Vanity Re-Do with DIY Chalk Paint

Since summer began, I've been working on a bunch of BIG chores that I never have time to do. I've also started paying attention to my bedroom, really the only room I haven't decorated in the house. I want to make it a place we WANT to be. I want it to be relaxing, and beautiful. I bought this small old desk a couple of years ago so that I would have a place to sit down and put on my make-up and dry my hair. I didn't paint it, and it really just looked horrible. I can't believe I let this go so long.

 Here is what it looked like yesterday...

 Last night I picked up some gray satin paint. This morning I simply mixed a tablespoon of non-sanded white grout and about 16 oz of paint. I brushed on two coats of paint and it's like a brand new piece!

 I put on a light coat of wax to finish it off. Did I mention this piece is LAMINATE?! Yep! I used this recipe for chalk paint and I didn't even have to sand it.

I can't believe how easy it is to use this method to paint furniture. I am notorious for loathing furniture painting.

Spindle Jewelry Holder

If you've read my blog for awhile, you might remember when I made a photo holder from two short spindles and some chicken wire. You can see it here. I was never crazy about the green color on this, and how dirty the spindles looked. I've been in the process of perking up our bedroom. I'm loving the time off from home school! I actually have time to do the things I want and need to do. 

I simply painted it with some leftover white satin paint, mixed with a bit of non-sanded white grout. It makes a DIY chalk paint and I love how easy it is to work with and how well it covers! 

I brushed a bit of it on the dirty looking spindles to give them a white wash. All I had to do was hang little "S" hooks on the chicken wire and I now have a spot for all of my necklaces!

Reclaimed Wood Insert Wall

I am so THRILLED with how this project turned out. You know how sometimes you have a fabulous idea in your head, and then you do it, and it looks like a 5 year old did it? I was afraid that might happen, but I'm happy to say that this turned out to be my favorite project ever. I am still toying with the idea of cutting out a few pieces to take it all the way to the floor, but the plugs and wires are ALL over the wall behind the TV. I think I might just measure long enough to tuck the wood just behind the TV and avoid the plugs. Not sure yet.

I have seen planked walls all over the Internet and have been dying to do one. But I wanted to do it right, so it took me awhile to get all of my ducks in a row. 

 First, I found the old white chippy window frames at a salvage yard in Santa Cruz. I think I paid about $10-$15 for the pair. I like how they look like giant Polaroid frames, with the piece on the bottom slightly bigger. I didn't know what I wanted to do with them, but I knew I'd use them eventually.

A friend of mine replaced her fence, so when I asked on Facebook about old wood, she let me know I could have her old stuff for free. I have to admit, it's kind of a messy job working with old wood. First you have to make sure they are safe and don't have termites. Then you have to pressure wash them to get off layers of dirt and spiders. Next, I set them out to dry in the sun. 

 I used my saw to cut off the top angled piece of the wood. The challenge with cutting this kind of wood, is that some of them are more cracked than others and they can split on you after you cut them. Thankfully I had enough to finish the project. I started this project in the upper left corner of the insert wall, pre-drilling holes to prevent the wood from splitting, and making sure the wood screws went into the studs into the walls.

After the first piece, I enlisted my husband's help because it was too hard to hold the wood above my head and drill at the same time. This project really needs two people if you don't want to end up pulling your hair out. We worked down the left side of the wall, and then went up to the top of the right side and worked down, measuring and cutting each row, as each piece on the left was slightly different. 

 My husband has been wanting his deer in the house for MANY, many years, but I've never found a spot where I thought it wouldn't look out of place. Next, I hung up my old window frames. They don't have glass in them, so they're just empty wooden frames.

 Inside each frame, I hung up my 11x14 art prints from The Wheatfield, by Katie Daisy. I knew that since the windows were so big, the art needed to be substantial size so that they wouldn't look shrunken in the frame. I used a coupon and bought these two frames from World Market that I fell in love with a couple of weeks ago. They go PERFECTLY here! World Market has seriously stepped up their game, I could spend a fortune in there if I had one!

I wanted to really LOVE the art that I would hang up here, since it will be focal point of the room. I kind of wanted them to be family mantras. I looked over SO many of Katie's prints, and went back and forth on my favorites. There are so many that I could have chosen and completely loved. I decided on "Choose Love" and "Live with Passion" because they really sum it all up. When making a choice, the answer should ALWAYS be "choose love". We should never want to choose otherwise, hard as it is sometimes. This seemed like a good daily reminder of where our hearts should be. I chose "Live with Passion" because, well duh... we should live with passion. If not, we're probably doing something wrong, or are wandering about aimlessly. Both very good messages for our family!

Hope you like it as much as I do!

Gluten Free Salted Caramel Granola

I wanted to share with you my latest gluten free go-to. Smoothies are great, but eventually you can get burned out on them every day. I looked up a few different granola recipes, but I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, and I didn't want to go to the store. So even better, this is the lazy gal's homemade granola. 

 Granola is so easy to make, and really satisfying.

 Mix:
 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. honey (local is best)
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix it well with a whisk to break up the brown sugar.

Add 2 cups of gluten free old fashioned oats and about 1/2 cup chopped almonds. Stir well until all of the oats are coated.

Here's the good part... I heated up my Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce in the microwave (because I store it in the fridge) for about 30 seconds. I wanted it to be easy to mix into the oats. This brand is gluten free and from Trader Joe's. Add 1 Tbsp. (more if you like) and stir it all up again.

 I line my baking sheet with parchment or a baking liner that's nonstick. Spread it out as much as you can.  Bake at 325 for 35 minutes. Check it at about 30 minutes, as all ovens are different. You want it to get beautifully browned and toasted. Pull it out of the oven and let it cool completely.

 This is one of my favorite ways to eat it... as cereal with Vanilla Almond Milk, topped with berries.

Store it in an airtight container. I like to use my Weck jars that I got from Crate and Barrel. It even looks pretty on my open shelf. Enjoy!

Vintage Revamp with Crate Shelf DIY

I've been thinking about changing a few things up in my house lately. Actually, I've started a list for summer projects. Planking the inset wall behind the tv is at the top of the list, and my mess of a bedroom is a close second! 

This week has kind of made me stir crazy. I was sick over the weekend and it was so terrible that it left me really weak for the first half of the week. Then one of my daughters got it, and now my other daughter might have it. We've had lots of movies and what seems like non-stop couch time.

I decided today that I would use my time cooped up at home to make a few changes with stuff I already had. 

 First up, I wanted to mount this BIG (it's much bigger than it looks in the photo) crate on the wall as a shelf. The problem was, there was a phone jack mounted to the wall here. We don't even HAVE a home phone anymore because we just use our cell phones.

I decided to try to remove it. In the past, I just covered it up with various things that didn't have to sit flush to the wall. It was easier than I thought!

I used long screws and a stud finder to mount the shelf securely to the wall. You find studs in the strangest places when hanging heavy things, so my screws are actually dead center through the crate back wall. If my metal tray wasn't in the photo, you would see the screws.  I bought that huge frame at a junker's paradise in Capitola. The cream chalkboard I'd made awhile back and never used.

 I then started pulling stuff from other places in the house to arrange the crate. It's tall so it looks weird if there isn't color going up high inside it. I planted some succulents in an old floral tin that I thrifted last week.

 Here's kind of a wide angle of my dining room. It's actually bigger than it looks, so I guess I didn't stand far enough back.

 I scored some old glass milk bottles at a yard sale last week and they came in this small crate. I turned it on its side and put it on the kitchen counter. I found that cute little blue jar at World Market and I use it to store my chia seeds for smoothies.

 I bought this little old mint tin at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago. It makes the perfect quirky planter for a succulent.

I feel like I'm finally starting to make my house look the way I feel on the inside. It might be a little strange to some people, but I just LOVE old stuff mixed with new. You don't have to wait around for your bank account to allow for you to make your house the way YOU want it. You just have to think outside the box.

Teacher Appreciation Lunch with The Planing Mill

This week is teacher appreciation week. If you know that we home school, you might be surprised to know that we actually HAVE teachers. We belong to a charter school and we are blessed by the wonderful teachers who guide us parents through teaching our children at home. They also put a lot of hours and effort into the electives and trips that they offer, to enrich learning at home. Since we are not a "traditional" school, we don't have a PTA to organize special things like this for the teachers. I wanted to do SOMETHING, so I put out a message in our school Facebook group to see if any other families wanted to help out. A group of us set out to host a great lunch for our teachers, and it happened to coincide with finishing up the STAR testing for the week. Bonus!

 I ordered the food from The Planing Mill, in Visalia. If you're local and you haven't tried it, seriously, wait no longer! Everything there is fabulous! A little further down, you'll see some close up of the food.

 For dessert, they had a White Chocolate Raspberry bundt cake with cream cheese frosting.

 Are these flowers not gorgeous? I took my blue mason jars to my friend who also volunteered to help, and she CUT all of these flowers from yards with the permission of various friends. They are SO beautiful.

 Each teacher got a little tiny bag  stamped with "thank you", and inside was a See's candy box and a info magnet from the catering restaurant.

 This first box is an enormous Antipasto Misto. I can't even tell you how bad I wanted to snag a piece! ;)

 I also ordered a BIG Greek salad, and two Artisan pizzas.

I think it turned out GREAT, thanks to the families for stepping up to appreciate some teachers and to The Planing Mill for some FABULOUS food!

Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Redwood Canopy Tour

I wanted to share a bit about our quick weekend trip in Santa Cruz/Scott's Valley/Capitola. We decided to go to a city that neither of us had ever been to before. We mostly explored Santa Cruz, but stayed at the Hilton in Scott's Valley. It was a quick 10 minute drive to get to the hotel, but it was beautiful! The hotel looked like a stone caste, nestled in the woods. 

The photo above is our view from lunch, at The Crow's Nest. It was just "ok", not bad, just nothing special except for the view. We watched about 50 tiny sailboats going out for a race or something. 

We followed the crowd and checked out the Beach Boardwalk. I liked the sky ride, but it was a bit scary when it kept stopping and hanging there. Apparently some people have trouble getting on and off a ride that moves 2 miles an hour, and they have to stop the ride. Our bravery was rewarded, because at the other end of the ride (it's one way), there was a Dole Hut selling Pineapple soft serve and floats just like near the Tiki Room at Disneyland. It's my favorite! We made the mistake of riding the Big Dipper and HATED it. It's the 5th oldest roller coaster in the country and boy can you tell. It doesn't look bad, but every muscle in my neck and upper back have ached ever since, like whiplash. Seriously! It would be a fun place to take the kids, because you could literally walk down the steps and be on the beach, or playing games and riding rides. Plus there's NO entry fee, you just pay as you play or buy a wristband for all day. 

We decided after that first lunch, to attempt to find the local hole-in-the-walls with GOOD food. We weren't looking at the presentation, but wanted what you would eat all the time if you lived there. We used Yelp and searched "local favorites" and found Aloha Island Grill for dinner. It was REALLY good. It doesn't look like much, has a teeny tiny parking lot, but we ate cheap and GOOD! After that, we tracked down this old Ice Cream place we'd passed earlier in the day. It was an old red building and I loved the old sign. Ice Cream by Marianne. They have a line out the door, and every ice cream imaginable. 

 By FAR my favorite thing we did was the Redwood Canopy Tour at Mount Hermon. It was scary for the first time or two, but by the middle of the tour, you don't want it to end. See that faint rope bridge in the background of the photo above? That was actually harder for me mentally than the zip lines. You're on it with a few other people, and although you're harnessed in, the shaking of it as you walk high in the trees is kinda freaky as you're looking to the ground. If you look closely in the photo above, you'll see my husband on the zip line.

These photos show him as he was coming toward the platform I was on.

 Our guides were wonderful and really funny. We had Cameron and Brad, and they made us all feel completely safe and well taken care of.

You had to stand up on a mini picnic table for him to hook you up the the zip line each time. Your two safety straps are still secured when you move to another line. The different zip lines are different heights and lengths, so the speeds are different, and they also teach you how to cannonball and pick up speed.

My husband took this photo of me coming toward the platform he was on. You can even rent a helmet cam, but we used zipper pockets on our jackets for our iphones.

 This is the ending platform. Back on the ground. Insert frown face. It was a breathtakingly beautiful two hours, and WELL worth the money. I can't wait to do it again!

The last thing we did before leaving was hit up a store that I also found on Yelp. It's called Capitola Freight and Salvage.  This photo only shows a fraction of what they had. We spent a long time there, searching every nook, cranny, pile, and field. I could have bought a lot more, but I went easy, and just bought two old windows (minus the glass, which means they were cheap), and a really big old frame. All three for only $23. They had every window, shutter, door, cabinet, wire, metal, old wood you could think of! I REALLY wanted to buy one of those old rusty claw foot pieces to use in a new way, but they were $40 each! Actually I wanted two to turn upside down and make a shelf.

We had such a great time, I can't wait to go back and explore some more. There was so much that we didn't have a chance to see.