Thank you for all of your well wishes!! When I was able to get on-line I made sure I stopped by to read the new ones, it made me feel so good.
I will be posting a tutorial this month. It's a biggie, something I've been kicking around for awhile and I finally had the time to try it out. I am quite satisfied with the results, I hope you will be, too.
Sincerely,
Kris
Monday, June 10, 2013
$100 Target Gift Card Summer GIVEAWAY -- WINNER ANNOUNCED BELOW!
CONGRATULATIONS TO SANDY NELSON, entry #1097!! You are the winner!!
Happy Monday, Everyone!
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! Friday, the 31st, was the last day of school for us, which means it was our first official week of summer last week ... and we packed it full!Superman and I spent the week putting the finishing touches on our new business venture: Engine 9 Bounce! We just might be crazy! If you live in the DFW area and need a water slide for a party, you know who to call. This week we start our regular trips to the pool, staying up way too late, and eating way too many popsicles.
To help you start your summer off right, I've teamed up with a wonderful group of bloggers to bring you 10 Fun Summer Ideas and an awesome giveaway - a $100 Target gift card!
Please take a moment to check out these great ideas for summer and then enter to win a $100 Target shopping spree! Let's be honest....who couldn't use $100 to spend at Target!?
On to the Summer Fun Ideas:
Lemon Bar Muddy Buddies - Lemon Tree Dwelling 2-Minute Summer Centerpiece - Eating In The Shower
Make Your Own Tetherball - Style With Cents
Create Your Own Summer Reading Program - Redfly Creations
World's Easiest Homemade Ice Cream - Redfly Creations
Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes - Made For A King
Chicken Dip Summer Salad - Eating In The Shower
Simple Slipknot Napkin Rings - Lemon Tree Dwelling
Build a New Fence Using Old Scraps - Style With Cents
Summer Skirt Tutorial - Made For A King
Friday, June 7, 2013
Our Last Day
Today is our last day in New Orleans. I am in denial that the day is already here. The past 2 weeks have been fast and furious and have flown by! We have been to Texas and back twice in the past 3 weeks and we will be making the last trip over tomorrow. We have filled an 8x8x16 POD plus an 8x12 U-Haul plus tomorrow we will be have 2 trucks with the beds full and each of us will be pulling a boat. I am tired just thinking about that sentence...that's a lot of stuff. You don't realize how much you have until you pack...YIKES. Thank goodness I don't have hoarding tendencies!!!!
While packing, getting ready for the move, and finishing everything up with our jobs here, we have also been in the process of purchasing a home. I mentioned before we secretly went house shopping and luckily we really liked the second home we saw. Crazy! Then only after a few negotiations, an offer was accepted. We went to see the house again last weekend during the inspection. Thankfully, we still liked the house and the inspection only turned up minor issues. We are so blessed things are falling into place so quickly! We are officially under contract and closing is set for the 24th. I am very thankful I am self-employed so I can focus on what needs to be done and make the what feels like a gazillion calls a day to get things to happen. If closing stays on schedule we will only be displaced for 2 weeks! Again, so grateful! We were thinking it would be a few months before finding a house and trying to find short term rentals is not easy.........especially when you live with these two.
While packing, getting ready for the move, and finishing everything up with our jobs here, we have also been in the process of purchasing a home. I mentioned before we secretly went house shopping and luckily we really liked the second home we saw. Crazy! Then only after a few negotiations, an offer was accepted. We went to see the house again last weekend during the inspection. Thankfully, we still liked the house and the inspection only turned up minor issues. We are so blessed things are falling into place so quickly! We are officially under contract and closing is set for the 24th. I am very thankful I am self-employed so I can focus on what needs to be done and make the what feels like a gazillion calls a day to get things to happen. If closing stays on schedule we will only be displaced for 2 weeks! Again, so grateful! We were thinking it would be a few months before finding a house and trying to find short term rentals is not easy.........especially when you live with these two.
Aren't they cute?! They are great dogs but I completely understand that people don't want two 80 pound, indoor labs in their rental. My parents love their grand dogs so we have a place to stay for the next few weeks. :)
I have had several questions about the house and I have been keeping details to myself mostly because it is not a done deal and I am still in denial that it is happening. Having said that, I have been pinning like crazy on my secret Pinterest board that is for our new house. :) The home was built in the 80's and still looks like it belongs in the 80's....EEK. Luckily I can see past the time warp and new blue carpet that extends into the master bath (no, I am not kidding) and see the potential in the home. I am so ready to get the keys so we can start making it ours and transforming it into a beauty. Our first projects will be updating the kitchen, new floors, painting the walls & trim, and building a fence. If anybody wants to come to our painting and fence building party, I will feed you for your work :) I will be posting updates, before & afters and probably a few DIY tutorials over the next few months. Please pray that closing stays on schedule and the next few months aren't too stressful for us.
And to close today's post, I would like to thank all of my customers, clients, and supporters in the NOLA area. I have been so blessed to find a job that I love and doesn't feel like work. Even on hot summer days when I am working all day outside, covered in paint and sanding dust, and suffer from mild heat exhaustion....somehow it still doesn't feel like work. I am a little scared about getting started in the Houston/Galveston area but I have faith that things will be successful there too.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
How to: Build a NEW Fence, Using OLD Scraps
Um, hi.
We’ve been a little busy over here … sorry it’s taken awhile to get this new post up, but I think y’all are gonna LOVE it for a summer project. If I had to take a stab, I would guess that 99% of homeowners don’t love their fences … and I’m gonna show you how to be part of the 1% without spending tons of money.
Okay. Here we go.
Okay, so this is what our fence WAS … you might remember me mentioning needing to replace it, when I showed you how to stain your fence for dirt cheap. Those wood posts were just a little too wobbly for our liking.
Well.
A little over a year later, the time had come. We had tons of steel fence posts left … when our HOA replaced our neighborhood’s perfectly good perimeter fence a couple years ago, Superman asked the fence company if he could have the old steel posts. They were THRILLED because it meant they didn’t have to haul them off. :D We were thrilled because they were FREE. ;)
So.
Superman tore down the entire side of the fence. This was easy – the house next door is vacant, so there wasn’t anyone to disrupt over there while we got down to business.
Superman used the same holes from the previous wooden fence posts. He stuck a steel post in each and then filled the hole with cement, making sure each post was the same height coming out of the ground and that they were perfectly straight. USE A LEVEL.
Then, he bought NEW cross beams. He put those up … and all that was left to do was just put up the pickets. He reused as many fence pickets as he could from our existing fence, but needed to replace about half of them. So. He turned to Craigslist. He found some other homeowners who also weren’t loving their fences and were replacing. He found several gently used fence panels from several places. He brought them home, stripped the pickets off, and pulled out the nails.
Um. This part is NOT fun. Like, at all. I’d rather jab dull pencils through my eyes. But. It did save us, easily, $2,000. And Superman is a patient man. So. You know. It worked out. ;)
We ended up with several scrap piles like this that later got hauled off.
Dude just picked through each fence post, took the good stuff, and dumped the junky stuff.
And then.
He got to work nailing up each picket. (he still needs to go back and put a few screws in each picket, but that’s for another day)
Something else we decided to do was flip the fence around so that we don’t have the posts on our side anymore. :D HEHEHEHE. You can do that when the house next door is vacant. Now it will be easier for Superman to mow and edge.
So, you can see how many pickets came from our old fence and how many were ‘new’ replacements.
My big contribution was to take all those fence pickets, from a ginormo messy pile, and place them up against the rails so that Superman could easily and quickly get them nailed up. I know. I rock.
When he finished constructing the new fence, it looked something like this:
So, then he whipped out some of his trusty cheaper than dirt fence stain … and got to work:
Firefighters are hawt.
Because the stain he mixed up is semi-transparent, he didn’t need to bleach the boards … it covers all the inconsistencies really well. You can’t even tell it was a ghetto rigged garbage fence, huh?
Our total cost? About $100 for the cross beams. BOOM!!
I married Superman, dude.
We’ve been a little busy over here … sorry it’s taken awhile to get this new post up, but I think y’all are gonna LOVE it for a summer project. If I had to take a stab, I would guess that 99% of homeowners don’t love their fences … and I’m gonna show you how to be part of the 1% without spending tons of money.
Okay. Here we go.
Okay, so this is what our fence WAS … you might remember me mentioning needing to replace it, when I showed you how to stain your fence for dirt cheap. Those wood posts were just a little too wobbly for our liking.
Well.
A little over a year later, the time had come. We had tons of steel fence posts left … when our HOA replaced our neighborhood’s perfectly good perimeter fence a couple years ago, Superman asked the fence company if he could have the old steel posts. They were THRILLED because it meant they didn’t have to haul them off. :D We were thrilled because they were FREE. ;)
So.
Superman tore down the entire side of the fence. This was easy – the house next door is vacant, so there wasn’t anyone to disrupt over there while we got down to business.
Superman used the same holes from the previous wooden fence posts. He stuck a steel post in each and then filled the hole with cement, making sure each post was the same height coming out of the ground and that they were perfectly straight. USE A LEVEL.
Then, he bought NEW cross beams. He put those up … and all that was left to do was just put up the pickets. He reused as many fence pickets as he could from our existing fence, but needed to replace about half of them. So. He turned to Craigslist. He found some other homeowners who also weren’t loving their fences and were replacing. He found several gently used fence panels from several places. He brought them home, stripped the pickets off, and pulled out the nails.
Um. This part is NOT fun. Like, at all. I’d rather jab dull pencils through my eyes. But. It did save us, easily, $2,000. And Superman is a patient man. So. You know. It worked out. ;)
We ended up with several scrap piles like this that later got hauled off.
Dude just picked through each fence post, took the good stuff, and dumped the junky stuff.
And then.
He got to work nailing up each picket. (he still needs to go back and put a few screws in each picket, but that’s for another day)
Something else we decided to do was flip the fence around so that we don’t have the posts on our side anymore. :D HEHEHEHE. You can do that when the house next door is vacant. Now it will be easier for Superman to mow and edge.
So, you can see how many pickets came from our old fence and how many were ‘new’ replacements.
My big contribution was to take all those fence pickets, from a ginormo messy pile, and place them up against the rails so that Superman could easily and quickly get them nailed up. I know. I rock.
When he finished constructing the new fence, it looked something like this:
So, then he whipped out some of his trusty cheaper than dirt fence stain … and got to work:
Firefighters are hawt.
Because the stain he mixed up is semi-transparent, he didn’t need to bleach the boards … it covers all the inconsistencies really well. You can’t even tell it was a ghetto rigged garbage fence, huh?
Our total cost? About $100 for the cross beams. BOOM!!
I married Superman, dude.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Exciting News!
Those of you who know me personally might have heard/read the news yesterday, but for those of you who haven't heard....
Brian and I are both from Texas so going "home" is really exciting for us. His job is taking us to the Houston/Galveston area so we will be close to our families and many of our friends. New Orleans will always have a special place in our hearts, but we are ready to get back.
WE ARE MOVING!!!!!!!!
IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!!!!
****Insert moving to Texas happy dance here****
IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!!!!
****Insert moving to Texas happy dance here****
Brian and I are both from Texas so going "home" is really exciting for us. His job is taking us to the Houston/Galveston area so we will be close to our families and many of our friends. New Orleans will always have a special place in our hearts, but we are ready to get back.
Its crazy the things you miss from your home state. Last month we flew to Corpus and were sitting in a restaurant taking in our surrounding. It felt so good to see Texas A&M hats/shirts everywhere, hear Cross Canadian Ragweed and Cooter Graw on a regular country radio station and to see Blue Bonnets growing on the side of the road and in front yards. We caught ourselves smiling, thinking the same thing....it feels good to be home.
In my last post I mentioned a few projects that were not ready to be posted. Well, that was packing my POD....
and the entertainment center.....here is a before reminder
The previous owner had already cut a drawer front from the drawer body and most of the drawers didn't close all the way and there were some problems with the doors. I fixed the alignment problems, built in shelves for the DVD/Cable box/etc, moved and updated the hardware, and painted it Bird's Egg. It now looks like an entertainment center. Here is the after.
I am planning on keeping the entertainment center for us. Our home now has a niche for the TV so as soon as I found out we were probably moving, I decided to keep it and refinish it for us. I love the finished product and hopefully it will work great in our new house. Click here to see it in our new home.
Speaking of....we did secretly go house shopping last weekend and have been in negotiations on a particular home. We are supposed to find out today if our last offer is excepted. Please pray that it is and that nothing goes wrong with inspections and appraisals and closing goes smoothly. If things work out, we will only be displaced for a few weeks and we can get started on updating our new house ASAP. There will definitely be some DIY home posts in the future.
I promise to keep everyone posted and if you live in the Houston area and need furniture worked on, keep me in mind. Hopefully I will be taking on furniture work in a few months.
SIDE NOTE: Today is our 7 year anniversary! Time flies when you are having fun. Love you, babe! Here are a few pictures from our special day.
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| When the doors opened and I started down the aisle. This is one of my favorites. |
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| On the boat |
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| My fisherman's groom's cake |
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
A Few Updates
So, some how its been over 3 weeks since my last post. Time flies when you are super busy! Things have been crazy around here lately. So crazy I really haven't bothered to take many before pictures or good quality afters. Here is a quick overview of what I have been up to over the past few weeks.
One client brought by this family piece and a bench that was made from an old bed.
I bought this dresser a while back and finally had time to work on it.
And another little project. I have been working on changing this beautiful dresser into an entertainment center. It already had a drawer front cut off by the previous owner. She had started the project and couldn't finish so she contacted me to see if I could do something with it. Since one drawer front was cut off, I couldn't use it as a dresser so I figured I'd stick with the entertainment center idea. The dresser is solid wood (SUPER HEAVY) and has gorgeous lines. I love it. They do not make pieces like this anymore. I will post after pictures in the next few days.
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| Before |
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| After |
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| After |
I bought this dresser a while back and finally had time to work on it.
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| After |
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| After |
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| After |
Remember this dresser?
It was purchased for a baby girl nursery. The client already had a creamy, distressed, glazed mirror and wanted her other nursery furniture refinished to match. She had purchased a bookcase on Craigslist and ordered a Jenny Lind baby bed in white. Now they both match the mirror and coordinate with the dresser. It is going to be a super cute nursery!
Here is a desk that I refinished for a friend. It is a family piece they wanted painted to match the beds in their girls' room.
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And another little project. I have been working on changing this beautiful dresser into an entertainment center. It already had a drawer front cut off by the previous owner. She had started the project and couldn't finish so she contacted me to see if I could do something with it. Since one drawer front was cut off, I couldn't use it as a dresser so I figured I'd stick with the entertainment center idea. The dresser is solid wood (SUPER HEAVY) and has gorgeous lines. I love it. They do not make pieces like this anymore. I will post after pictures in the next few days.
I have been busy with several other things but they are not ready for posting. Did I mention how busy the past few weeks have been? On top of all of this, we went home to Texas this past weekend to watch my brother's girlfriend graduate with her Master's degree. What an accomplishment! So proud and excited for her.
I will have the entertainment center finished in the next few days and will post a picture of it as soon as possible. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and safe Memorial day weekend!
Monday, May 13, 2013
Gardening for Dummies: I hate Monsanto
***** Update: I'm sitting here late tonight totally stressed out about having just fed my plants a Monsanto product. How on earth do they do it?! How is Monsanto EVERYWHERE?! Clearly, I'm a rookie gardener ... I've been honest about that from day 1. I have to learn to read labels and research. Just like I search every label for high fructose corn syrup, I must now google search every company to find out if its parent company is Monsanto and therefore not consumable. Sorry to so carelessly promote something from evil Monsanto.
DON'T USE MIRACLE GRO. I'll be throwing mine out now ... actually, I'll probably take it back to Costco since they have such a great return policy. Or maybe call the money guarantee on the back of the box. Ugh. I'll let you know what I find as a replacement ... and how well my garden does without it.
DON'T USE MIRACLE GRO. I'll be throwing mine out now ... actually, I'll probably take it back to Costco since they have such a great return policy. Or maybe call the money guarantee on the back of the box. Ugh. I'll let you know what I find as a replacement ... and how well my garden does without it.
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