{look what I made}

When I was at Jill's this weekend she was busy making her friend Stephanie a birthday gift.  As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted one for my house I just wasn't sure where to put it but I knew I would find a spot.  So at 9pm we went to get some wood at Home Depot.

Between my Mom, Jill, and I we made it happen even if we did stay up until almost 2 in the morning.  First we traced the word onto the wood.  Then we took the jigsaw and cut it all out.  Jill and my mom did most of the cutting but I was able to do some too.  It was my first time using a jigsaw and now I want one.

After it was cut I sanded down all of the rough spots and smoothed the edges.  When I got it smooth enough we all took different objects and started banging, grinding, bashing, and anything else to make it look beat up.  I must tell you that this seemed to be the hardest step of all.  It feels so wrong to make marks and holes in perfectly good wood.  I choose to paint it red, i'm a little partial to that color.  Besides its the color Jill was painting her friends word so I didn't have to buy anymore paint.

We let it dry overnight then after a day of shopping at antique stores my mom and I sanded it a little more to take off some of the paint.  This is a hard part too because you don't want to take off too much paint but I wanted it to look weathered and old.  After I got it to look the way I wanted I took a damp rag and wiped off all the dust.

The last step was to glaze it.  This is where it really started to look how I wanted it too.  The marks that we made earlier were perfect.

Here it is hung on my wall in the family room.

My kids still don't believe that I made it.  Chase said "it looks too old and beat up."  Exactly what I was looking for.  Silly kids.

{almost done}

Can you tell what it is?

Yep, it's a chalkboard wall.

All of the painting is done and now I just have to wait 3 days to prep it and then we can start writing on it.  It's crazy how one small wall can make the room feel so different.  I am loving it already though.  Now I am trying to figure out some sort of phrase or word that I can add to the wall made out of vinyl.  I can't wait to finish it.

{new colors}

Today at our house we added lots of color. I have had this dresser in the kitchen for a while now but I was unsure of what color to paint it. I finally decided on a teal blue. I woke up early went to Home Depot to get the supplies then started this project. I don't know why but whenever I have to host a party at my home I want to do a project. Usually its organizing but today was different. It took several bottles of spray paint to get the right color and then I just glazed it to make it look more aged and not too bright.



Darian and Paisley added color to the front planters. Darian planted 6 iceberg roses and lots of red and yellow pansies. Paisley held onto Rally as she picked the pretty petals off a few flowers. Darian also planted another plum tree in the backyard. We have a plum tree already but it only produces fruit every other year. We did some research and in order to get fruit every year you need at least two plum trees. Hopefully this will help.



Today was also a very sad day. Garrett's Grandmother Penny passed away this afternoon. We only knew she was sick for about two weeks. Penny was such a loving grandmother not only to Garrett but to my kids as well. We will all miss her dearly but we now know that she is in a much better place and we will see her again. Please keep Garrett in your prayers.

{almost done}

I'll be back with pictures when I am all done.