Pumpkin Patchin'

This week when I was visiting family in Georgia, I was on the hunt for some pumpkins for my front porch.  I know I can buy them at the grocery store, but there is something about a pumpkin patch to get you in the Halloween spirit.   

As it turns out, Tuesday is not the best day to visit a pumpkin patch.  As it turns out, pumpkin patches are only open on the weekends.  Womp Womp Womp.  I was worried about a meltdown from this little lady who spotted the inflatable slide from a mile away.  Fortunately, the nice lady let us play a little bit before kicking us out.    

 She loved playing in the corn-box.  

 She made some really wonderful corn angels.  

She didn't enjoy the inflatables at all...

It turns out that showing up to the closed pumpkin patch was a great idea!  We had the whole place almost to ourselves.  

So much time, so little to do!

It really is a great problem to have two weeks off work and no responsibilities to fill your time!  To start off my intersession/Fall Break the right way, I jumped into a little project.  The fact that I have to return my sister's Cricut to her after a few days months, kind of lit a fire under my rear to get some projects started and finished!

A few weekends ago, I made these covers for my dog's beds.  I used a $3 flat sheet from Walmart and sewed it like my millions of pillows, envelope closure style.  It is really the easiest way to sew a pillow case and it allows me to easily take it off and wash it.

So I don't have any pictures (oops), but the covers were pretty boring.  Tan and dull.  So I wanted to personalize them for the pups.

First I cut a stencil with the Cricut onto card stock for each of them and used Frogtape to hold it down.  I put a few magazines inside to keep the paint from bleeding through to the back.

(Charleigh approves)

Then I used this Tulip Fabric Paint.  I wanted a dark grey, so I mixed a little bit of Glacier White into Ebony.  I used the stencil sponge brush (maybe I just made that up) to dab the color on lightly.  I did two light coats.

The bottle says let it dry for four hours and then wash after 72.  I'm way too impatient for that second part so I waited about five and threw them on to try them out!  

Side note:  It is next to impossible to get these two to lay down in their beds.  Also, to get a picture of Sarge before he moves.  He may need medication.    

ALSO, Sarge clearly cannot identify his name in print.  I am a disgrace of a Pre-K teacher.  

A few weeks ago I found this great wrapping paper at HomeGoods. I picked it up knowing I had to use it somewhere in my house.

I immediately thought of this old desk I have been using for my sewing machine in my craft room. It had holes in the top from a now-missing tower and some water damage at the bottom from being stored in a garage at a college house. 

The first thing I did was fill the holes with a little bit of wood filler and give it a little sanding.

Note the water damage...

 Then I used the same paint that I used on my bookshelf makeover to paint two good coats over the top edge.

 Then I covered the whole top in a layer of Mod Podge with a cheap foam brush.  

 Next, I added the paper to the top and covered with another layer of Mod Podge with the same foam brush.  I took a luggage tag (the first flat tool I could grab) and slowly pushed all of the excess Mod Podge out from under the paper to make it nice and smooth.  I went over the whole top about a million times to get all of the bubbles out.

 I continued the whole process with the pull out drawer.

 I finished it up by painting a couple coats of the while paint over the rest, focusing on covering the water damage on the lower sides.  I love the way it turned out.  I may need to add glass to the top to protect the paper from my sewing machine, but now I am loving it without!  I have officially caught the refinishing bug, so keep an eye out for my future projects!

  

I was lucky enough to inherit this little bookshelf that had been hand made by my great grandfather.  Before I got it, it was used unjust about every room of my childhood home and repainted countless times. Most recently I painted the back of the shelves turquoise to accent the dining room in my college house.  When I moved to Nashville, the bookcase ended up in my bedroom. Turquoise didn't exactly match my grey and corral room, but I lived with it for over a year (exactly 13 months) before deciding to give it a much needed face-lift.

This is after one quick round with the sander.  

The plan was originally to sand it down just enough to smooth out 50 years worth of bumps and about 100 layers of white (and turquoise) paint. So I borrow/stole the sander my sister bought when we refinished her stairs and went to town. (First sign that I'm a beginner-- I started this in my bedroom. I quickly realized this was an outside activity. So while I was waiting for it to stop raining, I cleaned up the two inches of sanding dust that was now everywhere.)

After resuming the sanding outside, I discovered how beautiful the wood under all that paint was.  So, of course, I jumped on Pinterest to find an example of a white bookshelf with dark wood on the top and/or shelves. As with everything on Pinterest, there were about 1,000 examples. I found this one that was exactly what I was picturing in my head, minus the cutout sides (and the $300 price tag). 

I can't find the source of this picture.  If you know, help me out!

Fast forward through many hours of sanding. 

I used three coats of primer and three more coats of paint to cover up all of the turquoise on the back.  I used Glidden High Endurance Interior paint in Eggshell/Satin from Walmart with no color added.  It definitly looks more fresh and cheerful now! (Don't mind the cords.  I am searching for a solution to those that doesn't involve fire hazards.)

    

Meet the most handsome boy in town

Welcome to the world Noah Wyatt. My sister and her family welcomed a beautiful new addition last weekend. He came a little bit early, which was a blessing since he was almost 10 pounds! He is precious and perfect, except for the fact that he doesn't really like anyone to sleep between the hours of midnight and 5 am. His brother loves him already and his sister is coming around to the idea of him.  She is not asking us to send him back to Mommy's tummy anymore.  Needless to say my camera roll is full of pictures of this sweet boy.  Just one more for the road...

(Dad is a Texas fan. I was going to get him a Georgia hat, but after the first game I think I will wait until next year.). 

End of summer (sigh) wreath

I have a wreath obsession. I have about 100 pinned on Pinterest and even more pictures saved to my phone for inspiration. Since the Fourth of July is done and over (where did it go?!), it was time for a new wreath on the front door!  This one was super easy. As in done and on the door in 10 minutes. The wooden letter is from Hobby Lobby. A little paint and mint ribbon and that's a wrap!  

I love the bright pink, which is accidentally a little more neon than in this picture.  It is sunny and cheerful and my way of denying that summer is officially over. As in I have been back to work for a week now.  How many weeks until fall break??

Alligator Mobile

My sister is having a baby boy in August (!!)  and she found the cutest alligator bedding at Target.  So of course I ran with that and planned an alligator baby shower.  When looking for ideas on Pinterest, I came across this simple and adorable mobile. So cute, but $58?  I figured I could whip one up on my own in my copious amounts of free time this summer!

Madras Star Mobile Via Etsy

Since I had already stolen my sister's Cricut to make decorations for the shower, I decided to try to make an alligator version of it.  I found an image online of an alligator, used Sir Cuts Alot to trace the image and the Cricut to cut out about a  million tiny alligators.  I used fishing line to string them on and attached them to a metal floral ring from Hobby Lobby, using beads to keep them in place and weigh the string down a little bit.  While I was working, I taped them to the wall with some FrogTape.  I was hoping that the line would straighten out with a little time.  

  I used white ribbon to hang it from the ceiling.  It is precious if I do say so myself!  Here is the final product!