While The Hubby Is Away.... Momma Shall Play -My Tradition

So I have this tradition...and it's never been broken...Every time Len goes out of town for a weekend or more, I redo something in the house. Not that there's a goal to redo everything, I just jump on the opportunity to get stuff done while he's away! I can't really work on projects when he's home.
During past times I've:
Repainted our bedroom
Repainted both living rooms
Refinished a bookshelf
Finished Kennley's room
Got a new couch and rearranged the family room
And many other smaller projects and others I'm just not remembering right now.

So this time I did what I'd been wanting to do for a while now...change the TV stand. Now the black TV stand (well, dresser) was nice and better than the huge 'cowboy cabinet' thing we used to have. But hey, that one was free. My goal was to eventually get rid of everything black in the living room. Started with the couch...then the large frames...now the TV stand...and someday we'll get a different coffee table...

I knew what I wanted it to look like, but didn't know where to get one from. I looked for days online to get a feel for what styles were out there and then checked Craigslist daily. I figured I needed between $65-90 to purchase one from Craigslist. (Side Note: I believe we are at #92 successful Craigslist transactions...might have a party or something once we reach #100!) I decided to join my neighbor on Saturday and have a garage sale, hoping to make $65-90! Well, on Friday night I was given one of the nicest TV stands I've ever seen...for free!! Thank you Jesus! :)
Here's what it looked like:

(Of course I forgot to take a real Before photo...this is after I sanded it!)
Another view...beautiful wood...almost felt bad painting it.

The process: Primer!

Two coats of fire engine red paint (no cost for supplies since the red paint was leftover from the front door and mom supplied the stain)

(That's how I roll...I always work right on top of the carpet...It's worked for me so far.)
Disclaimer: I am not saying you should do that too! :)

Since when do we pose like this??

Stain (brush one, wipe off...repeat a million times) and a coat of polyurethane applied!

Another view of the stain:

Now I can clean the TV for the last time since no little fingers can touch it now! Bwahaha!

See Ry's pumpkin she grew! :) Oh and that little black thing by the statue is an iPod dock...never heard of that!

So there ya have it...come over and see it sometime...or just see me! :)

Holy Guacamole...it's been awhile :)

Well a lot's been going on and most of it I can't show because it involves Christmas presents...seriously, there is a mountain of fabric that Ry can squat and hide behind in my living room. :) So far we've wrapped 4 Christmas gifts...they are sitting under our barker's rake anxiously awaiting the day they will be under a Christmas tree. :)

When I am able to plan ahead, I love to get things done ahead of time so I'm not stressed for time closer to the date.  With Christmas gifts, I try to start buying, or at least making a list, in July.  We have a 'gift' budget each month and some months I spend it on future gifts, like Christmas.  We also put money from each paycheck in an envelope so that we have money to spend on Christmas gifts.  If you don't have a plan for Christmas gifts, make one! Putting $20 a paycheck aside is an easy thing to do.  I love the freedom that comes with shopping with money that has been set aside specifically for that purpose.

One craft I tried and loved this week was making 'fake makeup'. Ry had been playing with my empty makeup containers so I figured she'd probably like them even more if they had color to them. So I poured a couple different colors of nail polish into the containers and let them dry.  Now she has REAL 'fake makeup'.  :)
I've collected some more containers from other people and plan on making some more and putting them in a cute personalized bag and giving them as a gift for a cute little niece. Shhh. :)

Do you dehydrate? I am slowly learning more recipes, but the main reason I bought a good dehydrator was for fruit roll ups! Banana has been our favorite flavor so far. I was inspired by Kenn's baby food flavored - Mixed Berry Banana....yum! :)  So I added a bunch of blackberries, and a couple raspberries and strawberries to 3 bananas in the food processor, added a touch of agave nectar and...

tastes like a Jamba Juice smoothie! 7 hours later...

20 minutes later... it's all gone...
Yes, it's that good!

Anyway...here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on the past 4 days...will post tomorrow?

(Why is the TV on the floor??)  :)

Craft Follow Up

Last post I had these two pictures:

Time for an update: Here's the only picture I could find of the original collage frame. (I had one that said 'Memories' and another that said 'Family'.

They didn't work anymore in our new living room arrangement but I didn't want to just throw them out. So I stripped them completely apart and reused the frame and wooden letters for this project. I spray-painted the frames white, cut some vinyl garden fence to size (instead of chickenwire), colored it with a black Sharpie on the front (it was green) and then superglued clips to each letter so I could attach them and rearrange them as I please and use them to hold up things I want to display. 

Right now I am using them to hold things I want to remember to pray for...or just need to remember, like birthday parties! I have a card from a sweet friend that lost a baby so I remember to pray for them every time I see it. I also have a birth announcement and a card from another friend...

On to the felt circles...This was my first attempt to make a pillow using felt. Here was the inspiration...

And here is my pillow using my colors:

I made smaller circles than the design pillow, but I love the multi-colored look. And it looks great on my couch! I plan on making a few more with different designs. My mother-in-law loved it too and asked if it would be possible to cut out different shapes, like leaves. I thought why not??! And...her birthday just happened to be a couple days away so I quickly began making a pillow for her, trying a leaf design...

She loved it!  :) Now to try some new colors...
More projects and recipes coming soon...

What a nice day to stay inside and get crafty!

Today I worked on a couple different projects and actually started and completed one in a single day! I know, amazing! :) Here was the inspiration:

 It's such a cute idea, but I wouldn't pay $24.95 for this piece that's only 15 inches tall.

Soooo, I bought a plain white 30 inch board and spray painted the edges with a metallic grey. I then typed up all my sayings on my friend's Cricut machine I'm borrowing. (Which is wonderful to have...with the family values frame thing I did, I cut out each letter by hand...) I glued them on and Voila!

 
I decided to just stick with food related things since I'm going to hang it by the kitchen table. I love that I spent less than $3 to make a bigger replica-type of my inspiration!

Here are 2 sneak peeks of other projects in the works...

Yeah, you're probably thinking "What the heck is that?"  :)

For the love of little boy clothes...

Um, yeah...I don't have a little boy, but I do have a growing collection of little boy clothes in a closet. It all started when we were told last pregnancy that we were having a boy, only to find out otherwise the next ultrasound. During that 2 weeks, I made a major score at childrensplace.com! Cutest clothes ever!! :) Well, I gave most of it away to friends and family for presents but still had a few left over. Add to that, I buy boys clothes whenever they are dirt cheap (to me, $2). I mean, come on, that's cheaper than Walmart prices. Most of the stuff in my collection was under $2 and that is so exciting to me. And I only buy what I really really love since I know I'll have plenty of other boy clothes to borrow from my step sis's 2 boys whenever we do have a boy.

Here's a peek at what I got in the past month:
JCPenney sales rock! (and I always have an add 15% off from saving my receipt and doing the online survey)

One is 6-9 months, the other 2T (and SO cute!)...I buy all sizes.

Children's Place: (again with the 15% coupons...they send them out all the time!)

Gotta love it!

So, little future boy...your momma's been preparing for your arrival for some time now...hope you like the clothes someday. :)

Now...do I work on a sewing project, a glue and paint project, an alteration project, or a quilting project...I mean, its just too hot to go play outside...

Oh, I have been absent the past many days scanning and editing old photos from mom...Sneak peek:

Man, if only I could edit that hairdo...