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

Homemade Wooden Blocks

I love trees. We planted one the year our daughter was born and will again soon for our son. I like what they symbolize: growth and stability and keeping yourself grounded. So when I saw these wooden blocks for sale made from pieces of a tree, I thought they would be a great purchase for my little man. 

Then the tree that has been in my grandparents’ yard for years lost some branches and I saved some to repurpose and make my own. The tree at my Grandma’s house has been there as long as I can remember- we’ve played around it, took a million pictures by it as it was the unofficial photo spot of the backyard and watched it grow.

So I scraped off the bark, sanded the pieces smooth and put a coat of non-toxic stain on them:

~Angela

Maternity & Family Pics

My friend Rachel took these pics so we would have a few for the baby book and likely our last family photo of just the three of us. I could not be happier with how they turned out! We had a blast too! A big thank you to her!!!

I had this book when I was little and my mom found it in a thrift shop for Kaia!!

~Angela

The cradle

This cradle has been in my family for four generations. It’s old, roughly 90 years old. And it likely has monetary value as an antique, but the value to me is more sentimental.
I remember when my grandma first suggested it to me when I was pregnant with our first baby. The conversation went something like this:
Grams: “Do you want to use the family cradle for your baby? It’s really old and came from the dump. I slept in it when I was little.”
Me: (leerily envisioning a very unstable piece of furniture after eyeing up all the shiny new baby furniture in the store. Not because I am opposed to reusing/repurposing!): “Is it safe? If it’s that old I bet it has lead paint…”
Grams: “It’s been stripped of old paint, repainted, repaired and is surprisingly sturdy, given all the usage the cradle has had over the years.”
I checked it out…and I was in love. The idea that this cradle has been in my family for decades (and who knows how much it was used in its prior life before my great- grandpa found it at the dump) and has been used and loved and passed back and forth warms my heart. And it really is beautiful. It’s sturdy and rocks back and forth and if I am being honest, it is made better than the modern day baby furniture I ordered once the cradle has been outgrown.
With the large family I have, I cannot fathom how many babies have slept in it. My grandma and her siblings were among the first when the cradle was brought into my family then their children, and their children’s children and so on. Our little girl slept in it when she was brought home from the hospital and still sleeping in our room in those first few weeks.




Now our next baby will also take it’s turn, sleeping (hopefully through the night very quickly!) in this family heirloom.




~Angela

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…
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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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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.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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

An old Chair gets a new Life



I mentioned in a previous post that I love chairs. My mom and I started giving each other chairs and chair related gifts many years ago. Neither one of us can remember how this little tradition began, but it has been fun searching for and collecting chairs for each other ever since.




A framed pic of my mom & I that is in my laundry room

chair charm bracelet from my mom

Another gift from my mom

My mom and I each decorated these chairs for each other and made them almost identical!

It was only fitting that it was my mom who bought my little girl’s high chair for her

and also gave her a table and chair set, perfect for tea parties, of which we have many!

My husband and I gave our little girl this chair for her 1st birthday.

Then there was this chair that I picked up from a fundraising garage sale for $3 that my little girl likes to rock in while she sits with a book.

The “chair thing” as my mom and I call it (I know, so original) has now been extended to include my daughter. I am not a collector in general since I don’t like to have a lot of unnecessary stuff- I like to say that I only collect photos and memories- but as I look back at all the chair items I have, it is safe to say that this classifies as a collection.

My latest find was this chair I bought off the Internet for $5. It was dirty and the varnish was peeling off in places but that didn’t bother me. I knew it was the perfect size for my little girl and with a little soap & water and paint, it had the potential to be exactly what I wanted it to be. After scoring this free child’s art table for our Art Room, I have been on the search for a chair that my little girl could sit at when we do art together. This was the perfect height and very sturdy- really my only parameters for a chair.(I wish I had taken a "before" picture so you can appreciate the improvement).

I spray painted it  Blue Ocean Breeze. My husband asked me “What made you choose that color? It does not go with anything in the house.” And although he is absolutely right, my response was that I liked the color. It spoke to me. While at the store, amidst the giant wall lined with cans of spray paint in every color imaginable, this is the one that said Buy Me. And so I did. I figured if I hated it, I could always repaint it, although that won’t be necessary since I do love the finished product.

So does my little girl. And after all, it is her chair.

~Angela

Linking to these parties:

Truly Lovely

Ivy Cottage

Bowl Full Of Lemons

Alderberry Hill