Tile Tray Makeover

Good Monday Morning Everyone! How was everyone's weekend? Our was pretty eventful. Saturday we jetted out of town and hit some of the wineries that Oklahoma has to offer. The main event we were headed for was a Grape Stomp at Chapel Creek Winery in El Reno Oklahoma. 

Con and Saw

Not only is Chapel Creek a winery it's a farm as well. So the boys got to run around and chase goats and play while we sipped wine.

Me stomping grapes

I must say I am glad I got to stomp some grapes but it was kind of gross feeling- not sure it's I'd like to do often. 

I also was able to finish up another project this weekend. Again one of my thrift store finds. Remember these guys?

This tray in particular-

Now I'm all about vintage find but this is one butt ugly tray. There is good vintage and bad and this is bad. Those tiles had to go for one. Luckily they popped out pretty easily. Almost as if they never wanted to be there in the first place. 

The tray has nice carving so I painted it a soft grey and sanded the edges to add some detail. (I swear I took more pictures of this but must have accidentally deleted). Using some tile samples leftover from a past design project I laid them out and glued them into place using Gorilla Glue.

Then since my new tiles were smaller than the original ones I used tile caulk to fill the edges. Messy but effective. Side note- I thought it would be easy to scrape off any excess caulk but it wasn't. I finally found some Goo Gone and got it off that way. Just in case you wanted to try this yourself!

Let is all dry and Voila you're done! Not to bad for a $2 tray. Everything else I had on hand. :)

My original plan was to sell this and some of my other recent finds in a shop here in town like I have done in the past, but someone expressed special interest in this piece so it's going to be a gift instead. Sorry Altusians! 

All in The Family

This summer we made the trek down to Louisiana for my mom's side of the family's annual Family Reunion. Now my my grandmothers (my mom's mom) hails from a family of 10 brothers and sisters. And my mom herself has 5 brothers and sisters. So you can imagine that this Family Reunion is serious business. They do it every year and we take up a whole hotel for the weekend. This is the first time I have made it back in 3 years.

We have a family talent show, 

Connor (in the whale shirt) singing with his Cousins

games and art for kids, 

golf and nightly card tournaments for the adults and an all around good time. 

Hubs playing Bourre` with the fam

The one thing that always impresses me is the artistic talent that runs in the family. I've already mentioned before that my mom is one who inspired me and encouraged my creative side. On top of that....

One of my second cousins; Hanna Lane, is a soon to be famous artist (if she isn't already!). I'm currently saving my Birthday. Christmas, Anniversary gift to purchase one of her paintings.

My cousin Brandy is incredibly craft with tiles and paint.

My Uncle does amazing ink drawings.

Some of his French Quarter Drawings

And come to find out that one of my second Uncles is also a furniture designer. He says he just "dabbles" in wood work but looking at this awesome Cherry side table (that I was fortunate enough to win at our Family Raffle) I beg to differ. 

Sadly my lovely table is residing at my parents house at the moment. I wasn't planning on winning a table so we didn't have room for it on the ride home. Hopefully we can pick it up in the next month or so before my mom claims it as her own.

What talents does your family have?

Make a Statement...

Bracelet!

One thing that having a newborn has done is made me focus on smaller projects that I have been putting off for a long time. I have all these ideas in my head but don't always get to them. 

This is one project I can cross off that list.

A friend of mine gave me a few small decorative tiles a long time ago- knowing that I like things like that. I hadn't done much with them until now. My favorite one is a Fleur De Lis one (I love Fleur De Lis- they remind me of home in Louisiana!). I thought it would be cool to make a piece of jewelry out of it.

I've dabbled in jewelry making before but this is my favorite piece so far!

To make the tile a little more decorative I decided to add some glass beads around the edges to finish it off. I used Gorilla Super Glue and some glass beads I bought at the craft store.

Then just glued them all around the edge of the tile.

To make the leather wrap I simply cut out a piece of leather to the size and shape I needed. Once the beading around the tile was done and dry I needed to adhere the tile to my leather bracelet. I used snaps and Gorilla Glue Epoxy for this task. 

I used the Epoxy to glue one part of the snap onto the tile.

Then connected the snap into the leather band.

After snapping my tile onto the band I treaded a piece of suede ribbon through the leather to use to tie the wrap down.

Then it was done!

I used the suede ribbon to tie the bracelet off.

What things have you been crossing off your list lately?

Bathroom Reno Complete!

Finally! After 2 years of living with this lovely yellow and brown flowered bathroom we finally have a new bathroom. If you don't remember let me refresh your memory of the beauty we used to have.

Not only was the decor bad 70's the tile was cracking in some places and the shower was leaking. So it was time for a change. Overall the reno took 5 days and only cost $1000 for materials and labor. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 here.

After those 5 days this is what we have now:

After everything was demo's we installed gypsum board on the walls instead of tile and Hardi Board for the shower surround instead of plaster.

We had our tile guy install 3x6 subway tile. This took 1.5 days for him to install with all the cutting involved. He said it would have been quicker and cheaper to install larger sized tile but I wanted the subway tile to go with the older style of the house.

To save money we grouted the tile ourselves. This wasn't hard to do but was a little time consuming. I just followed the directions on the box on how to mix and trowel it on. And to save an extra step I poured stain blocker in the grout as I mixed it so I wouldn't have to go back later and apply it.

Also to save cost we kept the existing penny tile floor. So after the tile walls were removed there was a gap between the new gypsum board walls and the old floor. I choose to install baseboards myself to cover up the gaps. It was the first time I had done it and I was praying I wouldn't mess it up to bad. Overall it wasn't that hard- I watched a few internet videos on installing crown molding and base boards and I was ready to go.

I just wish I had a mitre saw instead of just a mitre box!

Side Note: Liquid Nails (Which I used to adhere the baseboard and molding, is really hard to get off your nails!)

After all that it was time for paint! Instead of renting a machine that would blow texture on the wall I opted for a pour in texture. You just add it to the paint and roll it on as your painting. For me it works well enough since our bathroom is small but I don't think I'd want it for my whole house. The wall really does feel like sand it it made the paint thick and harder to roll on. But for a few dollars it was worth it for this project!

I had some hardware on hand that I had bought when the West Elm by our house for 60% off was going out of business. I thought I'd use it in our new home but since we're renting now I used it for the new bathroom here.

Overall I think the remodel was a success and I wish we had done it sooner!

What do you think? Major improvement or what?!

Linking here