DIY Craft Table - Inspiration Pottery Barn Beford Project Table

In our house we have an office downstairs - but we have an office/craft room that is attached to our bedroom. For a while I have been wanting a craft table for Kiana and I to do projects on - but the only one I found is this one at Pottery Barn - and it is $1157 - now $949 on sale.

Here are a couple of pics of the inspiration table from Pottery Barn:

The dimensions of the PB table is 55" wide x 38" deep x 37" high - my table is the same depth and height - but I wanted it to be longer - so mine is 72 inches wide.

So, after some time thinking about this - I decided the best thing to do would be to buy closet organizers that are similar to the ends of the PB table. So - I bought two of these closetmaid white 9 cube organizers from lowes:

These were $54.88 each plus tax - so approximately $120.

The next thing I bought at Lowes was a 5/8 inch thick piece of plywood - and 3 8 ft pieces of molding. You could use whatever base or chair molding that you like.

Luckily for me - my father-in-law has a workshop, and he put the pieces together for the top and sanded them down - and helped (mostly did) the paint job - thanks Mark!!!!

Between the molding, the plywood and the gallon of black paint I spent about another $70.

Total project $190 - saving me $1000 over the Pottery Barn version!!!

Here is my version of the table in our craft room:

Here are a couple of closer looks to see the detail of the molding:

Kiana and I each have one of these seats on order so we can work at our table:

The finishing touches on this room are still to come - so stay tuned for the final output - but that could take a month or so.

Tonight at target they had the sames shelves that I used from Lowes in multiple colors: pink, lt green, dark brown and some others I don't remember - and they were only $49.99.

Photography fun

Today we went out with the Peschel's and took pics of all the kids. Here are some of my favorites!!!

First - I LOVE how blue  their eyes look in this pic!!!

Kiana tossing some leaves.

The thinker. . .

Here are the Peschels:

I love this pic of Kelsie. I love pics where the subject isn't looking at the camera.

Then, here is one of all 4. This was hard to get as the sky was very bright and they were all having a hard time keeping their eyes open. The cutest group of kids in the world if you ask me!!!!

Hopefully we can get back out for some more pics next weekend. The trees at my favorite picture spot had not turned yet this weekend.

Barn Dance Cotillion

Saturday night Cameron's cotillion theme was Barn Dance. So, he wore a western shirt - but that is as country as this boy gets!!

The lighting in this pic is horrible - but here he is:

After cotillion, the kids got together for a bon fire (in a fire pit). They roasted marshmallows and ate chili dogs. I made some food for him to take.

First I made a pumpkin cheese ball - this didn't get much action so it must not have been very good. I don't know - I had never made it before. Here is a pic:

Then I made a caramel popcorn crunch with cashews and pecans - then drizzled with white and milk chocolate. It was so good - I made a double batch so we had some at the house. I found the recipe here.

Here it is cooling on the counter:

I am pretty sure Cameron had a good time that evening. Only 2 more times for cotillion this year.

YAY - Hubby finished up the laundry room!!!!

It took him less than 48 hours - he started at like 6 PM Friday night and was done today at 1PM!!!! WOW!!!! It does help that he used to lay tile - but way to go E!!

So here is how the rest of the process went. Here is the backsplash getting ready to be put up.

In this one Eric has the floored prepped and ready to go. If you have ever done tile - you can especially appreciate what it takes to remove tile - and thinset mortar from the floor to get it ready for new tile.

Ah - the few last finishing touches before bringing the washer and dryer back in.

Now - let's not forget the Before:

And now, drumroll, here is the after pic.

Bad news is this has left me wanting stainless stell front load washer and dryer!!! But it looks great. Thanks Eric for dedicating your whole weekend to getting this project done - love ya!!!

Turning a pile of floral stems into something

So, Friday night while Eric was being productive painting the laundry room - I didn't want to be sitting around not accomplishing anything. So I remember the flowers I had bought at Hobby Lobby a couple of months ago to repurpose my plain ivy plants from my dining room.

So here is what I started with:

While I was making these, Eric was painting in the laundry room right by me and the kids were upstairs. So we were listening to the 90s station on TV. That was awesome hearing all the songs (and singing along) that were popular around the time we started dating, got married and had Cameron - more nostalgia.

Anyway - here is how these turned out:

And how they completed the dining room look. So yippee - one productive night down!!

I have another project that I am working on that I will share soon!!

Fall - My Favorite time to Decorate the House!!

Well aside from Christmas and my multiple Christmas trees - Fall is my favorite time to decorate. I really don't recall decorating much for Fall when we lived in Pineville - but once we moved to our house in Bentonville we have always decorated.

It started the first year we lived here. My mom came and helped me pick stuff and decorate. So now I get very nostalgic when I pull out the decorations - and remember the first 2 years of living here and mom helping me.

I almost opted out this year (laziness) and then thought of my mom and decided to go ahead!!!!!

Here are the pics from this year (for you mom, wish you could be here to see it!!!) Mom also made the quilted table runner in this first pic on our hall table.

These last 2 are with the lights off to show the scarecrow and candles.

Lucky for Lucy she has 9 Lives!!!!!

Poor Lucy!! When we got her she was Cameron's cat, because Kiana wanted a black cat, thus Allie became hers. Over time she found out that Allie did NOT like being picked up, but Lucy would tolerate it.

Now - poor Lucy gets picked up anytime Kiana spots her. As soon as she puts her down she literally RUNS and HIDES. I feel so bad for Lucy - but Kiana will not stop picking her up.

Here is the pic of them from tonight:

Laundry Room Facelift Phase 1

Over a year ago we bought tile to redo our powder bath and our laundry room. As honey do's go, Eric got the bathroom completed - which was a lot of work - but he never quite made it into the laundry room. So the tiles have been sitting and waiting.

Suddenly he is full of energy - and has taken on this project - so that is AWESOME. Tonight he pulled out the washer and dryer and painted - with the assistance of Kiana.

Here is Kiana helping dad out:

She has been begging for the last couple of days - basically since we bought the paint and she heard the word "paint"!!! She is our little artist and helper.

Cameron was nowhere to be seen (meaning in his room playing XBOX).

Here are a coupe of Before Pics:

And here are some photos of the room almost completely painted:

Next up - ripping up the tile on the floor and the strip above the counter - and replacing with new!! Hoping for completion this weekend!!!

Stay tuned.

Please go vote for Kiana every day in the Gap Casting Call.

Kiana NEEDS your votes. Please go register and vote for her every day!!

Thankshttp://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/andrea221975/584245246/

Fast Fun Fall Weekend!

This weekend started off with relaxing Friday night. Kiana spent the night with the Peschels. Saturday morning it was up at the crack of dawn. First, to get Cameron to school to meet the bus to go to his track meet in Van Buren. Then - we got ready to go get Kiana - and go to Ashton's flag football game.

It was freezing out!! Kiana huddled under a blanket on the ground the entire game. We didn't understand the rules - so we were confused on why they kept going back and forth - when we thought they got a first down. We found out that the reason is that you only get a first down if you make it past the half (not 10 yards). Anyway - that was cute - but I was glad to get in the car and warm up when it was over. We got to meet Cassidie's grandma for the first time for a little bit - so that was  nice.

After the game I went and looked at carpet - and then I went and got a facial at the spa - so that was relaxing. Then Eric, Kiana and I had a late lunch - waiting for Cameron to get home. After Cameron came home - dad and Missy came by to visit - and watch the vetriloquist - Terry Fator on DVD - sitting in our new home theater seating. We had a nice but short visit after that. Then - more relaxing!!

Since we had done so much relaxing - I wanted to have a productive day today. So, I put together some shelves I am using to build Kiana and I a craft table for our craft room. She is dying to get it done and do crafts. As we are building it, she is telling me all about how she is going to do crafts with her daughter when she has one - so cute.

Then - tonight we used our new Little Giant ladder to hand pictures I took last year at this time and have been waiting to hang. The problem was that we were hanging them in our upstairs hall - above the stairs which is really high. I am SO happy that they are up now - I love how they look. Here is what that process looked like:

Eric can now check one chore off of his list. But - I love to have a million projects going - so I probably added 2 in its place.

Have a great week!

Kiana's Birthday - Take 2!

Kiana's actual Birthday party was at Jump Zone on 10/3. Thank you to her friends that were able to come and make her day special!!!

Here are a bunch of pics!

She would NOT blow out that one candle. Literally 3 kids had to blow from where they were to get this candle to blow out!!! She does not like attention on her - and since we were all looking - she just froze up!!!

Ashton had to help open presents - or we would have been there forever. She again freezes a little with everyone watching her!!!

Here she is with the youngest party goer - George. This was his first birthday party to attend. Thanks for coming George!!!

Again - thanks to everyone that was able to come out and spend this time with Kiana. She had a great time!! This year I let her pick where she wanted her party - so this was her choice!! She was immediately playing with all of her new things as soon as we got home!!!