Refinished Picture Frame

We recently decided to have a Relief Society Activity called "Purposely Repurposing." We had a few sisters in the ward come and teach about making your own headboard and refinishing furniture, but my favorite part was all the displays we set up of items people had repurposed. I got tons of new ideas, got to go through my own home and find what I had created and even finish a few projects that I had been meaning to do.

This cake stand was made with a glass glued to a plate and then  painted. The picture fame turned Jewelry Holder was made with chicken wire, fabric and adding knots.

Check out the height recorder that you can take with you now matter where you move and the wreath is made form an old book.

There is so much to see on this table. I love the use of candle holders. The orange candle holder was a Goodwill find that was spray painted.

One of the lady bought this dresser mirror at Goodwill and painted the frame gray. She painted the mirror with chalkboard paint. So Cute.

I found this globe at the Pottery Barn Outlet. It was ripped, so took it to a manager and asked him so mark down the price for me. He did so I bought it and painted it with chalkboard paint. I then got a friend to cut out these letters for me with her Vinyl machine. Love it!

Did you notice the Blue Chicken Wire Picture Frame? Perhaps you remember it from Austin's birthday.











The Frame was a Goodwill find. I thought the gold was perfect for Austin's special day, but after the party I got the idea to paint it in my favorite blue. I started by filling in any of the imperfections with wood puddy and then primed and painted it. I then purchased a roll of chicken wire from Home Depot and stapled the chicken wire onto the back of the frame. Then using small clothes pins I attatched pictures and invitations I needed to remember. Perfection.

Austin's Dragon

Written by Austin: Our school had a 4th grade valentine box competition. I decided to make a dragon and with my mom's help this is what he looked like.

 He was chewing on a heart.

I won my class room competition and my dragon was placed along with a few other in the front of the school. The entire school voted on which one they liked best. Here are some pictures of the boxes that my box was going against.

Finally the day arrived when it was time to announce the winners. I WAS ROBBED! or at least that is what my mom thinks. First place was the Effiel Tower(17), second was the LT basketball hoop(19), third was the tank (6). It doesn't matter... I get to keep my dragon and I named him Norbert.

Don't Pick the Cherry

Last fall I bought a cute cherrywood clock for only $35 from a member of our church. I was so excited, BUT then my sweet children were playing around it and knocked it over, leaving it in three pieces. I was so sad and asked my husband to just throw it away. Mark knew I was bummed so he collected the pieces and put them up in one of our attic spaces. This summer while the kids and I were on vacation he went to work gluing the clock back together. He was so proud and couldn't wait to show me all his hard work.

Now I was excited to make the clock more of my style.

(I am not a big Cherrywood fan.)

So check out what I did with the help of my sweetheart and my friend Beth.

  

I'm loving it!

Entertainment Center

As we were refinishing the ceiling and walls in the Family Room I keep thinking of the changes that I would like to make to the room. I pulled out the ugly vertical blinds and the large black shelves. The room started to open up so I looked for more changes that I could make. I refinished the coffee table and pulled a small book shelf out of Colin's bedroom and painted it white, but I was still faced with our large entertainment center and with very little money to replace it. Then a miracle happened ... a friend and neighbor offered to build me what I wanted. So with the help of my neighbor I designed this amazing entertainment center, he built it, and I sanded, painted, and finished it.

 I am one lucky girl! Thanks Mark S.!

 This is what I found when i went to pick it up from his garage workshop.

 I had to pull it apart in order to finish it.

 At this point all it needed was the backing.

All for the price of materials.

Funky Coffee Table

Last Spring Mark and I stopped by a garage sale and found this sad unloved coffee table. I say sad because it had obviously been in someone's garage for some time and was full of spiders. (yuck) I knew that it had potential, so I talked Mark into paying the $10 for it and it moved from someone else's garage into ours. After many months of having to squeeze by it I moved it into the house and sanded it down. It then looked something like this.

I thought about painting it a nice black, but then I was over come with the idea that I needed more color in our house, so it became green.

But painting it a nice bright green didn't seem like enough color, so I sorted through my paper collection and came up with this. ↓

With the help of a little Mod Pog my table now looks like this.

Take out or Keep the Trash?

I was fixing the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom, which had been damaged by a leak in the upstairs bathroom and I wanted to have new bathroom fixtures. Mark and I replaced the towel racks, toliet paper holder, and faucet (pictures to come). With all these expenses I wasn't looking forward to paying $30 for a new trash can to match, but I did have this ugly trash can which I decided to give a make over.

With the help of some scrapbooking paper and and little modpodge I ended up with this.

I love it!