Ode to a power sander...

This is my new BFF, my husband's Black and Decker Cyclone sander. I am currently repainting my backed bar stools to go along with my kitchen makeover.

One was white and the other were all oak. Long story as to why. Anyway, the first 2 I decided to hand sand, let me just say that was a mistake. It took forever and still I didn't do that great of a job, I am praying that the primer keeps the paint from peeling :D

I finally got brave and be bopped out to the garage to the cabinets filled with all sorts of manly tools. My in-laws always get Eric tools for holidays, b-days etc. Well a while ago (2 summers ago I think) Eric bought a Black and Decker cyclone sander.

I pulled that puppy right out and went to town on the remaining two bar stools. It was like the angels were serenading me. This little thing makes the sanding soooooo much easier. You can switch between a circle sanding pad, great for flat surfaces or a more rectangular one with a pointy tip to get into those little grooves.

My hands do get a little shaky, but it is just the right size and isn't hard to handle.

So that is my ode to my BFF! I will hopefully have bar stools posted soon, I have one more chair to go and it is 2/3 sanded, but Lindsay told me to stop she was sick of the noise!

From this to that....

I have been on the hunt for something that would work for Lyds to wear as Glinda's hat for the Wizard of Oz party. The crown is very oddly shaped and I knew I would have to be creative to make something work.

I found this little tin flower pot at the Dollar Tree and thought that I might be able to work with it. I really liked that the pot had some embossing already done.

First I studied a scrapbook paper with a close up of Glinda and her crown. Then I had to make a template to trace on to the flower pot. Here the pot is with the template traced onto it.

Nothing from my crafting stash worked to cut through the tin so I had to find hubby's metal snips in the garage. Even with them it was a bear to get through the top rounded edge, once I snipped that off it was easy to cut out the rest.

I tried to paint it with some acrylic paint but that wasnt working at all. I ended up popping over to Walmart and getting a can of silver paint. I gave it one good coat and then I had to solve the issue of sharp edges.

The next step was soooooo tedious. I had to take really tiny pieces of masking tape and carefully line them up and fold them over the sharp edges. Once that was done I coated the crown in another coat of silver to cover the tape and to cover any missed spots.

To give it one final dash of sparkle I added lots of silver and clear Stickles (that's glitter glue in case you didnt know).

I also added a white organza ribbon to tie under Lyd's chin. I actually think I am going to add elastic instead and no-slip drawer liner to the bottom to aid in keeping it on Lyd's head.

I am pretty proud how it turned out, I do wish it had some dangling bling in the front like Glinda does in the movie, but I think that would irritate Lyds and I am just praying that she wears it at all :D

Wizard of Invites are DONE!!!

Whoooo hoooo the Wizard of Oz invites are finally done! The first thing that I can fully check off of my party to-do list!

I ended up going with the invite that has Dorothy and Toto on a cool foldy card. I couldn't have done these without my cricut, I used it to cut the cards from the Wild Card Cartridge, Animal Kingdom for Toto and also the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge for Dorothy and all her clothing/accessories.

It did take some time to figure out the right cuts do to for Dorothy because there isn't a Wizard of Oz set on the cartridge. It would have rocked if there had been!

I stamped the outside of the card with a stamp I had on hand, it sort of looks brickish and did the trick so I went with it. The card opens like a box, closed using the flaps.


Here are a pile of inviations, I made 25 of them. It wasn't too bad using an Assembly Line, thank you Henry Ford.


Using a stamp with a witch on it I made tiny little wicked witch charms using shrinky dinks.


If you are interested the inside says....


ATTENTION ALL MUNCHKINS!

We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The Wizard requests your presence to help celebrate Lindsay's 5th birthday. So follow the Yellow Brick Road to Emerald City (then my address) on July (date).

RSVP: To Michelle, The Mayor of Munchkinland


I'd also like to send some props to my friend Aura who did a similar folding card for her son's pirate b-day!

Revamped Book Ends

So I spied than adorable set of A-Z bookends at Hobby Lobby, and actually after further inspection I am even unsure if they are bookends or are just decorative statues. They were $16 per letter, and I really wasn't going to pay that. I supposed sooner or later they'd go an sale but for the life of me I can't figure out what catergory they'd fall under.

Last Saturday Lydia and I headed out to some garage sales and found 3 pair of bookends. One pair had ratty and torn teddy bears (not to mention dusty as all get out) on them, but they were pretty sturdy.

I bought a pair of A and Z letters were on sale at Hobby Lobby and made them $3 for the pair.

Then I removed the bears and tossed them away and then I sanded and painted the books black.

I also painted the letters black and then hot glued them together! They look pretty nice up on top of my fridge holding up my cookbooks. Especially my new favorite book "Hello Cupcake" totally cute book!!

Garage sale finds!

So yesterday and today the girls and I headed out for garage sales. Oh how I love this time of year!! We found lots of great things, some things are ready to go and some need a little attention to make them work for us.


I swung by a local church and they had all the clothes marked 10cents. I got 1 pair of Old Navy capris, a pair of DKNY jeans, 2 WM capris, 1 pair of Silver jeans, a brand new Old Navy shirt and a shirt for a scarecrow for 70cents! Sweet!!





I got Lyds 4 new swimsuits, Disney princess, Dora and Land's End for 25cents each. I never buy adult swimsuits, that's gross, but I figure little kids wear swimmie diapers and these all look barely worn!


Here is a raggedy Disney princess dress. I (or Lydia) needs it for the fabric on the skirt. I paid $1 for it and the tuelle I found at the store was $6.99 a yard. My mom and I are going to deconstruct and form a new Glinda dress for Linds' Wizard of Oz party. Isn't the tuelle just perfect!!!






These candleholders were $2 for the set, I am either going to paint them black and put them on top of my fridge or they are going to go in the center of my dining room table.









Here is a pile of Little People animals and Noah. they were 10 cents each (so $1.50)








The girl's fav find of the day a Bitty Baby trike. I paid $5 and they sale for $20+ on Ebay and $10 to ship the little heavy sucker.

2 black shelves that already match the shelves in my living room, not sure what I am doing with them exactly but for $1 I bought them (they are $29.99 at Kohls)

Ugly, ugly book ends for 50cents, they are getting revamped soon!

Another set of bookends for the girls playroom when it gets redone. They were a whopping 10cents and who do you suppose they look like (did you guess Toto?). They are getting slightly updated soon! And may even come into play at the WoO party!

Even uglier bear bookends, They are sturdy adn those ugly bears are going bye bye! 50cents for the pair!

Just a general pic. I got a Rachel Ray 365 cookbook for $1.

clothes for Lindsay! All size 4T, which she doesnt even wear yet. but they are all Children's Place and Gymbo (3 two piece sets, 2 shirts, 1 dress, 3 jeans, 1 short and 1 sweater) $20. I figure that the 7 gymbo pieces alone would have been $100.

I did buy one ugly as sin blue wall shelf, it is getting an update and will hopefully look way different and be worth the $1 I spent on it! Plus it will hold a very special selection (that's Linds speak for Collection).