DIY Magnetic Chalkboard

If you're not a fan of a messy fridge and you have

a blank wall just begging to be beautified, a DIY 

magnetic chalkboard just might be in order.

My dear hubs doesn't like clutter (which is why

we are a perfect match) and so, to drive this DIY to

the finish line...I started to "clutter" up the space where

I wanted the magnetic chalkboard to go, by taping

the kids artwork and school papers to the wall with

Washi Tape...it worked!

Shopping List:

2-1X4 Pine Fence Boards

3X2' Sheet of 1/4" thick Aluminum

Black Chalkboard Paint

(Leftover) White Paint

He started by cutting the fence boards down to size 

and adding angles for the corners. Clamped it all 

together and then painted the metal board with several

layers of Chalkboard Paint. The frame was painted 

white with some leftover paint. The magnetic

chalkboard is held behind the frame with metal 

brackets on  each corner and he also taped around the 

board, so the back would be smooth. Heavy duty metal

hangers hang this heavy duty project straight into

the studs. We had the metal filing baskets and added 

them to the wall for extra school papers.

The frame size is 42-3/4" X 31" but you can

customize it to fit your space.

The perfect way to organize all the papers and crap 

from collecting on the counter, yipee!

DIY Raised Garden Box

Our little chicks have been begging for a garden

to grow our own wonderful yum for the table and

thankfully they love veggies just as much as their 

Mama does! So my handy hubby tackled yet another

amazing project a few weekends ago and we are

proud to announce...

the green beans, peas and cucumbers have sprouted!

On his shopping list:

3 pieces of 2X12" Pressure Treated Lumber

1 roll of landscape fabric

Scrap wood for corner stakes

1- 8X2 foot trellis

Several bags of Organic Raised Bed Soil

He built the box on our driveway since it is 

more level. Cut one of the boards in half, 

making our garden box 8X4 feet.

Some grunt work digging out a bit of the hill

and then staking it into place, reinforcing the 

corners with screws. We had leftover stain from

our master bathroom project and he enlisted the

help of our seven year old to "paint" the box.

This is how it's done Daniel Son...

He lined the bottom of the box and stapled it in, 

adding the bags of soil. 

Next the trellis...cut in half, zip tied together and

buried into the soil. It'll be fun to watch the 

beans curl up the sides.

Confession: Yes, I grew up on a farm but I don't

have a green thumb, I am however 

willing to try. Since we were a little late planting,

we picked up plants that were already started, minus

the beans and cucumbers. I'm not sure how 

huge everything will get, so we are playing it safe

this summer with just a few items. 

Three tomato plants on the left and all sorts of

glorious smelling spices on the right. We added

rosemary and marigolds around the edges to help

keep away any animals that might want to take a nibble.

One yellow pepper plant, and a pouch of snow peas,

green beans and cucumbers.

The kids have enjoyed watching the tomatoes blossom

and love watering the plants...fingers crossed

we will have something yummy to show for our 

hard work!

How does your garden grow?
Feel free to link your post in the comments!

Mother's Day Gift Idea and Card

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mama's out there!

Whether you're currently a Mom, Grandmother, 

have a baby in heaven, adopted your child, or are 

currently preggers....you are all 

Mother's and deserve a day for everyone to just

say, Thank You!

I found the sweet little grey wooden saying

at TJ Maxx and was on the hunt for something

fun to go with it...lavender is such an uplifting 

aroma, a bottle of lotion from Scotland

and a fancy wrapped bar of soap, set the tone

for the purple card. The box smelled divine

once I had everything packaged up as well!

Of course, nothing says Thank you like 

chocolate, I know it's always be appreciated 

by my Mom.

If you have a plethora of stamp supplies and machines,

then you probably know what the Big Shot is. I use mine

pretty much every time I'm in my craft room and love the 

diversity of cutting tools that you can use with the machine.

First I stamped two different stamps on white cardstock

and then using the magnetic platform (amazing!) placed my

framelits die on top of where I wanted to cut. One quick

roll through the machine and perfection, I tell ya! 

The nice thing about Framelits is that they come in

multiple sizes, so you can frame your projects with 

a different color to add more dimension to your projects.

The Big Shot is also capable of using the dry embossing

folders with it but I have the Texture Boutique for just 

those, instead. I placed just the front of my lavender

cardstock inside the folder, rolled it through the machine

and out came this beautiful scrollwork.

A bit of bakers twine, some foam pop dots and 

a thoughtful card for a wonderful Mother!

Happy Mother's Day Mama's!!

 "Behind every good kid is a great Mom!"

Furniture Makeover - Summer Porch Yellow

Warm weather means that I can paint again, yippee!

I've been wanting to give this piece of furniture

a facelift since we moved to VA last year. 

A bit banged up and scratched with moving

but it's still a great piece that sits nicely on 

our stairway landing.

Our walls are grey (darker in the main part of the

house, the photos were taken in our sunroom) and

the yellow pop on the stairway will be a nice addition

to our family sunflower canvas.

I found this scrumptious yellow at AC Moore, it's 

called Summer Porch, by FolkArt Home Decor Chalk.

I used about half of the bottle with two coats for this

project. I'm not the best painter but I like to tackle

projects and get them done and am very happy

with the end result of this one!

Two coats with two different brushes...

I waited a day in between coats since I painted

during nap time but the paint was very quick to dry.

A different day, I pulled the sander out and quickly

edged up my piece, letting the brown pop through

in various places.

Next the Polycrylic, this was very easy to apply

but you need to make sure you don't put too much

on your brush or you'll get unwanted drips

(which can be sanded off, thankfully, oops!)

Two coats of Poly, in two days...again at naptime.

I wanted to paint the drawer pull black but only

had chalkboard paint on hand...I used two nails 

poked through a piece of cardboard to hold my drawer

pull away from any surfaces. The bottom two

photos are what it looked like before. The top pic 

is right after I sprayed, still wet...

Next the drawer, I didn't paint the bottom, since I

knew I was going to line it with something. Found 

this super cute, inexpensive grey and white chevron

drawer liner at Target. 

I unrolled it and folded it over in the corner to create

a cutting crease, pulled it out and slid my scissors

up the folded line. Before taking off the backing,

I made sure it fit inside. Just two small trims, peeled

off the back and stuck it inside. 

I'm in love with my little yellow table, 

isn't it sweet?...

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 5

Day 5, the last day of Teacher Appreciation Week. 

I've enjoyed putting together these small tokens

of appreciation for the teachers who continue to 

nurture my children's brains and lives throughout

the school year. With the weekend coming up and

hopefully some leisure time for teachers...a nice

end to the week, something homemade!

I thought I had those handy little throw away

mini pans in the cupboard but no...and since my 

youngest two were napping when I started baking,

I had to use a larger pan and cut the loaf in half.

Hope they don't mind, it still is mouth watering

delish!

I wrapped each loaf in saran wrap and then a pretty

cheerful yellow towel (I picked up a set on sale at 

Home Goods) a bit of bakers twine to hold everything

together and a fun tag, isn't that tiny airstream cute?

Hope you enjoyed this week of Teacher Gift Ideas

and gathered some inspiration for next year or any

day, just because! It's always nice to receive a gift

unexpectedly and it's good for the soul to be a giver.

Just to backtrack...

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 4

Day 4 today..I hope the teachers have enjoyed their gifts!

This seems a bit of a duplicate from yesterday's gift

BUT I just couldn't help myself, this Tommy Bahama

notebook was just too cool to leave at Home Goods!

I picked up two fun pens from AC Moore, swung

by Starbucks for a gift card and attached those 

to the notebook, with Washi Tape and Bakers Twine.

The cute little lion was stamped in Black Momento

Ink, colored with Copic and attached to a strip

of orange cardstock. 

I folded the top over for a fun look, adding a piece 

of my go-to Double Sided Sticky Tape (some crafters

call it baloney tape, because the red part peels off) and 

then used my Crop-A-Dile to punch a hole through the

three layers. A piece of bakers twine and mission

complete! Aren't the colors fun?!

 If you need to backtrack, here are

Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 3

Happy Mittwoch (Wednesday) everyone! 

Onto Day 3 of our Teacher Appreciation Week

gift ideas. I'm always looking for a pad of paper

and pen to jot a note, crafty idea or write a list on.

If you've been to Target lately, you've probably seen

these fun bright colored pads of paper. 

To make them look a little more jazzy and put

together, just take off the packaging and tie them

together with some bakers twine. A bit of Washi

Tape doubled over and placed between each section,

will keep the books/pads from sliding around 

and keep your pens neatly on top.

I used a scrap of paper, stamped it with three different 

stamps and punched the top with this very cool and easy to 

use punch from Stampin' Up! Colored the apple with

Copic Markers and added a piece of twine.

Check out Day 1 and Day 2 

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 2

Today we have Day 2 of Teacher Appreciation Week.

Candles are always a nice gift. I found this bright sunny

one at Home Goods. With summer comes bugs, so a 

citronella candle is a nice way to help keep them away

from your favorite teacher!

The fun little wooden "create your own sunshine" 

sign, I found at Michael's. I may or may not have 

hovered over the sweet lady stocking the shelves

when I saw exactly what she was unpacking!

My stamp collection is vast, so for this week, I've 

pulled everything from my shelves that has anything

to do with Thanks or Teachers. The mini card has

been stamped with two different stamps and 

my kids wrote a little note to their teacher inside.

If you missed Day 1, you can view it here...

Teacher Appreciation Week - Day 1

If you follow me on Instagram & Twitter, then a little birdie

told you that I'd be doing a week of Teacher 

Appreciation Gift ideas starting today...I made the banner

above for my kids school. They are doing a Pirate Theme 

this week but I had already purchased my kids gifts before

I knew that...oops!

Today we have Day 1:

I love putting together themed gifts so always keep my 

eyes peeled for fun containers, or ideas. 

Since summer is right around the corner, what better

way to celebrate your favorite teacher than with a bit

of summer cheer?! 

I picked up the watering can from the Target $1-3 section

at the front of the store...the shredded paper I already had

on hand. A few packets of flower seeds (also from Target)

and I kept my eyes peeled for other items to fit into the 

watering can whenever I ran errands. A pair of gardening 

gloves from a grocery store, as well as a bottle of sunscreen.

The shovel I found at Tuesday Morning, they always have

fun items there...

I stamped the You're Amazing stamp onto white cardstock, 

cut it out and layered it onto a strip of designer paper. A

bit of washi tape adds a fun touch and won't leave sticky

residue on the can once it gets put to use.

Come back tomorrow to see another fun teacher

gift idea...

DIY Wood Wall

When my parents were here, my very handy hubby and 

woodworking Daddy slapped together this wood plank wall

in our Master Bathroom.

Regular wood fence boards were picked up from Home Depot.

 The tops were cut off and the new router was put to work 

making rounded edges on each board. 

Next the staining...

I picked out two different stains but once they were

applied, they sort of looked the same, oops!

Just one coat of stain was applied to each board 

and then a bit of drying time...and banging up each

board just a bit with a hammer.

The guys hard at work

My hubby drew lines on the wall to mark out the studs.

He nailed the boards into place with the nail gun,

my Dad cut them all to our requested sizes and I was 

their runner up and down the stairs (my workout for

the day, whew!) 

We love it and I can't bear to hang anything on it yet

but we are dreaming of something 'Tahoe' style.

I have the paint picked out for the rest of the walls,

just waiting for the perfect day to paint!