A re-do or re-don't? Definitely a re-DO!

I have this IKEA chest that I bought a few years ago.  It's seen better days!  It's kinda beat up from moving twice with it, and a little dirty from its years with me.  See?

Please ignore the ugly carpet.  One day it'll be replaced!  Anyways, now the chest lives in my craft room (still organizing this room, its coming a long and really cute!) and for now I am keeping all the fabric I own for sewing projects (I have a lot, I'm not sure what to do with it all) inside of it.  I wanted to make it cute, but it was hard because it was so beat up.

 I'm going with English Country Garden theme down here....with green and white being the main colors, but with yellows and pinks thrown in - really girly honestly, but in a cute way:)  So I bought some pretty green & white contact paper at the Dollar Store and tried a little something:

I covered the top with the paper!  I think it's really cute, plus it hides all that damage the poor thing sustained in being owned by me. The green looks a little bright in this pic, its more sage green then lime, I need to figure out how to edit my Iphone pics to look nice. 

So, altogether, this little fun decor project cost less than $1 (I didn't use the whole roll of contact paper).  Now I'm wondering what else I can remake with this paper!!!  Gotta love a cheap project!  Not to mention, it wasn't time consuming at all.

Have any of you used contact paper to re-make something?

Linking up with:

Link Party! @ A bowl full of lemons!

NYC project reveal...

 I've been thinking about putting a "label" in each room (city/country) of our house.  Some obvious, some not so much, and none the same as the others.  Anyways, I wanted to start with NYC in the dining room since we are doing some work in there right now.  I originally wanted these to go on the shelf, but they aren't big enough - their size doesn't fit with the shelf.  I looked at the big letters in joAnn, but they looked SO big...too big, but I guess they weren't!  Anyways, I started these and thought I can jazz up a wall with them, and just leave the pic that's on the shelf there for now.  So here is what I started with...

The letters ($1.99 each at joAnn), Modge Podge ($3.99), the Downtown Loft scrapbook paper (on sale from $19.99 to $9.99) and a pack of paintbrushes - I can always use paint brushes ($7.99/pk) plus I had a 40% off coupon so I spend less than $30 on all of it.  Not bad, not bad!  So I cut out pieces of the scrapbook paper I liked the most and modge podged them haphazardly on the letters for a fun but modern look.  I love how it turned out!

 So swanky, right?  I love all the colors together, and there are pops of red and brown/black and camel colors that compliment our walls and furniture, as well as lots of other bright colors introduced into our room for some pop.  I love them!!  I love the subway numbers, and the road signs...some of my faves like Broadway and 5th and Canal...so fun!  Up they go...

 I decided on this part of the wall above the windows for now - its empty space and I've always wanted to put something there!  Here's a whole room view...

 Doesn't it look nice?!?

Ok so I've got some more picture/art/plate hanging to do in here, and then this room is down for now - except for curtains down the road...

I used the command sticky picture hangars on the letters, $4.99/pk at Target.  So if we do decide to move the NYC, its easy to do with minimal damage to our wall.  I love being crafty!

Craft Room Projects Revealed!!!

My craft room is coming along!!  It's not nearly done, I still have to hang pictures and decorate a little more and actually MOVE my craft stuff done here and make a curtain for the shelf...whoa that's still a lot.  BUT!  I did TWO projects this weekend, I stayed up all night painting/sanding/hammering and almost killed myself doing these things!  I decided to close in the shelf in our basement to make it more of a closet, it used to look like this:

See how it is all open?  I wanted to cover it and so we bought some plywood and had it cut in half to fit the side of this.  The other side of the plywood, I wanted to use to build a desk to put into the wall, right where that folding table with the sewing machine is.  Here is my non-carpenter-I-dont-really-know-what-Im-doing drawing....

 So we had two pieces of plywood that looked like this...

 I used magnetic paint first, three light coats of this....

 and then the chalkboard paint - two coats of this - so it would be a magnetic chalkboard in my craft room for me to draw up and dream ideas on.  Also, Dave & Ashley can leave notes here too, if they want;)

 So I painted it and used my power drill to attach it to the shelf, so it looks like this!  Its very black and once it dries and sets I can put stuff and draw stuff on it, it'll look a little cuter - but I love that I have this space to decorate with chalk and shabby magnets.  I dont really have a "shabby chic" spot in our home so this room is it..

 I'm going to make a curtain to cover the front of the shelf-made-into-closet.  Something pretty to hide all that crapOla.  Anyways, then I got started on the desk.  I went to my parents house and mom helped me, using her table saw, cut all my custom measured (lol) desk parts.  I put two braces on either side on those built in cabinets that hold our water pump and something else, to help hold up the desk top.  Then I primed and painted all the desk parts and mounted the desk top on the braces...

 Not bad, right?  I put the sewing machine on it because the desk top is bowed a little bit.  Mom says to put something heavy on it and it'll even out in a few days, if it doesnt its not a big deal.  This is my first custom built desk, I'm not expecting it to be perfect!  After that I got started on making the "legs" with cubbies.  This part was hard!  I had to glue (wood glue) the little cubby shelves on, and let them dry - see the coke cans hold them in place until they stick??  Thats the official way to do this, by the way!  LOL

 Then after they dried I nailed them in, and then nailed the other side of the shelf on, and PRESTO!  I have a desk, after fitting them under the desk top - they fit perfect and help hold the top up a little better. 

 Heres a straight shot of the whole desk.  I'm very proud of myself for making this.  It was hard and took a lot of blood, sweat and tears (seriously) but I did it and I'm very happy with it!

 Here it is with my craft boxes tucked in.  I need to fill them and make custom labels, and decorate more down here.  That shelf over on the right will be mounted on the wall to hold sewing stuff, and I have wall words and lots of pictures to put up around the room.  It's coming right along, I feel accomplished!!  Let me know what you think!

I think I am going with English Country Cottage theme in this room - it feels very "Pride and Prejudice" and I have a lot of shabby chic type of decor from my old apartment.  It feels so "old" time proper english when I sit and sew:)  Just like Elizabeth Bennett!

Oh if you havent seen what this room USED to look like, you can see that here - it's come a long way!!

Moving right along...

Yay I am onto book 7!  I finished Breaking Free yesterday.  I kind of already talked about how I feel about this book - I did learn a lot from it, even though it's not the type of Bible Study I like to do.  She talks about the ways we live in Christ, the obstacles that parallel those truths, and breaking free from any bonds that hold us back.  Essentially it is a great topic to talk about, but like I said - I am not interested in reading about it from a broken, sad place.  Maybe it's because I'm not in a broken, sad place in my life?  I've had times like that, for sure - and I'm really not sure that I'd like the way this book is written even in those times.  I'm such a tough love type of person.  Suck it up, pray about it, give it to God, get over it.  But then, even though I have tragedy in life, but maybe not to the caliber that some people have where they could get a lot out of Beth Moore.

I am moving on to Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Child by Nancy Verde Barr.  It is a memoir of Julia Child from a friend she worked with organizing cooking demonstrations.  Julia's life fascinates me, because she basically taught herself how to cook, with help from classes here and there, and she traveled and live all over (including my FAVORITE FAVORITE city, Paris!!!), and is just generally a fascinating person.  I'll let you know how it is!  I found this book for $4 at Barnes and Noble, randomly.

To kick off this book, I am making Boeuf Bourguignon (fancy beef stew) from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume 1.  This is one of Julia's best recipes in the cookbook.  Dave loves it.  I love it.  I can get Ashley to eat mushrooms with this dish - they taste just like the beef!!  It's delicious!!

I only have 1 week and 1 day to finish 4 books - Feb is a short month!!!  Can I do it?!?

Craft room is coming right along, I am custom making a desk today and tomorrow!  Can't wait to post pics;)  Have a happy Sunday!

Blogging, in general...

I just have to say that I am just so INSPIRED when I read all these blogs.  If you look at the left part of my blog page, I have a list of the blogs I read the most.  Wow!  I love reading about crafts and home decor and people just journeying through life, good times & bad.  It motivates me.  I get so MANY great ideas from all these amazing women and families, I hope they know what an inspiration and blessing they are to me! 

Later I'll be making a "button" column for the blogs I love.  Most people create and post a "button" on their sites that you can grab and put onto yours.  It's better then that list I have on the left, because it's a teeny little design that let's you know the blog's "style".  I hope that you read them and are loving them as much as me.  There is SO SO much creativity in the world, I want to channel it and become even more creative myself, I have a long way to go to match up with these amazing bloggers.

To them, I say, THANK YOU!

one of those days...

Today was just one of those days....you know...days that really stink!!  It was a whole slew of reasons, it was raining all day...I have the sinus infection from H-E double....unfair life crap...you know...the whole she-bang.  I'm trying to brush it all off but I think I need a really good night sleep.  So after this post I'm going to take a nice long hot bubble bath, read my book, take a Tylenol pm and go to bed.  Church in the am should make all things better, at least brighten my perspective on life, right?!?!  Right!

Anyways I wanted to post the books I have so far...I'm up to 9 books and I'm waiting on the last one.  I forget which one it is, but I have a few on hold at the library so whichever one comes first!  LOL!

Here they are:

1. The Lucky One Nicholas Sparks
2.  Dead in Dallas Charlaine Harris
3.  Postmortem Patricia Cornwell
4.  Wurthering Heights Emily Bronte <- my classic for the month
5.  Mysterious Benedict Society Trenton Lee Stewart
6.  Breaking Free Beth Moore <- Spiritual reading for the month
7.  Heart of the Matter Emily Griffin
8.  Backstage with Julia <- Bio for the month
9.  Encyclopedia of sewing and fabric crafts <- my how-to for the month with the challenge that I have to make at least one item from this book (since its such an easy read!)
10.  Remains to be named.....lol

One reason I love reading?  When you have a really crappy day, you can escape into a book and forget about life for a while:)  Guess what I'm off to do!!

Goodnight dear friends!