New Signage

I finally caved, I joined Pinterest. And I now have a long list of signs I want to create. This week the kid's were collecting donations for auction baskets at school, so instead of sending money (i never have cash), I just sent a sign to go along with their themed baskets.

 

 

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

It's Texas, it's hot and humid, and consequently stain and varnish take 60 years to dry. So what's a girl to do when she's waiting and waiting, waiting and waiting for layer upon layer of product to dry on her table? That's right, she makes signs. Latex paint dries pretty quick in the hot sun, so that was working in my favor.

My kid's soccer club was doing a fundraiser that I had absolutely no intention of attending, but I did feel like I should do something. So I whipped out these one afternoon.

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas" -Davy Crockett

My Beloved

The newest sign from the garage. This one is made from reclaimed wood I acquired during a skillful dumpster dive. If only that were an Olympic sport, I'd rock it!   

Shelf unit

These lovely shelves are the last installment of a boys room redo. The first large step was completing the two storage beds and corner hutch unit.

The shelves are a combo of standard shelves and catch all bins with a front lip to hold in toys. One shelf is split half storage bin - half media storage for tv/video/game components.

These are finished in my favorite "special walnut " stain and satin finish polyurethane.

Storage Beds & Corner Hutch

Do you love PBKids and PBTeen? Me too! I was recently asked to build something similar to this storage bed from PB.  This sucker is ON SALE NOW @ PB for only $2325 + $200 Shipping. Ya know, chump change. I knew I could build it for 1/2 the price and I don't charge $200  for delivery and installation if you live nearby.

I accepted the challenge to build this with a few modifications. We wanted no cubbies on the ends and 3 drawers on the front instead. This is serving as clothing storage instead of having a dresser. This was a first for me on several levels. First time I had ever done drawers, first time I'd ever done something of this magnitude! It was really a lot of fun, and in the end I'm really proud of the way it looks! We ended up with cork and dry erase board instead of just cork.

What's Your Sign?

I've really enjoyed getting to do some family rules signs over the last couple of months, and this latest one for Shar was my favorite! I loved the process and how it all turned out.

She wanted an anniversary/valentine's day present for her husband centered around a love/marriage theme. And she needed size gigantor. (6ftx2.5ft) to be exact and a rustic red finish. I would have loved to have a large sheet of beat up plywood still on hand that size, but I didn't, and in the end I was so glad.

I started with several pieces of nice, smooth pine boards of varying widths, and used the kreg jig to secure them together.  In retrospect I used a few too many holes and screws, but I did want to make sure it was solid.

Then I flipped it over and went to town distressing it. I beat it up an took my angle grinder to it to rough up the ends and do a lot of damage. Then I slathered it with a blue base coat...

and added in some greens for some more dimension. 

The next step was giving that a good light sanding, and over sanding in strategic places to reveal the wood underneath.  After that I mixed together some paint remnants to get just the right red.

then more sanding to reveal some of that lovely blue!

Then we were ready for words. I created a mock up in Adobe InDesign and with the help of a projector, got everything on there just right. I used a paint pen to do the basic outline, then went in and painted in all the lettering. When that was all dry, I gave it another quick sanding, with emphasis on the already worn places for consistency.  Shar had a great idea of adding her kids handprints to the sign, so they came over one afternoon to add that.  When it was all dry and sanded just right I gave it a good coat of polyurethane to seal the deal. Here's the finished product!

Farmhouse Twin

I'd like you to meet the Farmhouse Twin.

She's got a very light stain to even out variation in wood tone and a few coats of satin finish polyurethane.

Detail of the footboard

Added rail support to accommodate the box spring and mattress.

A view from under the headboard...the insides of assembly.

And the final pic of it all put together!

Cuties

Just a few shots of some of the cutest kids ever made.

Dr. Who?

My sweet LuLu is determined to be a surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon to be exact. This is a goal she has had since she was 3 years old. I remember shortly after the Roo was born, Lu would bring her toolbox, with its mending plates, screws, and screwdriver, and she'd tell me my femur was broken and she would go to work fixing me up. At three she could name every major bone in the body with astounding accuracy.

She took a short break from this career path when she decided she wanted to be a cheerleader. Thankfully that was short lived!

Just before Halloween, she lost 6 teeth in 2 weeks. We don't do the tooth fairy with her, she's never believed it. But I really wanted to reward her for letting me yank her molars that were breaking into pieces from the permanent teeth growing into them. I was going to give her some cash, but I happened upon some phoney livers at the Dollar Tree and got her that instead. I was quickly deemed "The BEST MOM EVER!!!"  Plus, is was the perfect accessory to her costume...a transplant surgeon, complete with her liver in a cooler.

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving she was hounding me for something to dissect. Every time I told her we were having chicken for dinner, she would look up with hopeful eyes and ask if it was a whole chicken...she wanted the heart. So when Turkey day arrived we spent an afternoon with scalpels and gloves going to town on some turkey innards. We took blood samples, made slides for the microscope and did tissue comparisons between the livers of our 3 turkeys. She loved it, and I retained my best mom ever status!

Penguins!

So, better late than never, I thought I'd share some party pics from Roo's 7th birthday. We had a penguin themed party and went to see Happy Feet 2. You may well know that cake is my nemesis. However, I was determined to make an igloo cake, by myself. I did a trial run the week prior and it was kinda gross tasting so I made some changes for the real deal. I used a cake pan that hollows out the middle so you can do an ice cream cake, which this is. Simple dome cake, filled with vanilla ice cream, light blue icing, and covered in white chocolate pieces and coconut for snow.  I made a little pond with some fish in it for the cute little penguins. Those penguins were made of olive and cream cheese with carrot for nose and feet. 

For movie snacks each girl got a travel mug with a penguin on it filled with blue kool-aid and a couple snowballs. These were popcorn coated in white chocolate and formed into balls....super yummy!

Another shot of the penguins on the veggie tray. 

For crafts we made some penguin Christmas ornaments and these super cute penguin hats!
They were all so cute waddling into the movie with these on.

And all the cute little penguins! 

You May Approach the Bench

This week has been a week of bench building, and it has not been without frustration and introspection.

I began making a dining table bench for someone based on the Farmhouse Bench plans from Ana. I was glad to start it since I'm likely making one for our house in the near future (with a table with room for 15 million kids).  After taking some stain samples to match with the existing dining room set I decided that the bench I built was looking to bulky for their space, then I was less than enthusiastic about the way the stain was coming along, so I set it aside and started over. ARG. I went with a smaller more modern version of that bench with a 1x12 seat. That was much better.

I've also been in the battle of Jen vs. Bench (watch your mouth, Jen) with some small kid sized benches I made a while back to go with the Trestle Table I made for the Barosh family. The kids managed to break off the 1x2 stretcher along the underside of the bench, so I had them brought in for repair. I got them fixed and put back together and they WOBBLED! ARG ARG ARG! It was really irritating and very discouraging!

I felt as if the wood was fighting against me. It was being stubborn and refusing to become what I was trying to make it. And as I said those words out loud in complaint to a dear friend I heard the Holy Spirit saying, "Um...duh. You are the wood." Oh snap. And it was true. How often am I the wood in this situation? How often do I refuse to listen to the leading of my Jesus and keep trying to do my own thing, my own way? He is trying to take this boring, beat up, rough and splintery piece of me and turn me into something new, something useful, something beautiful. So in that moment I decided to do a few things.
     a. Stop being a stubborn piece of wood
     b. Ask Jesus for patience and concentration in building
     c. Ask my Dad for advice on building

The next morning I stumbled upon a tutorial video on using the kreg jig, and wouldn't you know it, they used a clamp. DUH!!! A CLAMP!!! How did I miss this? Clamp your piece of wood to the work surface, glue and screw and it can't run away from you! So simple, yet so essential. I started over with trestle bench repairs, changed the design a bit, used clamps and then I had stable, non wobbly benches. AMEN.

So here are the two dining room benches I tackled this week.

 

The farmhouse bench: 17H, 14W, 39L

Currently for sale: $60

And the sleeker version: SOLD. 

You Gotta Listen!

I feel fortunate that most of the time my children don't test my patience to the extreme. Yesterday was NOT one of those days. Yesterday's sermon was on Exodus 20:12 - Honor your father and mother so that you may have a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Perfect. Yes that command that comes with a promise....obey and honor your parents and live a long life....as in if you don't honor them and obey them, then you'll live a short life. And now as a parent I totally understand! Because when they continue to push your buttons you want to wring their little necks...which is way nicer than in the Old Testament days when they'd take you outside the city and stone you to death....wow!

So of course on the way home from church the testing of my patience begins. The 4 year old is the offender...I love 4 year olds. No really, they are the best. Really. They can disobey AND talk back! I actually said the words, "Don't make me pull this car over!"...and she made me. I don't make empty promises. After pushing the reset button, we got back on the road.

We got home, ate lunch, and I put her cranky, disobedient behind down for a nap. It was a nap she refused to take. The disobedience continued and so did the discipline. Oh good times. After that she finally got her act together for the rest of the evening. As I put her to bed and we said prayers she apologized to Jesus and to me for being rude and disobedient. She asked for help to obey and to listen and to be kind and loving.

This morning she performed for me a song she wrote in the shower last night. It's called, "Listen to your Mom and Dad". I guess I am getting through to her.

Enjoy.