The first project on the list was to add another light to our super dark living room. It has no overhead light and the one lamp we have plus the entry way light aren't enough. Like I mentioned in my previous post, my mom and I had done quite a bit of antique shopping while in Utah. I kept pointing out cool bowl shaped items that I wanted to use for a light, but they were always too expensive. As great as my mom is she remembered she had an old milk strainer that she'd gotten from my grandparents, and didn't have any plans for it. She said I could have it, so we jammed it in our packed car and brought it home with us. A few trips to home depot later and we turned the milk strainer into an awesome light fixture!
Unfortunately we bought a 40W light bulb because we thought a higher watt bulb would be too bright for the eyes when sitting, so it hasn't really fixed our lighting problem, but it still looks awesome. We'll put a brighter bulb in someday. (Unique light fixture for the price of $30? I'll take it.)
Project number two is where my "anniversary stump" comes in. I'd bought some old casters on ebay a few months ago and had been waiting and waiting to find the perfect size stump to mount them to. Josh, being the miracle worker he is, found just the one. Unfortunately it was a little too tall for our low sitting couch and we had to remove a bit of the bottom to make it comfortable for feet resting.
We tried finding a chainsaw, but with no luck and no desire to rent one for $50, we got to work hand sawing with the biggest saw we could find.
...four hours later our next door neighbor came across the street carrying this beauty that was his grandpa's. We wish we'd had it from the beginning. It probably would have cut our time in half.
Completed with casters to make for easier movement and we have an awesome "new" coffee table that cost us all of $25 (for the casters).
Ta da! New light fixture and coffee table!
Project number three wasn't necessarily a planned one. During the time we were working on the stump Josh had an amazing free find on craigslist.
...these sawhorse/fence things... There were three total and we weren't sure what we would do with them, but they were only a few blocks from us and we happened to have a kind of working truck, so we picked them up and began brainstorming.
It didn't take long to come up with our new bed frame idea. Josh had been wanting to build one for a long time, and these wood...things were just the right fit.
So we did some dangerous standing on a ladder and under what your sawing sawing. (Josh saws angry. I think it helps him saw faster.)
And we bought a lot of 2x6's, which we aged with vinegar and steel wool to match them to the old wood.
And then we built the beefiest bed known to mankind. (We were lucky it fits in our room.) Ending with a total price tag of $60, we couldn't be more pleased.
Since the first few projects we've also been working on Josh's truck, which we failed to take pictures of in the beginning, so this is the halfway look. We first sanded the whole thing down and did some treatments to get rid of the rust. Then we primed it the grey color and now we're working on the orange. Don't worry. We're actually rolling the paint on the truck. Josh researched it and it turns out it works great if you know how to do it right. (Hopefully ours looks as good as the one's we've seen.) It's an adventure in any case.
I've also been getting crafty. (Crafting Time!! in weird creepy voice is now one of my favorite things to say Rachel Maughan. I don't know where you came up with that.) So far most of my crafts have been Halloween themed. I can't help it. Halloween is fun.
I've always had a love of pillows, as anyone can attest to that's been in my home. And my new desire is to have pillowcases to change out for every season/holiday. I think it's an awesome and easy way to decorate and hope everyone else feels the same, because I've decided to break into the etsy scene and try my hand at selling them online. What do you think blog readers? Would anyone purchase one of my pillows? (Don't worry. I won't hold you to it. I'm just curious.)
Look Lisa! I've finally mastered the zipper! (It helps that we exchanged sewing machines and this one actually works. :))
Thanks for reading. Off to do more crafts! :)
