Wooden Quote Sign {and a little catch up!}

Surprise!

I'm baaaaaack :)

OK, so I'm not so stellar at 

writing incredibly frequent posts

on this little bloggy blog here,

but it's the thought that counts, right?

So I wanted to show you a little

sumthin' I made a few weeks back.

I made it for a gallery wall that

I'm working on in our master bedroom.

Unfortunately, this little gallery wall

project has been in the works for a few weeks now.

{Along with 27 4 other projects I'm working on.}

I want this gallery wall to be fun and meaningful.

It is the first wall you see as you 

walk into our bedroom.

So.... I saw this quote awhile back on my

sister's blog, and I loved it!

I knew it needed to hang on my wall.

There you have it.

Notice the many imperfections...

the crooked letters,

the not completely white letters...

I made them that way on purpose,

to symbolize the fact that Wes and I

are two imperfect human beings

but we love each other

anyway.

Haha, got ya!

Those imperfections were

accidents, tehe.

And you thought I was really super deep.

Fooled you.

So, I didn't take step by step photos.

Again, not up for the top blogger award here.

But all I did was sand a square piece of plywood

(luckily for me I have a ton of square pieces

of plywood lying around that I snagged

at a garage sale 2 years ago).

Then I spray painted the board in an off-white color.

Next I used my Silhouette to cut out the letters

for the quote (I used cardstock).

I laid the letters on the board,

and spray painted black over them.

This is where my laziness caused

those imperfections I mentioned earlier.

I didn't adhere the letters to the board at all,

so a few of them thought they could escape

during the spray painting process.

Finally, I sanded the edges lightly to make 

the board look slightly worn.

There you have it.

Not too hard, huh?

Overall, I am happy with how the board

turned out and I think it will

be a fun addition to our bedroom!

I can't leave you without a picture pictures of

my kitten britches 

(my new fav nickname for Claire).

Our little dancing queen :)

I couldn't get enough pictures of kitten britches (or Meadow- Claire's hippy name for the day she wore this) in this adorable dress- thanks for Aunt Christy for it!

Claire loved her first boat ride!

"Choose your love. Love your choice."

Happy nesting!

Summer Mantel + Garage Sale Find

Hey peeps.

Seeing as how it's summer and all,

I thought our house needed to reflect 

this glorious fact a little bit.

And so, without further ado,

this is how our "mantel" currently looks:

I left the main structures the same as they had been-

the spray painted frames and the wreath in the middle.

I got the plant at a garage sale (thanks mom!). 

The plate was a plain white plate 

that I added the bicycle vinyl

to using my handy dandy Silhouette machine.

I had everything else on hand.

I added the little pennant banners to the frames,

and you can't see it well in these pictures,

but each pennant has a letter on it,

spelling the words 

"summer breeze."

I'm still deciding if I think this arrangement

is too busy because I'm

really liking some of the more

simple mantel arrangements

I'm seeing.

But for now, I think I'll keep it around.

I also wanted to show you this little beauty:

{The dresser is the "little beauty" in case you 

weren't sure which item I was referring too :) }

I got her at a garage sale for 

the small price of $15!

Sadly, she was only marked for $10,

but I was deciding if I for sure

wanted her and when I went back

to buy her someone else was just

loading her into their truck.

Luckily, I knew the new owner,

and she said she would sell

this green beauty to me for $15,

so I jumped on it.

The knobs were plain white,

and I added vinyl numbers to them,

again using my wonderful Silhouette.

She has some marks and scuffs on her,

but I just think they add character.

Best of all, she provides some great,

much needed storage space for blankets,

games, coloring books, and 

who knows what else.

For now she's in our living room,

but I could see her migrating to

a child's bedroom someday.

What great garage sale finds have you gotten

this summer?

Besides garage sale-ing and manteling

(pretty sure I just invented a new word!)

here's a few pics of what we've been

up to this past week:

Out to dinner to celebrate summer birthdays with my side of the fam

Our little firecracker showing off her "seafood" :)

Wes and his dad working on Claire's new swing set

Claire snuggling with Ellie (aka squeezing the crap out of her neck)

Splash Pad fun

More splash pad fun, with Miss Haley

Blessing to you,
and happy nesting!