#thriftstoreswap

I'm finally back! Excuse my sudden hiatus from everything. My computer caught some strange virus thing that kept me from being able to get online. And me, being very tech knowledge limited, had not a clue what to do to fix it. But all is well now. And just in time for this super awesome Thrift Store Swap!

I teamed up with 5 wonderful ladies in a fun exchange. We each were paired with another blogger and had a $10 spending limit to play with.

I was paired up to receive from MidMichigan Mom and to send something to At Home with Sweet T.

So this is what I got from MidMichigan Mom...

Opening the package was like Christmas and I was beyond excited with the treasures I got.

I am currently working on fixing up and decorating the indoor balcony that connects to my daughter's room and goes out into our sun/green room. I wanted her to have a cool "hideaway" just for her. So I knew I wanted to use these items to create some neat decorations for that space.

The color palette for the balcony.

I started with the candle sticks and "&". The "&" I didn't want to do too much with. I thought i was pretty cool already. But I did need to brighten it up with a coat of spray paint. I had some leftover from my DIY bird bath, so I just knocked it out quick.

Isn't it just so cute?! I couldn't bring myself to mess with it too much with all that beautiful detail. And it fits so perfectly on top of these cute little Winnie the Pooh board books I got from the Target Dollar Spot.

The candlesticks also needed some paint. So I took a can of baby pink to those suckers and made them all girly. I was inspired by this teacup bird feeder and thought what would go better with pink in a little girl's hideaway than tea cups?

I picked up a couple from the clearance section of Marshall's along with two porcelain birds with cut out details to sit inside of them. I then glued some pearls I found at Michael's around the bottom of the candlesticks and made a little nest of moss inside for the birds to sit on.

Are you ready for the magical bit? I noticed that the birds had holes on the underside. So I picked up LED color changing tea lights from the Dollar Tree to put inside to make them glow.

Next I tackled the weird box game thing. The bottom of this box actually pulls out to reveal a storage compartment. A secret hiding spot!

The best secret hiding spots are ones that look like something else. So I pulled out the little horse figurines I had glittered for Arlette's first birthday (I knew I would use those things again) and created a wild glitter pony scene.

I painted the box coral, glued some moss on top, and then picked out the best looking ponies to run free through the "grass".

I think this is my favorite piece out of the bunch.

I wish glitter ponies were real.

The hidden compartment.

All together everything looks so cute on the shelves.

Finally I had the 3 pieces of leather. I thought it would be cool to frame them with some sort of art. Following with the theme of nature and birds, I picked up some white feathers from Michaels. I painted the tip of them to match the color scheme and then colored the rest of each feather with a metallic gold sharpie. Then I just glued them to the leather and framed them with Dollar Store frames.

I am so in love with how everything turned out! It has added so much neat character to the balcony.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I turned someone else's "junk" into little treasures for my daughter. What would you have done with all these goodies?

Now go check out how MidMichigan Mom and At Home With Sweet T did up their swap items! They're pretty amazing.

Or hop around amongst the other ladies who took part in the swap and see what they made:

CC McAfee Perspective
Five Kids, a Dog & a Blog
Happily Ever After, Etc.

DIY Bird Bath

When we moved into our house there was a random patch of overgrown grass and weeds in the front yard. For a while we ignored it, figuring there was some sort of rabbit den there. Finally we actually looked at the darn thing and found that the original owners had left a broken bird bath there and just mowed around.

When we moved the bath and mowed down the weeds we had this ugly patch in the lawn that screamed for some fixing up. Looking around on Pinterest I found many folks who turned a couple of large clay planting pots into a bird bath. I really liked how they came out and thought it would be perfect for the "spot" in the yard.

This project was pretty fun and can easily be completed in an afternoon. I went to the Home Depot and picked up two 16" terra cotta planting pots, a 16" terra cotta saucer, 3 cans of Rust-Oleum Universal spray paint in matte Robins Egg blue, a Sharpie oil-based marker in black, and Gorilla Glue all-purpose.

I started by stacking my pots. Place one upside-down, put a thin line of glue in a circle around the bottom and stack the second pot right-side up on top of that. It takes about an hour for the glue to set. 

Check on it a couple of times while you wait. Gorilla glue actually expands to fill in cracks and holes to bond the two pots. Some of my glue ran down the sides. I just used a plastic bag wrapped around my finger to smooth it out and avoid bumps of glue.

Once the glue dried it was time to put my saucer in. This acts as the bath portion that holds the water. I saw in most DIY's that folks bought a really huge saucer to simply place on top of the pots. This is great to make for easy changing of dirty and clean water. You just pick it up and place it on the pots. The end. However, I had plans to put plants around my bird bath and didn't want to worry about the saucer falling off and squashing everything or the whole bath getting caught in the wind and blowing over (we've had some really strong gusts take down huge tree limbs). I opted for a saucer that fit snuggly inside the top of my pot to create a very sleek bath.

It was a little tricky lowering the saucer in. I actually had to use some plastic I had from a box I had delivered and used it to try to lower it into the pot as flat as possible. It would have been super smart of me to use a level with this part, but I was to excited about getting to the spray painting potion. So my saucer is slightly tilted. I look at it like a swimming pool for birds with a shallow end that slopes to the deep end (1 point to me for looking on the bright side).

Once the saucer was snuggly fitted, I went around the edge with glue.

When the project was completed I found that there were some open spots that drained my water. If this happens to you just pick up a can of caulk to fill in the crack. I just bought some DAP clear all-purpose caulk so I wouldn't have to spray paint it again. If you can only use white be sure it is the kind that is ok to paint over.

Now the fun part! PAINT! The brand that I bought is nice because it is safe for outdoor use on any surface and it sprays in a fine mist. This kept from having running paint streaks or weird bubbles form after drying. Added bonus of the fine mist, it dries super quick! It took about 2 1/2 cans to cover everything fully.

Tim to decorate! I used a pencil to outline some stencils I had printed of the fox and bear silhouettes I use in my banner. I then used the oil-based sharpie to "paint" them in. Make sure you are only using the oil Sharpies and not the regular ones. They are water proof so you don't have to follow up with any clear spray paint to seal them.

Finally, after digging out some large weed roots from the "spot", I had my husband move the bath over (because that sucker was heavy) and put down some soil.

We had decided to plant some berries around the bird bath. Since we already have a raspberry bush we really wanted some strawberries. At the Home Depot I found these berries called Hula Berries that are like inverse strawberries (they are white with red seeds) and are supposed to taste like pineapple! They came in a 4 pack of 3 hula berry plants and 1 strawberry plant (it acts as the pollinator).

The only thing left is to pick up some bricks to create a border around the patch. 

Total cost of this project was about $85 with tax and left me with leftover materials for future projects. Baths at the Home Depot of a similar weight and quality run at least $10 more. Granted, that isn't a whole heck of a lot, but you get a personalized piece for your home. Plus, how super cute would this be with your kids hand prints in all sorts of colors all over it? Or an American flag one?!

I love how everything turned out and can't wait to see what types of visitors our new bath brings to our home.

How to build a custom rustic headboard

So I found this wall art at Target about a month before we moved into our house.

And I have basically been building our master bedroom around it. I'm not sure if that is "right" when decorating your home, but I vaguely remember them doing something like this back in the days of Trading Spaces, so I just went with it.

Last week I came across this totally awesome image...

And I thought, "Hey, how awesome would that be for a headboard?!" So off to Home Depot we went!

We picked up six 8" pine planks that measured 6' long, Minwax "Weathered Oak" stain, a pack of foam brushes, and some wood putty. I wanted to have the headboard mounted on the wall rather than connecting it to the the bed. Garrack drilled a couple of 2x4 pieces he had laying around into the wall to mount the headboard on.

Before I had him start putting up the planks we played around with the wood "patterns" until we got something we liked.

I was so happy that we went with the pine. I like the knots and cracks in the wood. I think it gives it so much more character. The planks we found were also cut in a manner that allows you to kind of layer them (I don't know what the proper term is for these types of planks). But after staining it made the headboard look like it was made of reclaimed barn wood (you'll see what I mean in just a second).

So once we had arrange the boards just right, Garrack got to work.

I let him do this stuff. He's an engineer and this sort of thing is just second nature to him. He can pump it out no problem. If it was left just to me, I would probably still be trying to figure out the math to insure everything fit the right way. So, yeah. I'm the creative mind, he does the hard labor, and then I finish things off with my artistry.

So once we got the boards up we just quickly sanded the rough edges of the screw holes, filled them with wood putty, and then sanded everything with a belt sander when the putty was dry.

While Garrack sanded, I worked on getting things put together for my stencil. I wanted to do some deer antlers with our last initial in the middle. After Google searching for antler silhouettes I chose these:

Now, if you are a Mac user like me, you may not be able to print poster images (where you print the photo over several pages). I searched ALL OVER for instructions and found nothing useful. So I used a website I stumbled on called The Rasterbator. It will take any photo and convert it into a file to be printed out as a low quality poster. And it's FREE!

So once I had all my pages printed out I cut out the pieces and taped my antlers together.

By this time Garrack had finished sanding and the rest of the project was in my hands. So I put on some old clothes and got to work!

If you've never worked with stain before, don't worry, it is super easy. This was actually my first time working with stain. To be honest, I was worried I might "do it wrong". But I just went for it and soon realized that my fears were unnecessary. I mean, how much easier could it be? Brush it on, wipe it off, you are a staining Queen!

After I applied one coat I realized that if I put my stencil up there and tried to stain over it, I would have a major problem on my hands. So I turned to a technique I learned in USMC boot camp that I call "poor mans lamination". To keep photos from our families clean and safe from damage we would take clear packing tape and "laminate" them on the front and back. So I did the same with my stencils. It's as easy as taping the front, back, and then cutting away the extra tape.

So when the first coat of stain was dry, I pinned up my stencil to apply the second coat over it. But I soon realized two issues with my stencils. First, it was too thin to really make a noticeable "picture". Second, having the headboard already up on the wall caused the stain to run down and made it hard to avoid bleeding under the stencil. So I moved onto plan B and applied a full second coat of stain.

I was happy with the look of two coats so I moved forward with my backup plan and TRACED my stencil.

I took a trip over to Michael's and bought some Folkart Acrylic Paint in "Pure Black" and a pack of Craft Smart filbert brushes golden taklon.

And I got to painting! I started out with a rough outlining and filling in of the trace, and then went back and cleaned it up.

And the final product...

I am so in LOVE with this headboard!

The biggest thing to remember is that it isn't going to be perfect. And that is ok. I actually LIKE that my antlers aren't exactly straight. It shows that I made this and I did it by hand and that it is MINE. Perfection isn't all it is cracked up to be.

So even though my finished product isn't what I started out wanting, I am so glad that this is how things turned out. I think it looks even better then if I had stained over the stencils.

And now, I have the DIY bug. Expect more how-to's like this in the future. (YEAH!)