loft bed and an orange notebook

21 07 2012

T4 has been asking for a loft bed for about a year now, darn Pottery Barn catalogs.  Ana White to the rescue.  Using her plan, the Mr. T and I built it.  It always amazes me that it works, yet it always works!  It was a nice distraction from the flooding disaster in our basement that has kept me from sewing.  Here are the plans from Ana White.  If you haven’t made anything from her site, it’s super easy.  She gives you a purchase list and a cut list.  Pottery Barn sells their loft bed for over $1000 and with the expensive paint I bought (one coat action!) we spent $250.  Not too shabby.

And here is T4 in his loft bed. I added a frame to the side of the bookcase to put cork, just like in the Pottery Barn catalog, and as you can see the last bit of cork isn’t on yet. He LOVES the bed and spends all day in there.  Not sure what he’s going to do when school starts.

We took our family for the back-to-school, school supply shopping expedition yesterday.  When you have 2 teachers and 4 children, this is what your cart looks like.Out of control, right!  Here’s what’s sad, not an orange notebook in the cart and T4 needed an orange notebook per the school supply list.  So after Wal-Mart, Target and Office Depot and mom refusing to pay $2.00 for a notebook that should be $0.17 like the rest, we headed home.  On the way, the Mr. T jokingly says, I’m surprised you didn’t spray paint one.  GENIUS!That’s right boys and girls, I spray painted a notebook and of course had to add some vinyl action with my Silhouette.  Nothing is safe from paint and vinyl in my house.

Next time – baby shower goodies

sharing with ::733::

 





vinyl and spray paint and clearance, OH MY!

20 01 2012

This past weekend it was over 50 degrees.  Now to most people that just means and unseasonably warm January day, but for me in means SPRAY PAINT!  I have had a few projects that needed some attention and I was able to get them done. My a to z bookends didn’t show up against the dark wood bookshelf.  Green paint to the rescue.

And since it’s such an awesome color of green, I decided to paint a small table that color too.

I also painted a old brass floor lamp a rubbed bronze.  Hopefully I can show you that soon; it needs a new shade!!!

I ordered some vinyl form Expressions Vinyl, my favorite vinyl place.  They ship SUPER fast and are very reasonable.  I needed some green and gold  to embellish some travel mugs for my sister and her husband.  They got these mugs on clearance after Christmas.  Stainless steel (inside and out) with a leather like removable cup holder.  She sent them home with me so I could put their favorite teams on them.  The rounded sides are tough to put vinyl on but they turned out pretty good.  It is permanent vinyl that is hand washable.  Since the sale was so irresistible (ridiculously cheap!) my brother-in-law got me a few (quite a few) more mugs thinking I could dress them up and put them in my shop.  I played around and made one for myself, replacing the leather like holder with a quilted one.  Obviously I will have to use non-licensed ideas for the ones I sell, but for personal use, I love mine. Dr. Seuss rocks!

Speaking of clearance, I scored a king sized quilt at Target for $24.  T2 needed heavy curtains to block the cold in her room and she really liked the orange in the quilt.  We also found some tie back bars on, you guessed it- clearance, at Lowe’s that we still need to mount, to hold the heavy fabric back.

One last picture – our dog Latte, who insisted upon having her picture taken while I was taking pictures of the table.  She’s something.





The writing’s on the table

4 08 2011

I picked up this table at Goodwill a few months back for $24.  It was a solid piece with a little mold here and there and two functional drawers on rollers.  I knew it would be perfect for the craft area so I bought it and it sat in my garage.

I love when a table has writing on it and this isn’t the last project I intend to do this to, but when I saw the post at It’s Just Me via Graphics Fairy and I knew this was the design.  I painted the base with my leaf green spray paint (love me some leaf green!!!), sanded and painted this image from Graphics Fairy.  I then put a darker stain over the top and two coats of poly. I debated about distressing and glazing, but in the end decided not to.  I may go back later and work on the base some.

I LOVE THIS TABLE!

I have a drop leaf table that I want to redo for the basement and I want the #4 on it somehow.  I did see a cute copy of the Cocao graphic at Graphics Fairy only using their name.  That’s an option too.  This could get addictive!

Sharing craftiness at :: Shabby Cottage :: What’s Allie Making :: Fireflies and Jellybeans :: Yesterday on Tuesday :: House of Hepworths :: Designer Garden ::





T2’s bedroom

11 01 2011

We had a snow day today and combined with the weekend (painting for almost 6 hours Saturday) we finished the basement painting and T2’s bedroom. I still need a headboard and artwork above the bed, but she loves it. Tomorrow (because we have another snow day) I will show you T1’s bedroom that we finished today too.

Land of Nod quilt splurge, Target area rugs, bedside table was from an earlier post (we’ve been working on this for a loooong time)

Painted desk (from my Dad)  and Modge Podged mirror ($10 TJ Maxx)

I posted about this project many months ago, a we finally have it hanging on the wall.

Yes, she has a door to the patio in her room.  Not ideal, but we are working with it.

This is the old sofa from our family room and the Hello Kitty body pillow I recovered with a fun towel. Her old room was Hello Kitty themed.

My old cedar chest with T1’s old bedroom quilt folded up on it. You can also see the dry erase board from an earlier project.

Like I said, we’ve been working on this room since before we moved.  Once the headboard and wall art is finished above the bed, she should be complete for awhile.  She loves it and that’s all that matters.

Stay tuned tomorrow for T1’s bedroom.

Sharing at

Today's Creative Blog





a dresser for T3

4 09 2010

The new house has nice walk in closets, but much less floor space.  She now has to store her toys in the closet as well as her clothes and there isn’t quite enough room.  She has always had shelves and hanging space with her bed drawers sufficing for what needed to be stored. Nana had a dresser she was willing to give us.  With some elbow grease stripping, sanding and painting, T3 has a very usable dresser now.  The knobs are from Hobby Lobby and the drawer liners (pic coming soon) will be freezer paper and used dryer sheets, because the drawers are old and kinda smell old.

The dresser had at least 3 layers of paint on it, one with a crackle finish. I used citrus strip and had to use and entire container, but it worked well.

She picked out the knobs, the ones on the bottom matching the knobs we got for her bedside table.  You can see some artwork still on the floor…her bedroom isn’t finished either.  I want soooo bad the show you the room, so maybe this long weekend will be enough time.