For Mom~

Happy early Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there! Mom's are the best aren't they? 


For our Mom's we thought it would be fun for Con- Man to make something special for them. He worked hard painting Mother's Day Cards.

Great job Con-Man! Your Grandma's are going to love it!

And what was the hubs going to give me for Mother's Day? Well being as awesome as he is, he remembered that a few months ago I mentioned that I wanted this Metal Bender from Harbor Freight for Christmas.

Sadly he told me it has been on back order for a while now. I know it's not a typical present request but I had seen it first used on Logan's blog One Forty Three. He used it to make these awesome hairpin table legs!

He is my hero! I want to get as good as he is when it comes to furniture making. I have a long way to go but I think I'll have a lot of time to work on it after the big move to Altus.

So what did I end up getting for Mother's Day? I'll have to wait for tomorrow to find out! 

What are your plan's for Mother's Day?

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

That is the question I was asking myself the other day. I read this article in Elle Decor about how Twitter can help boost your blog or business. They interviewed the amazing Grace Bonney, founder of Design*Sponge and talked with her about how she used Twitter to grow her brand. 


I think the article has a lot of good ideas and advice on how to tweet and what to tweet about.


For example one piece of advice I found most helpful was her rule of thirds. She suggests splitting you tweets between Promotional (like a project you just completed), personal ( ex- photographs) and content sharing (great ideas from other bloggers.)


I admit when I first started using Twitter I wasn't sure how it would help get people engaged with my blog. After reading the article I have a better idea of how I can be using Twitter to talk with people; though I still feel like I have a lot to learn. I've been trying to Tweet more often. You may have noticed that I added a Twitter feed to my blog so you can check out the action.

I do worry about tweeting to much since my Blog and Twitter are fed to my Facebook account. I don't want to drown my friends Facebook pages with blog posts and twitter tweets. (Please let me know if I am bothering you guys!)

So what are your thoughts on Twitter? Do you use it or don't see the point of it? Have you used it to grow your blog or business? Any advice?

Thirfty Weekend

There are a few thrift stores near our house that I like to frequent. This weekend I had some time to stop by a few of them. Technically I'm not supposed to be buying anything since we are moving. We are supposed to be getting rid of things around the house to make the move easier, but I can't help myself.


First I stopped by RetroMex. They have lots of authentic Mexican art and artifacts as well retro furniture.


I really liked their selection of chairs.


I had never seen a chair like this in rocker form:

These mid-century chairs caught my eye as well. (Sorry for the bad I-phone pics. I had Con-Man in one hand and phone in the other. :)

They had a bunch of these old cigarette holders from the days when everyone who was anyone smoked. They are pretty cool, I wonder what else you can use them for?

Cool glow-y lamp!

I saw this guy outside. It's one of the Fry Guys from McDonalds! Neat!

These planters are old tires cut up and painted. What a great reuse! 

The other place I stopped at isn't really a thrift store. It's called ABC Shelving. They mainly have old shelving they get from places that have gone out of business. I have been on the secret mission to find some lockers. (Don't tell the hubs- like I said I'm not supposed to be buying anything...) Sometimes they have some and I'm hoping to get my hands on them.

Besides old shelving they have other unique items.

Like this giant scale-

Interesting Wooden Shelves:

Mannequins anyone? (I told you they had a little bit of everything.)

What really caught my eye was this vintage drawer system. With some cleaning up and maybe a fresh coat of paint it could be a great place to hold DVD's or other knick knacks that find their way into our living room.

I was able to restrain myself even though I really considered those drawers. Must focus on the task on hand! Lockers!

Anyone else have some thrifty adventures this weekend?

Wine Cork Board

Do you have a bunch of wine corks that you've been saving and just waiting for an idea of what to do with them? Me too! My jar that I kept them in was beginning to overflow so it was time to figure something out. Plus I haven't done any crafty projects for a while and I was beginning to have withdrawals.

My idea of slicing them up didn't work to well the first time around, but this time - Success!! Check it out!

 This was pretty easy to do. To begin I pulled out my scroll saw and sliced those babies up. (If you don't have a scroll saw or other thin bladed saw Kara Paslay used an Exacto knife to slice corks for her project.)

At first I tried pushing the cork through the blade, but that seemed to take a long time and was hard on the blade. So instead I began to rotate the cork into the blade and it sliced up easily.

I didn't measure the cork sized exactly, just eyeballed them. This left me with a few odd ends but I still had more than enough to complete the frame.

The cutting didn't take very long with the saw; before I knew it I had cut all my slices and was ready to arrange them. 

I used a frame I already had and just added some white spray paint. I wanted the frame to be neutral so the texture of the cork would stand out.

To arrange the corks I used the cardboard insert that came with the frame as my backing. I arranged them the way I wanted them glued them down using Aleene's Craft Glue.

After that I let it dry and was done! Easy and fun!

I like the texture of the cork and how the varies sizes give it interest. I also left some of the brand marks right side up for some extra detail.

Not only is it decorative art- it's functional as well!

I think cork is so versatile. It's eco friendly and easy to come by. Have you ever used cork in a project? 

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

Trial & Error

I wish I could tell you that every DIY project that pops into my head is so easy and turns out great. Well that's not always the case, but that's ok because one of the things I love about projects and DIY'ing is the trial and error and finding new ways of doing things.


This time around I've been collecting wine corks for a while and was ready to do something with them.

A LONG time ago I made this with corks I had saved:

I wanted to try something different this time. I like the way the cork looks on the ends. I thought it would be cool to cut the corks into slices and glue them in rows and make a cork board.

First I tried cutting them with my Dremel tool. It worked on a few of them but ending up leaving burn marks on most of them.

So my first attempt hasn't worked out quite the way I thought it would. But I'm not ready to give up yet. The few cork slices that do look good are pretty cool. I want to try another method of cutting before I am ready to give up.

Do you ever have a project that doesn't go quite as planned? Has anyone ever tried to cut corks this way before that has had success? I'd love to hear about it!

Super Side Tables

Don't you love these Mid-Century side tables? I've been seeing a lot of them around lately.

I've heard them called "Step Tables" They are so versatile, they can work in almost any room of the home, living room, bedroom etc. You can leave them the original wood or paint them up!

My friend Stephanie found this awesome table at the Goodwill and gave it a new life with some paint and tape. !!LOVE!!

 

My Mom (Hi Mom!) found a pair for $10 each and gave them a fresh coat of paint. She uses them in two different rooms in her home.

And I rescued  a pair from the side of the road and stenciled a pattern on them:





So if you happen to come across one of these little guys don't pass them up! Give them a new home, they will really appreciate it. 

A Tisket A Tasket-

An Easter Basket for Con-Man! 


I went out to buy an Easter Basket for The Con-Man, but everything was either really girly looking (where were all the boy baskets!) or had large stuffed animals on them; which is fine but I wanted something simple for him. So I had to take matters into my own hands.


I bought a basket at Micheals (40% off!) for $5. And using some leftover fabric from when I made Con-Man's crib bedding I got to work.

I measured the depth of the basket and cut out a long fabric strip, then cut out a circle for the bottom.

I pinned them together and sewed the strip and circle together, then sewed up the side.

After it was all sewn up I hand sewed it into the basket.

Then done! Now Con-Man has a cute Easter Basket he can use every year. :D 

I put it by the fireplace (that's where the Easter Bunny comes right?!). I can't wait for Con-Man to see it. I saw some at the store with a bow, but I wasn't sure if I should but one on Con's basket or not. What do you think? Bow or no bow?

He likes it!

Linking here