A much needed freshened up porch!

So we bought our home back in Nov 2009, and we needed a new roof put over our porch. The roof turned out great, but underneath was left in a shamble. I talked my husband into tearing off the old wall cover and restoring the original cedar siding. After a few words, nice one of course, we started tearing off and this is what we found:

My Mom works with a lady who lived in this house as a child and she must have written her name (Michelle) on the porch as they were covering it!

We replaced some of the siding up under the roof that was missing/ had roof tar on it

and then painted it up nice! Crafty-tasticy!

Late May Entry

I am a little late posting this, but I think it may apply to May's "light" theme and maybe June's theme. I will probably post again for June, since a lost of things in my house need "freshening up"! Okay, so I had this ugly outdated light fixture hanging over the table in the kitchen. See Figure A.

Figure A:

That thing had to go. It looked like a UFO.

I was about to sell Figure B at a garage sale when it dawned on me that with a coat of spray paint, it may actually be tolerable to look at!

Figure B:

It was difficult to spray the paint on and have no drips, so I did end up sanding it off a few times and applying more coats of paint. I kind of like the look that gave it, though. Sort of rustic....? I decided to paint the little candlesticks, too. I think it looks a little more updated now, it matches other accents in the kitchen, and it was even better that this transformation cost virtually nothing!

So take a look at Figure C:

So there you have it-the new "light" that my life needed!

June's Theme: FRESHEN UP

OK fellow crafters. The theme for June is "freshen up". Take a look around your home (inside or out) and find something that could use a little facelift, sprucing up, or just needs a new look. Let's reuse these items and make them "new" again rather than throwing them away and buying new ones.

I have been wanting to get a new bedding set for one of our guest rooms. The set in there now is old and really beginning to show its age. The "guts" of the comforter are still great, though, so I hate to throw it away. I thought instead that I would make a duvet cover for it to "freshen it up". There are many tutorials out there on the www that tell how to do this. Most of them say you will need 10+ yards of fabric. A MUCH cheaper way is to use 2 flat sheets for the bed size of the comforter. That's the method I'm going to try. This site (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=42495) has step by step instructions, but no photos. I'm going to try this one using the bed sheets. I'll post pictures as I work on it.

Can't wait to hear what everyone else decides to "freshen up". Have fun!!

Belated April Showers

For the April Showers theme, I decided to make soap. I've been making my own for a few years now and it is really not that complicated.

I used the Chocolate Soap recipe from Majestic Mountain Sage. I melted the fats on the stove in a regular cooking pot, since they were ordinary cooking ingredients.
Next, I added the cocoa & chocolate.I added the lye to the water next. I used two cut-out plastic pop bottles & stabilized them in cut out milk cartons. The plastic did, in fact, warp from the heat & the cartons kept them from spilling over & creating a toxic mess.
I poured the hot oils & hot lye mixture into the mixing tub (used only for craft purposes) and blended with an immersion blender to trace.
I poured the mixture into more half-cut milk cartons to solidify. A few days later, I peeled them away, cut the soap into bars, and wrapped them in wax paper to cure. In a few more weeks (after the bars cure) I'll smell like candy as I get clean!

wanted to share

I know this doesnt have anything to do with this month's challenge, but i wanted to share! lol I hope you dont mind! So i have been on a kick in the kitchen. Last week I wanted to make almond milk  because for one, we had almonds and NO ONE was eating them! Plus I really do like the taste of alternative milks. So i made that and it came out great! I loved it! I made shakes with it and it made them think and gave it a bit different of a taste (in a good way of course! lol) Well this week, I said I want to try coconut milk! so my hubby got me some coconuts and I made coconut milk! I got 5 cups of milk and 2 cups of flour out of one coconut! I am right now making coconut flour cookies and the kids are enjoying the milk! lol I have one more coconut so when i make that one up i'll take some pics this time! Thank you for letting me share! be blessed!

MAYbe you need a little light!

May’s project is all about bringing light in or working with light in some way. It can be something with natural light like a window hanging or widow treatment. Or using electricity like creating a new lampshade, reading area or awesome summer space outside with Christmas lights, one of my all time favorite accents! It’s all about brightening up your little world!

Ready for May!

On the last day of April, I finished my project for the month - starting seeds and digging a flower bed!

We moved over the winter, and I had to leave all my plantings behind.  The previous owner of this house did not like yard work, and had zero landscaping.  Not a plant, flower, tree or shrub, not a vine or a dandelion popping up in the yard.  Time for that to change!

I've never started plants inside before, so it's just one seed starter tray from Burpee plus the seeds for a few things I know we like.  We have 2 kinds of cukes, tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, zinnias and marigolds.   About half of the seeds have germinated...

(when you run out of row markers you can totally use plastic forks.  I suppose I could have whittled more or something, but whatevs :D) 

I bought some more "direct sow" seeds, and will collect some perennial plants as the season goes on.

And the front yard went from this:

To this:

Yes, shocking difference.  But that was 3 hours of work!  I laid out the hose into the shape I wanted, and Bob (husband) cut the shape with a shovel.  Then we (he) dug out the sod and rototilled.  The soil actually looks great, so with the addition of some peat moss and manure I think we're in business!