Little Girl's Surprise Two Hour Room Make-over

I want you to meet my (crazy) friend Kim and her family...

 After having two of her own children,  she adopted first a boy, and later a girl, from Ethiopia.At one stage she had three 3 year olds in her home...
Most times her home is a crazy, crazy, circus beehive of activity. Because of this, she has the funniest stories to tell. Go check out her blog here .

As if that was not enough, she had another baby girl last year, who is now nine months old.
Recently, they moved to a bigger house, on a small farm, where the kids each have their own bedroom for the first time .
But, with starting to raise chickens, planting a vegetable garden and starting a fruit orchard, there was not much time (or energy, I am sure) to worry about decorating the kids' rooms.

That's why I decided to do it for her...on a very low budget (between $0.00 and $20.00 per room)
I started with A's room

Isn't she just beautiful with those huge blue eyes? Kim told her that there is surprise waiting for her when she gets back from summer camp. We had two hours to get everything done! That's why we did not paint. Luckily the paint on the walls are still pretty good.

It started with this little shelf, that I told Kim, she could have. It was a hand me down from my other friend, Amey, who got it at Goodwill and prettied it up. Since I was doing a garden theme, I of course had to change it up a little again...
The reason for the garden theme? "A" likes green, and I had a lot of garden related decor items lying around. My daughter's old comforter, (before we did her "Tween Room"), was perfect for this, too.
I got some really cool gift wrap at Hobby Lobby, and decoupaged the backs again. Then I just dry brushed green and yellow all over the white...

                                    And this was the result... 

Sorry I did not get a better picture. Was not even planning on blogging this...
I got two things of vinyl butterflies at The Dollar Tree, and decoupaged the little holder that I had at home with the same gift wrap..

Since she loves butterflies as well as birds, I spray painted the little bird cage that I had white, and hung it from the ceiling. ( She later said this was her favorite part). See the birdcage on the top of the above picure?

 

The curtain was a panel that I got at Goodwill once, and just bought because I liked it. I used it horisontally here, folded over one third, and stuck to the wall with tacks. Then I hung the flowers on the tacks. The flowers, along with the rest of the stuff, was bought at a Michaels sale once...$90.00 worth of stuff, for $2.50. It was all kinds of garden decor, all thrown into a shopping bag and sold for $2.50. At the time I did not know what I was going to do with it, but, dang! , no self respecting thrifter can let a deal like that go by...

O wait, no, the white frames used to belong to me, and the "Faith, Hope, Love" words were from the Dollar Tree too

BEFORE

 AFTER

This little girl was speechless when she got home and saw her room. Her mom said she just stared, and stared. Then she said, "Now I don't have a geek's room anymore. I feel so special."
I can't wait to get going with the other kids' rooms!

After seeing how much "A" appreciated her room, we have decided to do this on a regular basis for a child who is underpriveledged.
So, if you live in the Phoenix area and know of someone who could be made feel special in this way, let me know.

Bye for now!

Linking to..

                                                A Little Knick Knack

Grandfather Clock gets its Groove On

Hi Again!

Well, I took my 6 pieces that I had to sell to the The Simple Farm  for the Barnsale today, and , oh my goodness, what an experience to see all the beautiful goods in person! I was speechless....(or ...it might have been the heat, I don't know.....it was something like 94 degrees out there!)

The farm is gorgeous, and a place worth visiting. Go check out their website here.
And, of course, the bloggers did not disappoint....I am going back tomorrow to take lots and lots of pictures.

The last piece I made was really one of my favorites....
I found this poor grandfather clock at Savers last week...

I liked the look of it, but the door was missing, and the clock did not work anymore.

I still had an idea of what I wanted to do with it...

I took the hinges off that was still left over from the door, filled in the holes with wood filler, and primed the whole thing . I did not use spray paint...aren't you proud of me?

Again, no plan, I just started with what I knew I wanted, and let the piece lead me.

The sides were painted lime green, and then taped off to be painted over with darker green.

Then I taped off over the darker green, in rows, to form diamonds, and painted over again with the same green.

Sounds complicated, but maybe you will get the picture by looking at the pictures! LOL.

The result was this diamond pattern..

Hubby helped me put some shelves in the place where the pendulum and chains used to hang.

We also put in a new battery operated clock mechanism.

I wrote "Take some Time" with old scrabble pieces at the top...

Zebra pattern on the bottom.

Wooden hearts from Michael's, and black glazing to tone down the red, as well as the sides, which looked too circus-like before .  

                        What do you think?                         

  BEFORE:

AFTER:

Let me know!

Love,

Suzanne

xoxo

check out my parties page to see where I linked up..

Curbside Potting Table Gets a New Lease on Life

Hello, and welcome back!

I am trying to get a few pieces together for the Barnsale at the end of the month .  That, plus Springbreak , and an older son who has his own project going in the garage, means total and utter chaos in our household these days .

This is my "workspace" at the moment...

...and this is my son's.

 

Do you agree that we need a workshop?

My friend found this little lovely on the curb more than a year ago.

She promptly took it home , fully intending to make it beautiful again. But, as you know, life all too often gets in the way of our good intentions.So,  a year later , it was still looking miserable at her front door , exactly the same as the day she found it .When they moved to another house, she did not want to bother with it anymore, and passed it on to me.

The poor thing was falling apart. Almost every single nail had to be replaced, and all the screws tightened.

Wonderhusband helped me with this part. He is so sweet...

Then it got a good sanding from me, and started to look a little more respectable .

I primed with Kilz again, and spray painted with Krylon Ocean Mist. I still had three cans left over in my garage, so, once again, I am avoiding using the spray gun for the first time..

I sanded and distressed afterwards, to make it look naturally old, as I know its gonna get some character pretty soon if it was going to live outdoors in Arizona!

The block that covers the hole was just stained in dark brown.

Funny story : As I was finishing up with just a little more sanding here and there,  the husband of my friend who found the table

dropped the kids off , and saw me working on it. 

He looked at it, and asked if I was going to sand the whole thing down! 

Well, that was encouraging! lol.

I did feel like it needed something else, though.

I got a piece of peg board, and painted it to look almost moss covered, and nailed it to the back. This would be a good place to hang gloves, pruning scossors, etc.

I did the same paint effect on the drawers and a little on the lid.

Then I added a loose shelf at the bottom, for extra storage. Don't know if I should keep that there, or not.

There wasn't much that I could do about the mark on the metal part...it will just have to be  part of the character...

What do you think? Not bad for a curb find?

Hope to see all of you in the Phoenix area at the Barnsale!

Joining these parties:

Designer Garden's VIP Party

Little Green Shelf

I saw this cute little thing at my local Goodwill the other day. It was love at first sight.

It looks like it used to be some kind of hutch or something...but I had other plans for her.

I had Hubby cut off the bottom part, since she was going on the wall.

I actually liked her just the way she was in her

 dirty yellow, and could just leave her like that, but where is the fun in that?

So, I sprayed her with a green Pistachio from Krylon (after priming , of course...I am a really responsible

 painter these days).

I antiqued a little with an ooold tube of artist's Burnt Umber, that I just rubbed on a little here and there.

And, of course, distressing...love that!

The black and white paper I decoupaged on the back looked too bright and stark on

 this otherwise older looking piece, so I rubbed that with the Burnt Umber, too.

And here she is.......isn't she lovely? Makes me want to break

 into song:

 "Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? na na na na na..."

Hu Uhm..never mind.

Once again:    

    Before 

    

After

What do you think? Have you made any fun purchases at the thrift store lately?

Let me know. I would love to read about it!

I am joining the party at Funky Junk Interiors's Saturday Night Special
Its so Very Cheri 's Its so Very Creative

Miss Mustardseed's Furniture Friday