1st Metamorphosis Monday

I'm so happy to have finally joined a great bunch of ladies for Metamorphosis Monday. Be sure to visit Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch to see everyone's transformations.

Since it is scorching HOT already before 8am, I need to get outside and paint and work on projects before it gets really hot. 108 degrees yesterday.Let me share some posts that I did last week of re-purposing things around the house. I figured since I'm new to Blogland it could work for my first time joining. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fireplace Transformation

Charging Station for cell phones, Blackberrys, etc.

Globe...scroll down to the bottom and see what I did with a $3 thrift store globe.

Thanks again for stopping by! I'm off to paint. Once it's too hot to handle I'll be in to check on everyone else who has joined Metamorphosis Monday. :)

Thrifty Monday

Make sure to stop by and visit Rhoda & her friends at Southern Hospitality for Thrifty Monday. What were your finds this weekend, whether thrift stores or garage sales?

Here are the things I came across while visiting garage sales on Saturday with the kids. Yes, all 4. Hubby was at a golf tournament. Boy, was it a HOT day. The sweat is still pouring off me. Or as my Gran-mom would say...perspiration.

Ignore the lighting. It was too hot to go outside and photograph. For $40 (spent more this week than last week's $5) I got:

• A rug for in front of the kitchen sink
• Teacup & saucer (to hold birdseed in one of the potted plants outside)
• 2 brand new books for the children
• 2 sets of Scented Markers (not photographed...scooped away the moment we got home). One set had 30 Crayola markers, while the other set was 8 Harry Potter ones by Elmer.  Strange scents in that pack...Dirt, Sardines, Quidditch (sp?) Field Grass...
• 2 Gumball machines...one on a stand, one tabletop
• Pottery Barn telephone (have always wanted one, but couldn't see myself spending $60-$80)
• Flag Box (my most excited find!!! These go for $58 at our local art supply store - I like to support local businesses - but, even if I had a coupon for a chain store it would cost at least $25-$30 ) I have been wanting a black one, but I'll sand & paint this one. It is for my great-aunt Charlotte's memorial flag
• Egg Dish
• Frame

I hope everyone had a relaxing and COOL weekend!! :)

Glidden FREE Paint

Have you seen this promotion? Glidden Free Paint 1 Quart

If you haven't be sure to hurry. Promotion ends on the 2nd of July.

If you have, what color did you order? I ordered Rich Navy. I was torn between getting a color I needed for a project OR getting a fun color to give a splash of flash somewhere in the home.  I went with getting a color I could use now, rather than later.  If I hadn't chosen Rich Navy, it would have been Fresh Tangerines. As my daughter said, at least I was going with the complementary colors.  She is our budding artist. ;)

Have a terrific Sunday!  Hubby has taken the whole week off to work on his Honey-Do List. WOOHOO!! I may go to some thrift shops today. Went to garage sales yesterday. Spent $40. Will take a photo of everything and share later this week. Ohhh, we are going to the King Tut exhibit too. I'll share those photos as well. ;)

I'll leave you with some images of our cuties.

PINK Saturday

My first time joining Beverly and her friends for Pink Saturday!

I don't think my blog background counts, does it? :)

Let's see we have 5 males in our home (including the two furry ones) and one tomboy that do not like pink. However, Gregory does find a love for it when Bridget forces him to play dress-up.

Here is a photo of MY pink.  My Nintendo DS that hubby bought me while I was recovering from my C-Section in the hospital. The other is iPod Nano. Don't you love my "charger" that hubby made me?

The chargers I see are either really expensive or seem like they may cause more clutter. We, of all people, do not need more clutter. Instead I had hubby install surge protectors in the narrow top drawer of our Secretary.  He drilled a hole in the back to plug the wires in and to add my lamp cord to the mix.  In the basket we have a Blackberry wire, 3 iPhone/iTouch, 3 Nintendo DS and camera chargers. No more fighting over whose device needs to charge faster and it is all HIDDEN!!

How are some ways that you HIDE/ORGANIZE clutter???

Chalkboard Creations Party

Make sure to stop by The Shabby Chic Party to see lots of other ideas. Also, I'm hooking this up with Hooked on Houses. Both are kind enough to offer up giveaways/prizes. Checkout what everyone is doing with chalkboard paint and what they are "hooked" on.

Where to start?  I absolutely love chalkboard paint and recently came across PLAID colored chalkboard paint. Along with glittery/sparkly paint too.

However, our tour will only be representing good ole' black chalkboard paint. We start with the toy closet door. Living in CA we don't have a need for a coat closet. That one coat we all own can be stored in our bedrooms, since we have way more toys.  My hubby built shelves to hold all our board games, puzzles, etc.  I wanted to add something else to it, since we don't have a playroom or basement (our house is tiny for 6 people and 2 dogs) for the children to play.  I decided on making the backside of the door a magnetic chalkboard. The children love drawing and playing with letter magnets (note: when taking photos, collect the alpha magnets that are strewn all over the floor). 

We now move on to the infamous chalkboard labels. This bookcase used to store encyclopedias from the 40's that belonged to hubby's grandfather. Realizing we aren't using the encyclopedias we put them in storage and decided to use the bookcase for something more useful.  I went to Target and bought these baskets. I added these labels to identify the items....Library books, Rodger toys (easy for him to access), wooden animals, etc.  I did a dry "rub" of paint on the bookcase to give it new life and then added the red to the labels too. The paint was leftover from our front door. Again, two of the baskets were in use. However, we have Copper joining in on the fun!!

Let's move over to kitchen. My silver platter chalkboard to write "Happy Birthday", "Merry Christmas", etc. Click on the words "silver platter" to read about it.  All about re-purposing! ;)

Last, but not least...our chalkboard globe. All credit is given to this post I saw on Makezine. I was going to use the globe to hold family phone numbers for the kids to easily locate. However, I can see Gregory spinning and spinning it til it breaks. So, then I decided to use it as a mini-lesson for learning  about geography. With the raised continents we can outline them in chalk, identify the continents, oceans, and countries. It is resting on top of my Scrapbook Armoire, as a decoration. Don't look at the crack at the bottom. I found it at the thrift shop for $3. Instead of going to the dump I've re-purposed it for our needs. On top of the armoire you can't see the crack, and the kids don't really care.

Thanks for taking a look and joining me on the "Chalkboard Party" and "Hooked on Chalkboard Paint" tour. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for "Pink Saturday".

With a Little Paint...

Look at what a difference can be made. 

When we moved into our tiny, and I mean TINY, rancher 9 years ago our fireplace had a wobbly shelf and made of brick.  You couldn't put anything on the shelf for the fear of it collapsing.  The doors of the fireplace (that has never been lit in this warm weather climate) were brassy, clunky, and had some contraption coming out the side.  

BEFORE

This past year we had our living room, hallway and kitchen area painted.  We decided to paint the fireplace. Gone with the red brick. Gone with the clunky glass doors. Add a black screen to match new rubbed bronze hardware in the house. Add new mantle that can hold pictures and candles, without killing someone.  The clock had always been there, but was down for the "BEFORE" photo. We also changed the ceiling fan too.  

AFTER

An accident happened when painting the fireplace and I actually like it. Our ceilings are a cream color...thinking...Western Accoustic! All trim is White Linen with our walls a creamy yellow.  The fireplace was painted Western Accoustic and so was the mantle. However, when the mantle needed another coat White Linen was used. Very subtle difference, but I like it! We didn't add any fancy scrollwork to the mantle, because, well...we aren't fancy people.  I felt like it had to reflect us.  As much as I LOVE looking at other people's home, I have to remember to make our house a home, it has to reflect our personalities.

For now the fireplace mantle holds B&W B.R." photos (Before Rodger) and candles.  I kept to a B&W look, because there is so much color in that small sitting area. Oh, you may not be able to see in the before picture, our living room is rectangular. The TV is mounted to the wall on the other side of the room.  We made the area into a sitting area. We have our chair and half and leather chair over there. To the right of the fireplace is my Scrapbook Armoire from yesterday. I did add some albums on the hearth so the children can easily reach and look at them.  Don't worry about Rodger though...he has a gallery of 20x20 photos with his siblings lining our hallway. I can share those one day, if you're interested.

Thanks for looking and be sure to stop by The Shabby Chic Cottage to see other transformations!!! 

Scrapbook Armoire

Besides my family, grandmother's jewelry & photos, this is by far my prized possession. Gregory was born on the 30th of Dec. For 24+ hours of his life during 2005 he earned the family an added deduction. Wasn't expecting the deduction for that year, but who is complaining. Certainly not me! With that extra money we bought a scrapbook armoire, since the last of the 3 bedrooms was now to be G's room. I couldn't believe how much scrapbooking supplies and arts and crafts I had.

Last summer we had the living room painted and floors stained darker. We had not only move ourselves out of the house for a few days, but our furniture too. I had to pack the entire armoire. As much as I wanted to play with my supplies, call it sheer laziness, but I didn't want to create another mess of re-organizing and sorting to unpack. Finally, after many months it is all unpacked and even purged some things. Freecycled them, along with idea books. Do I really need books from 2000?

Here are some photos (excuse the poor lighting) of the armoire in all it's glory. I put a lot in here, things to hide from the kiddos, and other craft supplies. Plus, my Epson photo printer, Cricut, Sizzix, Quickutz, idea books. Everything, BUT our photos and albums. This is a photo w/o the doors being seen.

Here a picture of the left door. Some smaller-type embellishments are in the bigger slots sorted by "girl", "boy" "baby", "season"...you get the point.

The right door with a piece of sheet metal for hanging rulers, mementos, etc.

Here are the 3 drawers that pull out at the bottom. 12x12 hanging folders in one, embellishments in another and tools at the top.

Here is the table, yes table, that folds out!! :)

Here is a close-up of my 12x12 containers from The Container Store. I have one containing all Christmas stuff, another is Disney (including CDs from our trips, punches, stamps, paper, etc.), Jenni Bowlin kits. *Check out that canvas that Morgan painted last year!* :)

One thing I changed from the last time...have the items I use the most handy and convenient. I put my adhesives in this box that I've had forever (decorating it is on my LONG list) and other things in the basket. Helping the girls with projects made things run more smoothly. Grabbing paint, adhesive or scissors for them.

And these are just some close-ups.



The drawers in the middle of the armoire hold stamps and ink. I also have some faux leather containers on the top that hold Sizzix dies, punches, and things to alter. SInce I don't use them as frequently they are stored up there. Oh, who am I kidding...I had so much stuff that I HAD to store things up there.

How do you organize your photos?? This is one of my projects to do and I'm at a loss.

One Man's Trash...

is another man's treasure. Isn't that the saying?

Here are some things I picked up this weekend from garage sales and a freecycler. So, how much did I spend?

$5!!! Can you believe it?  

1. The chair in its prime had to be gorgeous. I figure it can't be that hard to add some paint, nailheads, fabric and cushion. Right? I think this would look darling in the girls' room.
   
2. The pig and sheep hooks are up for grabs. Since Bridget was my partner in crime she has first dibs on them. However, it appears that Gregory has been eyeing them.  Maybe I can find a space near our front door for them.  
3. The snow mugs were 25 cents each for 8. Never used. She had a set of 12, but I did not need that many. I thought of Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch  Our table settings are very juvenile. Hers are sooo beautiful! I thought the snow mugs with some blue plates would look very pretty in the winter. Considering we get NO snow.
4. The tiny drawers I thought I could put in the girls' room or in the kitchen.  Needs some TLC.
5. LOTS of vases.  I realized during Teacher Appreciation week I had given my vases away.  I was going to wrap the flowers in a wet towel and then in aluminum foil but wasn't sure if they would make it to the end of the day. Instead I gave the teachers my vases to use. So, when  a freecycler was offering up glasses vases I snatched them up. I picked up 2 others for 25 cents each. Maybe I'll try glass etching on them too, if I can get a Michael's coupon to purchase the etching creme. Look at these great ideas over at Living with Lindsey.
6. Mason jar to put Morgan's paintbrushes in after she cleans them.  She has some long paintbrushes, so she needed  a tall jar.  I was using a pretty cup from Mexico that the grandparents brought back, but it wasn't tall enough.
7. A brass cup that I hope to paint and use for spare change, paper clips, etc.
8. A planter for the pretty plant that Morgan's teacher gave me.
9. Pretty milk bottle for my collection.
10. Sundae dish. Not sure why...had an idea for it, but it doesn't appear it will work.  Need to put my thinking cap back on.
    
11. (not pictured) 3 cans of "mis"paint from Lowe's"T" for 25cents EACH! I got a cream, turquoisy blue, and meadow green. You can never have enough shades of paint.

Just wanted to share this darling photo of a boy and his dog.

Stop by and visit Rhoda at Southern Hospitality for Today's Thrifty Treasures.

Wake-Up!

I'm sure you've all fallen asleep since I haven't updated in almost TWO months!  See, I knew having a blog would be really hard to maintain after wrangling 4 kiddos and 2 dogs. In that time, the girls have finished school and Spanish classes (not even a week and we've had endless playdates, art camp, 2 birthday parties and R's well-baby appt.). I'm longing to sleep, start AND finish projects, and clean.  I know, cleaning is no fun, but it has to be done.  Can I just enter a housekeeper giveaway? Forget vacation, get me a housekeeper, and maybe a gardener! ;)

Speaking of giveaways, have you seen/read Everything Etsy blog? I love reading them, because they have a lot of Etsy sellers that I sometimes overlook. Often they have giveaways too.  Hop over and see Dew Garden Crafts. She makes terrariums...beautiful ones. Check out this clever terrarium idea.  

Isn't that the coolest!? A traveling terrarium! I have terrarium on my wish/want list when things start looking up.  

Crossing my fingers to improve my blogging. I want to add two projects that hubby and I did over the weekend.