And now we're here.

This weekend was low key, not much going on. That wasn’t the original plan of course but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. It all works out for the best, it gave us a chance to work on a long over due project. 

It’s been a year now since we moved into our home, actually we have officially been here for a year and 19 days. Our official closing date was on October 31st of 2019 and we are the crazy couple that lined everything up so that by the end of the day one the 31st we were 90% moved into the house. It was a long and tiring day but worth the overdue wait. 

One of the challenges of building on your own land, especially one that didn’t quite exist before is that no one can find you. That is of course, not always a bad thing (said the introvert in me).  As for the issue of mail, the good ole’ USPS, UPS, any furniture being delivered and let’s not forget the tried and true Amazon, still they have trouble finding us. 

After scouring Pinterest for ideas, I came up with a simple idea that I love and hopefully I can add to in the future. Out here bigger is sometimes better, going with a small sign by the door just wasn’t going to be enough. 

A few weeks ago we put in the the frame just a simple two post with a 12 inch wood beam in the middle. It is treated wood so we had to let it dry out for sometime or it just won’t take the paint well. And finally this weekend I was able to paint! 

Once it was painted and dry I added some little details, I found these lights at Home Depot and I thought it would be pretty neat because once it's dark out here it's dark! So any amount of light would be nice and helpful when we have visitors. 

Adding the numbers was pretty easy work once I figured out my center points of the beam. I found the numbers here and they are floating numbers which I was excited about. Until I hammered my thumb. As it turns out - it hurts a lot. That was a first for me, I never realized how useful my thumb is until I couldn't use it! 

I absolutely loved how it turned out. In the spring I think I'll add some flowers around the base. Out here all of these projects take time. There is so much to do and just not enough time to get around to it all. As it turns out a year later and many lost packages after - we finally have something to help find us. 

DIY Outdoor Mat

Happy Monday!! If you’re anything like me Monday’s are not the death of me (although sometimes they might seem like it). It’s not that I don’t like the challenge of a good ole’ Monday but some weekends are ride and die kind of of weekends. We go hard and eventually make it home, when we do get home it’s normally laundry and cleaning that awaits us. Boooooo. Either way Monday comes and stirs us up, it drags us in and slowly we refocus on work and plans and life and agendas.

This Monday I figured I’d bring you a quick DIY project that I worked on not too long ago.

For this you will need:

• ·         Out door mat (like this from Target)
• ·         Outdoor acrylic paint
• ·         To make life easier a disposable brush or sponge
• ·         Stencil with the design of your choice
• ·         Optional painters tape (Although it’s optional, it comes in handy)

I wanted to make one of these for the longest time, there are so many quirky and funny sayings you can put on these, the possibilities are endless. A lot of people like the “Family Established” mats which is very cute, but we are just not that kind of family - too many last names ;) . Also there is the idea that I change my mind like a million times before I commit to anything, finally I found this awesome outdoor sign for my entry way.

It works for my entry way since there is a long walkway to the front door. Then I figured I could just make something to match it and that’s was exactly what I did.

Cutting a stencil was the easy part, thanks to my SilhouetteCameo and their design studio. Now getting the stencil to stick to my mat was the tricky part to this whole project, this is where the painters tape came in handy. Maybe duct tape would have been a better option? I’ll let you know, I want to give this one another try with something for the holidays.

I started off with a sponge brush and then tried a cheap little paint brush, I think the combo did well because the brush seemed to fill in some of the spaces that the sponge brush missed. I wasn’t sure how long this paint or this project would last, but after lots and lots of rain (Harvey) and sun it has help up really well!

Welcome Home Love Birds

DIY Planter Box

A few months back I came across a few wood pallets, why wood pallets? If you have not come across the wood pallet craze just go to the wonderful land of Pinterest and type in pallet and welcome to my world of madness. The possibilities are endless!!

My new toys!

Over the past few months I also acquired a few new toys for my projects!! I introduce to you my, Miter Saw, Orbital Sander and a Nail Gun :) put these together with some fresh pallet wood and my wheels started turning. One idea came from a Pinterest post like this one here, of course this one has already finished pieces of wood that you simply cut down to size and follow the instructions to make a very Chic Planter Box.

I had to take pallet wood and cut it down
to fit planters like this.

I figured I had so much spare wood plus, I know how to cut wood, I know how to sand wood, I know how to stain and paint – how hard could this be? I wish I could tell you this is a step by step “How to” post to make my planter box but it’s not. Although I’ll show you a bit of my process along the way, truth is I had always worked on projects with someone by my side, my brother and my husband normally doing the “harder cuts” for me and me doing a little here and there. This time I was bound and determined to make this box by myself.

The transformation

My first challenge was cutting planks of wood down to size using my Miter Saw to do the dirty work, the Miter saw is more commonly used to cut across wood or to take a piece of wood down in length, not to cut down the width of a piece of wood. I walked away from this project a couple of time during this process. I was frustrated with how hard it was to get clean cuts, eventually I came back to it and cut what felt like a million little pieces. Afterwards the rest was a little easier, sanding and staining was much more fun.

I decided to stain all the wood pieces first, then assemble the box it's self.  I dry brushed an antique white over the stain to get it an aged weathered look. I added some handles and stenciled letters as the finishing touches. The final product came out beautiful!

Although my cuts were rough and sometimes uneven, in the end it gave my box a natural aged look. Overall the project was a learning experience, making so many cuts lead to getting to know my Miter Saw really well. I've completed a few more projects since then and I think I've got the hang of it now!

Rough Draft and Plans: 

Getting to know Kayleen McCabe

Lake Conroe Home and Garden Show

Another adventure and another amazing experience. This past weekend I had the awesome opportunity to head out to Lake Conroe for the Home and Garden Show and interview Kalyeen McCabe host of DIY Network’s RescueRenovation. I was excited and nervous and maybe even a little giddy, partly because I’d never really done an interview (shhhhhh don’t tell anyone) and mostly because it has a lot to do with the direction I am trying out lately.  How many of you watch DIY shows and feel like you could really do that? I know I do, constantly.

I’ve been ready to start working on bigger and more serious DIY projects, maybe redo some furniture - maybe even make some furniture - who knows the sky is the limit right? So having the opportunity to pick the brains of an awesome female DIY’er, Contractor and Show Host was like there was a little light shining on a wonderful opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Lunch box + Purse = Cute!

When the time came to sit down with Kayleen and Kay from The More theMerrier, it was like the nerves were set aside and we sat back a talked like a bunch of old friends that love power tools and share a craving to make things. We talked about how naturally it is that we can look at something and think “I can make that” or “I can make that better”.  We talked about the smell of saw dust and how really empowering it is to say “I made that”.

Eventually we had to get down to real questions and answers, if not I am pretty sure we could have spent the day just chatting :)

Q1: How does it feel to be a woman contractor? Does being a woman make it harder?

A1: Actually no, most times when she walks up to a job site, from the moment they open the door she has already broken down stereo types just by being a woman! They already feel comfortable with her. Women are just better at being a contractor, we have a great sense of detail. When two guys are bumping heads a woman can just walk up and be like come on – let’s figure this out!

 “As a woman contractor I get to have a big tool collection & I have a big shoe collection too!”

Q2: What is your favorite renovation?

A2: There was one renovation that was just bad, the weather was horrible it had been raining the whole time, they were building a pergola into a sloping hill. Everyone kept telling her she couldn’t complete this project, there was just no way it would work.  Then when it was time to lift the top to the pergola – it was like the skies parted and there was just silence and as the crane lifted the top it was perfect.

Q3: Worst renovation?

Pergola being lifted -Clear Skies! 

A3: While putting insulation down in an A frame house Kayleen lifted her left to get over a beam and just as she was making her way over her overalls were caught and she found herself stuck, in an awkward position for about three hours!! It gave her plenty of time to think things over "It this really the line of work I want to do?" or "I wonder if someone will find me here years later mummified just like this". She finally wiggled her way out of her overalls only to realize that she still had turn around and make her way back out. :) 

Q4: I couldn't help myself, I had to ask her about the time she ran a marathon :)

A4: She was offered the chance to run a marathon by a sponsor, she agreed to do it (with no training) she figured after being on her feet working on a job site for 18 hrs she surely could run for 6hrs!! AND she did, not too sure about doing it again though :)

In the end, I was drawn by Kayleen's insight to her current mission, teaching youth about learning a "Trade" and the fact that college is not your only option. She wishes someone would have told her she had another option when she was younger. "No one ever told me I could be a contractor"

Her message to adults? Respect the trades, it takes 27 trades to be able to build a house. DIY shows will give you the illusion that you can do-it-all-yourself truth is sometimes you need to hire the right person for the job. Coming from a family of trades men – I understand where she is coming from.

If you want to be inspired you can watch a little bit of Kayleen’s story here.

"It's all art actually just, do you hang it on the wall or did you build the wall you’re hanging it on"

DIY Project: Photo Backdrops

Being that I’ve changed the direction of my blog I find myself in a whole new world full of lots of great things to post about, before I posted about running and a sweaty picture with Mother Nature was perfect. A couple of weeks ago I started this journey of transitioning my blog and I quickly realized that it was a different ball game. Not too long ago I posted a quick recipe here and as I looked at other blogs for inspiration I realized maybe it need to do something about how I set up my pictures.

Turn the 2X4 into 2- 2X2 panels

My wheels started turning and I set out on an easy and cheap way to make some of my very own backdrops for my post pictures. I think I did pretty good :)

I headed off to the Home Depot (one of my personal favorite stores) – I’ll pause here and give you some much needed back story…

If you know me I have a secret love for power tools. My brother was a big influence to me over the years he has always been a jack-of-all-trades but he has a passion for creating too, anything from jewelry to knocking out walls he is always ready to go and along the way he’s taught me a lot. A few years ago he was a big part of helping the hubs and me build our little oasis in the back yard – a 16X16 pavilion that took a lot of serious work and lots of serious power tools. I think of remodeling, painting and creating stuff all.the.time. a lot of it was put on the backburner due to training and time restraint but right now I’m ready to knock out some projects!

So this is what I found at the depot – 2 ft. x 4 ft. Project Panel $5.97 – basically a very thin panel with wood veneer on both sides. It’s very light and easy to carry.

One of fav tools!

Cheap Paint Tip: I was looking to make this project on the cheap just in case it didn’t pan out. So I headed over to the paint counter and went straight for the “rejected paints” this little pile of wonders comes from paints that didn’t quite turn out the right shade or the customer failed to come back and pick it up after ordering it. I scored two perfect shades one dark tan color $ .50 and one grey blue $2.00. Perfect.

I did pick up a quart of white paint that was about $9.00, I just looked for the cheapest they had in a quart and then I asked them to tint it to an antique white.

My last item was wood glue, I did some Pinterest research on how to crackle paint and this was one of my main ingredients.  I grabbed a large bottle $6.00 (for all future endeavors!)

Once we made it back home we used a Circular Saw to cut my panel right in half now I had two pieces of 2X2 panels each one two sided. I used my sander to take off any rough edges so I wouldn’t get any splinters while handling the wood.

Next I went for my crackle painting experiment. First I painted on side of my panel the base color you want to show through the crackle. Once dry, I “painted” on the wood glue on nice and thick, you let the glue dry a little and once it gets a little tacky you paint on the top color – and the magic begins once it starts drying the crackle effect starts to happen!!

My first go around I didn’t let the wood glue get tacky enough, not very much crackle but I still like the finished product. The second go around came out perfect! Now I had two backdrops! I let them dry and I flipped over one panel and I decided to stain this one for a nice wood grain backdrop.

I find myself with one last panel and I think I’m going to go stark white with this one to give a blank canvass of sort. Although I received my Sephora catalog in the mail recently and the front cover was done with turf as the backdrop… maybe I’ll see if I can find some turf to glue to my last panel and then I’ll have a green grass backdrop for the Spring and Summer!!

The Goods:

4X2 Project Panel - $5.97

Tan Paint - $.50

Blue Paint - $2.00

White Quart of Paint - $9.00

Wood Glue - $6.00

Paint Brush - $1.50

Grand Total - $25.00

I think I could have made this whole project for even less if I would have thought about alllllllll the random paints I have in the attic!! I will say I didn’t use more than ¼ of any of the paints or the glue which means I have plenty for future projects.

Panel one in action! Just a little bit of crackle.

Panel two in action - Lots of crackle!



Panel Three - Plain wood panel with Dark Stain.

Little Bears planter box :) still lots of paint left over!