Chair Make-over

Man, do I love a good deal! Especially when I can see SO much potential in something the first time I lay eyes on it. Well, the other day I met a friend for lunch and afterward we decided to hit up my favorite thrift store (remember the one where I got my birthday present?). We wandered through a few sections and then almost as if there was a divine light shining down on them from above, I saw them. A set of beautiful "well-loved" dining room chairs. Exactly what I was looking for. Of course they would be the only pieces of furniture in the store that weren't priced...I began to fret, remembering the "No Tag, No Sale" sign as I walked in. But a nice worker wandered by and offered to go find the pricing gun to come back and tag them for us. He walked in back while we stood there waiting, ready to throw an elbow or two if needed to protect our fabulous find. We stood there. And stood there. He seemed to have forgotten about us. Finally another very talkative worker came by and struck up a conversation with us about how lovely the chairs were. I mentioned we were waiting for someone to get a price on them for us and she replied, "Oh, no problem - they're $8 a chair...I'll tell Suzie up front". What? Were they seriously only $8 each??? I couldn't believe it. My friend Heidi and I quickly loaded 4 of them into carts and wheeled them up front to pay. At the check out we found out that all furniture that day was an additional 25% off. Even better! So, my 4 chairs rang up at $6.75 a piece. Major score.

Here's a shot of the beauties (and a bonus shot of a single chair) right after I unloaded them out of my super hip minivan:

Now the fun part - re-doing them! I decided to reupholster the seat cushions because they were just a little bit nasty in my opinion. Not a huge fan of faux leather covered in someone else's crusties. Ish. But first I decided to paint the chairs. At first I thought it'd be fun to paint them different colors, but then when that didn't seem to make the face of my conservative-decorator husband light up, I figured I better stick with painting them a "safe" color. Black it was - and after a couple of busy days running here and there, and painting while we stopped home for a couple hours at a time, they were finally all 4 painted. I'd found the perfect fabric at Jo-ann's...which sadly was NOT on sale and cost almost as much as the chairs. But whatever. It's what I was envisioning in my head when I saw the chairs in the thrift store. I whipped out the trusty staple gun and went to town re-covering the chairs while my daughter performed a concert on her stage in the playroom...it was pretty awesome.

Here's a close-up shot of the spectacular new seat cushions:

Time for the big reveal - drumroll please...

I absolutely LOVE how they turned out!!! And here's the best part...I was looking at some IKEA chairs, but those bad boys were $70 a chair. Well, the breakdown of my project came out like this:

Chairs - $28.62
Fabric - $23.48
Paint - $12.78

Project Total: $64.88 for 4 super cool chairs...that are MUCH sturdier and larger in size than any IKEA chair.

There you have it folks...another thrift store SCORE.

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The Craftiness Continues...

The other day I had this idea pop in to my head to make a "welcome" sign with our last name on it - I've got the PERFECT place to hang it {details coming on that in another post}. I could see it in my head, but the challenge was finding all the pieces to make it real.

Here's how the project unfolded:

1) I dug around on this fabulous site and found free letter photography for our last name.

2) I printed out my letters and grabbed some scrap boards (purposely chose ones that were all exactly the same size) from our firewood pile out back {thanks Jacki & Jason for your fence scraps!}.

3) Next, I picked up some smoke gray Krylon spray paint at the local Hardware Hank {where everyone is so ridiculously helpful - I just LOVE them} and began spray painting the individual pieces.

4) While I was at the hardware store I also picked up a pack of mending braces to secure the 5 boards together so they could be hung in one piece. Once I had a decent coat of paint on each piece, I secured the 5 boards together using the braces and then sprayed on one more coat of paint.

5) Next, I trimmed down my letter photos and used mod podge to adhere them to the boards. I applied a couple of coats {while watching Parenthood - have I mentioned that's my FAVORITEST show ever?} just to give it a nice finished look.

6) The last thing I did was I used some black furniture nails in the corners of each letter photo as accents.

And voila! There it is - my finished welcome sign...pretty darn close to what I'd envisioned in my wacky head. I'll probably throw a couple of hanging brackets on the back or some wire to hang it with, but I figured I wouldn't bore you with those details...so - project complete. Now...just have to wait until the end of the month to hang it in that perfect spot I mentioned. Stay tuned!

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Daddy Day!

This year for Father's Day I decided rather than going out and buying another polo shirt or travel coffee mug, I'd get the kids involved and we'd make Dad a present that he'd love. I'd seen a cool tutorial on Pinterest a while back and figured what better time to try it than now! We decided to make Daddy a photo block for his desk. So, my little man helped dig through our wood scraps in the garage and we found the perfect piece of wood to use for our project. Next came picking out the perfect photo - I let Carson pick, and big surprise, he chose the one of our family parasailing while on vacation in Florida over spring break. :) I printed out our photo on Epson Premium Presentation paper {matte finish - Best. Paper. Ever.} and trimmed it down. Then we were ready to start our project.

Step 1:
The first thing we did was spray paint our block of wood black. I did this myself because I didn't feel like explaining to my husband why the side of our house or garage doors had graffiti all over it...which would most likely have happened if I gave in to my 6 yr. old's desperate plea that he'd be REALLY careful. Um, no. Sorry. Once the block dried we were all set to move on to our next step.

Step 2:
With our freshly painted (but dry) block of wood and our photo trimmed down to size we were ready to bust out the Mod Podge. I'm not going to lie and say I'm an expert at using this fantastic concoction...actually, it was my first time ever using it. *GASP!* I know. I have seriously been missing out. But, despite living in the mod podge dark ages for the past 33 years, we cracked a bottle open and went to town. This was the part where little hands were allowed to help - so I let the kids help {carefully} paint a thin coat of mod podge on to the side of the block where we wanted to adhere our photo. I laid the photo down {photo side up} and carefully smoothed it across the block so it could start to dry. There were a few areas around the edges where I had to clean up some excess mod podge, so I grabbed a damp cloth and wiped around the edges...while doing this I discovered you could gently rub the edges of the photo and get a pretty cool distressed look to it. You could probably achieve the save look if you waited until it dried {before applying the final coat of mod podge to seal the photo} and then used some sand paper on the edges. Fun stuff.

Step 3:
Once the mod podge had some time to dry {we waited about 20 minutes} then we grabbed some sand paper and softly scuffed up our photo a bit to add some texture to it. We blew off any left over dust residue and then we were ready to apply our top coat of mod podge. The kids helped paint another light coat over top of the photo. Carson got a little worked up exclaiming, "Mom! Now you've RUINED it!" and burst in to tears before I was able to explain that it'd dry clear, so we had to have a little chat to reassure him all of our hard work was not in fact ruined.

Step 4:
After everything was dry we used a silver sharpie marker to write Daddy a special message on the back of our photo block. We put the kids name on the back and the year - and viola! Our Father's Day gift was done! I had the kids help pick out a couple of other things to put in the gift bag with the present...like Daddy's favorite candy bar and some hard candy for his desk drawer at work. The kids were SO excited for Daddy to open his present!!

Here's our finished product before we wrapped it all up:

Watching the kids SO ridiculously excited to give Daddy his gift on Father's Day was PRICELESS! And Daddy was a pretty happy camper, too. Yay for personalized gifts that mean something!!

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Hooray for Cute Hair Clippies!

Today my friend Stacey and her little man came over for an intense day of playing tag {the kids} and crafting {the moms}. It was fantastic. We tried our hand at sewing fabric flowers, made some ribbon flowers, and then ended our afternoon with some lovely little hair clips. I scored an awesome deal on a bag of 100 colorful little plastic rosettes, so we matched up some of my grandma's old buttons with rosettes and viola - we each now have some fun new hair clippies to wear.  Or maybe we should start selling them? Hmmm...

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Stacey!

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Busy...but still thrifting & creating!

Goodness gracious, time has flown by these past few months. How is it JUNE already? And HOW have we come to the 2nd-to-last day of school for my kids? Oh boy. I always feel like my life is a tad bit chaotic during the school year...and then summer rolls around. Thus begins the workdays that start at 9pm and wrap up around, oh, 1-2:00am depending on the day. Such is life, though.

In other news - I found a ridiculously cool & fun birthday present for myself at a thrift store. Can you even believe that a) someone would get rid of this -and- b) they were practically giving it away for a whopping $39? I mean, c'mon, you can't buy a cheap piece-o-junk particle board end table at Target for $39. Yes, I realize some of you think I'm crazy, but believe me - this MADE my day! :) And the icing on the cake was that my husband actually agreed to let me put this in the house - ha! Impressive.

Switching gears yet again - I just finished wrapping up some of my cute 'lil dishcloths to give as part of our "end-of-the-year" gifts to all the wonderful teachers/paras/therapists that work with my munchkins at school. Have I mentioned how incredibly blessed our family has been over the past 5-6 years with amazingly gifted staff members who have poured their hearts and souls into our kids? Well, to say we're blessed is a gigantic understatement. Hopefully my giving them a dishrag and some Bath & Body Works soap (and a Caribou Coffee gift card to help minimize the "let's do chores" feel of the gift) will not make them feel like they need to go wash dishes all summer...but who doesn't love yummy smelling soap and a fun, new dishrag!?!?!

To keep with my random theme of this post...I have to share my birthday invitations I did for my kids (in Feb. & May). These were SO fun to create....and the kids love them!!

Time to sign off - have a great summer everyone and I'll try to update a bit more regularly!

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Winter in Minnesota

Okay, I really can't complain about the horrendously awful Minnesota we've had, but it's still winter. Cold, windy, not-a-lot-of-sun...winter. And I live in Minnesota. So yes, it is a Minnesota winter...just way milder than normal. This winter I've found myself doing a lot of crocheting - more than normal anyway. There's just something about sitting and working away with the soft yarn flowing through your fingers. Frankly, I find it very soothing and a wonderful escape after a long day...or week...or month. I've really gotten in to making infinity scarves - they're SO stinkin' warm to wear (not to mention CUTE), and they're fun to give as gifts! And the best part...I can make one in the amount of time it takes me to watch an episode of "The Bachelor" off my DVR. Yes, I just admitted I watch "The Bachelor". Sad, but true. Not as sad as my husband watching it with me though...with his spreadsheets of "Fantasy Bachelorette Picks". Seriously, you'd think he was at another Fantasy Football draft party each season premier. No joke, he sits with the laptop logging his "top picks". Strange.

Enough about that - here are a few of the scarves I've made lately...I've got them in pretty much every color - gray, brown, electric blue, pink, green...they're fabulous.

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From Cupid

Remember how yesterday I was ranting about how I'm not real fond of Valentine's Day? Well, I'm switching gears today a bit because last night I woke up and remembered something about Valentine's Day that made my heart happy (no pun intended). You've probably heard me talk about my Grandma Grace. She was such a special person in my life and I miss her dearly. She passed away right around Father's Day last year at the age of 91. My daughter and I had the privilege of spending Easter weekend with her last year. Those few short days were something I'll never forget - the time we had to talk with Grandma was priceless as she told us many wonderful stories about her upbringing, married life with my Grandpa (who passed away about 10 years ago), my Dad and all his naughtiness growing up, and even sweet stories of experiences with my brothers and I as we grew up. That weekend spent with both of my parents and my daughter as well as with Grandma was really a gift, and I'm so thankful it worked out for us to have that special time with her.

One of the stories she told us while we were there was about her very first Valentine from my Grandpa. It was 1934 and she found out that there was this older (by 8 years) boy named Carl who had taken a liking to her. She didn't think much of it, but then Valentine's Day rolled around. On her doorstep she found a big expensive Valentine along with a large box of chocolates...and on the back it was signed, "From Cupid". Grandma smiled as she remembered the moment she realized who "cupid" was, then she turned to me and said, "Aimee, go in to the back bedroom and open the 3rd drawer in the dresser". I went down the hall into the bedroom and opened the 3rd drawer. There were piles of keepsakes that Grandma had kept over the years, one of them was her first Valentine from Grandpa. I was speechless when I opened it up and saw the beautiful detail on it. The colors were so vibrant and it amazed me that after all this time it was still in such gorgeous shape. I turned it over and on the back there it was... "From Cupid" in my Grandpa's writing. Wow. Every time I think about this it makes me smile. Sure, Grandma & Grandpa had their ups and downs in their marriage, but they spent nearly 65 years as husband and wife and they loved each other dearly. I've been blessed with opportunity to see both sets of my grandparents as well as my parents model what a godly marriage looks like and I'm so very thankful for that. With that, I leave you with some photos of Grandma Grace's first Valentine...

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Homemade Valentines

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day. It's a silly excuse for people to get their feathers all ruffled as they scurry and scramble through the over-commercialized buildings we call stores in hopes to find the perfect way to say "I love you". How ridiculous that there's ONE day a year to profess our profound love for someone. Like I said, I'm not a fan. But the "mom" side of me can't overlook how excited the kids get about it, so last night we sat down and wrote out valentines for the kid's classmates.  We didn't go the traditional route (because heaven forbid we buy valentine's - oh no, we must MAKE them...that's what happens when mom is a graphic designer) - instead we made our very own. The kids got to pick out their favorite kind of candy to put in the valentines and then they helped me pick out what type of animal/character they wanted on their own. Peyton chose a dog and Carson was all about dinosaur-themed ones. Here's a couple of pictures of the finished products:

 (Sorry, Peyton's "girl" ones aren't assembled yet, so you only get pictures of Carson's "boy" ones)

Hope the classmates like them! :)

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Mmm, Mmm, GOOD!

This past weekend some girlfriends and I got together for a craft/comedy (we DID have a comedy movie, although we didn't really need it - no shortage of laughter with this bunch!) night. I taught them how to make those cute folded paper flowers you see all over Pinterest - we had a blast and laughed our backsides off. It was lovely! What girls night would be complete without FOOD...and lots of it!? We each brought something to share, and since I was in a bit of a time crunch, I needed something quick & easy. So naturally, I defaulted to my all-time favorite cracker spread that my Mom used to make when I was younger - to say I LOVE this is pretty much the world's biggest understatement, but whatever. I love it. I've taken this to a few get-togethers lately and afterward everyone's asked for the recipe, so I thought I'd share the love and let you all in on our "secret" family recipe.

So, here you have it folks - the recipe for Olive Nut Spread. I'm drooling just typing out the name of it!!

Ingredients:
1-8oz cream cheese (I usually use low-fat or fat free)
3/4 c. mayo (again, go for the low-fat option - light mayo)
2 T. juice from salad olives
**Mix these three ingredients together well**
Dash of pepper
1 cup salad olives, chopped (I just buy the sliced ones in a jar - saves time!)
1/2 c. chopped pecans -or- walnuts
**Fold these last 3 ingredients in**

Serve with crackers, pita chips, etc. - and ENJOY!!

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Craft Night!

Enjoyed a fabulous evening filled with friends, food, LOTS of laughter, and of course, some crafting...here's the result (we actually made close to 45 of these flowers total). Great night, ladies - thanks for the laughs!

P.S. Sorry for the not-so-great photo...forgot my camera so I just snapped a quick photo with my phone.

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*Gasp!*

Yesterday I was at a thrift store and as I turned the corner I saw this...and gasped!

All I have to say is THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES!!! Sadly, my husband would have killed me if I'd come home with it, so I left this $19.99 treasure there for someone else. But I can't get it out of my mind. How stinkin' cute would this be all done up in a fun color and plopped in the empty back corner of my oddly shaped family room?? Well, crap. Now I'm kicking myself for not buying it. Grrrr! Maybe I should go back. Wonder what time they open tomorrow? Hmmm....  *wink, wink*

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Dishcloth Goodness

Remember how I said my Grandma Grace taught my 3 brothers and I how to crochet when we were just tiny little things? Well, lately I've fallen into my annual winter "funk" where as soon as the sun goes down I wanna crawl in to bed and hibernate. But that'd just be wasteful, right? Post-bedtime hours are my prime time to get stuff done - so no hibernating allowed. In an attempt to stay awake and to feel like I'm being productive even if I've parked my rear on the couch to watch a 'lil TV, I've started crocheting again. It's been a couple years, but now that the kids are older and I'm feeling a little more like I can breathe, I figured what the heck - let's get back to it! Some of my friends think I'm off my rocker (no pun intended...okay, maybe it WAS intended), but I'm fine with sounding like a 90-year-old grandma talking about my crocheting projects. It's all good. So I've been alternating between making a few things...dishcloths, because c'mon, who doesn't love a new dishcloth?! Then I've also been making some infinity scarves and coffee collars. But I like the dishcloths because they're so quick & easy to throw together - plus,  a couple weeks back it was 'Dollar Days' at Michaels and they had my favorite 100% cotton yarn on sale for $1/skein. Let's just say I stocked up...and now I've got all these lovely dishcloths that I think will make PERFECT gifts for friends, teacher, family, etc. Suhweeeet! So here are a few pics of my dishcloth goodness I've whipped up in the last couple of weeks (I'll have to do a separate post on my infinity scarves & coffee collars).

Don't ya just LOVE all the fun colors??? Just gave my first one out as a gift and it was a hit! :)

On a side note, where do you shop for yarn? Just curious...

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