B&A: Coffee Table

craigslist....I think that is the reason I married a Craig. 

Yea, that's what I am gonna go with cause I love craigslist so why wouldn't I fall in love with a Craig??

It's all so clear now! 

We found this awesome coffee table on craiglist for $125, bought it for $100 and after squeezing it into my ity-bity Celica with the hatch held open using four bungee cords - we got it home! I totally love this table, it's got a black velvet lined drawer on the top to display little trinkets under the glass and a deep drawer on two sides.  Only problem? it was hunter green...

 

So I painted it purple. :-)

Now all we need for our living room is some couches. The camping chairs (1st pic, left side) are getting uncomfortable! ....Oh!! We could use a maid too.

Goodwill

More Goodwill items! Yay! Hubby and I are on a mission to find furniture for our house, but we can't help but wander through the trinkets, kitchenware and even clothing sections of Goodwill. Here is what we found...

Green vase (Target brand) $4.

Towel rack (wanted one of these for a while) $4 

and the glass dishes $3each.

My hubby is awesome. You'll see these spice jars re-done in a future post but for the rack and jars it was a whopping $4. The rack will eventually go back to goodwill though, unless you have an idea for it?

We also found an off-brand 'Slap-Chop' for $2, miniature cast iron pan for $7 and a sweater and scarf for $8 (gotta stock up my winter wardrobe, right?).

Mt. St. Helens

"What do you want to do today?"

"I don't know."

"I want to do something."

"Ok, find out what you want to do..."

"ok..." (flips through tour books) "...lets go to Mt. St. Helens."

"Ok"

Hubby and I spent today in the car. We drove to Mount St. Helens and played tourist. Stopped at one of the several gift shop and information centers - took a few pictures then continued to drive around the area. So beautiful and it was amazing to read about all of the devastation from the 1980 eruption.

Hello from the viewpoint.

Edge of the blast-zone looking toward St Helens. Was once destroyed.

Second Hand

Here are some items I picked up at Goodwill & Salvation Army (same day). Overall total for everything was $20! Some of these I've already made-over (below) and some I will eventually make over so keep checking in.

 The largest frame in the back I ended up spray painting black and created a piece of art with some more recycled work materials. At my previous job we were able to order free yard samples of wall covering - I found this really cool zebra-esq paper and had no need for it professionally but I knew I'd want to make something of it. I also took a smaller sample and cut out a little heart to create more interest. It's all mounted on foam core cut to fit the frame. Took me about 20 minutes from start to finish.

I also spray painted the accordion wall pegs and some candle holders that I got second hand from my mother in law, they used to be an antiqued white (forgot to take a before picture of those, but you get the idea).

I have a new found love the Goodwill Outlet store - and it's right down the street! They sell items by weight and we found a few pieces of decent furniture, each needing their own mini-makeover for under $10 each (but did not buy). Although, be warned: you need a good amount of hand sanitizer and perhaps some pepper spray to feel safe!!

B&A: Nesting Tables

First off: I love craigslist. 

I bought these nesting tables for $10. They were in dire need of a makeover. So I sanded down the tops to get rid of the water marks/bubbles and painted them the same color I used on a previous B&A. 

A simple fix which yielded a great result.

Before:                                                                         After:

      

Recycled Samples

A while back I made these: 

My sister in law and her boyfriend thought they were pretty cool and asked how I made them and what they were made of. I told them I'd make them one. Here is the how-to and the end result. 

First step is to have access to, or be creative enough to get some free marmoleum/linoleum samples - really any sort of flooring sample would probably suffice so long as they are all the same dimensions. As an interior designer I mistakenly ordered a box of every sample forbo made - not only that but they sent me 3 samples of each all in a nice file box. There was no way my work had any need for this quantity of samples so I took the gigantic (and heavy, I might add) box of samples home with me. There it sat for about a year and a half. I had no idea what I was going to do with all of these samples and the thought of just throwing them out made me cringe. I'm not a hippie "save the Earth" Eco-person but I try to do my best at keeping this world a greener place, so I recycled them into art!

Next is to pull out the colors you think you'll want and lay them out on a piece of 24x 36 foam core (I had a ton of this leftover from school projects). Granted you can make your art any size you want, I'm partial to larger artwork so that is what I made!  

 After the design is set, grab yourself a tube of liquid nails and a caulking gun. I used the cardboard dividers that separated each color of the linoleum samples as a spreader for the glue and did small sections at a time, starting at the outside of the foam board (it's a straight edge) and working my way until I ran out of room on the board. It's a little hard to see but there is some metal mixed in there - that my friends is a metal laminate sample that was leftover from another project at work. I tucked it under the forbo samples and kept it the same size. Definitely adds a different texture and a little more interest to the overall piece of art, especially when you add more than one.

 Cut off any excess foam core with a sharp blade, you can choose to use a straight edge or just follow along the edge of the forbo samples like I did.

And the finished product! (note: I used the cardboard dividers yet again as the hangers on the back of the foam core, just takes a hole punch and more liquid nails!)

B&A: Buffet

This before & after was done a little over a year ago. I got this pine buffet cabinet from a seller on craigslist for $100. Loved the style of it, but I am not a fan of pine. I prefer darker colors like espresso and chocolate. I found a paint color that was similar to our dining table set and had at it!

Before:

  After:

 

Settling in.

I've been meaning to update for the last month or so. I'd say the lack of frequent updates it's because I've been so busy setting up house or doing some super cool thing/s, but in reality I've just been lazy. Not to say I haven't been doing anything - I've just been avoiding the update. We've been moved in for a month+ now, there are still unpacked boxes, but with a lack of furniture it's hard to find places to put things. We've made some good friends here and I am excited to get to know them better. We are going on a backpacking/camping trip this weekend - well, Craig is backpacking with the guys while us girls will camp until the guys reach us. Should be loads of fun!!

In regards to my 101/1001 list, here goes:

22. Dexter - I've watched up through season 3 of Dexter. So far that is all Netflix has released so checking this one off as done! And yes I do intend to watch future seasons as they are released. Love this show!

30. DVD storage unit - No longer needed. We bought a coffee table off of craigslist and as soon as it's painted I will be transferring my DVD's from the pretty boxes they are in, to one of the drawers in the table - it'll be the perfect place to keep all of them in ONE spot, filed alphabetically. I know - it's a bit obsessive.

33. Ireland - well since moving to Portland our Ireland trip that we were planning has been pushed into the future. We are hoping to be able to go sometime early next year.

45. Bikes - We bought one bike and the second was given to us by an old neighbor. We have two bikes!

46. Ride bikes on a regular basis - I am surprised at the heat of a Portland summer, it's almost as if we're still living in the California desert. Soon as it cools down a tad more we'll get moving on the bikes.

47. White water rafting - One of our new friends up here is a white water rafting guide - hopefully we'll get to go on a trip soon - I am really excited about the idea of it! There are SO many places around here to go rafting and it's (of course) so beautiful every where you turn!

48. Wii Fit - Apparently my husband gave our Wii system to a good friend of ours, complete with Rock Band and all of the games we had for it. It'd be nice to have it again, I could manage without Rock Band but I'd love to have Fit and the sports games. Maybe even snowboarding!

49. Fruit Picking - Well I don't think this will happen in Oak Glen, so I am modifying this task to just be "fruit picking" the location is moot. :-)

54. Owens Family Picnic - Planned, hosted and enjoyed by all! Hopefully someone else will plan next years picnic, but if I don't hear anything about it - perhaps I'll be planning another one! It was great to kick off the annual picnics after 20 years without one!!

57. Cookie Exchange - I think this year will be the perfect time to host a cookie exchange party. Hopefully we will have more furniture by the time the holidays come around, but I think it'll be a great way to get to know our local friends better.

81. Move out of the in-laws - If you haven't figured it out by now, we no longer live with my in-laws! Due to Craig's awesome new job, we live in Portland, Oregon now! Just the two of us (and our pups).

85. Mattress - We have a new mattress!! After moving we slept on an air mattress for a good month and now we've finally been able to purchase a sleep number. It's SO nice to be able to sleep on a REAL bed!!

Lets hope I'll update more frequently - not just regarding the items on my list but just with general updating. It's difficult living so far from my friends and family so this is supposed to be my way of updating everyone with what is going on in my/our life. Just need to get myself to do it!!