20 days of school left!!

Here's a summer bucket list I made.  The idea is to sit down with your kids and write out all the things you want or plan to do this summer.  Go swimming, blueberry picking, camping, drive in movies, splash park, have a pic nick, etc.  Once you do the activity, take the paper down and put it in the little bucket. (Found at Michaels).  Made the blue one for a donation and sold the yellow one, but I plan to make ours very soon.  After all... only 20 days of school left.  What?!

It's like Christmas!

Recently our neighborhood had our community garage sales which we can only have 2 times a year.  Seriously, it was like Christmas for me the night before.  I was so excited.  I found this cute little shelf for $5.  Oh, and the juice plus also for $5 each.  Score!  I hear it's usually $40/box.  I never bought it before so I'm not really sure.

I turned this little shelf into a shelf to hold my inspiration words which I spray painted as well.  Taadaa.

Put with my other shutter and frames I'm starting to like the look.  Still need to do something with that little table but it's down on the list of things to do right now.

More step stool love...

Yes I AM obsessed with vintage step stools.  I have about 5 right now and one is even hidden so my husband doesn't freak out.  But what's not to love?  Ok, here's my latest find.

You can see the potential right?  I changed the seat with some white vinyl I already had in my stash of fabric.  I found it at a thrift store and knew it would come in handy some day.  Used some yellow spray paint I already had and here's my new sunshine.

I know some of you love the cream and chrome but if you know me, you know I love yellow.  I'm trying to sell this one.  Currently listed for $30.  I'll keep you all posted and we can have a farewell party for her.

"The house is starting to look like my grandmas."

There is a new Facebook page I'm a little obsessed with.  But...I have found some really good deals.  It's pretty much like craigslist, but local.  Anyway, I have been looking for little side tables and I saw ONE at a thrift store for $35 but couldn't bring myself to buy it.  Even though that seems pretty cheap for furniture.  When someone posted these TWO tables for $30 I couldn't resist.

A little lemon oil and they are so pretty.  I love them.  My hubby is starting to get scared and said his house is starting to look like his grandmas.  But I think deep down he's fine with it and it keeps me busy doing something I love!  Besides, he has his own weird hobbies.

Chair redo

I told my friend Keri I was looking for a chair to redo for my desk.  She was out at garage sales and found this little guy and bought it for me for $10.

It's so cute!  Love the shape.  With a little spray paint and new fabric to cover the seat I can now get rid of my old one that my dog loves to sit in.  I don't think he will fit in this one.  Yay!

Oh, I also scored the little side table at a garage sale for $5.  Added the cute little bird from Kirkland.  When you buy stuff for a few dollars it doesn't really matter if you mess it up.

Tough week for all.

This week was the first time my son came home totally deflated about his work at school.  He was actually crying (don't tell him I told you).  He thought he wasn't as good at math as everyone else which seemed very strange because that is something he actually received a good comment on from his teacher.  I felt bad for him.  I had emailed the teacher asking what I could do to help him and what he wasn't understanding because I thought he was doing good.

After she emailed me back I realized they were doing their "mock" testing and it was a stressful time for the kids (and her too she mentioned).  Apparently they had a test with 65 questions and it was overwhelming.

I had asked one of my good friends and neighbors who is a LEUSD teacher if she was going through this too.  Yep, it was everyone and she was just as stressed as everyone else.  The teachers get so much pressure for their kids to get good grades so it's just as stressful for them as my little 7 year old who thinks he's "stupid" now.

Anyway, I just wanted Kale's teacher who I really like and my neighbor to know they are appreciated.  Made them a little gift right before spring break which is well needed!

Had the jar, paper and ribbon.  Soap, jolly ranchers, smarties and sharpies cost a total of $4 from the Dollar Tree.

Bunnies, Eggs, & Chicks Oh My!

The other day I was at TJ Maxx and under a stack of Easter stuff I found these beautiful grey eggs! Ok and btw.... why is it spelled gray and grey?  So confused.  Anyway.... Easter.  Eggs.  Grey (one of my new favorite colors).  I HAD to have them!  They were in a box of 6 and cost $9.99.  

I looked for more but didn't find any.  Boo.

  

And later that week I was looking at an antique store and came across these cute little nests.  $3 each.  Kind of a lot but I thought they could be cute together.  I bought 6.

Nope.  Bad idea.  The nests were way too small.  Hmmm.....  Think. Think. Think......

Well, yesterday I took my hubby to a Brewery for his birthday and as we were leaving I saw a broken tree branch in the parking lot.  I said "Waaaait!!  I need this."  And he already thinks I'm crazy buying old, used, broken stuff so he must of thought I was drunk AND crazy, but I wasn't.  I remembered how my friend Sarah had told me she had found branches on a construction site before and used it as a centerpiece.  Good idea!

And Ta-Daaaa!  I love my pretty decor!  Used an old mason jar I picked up at a garage sale for $1, broke up the branch and hung my pretty eggs.

Pretty, pretty!  Kale said he loves it too. 

So basically, I think you can make a cute Easter center piece with a jar, twigs, and pretty eggs.

I'm still working on my Easter table, but I did find some smaller eggs for my cute little nests.

Go ahead, say it.  "Awe...."

Lesson Learned

Lately I've been having a hard time with my son Kale (7 years old).  Not listening, making messes, forgetting homework, talking back etc.  Yep, I know...."he's a boy"  But mixed with my lack of patience... = no bueno!  Yelling at him is not helping, grounding him is not helping, time outs have not done much.

Ok, so I realize, taking the easy way out isn't working.  Going to have to put on my big girl panties and go back to a little "token economy."  Basically, positive reinforcement.  Which is actually harder than it sounds.  Really?  I have to say "good job buddy!  You actually brushed your teeth when I told you the first time!"  And then go put a sticker on his chart?  It's exhausting!  These are things I think "he should know."

So here I go to Pinterest.  Certainly they will have some super cool, sticker chart printables right?  I mean my kids need something to keep them accountable!!!!  And I'm searching....searching.... yep, found something to copy that will work!

And then I see a chart that says "No Yelling Mommy" http://placetobloom.blogspot.com/2010/01/no-more-yelling-mommy.html with a bunch of squares (dun dun dun).  And it hits me like a brick wall because I know deep down, when I'm worked up, angry, impatient and mad, the situation is not getting any better for anyone anytime soon.

So guess what?  We needed 3 sticker charts.  If the kids get 10 stickers they get a treat.  Once they get 40 they get something a little bit more substantial.  We haven't really decided what the rewards will be yet.  But let me just say tonight homework that usually takes 1 1/2 hours, took about 30 minutes.    I mean we'll see if it holds up, but I gotta try something.

And here's my chart.  Honestly, I didn't even want to blog this because then I would need to actually try and follow through.  My reward is monetary.  :)  I am giving myself $2 for every day without yelling.  Ugh, almost doesn't seem worth it now that I type it.  Hahah, but let's not forget, I'm a domestic goddess!

Wish me luck people!  What do you do in these slumps?

Pretty Pins

I saw this little craft on Pinterest a while ago and have been wanting to make these cute hair pins.  So when the pins were emailed to me on pickyourplum.com I had to order them.  

They were $2.67 for 20.  10 silver and 10 bronze. 

I already had some vintage buttons in my craft stash.

The end result was way cute!

As my friend Dyanna pointed out to me, this little set below sells for $24 at Anthropologie.

I couldn't handle my 4 year old losing any of these!

And these two are $15.

Pick your Plum!

I'm not sure how I found it, but I love the deals that get e-mailed to me during the week from Pickyourplum.com.  It's usually crafty stuff at a reduced price.  Problem is, I could easily order from them daily.  I've ordered plaques, vinyl, chalk board vinyl, hair pins and thin blank wood that can be decorated.  

If you see a deal on there that you want, you need to get your butt up and order it.  They tend to sell out and when it's gone, it's gone!  I usually get the email between 6:00-6:30am.

Here's what I received today in the mail!  Big shamrocks, little ones, and the word luck.  I have ordered enough for 6 because I plan on doing a craft night with my neighbors.

A piece of thin wood, scrapbook paper, modge podge, and buttons (all from Michaels except the buttons) and you end up with this.  Maybe for the mantle?  Or hang on the door?  I don't know but just a reason to get together!

I love my $5 window pane!

About a month ago my friends and I went shopping in downtown Temecula.  We went into this store and I saw a window pane that had a price tag of $10.  I thought that had to be wrong because lately I've seen these for a lot more.  I kind of thought it was supposed to say $100 (since it was Temecula and all.) and we ended up leaving without it.

But I really wanted it, so I went back after a few days just to check it out again.  I took it to the cash register and the lady says "oh, and it's 50% off." Sweet!  $5 bucks... whoo hoo!  Here it is!

I think it's pretty cool.  My husband doesn't get all this and pretty much tells me every time I leave "Don't buy anything old!"

I ordered a canvas print from wink flash.com,  made letters on my cameo, and a baby banner out of fabric.  I really like how it came out!

My shutter find.

I found this shutter for $12 at an antique store going out of business.  I had no idea what I would do with it but I had to have it.

I have also been collecting frames here and there from garage sales, swap meets etc.  I thought I could put the two together and here's what I came up with!

I had to spray paint everything and then I added a wire and clips for my pictures.  I love these colors right now.  I first tested them on some hat boxes my friend gave me to see how they would look.  Yep, I loved them together.  Only wish I would have paid more attention to some spray paint being satin and some gloss.  Whoops!

Dad comes for a visit!

This past week my dad was here.  Basically to work on a few projects my sister and I had for him.  He's a carpenter kind of guy and although our husbands are great, they don't do that kind of stuff.  He didn't get to golf which he loves, but that's ok because he'll be back in a month or so and that's all he plans on doing.

So my first project for him was to help me organize my craft closet.  I just had everything in totes and stacked up.  It was such a hassle trying to get to something.  Here's what it looked like....

And here's the work in progress....

And here's a look after I put most of the stuff back in!!!  I'm so happy I love it!!  I will still keep moving stuff around until I get it just right but for now it works!!  Thanks Dad!!!  You're the bomb-diggity!

Room for the cameo, wrapping paper, and a shelf for my photo albums.

Totes for my scrap fabric and a roll out underneath with my scrapbook paper.  Yay!

I also had an old hope chest I had spray painted yucky brown and put fabric on the top.  That was about a year ago and I already hated it.  I'm starting to do some lighter colors in my house which is really hard to incorporate when you have all the dark browns and reds.

But I'm changing my decor one can of spray paint at a time.
I'll have to look for my before picture but here's the after.

Now, the inside is cool too.  Three separate spaces for Kale, Mom & Dad, and Addie.

Hopefully I can now avoid this.  Which used to work for me fine before but now the dog pulls everything out of the basket and I have to wrestle him down to get shoes out of his mouth.

Scary, yucky pretend kitchen.

Notice the cobwebs on bottoms. Yuck! I went to a garage sale in Canyon Lake a few weeks ago.  I figured for $5 it was worth a try to get this in shape for Addie. 

I found the company that made these stamped on the back so I googled it.
Elves & Angels from Maine

Here's the current version.  Selling for $219.  Whhhaaat?

A good cleaning, spray paint and pretty knobs.  Addie was super excited to play with this.
But I told her it had to stay outside for a while to make sure no critters were still coming out of it!

Here's a step stool at an antique store.  Price - $5.

I spray painted the frame using masking tape to cover the black steps and then added a new seat cover! Pretty!  It stays in the pantry right now.

Here's a picture I've had forever.  It's pretty, but I don't like the gold frames anymore.

So I took off the back to take the print out.

Spray painted the frame grey and added some fun fabric.  

Debating on adding a black and white photo to it. 

This is a broken chair I picked up at a thrift store for $5. Perfect to try out one of my first redo's.

I added some cushion and new fabric to the seat 

and spray painted the frame.

I love this chair.  The fabric makes me happy.

When I go thrifting sometimes I see old dishes that are cool or pretty.  These were all around $1 or $2.

Used a little E-6000 glue and turned them into 

pretty cake plates.  Or I guess in this case, 

a cheese and fruit platter.