Summer projects: Living room tables

So apparently once you start teaching full time it leaves no time for anything else. Including blogging. Next year I start my third year of teaching, and hopefully I'll have gotten the hang of it enough to blog maybe once or twice next year! 😜 just kidding. Kinda.

Well, now that it's summer, I've had some time to do some projects. I have to say that my list of what I want to accomplish this summer is pretty long. First up are my living room tables. My parents gave us their old set of tables once they redid their living room. And I HATED the finish. Yellow/orange finish is not my favorite. Thankfully refinishing is an easy fix...or so I thought. 

The "before"

These tables were seriously a pain. Do you see those rounded legs? Not so fun to get the old finish off. I decided that stripping would be the way to go. I did some research and thought, "this will be a piece of cake!" Yeah, not so much. That shit got everywhere. At least I am extremely happy with the end result! Aren't they cute? AND they go with my new living room rug! Adorbs.

The "after"

The "details" of the project:

First I used Citistrip stripping gel. I applied the gel and let it sit for an hour (this stuff stays sticky for up to 24 hours). Then using a plastic thingy I scraped the gel into a bowl and made a huge mess. Not kidding. The gel was extremely difficult to scrape off the rounded edges and I got really frustrated and used many expletives during the whole process. Once I was done scraping most of the gel of off the wood I used mineral spirits to clean/wipe off the rest. Seriously, did I miss a step? I have no idea. It was a pain in the ass for this size of a project. #endrant 

Once all of the gel was removed I broke out the orbital sander and sanded with 60 and 120 grit sandpaper for the top of the tables. I then used a sandpaper sponge thingy (actual name) and sanded the bottom part of the table by hand. I didn't do that great of a job because I knew I was going to be painting the bottom part white and I got lazy. Plus it was hot outside...

I painted 2 coats of off white paint on the bottom then used more 60 grit sandpaper to give it a distressed look. I used Varathane wood stain in Dark Walnut on the top of the table, and then applied 3 coats of Poly to achieve my final look! 

Hope you like! ❤️

DIY Catch-All

 

Today I wanted to share a project that I made that is both functional and cute.  

I am obsessed with Pinterest, as many of you probably share the same obsession, you may have seen similar projects before. 

Anyways, I saw the ever popular sharpie mugs, and the diy cake stand/ catch-alls and knew I wanted to do a combination of the two.   

Seriously this may have been the easiest diy ever. 

All you need:

• 2 plates/ bowls (I got mine from the dollar store) 
• A candlestick (thrifted ones are cheap/ they had lots of options) 
• Some sort of epoxy ( I used E-6000 which might be the best super strong craft glue around, if you ask me. I usually carry some around in my purse and even fixed a student's shoe with it once, no joke.)
• Oil-based paint sharpie (yes it has to be the more expensive paint sharpie, otherwise it washes off when you try to clean it)

Total for me was around $4 since I already had the glue and the sharpies. I like cheap- being on a teacher salary and all.

All you need to do now is create your pattern, sharpie your plates, stick them in the oven at 350° Bake them for 15 minutes (keep them in the oven as it cools otherwise your plates could break). 

Once they are cool, spread a light layer of glue on the candlestick, and stick it on the plate. Wait for it to dry and repeat the process with the other plate. 

Viola.  Instant cuteness.

Now put it somewhere where it will be the most useful...ours ended up on our counter and collects spare change, pens. and the mail.

Also sorry for the lack of photos- my laptop was stolen over the summer and it had all of my "during the process of this craft" pictures :(

My next post will be full of the wedding crafts I made for my wedding over the summer.  I know you're just dying with anticipation so I'll try not to wait 6 months before I post next.
<3

DIY No Sew Ruffle Shower Curtain

Hello there!

It has been awhile, hasn't it?  Sorry for the long delay, I have recently gone through some life changes that have made blogging (and crafting) very difficult.  Thankfully they are good life changes! :) I recently got engaged and am getting married at the end of the summer! I am so very excited to start this new chapter of my life and to marry my best friend! I have been waiting for this moment for YEARS.  Literally we have been together for 7+ years now.

I also have been finishing up my SPED endorsement, and we moved to a bigger house (which was much needed)!!!

So needless to say, I've been BUSY!

Anyways summer is almost here, which means lots of spare time to craft and blog. Even though I've been busy, I have been able to do some crafting.  And I have so many projects on my to do list that I can't wait for school to be out!

Here is the first project I've done since we moved:

Isn't it the cutest? I saw this blog post and I knew I had to do one of my own.  It was a fairly simple project. I bought a $15 plain white shower curtain along with a $15 king size white flat sheet both from Walmart. Not the cheapest project, but I knew I wanted a white ruffled shower curtain and I couldn't find one anywhere. 

First I cut the sheet into 10" strips. Then I started ruffling. 

To ruffle: I made my ruffles on the larger side, but this would work for smaller ruffles too.

- start from one side of the curtain, lay down a line of glue, press 10" fabric strip on glue

-then on the last inch of fabric that was glued down, you are going to glue your fabric back, folded in on itself.  Accordion style.

- then keeping your fabric folded over you will lay another line of glue, creating your ruffle.

You can see the last step in the photo....if you can see the glue.  Sorry it's so hard to see.  Apparently clear glue is hard to see on white curtains.  What?

The only thing is that my ruffles lay really flat.  I would have liked them to be a bit fuller, but I couldn't figure it out without screwing up the whole line.

Here is a close up of the completed ruffle.

Oh I also wanted to mention that I made sure to overlap my ruffles by about 2" each.  You may want to measure out the length of your curtain to make sure it all matches up.  I didn't...thank goodness it all worked out in the end! Also at the top of my curtain I just punched holes through the fabric to slip the shower rings through.  

I'm pretty happy with the overall product! I may end up dip dying them at a later date.  We registered for an awesome bed set, and if we get that then I might want to add some color to that bad boy.

I'll leave you with an adorable picture of my little helper.  Who actually was a huge pain in the ass the entire time I was working on this curtain.  I would have to constantly pick him up and move him to a completed part of the project! haha. It's a good thing he's cute, or I would not have tolerated it! 

I'll be back soon, I've done a lot of outdoor projects that I can't wait to share! 

<3

What I've been up to...

Work/school > blogging.

Which is why there has been a lack of posts.  But what I lack in posts I make up in pictures.  I have been really loving the crafts I've been making lately! So here's a look into my busy crafting world:


DIY dresser:  I bought this incredibly awesome vintage looking dresser (which is really a buffet, but I'm using it as a dresser)  earlier this year...around the end of the school year last year.  I meant to up-cycle it this summer, but summer snuck by rather quickly and I didn't even look at it. Thankfully we have had a wonderful extended summer.  (October, and still sunny and warm- which is unheard of in the Pacific NW!!! ) And I've been able to finally do this damn dresser.

Before- (sorry for the sucky iphone picture.)

As you can see- not the cutest of browns.

During: 2 coats of paint w/o the distressing

After: The final product!!

                                           

                            a view from the top

It might be my favorite up-cycle ever.  It turned out better than I could have imagined! Plus distressing was really fun! At first I was really nervous- but I read a really helpful tutorial found here which details distressing furniture   Then I just went away with the sander, the more I sanded, the more I loved it! Also I kept the original hardware which really makes the off white color really stand out. (it was also laziness- I couldn't find the putty when I was sanding/ painting, so I couldn't drill new holes)

Now I need to find really cute baskets to fill the empty spaces! AND I have the dresser doors to do something else crafty with.

Here are some other random projects I've been working on:

Art for my kitchen. I'm obsessed with dandelions....

 

 Paint chip art (ignore the goodwill sticker on the glass)  I need to do something with this so that the paint chips lay flat. Also if you were wondering, yes I did paint the frame as well. In that cutie cute Martha Stuart paint pictured above.  The paint is called Cloud.  BEST PAINT COLOR EVER! I use it on everything. Go get some, seriously you wont regret it. (and no I'm not getting paid to endorse it, I just love it that much!)

 Painted Mason Jars with $ Tree flowers.  The second one in is spray painted on the outside, then I distressed it.  The others are painted on the inside.

  Remote holder:  I found this awesome recipe holder at goodwill and I knew it would be perfect for my remotes!  I spray painted it brown, stenciled it, then added scrap book paper to the inside, and gave it a final layer of clear gloss.  Here is the final product.

 a look at the inside. 

Gallery Wall: 

I've been meaning to hang all of these pictures up forever but I hadn't found the motivation until last weekend.  All of the frames were thrifted and I painted them all. Oops most of them are thrifted.  The only two that aren't are the biggest ones.  The frame with the big flower and the frame in the top right corner with Mount Hood. 

 I bought more frames this weekend- and am planning to add to the wall.  there are still some empty spaces- plus I want to add more pictures with friends.

Finally I'm done...well there would be more but I can't find the other memory card with the rest of my pictures. oh well I feel like this should tide you over until next time!

<3 Lauren

Terrariums

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile...we went on vacation (which was awesome) and school started (which was crazy stressful) so I've been pretty busy!

I've seen a lot of terrariums on Pinterest though I didn't really fall in love with the look of them until I saw them on tv.  (the show being Baby Daddy if you were wondering {which I thought would be stupid but really I kind of love it!})

 







See how cute they are!!  Well once I saw those I knew I had to make some for myself. 
Unfortunately for me- mine did not come out as cute. But cute enough......

Pros: this craft was cheap. and I mean cheap, like $12 cheap- for both terrariums. I looked at a couple of tutorials before I made mine.  What they didn't mention was that this craft isn't as easy as it looks.  I mean on the craft scale this doesn't rank too highly, but I thought this would be easy peasy.  First my layering skills are better when it comes to clothing.

The rocks and the dirt were a pain in the ass- the pictures don't show it so much- but there isn't a defined line of rocks/dirt.  Also my plants were a lot bigger than the opening of my jars (or are they vases?) so there were a few fatalities as I tried to squeeze the succulent plants in!

I like them well enough. I'll see how long they last.  Considering I don't have a green thumb, or the full sun exposure that they need to survive, and they provide a great living space for spiders....

 

<3 Lauren

 

Also if I could redo them I would choose larger glass containers, and add more layers. Like this:

I especially love the last one! And maybe try to find the same glass containers that were in Chelsea Staub Kane's set apartment.

Dip Dye

Earlier this summer I got a wild hair and decided we needed to give our cabinets a new coat of paint.  They were redish/brown and frankly I was sick of them.  Our kitchen is straight out of the 70's complete with mustard yellow countertops.  What goes with mustard color countertops!? Not much unfortunately.  But we finally settled on light gray- which looks fine...But now that the cabinets are done our kitchen is feeling a little too blah. Not nearly enough color!! So without telling my boyfriend I decided I would give our kitchen a little pop of color.  For those of you who know Cameron, you know he is not a fan of bright colors. Which is why I didn't tell him that I did this:

(Oh god. Please ignore the messiness!)

I saw some tutorials on Pinterest on dip dying and I thought it would be an easy way to incorprate yellow into our boring kitchen!  It was such an easy craft, and cheap too.  All I needed was the rit dye since I already had the curtains on hand. The dye went too far up for my liking which was completely my fault since I was talking to my mom on the phone while I was dipping, which probably wasn't the best idea, but cest le vie.

- Lauren

First

So here it is: my first (and probably last) attempt at blogging. I decided that with my obsession in Pinterest and crafting, why not write about it!?! And BONUS this will give me a chance to use my fancy schmancy camera that I got for Christmas on a regular basis! Hooray!


Pinterest has made me fall in love with furniture upcycling. So when I spoted this old, beat up sewing table -I immediately saw the cuteness potential- and I had to have it! My boyfriend said that I shouldn't waste my 16$ on it- but when have I ever listened to him?


So here it is before (after I sanded the hell out of it)
:

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                       

and after! Isn't it adorbs?? I am so in love with it. Now I need to learn how to sew.

Pinspiration for the drawers:

 

                                                                                                                                           - Lauren