Ironing board storage

I'm so glad that the holidays are over. It's my favorite time of the year but after it's all said and done I'm just wiped out! We had a busy month between Matt and Levi's birthday, our 7th wedding anniversary and Christmas. In between it all I did have time to find a way to hang our ironing board in the laundry room.

I went to Pinterest and found my inspiration from The House of Smiths. She has a Silhouette but I don't.

If you aren't lucky enough to have the Silhouette vinyl machine then I'm going to show you how to make this the old fashioned way. Maybe someday I will buy a Silhouette!

I made this out of an old pallet that I grabbed on the curb. I had Matt pull off the pieces that I wanted to save for future projects. So here's what I started out with.


I read online to wipe the board down with bleach to kill any bacteria so I did just that.


Once the bleach was dry I filled in the cracks with white wood putty.


I let the wood putty sit for a few hours to dry really well and then I sanded it down to make it smooth. Here's the part that doesn't require a Silhouette. I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased the stick on letters for about $1.50. They have tons of choices so pick out what you like. I cut out each letter and placed it on the board to get an idea of where I wanted them to go. I did draw a line across the top in pencil to make sure I put the letters on level.

Once I had an idea of where I wanted the words to be I painted 2 coats of primer and then 2 coats of semi-gloss white paint. After the paint dried I carefully pealed my letters off and placed each one on.

*Tip* If you have a letter that starts to come up put a light coat of glue on the back of the letter and glue it down. Some of the corners of the letters started to peel up but after a little glue they're perfect again.


Before I show you the finished product I added picture hooks to the back of the board. But I didn't have any picture hooks so I used soda can tabs instead. I used pliers to bend the top of the tab out a bit and then put a huge glob of hot glue on top.


Here it is all finished. I purchased the two hooks from Walmart for $3 each. I did have Matt cut the extra wood off. This measures 18 inches long.

Now I just need to find an ironing board cover that I like and I will almost be done with the laundry room re-do.


Linking up to:
Craft-O-Maniac
Chic on a Shoestring
Beneath My Heart
Thrifty Decor Chick
Tutus & Tea Parties
Home Stories A to Z
House of Hepworths

Jute Christmas Trees {Tutorial}

Hello! Hello!

I hope your weekend was awesome. We had fun with our family this weekend. We celebrated Levi's and Matt's birthday. Tons of fun! The pictures will come soon.

Last week I posted pictures of my Christmas vignette. I showed you the picture of my Christmas trees that I made. They were pretty simple to make and I thought I would give you a tutorial on how I did it.

I wanted the look of the trees that you find now in Target or Pier 1 that are made of twigs. I couldn't find a picture of what I'm talking about but I know what I wanted in my head. Anyway, I wanted the look and texture of those trees but didn't want the cost.

I purchased 2 pieces of poster board from Dollar Tree for $1. I followed the instructions at The Creativity Exchange for making my cone.

Once I had my cone made it looked like this. The cone is about 23 inches tall.

You can click on each picture to see closer.


I purchased jute from Walmart in the hardware section. I think it cost about $1.50 for a roll. Depending on the size of tree you make you may need more than one roll. At 23 inches one tree took one whole roll of jute.


I poured glue in a bowl and used a paint brush to brush the glue on the tree. I only did a little section at a time because the glue will dry quickly.

Starting at the top of the cone I twisted the jute around the cone.


I didn't want the tree to look too perfect but I made sure to cover up as much of the poster board as possible. So I just worked my way down the cone.


Once I was finished wrapping the jute around the cone this is what it looked like.


I let the glue dry for a few hours before I did anything else to the trees. I didn't want to keep it this color so I spray painted it with gold spray paint I used on a different project.


I absolutely love the way they look on the buffet. They have the texture I was going for and it was super cheap to make. At a cost of around $3-$4 depending on the size of your tree it is a better option than spending $30-$40 on the same look.


This picture makes me smile! Have a good week!

A Christmas Vignette

When I bought my buffet off craigslist last year not only did I want it for more storage but I already envisioned a beautiful Christmas display on it. Since I wasn't finished with the buffet in time for Christmas last year I have been collecting items for this year.

I can't stop staring at it. It sparkles at night when the tree is on. When I walk by it during the day I can't help but smile! What can I say...sparkles make me happy!

You can click on each picture to see closer.


The green tree and presents are from Walmart and I paid $.50 each on the after Christmas clearance last year. These are ornaments and I just cut off the strings. Walmart has a huge selection of cheap and sparkly ornaments in several colors. The balls were clearance as well. I paid $5.00 total for 2 boxes of green and brown balls. The silver star was a miniature tree topper that I already had that I spray painted silver.


This is a look at the other side of the buffet. There is another Walmart $.50 tree and a silver snow flake I spray painted. The glass cover I found at Goodwill (of course) earlier this year for $3. The gold tree in the back I made. A tutorial for that will come soon.



I love the wine decanter that I found for $1 at...you guessed it...Goodwill! I put a strand of green beaded garland in there. Simple!



This is the whole buffet. I'm in love! This is exactly how I wanted everything to look. I love the green, gold, silver and brown all together.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up here:
Christina's Adventures
Just a Girl
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Remodelaholic

Christmas/winter wreath

About a month ago I went to Goodwill and I found the perfect sweater to use for a Christmas wreath. It is soft and had the right colors that I was looking for. For only $2.99 this pretty little thing was mine.

You can click each picture to see closer.


I needed a straw wreath so I went to Michaels and found one for 40% off. I rushed home and started working on the wreath even though it was still a little too early to put it out.

I cut up the sweater into big pieces. I cut along the seams and along the neck line. The neck line was thicker material that I wouldn't need.


I took my pieces and started hot gluing them around the wreath. Make sure you leave the plastic on the wreath. Because this material is so forgiving and the seams do not show through I didn't have to worry about everything looking perfect.


This is what the wreath looked like when I was finished gluing everything on. You can't tell where each piece is.


I knew I wanted a pretty bow to go on the wreath but I had no clue how to tie a bow or make them. Thanks to youtube and a video that wasn't in English I made my first bow! Pretty darn good for my first time! I already had the white berries and I added those after I had tied the bow.


This is the finished wreath on our door. We really need to paint our front door and I hate despise the screen door the previous owners installed. But that's a different story. For now I enjoy my pretty wreath. It's perfect for Christmas and to leave hanging during winter too.



My total time spent on the wreath was about 30 minutes plus the youtube watching time. It really is super easy to make. I love the end result!

Linking up to:
Beneath My Heart
Chic on a Shoetring Decorating
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Christinas Adventures
My Repurposed Life
House of Hepworths

A thankful Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for my small and wonderful family. Without my husband and my two kids I would feel so empty. This year around Thanksgiving I knew it would be a difficult time for me. Why? Because November 26th was my due date for Taylor.

I did not want to spend the day crying although I could have. So that is why I was so obsessed with fixing our tree on Saturday. It was either sit around and cry for the child we lost and blame myself or keep my mind occupied with happier times. I chose the happier times.

Even as I write this I fight back the tears and I still feel sad for the baby that is not with us here on earth. Every day I see my one and only picture we have of Taylor and I smile and say a quiet "I love you" to the picture. It makes me feel good inside and not sad.

It is very strange to me to be pregnant 2 times in one year. I still get very nervous even at 18 1/2 weeks for the baby I am currently carrying. I go back to the doctor next week and the gender will be 100% verified for us. We're so excited for that!

So this year for Thanksgiving I am grateful for eternal families and the two children and wonderful husband I have been blessed with. I am thankful for Matt's job that he has and all the sacrifices he makes for our family. I am thankful for my extended family that we don't get to see very often. Although we might not be close to you being here in Texas we do think of you often. I am thankful for my parents and all that they taught me.

I wish all of you a happy and wonderful holiday season. May you remember to always be grateful not just during the holiday season.

Light Keeper Pro

I have to tell you about the best Christmas light saver gadget tool thingy (that's my technical name for it) that I've found.

Last year, the day before Christmas, part of our pre-lit tree lights went out. Of course, there were no replacement lights to be found at that point in any stores. I used the replacement lights that came with the tree but still no luck. So I decided I would just worry about it this year when we put the tree up again.

Between last year and this year we replaced at least 400-500 of the 900 lights on the tree. Stupid I know but I just think it would look ghetto putting a strand of lights on the tree and having some working and the others not.

We got everything working except this one small section and we couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. So Matt went to the store and bought this Light Keeper Pro tool. OMG!! It saved my life and if only we would have bought this last year.

All you do is take out any light on the strand that isn't working and plug in the tool to that light socket. Pull the trigger once or twice and the strand will light up all the WORKING lights. All the burned out lights will stay dark and you know exactly which ones to replace. Our problem was we had about 5 lights we thought were working because they didn't look burned out but really they were. So once we replaced those 5 lights our whole tree was finally lit.

AMAZING!!

This tool does cost $20 but most likely you can find it on an after Christmas clearance. It will save you headaches and strokes, I promise!! You can find out more information and where to buy this miracle tool here.

I am not affiliated with this company and I did not receive any compensation for my opinion. I just wanted to share my thoughts on a great tool!

Easy pumpkin plate

I know many of you are getting ready to put up your Christmas decorations or maybe some of you already have. I've been meaning to post this idea for a while but it's better late then never, right?

This is super easy and cheap to make. I think it's cute and it took me all of about 15 minutes to make. I don't remember where I originally saw this idea so I can't take credit for this.

I found a plate at Goodwill for $1. Then I purchased the pumpkin from the Dollar Tree for $1 and the ribbon is from Walmart.

All you do is cut off the back of the pumpkin so it will be flat against the plate. Measure how much ribbon you will need to tie the bow. Tie the bow around the pumpkin. I actually used double sided tape on the back of the pumpkin to hold the ribbon in place while I tied it. Once the bow is tied just glue the pumpkin in the center of the plate.

Voila! Done! That was easy!

Little red rocking chair

Way back in the spring I was able to score a rocking chair for free. Our playgroup has a "free for all" 2 times a year. You bring all the stuff you want to get rid of and take what you want. All the left-overs get donated to Goodwill.

As soon as this chair was brought in I raced to it and it was mine.


It only took me 6 months to get around to fixing it up. The chair was missing a dowel rod but that's nothing a quick trip to Lowes can't fix. You can see the missing dowel right in the middle of the chair.

So 1 1/2 cans of red spray paint later this is what the chair looks like now.


And of course a red chair would not be complete without a cute little boy in it reading his books.


I love that the red stands out against the blue walls in Levi's room. Soon enough Levi and Jax will be sharing this room.

Oh the power of a little spray paint!

16 weeks: Avocado

This week I will be 16 weeks along in the pregnancy! It really has gone by so fast. I'm almost at the half-way point. I like it when the time left is less than how far along I am. I will be so excited to say that I'm at 25 weeks and I only have 15 weeks left!

It seems as though instead of having the ickyness in the first trimester I am having it in the second. I get so many headaches right now. I called my dr and she said I could take Excedrin migraine. Usually I try to power through the headache before I pop some pills. I just hate taking medicine every day or every other day because I worry about what it will do to the baby. Hopefully these headaches will go away soon. They are really making me feel useless and I don't get to play as much with the boys.

I will have another ultrasound next month and we will find out for sure if the baby is a girl. We are pretty positive the baby is a girl but there is always that chance maybe something changed. I still haven't felt the baby move yet but that's ok. I know soon enough I will feel feet in my ribs and all the other uncomfortable things that baby will do.

As I get bigger and bigger this really is getting more and more real. It's easy to forget that you are pregnant when you aren't showing. I'm losing sight of my feet every single day and I can't hide that I'm pregnant anymore.

I love this baby already so much and I can't wait to finally have her here with me.

Labor Day zoo trip

Over the Labor Day weekend in September we took the boys to the Dallas Zoo. It was the perfect day to go since the weather was finally cool. We had fun seeing all the animals and just spending time together as a family.

I'm not sure which part was Levi's favorite. He was so excited to see every animal! I think we will have to become members of the zoo so we can go back more frequently.

By the time we left the zoo the boys were just so tired. We all came home and crashed! I love fun family days like that!


Levi was so curious about the penguins.


There's a gorilla down there napping.



Jax loved the elephants. This was his view from the stroller.


Pumba!


I love this picture!


The last thing we did before we left was let the kids ride the carousel. Levi and Jax both loved it. A very nice person gave us their tickets to ride the carousel so it didn't cost us anything. Levi was not happy to get off!

Our Utah trip

Back in August we had the opportunity to go to Utah for my husband's cousin's wedding. We decided to drive all the way out there. We're crazy, I know! It really wasn't that bad it was just a lot of driving. A LOT....A LOT!!

On the way out to Utah we drove up to the panhandle of Texas, over to Albuquerque, NM, through a small corner of Colorado and up through southern Utah. On the way back we went through northern Utah, over to Wyoming, down to Colorado, over to Kansas, down to Oklahoma and back to Texas! It was over 3000 miles that we drove!

We had an amazing time and we were able to see family that we haven't seen in several years. Here's some highlights of our trip out west!

Outside the Albuquerque Temple





There were these big and beautiful rocks that were so randomly placed along the road. So cool!

When we got to southern Utah we stopped at Arches National Park. This place is so awesome. I have been there before but my husband hasn't. I haven't been there since I was a kid so I don't really remember much of it. The park was about to close so we didn't even get to scratch the surface of this park. But at least we can now say we've been there and will remember it.

Levi just wanted to throw rocks the whole time. This is the perfect place to do that!

Matt and Levi climbed up to the top of this rock. Levi was so excited to be so high!


The arches are amazing to look at.


After the wedding we ate lunch at The Pie in downtown Salt Lake. Look at that pizza! All the toppings and the dripping cheese! Oh my glory it was so good! If you are ever there you MUST go to The Pie!


In Provo we saw Mader! How awesome is this thing?!? This is a real truck that someone actually made to look like Mader. I saw this and even though it was pouring rain I had to take a picture. Levi was scared to stand next to it so the picture I have of him with Mader he is crying. Oh well...it was still fun to see.


We were also able to go jet skiing in Flaming Gorge in Wyoming with Matt's awesome brother and sister in law. There wasn't anyone out on the lake and it was so peaceful and quiet! We had the whole lake to ourselves. I think that is me with Levi on the jet ski. It was a blast and a great way to finish our trip.

We love our family and can't wait to see everyone again!