Hooray for new skills!

I have recently been working my way into more paper crafts, and I started making notebooks a few months ago. I started small and have been working my way up to larger sizes. I went the easy route to begin with and cut small batches of paper down to the size I wanted then glued it to a spine I made. I like using decorative card stock paper or post cards for the covers. I am working on a commission and am having to figure it out as I go along because the book is a new style I haven't made before.

BUT ... I really love working with paper, so I'll have some photos up soon to show you what my finished products look like.

:) Thanks for stopping by!

Dining Table Re-Do

Our Refinished Dining Table!

My Husband and I bought this table on Craigslist for $40. It was stained a dark mahogany. Rob re-planed and sanded it down to the natural wood grain. We then hand sanded the legs and undercarriage down and painted them a light blue. I found an array of vintage chairs at consignment stores, the Habitat Store, and at work. The paint cost us $35, and the chairs ranged from $15-25. The whole purchase ended up costing us around $135 all together. 

It has our personal touch and fits in great into our tiny dining area! 

How to modify your computer stand to fit your needs ...

I recently bought a computer stand to help my computer work better. It's an older Macbook, and the fan likes to make airplane noises to let me know it's struggling. When the stand arrived, I noticed that it wasn't very comfortable at the standard tabletop angle, so I set about modifying it.

This is the original stand in Silver.

 I spray painted it white, and then bent the frame to angle it. This is more comfortable for my wrists.

Then I added Sugru (a super amazing silicone-based air drying putty!) to create resistance strips and a bumper to keep my computer from sliding off. Sugru takes 12 hrs or so to cure, and comes in a multitude of colors. You can check them out here!

This is the finished product holding my computer!

I love modifying items to fit my needs instead of throwing them away. Let me know what you've hacked recently!

All Work and No Play

The view from my Grandparents house, on the day of my Grandmother's funeral. Luckily the rain stayed away until after the Funeral proceedings.

Life has been pretty crazy over my way. Hubby and I haven't had much of break over the last few months. He finally had a week off last week, but has been busy catching up on life stuff. We've had traveling or some such almost every weekend since mid August. I haven't had two seconds to work on any of my numerous craft project. 

I'm hoping to upload some images of new work that I completed a few months ago. 

Well, we started rearranging our apt this weekend, and after 3 or 4 different attempts finally found a new arrangement we both like. I refinished a bookshelf and turned it into a DVD shelf. I spray painted it Cream and added contact paper to the shelves to make them easier to clean. It turned out better looking than I thought it would, so I'm excited. We found a dining room table on Craigslist for $35! It's solid pine, is 42" around, and has a leaf to extend for when we have company. Rob is going to sand the top down, then I'll paint the lower portion to match our cream colored bar stools. Yah for new projects! We'll actually have a kitchen table to sit at and eat!!!! We haven't had one ... ever! Makes you feel kind of grownup. Next weekend's project: The guest room! Duhn, duhn, duhn!

First thoughts ...

So after reading a friends blog and then perusing several online I've decided to start one of my own. Not really sure what to put up here. But I thought it would be a good way to keep our far spread family in touch with our lives. My Husband and I are project people. We love DIY, scavenging for that perfect item, and making something out of nothing. My husband has had a hard time finding work, of late; and as a result has been building up a storm. He's pretty handy, and likes to reuse items instead of new ones. I love to paint, even though I haven't had much time for it recently. Hopefully, I will be able to put up some photos of some of our recent projects this weekend. Thanks for checking out my thoughts, and Stay tuned ......