Thrifted Chalkboard Makeover

I've seen all these super neat chalk boards lately and decided I needed one too.  Sooo, I was at the Goodwill store recently and found this beauty.  Does anyone remember this lovely picture from Home Interiors???

And for only 1.99 (yea!), it was the perfect frame for my project.  :)

After removing the picture, I painted over the entire picture with chalk board paint using several coats.

I want to hang this in the kitchen so I decided to paint the frame red -  Because that's the color I'm wanting to accent the kitchen with when I start it's makeover later this spring.  Plan a kitchen makeover around a homemade/goodwill/$1.99/red chalkboard - makes sense, right?  Well, it does to me...  :)

As everyone knows, it's been a brutal winter and it was about 15 degrees outside when I decided to do this project (and that's withOUT the windchill), so spray painting outside was not an option.  

Now, this is not AT ALL recommended (do as I say, not as I do) but, I decided to spray paint this in my basement - because I thought spray painting would be "quicker and easier".

I probably haven't told you this yet, but I'm the queen of impatience.  And impatience usually kicks me in the butt, and this time was no different.  The paint would not dry and it started to crackle, but not in the "crackle good" kind of way.  I don't have any closeup pictures of this "mess", but trust me - it was not pretty!  I'm sure this happened because it was too cold in the basement as well.  Anyway, out came the sand paper. So much for quick!  After sanding the areas that were crackled and getting a smooth surface to work with again, I got out the Annie Sloan chalk paint in Emperor's Silk.

                                     

I should have done this in the first place, as chalk paint adheres to anything and always seems to work out better in the long run.  It certainly looked MUCH better.  I used dark wax to finish it off and I think it finally turned out Luvly! All for less than $5.00 when you include the cost of the paints and the amounts used.  What do you think?

Barnyard Treasures

Last weekend was a very pretty weekend even though it was still very cold.  

The sun was shining and the snow was melting, so all was good in my world!

So off we went on another treasure hunt - in an old abandoned barnyard.  Dearly Beloved, through his many connections, found yet another barn to treasure hunt and tear apart for the siding and anything else that could be salvaged before it was torn down forever. 

Even though we have enough barn siding to fill our shed (and the kids are ready to put us on a hoarders show), I love it when he gets excited about finding these treasures and it doesn't cost us a penny.  Just lots of hard work....

We were able to find a beautiful door with the original knobs still on, some really nice rough cut lumber, chippy white barn siding, old rusty corrugated tin, and so much more.   Keep checking back here as we use and repurpose our newly found treasures...

and underneath that roof was all this...

Isn't that door awesome!!!  I'm sure you could hear the screams of excitement. :)  

The door still had its original glass knobs.  There's also some really nice rough cut lumber, chippy white barn siding, old rusty corrugated tin, and so much more in all that mess.

   Keep checking back here as we start using our newly found treasures...

I really like chippy, white, and rustic and we were able to find all that here...

I also love hydrangeas, but that's not for a few months yet...

What do you love finding to decorate your home with?  Leave me a comment below and let me know.

Hope you all are having a LUVLY day!!!

Love You More....

Love You More...

Words that are used often....  a sign to remind him everyday....

A quick and easy project as well as another great example of using up Junque from around the house....  and getting to use my Cricut - LOVE this machine!!

The board was a scrap from somewhere (who knows???), maybe even a door, that I found in the closet of my craft room in the basement.  After I cleaned all the cobwebs, dust and dirt off, I gave it a fresh coat of white paint for the base.  Then measured my board and made letters to fit using the Cricut Craft Room, and cut the letters out of vinyl on my Cricut...

Placed the letters on, painted over it all in a charcoal black craft paint and after the paint dried, carefully peeled all the letters off.  Okay, I'll be honest...  I'm SUPER impatient so I used a hair dryer to speed along the paint drying process.  Makes getting the job done super duper QUICK!  :)

Have I ever told you? - patience is a virtue I was NOT blessed with.

I think it turned out just LUVLY!!

What do you think?  What signs do you have and love?  Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts....

Have a wonderful day LUVLIES!