Wall Art for Under $25

My project this weekend was to get some art up in the dining room. The walls are so bare and ugly (apartment white). A month or so ago, before the revamping of the chairs, I found a really easy to it your self art project. So Saturday morning I went to work to get it done.

I had to buy wood and have it cut into 1' X 1' squares. The little old man at Lowe's looked like he was going to strangle me; but he helped me get all I needed and didn't even charge me for cutting the wood. Thank you LOWE'S!

After I got all my supplies I headed home and painted the edges of my squares brown. Then I got the scrap booking paper I picked out ready, glued on, and then covered in decoupage. After they had dried I added frame hooks on the back and then went to work hanging them.

I am extremely OCD so making sure they were correctly spaced apart was a bit of a job but I was able to get it done.

All in all this is an extremely easy project and makes a naked wall look great! Also, it is very cheap:
wood $18.00 (i used less then half the board so really like $9
paint $2.50
paper $8.50
glue $1.75
frame backs $2
decoupage I already had from years ago so FREE
TOTAL 23.25(ish)

AND (drum roll please) HERE ARE THE PICS...

98 Days

Jace gave me a little booklet that had reading assignments to get through the Book of Mormon in 99 days. Well I started it the Sunday before I began working and this past Saturday I finished. It only took me 98 days, ha! I had to do better if even by a day.

My testimony has grown in measures throughout these past 98 days, maybe one day I will share it (something I do not do often enough). I have gotten so much out of this book and I am sure I probably understood 10% of what I needed to get out of it. I suppose that is why we have to read it everyday no matter how many times we have read it before. I haven't started round two yet but I probably will next week (I am reading Our Heritage at the moment).

Two weekends ago I was on the phone with my niece Sydney, telling her that I was almost done and she mentioned that her and Mallory are quite a ways into the book themselves. She said they started reading two pages every night since Mallory's baptism. I am so proud of these little girls for being obedient and doing what they should. I remember how boring the scriptures seemed to me at that age. I hope one day my own children will do the same and not wait until their 20s to read such an important piece of literature.

*Now I can say I do know the Book of Mormon is true and yes I have read it!

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Well I finished the last of my chairs today. Took a little over a week to get done. It felt like an eternity though. Well 3 out of the 7 turned out like I had imagined. The other 4 ended up being well...bad and ugly. But I will keep them this way for now. Maybe one day when I am feeling ambitious again they will be revamped.

I learned may things during this project. 1) I hate big projects and little yards, 2) I hate spray paint (especially green spray paint), 3) Spray primer is expensive and a waste, 4) Varnish is my enemy, and 5) I need a Mr. Handyman to help me. OH and 6) I am not touching the table any time soon (I need to regain some sanity).

Well without further delay here are the pictures...

THE GOOD

My office chair goes perfect. I am loving the gold and black look!


I love love love these chairs and the others should have turned out the same way. These are what I had envisioned.

THE BAD

Should have been green instead of white antiqued with green coming through. They are alright.

THE UGLY

Well for some reason the varnish really stuck to these two so they are darker than the others, oh well.

Everything together.

ATTENTION! ATTENTION!

Okay I have fallen in love AGAIN (don't worry Jace)...

I found this beauty on Etsy today and must have it!




However I feel like $400 for a bouquet is a little much. So I have decided that I am going to try and make this! YIKES...a whole new level for my new found hobby of crafting. I have started looking into finding the vintage jewelry which is made by Sarah Conventry and the collection is 'Fashion Petals'. I have already found one large green and two small black, apparently the blue will be the hardest.

SOOOO...if you are bored one day and want to google around to find them I would greatly appreciate it!! Please Please let me know so I can nab them before someone else does.

OR am I just crazy and I should buy it?!?!

Second Child Syndrome

Well I never thought that I would be the type of mother that shafts the second child...but I just might be. In my defense I try not to but sometimes it just happens.

Today is my littlest hims birthday. Walter Von Festivus aka Walter Woo turned one years old! He is just a distinguished little man. He is graying, has a crazy beard and uni-brow, and has started losing hair! I love him for his old man features. He is too cute.

Well for Chuy's birthday we had a huge fiesta with family and friends. But now that I live in Maryland and work I have less time and close friends willing to celebrate a dog's birthday. So we had a little family party instead.

Walter and Chuy enjoyed some delicious frosting and sprinkle dipped dog treats. Chuy and I also gave Walter our gifts to him. He was so excited to get a quacking duck, a rope dog, and of course his favorite a meaty bone. I had to get Chuy a meaty bone as well...didn't want him to feel left out.

Here are some pictures of our little family party.

What Did I Get Myself Into?!?!?

Well I started my next craft project this week and it began with a bang! Thursday night I decided it was time to take all the material off the chairs. The ones that I have had for the past year or so only had one layer (thank goodness). However, the three that I got from freecycle had THREE layers! The last chair I took apart had a little note stuck inside from October of 1985. Funny the first time these chairs were recovered was the year before I was born. These chairs must be OLD!







Friday I went to Joann's to get fabrics for the chairs and I ended up getting LUCKY. Everything was 50% off and I still spent $60!! I would have had a heart attack if I didn't catch the sale. I spent the rest of the evening reattaching the foam and covering the seats in my new fabrics. (I reused the old foam...just washed and dried...saved some $$ there). Chuy was in FLUFF heaven during this process.





Well Saturday I have wanted to cry, scream, and quit doing this project. Painting furniture is much harder than it seems. I wanted to paint 4 green chairs (sides of table), 2 blue chairs (heads of table), and one black (office). I primed the first four and painted green. They looked HORRIBLE!! Apparently I am not much of a furniture painter. After Sabra talked me off the ledge we decided to paint (not spray paint) them white and then I could antique them letting the green and blue show through. I will also need to apply a little stain to make them look old and dark. Well I ended up using $45 worth of primer that I didn't really need to use...IRRITATED! But lesson learned. Call sister before doing anything major to furniture!

The black office chair is turning out nice and easy. I will do the blue chairs next weekend. This was a lot to take on this weekend on my tiny porch. I cannot wait to show you the end results. Oh and I am redoing the table as well but I DO NOT want to think about that right now...I just need to get through these chairs.



This is the biggest catepillar I have ever seen and of course he wanted to help me paint...EWWW! Just makes me nervous for when the weather gets cold and I have to bring all my plants inside...who knows whats living in them.

30 Family Members in 72 Hours

It has been 8 months since I was last in Yuma. I do not have the luxury of summer, winter, and spring vacations. Now I am a working girl and have to take advantage of three day weekends, short holidays, and my earned vacation days.

I was able to get a babysitter for the boys this labor day weekend so I headed out to Yuma to visit the family and did I visit family.

Friday Jace picked me up from the airport and we immediately went to Mr. Gs! I was able to visit with my parents, his parents, and Sabra and her family all that afternoon and evening.

Saturday my father and I drove up to San Diego to see my sister Kelly and her family. I had not seen the twins so I was excited to meet my newest niece and nephew. They are so cute and sweet (especially Chase). Peggy was also in town so I got to visit with her as well.

Sunday I went to church and then made my rounds through Yuma and then in Bard. I was also able to meet my cousin Jennifer's little girl Coraline. She is absolutely adorable. By the end of Sunday night I had seen 29 family members since Friday afternoon when I landed.

But oh wait I am not done! Monday when I was flying home I had a long layover in Phoenix so I was able to see Katie for lunch making her my number 30!

I would have to say not bad for a quick trip! I was excited to get back home and work so I could rest and catch up on sleep!!

The Great and Terrible

In May I had a stack of books I wanted to get through over the summer. I mean I was done with school and had all this free time; however I just never read them, well only a few. But then for my birthday Kathy and Wade sent me The Great and Terrible series, 6 books! Lets see its been a little over a month and I have just finished them. I couldn't put them down...well I did take a week or two break in the middle I was burnt out on reading (and needed sleep).

I don't know what to say except that I love them and had to keep reading until the end. Isn't that all a reader can ask for?!?! It just makes you think about our religion, the faith we have, and whether or not we can stay strong and true when things are dark and evil.

It has also convinced me to let my mother buy me supplies for my food storage when she gets here in October. Let's hope major disasters and the end of the world can wait till then.

Thank you Wade and Kathy!