Sneak peak

So I have been working for a few days on the hutch that will grace our dinning area. Well folks I finished it today!! I took a few pictures with my big camera but it was in the garage and not the prettiest setting. So for now I am just going to tell you what I did to finish it and then a few sneak peak pictures :)

After the crackle paint was done I sanded it some all over with a fine paper and sanding square. And use the scraper to chip some paint off and put some dings in it. Then I used a rough sand paper to get more destessing. Once it looked how I liked it. I used wipe on poly all the piece. I gave it a couple coats with a rag and used a small brush to het it in the cracks. I had been debating if I should rib a stain on it. I tried part and disliked it a lot for what I was going for. So I took the little brush and put it in the cracks and wiped really fast! Then i thought why not mix some with the poly to delute it. It was perfect!
Here are the things I used.


I really wanted this piece to look chippy cracky and kinda dirty lol. Well since I used dirt to destress before the crackle it was all over the floor of my work space. Which actually helped in achieving that exact look. Cause when I was wiping on the poly some dirt got in it haha. I love it.

Next came the chicken wire. Pretty simple just cute it to size. And atach it. I kinda bent mine some cause I wanted it to be imperfectly perfect. (someday I hope to find vintage wire) but till then I put a little of this glaze on it


Then I got my knobs from world market.

Here are the sneak peak pictures (taken with my iPhone) till it gets in our house :) then the big reveal with the big momma camera so you can really see it!

shopping day :)

So i have been itching to get out and go shopping for new thing for the house. my hubby and i didnt give each other gifts this year for christmas so we could get stuff for the house. we were wanting to get new towels, new dishes and new flatware. Well today me and my younger two kids went out on our hunt! first we started at a wonderful store named Lulafaye (amazing antique store).



After that we went to a store called eppersons that is like a ross but for furniture and house things. well they had this set of dishes for 39 dollars from jcpennys the only thing that was wrong is it was missing a mug. (who cares lol) originally the set of 8 is 249 dollars. um can you say steal! and its ever thing i wanted in dishes!


well then i was thinking i prob need more than 8 so i got on jcpennys and they happen to be having a sale on those dishes instead of 249 they were 139. and i also ordered the serving dishes for the set.

then we got new towels and jcpennys was having there sale on all there stuff
this is a bad picture but we got cream and white



also here are some things i have collected at thrift stores and such over the last month. :) i cant wait to use it all.




....more to come from my hutch its almost done :-)

Using dirt!?

So me and my hippie self was thinkin today, why cant i use dirt to give my furniture that "old farm i have been weathered look." i mean when you have a piece of furniture thats very weathered it most likely has dirt on it anyways. so i went out in the yard and got some moist dirt and moss. took a hand full of the dirt and rubbed it all over my hutch in the areas that i though would have it. and also where im going to be putting the crackle paint. so it would show through.






after dusting it off. it was time for the crackle paint... im only putting it on parts of the hutch. im going for the more natural look so i dont want a allover crackle. thank you barb over at knack
for the tips on using crackle paint. i only can hope it turns out even a 1/4 as nice as your pieces :-)





here it is after i added the top coat of white flat paint. This is my first time using crackle medium its very tricky!! you are only supposed to go over the crackle once with the top coat but some part didnt cover up, even though my brush was loaded with paint. so i had to quickly put more on. well the first part i did is so clumpy and messy lol. but after i sand it i think that it will actually achieve the very warn old farm hutch im looking for. there are still a couple things im going to do to it so its still in that middle of "im getting my hair done" look. haha



to be continued :D

on and look what i found today from craigslist. 3 of these crates for 25 dollars :) i am not a soda drinker but i am a sucker for crates. i think im going to use them as shelves.

on a different note..... cloth diapers

So i have loved helping many of my friends with cloth diapers. i started using them with my daughter (third child) and absolutely LOVED using them! so much so that when we found out we were having a little surprise #4 (cruz). I got so excited thinking about getting to do cloth diapers again. When i started thinking about making the switch to cloth diapers after having used them with my first two kids it was kinda overwhelming. I really had idea what i was doing and no one to help me. my mom had used them but that was a long time ago and so much had changed. so for months i read blogs and forums researching and finding what i thought were the best options in the big wide world of CD'ing.
when it comes to things that one may think i would quiet on it just makes me want to succeed even more. im pretty stubborn that way! :)

I have a long list of info i have saved in a word document and so much more i will touch on in later blog posts. but for now this is a big chunk to chew on for those wanting to know about it. :)

verybaby


sunshine diapers
this next one is the forum you can read stuff with out becoming a member or anything but the first things that say like diapering 101 that stuff is VERY HELPFUL. and it will keep you busy for a long time reading all the stuff on there!
i really recommend joining the just mommies forum!
just mommies

this next one is one that i ordered some of my stuff from
green mountain diapers(where to get the prefold as well as other things)
diaper swappers(where i bought most everything as well as a lot of great info) you get everything for way cheaper. just find the forum part that sells the diapers.

cottonbabies

another forum
she knows

i also have two wet bags so when i put the wet bag in the wash with all the diapers i can just put the next one in the pail. the key for me to have cloth be easy is having a good set up. i use nellies detergent and oxi booster.
so a cold rinse with vinagar. then a hot wash with nellies detergent and nellies oxibooster. with a extra cold rinse and the end.

on a side note it is pretty important that when using nellies (as well as other detergents for cloth diapers) you use it for all you clothes as well. or it will strip the sides of your washer and put the other detergent on your dibs (diapers) and create unwanted build up. resulting in bad chemical diaper rashes! i know this from experience and its not pretty :( nellies works great on all our clothes and i nly use half a scoop unless it a huge load.

so with isabella i started out with 2-3 dozen small Indian prefolds and 8 covers ,three AIO'S (then i went up to regular size)

with cruz i had more fun buying and got 4 AIOS and about 4 fitteds and 10 newborn covers with 12 newborn prefolds, also 2 pocket diapers. i also cut up a old shirt and had it ready to line the newborn diapers with to keep the tar poop at bay and then just throw it.
now that he is bigger i use about 12 newborn prefolds (i just fold in three and lay in cover) 12 regular size prefolds, 4 fitteds, 6 AIOS and about 10 covers. i find i have way more than i need :) but its fun to have variety.

i cut up a old receiving blanket for wipes (about 24) two big wet bags one small wet bag (for diaper bag) 6 snappis, flush able diaper liners in case of diaper rash so i can use diaper cream. (and for when poop get solid so you can just dump in toilet and flush)

theres a lot but once you just read on it for a while it is not so bad :) and seriously fun which is weird LOL but i love it! and i love sun drying it gets stains out amazingly! so in winter i hang them out even if they dont get dry cause the little bit of sun still gets the stains out and i just finish the drying inside. you can use the dryer to if you like :) i only dry to fluff mainly ....but never dry covers.

my fav brands
green mountain prefolds for sure, goodmamas (i have only gotten as gifts cause there pricey! lol) if you can sew or know some one who can the darling diaper pattern for fitteds and AIO are my all time fav! mutts, there a lot of good ones wonderwraps are a good cover too. thristie covers are good but the velcro goes out faster.The thing with covers is they will fit pretty much every babies. Aios are the tricky kinds that don't fit all kinds. And leak more the prefolds and covers for the most part. Fitteds and covers I use also . i try to stay away from all micro fiber diapers they smell and are harder to get the smell out than cotton. :)I really like cotton!
I also sell my stuff on diaperswappers that are still in good shape. You def can't do that with all of the diapers cause some get really worn. But newborns you only use for so long. I also suggest get all snap diapers if your going for longevity. The only Velcro diaper cover I buy anymore is the wonderwrap. There velcro is tough stuff!
Ok anyways I could go on and on!
Oh one more thing if you can find osocozy aios, the older version with snaps there a great cheap aio that's just plan white cotton kind nothing fancy but hold great! The new ones I have not tried cause there Velcro. They may be great though. I found my older ones on DS and got like 6 for like 15 bucks.
i aslo have a few different fitted that i found on diaper swappers that where just cute and a great deal i bought.

I TOLD YOU IT WAS GOING TO BE A LOT OF INFO hehe
if anyone has other questions just ask :) i love to help!

so excited!

Im so excited to decorate our new house! hopefully escrow will close the first week of Feb. all though i will seriously miss staying with my parents i love them so much and its so fun seeing them all the time!


After looking for months for just the right house and the 4th house offer me made we found such a perfect house. It is like it was remodeled with me in mind. its a newer house but has old charm. less then 5mins from my boys school and just a couple more to my hubby's work. its not on land which we really wanted but i don't think its time yet for that (someday).




Many of you may know that im pretty much hooked on craiglist and ebay. Im always looking for my next deal! i check a few times a day either on my computer or on my iphone. (woohooo apple) currently im searching for a crystal chandelier for my soon to be office
this is what im looking for. actually one of the ones i lost the auction on. :(


but i did happen to find the chandelier for isabellas room and won that one.


and also a 1920-30's hanging light that i won on ebay. it needs rewiring but hopefully i can get it working :)


hopefully soon i will get to look around town and see if i can find that perfect chandelier. that wont break the bank! :)

my first

So i have wanted to start a home blog for a while now. I found my self wanting to write about my every day life such as cloth diapers and redoing furniture, just the every day life of me. i didn't think it was going to work to put that on my photography blog. So low and behold this will me my home/everything else blog :)

I have so many projects i want to do right now but since we are in between houses (staying with my amazing parents) i don't have access to all of those projects. there tied up in the garage of our soon to be new house just awaiting the close of escrow. They better watch out cause either my paint or sewing machine is coming after them very soon!

Well i do how ever have one cabinet i purchased while staying here. i got it for 30 dollars. all wood but the glass was broken totally fine with me since it was ugly glass anyways with those fake brown lines on them.

SO finally today after many days of kids being sick and rainy days i started to paint it!

here is the piece before

and here is the middle of the project with just the first coat of paint. there ar estill many parts that need to be done to it. but its a start!

I will keep you all posted on how it is going!