My Boss Carpentry Skills

Did I say My boss carpentry skills?  I guess I should give a shout out to the hubs since he put my little project together... so essentially it would be his BOSS carpentry skills :)  Anyways lately I have seen several wine crate coffee tables on pinterest that were so cute!  And as I've mentioned in earlier posts I just moved cross country and sold most of my furniture beforehand, so when I came across this idea... I had to give it a go.  In my inspiration photos the coffee tables were stained a dark wood color.  I was feeling adventuresome and decided to try the paint and soap distressing method.  I'm here to tell you by someone who is extremely impatient ... never reads directions or follows the rules and constantly cuts corners because I assume it will turn out just fine ;)  this painting technique really was not hard.  So I started out with bare naked crates... sounds scandalous and in turn reminds me of "I want to Channing all over your Tatum"... if this makes no sense to you, you need to watch Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx on Jimmy Kimmel.  Oh my... :) The hubs turned a clip of that on for me yesterday and asked me afterwards if I was going to be ok... I'm still not sure if I've recovered ;).  Anyways back to bare naked crates... I found these jewels at Michaels.  The only bummer was that I didn't have a coupon.  Oh well...

At this point if I were a rule follower I probably would have sanded these babies a bit before jumping right in with the paint... but like I said I'm impatient ... and well you only live once... live on the wild side! So I dove right in and for the first and second coat painted them a medium gray. 

After both coats of gray dried I did a little experimenting with a bar of dove soap and rubbed it on all edges and then just sporadically everywhere else for a little surprise!  There was no rhyme or reason to my soap placement, in fact I think I was a little soap happy. After the soap rubbing I added an aqua paint color on top of soap chunks and all.  Don't do as I do, I'm not really sure if you are supposed to have chunks or not that you paint over. 

Now it's time for a little power tool action.  A word of warning ... I started with a sanding sponge and that was not cutting it for me.  The distress was very subtle and was taking entirely too long.  This is where the power sander comes in handy... yeah daddy!  Apparently my retired neighbor does not share the joy of power tools with me... he yelled from his doorstep that I was being really loud.  Well what can you do?  I apologized like a nice neighbor and then turned the sander back on... :)

My last step was a glaze of unmeasured watered down paint from the first step that added just the perfect amount of aging to my crates.  Finally all the painting was done!  Yeah I love the way the color and distressing turned out.  The hubs and I discussed how he could build a basic frame to hold all of this together... I argued one way ... he argued another ... he won... and this is how it turned out.  Love it ... and the hubs for his fabulous handy ways... ;) 

- See more at: http://diyshowoff.com/2013/02/24/that-diy-party-5/#sthash.PqBkD4GD.dpuf Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/02/24/that-diy-party-5/#WuV0szYriF4i1WjQ.99

- See more at: http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/p/button-up.html#sthash.Q1APZhRy.dpuf - See more at: http://www.notjustahousewife.net/#sthash.6lCFxOQs.dpuf

breaking down the meaning of life

It seems my kids come up with the most random questions at the most random times... For example at dinner tonight they asked me why they can't hear God's voice.   I start in on all the ways God speaks to us ... yadda yadda yadda.  When they interrupt my spontaneous sermon :) to tell me that "Satan speaks to me... like when I'm mad at you and think I'm not going to punch you and then he makes me say to myself that I am."  I love kids and the hilarious ways their minds work.  This totally cracked me up because hello should I be worried about split personalities ... maybe I should change her name to Sybil. ;) But in reality I totally know what they mean and I love that my kids bring truth and humor to me everyday.

With out humor, my life would be over ... for reals!  There was a study done (and I mean that loosely I can't even remember where I saw it ... it could be from in touch magazine ... don't tell anyone I read that)... that said we need 7 hugs a day to be a healthy individual .  Well my healthy individual recipe should involve laughing hysterically 7 times a day.  However I want the hugs too ... oh and some kisses from the hubs and my babies too... and talking to my bestie everyday... ooh and definitely a McDonald's diet coke...is that selfish?  Maybe I'm high maintenance . :)

So on another note of something that I need to be a healthy individual... or possibly not in one of those times where I get mildly obsessed (notice mildly is interchangeable with extremely) cranking out a new project.  Here is the latest... it was on it's way to being an epic fail and I somehow redeemed it along the way :). I love the way it turned out... so girly and feminine.  This dress was made with the Violette Field Threads Viola dress pattern.

My Favorite Valentine

My valentine's love story began when I was 15... the boy I met when I was 14 asked me to be his official girlfriend on valentine's day... no he didn't send me a note that said check yes or no ;) he took me out to dinner (I have no idea why my parents agreed to that), put his arm around me while he was driving and whoopsies swerved off the highway.  It scared the you know what out of me but somehow he still got me to agree.  Oh and did I mention this was the first date we had been on in about 2 months because he was grounded for mooning the video camera at school and sharing his fantastic behind with the entire school population.  Ahhh ... young love... I obviously found a keeper ;) and I did because... these are our engagement pictures four years later, when I was 19 and he was 22.

Oh and then here we are again 12 years after that...  I think I'll keep my bad boy! Happy Valentine's to my favorite Valentine :)

Tangled Hoopla

For Lou's 6th birthday we did a tangled themed birthday party.  She had to be tangled anything less would be a disappointment.  Let's just say I've learned that sewing is more my thing ... cake decorating is not a part of my skill set.  However it's nice to know that a six year old was overjoyed with my attempt at a tower castle.  This would of been one of those times where you find a cake idea on pinterest and think to yourself well that looks simple enough.  I'll just whip up a tower cake because who can't make one of those (insert sarcasm)!  And wait for it... wait for it...

Seriously ... I'm not sure what happened but anyways there you have it :) .   I also made tissue pom poms and a tangled flag to hang in the room.  The pom poms were super easy... we just accordion folded the tissue paper, stapled them together in the middle and then fluffed.  The banner I found on the blog, supermommoments .  She created an awesome free printable that was super easy to use.

A tangled dress was a must... so without further ado ... I give you Lou's party dress...
She loved the way it turned out and I was just happy I got it done in time :)  In the picture the sleeve looks sort of wonky...  but it's just a peasant sleeve.

Last but not least we found fabric flowers in the scrapbook section of Michaels and I just hot glued them onto bobby pins.

The cake was definitely an epic fail... but that didn't stop from attempting a mario cake for my son's party.  It was also an epic fail... I think I must have a secret desire to be the cake boss but somehow it's not translating in my reality. :)

A Colorful Valentine’s Day Card

We recently just moved cross country and before I moved I sold a lot of my furniture from my previous house.... This is craziness but my husband actually bought the house we are in now without me here. :)  we did tons of video and pictures back and forth so that I could at least get a feel for the house while he was shopping.  He actually did a fantastic job and I love the house but it is half empty.  I seem to have lost my decorating muse.  I'm unsure which way to go with this new house... which is unusual for me seeing as how I usually make split second decisions.  Obviously I am off my game. ;) I hope to get some pictures up of my house and maybe someone can help me gain inspiration.  

I thought I wanted to go the way of the white couch... well it's official our family does not do white.  These other mothers who have gorgeous white furniture most be super mom because clearly I can't keep this sucker clean for the life of me.  I love the way it looks (in it's clean state... which hasn't happened since the day we bought it ... so in actuality I really don't like the way it looks) but I just can't maintain it.

On another note ... the kids and I tried to make melted crayon hearts for their class valentines and I almost burnt the house down in the process... OOPSIES!  Apparently silicone ice cube trays and silicone cake molds are not interchangeable... your welcome for testing this theory for you so you don't burn your own house down.  Luckily I finally got a hold of a silicone cake mold at hobby lobby and the crayons turned out super cute!  We followed the directions for the valentine printable at ....

A Colorful Valentine’s Day Card


The wanted cards were inspired by a card in the zoeyluna etsy store.

New Etsy Listings

So the creative juices have totally been popping this week:)  I've been having my own sewing lollapoolza.  So I just wanted to share the latest two projects I've been working on that have been added to my etsy store. Who knew I wanted to make flower girl dresses but anyways that's the idea that kept popping up.  Both of these dresses are definitely on the more casual side so they could also be used for the everyday little princess!

Aside from the obvious that she is about the cutest thing I have every seen along with her brother dew and sister boo. :)  I'm super excited about the way these turned out!

On another note ... anyone else find themselves with 13 loads of unfolded laundry after the kids are finally in bed and instead of folding said laundry like a normal person would do... I watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta, hop on my blog and suck back an ice cream cone filled with strawberries, bananas and hot fudge :)