It's never too late for a weekend recap, right?? Even if we have officially begun another weekend?? :) 

Well, last weekend I broke out all the fall decorations and even created a few new additions. 

I bought all of the supplies for this banner at hobby lobby for around 20$. I had the jute and clothes pins so they're not included in that price.

EASY! Anyone can follow those couple steps and come up with a cheap fall banner! 

We were having our family over for dinner Saturday night so I was in a hurry to get everything out of storage and put up. 

We love spending time with our family and are so blessed to have a wonderful home to welcome them in to. We cooked out and played outside and enjoyed being around each other.

Saturday night our nephew, Zachary spent the night with us and Sunday after church and breakfast we spent the afternoon playing outside. Was a very good and relaxing weekend and we're looking forward to a repeat - starting RIGHT NOW! 

House Projects

We've been projecting around the house and these two projects were so easy I had to share with the blog world :) 

The first project was inspired by one of my best friends. She did a very large pipe shelving unit in her kitchen that was extraordinary. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have one in my house! The problem was coming up with a functional place to put it! I've been wanting to put some shelving in the guest bathroom, so we down scaled her idea and put some in the guest bathroom.

All of the supplies were a little more expensive than we anticipated, but the final outcome was well worth it. {At least to me!} 

Aren't they just too cute! Quixote was helping Dad figure out how to piece everything together. 

This is the spray paint I painted all the pipe with. I wanted it to match all the hinges and door handles in our house and this color was PERFECT!! 

We got a 6 foot piece of wood and cut it evenly in 2 foot sections. We then stained it with MinWax, I did about 3 coats on the board. I wanted it to be pretty dark, so if you're after a lighter look I'd stop after the first or second coat. 

Took the put together bars out in the yard and gave them a good coat of the paint {showed above}. After they dried completely {and in between some 'very' important football games} I got my husband to hang them for me in the bathroom. He put in some wall supports before inserting the screws. The piece is pretty heavy so we wanted to make sure it didn't come toppling down unexpectantly one day! 

 Love the way it turned out. Thanks Brig for the inspiration :) 

Our other project was a pallet board picture frame! Todd got me a pallet from work and ripped all the boards off and attached them with a piece of wood down the back. 

I used the same stain that I used on the shelving unit and did a couple coats. 

Bought some frames from hobby lobby hung them from the pallet and there you have it :) Easy Peasy!! CHEAP way to fill an empty wall. 

Todd keeps telling me he's going to deactivate my Pinterest so I stop dragging him in to my projects . . . But secretly I think he enjoys projecting with me :))) 

Latest Refinishing Project

My husband traveled into some very dangerous conditions to pick up this gem. I found it listed on craigslist for $30 and thought for sure it was too good to be true. I almost lost this dresser to another buyer, but they ended up backing out. Thank goodness they did and I'll never again hesitate on making the call as soon as I find a piece I like. 

This first thing I did was take all the drawers out and sand the face of them with square foam sanding blocks. You can find these in any hardware store for a couple bucks. They come in different grits, depending on how much you want to sand off. I got a medium grit, I wasn't trying to sand of too much just enough so the primer and paint would stick good. 

 After everything was sanded I got out the shop vac and vacuumed the inside and outside of both the drawers and dresser. {As I mentioned earlier the conditions of the 'house' this dresser previous resided in were less than livable so it got a vacuum and Clorox wipe down!}  After that, it actually looked very pretty and I contemplated {momentarily} just staining it and keeping its wood finish. That daydream didn't last long and I knew it would fit in my home much better painted black as I had planned.

Kilz spray primer is a LIFESAVER!!! I think I used about 8 cans of primer on this dresser. You just want to make sure you spray as evenly as possible. And the good thing about the primer is you can't ever use too much, the more the merrier. The primer seals the wood and prevents you from having to use so much colored paint. 

I only wanted to paint the fronts of the drawers so I used magazines and painters tape to protect the inside of the drawers. 

On the dresser I didn't want to spray the inside so I also taped it off with magazines. { I guess all those Ballard magazines actually serve two purposes }

Gave the drawers and dresser and hefty coat of Kilz

This was the first piece I've actually ever painted black and after finishing the entire dresser, something just wasn't right. I could see the spray strokes, which has never been the case with the lighter pieces I've refinished. So I decided I had to do something else before this dresser was complete. 

Luckily, I had some Faux Glaze and some black paint, so I mixed up a batch of black faux finish and painted it with a foam brush over the entire dresser. I love the matte finish it gave the dresser.

 It was my largest refinish to date, but I truly enjoyed its transformation :) I was waiting to blog about the dresser until I was completely finished - hardware and all. But, picking out the hardware has proved harder than expected and I knew if I didn't just get it posted I never would! 

BEFORE & AFTER