Christmas is coming!!!

Yes it is December 1st and it is snowing.I love Christmas.Everything about it.The shopping,the wrapping,the food.Yum.So why not use this time of year to use some of those boxes you've been hanging onto,you know the ones you keep just in case.In case what? They come in handy to wrap all those things that didn't come in a box.
Well I like to trick my kids when they look at their Christmas boxes and I try to use whatever quirky box or object I can just to throw them off my trail.
I've stuffed clothes down the tubes wrapping paper come in(mostly socks and underwear but mittens too)
This year I hung on to our Chinese food boxes and the pringles jars too.
I can't tell you what I stuffed into them because although the chances of my kids EVER reading my blog are slim...I am not taking any chances.

Take a look,no one will ever guess what's in these.

Scrabblicious!

While browsing the Internet for Christmas ideas I stumbled upon my Etsy link.
I found some really awesome stuff and began click click clicking to purchase some wonderfully handmade items to hand out to my beloved friends and family.
Then I realized "HEY! I can do that!"
So I did!Well I tried anyway.
I found these great little pendants from a little shop called Pieces of Me Pendants.She recycles(love that)scrabble pieces and typewriter keys into beautiful little gems.
I snagged a few of those beauties and congratulated myself on finishing off some shopping.
Then I ran to my games closet to dig out the old musty and dusty scrabble board to try and make some myself.
I rummaged around in my scrap paper and found some cute little papers and I tried printing off some lettering(gunna need to ask the kids how to do more intricate designs later).
I went to ebay and ordered some glue on bails(had no idea what these were called but they are the loopy thing that goes on the back) form HongKong...free shipping yay!.
I set out to work!Found some cute images online,since I am not planning on selling these I assume I am ok,and took some of my own pictures printing them out onto some paper.
Note...need a better printer but since they are so small 3/4 inch small...they will do.
So in totally I think each one will cost me about 65c.
Not too shabby eh!

All I wanted was a little room to call my own!!

It started out as a pretty simple plan(in my mind) to make our large and cluttered mudroom smaller,enabling me to create a new space.One for just me and my scrap booking fetish.
The plan went like this.
Step 1...knockout the closet
Step 2...knock out the interior window to make an opening for a new door.
Step 3...throw up a little bit of drywall,build a wall,lay down some carpeting,oh run some new hydro lines..voila.I'd be up and scrapping in no time.Right.

So once the wall was removed for the closet we debated on moving some flooring around.It's just one of those floating snap together floors and we were putting tile in the entryway instead ...so we started taking it apart.Worked just fine BUT...yep... but...my arch enemy reared it's ugly face.I've been fighting this enemy since the day we moved in,I knew he was hiding waiting biding his time,just waiting to strike back.
MOLD.Grr,mold all under the floor and yep you guessed it,up the wall too.
Off comes the floor,off comes the wainscoting,off comes the drywall and now the sub floor is about to be cut out.
It's gonna be a bit I think before I'm cozied up in my new little office.
Drat!

Scrappy day.

While cleaning out my kitchen drawers I noticed my spice jars needed a little update.
So I grabbed my scrapbook paper and began making some new labels for them.
They looked so cute I just kept going.I cleaned out my cupboards and put all my baking goods into jars and created labels for them too.Now I can see what I have and I think it looks pretty good too.
If only I could keep the kids out of the chocolate chip jar.

Exciting news!

Not only have I begun this journey,I have also began something new and exciting,and a little scary.
A friend and I have started a youth centre in our small town.We are offering art programs for all ages.
We plan to make this bigger and hopefully in a few years open a full fledged youth centre.
Today we start our first program.I'm so excited I feel sick!
I'll tell ya more about it later on.
Wish us luck!

When do you just give up?

I'm sure every DIYer has had this moment when something you thought was going to be great...well just isn't working.
I bought this little telephone cabinet one day.It's just made from plywood and my husband thought it was crap.Yep I'm pretty sure he said crap.

Those words just make me want to prove him wrong.
(He knows me so well..I hate to admit defeat and worse,I hate to admit he was right.)

So I removed the back and began sanding this piece,realizing all the while,I think he actually might be right.Dang it!I refuse to give in.

After priming the piece and realizing that even primer isn't adhering,I wonder what I should do next.Firewood? Never it cost me a dollar!I sand'er down again and put a second coat of primer on.
Well that's better so I forge ahead and give it a couple coats of paint.Nice,it was looking good until ..yep until. While placing it ever so gently down,the lid pops open smacks a piece of metal and scraps off the paint.

That was three days ago.
I think I need to stay away for a bit.

I'll fix it later.

Foot notes

After deciding that this was what I really wanted to do I began my hunt for new treasures,not that I don't have enough stuff hanging about but anyway...I found this really cute little footstool.It was not in very good shape at all.There was water damage,the veneer began to buckle and peal,the top was quite dirty and stained.I got it at a great price and dragged it home.
My kids heard me talking about how I wanted to turn this into a business that with any luck I could actually make a couple bucks too.Well they thought it would be great to help mom and they'd get paid too.Yep,that lasted for all of five minutes when they realized how hard it really is to strip off veneer that doesn't want to be stripped.
After some grunting and groaning and sweat dripping from my body,I managed to wrestle the footstool down and took care of all that cracked material.
I removed the top,and sanded the stool down in preparation for priming.
After a few coats of primer and paint I had my stool ready to reupholster.
Now I love buying stuff from Ebay...who doesn't but sometimes when you get excited and start clicking,you don't always get what you thought you were going to get.
Needless to say I bought some material that once it came,wasn't what I thought I had bought but upon further investigating.I did.
That's OK though because it really is cute and I will use it for another project.
So I did manage to find some great material though.Again at a great bargain form a second hand store.They had a bunch of leftover material bagged up and I thought it looked cool.
So this is what I used and I think it turned out great.I like It so much I'd like to keep it but alas,I'll never make any money if I don't actually try to sell the stuff I've made now will I.

Cage the Clutter

So a couple years ago I found this great box while shopping at a secondhand store.I just knew I had to have it and so I bought it.
I wasn't sure what it was used for but I knew a man had owned it.It likely housed lots of screws,bolts,oily things and a bunch of useless things that men think they have to have.
It had paint spilled on it and smelled kinda funky but I knew it was worth buying so I snatched it up for 20 bucks.As I walked to the van with my new treasure my mind began conjuring a story for my husbands sake about where I found it and how much it was.I had my story all planned out and when I said "Hey look hunny at my new fabulous find",he glanced over (and I'm sure he rolled his eyes)and said,"Hmm thats nice."
No story needed here.
So I cleaned it up and it sat on my coffee table,piano,side table..wherever the mood took me, for the next few years.It housed,remotes,magazines,all those wires that come with Playstation,Nintendo etc until the day I decided it was taking up too much horizontal space.All it did was collect dust and since everyone put their cups full of milk,koolaid and rum(yum) on it,no one could ever get into it without making a mess.
So I thought to myself,"Self..what to do with it?"
I decided to make a message board out of it.Yay! now all those school papers and stuff I know I NEED to keep but not always sure why,have a place to go,instead of my refrigerator door.
I used some foam insulation leftover from our workshop and covered it in some leftover scrap material.
Voila!
Looks great on my wall and houses all those papers I hate so much.

I plan on making more out of old windows my husband brought home.
I can't wait.

Welcome .My first blog.(I hope)

While my friend and I were lamenting to each other about our mid life crisis and all the things we'd like to do if only....(and listening to my husband complain about me needing to get a job..ahem excuse me?)
It came to me,I want to do something I love to do otherwise I'll just be grumpy...and no one wants that I assure you.
I love to recycle stuff,buy something that no one else wants and make it into something beautiful eg..my house,but that's a whole other story...
So why not?My friend has an eye for finding cool stuff (insert husband rolling eyes here and substituting junk for cool..) and I thought I'd suck her into my plans too.
We both love"junk hunting"I love a bargain,I just love making things beautiful again,and I want to do it as cheaply as I can because I hate spending money if I can help it.
Did I tell you I love the dump?Cool stuff gets thrown away there.I once got a whole piano!
Anyway,so this is my plan,Julia and I will be recycling some great stuff into new great stuff.And people will flock to us and buy everything!!!(sigh)
That's a job.

Right?