Revolutionaries

Awesome Frame + Awesome Scarf = Awesome Art

2012-02-23T09:58:00.000-05:00

Hello! How are you all doing today? I'm excited to share this post from Crafting a Green World! Before I do, though, don't forget that I'm looking for bloggers to guest post in March-- if you're interested please visit this post!

Okay.. now onto the project. My amazing friend Erin (Hi, Erin!) went on a mission trip to Amsterdam a few months ago and brought back a gorgeous scarf for me. The thing is, I didn't want to wear it-- not because I didn't love it, but because I was afraid I was going to ruin it. The same thing happened when I brought stuff back from Thailand.. I didn't want to ruin an item from another country that I might not ever go back to. You know what I mean? Anyway.. enough rambling.

Remember the frame I used for my merch table ideas? Well, it's been sitting in my closet for a few months because we changed things up. After seeing this incredibly cute post on framing vintage handkerchiefs by House and Home, I took the awesome frame, the awesome scarf, and made awesome art. Here's how I did it:

Just to remind you, this is what the frame looked like before. It's a lot of green, but it has so many cool details and it was only $3.00!

I spray painted the frame silver for the merch table and took out the ~~lovely~~ painting. (Sorry to those of you who love the painting.. it's just not my taste.)

Here's what it looked like when I started:

Here's the kind of tricky part-- attaching the scarf to the frame. Again, I didn't want to completely ruin the scarf by putting nails/tacks/staples in it, so I taped it to the frame. (Side note: If you have a frame that has glass/backing to it, you can probably just place the scarf in like you would a picture.) I rolled up the excess and just taped it like so:

(Side note: If you have a frame that has glass/backing to it, you can probably just place the scarf in like you would a picture. Also, if you have an old/antique looking scarf that you are willing to put holes in, I would staple it directly to your frame... it will hold up a lot better.)

All I had left to do was to attach a picture hanging thing (I don't know the official name) to the back. It looked like this:

And.. you're done.

Easy to do, used items I had on hand, and it was completely free-- my kind of project!

I love how the silver sequins from the peacock match the silver frame! Do you have a favorite scarf or handkerchief that you could use as wall art? I absolutely love mine and I can't wait to look for more at thrift stores/garage sales. I could even start collecting scarves from different places I travel to!

If you make your own scarf art, share it on our facebook wall or in the comment section below-- I'd love to hear from you!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Guest Post on Revolutionaries!

2012-02-21T12:08:00.000-05:00

Source: bloesem.blogs.com via Anne on Pinterest

Hello! Hope you all are having a fabulous Tuesday! I was thinking this morning, "Why don't I have people guest post on my blog?" Lately I've been a little uninspired and haven't posted as much as I would have liked to, so.. why not feature someone who has been inspired (and can inspire me in the process)?

I know it can be kind of scary to put yourself (and your blog) out there by saying you would like to guest post, but guest posting is so fun and it's a great way to meet new people! You can share a project from your blog, or you can list a few of your favorites and introduce yourself-- it's completely up to you! If you're interested in guest posting, please contact me at bonnie.getchell [at] gmail [dot] com.

Also, if you are interested in sharing your testimony on Share Your Story Sunday, please contact me as well!

Can't wait to hear from you all :) Toodles!

The Versatile Blogger Award

2012-02-17T19:15:00.002-05:00

The lovely Melissa at Serendipity and Spice nominated me and 14 other amazing bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award! Yay! Thank you so much, Melissa! If you haven't been over to Serendipity and Spice-- get over there now! She has tons of great ideas and projects!

The rules for this award are:

1. Thank the person that nomated you with a link back to them (which I did above! Thanks again Melissa!)

2. Tell 7 things about yourself (which I will do in just a sec)

3. Pass this award on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they've received an award (which I will also do in a sec)

7 Things About Me:

1. I love green bean casserole... like an uncontrollable amount of love. It's so good.

2. I love writing poetry and songs, but I haven't has inspiration to write in a while.

3. I love word games like scrabble.

4. I used to hate going to garage sales and thrift stores with my mom when I was younger. Oh how much I've grown. I was such a brat haha.

5. Sunflowers are my favorite flower.

6. I have a fascination with trees. They're all just so different and beautiful.

7. I have a younger brother, Brian (not that young, though, he's 21). He inherited all of the good-looking, sports, and sarcasm genes.

The 15 Blogs I Would Like to Nominate:

1. Taylor at Living In The Woods. She just seems like such a sweetie and I love her recent post "Filling Empty Walls."

2. Kammy at Kammy's Korner. Go check out her post about the drive by end tables... so cute!

3. Meredith from Mere and the Mister. Meredith and I went to college together-- I wish I had just half of her fashion sense and style.

5. Vicky at Mess For Less. I lovvveddd her Valentine's Day banner from kid's artwork. Basically I go to her site so that I can remember all of her awesome ideas for when I have kids (don't judge me.. I know I don't even have a boyfriend yet, but I'm a planner, ok?)

6. Jennifer at Always in Wonder. Her recipes make me drool on my computer screen.. seriously, check them out.

7. Sara at The Thriftress. Her recent posts about her son's lego birthday party makes me want to have one... and I'm 22 years old.

8. Little Birdie Secrets. I don't know if I could have eaten the festive cookies they posted today because they were so pretty! Okay, we all know I would break down and eventually eat them, but still.

9. Kitty at A Law Student's Journey. I admire her simply because she's a law student.. but she does amazing crafts which makes her even cooler.

10. Mandy at Biblical Homemaking. I stumbled upon her painted couch through pinterest and fell in love with her site. I'm hoping she'll share her story on Share Your Story Sunday soon as well!

11. Tonia at The Gunny Sack. I am taking all the notes I can from her photography posts-- love love love! I also link up to her amazing party called What's In the Gunny Sack?

12. Kelley at The Grant Life. Kelley comes up with some awesome crafts and recipes and she also hosts an incredible link party called Financial Friday.

13. Sherry at Sherry's Bees Nest. Her recent post about her love for chalk paint is so cute-- I love the little stool redo!

14. Michelle at Michelle Paige. She just posted about her daughter's rockstar birthday party and I was totally jealous of that party too-- maybe I'll have a combo rockstar and lego party for my 23rd birthday?

15. Kodie at Cheepmomma. First of all, Kodie is a really cool name. Second, after seeing her kitchen makeover ideas, I can't wait to see it when it's done!!

I hope you all will take a moment to check out these fabulous blogs!

And to the ladies I nominated: make sure you grab a versatile blogger button from Serendipity and Spice's blog. I couldn't figure out how to paste it here without it turning into the actual button... lol

Quick Update from me: I know I haven't really posted anything this week on the blog, and I've missed you all terribly. I just haven't had a lot of motivation to do posts. I know you guys understand-- just wanted to explain :) Also, would you pray with me that I would find a job soon? I would absolutely love it, if you would!

Upcycle Your Chocolate Heart Boxes into Wall Art!

2012-02-10T15:15:00.001-05:00

Do you get these heart-shaped chocolate boxes from your Valentine (or shamefully buy them for yourself like I do)? This year I thought, "After I've devoured all of the chocolate ~~by myself~~, what could I do with these cute heart boxes?" Well, as I wrote on Crafting a Green World, I discovered a way to recycle them-- turn them into wall art!

You Will Need:

1. Chocolate heart boxes. I used one large one and two small ones.

2. Scissors.

3. Scrapbook paper.

4. Pencil.

5. Glue.

How to do it:

1. Wipe down your boxes. Mine had some melted chocolate inside so you will want to make sure you get all of that out.

2. Separate your boxes. You will use both sides of the boxes--therefore, for the 3 boxes I had, I had 6 hearts. I love how the tops and the bottoms are different thicknesses so it gives your art dimension once it's up on the wall.

3. Arrange your hearts in the way you want them to go on your wall.

4. Choose the colors you want to use. I used this patterned paper on one of the bigger hearts:

On the rest of the hearts, I used colors that matched the patterned paper:

5. Turn your heart over and trace it onto your paper.

6. Then, cut each heart out.

7. Glue the paper onto the chocolate box heart. I used hot glue for mine because, again, I'm impatient. I wouldn't suggest using hot glue, though, because it dried a little lumpy underneath the paper. Use school glue instead :)

You're done!

Other fun ideas for this project-- put pictures in the middle of each heart for a fun gallery wall, or, put a letter on each heart to form a word/name! What colors would you choose for your chocolate heart box wall art? Share your ideas on the Revolutionaries facebook wall or leave a comment! I love hearing from you guys :)

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Toilet Paper Roll Valentine!

2012-02-03T12:19:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's almost Valentine's Day already! As a writer for Crafting a Green World, I try to come up with eco-friendly ideas to replace your every-day item like Valentine's Day cards for your kiddos. I don't have kids, but I know how exciting it was to hand out and receive all of those cute little Valentine's Day cards. So, I came up with this: a Toilet Paper Roll Valentine!

They are super simple to make! Here's what you will need:

1. Toilet paper rolls.

2. A magazine.

3. Glue.

4. Tissue paper. You could also use newspaper to make it more eco-friendly (perhaps the comic section to make it fun for the kids!)

5. Twine. If you have something prettier like ribbon, you could use that too. I just used what I had on hand.

6. Tape.

7. Scissors

And here's how you do it:

1. Lay your tissue paper (or paper of choice) down flat. Then, tape the beginning of the paper to your roll. This will help keep it in place as you roll the paper.

2. Roll the paper around your roll.

3. Once you get to the end of the paper, put another piece of tape to secure it.

4. As you can see, the paper is a lot longer than the toilet paper roll, so you will need to cut it. Use the leftover paper for another roll! After it's cut your roll should look like this:

5. Scrunch one end together and tie it off with your twine. Don't do the other end yet, though!

6. Before you scrunch the other end, insert your candy. The only candy I had at the moment was coffee and latte candy, but you won't want to give that to the kiddos, believe me.

7. Cut off any excess twine because you won't want to see it once you're done. If you had a pretty ribbon, though, you could curl the ends and make it look really adorable. Your roll should now look like this:

8. Now, take out your magazine and cut the letters you need to form the phrase "Happy Valentine's Day." Like I mentioned in the Magazine Ornament/Gift Tag post, this is a great way to get your children involved so they can learn to recognize letters and form words.

9. After you find all of the letters you need, make sure they fit on the toilet paper roll. Then, glue them directly to the roll. Once the glue has dried, you're done!

Isn't it adorable sitting on the sheet music desk?

If you want to make your toilet paper roll Valentine a little more girly, you can add some cute hearts! I simply looked through my magazine for pretty colors/patterns and cut a heart out from there.

Cute, right? There are so many possibilities with this project-- you could even put each child's name on their roll if you wanted to personalize it for each student in your child's class. Overall, these are easy to make, affordable, and one-of-a-kind Valentine's!

Hope you all have an awesome weekend! If you get a chance, tell me what you think of my Toilet Paper Roll Valentines on my facebook wall or in the comment section below! I love to hear from you guys!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

"You're Such a Fake"

2012-01-31T15:22:00.000-05:00

I would never want one of you lovely ladies to come to my house and say,

"You're such a fake."

Sometimes, though, I feel like you would say that. Why? Well, just like I shared on Share Your Story Sunday, I feel like a lot of bloggers "stage" our lives on our blogs like we stage our pictures-- only putting out pretty things for people to see. My roommate and I even joke sometimes "If they saw how I really live.." I see tons of bloggers that have gorgeous homes and I wonder, "Do they really live like that?" And then I see other bloggers who post their living rooms with tons of craft stuff all over the place and I breathe a sigh of relief: I'm not the only one! So here's my truth:

1. I graduated from college last May and am still looking for a decent job to pay all of my bills. When I say I'm a "po' kid" I'm not joking. I am blessed, and the Lord has provided for me financially.. and yes, I probably spend too much money on crafts/furniture, but I am broke. Like the rest of "normal" Americans in this economy, I am struggling financially.

2. When I say "roommate" I mean my roommate from college, Crystal. Her family has lovingly taken me in until I get a job that can allow me to get my own place (I'm originally from Florida, so all of my family lives there.. meaning I'm on my own here in Georgia). I typically call Crystal, her mom, and her sisters "roommates" on here because, as a 22 year old, it's kind of embarrassing to say "Crystal's mom."

3. My room also happens to be the living room. And they let me decorate, do my crafts, etc. It gets messy, but I'm thankful.

So.. that's the truth. I say all of this, not to get your sympathy-- I am happy and grateful for where I am now-- but to let you know that not all bloggers have HGTV worthy homes, expensive furniture, etc. I am normal. I do crafts on a budget not for people to say "wow, that's a really inexpensive project" (although that's cool, too!), but because I have to do crafts on a budget. I say this also because I want all of the "normal" people to know that it's okay to be normal. Don't feel like you have to compete with the HGTV homes... sometimes I feel jealous of what they have and that's not healthy. I need to be grateful for where I am and what I do have.

I feel so much better now. And I know now that if I invited you over for coffee and cookies, you wouldn't be surprised by what you see. We'd sit on my cheap, red couch/bed from Craigslist that I bought when I was in college, and put up our feet up on my even cheaper coffee table from Walmart (gasp!).. and we'd talk and laugh about how my couch makeover has a navy blue sheet on it right now because someone spilled hot chocolate all over the cream one haha!

I love you guys, and the support and encouragement I receive from the blogging community is incredible-- especially during this time in my life-- but I don't want you all to like me for someone I'm not. So.. that's me.

Does anyone else in the blogging world feel like this?

Share Your Story Sunday #6--Brooke from Pure & Noble

2012-01-29T06:00:00.051-05:00

Hey guys! Today Brooke from Pure and Noble will be sharing her story! Brooke is an incredible blogger and woman of the Lord. I followed her when I first started blogging and I am so honored to become her "blog friend." Her story is so powerful and I hope you all will take the time to read it and soak in every word. I know often times I skip over posts that are long or ones that don't have pictures, but I really encourage you all to read the stories for this series. It's such a cool way to get to really know each other on a more personal level and understand each others' hearts. So.. enough rambling from me!

Hi, my name is Brooke Fish. I write a little blog called Pure and Noble, but my most important jobs are wife, Mommy, household manager, sister, daughter and friend. I am a believer in Christ who struggles with anger, control and the approval of man. (Whew…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.) When Bonnie asked me to share my story with her dear readers my first response was, “Yes! Of course!” But my excitement was short-lived as I realized that I had not shared my story with someone very important – my Dad. So thanks Bonnie for the graceful nudge that I needed and your extreme patience with me.

I’ve shared my testimony before in a program called Celebrate Recovery. At that time, I asked God to show me what to share, where to go and how to begin. He led me to Hosea. I had read it before, but not like I did in preparation for this. As I poured over the pages I realized...I am Gomer. I am Israel. I have prostituted myself in a number of ways: drugs, alcohol, materialism, control and anger, just to name a few. Hosea 4:1-2a says, "Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel! The Lord has brought charges against you saying: 'there is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. You make vows and break them; you kill, steal and commit adultery...'" That was me. But before I get ahead of myself, let me tell you a little bit about how I got there.

My parents have been married for 40 years. Amazing right? They are loving people that have always told me and shown me just how much they love me. My Dad is a very strong, sensitive and affectionate man who is extremely hard working. My mother is a tender southern belle that has had Multiple Sclerosis since her early 20s and although there have been times of remission; much of her life has been plagued by this disease. I think much of my anger issues have stemmed from this. Anger at God for letting her have this disease and anger at the MS for taking away the Mom I needed and had always wanted. Although my Mom has always been independent and determined, she was never able to do the Mother/Daughter things that I dreamt of like going shopping at the mall, going for walks and having deep, meaningful conversations. Instead there were wheel chairs, handicap parking spots, bottled up emotions - for fear of being a burden - and other irrational fears.

I grew up in North Carolina. Every Sunday was filled with church and a drive to my grandparents' farm where we spent the day with our entire extended family. Although I never had a personal relationship with Christ, I felt very comfortable and safe with this family ritual. We all loved each other very much and some of my fondest childhood memories were at my Grandparents’ with all of my cousins. We played Charlie's Angels and Dukes of Hazard, made homemade ice cream and later in the day I could often be found in the pack house building something. How could you not love that, right? But, that all changed in the 4th grade when my Dad was asked to open a women's shoe store in Texas. (Insert the beginning of my materialism here!) I remember lying in my bed at night crying to my Mom wondering if I would have any friends in Texas and being terrified that no one would like me.

My early years in Texas were filled with making new friends and being boy crazy. Typical girl stuff I guess, but I so desperately wanted people to like me that I pretty much did whatever I thought would make them happy or make me look "cool." As this behavior continued, and my Mom and Dad worked hard to have a successful business, I began smoking, drinking, doing drugs and having inappropriate relationships with boys. As retail shops began opening on Sundays, every day was now a workday. Going to church came to a halt. I didn’t really care either; I had zero relationship with God and just saw it as an opportunity to sleep in late. My friends and boyfriends quickly became more important to me than anything else. But in order to be sure that everyone liked me (parents and teacher included), my grades never slipped and I maintained the "good daughter" status with my parents. I quickly became very good at manipulation and secrets. By my Sophomore year in High School, I had lost my virginity and had progressed from smoking pot to snorting speed and doing ecstasy.

At fourteen, I began working for my Dad at the shoe store and was now expected to pay for any extracurricular activities and begin saving for a car. I am extremely grateful for all that this taught me – the value of a dollar, hard work, self-sufficiency, etc. And, I am also very aware now that this independence bred my desire to control, a need to grow up way too fast and a false sense of maturity. My parents viewed me as the mature, pretty daughter with street smarts and my sister as the book-smart, good girl. They never came right out and said those things, but their praises and discipline reflected exactly that. I tried very hard to live up to their expectations! I worked hard and maintained good grades all while getting expelled for drinking at a football game, going to jail for being out past curfew and skipping last period to go get high. I think my parents saw a lot of my rebellion as growing pains and a wild side, that my Dad also had while he was growing up. Unfortunately, my "wild side" continued into college and beyond.

My lifestyle remained the same for years and my desire to control MY life was exacerbated by the loss of our family business and home, my parents’ bankruptcy and an unwanted pregnancy. Even though I was only a freshman in college, I thought my parents were unable to protect and provide; that was up to me. I was sure there was no God. How could God let one family go through so much? Why would He give my Mom MS? How could He take away our livelihood and strip my Dad of everything he had worked so hard for? And how could I be pregnant when I was so clearly not ready to be a Mom? It didn’t make any sense; especially if God was suppose to be this loving, all-powerful being. When I found out I was pregnant I had become so self-sufficient and self-centered I didn't even ask the father what he wanted. I wanted an abortion and that was that - end of discussion. I was so sure that “God” had made a mistake, that I would be a horrible Mother and that abortion was the best thing for me and the baby. I had the abortion in the fall and quickly buried all memories and feelings associated with the act because I was so sure I had done the right thing.

My drug days finally came to an end after one very humiliating night of partying where I did things I never thought I would do. The next day was awful - full of pain and an over-all uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn't want to talk to anyone or even get out of bed. Looking back, I can see that the Holy Spirit was very much at work, but at the time, I was unaware and uninterested in all things relating to God. I just knew the drugs had to stop - not the drinking and having a good time - just the drugs. They had become too much.

I was jumping from job to job and relationship to relationship. I kept partying, began working out compulsively, and when things spiraled out of my control, I told myself I was worthless and began hitting myself. Hosea 4:10 says, "They will eat and still be hungry." Gosh, that was so true for me, nothing satisfied me and yet, it was very important for me to maintain the appearance of having it all together and for others to like me. Then something totally unexpected happened, I became re-acquainted with a friend from college – Adam Fish. Adam was so different from me – extremely talented, quiet, introverted and really funny (although, I’m pretty sure I’m funnier.) As my relationship with Adam deepened I began feeling safe. (I think I kind of knew he was the one.) I started sharing things with Adam I had never told anyone. It was Adam who opened my eyes to my anger at God for my Mom’s MS. And through Adam’s search for a relationship with the Lord, I found one too. Little by little God began to chip away at my heart and reveal things to me about myself through marriage, friends and the pregnancy of our first son, Jude. It wasn’t fun (not at all like partying) and it sure wasn’t pretty (something I had wanted to be for so long) but, God was at work! I even went to Celebrate Recovery at our church (once) and quickly decided, nah, that’s not for me.

When I found out I was pregnant with a child I had planned, I was both excited and nervous. Then I began having strange visions that completely terrified me. They were like nightmares, only I was awake. I remember actually dropping to my knees in prayer for the first time ever and reading my Bible every spare second I could find. I even took a road-trip to Austin to visit my best-friend and would sneak away to pray and read my bible when she was doing other things. I was consumed. I was so desperate for answers to why this was happening and how I could make these visions stop. Eventually, I found the courage to tell Adam about my visions. He and others in our community wondered if there was any correlation between my visions and my past abortion. I seriously doubted it because I never even thought about my abortion. It wasn’t even a part of my testimony! They all suggested I go see a counselor. So I did – once. Are you seeing a pattern here? I was so terrified of what others would think of me; I wanted to pray it away and fix it for myself. I was so sure I could handle this on my own. Hello, desire to control!

Things got really bad after Jude was born. Not only was I a sleep deprived new Mom, I was carrying around the baggage of my abortion. The damage of that baggage began to destroy my marriage and me, but the worst were its effects on my son. I felt so completely out of control as a Mom. I wasn’t able to control how long he slept, how much he ate, or at times, when he would nap. This drove my crazy; I felt completely inept. I was sure I was doing something wrong. But it didn’t stop there. I was so crippled by the fear that God would take away our son as payment for my past sin that I tried to control and protect his every move as well as my husband’s when he was caring for Jude. My fear often came out as anger and rage. In an effort to gain control of my life and the situations that played out daily, I began hitting myself again and fighting with both my husband and our one year old son – who couldn’t even talk back! I was believing the lies that I had told myself before my abortion – I was a terrible Mom; God had made a mistake in giving me this child and on and on. Looking into my son’s eyes and seeing the hurt and confusion caused by my outbursts, I finally hit rock bottom. In the spring of 2007 I submitted to the Lord and began Someone Cares, a post-abortion recovery ministry offered through our church. God used that ministry and the women in it to change my life – literally! God gave me freedom from my past through His love, grace and mercy. I began to see my past and all my mistakes as His story of grace in my life. My eyes were opened to the anger, fear and lies that were wrapped up in my abortion and the manifestations of those symptoms in my life. I knew I wasn’t “cured” but life was so much sweeter than it had ever been. I knew I could move forward in His peace and truly find joy in life and motherhood.

I wish I could say life remained simple, blissful and manageable, but without struggle there would be no growth. The Lord brought new challenges into my life that continued to painfully refine me and were forcing me deal with more of my junk! In an effort for my husband and I to serve and grow together, he suggested we both lead a small group in Celebrate Recovery. Through much prayer and the counsel of others, I arrived back at CR. It was time to look at my relationship with my parents, deal with our family bankruptcy and let God heal me yet again. I am happy to say that this time I came more than once! I kinda had to since I was going to facilitate a group and go through the program at the same time. As I worked the steps of CR and related to the struggles of others around me, God revealed more past hurts and coping strategies. Through God’s word, Celebrate Recovery and community, I have been given the tools I need to become aware of the red warning light on my dashboard and deal with my hurts before they hurt someone I love.

Proverbs 29:18 says, “When people do not accept divine guidance, the will run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.” Daily I lift up my cross and cast my worries to God. Some days are much better than others, but I think my family and my community would all say that they see His joy in me. The Lord has traded my trouble for hope (Hosea 2:15) and has restored the years that the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25.) He has traded my ashes for beauty (Isaiah 61). I have been redeemed!

If you have a story of trials, hurts, regrets, guilt and pain, please know that there is no condemnation in Christ. He promises this in Isaiah 54:4, “Fear not, you will no longer live in shame. Do not be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you. You will no longer remember the shame of your youth...” You don’t have to be afraid; there is hope in Christ. Just like Hosea, God is telling His love story through each of us. Thank you for letting me share my chapter with you.

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If you would like to share your story on Share Your Story Sunday, please contact me!

I would love to hear from you :)

Sheet Music Bottle

2012-01-24T12:06:00.000-05:00

Hey friends! This post is something I wrote for Crafting a Green World, but after my sheet music desk, I knew I had to share it with you all as well! Plus, it's super simple to make-- my favorite!

You will need sheet music, glue, and a some sort of bottle. Some friends of mine gave me several wine bottles after one of their family get togethers, so that's what I used (yay for free crafting supplies!). This is what my bottle looked like before (I took off all of the labels and such):

Then, I tore out some pages from my sheet music books (the same ones I used for my sheet music desk). I tore them into smaller strips so it would be easier to wrap around the bottle. After that, I mixed a little bit of water with some glue. I didn't do exact measurements for this, but you just need to thin out the glue to where it's the same consistency of a soup. I used my fingers to put the glue on the sheet music and then I just put it on the bottle. I put pieces with a straight edge on the bottom of the bottle so it covered the bottle completely:

Once you have covered the bottle with your sheet music, allow it to dry completely.

Now, I must make a confession. My original intention was to make this a cute decoration for Valentine's day by writing "Love" with a red sharpie on top of the sheet music (after it dried, of course). However, it looked a hot messsssssss. So, needless to say, I have the ugly "love" side pointed towards the wall. If you have awesome handwriting, or if you wanted to cut out pretty letters and then paste them to the bottle, I think it would be an adorable idea! Here's my sheet music bottle completely dry:

I have it as decoration on my yellow dresser for now. What do you guys think? What else would you use this sheet music bottle for? Let me know your ideas on the Revolutionaries facebook wall--I would love to hear from you!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Repurposed Cabinet Door, Part 4

2012-01-20T20:27:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! This is the last repurposed cabinet door post! If you haven't checked out part 1, part 2, or part 3, please check them out first! In part 1 you will find a before picture of the cabinet and the run-down of prices and such :) The cabinet door I'm sharing with you guys today is the one I made for my Nana.. you know, the one who celebrated her 90th birthday this year? Yeah, she's awesome. She loves to read, so I wanted to incorporate that into her project.

First, I painted the outside "frame" black-- the same black I painted my Dad's cabinet (part 3), my couch redo, and my baby grand project. Then, I used an Elmer's glue/water mixture to glue down all of the book pages. When I did my Dollar Store Find: Silver Tray post, I burned some book pages from a book that I got at a garage sale. I saved some of the burned book pages that I didn't use for future projects-- like this one!

Once that was all dry, I hot glued buttons on top of the paper and formed them into the word "Nana." Then, I added the clothespins for her to hang pictures like I did with the other projects.

(Side note: I took these pictures on Christmas Eve night, right before I wrapped all of the repurposed cabinets, therefore, I didn't get great pictures of this project. The rest of the projects I was able to take pictures of after they had opened them.)

Here is the final product:

She loved it!

I know I didn't go into a lot of details in this post, so if you have any questions, please let me know.

I love you all and hope you are having an awesome weekend so far! If you have some extra time this weekend, find me on facebook or pinterest-- I love hearing from you guys!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

2012-01-17T12:06:00.001-05:00

So many awesome things have been happening on this little ol' blog of mine and I wanted to take some time to say thank you!

Source: behance.net via Bonnie on Pinterest

1. Revolutionaries reached over 100 followers this week. I am blown away by all of your love and support! It makes my day to get all of your sweet comments :)

2. Shannon from Vintage Restyled nominated me for the Liebster Award this week. The Liebster Award was created to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers. Someone nominates you, and then you are supposed to nominate 5 other blogs. I think this is such a cool way to support each other and get encouragement from other bloggers. So, here are the 5 blogs I would like to nominate:

[Her site doesn't list how many followers she has, but I loveee her new post on covering books with brown paper.. so cute!]

[The card above is from Live. Teach. Create. She has even more amazing designs for cards on her blog!]

3. In the next few weeks, I'm hoping to get a new design for the blog. My friend is helping me out and I am thrilled for you all to see it. Just be patient with me if things are kind of weird for a little bit!

Again, thank you so much for all of your support.

I am so thankful for all of you :)

Sheet Music Desk!

2012-01-13T20:12:00.002-05:00

Ahh! I'm so excited to show you guys this project-- it's probably one of my favorite projects because it involves two of my favorite things: furniture and music! I made a sheet music desk for my best friend, Crystal, for Christmas. I've seen several sheet music projects in blogland like this incredible dresser from Miss Mustard Seed and this beautiful desk from Shabby Creek Cottage. Crystal needed a large desk for all of her recording equipment she has. I kept searching and searching for the perfect desk, and finally I found one that looked large enough on Craiglist (for $25-- amazingness!). The problem was, it didn't have a wooden top like the other projects I had seen on blogs--it had a metal base and then a very thick piece of glass on top. Then it hit me-- why don't I just put the sheet music under the glass so I don't have to do layer upon layer of polyurethane! So, I did.

Here's the desk before (sorry I didn't put the glass on top-- it is so heavy!)

Materials I Used:

1. A sheet of plywood (I had the lovely gentleman at the hardware store cut it down to the exact size of the glass).

2. Elmer's spray adhesive (I only used 1 of the 2 cans I bought).

3. A sandpaper block thing (I know that's a super technical term, but it's in the picture above)

4. Sheet music. I used sheets from 3 different types of music books I found at the thrift store. They were 50 cents each and I'm so excited to continue using them for other projects!

5. Black spray paint (I used Kyrlon's Black Gloss spray paint).

How I Did It:

1. First, I spray painted the base black. I had to do several coats-- the metal was a beast!

2. Then, I measured my plywood to make sure the man at the hardware store cut it correctly. It was not the same size.. argh! I would like to blame the man at the hardware store, but it was probably my ~~amazing~~ measuring skills. Nevertheless, this gave me an excuse to use my new jigsaw that I got for Christmas. Yesss!

3. Once the plywood was the perfect size, I sanded the edges a little bit. I also sanded any really rough spots on the top. I don't think this is a necessary step, but it made me feel better and I felt like it would keep the pages from ripping or tearing.

4. This was the hardest step for me because I felt like the worst person ever, but you have to rip those beautiful, antiqued pages out of their books. I purposely chose not to cut them out because I wanted that old, ripped, delicate look. In addition, I went through all of the music and chose songs that I knew Crystal would know. For example, all of my books were Christian song books, so I chose songs that she would know and like to go on top (where she will be able to see them). Other songs that I didn't think she would know, I put on the sides or the bottom layer.

5. After that, I started gluing the sheet music to the edges of the plywood first. I glued around the edges so that you wouldn't be able to tell that it was plywood.

For the corners, put one sheet of music on one edge, and then put another sheet on the opposite edge. If that made absolutely no sense, please refer to the picture below:

6. Once I finished all of the edges, I layered other pages on top. Continue to layer until all of the plywood is covered. Like I said in step 4, I saved songs that she would know for the top layer.

If you're working outside, here is a bit of advice for you: bring your project inside to dry. I left my project outside and decided to bring it in around 9 pm. When I brought it inside, there were several bubbles underneath the pages because of the moisture in the air. To save you some ~~crying, whining, and~~ frustration, bring it inside. Luckily, the glass smushes most of the bubbles out.

Once everything dried (I gave it about 24 hours before I put the glass on top), I put the desk all together. Here it is (warning: I went photo crazy):

The lamp makeover project and the "baby grand" piano project go with it perfectly!

Crystal's favorite yard sale find-- Mr. Frog :)

Serious hard work is going to go on here :)

For real, though, I'm so excited to see all of this cute stuff clear off so she can set up her monitors and.. stuff that I don't know the names of. She's going to be an amazing producer one day. Remember the little people who made your desk, Crystal.. remember the little people :)

What do you guys think!?

I love your feedback and keeping in touch--find me on facebook or pinterest :)

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Repurposed Cabinet Door, Part 3

2012-01-10T19:56:00.003-05:00

Hello friends! This is part 3 of my repurposed cabinet door projects. If you haven't already, check out part 1 (a home decor gift for my mom) and part 2 (a gift for my sports loving grandma)! Today I'm sharing the gift I made for my Dad. I got the idea to use washers from this awesome post at I'll Get You My Pretties. My Dad is a "manly man" who can fix anything, build anything, etc. so using washers was perfect for him. While I was home, he even supervised my first cut with my new jigsaw :) yay me!

In this post I don't go into much detail about where I bought everything or what the cabinet door looked like before, so if you're interested, refer to part 1.

How I Did It:

1. First, I taped off the middle portion of the cabinet door with painter's tape. I decided to use the original white paint color for the middle part to save money. After taping, I painted the outside "frame" black. I used the same black paint that I used for my couch redo and my baby grand project. I also painted the clothes pins black.

2. With a package of washers from the hardware store, I spelled out "Dad." Then, I hot glued them to the cabinet. You will want to make sure you measure and center the word "Dad," of course.

3. After that, I hot glued the clothes pins to the cabinet door. Like I mentioned in the previous posts, my first concern was to cover up the hole where the knob used to go, and then I measured from there.

And you're done! I love the simplicity of these projects! My Dad hung this in his office-- it's the perfect place to put reminders, photos, or business cards.

What do you guys think?!

I love your feedback and keeping in touch--find me on facebook or pinterest :)

Update: Part 4 of this series is now up!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Share Your Story Sunday #5--Grace for the Road

2012-01-08T07:19:00.000-05:00

While I was on facebook this week, my friend Kelsey posted a link to this post on Grace for the Road. I really needed to hear it and knew I wanted to share it with you all. With Grace's permission, I've copied and pasted her story for you all to read today. I hope it speaks to you like it spoke to me!

For a long time there, I just wanted an answer. Please, for the love, someone just tell me what to do.

And when I say long time, I mean years, right in the heart of my life.

I thought about it a lot. I’d waver back and forth between trying not to think about it and frantically trying to figure it out. Then I’d come up with zero, so I’d go back to not thinking about it.

Christmas made me think about it, though. Church made me think about it. Nightmares made me think about it.

I walked the aisle once. I was 9. Did that hold any water?

It sure didn’t feel like it sometimes.

I had a heart full of sin I’d shoved way down, didn’t know how to deal with and frankly … struggled to care.

I had a head full of answers, I thought.

But what I thought I knew wasn’t adding up to my apathetic reality. Growing up, I’d seen Christianity portrayed almost as a formula … cue the invitation hymn, feel the tug, walk down the aisle.

Pray the prayer.

Write the date down in the front of your zip-up Bible so you can go back to “the day you nailed it down” on the days you’re questioning it. Read it sometimes. Dust it off, cut into its pages and hope for an answer to a question occasionally.

I missed its most important bits somehow … like the fact that “praying the prayer” isn’t anywhere in it.

And there was the issue of where that left me.

It does say that anyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life (John 3:16). But it also says that even the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19).

So there had to be something different to this belief thing than what I had going on … which was to think about the state of my relationship with Jesus as little as possible. I knew it was important.

I believed.

But so did the demons.

And I could fool people, but not myself.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want it to be right … I did. Badly. I remember reading my Bible and being discouraged by how I didn’t feel anything, by how hard my heart was. I knew I believed. I knew things needed to change.

But I didn’t know how to get from point A to point B.

Point B was where a lot of genuine believers were living, and I envied their peace and close walk with Jesus. I really wanted a piece of real estate on point B.

“If someone would just tell me what to do, I’d do it.”

I thought that thought an uncountable number of times. I thought it through tears, through revivals, through apathy, through selfishness.

Sometimes I wanted it fixed for my own peace, for the benefits that came with it, for the things I thought I could never expect to receive until He and I were right.

Sometimes I wanted it because I knew it was supposed to be the most important thing and I was missing it.

I wanted a straight answer, a list of things to check off, or a lightning-bolt moment. A nonstop ticket to point B.

Or even if it wasn’t a fast ride there, I at least wanted a sure one.

In my desperation, I set New Year’s resolutions to get there. I bought spiritual self-help books. I sheepishly but desperately sought the advice of strangers who didn’t know me and couldn’t judge me.

My pleas sounded something like this:

“I know once you’re saved, you’re always saved. But what does that mean? And I know you can never go so far away you can’t be forgiven. But I still think I’ve gone so far I can’t be forgiven.”

I asked them for an answer. They had one. It was Jesus.

Sigh.

And there I was, still at point A.

I’d been sick of myself dozens of times, come to the proverbial end of my rope dozens of times, had nothing left to do but turn to Him dozens of times. I told Him as much. Isn’t this supposed to be the part where He reaches down and helps you out?

But I found later there’s a difference in being at the end of your rope and the end of yourself. The end of my rope was a selfish place, and had been for a while.

The end of myself was entirely different.

It came one day when I least expected it, a thought that propelled me out of my chair and onto my knees. It wasn’t a lightning bolt, and it wasn’t a prescribed action.

This time, I wasn’t done with my situation, my life. I was done with me.

I gave Him everything.

It wasn’t perfect. But it began to change everything.

I just finally stopped seeing Jesus as an answer to my problems or a decision I made and started seeing Him as Someone to strive to attain, Someone to love, Someone I wanted more than anything.

And I don’t just mean “more than anything.” That phrase has lost its punch.

I mean more than anything I thought I deserved as a good person, or as an American, or even as a Christian.

More than a husband. More than a salary, or a city I loved, or tickets to a football game. More than the comfort of living where I chose, in the type of house I chose, driving the kind of car I chose. More than spending my time the way I wanted to.

He was more important than all of that.

He was more important than me.

In church, I think I heard more times than I can count, “Put Jesus first in your life.”

OK, fine. What does that even mean? It became way too easy way too early in my life to say, “Yes, He’s first in my life.” Because I read my Bible sometimes. Because I knew He was important, even if I didn’t act that way. Or because I acted like He was important, but not an all-consuming kind of important.

Way too early in life, I got to where I would say “Jesus is first in my life” as a statement of faith, like “I believe in Jesus” or “the Bible is God’s Word” or “God is love.”

Because I was a Christian and occasionally choosing Christian things over nonChristian things, that meant God was first in my life.

False.

And not just false, but blinding.

It was a beautiful release when I finally crashed into Him.

It’s possible I’m the only person who’s ever been in this spot. Praise Him if that’s the case. But if this is you … I plead with you in 2012 to see Him … really see Him … as the Jesus who deserves your everything, every detail of your life, every bit of your love and desire and pursuit. He is worthy, and He is worth it. It does start with a prayer, but it’s just that … a start … of a life caught up in Him daily. A life of working out how to handle every moment knowing He’s in it and owns it, and that He’s help for every struggle. A life of wanting Him more with every thought, with every minute.

He won’t fail to meet you if you hold nothing back.

--------------------------------------

If you would like to share your story on Share Your Story Sunday, please contact me!

I would love to hear from you :)

Repurposed Cabinet Door, Part 2

2012-01-05T13:37:00.002-05:00

Last week I shared with you guys part 1 of my repurposed cabinet door projects that I made for my family for Christmas. For more information on where I got my inspiration, please click over to Part 1! Today I want to share part 2-- the one I made for my grandma. Both sides of my family are huge sports fans (especially Florida Gator football) and my grandma is no exception. She has a gator lawn chair, a gator pillow, gator figurines, etc. Naturally, I had to make her something gator!

Just to remind you again, I started with four white cabinet doors from Goodwill for a total of $7.00 (making them $1.75 each):

How I Did It:

1. First, I taped off the middle part of the cabinet door with painter's tape. Then, I sanded and spray painted the outside "frame." I spray painted it the color "True Blue" by Krylon.

2. After I removed the painter's tape and the paint was all dry, I got my orange and blue buttons and hot glued them to the middle part of the cabinet. I spelled out "Nanny" because that's what we call our grandma. You can get little bags of buttons at your local craft store. Just like I said in Part 1, I used a ruler to make sure everything was straight and centered.

3. I bought a bag of 50 wooden clothes pins at Walmart for 97 cents for all of the cabinet projects. Like I mentioned in Part 1, don't go to the craft section to buy the clothes pins-- they are way more expensive and only have 25 in the package. I didn't want to waste my money on orange spray paint just for 4 little clothes pins, so I decided to just color the clothes pins with an orange highlighter. It was a lot easier than painting them, and it matched perfectly.

4. Then, I hot glued the clothes pins to the cabinet door. My first priority was to cover the hole where the knob used to go and then measure out where the other ones should go from there.

And you're done!

Pretty simple and very inexpensive. For this cabinet door I spent:

Cabinet door -- $1.75

True Blue Krylon Spray Paint -- around $4

Buttons-- around $6

Clothes pins -- $1 (for all 50 of them)

Total -- $12.75

It was the perfect, personal gift for my grandma. It's also a great place for her to put recent pictures of all of her grandchildren. Of course, you can change the colors for your own sports fan! Do you have anyone in mind that you could make this for? I love these projects because the possibilities for personalization are endless!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Update:

Part 3 and Part 4 of this series is now up! Check it out!

New Year Resolutions

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

Warning: This is most definitely a blabbing post with no pictures. But, it's fun and I would love for you to take the time to read it and give me your feedback!

Every year I try not to make resolutions because I don't want to be disappointed when I don't achieve them. That sounds terrible, doesn't it? I always tend to be negative when it comes to New Year resolutions. But, this year, I thought I'd change it up. I even did an Inspiration Board for the New Year! I want to write out some of my resolutions so that all of the internet world will see them.. and will therefore keep me accountable to achieve them, right? Right. There are only 10 for now... I might add more later. I definitely have more resolutions than this, but I didn't want to bore you all with my list of 100,000 resolutions! They're also in no particular order-- I just wrote them down as I thought of them. Here they are.. I would love all of your feedback :)

1. Get a new job. Ever since I graduated I've been bouncing around to different jobs, doing some writing things, band gigs, etc, but I don't have anything full time quite yet-- and I neeeeed something full time. I know God will have perfect timing for this!

2. Get a place of my own. This, of course, will come after I get a steady job. I am so appreciative of Crystal and her family allowing me to stay with them since I graduated, but I cannot wait to get my own place. I can get all of my stuff out of storage, decorate more, craft, etc.

3. Spend more time with the Lord. Why is this such a hard thing to do? Other things always seem to make me believe that they are more important, but that is simply not true. I need Him every. single. day.

4. Start a link party on my blog. I don't know if anyone else has done this, but I would really love to start a link party that only features new bloggers (bloggers who have 50ish followers or less). I feel like often times bigger bloggers get featured because they know what they're doing-- which totally makes sense, but doesn't allow anyone new to blog land to be featured. What do you guys think about this? Any feedback or advice?

5. Have more people share on Share Your Story Sunday. I know I haven't featured anyone lately, but I haven't had a lot of bloggers volunteer to share. It was also a hard time to get everything together because of Christmas and such. If you're interested in sharing on Share Your Story Sunday, please let me know! :)

6. Spend more time with family. I live in Georgia now, but I'm originally from Florida (my parents live there) so it's always hard to truly spend quality time with family. I know life can get crazy, but I really want to make sure that I remain close with my family-- whether it's on the phone, skyping, or in person.

7. Add more items to my Etsy store. I want to add more items so I can start fulfilling my overall vision for my blog/etsy-- which is giving a percentage of my profits to missions through the college I attended.

8. Be Healthier. If you read my post about my weight loss, you will know that being healthy is a constant struggle for me. I love to eat and I do not love to exercise. But, I know eating healthy and exercising is good for me. I just need to get motivated again to get back in "the groove" of healthier habits.

9. Do things that are outside of my comfort zone. I know this is a very general goal, but that's the point. This resolution may mean going to a place outside of my comfort zone, trying a new food, trying a project that I never thought I could do, apply for different jobs that may be intimidating to me, etc.

10. Be Happy. I'm happy this year, but I have to constantly remind myself to just.. breathe-- that things are okay, even if they're not what I expected them to be. I'm such a planner, but sometimes I just need to not plan and just go with life. I need to enjoy what the Lord has given me, be amazed by His plan, and let His joy be the light of my life.

So, what are your goals for the New Year?

Inspiration Board for the New Year!

2011-12-30T08:32:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! I'm so excited to share this post with you that I wrote for Crafting a Green World last week! Speaking of which-- I shared two tutorials this week: A "Happy New Year" Banner from Old Christmas Cards and A New Year's Eve "Resolution Tree." I won't be sharing those tutorials on here, so be sure to check them out!

Now, here is another New Year idea-- an inspiration board!

Last week I found this really cool ceiling medallion at a thrift store for 50 cents and decided to make it into something beautiful, but functional. I wanted something that would inspire me and keep me accountable to complete my goals for this year.

First, clean off your medallion to get off that thrift store gunk haha :)

Then, I started by writing words of inspiration on the "leaves" of the medallion like so:

My mom wrote all the words for me because she has amazing handwriting. She varied the color and font of each word to make it less uniform and more whimsical! To save you the hassle of coming up with a bagillion (or 48) words, here are our words: learn, give, faith, believe, courage, strength, persevere, confident, hope, sacrifice, inspire, dream, create, renew, energize, power, imagine, challenge, motivate, transform, encourage, positive, discover, initiate, determined, endure, pursue, achieve, diligence, commit, dedication, devotion, try, reach, surrender, aspire, optimism, enthusiasm, trust, gratitude, fearless, strive, ambition, passion, restore, live, intention, plan.

After that, I took a piece of paper, traced the middle of the medallion, and cut the circle out. Then I put my stencil on my cork board, traced it, and cut it out (I got a huge roll of cork board from my uncle for free! Yesssss).

Once I trimmed the cork board circle and made sure it fit in place perfectly, I hot glued it onto the medallion. To cover up the ugly-looking edges of the cork board, and to add another pop of color, I hot glued beads around the edge of the cork board. (The beads were also given to me while I was in Florida this week-- I love how people know I do crafts now so they give me tons of stuff! My poor self thanks all of you!)

Now your inspiration board is ready to be hung up:

Now I have a spot to pin up all of my goals for the year!

What do you think? Would this board inspire you to complete your goals?

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Repurposed Cabinet Door, Part 1

2011-12-26T20:38:00.003-05:00

Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends-- I know I did! I am so thankful for the birth of my Lord and Savior!! Oh and guess what I got!? A drill and a jigsaw for all of my projects! Yesssss.

But anyway.. today I wanted to share with you guys one of the four projects I made for Christmas gifts. The one I'm sharing today was made for my mom. Now, you may be thinking, "Bonnie, Christmas is over!" but these can be made as birthday gifts or just something for you to make for your home. I started with four cabinet doors that I found at Goodwill for about $7.00 (that would make each cabinet door about $1.75). They looked like this:

I've had this pinned on pinterest forever, and loved it for my mom:

Source: etsy.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

I took the button idea and applied it to the cabinet door. I didn't take many photos to document the process, but it's super simple! Here is the final result and then I'll explain how I did it:

How I Did It:

1. First, I painted the cabinet door brown. I used a brown paint that I had left over from redoing a dining room table (which I still need to post up!).

2. Then, I hot glued three doilies onto the middle part. I got the doilies at a yard sale... I can't remember how much I paid for them exactly, but I think I paid $1.00 for 5-6 of them.

3. After that dried, I hot glued the buttons on. I got the buttons from a craft store-- they came in a small bag for 2 or 3 dollars. I thought it was kind of steep for buttons, but I didn't have any other options at the time. I bought two bags, but I only used one. I used a ruler and such to make sure everything was straight and centered.

4. At the beginning of the project I thought, "How in the world am I going to cover the hole where the knobs used to go?" I mean, I know there's wood putty, but I thought maybe I could add something else. That's where this pin comes in:

Source: 1.bp.blogspot.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

So, I went to Walmart and bought a bag of 50 wooden clothes pins. They were 97 cents! Whattttt? It was awesome. Side note: don't go to the craft section to buy them-- they are way more expensive and only have 25 in the package. Anyway, I painted those brown as well.

5. Then, I hot glued the clothes pins to the cabinet door. My first priority was to cover the hole where the knob used to go and then measure out where the other ones should go from there.

And that's it! Isn't that simple? And pretty inexpensive too! I think for this one I spent:

Cabinet door -- $1.75

Doilies-- about a $1.00

Paint -- already had

Buttons -- $6 (technically I only used $3 worth, though)

Clothes Pins -- $1.00 (I rounded up)

Total: $9.75

Not bad for my poor self! :) Here are more pictures of it hanging on my mom's wall (sorry I went a little picture crazy!) --

My mom loves it! And I love that she loves it :)

Come back in the next few days and I'll show you what I did with the three other cabinet doors for my dad and both of my grandmas!

Toodles!

Update:

Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series is now up!

Check it out!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Nacho and Cheese Cookies

2011-12-19T22:17:00.001-05:00

My roommate Crystal works as a worship leader for a youth group and I always go help out with the slides/sound... basically, I'm the tech nerd. It's tons of fun and I love ministering to the youth there! This Christmas, they put together an awesome Christmas party that they named "Christmas Con Queso." The entire theme of the night was Cheesyness-- cheesy food, cheesy music, cheesy games, cheesy sweaters (an ugly sweater contest basically), etc. It was awesome! Crystal and I made our own sweaters from Goodwill sweaters + felt from walmart + hot glue. Ah.ma.zing.

I know you're probably jealous of our sweaters :) Anyway, each person was supposed to bring a cheesy food item to share. I knew that the only sweet cheesy option was cheesecake and I was worried that it would be, like, cheese overload, so we got creative. We decided to make nacho and cheese cookies:

Okay, it's not what you think. Keep reading!

We took a roll of sugar cookies, cut it into slices, and then placed them on the cookie sheet. We made them large slices so that when they cooked, they would spread out over the entire cookie sheet. Once done, we cut them into squares, and then triangles:

We bought icing from the store and just added yellow and red food coloring to make it look like nacho cheese.

After that, we simply put the "cheese" in a small tupperware dish in the middle and put the "nachos" around it. I had hoped to find a cute dish that is specifically for serving chips and salsa/cheese, but I couldn't find one in time for the party. Even so, here are the yummy nachos and cheese in all their glory:

We added a little sign so everyone would understand what it was. The icing seriously looked like cheese so it was a little weird. Anyway, I wanted to share this idea with you all-- it might be the perfect option for that Christmas party you have this week! They're not just your average sugar cookie, and it's such a cute way to serve them! Also, if someone doesn't like icing (those strange, strange people!), they can have a plain sugar cookie. What do you guys think? Are these cool enough to take to your Christmas party this week (or really any party in the future)?

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Magazine Christmas Ornaments/Gift Tags

2011-12-15T23:33:00.001-05:00

Writing for Crafting a Green World has taught me so much! It has made me really think about things we waste and throw away every day. Everyday items like magazines can be repurposed and transformed into something quite wonderful-- which brings me to this post I wrote for Crafting a Green World. Gather all of your old magazines and make these awesome Christmas gift tags that can double as ornaments!

What You Need:

1. Old magazines.

2. Tape

3. Hot glue and hot glue gun

4. Scissors

5. Twine

6. Scrap paper (The colors I used were red and green!)

How to Do It:

1. Cut your magazine pages into 2.5 in. wide strips. Then, roll it up tightly. You will use the tape to secure your "rolls." I used 17 magazine rolls for the "Merry Christmas" tag and 11 for the "To Mom" tag.

2. Hot glue your magazine rolls together.

3. Take your scrap paper and cut out two rectangles. I did a large green rectangle and then a smaller red rectangle to sort of "frame" each saying.

4. Hot glue the rectangles to your magazines.

5. Get your magazine back out and find cute letters to write out the saying of your choice.

6. Hot glue your letters to the rectangle. You could glue them on with Elmer's glue if you want.. I just used hot glue because it dries faster and I'm too impatient to wait! If you have little ones, this would be a great way to get them involved with the project and teach them about letters (using Elmer's glue, of course).

7. Cut a small piece of twine. Then, turn your gift tag over. Put a large glob of hot glue on one side of your gift tag and place the twine in it like so:

I used a pin to push it in the glue so I wouldn't burn the rest of my fingerprints off. Battle wounds, my friends.. battle wounds! When dry, this awesome loop will allow you (or the person you give it to) to hang it on their Christmas tree. For the "Merry Christmas" tag I put the loop in the middle and for the "To Mom" tag I put the loop on the side.

Once all the hot glue has dried, you're finished! This is such a simple and practically free project! I was thinking you could even change the design up by gluing a picture to the magazine rolls instead of a phrase. I kind of got ahead of myself, though, and just put my "Merry Christmas" tag on my Christmas tree! It's too cute not to put up on the tree!

What do you think!?

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

My Mini Christmas Tree

2011-12-06T19:08:00.003-05:00

Hey friends! This is another post that I did for Crafting a Green World, but I wanted to share it with my readers as well!

I love decorating for Christmas, but I refuse to pay an insane amount for an item that will spend a month out in the open, and the remaining 11 months of the year in a box in the attic. My cheap self just won't allow it. I saw several adorable little Christmas trees at the store that inspired me to think of this project. Using what I already had, this is what I came up with:

How did I make it?

Well...this:

and this:

You will also need:

1. Hot glue gun/hot glue

2. Little rocks-- I know that sounds weird, but I'll explain why you'll need these later on.

3. Twine.

4. Yellow paper.

5. Scissors.

6. Spray paint. I used a pretty silver :)

How to do it:

1. Put the little rocks into your bottle. I only glued the branches on one side so I needed something to keep the bottle from tipping over. I had little rocks (you know, the ones you can put in a vase as a filler) so that's what I used. I'm sure you could use other items on hand though. Be creative with it!

2. Start gluing your branches to your bottle. (Disclaimer: This is the part where you will be tempted to pull your hair out and be mad at the world. But, have patience and stick it out.) You will want to start at the bottom and work your way up to the top. I also used thicker sticks at the bottom to make it look like a legit tree. You will start it like this:

Make sure each "layer" is dry before moving on-- again, this is where your patience will be tested. If I could go back and redo my tree, I wouldn't put as much hot glue. I was so impatient to let every layer dry that I just kept slapping hot glue on there... which turned out to be not so pretty.

3. Once you've worked all the way up to the top of the bottle, you will take a long branch and put it inside the bottle (you might have to move your rocks around a little bit). This will become the top of your tree and the place where you will eventually glue your star.

4. Spray paint the branches/bottle. You could leave it natural if you wanted to, but I was forced to spray paint mine because it looked like a hott mess with all of the hot glue.

5. Once that's dry, you will take your twine and kind of "weave" it through the branches. I didn't glue the twine down because it stayed in place, but that's completely up to you.

6. Hot glue the mini jingle bells onto random branches. These will become the "ornaments" for the tree.

7. Cut a star out of the yellow paper. I just used a scrap piece that I had in my craft supplies. Then, glue it to the top of your tree.

Now I have a cute (and cheap) mini Christmas tree on my mantle!

What do you think? Do you have any other cute mini Christmas tree ideas? Leave me a comment with a link to your Christmas tree projects-- I'd love to see them!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

Share Your Story Sunday #4--Amy at Five Kinds of Happy

2011-12-04T08:00:00.005-05:00

Hey guys! Thanks for joining me for Share Your Story Sunday #4. Sharing this week is Amy from Five Kinds of Happy. On the main page of Amy's blog you will find a little excerpt about her blog: "Sweet treats, interior design, weddings, DIY, colour theory and anything really, really ridiculously good-looking and creative, are the things that make me happy. This is a place to share the happiness." Her blog is just that-- every time I visit, I smile because it's just so.. happy. Every post oozes with so many fabulous ideas and design inspiration! A few weeks ago when I shared my story, she left me the sweetest comment and was so encouraging! From there, we talked about her sharing her story. So now.. it's her turn!

Hi, I’m Amy and this is not my story... I just happen to be in it ;)

I grew up with all the head-knowledge I thought a person could possibly need about ‘faith’ ‘grace’ ‘freedom’ ‘salvation’... and other types of Christian jargon! But head knowledge is one thing. Actually experiencing something is completely different.

I started university at 17 and four years later I thought I was doing pretty well – I still usually attended church, was not pregnant, not doing drugs, prayed sometimes, and had kept up my good-girl image reasonably well. It was at that time that I started to question things and eventually turned my back on religion and God as a whole. It wasn’t so much that I stopped believing in God – more just that life without Him seemed a whole lot more appealing. Religion weighed me down. The more my lifestyle changed into the ‘fun’ and new one I had chosen, the less I wanted to think about it.

...I resented the way that this new lifestyle was considered ‘wrong’.

...It upset me that I was supposed to feel obligated to do things ‘right’.

...It bothered me that I had to hide my actions and still try to maintain my ‘Christian’ image for fear of being confronted by people who didn’t think I was behaving properly.

And yet I did hide them. And for a while I was really, really good at leading my double life. Each side of my lifestyle was polar-opposite to the other – and half of it was just for show – but no-one had to know.

It was a messy relationship I was in that finally made me question what I was doing. Where was I headed? What was my life’s direction? Who could I really trust? What was the POINT?

It took months for these questions to be answered, and I didn’t exactly search for an answer. But unintentionally, I had asked those questions of God.

“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you will find” – Jesus Christ

It’s hard to explain the moment it all became clear to me – it was instant, spontaneous; it was a joyous slap in the face; it happened in a split second. Light poured in the windows and I looked at the words in my Bible as if I had never seen them before. I KNEW I had read them SO many times. Yet they were absolutely brand new - like I was finally reading it in my own language instead of through a muffled translator. It was Romans 4:4 and it spoke about how when God offers a relationship with Himself – it is a free gift... The word obligation popped out at me - bosses give you a salary as an obligation, but with God there is no obligation. It cannot be earned. You can trust Him for this gift. Rules and burdens and judgemental religion? They don't even factor into the equation.

I had never understood freedom until that moment. I had always felt that yeah maybe God loved me, but I was pretty sure He didn’t like me. Until now.

From that time my life has been drastically different to me – I changed slowly from the inside out, I felt joy every day and even when I was pouring coffee for the staff at the Law office I worked in, I couldn’t hold in a little gleeful dance in the kitchen.

There has been nothing in my life comparable to experiencing the fact that God loves ME, freely, no matter what I do, forever. When you really understand this, there is no such thing as obligation. The burden of religion is dead. There is only joy and the perfect hope that this relationship is one that will not fail... that there IS someone who is utterly trustworthy. Who loves me AND likes me, in spite of my flaws. That when I fail, which I will, He will pick up where we left off. That He walks with me where I walk and that HE finds joy in ME? What? Yep.

You are a piece of art, made by the most skilful artist. Does He love his work? Or course He does. God never wanted dry religion from us – He wanted relationship. I hope every one of us could come to understand that... because it will change your life.

Thanks for having me Bonnie and keep up your encouraging work! It's been a total honour to share this here and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

--------------------------------------

If you would like to share your story on Share Your Story Sunday, please contact me!

I would love to hear from you :)

A Friendly Christmas Reminder

2011-12-02T10:47:00.002-05:00

Hey guys! I know I keep saying this, but it has been a crazy week. I wish that I could write a post every day for you all, but life just isn't allowing that. I do have some new posts over at Crafting a Green World, though!

Anyway, I don't know if any of you saw this on my twitter account, but yesterday we woke up to find that my car and the 4 other cars at our house had been broken into. Some of us left our cars unlocked (yeah.. I'm guilty. I promise I never do that.. but yesterday I just happened to leave it unlocked), but the others left their cars locked and they were still broken into. My gps was stolen, and one of my roomie's purses got stolen as well. They put several charges on her debit and credit cards. Pure panic, people. Pure panic. I felt violated, unsafe, etc. We didn't hear anything. Maybe we need to get a better guard dog?

Yeah.. that's a miniature yorkie in a raincoat. Her name is Mia :)

I know I'm joking about the dog.. but this is serious. It turns out several people in the neighborhood experienced the same thing. And we don't live in a "bad neighborhood."One house in the neighborhood was broken into the day before as well and from what I hear they took a lot. I was thankful that they didn't try to break into the house or anything like that. For me, it's not about the gps, or even the purse... it's that we were right there while it happened. Material things can be replaced, but my roomies cannot be replaced. Last night I couldn't sleep because I felt like they were going to come back at any moment, though. It was terrible. Eventually I fell asleep, but goodness. It is such a terrible feeling. Can anyone relate? What did you do when it happened to you? I don't know if we should go big and get a security system for our house, or what?

With all that said, please be careful out there. It's that time of year when people get crazy. They will do anything to make money, even if that means stealing. Please, please be safe. Do what you can to keep your family safe. Love you all and hopefully I will have a post up soon!

Share Your Story Sunday #3--Dana from Make Them Wonder

2011-11-27T08:00:00.037-05:00

This week on Share Your Story Sunday is Dana from Make Them Wonder. Dana is not only an incredible crafter (I mean, have you seen her recent Thanksgiving post? I love the "string of blessings"-- genius!), but she openly shares her love for the Lord as well. I read Dana's testimony on her blog a while ago and was absolutely blown away! I am so excited for you all to hear it! Makes my heart smile :)

I'm honored that Bonnie asked me to share my testimony today. I love that she sees the importance of using every avenue available to spread God's love!

My story involves the artwork that hangs in my house. In our living room there is a gallery wall composed of my dad's art combined with several other things. Well, friends, there's one piece in particular that is a gift from above.

My dad became really ill 5 years ago this month. He contracted HSV Encephalitis. This is a nasty virus that typically manifests as cold sores or shingles. Instead of traveling down his bloodstream in typical fashion, the virus in his body traveled upward and attacked his brain. We went from thinking he had the flu, to rushing him to the ER because he was hallucinating and didn't know who we were. Several days passed and it was unclear if he was going to pull out of this or not. Many, many prayers were prayed and we had to trust that God was in control of this situation. Friends, he was only 58 years old. Way too young to depart from our lives!

Let me back up a bit. I was sitting in Ladies Bible Class on the Wednesday before my father became ill. I was listening to the lesson when suddenly an idea popped into my head. "Dad needs to draw a cross!" This "idea" was almost audible and it lit an excitement that bubbled through my body. In retrospect, I know that this "idea" was not of me, yet was actually the Holy Spirit speaking directly to my heart. I had always known my father had a God-given talent of drawing, but sadly he did not use this talent often. I craved his artwork, so when this idea popped into my head, I thought, "This will be perfect! A piece of art that can be passed down throughout generations of our family." Little did I know, this was only a tiny piece of what lay ahead.

I couldn't wait to get home and give him a call. I wanted to ask if he'd be willing to draw this cross, but I couldn't quite work out the details. I couldn't decide if I should pick a cross from my collection for him to draw or if I should encourage him to design his own. For some reason, the pieces were not falling into place. Things got even more fuzzy when I actually made the phone call and didn't get to speak with him because he was feeling bad.

The next several days were very touch and go. It took a plethora of tests to figure out what was wrong with him. He had been striped of so many capabilities and he was in severe pain. He couldn't even speak our names. The doctor told us, "If he makes it through the next few days, he will have very limited speech, as well as, fine motor skills."" WHAT???," I'm thinking. "Why would God tell me he needed to draw a cross if it's never going to happen?" It saddened me to realize that this piece of legacy would not come to fruition. Oh ye of little faith...

I left the hospital that day to go to lunch with my mom and brother. Mind you, I had walked this same way dozens of times already, but something caught my attention this time. As I walked out the door, I looked back over my shoulder only to be greeted with a wall full of crosses hanging in the gift shop. It's as if God was saying, "Don't question me! Here is the cross you've been searching for." I suddenly was gifted with hope.

My dad was in the hospital for 28 days. These were the longest 28 days of my life. In the beginning, I witnessed my dad begging to die. Literally, he would rock back and forth and say, "Take me, Jesus. Take me, Jesus." Honestly, if it was his time to go, he would have been gone. He was completely ready. Finally, the anti-viral medicine began to stop further damage. He had huge language deficits. The neurologist would hold up a pen and ask him what it was called. My dad could not answer. Then he would point to me and ask him my name. Again, he could not answer. The good news was that his fine motor skills were 100% functioning. I even brought him coloring books and asked him to color. Once I saw his abilities, I knew God was going to use this to provide amazing art one day down the road! Patience was the key here. We had numerous conversations and about 98% of them didn't make any sense. Several weeks in, he began to know my name again. This was a very sweet gift.

On day 26, I decided to take him down to the gift shop. I stood him in front of the wall of crosses and told him, "God told me you are supposed to draw one of these crosses someday. Do you see any you'd like to draw?" I had no idea if he actually understood what I was saying to him, but he lifted his hand and pointed to one. I went back the next day and he pointed to the same one again! I purchased it later that day and brought it home for when the time was right.

The actual cross my dad pointed to in the gift shop.

While we were thrilled to be leaving the hospital, this was a terrifying time. We were taking home my dad who was now, my dad functioning with a brain injury. We were thrown to the wolves! There was no direction given by the professionals. We were forced to pray our way through this new way of life. My dad was facing extreme frustration and tried several times to leave without telling us. In his limited use of words, he expressed feeling like too much of a burden on my mom and I and thought we'd be better off without him. It was in this time of deep despair that I shared with him, once again, what the Holy Spirit had placed on my heart. The next day he indicated that he was willing to give it a try.

As he began to draw, he shared with me that initially he was scared he wouldn't be able to draw like normal. He stated, "I didn't think I could do it anymore, but I think I'm better now than I used to be!" Chills ran through my body as the realization set in that God is the only one who could make this happen.

My dad was forced to go on disability because there was no way he could function in his previous job. He was stripped of his "normalcy" and now his art was to become his primary focus. Can I tell you just how amazing this was? The doctors stated there wasn't a better therapy for his brain recovery than drawing. It forces his brain to stay active and think in higher functioning patterns. My dad shares that when he's drawing he often forgets his limitations and frustrations and states this is the time when he feels closest to God.

Here are several of his other pieces.

My husband at the age of 2.

This is one of the few pieces of art he drew for me before his illness. He gave it to me as a wedding present.

House warming present. This tree is at the entrance of our neighborhood. (Post illness)

Family portrait (post illness)

His most recent gift to my daughter in honor of her Baptism! (post illness)

He tried his hand at painting, as seen in 2 of the above pieces, but quickly realized he should stick to pencil drawings since he's colorblind!! Picking colors is a tad bit difficult when you don't know what they really look like. He painted a picture of my niece, one time, and her hair was green. My mom had to tell him he might want to work on that a bit before he gave it to my brother! Oh yeah, and did I mention he has macular degeneration in one of his eyes? That's right, he has a small spot that makes him see wavy lines and will supposedly turn into a blindspot over time. Now, can you believe he produces this level of art?! It's God I tell ya, it's God!

So to wrap up this really long post, it's my prayer that our testimony and his artwork has been a blessing upon your life today. If this has touched you in any way, please retell his story. I don't think it was intended to be forgotten!

--------------------------------------

If you would like to share your story on Share Your Story Sunday, please contact me!

I would love to hear from you :)

Christmas Candle Redo

2011-11-25T08:00:00.017-05:00

Hey friends! How was your Thanksgiving?! I didn't get to go home (Florida), but I got to spend time with my "other family" (Crystal, my roomie's family). I am so thankful for both of my families! The Lord has blessed me with SO much! :)

This is a post I wrote for Crafting a Green World, but I wanted to share it on my blog as well. You will probably see several posts copied from there--hope you all don't mind! They will be worded differently and such, but are basically the same concept :) So, here we go:

Christmas candles have been around for what seems like forever (I tried googling when they were created, but all they wanted to talk about was Christmas lights. Boo.) I always thought the Christmas candles were super creepy though (especially the ones with red bulbs!). Overall, they just look cheap to me. How do I transform most cheap things? With other cheap things--toilet paper rolls!

What you will need:

1. Toilet paper rolls (I used 3-4 rolls for 1 candle cover)

2. Hot glue gun/hot glue sticks

3. Spray paint—I used red.. you know, because it's Christmas-y and stuff.

4. Scissors

5. Wax paper

6. Christmas candles (I got mine from the Dollar Store)

How to do it:

1. Cut your toilet paper rolls. I cut mine into 1/2 inch pieces.

2. Plan your pattern and lay it out. This is what my pattern looked like:

3. Hot glue the toilet paper pieces together. I found that it was easiest if you glued them into "flowers" first:

4. Then, glue the "flowers" together. Three of the "flowers" will form one side (just like I laid out in my pattern picture above). Eventually, you will form four sides. You're basically going to box in the Christmas candle with the four sides.

5. Time for spray paint! This is tricky because of all the different sides of each toilet paper piece. I probably looked like a fool, but I put the four sides on the ground and circled around them to make sure I got every inch.

Aren't they pretty!?

6. Once the paint has completely dried, hot glue the sections together to form your "box" around the candle. I didn't want my sides to overlap, so I glued them together on the very edge of each section. I tried to take a picture to show this but I don't know if I did very well:

7. Once all that glue is dry, it's time to cut the wax paper. Cut enough wax paper to cover the inside of your "box." Once I put the wax paper inside, I put a little bit of hot glue in each corner of the box to make it form to the box. Adding the hot glue will keep it from being all rolled up like so:

8. Once the glue was dry, I cut around the top design. If you want to, though, you can keep it square. Here's a tip though-- if you want to keep it square at the top, make sure you put the straight edge of the wax paper at the top, and cut the excess from the bottom. Let's just say the reason I cut around the top design is because I didn't think of putting the straight edge at the top. Sad day. But hey, I went with it. And it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself :) You could even make these into little table lamps with actual bulbs and such.

With the light on:

Am I starting to scare you all with the amount of toilet paper projects I'm doing? Because I'm kind of scaring myself.

Looking for more toilet paper projects? Check them out here!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

So Thankful!

2011-11-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

Source: libby-bonjour.blogspot.com via Aimee on Pinterest

Just wanted to take a minute before everything gets crazy around here and say Happy Thanksgiving! I am so thankful that God gave me the desire and the opportunity to start this blog-- it has been such a blessing for me in this season of my life. Even more, I am so thankful for you guys! Your comments, emails, etc. have been so encouraging! Basically, thanks for being awesome and totally cool!

I don't get to go home (Florida) and be with my family this year so this will be a very different Thanksgiving, but if anything, the Lord has shown me just how much I love and cherish them in my life. Enjoy your family and friends this year and appreciate every moment you have with them!

I was going to post a tutorial today, but it just didn't seem right, so I scheduled it to post tomorrow. You will definitely want to check back-- it's another toilet paper roll project!! Speaking of tomorrow, I will be working.... on Black Friday.... at a retail store. Pray for me. Seriously. Oh and check back on Sunday as well for Share Your Story Sunday. This week Dana from Make Them Wonder is sharing her story! I am so excited for you guys to read it! :)

One last thing:

Source: someecards.com via CraftyBigMama on Pinterest

Bahahahaha. Happy Thanksgiving!

Quick Christmas Gift!

2011-11-22T10:51:00.001-05:00

Last Friday was my best friend, roommate, and blog assistant's birthday. Crystal loves music (as you can tell from her blog). She's one of those people that can seriously play pretty much any instrument she decides to pick up. Her main instrument is drums, though. I know-- could she get any cooler? I mean, really. Anyway... I wanted to make her a gift for her birthday that was personal because her other gift was a gift card for Toms. I love gift cards, but they don't provide the personal, meaningful touch that I love.

When looking for a gift to make, I saw this on Etsy. I loved the idea, but I wanted to make it more Crystal (modern, edgy, etc.) This is what I came up with:

This project is SO easy to do. There are three simple steps:

1. Write the music term of your choice in a text document (I used Microsoft Word) over and over again. I obviously used the word drums, but you can put "music" if you want something general.

2. Print and cut out the musical instrument of your choice. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out an amazing drum set that I bought through their online store. Again, if you want something general, you can print and cut out a treble clef.

3. Put it in a picture frame. I used a frame that I bought at a yard sale. I love the detail of it!

See, I told you it was easy! And, I used materials I already had around the house. Some close ups:

What do you think?

Christmas is almost a month away and this is a cute, quick, and inexpensive project!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and

DIY Ideas for Christmas!

2011-11-17T12:37:00.000-05:00

So... I feel like I've been a bad blogger this week, but I'm just trying to get used to writing for my blog and Crafting a Green World. Speaking of which, my first post is up today! It's another toilet paper project-- I'm obsessed, people! I'll be transferring it to my blog next week so keep an eye out :)

Although I have no original inspiration left in my soul (okay.. that's a bit dramatic, but I feel inspirationally drained after this week), I do have 10 amazing DIY Ideas from Pinterest for you all to drool over!

(Side note: if you would like to pin these ideas to Pinterest, please click on the picture and go to the original pin. It's not really fair to the original owner if you pin it under my blog site.. know what I mean? I just want to give credit to the right person!)

Snowflakes using toilet paper rolls:

Source: michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

An adorable button wreath:

Source: gallopingpony.wordpress.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Scrabble Christmas ornaments:

Source: mysweetsavannah.blogspot.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Noel Christmas ornaments:

(these are from Anthropologie, but I know you could totally DIY them)

Source: anthropologie.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Doilies in the window-- genius:

Source: marthastewart.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

I cannot get over how beautiful these are:

Source: knittygrittythoughts.typepad.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

These Christmas trees are so cute:

Source: crate.typepad.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Christmas card wreath:

Source: craftinessisnotoptional.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Branch + Christmas ornaments = love:

Source: bellemaison23.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

This isn't decor or anything.. but it's too cute not to post:

Source: Uploaded by user via Bonnie on Pinterest

I hope to complete at least some of these soon! Hope you all are inspired :)

Share Your Story Sunday #2--My Story

2011-11-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

I knew I wanted to share my story (after all, I was the one that started this series!) but I didn’t know exactly what I should share about. I don’t have what people would consider a “dramatic story”—I was raised in a Christian home and my parents have helped me become the God-loving girl that I am today. Often times, though, I feel like my testimony is boring—but that is simply not true! The Lord saved me from my sin—there is nothing boring about that!

I want to share a little something the Lord has been teaching me lately. I need to make this clear that this is something I truly struggle with.. and in no way am I saying that I have mastered this issue in my life. But, I’m learning.

I’m so embarrassed to even post this picture, but this is me being real and open with you guys. This was me at Christmas of 2007 (after my first semester of college):

Since then, I’ve lost over 50 pounds through changing my eating habits and exercising. I’ve always struggled with my weight. Many different factors have attributed to me being overweight, but I can admit that some of it was pure laziness. That’s not what I want to talk about though. When I first started losing weight, I wanted to change for me—no one else—I was just so unhappy, uncomfortable, and unhealthy. I wanted to feel better about myself. My best friend (and roomie now!), Crystal, encouraged me to start caring about myself, and that it was okay to care.

After losing all that weight, though, I still struggle with my body image. I thought that once I lost the weight, I would be confident, my personality would magically change, and I would be this awesome, happy girl. Why is it that 50 pounds could not change my mindset? 50 pounds could not change my heart and the way I felt about myself. Losing 50 pounds could not make me feel beautiful.

This is what I have to work on telling myself every day: God has made me beautiful. I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). I cannot look at myself in the mirror according to the world’s standards because, let’s face it ladies, we will never be as perfect as that fake-computer-modified girl on that magazine. But, if I look at myself through God’s eyes, I have so much worth! God sent His only son, Jesus, to die for me on the cross for all of my sins. God thinks I am worth that. He thinks you are worth that.. and He loves us. So much!

What I want to encourage you all today with is to find your worth in Christ, rather than the world. You can change your weight, your clothes, and your makeup—but if your insides still whisper to you, “you’re ugly,” what do you do?

Look to the One who made you:

1 Samuel 16:7 “…People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Peter 3:3-4 “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Proverbs 31:30 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

I love you all and hope you know how beautiful you are.

Finally Finished!

2011-11-08T11:40:00.002-05:00

Remember this ugly thing that I found for $8 at a yard sale?

Well, I finally finished it (for now, at least). My roomie, Crystal, and I had to be very thrifty with this project. We painted the frame black, but then we were at a stand-still. We threw away the cushions because they were filled with animal hair and I just couldn't do it. But foam and pillows are so expensive... it was heartbreaking to our poor selves! Plus, even if we could afford the foam, my sewing skills are so very sad that I couldn't make a cover for them. So.. we got creative.

At a yard sale we saw a crib mattress for $1 and thought, "that looks like it would fit".. and for $1, it was worth at least bringing it home to try it. It wasn't like a cloth mattress, it was like vinyl-ish (waterproof) too, so we could clean it up and such. We got it home and it fit! Yessss. Is it a perfect fit? No. Was it $1? Yes. Any more questions? haha :) Crystal poked holes in the mattress so we could avoid getting that air bubble that pops you up when you sit down.. do you know what I'm talking about?

Anyway... we bought a fitted sheet for it for about $10 because like I said... no sewing skills, people. We also bought sheet tightening straps ($5 at Walmart) to make the sheet fit tighter.

Then, we were going to buy pillows for the back cushions, but again, our poor selves had a reality check at the store. $25-30 for one pillow.. seriously? Again, time to get creative. Hm... that's about the length of a body pillow. So.. we bought a body pillow ($9 at Walmart) and a cover ($9 at Walmart) that matches our other couch perfectly.

It was looking a little plain, so we went to Hobby Lobby in hopes of finding the cheapest pillows possible. Pillow forms (normally $6.99) were 30% off that day and then we found these already made pillow covers for $3.99 each. For two pillows the total was $18.84... yay!

So... let's do a grand total for everything we got:

Paint: $10

Crib Mattress: $1

Fitted Sheet: $10

Sheet Tightening Straps: $5

Body Pillow: $9

Body Pillow Cover: $9

Pillow Forms & Pillow Covers: $19

Total: $63.00

Considering we were going to spend $50 on two pillows for the back cushions at first, I think we did an excellent job! Oh.. I guess you want to see the pictures, right?

(Please forgive the folded marks on the pillows/body pillow-- I got too excited about taking the pictures!)

Is it exactly what I envisioned? No, but it's what my budget can handle right now and it's cute and comfy! And, if we ever want to redo it again (you know.. if we ever just have like.. a ton of money lying around to just waste), I won't feel bad about scrapping what we have because it was cheap.

What do you guys think?! Hope you're having a terrific Tuesday!

I'm going to snuggle up on my new couch! :)

Linking up at these amazing parties!

Share Your Story Sunday #1

2011-11-06T06:51:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! Sorry no projects this week-- had one of those projects that I just had to walk away from for a little while because no matter what I did to it, it still looked... ugly. Does that ever happen to anyone else? (please say yes!).

Despite all of that, I am so happy today because I am starting a new series called "Share Your Story Sunday." Many times I feel like we "stage" our lives on our blogs like we stage our pictures-- only putting the pretty things out for people to see (I say we because I am guilty of the same thing). The truth is, though, life isn't like that. We are not perfect. I am not perfect. For me, my relationship with the Lord is a huge part of my story and He is my strength in everything I do. He has changed my life and I want my "readers" to know that. So, specifically, I want this series to be a time where Christians share their personal story of how God has changed their life. I want to invite friends and other bloggers/readers to share their story. Please don't view this as me trying to shove my religion down your throat or anything like that. I just want to share and for others to have the opportunity to share their story-- an unedited, unstaged, truthful, real story.

So.. with all of that said, my friend Savannah will be sharing her story today about her addiction to cutting.

Most people try to avoid any kind of pain the best way they can. Naturally, pain hurts and we don't want it to be inflicted on us. With that being said, I will admit that it was the total opposite for me. For ten years of my life my closest friends were a box cutter and a razor blade.

Growing up my parents were drug addicts and alcoholics, and I had to take care of myself. I was always told not to tell anyone the things that happened because I would be taken away to a bad place. Everything that happened to me, and that went on around me, was “normal” for me and so that was all that I knew. I didn't necessarily know that what was going on was “bad,” I just knew not to tell anyone.

My father had a stroke that left him disabled when I was nine years old and then my mother started having an affair when I was about eleven. I choose to live with my mother and her boyfriend and in that time the drug use got worse. My mother would take me to drug houses with her and leave me there. I was always placed in dangerous situations and experienced many things that no child should ever have to experience. I was abandoned and abused, but I wanted to be with my mother no matter what.

Eventually, things didn't work out with my mother and her boyfriend so we moved in with my father and grandmother where things only continued to get worse. My father became addicted to these drugs as well and my grandmother was addicted to prescription medicine, so it was one big drug house and they did anything they had to do to get their next high.

Things finally changed one day when my parents got into a fight and I watched both of them slit their wrists in attempt to commit suicide. They were taken to the hospital and I was taken to foster care. I didn't understand why they would cut themselves and I knew it had to hurt. The life that I knew had just been turned upside down and emotionally I was hurting. One day I wanted to know what it felt like when my parents cut themselves, so I tried it and to my surprise I liked it. It was almost as if that physical pain made the emotional pain that I was feeling go away. From that day on every time I got upset or angry I would cut.

The cutting only got worse and of course the group home that I was in did not deal with kids who cut, so I was taken from one group home to another and then eventually put in a residential treatment center where I stayed for eight months. While I was in the program, I learned that if I just hid my cuts they would think I was all better...and it worked. I completed my treatment program and when I was 15 my older brother got custody of me.

I was still very depressed and just a wreck emotionally. I was still cutting, but nobody knew. I became friends with my guidance counselor at school and she made me a part of her family and took me to church with her every week. I didn't really like going to church, but I liked being with her and her family, so I went. About 3 years ago, my pastor was preaching a sermon about addictions and how we try to fill our lives up with so much junk, but we can never be satisfied because only Jesus can satisfy us. It was that day that I knew that I needed to get help because cutting had seriously taken over my life. I had a box cutter or a razor blade hidden everywhere and I always had one on me because I never knew when I was going to need to cut. I was having to go get stitches and staples because I was cutting so deep and I knew I needed help, but was scared because everyone thought that I already quit cutting.

I ended up meeting with my pastor and he helped me get the help that I needed. I gave my life to the Lord and September of 2009 was the last time that I cut myself. It has been a huge process because like any addiction you are always going to be tempted in some way. It's been a little over two years since I cut and there are still days every now and then that all I want to do is cut because that is what I did for ten years.

Romans 8:28 tells us that "God works ALL things together for the good of those who love Him"... And that is what He has done in my life. I am 24 now and He has taken all of the stuff that I went though as a child and has given me victory over that. I have a speaking and mentoring ministry now called Cutting Edge Ministries... I am still in the works of getting it advertised and really up and going, but it has been an amazing thing so far. The Lord has allowed to me go to youth groups to speak, Women's events, etc. I was also able to share about my addiction to cutting on the radio and even on a T.V. Talk show. Through my speaking events, I have been able to help other people who are struggling with cutting or another addiction. Some people just need someone to talk to and encourage and I am able to do that through the ministry that God has given me. I know that God's plans are far greater than mine and I am excited to see what He has in store for me.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with cutting or another addiction you are welcome to contact me through email.

------------------

I know that Savannah would love to hear from you all, so please feel free to contact her if you have any questions. You can contact her if you are interested in having her speak at a conference or event as well! I am so grateful for Savannah and she has become like a sister to me. I knew her when she was still cutting, and to see how she has changed just absolutely makes my heart smile. I am so proud of her!

I hope you guys have enjoyed hearing from Savannah and will join me on Sundays for "Share Your Story Sunday." If you are interested in sharing your story, please contact me!

Hope you all are having an awesome Sunday!

Iron Crafter!

2011-10-31T11:52:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! First off, Happy Halloween!

Second, I have some exciting news!! My fall project made the Top 5 for the Iron Crafters Challenge: Paper Towel Rolls, over at Fireflies and Jellybeans.

If you would do me a huge favor and go vote for my fall project, that would be amazing!

Thank you all for your support!

PS-- I'm hoping to finish a big project in the next few days so check back soon-- can't wait to share it with you guys! :)

TP Music Notes!

2011-10-28T16:23:00.004-04:00

So... ever since I made the fall project with toilet paper rolls, I've been a little bit obsessed with them. I feel like there are so many different things you can make from toilet paper rolls and I love them because, well.. not to be gross, but with 5 girls in our house, toilet paper rolls are plentiful. And, now that everyone in the house has seen what I did with them, they are even more willing to save them for me haha.

Anyway.. it's no secret I love music, so the other day when I was staring at a mound of toilet paper rolls I came up with this project-- toilet paper music notes!

[What you'll need]

1. Toilet paper/paper towel rolls. I probably used 2 toilet paper rolls.

2. Scrapbook paper.

3. Elmer's Glue

4. Hot Glue/Hot Glue Gun

[Here's how to do it]

1. Cut your toilet paper rolls into 1 inch sections (like I did in my fall project).

2. Take two of the sections--use one as the circle (or head) of the note; cut the other one in half like so:

3. Cut a small portion from the tp piece you just cut (about 1/2 an inch). It should now look like this:

4. Take the same piece and bend it like so (this will become the "flag" of the music note):

5. Hot glue the "stem" to the note head. The arrow below shows where the hot glue should go:

6. Once the hot glue has dried, spray paint the music note the color of your choice. I chose a metallic aluminum (aka shiny silver) made by Krylon.

7. Just like I did in the fall project, glue the circle part of the music note (the head) to the scrapbook paper of your choice. I chose a pretty patterned paper that was in the clearance section of Michaels (I got it for 35 cents!). It's easier to glue it directly to the paper and then cut it out, rather than try to cut the paper perfectly to the circle (does that make sense?)

8. Once it's dry cut it out. It should look like this:

I made 4 music notes and added them to fabric-covered canvases (like the ones I made in my Po' Kids Wall Decoration). Then, I used my Silhouette to cut out words like "music" and "sing." Put it all together and it looks like this:

Another option: make them into Christmas ornaments! Poke a hole in the stem of the note and wa-la! (I used wire that's supposed to be for hanging pictures to hang it from the "tree")

I hope there will be many more toilet paper projects to come!

Are you sick of them yet?!

Looking for more toilet paper projects? Check them out here!

Linking up here.

New Earrings in My Etsy Shop!

2011-10-26T13:13:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! I've been busy the last few days getting together some new earrings for my Etsy shop! They are similar to the orange and lace ones I already showed you all, but I've added in some different colors. Here they are (you can click on the picture to see the price, see the description, purchase them, etc.):

[Aqua Blue]

[Deep Purple]

[Mustard Yellow]

They are the perfect (and inexpensive--$5.00/pair) gift for a birthday or even Christmas-- yes, I did just mention Christmas.. it's about 60 days away people! I need to get going on all the gifts I plan on making!

Anyway... What do you guys think of the new additions? Let me know by leaving a comment-- I'd love to hear your feedback!

Toodles!

The Influential Showcase & The Music Mug

2011-10-22T12:23:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share two blogs with you guys today that are new and awesome! Yes, they are my friends... but they are talented women who deserve to be shared!

The first one-- The Influential Showcase, created by my friend Jackie. She is an incredible artist--she does not draw using a computer program or anything of the sort-- this is all by hand! I was one of the many that encouraged her to create a site, and I am so glad she finally did. The art below is part of her first post.. she posts a piece of her art, and then explains what inspired her. Oh, and her children illustrations-- pure genius, people. She's only done two posts, but this is definitely a blogger to follow just so you can see what she puts on her site in the future.

The second blog I want to share is The Music Mug, created by my best friend Crystal (she's nearly in every one of my posts because she always helps me). If you love music, this is the place to go! When she finds new indie music, she shares it on her site. The music varies in genre too, so you're bound to find something you like-- or you may find a music group that you never thought you would like, but you end up loving them (that's how I felt when she posted about The Franz Family). Oh, and if you're a musician or part of a band, you can email her to have your music featured on her site! Overall, amazingness!

I am so blessed to have these talented ladies a part of my life!

I hope you will make them part of your "blog life" as well!

Happy Saturday! :)

Painting a "Baby Grand"

2011-10-18T09:09:00.000-04:00

Okay.. it's not a real baby grand.. but close, right?

Crystal (my roommate) and I found it at a yard sale on Saturday.. we overpaid for it ($3), but we just had to get it. I wanted to tell the guy I bought an entire couch for just $5 more than what he was charging... but Crystal had her puppy dog face on so I decided against it.

Anyway...we took some black paint that I'm using on another project and made it look brand new and so cute!

And here it is on my Sunshine Dresser:

I got the little bird thing at a yard sale too (for 75 cents!). Isn't it precious? :)

We were told that the baby grand is meant to be a jewelry box:

But, right now we have our halloween chocolates hiding inside. We're such chunks!

I have a different plan for it in the future, but I guess you'll just have to wait and see what I come up with! Hope you all are having a terrific Tuesday.. I'm off to work!

Guest Posting!

2011-10-15T09:23:00.000-04:00

Hello all! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm guest posting about my chalkboard coffee table over at Three Boys. Hope you all will check it out and become a follower-- Sarah is an incredible blogger! Right now she's doing a "31 Days of Upholstery Tips" series and it is AWESOME!

Sorry I haven't posted much this week-- started my new job (which is going pretty well!) and I'm still trying to figure out the concept of making pillows and such for the couch that I bought last week. Foam and pillows are so stinkin' expensive! Don't people know that I'm poor? haha :)

Hope you all are having a fabulous Satuday! I'm about to go yard saling before I go into work. Yessssss!

Toodles.

What Did I Get Myself Into?

2011-10-08T17:08:00.000-04:00

Oh. my. word.

I went garage saling today and found this couch:

Before you judge me, look at it's bones!

And if that doesn't help:

Yes.. it was priced at $10 and I talked her down to $8! I couldn't say no to that! Right?

I know how to paint the wood and such.. but what do I do with these:

Besides the fact that I'm not digging the plaid, it has holes and tons of cat hair.. so there's no saving them. I don't even want to save the foam part because my mom is severely allergic to cats and I don't want to kill her when she comes to visit me. And the bottom part has springs, not wood, so I can't just take them off completely.

But.. I don't know how to sew well enough to make new cushions for it. Do people make little couch cushions? Any advice or tutorials you can send me on how to make cute cushions? I'm going to search pinterest and my favorite blogs until I find an answer!

I can't wait to show you guys the final product.. I just hope I don't mess it up! Ahh!

PS-- I found this Ikea frame as well. I paid $2 and it is originally $30 in stores. SCORE!

A Project for Fall!

2011-10-06T22:31:00.016-04:00

Hello my blog friends! I'm so pumped to share a project I finished today! It's simple, cheap, quick, and fall-y (yes, that is a word). Anyway... I've been diligently collecting these for what seems like forever:

Why? So I could do projects like these:

Source: anthromollogies.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Source: thehowtogal.blogspot.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Source: justagirlblog.com via Mariana on Pinterest

(I have absolutely no idea why the picture will center but the words won't.. ugh!)

But I also love projects involving trees/branches like these:

Source: notjustahousewife.net via Bonnie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Bonnie on Pinterest

Then, I saw this yesterday and even though it's not made from toilet paper rolls, I thought, hmm.... color behind the toilet paper rolls? (sorry, I know this is long.. I'm getting there):

Source: allthingspaper.net via Bonnie on Pinterest

So basically... I put all of the elements I loved into one project:

What you need:

1. Despite the large amount of toilet paper/paper towel rolls I had above, you will only need two or three toilet paper rolls.

2. Three small art canvases. (I had these left over from my Po' Kids Wall Decoration post, but they are from Hobby Lobby-- a 2 pack is $3.99.)

3. Branches.

How to do it:

1. Smush your toilet paper rolls like so:

2. Cut the toilet paper rolls. I cut mine about a 1/2 an inch each. After this step you could paint the leaves if you want them to be another color. However, I decided to keep the brown color-- one, because I know it would be a pain to paint them, two, I was too cheap to go buy spray paint, and three, I actually liked the brown color next to my branches... it seemed very "natural."

3. Glue your toilet paper rolls onto paper with elmer's glue. Yeah, it sounds weird.. but I think it's the easiest option instead of trying to cut paper exactly to the size of your "leaf"... I used scrap paper from my First Etsy Sale Card and a card I made yesterday. You can use whatever color/design of paper you would like, but I used fall colors (and colors that would compliment the living room). This picture is terrible, but still..

4. While your leaves dry, take your branches and hot glue them onto your canvases in a design you like. (Again, you could paint your canvas instead of leaving it white, but I'm too cheap and the white pops perfectly in the living room.) You will want to make sure your "main" branch lines up on all three canvases and also have an idea of where your leaves will fit. This is the step where I have to remind myself to have fun with it. I asked my roomie, Crystal, to do this part so it would be more random and not so perfect.

4. Once your leaves have dried, cut the excess paper off.

5. Hot glue your leaves to the canvas. Make sure you thin out the hot glue so you don't see a huge lump of hot glue under each leaf.

6. Hang it up.. and smile!

It's so.. fall.

And I love that I used things I already had in my craft stuff and I recycled toilet paper rolls!

Would it be bad to keep it up all year? I can't imagine just using it for fall!

Update: here are some more pictures that I took in better lighting!

Want your own branches/tp wall art? Buy one from my etsy shop!

Looking for more toilet paper projects? Check them out here!

Linking up here! :)

and here:

And The Tablescaper: Seasonal Sundays.

Happiness

2011-10-04T00:31:00.000-04:00

I. am. so. stinkin'. excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so crazy how the Lord's timing is absolutely perfect. Perfecttttt.

1. I got a job yesterday--such an answer to prayer and I am so thankful!

2. The Tim Johnson Band's (the band I travel with) new EP is out today on iTunes! Click here or on the picture below to view the album on iTunes.

We had the privilege to record this album with Scotty Wilbanks (Third Day's keyboard player) and our friend Andy Bowen. It was an amazing experience to work with them. We have worked so hard and I am just pumped to see how God will use this album for His glory! I pray that this album will touch hearts, change lives, and that lost people will come to know Him!

I cannot explain how happy I am! :)

My First Sale on Etsy!

2011-09-28T14:15:00.000-04:00

I sold my first item in my Etsy Store last week! My sweet friend, Christina, bought these:

I wanted to make something special to send with the earrings so I decided to make a cute card and a box for the earrings to go in with my Silhouette machine. If you don't have one.. you need to get one! They are amazzzzinnnggggg.

(Note: this post is not extremely detailed in how to create these items, but rather what you can make on the Silhouette, so if you have any specific questions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment!)

I picked these pretty fall colors:

I used Silhouette's template for a box (it is a free shape that comes with the machine!). This is what the program looks like on your computer screen:

You might have to click on the picture so you can see it clearly, but you can make the box any size you want by dragging the corners (like you would a picture).

I used the cardstock setting and put it on "double cut" so that it comes out better. It comes out of the machine like so:

Did I mention it also perforates the edges that you are supposed to fold? Um... genius!

I folded it and added some glue so it stayed all together. Then I added two free shapes to the top (two flowers that I just layered on top of each other):

Then, I moved on to the card. The card is also a template that Silhouette provides for free with the machine. I just sized it to the size that I wanted. Then for the front of the card, I cut out two brackets (also free!) and an adorable fall leaf (that was the "free-shape-of-the-week" a few weeks ago). I added a piece of the same yellow to the back of the leaf so it popped through that cute heart!

For the inside, I just typed in what I wanted to say and cut it all out. It is SO simple to do!

I just put the earrings in and they were on their way!

If you have an Etsy store, the Silhouette machine is definitely worth the investment. I just love how I can make each item more personal by making my own boxes and such to send them in!

And, Christina loved them and sent me a picture of her wearing them.. which made me smile :)

I hope to have more earrings up by the end of next week so keep an eye out! You could receive a cute box and card too!

Toodles <3

Recycling: Candle Jars

2011-09-22T22:36:00.000-04:00

Remember the question of the day? Well, Miss Marla guessed it-- the "jar" I used to hold the chalk on my chalkboard table used to be a candle.

So how does this:

Become this:

I'd love to tell you! :) It's really simple. Take a candle that has reached the end of it's life, like this one:

Then, stick it under hot water for a little bit:

The candle I used for the chalk came right out in one huge chunk after being under the hot water. This one, however, was tough... so I used a butter knife to encourage it to come out:

After the chunk of wax comes out, wash the entire jar with soap and water. Then, have fun with it!

I put decorative rocks (I bought a bag of them for $1 at a yard sale!) and a green candle inside of it to make a completely new candle.

Or you can use the decorative rocks to hold up your makeup brushes (this idea came from this post).

Or it can hold everyday items like q-tips!

For the crafter/sewer, you can use it to hold all of your supplies :)

Or you can make it simple by hot gluing vintage lace to the top.

Or you can get a little more "fancy" by hot gluing red burlap to it. I also glued on an adorable flower that I got for free at a yard sale. When I got it, it was part of a napkin ring, but I cut the ring part off so I could do something fun with the flower.

So, what do you think you could use your old candles for?

I bought this one a few days ago and thought, "I wonder what I could do with that jar!?"

Yeah...it's official, I'm a dork.

Question of the Day

2011-09-20T10:31:00.000-04:00

Can you guess where the cute jar that I used to hold the chalk in my chalkboard coffee table project came from? (Hint: I recycled it from something else)

You'll find out in the next few days :) But in the meantime, give me your guesses!

New Project Reveal

2011-09-18T19:15:00.003-04:00

So.. I gave you guys a sneak peek a few days ago of the new project I've been working on. And now.. the moment ~~we've all~~ I've been waiting for:

My roomie and I bought this coffee table at a yard sale in Florida for $5. It had a cute shape, but it had a laminate coating on it so I was super nervous about working on it. I was so nervous I mightttt have kept it in storage for a couple months. But then, I read this blog about painting laminate and I decided to give it a try. Here are the pathetic before pictures (we had to take it apart to get it back to Georgia):

It had tons of scratches on top, as you can see. The blog I read told me that I should use Zinsser primer so.. I did.

The primer was awesome. This particular one doesn't even require sanding! But I will admit that I did sand the table a little because I was so nervous. And a little side note-- I looked like a crazy person when I yelled at this little guy for walking where I had just finished priming:

The next day, I painted the table the same yellow I painted my Sunshine dresser-- Behr's Wild Bamboo in eggshell. I waited until the next day to do the chalkboard top. Oh, and I put the table together-- all by myself! My awesome roomie helped me with the process of the chalkboard top. We taped around the edges of the top and then wrapped a sheet around the base of the table like so:

And now, my friends, here is the after:

For the adults:

For the college kid:

And for the kiddos:

I. stinkin. love. it.

What do you think?

Update-- I completely forgot to post my inspiration photo! Sorry about that!

Source via Pinterest

Linking to:

And I Heart Nap Time's Sundae Scoop.