Search Craigslist Faster!!!

I've been using this awesome way of searching craigslist for a while now and realized that I hadn't shared it on here.  If you use craigslist to find used items and hate how long it can take to weed through all the garbage listed on there, have I got a way to help!

It's a bookmarklet called Craigseasy.  What it does is let you search craigslist in just pictures.  Then you can quickly scan down the list and see what is good and find what you want SOOO much faster.  I used to spend 30 mins to an hour opening and closing listings looking for what I wanted.  Now the same search will only take me under 5 mins!

Here's what you do.  Go to Craigseasy. Follow the easy instructions to download the bookmarklet.

It takes less than a minute to do this.  You add craigseasy to your favorites up in your tool bar.  Then, go to craigslist like usual.  Put in your search parameters, like "couch", click "furniture by owner", and click the "has image" box (be sure to do this step!)  Then hit "search."  You'll see your usual search list in text.  Now, for the magic... Go up to "Favorites" and click on your new "craigseasy" button.  In a few seconds, up will come you search for "couches" but in pictures!

Now you can just scroll down the search results and see what's out there.  If something looks interesting and you want to read more details about it, just click on it's title and the listing details will come up.

I can't tell you how much time this has saved me and enabled me to get some great deals off craigslist by only spending a few minutes a day.  Go! Get this Bookmarklet now!

My First Chalk Paint Project

Have you ever been so excited about how a project is turning out that you show it off before it's even all the way done?  No?  Well, I am going to.  I have been DYING to try out the amazing chalk paint all summer.  My wonderful friend, Amber, of Shades of Amber (click on this link to order), has recently become Colorado's only stockist of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  She was kind enough to send me a quart for me to try.

 I heard all the rave reviews about this last winter and have been wanting to try it ever since.  It may seem a bit expensive at $36.95 a quart- but believe me, it's worth it.  It's a beautiful, thick, creamy texture and spreads beautifully.  The best part is that you don't have to prime, sand or strip down your furniture.  Yup, that's right, just spread the gorgeous paint right on. 

So, here's my guinea pig project. A nice, round coffee table I found cheap on craigslist.

 See that nice glossy, stained finish?  Well, it didn't last long with chalk paint.  In the past I would have had to sand it down a bunch, wipe it down, apply a couple of coats of primer and then get around to painting.  With chalk paint, it's all instant gratification (definitely my type of project.)  I used both a nice purdy-brand brush and a foam roller to apply three coats of paint.  You only need to wait about an hour between coats (see, it IS instant gratification at it's best!)

This is what she looked like with just one coat of "cream" chalk paint:

I was impressed at how thick the paint was, making very few drips or paint brush marks.  It dries very fast, though, so go light, rather than thick as you apply it.  After the three coats, I let it dry overnight.

When dry, you are left with a nice smooth, but matte surface. Here's where the fun begins.  Because of it's chalk nature, it sands away beautifully.  I sanded all the edges to give it a nice aged patina.

It does leave quite a mess of chalk dust when you sand, so do it outside (not inside, on carpet, like I did!)

  I knew right away what I wanted to do to make this table special.  Like the tables I did in my last post here, I found an old french label from The Graphics Fairy (an awesome copyright-free website of clipart) and blew it up at Kinkos.

So here is what it looks like so far.  I still need to use a couple coats of wax to seal in the paint and lettering.  The wax will harden and protect as well as give the piece a sheen (when I finish with the wax, I'll add a post script on with a picture.)

 I love how it looks now!  I'm still not sure it's the right scale for the room, but I'd sure have a hard time parting with it.  It was such a fun, quick project (probably a total of only 2 1/2 hours of work!)

So, are you sold on chalk paint yet?  Well look at all the amazing colors it comes in (and yes, you can layer or mix colors.)

Shades of Amber  (click on link to order) offers a beautiful color deck that you can buy so that you can see what you're getting before you mortgage the farm or cat or whatever to buy the paint!  Brilliant, huh?  What's even better is that they've covered one side in clear wax and the other side in the brown wax so you can really see how it changes/accentuates the color! Amber sent me a deck and it really is beautifully done.

I also recommend visiting Amber's blog to see projects done with chalk paint.  She even hosts a fun link party on Mondays so you can get further inspiration and ideas of what can be done with chalk paint. I'll be linking up my table on Monday, Amber!!!

I would also recommend visiting Miss Mustard Seed's blog posts about chalk paint and her video tutorials on wax if you're feeling a little nervous about trying this.

I still have 3/4 of a can left after painting this table, so I plan on painting a secretary desk that's in my daughter's room next!  I can't wait!!  So what are you going to try Chalk Paint on?

This week I'm linking to:

Furniture Feature Friday
Frugal Friday
Addicts (not so) Anonymous party
Show and Tell Saturday
DIY Project Parade
Shades of Amber Chalk Paint Party

A Few Sanity Projects

Soooo, I've been planning a church girls camp since January and it all came to a close with the big event itself mid-July.  It's been really busy and a bit stressful to plan a week camp for 90+ girls and a bunch of adult staff.  That hasn't left me too much time to do all the decor projects I've wanted to around the house.  Still, to keep sane, I had to do a few quick projects (it's truly how I recharge.)  Now that camp is over and I'm home from a 2-week family trip, I'm finally able to share a few photos of those "sanity-saving" projects.

First, I found this cute trunk/coffee table at a garage sale.  I immediately saw potential.  I loved the unique elephant legs. I bought it for all of $15 because there was a fair amount of pen and marker scribbles on the top.  Well, no problem.  I pulled out my trusy palm sander and in about 5 minutes I had a nice clean surface. I applied two coats of Minwax Jacobean and a few coats of wipe-on poly. 

Isn't it cute?  Sadly, it was just to small for the scale of my room.  I listed it on craigslist and it sold quickly for a nice little profit.

For my next project, I found this cute little table sitting out with someone's trash on a neighboring town's large-item trash day.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but you're really not missing much.  Someone had mod podged a poorly-colored backgammon and scrabble boards on the top.  I first tried a little goo-gone, but that was taking too long.  So I pulled out the big guns and used our big belt sander.  It tore that paper right off and I took off all the existing finish. I intentionally used the front of the sander to gouge the wood to get a "hand-scraped" look. I then went over the whole top with my palm sander to smooth out the wood again. I put one coat of dark walnut stain on.
     I had seen this idea for using a free graphic label from graphicsfairy on the top.  I loved the idea and knew I could recreate it using my old carbon paper method I used back on my Subway signs here.  I found the label I wanted and took it to Kinko's to have it blown up to a large size, costing only about $3.

I taped on the enlargement and slid under carbon paper as I traced the whole thing.  That left me with faint lines to fill in using a black paint pen.  After it dried, I sanded it with sand paper and roughed it up.  I then applied another very light coat of stain and followed up with a few coats of poly.  And here it is:

I freshened up the bottom part with some Heirloom White Spray paint.  I love how it turned out and it sure helped with de-stressing me. I've realized that I really enjoy re-finishing furniture. I love taking something ugly or out-of-date and bringing it back to life!

I'll be back soon with some more projects that I've recently completed and am about to start my first furniture make-over with Chalk Paint (can I tell you how excited I am to try this?!)

Have fun!

DIY Kokeshi Dolls

Our Kokeshi Family

When we lived in Japan, my daughters and I collected Japanese Kokeshi (traditional wooded dolls) from used shops. We loved seeing the different sizes and odd shaped heads. We have a shelf just for them in our new basement bookshelves:

 I looked and looked for blank Kokeshi dolls and could never find any.  So, I decided to make my own!  I scoured the woodworking suppliers online and found so many different shapes.  I decided to make our family as Kokeshi dolls! 

After ordering the pieces, I had to connect the heads to the bodies.  I used wooden dowel pins.

  All you have to do is drill a hole slightly bigger than the pins in the head and the body, fill the holes with wood glue, and use the pin to join the two.  It was really easy and they are nice and sturdy.

The hardest part was painting the dolls to look like us.  This is where I totally cheated- I had my amazing sister-in-law do it!  I have no painting skills beyond painting a wall or furniture.  Remember these gorgeous Nesting dolls she helped me do for a Christmas gift:

I printed out some photos of our family for her, along with some pictures of Japanese Kimono designs for her to use as inspiration.  Aren't they amazing?

That's me!  I had a hard time finding large enough wood spheres for our heads so that's an apple for my head (on a small wood bowling pin shape) and my husband's head is an orange wood shape and his body was a wood lighthouse, with the top sawn off!  See, I had to get creative to get the different sizes for everyone.

For our twin's bodies I used wood jump rope handles!  Just look at the cute designs on their Obi (the sash/belts.)  How cute are those?!

If I remember right, I used some really weird wood pieces to make these kids.  One is a candle stick holder, another an egg cup and even a train smoke stack!  Told you I had to get creative.

I found a half-moon window at a gentleman's farm and loved it for it's shape.  I had been wondering how to use it and wouldn't you know it, the dolls fit perfectly!  I had to take out all the old glass, make a flat surface on the inside for the dolls to sit on and had to cut down the depth of the whole frame (it had been really deep.)  I worried about the dolls tipping over and breaking, so I made little "stands" for them by hammering in some long finishing nails (with no heads) and drilled a hole in the bottoms of the dolls to slip over the nails. 

I chose to hang it in our oft-traveled hallway. I love how it turned out!!  A million Thanks, Ellen.  I think this is my first family heirloom!!


























This week I'm Linking up to:

Tea Rose Home
Frugalicious Friday
Addicts (not) so Anonymous
Show and Tell Saturday
Weekend Wrap up Party

Boys Airplane Bedroom

I've been wanting to share pictures of my 8 and 4 year-olds' airplane room for a while now.  It never seemed "done" enough or clean enough to photograph.  It also gets a lot of sunshine from a very big window.  That's a wonderful thing for playing and hanging out, but not so good if you're trying to photograph it.

It started with a paint job of a creamy tan and a very wide blue stripe all the way around the room.  I then found some adorable airplane fabric at Wal-mart and made two comforters out of it (I reused their old twin quilts for the inner batting to the new ones to same money.)

I then collected a bunch of artwork and metal airplanes at garage sales.

For the prints below, I bought a cheap calender and simply layed the pictures on a couple sheets of scrapbook paper to make a "reverse" matting. I found some square frames at a garage sale, painted them black and voila, easy, inexpensive art:

All the planes were a few dollars each and we hung them from eye hooks with fishing line so they would like like they are flying (well, except this one-it already had hanging hardware:)

I made simple red valances, trimmed with blue ribbon to keep out of the reach of little ones.  Ideally, I'd like to do drapes, but that will have to wait a few years.

This room didn't have any ceiling light, so my handy dandy husband climbed into the attic and wired the ceiling for a lighted fan (we HAVE to have fans in IL to battle the humidity.   It's a MUST!)  So if we had to have a fan, how about one that says "airplane"?  Isn't it perfect?

One of the boys' dresser is housed in the closet, but the other little guy's needed to be out in the room.  I found this dresser for $5 at a garage sale and thought I'd try a Union Jack design since I've been seeing them across blogland lately.  Well, they're not as easy as they look!  Mine turned out okay, but was harder because I didn't choose a dresser with smooth, flush drawers.  Tape would NOT stick to all the routed edges, so a crisp line wasn't possible.  I had to freehand it, and that's definitely not my forte.  I choose to rough mine up and added a tinted wax to the finish to "antique" it.

I like the punch of pattern and color it gives to the room.  With about $15 in painting supplies plus the $5, it's not bad for $20.

We found two sets of these solid bunkbeds last summer at a garage sale for only $60 each set!  Can you believe it?  I couldn't either!! They were hardly used since they were from this couple's cabin. One set went in here and another set in our guest room.  I just love what you can find at garage sales!

My sister even found them a propeller coat hanger thingy at her garage sales!  This room really came together and leaves a nice amount of space to spread out the lego-building, marble runs or whatever!  It looks all clean and bare, but believe me, it doesn't stay this way long!!

Well, thanks for looking.  They love it and it should grow with them for a while.

Room tally:
Bunkbeds: $60
5 pieces of artwork & frames: $25
3 Metal Planes: $17
Curtains: $5
2 Comforters: $20
Dresser: $20
Propeller Coat Rack: $3
Total for room decor: $150!!!!!
(thank you, garage sales!)



This week I'm participating at:
The Nester
Tea Rose Home
Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hooking up with HoH
Frugal Friday
Feature Yourself Friday

Simple, inexpensive sconce update

When we moved into our current home, the previous owners had wiring for sconces in place, but no light fixtures up yet.  We actually already had a pair of simple sconces leftover from our home in Japan.  When we unpacked in this house, we threw those up on the wall and there they sat for the last 7 years.  They weren't horrible, just not the right scale for these large, two-story walls.

Okay, let's play "I spy".  Can you find a sconce in this photo?

No? Don't worry, no one else could either. You can "see" one of them under the tall, rectangular floral print on the left of the curtains.  They were just too small and not much of a statement. 

I scoured the stores and looked online for a pair of affordable, vintage and unique sconces.  Nothing was jumping out at me or ones I did like, were so out of my budget it wasn't even funny.  Then, I remembered an idea my Mom had used when building an addition on her home.  She had chosen an outdoor garage light fixture and installed it inside.  Voila! I found my solution and in my price range.

Isn't she pretty? She doesn't look like the typical garage light, does she? It has this lovely mottled glass and just the right character I was looking for. I found them at Lowe's for $35 each (they've since gone up a few dollars.) I bought one with some decorating earnings and got the other for Mother's day!   After ten minutes of wiring, we had them up!

I adore how they hang out from the wall, making them more noticeable.

They're twice the size and the darker finish gives it twice the impact.  I'm in love!

I bought fairly low watt bulbs, but I plan on going even lower to soften the effect more. Even so, I love them during the day and love them at night!

I'm not sure if you can see the lovely bubbled finish to the glass.  It's one of the things that really added to it's look. They were just what I was looking for.  I took down the floral prints above them and am just living with the "simpler" look for now.  I may put a mirror above each if I were to find just the right ones.  Not sure about that yet. It would have to either be very vintage and industrial or have a bit of ethnic flair to them.  Here are a few I like:

Of course, most of these are coming in at around $400, so that is NOT going to happen.  I may take a plain rectangular mirror and add my own wood moulding to make a design.  Definitely a project that is going to have to wait until after my crazy summer.

I really enjoy making these small changes and seeing how it changes the whole feel to the room.  This was one of those changes that the second I held the lamps up, I knew it was the right touch for the room. Hope you enjoyed seeing this little alteration to my family room.

Have fun!