"The Metal Bucket...2,3, and 4"

When my last free metal bucket make over turned out so well, my son's friend offered to get me more...guess he's got a lot from an uncle...here's how they turned out!

really love the way the red one pops! But it took a lot of coats of paint!

Mark helped pick out this contrast- large daisies from scrap booking paper- he has good taste! (That's why we're married ;)

This last one is my favorite! Each one is doubly sealed with spray polyurethane coats, and are already being used...couple to hold my paint cans, and a couple more to cover ugly flower planters :) 

"The Metal Bucket"

I was given a metal bucket- a very nice one from one of Austin's friends from a trip- with "Corona" beer written all over it...since we're not big drinkers, I wanted to change it to something I would use, possibly in the garden...and Austin's friend didn't mind. So I started by giving it a coat of silver spray paint for metal surfaces, which I already had in the cupboard and it looked really nice!  But I wanted to make it REALLY nice!  So, I went through my large scrapbook of paper and found some beautiful prints to cut out.  I used the spray adhesive to attach it to the metal once it was dry and gave it 2 coats of spray Polyurethane...Presto! Change-o!  This is what my bucket looks like now...rather charming, I think ;-)  Maybe it'll hold some real flowers this spring!

 Super SIMPLE! for a Simple Life...!

"Finished My Necktie Pillow!"

So months ago I had this "great idea"( sarcasm is in quotes)...I bought several neckties CHEAP from Goodwill with interesting prints and I wanted to TIE (pun intended) them together to make a rug...turns out you need a LOT of ties for that...so what I did instead was cross-hatch the ties in a square- and I found I needed a backdrop- so I used a piece of black felt...This is what it looked like-

And from the back...

Now I had this finished and wanted to make a pillow out of it...but I DON'T SEW very well...I'm going to learn!!  Sooo, I've been keeping an eye out for a great pillow to add this to whenever we visit Goodwill (I'm telling you- some days our Goodwill is like gold!!)  Tonight I found a fantastic pillow- has a gold cover with a zipper- brand new for $3.03!!  Here's the pillow by itself.

This is going to be a hand wash pillow- definitely decorative or for someone without small kids...I remember too well all the spit up I had to deal with when Noah was little!!  So I used my trusty Fabric Adhesive Spray- it also adheres a lot of other stuff- very strong.  I sprayed the back really well, tucked under the edges and here is my new pillow for my new room!!

Here's another view-
It definitely unique, and I like it so much, I may do a couple more...matching the prints was part of the fun! 

So, What do you think? I'd appreciate comments on my blog, so I know what direction to keep marching in...thanks always for your time, friends!!

"Easy End Table"

So I had these 3 cut-out press-boards that I bought on clearance at TJ Maxx about 2 yrs ago and I've used them at different times for different things...I got all 3 for $10 because they were a little beat-up- and you know, all you need is some good spray paint!!

Here is a photo of when I used them to grandstand some product I was selling...can you see them underneath?

Then they just laid around- so I decided to make them into a small table for my new sun-room!! Here's how I did it...I bought small L-brackets and half-inch screws and screwed the panels together like this...

It needed a little extra bracing underneath, so I grabbed some scrap 2X2 in the garage and measured and cut it to fit.  Then I screwed both ends from the outsides...

Now all it needed was black acrylic paint, including over the screw heads, and then an overall coat of spray polyurethane...and now- it's, well, TA-DA!!!

Finished product!! Just waiting on my new little loveseat to pair it with!

"Simply Make Life Simple"

This blog will be a series of simple ideas to indeed make life easier- and who couldn't use that?
Item #1- Broken Water Cooler
        So we had this large red water cooler for awhile, but it began to leak and eventually the hinges on top completely gave way.  It was sitting empty taking up space in the closet when one day I thought, "Hey! That would be perfect to store our dry dog food in!"  So that's exactly what I did- we have 2 dogs roughly 60 lbs apiece and we buy these huge 40 lb bags of food.  Usually the cooler holds almost the whole bag and within a few days, we pour the rest in...It is absolutely less messy and looks much nicer (smells nicer, too!) than a big bag sitting around.  We leave a scoop cup in the cooler and it makes feeding the dogs much simpler!! If you have a simple idea, please feel free to comment and leave your name so I can give you credit!
      
We all like to have life a little easier!!