Finally!

    Finally I got some projects done around here. I started the first one several weeks ago, as it was suppose to be a Mothers day gift that has now turned into a birthday gift. I'm pretty proud of this one though!

I love a blank canvas, it makes me want to build a whole bunch of these and just have them waiting for me.

This is how I attach the boards, I used extra trim we have left over because its straight and doesn't split. You could also cut down another piece of the pallet and use that as well.

I stained this thing waaayyy to many times. Or at least it feels that way, I think it got about four coats of stain. I thought two would be fine but after trying to paint what I thought I wanted I hated it and had to sand and repaint. Trying to use and make my own stencil has been a frustration for me. I've looked up several techniques online, none of which have worked for me yet. So free hand painting has been what I end up with. If I continue to do more signs for people in the future I will definitely be investing in a Silhouette machine.

I think this sign pretty much screams my mom =). I saw this saying and instantly thought of her, not only do I admire her for her work ethic and ability to always have a good time her horses name is Captain so it was a perfect fit! Love you mom!

Now for a little preview of my Dad's gift for Father's Day....shhhhh don't tell him as I wont be seeing him until tomorrow

My flash kind of washes out the green paint a bit...I haven't decided if I'm done with this one yet or not. I was going for a distressed look, so I might give the letters another coat of paint and sand them down a bit. The clothespins are for pictures, once I give it to my dad I'll take another picture of it so you can get the full affect I was going for. 

Thanks for stopping by and following along guys! I have another idea for an awesome project for someone and hope to get it done in the next week or two. I may be M.I.A. for a while though, baby girl will be delivered via c-section in 18 days!

Finished Gift

  

Here is the finished project!

      My first lesson in making a project with someone else in mind...was, shall we say...a little more of a challenge for me. So you'll remember the picture from my previous post and here is the process I went through to create the finished project.

    Looking back at the first picture I wished I had taken the time to get EVERYTHING I needed first, cut everything, assemble the sign, and then paint. However I'm not organized in this way and things kind of just come together out of necessity not plans...or at least not the kind you write down on paper cause I definitely have one in my head. 

    

    This project was a family affair, here is my son and husband "dissembling"  the planks of wood for me. They were previously cedar wood planks on a wall in my kitchen I tore down (hopefully some day in the future I'll be able to do a post about that finished project).

    We then clamped the boards together along with two small pieces of wood equally spaced on the back to be screwed down. We then drilled pilot holes and put screws in form the back. This is where a drawn out plan to follow might have been handy. As you can see below I had a few knobs I wanted attached which I did measure out and asked my husband to put on. Had I planned this all out ahead of time I could have moved the boards on the back out toward the edges a bit more to avoid him having to countersink a screw for one of the knobs that lined up with the board on the back....yeah yeah yeah. 

     Still turned out just fine but I might have actually had this done when I wanted to if I had planned ahead.

     I normally paint/do projects while the little one is sleeping but I wanted to get this one done and thought he could paint with me. We sure had fun but after the second time of getting a paint brush thrown at my back I decided to hold off on my painting.

    These are the bottles I choose to use for the sign, a wine my friend likes since being 8 months pregnant I wouldn't be keeping it and giving it to her instead. First you have to remove the labels, soap and water works most of the time. The label on the back was a bit stubborn and this is what we always use to remove sticky stuff http://www.homedepot.com/p/Citrus-Magic-3-5-oz-Tropical-Orange-All-Natural-Odor-Eliminating-Spray-Air-Freshener-3-Pack-612172143/202559646#.UYgDvbWsh8E I have no clue why but it works.

    Then you want to measure and tape off where you want to cut your bottle at, getting a straight line with the tape helps you out the most when your using a glass cutter.

    This is a Hyde brand glass cutter, a nifty cheap little tool that works so well. Make sure you go slow and get a good score on the glass.

    Now there are a lot of methods out there for cutting the glass but the simplest and cleanest line I have ever gotten is just simply using cold and hot water ...you just have to keep doing it back and forth until it pops clean off.

    This is what you will end up with, the lines are pretty well straight but you will need to sand the edges as they are a little sharp.

    Here is the finished project, I was going to take pictures of how to attach the bottles but the hardware store didn't have the real attachments I wanted so I had to offset the bottles from the wood and use simple pipe braces. I think that if you lived somewhere with a better hardware store you could find something more attractive in the plumbing section. Also make you sure you triple check everything before you post pictures if its a gift for someone, as was nicely pointed out to me I got the year they were married wrong! Opps, already fixed but boy did that make me feel silly.

    I didn't include pictures on me doing the lettering because no one was around to take picture while I was painting. I think there are much simpler ways to achieve this but I printed out what I wanted, cut out the letters and traced around them with pencil. Using card stock or creating a stencil would have really sped up the process

    Hope you guys enjoyed this one! 

Projects waiting in the wings

    This is pretty much just going to be a photo bomb post of things I'm going to be doing, along with a sneak peak of something that will hopefully be done by tomorrow for a couple of special people. 

     So this guy above is the soon to be gift....not anywhere near done and those bottles are just for size reference. It's halfway done being painted but I still need to make a trip to the hardware store to finish it, which closes at like 4p.m. I have to wait for the hubby to get home to do that. Not that I can't figure out what I need with out him but trying to take my son to a hardware store alone is just...well, a playground for a little boy where he can't touch anything. Horrible, so it has to wait.

    This is a chest my husband found on the side of the road... I loathe it. I have plans to make it a bright cobalt blue and put legs on it...

    This is currently under our TV in the living room and holds our DVR and that's it. I'm thinking a pale yellow and some fun pulls...

   This is a bench that came along with my Nana's piano, its in need of some sanding.

    This is a cool shelf my Nana had in her kitchen and she stored phone books in it instead of wine..lol. I on the other hand have wine to put in it but it needs a good cleaning and a fresh coat of paint.

    This dresser sits in our bedroom with our TV on it...I'm kind of lost on this one. I'm sure if we ever get around to painting out bedroom I'll know what to do with it.

    Then this one. This credenza or media console, whatever you want to call it is something I haven't been able to touch. My husband found it on the side of the road and claimed it. He just told me the other day I could do what I want with it because he wanted the space back in his "man cave". I'm so excited about this one I can't contain myself. I think I want to raise the height and make it a buffet in my kitchen....Stay tuned!

The one that got me hooked

 



    So I thought I would start off with the piece of furniture that got me hooked with making old things new again.

                                     

     

    This dresser was given to me sometime around High School I would say. It's gotten around for sure. I couldn't stand it anymore and thought I would just paint it out black for my sons room that I was redoing. Well a trip to the hardware store to find some simple pulls changed all that. I couldn't find anything basic and affordable that I liked. So I hit the clearance bin and saw these cute little blue knobs, knowing the room was going to be blue and green I thought OK these will work. Then the only other pulls I liked came only in black, not wanting it to be boring black on black my thought of painting the draws out different colors came about. 

   
    Describing this to my husband was a whole other thing but he went along with it anyway and this is what we came up with. I don't think I have loved another piece of furniture more, this was a labor of love from start to finish that my husband and I did together and I really do hope my son keeps it forever.

Give yourself a push

      

And so it begins...

    I started this blog at some point before my son was born(hes 15 months old now). I'm not sure what my intentions were then, maybe to set aside something for myself since I knew I would commit myself fully to being a stay at home mom. I'm not really sure but I know that I certainly didn't follow through with it since this is my very first blog post.

      I became inspired today by a friend who I know thought I was giving her advice but really shes the reason I'm give myself that "push". She recently went through a life change and is trying to find herself again so to speak, I found myself relating. I was telling her that even though I couldn't be happier with my life I have been with my best friend and husband since we were 16. Its often times hard to figure out where one of us ends and the other begins. 
  
    I've spent the last few months really trying to find myself a hobby or my own little niche in the world. I began telling her of my interests... lately I've been redoing old furniture, making wooden signs, obsessing over home remodel projects, etc.  I told her "get out there and try something" well I found myself not listening to my own advice of course. 
   
    So here I am, setting a goal and putting it out there. First, making my first blog post-CHECK! Hey good for me! Second, setting an intention for this blog. Which at this point will be to chronicle my adventure into remodel and upcycle projects. Third, and this is the biggest step for sure, to start in some way my bigger intention to some day sell the things I make. I want to spend the next year learning as much as I can about furniture renovation and different ideas when it comes to upcycling. I hope I'll have some of you join me along the way, to push me and help me achieve these goals.

P.S. Stayed tuned for my posts on projects I've already done and ones I have in mind.