diy play kitchen

i've known for quite a while that i wanted to diy a little play kitchen for ruby for christmas.
i had pinned some ideas on pinterest.
i had thought i would build something out of an old cabinet.
eventually i realized i needed to just re-do an existing play kitchen for time's sake.
i scoured craig's list and thrift shops for months until i finally found one from a neighbor for $40.
it is small and just perfect for her.  yay!

so this is what it started out looking like:

it was the perfect size and shape.
perfectly ready for me to sand and paint and update!
it sat in our attic for a few months until....you know...the weekend before christmas.
of course.
it needed a good amount of sanding and then i painted it with 2 coats of valspar paint {tropical spray, i think} that i had left over from her dresser.

most of these photos are from my iphone....sorry about the quality.

i used a silver drawer pull that we had on hand for the "towel rack."
i whipped up a little towel with some terry cloth material i had and some fun floral fabric.
and then added her name, because the cutsier the better, right?

all of the "oven knobs" are knobs from hobby lobby.
oh my gravy. have you looked through their knobs?
they are amazing.
they're often half off which is a far cry from their very similar looking counterparts at anthro.
i mean. she just needed crystal oven knobs, right??

the sink knobs are also from hob lob...i have a giant crush on mercury glass.

the "back splash" is scrapbook paper {also hobby lobby} that I just mod podged on.
i painted the burners silver with some silver paint that we had from painting ornaments. :)

seriously, we used so much that we already had.
i spray painted this hook that i found in my box o' odds and ends.
i made her the little pot holders when i was making her towel.
i love them...so little and cute and seriously probably took 10 minutes to make.

my mom got her the cutie pie red, wooden pots & some play food for kitchen.
she plays with them all constantly. :)

before and after!

christmas day!

it was so fun surprising her with this.

i'm not sure who was more excited, ruby or aj and i....or the boys. 

we were all so pumped to see her open it. :)

she did not disappoint. 

she loved it and got right to work playing with it. :)

this was such a fun and rewarding project.
i love it when what is in my head actually turns out. :)

what about y'all? diy anything fun lately?



Pin It

Thrifted Thursday {with a link up}

hi y'all. :)


i have loved having a flea market booth for the last 9 months.

with my crazy busy life, full up of taking care of four kiddos and all that comes with that, i was a bit nervous to add anything extra to my plate.

it has turned out to be exactly what i hoped it would be....easy, fun & profitable.
yay. :)

the only hard part has been that it is on the complete opposite side of town from where i live.
that wouldn't be a huge deal, but i literally have nothing else going on over there so it just feels like i'm driving out to half of forever to get there.
always had to make a special trip.
every time i drove out there, i would pray that God would open something up closer to me.

so a few weeks ago i was standing outside talking to my neighbor friend about all this and she told me that she saw a sign for a new place opening up.
!!!!!!!!!
yay! just what i'd been praying for! :)

anyhow, i got right over there and signed up.
i cleaned out my old booth a few days later.
it was hard to leave that place since they had been so good to me but i am so excited about the new place.
it's really close so i should be able to just stop by when i'm out and about. :)

sooooo, if you're in northwest arkansas, it's called fayetteville's funky yardsale, and it will be open august 15. :)
i think it will be a great place to shop...it's huge and there are some great vendors that i know of already. :) yay.

okay...so since this is thrifted thursday, i want to show you a fun little project.

so this really cool frame isn't technically thrifted but my mom brought it back from my grandpa's house earlier this summer.
it's old so that counts. ;)

i knew i wanted to do something fun with it.
then when i had my annual college girls' weekend, my friend jackie, gifted us each with a 1corinthians 13 art print so i knew that would be a great piece to use with this frame.

i had a spray painting party in the front yard and gave the frame a few good coats of teal.

thankfully the print fit perfectly and gave that old from a new life. :)

i love having scripture on the walls and i had been wanting to have this particular verse up for a while.
the kids and i refer to it often. ;)


have y'all been thrifting lately? show us your scores!


Pin It

a super quick do-over

hi y'all.
welp. it's hotter'n blue blazes over here {to steal a phrase from my lovely groom}.
i'm sitting on the back porch sweating my face off while ruby does this:

never mind, now she's putting dirt from a plant into the citronella candle.
this child doesn't sit still.
she also fancies herself to color me with sidewalk chalk and put dirty water from her "pool" into my hair.
:)

anyhoooo...... i wanted to show you my fav-o-rite thing i've been making lately for gifts...

i love them!!!
and i love making them!!
i've been making all shapes and sizes, depending on what jars i find up in my cabinet.
now i'm going to have to go thrifting for more jars. darn. ;)

also, i did a super quick diy on our shoe {storage} bin this afternoon.
this morning i noticed that the burlap was getting a bit ratty.
remember when i re-did the storage bench a couple of years ago? 
{it was a fabulous craig's list find.}

you know burlap doesn't last forever and the handle is long gone.  :(
boo to that, but that means it's well used.
we use that bin every day, several times a day.
it's so functional for us.

we stopped by hob lob today and i grabbed up some gray chevron fabric for $4.

sawyer wanted to help me with the project immediately so as soon as i got ruby down for nap we went to it...working as fast as we could.

i love this kind of simple reupholstery.
so quick and satisfying. plus i love using a staple gun. :)
also, when i get sick of the chevron, it's such a simple thing to slap another fabric on top.

it sure makes me happy.
sure, the wicker could use another coat of spray paint, but why?
three boys getting in and out of it every day...it's fine. :)

every pair of my boys' shoes stay in that bin.
i'm telling you that is one of the best things i've done.
that's a happy little entry way right there. :)

Pin It

home. and a chair re-do.

happily we are settling into this house much faster than we have in past houses.
my antsy pants nature and aj's willingness to go along with my shenanigans have helped.  :)

it feels like home.
which is amazing considering we've only lived here just over a month.
also, it feels so good to know that this is our house.
for some reason, renting was really hard for me.
although we were so thankful for the house we were in, the amazing owners, the pool {oh we will miss that bad this summer} and the yard {already missing that}, it just never felt like home.
do you know what i mean?

this house fits us perfectly.
it's cozy and pretty and i love it. :)

so i wanted to show you my sweet chair that i finally updated for our bedroom.
it's a 1940's chair that i bought at a yard sale a few years ago with the intent to recover it.
it lived briefly in our living room and then was sent to our bedroom.
and i never recovered it the whole 2 years we lived there....possibly bc i was preggers and then had a newborn. . . possibly.


so here's the before {from our last house} . . .

beautiful lines and wood, not the right fabric.
i love the wood, but we already have so much dark furniture in our room, that i wanted to paint it white to lighten it up a bit.
sadly, the pretty wood design on the sides had to go.
it was cardboard thin and didn't make it through 3 boys.

i painted the wood white with some paint i had in the garage.

i recovered the cushions with a linen fabric that i found on the clearance table at hancock's.
i just laid the cushions down on the fabric, and cut around it using the cushion as a guide.
no measuring or anything complicated like that. ;)

okay the after.....

i love how she turned out.
fresh and clean and just so pretty, i think. :)

here's a little peek at this side of our room.

looking at this picture makes me think i need to get new frames for our dresser...too much dark going on up there.
our room typically tends to be on the bottom of the totem pole for decorating so i'm hoping to do better with that.

and because i love a before and after as much as anyone, how about a side by side. . .

oh happy day. :)

linking up with today's creative blog  & yolo mondays & 

Pin It

thrift store thursday

today was a great thrifting day. :)

okay first things first, i told you i'd show you the after of the lamp redo i did last week.

she's lovely.
remember her before?

and after . . .

oh man i dig that glossy gray spray paint.

doesn't that just make you happy?
i love it.

okay now for today...first i ran to ph thrift {obviously} and i walked out with this chandelier for . . . wait for it. . .  50 cents.
FIFTY CENTS. 50. half a dollar. 50.

okay not a great picture but it's the same as this:

it's the same kind of fixture that i redid for a chandelier two houses ago and one for ruby's room. 

i actually got it for my friend, erin.
i already took the shades off and we will turn the arms facing up, spray paint it, and add chandy light bulbs.
50 cents is definitely a chandelier record.

next i drove to my hometown to hang out & go thrifting with my sweet friend, jenny.
jenny and i have very similar tastes so it is really fun to go thrifting with her.

okay not the best pic of us {it was cold & drizzly out}, but it's documented. :)

we went to a fun store called the chicken coop.
i had to snap a pic of these sweet scrappy garland.

so cute!
reminds me of the the fabric scrap garland that i made for ruby's first birthday party.
i think i will make something similar for our living room.

jenny spotted this awesome, chippy, metal rack for me!
5.99, yes. please.

i already hung it up in our kitchen. . . by myself.
so it will probably fall down in a week, but i was so antsy to get it up.

i have no idea what i will put on it, but i love it. :)

i also found this solid, wood trunk for the boys dress up clothes.

like . . . it's super nice.
guess how much i paid for it?
$35. yep.  i am the thrifting queen. :)
the lady at the front actually stopped us as we were hauling it out because she thought it was marked for $125.
she made us wait while she called to vendor!
i knew it was a steal, but thankfully $35 was the actual price so hooray for me!

avery and i hauled it up the stairs tonight so all those dress up clothes could finally find a home.
you know other than the beautiful rubbermade tub that they been hanging out in.

right outside the chicken coop was a big yard sale.
mostly it was too cold {hello what happened to spring?} but i did nab this cool old thermos for the booth.

okay, next up we hit vintage accents.
it's my favorite place to hit up...they have amazing vintage finds for really great prices.

look at this cool piece that would be an amazing coffee table......

i wanted to buy about 20 things but i walked away with two long pieces of barn wood.

they're about 5 feet long . . . see i'll prove it with a selfie....in the cold rain....that's how much i love you guys....or how weird i am to be hugging barn wood in the rain......

i plan to use them for shelving in the dining room.
can't wait!

it was such a fun morning, i can't wait to do it again.
jenny and i are dreaming of a much longer thrifting excursion in the future...two hours just isn't enough. :)


happy thrifting, y'all!!
p.s. what have y'all found lately?


Pin It

first project in the new house.

so i told you i have some fun updates to share.

today i'm sharing numero uno.

i have been working on re-doing our buffet {to be henceforth pronounced boo-ffay, ala pheobe buffay} in between unpacking boxes and taking care of chirrens.
on saturday i instagrammed this before pic:

you may remember it from our last kitchen....it holds all the boys art supplies and homeschool what-nots.

i picked it up a few years ago for 40 bones at a yard sale.
love the mid-century lines.
she's a peach.

but you know, i can't leave well enough alone and i can't possibly make my life simple, so i decided she needed an update...3 days after we moved into a new house.
we are pretty much bleeding money these days....you know how it is when you move...so i decided to go with free and use some leftover paint i had on hand from my giant chalkboard project i did two houses ago {wow}.
the color is bluefin and it's a walmart color place color.
honestly not the best paint but it's what i had.

first i sanded that sucker.
sanding is such an annoying step but definitely necessary if you're using cheapo paint like i did.

next, three coats of paint...waiting at least four hours in between coats.
i finished yesterday and am just letting her sit and cure for a bit.
can't wait to start styling her up!

it was pretty much impossible to get an accurate photo of the color.
mostly these pics look more blue than it really is.
it is actually more saturated with more green undertones.

the pic above is closer but still not spot on.

i thought about changing the hardware but decided to leave them in their au natural, mad men glory.
they are rad and i love the pops of gold.

welcome.

we have boxes and ladders and junk everywhere....distract yourself with this pretty teal buffet. :)

Pin It