Saving the Elements...

Before I moved into this house I found an entertainment center that I loved. It was brown with DOORS so I could close the ugly T.V. mess. I really did enjoy it, but since I am obsessed with moving things around it didn't take me too long to run it to the ground. I would slide it all over the house without taking out the T.V. or the components. It literally just fell apart one day. Instead of trashing the whole thing I had to salvage all of the elements that I liked. I of course grabbed the doors and the big rounded feet(which I can't seem to find now).

Yesterday I grabbed one of the doors and also the legs from our old dining table.The legs were a little long and the tops had these built in screws that I wasn't sure what to do with. I thought maybe if I could hit it hard enough with a hammer that they would break off.Ha ha ha...not likely, but it was a safer bet for me then hitting it with the chop saw. As I was hammering away the top of the leg started to twist. I thought the leg was one piece, but I was actually able to unscrew the top block!

PERFECT!!

I wanted the legs to be shorter anyway and that meant I didn't have to try and chop them down and worry about making them all exactly the same size. After I got the squareness off the top of the legs I held the leg up to the bottom of the table and shot nails thru the top of the door front.

Wah Lah...a cutie little table!

Before painting I had to sand down all the indentions caused by the nail gun and stick a little spackle in the holes.

I went with white...

lots and lots of coats and then sanded the edges and topped with a clear varnish...again lots of coats.

I needed something kind of tall to set on top, so I painted mr. redstar white to match the style.

This has been one of my favorite projects!!

It's really really fun to create something out of random objects lying around the basement. My daughter was so excited,"Oh, Mom! This table has a doohknob!! (She has issues with her "r" sound). She is so darling!

Pop Quiz and Creative Cats

Surprise! Pop quiz today! Are you feeling nervous?? Don't worry, it's not something you have to study for...just a fun quiz to find out what decorating style you prefer. I found this test on Kaboose.com. I took a couple tonight and so far I am Romantic Victorian and Cottage Chic. My decorating challenge is decorating for men. Ha ha ha....who decorates for men?? That is probably true though. I can get kind of girly with my decor. Click HERE if you'd like to take the test. If you do take it leave me a comment and let me know what style you are. I'm kind of curious. It's soooo scientific after all:)

My Quiz Results: Cottage Chic

If you find yourself loving garden themes and shabby chic décor, you are a cottage chick. You love the romantic look of white distressed furniture and pastel patterns. You want your home to give off a charming vibe, and you can accomplish this by adding antique touches to rooms such as old books, a tea set, and wicker rocking chair. The goal here is to bring the outdoors indoors with a cozy, feminine feel.

Via Shabby Chic

Via Shabby Chic

Via Somerset Bay

Nailed it!!! I would love that for my house....actually making it happen, well, that's a different story. Maybe someday!

Along with finding out what your decorating style is I'd love to see what your creative style is!! Today is Creative Cats after all. A day for you to pop on over and impress us with your crazy good projects!! Please don't hesitate to link up today!!! Link up a specific blog post and let us hop over and blog stalk for awhile!!! After you link up you are welcome to take a Creative Cat's button to display on your blog.

Happy Tuesday!!!

thank you times a cazillion.....

I have to say"Thank You" to so many people so I'm dedicating a post to all of you wonderful people who brighten my day.....hmmmm...where do I start...

• Thank you AMY from Mod Podge Rocks for hosting a giveaway and emailing me to let me know and actually picking me as a winner!!! That has never happened to me before and I've won a starter pack of Mod Podge!!! How awesome is that!! If you happen to have some Mod Podge and need some fresh and fun ideas on what to do with it go and check out her amazing site....MOD PODGE ROCKS...Amy, you are so sweet and thanks again!!

• Thank you Breanne from Me and My Three for nominating me for the "Love ya award". I am totally flattered and I think that you have such a cute site. I'm especially excited about your cute stitchings....they are so cute and inspiring.

• Thank you Jen from Vietti View for nominating me for the "Honest Scrap Award" I'm really just blown away and so touched by your sweetness!!! I love looking at your site. You have such fun ideas for Halloween decor. We used the glass bottle pumpkins for a Young Women's activity and they turned out really cute!! Thanks for the idea and thanks for thinking of me for this rockin award!

• Thank you Vendors!! We had our craft market this weekend and I had such amazingly creative vendors and I so appreciate all of the time that you put into your crafts. They all looked so awesome and I am so grateful that you were able to spend the day at my house!! I have no idea why I didn't take any pictures...that is so not like me.. it must have been the 3 hrs. of sleep that night. Anyhoo...THANK YOU Sara, Jamie, Carrie, Coretta, Rachel, Leslie, Hannah, Kay, Stephanie, Brittany,Jennifer, and Jessica!!! You rock!!!

• Thank you CUSTOMERS!! I am so amazed that we even had people try and find there way out to my house in Eagle Mountain!! We had a great turn out and thanks to everyone who came and supported!!!

• Thank you Deanne for watching my 5 kids ALL DAY LONG!! I don't know how I could have survived the day without your help. I know that was a super long and exhausting day for you(even though you keep denying it). I am so happy to have you living so close. You really do so much for me and I LOVE your guts!!!

• Thank you to all of you that take a moment out of your day to read my posts. You have no idea how your sweet comments make my day!! I am really really grateful to you. You all motivate me with your crafty ideas and you encourage me to improve my talents. I am loving having so many new friends who are so willing to leave a sweet comment on my blog. I had no idea blogging could be so much fun.

• Thank you my sweetheart I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have you in my life. I start to tear up when I think about all that you have done to support me in the last month. Thank you for getting excited about all of my hobbies and cheering me on. You are my best friend. I'm sorry I have been so busy and I'm so looking forward to our date this next week!! I can't believe we're hitting #10. The years have flown by, but at the same time It seems like we've always been together. I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you for being my one and only love.

With love,

Andy

Breathe....Just don't forget to breathe...

This week has been Insanely busy. Yes, I intentionally capitalized insanely.

I'm trying to get all things sorted out and projects finished up for the market on Saturday, we decided to put our house up for sale and I've been madly trying to organize and get things painted and cleaned out. My sister flew in from Michigan to surprise my mom for her birthday{yay!!}.... throw in piano lessons, soccer, young women, parent teacher conference, delivering flyers, projects...projects...and more projects...YEP, I am one insane momma. It's great that this week is wrapping up. I'll be so happy when Sunday rolls around and I can relax with the fam.

Here's what I've been working on today...I was so excited to get some old windows from my cousin Jodi who makes really cool art out of glass. I cleaned a couple of them and dressed them up a bit. The large one was actually quite a pain to get clean. Someone had painted on the glass with a dark brown paint and I had to slowly scrape it away with a razor blade. Tedious, but this window is too cute to pass up.

I decided to stick a vintage flag on the back. I think it's cute. I was kind of nervous because I don't want anyone to be offended by that. I did some research on the internet about flag etiquette and crafts and mostly what I found was that a lot of people don't like it when people cut up a flag for crafts. I decided to tack the whole thing to the back with a staple gun and also just tack up the excess so I wouldn't be cutting it.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

The other frame that I worked on was just really cute on it's own.

I thought that doing anything too fancy would really just take away from it's simplistic appeal, so I just tied a wreath to the front and added a hanging hook to the back.

For project numero tres I refashioned an old calendar holder into a fabric covered magnet board.

I also added an aged knob to the top and some shaker pegs to the bottom.

Well my friends, the bed is calling my name...{{strike that}}}...the bed is screaming my name. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Sleep tight...don't let the bed bugs bite!

~ Andy

Repurposed Tablecloth

Good golly Miss Molly!!! You people are so talented!! I had so so so much fun checking out our links from yesterday. I was seriously blown away!! Take for instance this bed frame refashioned into a house number sign. Check out the details on Gail's Decorative Touch. That is just too cool.

Next I wanted to feature this creative Halloween door hanging. She actually linked up to last weeks Creative Cat's so I'm not sure if you got a chance to check it out. Craftaholics Anonymous made this cutie patootie using rafia and would you guess a paint stirring stick?? Love it!That is just a teeny tiny taste of the creative links from yesterday so if you haven't had a chance to check them out...grab yourself a bowl of peanut M&M's, pull up a chair and start clicking!! You'll have a great time!!

Well, I got home from an activity last night where we were sewing purses to donate. I came home and I still had the sewing bug (nasty little thing...those are so hard to get rid of). I pulled out an old tablecloth that I have actually already cut into for other projects, so it wasn't a big deal to chop it up some more.

I cut myself a fairly large strip and then stuck the middle of the bottom into a ring.

I cut out some scrap pieces of fabric and glued them on with a glue stick to make it easier for me to stitch.

After the stitching was finished I turned it inside out and sent it on a run thru the sewing machine. I flipped it and ironed the seam along with sewing the bottom edges of both sides. I was initially thinking scarf...

but maybe it would work better as a table runner.....

I don't know. Which do you like better? Anyhoo...quick little project if you've got some extra scraps lying around.

In other news....3 more days until the Poppies at Play Market!! I'm so excited and I hope if you live close you are planning on coming over! We will have 14 vendors crammed in the house and loads of cool things. If you are planning on being here make sure and RSVP to poppyginger@gmail.com for a 10% off coupon. Click HERE for all the market details including a map!! It can be kind of a tricky drive so let me know if you need additional directions!! Hope to see you there!!

Creative Cats and "To Do" Boards

I'm totally jumping the gun and starting Creative Cats way early tonight! Welcome to Creative show and tell on Poppies at Play!! Anyone want to go first....anyone......anyone....OK, fine! I'll go first then. Today I'm making a "to do" board. I bought a package of cork squares at Walmart today and started by painting a picture on them.

For one of them I made a bird stencil and for the other I grabbed some different circle stamps.

After getting them all painted I set them down on a board to figure out what size of back I would need.

The Joe cut me a couple boards(thanks honey) and I routed the edges and drilled a couple of holes for hanging. After painting both boards white it was time to glue on the cork squares. I wasn't sure if spray adhesive or E-6000 would be better...so I used both. Better safe than sorry. I added a little vinyl "to do" but you can just as easily use a stamp or stencil.
That was a super easy and fun little project. The package of 5 cork squares was under $6. You can also decorate a couple of push pins by chopping a dowel and painting and glueing them to the back of a tack.

Alrighty-oh-.....now it's your turn!

What have you got for us today?? If you are a newbee to Creative Cats here's how it works....link up something Creative that YOU have done....recipes, tutorials, decorating ideas, kids crafts, we are not picky over her at Poppies. You can link up a blog post or email me a pic or two if you don't have a blog. After linking grab yourself a Creative Cat's button from my sidebar and add it to yours! That's all there is to it. Have fun visiting all of the links and make sure and leave comments to let them know how cool they are.

Have a happy and creative Tuesday!!

Plant stand facelift~

I picked up this little guy at D.I. This morning. A wooden plant stand.

I figured I could dress it up a bit with some paint. I decided to go with white.

After it was done it just seemed so long and so white so I thought I'd add a dash of green. I didn't want to do anything too elaborate because I wanted to keep it simple so I made a little heart stencil and put it on all four sides.

You'll never guess what it turned out to be!!!....

OK, so it's still just a plant stand, but a little bit cuter!

It's about all I can handle today. I seem to have caught the funk that's going around. Have a happy Thursday and stay away from me so you don't get sick! I think my blog is safe though:)

~Andy