The Stump Becomes a Table

You may recall that I found this beauty while on a trip last summer. I had plans to use it in my house but wanted to leave it as close to its natural state as possible

It has been drying out for months since it was quite water logged and I made feet for it to elevate it off the ground a few inches. I sanded it so the top was smooth and with a wire brush, removed all the sand from the crevices.

Then I stained it to enhance the color of the wood and now we use it for a coffee table.

~Angela

Master bedroom stripes

I often ask my husband for projects or adventures rather than things for gifts. So for my birthday this year (in January) I asked him to paint stripes on our bedroom wall. This weekend, I finally got my birthday present! We camped out in the living room while the paint dried –this sounded way more fun to me initially than it was in reality- and he finished the project in two days, allowing for dry time.










And I could not be happier with the finished product! It was well worth the 9 month wait.






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The stump

On a recent vacation along Lake Superior, I found this beauty floating in the water and knew it was meant to be in my home.

I said to myself, “I wish my husband were here with me because I really want that stump” as he is always game to go along with my crazy ideas. Like the time I filled a backpack full of rocks on another trip to Lake Superior and he insisted on carrying that, even though he was on crutches at the time… But since he was not on the vacation with us, I instead took matters into my own hands and dragged this beautiful piece of wood out of the water (which was no small feat) and attempted to roll it to my car, which was parked approximately ¼ of a mile away.

Since I am 7 months pregnant, I gladly took on assistance from my mom and a few other strangers on the beach.

Then I recruited a few more strangers to lift it into my vehicle. It’s heavy because it is so large and because it is water logged and covered with sand.

I estimate it will take a few months to dry out. We have the perfect place for this stump as a table in our home, filling a spot recently created when I sold my husband’s favorite table (oops).
Stay tuned for an update in a few months…
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Picnic nook

We like to eat outside on our patio and do as often as possible. But we don’t have much shade there, so I wanted to clear out a spot in the woods behind our house that we could picnic in. We are lucky to have woods behind our house even though we live right in town. I removed small trees/weeds and planted grass seed, then hung some solar lights.




Sometimes we just bring our picnic blanket out there and eat, but I recently found a table at a garage sale that I repainted and added to the spot.




I love this picnic nook!
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Bloom: A Tutorial

I have mentioned before that I like to change out my decor frequently so I am hesitant to spend a lot of money on accessories unless I know I will have it forever. I found this 12 X 12 simple frame at Michaels for $14.99 (plus I had a 40% off coupon so it was even cheaper!!) and put it in my entry. I thought I could change what is in the frame periodically and easily, but right now I am in spring mode.

Here is how I made the sign:

I had these letters on hand, leftover from a scrapbooking project. There were no vowels left in the set, so it was great to use up the leftover odd letters.

I used spray adhesive and glitter to cover the red letters so they would match the pink scrapbook paper I was using as sa background.

I glued on flowers and a button in place of the letters. This took the longest - deciding which two buttons to use.

This project literally took me 10 minutes to make. I love projects like this (quick, easy and finished product is just as expected).

~Angela

Wedding Vows displayed

Since my husband and I wrote our own wedding vows, I've been trying to think for years (we've been married over 7 years, so it's about time I figured something out!) of a way to preserve them and display them so we can see them on a daily basis. I still mean every word of the vows I wrote today and they are a reminder of what is important.









I used picmonkey which is a free online tool to upload a photos, then completely whited out the photos so I could type the text onto the white background. Then I saved the file as a .jpg to my computer to uploaded to Walgreens.com and had the vows printed on canvas. Walgreens also framed the canvases for me. I LOVE how they turned out.




I love seeing these every day.  And I still mean every word of those vows.
~Angela

Big girl room

This project has literally been in the works for months! The project really got pushed aside when I lost all my energy in the first trimester of my pregnancy. I am still not at 100% energy, but the project is complete! My husband helped out a lot too, once we realized I was pregnant and should not be painting. We cannot be happier with how the room turned out and it truly is a labor of love. Not a lot of money was spent in the room because so many things were repurposed, but a lot of time and energy went into it. The curtains were the big splurge from West Elm and as a general rule, I am not a fan of curtains. This is the only room in our house that has curtains. My husband jokes that I must have been pregnant and nesting to decide to purchase those, but they really add to the room.








The walls are a gray with glitter paint on top. It doesn’t show up well in photos, but I really like the effect. The bed has been in my family forever. It was once at my grandma’s, then my mom’s, then I inherited it. I painted it (ok, my husband did the painting) white and sanded off the paint for a rustic look.




I got the nightstand from a garage sale for $1. It had a tacky checkerboard painted on the top, but I painted and sanded this to match the bed. The ceramic tractor was a gift from our little girl’s friend. He painted it for her and she keeps it close to her bed because sometimes she likes to sleep with it.




The bookshelf was a gift to my little girl last year for Christmas. I made it in my woodworking class. We moved it up from the basement.




I made the signs using picmonkey to reflect what I say to my little girl every night and had them printed at our local UPS store for $.85/each. I put them in repainted frames that were in our master bedroom when I redecorated that room.








And the teepee…my fave part of the room. Since the closet in this bedroom takes up one whole wall and has plenty of storage, we could justify the loss of space that would otherwise have a dresser there. I was looking to buy a teepee online and figured I could make it for less than the $150-200 they sell for. We bought (6) 1 X 2 boards for $.79/each and drilled holes in them and tied them together. Then I bought a king size flat sheet ($15) to wrap around the teepee.




Our little girl wasted no time moving “just her favorite” books in here and reading. My husband and I also fell asleep in there…it was a cozy place to nap:)




Our little girl LOVES the room so much that it is all worth it! We did not have to worry about the transition to a big girl room for her being difficult; she was so excited to sleep in there, she asked to sleep in her new room when the only thing in the room was the bed and piles of randomness on the floor and it was far from finished! And much to her delight, every single person that comes over happily agrees to look at her new room when she excitedly asks them. Bless their hearts...
Now the nursery awaits its latest occupant- our baby that is due in October.
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Using hangers to display photos

Being that I take thousands of photos, I am always looking for unique ways to display them, like when I hung photos from a branch here. I mentioned before I don't mind doing laundry and spend a decent amount of time in my laundry room, tending to laundry, making my own laundry soap and repairing clothes. I decided to add some personalization to the room with pictures of my little girl.  I had taken these fun pictures when we were out puddling last summer and found inspiration here. I found these antique hangers at a thrift store and mounted the 8 X10 photos to mdf that I cut to size. Then I used Mod Podge to adhere the photos to the mdf.

Clip them in a hanger (mine were purchased from a thrift store), hang with 3m Command Strips- done!
~Angela

Polka dot walls

It's no secret that I love polka dots. The way I dress myself and my daughter and accessorize gives that away. I even painted polka dots on my slow cooker. I've been thinking of painting polka dots in my home and recently came across a post on this blog that showed polka dot walls made of vinyl and I was immediately drawn in!  I ordered the vinyl circles from www.wallsneedlove.com already cut in gray that just needed to be peeled off and adhered to the wall like stickers! Way simple and easier than painting them all!  I ended up putting the polka dots on one wall in my laundry room 12 inches apart.








I don't mind doing laundry and spend a decent amount of time in my laundry room. I also keep it very organized so the door is usually open to my laundry room and I can enjoy this wall often! I still smile every time I walk in there and see the polka dots:)
~Angela

Using an old ladder to display child's artwork

My daughter makes a lot of art projects. She creates at school and we love to create together at home, so I am always looking for new ways to display some of her masterpieces.

 

I found this beauty at a garage sale and it is rustic (as in, I would not climb on it).

 I bought these rings and punched holes in her artowrk to hang them from the rungs

~Angela

 

 

Homemade Laundry Soap

This is easy and so inexpensive. All of the ingredients cost less than $6 and I have enough to do 200+ loads of laundry. It smells so good too!!

Ingredients can all be found at Walmart or Target. Our local Hardware store even carries all the ingredients:

2 C finely grated Fels Naptha soap
1 C Washing Soda
1 C Borax

Mix well. Use 2 tbsp per full load of laundry.

I store my laundry soap in this trash can, sitting out near my washing machine.

 

 

*I have a High Efficiency Washing Machine and this works great.

~Angela