Picture Frames

I went to the Goodwill today and found a bunch of fun picture frames for a picture gallery wall. I've been wanting to do one of these for a while but there weren't any publicly available walls in my house other than my hallway and I didn't want to put it there. I did find two empty walls perfect for pictures when I painted and rearranged my office. Anyway, I was really excited to find so many nice frames for so cheap, most of the frames were either $2.99 or $1.99 and a couple were the tag color of the week so they were half price. They all need to be cleaned up and I'm going to spray paint them all a nice brown color. I haven't decided what pictures I want to put in the frames yet but I am going to include some other decor items as well. As nice as some of the artwork is in the frames it's all going to go away. I do want to find a few larger frames too, I may have to thrift shopping again soon to find more frames. We'll see how it goes.

Bookcases All Done!

So we finally finished the bookcases and brought them into our room. They look so good. Andrew did a really good job making them. We were originally going to put them into our office but decided to put them in our master bedroom instead. It's almost like we designed them to go in our bedroom. It goes bookcase, nightstand, bed (not pictured because it wasn't made), nightstand, bookcase. I'm so happy I don't have baskets of books all over the floor in our room anymore. There's plenty of room for more books now too. I also have a lot more room on my side of the bed now. Our room wasn't designed to be centered on that wall though we can tell because the door to the bathroom and closet isn't centered on the opposite wall. It's much more obvious now that everything is centered on the wall.

My bookcase

Andrew's bookcase

Bookcase Update

We've been slow with our projects lately. Oh well. We finally got our bookcases painted. We're letting them sit for a while in the garage to cure and then I think we'll put a clear coat of poly finish on them. Originally they were going to go in our office but after talking with a friend and thinking about it for a while they are going to go in our bedroom which will then give us more space in our office. I'm excited to finally bring them inside and get things organized. The pictures make the brown look funny, it's a much nicer darker shade of brown in person.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Bookcase

Today Andrew and I went to Home Depot and bought enough MDF and backer board to build these bookcases. We kept them the same width but made them a few inches taller so they are an even 7' tall. They are going to replace the current bookcases in our office. I'm so excited because I will finally have enough shelf space for all my books and Andrew's excited because he gets to use one of his Christmas presents (it makes the grooves in the boards to make stronger joints) and his power tools. When they are all done and painted and we're ready to put them in the office we will paint the office. We didn't paint it when we did the rest of the front rooms because we really didn't want to move desks and books. Now we will have to move everything anyway. 

So, funny story: the original plan was to buy 1"x12"x8' boards but they were $13 a pop and we needed 10 so Andrew suggested using MDF instead which comes in 4'x8' sheets which were $30 each but we only needed 3. I was pretty sure they weren't going to fit in our van and Andrew thought they would. So we get out to our car and we had to push the driver's seat all the way forward with the back fully upright and I had to take the head rest off so I could have a little room just to find out that the door won't close. So Andrew had to go back into the store and have them rip the sheets into 12" boards for us. After that I was able to put my seat back to normal.

I bought some brown paint with the intention of painting my Ikea chairs brown... I'm still going to that someday... But I think that the brown will go nicely with the yellow color in office (the same yellow that my living room is painted). I'm also going to make an apron rack to hang in my dining room and it's going to be that brown and I think I'm finally going to paint my spice rack too. AND I think we will have enough scraps and paint leftover to make one of these.

1st bookcase with no top

The rest of the MDF & backer board for the bookcases

The work station

Unfinished No More

I decided a few weeks ago that our back bedroom/my craft room would be Peter's new bedroom when Baby Girl comes. I also decided that since I had a bunch of leftover paint from painting Peter's room that his new room would be the same color. That means that I have moved my craft room into our office and now just have a craft area. I found a desk on craigslist for a good price that was perfect for the new craft area. Since I have move my craft supplies to a more central area I am more inclined to do something with them. 

For the past few days I have been completing previously started projects. So far I have completed: a pair of Christmas pajama pants for Peter (intended for last Christmas, they fit him perfectly right now), burp cloths, a St. Patrick's day sign, a cube pillow, a set of large wooden dice, a basket liner, a shopping cart cover, I hung my FHE board and I have started working on a Christmas present. 

There are quite a few more projects on my list to be completed including: refinishing a dining table and 6 chairs and painting 4 other chairs, two aprons, some mending, a pocket bag, a t-shirt quilt, a nap time roll with Peter's name on it, a nursing cover, decorating Peter's new room and the nursery, painting some wooden signs and frames and make and hang curtains and valance boxes (I can't think of the proper name for them right now) in the kitchen and living room.

Peter's PJ's

Modeling his PJ's and playing with his new pool at the same time

All I had to do was sew the elastic and close it up and finish the leg holes

I have two baskets exactly the same and I finished the cover for one AGES ago and cut the pieces out for the second one and never put it together.

Peter's showing what baskets are really made for

We did these at our last craft night and as an afterthought I decided to do some for Peter, he LOVES them!

The lighting is a bit weird in this picture. All I had to do to finish this was to glue the shamrock on, put the wire on and seal the paint.

A cube pillow for Andrew to watch TV on

I made a TON of these before Peter was born and got tired of sewing them with only 5 left. 

Doesn't it look so nice in our living room?