Being Poor Makes You Crafty!

I was showing my dad some pictures of projects I had been working on the other day.  After he told me how great they looked he added, "You are much better at that than your mom, being poor makes you crafty." The King of backhanded compliments was right! We all did alot of laughing.

Another blog post!! Wow! I must have a huge test tomorrow… YUP! Pharm! But more importantly, Todd's Uncle Rod, Aunt Kristy, Cousin Lindsay and her husband Aaron and sweet new baby Evie came into town from California this weekend.  We were so so so excited to see them.  We invited them over for doughnuts and coffee, espresso, and tea (or milk in Kristy’s case).  Because we were having people over I needed to make sure the house, downstairs at least, was in good shape.  With the house looking nice it was the perfect time to actually take pictures of all my recent projects.  My sister, Kate, told me my blog had too much writing and not enough pictures so here you go…

The downstairs view from the front door.  You can see we finally have flooring and baseboards!!

We recently added to the collage on the TV wall and started a new one on the opposite wall. 

With help **Thanks BEN** I pulled apart two pallets, put them back together as one and added a big “P”.  I had seen a similar, smaller, pallet project with the word “love” written on it but Todd hates anything with words on it, particularly words like “Love”, “Hope”, “Wish”, or “Family” so we agreed a P would be perfect !

Also, Todd recently bought me an adorable frame from Ross.  The only problem was that it was bright pink.  So I ran right out to wal-mart, checked the clearance section, and found a perfect green spray paint.  I sprayed it, added some fabric and voila!

In my last post I mentioned turning a dresser I had found at Good Will.  I removed the top three drawers, added a shelf, painted, and distressed the dresser.  The best 10 bucks I have ever spent.

Before:

After:



After making the dresser I was left with three extra drawers.  We had been keeping the mail on the kitchen counter in a napkin holder and the dogs had gotten to them several times.  They love to shred paper so it wasn’t working out so well.  I decided to make a mail box out of one of the extra drawers.  I really like how it turned out.

Other projects include a sign that says “sola fide” which means “faith alone”.  I made it out of another piece of pallet. 

I made my first chalk board.  It doesn’t work so well on cardboard so next time I will purchase some thin MDF from Home Depot, but it definitely looks cute.

To celebrate the Fall/ Halloween Season I attempted to decorate.  I made some leaf garland out of dried leaves Todd’s Grandma Carol had brought down for us when we got married.  I also found some wood scraps, painted them white, and glued leaves on them.  I used the centerpiece from our sweetheart table on the kitchen table.  Nan bought us a pumpkin and we bought some mums too!

Also, I made a Halloween tree out of the branch of a dead plant.  I sprayed it black, added some webbing, and glued on some colorful spiders.  It makes me happy J Oh and you may also notice some creepy pictures on the TV wall.  Those are just for Halloween and will be coming down.

The kitchen is always a work in progress...



I have been planning on painting the door since we moved in.  It was originally supposed to be a burgundy color but the builders left it a cream color.  I have been noticing black doors on blog, in movies, and on TV so I have had the itch.  I finally convinced Todd it would look ok and promised I would repaint it if he didnt like it.  He LOVED it.  Good for me :) I also made my first wreath.  I used a pool noodle, wrapped it in denim, added some felt flowers and some more made out of Todds old Starbucks aprons.  I love it.  It's a happy fall wreath.

Aren't my babies so sweet?

Oh, and more pallets for future projects.