DIY Nightstands!

OMGOSH YOU GUYS!

 I am totally alive, and totally out here! 

 When I just looked and saw the last time I posted, I was SHOCKED. Tsk Tsk. I've been busy with life and schtuff. But I've been reading you all's blogs, and crafting/building like a madwoman! And of course, now it's SUMMER so that means we'll be busy doing family stuff! But I'll try to put together some posts of some stuff I've done over the past few months.

 SO! Today, I want to share with you some nightstands I built!

 Little back story-- I'm REALLY into woodworking right now. I LOVE it. I love being able to operate the compound miter saw on my own--no more nagging hubby to make my cuts, which he's delighted about. HAH! I love seeing designs over at www.ana-white.com, and either building things based off of her designs or redesigning it to my desired specifications (ooooh, I sounds SUPER smart right now!) and building it. 

 I had recently decided I wanted new nightstands, but they usually are so expensive! So I went to ikea to check out their lack side table. While they're simple, they are WAAAAY too short to be used as nightstands in our bedroom. So I brainstormed a little bit, and thought--I could BUY the tables, get some 2x2s and make my own legs, making it taller. And THEN I was like, what are you thinking? Just build ones that tickle your fancy! So off to Ana White's site to find some plans.

I found THESE plans, and fell in love. Only I wanted them to be a little bit wider. So I adjusted the measurements, made my cuts and starting building!

Here's my lumber for ONE nightstand

And here's the finished product!

(Those lamps are getting a paintjob, pronto!)

I LOVVVVEEEE them! Yes, there's two, but you get the idea. They were pretty simple to make, following the step by step plans from Ana. They actually took a few days, from building, to wood putty, sanding, painting and staining. But SOOO worth it!

And each nightstand cost a total of....

Are you ready for this?

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$25!!!

I'm still in awe over the fact that I built them myself, and that they are as pretty, if not prettier, than some you purchase in the stores for 100+ a nightstand!

If you are comfortable operating a saw (or coercing your hubby to do it), and building it yourself, I would TOTALLY suggest you do it. You save a ton of money, get a quality piece of furniture out of it and a sense of accomplishment that's PRICELESS!

Happy summer friends!

DIY Doll Storage

Does your children's room ever look like a bomb went off in it? Oh, that's only me? Well, that's okay. 

Since we're being honest here, our girls room looks like this probably 5 days a week. No joke. 

THEY.ARE.MESSY.

Our two year old likes to try on 1897356198579578 outfits a day, so she literally yanks every item of clothing out of the dresser; puts on every.single.dress up costume they own, and then discards it on the floor. Yeah, you get the idea.

 Add toys, Disney dolls and jewelry to the mix....it makes for a disaster area.

So yesterday, I decided to conquer the room. I filled up a gigantic rubbermaid with toys that they don't play with, and put it in the trunk for the goodwill. 4 bags of clothes also joined the toys in the trunk.

 Once the room was deep cleaned and looking excellent, I still had the issue of not having anywhere to store their bigger dolls. If you remember, I already built something to store their stuffed animals, but I was at a loss on WHERE to store these dolls that would still be accessible to them.

 So off to Pinterest, but no luck. All I saw was the American Girl doll storage, and that was just for one--I needed storage for more than that!

 So I sat. And looked around their room. And kept thinking. Then I spotted the dead space under our 3 year old's toddler bed, and had the light bulb moment! I can build a custom drawer type storage to fit them all under there! WOOOHOOO!

 I measured, looked around the garage and decided I could use material I had on hand. I took 1x4s and cut them down to 1x2.5 inches instead, so that with an inch gap between my two frames the total height would be 6 inches.

I built the first box according to my measurements I took under the toddler bed. 

Then I built the second one.

I attached them with some scraps that came off my cut 1x4s--4 of them, one in each corner.

Then I realized that the current mdf sheet I had in the garage wouldn't work! So I ended up cruising to Home Depot to pick up two drawer pulls and a 1/8" thick sheet of MDF-my total being $9.11. I came home and attached my bottom and drawer pulls, and I had a super cool Doll Storage!

 I am tickled with the finished product, and so proud of myself for coming up with an awesome, CHEAP design--all on my own! Which is a huge accomplishment, because, well, organizing thoughts in this head is a near impossible feat!

  Hope this project inspires YOU to do AMAZING things!

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Spring Wreath!

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

 It's SPRING!!!

 And we've got weather to show for it--forecast shows 76 degrees today!

 I just LOVE spring.

 So naturally, I had to make a spring wreath. I did a little hunting on pinterest, and found some inspiration for my wreath.

 I used flowers and ribbon I got from the Dollar Tree about a year ago, black letters I picked up at Michael's for a buck a piece and glittered them up, strung them with jute across the front of the wreath and it was done!

 Super simple, yet gorgeous don't ya think?!

Oh course, I had to share my fresh painted front door--SO DRAMATIC! I love it, my door was so blah and dingy before. Now it looks like a completely different door!

 The color is Red Delicious by Glidden.

 HAPPY SPRING!!!!!


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Lime Green To The Rescue!

 I love beach cruisers. Sure, we don't live by the beach. But we can DRIVE to the beach. And then I can ride my beach cruiser all over the beach! Or, just around my neighborhood. Whatever tickles my fancy.

 So I got this beach cruiser a few years ago for $75 at Walmart.

It was ALRIGHT, but I wanted a pretty, FANCY beach cruiser.

 So I decided to buy a can of Rustoleum's Key Lime spray paint at Home Depot for $4 and went to town!

 I disassembled everything except for the pedals and handle bars, and I wrapped those in plastic and taped them off.

After a few coats of primer, key lime and a clear automotive enamel, we put it back together and I squealed in delight! 

I.LOVE.IT! 

I actually left the rims the original color, but I like it and think it adds character to my bike! Besides, it would have been a PAIN  to try and tape each and every spoke.

 Not bad for under $5!!! Now I'm gonna cruise away, making people GREEN WITH ENVY! ;-)

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!!

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San Francisco Fun!

So Hubby and I got the opportunity to go to San Francisco the last weekend in February, and BOY, was it fun!!!! We both had never been, so we were super excited to sight see and just spend the weekend in a beautiful city kid free!

 We spent Friday night through Monday morning there, and we STILL didn't get to see everything that we wanted to see! But we can visit again, and totally plan to--WITH the kids! 

Here's some fun pictures we took from our wonderful weekend away :)

Pier 39

Alcatraz

 Prison Yard (yes that's the golden gate bridge back there!)

The great escape!

Golden Gate Park

The "Full House" house! It's a little different now :)

Palace Of The Fine Arts

 If you're going to San Francisco, here's my recommendations:

 Must DO-

Golden Gate Park- This park is AMAZING. We were staying right down the street from it, so we were able to just walk there. It's just a gorgeous park that stretches for 3 miles, with a botanical garden, a carousel, paddle boats (that I would HIGHLY recommend renting, just 19 an hour and so fun) and amazing scenery. It's no surprise that this is rated one of the most beautiful parks in the states.

Alcatraz Tour- Hands down the best part of our trip! I had bought my tickets on their website weeks in advance (it is recommended by the website that you do this, and was so glad I did..when we went to check in, they were sold out of tickets for the next two days! So if you're wanting to do the tour, buy the tickets in advance online!), so we were amped up to go see the world famous Alcatraz Island! It was surreal--so beautiful, and yet really sad. There were amazing views of the city of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, but I'd rather not be a resident there--LOL! The self guided audio tour was awesome and so rich with history told by old prison guards and inmates. We will definitely be going back to S.F. specifically to take this tour again only with our boys in tow!

Golden Gate Bridge- It was so incredible driving across the actual bridge that I've seen time and time again in the movies! It is MUCH bigger in person, and just constructed so beautifully. My favorite picture is the one that my Husband took of the bridge with the sun setting on the rolling hills. Amazing.

Palace Of The Fine Arts- This was free, and I definitely recommend checking it out at night-it's lit up and just takes your breath away. That's all I can say on it--you gotta see it for yourself. GOR-GEE-OUS!

 There is probably 21093473847562435 other things that can be seen and enjoyed in S.F., but there wasn't enough time! So if you can stay longer than 3 days, DO IT! 

 Oh San Francisco, how I love you! I will come back again and we can continue our love affair, I promise ;-)