Ikea Dining Table Makeover

This post has been a lot time coming. I started this project back in August and this is about as simple and easy as a project gets, but one thing led to another and I ended up doing each step about every other week and then didn't want to showcase the final product with moving boxes in the background in a dark basement apartment.

Just about every poor, newly married couple I know has this dining set from Ikea. When Eric and I got married we found this set on KSL for $40. For being poor it was a great little table, but one thing I never liked about it was that there was never enough room for more then 4 people and no extra for the food once you get all the plates on it. With a growing family and our love to entertain I wanted something bigger. After looking at new dining sets I came to terms with it not being in our budget to get a new one so I decided to give our current table a makeover as well as make it bigger.

My inspiration came from all the farmhouse tables floating around pinterest and many DIY blogs. I figured this would also be a great way to make my table larger in width and length.

The first step was to take off the table top by just unscrewing it from underneath. Then I lightly sanded the base of the table and painted it white. I did the same with the 4 chairs, expect I used a spray primer and paint.

For the table top I used 2x6's cut down to my desired length. I used six of those on the table going across. (If anyone wants actually measurements I'd be happy to give it you.) For the wood planks I first sanded them down and rounded the edges of each. Then I primed them with a dark walnut stain. After the stain was dry I lightly sanded the wood planks again on the edges to give a distressed look. This is where I really started liking the result! Lastly, I did 3 coats of Minwax Polycrylic (water-based) to protect the wood from spills and general wear.

To assemble the wood planks I used my handy-dandy husband (thanks hun!) to screw them all together with 1x3s and then attached the whole thing to the table.

There is SO much more room on the table now and room for two chair at the end making it a table for 6 people! I got these upholstered end chairs from Target to finish it off.

The updated dining set looks great in our new dining room!

Linked to:
http://www.blackberryvine.blogspot.com/2013/12/tuesday-to-do-141.html
http://www.ourtableforseven.com/2013/12/share-your-stuff-tuesdays-25.html#more
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/12/inspire-me-monday-week-101.html
http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/97-party-time/

A Blogging and Crafting Experience

I recently joined a team of contributors in blogging for Reasons to Skip the Housework. Its a fun blog full of anything that gives a reason to forget cleaning and get crafting, cooking, blogging, etc. I blog once a month on home decor and have so far LOVED this opportunity! Here was my first post that I did using the dresser we sold at the fair in making it into an entry way table. I'll be honest after staging this I SO wanted to just keep it and was hoping it wouldn't sell so I could, but it was gone in the first hour. I put a lot of evenings into this dresser and was glad it found a good home! I may be on the look out for a replacement :)

Today I’m revealing this vintage dresser I turned into an entryway table.

I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite home decor trends right now are dressers. Not only are they being used in just about any room and for multiple functions, but they are also being used as a way to bring a pop of color to a space as well. So when I saw this vintage gem at a local yard sell I snagged it for $20 against my husbands questioning looks wondering what in the world I was going to do with this dresser in dire need of some TLC.

After doing some stabilizing on the dresser, a good sanding and a couple coats of paint this dresser was starting to look already a million times better.  I wanted to keep a distressed look so I sanded all the edges of the dresser to bring some of the under layers through and then add some distressed looking knobs I found at Hobby Lobby.

I also added some contact paper to the inside of the drawers to brighten it up and update the look.

The final step included a trip to Target for all the accents that went on top of the dresser and the result…a welcoming entry way table with the perfect mix of rustic and modern elements to complete the space.

I hope you all enjoyed my take on the new and many uses for a dresser and look forward to bringing you more home decor inspirations!

Check out this month's post HERE on a Plate Wall Display I did and put off the housework a little longer and look around for other cute inspiration!

DIY Baby Girl Onesies

It's been awhile since I've posted a project I've done besides the fair... let me rephrase...it's actually been awhile since I've even done a project that wasn't for the fair! So this was a fun and easy project that wasn't home decor.

Some good friend of ours were getting ready to have a baby girl. I just love all the cute ideas and things there are out there for baby girls and with me having 2 girls of my own I decided to gift two of my favorite things I liked having for my girls.

1. Some headbands and accessories from Ambrey's Accessories. As I mentioned before I love these headbands with interchangeable snap accessories. Mia wore one just about everyday of first year of her life and they held up perfectly to use now for Livy.

2. Cute onesies. Onesies are my absolute favorite and go to for babies. I even use them for under baby dresses or shirts because I hate constantly having their dress/shirt up to their armpits and their tummies being bare. It's a little weird and OCD I know. Anyway I thought I'd get a little creative and "embellish" some onesies on my own.

I just used scrap fabric, lace and trim I already had to put these together along with some iron-on applique paper and the final result was just so adorable! I want to remake all of these for Livy now!

I'm in love with Peter-pan collared shirts right now so of course I had to try my hand and making one in "baby form". 

Linked To:

http://thelifeofjenniferdawn.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-little-bird-told-me-link-party-55.html

http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/80-share-your-creativeness/

http://thenymelrosefamily.com/2013/08/whimsy-wednesdays-76.html

http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2013/08/we-did-it-wednesday_14.html
http://sparklesandastove.com/all-things-pretty-linky-party-21-features/
http://www.reasonstoskipthehousework.com/the-weekly-creative-thursday-link-party-2/

"We're Going To A Fair"

We just arrived home for a week packed with all things crazy and fun in Ely after doing Arts in the Park. Now I am on the recovery, sitting in my messy house, still in my pajama's and have plans to do hardly much else for the rest of the week as I watch the girls.

Here's the run down...

Last Tuesday me and the girls headed to my parent's house in Ely to finished getting ready for a fair I have been preparing for with my sister and sister-in-law. We did a booth at Arts in the Park 2 years ago and worked up the nerve to do it again this year. Both times I've really enjoyed seeing everything come together and creating a really fun booth but let me tell you...it is a WHOLE LOT of work!

Anyway, we all came out with our kids equaling 5 children at my mother's house all under the ages of 3 (talk about craziness right there) and each day we were working around the clock trying to get everything finishing in time for Saturday when the fair started.

A huge shout out goes out to everyone in my family especially my little brother, mom and super supportive husband. Both my mom and little brother basically watched our kids for the good part of the week and helped out and my husband got off a plane from a business trip Friday night and jumped in the car right after to travel out to Ely to watch the kids while I did the fair. Then we traveled home last night so he could catch a red-eye flight back to work. The rest of my family helped with set up and take down as well as with all the kids! We would have never pulled it all off without everyone! Also thanks to everyone in Ely who dropped by our booth and even bought stuff!

The fair was a HUGE success! All money aside I say success because we were able to put together an awesome booth that we had been scheming about for the past 6+ months and had a lot of people come by in admiration. It's nice after all the work we put into it to get compliments on what we did. We had a lot of people ask if we had an etsy shop and even say our booth looked like it came right out of Pinterest lol.

So for those of you who weren't able to attend here are some pictures for your view pleasure!

We scored these large shutters in a dumpster and turned it into a display wall for our booth. It was a perfect backdrop to stage some of our pieces! 

We built a pallet wall on the other side of the booth for more display room. It was quite a project trying to get these display walls up and to make them stable, but it turned out great!

I am really going to miss these two girls! Not only are they my family, but they're my crafting partners, great mother's who I look up to but friends as well! It was so fun to get to do this with them before they move away in the next couple of weeks.

Linked To:

http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/08/inspire-me-monday-week-83.html

http://itssoverycheri.com/2013/08/04/its-party-time-8-4-2013/

http://diyshowoff.com/2013/08/04/that-diy-party-28/

http://www.madincrafts.com/2013/08/mad-skills-party-167.html

http://carolynshomework.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-inspiration-board-creative-party-114.html

http://www.cozylittlehouse.com/2013/08/tweak-it-tuesday-50.html

http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2013/08/take-look-tuesday.html

http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/79-share-your-awesomeness/

http://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.com/2013/08/share-it-link-party-75.html

Family Reunion Photo Booth

What would summer be without an family reunion to attend? Last weekend we had a family reunion on my mother's side that was a three day event full of catching up with extended family, playing a competitive game of "Minute to Win it", a photo booth and lots of kids running around.

Eric won us a gift card for winning the Minute to Win It challenges (he's very competitive). Way to go honey!

I was in charge of the putting together the photo booth. I really wasn't sure what to do for a family reunion type crowd. In the end I went with making some fun props I downloaded from a website called Oh Happy Day. She has lots of cute printables! Then I did a free standing back drop using PVC pipes.

*A little note on this...I never knew PVC pipes were so cheap! You can buy one that is 10 feet long for under $2! I will definitely be experimenting more with this stuff in some other future projects.*

Anyway, then I just pinned a plain white sheet over it and hung a banner that I already had. It turned out super cute and everyone were great sports about it.

Beside when we all go out to Ely for Arts in the Park, this is one of the last times in awhile my whole family will be together before my sister and her family move to Oregon and my brother and his family move to California.

It's always fun to be with family!

Summer Project Announcement!

A few posts back I mentioned a big project I have been working on with my sister and sister-in-law. After reminiscing about the fair we did in Ely two years ago (post about it HERE) and having multiple chats about home decor projects we decided to come together one last time before we all live in different states and do the Arts in the Park fair in Ely this summer! This time around we are focusing just on home decor with a rustic feel that is very popular in the world of home decor right now.

It's been fun to work together again doing something we all love and creating things that others can enjoy as well. We still have a lot of work to do in the next month and a half before the fair, but wanted to take this time to get the word out and show some sneak peaks on the things we are working on.

So hop on over to our SHA Designs blog (http://shadesigns4u.blogspot.com) and stay updated on this crazy endeavor we've signed up for again after having a baby, having traveling husbands, as both Annelise and Sara prepare to move and all the other activities that summer brings.

Family Scrabble Wall Art

In all honesty, I am horrible at the game of Scrabble or anything related to it, but I am very much in love with all the scrabble home decor that has been populating the world of pinterest.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and make a scrabble wall art piece for my mother for Mother's Day. Talk about an easy project that equated into some cute wall art...my favorite kind of project!

Here's the how to for making this Family Scrabble Wall Art:

Supply list

6- 10 inch wood squares (I had some leftover 3/4" plywood from Mia's bed that I used)

black acrylic paint

cardstock

printer

tape

foam brush

I printed out the letters on card stock and then cut them out to make a stencil. Then I taped my stencil onto my 10 inch wood squares and painted it with the black paint.

When that is done you could call it good and just hang then individually on the wall or connect them. I used a few nails in each to connect mine and then added some sawtooth hangers on the back to hang on the wall.

That's it folks! Easy-peesy!

Linked to:
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/06/inspire-me-monday-week-75.html
http://sparklesandastove.com/all-things-pretty-linky-party-11/
http://www.ajennuinelife.com/2013/06/thrifty-to-nifty-thursdays-20.html
http://makingtheworldcuter.com/2013/06/making-the-world-cuter-monday-55/
http://diyshowoff.com/2013/06/09/that-diy-party-20/
http://www.madincrafts.com/2013/06/mad-skills-party-159.html
http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/71-share-your-projects/
http://www.fidlersunderoneroof.com/2013/06/fidlin-fridays.html

Staying in Touch with my Crafty Side

I don't normally have this many "crafty" posts this close together since its not something I do every night but since I have been trying to get a lot of crafts done before Livy comes I practically have been! And although my Pinterest Challenge is over I still get most all my ideas and inspiration for projects off there, which is where these next two projects came from.

First up are Quiet time boxes for Mia. Since she stopped taking naps a couple of months ago I resorted to quiet times in her room in the afternoons for about 2 hours on average for her bust mostly my own sanity. I also think quiet time is a great way to teach kids how to play quietly and entertain themselves for awhile. Anyway, I noticed lately Mia getting bored with the toys in her room and she would be done playing in less then an hour before she would be banging on the door ready to come out. So when I saw THIS idea on pinterest it was a must try! What she did was have a box for each day of the week and filled them with different toys for her kids to play with during quiet time, giving them something new to play with each day and keep them entertained.

So here are the things I started off with to make my "Quiet Time" boxes.

- 5 plastic containers (I found mine at Walmart for about $3 each)

- Labels with each day of the week (Monday through Friday)

- Age-appropriate things to fill containers with. (I started out with trying to get at least two different things per box and plan on adding to them as time goes.) You also can use thing that you already have so you don't have to buy everything.

For each box I tried to add something on the educational/developmental side like a book about colors or these cheap, cute puzzles I found at Walmart with ABC's and numbers. Then I tried to add something that would spark creative play like some more magnetic paper dolls or a princess dress up set.

I also tried to spruce up things I already had. For example, I grabbed a picture online of a kid's road map and printed that out and laminated it for Mia to drive this little fisher price car on.

Another thing I did was make some blankets and pillows out of some fabric scraps I had for these cute dolls that Mia was given for her birthday. She loves tucking things in "nigh-nigh".

These boxes have been a huge success and have made quiet time for Mia a lot more fun and entertaining. It gives her something to look forward to each day and makes it less painful for me so I  can enjoy some "me" time in the afternoon as well.

My second project were these adorable cardigan onesies I made following THIS tutorial. I made these for a friend who is due just a couple days after me and is having a boy. I never get to make things for baby boys so I couldn't resist! They turned out SO cute and were SO easy to make!

Here's what I used:

-Cute onesies to make the cardigan. I got these two onesies from Old Navy

- Double wide bias tape.

-Buttons to sew on the cardigan

- plain white onesie to go underneath

-coordinating scrap fabric to make the bow tie and tie. If you do the tie you'll also need double-sided iron on adhesive.

Now my list is pretty much complete on the crafts I wanted to get done. Now I just need my nesting phase to kick in and clean my house before this baby comes! On a side note I scheduled to be induced on my due date which is Monday, but I'm hoping Livy will decide to come before then!

Also here is my last plug for entering this awesome giveaway Ambrey's Accessories has been so gracious to offer and you won't want to miss it! Make sure to enter. It's the last day! Click on over HERE to enter!

Pinterest Challenge Wrap-Up

So my Pinterest Challenge when a little M.I.A for awhile there, but I am pleased to report that I did finish it, with one exception. First off, these last couple of weeks leading up to my due date I have had a list full of projects and things I wanted to get done before baby #2 came so for my own sanity I had to cut something out. Unfortunately it was the wood clock from my Pinterest Challenge. That will have to be a project for this summer when things settle down a little bit. However, I did complete the final project on my Pinterest line up which was a calendar using paint chips. It was such an easy projects and I LOVE how it turned out, especially for the fact that I finally have a calendar that I've  been wanting for some time now to keep track of all our things.

So here is my pinned, inspiration picture (original source HERE):

And here is my final product:

This calendar is hanging in my kitchen, so I went with a yellow color scheme to match my kitchen's (if you don't remember what my kitchen looks like check out this post HERE) and I'm kind of in love with ombre things right now and I knew this would be the perfect project to incorporate it.

So here is what I did...I got my paint chips from Walmart and just cut them down to the size I wanted them. Then I got a big sheet of poster paper and just adhered all the squares onto that along with the days of the week and taped that to the back of the window, making it super easy if I ever want to change it. Then I just used a dry erase marker to fill in everything else! Easy peasy!

Now if you noticed on the calendar, this last weekend we had a weekend getaway planned in Heber. I've been starting to feel antsy being in the house as I get ready to have this baby so we thought it would be fun to have a last "hurrah" as a family and go have a fun weekend away.

Eric has some points saved up from all his traveling for work to get a free night stay at the Holiday Inn in Heber so we booked that for Friday night and were on our way to a fun weekend together. Let me tell you this weekend has its fair share of mishaps...to the point of it almost being laughable. We started off by making plans to go to Deer Creek reservoir to do a little fishing and to cook hobo dinners. Upon arriving we quickly came to find out that it was hardly ideal weather. It was super windy and pretty cold but we decided to stick it out anyway. For Eric this weather was nothing and he and Mia enjoyed themselves, but for me I was FREEZING! After waiting around in the cold for over an hour we came to find out that we burnt our dinners to a crisp. We then finally decided to move onto plan B, that being grabbing some good old fashioned pizza and then heading to the hotel.

Once at the hotel Eric and Mia got in their swimming suits and we all headed down to the pool. Mia had so much fun swimming and jumping off the side of the pool to Eric.

For bedtime we put Mia down in one of the beds and then waited out in the hall for a bit until she fell asleep. I told Eric I felt like I was back in high school on a school trip when we would all sit outside our rooms and talk to the boys because we couldn't go in each others rooms. Haha. Once Mia was asleep she was out like a light and we were able to watch some shows together and relax in the room before going to sleep ourselves. As most nights lately I ended up getting up in the middle of the night with heartburn and not being able to sleep so I turned on a movie on my kindle in the corner not to disturb anyone. Pretty soon I saw two little legs climbing down from bed and soon Mia was snuggled up next to me on the floor. We ended up jumping into bed with Eric and all  watched Super Why at 3 in the morning. Finally we all got back to sleep and Mia didn't wake up the next morning until almost 9 AM giving us enough time to go get some breakfast. Before going home we did a little shopping at the outlets in Park City and grabbed some lunch. 

I'm sure to those of you reading this it doesn't sound like much of a fun weekend getaway, but to be completely honest it was so worth it for me to see how excited Mia was through all of it. She was having the time of her life throwing rocks into the lake, pushing the elevator buttons, having a sleep over with Mom and Dad and just getting to experience something new before she has to start adjusting to having a baby sister. Seeing this made me so glad we did this little getaway and made it easier to just brush off all the things that went wrong (something that I'm not usually very good at).

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Colorful Birdhouse Themed Girl's Nursery

In my last post I talked about how I loved having baby girls to dress up all cute. (Make sure to check  out and enter the giveaway to win an adorable headband and accessories HERE!) Another one of my favorite things about having a baby is getting to decorate their nursery. I love being able to make a room just for that sweet little baby to call home!

Mia luckily doesn't have to share a room with Livy, but I am making Livy's room still double as my craft room. I wasn't quite ready to give up having my crafting space yet...so I made Eric give up his little "office" space. Don't I have the best husband! So the inspiration for my color scheme started with my crafting desk which I painted Seaglass blue from the Martha Stewart paint collection. (You can see pictures of it HERE.) Then I came across these adorable birdhouses in this nursery and I just had to do it as well! So evolved my color scheme and theme for the nursery!

From there everything else fell into place perfectly! I just love the soft colors and sweetness this room has. It's making me really antsy to have a baby to actually put in this room! Take a look!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but hanging on the bird picture wire is a temple wall art print. I've been wanting one to put in both of the girl's rooms, but haven't been willing to pay for one so I decided to make one myself. 

I liked it so much that I've decided to post a free download for it in multiple colors on the blog! Download this temple print HERE.

This picture was such a great find and one of my favorite details in the room! This was a cover of a magazine that Eric's Grandma sent me. The colors in the pictures work perfect with the nursery and I love how at the bottom its dated "Spring 2013", which is when Livy will be born.

Shortly after choosing my theme and color scheme I found this way cute "bird" themed material online with the exact colors I wanted for Livy's quilt. As a side note, I made a similar quilt for Mia when she was born. I thought it would be fun to start a tradition to make a quilt for each of my babies for them to have as something made from their mother and maybe get to use on their own kids someday.

I made these window cornices out of foam board, tape, batting, fabric and a staple gun if you can believe it from THIS tutorial!...making these super cheap to make and easily changeable.

So here's a little summary and cost list for the whole nursery

- Quilt made from Riley Blake's Sweetest Thing and minky for the backing $80

- Bumper Pads found at Land of Nod $30

- Wood Birdhouses found at Hobby Lobby and Walmart $25

- Livy's wall letters found at Hobby Lobby $10

- Window Cornices $35 to make both

- Birdcage Lamp found on KSL (thrifted) $14

- "Loved" felt pillow FREE (I already had the pillow and felt to make it)

-Bird picture wire found at Target $15

- "I Love To See The Temple" wall art FREE

- "I am a Child of God" wall art found here FREE

Total cost for this Girl's Birdhouse themed Nursery - $209

One week left before my due date so soon this room will be complete with little baby Livy!

Linked To:

http://sparklesandastove.com/all-things-pretty-thursday-linky-party-4/

http://igottacreate.blogspot.com/2013/04/wildly-original-link-party-48.html

http://www.ajennuinelife.com/2013/04/thrifty-to-nifty-thursdays-16.html

http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/from-dream-to-reality-linky-party-63/

http://staceyembracingchange.com/2013/04/17/creative-inspirations-linky-party-3/

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/search/label/WGW

http://www.myrepurposedlife.com/2013/04/catch-as-catch-can-118.html

http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2013/04/18/the-weekly-creative-linky-party.html

http://www.serenitynowblog.com/2013/04/weekend-bloggy-reading-link-up_19.html

http://www.trulylovelyblog.net/category/fancy-this-fridays/
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/04/inspire-me-monday-week-68.html
http://ceoofmeinc.com/motivating-monday-link-up-for-the-week-of-42213/