Pocket Holes

I bought myself a new tool, and I couldn't be happier with the way it works. Have you ever heard of a Kreg Jig? If you are a DIYer then perhaps you have. I'd strongly recommend it. I wanted to make some planter boxes for my daughter's upcoming wedding which means joining a lot of boards. These pocket holes work great for that. I got a planter box pattern from Ana White's website. If you haven't checked out her website, you should!

Here's what the Kreg Jig looks like.

Here's the planter box that I just built. It will be painted in the wedding colors and I have a golden privet bush to put in it. Now I just need to build 7 more. Oh, and I'm not a woodworker at all. If I can build this, then so can you!

Back to School Time

I can hardly believe it's been 10 days since my last blog post. What have I been doing with my time? Well, since I'm a high school teacher, I've been trying to get things done around my house so I can go back to school with a clear mind. I spent 3 days cleaning our mess of a basement. Since I redo furniture and other items for a booth where I sell vintage items, I am constantly working in our basement and it had become a REAL mess. Yes, I took before and after pictures but I just don't have the heart to post that for all the world to see... well, ok, for any of my 3 readers to see. LOL I've also been working in the yard, repotting plants, working at our church bazaar, and going to inservices for two different schools. Today was our first official day back at school even though I went down last week to get an early start. Mostly meetings today and tomorrow we get to work in our classrooms. Maybe I'll post a picture of my room at the end of the day tomorrow. :)

Bathroom spruce up

Last week when I was update a bedroom, I also updated the dressing room off the bedroom and the connected bathroom. A few posts ago I shared the bedroom make over but I haven't shown the bathroom make over yet. I feel a little silly showing a bathroom but hey, that's what this blog world is for... right? To share?

Here's what I started with. Blue walls and a yellow ducky theme.

A full view of the shower curtain. I gathered up all the ducky themed items that I was finished with, advertised them on a local for sale site and sold them within hours. I had the curtain, towels to match, waste paper basket. Some little kid will be thrilled to have these in their bathroom. I know my daughter was when I put them up for her!

I painted the walls the same gray as I used in the bedroom. I used all white accessories just like I did in the bedroom too. Kind of a shabby chic flair. This looks so much more grown up than the ducks. LOL

You know I love to use these vintage children's chairs in my decor. This one is holding a towel as it is sitting on a long counter.

This is a vintage print that I just love, the colors were just right for this room. I have it hanging in the dressing room area. The dressing room is just a very small space... it has the sink, and counter plus a door that leads to the walk in closet. Thanks for taking a look!

A Few Pictures from the Arctic

Recently I was honored to be selected as one of 14 teachers from across the United States as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. This is a fellowship sponsored by Google, Oracle, Lindblad, and National Geographic. As a part of the professional development opportunity that accompanies this fellowship we traveled to the Arctic. Arctic Svalbard to be more specific. I was just asked to share a few of my photos with the other Grosvenor Teacher Fellows, so since I created a Picasa album anyway, I figured I'd share these here on my blog too. I hope you enjoy a few of the 3600 pictures I took on this fabulous trip. I just want to say that I LOVE the Arctic and this was one fabulous experience that I will never forget. I hope to blog more about the trip at a later time. But for now I'm just busy sharing my photos and stories with a variety of local groups. Click on the picture to scroll through and to see the captions explaining the photos a little.

Bridal Shower

Today was the bridal shower for my oldest daughter. I volunteered to make some cookies for the shower. Darn that Pinterest.... for showing some REALLY cute cookies. So my preparation started weeks ago with ordering the supplies. Three different types of cookie cutters, decorating tips, bags, sprinkles, etc... On Friday I began by baking the cookies early in the morning. I made two batches of cut out sugar cookies. Easy enough. Then it took 3 recipes of Royal Icing to frost those babies. And I don't know how many HOURS to decorate them. Luckily I had a couple of friends who came in about the time I was ready to drop and saved the day by helping to decorate the remaining cookies. The shower was great! We had a nice turn out, people had a good time (at least I think they did), the food was delicious, and my daughter was thrilled with her gifts. It was so nice of our youngest daughter to throw this for her sister. Here's a few pictures of the shower, and of course those labor intensive cookies.

Oh, just in case you were wondering about that abstract picture in the background... we had the shower at a local art center. These types of drawings were all over the walls so we just left them in place.

Left: Mother of the Groom Middle: Bride-to-be Right: Mother of the Bride (that's me)

Here are a few pictures of the Pinterest inspired cookies. They turned out ok but boy were they work!!

A productive but Accident Prone Day

I had a list, I really did... you know, one of those "To Do" lists. I vowed to stick to it to accomplish a lot before company comes to visit this week end and we have a bridal shower for my oldest daughter. Well, things did not go as planned. First, I decided to water the plants. Yes, a typical morning routine for me, I got started a little late this morning (about 10 a.m.) But one thing led to another and about 4 p.m. I finally came inside. I don't know what came over me but I trimmed rosebushes, fertilized plants, repotted some ferns, pulled weeds, etc. The yard sure needed it but it WASN'T On The LIST. Oh, and I ended up with scratches all over due to trimming those rose bushes! A friend came by for a little visit and I wanted to show her the bedroom I'd been working on, so I pulled up the blinds and they totally fell apart! So after she left, I had to clean up that mess.... that wasn't on the list either. Finally, late afternoon, I start to do the chores on "the list" most related to updating an upstairs bedroom. I'm going to show you some picture of that shortly. But since I had the ladder in the house, out of it's usual storage spot in the garage, I decide to change a blinking recessed light in the kitchen. Wouldn't you know it, I now can not get the fixture reassembled! GRRRR... Ok, on to the bedroom.

Here's what it looked like before. Bright pink walls & flowered border.

Here are a few pictures of what it looks like now.The walls are now gray and this is a new comforter on the bed. I went for the Shabby Chic look. I've been collecting ironstone platters so I decided to hang a few over the bed. I did buy a king sized headboard at a recent auction. I'm trying to decide if I want to use it as is (natural wooden color) or paint it to match the vanity and chest.

These are some valances I made last night.

I finished the bench to go with the vanity. I upholstered it with the same fabric that I used for the valances. Oh, yeah, another accident happened while I was upholstering this bench. I was using my pneumatic staple gun (which I just LOVE) and it broke! The spring that is inside, where you insert the staples, came apart. So until I can get a replacement, no more upholstery jobs.

This is a little table that has been in my husband's family since 1910. I just couldn't bring myself to paint it. So it's staying as a natural wood. It's plenty chipped too. That's an old child's chair sitting on top: I bought the chair at an auction and I love its chipped up paint. It's holding a child's tea set that belonged to my mother. I can remember getting to drink tea from it on very special occassions when I was a little girl.

For now I just sat this collection of purses on the window seat. I'm trying to decide if I should hang them on the wall.

A close up look at that child's tea set I mentioned. I also redid the bathroom adjoining this room. But that post will wait for later. Thanks for taking a look at the updated bedroom. Linked to:

Dresser Update

A while back I saw a dresser that had been painted a metallic silver and then glazed. It was a new piece of furniture made in a vintage style; and it was pricey. I had a similar actual vintage dresser so I thought I give that paint technique a try. I am pleased with how it turned out and I thought you all might like a look.

Here's the dresser before, well of couse I forgot to take a picture with the drawers in. I get overly excited to get started and I forget

Here's what the dresser looks like after painting and glazing. I'm pretty happy with it.

Here's an up-close shot.

I tried a product that was new to me for this redo. The dresser was already in an upstairs bedroom and I didn't want to move it outside to spray paint it so I wanted a brush on metallic paint. After much looking, I finally found one made by Rustoleum. It works very well and I have a lot left so I'm sure I'll be painting other items with this color. Well, thanks for taking a look.