chalkboard welcome sign

It's another gorgeous day, which means I have an excuse to get outside and craft!

I love the idea of having an interchangeable sign hanging outside my front door, but had yet to find one that was appropriate.  Until now...

This was ridiculously easy - and fun!  

I cut a 2" wide long board into 2 - 10" and 2 - 13" pieces - and attached with wood glue and staples - I clamped them together to let cure for a couple of hours - just long enough for the glue to set.

I then cut a piece of paperboard (I used a piece of backing from a cheap shelving unit since it was handy) to fit my rectangle, making sure I had enough give on all four sides.  

I primed the paper board with Kilz, then sprayed with 2 coats of Rust-Oleum chalkboard paint.

I drilled two holes into the top, 5" in on either side.

And topped it with a coat of Dark Walnut Stain - then sanded it down a bit to look more weathered.

Once dry, I used a staple gun to attach the chalkboard and tied a piece of twine to hang it with.

Now I have a welcome sign that will last me through every season, holiday, and occasion!

curbside dresser makeover

Sometimes you just get lucky.  I've been searching for a long dresser to redo for some time now - and have been scouring  online yard sales for months with no luck.  The ones I happened to come across, even if beat to hell, were still fetching $120+.  No thanks.

So how psyched was I to score this baby for FREE dollars? Very.

I rearranged Vinnie's car seat and prayed that it would fit in my SUV - and that I would be able to load it myself.  Where there's a will, there's a way!

Here she is in all her glory.  Cute, huh??😉

First thing I did was remove hardware and sand, sand, sand.  There was about 100 layers of finish on it, so it took forever.

I sprayed original hardware with "oil rubbed bronze" (my new fave) paint, and let dry while I worked on bureau.

I taped off the top of bureau with painters tape - since I knew I was going to stain it and leave wood raw - flipped it upside down and primed it with Kilz spray primer.

After it was dry, I sprayed it with two coats of Rust-Oleum in "Ivory Silk" satin spray.

Once it was dry to the touch, I flipped the bureau over, removed tape and stained top with Minwax "Dark Walnut". 

I reattached hardware and roughed it up a bit with 120 sandpaper.

And that was it!! What a difference!!

Now, it's happily in my living room and matched wonderfully with the coffee table  i refinished last week (http://lovedaisymay.blogspot.com/2015/04/coffee-table-diy.html)! 

It's going to be a beautiful yard sale season - I can already tell!!

coffee table diy

We've had the same coffee table in our living room forever... It actually was my Mom & Dads when they were first married!  I love it, but it's small, and having a 3 year old, I love having all the hidden storage possible!

My girlfriend (and amazing DIY'er) picked this up for free yesterday, and I couldn't have been happier to bring it home with me.  I was so excited, the only "before" pictures I got were ones where I had already started to take it apart.

***update! my girlfriend had a before photo saved!! Here it is!***

The top was is REALLY rough shape, so I decided to get rid of it altogether and make my own... Which was ridiculously easy.  

I found a 12' white board in the 70% off cart at Home Depot and had them cut it into 28" sections for me.  I only needed three of the pieces, so I stapled them together and coated it with stain, after roughly sanding the edges.

I spray painted the original knobs with oil rubbed bronze paint.

And spray painted the table with primer and two coats of Ivory Silk Rust-Oleum  spray.

After it was dry, I simply nailed my homemade table top on with skinny 3" nails (2 on each side of each board) and reattached my hardware.

Easy easy!! Now we have a cute (and multifunctional) coffee table!

blanket ladder

I absolutely have an unhealthy obsession with throw blankets.  And crocheted blankets.  And shawls.  I'm 32, and wear shawls.  And I am not ashamed to admit that I love the hell out of every one I own (hint: more than 10!).

It gets cold in New England - even in July, so I always have an array of blankets in every room of the house!  They typically hang out in old wooden crates or on the arms of any given chair - which is fine, but I have a few favorites that I wanted to display! 

I've been eyeing these ladders on Pinterest for months now... And finally decided to make my own today!!

I went to Home Depot and had them cut me a 4"x8' whiteboard into two 4' boards... Then had them cut a 2"x6' into 4 - 1 1/2' pieces...

I started making a ladder using a Pinterest tutorial...

But ended up thinking it looked too whimpy - so I tore it apart and did it my own way...

I nailed my slats in, with two plain nails, giving 1" give on either side...  I varied the spacing, because I knew the blankets I wanted to hang were of totally different textures/lengths/thicknesses... And the beauty of these projects is that perfection isn't necessary! 

I then stained it... One coat, foam brush, done.

I bought two knobs to put on the top front of my ladder to hang my shawls, naturally!  For $1.28/each - it was meant to be!

I tried to screw then on, but the wood was so soft it began to splinter.  I quickly '86ed that idea and glued them on with my hot glue gun.  Shawls weigh about 0 pounds, so it works.

  Once dry - I put it right to work!  My three fave blankets are now proudly displayed in my living room!

...Vinnie's fave quilt

...Anthony and I's wedding blankets

... A quilt my mom crocheted in 1980 when my father was away at OCS

What are you making this weekend?? Xoxo

hers & his

Happy Friday!!!  

It was pouring rain when I woke up this morning - and my three year old had ZERO motivation to do anything other than eat breakfast and watch cartoons for the better part of the day... So I was on a mission to find a fun project to do with things I had laying around the house! 

I remembered I had a random scrap of wood in my garage (leftover from the bench I made last weekend) - and it just happened to be the perfect size to make into a fun sign!

It is about  3 1/2 feet long - but use whatever length you want!

I wanted my sign to look a bit more "weathered", so I took a hammer and crowbar to it.  It was pretty fun, to be completely honest.  Then I threw on one coat of stain.

(Notice the markings from the beating it took... Love!)

Once it was dry, I used a plain piece of chalk to outline what I was going to paint...

Charleston, SC for me

Portland, ME for Anthony

Not going to lie... States are a bitch to draw freehand. If you have a stencil, all the power to you!  I wasn't looking for perfection... So what I managed to do, worked for me.

I painted over the outline with plain acrylic craft paint - and once dry, wiped it all down with a damp paper towel to clean up/smudge leftover visible chalk.

I love it!! And hope you all have a beautiful weekend!! xoxo

welcome mat

Of all things, a welcome mat is one of the toughest to buy...

I left the same one out on the porch for almost 3 years because, truthfully, I typically hate them all.

And who wants to spend $30 on something you rarely see and gets beat to crap?? Not me.

I recently invested in a more pricier one for our main door - which is beautiful - but absolutely didn't need one so extravagant for the side porch.  Instead of just laying out a basic $10 mat, I decided to doctor one up a bit!

So easy... And so worth it!

This basic mat was $10 at Home Depot - high quality, but plain as day.  

The tools:

-painters tape

-acrylic craft paint

-disposable makeup sponges

Easy enough... Section off the mat with painters tape (I wanted a 3" racing stripe and a 1" stripe)

Dab paint with the makeup sponge.

Once dry - remove tape.  This is such an easy project - I'm sorry for the silly instructions!

You can obviously customize it anyway you want.  A simple "holla!" worked for me.

I wrote it on the mat with some puffy paint and let dry slightly.

Then traced over the letters with my paint and a q-tip!

So fun!! xoxo