Little did she know...

I have been itching to paint some furniture! Since we have had such a wet spring/early summer, it's been hard to find a time that I could haul everything outside and leave it to dry and not worry about it getting rained on. So this past week, I finally just decided to bite the bullet and start the ball rolling indoors.  I have had this bookshelf that my BIL made for me years ago.. I never stained it, or sealed it or painted it... it has just sat there naked in the corner of the room year after year. We have been overhauling our catch-all room, aka guest room, in segments and this bookshelf is about to be put to use, so I decided it was now or never! wouldn't be the first time that our kitchen served as a work shop!  I loved this tutorial that I used for crates we had at our wedding. Easy peasy. Fun to watch. And mostly free! So I thought, what the heck. I will give it a go on this bookshelf, and see where I want to go from there!  I hau...

I have been pretty stoked about this project, from it's inspiration to the feelings of "dare I?" to its final completion. I have a thing for maps, and when I saw this tutorial for a map stained on wood planks, I knew i wanted to incorporate that into my apartment somehow. I knew I didn't have a lot of random wood at my disposal, let alone the saw, hammer, nails, etc necessary for building it. That's when I started looking at my table. It's a third hand table passed on to my from my brother who got it from his landlord, and who knows where else it has been. The table had plenty of it's own nicks and scratches and stains to testify to it's sordid past. So I thought, "What the heck. Why not give it a face lift?" And so I did. :)  *note: i happened to time my inspiration with my roommate being out of town, which left only me with the inconvenience of not having a table ;) First things first, I had my broski help me haul the table from my ki...

So I don't know if this happens to you, but I get on pinterest and pin all these great ideas and feel all inspired, but most of the DIY and projects I pin, I probably will never complete. BUT. there have been multiple little ideas that I have implemented into the apartment and such. Here's my most recent project. Which is still a work in progress. But I am pretty pleased with it so far :)  I had a frame that I took the canvas off of in order to mail the painting, and it looked like it would be good for something, so I have probably kept it around for over a year now.First step was to sand it down and stain it with coffee. The coffee didn't actually stain it as dark as I imagined that it would, but it still gave it some nice color. Second step was to decide whether I wanted it for a frame for pictures or to implement it for something else. I decided on the something else and took some old  dresser drawer knobs and screwed them into the top.  ...

I am absolutely in love with this time of year.  Lake days. Warm nights. Grilling. Hammock time.  the mesmerizing glow of campfires. live music. Sunday nights with my church family. weddings (aka reunions). adventuring in the BH.  be still my beating heart! i immensely appreciate this signage: I was seriously tempted to appropriate it, but decided to send Melinda to get a closer picture of it. she almost got away undiscovered ;)  attempting more pinterest DIY. staining with coffee. so far not much of a marked difference... i am getting ready for round 2. stay tuned.  These pictures... bahaha..  vintage Liz, Dustin and Melinda:  circa 2008. just babies! look at us. I don't know what was going on with my hair.  modern day Melinda, Dustin and Liz:  It's been [almost] five years!!!  Such a great time hanging out in Cali last week while [another] friend got married. i hope i know the...

I saw this project on Pinterest and was pretty stoked to try it :) Not too shabby! Step one: find a painting you don't necessarily adore. I got this one from my brother when he moved out of his apartment. Step 2: choose the quote you want and cut out the appropriate letters Step 3: stick the letters directly on the painting Step 4: prep for painting. I chose to spray paint, so I was out on the back porch. Step 5: apply the paint over the entire painting.. it took me about one and a half cans of white spray paint Step 6: when the paint is dry, remove the letters and TA DA!  Step 7: put your finished product wherever your little heart desires. Yes, all you OCD'ers ... i realize there are crooked and uneven letters ;)  Step 8: enjoy the scenery while you work!!! :)