Wall art for my little lady

I've been hitting up HobLob's clearance aisles hardcore lately. They have TWO 90% off areas and while most of it is broken, some of it is awesome.

Like the 18" x 24" dark cherry wood frame I got -- WITH GLASS intact? Oh, did I mention -- it was $3? Yeah. That kind of awesome.

But I also got this:

But I don't have a baby whose name starts with a Z. I don't know anyone who has a baby who starts with a Z. So ... I decided to buy this thing because the frame was beautiful and the ribbon so sweet. BUT ALSO because it typically cost $12 and I got it for $1.20.

I mean, come on.

So, I took it home and did a little of this:

With the help of a small paring knife, I popped off two sides of the frame and the backing, took off the Z (but I kept it. I don't know why. It's just pretty and I'm a little bit of a craft hoarder.).

Then I used these:

To turn it into this:

Look at my sweet girl two years ago! Sniff ...

I used a hot glue gun to affix the scrapbook paper (50% off .44) to the back of the wood. In retrospect, I should have bought some spray adhesive, but the glue gun worked. I just did the outside to avoid seeing bumps.

Then I painted the wood circle (30% off .50 cents, ya'll!) a sweet cream color called Magnolia White ($1.19). Doesn't that sound lovely?

When the paint was dry, I used the hot glue again and put in the center of the wood. With the leftover scrapbook paper, I glued a circular piece to the top of the wood. I'm not sure I love this idea, but, it's OK.

I taped on the picture of my girl so I can switch it out whenever. I think she'll like it. She was asleep when I finished it, but was able to hang it and sneak a picture while the little lady slept.

Here it is on her wall:

I like it! The bow's off center, but heck, that's OK with me. If you guys can make it to HobLob, go! This whole thing cost me $3 and took maybe 20 minutes. You can't beat that.













Just added this to a linky party!

Bathroom Counter Top Upgrade!

When my husband and I moved into our house five years ago, we had one thing on our minds -- upgrade.

As I've mentioned, the house was in a sad state of disarray. The owner didn't update anything -- not the carpet, the lights, the appliances. It was rough. So rough, in fact, that as part of their offer, they gave us $2000 for new flooring. Yeah. That bad.

We've done a LOT to this house in the five years we've been here. But the bathroom is one of my favorites. I feel like everything is always in a constant state of "better, but not done!" (having a two year old and four year old is a project, in and of itself!), so there are still things I'd like to do to our bathroom (see this!).

However, when you start with this:

That's right. There's carpet. In the bathroom.

It's not too hard to upgrade.

We painted the bathroom a color a creamy latte color. I couldn't tell you what the actual color was because we got two colors for $5/gallon at Sherman Williams' mistint collection. Did you know about that? If you go to Sherman Williams, they'll let you look at colors that other customers either didn't pick or didn't buy because they weren't the shade the expected. For CHEAP.

So then it looked like this:

At this point, we'd also replaced the stock sheet of glass mirror with one from Hobby Lobby. I think it cost $15 on sale. We'd also added a couple small shelves for $3/each from Walmart. Oh, and painted the cabinets white and replaced the knobs. And tiled the floor. And replaced the faucet. And the toilet paper holder. And the toilet. And the light.

I told you we've done a lot.

Next, and I'm telling you, I felt like a genius with this idea, we used laminate flooring tiles to cover the countertops. Yes, that's right. FLOORS ON THE COUNTERS. I saw this in a craft store and it looked great. So we went with it. In total, it cost maybe $35?

Not bad, right? We added slate tiles to the back splash and used a chocolate grout to go in between the tiles on the back and the counter tops.

I'm very happy with how well it turned out. It looks much better than when we moved in. I'm not done yet. I still want to touch up a few more parts to it (and I've come to terms with the avocado shower tiles -- anyone know a quickish/easy way to fix those?), but I'm happy!

Change in plans

I took my daughter to the dentist today and on the way to pick up the other rugrat, my girl and I stopped by HobLob to check out Styrofoam for a front door wreath. I knew I could get a 40% off coupon in a week or so because of their coupon cycles, so paying $5 for a wreath now when I could get it cheaper next week ... I passed.

On the way to the front door, the girl and I got distracted and I found a wall of really pretty metal/resin decorations. And you know what? They were 50% off. And I liked the idea for the front door. So, I bought it. And paid $8 for it. So, really, not the smartest budget decision, but I like it and I think it works.

What do you think?

  I know, I only have a point and shoot camera and I'm not fantastic with it. I think I still want to add some molding or something to it. But until then, it's better.

I saw a white door ...

So I painted it blue.

I have an issue with our front door. We bought this house (built in the early 70s) five years ago before our son was born. We were YOUNG and thought, "Hey, we're having a baby. Let's buy a house." Made sense.

Except the house is sort of ... well, not our dream house. It's not terrible. But it's NOT our dream house. The original owner had the house built and, when he was old, died here. Well, not HERE, but he died while he was living here alone. His daughter, I think, still lives down the street. Anyway, it was clear he hadn't done much in the way of updating.

This is what it looked like when we bought it:

Entryway. Do you love the shag carpet like we did?

Minus the bling, it's actually a nice fireplace.

Hi stove! Remember how you died a week after we moved in? I do!

On the first day in, we started ripping out the carpeting in all the rooms, removing the tile underneath that was cracked and broken, removing the fake wood paneling ON EVERY WALL (it felt like it!). Since then, we've replaced every fan, every light fixture, all the kitchen appliances, repainted EVERY WALL (literally), painted all the cabinets, redone the counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms, replaced the mirrors, put in new floors and molding, painted the doors, replaced the fence ... guys, it's been work. We were stupid to buy this house.

However, it does look a LOT better! And when you rattle off all the things we've done, man, it does feel good. We've put ourselves into this house.

But, again, I hate our front door.

It's just boring. And it's been ignored. It's plain and white and ... boring. So when I built and painted our kids' sandbox, I used the BRIGHT blue leftover for the front door. And, please know this, it's NOT a timid color. It's very blue.

See?

You may need sunglasses.

But now I need something to break up the blue. I've thought about adding molding, then painting them. I might do that. But my first step, I do believe, is to make an all-season wreath.

That's on my to-craft list.

When it's done, I promise, pics will be posted.