So, we have a couple weddings coming up this month and while Austin and I are usually money givers, after last week's project and some searching the web, I decided to change it up a bit...

I found something similar to this here that ran a steep $50 and I knew I could make one for far less myself.

It was super simple.  I cut a 1x6 board to about 10.5 inches, spray painted it Krylon's Ivory, printed out the text from Word on regular printer paper, shaded the back of that paper with a pencil, flipped it over, centered it on my board and traced the text (this left a very light stencil on my painted board), then I used, for the first time, 2 sharpie paint pens (one fine tip, one thick tip) to fill in my stencil.  This was way faster than using paint and a paint brush.  Then, I sanded down the edges a bit and put a light coat of minwax dark walnut stain on the edges, let it sit for a minute, then wiped most of it off using what I wiped off to rub into the painted wood over the text a little to give it a worn look.  Last, I just sprayed a flat sealer over it.  The little holder I got from Jo Ann's for about $3.  I really love how it turned out!  If you'd like one, let me know:)  Here it is again.

I've seen these cool family established signs all over the place.  I wanted a big one for us, but didn't want to pay the price for the size I wanted.  Sooooo, I of course, thought I could make it myself.  Check it out...

I'm really trying to spend as little $$ has possible right now on my home projects.  Instead of buying lumber for this, I cut up and used parts of 2 pallets that I had left over from other projects.  I don't know the exact dimensions for this but the top and bottom rows are made from 1x6s and the middle is a 1x4 so it's 14.5 inches tall (no I didn't do my math wrong, typically a 1x6 is actually 1x5.5 and a 1x4 is 1x3.5:).  I'd say it's about 40ish inches wide.  Here's a front view.  You can see it's wider than that coat closet doorway.

This was a bit time consuming but pretty simple.  After cutting the boards to my desired length, I used 3 extra boards on the back to nail these all down to.  But as you can see from the nail heads, that's what I did last.  First, I just used wood glue.  I let it dry overnight, then put 2 coats of that blue paint on it.  I had that paint left over from last week's project.  While letting that dried, I got on Word and chose the font and size letters I wanted for the words.  I printed those out on regular printer paper, then used an exacto knife to cut those letters out.  The next day, I traced my letters onto my boards and  filled them in with 2 coats of white paint.  And it's hard to see in these pictures, but I followed that up with a black shadow of paint on the top and right sides of the letters.  You can see that black paint on the tops of those E's.

After that, I went over the whole thing with a light coat of minwax dark walnut stain.  Last was the nails.  I used 2 in. ones which are actually a little long.  They poked through a tiny bit in the back.  I haven't put a sealer on it and don't know that it needs it.  It will be hanging high where nothing will be touching it, so I may not.  It's going above the coat closet near our entryway.  I love the rough textured wood from the pallets.  It turned out just how I envisioned.  I love when that happens.
Have a great weekend!

Well, I didn't take a proper before picture of this project.  You can minimally see it in the picture below...

See it over to the far right.  It's a little wooden bench I bought at a yard sale a couple years ago for $5.  It made it's way out by the pool and has been used as a place to just drop whatever.  It looks like in the picture above it's also housing Austin's sneakers, some fake flowers, a coral rock, and who knows what else.  Here it is today...  

Now holding my sweet African Violet and a wooden tray filled with magazines.

Yeah, I love some Real Simple goodness.  And how bout that African Violet??  Pretty huh! No blooms right now, but I can't help but think of my Nanny every time I look at it.  She always had African Violets of the purple variety (insert big sigh here...my heart still aches).  Anyway, the how-to on this was pretty simple and straight forward.  I first chose a color I wanted which was called Chinese Porcelain made by Olympic, I think ($10).  Then I sanded the whole thing down with a mouse sander.  We had one (maybe have even had it for years) that I'd never used before and thought I'd give a try.  This could certainly be sanded by hand, but the mouse was awesome!  Super time saver.  Then, I skipped priming because if this gets scratched over time, I'm cool with the dark wood underneath showing through and painted just two coats of the blue.  Then I went over it lightly with one coat of Minwax Dark Walnut stain (which I already had).  I did this at night in the garage so the lighting left much to be desired.  That's why it's a little streaky if you can tell.  But I liked the look anyway.  I'm still thinking of putting some kind of sealer on it, but we'll see.  I really like how it turned out!

It looks so much better in here than it did outside collecting dust among other things.

Linking up to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday.  Have a great weekend!

I was excited to tackle this project that I'd been eyeing for awhile.  I keep a little idea binder for when I see things I like in magazines.  That way I can just rip the page I like out and toss the magazine (otherwise my husband calls me a hoarder of magazines:)  Anyway, I saw this idea for chalkboard tiles in the Pottery Barn catalog which you can see here.   But for a set of 4 costing $115, there's no way I could hack that.  So, of course, I thought I could make my own version and I couldn't be more pleased.

I bought (actually my mom bought this project for me - thanks, Mom) 12- 11x14 inch canvases from Hobby Lobby.  We got them at 30% off so ended up paying about $30 for all 12.  Then, I just used a mini paint roller and painted 2 coats of chalkboard paint (which I already had on hand) waiting for the first coat to dry before applying the second.  That's it!  To hang them , I used Command Strips because these canvases are so lightweight and I figured might as well not put 12 holes in our wall (in case I decide to change it up eventually).  But right now, I love it!

Right now I have 2 quotes up on it - one by Winston Churchill and one by George Washington.  But I love the idea that I can change things for events and seasons.

Linking up to...
Beneath My Heart's Best DIY Projects of September

If you're interested in knowing what the quotes read, Winston Churchill's is "We live very simply but with all the essentials of life well understood and provided for: hot baths, cold champagne, new peas, and old brandy.  Then, "A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends" by George Washington. 

So, our friends just had a baby yesterday and I was going to visit the new addition today.  I wanted to take a little something but didn't really have time to run to the store, sooooo I found this banana muffin recipe here and had all the ingredients to make it.  I've been wanting to try something using mason jars which I've seen all over blogland lately, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I just sprayed 6 mason jars with cooking spray, followed the instructions for the muffins (although I added chocolate chips to mine), then filled the jars up about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way.  I baked them at 350 and checked them after 15 minutes, but they needed 15 more.  Worked perfectly...

Next, just to pretty it up a bit, I took card stock and traced the lid on it to cut a circle out.  I wrote who each was for on top, then just used double-sided tape to cover the lids.  I screwed the rings on, tied a ribbon around the rings with a spoon placed in the knot.

Easy Peasy.  I know I enjoyed those treats when I was still in the hospital after having my boys.  I hope they enjoy theirs' too.  Have a great weekend!