What We've Been Up To

Just wanted to drop in and plant a bunch of excuses on why I've had no new projects in the last couple of days. It has a lot to do with the fact that we spend our weekends like this:

There's something about gorgeous beach weather and a year-round beach pass that costs as much as a month's worth of grocery shopping that really makes you want to take advantage. 

I've also returned to the local youth organization as a volunteer coach for their Drill Team. We're practicing three nights a week so that is eating up quite a bit of my time. I'm excited to be back and coaching after a three year hiatus, though!

But I do promise, I have a pile frames for a gallery wall (!!!) I need to paint, and a fun tea towel project I can't wait to share with you.

Hope your summer has been as wonderful as ours has. Six weekends left...let's make a pact to make the most of it, mmmmkay?

Turning a Thrifted Frame into a Pretty Little Tray

I am going to tell you how I turned this

Into this:

But first, a story.

I have this coffee table I bought at the same time as my end tables.

In all of her pine-y glory.

Long story short, she got the same treatment as the end tables, minus the glazing since I ran out of a steam the day I did the end tables. Those legs, once painted, seemed daunting to me (I mean, I was working in my garage in 95 degree heat and humidity...yuck!).

I'm filled with indecision about this coffee table because when I initially painted it, I will admit that the weather wasn't ideal for spray painting: a temperature in the low, chilly 50s with a lot of wind. Add in the fact that the wood soaked up the paint differently in some spots, and I wound up with a pretty uneven paint job on the top surface of the table.

Not to mention the fact that I spray painted all of the tables in Rustoleum's Heirloom White when I thought we were getting navy blue sofas, but this was not to be the case and is a story for another day. (Also, pardon me while I CONTAIN MY RAGE).

So, bad paint job + awesome choice in paint color but unfortunate couch circumstances + splotchy paint finish = anxious Brittany with a table that needs some work.

Right now my living room has: white curtains, white couches, white tables. Too much white.

Ah well, you live and you learn, right? 

I'm liking the look of upholstered ottomans in lieu of coffee tables, but our sofas have recliners built-in. I feel like that might be redundant. Or, I might just do it anyway, for aesthetic purposes.

Anyway. I digress. This is actually the story of a squirrel. I know you all want to hear about the squirrel:

HI THERE.

A sad, faded woodland creature in a frame with a whole lot of potential. Tray-like potential, if you will.

To distract myself from the terrible finish on the top of my coffee table and my paralysis when it comes to deciding what to do about it, I have been searching the local thrift stores for an actual tray to sit on top of it for weeks now. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and whip one up myself.

You might have seen Martha's tutorial on turning a picture frame into a tray. If you Google enough, you'll find tutorials on plenty of blogs, too.

Mr. Squirrel was $2.99, I picked up the fabric quarter at Joann on sale for a little over $1.00, used Martha Stewart craft paint in Wedding Cake that I already had on hand, and pulled a foam brush from my stash. Not pictured is my cheapo glue gun.

Total for this project: $5.00, give or take.

I took the frame apart.

Not going to lie, tearing off this paper had me a little creeped out.
I mean...what could be hiding under it?

And wiped down the glass and the frame itself. I kept the cardboard backing of the frame and set it aside.

I applied three coats of the craft paint to the frame.

And then distressed it a bit with some sandpaper to let some of the wood peek through.

I also promise I am not trying to subliminally advertise Whole Foods to you.

Then I turned my focus to what was going inside of the frame, so I grabbed my fabric and wrapped it around the existing cardboard backing, used a few dabs of hot glue to secure it, and trimmed the excess away.

Good crafters might iron their fabric before doing this, but I'm a rebel.

A photo from my morning room floor.
Hello, linoleum. I hate you.

Then I carefully reassembled my frame: glass first, then fabric-wrapped cardboard. I left handles off, because I don't really think they're necessary, but I know I could always find a sweet pair and screw them onto each side.

I tacked down a sheet of felt to the back of the frame with a couple of dots of glue to keep it from scratching my table top. You know, in case I decide that I'm okay with being surrounded by a sea of white painted furniture surrounding my white-but-you-were-supposed-to-be-navy couch.

That glass is so clean my naked windows are reflecting pretty nicely in it!

I'm really excited because if I really wanted to (and I'm sure I will), I can easy change out the fabric wrapped cardboard and replace it with a new fabric wrapped onto a new piece of cardboard. Or maybe turn it into a mirror. Or maybe a chalkboard. All I have to do is pull off the felt. So versatile, friends!

I see myself filling this tray with lots of pillar candles (probably of the flameless variety because even though Peyton's pyromania hasn't emerged yet, she does take after her father and I know it's only a matter of time), or filling it with candy corn at Halloween and ornaments at Christmas. So many possibilities.

AAAAAND...this tray can stay put whether or not I repaint or upholster that table into an ottoman. It's like win-win-win over here.

In the meantime, I set some covered in lace and twine I made for the wedding on the tray. I can't bring myself to throw them away, so I have a feeling those jars will be floating around my house until I die.

Have you ever put off fixing up a DIY boo-boo and instead took on a nice distracting project?

Linking up with:
Cozy Little House,  Confessions of a Plate Addict, Ella Claire Inspired, Ashley's Dandelion Wishes, Savvy Southern Style, The Blissful Bee, Southern Lovely, SNAP! Creatvity, Kreative Creationz, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Blissful and Domestic

Our Weekend

I got 10 hours of sleep last night so I woke up with an "Up and at 'em" attitude today.

Monday, YOU WERE MINE. 

We had a great weekend.

A lazy Friday night.

Followed by camping with Denny's parents and their friends on Saturday. I don't know about you guys, but I've been introduced to staying in RVs since I've met Denny, and I can pretty much guarantee I'll never sleep in a tent for as long as I live.

Followed by a day of jet skis and beach time in Strathmere on Sunday.

Followed by exhaustion, insatiable hunger, and a pretty sweet glow-in-the-dark sunburn.

All well worth it, though.

Denny's parents kept Peyton at the campground, so Denny and I are taking full advantage of having the time to relax, sleeping in an extra 15 minutes in the morning, watching the Homerun Derby and enjoying some quiet time. I sure miss my little girl though, but I know she's having a blast.

And now, our weekend in pictures (really only some pictures, because I was afraid of dropping my phone and sacrificing it to the wilderness/ocean/pool):

I believe she was saying,
"Mommy, I'm not going to voluntarily take a nap ONCE this weekend!"

I am an admitted cat lady. The cats that lived at the campground were so friendly,
but I think the fact that I am the cat whisperer brought this one to me.
It jumped onto the bench and sat right next to me at our picnic table.

The campground had it's own water park, a pool, AND a lake with a beach.
My kind of campground.

Partners in crime.
(Hellooooooo Hubster!)

This slide was the only one Peyton was interested in
since the water was only two feet deep.
Eventually, she got so bold she went down it all by herself
while we caught her at the bottom.
One hundred times.

As a welcome back to reality, I was greeted with a wickedly clogged shower drain. I'm trying the baking soda and vinegar trick, but I'm also not going to lie and admit I have the Drano on standby.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are making the most of your summer. I can't believe it's more than halfway over already!

The List vs. Summer

I'm so torn between enjoying my summer and working away on the house.

On one end, the house is still so new and I feel like there's so much to be done.

On the other end, it's summer. Enough said.

We finally have our living room completely furnished and I've finished up two big paint projects (you can check those out here and here), but every time I look at the house I feel like I'm torn in a thousand different directions.

Do I work on the mudroom first?

Do I start working on something new upstairs? Tackle the boring laundry room or start working on one of the bedrooms?

I still have that awesome pendant light from Target that I need to figure out how to hardwire and hang over the kitchen sink.

The swatches for our front door makeover have been finally removed from the front door and a paint color has been picked. Now those swatches are taped to a cabinet in our kitchen for no apparent reason. WHYYYY?!?

It's the perfect beach day, but there goes an entire Saturday.

I think I'm settling on the best of both worlds for the rest of the summer and focusing on projects that are in the yard or things that deal with the exterior of the house. This way we get our outside time AND still feel productive and like progress is being made.

The list is looking like this so far. These are all things I WANT to do, but I don't think we'll get to all of them. There are only like, eight more weekends for the summer, can you believe it?!

Front Yard

I guess there is really no excuse for not having my own photos
and continuing to use the MLS photos, is there?

• Paint the front door (red). Hopefully we can take care of this in the next couple of weeks!
• Replace or spray paint all the hardware on the doors.
• Replace the exterior light fixtures (one by the front door and one by the garage).
• Fancy up the garage door.
• Plant a few more perennials in the fall so we have more of a lush garden feel in the flower beds by the front door.
• Tear out a few bushes that grow a little too aggressively for my liking. We've already trimmed them back several times, but their roots are sprouting new bushes that are taking over the beds. I'd like to put some boxwoods there instead, since I feel like they'd be a bit more manageable.

Back Yard

MLS photo

It pretty much still looks like this. WAHHHH.

MLS photo

• Build some sort of pergola or find a way to provide some more shade over the patio (yeahhhh, I'm thinking that this won't happen this year. But it is on my list because it will happen eventually).
• Stain the concrete patio.
• Replace the light fixture by the sliding glass door.
• Create a designated "grilling area" off the patio so both of the Denny's grills (yes, he has two charcoal grills!) don't take up any valuable real estate on the concrete pad.
• Add flower boxes under those windows.
• Dig out flower beds along the long side of the patio and plant some decorative grasses and taller perennials to provide some privacy.
• Finally figure out how to get some grass to grow in our giant dirt patch without going broke on sod.

Denny and I are nursing some sort of wicked mutant illness and are a sad bunch. Here's hoping we pull it together soon and get healthy!

Our 4th of July

Our holiday was both lazy and eventful, if that's even possible. Kind of how I like my holidays. The best of both worlds.

We spent the first half of the day lounging around the house. I cleaned a little and ran some errands while Denny and Peyton napped until I finally couldn't take it any more and decided to get festive, sickness or not. 

I got Miss Peyton dressed and snapped a photo (or 12).

An instagram shot.

Denny had to work today so he didn't feel like getting trapped in the post-fireworks traffic until well after midnight, so I packed up Peyton and went with his family to spend the afternoon out at the inlet in Atlantic City, where we had a view of both the Borgata's and the Revel's fireworks.

Also a sweet view of our normal beach spot, which we decided against since
I'm still under the weather.

It was a really great afternoon, spent with his family. Peyton had a blast being reunited with her cousins from Georgia:

I find that taking pictures of my ONE toddler is hard,
but taking photos of TWO toddlers is impossible.
But aren't they darling? They're eight months apart.

So proud of my big girl for sharing her book.

It was around 5 PM when my phone died, and therefore so did my only method of taking photos (since my camera is still MIA since the move). But Peyton LOVED the fireworks.

"Mommy, there're so cute!" She would say, and then name every color in awe of what was going on in the sky.

Love that child too much.

Needless to say, we didn't get home until 1:00 AM. Which means Mommy overslept for her oil change appointment this morning (whoops!).

I've been taking Peyton to the sitter all week as I'm terrified she'll catch my sickness, so I've been taking advantage of the solo time to get some things done. I went to my oil change appointment (late), and braved the Social Security office to FINALLY get my name changed (a whole month late, ha!).

My day of solo productivity included a trip to the Goodwill. Where I found this:

I smell a project!

The table and three chairs for $24.99 (!!!). It's pretty beat up AND the chairs need to be reupholstered AND I'd be stuck with an odd number, BUT on Saturdays blue tags are 50% off. Which means I could get the table and chairs for $13. It seems stupid not to get them. I took it as a sign that this set wouldn't fit in my car today and vowed that I would come back tomorrow. If it's still there, it's on.

I did just show Denny this photo and he crinkled his nose at me like I was a crazy person, but COME ON. Does anyone else see the potential here for a possible $13? Am I alone in this? 

I think he just has a vision of this stuff sitting in our garage for an undetermined amount of time, taking up precious man space.

Ahhhh well.

How did you spend your 4th of July? Do you think I'm insane for wanting that (incomplete and beat up) dining set?