She's Crafty: March 2012

what I've been up to & fun finds Friday

The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. Last week was Spring Break. I was so excited, thinking I would get to sleep in, have tons of time to do projects and spend time having fun with my kids. Of course things don't always go as planned. We did get to sleep in (which was soooo wonderful) but there wasn't a lot of time for projects or fun stuff.

Although we did fit in one trip to Chuck E Cheese. Don't my husband and I look thrilled to be there? We actually love CEC and all had a great time!

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This week I've been trying to catch up on my housework and yard work. And I'm beat. Here is what I've been working on.

We got a new deck! Our deck was built about 9 years ago. It wasn't built very well and we neglected it. A few weeks ago, one of my kids was leaning on one of the rails and it fell off. I also noticed that the stairs were being held on by about 3 nails. Not good. That left us with no choice but to get a new one. I thought about doing it myself. It's just straight cuts and none of the under stuff connected to the house or poles into the ground needed to be replaced. But when I had my fence guy out fixing my gate, he told me he did decks too and could do a composite wood on the floor that wouldn't splinter. Sold!! We have always had issues with nail pops and splinters on our old deck.

Here is the before. The guys had already started taking it apart. The big hole on the back is where my son knocked off one of the rails.

Here is what the top looks like now. I still need to:

stain all the wood to match the composite on the floor. The wood needs to cure for a month before that is done.
I also want to get some potted plants, a new table and new chair cushions, plus style everything so it looks pretty and inviting. That will be my next project.

With our deck looking so nice (try to ignore the aged wood apron, it will be stained soon), the landscaping needed to step up a notch. So I covered the entire space under the deck with weed mat and a bunch of black mulch.

Picture me crawling under there on my hands and knees dragging giganto bags of mulch. Yea, it wasn't pretty. And my knees are going to take some time to heal from that. But the result is so worth it!!

I planted a few shrubs and flowers on the side. I wanted to plant things all the way around the deck and maybe some ground cover underneath, but that will have to happen over time. I'm pretty thrilled with how it has turned out so far.

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I was browsing Pottery Barn catalog last week and saw the cutest drink dispenser.

I debated paying the crazy amount it cost because it is so dang cute and would be perfect for parties and such. But decided to think about it for a little while.

Imagine my delight when I walked down the aisles at Target and spotted this:

Almost the exact same thing for about $50 less. Definitely a good deal and fun find!!

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What have you been working on or found this week?

frame collage

I've been working on my kids bathroom which had a big blank wall.

I wanted to bring in different colors and textures, so I did a frame collage.

For this frame I made a little printable in Picnik. Then I hand cut patterned paper into a pennant shape.

For the others, I framed patterned paper in shades of yellow and my fave- grey chevron.

The white frames were originally wood. I painted them aqua blue and then put white on top. After the paint was dry, I sanded them down to reveal the many layers.
The black frame is from Goodwill. The mat that came with it was hunter green, so I spray painted it white.

I found this big frame at Goodwill. I painted a few coats of chalkboard paint right onto the glass. Then sanded the frame to shabby it up a little. I will use it to write love notes and reminders to my kids.

A fun little addition to a blank wall and an easy project for Spring!

linking up to: Centsational Girl, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Vintage Mauve

Spring Mantel

Spring is definitely here in Tennessee. I would love to be out enjoying it, but beautiful flowering trees bring terrible allergies to my kids. So since the only way we can enjoy the outdoors is by looking out of the windows of our air conditioned house, I did a little spring decorating of our mantel (aka shelf) and hopefully my kids aren't allergic.

I made another chevron wall art to anchor everything. I also cut some forsythia from my yard and planted some wheat grass in a little white dish.

I covered a glass candle stick with old dictionary pages. A little white friend sits on top. The "S" stencil is from Michael's and is held onto the silver platter with a magnet.

I whipped up this little Love at Home sign to remind my children that we do love each other!! (They are home for spring break and seem to have forgotten this.)

Simple and Springy!

I have a read a few things about people being afraid to pin things from blogs on Pinterest. I feel absolutely honored to have my images/projects pinned. So please, feel free. And thank you very much if you do. :)

linking up to: The Lettered Cottage, 36th Avenue, Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, A Little Inspiration, LollyJane Boutique

Roller Skate Birthday Party

My son just turned 11 years old. When we were planning his party, it was hard to find something "cool enough and not embarrassing" for him. I gave him a few ideas and he chose to have a roller skate birthday party at our local skate center. The food and fun was provided, I just had to supply invitations and cupcakes.

I found the pre-made invitations at Hobby Lobby. I typed up the information and ran the back page through my printer to add the details. (Sorry about the ugly black rectangles, for some reason, I feel like it's safer to not show the address or my phone number.)

the cupcakes (I didn't have a place to set them up on a cute stand, so I just took them in the carrier. No one even cared- but me!)

goodie bags filled with candy

For the cupcake picks and goodie bag tags, I used my Silhouette.

I purchased a graphic from the online store.

Then resized, duplicated and cut them out. I didn't use the bow.

For the thank you cards, I made post cards. I found a graphic that I resized in my word program and typed the words on top of it. My son filled in the words. (Sadly, most of these didn't get sent out, so if you gave Mason a gift and didn't get a card- I'm sorry and Thank you for the gift!)

Here is the birthday boy have a great time skating!

plastic drawer change

I had 2 of these plastic 3 drawer storage carts to organize the junk under my desk.

They aren't pretty but they are inexpensive and do the job.

I took off the wheels and they were still a little too tall to really fit. I had to lift up the edge of the desk to access them. I looked at a few stores to see if I could find some that were shorter - but I had no luck. I decided to hacksaw the bottom drawer off so I would only have 2 drawers and it would fit better.

I lifted up my desk and pulled the drawers out. After studying one of them for a bit, the top looked like it wasn't glued - just snapped on.

With a little pulling, it came off. So I took the drawer out...

then pulled the legs off.

And was left with this.

I then snapped the top piece back on and was left with perfectly functioning 2 drawer storage unit.

They both fit perfectly under my desk.

I don't even worry about the way they look because they are hidden behind fabric anyway.

This may seem silly because you already knew these little carts were adjustable, but I had no idea. And it changed my life. OK, maybe that is a little dramatic, but this change sure made accessing my junk a bunch easier!!

My Birthday

I celebrated my birthday over the weekend. It was one of the best birthday's I've had!! My family absolutely spoiled me. I just wanted to brag a bit about how crafty my family is!!

This is what I woke up to. My sweetie is so kind!! (the red fabric is a scarf- I also got a new flat iron, a wallet, and some cute notebooks and pens)