They Can’t All Be Winners..

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Amy

Yesterday, while my main man was working outdoors, and my little man was napping, I got bit by the crafty bug.

Dun, dun, DUNNNNNNN!!!

I remembered that we have a perfectly good pallet leaning against the trailer we still have on our property full of leftover building material.. So I ran out and asked D if we needed it for any particular reason.

D: ~suspicious face~ No. Why?

Me: Cause I’m feeling CRAF-TAY! ~runs away cackling~

I grabbed my trusty hammer and was ready to smash that sucker to smithereens,

When a broken piece of slate caught my eye.

Me: Do you need this??

D: WHY

Me: ~runs away cackling~

I abandoned the pallet wood and took my slate in instead. I laid it out and penciled on a favorite lyric of mine.

“Take the time to take my breath”

10 cool points to anyone that can name that song! (Hint: It’s this one)

I used the same paint I’m using on the dining room chairs and when I was finished, I felt very “meh” about it.

And half hid it behind some more preferable decor.

I think I might scrap it and go back to the pallet idea.

What do you think? Have you finished any “meh” projects lately?

Dining Room Chairs

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Amy

I have this theory. Well, I have lots of theories. But today’s theory is this: If you say things outloud, the universe answers you faster than if you simply think about them. (I say universe instead of God, because I’m just not arrogant enough to believe God cares about where my bum rests when I eat.)

Usually, the universe likes to slap me around and keep me in my place. For example… Me: I want to win the lottery and pay off my student loans! Universe: ~makes Amy step in puddle~

But sometimes I’m thrown a bone. On the very day I posted about our completed dining room table, I said that I needed to get serious about finding some chairs. Later that afternoon, I got on Facebook and a friend had four antique chairs he was selling. Bam!

40 bucks, so we’re right around $100 for the entire dining room furniture set. Win!

When we went to pick them up, D was all “Blargggg, this looks like a lot of work.” I told him this was my project and he wouldn’t have to lift a pretty little finger. He didn’t believe me, but I proved him wrong. Oh yes I did. (DIDN’T I, D?!) Gloating is a sign of a healthy marriage, yes?

Now I will share another theory with you: If I keep a generally neutral space, I can change the over all feel of it more often with just accent pieces. So I decided that for $40, I could afford to have a little fun with these chairs.

Lucky for me, they sanded really easily.

I was going to town, sawdust flying everywhere when D informed me that I didn’t have to strip ALL the color… just the shiny stuff.

Oh.

Things moved much faster after that.

I decided I didn’t want an overly distressed look, but I didn’t want them to look brand new either, so I left some places juuuust unpainted enough to make people wonder if I did it on purpose.

I totally did.

And there you have it! Our brand new, blue dining room chairs.

I’ll wait until I’ve got all four done to share how they look with the table… but so far? Me likey.

Dining Room Table: The “Finally” Edition

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Amy

We’ve been in the house for about, oh, 5 months now and have just had a giant gaping hole where the dining room set up should have been. We sold our other set knowing that we D was going to build us a new one. Some of you have followed this progress on Instagram (@amymccarter_br), but for the rest of you…. our table is done!

We got the legs from a table we bought for $25 at an antique store, then painted them black.

They had to come in first, because the table top is so unbelievably heavy. It is made from three planks of apple wood that came out of the old BNSF (Santa Fe rail road) box cars that carried wine. They were already a beautiful color, and I liked the remnants of detail, so D lightly sanded and then poly’d about three layers.

They weigh about 100 lbs each. That is not an exaggeration.

I tried to help D carry it in. Honestly, I did. But my wimpy arms could barely lift it off the stand, so we had to call for back up in the form of Nate, D’s heterosexual life partner.

God bless that man.

I recall extra grunting and cursing at this point.

But they got it in without incident! And used 4 1/2 inch black screws to fasten it directly to the legs.

You can see Nate’s hatred of my wimpy arms in his eyes.

But it’s in! And I love it with my whole heart.

(Those are the flowers D brought me after being out of town. D’awww…)

Next stop: Chairs!

And something for that big blank wall.

My favorite view.

We bought a huge stack of those boards, at about $15 a piece, plus the $25 for the legs. We already had the poly and we used the same black paint as on the kitchen cabinets. So we are in to this table for about $70. Not bad… not bad…

Major props to my main man, D. I am continually impressed with and proud of how hard he works to give us these beautiful and affordable things.

Homemade Body Scrub

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Amy

I don’t know about you guys, but my skin gets terribly dry around this time of year. I can slather on lotion all the live long day, and still feel icky. I looked up a few home remedies and got several variations of the same idea, so I went with what I had in my pantry.

Raw oatmeal, brown sugar, olive oil, vanilla.

Mix equal parts except for the vanilla, which I only added for the olfactory value.

Scrub a dub dub, rinse and repeat.

(D – sorry I made your breakfast into a body scrub.)

How I felt before awesome home remedy:

And how I felt after awesome home remedy:

It worked! It felt great, it exfoliated, moisturized, made me smell edible, and I still felt the effects this morning.

Try it, I say! Or do you have a better recipe you’d like to share with the class?

(PS – I totally just spelled “better” like “bedder”. My words come out phonetically way more often than is probably normal.)

I Made Lip Balm

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Amy

Seriously. The easiest, cheapest, tastiest lip balm of all time. Not that I was eating it…

I’ve been seeing variations of this floating around Pinterest for a while, so I finally just decided to go for the simplest formula I could think of. I’m a lazy DIY-er.

That’s it, folks. Vaseline and Crystal Lite. I got the raspberry lemonade because I thought the color would be the prettiest.

Random martini swizzle sticks that you found in your junk drawer work perfectly for the stirring.

I just kept adding the Crystal Lite until I was happy with the color.

And it worked great! Smells fruity, tastes good when you ~~accidentally~~ lick your lips ~~a lot,~~ and it feels nice and soft, not sticky like a lot of lip balms I’ve tried. For literal pennies, this is a winner.

I figured you’d want to see how it turned out, so I took a baseless duck face pose picture. That’s the kind of picture all the cool girls take, right? Kissy duck faces?

Sorry about that. I want to punch myself in my own bill.

Normal face – or as normal as my face can look.

Ohhh luscious vaseline lips…. Whaddya think? Worth a try, eh?

Punkins

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Amy

I swear, it is impossible for anyone in my family to say “pumpkin”.

So today I’m going to show you how I made “punkins” out of dryer vents.

Last week, I posted about a few of my favorite things and included this picture.

(via)

So there is no confusion, this is not an idea that I had – simply one I stole off Pinterest.

What you’ll need:

Dryer vents – I used two sizes, 4×20 and 3×8.

Spray paint – I used RustOleum’s “cinnamon” and “stone grey”.

Decorations – I used moss, rattan, and ribbon.

Sticks – that I picked up out of the front yard.

Hot glue gun.

Merlot.

Measure off enough vent to allow some give. I didn’t do this with my first set and the seam pulled. (Sorry, Mom!)

Glue, glue, glue, then take outside to spray paint. Away from anything that you don’t want to be orange. Because this stuff does not come off. Just ask my hand.

Anyway, while you’re out there, grab some sticks out of the yard for the stems.

And stab ‘em in. I did add some glue to make sure they held.

Then add the moss and whatever other decorations you’d like.

I added some curly green rattan to mimic vines, and a sweet little bow.

And that’s it! So easy, and they won’t sit on the front porch for way too many months and rot to the point that D has to scrape them off for you…

Moooove over, Martha Stewart!

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Amy

Just kidding. I know I could never hang with the likes of her.

After all, I’m not even a felon.

It’s time for another installment of Blogging without Borders!

The next to last, as a matter of fact. Since really working on the master bedroom fell apart early on, I decided to roll with the schizophrenia and just focus on trying new things, wherever they may land in the house.

This week – painted drop cloth rug.

I’m in sore need of rugs in both our great room and dining room, but I 1) can’t decide what I want, and 2) don’t want to spend thousands of my dollars. So I thought a small trial run was in order. I decided to make a “cowhide rug” for Junior’s room.

What you’ll need:

1 – Canvas drop cloth from Lowe’s or Home Depot. I got a lined 5×5.

2 – Acrylic paint.

3 – Spray sealer.

4 – All the rest of your typical painting supplies like brushes and red wine.

The first thing I did was throw my drop cloth in the dryer on the wrinkle release setting. (I still don’t iron.) Then I googled images of cowhides and free handed my sketch on the drop cloth in pencil.

I had stitch witch on hand, thinking I might need to fold the edges under to keep them from fraying, but as I started cutting it was obvious that the liner was going to hold it together just fine.

Snip, snip, snip, and I had my hide!

I penciled in my spots, used a brush to outline them, then filled in with a sponge brush.

The liner held in the paint perfectly, and I didn’t have any bleed-through.

About an hour and a half later – or one nap time, in mommy terms – I was done!

I sprayed one coat of sealer over the whole thing.

When you turn 31, even your thumbs wrinkle.

And then I left it downstairs to dry.

…..And totally forgot about it until after Junior’s bedtime so I wasn’t able to take pictures of it in it’s new home.

So instead, I had Bill model it.

And then threw it in the kitchen.

Aaaaand then decided to leave it in the barren spare bedroom until I could put it in Junior’s room and take pictures without waking him up.

All said and done, I have about $10 in this. The drop cloth was $6.50 at Home Depot, and a big bottle of black acrylic paint was $4.

Try it! Then go check on all these gals doing their cool stuff.

Amy @ Buffalo Roam, Dana @ Crafted Niche, Jaime @ Crafty Scrappy Happy, Heidi @ Décor & More, Tisha @ Delectable Home, Shannon @ Fox Hollow Cottage, Kirby @ Kirb Appeal, Holly @ Life as a Thrifter, Cassie @ Primitive & Proper, Debbie @ ReFresh ReStyle, Jessica @ Stay At Home-ista, Karah @ the space between, and Laura @ Top This Top That.

Blogging Without Borders – #3

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Amy

Murphy’s Law states: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

Amy: “Imma make some sweet night stands!”

Murphy: “No.”

No matter. Nothing says I only have to work on the master for this series. Instead, we will be in the kitchen today.

Specifically, on this window.

It needed some dressing up. That window faces west and the setting sun will straight melt your face off if you glance out, as I am wont to do during dinner fixing time. The back deck off this area does have a roof (that isn’t quite finished yet, as you can sort of see) that helps, but when the sun reaches below the roof line, I’m blind.

I decided curtains for the lower portion of the window would be perfect, so I can skip the sunscreen, yet still have a view. Enter, the napkins Erin gave me! Plus some hanging rings and a bar.

I sent D in to Home Depot alone to get the bar and was a little concerned when he returned with white, but I think it worked out.

Fold the napkins into fourths, and attach each ring.

I wanted the pattern to vary, so I folded accordingly.

Then it was just a matter of setting up the rod to the right height, and installing!

See what I mean about the white rod working after all? The detail of the window is white, and I feel it allows the lighter colors of the napkins to come out and play, while blocking less of the view. Win, win, win.

These were a simple fix, no question.

BUT

I had never made curtains of any kind before, and when I was done, I felt much like I imagine the man who first made fire felt.

Now head on over to see all the progress with these girls who are actually kicking butt, and not just win-ning Charlie Sheen style.

Dana @ Crafted Niche, Jaime @ Crafty Scrappy Happy, Heidi @ Décor & More, Tisha @ Delectable Home, Shannon @ Fox Hollow Cottage, Kirby @ Kirb Appeal, Holly @ Life as a Thrifter, Cassie @ Primitive & Proper, Debbie @ ReFresh ReStyle, Jessica @ Stay At Home-ista, Karah @ the space between, Kelly @ View Along the Way and Laura @ Top This Top That.

Blogging Without Borders, The Second Installment

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Amy

D: Do you want me to show you how to use an iron? ~slaps knee and laughs uncontrollably~

Hardy har har. He likes to tease me about my lack of domestication skills. (Little does he know it’s not a lack of know how – it’s just a lack of interest.)

And I needed some skills for my first Blogging Without Borders gig.. Or so I thought. My focus this time was on my slightly-too-short curtains in the master bedroom.

I decided to go with these first because I’ve never done anything with curtains past the initial purchasing of them. I’ve never sewed a stitch in my life, and have no experience working with fabric.

And I was intimidated.

Buuuut, as it turns out, my “border” in this case is slightly embarrassing. Apparently there is a thing called stitch witch.

I chose a jute that closely matched the color of the curtains themselves, then a gingham finishing ribbon.

After reacquainting myself with the iron, it was just a matter of laying everything out evenly and making sure it held right.

Attaching the ribbon was even more mortifyingly easy.

I just used double sided hem tape. ~embarrassed face~

Peel.

And stick!

The ribbon had a bit of elasticity to it, so I had to be careful not to stretch it across the jute, otherwise it pulled and hung funny.

Had I known about these wonders before this weekend… I would have an entire closet full of stitch-witched-together apparel. I still might.

Here is the finished product.

But that’s not all! I still didn’t have a good mechanism to hold the curtains back, which is especially important since these actually cover doors that I go in and out of. And they’re forever in my way.

So. I went and rounded up a couple of old porcelain doorknobs.

And these wood panels things. The store I bought them from was going to use them as jewelry display, but I begged them off for 50 cents.

And painted/distressed them in a midnight blue.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that all of this happened…. last night.

What has two thumbs and procrastinates? This girl.

D has been helping a buddy do some renovations at his new crib, so when he walked in the door at dusk after a long day of hard work, he was really excited to hear that I needed some help with my project.

I wasn’t sure how to attach the doorknob to the wood!

So my sweet D showed me how, railroader style. And it was actually quite genius.

Cut strips of wood, in this case a paint stirrer.

D says you should always, always wear gloves when you do this. Safety first.

Stuff the wood into the shaft of the doorknob.

And add some glue to make it nice and solid in there.

Then drill a screw into the shaft you just filled.

Voila!

A word of advice, if I may?

Rather than whipping up a mental image of the final product and calling it good? Maybe you should, I don’t know, hold up the colors against your paint and curtains… think about where you’d like your tie back to sit… recognize the fact that there is a light switch directly to the right of the door… Maybe think about those things.

Otherwise you may end up with a finished product you aren’t happy with and decide not to use.

Don’t be like me.

Be like these other gals who actually have some DIY skill.

Easy Peasy

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Amy

My parents recently celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary.

D’aww..

And Junior decided he’d like to give them his own gift – a little plant with a likeness of himself. But he needed a cute way to affix his picture to the plant, so he asked his dad for some help.

All you need for this mini-project is some wire and needle nose pliers.

Begin by making loops out of the wire.

And knot it in the middle with the pliers.

Rinse and repeat until you’ve got yourself a little flower.

Put a picture of everyone’s favorite grandson between the petals, stick the stem in the plant, and voila!

Lemon squeezy.

Buffalo Roam

What's a Destination Without the Journey?

Category Archives: DIY