Happy Birthday to ME

I had some birthday money (thanks mom and dad!) and went to one of my favorite "lunch time" (right by my office) places to shop - the Goodwill Store and found this piece of furniture! I liked the scallop back and thought it would be perfect in my "someday" craft room (and could possibly use it in our entry way now).



I painted and sanded it -









I put some clear knobs on the top drawer because I already had them, but I still need to get knobs for the two bottom doors and I'm thinking I will change the top knobs as well (why do I only want to go to Hobby Lobby on Sundays when it's closed?!). It's the first time that I've felt like I've painted/sanded/sealed something right. And best of all, it's great storage for our games - and I currently have a picture of Ed's grandpa's baseball team and a heart-shaped rock I found in my parent's driveway on the top.

Jackpot

I felt like I hit the jackpot a couple weeks ago when I went to the Goodwill and found this at the end of the aisle! I asked the lady stocking a shelf if it worked and she didn't know - for $10 I didn't care! We finally filled it with gumballs last night and I was so excited to see it DID work and you don't even have to put money in it. (I pictured myself digging for coins so the kids could get gum, but all you have to do is turn it.)

Bonus!!

On my front porch

Aw, much better.



Another Goodwill find - we spend the majority of our time outside at home in the front yard so I thought we needed a chair for the front porch (shaded by our grapes). Somewhere to sit and read magazines while the boys dig in the dirt . . .

I thought spray paint would make it look better, but I picked the wrong color. I thought "Almond" would be a light brown, but its really just "dirty cream" - actually it just looks "dirty" because the chair's original color is still showing through (note: need more than 1 can of spray paint) .

I chose the chair/cushion colors with our "new" house color in mind - "Avocado" green. Here it is beside our current yellow (these colors don't look like they do in real life).

Closeup of the chair cushion -

$1.98

I wish I had taken a "before" picture of this table, because that's the only way to really appreciate it. When I saw it at Goodwill, it had ugly green puppy dog material stapled to the top of it, but I still liked the round shape and legs so took a chance (for $1.98!).

When I got it home, I ripped the fabric off and saw why they had fabric on the top - it was painted with layers of white, crusty, uneven paint.

But after minutes with the palm sander, it looked like this! I can't imagine what people feel like when they find quality wood floors underneath carpet in their house or something - I am so proud of this table (yes, I'm a dork). I'm going to use it for the kids "craft/art" table so we can use our kitchen table for things like eating (imagine that!).

Memory Keeper

No one ever told me how cool the Goodwill Store is. There's one right by my office and I've found some really cool things WAY cheap - like this old "type case" (that's what I've seen them called on the internet).

The wood is in really good condition and I love the green color on the outside - $4.98. Now I just need to figure out where I'm going to hang it and what's going inside. . . . . I really like this idea and am sure we'll find we have lots of "treasures" - hopefully we'll look back and it will hold lots of memories for us!

Happy St. Pat's Day!

Hope you're wearing green! I can't wait to hear about Brady's St. Pat's Day party - they were making/bringing all kinds of green foods and he's been very excited about the possibility of little green men hiding around his classroom. Sandy is off today, so Brett and I have thoroughly enjoyed hanging out (what a BEAUTIFUL day!).

After dropping Brady off, we had to go get some more jelly beans!

And do a little painting -

A little big of digging and tricycle riding (I know, no green! but that's what happens when you don't get out of your pajamas until naptime! :) -

And tonight we're going to go on our first bike ride of the year (all of us). Hooray for 80 degrees!! At least I can say I felt like I was on spring break for one day . . . . . .