Updating The Deck Deck Goose!

Eeeeehhhh- sorry about that one! I got a little cheesy with the title.

Happy March, everyone! And to those people who have birthdays on February 29th: Happy Birthday and I'm sorry!

It is time to blast off through our deck transformation!!! That may be a bit of an exaggeration. Not the blast off part, we are going to do some serious blasting off. The deck wasn't exactly transformed, but it did get a little cleaning, a little paint, a little bit of leftover pallets from here, some new furniture, pots, plants, and PILLOWS!

Here is how the deck was looking when we bought the house. It was huge and had lots of potential... potential that you will soon learn we did not take full advantage of.

They did have a beautiful rosemary bush that Scott and I managed to kill. 

We did a stain-paint on the deck to make it darker. I really liked how it turned out, but we had a tree on the side of the house that constantly spewed black goo all over the deck. After we had finally had enough of the goo spewing Scott cut down the limbs of the tree that were the trouble-makers. We cleaned the deck and stain-painted it again to cover the black mess.

That made it look a thousand times better instantly! But, I didn't want to stop there. I was ready to yellow that deck up. Yellow seems to sneak its way into every room in my house. So, I made a coffee table out of 2 pallets, some scrap wood, 4 casters, and some paint.

I also took the three terracotta pots that we had outdoors and spray painted them. If you are interested in spray painting terracotta pots please read on to learn what NOT to do!

Here is one of the pots before. Yes, it is the most typical terracotta pot ever. You're welcome for the photo.

How about a pallet table shot and before and after pot shots? Yes!

Hidden baby photo.

Look at those chubby legs!

Aren't those trees beautiful!!! 

This post is a little too long for my liking. So, stay tuned on Monday for your terracotta pot NOTS and some more deck updates.

Happy weekend, everyone! Be sure to stop by The Etc. Lists tomorrow to get some more of those chubby baby legs in your life!

The Living Room Chronicles:Step 3: New Coffee Table

Heyyyyy you crazy people! I knew you couldn't stay away from the world of coffee tables and pallets!

If you remember correctly, 2 living room posts ago, I showed you the best Craigslist deal this side of the Mississippi River! After my new sofa showed up I knew I was in need of a new coffee table.  The only ones that I could find to fit the space were black or white and I really wanted a wooden coffee table. I tried to think of ways I could make a coffee table myself, but you can't really use a coffee table made out of cardboard and I couldn't figure out a way to make one out of old kitchen cabinets. So, I turned to the most logical thing I could think of... shipping pallets. They were almost exactly the same width I wanted. 

So, I went on Craigslist and sure enough someone was selling them. He also happened to be selling them not far from my favorite fabric store (Mary Jo's) and right around the corner from the only drive in movie theater near Charlotte. Did you put together what happened next? I talked Scott into turning the pallet party into a fun trip.

When we went to pick up the pallets I went a little overboard and bought as many as would fit in the car. The wood was pretty unique looking to me and I figured I could use them for all sorts of weird projects. We stopped and picked up some lovely fabric and then headed to the drive in movies in totally packed car that smelled like a lumber yard. 

When we got there we realized that we could not recline our seats even the slightest. Who wants to watch a double feature sitting as straight backed as you possibly can. So, with all of our new drive-in neighbors watching and secretly judging us we unloaded pallets until we could recline a little.  Then we had to prop a pallet against the back door so the trunk wouldn't be up the whole time (that would have been against drive in rules). The whole thing was pretty awesome.

The next day I started playing around with how I was going to put this beautiful table together.  

I was trying to keep it simple. But he said he would help me turn it into a legitimate table. I gave him a drawing of what I was hoping for and sent him home with some pallets. 

Apparently the wood was really dry and the nails that were used to keep the pallets together were rim shank nails (not good if you are trying to get them out and keep the wood in good condition). Because of this he ended up using most of my pallets just to get the necessary wood out of them. It turns out that my simple plan changed about 100 times and required him to completely take apart the pallets and rebuild them. It would have made a lot more sense just to buy new wood. I bought a cedar mail post to use for the legs. My awesome handy man spent many frustrating hours and finally returned with my very unique new coffee table!

I sanded it, stained it and polyurathaned it and put it in the living room.  It was perfect.  It was better than what I had envisioned!

Now, you can check out that pretty pallet paradise in its new home:

The 7 Steps That Made My Living Room:

Step 1: Move in. Put in whatever furniture we had. Hang art.

Step 2: The Craigslist deal of a lifetime

Step 3: New coffee table (Step 3 Introduction found here)

Step 4: DIY remote control holder. A tiny, tiny step, but we are still calling it one.

Step 5: Should we change out the fireplace?

Step 6: The plant table and the plants

Step 7: Finishing touches

Building Birthday Dinosaur Hooks

I'm going to start you out with a little peak at what's coming your way!

Usually, I give the birthday shout outs at the end of the page, but today the whole post is birthday related. So, HAPPPPPYYYYYY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful, amazing, beautiful, smart, clever, talented, sweetie pie of a sister!

Look at that graceful little leg-warmer-ed cutie! Those leg warmers definitely came from one of our awesome Get In Shape, Girl kits! Anyone else remember that?

On to the dinosaur hooks! As I have told you before, my sister really likes dinosaurs. So, for her birthday I planned to make her dinosaur bookends like these:

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I bought the dinosaurs and something didn't seem right. So, I tried to think what else I could make with plastic dinosaurs. I thought about making her awesome dinosaur jewelry or a dinosaur hat.

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I knew that she would look beautiful in the hat, but I wanted to make her something more practical. 

Finally, I landed on dinosaur hooks for scarves or keys or cardigans or whatever else you want.

I started by cutting those dollar store dinos in half. I tried a knife and scissors. FYI the knife was the big winner there.

Then I did a little test positioning on the board (and took a super blurry photo of it).

Spray paint made its way onto the scene and temporarily dyed my fingers blue.

Hole drilling time.

I forgot to take a photo of the next step. So, please picture a very messy spackle application to the inside of the hollow dinosaurs. I did this so I could screw them into the board.

Next, I put some Gorilla Glue on the back of them and stuck them on the board. I managed to get Gorilla Glue all over the place and a big disappointed finger shake from Scott.

FYI- the dust all over the place is from drilling into the board.

Spray paint came crawling back on the scene and apologized for the blue finger situation.

I screwed the spackled dinosaurs into the board for a little extra stability and added a sawtooth hanger to each side.

All that work left me with quite the beauty. So, I did the normal thing and did a little photo shoot of Ms. Blue Dino Hook around the house.

Here she is in use!

Price Breakdown:

4 dinosaurs: $4

Board: free from my scrap wood pile

Gorilla Glue, spackle, screws: already had

Spray paint: $1

Sawtooth hangers: $1.50

= Grand total of $6.50!

Happy birthday, wonderful sister!!!!

I love you!

13 Unique Holiday Gift Ideas

Gift giving is not my forte. Gift receiving is even harder for me.

In general, I am just not great with gifts. Mainly because I'm not a shopper. But also because I have no idea what to get people. I am afraid I will get something that they won't want or something that isn't at all useful to them. 

When I was about 6 years old, I gave my dad all of the change in my piggy bank for his birthday. I was super excited about it. I thought it was going to be the present of a lifetime. He refused it and said that wasn't how gifts worked. I still haven't quite graduated from that level of gift giving. I guess I got a little better... a few years later I hand copied all of my favorite knock knock jokes out of a book from the library and gave that to my dad.

Because of all of that, I usually do gift giving a bit different than most people.

Here are a few things that I have found work pretty well for me:



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• A little more about coupons... Scott and I don't do birthday or Christmas presents for each other. We tried and it resulted in tears. Now, for birthdays we usually make each other a coupon book full of things like, "one week of no diaper changes," "I will watch a football game with you and not complain," "one dessert of your choice to be prepared," etc. I used to give them to my mom and dad when I was little and it seemed to go over pretty well.

• You could make a personalized calendar where you put birthdays, anniversaries, etc. You could even put invites for the person to come over to dinner. Be sure to include cheery notes here and there. You could pin a few dollars and write, "ice cream outing" on a page.

• Last year, Scott has given his mom a "pasta of the month club."  The idea is that he will make her a special food for each month of the year. He has also given her bread of the month and soup of the month.

Scott made this document, printed it up and wrapped it for her.

 

• Have a fun get together where you play the "Bad Santa," "White Elephant" or whatever name you choose of the 15 option 

• Give a certificate for an activity that you can do together. Make sure it is something the person is interested in. If she or he likes kayaking but you think sun-tan lotion might be a silly gift and a new kayak might be a bit too much try a gift certificate to somewhere like Charlotte's White Water Center.

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• Ask for suggestions. Maybe the person you are buying for needs a new umbrella or a yoga mat. You can make it more personal by narrowing one down out of the millions of choices.

I assume this is the umbrella that most people would pick to give as a gift.
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• Do an ornament or cookie exchange and make it all about the get-together!

Here are some neat present ideas that you can make yourself:

• Give someone a casserole dish and etch their name on it. They will never leave it behind at a big gathering again!

glass etching tutorial found here

• Put a photo on a wood block!

wood block photo how-to

• Make blocks with photos and letters on them for a kid. It could also be for an adult to use as a display and change the words!

photo building blocks tutorial

• I love the idea of a date night jar. Each stick is color-coordinated to mean something different. For example, dark pink might require some planning; light pink might be stay at home, etc.

date night jar

• Who doesn't want a secret hidey-hole book? Make one and give it as a gift.

hollow how-to
photo source

• One more idea... A Tea-A-Day-Wreath! After looking at yesterday's blog, Scott suggested that if you have a lot of people to buy gifts for you could buy a big assortment of teas and make a bunch of tea wreaths!

If you liked this post, stay tuned next week for FOOD Gifts That You Can DIY!

22 Holiday Wreaths You Can DIY!

It should be said that I actually do not have any wreaths. In fact, until recently, I was not a wreath person at all. Finally, I am starting to see what all the hub-bub is about especially after seeing the fabulous wreaths below and the Fall wreaths I posted last month! I still think that 13 year old Laura would look at 31 year old Laura and say, "Wreaths... really! What happened?"

I'm not in love with the idea of spending much money or time on things that only come out once a year and having to store it the rest of the year. However, I did just find out you can get foam wreaths at the dollar store. And these wreaths below are pretty awesome... 2012 just might be the year I start flying my wreath flag!

Throw your old ornaments on a wreath and call it a day... or look through 21 more wreath photos and get to DIYing.

 

This one may be a little country but I couldn't resist the big, floppy chartreuse bow.

 

Grab yourself some felt and get to work!

 

I love this funky, vintage-looking wreath! It would be a cool decoration for a wedding around the holidays!

Adorable! Glue a bunch of colorful felt balls onto a wreath and look what you get!

 

 

I call this one, "White Spraypaint Meets Nature."

 

Has your leftover holiday candy from last year gone stale? Make a wreath, duh!

 

A simple one!!

 

Let's throw a lil burlap into the mix, shall we?

 

Lots of leftover stale candy? Then go wild!

 

There is a strong possibility that it would take you the rest of your life to wrap this much yarn around a wreath. But who is to say it wouldn't be worth it?

 

Start saving your newspaper!

 

The Tea Bag Wreath! Let your groceries work for you.

 

I did not know it was possible to make paper chains look somewhat classy.

 

This is about as traditional as my taste goes.

 

Colorful ornaments on wreaths seems to be the thing to do!

 

Treat yo' self to a pink ornament overload wreath!

 

Fabric scraps can beautify your wreath!

 

PVC pipe wreath = craziness!

 

Hey hey now! Another simple one!

 

And one more fabric scrapped wreath for you!

 

You know you have some extra art supplies just sitting around hoping to get turned into a wreath!

 

 

 

After looking at all of those are you headed out the door to buy your dollar wreath?

Are you heating up your glue gun?

 

Wreaths are starting to move up to BFF status with me.

 

 

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