Adventures in Chalk Paint, Chapter 2

To my fam in Alaska that bought me my first two cans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for my birthday:
this post is for you.
I love showing you the latest fun I am having with this paint.

My first chalk paint project was a repurposed yard sale frame turned tray for our dining table: 

My second project was this wood caddy, which I found at my local thrift store for $2.

Although you don't need to prime when you use ASCP, I did anyway on this one. I really didn't want those those purple grapevines showing through.

Here she is after spray primer, a coat of ASCP Louis Blue, and some light sanding.

This paint distresses beautifully!

I wound and hot-glued jute around the handle for a little more character.

Unfortunately, I had a little shelving mishap in my basement last month and my can of Louis Blue suffered some major spillage. I managed to salvage a little paint in the can, but the majority was lost.

Booooo.

But instead of crying over spilled paint I think I will go chat with the hubs about my Christmas wish list.

Do I have you inspired yet to go scrounge your local thrift store for something to paint?

Linking Here:

 

Even Vikings Get Sick Sometimes

Here is our adorable viking all ready to go trick or treating.

Complete with a shield...



 a hammer...

and the hat.

On Halloween, Justin and Kendry picked me up from work and off we went to enjoy the evening.

Sort of.

Once we got in the car Kendry started telling us his ear hurt. We thought it was the hat. So, as much as it killed me for him to go hatless in his costume, we kept taking it off to relieve his ear.

Except that didn't really help.

He walked around the downtown trick or treating with this expression on his face the entire time.

Call me silly, but as his mommy I was hoping for something more like this.

The elusive smile above is courtesy of our local fire station.

They keep an engine nearby for the kiddos to sit in.

After a mere half hour spent downtown we went to see Nana and Grandpa; but upon our arrival at their house Kendry reached meltdown mode.

He wasn't hungry or thirsty.

He couldn't have cared less about the candy.

He just wanted me to hold him.

Poor kiddo.

Seriously, Kendry has a great immune system, but when he does get sick he has the worst timing.

Remember this last Christmas?

And now Halloween?

Sheesh.

We were home by 6:30pm, threw on our jammies and curled up on the couch.

Within 45 minutes after a dose of Tylenol Kendry was back to his regular self.

Sort of.

On Wednesday morning he woke up with really goopy eyes. A few hours later we were picking up some medicine for pinkeye and an ear infection.

Fortunately, he was back to his regular self this morning, with no goopy eyes.

Here's hoping next Halloween goes a little better.

By the way, for those of you who feel slightly intimidated about making a homemade costume for your kiddo, don't.

This viking costume was easy peasy and turned out so adorable!

Plus, it was cheap and we essentially had it completed during one naptime.

We got the viking hat from Justin's Warrior Dash (the initial inspiration for the costume).

Kendry already had the white shirt, brown sweats and winter boots.

The belt was fifty cents at our thrift store.

The shield is an aluminum pan from the $1 store, which I painted and then used some rope we had to make a handle.

The hammer is floral foam from the $1 store, cut and spraypainted to look like a rock. The stick handle is from outside and we already had the garden twine used to hold it together.

Finally, I paid about $7 for the faux fur fabric and $4 for the leather laces (both from Joanns using coupons).

I used my sewing machine to make the sleeves for his arms and legs, but since you strap them on with the leather laces you don't really need to sew anything.

This costume was also inspired by this post at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.

I can't wait to start brainstorming his costume for next year!

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

November already?!
EEK!

{2}
We are fresh off a beautiful fall weekend for which we had nothing planned.

Notice I didn't say nothing to do, because with a fixer-upper there is always something to do.  

Like our sanded but still unpainted front door.



Its not done quite yet, but it is now three coats of orange paint closer.

You heard me right - I said three coats, and still not done.

I'll explain later.



{3}
When you find yourself with free time on a beautiful fall weekend - after you've spent a half hour on your hands and knees scrubbing orange paint kitty footprints off the carport cement (more on that later too) -
why not attempt a fall photo shoot with your adorable kiddo?

{4}

FYI:
The kitty hanging upside down in the photo above is one of the prime suspects in my investigation of the orange paint kitty footprints mystery.

{5}

Just when we thought we were making progress with Operation: Play Quietly in Your Bedroom Until 7:00am, we wake to this:

And thats why you never store your filing drawer in your kiddo's bedroom.

Perhaps mommy's little paper pusher has an office job in his future?

{6}

These Cake Batter Truffles just might be the death of me,

but at least it will be a tasty death.

I've made these twice in the last month.

{7}

As an agricultural lesson, Kendry got to pick his own carrots from our friends' garden:

Thanks again, Stan and Polly!

{8}

 And the fall/harvest activities continued with a trip to the Clearwater Corn Maze:

It has been such a fun fall!

{9}

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year and, believe it or not, I'm not stressed about it one bit.

Come back in three weeks and ask me how I'm doing.

{10}

This Week's Blessing:

I've already got three people checked off on our Christmas shopping list.

I am on a roll, people!

The Prettiest Inbox You Ever Did See

Remember when I assured you I was still working on projects, I just hadn't finished any?

Well get ready to see some fun reveals, people!

I've got plenty of projects to work on - the hubs has issued an ultimatum on my growing stash of projects in the basement (EEK!) - and I have lots of time on my hands now that my half-marathon is over.

Let the creativity resume!

I found this piece years ago at Ross.

Loved the price ($5 maybe?).

Loved the distressed sage green.

Loved the flowers.

Loved that it could hold some cute decorative plates in my kitchen.

(please excuse my icky kitchen cabinets)

Except this piece never actually held plates, plural.

This little stinker has the funniest spaced shelves and no matter how hard I tried, its shape was never conducive to any plates I liked well enough to display.

See the square plate on there right now?

That plate has a twin to go on the top shelf, except that it won't fit on the top shelf because the bottom plate sticks up too far.

Oh the dilemmas in my life, right?

 So there the lonely shelf and plate hung.

Totally drab.

Mostly useless -

except for every so often when the hubs would use it as a mail catcher.
(as seen above)

Drive me crazy will ya?

Bills sitting out for the world to see?

Okay, so I don't have quite that many visitors in my kitchen, but still...

I don't like having my financial business just lying around the house.

And then it hit me.

**LIGHTBULB ABOVE MY HEAD**

Re-purpose, baby!

This piece obviously wasn't cutting it as a plate display so I needed to think outside the box.

First, I gave it a little makeover with some Krylon silver spray paint.

Then I cut two small strips of wood an inch shorter than the width of the shelves.

After sanding each strip I marked and drilled two small holes into each one.

Each strip of wood received a light coat of Sherwin Williams Creamy followed by a little distressing.

I stenciled the word "IN" on one and "OUT" on the other.

Lastly, I cut four pieces of thin wire and hung the "IN" and "OUT" on the shelves, like so:

I love it!

For $5 (wire and wood) I turned this piece into something we actually use.

It now hangs in our command center.

TA-DAAA!

Finally completing this area was such a relief.

You saw the desk makeover back in July.

Now we have a place to work on the computer, jot down our grocery list and miscellaneous notes (dry erase board tutorial to come), keep tabs on our to-do's with the Honey Do Board, and organize our incoming and outgoing mail -

all in one spot!

You know how much my OCD self loves this kind of organization.

You're getting two before and afters today.

{BEFORE}

Plate display

{AFTER}

Turned mail organizer

{BEFORE}

Laundry/hallway

{AFTER}

Turned command center

Next up?

A Halloween costume.

I am a DIYer mommy after all.


Linking up at:

Pumpkins, Apples & Friends

Saturday morning found us ready for some fall festivities. 

After accomplishing a few tasks around the house, we poured some cocoa in our travel mugs and drove a few miles out of town to Wilson Banner Ranch to select our pumpkins.

This year our kiddo was ready to pull the cart instead of riding in it.

This one was pretty but a bit too heavy for our taste.

My little cheeser.

And his handsome daddy.

This kiddo lives to be outside.

Every so often we can bribe convince him to stand still for three seconds.

The next Headless Horseman?

{Does that look like the body of a two year old to you? Because it sure doesn't to me.}

After finding four pumpkins to our liking we headed back home to prepare for a paar-taay!

Actually, the boys napped while I prepared for the par-tay,

not that anyone is keeping track, mind you.

I have wanted to host a harvest party for years and this year we finally did it.

We invited some friends over for the afternoon, and we couldn't have asked for a prettier fall day.

I whipped up some cider and hot chocolate.

Everyone brought their pumpkins, carving tools and a snack to share.

It was one of the easiest parties I have ever put together,

and possibly the most fun too.

We set up tables in our carport and everyone got to work on their pumpkins.

Don't let that proud face fool ya,

this kiddo took off to play as soon as Justin started cleaning out the pumpkin guts.

We took a picture of each family with their finished pumpkins.

{Since I didn't ask the families if they approved of me posting their photos on our blog I am not posting them.}

The apple-bobbing barrel was a big hit with the kiddos.

Kendry quickly forgot about the apples and focused instead on how many times he could dunk his head into the water.

Kendry and his first bestie.

These two kept each other entertained all afternoon.

We also did some pumpkin bowling, which looked like this:

(source)

As Momma B would say: a great time was had by all!

Its now four days later and Kendry is still asking to thank Jesus for our fun party when we pray.

The harvest party is sure to become an annual event at our house.

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!