Backyard Bliss

Hey Ya'll!!!!!

   Ok! So.... I am going through this crazy organizing mode at my house right now....

SPRING CLEANING Fever! Sure... That's what we'll call it... LOL!

So, yesterday... I was walking on my deck and thought I need to organize my back porch as well as have somewhere I can put my garden/flowerbed tools.... Out of the corner of my eye I saw a pallet leaned up against our fence. And it dawned on me!!!!

It looks rough right now! 

A Pallet shelf thingy!!!!

It was actually pretty easy to make my pallet shelf thing! He he!

So I sanded down the rough stuff that would poke me!

Then I went to my handy dandy Silhouette Cameo... Cut out a cute phrase I borrowed from a strangers Folder name on pinterest .

I painted the area I would be placing my stencil... Blue!

Let Dry.

Placed the stencil on top...

Painted the whole thing yellow!!! My favoritttteeee Color!

I painted 3 coats, mainly because pallet wood absorbs the paint and color the first coat.

I then peeled the letters off!! eeeekkkk Super easy!

Love it!

Then just hung some hooks I had in a picture hanging set I had and Voila!!!! I seriously love it!!

In between the drying time of the paint on my cute little pallet... I had another idea.

I wanted a table underneath my back porch... I had looked on craigslist, on an estate sales website, then other retail stores and either didn't want to spend the money or couldn't find what I liked.

yuck!!!

We have a lot of spare wood from the deck tear out and rebuild. I started looking through the scraps... Ran across a lizard... Screamed! My husband came out to save the day. He then told me he would “clean up that wood” …. One day! I then explained I was going to make a TABLE! He chuckled and started to walk away.... (which he probably should have ran away) I requested his assistance.... For about the next 3 hours. Ha ha!

He did a lot of the heavy lifting... I measured, marked off, sanded, and etc.

I measured 3 (1X6's) 5ft. In length of the old wood.

My husband is still adding on to the deck so we happen to have some new wood as well... So I measured the same 5ft in length for those as well... My husband cut them.

I ended up using 2 (1X6's) 5ft in length of the old and 3 of the new.

Measured those in width.... 2.5 ft

then I measured four 2X4's.

Two 5ft for the length of the table and two 2.5 ft for the width of the table...

The husband proceeded to cut those....

Pulled them together tight... Again with the husband's assistance. I used an airgun and nailed them together bc... Our screws were either too short or too long (for a stable table you would want to screw them in, which I will be doing tomorrow)

We also had some post sitting around from the deck as well...

My hulk of a husband hoisted up the table while I sat down in a chair I would be setting underneath the table and decided how high we wanted the table, measured it off, cut 4 of those bad boys and slapped them on....

Well....Slapping them on didn't have the best hold. So the husband thought it would be a good idea to put a post in between each of the post on each end and it worked perfectly!!!

Dinner for two? Why Yes please! :)

We had a lot of fun together putting this table together! And I LOVEEEE it!!!

It goes perfectly with my porch!!

Thanks for reading ya'll! I have a couple of more additions to my sweet porch in the next couple of days!!!! 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! 

Have a Great Wed!!!!

Fabric Banner Tutorial

Sweet Grass Designs was recently in a craft show. I made a fabric banner for the table.

Here's how I did it...

At walmart I bought a sample pack of fabric, like THIS.

I cut the fabric into strips.... about an inch. I didn't really measure them and they aren't cut straight. I really won't matter when they are all hanging together.

I used a long piece of yard (doubled) as my string. I tied it in a loop on each end so I can hook it on a nail if needed.

Here's how you tie it on the string so they all hang nicely together...

1. Lay the fabric under the string (notice the fabric isn't straight)...

2. Turn the fabric over the string about 2 inches. 

3. Loop the fabric around the string and tie a knot.  This picture is kind of confusing but it's hard to tie a knot and take a picture! ha

4. Pull it tight. You should be left with about 2 inches (give or take) on the top of the string. It shouldn't be so tight that it won't slide on the string. You'll need to move them around.

5. Repeat 1,000,000,000 times. 

I loved the way it turned out. It added just enough to the front of Sweet Grass Designs' table at the craft show!

I made one for our mantel at Christmas. How cute is that???

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make one for Reeves' birthday party! They are so easy and fun! I love them!!!

Wedding Sign

As I've said before my little brother is getting married this weekend! I'm so lucky to gain such an amazing new sister!

This is the amazing couple

Kaitlyn asked if Reeves would walk down the aisle in front of her with a sign that says "Uncle Robby, Here Comes Your Girl". How cute is that??

I offered to make the sign for her. She sent me the colors and I got started.

Here's what I did...

First I picked the font... I had 4 different fonts for Kaitlyn to choose from... This is the one she picked.

Next came the color. She sent me a picture of her bridesmaid dresses... This is Kayla the MOH! Isn't she beautiful in dress? I just love it!! 

Luckily I had a color blue that was PERFECT! I don't think I could have been more lucky!

I usually free hand everything I make, but I wanted this to be perfect. I decided to transfer a copy of the words to the wood before painting it in blue.

I used my AWESOME computer and flipped the words so they were a mirror image of themselves.

I cut each word out and laid them on the piece of wood. I put the ink side down on the wood. This way it looks "right". 

I used a wooden pencil (I'm not sure if anything else will work, this is all I tried) and scribbled on the back of the paper. I made sure to push had but didn't stay in the lines. Just be sure not to miss some of the ink of the other side.

The ink transferred to the wood so I had a stencil! I did the whole sign. It was super easy!! The hardest part was making sure it all stayed straight!

All the words after I finished.

Worked like a charm! It was light enough that it didn't bleed through the blue paint but it was dark enough that I could see it clearly!

When you look closely, you can see the way I scribbled on the back. I did go over the paint twice just so you don't see the marks. 

Finished with the words! I think it turned out perfectly.

I sent Kaitlyn a picture and she asked if I could add a peach flower to the corner.

I was afraid I wasn't thinking of the same peach that she was so I asked her to send me a sample (like she did with the blue in the bridesmaid dress). This is what she sent. haha. Notice how she searched it. I just love her! And for the record, I wasn't thinking this color, I was thinking more coral so I'm glad I asked!

I didn't have the color peach so off to Walmart I ran. Would you believe they didn't have the color I was looking for?? I found 2 that I figured I could mix and would be perfect.

I painted 2 coats on the flower. You could still see the blue words. It made repainting the words easy!

All finished! I love it and so does Kaitlyn, which is the only thing that really mattes. I'm going to put some twine on the top to make a small handle. 

Lets just hope Reeves walks down the aisle with it!!! Guess we'll see tomorrow! I'll do an update of the wedding next week!!! Stay tuned!!!

Art Display

I put Reeves' table in the new office so he would have a space of his very own.

He was very proud of his table, he wouldn't let me take a picture without him in it. If I had wanted him to stand there and smile he would have refused! ah, 2 year olds are fun!

I still haven't figured out what I want to do above his table. I'm thinking I have found a cute quote that I'm going to paint and frame. I'll write about it at a later time....

This is the angle from the living room....

Anywho....

I did decide instead of "art" I wanted to display Reeves' art. Since he brings home things from school all the time, I wanted to be able to change them out easily. 

Here's what I came up with...

This is what I did....

I had the pictures already, they were left over from the dining room decor. It was 2 sets of different frames. 

One set of frames were just prints I could take out. I added black and white (I didn't want to do anything too exciting to take away from Reeves' art), one in polka dots and one in stripes. 

The "picture" of the second set of frames was actually connected to the white border so I had to do a little creative-ness....

I wish I had better pictures... maybe one day I'll be better at that. Oh well. I measured and cut out a piece of paper that would fit inside the boarder. I just taped it with scotch tape. I didn't want to do something too permanent in case I wanted to use the print later on.

I put the glass back on and added a small clothes pin to the center of each frame. I did 2 vertical and 2 horizontal.

I'm pretty sure they aren't even on both sides of the bulletin board but I think it's pretty close! I love it! Now I just need more drawings from Reeves!! 

Have you made anything creative lately???