the generic and impersonal white paper envelope I thought I'd spruce up the wrapping a bit to make it a little more festive under the Christmas tree.

 

 

I was able to find the tins at the Target Dollar Spot, bought miniature bottles of wine, and the paint brushes were $2 a pack at Target.  These made for a great Christmas gift, or they would make a great year round gift for anyone (just need a plain galvanized tin or any small basket).

 

 

 Linked to: House of Rose: Inspire Me Please



New Jewelry Storage

I finally have finished one aspect of my new glorious closet, my jewelry storage!  I am so excited to finally have it all out and on display...well behind closed doors at least.  With having my jewelry out and on display I see it more, which means I wear it more.

I took one drawer and one shelf of the new closet and turned it into jewelry storage.  Most of the storage items in the shelf part of the storage were from thrift stores.  I found these candle sticks that I turned into bracelet holders for $.50 each.

I found this candle holder that I turned into a bracelet holder and earring storage at Hobby Lobby, and of course used a 40% off coupon for just a few bucks.  This candle holder was originally black, so I had to remove the glass to spray paint it gold.  I soaked the candle holder in hot water to be able to remove the glass from the metal since it was glued to the bottom.

I found a glass tea cup at a Thrift store to use as more earring storage as well as to put rings inside the teacup.  The mirrored jewelry box I found at Home Goods.

I used drawer pulls to hang a piece of chain to be able to have more earring storage.  I've come to the conclusion that I have too many earring, wait, no one can ever have too many earrings.  I also used different crystal drawer pulls to hang necklaces.

For more necklace storage I made a custom fit necklace holder that fit into one of the drawers.

To begin I measured the drawer to find out the width, length, and height to cut the plywood and what size board I would need to prop it with for the angle.  I then nailed the two boards together.

I then stapled black velvet around the wood and trimmed off any excess fabric that hung too low.

After stapling the fabric on I graphed out on a piece of paper where I wanted to place the hooks but putting dots across the top.  I taped the paper on the holder and began to nail into each specific dot where I had graphed.  I did this so the hooks would twist in easier as well as not snag the fabric.

I love jewelry, and I can't wait to acquire more since now I have the space and more room for it. 

Linked to: House of Rose: Inspire Me Please

Painted Kitchen Table

I believe I was thirteen the first time I refinished a piece of furniture.  I stripped and stained my great grandmother vanity and replaced the knobs and pulls to something more my style.  It was then that I fell in love with taking something old and maybe a little beat up and bringing it back to life.  My latest project was to refinish a kitchen table that I bought to replace an old Urban Living (aka IKEA) table.

Oops...I started sanding before taking a "Before" picture

After buying our new house and having a bay window breakfast nook I decided the table I needed to replace the existing one with needed to be round.  I was on the hunt for a round pedestal table and after finding this one on Craigslist for $40 complete with chairs (which I sold for $20) I was sold!

Painting a piece a furniture that is high traffic is much like painting kitchen cabinetry; you will need a stain blocking oil based primer, a durable paint, and a final coat of protectant.

Everybody's favorite refinishing task comes first...sanding!  Make sure to use a medium grit sand paper.

After the table is sanded and smooth to the touch wipe done all the dust and debris to begin priming.    Zinsser offers a great stain blocking oil based primer to get the job done.  I also used the Zinsser BIN shellac based primer to get into the crevices which were unreachable with the sander and the foam roller.

The table should have two coats of primer on it with allowing each coat of primer sufficient drying time.  Most direct 24 hours of drying time.

Now into Day 3 of this project we can finally move onto painting!  For this table I wanted to make sure that I had a durable paint to withstand the traffic of a kitchen table, I went with Benjamin Moore Advance water based enamel alkyd, it will give a hard finish much like oil based paints.  I also used my trusty Corona "Excalibur, I call on your power" paint brush.

Once again two coats for paint is recommended with again 24 hours of drying time in between!  And you thought this was a weekend project! :) 

After the final coat of paint is adhered, a curing time of 3-5 days is recommended before protecting the table.  It has become a personal preference of mine when painting furniture white or a lighter color to use a wax rather than Polyurethane, for in time the wax will not yellow or age your paint color.

The wax I used for this table for SC Johnson Paste Wax, clear in color.  I applied three coats of wax to this table, giving a couple hours of drying time in between each coat.

After two weeks of refinishing this table it finally made its way into the breakfast nook and I am in love! Now all I need are chairs for my new table.

Linked to:

House of Rose: Inspire Me Please

Moving Postcards

What do you do on a dreary Saturday when you're sick?  Why catch up on your correspondence, that's what!  Man, I sound like someone in a Jane Austen novel.

After moving into a new house a question is presented of how to get your new address out to your friends and family.  Instead of making the impersonal text message, email, or Facebook post why not mail out your new address.  Plus who doesn't love getting stuff in the mail?

This is the second house that I have made my "New Address/Moving Postcards" and I just love them!

Making them is simple enough since after just moving you should have most of the supplies to make them.

Supplies Needed:

Cardboard

Boxcutter

Fine Point Sharpie

Fragile Packing Tape

Postcard or Measuring tape

"New Home" Stamp (optional) 

First things first, cut up your moving boxes.  What I normally do is cut the closing folding flaps off (technical term), they make for good size and make for less cutting later on.

After cutting off the closing folding flaps of the boxes you will need another postcard for size comparison of just the measurements of a standard postcard, which is 4x6.  Then cut each postcard to size with the box-cutter on a hard surface and use an extra piece of cardboard as a mat.

Now I didn't exactly have the fragile packing tape when I moved so I had to go find it.  If you are like me and didn't use it either, here is a tip for finding it to purchase...UHAUL!!!  I went to seven places before finding it, I thought I should share. 

On the back side of the postcards place the tape and cut off the excess with a box-cutter. 

Since on postcards there is no need to write a return address make sure to include your new address with your name as well so your recipients know who it is coming from.  Also, the thickness of these postcards do not qualify to ship at a postcard rate with the USPS, so a first class stamp (forever stamp) is needed.  

Now the only thing left to do is move so you can make these!