Another Dang Year Went....Just Like That!!!!

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How in the heck did all this time get by me!?!?! Anyway, LOTS have happened between now and then. Here's the rundown in no particular order:

Music tree for a Christmas Tree in 2017

I had the grand idea over this summer to build an outdoor patio/theater.

My minions at work!! BWAHAHA!! 

I wanted to have planters on the patio so I made them with some of the pallet wood.
Turned out pretty good.

 

And VIOLA!! Here is the finished pallet patio/theater.

I am excited to see what fun we will have here. I still have to get the lights up, but I love it!! We plan to use it also as a stage for out son to have mini concerts. 

This was my post on FB:

I did it!! I have even shocked myself with this one. I built an outdoor 🎥 patio near completely out of pallets!! I even included a bar at the last minute because I had some extra supplies.

What have I learned?

1. God gives us all talents and skills. We need to just get out of the way and allow them to be expressed.

2. Pain can be overcome by set goals and desire.

3. One man's trash can be another man's treasure. Thanks for all the pallets.

4. There is absolute beauty all around.

5. Great fence neighbors are GREAT fence neighbors. Thank you Toby for coming to the fence near everyday to give me some girl power encouragement.

6. Frustration is an awesome motivator. I couldn't find anyone to help me till up the piece of land that I was using to build the patio. So instead of being frustrated and angry about that, I got my gold claw and I hand tilled it up myself. Again, my great fence neighbor, Toby, peeked over the fence and encouraged me to keep it going even though I was in a great deal of pain.

7. I have an amazing husband that stands back and allows me to have these crazy ideas and supports me into making them reality...even when he does not understand why I have the desire to do them.

Now, need to buy a projector and some speakers. Already have the lights, just need to put them up. Gotta have a movie night this fall!!

Dresser Rebirth

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It seems that we have been remodeling FOREVER and still more to do!!! Well, my baby boy is growing up and we have been remodeling his room. I will show y'all that when it complete...just a few other things we got to do.

Anyway, like I was saying, my baby is growing up. As we have embarked on changing things up he told us that he wanted a more grown up look in his room. So, on July 4th we just so happen to look online and saw that a family was moving to LA and did not have the space to take this beauty with them. They sold it to us for only $15!!!! It is a solid piece!!! No MDF on this baby!!!

We knew one thing for sure....the color had to go as well as those dated handles. After 2 days of sanding, whitewashing, painting and some new hardware, a new dresser was born.

Looks pretty good in his "new" room.
(Valspar Black Spray Paint Flat, Custom Gray painted- thinned with water to white wash, Minwax Espresso Stain + Polyurethane, Hardwar from Lowes)

Be Our Guest...

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Two years ago we had some guests from Sweden that needed a place to stay while they were visiting. It was a short notice kind of thing and all we had to offer to them was a blow up mattress!! Horrible I know. Anyway, that visit has bothered me and my husband so much that we devised a plan to remodel, in hopes, that if they should ever come to visit us again, we can redeem ourselves.

So in the last two years this is what we started with to what we have now.

This was the office. I have no idea why I painted this room so dark. And just be glad you can't see the wallpaper I had up. Horrific!!

My helper was so ready for the change. 

Dont'cha just love paint.

The most expensive thing in the room cost....wait for it....$38!!! I either made my furniture pieces or got them at a ridiculous discount. Some items were given, but most were made. I am pretty happy about that. 

This wall is my pride and joy. I made everything on it accept for the mirrors.

Most  important message there is....

Now our guests have a decent place to lay their heads and keep their things. It has been a labor of love. Can hardly wait to share with you the transformation of the room our guests slept in. It is completely unrecognizable.

Thank you D & D for coming and opening our eyes to being better hosts.

I Be Scrappin' Y'all

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As y'all know, I have been doing some remodeling of our basement. Well, I finished the pallet wall and bench!! It looks GORGEOUS!! Pictures of the completed room when we get the carpet in...Anyway. I had a lot of scrap pieces of wood hanging around and I just felt terrible thinking about just burning it in the fire.  What was I going to do!?!?!

Well, several months ago I got me some burlap and wrote on it and thought I would make a pillow of it and just throw it on my new bed, but that just didn't seem right. So it just hung out in my pile of "stuff". Well, TODAY, I go a itching for creative crafting and this is what came of it. It was a simple project. Steps below. Enjoy.

STEP 1:  I do not have pictures of me writing out the words, but I print out the words and taped them together in the size I wanted. I taped that to our HUGE center bay window and put the burlap on tap. This allowed the light to come through so I could trace it, with a Sharpie on to the burlap. Then I just filled in the word "beautiful" to make it stand out.

Burlap all rolled out and being dry-fit 

Taping down the edges of the burlap will help keep it from bubbling.

STEP 2: Don't mind the our basement floor.  I had some scrap 1/4 inch plywood and I rolled the burlap across it and taped it down. With the extra pieces of scrap pallet wood I dry-fit the boards around the words.

Jigs are AWESOME!!

STEP 3: Once you have the placements of your dry-fit frame, get everything cut down to size.

Power shot Brad nailer

STEP 4:  Now, I do not claim to be the brightest bulb in the box, but I just figured out that my power shot was a brad nailer too!!! That tad bit of information would have come in quit handy when I was putting on my shiplap, but I digress. Turn over your burlap sign and attach it to your pallet wood.

IT'S DONE!!!

I think I am going to love it. I am planning on putting it right over our guestroom bed.

Changes

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So my son has been on a mission for our church for the last 15 months and we have been out of sorts with all kinds of feelings and things. But the most recently, we have decided to make some changes for our home from the bottom up.

We started with our missionary son's room and have moved to other rooms our basement. Right now I go the bug in my head that I wanted a pallet wood wall. Lucky me I have a supportive husband who just stands to the side and watch me work. Here is how this journey began and where I am so far. Much is still left to do to get this room completed but it is on it's way.

After helping a neighbor lay sod they had several pallets left over. I saw that the pallets were not chemically treated and immediately asked them if I could have them. They gave me six. I thought I would need more, but I made what I had work!! (So when you look for pallets, be sure to find/use ones labled "HT" = heat treated or "KD" = kiln dried. You don't want any yucky chemicals floating around your family.)

Once home and with the help of a neighbor, we got the pallets all broken down. I removed the nails and hosed each board down and set them out to dry. I let them dry for about a week in the garage, then brought them inside to get ready for the wall.

The process begins. I looked at various pinterest ideas on how to get started and I really liked one using strips of 1x3. I began putting up the boards but noticed that I could see the wall behind. So I painted the strips black and wall between each row. 

Wall is complete!!! I loved the process. 

Now am at the point of working on the bench. It is looking good.

 I will post update in the next week of where I am on this project. I hope you all like this and send me messages to keep me motivated to keep sharing with all y'all.