Home Sweet Home

In the midst of all the things going on in the previous post, we've still be finding time to wrap up some (unnecessary but totally fun) projects around the condo.

Sofa Table

We had some left over money at Ikea, so we decided to pick up this sofa table for the back side of our sofa (hence why it's called a sofa table). Kyle got to put on his Ikea thinking cap one more time and put it together. Once it was put together, I immediatelty felt the need to start placing things in it/on it/near it. I found that the fabric boxes I got at Target fit perfectly (without a centimeter to spare) into the cubbies on the bottom. We put our wine in the third cubby, and our (small but growing) recipe book collection in the fourth cubby. I also found that the four salad bowls that were hogging room in my kitchen fit perfectly in the small cubbies above the big cubbies. Score!

Our sofa's new best friend.

For the top of the sofa table, I had a vision of frames. Kyle was a gem and picked out 5 "mismatching size" frames at Ikea. I was very impressed when he nailed the size selection I had in mind. I'd be wanting to somehow display the 5 solas in our home, and now we had the perfect place to do so!

I just printed them each on gray card stock
and then put them in the frames.

I told Kyle to "smile big" and that's the face he made - hee hee :)

K and S Letters

Remember this post from our honeymoon? We picked up two tiny printing press letters at Nasty Jack's Antique Shop in La Conner, although I didn't know what I would do with them. One of the frames I had picked up at Good Will had a thicker ledge on it, and it turns out the letters fit perfectly on the ledge!

I still secured them with wood glue, just in case.
Also, clearly it will look better when there's an actual
photo in the frame...

I'm still loving the coral/aqua contrast with the white. Maybe
someday we'll wonder "what were we thinking?!", but for
now, it's fun :)

Kitchen Window

A few months ago my dad and I stopped in to an antique shop in Stanwood on the way home from one of my dress fitting with my grandma. I found this awesome old window frame. 

There is no window glass but that's fine because
eventually we will put a mirror on the back.

I also found this cute little letter H.

After some priming and many layers of paint, behold our "kitchen window":

The baby chicks are salt and pepper shakers
we picked up on our honeymoon. Their names
are Margo and Rita.

Mason Jar Soap Dispensers

After seeing this post on Pinterest, I thought that mason jar soap dispensers would go really well with kinda-corny-but-really-cute Country Kitchen theme. 

I picked up these mason jars at the Value Village by
our house. I was super jazzed to find the yellow and
blue lids on a pair of smaller jars, so I just swapped
the lids (shh...don't tell).

I picked up these soaps at the Dollar Store because
 I need white pumps and didn't want to pay $4 a
piece for them. Bonus: I can use the soap too!

Kyle drilled 3/4 inch holes in the top of the lids.

Then we super glues the lids to the rims, as well as the
underside of where the pump connects with the lids.

Voila!

The only thing missing is a mirror for my faux-window
and the Country Kitchen will be complete...for now :)

Kitchen Mirrors

This project took longer than I anticipated, but I am really (I mean really) happy with the outcome. Previously the back wall of our kitchen was blank and it needed something to add color to that part of the kitchen. We have an abundance of these wood Ikea mirrors (don't ask why, I just always think I need more when I don't and now we have an excess supply). I decided that I wanted to paint two of the mirrors blue and then "somehow" put a scripture verse on them. The painting part was easy...the scripture part was more tricky.

Primed.

Painted.
PS - I just folded up computer paper up to fit really snug
to cover the mirror so it didn't get paint on it.

This was my first attempt. I thought maybe I could
stencil the letters onto the wood. Turns out, you need
to be extremely patient to make stenciling work, and
there  is no possible amount of prayer that could
ever make me that patient. I gave up with the stencils
and tried to free hand paint the rest...which looked
even worse. Fail.

The good news is this stencil fail discovery was made during a
Hansen gals craft afternoon at Kyle's cousin's house. Turns out
Kyle's cousin's daughter does have the gift of stenciling, and she
was able to to repurpose one of my mirrors for her room :)

The even better news is that Kyle's cousin had
one of these die cut machines (I can't remember
what it's called or else I'd tell you the name).
Kyle's other cousin suggeseted that I use the die
cut to make my letters and then use Modge Podge
to secure them to the frame. These Hansen
women are just geniuses!

Once I made new blue mirrors (more priming and painting),
I spaced my letters out on the sheet I'd be painting
on in the the outline my painting had left. 

Then I painted Modge Podge onto the entire frame to
give the letters something to stick to. After placing the letters
down, I saturated each one with more Modge Podge.

I can't get this picture to rotate correctly, but the point is to
show that the Modge Podge goes on white but dries clear.

Drying... 

1 Corinithians 10:31 "So, Whether you eat or drink,
or whatever you do, do all to the Glory of God."

Cross for the Living Room

The "last thing" (should have been the first thing!) I felt our living room needed was a cross. I couldn't find any that I liked in the store (what happened to all the plain crosses?). I did find the supplies needed to make my own cross at...you guessed it...Hobby Lobby. 

I was doing a lot of priming this night so ignore the
mirror frames and other tiny cross (that one got
painted coral and put in our bedroom).

I painted the big one white and the sides black.
I ended up having to touch up a lot of the white paint
where it met with the black (and then touch
up the black...and then the white...).

The smaller cross was painted grey with black sides.

I let them dry over night before securing
them together with some wood glue (again, ignore
the little cross).

Done!

I don't love the grey-white-grey combo, but I do like that the cross is
versatile enough that I could move it to the green wall and it would
still match. Also, I didn't want a cross that was mostly black because,
well, that seemed kind of morbid. So for now, it stays!

Giving it grace: When I said goodbye to my cheerleading days in high school, I must have also said goodbye to my crafting/project days as well. During the last 10 years the urge to craft and make projects must have been swelling up inside me because I can't get enough of it lately! It's such a fun change from my normal routine of work-school-eat-sleep repeat. At first I felt "bad" for devoting so much time to "silly" things like crafting and other projects. I realized I was judging myself, because that's how I justified not making time for things like this the past 10 years. It's been a huge blessing to have the time and resources to "get back in touch" with this side of myself. I may not be good at it all, but I am learning a lot along the way, am having a lot of fun doing it (especially when the project involves Kyle), and am enjoying the results! I've pretty much wrapped up all of my immediate projects, and I do need to spend a littttttle more time thesis writing over the next 3 months...but hopefully there will be more projects in the future.