Beginnings of a Big Boy Room

 

So with baby number 2 on the way, I’ve got to get in gear and get working on my son’s big boy room.

When we asked him a long time ago, he said he wanted a room with blue walls and white curtains, I think I might watch too much HGTV with him around.

Currently, this room is being used as a junk room, kind of a catch all where we put things we don’t know what to do with or need somewhere to get it out of the way. It also serves as a guest room so whenever we have guests the junk in the room gets pushed into the closet and cleaned.

I have been just too exhausted to move the big stuff in the room, but I found a few spare hours so I started painting his room.

And this is the color that he picked out. I can’t remember what the name of the color is but I got it from Sherwin Williams and it’s a $5 can of sample paint, I think I am going to have just enough to do what I need to to with just that a $5 sample size of paint!

I have a habit of painting around furniture if its in my way.

This is just the beginning and I’ll give you all the details when the room actually starts to take shape.

Meanwhile, daddy finished priming the back patio and started to paint it grey to match the house. My son had to join in the painting as well, so luckily we had this sidewalk chalk paint for him to play with.

He loved it and it kept him busy. Looks like I’ll have to diy more paint!

Stay tuned for updates on the big boy room.

Just keep in mind, I’m moving at a snail’s pace!

Table lamp re-do

Last week Friday I had the pleasure of guest posting over at Mammy Made.

Adele is the cute hip mom behind the blog. Hope you had a chance to check her out and her blog. I wanted to share with you guys (FINALLY) the project I shared on her blog.

So, the long awaited lamp project.... dun, dun, dun...

Here is the post!

Today I want to share my long awaited lamp re-do project.

I always see these great lamp projects all over blogland and of course I had to do one myself.

I had searched the thrift stores for a while before finding the shape that I liked.

I found this one a while back and it's been on my project to do list since.

I decided to do a light yellow, and for the life of me I can't figure what motivated me, but I like the color. Breaks up all the black and grey in my livingroom.

I lightly sanded the lamp base and sprayed it with about 3 coats of spray paint.

After searching and searching, I found a shade I liked from Target. Bleh, I had to pay shipping and it costs almost as much as the 2 oz shade!

When I saw my package I got excited all over again, and my fabric arrived at the same time!

And time to get bummed again.... the shade was totally damaged!

I debated returning it but for the hassle and the price I paid I decided to just pop it back into shape as best as I could. I'd be covering it anyway so hopefully it would cover up the damage.

It looked ok when I poped it back into shape and there was only one tiny hole.

I cut out a rough patter to cover the shade, that kinda sucked to be totally honest.

It was kind of intimidated to do this project, not sure why.

I think it had something to do with trying to cover the shade with that kind of shape. I was hoping to find a drum style that was even all the way around with no taper, but no such luck.

Once I got started though it wasn't so bad. I used craft/fabric glue and just glued the fabric to the inside just below the black trim. I used clothes pins to hold it in place as the glue dried.

Yes, this process took a while, here I am working into the night.

When it was all done, I was both relieved and so excited to finally finish it.

The fabric and the paint matched perfectly!

Sorry for the dark pictures, I kept forgetting to take daytime photos.

I used the same color yellow to spray paint a letter M for the wall as well.

This is the table that sits in our entryway.

The look of it keeps evolving.

I'm not done yet, but it's slowly getting there.

Before:

Well, thanks for having me and joining me for my lamp re-do project.

Come by and visit sometime, I'd be happy to have you!

Aloha!

Projects for the New Year

Last year, I was just getting used to doing my own home projects.

This year, I'd like to really go for it!

Starting with this project.

We have only ONE water spicket in our front yard.

Its such a pain to drag the hose all the way to the side of the yard, either side of the yard to water the grass or plants that I used to have there. I say used to because they have since dried up and died from lack of watering!

Our plan is to tie into the one existing water spicket and run a  water pipe along the slab of our house and make another water spicket on the other side.

See below:

In theory, it all sounds simple... but we'll see.

This second project has been on my wish list since we moved in.

We have a fenced in backyard which is perfect for my son to run around and play and I dont have to worry about him going too far. Problem is, our backyard faces west and in the afternoon it is soooooo hot that I can't stand to be out there. When we have friends come over to BBQ we sweat so bad and its so uncomfortable. We need a pergola or some sort of shade above our back patio.

This is a big project for us, we need to watch out for our roof line and cannot permanently tie into the house or we'll have to get permits and drawings and inspections, blah, blah... all stuff that is just too much trouble for a little shade.

Our backyard also used to be home to my hubby's little crabbing boat. It took up a good portion of our already small backyard and the spot where it sat wont grow grass.

I want to reclaim that space in our backyard and put the boat somewhere else.

Luckily right now, it is at our friends house down the road taking up temporary residence since they use it more than we do.

(I offered permanent residence to which my hubby was not pleased about! LOL)

We want to take down this portion of the fence below and push it back approx 8 -10 feet and create a little parking space for it here.

 

This past year we tackled our garage project and put up a partial wall. Well now the corner to our backyard is super dark. I would like to put a light up on this side wall so that we can light up that area.

This project feels like something I can only dream of doing.

Our kitchen needs so much work, I pray each time I go into Home Depot that I run into the crew from Kitchen Crashers.

I would like to replace the light fixtures, change out our flooring and the BIG one, paint the cabinets.

BTW, my kitchen isnt always this messy. I took this picture during New Year's Day cleaning.

 

This room is SCARY!

It's our spare room and right now is being used as storage for just about everything.

My mom will be moving into a smaller house in the near future (I will explain in a future post) and so in order to get rid of some of her things, I convinced her to do a garage sale.

(my mother is a HOARDER!!)

The catch, I have to store everything and have it at my house.

I would like to make this my son's big boy room. If you follow me on pinterest, I've been posting ideas for the room there.

If I can pull it off, I think it will be pretty darn cool!

He'll be a lucky kid.

For the simple projects, I picked up these palets a while back with the intention to make rustic looking planter boxes for my backyard.

Also I scored some really nice pavers from a demo job my boss guys did a while back and we need to put those down as well. I was thinking a walk path from the side of the garage to the backyard since we cannot grow grass. I dont know but grass just wont grow.

Last but not least, I scored this lamp at the Salvation Army for $5.

I liked the shape of it even though it didnt have a shade $5 was a steal.

I actually was holding it checking it out and a man came from out of nowhere and told me if I didnt get it he was gonna. Oh that settled it, it was mine.

So theres a run down of the projects I'd like to tackle this year. Keep posted on my progress or stick around and stay on me to keep going!

Chair redo for craft desk

Thanks for being patient when I catch up around here!

So without further ado... here is one of the projects Ive been wanting to share.

A while ago I got this entryway table from craigslist that came with a couple of chairs.

Just like the table they were pretty beaten up.

I got the table and chairs for $40 so pretty good deal I would say.

I took the dirty cushion off and found another old one under it! I took that one off as well and sanded the chair down.

(please excuse the crooked pix, I just cant for the life of me fix it)

Apparently I forgot to take pictures of the sanding and spray painting process, but I'm sure you guys can imagine it.

Sand - dust - spray paint

Then I took some left over fabric from a sewing project you must stay tunned for...

I layed the cushion I removed on the fabric and just cut around it.

Then I stapled it to the foam and board.

Ok, I didnt staple it, the wood was just tooooo hard!

Even my hubby couldnt get the staples through!

See!

My friend's hubby came from up the road to my rescue!

He's a big strong guy.

He got the staples in finally and even he had some issues!

Then I screwed the seat back on the chair and tada!!

(singing)

Isnt she lovely, isnt she wonderful....

So... after all of this and I put it together, THEN I realized I didnt check to see how I linned up the fabric on the seat cushion!

DUH!

Oh well, I still really like it!

Here is a view from the hallway, see how the colors flow all the way to the front door?

And the print kinda matches my welcome mat too!

Ok, I'm being real here... this is what this desk has been looking like for some time. Getting the chair done has finally put my butt in gear to clean it up.

Now I finally have my little space to work!

And as you can see, I was just getting ready to do some sewing in my spot!

Got a nice view right outside my window and ready to tackle my projects!



I'll be linking to the parties at the bottom of my page and found {HERE} as well.

today's creative blog

Entryway table

So quite some time ago, I found a leaf drop table on craigslist with 3 chairs.

(yes I forgot to take before pix)

It had a nice shape to it but I didnt need a dinning table, what I was looking for was an entryway table.

Hmmm... drop leaf.. comes off... hmm... got my diy brain working.

I scooped up this deal for $40.

At best I could use the chairs and maybe re-sell the table.

First I took the table top and the drop down side off with the help of my little assistant of course. 

Then we spent some time sanding her up.

I seriouslly do NOT like sanding, honestly I gave up halfway through and just kinda did a quick sand all over.

I decided to spray the top white and the legs black.

(I just might change my mind and flip the colors)

Or maybe not cause I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed it over and over again.

Maybe it was just spraying white, but it kept looking streakey.

I have this wall that I have been saving for a consol table since we moved in.

Now that the table is there, it looks even more bare!

Of course the house is a work in progress and I eventually plan on redoing the floors, adding a baseboard and if the hubby lets me a chair rail and some moulding.

(you can still see the lines going across the table, but 2 cans later, I was pretty over it)

When I hung the shelves on the wall I had imagined a table being there at some point.  I guess I didnt plan the space very well, but in my defense, its really hard when you only have a pretend table there.

As I always say, its a work in progress...

Thanks for stopping by, I'm linking up at the parties listed on the bottom of my page and {here}





Mama got a new sewing/craft desk... and a front door to match

A while back I picked up a desk from craigslist for $25.

It was solid wood and a steal!

I liked it cause it was nice and long. I figured it would be perfect for my sewing and cricut projects.

I unfortunately dont have a good before pix, if I do, I can't find it.

You can kinda see it {here}  and {here}. You can see in the second post about my growth chart how nice it is to have the long desk with the cricut.

So it started off that pale wood color.

Not working for me.

So I used some left over paint and spruced it up a bit.

(grey from my kitchen walls and the green from my end table)

I also changed the knobs on them from a dull boring plain wood knob to these I picked up from Home Depot for around $1.35 each.
The design reminded me of my new welcome mat.

And now it all goes together and matches my front door.

And yes, thanks to Nikki who pointed out, it seems like my HOA has won this battle... but don't you worry... I will stick it to them again! LOL

We spent a lot of time playing this weekend and just walking away from all our projects. I feel like we are just so behind but it was sooo well worth it to play and have some family time together. Can't wait to tell you guys all about it... a few posts will follow since I took a TON of pix!



Front Door

A while back I painted my front door red.

I painted it red for several reasons.

The whole feng shui thing, the asian thing, I like red... to piss off our HOA.

Since then I've been changing and add thing things, like our new rug in the entry way.

Thing is... the red door doesnt seem to match that much anymore.

One day, completely inspired... BAM!

There I go painting my door again.

I like the green, it seems softer and it matches my end table.

Another one??

What to do with this box?

Its a nice box, but kinda small to put anything in it.

I had this in my kitchen forever with pieces of a broken tea cup, swearing that I would glue the pieces back together.

(i still have 4 other cups)

Hmmm... I still got some greenery left over from my other planter....

I filled the bottom up with crumpled newspaper cause I'm cheap thrifty like that.

Cut a piece of cardboard for on top of it.

And went to town with my glue gun.

(Its pretty awsome not working with styrofoam to be honest)

Whoohooo 10 mins later...

Now I have a little something to add to the top of my entertainment center.

I feel weird about using fake plants but I like it.

(and if it were real, I'l probably kill it)

I'm linking with the parties at the bottom of my page and in the Linky Tab up above!

BTW, total cost: $0.00

I used things I already had!