Slate backsplash with white cabinets!

BEFORE BACKSPLASH AND COUNTERS

We have been meaning to do this project for a little while, but sometimes we get project exhausted.  So one day while I was at Lowe's they were calling my name from the shelf! I picked up a few boxes and some premixed thinset for walls and went on my merry way! I had those done within the first 30 minutes of arriving back home and was ready for more.  We designed our area that will be above the sink and did all the pieces I could do without having to use the dreaded saw! I always have visions of cutting off my fingers. Then I had to wait.  OF course November is hunting season and September and December so only after dark and when we weren't completely exhausted could this get done.  It finally was completed last night (in between church and bass pro shop, dinner, working out and hanging with our kids) and ready for grout, which I did this morning!!! :)

We wanted to do a rustic backsplash since the cabinets were white (we scored them off craigslist and it was too good of a deal to pass up!! We had enough to do a basement kitchen, a work bench for hubby in his hunting room and hang a gorgeous glass one in the laundry TALK ABOUT SCORING BIG!!) But with my husband being an outdoorsman we wanted to keep with a more rustic theme for the basement! So slate seemed like a good option!



DURING, poor husband!

                                                                Before grout, but tile is set!

                                                  Ta DA!!!!!!

                                          It looks even better and more colorful in person!!
                                                            

Dresser redo with mosiac tiles :)

It's been awhile.  But here is what I have been working on this week.  My Mom lived with us for a little while after selling her house.  When she moved she left us this bedroom set.  In my head I wanted to redo it for my son.  Then when I started putting away his summer clothes I realized there was an empty drawer in his one dresser and he didn't need this much storage for clothes, afterall he is a boy.  So I thought then I would redo them just for the guest room to look brighter.  As I painted other ideas started popping into my head.  I have to say I think they turned out well!

Here is the before picture, I FINALLY remembered to take one, at least of the one dresser!

I sanded them all down to rough them up and then coated them in primer.  Then I painted them.  I found some nice put cheap knobs at Home Depot, since these pieces required so many knobs!! :-O Then when they were done I thought of these little tiles I paid $1 a sheet for on clearance at lowes about a year ago.  I have been itching to use it on something, I had a sheet and a half which wasn't quite enough for most projects.  Then it hit me as I was painting these dresser.  I was excited to use it and gives the dress a pop that I love.  Plus it feels kind of beachy to me.  I am very happy with the way they turned out!!!

Winter project: redo basement

Our basement was less than exciting when we moved in.  I can't really tell you how to do it, hubby is multi-talented and seems to be able to figure out how to do almost anything.  I am so lucky and blessed that way!  But I did want to share some of our before and after pictures.  Just for fun!

We did everything ourselves, except enlisted my Dad to put the new french doors to the patio in and the drop ceiling was done by Jeremy's Uncle.

The cabinets were a craigslist special.  We were able to make them work for this space and had a beautiful glass one left over we hung in the laundry room as well as a whole work bench we put in my husband's hunting room!

Before: Future Kitchen Area



After Kitchen Area, eventually we would like to get a small fridge for under that cabinet
We did the tile here ourselves, hubby cut it I laid it and grouted it.  It's holding up good so far! This was our third
experience with tiling I think.  We chose Castle Stone Harvest from Lowes.







The next area was the living room area. We used the vinyl plank flooring in here. I love how easy to clean it is and has seemed to hold up very well so far to kids and pets and even some foster dogs. We had it all installed within about 3-4 hours.

The last area we wanted a table for games or extra eating space when we have company.  Maybe one day a pool table of course this is where Mr. Deerhead goes as well!

So that is what we spent all winter working on in our spare time.  Hubby did an amazing job figuring out the drywalling thing.  We went through a couple paint colors but like what we finally agreed on after me repainting it.











Canvas tutorial, personalizing our home

Make your own "canvas" tutorial

My canvas art going up the stairs

We have previously before this house moved 4 times in a 1 1/2 year period.  During this time every house we lived in had been for sale.  So I was used to the few family pictures set out on a table I could easily take down for showings.  I became accustomed to decorating without personalizing.  So as we had been here for almost 2 years I still had few family photos on the walls.  I also am not a huge fan of mismatched frames.  I went to hobby lobby to look for some frames for the stairway and even on sale at 50% they were going to cost me $11 a piece for the cheap ones.  That wasn't going to work for me.  So I got on pinterest to look up spacing and came accross a cool idea.

I picked up 3 foam boards (the extra thick ones, that's how they are labeled) at hobby lobby on sale 30% off (I have only used about 1 2/3 of them yet though), some spray adhesive (photo safe) and ordered some of my favorite family photos from CVS.  I had some dark brown spray paint lying around so I didn't have to buy any of that.  I laid my pictures on the board and traced with pencil.  Then removed the pictures and cut with a razor blade box cutter type knife.  I got pictures in three sizes 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 to give it a little mix. 



Foam board pictured above

Then I took the boards outside and spray painted the sides and overlapped it to cut in a little on the tops in case it wasn't perfect on top no white would show through on the picture.  When the paint dried which didn't take very long thank goodness, I sprayed a mist of glue spray on the board and added my pictures.  This project only took me about an hour!!! (be careful not to overspray the glue)

Then one of the best parts is they are pretty light, so I used some mirror mounting double sided foamy tape to mount them up.  I hung a few up, stood back and then kept going.  Took a picture, rearranged a few and TA DA.....looks pretty cool!

I also picked up the W from Hobby Lobby for like $1.29 and spray painted it.

My 3 year old isn't used to so many pictures on the wall, we had taken them down when he was little and we were trying to sell our house.  He said there should only be 2 pictures on the wall! LOL he consistently cracks me up.  I love looking at all the fun memories on the wall each time I go up and down.  I saved some space for a hopeful Disney trip next year, one for our Hawaii trip this fall and also family portraits that we hope to get taken this fall by our favorite photographer, Shooting Stars Portraits!!! If you are local to Michigan, check them out!

What I really love even more is no nail holes in the wall and I can take them down and move them whenever!



A kind of side view of the sides of the "canvases" Excuse the hand rail on the carpet we have been working on the wainscoting up the stairs in the upstairs hall.  That project blog to come soon! :)



A close up of my new art! 

Restore Stain

Product Review: Restore Stain
http://www.synta.com/synta_store/index.php?p=catalog&parent=4&pg=1

So onto the deck.  We have appr. 625 square foot deck off the back of our house.  I stained it last summer.  Hubby never liked the color and commented on it often.  Not only the color but the boards were starting to warp slightly and crack. 



BEFORE

On one of our many trips to Home Depot we came accross this product.  There are displays all over here in the Home Depots.  They have the product at Lowe's too, but they don't seem to display it.  We were skeptical but did some research and decided to go for it.  Restore is more than a stain it is a thick covering.  It fills in all the cracks (up to 1/2") and gives it almost a trex decking feel and appearance.

While doing reviews we noticed that many people complained about the amount of time and patience it took to put the product on as it is pretty thick.  If you have ever worked with sanded grout, think rolling sanded grout onto your deck with this meshy plastic roller.  I went and purchased a better roller since ours was a cheapo dollar store one that wasn't cutting it.  Then since I am so used to working with paint I wanted to roll it too thin.  Hubby took over most of the rolling and I painted the base of the deck and the posts and cut in around the house.  I am not know for my patience.  It took us a little over a week working mostly at night since the 100 degree days were so hot here the top layer of the product was drying before we could roll it on good enough.

There are 2 looks the backbrushed smoot or the rough.  We tried both and opted for the rough look.  It was sticky for the first week or so as the product takes 21 days to fully cure. Now it is beautiful and we love it. Just make sure not to put it on if it is supposed to rain in the next 24 hours.

AFTER

We Chose the Winchester color as it complimented our tan siding without matching it too much.

Self improvement: my journey with my fitness pal

Self improvement

So as we have been working on our home and raising kids sometimes us Moms get pushed to the back of the list.  So lately I have been working on self improvement (diet and exercise)

I have to thank the makers of my fitness pal for this blog entry.  The other day I hit 100 days logging in. I also took a pole dancing 4 week class with my sister and my hubby and I have been doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred 3-4 times a week.  This paired with eating healthier and getting in more exercise (bike rides and such) I blew my 14 lb weight loss goal away when I stepped on the scale this morning.  I am now down 15 1/2 lbs.  My long term goal now will be to keep it off and stay in shape (this will be the tougher goal!

BEFORE

For some reason I cannot figure out how to flip this picture but this is after and feeling GREAT!

A pink bow: a new hobby!

A Pink Bow

No not that kind!!

This kind!

Yesterday afternoon after church we were sitting around the house.  It was really too hot outside to be enjoyable.  So we decided to trek over to our favorite store (the kids and hubby's favorite store anyway, I like the mandarin ducks there though) Bass Pro Shop.  Jeremy had a gift card from his birthday (in March) he still hadn't spent.  So as we looked at guns, trail cams, food plot seed, the ducks, books, camo recliners, pictures, fishing poles (in pink, well that's what I looked at) clothing, etc. Then we decided to head up and check out the cross bows.  That's when it happened...did you know they make pink bows? I looked at it and said it was cute, the next thing I know hubby is saying, "If you want it I will buy it right now!" (If you know my husband this is shocking in itself, he is not a big spender. He is an amazingly thoughtful gift giver and loving man, but he doesn't just spend money to spend money) Of course as a Mom and wife I am always thinking of what I can buy for the kids or hubby or the house.  I have a hard time spending money on myself, I just feel guilty (unless it's a garage sale love cute cheap clothes from garage sales)  And besides home improvement (if you can call that a hobby, can you?) I have never really had a hobby to call my own.  Hubby has been bugging me to find something (other than home improving) that I would like to do.  He has been pushing golf (never golfed in my life.) He wanted to do something together (that does sound nice, doesn't it?) So before I knew it the bow was off the shelf and they (salesman and hubby) were taking me to try shooting it in the indoor range.  I still am unsure how all of this happened. I was shooting it, I failed miserably with 2 shots but hubby was insistent that I would like it and we should get it.  Before I knew it we were walking out (we did pay for it first) with the PINK bow (pink being the more important word there).  Next step PINK arrows and maybe a PINK release (for now I am trying out hubby's to see what kind I like) :)

Hubby even called me this afternoon to see if I shot it yet (I am waiting for him to get home for this.) When I said no, he said well did you go look at it? I am not sure who is more excited (ok, he is for sure) But it would be nice to have a hobby that we can enjoy together.  Hopefully I will be good at this. (I have never liked anything hobby wise to work at being good at it, nothing hobby wise has ever been that important to me. Even as a kid.) I feel like the Brave princess, Merida with my curly hair and new (pink) bow!

Me trying to figure out how to look through that teeny hole! (peephole I think it's called)

I had to share his note to me on our I LOVE YOU board this morning, just in case his excitement did not come across clearly enough in my story LOL :) LOVE HIM!

Just to verify for you all how much my Hubby loves shooting (here he is teaching our 3 year old son)

Decorating a little boys room (who loves hunting)

My husband loves hunting so I think it was inevitable that my son would also love hunting! So when we were decorating his room in our new home I wanted to find some mock animal mounts.  They were kind of pricey though---about $50 each or so.  So I tried to think of something else.  That's when I came accross this bear and moose in the stuffed animal bin at salvation army.  I cut off their heads, I know morbid right.  Anyway, then stained these wood plaques I picked up at hobby lobby and stapled the heads to the plaques.  ****TA DA**** cheap animal head mounts.  My 3year old  (2 at the time we decorated, hence the crib)  LOVES them!

Framing in a mirror

Framing in a mirror

Both of the bathrooms in our home when we bought it had those big mirrors glued to the wall.  The powder room had no mirror at all. Anyway, they were boring.  When we decorated our master bathroom we added a frame with molding and it looked good.  It was a huge change for minimal cost especially since this mirror is seriously HUGE! The kids bathroom however kind of got forgotten about.  I had painted it a brown color and although I didn't hate it I wasn't really in love with it either.  So I just left it all the way it was for about 2 years.  I didn't want to repaint just any color.

The brown color I wasn't thrilled with.  It was kind of gloomy and the counters and tiles all just matched. 

This brings me to last week.  I was looking around on pinterest just to look and I came accross this blog: http://www.sandandsisal.com/2011/10/my-boys-beach-themed-bathroom.html
I was inspired by her boys bathroom.  I had started with an Americana theme since I have a boy and girl sharing the bathroom I didn't want to go too masculine or feminine.  Then the Americana theme started to lean towards beach theme.  So the color I decided would fit my bathroom perfectly.  I stopped by Benjamin Moore and bought my paint.  After I got that on the wall I went molding shopping, I had to buy 2 different kinds of moldings and return them to Home Depot before I found the perfect one at Lowes.  I used a casing molding (the kind that goes around windows and doors).  I originally purchased crown molding but that will not work since it does not cover the edges or the mirror. (My hubby pointed this out) Then we came to the problem that the mirror in this bathroom was not HUGE and covering it up like in the other blog I was looking at would make it look teeny! Although that was is much more user friendly for people that do not have lots of tools etc.  Thankfully God blessed me with a very handy husband. I don't have a picture (I told you I was terrible at before pictures) of the before but this is after we added the luan (spelling?) thin, cheap wood.  To build it up enough my husband used 2 layers of this, so he could then overlap the molding a half inch to cover the mirror clips holding the mirror on the wall! This goes around the perimeter of the mirror and we used a nail gun to hold it up on the wall. So you can see the mirror would have been pretty small.  Also, by making it bigger, it actually centers it better over the countertop.

Notice in the picture below the frame is painted about an inch all the way around in black paint.  I used craft paint since it dries fast and I am impatient, especially when excited about a project! This blacks out the mirror, since mirrors reflect.

Then we have our frame.  Cut two exact pieces the same length at a 45 for the sides and then cut two more exact pieces for the top and bottom at a 45.  The lady in the blog used some kind of contact cement adhesive. Hubby used a nail gun.  On one corner the nail went through and we had to do some repair work. The glue may be a better idea in this case because the frame is pretty fragile. I caulked and painted my frame in semi gloss white paint. I then started to piece in the tiles I bought at Home Depot for $4.98 a sheet, we used about a sheet and a half. I put them all on there and made my cuts with scissors on the mesh that holds them together.  Where it overlapped a little on the edge I just readjusted the spaces a little to squeeze them all in and you cannot even tell!  I used Power Grab glue for this that dries clear and it was on there pretty good after only about 5 minutes. After this it was ready to hang up.  We again attached the frame to the wood with a nail gun, I caulked the holes and touched them up with paint and then......

*******TA DA*********..... we have a finished frame that looks totally custom (well, it is) I am so in love with it and have found myself going up there just to look at it! I am that proud! Silly I know, but if I would have remembered to take a true before picture you would truly know the AWE effect!

Looks pretty great if I do say so myself.  I do plan on finding a new valance for the window.... stay tuned! :)
















Product Review: DAPPER SNAPPER

www.dappersnappers.com

Problem: I have two skinny and tall children.  Whenever they outgrow their pants length wise their new pants fall off their bums.  Then their underwear or bum cracks are hanging out for the world too see. This especially bothers my husband.

Solution: We could go out and buy all adjustable waist pants, however even these still would fall off my children. Also, since we are more frugal I like to buy pants at garage sales. Kids don't wear clothes long enough to wreck all of them and I find GREAT deals at garage sales.  Only at garage sales are quarters and 50 cents worth anything anymore. A pair of gap or children's place pants for 50 cents, YES PLEASE! So by purchasing these dapper snappers for less than the cost of a retail pair of pants I make any and all of my children's pants fit.  From infant to my 7 year old.

I LOVE this product so much! We have 4 of them now and have been using them since my daughter for 2 years old.  How hard is it to find a belt for a 2 year old that actually works and doesn't leave marks on her skin? TOUGH! So when I found this product I jumped for joy!

I had to share the good news to other parents who don't yet know about this great product!

ENJOY! 

They dont make things the same: dresser redo

They just don't make things like they used too!

This is the dilemma I was dealing with when deciding what to do about my son's dresser.  I bought this dresser from a thrift store when I was pregnant with my now 7 year old daughter for $20.  It worked great for her with a changing pad on top.  It sure needed a facelift though.  My daughter got new girly furniture so this was handed down to my son's room when we were expecting him.  Just recently (he is 3 now) I couldn't stand it anymore.  I also knew that most things I would buy at Art Van or similar stores just would not hold up to an active 3 year old boy as most things are not very well made anymore.  The dresser we have is a SOLID piece and very well made so I knew my best option was trying to redo it first.

I knew as with most projects this idea wasn't going away so I thought and thought about how to redo it.  He has a natural wood rusticy type headboard so going all the way black wasnt' an option.  I bought some paint and sanding blocks and got to work.  It had some nice designs in it that I was able to bring out by painting them black and leaving it "trimmed" in the natural wood color to still match his bed. When I went to find 7" handles at home depot and lowes and ace they were special order for $30 a piece.  Not in my budget at that point I might as well buy something new.  So I enlisted hubby to drill two more holes and do two handles and all the handles and 3 knobs together cost about $34.

Again bad at before pictures but here is the best one I could find (I guess I never think it is going to turn out good enough to warrant a "before" picture and I am always too excited to get started and see the after)


Just a small section of the before but it all looked like this.  The top was the worst, had lots of scratches and some water damage I was able to sand off :)





Total cost paint $10 new handles $34 from lowes. 

I am very happy with the outcome of his dresser.  I was nervous until I added the handles, but I think they spiced it up so the total package turned out pretty well! :)



Project Review: Paper Bag Flooring on the Stairs

Dilemma: Stairs going to basement

They were a mess, beat up wood stairs with a 1' x 3' shredded and stained and fraying green and white berber carpeting attached with roofing nails.  I am trying to build the picture in your mind so you can visualize because again I am terrible at taking "before" pictures. I need to get better, especially if I am going to blog more ideas. It's hard to tell how good after looks unless you have seen the before.

I saw on a blog where they painted the treds in a semi transparent stain.  So I went out and bought some and decided that is what I was going to do.  My husband was less than thrilled about this idea.  That's when I came accross this idea.  Seemed simple enough for me to accomplish while hubby was at work.  I like projects I can get lots of it done while hubby is at work, I also like projects I can get the kids to help me with. I am not sure why it is called paper bag flooring only because you use brown crafting paper rolls. 

Supply list should you want to attempt this:

-Roll of brown crafting/painting paper (you can find this in the painting aisles at home depot or lowes)

-1 gallon of floor grade polyurethane, I got semi gloss (I bought quick dry I am impatient)

-brush or foam brush to put on polyurethane

-Glue- Elmer's glue or any other kind of glue- Michaels had decompage glue on sale so that is what I bought.  I bought 3 16 oz. containers and only ended up using 2 of them.

-Stain- if you would like the flooring to have a darker color, I think that it also worked in nicely to the wrinkles in the paper to bring them out more. I used a golden oak stain but the color turned out much darker than that.

-water

-bowls for mixing the glue/water mixture 3-1 ratio.

To get started you want to rip the pieces of paper into sections, smaller for stairs, larger for whole rooms or hallways.  Then crumple them up into balls.  I put them in mop buckets, edge pieces and middle pieces.  Then throw them into the glue mixture (not too long just to soak them), squeeze them out and uncrumple and aoply it on the surface you are covering.  Be sure to get out air bubbles and such.  Keep going, for the stairs I had to wrap them around the front piece.  I also did every other stair as we have a wood stove in the basement to heat our house and I needed to be able to use the stairs.  Let dry 3-4 hours and then stain.  After staining let dry the amount of time recommended on back of stain container and then put your first coat of polyurethane on.  I put 5 coats on my stairs due to heavy foot traffic, 2 kids and 2 dogs.  It took me awhile.  I would put one on before bed, wake up and put another one on.  Sand lightly between coats after you have a few coats on you can give it a good sanding down to get any wrinkles or bumps out. I did a medium sand I liked the textured look.

Here are some during the project phots.

Every other stair complete with stain and one coat poly

 After pics, hubby added some nice trim.  I like the way he wrapped it down around the bottom landing! He is so creative!

After with molding

We decided to complete the back of the stairs with a sheet of bead board paneling.  It took one sheet.  Hubby cut it with a table saw.   We like the clean cut look of the white against the darker wood look.

 We are happy with the way it turned out and so far it is holding up great with our family and pets and I have no complaints after several months of heavy use. Most people have no idea what it is we used and when we tell them they are impressed.  LOL I am very happy with the way this project turned out.

Product Review: Dye Brick www.dyebrick.com

In our old house we came to the point where we needed a new roof and new t-1-11 or siding.  We really hated our brick color though and didn't want to try to match up siding and roof colors to the hideous brick.  There aren't a lot of cheap options though: rebrick (not in our budget), paint it (in our budget but I think it doesn't look good and that is just my personal humble opinion) So I started doing some research online when I ran across this product called dyebrick.  Sounds like a daunting project to hand stain each brick by hand? Sure does!! I also had a 5 month old and 4 year old at the time too!  So during naps I would grab the monitor and sneak outside with my 4 year old while she played next to me and it took me all summer.  The results were amazing though and we LOVED it! In fact it didn't even look like the same house.  See for yourself below.

BEFORE Dyebrick:

Saying goodbye to the 1970's

After Dye Brick (note we also did new siding and a new roof which we had planned to do anyway as the house was that age)

Front view of hosue, we decided to go with a more timeless and classic color scheme (red and white with black accents)

Side view of house