Guest Room Complete & Canvas Giveaway

January 23, 2017January 26, 201718 Comments

Good morning! Hope you all had a good weekend! We had lots and lots of rain, which we do need so badly. Thankfully, it stops for awhile in between storms so the water has time to drain. And guess what!? It’s our 2 Year Blogiversary!!! I can hardly believe it! Thank you to all our wonderful followers and supporters! Obviously we couldn’t keep going if it wasn’t for all of you! You are so appreciated and we really have enjoyed getting to know you and reading all your sweet comments.

Since I couldn’t get out much, I was able to get a little more done in my house. I mostly worked on the guest room/craft room/Lauren’s room. It’s basically the same as it was at the other house, but this room is much larger. So nice! I actually have room to stretch out a bit!

*The contents of this blog are sponsored by CanvasFactory.com.*

Before we moved to our new house, I was contacted by CanvasFactory.com. They offered to send me a 16 X 20 canvas of my choice. I could either upload my own picture to be placed on a canvas or use one of their 20 million wall art prints. There are so many sizes and styles to choose from! There are canvas, acrylic glass, aluminum or collages. You can order a single print, like I did, a split canvas, or a do a whole canvas display. Plus, CanvasFactory is giving away a 16 X 20 canvas of your choice! Just enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post. Good luck!

It took me awhile to go through the different prints they offered, but I finally decided on an old-fashioned bicycle. Even then, I had to choose between what color bicycle and what style. I finally chose black and white.

The quality of this canvas is so great! The background is very white, so the black bicycle really stands out. There is even a bit of a sparkle to it!

Here you can see some of the great detail.

Even the back is finished nicely. There is black velvet all around the back edge to protect your walls and a sturdy hanger too.

I would love to have a few more of these around! They really look nice and add a great element to your room. Continue reading to find out how you can win a canvas of your own from Canvas Factory!

Okay, on to the guest room! Obviously, I hung this CanvasFactory.com print in the guest room, so now I will show you the rest of it. It started out as quite a mess! I really hadn’t done anything to it since we had the painting (Benjamin Moore, Simply White)done. So I unloaded everything from the desk and put it onto the bed.

Then I started with my ribbon basket. I took everything out and gave it a good dusting. I did get rid of a few rolls and then secured all my other rolls with straight pins so I wouldn’t have pieces of ribbon hanging all over.

Much better!

What a difference a good cleaning can make!

I used the same bedding and curtains I had before.

I did change up the dresser a bit though. I used a lot of the same things, just rearranged them a bit.

I really like how fresh and clean the room is now. It feels ready to take on a new craft project! Slowly, but surely, the house is coming together. We have several big projects to tackle, and several little ones, but it’s nice to see some progress.

I have added some links to some items similar to what I have in my guest room if you are interested. I earn a little bit from each sale, but there is no extra charge for you. Thanks for taking a look!

Azar 300703 3 Tiered Round Wire Dump Bins, White

Catalina Printed Cork Board

Ball Mason Jar-32 oz. Aqua Blue Glass Ball Collection Elite Color Series Wide Mouth

Howard Elliott 2146W Dorsiere Oval Mirror, Glossy White

Best Home Fashion Room Darkening Morrocan Print Curtains – Antique Bronze Grommet Top – Navy- 52″W X 63″L – (1 Panel)

Finally, the fun stuff! Canvas Factory was kind enough to give us a second coupon code to give out to one lucky person! This will get you a free 16 X 20 canvas. There are thousands to choose from and as you can tell from our experience, they are awesome! Click on the link below to enter! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here are some other posts you might want to look at!

DIY Wooden Ocean Buoys

August 29, 2016August 28, 20167 Comments

Good morning! Today is my first day back at school with students! Eek! I’m a little nervous because some I have never met before. But I know I have good help in my room and hopefully everything will go smoothly.

I know most people are getting ready for fall, but it is still over 100 degrees here! It’s hard to think about cooler weather projects when it is still so hot! So today is another summer post! It’s pretty simple though. I actually had everything on hand already. I have been wanting to make these for awhile and I finally got it done.

I had some 4 x 4’s (actually 3.25 x 3.25!) in my wood stash and had my husband cut them in various heights. The tallest one is about 13″ tall and the shortest one is about 8″ tall. I also had him taper in the tops on each side. They don’t quite come to a point, but are flat on top. I also drilled a hole, large enough to get some rope through. The diameter of the hole would depend on the type of rope you are using. I picked up some more Waverly Chalk Paint at Walmart, this time in ‘Ocean’, ‘Pumpkin’, and ‘Lagoon.’

I first painted each piece with either Waverly ‘Plaster’ or ‘Mineral.’ 2 of each! I didn’t cover the wood too well, because a real buoy would be worn by the sea and sun.

After the paint dried, I used painter’s tape to mark off where I wanted to put the colored stripes. Make sure to really seal the edges of the tape so the paint doesn’t go under and bleed into other areas. Take off the tape soon after the paint starts to dry. I started with the smallest one and decided to paint just one color around the whole thing. This one will be ‘Lagoon.’

I did a variation of the 3 colors on each buoy. This one will be ‘Pumpkin’ and ‘Lagoon.’

After the paint was dry, I sanded the piece all over to give it a rough and worn look. Here is the small one. I love it!!

I took a length of rope, ran it through the hole and tied it at the top. I should have rolled it in the dirt first, so it wasn’t so new looking! I’m sure it will look more worn before long.

I am so pleased with how these turned out!!

I can’t wait to really display them next summer!!

I hope you all have a great week and I will let you know how my first day of school went!!

ps. Redbubble is having another deal! On Monday only, 8/29, you get 15% off the whole site. Use the code CIRCUS15.

Wooden Americana Signs

May 27, 2016May 26, 201617 Comments

Good morning everyone! Are you all getting ready for Memorial Day on Monday? Are you deciding how to decorate your backyard and what food you are going to barbecue for your guests? Or maybe you aren’t having your own party, but you are attending someone else’s party. Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a great holiday!

But, for today, I have a great idea for you to decorate at your party!

I love making wooden signs for different reasons. And, of course, I had some extra small boards in storage that I had no use for. So, I pulled them out of storage, dusted them off, and started painting them.

I knew I wanted to do Memorial Day themed boards, so I used red, white,and blue paint from Rustoleum that I bought at Orchard Supply Hardware. I used Colonial Red, Navy Blue, and White.

And here is how the boards look after the paint job.

I knew that I wanted them to be even more patriotic than the paint job. I wanted to put the lyrics from Lee Greenwoods “Proud to be an American” on the red board, a star on the blue board, and USA on the white board. So I printed out the designs that I wanted using fonts from Microsoft Word and a star that I found on Google.

I rubbed pencil on the back of the papers and then sketched the designs onto the boards. The hardest one was the red board because the pencil marks were very light and were very hard to see on the dark paint. But…I managed. I then used a red sharpie for the USA board and white paint for the other two.

And here is how they turned out.

I really like how they look. They are perfect for Memorial Day and 4th of July, but they could look really nice with any red, white, and blue decor. They were extremely easy to make were a lot of fun to do. It was also fun to find the different fonts to use on the boards and make everything look nice.

Thank you guys for stopping by. See some of my other board projects by clicking on the pictures below!

How to Make a Rustic American Flag

May 23, 201619 Comments

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well! We are coming to the close of school with our preschool graduation this week and then next week is the last week. I am so ready for some vacation time! I would love to get some more projects done! Lauren and I plan to work on updating the blog this summer and there are other exciting things in the works! Stay tuned!

I have been wanting to make a flag like this for a long time. I figured since Memorial Day is next Monday here in the states and 4th of July is coming soon, this was a good time. I originally was going to use pieces of molding, but that never happened so I decided to use some pickets I already had. Another free project!!

We had gathered some pickets from a neighbor a couple of years ago when he took down his fence. I have used them for a potting table and also a little side table. I wasn’t using the small table anymore, so I took it apart and used the pieces.

Steve removed the nails from each of the pieces, than I gave each one a good scrubbing.

I painted 4 pickets antique white and 3 pickets grey. I didn’t cover them too thoroughly, just enough to freshen them up.

I took one of the squares from the table that was taken apart and painted it blue. After the paint dried, I sprayed a little bit of turquoise over the top and then sanded it down.

These pieces also came from the table and they were attached to the back to hold all the pickets together.

Here is the front with the blue square attached.

Here is my bottle cap collection! My girls and I have collected these for years while taking walks around the neighborhood. We have an alley behind us and there are always treasures to be found. The girls and I picked out caps with blue, gold, silver and a little bit of red. We tried to get them all different and then placed them on the blue square in random order. I used my nail-gun to attach them.

All done! This was such a simple project to put together and I love how it turned out!

I don’t really decorate with red, so I tried to keep this as neutral as possible.

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and have some time to relax! Here a couple of other posts you might enjoy!

Toolbox Restyle-Blue Coastal Style

May 2, 2016April 30, 201616 Comments

Hello! How was your weekend? We spent Friday night watching our local Triple A baseball team play, Saturday was a catch-up on blogging day and Sunday, I volunteered at the shelter after church. I would say it was successful!

I also worked on this Toolbox Restyle. As you know, I love the coastal and beachy style. And Lauren is kind of moving that way too when she moves into another place. She made this toolbox years ago as part of a 4-H Woodworking project. I have mostly used it outdoors with candles and such, but decided to fix it up for her to use in her new place. In the meantime, I get to enjoy it in my living room!

I cleaned the box up and gave it a good polish and then wound some rope around the handle. I secured the ends with a little hot glue.

Next, I searched around the house for a few things to fill it with. I tried to add a little bit of navy blue, since that seems to be what Lauren is moving towards.

I found this old paper spool of ribbon in Lauren’s stash. It had pink lace on it. I removed the lace and wrapped white and silver ribbon on it instead. I love the old spool!

This bowl had been green. I liked the design and the shape, but not the color, so I spray-painted it white. I added some white rocks to the bottom, ‘planted’ the (faux) succulents and added a little garland of seashells. The bowl was the perfect fit for the middle section.

I didn’t get a picture of the mason jar, but it hold some seashells and rocks Lauren had been saving. I covered the top of the lid with some scrapbooking paper.

This candle holder was purchased by my mom from Goodwill. It came in a set of three and I liked the height in the back of the box. Lauren and I talked about possibly cutting the little part off the top so she could use a pillar candle instead.

I found this block of wood in our wood stash and added some burlap and navy blue ribbon. A blue candle is perfect for the top and the block fit perfectly in the toolbox.