Valentine’s Day Round-up

January 25, 2021January 24, 20214 Comments

Good morning! It’s been a couple of weeks since I have been here! Life has been a little crazy since the new year started. Not just in world news, but in our little family too. We are all okay, but we have had some stressful times. And now, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! It’s the perfect time to show a little extra love to those we care about.

I thought I would share some of the past ideas from the blog. If I can get some things together, I will show you next week, what I will be sharing with my friends for Valentine’s Day.

It’s A Valentine Tablescape-Set a pretty table to celebrate with your family.

Vintage Valentine Tablescape– Here is another tablescape using some vintage pieces.

Cute Valentine Printable– This is a cute little printable card to pass out to your friends…or pets!

Recycled Hardware Heart– Looking for a craft project? Go through your stash or hit the thrift store and see what you can create!

Faux Flower Heart- Here is a craft using Dollar Tree flowers!

Ombre’ Wooden Heart– Another craft idea with Dollar Tree items.

Gum and Candy Basket- Here’s a cute way to give some special treats to your special someone!

Valentine Pixi-Stix Flower Vase– Or maybe you want a special vase to give some flowers to someone!

I Love You Wooden Blocks– Another easy craft project for you!

Stamped Heart Treat Bag– One last idea for a goodie bag! (Scroll to the end of the post for the how-to)

I hope you enjoyed this round-up and found some ideas! I would love to hear about what you do for Valentine’s Day!

Recycled Hardware Metal Heart

February 10, 2020February 8, 20202 Comments

Good morning! It’s Valentine week! Do you have your Valentine’s ready to pass out to friends? Enough candy to last a lifetime? Well, this project today won’t add calories, but it might lighten up your junk pile a bit!

I saw some other projects on Pinterest where crafters used different pieces of hardware to create signs. It reminded me of these scroll pieces I had that I never quite knew what to do with. When I pulled them out, I realized they made a heart. Perfect! I started with a board that had previously been painted grey, my two scroll pieces, a hook and chalk paint.

I added a sawtooth hanger on the back of the board before I started with everything else on the front.

I lightly painted over the board with the turquoise chalk paint. Once it was dry, I sanded the whole board again, so that some turquoise and some grey both showed.

I just glued my pieces on the board with Gorilla Glue. No tools required!

Once my pieces were glued, I let it dry overnight.

I hung it on my dining room wall and added a little pink heart to from the hook.

Such a simple little project! I’m glad I finally found a use for those pretty little scroll pieces! Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Here are some other Valentine posts you might be interested in! Just click on the picture to be taken to the post.

Recycled Door Beverage Station

April 23, 2018April 22, 20183 Comments

Good morning! Do you have anything special going on in your area? We are having some nicer warm weather now. I think we finally have the wind and rain behind us now. I will be heading to the zoo this week with our school. We have never gone as a whole school before, so that should be interesting. We are also inching closer to our second Disney vacation! This was our Christmas gift to the girls and we will be heading over next week. I’m excited to see everything going on with Pixar Fest! Today I have a previous post for you, so enjoy!

So, what does a ruined door and a few pieces of wood make? A Beverage Station! I saw this idea last year on the blog, Finding Home, and knew I wanted to make one!

Upcycled Outdoor Beverage Bar Station-Finding Home

Almost 2 years ago, one of the houses in my neighborhood had a fire. Nobody was in it at the time and it had a lot of damage. Later, it was gutted. I found this door in the alley after the fire. It had some slight burn marks, lots of soot, and some cracks in it from being broken down, but I took it anyways. One mans trash…right?!

Here you can see the door, sort of. We had to put a couple of braces on the areas where it was cracked and fill in places with spackle, but paint will cover that later. Here’s another view.

I used old cupboard knobs for feet. I wanted it a little above the grounds so it wouldn’t sit in any water and get rotten. The knobs are attached to the bottom shelf of the station.

I bought the spindles at a craft show last summer, just for this project. It only took a year to get to it! I took a piece of shelving and my husband screwed it into the spindle. We did this for all 4 of them. We also screwed the spindles into the bottom shelf.

Here are the two shelves and the spindles, all attached.

We added another deeper shelf above this one for large containers of drinks. I was going to add one more small shelf on top, but I had this old metal piece from a screen door, so I hung that on instead. I screwed cup hooks in the door and just hung the metal piece. I can always change it later if I so desire!

Now for the fun of painting! I borrowed a neighbor’s paint sprayer and sprayed on primer after covering the spindle legs with paper. The sprayer worked great, but when I went to try it for the paint it wouldn’t work!! Not sure what happened, but I had to brush paint the color on. I used the Barely White from Lauren’s room (trying to use what I already have).

And here it is! All freshly painted! I added the metal piece back on and I also painted the shelf with chalkboard paint. I figured I could label the drinks or food when I place it on the shelf! I also remembered I had an old doorknob and hardware. I spray painted them black and added them where the old deadbolt had been.

I added some old signs and other decorations for now.

I can’t wait to be able to use this! We plan on using it as a ‘Candy Bar’ for Haley’s upcoming graduation and drinks for other parties and get-together’s. I’m excited to see how many different ways this can be used!

Here are a few updated pictures. I now have this piece in my entryway. I painted the legs white and added a black metal box under the shelf. I love decorating it for each season!

Have you ever recycled something old into something new? I would love to hear about it! I hope you all have a great week!

2016 in Review-The Top Posts of the Year

January 2, 2017December 28, 20164 Comments

Happy New Year! 2017! Amazing! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!We want to say Thank You so much to all of you who follow along or even just stop by once in awhile to say ‘hello.’ We couldn’t keep going without all you support and encouragement for what we do. We have been missing quite a bit around here lately, but here is the reason…

2016 was a year of a lot of changes here in our household. Lauren moved twice, we moved after living in the same house for 23 years, we brought not one, but two puppies home, and we went to Hawaii! Wow! I am hoping for a little more calm in my 2017. How about you? Do you pick a word for the year or already have plans? I can’t wait to see what 2017 will bring!

For now I thought we would look back at 2016 and see what some of the top posts were for the year. Starting with number 10.

10. Blue and White Folding Chair Makeover

I had been wanting to do this makeover for some time and finally found just the right fabric. I love how they turned out and it was so simple too.

9. Pallet Project Update-Plate Rack

I loved this makeover! I can’t wait to find the perfect spot for it in my new house!

8. Old Drawer Recycled to an Organizer

It’s great how an old drawer can become something useful. There are so many ideas for them.

7. Fabulous Vintage Beverage Cart

I picked up this cart for only $10 at a yard sale. It has great vintage charm! Its fun to decorate and use for all different occasions too.

6. 2016 Ornament Exchange

This was my second year participating in the ornament exchange and it was so much fun! I love creating something for someone else. That’s part of what Christmas is all about!

5. Upcycled Coffee Cans for Bridal Shower

More upcycled and recycled projects. I love these the best!

4. Upcycled Old Metal TV Trays

I was actually kind of surprised at this one, but I guess you all like the recycled projects too!

3. Springtime Concrete Painted Planter

You guys…this one makes me shake my head every time. It’s such a simple project and it received so many views!! You just never know what projects are going to be popular.

2. Recovering my Outdoor Swing (I cheated a little!)

I think it was the cheating part that everyone liked! 🙂

1.A Lacy Look for an Everyday Item

And our number 1 project!! Another recycled/upcycled one! I guess I know what you all like to see and read about!

It’s nice to go back sometimes and actually see everything you have accomplished over the year. It’s easy to just look at all that needs done and forget about everything you have accomplished.

Thank you again to all of you who follow along! We plan on many more projects in 2017!

DIY Recycled Bracelets

November 4, 2016November 3, 20166 Comments

Hello! This post was originally from August of 2015, but I felt like reposting it because I absolutely loved this craft! Hope you enjoy this Flashback Friday!

Did you ever do this when you were younger? Pull the tab off of a soda can for no good reason. Honestly, the only reason these tabs exist is because they open the soda cans.

Well…maybe they exist for other reasons as well.

If you drink soda or energy drinks or really anything that comes in a can, you know that they have a tab that helps to open the drink. If you drink Monster energy drinks, and take the tabs off, you can send them in and get Monster gear in return.

But for me, I like to craft things!

Some of you may have seen celebrities wearing these bracelets or maybe even seen these in stores like Michaels. And I tried making them…and had issues. My biggest issue was the elastic used to hook the tabs together. I couldn’t get it to stay tied or the hot glue wouldn’t stick. So…I tried something new. I bought paracord to use on the bracelets. Because it is stronger than the elastic, I thought that would be better for the bracelets. The only problem with this was the the paracord stretched out, causing the bracelets to be stretched and not look good.

So…I thought that I would try something else.

That’s when I bought 5 millimeter buckles to put on the ends. And, now I am going to tell you how to make these bracelets.

1. Measure your wrist and determine how much cord you will need. I have an eight inch wrist and I cut my string 24 inches. I laid the cord out to twelve inches then doubled it, so that I have some extra cord to work with.

2. Make a slip knot on one end of the buckle. It doesn’t really matter which end of the buckle, you just need to have one end secured.

3. Next, you take the first tab and put one string in the top hole and one in the bottom. So the strings will be going down from the top of the tab. See the picture to understand.

4. Take another tab and put the back of the tabs together. You will now take the string and put it through the holes of both tabs. This will keep the tabs attached and not fall apart. You will repeat this process until you make a bracelet long enough to fit your wrist.

5. When your bracelet is long enough, you will be able to attach the other end of the buckle. All I do is thread the string through the buckle and tie a knot under the buckle. If you want to hot glue the knot to make sure that it doesn’t come undone, feel free to. And then the bracelet ends up like this!

Now, I have also made bracelets with energy drink tabs. These are a little harder because there is only one hole in these tabs. So here are the steps for this bracelet.

1. Repeat steps 1 and 2.

2. Instead of starting like the original bracelet, have the tab upside down and thread the string up.

3. Take your energy drink pull tab, I’m using Monster, and put the back of it to the back of the tab. Put both strings through the single hole on the tab and then back through the two holes in the soda tab. This will secure the tabs together.

4. Repeat the final steps and have yourself a bracelet!

These are cute bracelet that are easy to make. And now, you have something to use your old soda tabs on that you have been collecting. Now if only I could find something for bottle caps…