Feeling Crafty

So, if anybody knows me, they  know I am NOT crafty.  At all.  But since we've been back I've had a couple of projects that I've done and I am feeling pretty proud of myself.  Proud enough to actually document it.  So here are my accomplishments... :)

Coffee Table:

The story of my coffee table is a long one.  In MARCH, I tried to re-do my kitchen table/chair set and it went terribly wrong and we weren't able to complete the project.  I don't want to talk about it anymore.  So, in my anger/frustration/crushed dreams I felt like I needed to re-do SOMETHING.  So, I took my dinged up coffee table and applied my kitchen table idea to it and it turned out great!  I'm in love!  

So, before, my coffee table was just plain black.  I liked it for a while but it started to get dinged and I was getting tired of all my furniture in my living room (besides my couches) being the color black.  You can kind of get an idea from the pic below...

I know, Ruby's hair is SOOOOO SHORT!

 So, we began with stripping the paint.  In retrospect, that was a good idea for the top, NOT the bottom.  I should have just primed and painted the bottom because it turned out to be a looooong and horrible/tedious process.  Anyway, here is our table mostly stripped and sanded.

We eventually got tired of sanding and we got really busy before we left for the summer so we just had our coffee table sit in our garage for the entire summer.  By the time we got home, I really wanted a coffee table again and forced myself to just finish it up.  So, we finished sanding the minor details that were left and decided to call it ready.

So, we stained the top...

And then we put 3 coats of lacquer on it...

And then put two coats of paint on the bottom...

The paint looks a lot more yellow than it actually is.

 And then I just HAD to get this cute little centerpiece that I had been eying at Target.  And I am in LOOOVE with it!  It's so nice having a coffee table again!

Next is project Door Decor.

I had been calling this a wreath and Nate corrected me and said that technically, wreath's are circular.  I looked it up and he is right.  So, door decor it is.

My door at home is black and plain and has a little hook for wreaths door decor that made it look even more sad.  And almost everyone's home I go to has some sort of really cute wreath door decor and I felt the need to make my door look just as pretty.  So, I got onto the evil Pinterest, where you can lose yourself for hours, and found just what I wanted to make.

So, I got this frame.  This frame was actually from a project gone wrong (I seem to have many of those).  I tried spray painting it and it just cracked all over.  it was sad and the frame was ruined for my previous purpose.  But it was the perfect thing for this project!

So, last minute I tricked invited some friends to come over to craft and one of my friends, Belize, came over with no project and said she just was there to help.  Thank heavens she did because she knew how to do these flowers I was attempting and I had clue how to do it.  So, we made a few flowers while watching Downton Abbey (still trying to get hooked on the show) and after she left, I stayed up until 3am pretty late to finish making flowers.  The next morning I placed them on the frame and only had to make one more to complete it.  Anyway, here are the flowers...

She's cute.

Yep, still cute :)

Anyway, I glued the flowers on, made some leaves, glued them to cover up empty frame space, and hung it on the door!

I love love LOVE it!  Yes, so it looks a little springy, but I don't care.  It brightens up my life and makes my door look nice and stylish. 

Next up, project girls room.  We just got them both twin beds (thank you Craigslist!) and they are loving them.  But now I need to figure out what to do with the walls. And we've got to find a better solution to blacken out their windows without using a black, fitted sheet :)  And I would like to eventually paint those headboards.  Hmmm...