Cheapest Wall "Art" Ever.

Once again, I kinda forgot that I had a blog when I went to start this project, and didn't take a before picture. Oh well, just imagine a bunch of empty space above our couch. It shouldn't be that hard, if you have just a teensy bit of imagination.

All five of you that follow my pinterest probably saw me pin something similar to this a little while ago. That was actually the same day that I did this little project, but I've been putting off taking pictures of it. All two of them. What are those little things on the wall, you ask? (Hopefully you're just thinking it, and not actually asking out loud, because that would be just a little weird. Not that I don't talk to myself a daily (minutely) basis, but I'm just sayin'....a little weird.)

Those little flower shaped objects are made out of coffee filters, and paper towels....dipped in coffee. Lots of coffee was involved, as was a little cutting, twisting, and taping.

The big splurge on this project was the double stick tape, which I already had, so I guess it wasn't really a splurge. It was a splurge for another project, but I didn't end up using any of it. Oh well, maybe it was fate. The decor gods just knew I was going to want to attach a paper towel to a wall in the near future. Yep, that's it.

New Fruit Bowl

I live a block away from a Target. Problem with living a block away from a Target is that anytime you need a little something, you can just walk (or drive, who are we kidding) over to Target to pick up whatever you need, and of course a little extra, because it's Target. A week ago I needed to get diapers for a baby, or pickles, or maybe it was a light bulb, who knows, but whatever it was, instead of going straight to the light bulb aisle, I had to go check out the "value section," 'cause I'm all about the values. There, sitting up on the top shelf, was this bowl. Well, not JUST this bowl, there were several of them, but this bowl was lucky enough to get to come home with me and get a makeover. Upon arriving to it's new home, it got a couple coats of chalkboard paint on it, and someday, will get some fruit in it. (Why am I getting flashbacks to lessons about prepositions?) After I talk myself into going to the grocery store, or the farmers market, or somewhere that has fruit, we'll actually get to that last step, but for the moment, all of the fruit is in the freezer, and it would probably get pretty messy if I took all that out to put in my new bowl. First of all, because it's a heck of a lot of fruit, and also, because frozen fruit is always messy when it's thawed out, which is why I make smoothies out of it, and don't ever actually thaw it out. Since this post was supposed to be about my new fruit bowl, and not about my fruit thawing habits, I think it's time for me to stop typing. It's also time to stop typing because my two-year-old is eyeing my big glass of iced coffee, and that would be bad if he decided to partake.

Tour Of Our Bookshelves

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I recently moved our living room. The 100+ degree summer temperatures were heating up our old living room, and the air conditioner just wasn't cutting it. Probably has something to do with those vaulted ceilings, or maybe it's the giant windows, or maybe the SINGLE VENT. No, that couldn't be it. Anyways, a few weeks ago I decided that I'd had it up to here with the heat, and moved the living room into the room that we hadn't really done anything with. Our house is an older house, and has what I think is supposed to be a family room, and a den. Our plan was to turn the extra room into a music room someday, but since we can't afford to buy a piano right now, it was just sitting empty. Except for a drum set. The drum set has been moved, by the way. Someday I'll take pictures of that, (the living room, not the drum set,) but you don't want to see it right now, trust me. All 3 Brahm men have been sick this week, so it's pretty much a disaster area in there. I'll only let family see it like this. And single men, 'cause they probably won't notice anyways.

Someone had given us two white bookshelves, and they were sitting in the "I-Don't-Know Room," keeping the drums company. Since the drums moved, I had to figure out what to do with the shelves. After trying about, oh, I don't know, 5 different furniture arrangements over a couple of days, they ended up against one wall, pushed up against each other. For the very first time, I actually put a little bit of *drumroll* effort into "styling" *gasp* the bookshelves, like the cool kids do. *jazz hands* I even have my books facing the wrong way. Cool Kid Click, here I come! ....and now it is time for your guided tour. Keep you hands and arms inside the boat at all times, and watch out for the ducks- they bite.

The big picture.

My little papertowel pom-pom garland thingy. Iced coffee was involved. No, not for drinking, silly. Although, I'm pretty sure I was drinking some at the time too, so never mind.

Hello, my name is Hannah, and I have a problem- I raid my kids' toyboxes for decor fodder. Yep, I did. I wandered the house looking for wood-like things, and then a diaper needed to be changed and I saw the alphabet puzzle on the shelf of the changing table. The one that Noah has NEVER done. So, I took it. *hangs head* ...it gets worse. After changing the diaper, I went back out to the now living room, and found the dog chewing on a train track. A wooden train track. I took it away. And kept it. And then attached the puzzle pieces to it. *shuffles away* Cute though, isn't it?

This is my wedding bouquet. It looked a little less dry at the time. The tiara I wore on our wedding day is sitting on top of them. That is about the same dryness now as it was on our wedding day. Although, it did rain on Wedding Day, so never mind.

Yes, more train tracks, and a porcelain shoe Josh brought back for me from Holland many moons ago when we were dating.

I bought this frame for our first anniversary, and just now put a picture in it. Oh well. More train tracks, a vase from the dollar section at Target, more letters and half a wooden goat.

I really am shameless with the train tracks, aren't I? More letters, an "N" for Noah, and a "W" for William, or as Josh said, "Oh, I thought it said 'now,'"a tea tin, a half-burned candle, and a rooster. I wasn't lying when I said I had a problem.

One of my favorite pictures of Noah from right before his 1st birthday, and the wooden Noah Train, courtesy of Bella and Grandpa.

Pictures of Noah's little life, (yes, we do, in fact, have two kids, but Noah's just been around a lot longer, hence more pictures,) and our wedding album.

And, that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed your tour! (And avoided the ducks)

Chalk boards, cupboard doors, same thing

Today I have a before and after, but only because I managed to find a "before" picture from awhile ago. It's not like I was patient enough to take a picture of the "before" so you really just got lucky on this one.

The point of this picture, is the big empty space on the far wall. I'm not a fan of empty spaces, but that's not the problem. See that shiny rectangle on the left side of the wall? That's a phone jack. The phone jack that wouldn't be a problem if I could put a phone there. You know, if there were a power outlet anywhere remotely close to the phone jack that I could plug said phone in to. I'm telling you, I'm not sure the designers of this house were all there. After oh, 5 months of living here, I came up with a solution. Something had to cover it up, and also lie flat against the wall so that you wouldn't know that something was being covered up and, whatever was put there, would have to span most of the wall since it's not like it would look normal to just put something over the phone jack. If I did that, someone would probably think, "hey, I wonder what that picture is covering up, and try to look under it or something. Here is my solution-

I headed over to the Habitat ReStore and picked up some cupboard doors, put some chalkboard paint on them, drilled some holes to put some twine through, and hung those suckers up. Noah loves to color on them, so he gets to have his pictures hung up in the dining room.

See, no more phone jack! (Or empty wall.)

Once upon a time, my husband got me coffee...

Once upon a time while riding in the car, I was very very thirsty. I begged and pleaded (ok, so maybe I just mentioned to) my dear husband to pull over and find me liquid. Preferably, cold liquid since the temperature was likely over 100 degrees since this is the central CA valley. In JULY. Anyways, back to my story. My dear husband did indeed pull the car over, and since when he asked me what I wanted I just said "surprise me," it was entirely up to him to decide what I would like best. Well, he knows me well, and returned with a Starbucks Mocha Frappaccino thingy. I think I downed the thing within a minute or so, (except for the couple sips that I saved for him) and then started looking at my empty bottle, and thought about how it must cost them a little more to make a glass bottle than a plastic one...and how that's pretty nice of them, because I, for one, like glass bottles better than plastic bottles- They just feel better. ....and then I thought about how it kinda looked like a giant baby food jar....and how people use baby food jars to store spices in (I promise, there's a point to all this), and how I should do that too, once I start buying baby food for William....and how I had a few big bags of spices that I bought in bulk at Winco, like cinnamon, and cayenne ('cause I use a lot of that to cook with), and ground mustard. At that very moment, right after the ground mustard thought, I knew what I was going to do with my glass bottle- It was going to be a cinnamon shaker.

You see,when my mom made coffee when I was a teenager she'd occasionally sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top of the grounds before brewing it. I always make it like that now, and so for the longest time, I've just had a very ugly bottle of ground cinnamon sitting next to my coffee pot, so that Josh, when he makes my coffee for me in the mornings, doesn't have to go looking for it.

I took a hammer and nail and stuck a few holes in the top, and wha-la. Now I have a pretty cinnamon shaker, with the Starbucks logo on the lid, that just so happens to match the logo that's on my Starbucks coffee cup-shaped coffee canister. It all just matches so well!You know you want to try it.... ;)

Magazine rack, done!

It's finally done! I thought this would be a quick project, and it probably would have been if I wouldn't have had other stuff going on...you know, like kids- and a husband. I did finish it though, and now it's ready for someone to take home and put somewhere. It can be shipped easily, so if anyone wants it, let me know, and I'll be glad to let you take it off of my hands. Can I just say how much I love the fence in our backyard? It's the perfect backround for the pictures of my furniture.

The magazine rack can be found for sale here at The Shabby Corner.

MIA

My camera charger is missing. This is a very sad thing. I have several new things to post about, but it just wouldn't be the same without pictures. I mean, I can be pretty descriptive, but I'm not sure I can accurately give you the correct mental picture of my projects. I just need to find the camera battery charger. I think it might be floating around in our van from our trip to the zoo, so who knows how long it'll take to find it. Until then, I will be slaving away refinishing a cute little shelf that I picked up at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I'm thinking that butterflies are calling its name. What its name is, I have no idea. Maybe I should ask the butterflies.