Few odd end projects

Here are a few things I've had done for a awhile but are too small to dedicated to a whole post on their own.

First, remember THESE ceramic plaques I got a last week for $3 each?


Well I decided to split them up for now and put the fleur de lis in my laundry room. I just washed over the whole thing with some white craft pant and then roughed it up a little with the back-end of the paint brush for a more "weathered" look.


I really like it in that spot. :) I'm still undecided about what to do with the other piece in the set, but I have been wanting to redo the mantel and it may end up there.

I also got a simple white soap dispenser at the Dollar Tree and wrote a note to the kids in permanent marker. Helpful reminder and a cute touch:



If you can't read it, it says "Wash your hands, <3 Mom"

Another quick project, (if you can even call it that) was this little owl candy "bucket" that I got in the Walmart clearance aisle. It was 75% off Easter candy. I believe I paid $.79 for it. It had a little bag of saltwater taffy, which I find disgusting, but it's one of Honey's favs.


I had a fake grass plant left over from another project where I used the container for something else, and just stuffed it in the little owl and filled it in with the same dirt-covered styrofoam that held the plant before. I think it looks super cute next to my pretty yellow bread box and does a good job of hiding that electrical socket.

And craftiness runs through the genes! Look at this cute painting Ms. Thang did for the family room. Does it remind you of anything? :)


Tomorrow is Thriftshop Thursday, and I'll be on the hunt for some cheap outdoor decor. If you find anything good tomorrow, leave me a comment and show me what you got!

On mental vacation

I wanna GO somewhere. I haven't had a vacation since I went camping at Dad's place in Arkansas last summer. I was sort of hoping my BIL's wedding would be a rushed ordeal and we could take a trip to Houston and enjoy some fun things in the area while we were there, but no. He decided to wait and take his sweet time planning it. Something about "I have a whole life with her ahead of me. No need to rush it now. I want it to be special."

I know right? Ppppffft!

The kids don't have any days off until summer, and I really need to be here for them after school so it would have to be a quick daily trip with just me and my Cutecumber, or a weekend trip with the whole family.

Oh, and inexpensive, which translates into "practically free". I saw something in a blog once, where a mother made her home into a Bed and Breakfast for a day and treated her children with little menus by the beside and everything. So cute.. but that is not a vacation for ME. We could always camp out in the backyard, and it would be fun, but I want to get away and relax.

Maybe we can drive a little ways out, rent a nice hotel room with a heated pool, dressed up "fancy" for dinner out, and pretend we are somewhere else. I wonder how much I'd have to tip to have the hotel staff put on a fake french accent.

It seems as if I am surrounded by people going to Disney Land/World and it's making me jealous! How do they come up with the money, time off, and the money? Is it sad that I make myself feel better by picturing a time 30yrs from now, where Honey and I are on that luxurious cruise, having umbrella drinks at every beautiful beach imaginable, and those that went to Disney in 2010 are elderly couples, renting hotel rooms and pretending to be in France. :P

Garden Sphere

I am really going to trying to freshen up the front yard and add some much needed curb appeal this week. Of course I have limited cash to use for this, (isn't this always the case?) so I'm going to have to get pretty creative.

This weekend I really lucked out and found a bowling ball for $1.50. I turned it into this lovely garden sphere, which would look cute on a bookshelf too. A really STURDY bookshelf. This thing is not going to break or blow away like the gazing balls you normally see.



Here is how I did it:


I took the bowling ball and sanded it all over. This smells like burning rubber and it's fairly messy. I wiped off all the fine black dust and then turned the ball holes-down. I probably could have filled them and painted them as well, but.. I'm lazy! I used an old candle holder to keep the ball steady as I worked.



Then I used paintable silicon caulking and piped it on just like icing. Note the black sharpie marker. I used that to plot out my design first and didn't end up following it and just winged it. MISTAKE! It kept bleeding through the paint and I finally ended up using a bit of kilz and then painting. I will never use a sharpie for this again.

I let the caulking dry over night. At least 12 hours. Then I got the paint.


I used some green semigloss I had left over from the kitchen stripes (could you tell lol) and used a sponge brush. I just loaded it and crammed paint into all the nooks and crannies. The picture was taken after only one coat. Keep adding coats until it's the way you like it. I think the better you seal it with paint, the better it will weather, but I have to admit I'm anxious to see how it holds up and wonder if it will look better with age. I think white with a brown stain washed over it would look awesome. I'll probably do that next.

Here it is again, next to my freshly potted victims that I hope survive my "black" thumb.



I'll be making more of these because they were so easy and I think you get a lot of bang for your buck.
I'm hoping to make a bench for this area sometime this week out of a headboard and foot-board I found by the dumpster at Albertsons (I have no idea why it was there). I'm not too good to bring in some trash and re-purpose it. As a matter of fact, this is cool now and instead of calling it "dumpster diving" they are calling it Green. :)

Btw, I have two of those blue pots pictured to flank my bench (currently invisible bench) and wonder if I should use chalkboard paint to make a little square on each of their fronts and write things like "Spring" or "Happy 4th of July" ..dorky? I think I may need to learn when to walk away...