china hutch

Over the summer I was at home visiting family during my birthday.  I've always loved the idea of eventually finding a china hutch and painting it a vintage white or blue.  My mom and I did a lot of thrift shopping during this visit.  No, seriously.  A LOT.  And one day we were at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store (it was probably the 3rd or 4th time we were there since I got there) and their furniture was 50% off!  I found this awesome hutch for a great deal and so my parents got it for me for my birthday!

I knew I would want to paint it a different color.  Since my parents have a garage and I don't, I knew I had to paint it before we would leave for Texas.  I debated on off white or blue and eventually went with blue.  Not that it's in our home I wish the hutch was off white...but oh well.

Here's the hutch taken apart in my parents' garage.  I spent time cleaning it and sanding it.

It took three coats to get it fully covered.  I thought the bottom of the hutch would be easier to paint versus the top of the hutch, but boy was I wrong.

Finished.  Unfortunately we couldn't fit the top and bottom in our car...so we brought the bottom of the hutch in July and my parents brought the top of the hutch in October.  So I had to wait a full 3 months to get my birthday present :)

All complete.

desk lamp makeover

I upgraded our old office lamp with a new and colorful one.  I must say, making over a lamp is one of my favorite craft projects to do!  It's fun going thrift shopping and finding an old junky looking lamp that with a little spray paint makes it look sooooooooooooooo cool!  

Our office desk with the old brown and boring lamp.

Found this baby at Goodwill.  The key is finding a lamp with beautiful curves like this one.  With spray paint  the curves pop out!

I was first thinking about spray painting it white...and then I decided to go with light blue because the lamp shade I got is gray and the gray looked nice with the light blue.  

I ran into a dilemma when I was spray painting the lamp with the white.  It was sooooooo humid outside today and I know you're not supposed to spray paint in high humidity.  I didn't care...until after I spray painted the first coat of white spray paint.  The spray paint was drying into chalky substance that was rubbing off.   Then I realized why you shouldn't spray paint in high humidity.  But I was still determined to finish the project.  So after each coat of spray painting it outside, I brought it inside to dry off in the air conditioned environment (but I did open a window and have a fan blowing on it).  I know it's not ideal...but I am so impatient that I couldn't wait, I had to finish this!  

This color turned out really nice.  And it shows off the curves and ripples of the lamp base.

With the lamp shade!

Finished product.  

The lamp in its new home.  It goes well with my fabric covered cork board!

thrifted wooden frame

I really enjoy thrift shopping.  When I was visiting my family this summer my mom and I would go thrift shopping...a lot.  And the theme song I would sing was "I'm gonna pop some tags I only got $20 in my pocket..." and then I'd stop there because that song it not very wholesome.  And I never really did pop any tags...

Anyway...I found an old picture with a frame...and not just some cheap plastic frame, but a real wooden frame.  That's a good find.  I took apart the frame and first I spray painted it white, but I didn't like that.  So I painted the wood with light blue acrylic paint and sealed it with some matte modge podge.  I put in a picture of Rollin and me from our wedding.  I'm not sure I'm completely satisfied with the finish product but it's a start.

This is what it originally looked like.

Finished.

Hanging on the wall.

The End.

DIY fabric covered cork board

We have a bulletin board (or cork board) in our spare bedroom above the desk and it's so drab and ugly.  Once day I was on Pinterest and found a craft idea.  I got the idea from here!

First I took my old and boring cork board.

I got a yard of this pretty fabric from Joann Fabric Store.  It was my first time in this store (not including the times when I was younger when I had to go with my mom)!  I got an adhesive spray and sprayed the board and then laid the fabric on top.  I spent some time smoothing the fabric out and making sure there were not any bubbles in the fabric.

Then I got silver thumbtacks from Target and started pushing them in around the border of the cork board.  

I used around 220 thumbtacks.

Lastly, I turned the cork board over and used a hot glue gun to glue the fabric to the back.

The finished product!

 Back on the wall and way more exciting than it used to be!!!

my bahama sea lamp

I found this lamp at Goodwill for $3.  I couldn't resist because the base was unique.  I spray painted it with Krylon's "Bahama Sea" spray paint.  Then I got a cream lamp shade that had gold lines on it from Target!

another lamp makeover

I don't think I will ever buy a new lamp again.  It's too much fun going to thrift stores to find a cool old lamp and making it over!  My latest lamp makeover I found in March at Goodwill (I think).

I spray painted it white and added a blue/gray shade.

Here it is.  It sits on a crate next to our love seat.

The dilemma with putting the lamp here is I had to get a crate and paint it to put the lamp on, otherwise the lamp would be too low.  I put some of my old books in the crate.

  

Finished product.  I really like the colors of it.

lamps

Lately I've been into finding old and unique lamps at thrift stores and giving them a little face lift by spray painting the base and putting a new lamp shade on it.

This lamp was only $3.  It's very unique, isn't it?

Close up.

Today I worked on two lamps: the first one and a second lamps that is actually a touch lamp.  My plan was to use primer on both of them, then to paint the first lamp with the light blue and the second lamp with the plum.

The one thing I wish I had done with this brass lamp is sanded it to smooth the surfaces so that it would have had more of a glossy finish.  It looks great anyway, but sanding it first would have been better.  Before I spray painted them I spray painted a PRIMER first.  

There's the blue!

There's the plum!

Here's the final product with a lamp shade on top!

I like it!

Here's the plum lamp. 

banners

My latest crafting project has been making banners to hang around the home.  I chose simple words that say a lot.  I made three banners.  The banners say "hope," "restore," and "Jehovah Jireh."

Hanging these banners around my home is like declaring the truth that I have in Jesus.  The truth that my HOPE is in Him.  The truth that Jesus RESTORES all things.  And that Jesus is JEHOVAH JIREH, my provider in everything.

These banners are prayers of my heart and I'm declaring them out loud.