Stylish Blogger Award

I am so honored to receive the Stylish Blogger Award from Amie over at Pinkapotamus!  She is seriously talented and happens to be one of the first blogs I started following.  I actually did a feature on her within my first few posts of starting my blog.  She is a great inspiration so when you get a chance go check her out and you can thank me later! -chuckle-  So a huge shout out to her for thinking of me!  

In order to accept the award I must:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 7 other bloggers.

Seven Things About Me:

1. I absolutely cannot stand dust.  It is my arch nemesis.  

2. Coffee is a must. Vanilla Caramel Creamer is a necessity. 

3. I have 14 brothers and sisters. Hence the ability to work with what I got or whatever is given to me! 

4. I had my oldest son when I was 16 and have never regretted it.  It never hindered only motivated me  to be better.

5. My older sister is my best friend and biggest supporter.  I don't know where I would be without her.

6. I love Gain. Period.

7. I call my kids Trebalicious, Chaser Racer and Shug. (in order with the pic) The creativity never ends!! HA

And on to the seven awesome blogs that I adore:

1. Jaime at Caught in Grace

2. Melanie at Creative Art & Design

3. Tara at FabuLESSly Crafty

4. Vicki at Green Eyed Girl Crafts!

5. Sarah at Sweet Pea & JoJo

6. Kristin at Striving to be More

7. Ashley at upcycled by ash

Thanks again to Amie and I hope you check out these awesome blogs!  They are all truly talented women who definitely deserve this!

Make Your Own Chalkboard Paint

I found this awesome recipe over at http://curbly.com/diy-maven/posts/9291-how-to-make-your-own-chalkboard-paint-in-any-color  and thought I should share it with all you lovely people!!

USING A SPONGE BRUSH, apply 3 OR MORE coats on your painting surface. Sand with 400 (or more) grit sandpaper between coats, however, if you're careful and use a sponge brush, sanding might not be necessary. 

Recipe of Chalkboard Paint:

• 3 teaspoons acrylic paint (color of choice), PLAIN OLD ACRYLIC CRAFT PAINT WORKS FINE
• 1 1/2 teaspoons glazing medium (water based)
• 1/2 teaspoon powder UNSANDED tile grout

LOVE it

I am so crazy in love with Leo Reynold's collections on Flickr.  There I said it. I cannot stop spelling out different words with different letters and they ALL look awesome!  I have done so many but I wanted to show you my version of the alphabet. Oh yeah...and you can do it too!  All I did was save the pictures and edit in PAINT.  How crazy simple is that?  Simple yet stunning ;)

Handmade Birthday Decorations Part 2

A few more decorations for my daughters birthday...and she helped!  We made our own piñata out of a gift bag, crepe paper and a giant coloring book picture!  I glued on the crepe paper and cut out Dora from the front of that giant coloring book.  She LoveS it!!  I also used tissue paper to make the pom-pom and Birthday flower to hang.  Then last but not least I used paint chips (my all time love) to make the linked banner!  We had so much fun doing this and best of all this cost me nothing but time well spent with my soon to be 5 year old. :)

Linked To:

Have You Heard?

There is an AWESOME contest going on now over at Nap Time Crafters!  It ends TOMORROW so make sure you enter to win some awesome prizes...over $300 worth!

DIY Wood Candle Holder

Yesterday I went to my local Home Depot and got a 2x4 cut into 20 4in blocks which also left me with a block about 6in long for a whopping $2.33!  Yay!  I also grabbed a new can of Rust Oleum-Heirloom Satin  (Did I mention I went to the craft store first and they wanted $13 for a bag of little 1in blocks?!)

  I have so many projects I want to do with these blocks it is unreal!  First things first is this candle holder.  I already had a 12in piece of scrap wood left over from my last set of blocks and knew I wanted to use it for this project.  I started off by sanding ALL my blocks...might as well get it over with, right?  I then spray painted the blocks with Rust Oleum Heirloom Satin (2 coats) and also used some light brown water based paint around the edges.  I wiped off the light brown with a rag before it could dry for a rustic look.  I then sanded the edges to give the wood an aged look.  I topped it off with a nice coat of Mod Podge to seal in all that goodness and waited for it all to dry.

  As I was waiting I ran to Dollar General and saw they had all their Christmas inventory marked down to 25cents!  Well needless to say I knew there was something I could use from that aisle and found these pretty awesome key ornaments that  I thought would look cool on my candle holder (after some paint of course) so I snatched them up!  I also got a "few" other things (evil grin)

To finish I used Super Glue to put all my pieces together.  I am making two but am waiting for the other one to dry right now so I figured I would show all of you while I wait.  (Such a multi-tasker!) I also thought the plain white pillar I had looked too boring on top so I wrapped some gold ribbon on it with a fancy rubber band! :)  So here is the final product...what do you think? (Besides I now need bigger pillars to top them off with? HA!)

P.S. This is what I did with that leftover 6in piece

Linking To: