Just a little porch update...

Just a little porch update...

You can see ALL current backyard pictures HERE.

This is where we left off at, on the wrap around porch...

My Dad has been hard at work, and here is what it's looking like right now...

Excuse the mess...obviously we still have wood and supplies laying around. =)

This week I'll be doing a...well, lets just call it a "Fall Cleaning" of my entire house!  

I'm participating in my Sister's neighborhood garage sale this Saturday, so I'll be getting ready for that!  What do y'all have planned this week?  

~ Jenny xoxo

~ DIY Cake Stand ~

It all started a while back when I painted and distressed my candle stick holders...you can read ALL about that HERE.  

Before and After:

I had a total of 7 candle holders, and only 6 looked great arranged on top of my fireplace mantle...

...which left me 1 lonely little candle holder...

That's when a "cupcake stand" came to mind!

Supplies Needed:

After cutting out a circle to fit the metal plate, I used mod podge to seal it...

I painted around the sides, and then sanded it a bit once dry!  Since the candle holder was already a distressed/antique look, I wanted the plate to have that look as well...

...made a lace bow for the bottom of the candle holder...

And there you have a Cupcake Stand!!!

I have a friend who is the owner at Betnie Bakes who makes gorgeous fondant cakes, and the yummiest cupcakes!  Mmmm...

You can check her out at:  http://www.betniebakes.com

So of course, me making a cake stand gave me an excuse to order some cupcakes! 

Tee Hee  At least that's what I told my husband.  ha ha

Is your mouth watering yet?

This would be a simple, quick project for y'all to make for just a few bucks!

Keep your eye out for some candle holders at garage sales or goodwill's, there's so many things you can re-create with them.

I hope you loved the "Cake Stand" as much as I do!

Be sure to Like me on Facebook!

And I love comments and pins! =)

Y'all have a blessed weekend!

~ Jenny xoxo

DIY Bat Costume:

With Halloween coming up, I thought I'd share with you my daughter's costume from last year!
I don't ever like to spend a lot of money on "costumes", and usually like to come up with something from what I already own.

Last year my daughter wanted to be a BAT!  For this costume, the only thing I had to buy were the bat wings, which I bought sometime the week before Halloween...so it was discounted.
The rest of her outfit were just items she already owned.

For the "face painting"...it's actually black eye liner and purple eye shadow...

Skirt and Tights were bought from Target!

Boots from Stride Rite.

Bat Wings from a Halloween shop.

I hope maybe that sparked some ideas to create your own Bat Costume! =)

~ Jenny xoxo

Pumpkin Wreath:

I LOVE the Holiday's!!!  Love, Love, LOVE the Holiday's...especially Fall!  I love when we start to have cool, fresh, crisp air...I love the colors, and the PUMPKINS...I love the Craft Fairs and Festivals, and all the pumpkin yummies...I LOVE the warm pumpkin scones at Starbucks, and I always have a hot chocolate to go with it!  Mmmm...  And ALL the decorating...but what I LOVE MOST is spending time with my family! 
For some reason, my Sister and I seem to spend more time together during the school months, maybe because she has 4 children, and I have 4 children, and when they're all out of school, and you get us all together...it's like a crazy zoo??!!  Hmmm...maybe. Tee Hee
So this past week my Sister and I got together to work on a Pumpkin Wreath!
Unfortunately, my step-by-step pictures were accidentally deleted, so I can't give you a "visual" on how to make it, but it went something like this...

Supplies Needed:

- Embroidery Hoop
- Latch Hook Canvas
- For this size, we used:
   -1 yard of brown tulle
   -1 yard of green tulle
   -5 yards of orange tulle
((Honestly though, it still needed at "least" 1 more yard of orange))
- Ribbon and decorative floral...
- Scissors

1. Wrap embroidery hoop around latch hook canvas.

2. And all you basically gotta do is, cut strips of tulle, and pull it through the holes, and tie!

3. Start the "stem" of the pumpkin first. (the brown tulle)

4. Next...the "vein" of the pumpkin (green tulle)...

5. Finish it off with the orange tulle, then fluff, fluff, fluff! =)

A few months ago I started this challenge for myself to complete one pumpkin project each month up until November. 

So here's July and August.

Have y'all started decorating for Fall yet?

~ Jenny xoxo

I Heart Cheer!...Pallet Art:

I know, I know...another post about another piece of pallet art!  Tee Hee  Here I am crafting, when I REALLY should be working on projects around the house!

My daughter is like me, she LOVES giving GIFTS!  So today when I picked her up from school, she informed me that she absolutely MUST get her "Big Sis" a gift at Cheer.  That was at 3:30...cheer practice starts at 5:30.  Hmmm...
So I scurried home, nailed some pieces of pallet wood together, sanded, brushed on some paint...then while that was drying, I braided my daughter's hair (because it was crazy hair day).  By then, the paint was dry, and so I grabbed my stencils and paint pen, hot glued some yarn to make a heart, and sealed it with some mod podge!  Whew!  By 5 p.m. we were out the door with a semi-wet piece of pallet art!  ha ha

Seriously, it was sooo FAST, that I took pictures once arriving to her practice!  No photo staging here!  Hee Hee 

~ Jenny xoxo

Vintage Make-up Storage/Jewelry Box

I found this Silverware Storage Box at a Goodwill store a little while back. 

At the time I wasn't sure how I would re-use it, but at $5.99 it was too beautiful to pass up. 

Check out the design in the wood!

If you were to look up Flatware Chests, they range around $100.00 or more!  Eeek! 

You can read about my little goodwill shopping trip here.

After realizing that I have a bad habit of leaving my make-up all over our bathroom counter rather than putting it back into the drawer, that's when I decided I was going to make myself a nice make-up storage/jewelry case.

I chose my favorite color...aqua!...and I knew that color would also look good with the red interior.  I wanted a antique/distressed look, so to create that look, I needed to paint, sand, and stain...and sand it down some more. =)

You can read a little about my distressing technique here.

I had thought about taking out the silverware holders, but they turned out to be quite useful in holding my jewelry, eyeliner, and lip liners...

See how perfect the slots hold my rings?  You'd almost think this box was "meant" to be a jewelry box! =)

Here are some close ups of how I distressed it by sanding and staining...

...and just so you can get an idea of how big this storage box is, I paired it up with your average sized jewelry box. 

You can read about the Yellow Vintage Jewelry Box here.

...and a side-by-side view! =)

Stay tuned for my Pumpkin Project of the Month!!!

God bless!

~ Jenny xoxo

*~ Shabby Chic Dining Set ~*

Yea!  It's DONE!  Finally!  Whew!

If you go back to my previous posts, I broke this project up into 4 parts...

- Paint/Distress Table
- Paint/Distress China Cabinet
- Paint/Distress Chairs
- Reupholster Chairs

So you can read about the Table here.  The China Cabinet here...and The Chairs here.

I had this Dining Set posted on Craigslist for $300.00.  When it wouldn't sell, it became a challenge for me to make it...well...sell able. =) 

Here's some BEFORE...

...a BEFORE of the China Cabinet...

And now for some Afters...

I have no plans on selling this anymore, but I'm just curious...do you think I'd have any trouble selling it for $300.00 NOW? =)

This was a labor-of-love.  Seriously...it seems like this project took me FOREVER!

Would I paint a Dining Set again? 

Uhhhhhh...ummmmm...yah, probably...but not anytime soon. 

I'd need to mentally prepare myself.  ha ha

Thanks for looking!

~ Jenny xoxo

Backyard Tour...((in progress))

Having a S'more themed birthday party over the weekend + needing to have the backyard clean FOR the birthday party = yea!...I can take updated pictures for my blog!  ha ha ha

So...that being said...this is how our backyard is looking currently...

A lot of unfinished projects going on back here, but it's slowly evolving. =)  Also, these pictures were taken after a rainfall...so things look a bit wet! =)

When you walk out the back door of our house, this is what you see...

This was the very 1st thing my Dad built in this backyard...the Gazebo!

This was the reason why I wanted to buy my Parent's house from them.  I remember growing up watching my Dad put hours and hours into building this gazebo!  It's quite sentimental to me.

The left side of the gazebo...

BEHIND the Gazebo my Dad recently built a closed-in porch that overlooks the woods behind our fence...

This small porch is entirely enclosed in...so no mosquito's!

Underneath the porch is a temporary hide-away for bikes and toys...

Magnetic screening...

There's a window inside that you can open to feed the squirrels or birds...

Seating for two...

I actually found this red wicker table at a garage sale, and planned on spray painting it a different color.  Then once I set it up in the backyard, I realized how well the red went with the other red tones throughout the backyard.

You can read more about the pallet art here.

This is the wood detail underneath the gazebo...

To the right of the gazebo is the fire pit seating area and unfinished shed!

The wire fencing is a temporary solution to separate the dog area from the human area...tee hee  ...and we haven't yet decided how we want to finish the shed.

If you want to read more on how we built the fire pit area, you can read that here.

PLAYGROUND!!!

A few years ago my Dad and hubby spent one weekend building this for the kiddo's...

The entire backyard is covered in small pebble-like rocks rather than grass. 

If you notice the shade of red...that is actually torn up tire that we are making the switch to. 

So that is still yet completed. 

Here's another new addition...

The Wrap-Around Porch!

This goes from the side of the house all the way around the back of the yard to the deck.

So as you can see in the picture below, it isn't yet finished...

With this, I learned how to use a power drill for the 1st time!  My brother, husband and I took turns helping my Dad lay down the boards.  Okay, okay...so that's the "easy" part, compared to all the prep work my Dad did prior to this.  I wouldn't even know where to begin when it comes to all the framing you have to lay underneath those boards! =)

And if you've been following my blog, you might recognize those 2 crates on the deck! 

I finally found a place for them! 

I am now re-using the corn crates as outdoor toy storage!

You can read about that here.

...and if you just ignore the "mess" in these next 2 pictures, I'll show you the other parts of the wrap-around porch...

We still have stacks of wood, and all the other materials laying around... =)

the side of the house...

So that completes the tour of our backyard! =)

I'll give y'all another update once the porch is complete.

P.S.  Here's a few pics. from our weekend s'more party!

I hope y'all have a blessed week!

~ Jenny xoxo