An Elegant Dinner on the Patio

Prom.

A super fun, super expensive fancy event for teenagers.

I'm jealous.

Seriously.

How often do Moms and Dads get this kind of treatment without having to pay through the nose?

So I guess you could say I'm living through my child.

My boy was going with a great group of kids and I knew a couple of the moms.

We suggested doing a dinner supplied by the Mom's as a way to help the kids save money.

I think it turned out fabulously!

And with minimal cost.

Sometimes it really does take a village to pull off something this amazing.

So let me give you the low-down.

There were 12 kids, 6 couples.

Someone supplied the table linens and dishware.

I did the center piece.

There are Mason Jars, votive candles, playground sand, Christmas lights, sheer curtain fabric, 

babys breath flowers and a Pallet wood platform with finials for legs.

The only thing I spent money on was the candles and the babys breath.

The Christmas lights were piled up in the center.

Then the sheer fabric draped over the lights.

Then the pallet wood platform and finials.

Mason jars with playground sand and candles were next.

Finished off with the babys breath flowers spread around the jars.

It truly looked magical with the Candles lit, twinkling lights in the background,

and lovely dinnerware for each place setting.

The kids had a great time.

And at the end they called out the moms and gave us a standing ovation.

It was awesome!!

Just a quick rundown of the dinner:

To start it was artisan bread bowls with spinach dip served with pita chips.

A small cup of lime sorbet to cleanse the pallet.

(my boy was the only one who knew what that was, 

the rest were just excited to have some ice cream!)

Salad with choice of toppings and dressing.

More Lime Sorbet.

Italian Cream Soda to drink.

Dinner was chicken breast, roasted vegetables, and baked potato.

Lime Sorbet.

And finally a gorgeous Piezookie which is just my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe 

pressed into a ramekin, baked and topped with vanilla ice cream, 

and drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce.

They looked so good I had to take a picture.

My friend went a little crazy with the chocolate and caramel drizzle-ing across the top,

but hey, how often do we get to do that?!?

Plus it makes the dessert look amazing!

All in all, it was a lot of work, for not much money.

And the kids had a great time.

Perfect!

Farm Fresh Eggs

I should have been born and raised in another place and time.

Not that I don't like my life now, but

I really, REALLY want to have a farm with chickens,

goats, sheep, garden and an orchard.

But for now I live in the suburbs in a subdivision.

A tiny piece of land. Just enough for my fruit trees and a garden.

But I can dream about chickens.

A crazy thing to dream about I know, but still.

I'm a farm girl stuck in a city girl's body.

So when I found this bird font over at DaFont, I had to use it in my pallet wood creations.

It would be perfect for the kitchen, or on the barn next to a chicken coop.

See.. still dreaming about farm life.

Anyhoo.

I screwed the pallet wood boards together like normal,

then did a couple of layers of paint.

A little blue.

A little green.

And a good white wash to top it off.

Then I pulled out the projector and added this image with black paint.

A little country.  

Very cute.

Here chicky chicky.

Mama needs some chickens!

Here it is over at Twigs and Twine with some of my other creations.

Zippers and a Little Bling

It's so fun to go through my pictures every once in a while.

I was going through my pics of our trip up the West Coast last summer.
My dad just had back surgery and is down and out for a little while so my
sister had the brilliant idea to put together a digital photo frame for him
with pictures of the family.

As I was going through my pictures from our trip
I found some pictures of some bracelets I made a while ago but never got around
to posting them.

Honestly I'm not sure why.
I love how they turned out.

Plus maybe I need to take a break from pallet projects for a little while.
I've got a major living room redecorate coming soon that has a heavy
dose of pallet wood so let's try something completely different.
I'm like that sometimes.
So here goes.

Forewarning:  This post will be picture rich.

Alright.  Let's go!

I love Zippers!
I love the fun funky design of some of them.
The cool industrial metal ones.

While brousing through SAS in Phoenix,
which is my proverbial 'kid in a candy store' place,
I wandered over to their zipper section.

Big ones.
Little tiny ones.
Fat ones.
Colorful ones.
Separating metal ones.
Chunky plastic ones.

All for so cheap.
The zippers I'm using here cost me $0.25 each.
Seriously.
$0.25 each.
Awesome.

When I saw them I knew they would be perfect for bracelets.
Kind of an industrial meets steampunk effect.
Fun and unique.
Perfect.

So I dug out my jewelry making supplies and started putting things together.

A key, a charm and some beads were all this bracelet needed.

Afer I trimmed the canvas tape away from the actual metal zipper.

A few jump rings and a lobster claw closure and it's done.

Easy.

Zippers and charms.

Perfectly cute and fun!

For this bracelet I decided to leave the canvas tape on and allow the zipper to function

unlike the previous one.

I found another set of fun charms.

A heart.

A love charm with definition,

and I made the bead charm with a head pin and some beads.

Then I attached the charms with a jump ring to the hole in the zipper head.

This way I can unzip the zipper if I want or leave it closed all the way.

The ends got a bar clamp and a toggle closure.

This is a great way to finish off the ends of the fabric.

I had to push the canvas strips together a little

to get them to fit in the bar clamp but not too much.

Then just press them closed with pliers and add the jump rings.

Easy peasy.

I think it looks beautiful on my wrist.

Fun dangle-ley charms.

 Fun.  Funky.

Pretty.

Perfect!

Pallets and Chandeliers

I regularly go to Pinterest for inspiration for my pallet wood projects.

Usually I just type in Pallet wood in the search engine and go from there.

There are some seriously talented crafters out there!

Chandeliers have held a special place in my heart.

I think they are beautiful.

Any way, any design, any material.

Especially the ones with beads and candles.

Very old world.

Very stunning.

So I came across these two pieces along with some others

that got my creative juices going.

Source

Source

I had done this one for my daughter a while ago.

But for the store I wanted to do another one out of pallet wood.

I searched Google images and found this one.

Simple.  Sweet.  Elegant.

Exactly the way a Chandelier should be.

So I assembled the boards like normal and used my projector to put the image on the board.

I love this method because it allows me to make the image the size and orientation exactly the way I want it to be.

I fit the image on the board and started painting.

A bit more detailed than normal but fun nontheless.

For the beadwork I used a q-tip dipped in my paint..

It worked perfectly!

I did add some stain once the image was painted because the boards were too pale

to show the white Chandelier properly.

I love how it turned out!

Pallet wood and Chandeliers.

A perfectly unique and beautiful combination.

Some Steampunk in the Sky

I guess you could say I'm fascinated with Steampunk.

Honestly I had no idea what it was until a Castle and Phineas and Ferb episode.

I know.  I'm a nerd... and a little naive.

I'm defintely not obsessed, nor do I dress up and go to Steampunk Parties.

But the images really captivate me.

ie. The bicycle here and here I've been painting for the last few weeks.

I want to play with some more steampunk images, 

but am a little apprehensive since many of them are very detailed

which doesn't translate well to pallet wood.

But I found this cute airplane over at The Graphics Fairy and loved it.

Simple and fun.

I think it would be perfect for a boys room or a nursery.

This one got a light whitewash, then a light blue wash to imitate the sky.

I off centered the plane just a bit to give a more 'in flight' look.

Up up and away!
Enjoy!

Ride On

The bicycle boards seem to be doing well right now

over at Twigs and Twine.

I just needed to play with the colors and design a bit more.

This time I used Becky's paint technique from Beyond the Picket Fence

on the boards before doing the image.

I did a combo of three layers of paint.

Green, Yellow, and White.

Each was drybrushed on in a very random pattern.

Some light sanding and I added a bit of the apple cider vinegar/steel wool stain

to darken the slats up a bit.

Here is the previous bicycle board.

I love the vintage bicycle image from Graphics Fairy.
Sometimes simple is best.

Ride on!

Pallets, Chevrons, and Messages

This week I thought I'd play with the whole message board idea.

I looked around on Pinterest but couldn't find one that was just right for me.

I had a bunch of shelf boards that my sister and I got for free from Craigslist 

a while ago that have been sitting in my garage.  

I decided to pull out the chalkboard paint and get to work.

The paint was left over from my Beachy Bathroom Makeover, 

and since I barely used any of it then, 

there is plenty for the message boards.

First I gathered my pallet wood boards and screwed them together like always.

Then gave them a light white wash.

After that I used a WinCo paper grocery bag to cut out a chevron pattern.

I just folded it in thirds, then in half again and cut two diagonal cuts.

Unfold and voila!  A perfect chevron.

I used a pencil to trace the design on the pallet wood.

Next came some careful painting being sure to stay within the lines.

I do that sometimes.... 

Then I screwed the chalkboard piece from the back being careful to make sure it was straight.

Then I glued some leftover fence picks that were cut with the miter saw.

They got a white wash, then Gorilla Glue'd in place.

After that dried I added some D-Ring hanging hardware to the back.

The bucket I found at Goodwill for about 2 dollars.

It had some weird painting on the bands around the tub so I painted over it with the blue from the chevrons.

I used some nuts, bolts, and washers to screw them to the board.

Then added some metal clips and hooks to finish it off.

All ready for a cute command center.

When I do something, I usually do at least 2 of them at a time.

If I'm going to make one, I'm going to make 2.

Saves time in the long run to assembly line the process.

So this version is slightly different.

A little smaller pallet wood pieces.

A different bucket.  

This one also came from Goodwill but it's an old bread pan.

Same metal clips and hooks.

A perfectly cute way to have a command center to keep everyone organized.

Now if I could just get around to making one for me I'd be all set.

PS.  These got delivered to Twigs and Twine last Friday. 

The brown one already sold.  I so love it when that happens!!

I Linked up here and here!