Reuse Revamp Repurpose

As mentioned yesterday, I re stained and repainted an old bench that Trevor's grandma had given to us.
Here is what it looked like originally

It really wasn't in bad shape at all, we just wanted to revamp it a little. It has some spots on the metal that looked like this:

So a guy at Lowes told me to use a neutralizer on it. (I used vinegar and water because I was told it would give the same results.)

Then I put a primer on it that also helps with rust

I waited about two hours and then spray painted it the color I wanted. -Which, if you saw yesterdays post I actually used the same color green that I used on the doormat

After the spray paint dried, I started putting stain on the wood to make it a dark rich color. I actually used the same color that Trevor used on his bar.

The color is Ebony

And here it is next to my new green doormat by our back door!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Doormat Project

Trevor and I have been looking for nice doormats to go at our front and back doors. I didn't really find anything that I liked so I saw an idea on pinterest (what's new) and decided to try it out!

(source)

First I found just black rubber doormats at Target ($12.99 each) I bought two of them.

I then bought spray paint...

orange to go by the front door

green to go by the back door. I would almost recommend this spray paint more for this type of project because it dried a lot quicker than the other brand.

After painting

I did about 3 coats on both of them

Here they are next to the doors...

I wanted it to match my wreath...if you saw my wreath blog then you know I changed the color of the numbers. Orange just looked better next to our trim and brick color.

I'm in the middle of redoing a bench (I'll maybe post about that tomorrow) and the sides of the bench are green so I thought it would look perfect next to this doormat!

This might not have been the most cost efficient way to get doormats, but all in all I spend about $35 for two doormats, and I had a little fun while doing it.

Happy Thursday!

Pick Me Pick Me

So I saw a cute idea from a website and I thought it would be great for my classroom. If you are a teacher, I'm sure you have that moment where you ask a question to your class and not a single hand goes up. Or, as I'm sure we all hate to admit, sometimes we know some students are just not paying attention. Well instead of always calling on the hands that shoot up when you ask a question, I decided to make a "Pick Me Pot"Here is the original:

(source)

Here is mine and how I did it...

I found a circular object (a protractor would work best) and outlined it and then put numbers in each one.

Then I cut out a little bit larger circles for the background. Then I glued them together.

Next up, glue them to popsicle sticks.

I got the little cup/pot at Target for $1.00.

Now hopefully all my students will be paying attention knowing they might be called on at any moment! ;)

For the Classroom...

I saw a cute "rules" poster on pinterest and I thought it would be fun to create my own. I don't really like calling them rules in the classroom so these are going to be our classroom norms to kick off the first day!
Here is mine:

In Our Class...we celebrate each other's success, we create, we are a team, we learn from our mistakes, we respect each other, we try our best.

 Here was the original one on pinterest...

(source)

I can't wait to actually get in my classroom and start decorating for the new year!

A Day in the Life of Me...Summer Edition

If this post isn't for anyone except my husband, I'm sure he would love to know what occupies my time all day long! ---but really, I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it would be fun to do a summer one and then another one when I am actually working. This was my day July 16th.

6:45 - I usually get up about this time and cook Trevor and myself some breakfast. Now I don't cook everyday, but I do often. We usually do something with sausage and eggs, sometimes in a burrito, and sometimes plain. We like to have a variety though. This morning I made cinnamon rolls.

7:00 - Trevor usually leaves about this time and my attention usually goes to the television. Trevor doesn't like too many of the shows that I watch, so I usually let our DVR record them and then I watch them in the morning. Since Army Wives is on Sunday night, this is the show I watched.

8:00 - I started a load of laundry and started the dishwasher. I haven't really cleaned the house much lately, so I thought it was time for a good cleaning. I started with the kitchen counter tops.

8:15 - I noticed that half my kitchen was flooded with water, so I called our Warranty people to come and check it out. I then had to mop up the floor from where the flooding occurred. I continued cleaning the kitchen.

9:00 - Time to fold the laundry! Winston loves to sleep on our laundry. About 10 seconds after I put them on the floor he had claimed his spot.

10:00 - Water the flowers, water the tree, mow the lawn. I feel like I have to mow the lawn about every 3 days!!

11:00 - POOL TIME!!! I absolutely LOVE having a pool in our neighborhood! I am usually out there for about an hour to an hour and a half! People are starting to know me just by how often I go to the pool because they always see my gold Jeep in the parking lot.

12:30 - Lunch time! I ate a lean pocket and cottage cheese.

1:30 - Run on the treadmill. Some days I like to do Zumba on the Wii, but lately I have enjoyed the treadmill! I usually watch a show or a movie, on this day I watched Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.

2:30 - Get ready for the day.

3:30 - Go to the grocery store to pick up a couple things for dinner.

4:30 - I got a call from the dishwasher appliance store and they are not going to be able to fix it for a couple days, so I decided I needed to hand wash all the dishes in the dishwasher.

Yes, I know, we use a lot of Joe's cups!

5:30 - Start dinner for me and the hubs. Last night I made a Chicken Spaghetti! I got the recipe from this little gem

7:00 - Eat dinner! And it was amazing!

7:30 - Start on dessert! I got the idea from a pin on pinterest (source here).
Chocolcate Chip Cookie/Oreo/Brownie Cupcakes!

8:00 - Watch the Bachelorette with the hubs (he will never admit to watching this show) and watched the Glass House (unfortunately we started watching this show and now we can't stop!)

10:30 - Bed Time!!

Welcome to a day in the life of me!
Where did the day go??? I ask myself that question every day!

We've Moved Annoucements

I had every intention of sending out Christmas cards this past year and for whatever reason it just didn't end up happening. I was quite upset about this, but then I knew we would be moving soon and so my goal was to send out We've Moved Annoucements! I was bound and determined to make that happen...And I did! Our friend took the pictures for us, please check out Taren Kade Photography.

It is a postcard and on the back has our new address! ;) We ordered them from www.tinyprints.com ...they have some of the cutest designs! Hopefully this year we will be able to get those Christmas cards out as well... but for now, I loved this idea and so happy that we did it. 

Wreath Making

As many of you know I am a teacher and now that I have been off work for almost 2 months, my "things to do around the house" list has come to an end and I need things to entertain myself. Today I thought making a wreath sounded like fun!..so off to Hobby Lobby I went (along with many other unnecessary pit-stops, sorry hubby!) I wanted to price some already made wreaths just to make sure I was getting a good deal. The only one I really liked was about $50.00! Unbelievable! The larger ones got up to about $165.00! So, needless to say, I stuck with my original plan to make one...here is what I purchased.

Wreath $4.99 + my 40% off coupon
Flowers $1.20 each (they were on clearance)
Paint $ .99
Numbers $ .99 each
I already had hot glue and paint brushes, so in all I spent about $13.00!

It really was quite simple. I painted the letters, cut the stems off the flowers and hot glued everything to the wreath!

It just didn't look complete, so I then added the greenery to it as well!

It didn't cross my mind how to hang it when I was at the store, so I haven't hung it on our door yet, but I think I am going to try and use a Command Strip! Do those work well? Does anyone have any other suggestions on hanging wreaths?

4th of July!

I realized I am a little late on posting something about the 4th of July...exactly a week late, but it was such a neat experience I definitely wanted to post about it.
I was asked awhile back to sing the National Anthem at the ONEOK Freedom Fest downtown before they set off fireworks on the 21st street bridge. At the event they had a Stars and Stripes Pavilion where they served food and beverages for free. To get in this tent usually costs around $80.00, however, the people that asked me to sing the National Anthem were very generous and gave me 10 tickets to this event...so it was great getting to hang out with friends and be rockin' it VIP style!

You have to look very closely, but my name is on the bottom right!

Friends that came out to support and watch the fireworks show!

Star Spangled Banner

Jets flying over right after I got done singing! Very neat!

Happy 4th of July!

We had great seats! I just love fireworks!

It was a wonderful 4th of July spent with family and friends...And the National Anthem went great!

Man Cave - Part 1

I'm not really sure how many "parts" this post is going to have, but here is the first one dedicated to Trevor's man cave! One of the perks of our home is, it has a 3-car garage. Prior to moving in we decided that the 3rd car garage would be Trevor's man cave.

I was very excited about this because technically the man cave is not "inside" the house! That is a win win in my book. Our main focus has been on the inside of the house and getting everything finished. (Even though, as most home owners would agree, you are never really 'finished' with a home. There are always more projects you want to do). We wanted to have friends over this weekend so Trevor was really motivated to get a move on the bar. The past few weeks he has been working non stop on his man cave. Speaking of this weekend and having friends over...we had such a great time and sadly I didn't take a single picture!!!! I'm very disappointed in myself!...but here are a couple pictures of the progress to the man cave.

Just starting the frame

As you can see he made the dimensions to fit a cooler, a trash can, on the far left will be a mini fridge, and the corner will be shelves.

Please notice the ORANGE wall! This was my contribution to the man cave.

Everything fits perfectly.

We were not planning to put a TV in the man cave until later, but we got a really good deal on a day we were not really looking for one. So we put the new TV in our living room and moved the living room one to the man cave.

He initially bought a cherry looking stain for the trim pieces. After seeing it up against the orange wall it was what we were looking for. The barn tin was all Trevor's idea.

After painting a different stain over the first one. It looks almost black with a little hint of cherry now. It looks great!

The top of the bar will eventually be bottle caps, which Trevor has been saving since his freshman year of college! We have several things we would like to hang on the walls, but that time will come soon. Trevor got an awesome idea for the bar stools...you will just have to wait and see about those! And the final touch will be a pool table...that probably won't be for awhile!
If you need any help building a bar (or something like it) Trevor is pretty close to a pro now!

Have a great Sunday!!! I just noticed I have officially been blogging for a year! Happy Blogger Anniversary to me!