Kitchen Table Make Over

We have had the same kitchen table for as long as we've been married! That's 18 years! Its a really good, solid table, with nothing wrong with it, I just needed a change. 18 years ago I loved Oak. Everything had to be Oak. Well now....I'm on a black kick. Everything has to be black now. So I thought I'd go ahead and try painting it.

This is what it looked like before.

Wish I would have taken a picture by itself before. But I never think of these things until I'm done! So I did manage to find this picture. Those are my two little goof balls a few years back. They got a science kit for Christmas, and they were being scientist. :) Oh and I apologize for the lack of clothing on my youngest, Macy. Haha!

So, as you can see, it is just a solid oak table. There's no finish or nothing on it. The chairs have seen better days. We started to feel springs on the seats when you'd sit down. They would of needed a lot of TLC, and I thought about reupholstering them, but I wanted the table to look nice for Thanksgiving, and I just ran out of time. So I decided to buy new chairs.

This is the end result.

Looks like a whole new table doesn't it? I am completely in love with it. I used the same paint that I used on the front door, because frankly, I have 4 gallons and I'd like to use it up!  The paint and color is Sherwin Williams Black Magic. I sanded the table really good first. I only put one coat on it, because I was really liking the worn look. You can kind of see a little bit of brown peeking through here and there. I also didn't put a clear coat on it because I didn't want a shiny look.

 Now that a few months have past, I can say that it has held up pretty good. There is one area of the table that has some scratches. I won't point any fingers, but we know who's the culprit is in our house. :) So I think I will add another coat.

Snowman Love

I have a love for snowmen. I just love them and anything to do with them. I love snow. I would much rather see snow all winter long, not brown dead leaves. I guess its because I work from home, so I don't have to drive on the bad road during the winter. Don't get me wrong, I like summer the most, but I also love sweatpants, sweatshirts, warm fireplaces, cuddling on the couch watching movies, etc. I could handle a shorter winter though. :)

Here's some snowman goodies I have created.

   Snowman Pancakes
Chocolate Chip eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons. Bacon scarf, mini marshmallow and powdered sugar snow. 

                              
   Snowman Pizza!
  I used black olives for the eyes and mouth, and I cut a orange pepper to look like    a nose.

  Snowman hot chocolate
 I sprayed whipped cream in the hot chocolate to make the snowman, then decorated it with some candy cupcake sprinkles I had in the cupboard. Those little buggers come in handy some times!

Snowman Poop!
 I made these Snowman Poop bags for my sons 3rd grade class Christmas party. The kids loved them, but I think the parents loved them even more!

The saying says ~
I hear you've been naughty,
So listen, here's the scoop...
I'm running short on coal this year,
So you get "Snowman Poop"
                     

Grinch Pills

Feeling Grouchy? Maybe you need a Grinch Pill!

I made these two Christmas's ago for my kids Christmas parties at school. They were a hit! Especially with the parents and teachers! They loved them! I saw these adorable goody bags on Pinterest, and knew I just had to make them!

I bought small treat bags from the craft store, and filled them with green M&M's. Do you know how hard it was to find green M&M's right before Christmas? I looked everywhere and everyone was out! So I bought big bags of the Christmas red and green M&M's, and just separated them. My brother in law was all too happy to take the red one's off of our hands for us!

I couldn't find a print out for them, so what I did was found a picture of Grinch, and typed out the saying myself. I printed tons of those, then cut them all out. I had some really cute Christmas paper, and cut it using fancy scissors, so they would look nicer. I stapled the paper to the top of the bag full of M&M's, then using a glue stick, I attached the Grinch and the saying.

It took a while to make them all, but it was definitely worth the time, and I would do it again!

Front Door Make Over

  Front Door Make Over

Our front door was in serious need of some TLC!! We have lived at our house for 5 1/2 years, and its something about my house that drove me crazy, but I never found the time to do anything about it. One day last fall I finally had enough!

                                  Before

The door was a country green color, and the trim and side windows were a beige color. It was not very exciting! I'm on a major black kick right now, so of course I decided I must have a black door as well.

                                   After

I used Sherwin Williams Black Magic paint. It looks black from far away, but close up it has a brown tint to it. I wanted something that wouldn't scratch off easily, so they told me I should buy an oil based paint. I was not familiar with oil based paint, so I wasn't aware of what I was getting myself into! It was like painting with glue or tar! It was super thick! It was also a pain to clean up! But it only took 2 coats. I don't think I'd buy an oil based paint again though. Unfortunately, I have 4 cans of it for my other doors in the house! Lesson learned.

 We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins this year! The one on the hay eating the little pumpkin rocked!

                   Hello Kitty Pumpkin

               Black and white chevron pumpkin

                  Black cat pumpkins

   This was the first year we painted pumpkins. I loved how they turned out! We will definitely be doing this again next year. It was fun for my girls as well. They did the painting!
  The cat pumpkin was 2 pumpkins on top of each other, and we used the stem to make the tail. We cut the whiskers, ears, and eyes out of foam paper. The nose was a pink glittery pom pom. We did the same thing for the Hello Kitty. The bow, eyes, nose, ears, and whiskers were made from foam paper.
  The black and white chevron pumpkin was painted by my 15 year old daughter Megan. We have a love for everything chevron! She painted the pumpkin white, then just free handed the black zigzags.