Home Sick

No, really, I'm home sick today. Actually, in a kind of recovery after two days of regurgitating all attempted food intake.

And, we recently canceled our cable - so no lifetime movies or hours of HGTV for me. What's a girl to do? Stalk blogs obviously. And because I have mommy fever I've been all over this one and this one and this one. Though I'll admit that Say Yes to Hoboken had me most attached and dreaming up my future in motherhood.

Came across some fun ideas -

Source: momtastic.com via Alexa on Pinterest

Source: americanapparel.com via Alexa on Pinterest

And doing this fun activity featured on Momtastic:

The baby's future room is a complete and total disaster right now (read: new water heater required emptying the whole over-stuffed closet). Otherwise, I would gladly show you a couple of things we've already salvaged for the little Lougee.

Another question: how do you feel about the safety of older cribs? Like ones passed down from family or say, found left behind?

shabby me timbers

I rehabbed this chair ... a little sand, a lotta paint and bam! 

Pretty. 

Now the question, do I sand to add a shabby quality to it or not?? I really want your advice. Would you rather have it in your home like this or with a little more character to it? 

And, in case you're interested ... this chair will be available for purchase at the May 2011 Something Special Bazaar. I will be at the my Mom & Aunt's 'Sisters Shic' booth. 

The show is May 14th in La Grande at the Riveria School. 

I'll see you there! 

In which I announce a winner winner chicken dinner.

This weekend has been sooo productive! I've been trying my rusty DIY skills at some things ... including sanding and painting a chair - which I will have to share with you ... tomorrow? I need your advice on it anyway.

I've been wanting to try doing book book shelves for a year! Ever since I saw this:

So, with the Huz at Scout Camp, I ventured into the Do-it-Yourself world of spray paint and drills.
I picked up corner braces at Wally World for under two bucks. These ended up being perfect for the size of books I was using. If you're using larger books, get larger braces.

I actually, successfully, made one shelf when I decided I wanted to paint the metal white to kind of blend in with the white walls that are throughout our entire apartment. So, I removed the shelving. What you need to also be aware of is that our apartment managers are the spawn of Nazis. Well, maybe not, and I'm not meaning to be offensive. But, they're old - like 70s old - they've been living and managing at these apartments for over 20 years and they have a bazillion rules they've made up and hold tenants to to the T. It's rather exhausting, really. So I don't even dare try and spray paint outside, because, oh yeah, they live directly across from us. They're living room window stares at our living room window, and for a while there I was absolutely convinced WE were their weeknight primetime TV viewing. Anyway, I digress ... I also didn't want to walk across the busy three lane street to a gravel pit to have to spray paint. I decided to just use our spare room! 

If you attempt in home spray painting, be sure to lay down plenty of newspaper. Also, open up the window as far as possible and set up a fan on the opposite end of the open window to direct fumes and paint THAT direction. 

 My personal set up. 

It only took one coat of this stuff to make the braces less metalish. 

I used a drill head like this to make the holes in the wall. Then simply screwed in screws in the two braces on bottom and on on top. Think of it as a brace sandwhich.

Then you just slide the book in between the top and bottom braces! Here's my finished product. 

(Just tilt your head to the left about 90 degrees!)

And then my hunk came home and we enjoyed the rest of our weekend together. Including a little open house for Eric's sister Elizabeth and our new brother-in-law Stan. Deemed, Stanibeth. 

Okay okay, and NOW for the WINNER! 

Karen Kevan

Thank you to all the participants...I so appreciate the support! 

And keep coming back because I've already got more goodies in the works and I love having a place to show you my fun, finds and DIY stuff! 

Favorite Finds Friday: Going Global

So, I love the stuff I find. That's why I buy it (or get it for free, whatevs). I've decided to share with you some of my favorite things that I've found over the years that are still around my apartment. 

Have you seen that globes are all the rage this year? I've seen them everywhere! I've seen them in magazines, online, on etsy. They run anywhere from $20 - $100 bucks or more! 

 My aunt Steph, my grandma, my mom and I all went up to Spokane for the annual show Farm Chicks show last June. We took the scenic route on the way up and stopped at a couple of shops Steph had heard about or been to. One of them was The Hangar Antique Mall in Clarkston, Washington. It is huge and fun and great! We stopped there and I picked up a few of my favorite finds! One of them is this guy. 

Can you guess how much he set me back?

Try $5 bucks!

Yep, a fist full of dollar bills! I'm pretty proud of this find!

So, the weekend is coming ... do you have any fun plans??
The Huz is off to 11 year-old overnight scout camp (he's a co-scout leader). So, I have a bit of me time! For this time I've got a whole agenda - we'll see how many of them get done:

• Sand and paint a chair I picked up a while go at a yard sale.
• Try making a book shelf - as in a shelf out of a book. 
• Mop the kitchen. 
• Dust the living room. 
• Exercise. 
• Watch HGTV and a chick flick. 
• Go yard saling! 
• Sew a burlap pillow case. 
• Post NEW, fabulously salvaged items to the shop. 

I'll let you know how these go .... let me know about YOUR projects!