Thrifty Project Challenge: Mirror Frame Upcycle

About 2-3 times per month I find myself at the local thrift store, perusing the aisles for a thrifty project. A while back I found this old mirror frame - snagged it for a whopping $3.50.

The old mirror frame was MDF and the black backing was the standard backing board that helps keep the mirror in place. It was really big - 4 feet tall by 2 1/2 feet wide.

I had a few ideas that I bounced around with on Pinterest - would it be a command center, a calendar, a menu board, an epic picture frame? I finally decided on a menu board. I cook all of our meals at home but almost daily I find myself at a loss for what to cook tonight. Planning ahead for the week keeps me on task and I've been able to reduce our grocery store visits to about once a week; sometimes only once every two weeks!

I hadn't played around with chalk paint before so after giving this dusty old frame a good wipe down I gave it a layer of Walmart brand Chalk paint in Parisian Gray. I know, Annie Sloan is the typical favorite when it comes to chalk paint but I decided that I was up for the challenge of keeping this a low budget project and seeing how the less expensive stuff turns out.

My local Wal-Mart carries an inexpensive chalk paint so I picked up a bottle of Parisian Gray and clear wax to seal it. I gave the frame a couple lights coats of the gray, allowed it to dry (chalk paint dries very quickly) and I decided on a whim to give it a quick brushing of standard black latex paint that I had laying around from a previous project. I focused on antiquing the edges and design on the top and I quickly wiped most of the excess black paint off. This gave the frame a really aged stonelike look. Because of the incredibly low investment that I had in the mirror frame I decided to use what I had on hand, albeit unconventional for chalk paint projects. I was actually really pleased with the outcome!

To create the chalk board I used Valspar chalk board paint, which I purchased at Lowe's. They have it available in spray paint or liquid paint form and I chose the liquid paint because I can think of a few more projects that I could use it for. This took about 6 layers to create a thick, smooth layer that is perfect for writing with chalk.

For a super thrifty find and about $20 in paint supplies - I don't think it turned out half bad!

Spray Painting Lawn Furniture and relaxing with Palm Breeze!

Summer is here! And so is the heat...which is an awesome and really not awesome thing.

It's really awesome because in Western Washington most of the year is spent waiting for the glorious sun to come out. And then it becomes not so awesome when temperatures get above 75 degrees (my personal comfort level) and you don't have A/C in the house. But then it turns right back to awesome because my backyard is (cue falsetto voice) awesome!! Well, it's on it's way to being pretty awesome. My goal has been to create a comfortable entertaining space where adults can enjoy a meal and each other's company while keeping the kids in view.

To get a kick start on this dream-backyard-oasis I've been collecting lawn furniture and children's toys to make our backyard a place where we want to spend time in the afternoons and evenings.

A few months ago I was gifted a set of three quality plastic Adirondack chairs from my local Buy Nothing group. They were spray painted white a season or so ago and I decided that I'd like to try my hand at refreshing them a little bit.  I've seen tons of tutorials on how to spray paint plastic lawn furniture and figured it can't be to hard.

So I grabbed my materials:
2 cans of spray paint per chair (I chose purple, dark blue and light blue)
scrub brush
water
Soft Scrub cleaning solution
course sandpaper

This is a project that I did over the course of a week during nap times. It was perfect because most of the steps were short but required some wait time between them. 

First I cleaned the chairs as well as I could, using a hard bristled scrubber and Soft Scrub. This scrubbed some of the white paint off. I took a break and waited for it to dry.

Then I took some course sandpaper and tried to sand off (or at least scuff) the old spray paint layer. I didn't go through the trouble of sanding all of the spray paint off, but tried to thin it out at the very least. I washed it again and allowed it to dry.

When I was ready to paint I made my workspace in the gravel in our back driveway (away from everything) so that I wouldn't have to worry about overspray. Following the instructions on the can I started spraying a very light coat onto the chair, moving it around as I needed to. As the coats dried I added more layers to create a solid look. This was over the course of several days due to drying time between the layers. It took about one and a half spray paint cans per chair to get the coverage that I wanted. 

And then they were done! A celebratory drink upon my new chairs was in order.

Palm Breeze (in Ruby Red Citrus) has been my go-to drink this summer. It reminds me of a certain soda that is blood orange flavored, except that Palm Breeze is a flavored malt beverage (FMB). Which basically means it’s an alcoholic drink made with a malt base, kind of like beer. Can I just tell you about the serious yum factor of this stuff?! I've made sure that our fridge is stocked with a case of it at all times this summer. It's been the perfect drink to cool off in the backyard with. I was so pleasantly surprised because I was expecting an overly sugary drink like most other flavored malt beverages are. Nope! I enjoyed it just like my favorite blood orange soda (responsibly, of course). 

Keep an eye on the blog for more summer-time backyard oasis posts...I've still got a few more up my sleeve!

How do you relax in your backyard?

Disclosure: I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls 

and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

A Fairy-Dinosaur Party

Yet another post that has been a few months in the making! The girls celebrated their birthdays in March, and I'm just now getting around to filling you all in on the details. Whoops!

________

Penny and Ruby shared their birthday celebrations again this year. Last year we held off on Penny's birthday celebration because we weren't quite sure when Ruby would be born (she was born a week after Penny's 2nd birthday), then we rolled together a "meet the baby" with Penny's party. We decided to keep the tradition going and celebrated them together again this year.

To give myself a few months of preparation I asked Penny (who would be turning 3) what kind of party she would like. She thought about this and very seriously responded that she wanted a fairy party with a "sharp tooth" birthday cake. We had watched the original Land Before Time and she was also quite in love with Dinosaur Train, so it made sense that this would be combined with the overall obsession with all things princessy that has lasted the last 9 months or so. And thus, the idea behind the fairy-dinosaur birthday party was born.

I wanted the party to be a memorable one for Penny and her friends. Alas, I'm not terribly crafty thanks to the wonders of Pinterest I was able to pull off a budget-friendly themed party by thrifting and asking around for most of our items.

First, I have to show you this.

Isn't she adorable? I talked to Carly when I was planning the party and she came up with this little cutie. I had a clay cake topper made for Penny's first birthday as well, so I guess this will be our first birthday tradition in our family. Carly's shop is full of different cake topper ideas. Once I found the little dino that I liked, she got the colors down and added the adorable touches like the little hair bow (which actually ended up being very similar to the hair bows that Penny and Ruby wore at their party) and even the little eyelashes for the final girly touch. There's a special shelf in my Sister Room that I have in mind to display these special treasures. Be sure to check out her shop for a handmade cake topper!

No party is complete in my mind without delicious food, so I made sure that our menu was catered towards toddler appetites, keeping a minimum on sticky fingers and messes as well as having a dinosaur theme.

On the menu - 

• Watermelon T-rex heads
• Stegasaurus eggs (deviled eggs with a twist)
• T-rex teeth (cheese triangles)
• Pteranadon wings (chicken wings)
• Corpolite (meatballs)
• Bronto Chow (veggie platter)
• Chips and Lava (chips and salsa)
• Primordial ooze cups - instead of traditional cake, I made dirt cups and added gummy dinosaurs on top. My husband made this awesome platter!

You've probably seen something similar floating around on Pinterest, but it's truly not that hard to make. Just make sure that the models that you use are solid and not hollow.

I also made this awesome paper birthday banner, which is the pinnacle of my craftiness but it came out really well! I learned a lot from making this one, so I think I'll try my hand at it again for different seasons or events.

The only other decoration that I used were thrifted dinosaur models, which I added tutus and wings to. A little bit of frilly pink lace, hand cut wings and hot glue did the trick.

Ok, I've talked about food (check), decorations (check), now for the fun, right? The weather was forcasted as an unseasonably warm 65 degrees, so I decided that we'd have a dinosaur egg hunt. It was about 3 weeks before Easter, so sourcing the eggs wasn't hard. We hid over 200 eggs in the yard and with almost 2 dozen toddlers in attendance, it wasn't a very long egg hunt at all!

My mom also painted a cute mural inspired by the shark birthday party that we were invited to last summer.

We ended with a little birthday song and more fun time with friends.

Can't wait to see what next year's theme is!

____

Did you love this post? Please re-pin if you do!

See more dinosaur birthday inspiration

Disclosure: I received product in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Window Covering Safety Month with Blinds.com

Last month I shared the progress of our sister room. I got a lot of fun feedback on some ideas for the closet space so that's been in the works! Meanwhile, I've also been working with Blinds.com to upgrade the current blinds in Penny's room to something that meets child safety standards. 

Child-proofing the Sister Room goes beyond being selective about toys and securing furniture properly. A common forgotten element is window coverings. Most rooms, especially bedrooms, have window sills that are at least 37" from the floor, but in this case this window had been replaced by the previous owners in preference for a larger one. The sill for this window is only 18" from the floor. We put in a window lock and then we started to think about reducing other risks.

When selecting child safe window coverings, here are a few points to consider:

1.       Make the switch to cordless blinds or shades. Check window coverings for exposed cords that could pose a strangulation hazard to infants and young children. Replace corded window coverings with today’s cordless safer products. Draperies, shutters and cordless cellular and roller shades are a few preferred cordless options. Shop Blinds.com’s Safer For Kids Collection to find the perfect replacement. 

2.       If you cannot install newer products, ensure that all window cords are out of sight and reach, and that they are inaccessible to young children. Order a free window cord retrofit kit from www.windowcoverings.org.

3.       Prevent Access to Cords. Move all cribs, beds, furniture and toys away from windows and window cords, preferably to another wall. These items could act as unintentional “step stools” that allow a child to reach a window or cord. 

4.       Continuous-loop pull cords on draperies and vertical blinds should be pulled tight and anchored to the floor or wall with a tension device.

5.       Be sure cord stops are properly installed and adjusted to limit movement on inner cords on blinds and shades.
All recommendations provided by Blinds.com via The Window Covering Safety Council.

Blinds.com makes choosing child safe window coverings easy because they have a blind-finder tool where you can narrow down exactly what you need, including specifications such as being child safe. But sometimes you just gotta talk to a human being, you know? So for all of the window coverings in my house, I've talked with Josh from Blinds.com (email // facebook). After a few emails back and forth with my list of requirements for the room, he sent out samples of what he thought I might like (a Blinds.com complimentary service!!) and I was able to see with my own eyes what I felt would work in the room best.

My list to Josh included:

• child safe - I want to be comfortable with my toddler playing independently in her room for a few minutes while I fix a quick snack or am nursing Ruby down.
• black out - we still use blackout curtains, but with two kids I need to capitalize on full naps and long nights!
• withstand humidity - we heat our house with a pellet stove, which dries out the air something terrible. Last winter I ran humidifiers in the bedrooms, which of course can lead to standing condensation and possible bacteria build up. I wash the windows and curtains often to help prevent any nasties, but the window covering also needed to be either washable or I can wipe it down.
• last, but not least - it's got to be cute!

Shortly after, the samples came in the mail and I was able to narrow them down to three choices. I posted them onto Facebook to see what you all thought!

And you all confirmed what I felt down deep in my gut - the  Laura Ashley Roller Shades in Chesil Print Amethyst & Cream were the best for the room!

I love the roller shades because they're completely cordless. The print is fun, but also something that both of the girls can grow into. It was less than 20 minutes between removing our Bali 2" Fauxwood blinds (which I love and are on all of our other windows) to installing and using the new roller shades. Installation is a SNAP! The quality is also awesome.

Here are some pictures showing their blackout ability. These are completely unedited for exposure so you can see how they would look in real life. I'm really impressed with how well they can darken a room. If this were a guest room I would leave them as is, but because I want the room to be completely dark and non-distracting for night & nap time, I will continue to use the curtains to block out the little bit of light that comes in around the sides.

These roller shades have met each of the requirements that I gave to Josh at the beginning of my research - they are child safe, black out very well, I can wipe them down to clean them and of course the print is very cute! Penny absolutely loved them as soon as Adam installed them. She wants it down all the time!

This giveaway is over - thanks to all for entering! 

Keep an eye out for more Pierogie Mama Giveaways.

Disclosure: Thank you Blinds.com for helping me pick out and providing the safest shades for Penny's room! All opinions are my own, though I wouldn't be sharing about this awesome company if I didn't love them already! Keep an eye out for another post showing the other Blinds.com window coverings that we have in our home. 

Breathing New Life into a Craigslist Dresser Set!

At the start of this year I was in my 3rd trimester with Ruby and in some crazy nesting mode. I felt the urge to manage Penny's bedroom and actually put an effort into making it her own. Because of the perpetual state of renovation we just hadn't gotten into making any room feel homey and I wanted to finally put Penny's clothes into real drawers (instead of laundry baskets) and also begin to prepare for the day when our daughters would share a room.

So I started to scour good old Craigslist to find a cheap dresser set thrift a fabulous dresser set in need of love and to finally have a project of my own.

Then I found this lovely.

You might be thinking.. hey, that doesn't look so bad. And it didn't...from 5 feet away. As you got closer you could see that the black was one of many coats of paint, including missing or thin spots and runs. And let's not start on the night stand. So I got to work with a sander and brought it all down to an even layer.

On the account of being pregnant and all, my handsome hubby offered to take over on the rest. I initially really wanted to do an Annie Sloan treatment, but the hubs saw the price tag on the paint and put a nix on that. Instead he primed the pieces and used high quality furniture spray paint. Hold back your laughs, I know you think that sounds cheap but I can assure you that the effect was awesome. And yes, much less expensive.

While the primer was drying, I waffled between these designs..

And here's what we got!


...Still working on finishing the night stand and the mirror, but hey, it's a start!

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

Find my sources of pinsperation for this French Provincial dresser

Under Construction: Counters (sorta) and the pellet stove

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

"If the women don't find you handsome, 

they should at least find you handy."  ~ Red Green

Well, my husband falls under the 'handsome' and 'handy' category, but this isn't news to me. Thanksgiving weekend meant he had 4 days to schmooze with the fam over a turkey meal, go tree hunting with Penny and I, relax for 5.5 seconds and then the man got some sh*t done.

I'm pretty sure you're waiting for one of these renovation posts where I say "ooh! ooh! Look, I did this project all by myself!" where I pump my fists in valor and pride. Although I can be of use with some of the projects around here, so far all of them are done quickly and easily by Adam. He says my job is to 'bake the baby and bake him treats.' So I oblige, because I like doing both of those things :) Don't worry - eventually the day will come where I share my own project completion with you!

The island cabinets were installed about a month ago but this entire time I've sort of been trying to use the empty top drawers as counter space and it just wasn't working anymore. We aren't ready for our 'forever' counter tops yet because only half of the kitchen has been renovated, but something needed to be done.

So it actually took a little bit of convincing from me to him to just get some wood and make some temporary counter tops for me. As hilariously woodsy / tacky as it looks, he did a great job and now we have a good visual representation of what our counters will look like when we get our real ones. 

Another medium sized project that's been going on around here was making a fireplace surround for our pellet stove. The ones you can buy are honestly a) very expensive and b) don't really do a good job. Luckily my man is handy with both wood and metal so he welded up a gate to go around the pellet stove that will safely keep all little bodies away. 

He designed the surround to have storage space for pellets (holds about 400 lbs of pellets at a time) and also a gate for easy access with a safety latch. As a result it does take up more space than we would have liked it to, but again it keeps the little ones safe and is a functional space as well. 

The final project, and admittedly the biggest, that he started this weekend were the upper cabinets for the kitchen. For our first renovation the guys thought that taking a sledgehammer to the cabinets would be the easiest way to take them down. Lol. Not so much. That took several hours (though I'm sure loads of fun). This time, Adam calmly unscrewed the cabinets and had the 6 boxes down in 20 minutes. We haven't decided if they will be moved into the shop or laundry room for additional storage space, or sell them on craigslist on the cheap for someone who needs cabinets for their cabin or something. 

He had several of our new cabinets already put together, so he put up 2 before realizing that we've hit a road block. Our corner upper cabinet was ordered with seriously incorrect dimensions...luckily our rep responded quickly and he got us the correct one right away. Awesome. When this happened in our last renovation (yes, this happens A LOT so if you're redoing your cabinets - no matter how much or how little you spend, there will be mistakes!) and it was like pulling teeth to get the problem solved in a reasonable amount of time. At first they quoted us 10 weeks - and we were able to whittle it down to under 4...still horrible when you've got an already torn apart kitchen.

So unfortunately that was the end of Adam's productive weekend, but we couldn't complain too much ;)

Under Construction: Lights, Heat, Cabinets

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

This update is going to be short - we got a couple important projects done in a really short amount of time, but they don't require a ton of explanation. ;)

Adam finished wiring the island and placed the light cans for our hanging pendant lights that will be above the bar. 

I finished grouting the hearth (and managed to pick up the wrong color grout, oops) which led to... 

Adam hooking up our pellet stove for the first time! We've never used one before so it was sort of a shot in the dark but it was amazing how quickly the house warmed up and seriously so cozy with the little fire burning. We won't be running it very much until Adam builds a safety fence.

We also met with a cabinet rep for a RTA (ready to assemble) cabinet company to get our kitchen measured and quoted. Here's the cabinet door that we picked out-

And in case you missed it last week, I wrote an update on my Pierogie babies - Penny and Pierogie #2!

Under Construction: Settling In

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

The last couple weeks have been quiet in regards to renovation updates because we've just been knocking off little items in our to-do list that aren't really update worthy. However, since a few weeks have passed without any pictures, I'll go ahead and give you a tour of our somewhat organized chaos :)

Last weekend was dedicated to moving the duraburb project forward...as in, getting the vehicles over to our house and in the shop. Up until now the Suburban and the donor truck were living at my brother in law's house (we didn't have any space at our rental) and it wasn't until last weekend where we were able to get a car trailer large enough to move such large and heavy vehicles. Now that both cars are here, Adam is able to pop into the shop as he has time and chip away at the project. For those of you who are asking yourselves 'what the hay is a duraburb?' it's Adam's current automotive project in converting a gas guzzling Suburban into a diesel monster. It allows us to have the space that our growing family needs but not have to pay the premium of 7 mpg (instead we are expecting a more comfortable mid twenties). The name "duraburb" comes from the combination of a Duramax engine with a Suburban.

We've also organized the house to be livable during this 'resting' period of the renovation.  Our furniture is more or less set to where it's going to go, all of my kitchen appliances are functional (3 weeks without a dishwasher or kitchen sink were kind of brutal) and we've made all of our living areas child-safe. We're in the process of making a final decision on the island cabinets, so that means the island is still exposed, but fear not - the electrical may look scary but it's totally safe.

Penny's room has also made some progress. At this point I haven't gone out of my way to set it up exactly the way we'd like it, we've just made do with the things we have and as we have time we'll touch up the paint, add trim, get nicer curtains and make it into a 'real' bedroom for her. But she absolutely loves her big girl bed - and has been sleeping in it by herself since the second night after we moved in.

As the weather cools off the time has begun for us to take a look at the heating situation in the house. When the house was built, each of the rooms were meant to be headed by cadet heaters. They're kind of inefficient and energy-suckers. So at some point a pellet stove was installed in the main room - pretty much as the main source of heat for the entire house. Not really sure how that worked out for the previous owners, and we've never owned a pellet stove before so we aren't sure what to expect. It sat on a very unsafe, makeshift hearth that we tore up for the carpet installation so Adam is building a sturdier replacement. Next on the list obviously would be to build a safety gate around the stove so that little hands can't reach hot parts.

...And that's pretty much it. Not a whole lot to share, but it definitely is beginning to feel like home and we're settling into a routine.

DIY Annie Sloan Dresser - Guest post from That Mama Gretchen

Guess what I'm doing today? You got it. Tearing apart my house. Today I'd like to welcome Gretchen from That Mama Grechen. Pretty much the consumate thrifter, Gretchen gives us a super easy step by step tutorial on how to take a Goodwill dresser and turn it into a repurposed masterpiece!

A big ol' congrats to Bianca and her family as they settle into their new home! I'm thrilled to see how they make it their own --- in my mind, Adam and Bianca (and Penelope too, I guess!) are the masters of home projects. I, on the other hand, can count on one hand the projects I've attempted :) Lucky you, I'm sharing one today!

Pinterest makes us do crazy things, ya'll. Things we never considered in the pre-Pinterest days. Things like buying crappy furniture, expensive paint and making grand plans to revamp trash into treasure. Yep, in the old days this girl would have just saved up her pennies for the Anthro piece of her dreams.



When the fam and I moved last Spring, I knew I wanted some sort of storage buffet for our kitchen nook. I kept my eye out for weeks for a piece that could work. Then, I found this gem for $30 at Goodwill.

Prior to scooping up this dresser I had done my research on furniture restoration. I knew that Annie Sloan paint was the way to go. There were rave reviews all over the internet and for our first furniture project I felt it was worth the investment to get the right tools for the job.



So, with our dresser safely stored in the garage we made our way to our local Annie Sloan dealer and bought the Aubusson Blue, soft wax and special Annie Sloan brush. Although my vote was for the English Yellow, because compromise, folks, that's the key to successful home projects when married.



The magical thing about Annie Sloan is that you don't have to sand before you paint. Dominic was super skeptical, but after watching this tutorial (and the subsequent tutorials) from Blue Egg Brown Nest, he was game to give it a go.



He painted while I photographed and occupied the kidlets. And over the course of two evenings, he whipped out this beauty ...

The basic routine was ...

Clean and dust

Remove hardware

Paint a layer or two, until the desired thickness is achieved

Dry overnight (although it doesn't necessarily take that long)

Distress with sand paper if desired

Wax, we did one coat all over and two coats on the top



But really, I'm no furniture restoration blogger so just watch the tutorials :) The only thing we didn't follow was the dark wax on tutorial #4, but that all depends on the final look you're going for. Bottom line is, Annie Sloan paint is awesome, don't fool yourself and try to skimp on cheaper paint. Annie Sloan makes Pinterest dreams possible! So much so that we already have two other pieces ready to Annie Sloan in the garage - one of which will be Barcelona Orange! Keep your eyes peeled over in my internet space, That Mama Gretchen, and I'll be sure to share when it's done!

Would you like to write for The Pierogie Mama? Send me an email! 

thepierogiemama@gmail.com