Repairing Drywall and Adding Texture

We are still working on our Master Bathroom mini remodel and one thing we had to do was repair some of the drywall around the tub.

This beautiful wall that my honey created was surrounded by ugly drywall yuckiness!  No worries, my honey fixed it and we're going to show you how he did it.  If you'd like to see how he created this wall, click HERE.

We had to remove the lovely blue faux marble from around the bath tub and it left us with some ugly looking drywall that was in need of repair.  Want to see what else we did to replace more of this lovely blue marble?  Click HERE.

Don't you be jealous of our 80's vinyl floor!  LOL!  That's a big job coming up soon too.
TIP:  Before you start, cover everything you do not wish to have drywall dust on.  We used plastic drop cloths to cover all our stuff.
Next, my honey retrieved all the necessary tools along with the drywall mud and got to the repairs.

Using a scraper and the drywall sander, we removed all the extra glue and what not that was left over after removing the "marble".
TIP:  Use a shopvac while sanding to cut down on the dust.

Next you'll want to hide any imperfections in the drywall.  This takes patience that I don't have, but my honey does, so he got to smoothing on the drywall mud.  TIP: Be careful not to make this very thick or your patch job is going to "glow" when you're finished.  Let this dry for a while and sand again if needed.

Another close up of our 80's vinyl floor! Yay!
Now for the texturing.  Our walls have what is called a "knock down" texture on them.  The secret tool we used to achieve this look....plastic shopping bags!  Cool huh?  We learned this from my honey's Dad.  You take 4 bags, make little crumpled balls out of 3 of them and place them inside the fourth bag.  Now roll the top down and make a handle to hold on to and get to texturing.

Dip your bag into the drywall mud and dab it on.  Keep dabbing until you have the entire patch area covered in little peaks.

For the knock down texture, this is the look you're going for.  Lots of little peaks, you know like meringue?  LOL!  When you have this look over your entire area, let it sit for a few minutes so that it starts to dry a bit.  Do not let this dry completely, you're not finished yet.

Now you are ready to "knock down" the peaks that you've so carefully created.  This takes a very, very light hand to achieve.  It's not easy and it takes practice, so you may want to practice on a board before tackling your actual walls.

This is the area all dried and ready for paint.  It's really hard to photograph this texture, but in real life this looks really good and will look even better with some fresh paint over it.  Thank you honey!

Would you like to see more projects we've done in the Master Bathroom?  Click HERE.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
We Call It Junkin

Fence Picket Shelf

We are doing a mini Master Bathroom remodel right now and I don't know if you've seen my Valentine's Day present this year, but if you haven't you should go have a look HERE.

Hint:  My present is this beautiful fence picket wall you see here.

My honey had the idea of a little shelf in this area to add a bit of interest to the tiny space, so he built one!  Great idea baby!  A few months ago he purchased an old shelf at a yard sale for $2.  It wasn't because he loved the hunter green painted shelf, but it had these awesome old vintage metal shelf brackets on it.  So worth the $2.

Our shelf measures 28" wide X 7 1/2" deep.  First he grabbed a couple of very straight pieces of fence picket.  He used one full picket, and part of another.   He used his table saw to rip the second picket to size and then used his chop saw to cut them down to length.  He also needed two smaller pieces of picket to hold the two pieces he'd just cut, together.  Those pieces measure 2" x 7 1/2".

He used 1" wood screws to attach the 2" x 7 1/2" pieces to the two longer pieces.  Now they are one solid shelf piece.

NOTE: We did not sand the pickets.  We used a broom to sweep off the visible dirt and then the shop vac to clean off the smaller stuff.

Now to attach the brackets.  Look how pretty those metal brackets are!  Since the metal brackets were hunter green, I spray painted them with Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) paint and let them dry over night.  The ORB color is the color of most all of our fixtures in the bathroom, so we wanted them to match.

When my honey hung the shelf on the wall, he was sure to use a level to make sure all my cuteness stayed on the shelf and didn't roll off one end.  He always thinks of stuff like that!  He used 2 1/2" long wood screws, being sure to grab the studs when he anchored the shelf to the wall.

This little shelf will be fun to decorate and maybe change out for each holiday.  Just another fun space to doll up!
Sneak Peek!  We are still working on the bathroom each weekend, but just look at this wall my honey put up over the tub!  I love it and can't stop looking at it!  He's so awesome!  Thank you Baby!

And as I promised, here are a few more of our picket fence projects for your viewing pleasure!
Fence Picket A/C Cover : Click HERE
Pretty Picket Planter: Click HERE
Picket Fence Stand: Click HERE
Fence Picket Wall: Click HERE

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
We Call It Junkin

Fence Picket Wall

I've wanted to do this project for a very long time now and for Valentine's Day this year, this was my present from my Honey! He's the bestest!

We finished this section of our master bathroom in just a few short hours.  We are going to do another larger wall over the tub soon.

First we measured our area then gathered some choice fence pickets from our stack of recycled pickets out back. We've used from our stack several times before.  I'll list links at the end of this post if you want to go look!

We had to remove all the staples and nails from the pickets so that they would lay flush to the wall.

We started out with this very plain space and before the day was over, we had a lovely piece of art that we created together.  Perfect Valentine's Day huh?

We decided to use two pieces of wood for each row.  We wanted a staggered look, so we used different lengths for each piece of each row.  After you decide on the length of the first boards, you will want to make very sure that your first row is level before proceeding or you could have a downward slope on one side or the other.

We took time to pick and choose each piece so that we had different looks side by side.  One light, one dark, etc.  I love the more rustic worn looking ones the best.

We used a small amount of liquid nails on the back of each plank and then used the nail gun to tack it to the studs.  The reason we used the glue is because some of the boards were a little warped from the weather and we wanted to make sure that stayed flat on the wall.  We used 1 1/4" brads in our nail gun to secure the boards.

My honey would measure and mark the wall of the size of each picket and I would write his measurements down on a note pad, then we would go out and cut 4 to 5 rows then come back and glue/brad each one to the wall.
NOTE: Be sure to make sure both pieces fit in their space before you add glue to the back.  You may possibly need to trim a bit before you stick it!

We got to this point and realized the picket would not fit behind the toilet tank.  My honey tried moving the entire toilet forward, but we did not have enough wiggle room to make it work.  The lid protruding out that was the problem.

My honey cleverly cut out a space for the lid to fit and then we carried on.  You can't even tell the cut is there now.

I think it turned awesome and I couldn't be any happier with it.  It really makes a difference in our bathroom already.  I can't wait to see the other wall finished!

Dontcha just love all the varying colors of the wood.  Mother nature did that y'all!  Such a cool piece of art  work.

Of course we have more work to do, but for now this little space in our bathroom really makes me smile!

My Honey said to me "most girls got candy and flowers for Valentine's Day, you got a picket fence wall!"  And I love it more than any candy or flowers he could have gotten me.  Its ok, you can be jealous! LOL!

One more look at the before and after shots.  Its amazing what a little FREE wood can do to such a small space!

And as I promised, here are a few more of our picket fence projects for your viewing pleasure!
Fence Picket A/C Cover : Click HERE
Pretty Picket Planter: Click HERE
Picket Fence Stand: Click HERE
Picket Fence Shelf: Click HERE

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
We Call It Junkin

Free TV and We're Saving $126 Per Month!

We've been trying hard since last year to get as close to debt free as we can, it's hard y'all and it takes some time!  One way we've found to cut a huge expense is to cancel our satellite TV service.  When I started to research this, I found lots of people already doing it.

Last May 2014, we suspended our satellite TV service.  They allowed us 6 months for the suspension.    Since we no longer had any TV to watch, we purchased the item you see below.  The RCA Multi-Directional Flat Digital Antenna.  We were actually hoping we could turn our satellite TV service back on after that 6 months were up, but we were already used to what we'd been watching in the mean time, so we cancelled it.  There was a fee to get out of our satellite TV contract, but it was way cheaper to pay that fee than to continue the service, so that's why we cancelled early.  Beware of the fees if you decide to do the same.

We purchased this little bit of awesomeness at Lowe's.  We paid $49.99 for ours, but we've found it and others similar to it for WAY cheaper at other stores like Walmart.  So, shop around.

My honey spared no time getting the digital antenna hooked up. It found 40 or more really good channels, not all I could understand (foreign language), but needless to say we have all the local channels plus more in the living room and the bedroom for "FREE".

Anyways, it says "FREE TV" right on the box, cool huh?  YES!  The digital antenna cost us the one time $49.99, so not completely free TV, but way cheaper than the $134 per month we were paying for our satellite TV service.

There are also so many other ways to watch almost free or free TV.  Check out Pinterst or Google for some very low cost or free ways to watch some of your favorite TV shows and movies.  We chose Netflix and we pay $7.99 per month.  We always find something interesting to watch on there.  We are saving about $126.00 per month now.  What a huge savings!  Who knew?  Now you do!  I hope you try it too.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
We Call It Junkin

Vintage Apron Curtain - The Valentine Version

Decorating with my vintage goodies is so much fun!  I actually came up with this idea last year, but I never blogged about it, so this year when I took down my Vintage Tablecloth Curtain from Christmas and hung up this sweet little pink gingham checked apron, I thought I show you.

Of course it was bit wrinkled from being stored, so I got out my spray starch and gave it a good ironing before I hung it.

I used my tension rod again and this time I used some little clippy hooks I found at Lowe's.  I used 4 of them to hold up the waist part of the apron and then just draped the sashes up and over the rod.  I know my rod and hooks don't match, but I'll be doing something about that soon! ;)

I shopped my vintage and Valentine goodies to find some pink and red stuff to go with the apron.  Of course there are chickens too.....chickens and roosters can be found everywhere in my kitchen!

This is a simple way to display your vintage aprons.  It also adds lots of fun to the kitchen window too!  If you have to stand at the sink for a while, why not have a nice view to enjoy?

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
We Call It Junkin

Valentine Heart Banner

Have you decorated for Valentine's Day yet?  How about this cute banner for your decor this year?  It's really simple to make and best of all its inexpensive!

I normally try and use black and red on my mantel, so that's what I used as my color scheme when making this banner.  I just used what I had in my craft stash and this little cutie cost me nothing!  Shop your own goodies when you want to create for less.

I used some basic packing twine to hang it, you know, the kind you use for postage type projects.  For the length of your twine, you will just need to measure your space where you plan on hanging your banner and go from there.

I used my Cricut Expressions machine and the Doodlecharms cartridge for my hearts.  My big heart measures 6", the medium one is 2" and the smallest one is 1".  I used old book pages and scrapbook papers in Valentine colors to cut out my hearts.  I got my wrinkle ribbon HERE.  I used it to make my little bow on the upper right hand side of each heart.  Each one is tied with more of the postage twine.

To make the little dangling hearts you see here, I used an old book page with my Cuttlebug and my scalloped heart Nesties to cut those out.  I cut out 12 hearts and then used two each to glue the red sewing thread in between each of them to create this look.

After you created your four completed hearts, attach them to the twine with tiny clothespins and then wrap the threaded hearts on by wrapping the thread around the twine.

Here's the cat's eye view.  When I first hung this up, the cats were very intrigued, but thankfully they have not bothered any of it. YAY!

I love this little vignette that I created on the fireplace area.  So happy and cheerful!

Ornament Heart Wreath, go HERE.
Pretty Rose Kissing Ball, go HERE.
Vinyl and Vintage Plates, go HERE.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
We Call It Junkin

Cupid's Arrow Heart

I have another heart shaped craft for you and this time its a little more involved than last week's wreath.  I actually had this yarn wrapped heart left over from a wreath I made last year.  You can read about that HERE.  You'll find directions on wrapping the heart with yarn in that post.

The heart you see below was made using items I had in my craft stash, but in case you don't have lots of "stuff" just hanging around like I do, it will be pretty cheap to recreate.

Since you probably don't have a yarn wrapped heart already lying around like I did, the yarn wrapping will be the hardest part of this project.  Okay, and maybe the flowers too if you don't already know how to create those.  Okay, so maybe its not so easy now!  Gosh!

Here's what you'll need to recreate my heart:

1 each - 9" foam heart form
1 roll - white/cream crepe paper streamer
1 skein - red yarn
1 square each - red and pink felt
10 each - pearl head pins
1/4 yard - Valentine fabric
1 each - 1/4" dow stick (about 18" long)
1 each - scrap of heavy card stock or cereal box
Hot glue gun and glue
Quick Dry Glue - I use Zip Dry or Aleen's Quick Dry Tacky Glue

Don't pay any attention to the roll of ribbon there, I change my mind a lot! I didn't end up using the ribbon.  To make the flowers from crepe paper, look HERE.  For the fabric flowers you can look HERE.  This is how I made paper roses, but its about the same thing only using fabric instead of paper.

To make the frilly little felt flowers you see on the right of the heart, you need 8 pink felt squares that measure 2" x 2".  First fold one point to the opposite side like you see above.

Then bring one of the free corners to the middle

Then the other free corner to the middle.

Now place a pearl head pin through the bottom point.

Push the pin into the foam heart form.

Using a hot glue gun, add the flowers you created with crepe paper and fabric.

Then using the above steps for folding the little felt squares, add about five more squares here and there around your flowers wherever you feel it needs to be filled in.

I took two small pieces of fabric and a few pearl head pins and added to the "flowers" on the right side of the  heart.  I felt it needed a bit more something else here.

To make Cupid's arrow, you'll need the 1/4" dow stick, red felt and a small amount of heavy card stock or cereal box.  I used my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug to cut out my hearts, but you can free hand them as well.  You will need two (2) hearts for the arrow.  Glue the felt heart onto the card stock for sturdiness.

Of course leave one heart intact, but cut the second heart in half and then place one piece on the other as you see above and glue together.

Hot glue your dow stick to the foam heart form in the position you want and then hot glue the full heart on at the top end of the stick and the half heart on the lower end of the stick.

This turned out stinkin' adorable if I do say so myself!  I hope you try one too.  Let me know if you do, I'd like to see it!  What kind of  Valentine's Day decor are you making?

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
We Call It Junkin