May No Appointment Be Forgot (Auld Lang Syne Style)

     In 2011 I've resolved to keep up with my appointments and my to do list. 
     I almost kept a straight face as I typed this.  Yeah right!  I'll probably fall off that wagon in no time.  A visible calendar was my only solution.  The problem with calendars is they need to be out where they can be glanced at occasionally.  Caveat!  Mine usually end up in the bottomless pit of my junk drawer.  It's not until I get a nasty call from the dentist's office about my missed appointment that I actually even remember to peek at it.  Don't you hate that?!  Ugghhh!   It makes me feel like such a bad parent! 

     I tried the whole putting crap on the fridge as a reminder nonsense and that didn't really work either because my refrigerator ended up looking like this. 

    Fret no more because I've found the solution!  I was looking at Martha's site (we're on a first name basis here) and saw a chalkboard calendar that had been painted directly onto the wall.  As beautifully organized as that would make me, I think my husband would have a conniption if I took to painting the walls with black chalkboard paint.  Could you imagine?  The headlines would read: Chalkboard Paint Causes Local Man to Connip and Choke His Wife.  I know connip is not an actual word but you get the idea.  This chalkboard wall inspired me and this is what I did. 

I went out and picked up seven of these wood plaque thingies.  One for every day of the week.  Duh!

I primed them because I'm a good girl and I follow the rules.  (It said so on the can.)

Then I hit the plaques with like 10 coats of chalkboard spray paint, glued on a magnetic sheet to the back, slapped on some little letters and viola! 

A less junky looking refrigerator!  

*Disclaimer- I'll probably put my pictures back up because my kids will think I've stopped loving them.    

Nydia 8)

One Heck of a Soothing Pillow

I was looking for a cheap way to change up my couch pillows.  You see, I'm a bit wishy washy when it comes to home decor and often change my mind about "my look".   So in my search for couch pillow nirvana the thought popped in my head to make covers.  Obviously I wasn't the first person to come up with this idea but it works for me.  So... I dug out my trusty sewing machine and made a quick run to my local fabric store.  This is what I made using 82 cents worth of fabric remnants.

Very plain Jane right?



Well I couldn't just leave her like that.  No not me.  I was inspired.  Remember?  So I made a quick run to my local crafts store for some fabric paint.  Next thing you know my Silhouette is out, vinyl is flying, puffy paint is all over my hair, you get the picture.  A few very disapproving head nods from my husband later and I was done. 

Silhouette vinyl hanging on for dear life. 

Not too shabby for about $2.50. 

The Writings On The Wall

I found this little chalkboard today as I was looking for Goodwill donations to take in.  It belonged to my daughter when she was 5 so it's been around for a while.  It was tucked away behind my little one's dresser so it wasn't being used.  As soon as I saw it, I got flashbacks of all the gorgeous chalkboards floating around in blogland.  *LOVE*  It didn't take a burning bush for me to see what needed to happen next.  "Oh Honey!"  Thankfully I got him in a good mood because he cut the trim and helped me attach it to the edge of the chalkboard.  After the Gorilla Glue dried all I had to do was caulk the angles and let those dry.  Then it was just a matter of taping it off and painting.  Best of all the cost of this total project was $0.50!  Yes that's right not even a full dollar!  I had all the materials on hand except for the 50 cent jar of paint from my local Lowes home improvement store.  I love it when I can repurpose things I have on hand.  This puppy will hang in my sun's (I spell it like that on purpose) room along with that cute truck shelf I made yesterday.

One old little helpless chalkboard.

Even at this stage it's an improvement!



Taped off and ready for paint.

Chunky blue frame courtesy of 50 cent mistint paint from Lowes.

Final product: A new to him chalkboard for my sun's room makeover.

The Little Truck That Could

I'm looking to remodel my baby man's room.  Right now it's in a transitional phase between toddler and big boy.  So I've been busy as a bee looking around for inspiration.  In my quest for all things big boy-ish and custom looking, I came across this adorable little truck shelf from Pottery Barn Kids. 

Cute right?

Well... as you know I really love Pottery Barn but I can't justify paying $130 for a shelf even if it is for my baby man.  That's when I got the bright idea to make the shelf out of things I already had around the house.  Brilliant!  I had this gross shelf that I got for $1 at Goodwill and a little unfinished wooden truck that my son had since he was a baby.  Both were doing nothing but collecting dust. 



 Do you see where I'm going with this?

I had my husband *swoon* cut the truck into pieces.  I kept the front of the truck and the wheels.  These were attached using a handy dandy nail gun.  Easy Peasy!  This is how it looked at this point. 

Brilliant I tell you!! 

The next step was priming.  Because I already had it on hand, I decided to use a ruddy brown primer.  I knew I was going to paint the shelf red so that was the logic behind that one.  Here it is primed and ready to go. 

What a stinkin great idea!

Finally, I took a can of red spray paint and just about emptied the whole darn thing onto it.  Note to self: sand the rough edges because spray paint will not take otherwise.   All in all it was a successful project in my book.  Here is the reminder of what I was going for:



Pottery Barn Kids truck shelf $130.00

My version: $1.00

Total savings $129.00.  The fact that my son doesn't give a crap about where it came from but loves it just the same: PRICELESS!

This little truck was linked over at:




http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/