Old Well House Turned Lettuce Garden

We have a old well house in the backyard that no longer works, it's kind of an eyesore.  I had pondered removing the lid and building a large table out of it, but it's really to tall for that.  Mark had the wonderful idea to turn it into our lettuce bed!  He cleaned it out taking out all of the old parts that no longer worked.  After that he filled the whole thing up with dirt and planted different kinds of lettuce in it.  Around the corners where the block was open he put carrot seeds in.  It was a very easy project and works wonderfully for our lettuce!  It keeps it off the ground so the animals cant get to it!  So love that Mark thought of this great DIY project!  I may end up painting the block on the outside, you know I have to paint everything.  ;) 

What about you?  Do you have an old well house that is begging for a new use?  Or a creative way to garden?  I would love to hear about it!  Happy Gardening! 

Serving Tray's...Not Just For Serving

At least 3 days out of each week I run into Goodwill just to see if there is anything I must have.  Mark loves that my favorite place to shop is Goodwill, it's great for our budget.  :)  There is one thing that I have such a hard time walking away from and they always have them...Serving Trays!  Most of the time they are brown wood that has a few scratches, not a problem for me because I'm going to paint them anyway!  Gosh I love them.  I use them everywhere in my house and the best part is they are usually only $.99 or $1.99! 

Here is one that I keep on my Kitchen counter.  I think it just makes everything look a little more clean and put together.  Yes, I know I have a crazy amount of Kitchen gadgets...I like them too.  ;)  This one was just a brown wood piece when I purchased it and of course I didn't take any before pictures...ugh.  Just a little white spray paint and it looks as good as new!  Please ignore the beautiful gold countertops (sigh) a Kitchen makeover will be here by the end of Summer.  I just have to have patience until then. 

This one I keep on my desk in the Office I mean Parlor.  ;)  It was a gold color before but I thought that white went really well with the gray top of my desk.  Just a little something to hold paperwork and such. 

This beauty is actually metal that of course I painted.  It is also in the Parlor, it sits on top of a small little ottoman (that was also a Goodwill find for $7 brand new with tags from Target) in between the painted chairs. 

So the next time you are browsing your local Goodwill or Thrift Shop and you see a ugly serving tray, pick it up!  There are a million different ways to use them. 

Have a good idea for using a serving tray?  Please share, I would love to find a way justify buying more!  ;) 

Cheap Kitchen Decorations...Thank You Goodwill!

Very soon we will be working on updating our kitchen.  I could not be anymore ready to paint my kitchen cabinets and get a new oven.  Seriously, my kitchen deserves a little love.  It gets used for dinners daily and I cant wait for the day that I don't have to stay on guard while baking something in the oven.  My oven is 50 years old.  For real, 50 years old!  Isn't that crazy?  (I know this because we purchased our house from our neighbors whose parents built our house.  They said yes, original oven).  It still works...kinda.  I mean you have to flip bread every 2 minutes or it will burn and I am very limited to what I can make in it.  In the 8 months we have been here I have learned what it works for and what it doesn't.  So yea, I deserve a kitchen update.  ;) 

Anyway, I started pondering what I would like to hang up in the kitchen after we do our remodel and I remembered a cute little Spoon & Fork I bought from Goodwill about a year ago before the move.  They were only $1.99 each and I thought they were cute so I picked them up.  Mark loved them until he found out I would be painting them.  ;)  So I went through my junk room which is really a room of projects waiting to happen.  It's my favorite room in the house.  ;)

 

 

I decided to paint them with the same blue that I used in the the painting I repainted a few weeks ago.  I didn't prime them or seal them because they will just be up on the wall.  Just 2 coats of paint and they were done! 

 

 

 

I like them!  Not to bad for less than $5!  Do you have any decorations that you have picked up at Goodwill and painted to update?  



Pegboard For Baby Boy Nelson

Let me start off with this, I'm so stealing this idea from my sister (Ashley) when me and Mark have a baby one day!  She did this in Baby Boy Nelson's room and I thought it was so creative and cute that I had to share!  It was a super easy project that didn't take much time at all!  Easy!

She purchased a plain pegboard and one night we spray painted it gray.  After it dried she just nailed on all of these cute little things!  How easy and precious is that?!  She is planning on using the baskets to hold diapers and wipes because this is conveniently located right above the dresser/changing table.  There are also clips on the top that could hold pictures as well.  Seriously it doesn't get any easier than this project! 

I think this is a cute addition to a baby's room but could also work in an office or craft room too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What creative uses do you have for pegboard?  I would love to hear your ideas!

The Painting That Needed Repainting

OK, confession time.  We have been living in our new house (new to us, built in 1967) since September and there is not one thing hanging on my walls.  It's shameful, right?  Here's the issue, before we moved in we worked so hard "fixing" and painting the walls that it hurts my heart to put a nail up!  I mean, what if I change my mind, there will be a NAIL HOLE in my perfect wall!  Little fact about me...I have a hard time committing!  I mean picking out a paint color is the most stressful thing in the world for me.  The funny part is this time I knew what paint color I wanted, (thanks to my best friends new house) I had seen it on a large scale and already loved it.  You would think that would take the stress out of it for me...but it didn't.  Why you ask?  I came home ready to paint and Mark had gotten there a few hours before me and had already started painting.  I walked in and he already had the 1st coat on the den, I panicked.  I was all like this isn't right, this isn't the color, it looks to light!!!  Mark knows me...I mean really knows me.  So he says, "It's OK!  Let me get a 2nd coat in this room and if you don't like it we will go back and get something different."  He knew that if I gave it a day or two I would love it, change just isn't my strong point.  He was right, I did love it...so much that I have not been able to hang one single thing up on the wall.  :)

Which brings me to these canvas paintings I picked up at Goodwill.  I knew when I purchased them that I didn't like the color at all but I thought I could spray paint the whole thing white and it may look good.  They are very textured so even if I painted the entire thing you could still see the branches design in them.

Before

Last weekend I decided to pull them out and give it a try.  I decided I would paint them a light blue color (with free paint I scored from Home Depot!).  I thought the blue would look nice against the gray walls in "The Parlor" (which is really my office/craft room - Mark just insist we call it The Parlor).  :)

With 1 coat of blue

Originally I thought I would just paint them all blue and be done.  But as I was painting I kept thinking that the branches would look really nice white.  I kept just trying to dismiss the thought because I really wanted to hang something up that day!  But as soon as Mark walked through the door whats the first thing he said?  "Wow, that looks really good!  You should paint the branches white!"  That decided it, if my husband says out loud what I was thinking then its a done deal.  The branches needed to be white.  So I painted the branches white with a paint brush, didn't even worry about getting it on the blue at all.  

With white branches

All that was left was going back over the entire painting with a foam roller and painting over everything with blue one more time.  I thought that the foam roller would keep the paint from getting in the white branches but I was wrong.  I ended up having to go back with a small artist brush and touch up the white anyway.  

Finished Canvas

I'm really pleased with how they turned out!  Not bad for a $12!  The only thing I had to purchase was the actual canvas', I already had the (free) paint!  I will always look at Goodwill for any textured canvas paintings because now I know they can be painted over beautifully!  And finally, I have at least two things on my wall.  ;)  

What about you?  Have you ever purchased a thrift store/Goodwill canvas knowing you were going to paint over it?  Any DIY wall decoration ideas?  I would love to hear your ideas and see your pictures as well!  

Happy Painting!