Halloween Fun

I love Halloween. I love decorating for Halloween. I just want to show you a few of the things I have made for the holiday this year. This is my book shelf in our Office.
I got the pictures from the internet and put them in frames. It is hard to see the one in the top corner but it is of a skeleton riding a bike which I thought was pretty cool, and very fitting for our home.
My favorite project was the potions. I bought the 4 different bottles at World Market all for $16. There are tons of cool labels to put on bottles I got theses from Love Manor (They really know how to do Halloween.) There is tons of different labels to use. I put them on with Mod Podge so they will last and it wouldn't matter if they get wet. Once we had the labels on I let the kids in on the fun of making the potions. They thought it was so fun to come up with the colors and creations.
I used the Bottles as a table decoration for our family Halloween party too.
I also made these cute Halloween plates with the use of my friends Cricut machine and glass etched in the design. I bought the plates at Target 4 for $7.


Lisa

A dresser for .E.

Back in June, our close friends moved out of state. During their move they decided that they did not want to move with this old dresser. So they gave it to me to see if I would like to fix it up. It has been sitting in the garage for months now and I have big plans for it but life during the summer was crazy so it took a while to get around to it.

I thought it was the cutest little dresser and I thought it would be so cute in a girls room. Unfortunately, there is no room in my little girls room for another dresser so I decided to make it for my niece. E just became a big sister when she got a new brother and sister this past week so she had given up her dresser to them. It was in pretty bad shape, so I recruited my handy man to help me out. The top was warped and curved up in the front. So it sat up about half an inch from where it should. We cut a new top for it out of a new piece of wood ($25 - still had some left over for another project). We also strengthened the drawers and replaced the nobs and pulls ($16).

E's room was just recently painted her favorite color - pink. So I wanted to make the dresser white as to not compete with the bright color of the room. We first primed the dresser and then started painting ($12 - 2 cans of Kylon primer and 2 cans of white Krylon Spray paint).

It looked good Bright white but I really love glazing furniture now a days and I really love the way it makes it look. Here is a picture of 2 drawers. The top drawer has been glazed and the bottom one has not, what a difference it makes. The details really stand out.
Here it is all finished, it is so cute. I was so excited to give it to her.

Here it is finished in her new pink room. I think it looks so cute, she loves it.
I love the legs on it, what character it brings to this piece of furniture.


Lisa

Boys Desks

My latest project, was to find a good homework/art area for my 2 boys (ages 9 and 6). They have cute little plastic desks that they have had for 3 years now, and are really starting to out grow them. We are so tired of the constant mess of art supplies, paper and them never knowing where a pencil is when it is time for homework. Since we recently re-organized our study area, I thought it would be a good time to up grade their desks. This is a picture of their current desks, they have been good desks but are just not cutting it these days.
I started out with the idea of using a filing cabinet for the drawers, lots of space for all their supplies. We found these 2 identical two drawer filing cabinets at the DI thrift store for a whopping $7 each.

Next we went to the Ikea for a table top. We considered making one out of wood ourselves until we found these at Ikea for $5.99 each, an amazing deal. I like these table tops not just for the price but also because they were already smooth, which didn't need any work. Also, I wanted them white anyways so it worked out perfectly. We also bought just one adjustable leg and a chair from Ikea for each desk. The cost of the leg and chair $30.

Erek is my little handyman, he is just as involved in these projects these days as I am. But he loves it, I'm sure. He help put it all together and made sure it would hold up to the abuse my boys will give it over the next few years.

Here is what we were in visioning.

Last, I wanted to add some color. I wanted to do something fun that the boys would like and to also make them look cool in our office area. All we had to do was spray paint the filing cabinets. First, I use primer, just Kyron spray paint kind. Then, we painted the base in just a semi-gloss white from Krylon. On the drawers I also used Krylon Ivy Leaf. I totally love how it all came together. I love the Ivy Leaf color and how the drawers just pop.


Total cost of the project $43 for each desk! I'm way excited to have a great place for the kids to work on their home work. They love having a place of their own that they can organize and work on projects.

Lisa