denise...on a whim: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Snoop-Dog {the snow version}

Just wanted to share my snow creation with you.

I just love Snoopy to pieces!

We had such great packing snow yesterday that I couldn't resist making him.

{even though my kids were with their dad at the time!}

I used some watered-down paint to color in his ears, eyes and nose.

He had the perfect resting spot on the peaked roof of the cellar!

Just like his very own doghouse :)

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Message Center {from a repurposed crate lid}

Meet our new message center.

This little beauty was made from a crate lid that Eric's boss was going to throw away (crazy people!). Thank goodness both his boss and mine are getting used to us collecting their trash. They've actually started asking us if we want stuff before trying to throw it away now! :)

Here is the message center before we did anything to it.

Just a plain, old crate lid. But loaded with potential!

I knew right away that is was completely perfect to make into a multi-purpose center for organizing notes and memos.

The first thing I did was paint the chalkboard area. Then I painted the frame in Coco ASCP™ and gave it a dry-brush coat of old white, just to add a little more texture. I put on a coat of both clear and dark aging wax, then added cork to the bottom inset.

I also knew I wanted some pegs or hooks on the bottom.

(In my house, there's always a need to hang up more stuff!)

Awhile back my boss had given me a coffee can full of miscellaneous hardware. Actually, he gave me 3 coffee cans full. I pulled these black knobs, if that's what you call them, out of the coffee can o'junk, made some measurements, drilled some holes and attached these to the bottom of the crate lid.

The message center was certainly coming together nicely. But it felt like it was missing something. So, I got out another coffee can. This one was full of plastic-covered magnetic cabinet door latches. It's also the very same can my boss said "you don't want this junk" about. Well, thank goodness I DID want that junk! Because those cabinet magnets certainly came in handy!

I took the metal pieces out of the plastic casings then used gorilla glue and clamps to attach them onto the top of the board. After they were dry, I pounded some great dark carpet tacks into the existing holes in the magnets.

I love the way this magnetic strip turned out!

The colors of the metals are great with the coco chalk paint.

Next, I cut some burlap and attached it to the inside of a few bottle caps, that had already been spray painted ivory, and glued magnet buttons to the backs.

I think these are the perfect little accessory for this piece! :)

I had purchased some pulls for this project because I really wanted to add these to the piece. Normally, we don't purchase anything. I suppose that every now and again it's ok. :)

The pulls came with screws that were too short. No problem. I went to the hardware store and bought longer screws. I even measured the depth of the wood before going so I would get the correct length. So much for my measuring skills! lol. The screws I purchased were still too short!

Man, was I bummed. I really wanted to finish this project and get some photos of it over the weekend, not have to make another trip to the store for more screws.

I got so fed up and irritated with myself about the lame-brain screw fiasco that I got the drill out, used my largest bit and, goll-darn it, if I didn't counter-sink those screws in the back of the board and get those pulls on after all! And all by my sweet little self, I might add!

Hooray for me!

I just might be getting the hang of this handy {wo}man stuff after all!

(But I'm still gonna leave the cutting and sawing to Eric.

I want to keep all of my fingers attached to my hand, after all!)

Hope you like the new message center!

Sharing...

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Monday, February 25, 2013

A Cola Kind of Weekend

If you know me, you know I'm a major coke addict. Coca-Cola that is! I have been for awhile and, even though I know it isn't good for me, I can't help myself. It's my not-so-secret indulgence. :)

For quite some time now, I've been seeing pins for the chocolate cola cake. I pinned it quite some time ago but hadn't tried it yet. Until this past weekend...

I must admit, I'm not a big chocolate lover. Chocolate just doesn't do it for me so much. But I do love a really good cake. And, as already established, Coke. And the pictures of this cake just looked so darn good! So I decided to give it a try.

It really couldn't have been any easier to make. You should copy the recipe I used because you SO need to try this cake! It was very dense and soooooo moist! It feels more like a brownie than a cake and the glaze is very rich. But the flavor is incredible! If you like chocolate at all, you should make this cake at least once! Mmmm-mmmm-good!

In addition to the cola cake, I also used cherry cola for our main dish. I just love the crock pot. So easy and meat always come out so tender. For our dish, I threw 4 chicken breasts, 1 jar of barbeque sauce, 1/2 a can of cherry cola and a 1/2 cup of brown sugar into the crock pot for about 5 hours. Yum! I'm not a huge fan of bbq sauce myself, but this was a really flavorful combination! My daughter ate it right up. (My son, well, he's a lot harder to please!) But Eric and I liked it a lot, too. And what does a 5 year old picky-pete know about good food anyway! lol

Sorry about the grainy pic of the cake I took with my phone. I was more worried about trying these dishes than taking any pictures for the blog. Oh well. Chances are, I'll be making this again and, maybe, I'll remember a pic next time! (If I'm not too busy thinking about how good the cake will taste when it's done!)

Friday, February 22, 2013

Card Catalog {Inspired} Entry Table

I'm excited to show off our new table today!

For this piece, we took a barn sale find (which was cool in and of itself... a cubby bin) and made it into a one of a kind table with 8 (yes 8!) drawers.

I only wish I had a before pic of the cubby. You'll have to forgive me. But when we first started our business, I didn't have a blog and never really thought too much about before pics.

It was just a plain white piece with beadboard on the back and 8 very deep cubbies. When I saw it, I absolutely had to have it! I just wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do with it. So, we sat on it for awhile...

But then I decided I wanted to put legs on it and make it a table. The hardest part was deciding whether to go vertical or horizontal with it. But we finally decided to make it

wider instead of taller and Eric constructed a base for it.

The problem with this piece, however, was the depth of the cubbies themselves. They are about 21" deep and, therefore, are a little difficult to use. It wouldn't have worked very well as a display curio. And, as for stuffing things in the cubbies, I was afraid whatever got stuffed in there would get lost because of their depth. Kind of like the black hole of cubby storage. And no one needs another black hole in their household. Am I right or am I right? :)

I was browsing around Pinterest one day (shocking, right? lol) and noticed how many card catalog tables I had pinned. And, it suddenly became clear that we needed to make drawers for these cubbies. That way, they would be much more practical for storage. Next thing up... to break the news to Eric that he had 8 drawers to make! :)

He took it well :)

I painted the cubby unit in Annie Sloan™ Old White and then, over that, a light coat of Coco. I then taped off the stripes for the grain sack detailing and painted those with Primer Red. (It's amazing, by the way, how far a little sample pot of ASCP™ can go! I've done SO many jobs with my little pot of Primer Red!) I then gave the whole thing a light sanding so the white would show through all over and the Coco would show through the Primer Red striping.

I applied a very dark wood stain to the inside of all the drawers and the base of the table and then gave the outsides of the handmade drawers a good, thick coat of Coco. Then I applied clear and dark wax all over it because I do like the way the Coco looks much more with dark wax.

Eric attached the cubby unit to the base and we added some inexpensive tarnished brass style knobs to the drawers. They coordinate nicely with all of the coloring on the table.

And there you have it. A one of a kind creation, with a whole bunch of storage, out of an inexpensive barn sale find. We hope you've enjoyed seeing it!

This project was featured here...