Rocking the Patio

Our patio furniture was on the blink and was crashing our style. 

In walked The Handbuilt Home into our lives bringing farmhouse table plans that caused a run to Lowe's, 

an all night building party, 

and a new table. 

We added lights, pillows, a rug and flowers.

We now have a place to start our mornings  

and end our evenings

and we love it.

 

Hanky Art ...

I finally got around to taking my Christmas cards down and put away in a photo album and was left with a naked chicken wire frame.

No one needs a naked chicken wire frame. 

So handkerchiefs to the rescue along with some copies of old family photos. 

It adds such a nice touch of color as well as act as a remind of all the strong women who have led our family for many generations. 

Getting Ahead on my Christmas List ...

Before you have my head, rest assured I am ahead on my Christmas list right now due to being behind on my Christmas list last year. 

Thank you for seeing the glass half full with me on this. 

My sweet husband cut the letters out for me, so I had to actually do something with them beside having them scattered all over our breakfast room. 

After painting them, I had the pleasure of embellishing them using tattered chevron fabric flowers with a twist and roll burlap flower on top. A faux rhinestone was added to make it look even fancier. 

I have some ladies in my life that I hope will enjoy hanging these on their front door. 

Next on my list were scarves made out of knit fabric. 

I was inspired by a yellow scarf I bought at a local boutique.

I apologize for keeping you in suspense of what exactly this yellow scarf looks like. 

I will have to remember to take a picture the next time I wear it. I had to give it a month off because I wore it out during December. 

I also made some Mother's Day gifts, but clearly could not post those because our mothers read this dear blog. 

I must confession that since these projects, I have not crafted since due to feeling very good on getting a head start on our gift list. 

Word

I have seen where people have been using some old patterns to make different things, so I decided to give it a try with a little sign. I found several patterns at the ReStore for $.50. I modged-podged it to the back of a picture frame, and glued some Scrabble holders on it. I love how I can change out the Scrabble letters to make different greetings and sayings.

Have a Seat

I wrote about thrifting with my sister awhile back where I found a $5 chair and a $1 chair. 

I made my own chalk paint using a recipe from Iheartnaptime, 

I mixed two colors in order to make this smoky gray, and it worked out perfectly. I really liked using the chalk paint, and am still debating whether to continue to make my own or try some of the Annie Sloan paint. 

Like I said, I only paid $5 for this lovely cane chair. 

I love the little details! 

Chalk paint, as I am sure you know, is used on furniture to prevent you from having to sand. This paint attached itself beautifully to the chair. 

I did put a little bit of the vaseline before painting so that I could distress easier. 

Even though there is a little damage on the back, their was nothing a little paint and a pillow could do. 

It found a place in the corner of my living room ...

The other chair is one that I adore ...

I recovered it with a coffee sack that I had. 

I didn't really want to distress this one as much. 

Very cute! 

And yes, both chairs are safe to sit in, regardless of what Ken says. 

Signs, Signs, Every Where's a Sign ...

Recently, in accessorizing our home, I jumped on the crazy pallet wood band wagon. 

  Ken even joined in and brought home pallet wood to tear apart. I finally got around to making a few signs out of them. I did them two ways.

First way:

I made a stencil from vinyl on my Circut, laid it on the board, and then proceeded to paint over it.

Clearly had to go back and re-cut that "W"

Second way:

                I made a stencil from freezer paper on my Circuit, ironed it on the wood, and proceeded to paint over it.

 

                First verses second:

                Truly, I liked the freezer paper as far as easy and quick was concerned. It ironed great on the wood, however, the paint bled through in some areas that I did not iron down as well. The vinyl took time to lay over the wood, but it stuck better. The paint did not bled through like the freezer paper. Next time, I think I will just use freezer paper and iron it on better. 

I also used freezer paper on this burlap:

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