Craft table redo.

Every day when I want to browse the internet, or do some crafting this is what I have to look at:

Mind you my trash can isn’t always over flowing, and on good days the floor is swept. You get the idea though, right?

Being that we live in a 2 bedroom with no outside storage, and the only place we have for storage is the second bedroom, it tends to be an awful mess.

Oh, storage room, what a never ending, thorn in my paw, mess you are. You hold so many things: My sewing machine, laundry baskets, out of season clothes, extra bedding, ALL of the Hubby’s junk that he refuses to let go of. If I’m being honest, I have to tell you it’s overwhelming trying to keep it tidy. Usually I just keep the door closed and call it good enough, but today some bug must of bit me. I wanted something done and I wanted it done NOW.

I started off with the craft table/desk. This was free to me but it was pretty rough.

 

I have been using it as is since I got it at the first of the year. It’s taken so much abuse that I actually felt sorry for it.

I sanded the top a little bit. I mixed my own grey using flat latex paint. I prefer flat to any other paint, not everything needs to be shiny.

I brushed on the first coat so that I could pay extra attention to the edges. I rolled on the second.

The legs were awful as well. I’m assuming they were at one time white, when I got the table they were yellow, aged and stained… and not in a good way.

I gave them 2 crisp coats of white. Then 2 coats of Rustoleum lacquer.

I understand with a curtained table you can hide a multitude of sins. I NEEDED a hiding place in the worst way.

With the help of the Hubs to keep it straight, I took this vintage sheet..

See that blue-grey? Beautiful match.

Now, I had intended on doing this step correctly, with a rod and all, BUT where the legs attach to the top, there is a strangely rounded joint. They are roughly 5 inches wide, leaving a 5 inch gap between the curtain and the leg. So, I went the easy route and stapled that baby right on there.

It isn’t any where near perfect, but I LOVE it. I feel much better about letting people use our computer now!

So many things are hidden behind this curtain now instead of sitting out in the open, embarrassing me!

Happy fall!

A fun lunch.

I feel so silly even sharing this, but I know lots of people certainly wouldn’t think of it. I’m going to share how I make Lunchables inspired pizza roll-ups. A fun lunch for children and adults alike!

To make these I used spaghetti sauce, tortillas, shredded cheese, and pepperoni.

Spread your spaghetti sauce on your tortilla to your liking. I used about 4 tsp on each, I was using burrito sized tortillas.

Put pepperoni/toppings to your hearts desire! I like to put my pepperoni on before my cheese because it keeps them from moving around when you’re at the rolling stage.

Top with cheese. I used fiesta blend because that’s what we had on hand, but whatever suits your taste is fine.

Roll ‘em up!

I sprinkle a little cheese on top, when the cheese is melted, they’re done. :)

Bake them for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees on a foil lined pan for extra crispiness. Plus it makes for easy clean up!

I cut these in half for a football party and they were a big hit! If you make these, let me know how your family liked them!

Happy fall!

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DIY Pumpkin Plate!

Last time I went to the Dollar Tree, I bought a few of the styrofoam pumpkins that are supposed to be carvable. I only used two in my display, so I had one lonely pumpkin left. I loaded up and went back to the Dollar Tree, I was going to pick up another foam pumpkin and make a similar display to mine for my sister. I always hit every aisle while I’m there, you never know what you’ll find! So, when I saw these plates

I absolutely HAD to have them. For what, though? I am overrun with plates! I take in mismatched, and slightly damaged plates like they were stray animals. I figured I could use them for display somehow.  So, I grabbed the plates and a couple more pumpkins and headed home. The whole way home I was trying to think of a use for my awesome new plates. That’s when inspiration struck!
I got to work as soon as I got home!
I got out my trusty ol’ craft paint and painted each plate with two coats of black using a foam brush.

one coat pictured, my apologies.
While the second coat was drying, I cut a foam pumpkin in half.

Carvable? Sheesh! It took more effort to cut this in half than it would to cut a real pumpkin in half, I think!

Then, I hot glued a half pumpkin to each plate! Hot glue is a great choice because I can easily pull them off to change the plates out for each season!
This project ended up technically only costing me $2 for the plates, since I already had the pumpkin on hand!

Please ignore the antique paneling, rental house. :\
Happy Fall!
This blog was featured at Aqua Seventy Six!






linking up to here and

Book page wreath

So my love of cardboard comes into play again today!

My husband brings home boxes from his work for my crafting, he’s a complete enabler!

I drew a smaller circle inside a larger circle on my cardboard. I figured it didn’t need to be perfect so I didn’t trace around anything.

I used a rotary blade to cut it out.

For some reason it makes me think of a hard boiled egg. Anyway, then taking an old book I have no plans to read ever again.

I colored the edges of the pages with a brown crayon, this ended up being a failure since you can’t see the brown on the finished wreath. Ya win some, ya lose some!

Started ripping out pages, and rolling them into cones. Hot glued the first “fold” and the end flap to  keep it from opening once I let go of it.

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Hot glued the cone to the “wreath form”

When I covered the entire “wreath” I went back and filled in naked spots with smaller “cones”.

 

I’m sorry, I forgot to take a picture when I was finished filling in the naked spots. :\

I then folded two pages until the width of each was 1 inch, hot glued them together, and hot glued them to the back of the wreath. This is my ribbon for hanging!

I had planned on hanging this on the mirror I’m working on for above our couch, but it was far too big; the only place I had left to hang it was on the bathroom door. So, that’s where it went.

While I was looking for a thumb tack to hang it with, I found a skeleton garland I got at the Dollar Tree back in ‘08. I have no clue why it was shoved in our junk drawer. There is only 3 sad little skeletons left on it, one of them is even missing a leg… perfect.

I tacked one end of the garland to the top of the door when  I  tacked the “ribbon” down, and draped the skeletons across the wreath.

See, no left leg.

What you see walking into my hallway from the living room:

More pictures because  I can’t help myself!

My inspiration for this wreath comes from here.

Happy fall!