Mardi Gras Mantel

Happy Lundi Gras Everyone! (If you have no idea what I just said it's ok!) Lundi is French for Monday. So Lundi Gras = Fat Monday. It is the day before Mardi Gras (a.k.a. Fat Tuesday which is tomorrow!!) 


I started celebrating a few weeks ago when I made my Mardi Gras Wreath for the front door. This weekend the Air Force base had a small parade that we participated in. We helped decorate a float for the Mardi Gras parade they had go through the base on Friday.

We used plastic table cloths and Mardi Gras decorations to fix it up. Not to bad considering most people around here have never even heard of Mardi Gras.

The Con-Man enjoyed himself. He caught some beads and chocolate!

I did some decorating around the house with beads and Mardi Gras items I've caught in past New Orleans parades to get into the Mardi Gras Spirit.

People often ask me if I "showed" anything for my large beads. The answer is NO! Absolutely not. I may have knocked over some elderly people and small children trying to catch them though. Just kidding (kind of...)

And we had an extra special surprise in the mail when we came home to find a King Cake on our door step!!!

My super awesome MIL send it to us all the way from Louisiana! Now our weekend was complete.

Now if I could only find a place that sold some of this out here in Middle of Nowhere Oklahoma:

My Lenten Season could really begin!

Do you celebrate Mardi Gras? Any Oklahoma readers know where to find boiled crawfish?? Seriously I need some-

Salvaged Barn Wood Sign

Thanks for all the great replies to my Design Trend post! I myself try to do my own thing when it comes to decorating- I like to think my style is unique. But I love to look at what other people are doing and see what cool new trends come along each year. It's neat to hear how other people feel about it too.


Today I wanted to share a fun project I made out of some salvaged barn wood. I scored it a few months ago when I was searching for some salvaged wood for my coffee table project. I was at my favorite salvage shop when I saw these guys sitting out front:

I asked the owner about them- he said it was pieces of wood from an old barn. I asked how much he wanted for them- and he said I could just have them!! SCORE!

This was back in October and I finally did something with one of the pieces. They are both pretty large and I thought the rectangular one would make a really cool sign I could sell on consignment. I wanted to keep them as rustic as possible because I really like the character it has. So I gave it a light sanding and cleaned up any cobwebs and junk on it.

Then I smeared a bunch of Gorilla Wood Glue on the back to fill in any crevices. I did this to to try and make it more study and strong.

Once the wood was all prepped I used my Silhouette to create a "HOME" cut out and painted it white with some DecoArt paints.

Next I sanded the wording down a little to give it an aged vintage look.

Next to add a little whimsy I again used my Silhouette to cut out a Fleur De Lis and painted it gold.

Then I used some clear sealant and sealed the whole thing. It gave the wood a rich look.

I think it turned out pretty cool and hopefully someone else will too!  

Oh Oh OH! I almost forgot- this past weekend I started work in Con-Man's new Big Boy Bed! I got a lot done in the short amount of time I was there. Check it out!

Those 2 boxes are the bottom part of this:

Oh and guess what else! I'm super pumped because we're are leaving for a family vacation to Disney World tomorrow! The hubs and I haven't been since we were small, and it will be Con-Man's first time going. I can't wait! But not to worry- I have lots of posts lined up in the meantime. So if I don't respond to something right away it's not that I'm ignoring you; it's because I'm schmoozing it up with Mickey Mouse. :D

*Due to the large amount of spam comments have been disabled*

Latest Thrifty-ness

A friend and I decided to venture out of Altus and check out some of the thrift/ antique stores the surrounding cities. Our first stop was Blair, OK. Calling it a city is a stretch; its more of a town. (The high school, middle school, and elementary are all in the same building!) But it's the closest town to Altus so thats where we went.


The best place we went was Schoolhouse Collectibles. I knew it was going to be awesome the minute we drove up. Outside treasure trove of rusty junk. We had to stop here. 

(These wheels are as tall as I am! I wanted one but it was a little unnecessary) 

There was one guy working there and they are only open on Saturdays. Though he was really nice I thought his prices were a bit high (I mean we are out in the middle of nowhere...). I felt like I'd pay the same prices back in San Antonio.

So while there was a ton of stuff I wanted I only walked away with 3 things. Which is bad because I told the hubs I wouldn't buy anything- oh well!

The first thing I got was this old ceiling tin.

It's a little beat up, I literally dug it out of the ground. He sold it to me for $10- not bad considering the shape it's in. I figure I can make something out of it.

The first thing I saw when we walked inside was this Fleur de Lis frame. 

I love Fleur de Lis, they reminds me of home in Louisiana. There were a few of them all marked $7 and up. I liked the frame on this one so I grabbed it.

The other thing I got was this Stop Sign and I now consider it my most prized possesion. 

That might be weird but when I saw it I fell in love- I've always wanted a stop sign! And the bullet holes in it just made it that much cooler. 

He had some other stop signs priced around $40, but some of the older ones were more like $60. This one wasn't marked. So I asked him- he glanced around and said $40. After some friendly banter about LSU and Oklahoma I asked him if he'd take $30. For an LSU fan he said he would. Later I think he realized that he gave me a better deal than he wanted because he kept saying the older ones like mine usually go for more and that I could sell it for double that if I wanted. So I quickly paid and got out of there before he changed his mind!

The hubs was not so impressed with my sign. My idea of hanging it in the dining room didn't seem to thrill him all that much. I thought it would be funny hanging over our wine rack- he wasn't so sure. (The fact that I had told him I wasn't going to buy anything in the first place didn't help I'm sure)


After mulling it over I had an epiphany. Con-Man's room! Soon I'm going to redo his room in a car theme- the Stop Sign will be perfect! He's going to be the coolest kid on the block. I'm so excited about it.


How about everyone else? Any good thrifting adventures lately? Every bring something home that raises your spouses eyebrows?

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras!! Just because we live in Texas doesn't mean I can forget about one of my favorite holidays. Back Home in Louisiana we would have gotten today and yesterday off to celebrate. Mardi Gras is a whole season long known as Carnival Season. It's starts on January 6th (the Feast of the Epiphany) and goes until the day before Ash Wednesday. In Louisiana there are parades, balls, and parties all season long.

We had a Mardi Gras party and had all our decorations out.

Beads!

More Beads!

And of course King Cake.

I had to order my King Cake from a bakery in Louisiana. Some of the bakeries in Texas try to make King Cakes, but it's just not the same cinnamon-y, sprinkly, icing goodness we get back home. The great thing about King Cakes is not only do they taste good you could get a prize in you piece!

 If you get the baby you're King or Queen of the day! But, there is a catch. The King or Queen is expected to have another Mardi Gras party, thus another King Cake!

With all this excitement you might think I've forgotten all about my stripey chair upholster. Nope- still working on it. I'm hoping to finish it in time for The CSI Project contest this week.

If not oh well as we say- Laizzez les Bons Temps Rouler (Let the Good Times Roll!)! Happy Mardi Gras!

Curtain Rods!!

Finally! Finally I used my new welder- yay! I had been thinking about the Fleur De Lis Fence Rails I mentioned in an earlier post that I've been carting around for the last 2 years. I decided it was finally time to use them or lose them. A little back story about the fencing rails and why I love them so much. Besides the fact that they are Fleur De Lis' they have a really cool rusty patina that I love. They came from a fence that surrounded the parking lot of my old job. I would walk by everyday and gaze at them.  

One morning as I walked to work I noticed someone had pulled two of them off. And one other one had been tampered with as well. Hmmm, what's a girl to do? Well I did nothing about it for over a week. And they were still there- calling my name. Confession time: one day after work I decided to go for it. I drove up, threw the 2 on the ground into the car and pulled (yanked..) the third off the fence! Was this wrong? Maybe, hindsight is 20 x 20. The fence overall is still fine, I'm not the one who pulled them off to begin with. So really I was just picking up litter of the street. And now I had some iron rails to do something cool with!

But what? I've been thinking about replacing the curtain rods in our living room for a while now. I've had them since college and they're not bad looking but nothing fancy. And they're all bent up from the many apartment moves in college. So I decided it was time for replacing.

                                                     

                      

        

                                                                                                            

I have 2 windows in my living room, one large and one small. I thought I could weld 2 of the rails together with the Fleur De Lis at the ends as finials and the third I might be able to find a matching Fleur De Lis to weld onto it for the smaller window.

I had to cut the rails to size to fit the windows. So I brought out my trusty Dremel Tool. I LOVE my Dremel. I was able to cut the rails cleanly easily.

                                   

Next I used my Dremel to grind to rust off of the edges. This way I'll be able to make better welds on clean steel.

                   

See? Shiny and new!

                           

Here's a shot of the bar once I cut the unwanted portion off.

                           

Once I had all my rails cut to size it was time for the welding! I hadn't used this welder before so I wasn't sure how it would work. Plus I hadn't welded in a long time anyway- so I was pretty rusty. I had some trouble at first, the welder didn't seem to be working and I couldn't figure out why. After a while I realized it was having trouble sending the electric current through the metal because of the rust. It took awhile to warm up but once it got going it worked great.

                           

Here's a shot of the 2 rails welded together to make one long one for the large window.

                           

                                                        

I was able to find a matching finial, it was only $1.50. Score!

                              

                                                                

If you happen to be a professional welder you might say the weld above is pretty ugly. And you would be right. This party gave me some trouble for whatever reason, but I was able to grind it down and smooth it out.

                                                      

I needed some paint to match my new finial to my rusty old ones. This is the best Home Depot had to offer; if anyone has any other sources I'd like to know because I wasn't completely satisfied with the end result.

I also bought some new hangers for the curtain and painted those as well. I probably should have put some paper down but oh well- the rain will wash it away. 

Side Note: If you are going to spray Spray Paint into a styrofoam cup; say so you can use it to paint the hooks that are already screwed into the wall- DON'T. Use a real plastic holder or something! Because the paint will eat through the cup and drip all over the floor. Then you will have to run to the kitchen with paint dripping everywhere, then run back and quickly clean up the paint before it dries and ruins your floor. I'm just sayin....

                        

And viola! Finished custom curtain rods! 

                            

I really like how they came out, the brown complements the curtains and paint much better than the black ones I had before.

                         

Can you tell which is the bar I "helped" off the fence? 

                        

I always try to use found objects in my projects but this could easily be done with new materials. The steel shop I bought the finial from sells the bars for $6.50 for a 24' long piece. That's so cheap! I may be redoing all my curtain rods!