Every holiday comes too fast for me.  I feel like I never get to do all that I want with the girls before it is over.  This year I wanted to let them choose what they wanted on their pumpkins.

I picked up some pretty good pumpkins at our grocery store (Harris Teeter).  They were pretty big and they were 2/$10.00 – I didn’t have to pay by the pound.

We let the girls pick what they wanted on their pumpkin.  My five month old obviously couldn’t pick, so husband just drew and carved (see middle pumpkin).  My four year old wanted Hello Kitty and my two year old wanted Dora.  I’d say they turned out pretty good.

In case you’re wondering, we did the obvious (obvious that we never thought to do before) and googled “Dora pumpkin stencil”.  It took my husband to the Nick Jr. site that has a TON of characters.  He also just googled “Hello Kitty pumpkin stencil” and Ella chose the one she liked best.

Here’s Ella with her stencil:

What you need for the stencil is:

• pumpkin
• pumpkin carver, my neighbor let us borrow her electric one.
• Big spoon for all the guts
• stencil of your choice
• lots of tape
• candle (I used votive ones)

After we carved them, we noticed a lot of light wasn’t shining through, so I had to go back and kind of thin out the inside lining of the pumpkin and make the lines a little wider.  I’m not sure if all pumpkins are really thick, but ours seemed to be.

I will say that it was pretty tedious, but I was really happy with how cute they turned out.  In the end, husband and I did all the work, while these two ran around and looked cute.

This was a no brainer pic.

Here’s a close-up!

Happy Halloween!

I love making wreaths.  Every since my first wreath two Christmas’s ago, I just can’t stop!  They are so easy and inexpensive.  I give them as teacher gifts for the holidays as well.

This fall wreath cost me about $5 to make.  The wreath part itself was on sale for $2.99 at Michaels.  Then you just pick out whatever accessories you want from the sale holiday isle.  They are usually range from 50 cents to $2 depending on how extravagant you get them.

I didn’t use any Halloween stuff this time, although there were plenty of Halloween items for those interested.  I wanted to be able to use the wreath through November as well so I kept it simple.

I just use hot glue and put it together how I want.  Looks great every time!

 

Here are a few we have made in the past:

 

Remember when I refinished my buffet?  I ended up redoing the kitchen table and chairs to match!  This is a set we have had for quite a while now and has survived three moves and three children.

It was pretty beat up so I was really anxious to refinish it once we got settled here in Florida.

The chairs were the worst because they have spindles and took a lot of extra time to paint.  I am pretty sure I will never do chairs again!

 

Supplies:

Oil based primer (I recommend Zinsser)
Sand paper and electric sander (sanding between coats and parts your are staining)
latex paint (I used a satin finish)
water based poly (I recommend Minwax Polycrylic)
Elmer’s wood filler (to fill in any grooves or scrapes)
Wood stain (I used the darkest stain I could find, Kona)

1.  Start by repairing any major scrapes or dents with Elmer’s wood filler.  I used a lot of this to fill in the natural grooves the table came with.  I hated them… food was always getting stuck in them.

2.  Start sanding!  Use an electric sander to sand off the tops of the chairs and the top of the table.  Make sure you get all the finish off.  Do not over sand unless you are sure your table is solid wood.  I did this and could see part of the particle board show through in one part.

3.  Clean all the dust and start priming the table and chair legs.  I did two coats.  Lightly sand any drips between coats.

4.  Ready to paint!  It takes two coats of latex paint on the table and chair legs.  Work slowly and carefully on the spindles to avoid clumps and drips.  Sand any drips between coats.  I also like to add some floetrol to my paint.  This helps condition your wood and also slows down the drying time to minimize viewable brush marks.

5.  Stain the top of the table and chairs.  Use painters tape as needed.  I did three coats of stain to get the color as dark as I wanted.  I used a stain called Kona.

6.  After 24 hrs I started the poly coats.  Make sure the poly is completely dry between coats.  I did three coats of poly.  Sand between coats as needed with a very fine grit sandpaper.

Make sure you wait 24 to 48 hrs before putting your table and chairs into regular use.  It turned out great!  We have been using it for a few months now and love it!

Again, with the beat up furniture from the move!  Ha.  I am slowly moving from project to project as I get settled in the new house.  I got this buffet about 6 years ago.  It was one of my first pieces of furniture I was able to buy after graduating from college and getting married.

I sold a lot of my stuff before the move, but I always loved this piece.  It got really beat up in the move… maybe because we pack all our stuff ourselves, or maybe because it drove from Virginia to Florida in an open trailer secured with ropes and bungee cords.  Oops.

Oh well… I actually LOVE the new look.  It fits in much better with the colors of my house.

 

I started out by sanding all of the little dings until they were nice and smooth.  After that I used Furniture Refinisher with steel wool to give me a good start on getting the top finish removed.  I wanted to stain the top so I really needed all the finish completely gone.

This had a really thick finish so I used the Furniture Refinisher to keep me from sanding my life away.  Make sure you use gloves if you decide to use this product for your project.

 

Then, I took an electric sander and used a medium grain sand paper to take off the rest of the finish.  After I dusted off the rest of the mess from sanding, I was ready to put on another coat of primer.

I like to use Zinsser Oil Based Primer from Lowes.  Sand lightly between all coats of primer and paint to remove any clumps or paint drips.

Next, I put on two coats of white latex paint in a satin finish.  I added a little floetrol to my latex paint.  This helps condition the wood and slows down the drying time so that there are less visible brush strokes.

I used a a dark stain called Kona on the top of the buffet.  I actually did 3 coats of this stain to get it as dark as I wanted it to be.  You can always get it a shade or two lighter using less coats.  I also sanded between coats to make sure it was extra smooth.

After 24 hrs of drying I started the poly coats.  I like to use a water based poly in the satin finish.  The oil based poly’s will yellow over time.  This might not show on a darker piece, but would be terrible on this white.  I recommend Minwax Polycrylic.  Again, make sure to sand between coats to make it extra smooth.

 

 

 

 

Check out my antique turquoise armoire I did as a recent guest post here.

 

We are finally settled into the house enough for me to start doing some crafts!  Yay!  I hope to never ever move again.  It is so much work and its seems that all my furniture gets a little bit more beat up with each move.

Anyway, you might have seen this project floating around pinterest from shopcraftwarehouse.blogspot.com.  I love it!  I love how easy it is to change out the pictures!  I have such a hard time choosing between pics anyway so this display makes it super easy to switch out picutres.

The original blogger used spray paint, magnets and metal sheets, but I didn’t want to deal with that so I used cork board under mine so that I could pin up the pictures instead of put them up with a magnet.  It just seemed a lot simpler.

SUPPLIES

• 3 Square frames (I used 10 x 10 with 8 x 8 photos, but 12 x 12 would look great too)
• Wood letter of your last name (found at any craft store)
• Acrylic paint color of your choice (I used beige)
• Cork board roll or squares (found at any craft store or on Amazon for $5.94)
• Burlap roll (found at any craft store)
• Hot glue gun

*** Paint your letter.  Carefully remove glass from all three frames.  Cut cork into squares to fit your frame and glue to inside cardboard backing of the frame.  Cut burlap to fit the frames you picked out and glue the corners unto the previously glued cork board squares.  Glue your wood letter to the middle of own of the cork squares.  Put your frames back together again and use any thumb tac to put up your square photos.

I am so excited about my newly redone dresser! It went from old and beat up to bright and beautiful!  I used a pre-tinted antiquing glaze to give it a really cool finished look.

Check out the tutorial on keepingitsimplecrafts.com where we featured as a guest blogger! Yay!

 

 

 

Isn’t it fabulous!  I am so in love with it!  Previously all my earrings were thrown all together in a jewelry box drawer.  I would have to shuffle through them digging for a match and could hardly even see all the earrings I had .

I admit, I probably spent more money on this than I would have liked.  I do LOVE it though and once I committed to making it work there was no stopping me.

I went to homedepot planning on getting chicken wire for this project and ended up finding this aluminum sheet in the roofing section that I loved instead.

I had the frame made to fit the 12″ x 24″ aluminum sheet at Michael’s using a 60% off coupon.  I had them make the frame, but told them not to cut any glass for it.  Then I used a glue gun to glue it in place before mounting it on the wall.

One thing about moving that I love is starting fresh and getting organized.  I organized both my spices and cooking utensils using these inexpensive drawer organizer from Walmart.

 

 

Michael’s Doller days is this week!  Yay!   This is like Christmas for a crafter like me!I have already gone twice this week!  My favorite deal this week is the two pack 16in x 20in canvases for $5.  If you dont like that size, you should know all the other canvases are 40% off this week.  Check out their dollar deal sale here.

So I bought a canvas for each of my boys to have fun with and then a pack for me to play with.

I made these easy tropical leaf prints for $8 total.  $5 for the canvases and $3 for the spray paint (after using my 40% off coupon found here).  My guest room walls were pretty bare so I am thrilled to have something to put on them and give the room some more color.  They took all of one minute to make.

1.  Pick a leaf with come good texture to it and grab your canvases.

2.  Put your leaf on your canvas

3.  Spray paint around it

 

Seriously, that is it.  Quick, easy, and inexpensive.

 

Here are the boys’ creations.  I hung them in the toy room.  They look great and the boys were excited about having them hung up.

Below, I’m linking to three Easter crafts and two yummy treats. Easter is right around the corner (March 31), so live it up before it gets here!

I just think this craft is so adorable.  It would even make a great party favor with some candy in it!

 

Check out this Bunny craft!

 

Click here to find out how to make this yummy popcorn cake!

 

This is such a fun way for kids to learn words that rhyme and how to sound out different words!  Check it out!

 

Look at these adorable little nests for candy eggs!

 

I just posted this two weeks ago, but it’s a good chance to pull out all those craft supplies!

It’s amazing how quickly the holidays come and go the older you get.  I feel like I get so caught up in time (and possibly the fact that I’m 29 weeks pregnant) that I forget to do things with my kids.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Winter can seriously peace out.  I’M OVER IT!!!!  While being stuck in the house today, my 3 year old and I made this cute bunny that I found here:

All you need is:

Plus, you’ll need some scissors and a hot glue gun.  So simple to make, yet so adorable!

After this, I just got out a bunch of craft things and just kind of let her go at it creatively on a new paper bag.  She loved it!  Happy Easter, a little early!