Recreating Shoes!

As I was searching online for some fun projects, I came across a project of painting shoes!! I immedietely wanted to run to my closet and gather up all my worn/old shoes and them to give them another life. 

Materials that are needed for the project:
old pair(s) of shoes
rubbing alcohol
rag
paint primer
acrylic,water resistant paint
paint brushe(s)

After going to my closet to see what possibilities I had lurking around in there, I walked out with a worn pair of pink sandals with a pair of scuffed black flats.

First things first...I decided to take rubbing alcohol and a rag to clean the surfaces of the shoes that I wanted to paint. This is to remove all the dirt and grime and create a nice surface for the primer to stick to. After the shoes dried, I then used a white primer and with small paintbrushes I delicately started to coat the shoes. Once I was done priming the shoes, I let them dry overnight to ensure all the cracks and crevices would dry.


I decided I would paint the flats coral pink and the sandals sea blue. I thought the blue would look better next to the original dark pink parts of the inside of the sandals that I wouldn't cover with paint (I know, I know, some of you may be thinking, 'why in the world would you care about what looks best next to the color on the inside of the shoe, which isn't even shown when the shoes are on!?' well I'm a little crazy that way).

Once the primer was all dried, I was off to painting the shoes in beautiful, fun colors! I painted the shoes in sections and would switch back and forth in between pairs while I waited for segments to dry to create a place for me to hold.

Once the shoes were covered I waited overnight for the first coat to dry (I'm sure you don't need to wait that long in between coats but I wanted to ensure the paint that was in the crevices of the bow on the flats, was completely dried).

After the first coat was completely dried, I applied a second coat to ensure all the shoes looked even (the flats especially needed a second coat because the shoe was originally black and some grey was faintly showing through).

  

 

And Viola! I recreated a total different look for my old abandoned shoes that I will now wear all the time to add a fun pop of color to an outfit!

As always, I would love to see and hear about how your re-creation of your shoes turn out!

Recreating a Hat Project

I love hats!!!! I have been looking out for a plain hat to recreate for some time now and over the weekend I found this hat at H&M for $5.95!  As I was checking out, I also found two clip on flowers that I thought might be useful.

When I got home, I went to my ribbon collection and found a cream crochet like lace. I then hand stiched the ribbon across the bottom of the hat. I turned on a show while I did this and time just flew by! I then clipped on the flowers that I bought spur of the moment and liked the result. However, I decided to not sew the flowers in place because I know myself to well and I know I will want to switch up the look depending on the outfit.

Now I can wear the hat with or without the flowers and even buy or make other clip on flowers to switch up the look.

Have fun recreating your own hats! Feel free to leave a comment of what you have done to recreate your hat.

Creating Fun & Unique Dates

I thought after I gave you the idea of Recreating Date Night with the twelve months of special dates, I would give you a list of great date ideas. I have listed some below and will be constantly adding more to it. If you have more great ideas of fun dates you have done, feel free to leave a comment and I can add to the list!

-Movie Night In: rent a redbox or netflix a movie that either of you have seen. Click here to get some codes that you can use for a free night rental from redbox! You can even get treats that match the theme of the movie you picked out!

-Take advantage of some of the free activities in your community. Check local libraries, parks, and other community places to find out what they offer. Here is a link free things to do in Utah.

-Pack a picnic and go to a park or on a little hike.

-Go on a scavenger hunt throughout your house. On the list write down things to find such as 'something that reminds you of us when we were dating' and so on. Be creative!

-Go online to http://www.5lovelanguages.com/ and you and your spouse take the assessment to discover what your love languages are. Then spend some time talking about what you could do for eachother to feel more loved.

-Search online for local concerts that both of you would enjoy.

-Spend the night asking eachother questions like you would have done on a first date with eachother. This sounds cheesy but chances are the answers you gave when you were first dating have changed over the years...get to know eachother again and again and again! These questions can be as trivial as 'what is your favorite color?' to as personal as 'what are some things you wish you could change about yourself?'

-Take a trip down memory lane and watch your wedding video or look through photo albums of pictures of you two growing up and/or dating.

-Thrifty Date Idea:  Buy a new game, movie, book, or sporting equipment that you could use on your date all for under $10. Visit a local thrift store and pick up some new activities. Have fun!

-Renting metal detectors and going up the canyon or to a beach to find some treasure!

-Build a fort to play a board game, watch a movie, or sleep in just like we did when we were kids!

-Recreate your first date together as closely as you can.

-Pick a letter of the alphabet to be the theme for the date. All the food and activities you do have to start with that letter.

-Make a homemade dessert together and it can be as simple or as hard as you like.

-Sign up for some sort of class that you can take together that will teach you a new skill. By learning something new together, it simulates those feelings you had at the beginning of your relationship. Some ideas of classes you could take would be: tennis, cooking, golfing, get CPR certifiede, home decorating/improvement...etc

-Create a dream board: Cut out pictures from magazines of things that both of you dream for in your life. This could be anything from vacations you want to go on, fitness goals, or how you want your relationship to look like with one another. Glue these pictures on the poster and hang somewhere you and your spouse will see everyday (like the back of a bathroom door) so you can be reminded of those goals and dreams.

-Look up personality tests online, take them, and compare.

Don't ever forget to make time for you and your spouse and remember to have fun!

Recreating Date Night

So this post is for all of my friends and family that have complained or expressed fear that once they get married that their fun dates go out the window. I got this idea off of pinterest but I have yet been able to find the source again.

What I did: I took 12 colorful envelopes and labeled each one for each month out of the year.

I then came up with dates for each month. With the help of Groupon and Living Social I was able to even purchase the activities in advance and print out the coupon to put it in the folder for the month of when I want my hubby and I to do that activity. If you want some ideas of dates I have created a list here.

Then have your sweetheart open the envelope for that month. You can have them open up the day of the activity, an hour before, or even a few weeks in advance to anticipate the activity.

**Note: You do not have to plan for the whole 12 months up front. You can plan for as little as a month in advance or just a few months in advance. However, I have found that if you don't invest time and effort in planning ahead, more often then not, the Dating Envelopes don't get used. Also the plus about planning most of the envelopes in advance is you even begin to forget what you put in them and ends up being a little surprise for you as well. Also don't worry about spending a lot of money! You can do this for as cheap as you want!

Once I get this rolling as a tradition for my husband and I, we will take turns planning the dates for each month.

If you are not familiar with Groupon or Living Social (which are my two favorite deal sites) then here are the links below to help you get the deals you want and aid you in planning fun retreats and dates!

Groupon: http://www.groupon.com/r/uu38706513
Living Social: https://www.livingsocial.com/

Residing Acne Free: Aspirin & Agave Facial

Here is an at home remedie from the Doctors TV show that helps you combat acne using only:

Agave

Aspirin

Water

clean blush brush (optional: used to apply)

I tried it out and loved it! First, put some aspirin (you don't need much) in a ziploc bag and crush it into a powder. Then, in a small cup or bowl mix the aspirin powder with some agave. Add a small amount of water until you get the consistancy you want. Then brush all over your face and leave on until it dries. Wash off with luke warm water.

Here is the video link that talks about why agave and aspirin are a great ingredients to use to help your acne! I would just write it here but I think it is more beneficial to hear it straight from the doctor's mouth.

http://www.thedoctorstv.com/videolib/init/6700

Recreating the infamous Butterbeer

I have tried many different recipes for butterbeer but I have not been completely satisfied so I combined a couple of the recipies and altered them until I came up with something I liked.

FOR THE BUTTERBEER
1 liter of cream soda
1 tsp of butter flavoring

FOR THE FOAM
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar (most recipes called for more but I didn't want all that extra sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tsp of butter flavoring

**If you have some glass mugs, I recommend you put them in the freezer before making the drink so you can have a nice frosted mug to put your delicious butterbeer in.

For the foam, whip the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and butter flavoring together. Beat it until you get the consistancy you want. 

Next, put a tsp. of butter flavoring in the bottom of your mug then pour the cream soda in and mix. Put as much foam as you want on top of the drink and enjoy!

Creating Yogurt Melts

One of my favorite things is frozen yogurt! So, with the help of my dear friend, Pinterest, I found this brilliant idea. However, I decided to use vanilla greek yogurt for the extra protein benefits.

 The first thing I did was I lined a cup with a ziploc bag and scooped yogurt into it. Then I cut a small hole in one of the corners of the bag. Then I squeezed out the yogurt into little melt size pieces.

  Once the pan was filled, I put it in the freezer for about an hour. Then I scooped them into a ziploc container for storage and easy access. I find that when I have a sweet tooth craving I can pull this out of the freezer and have a couple of spoonfuls of yogurt melts and not feel guilty. I also think this would be a great fun treat for kids and for babies who are teething! Yum Yum!

Creating a headboard for under $50

Recreating my master bedroom has been pretty much a year in the making and creating this headboard was a step toward that. I was determined to make one that would match the theme of my room and this is what I decided on...

What I used:

A slat of plywood

four 8" 2x4's

hardware to screw the wood pieces together

paint

staple gun

quilting batting

drapery lining (which is cheap and perfect for appolstering a headboard)

jewel buttons

hot glue

 

I encruited my awesome husband as well as my wonderful father to help me figure out what type of lumber I needed and how to put it together. We took a trip to Home Depot and got a piece of plywood and 4 pieces of 2x4's that were each 8 feet long.

After measuring the 2x4's and the plywood, I had my dad cut them with his fancy tools. Then my husband screwed them together and painted the legs. I am sorry I didn't take more detailed picutres of this process.

Once the paint was dry, I fit the batting to the front of the plywood and cut off the extra. Next, I stretched the drapery lining over the top of the batting and then had my husband staple gun it around the back of the frame.


We had to hammer some of the staples in because it was difficult for the staples to pass through all the layers of batting, fabric, and wood.

I found that no matter how tight I pulled the lining before it was stapled, there still ended up being some gathering. However, once I started adding the pintucks the gathering looked fne.

For the pintucks, I measured the headboard and made marks where I wanted the pintucks. Then, I made two staples to make a + sign over the marks. Once all the staples were in, I heated up the hot glue gun and glued on the jewel buttons over the staples.

This was the end result:

Recreaton of a buffet table

This buffet table was given to us by my wonderful in-laws. It is a very old table that had a couple of stains around the top and the varnish was almost rubbed all the way off so it was aching to be recycled. This has been one of those projects that has followed me to different houses that I kept putting off because I couldn't quite decide what I wanted to create. 

I finally decided that I wouldn't do anything too drastic and create a simple antique white and brown table. After I sanded it all down (with the help from my cute hubby) I then wiped off all the dust with a clean cloth. I sadly don't have a picture of what the original table looked like before we started sanding. I did not prime this table because I wanted the beautiful design from the wood to show through on the top of the table. Plus, there was no need to prime because we sanded down to the virgin wood.

After wiping it clean, I taped off around the edges around the top where I didn't want the brown to bleed down too much to where I was painting it an antique white. I then used a brown glaze (which I talk about how to make in the post about recreating the bench) and began to paint the top of the table.
I left this glaze on a bit longer than I normally do because I really wanted a dark brown color. Then I began wiping off the glaze, sanding a bit more and adding more glaze until I got the look I wanted. When I took of the tape, some brown glaze had dripped below the tape but I wasn't too worried because I knew the white paint would cover most of it.

Then I placed the table on cans of food so I would be able paint the bottoms of the legs easier. I then used a cabinet roller and rolled on two coats of an antique white with a satin finish, while letting about two hours of drying time in between coats. I had to use a very small paint brush to get close the brown top, which was the most time consuming and tidious. After the whole table was completely dry, I sanded in places that I wanted to look worn, and wanted the glaze to stick more. Of coarse after sanding, I wiped all the dust off again with a clean rag and was ready for the glaze.

Using the same brown glaze that I did for the top, just more watered down, I begin painting it on the white legs. Since I wanted the glaze to be fairly light, I watered it down a lot and would wipe it off fairly quickly. After I was done with all the legs, the glaze was darker then I wanted it so I got a lightly dampened rag and wiped down the legs. This is why glaze is so wonderful to work with...very forgiving!

After everything had dried I took my trusty cabinet roller and did two coats of polycrylic on the top of the table to protect it. I also allowed two hours to dry in between coats. As stated before in previous posts, because polycrylic is expensive, it is only needed to be used on the tops of furniture you recreate for protection. Such as tables, desks, dressers, etc...

The end result:

                                              BEFORE:                                     AFTER:

As always, if you have any questions on how to do a technique, feel free to leave a comment and I will try and answer your question!

A fun way to recycle old folding chairs

I was the host of a fun bridal shower the other week and I needed more chairs to seat the guests that were coming. So in my hunt to create some fun chairs, I found two simple metal folding chairs that had been pretty beat up.  After I washed all the dirt and grime off of them, I went straight to painting. However,  I wish I hadn't and wish I would have done a light coat of spray primer...
The paint still stuck but it probaly would have gone on more even and I wouldn't of needed a whole bottle of spray can per chair!...Nonetheless...it was a fun way to bring a pop of color to the party! They will also be fun to use all summer.

Next to you is where I belong...Bench Recreation

My husband and I were given this bench from family members who were throwing it out.  I gladly took it knowing I could recycle and recreate it's look. The bench had been previously primed white and then painted brown (which had been pretty well worn as you see in the picture).

I started off by sanding the bench to smooth the surfaces and to get the majority of the paint off.  Usually, recycling a piece of furniture that has previously been painted different colors on top of one another can be challenging. However, because I was going for an antique/worn look, I didn't mind the different layers of paint showing through so I didn't bother to sand off all of the paint. I sanded just enough to get a rough surface so the paint would stick. I also sanded just outside my garage so there wouldn't be much dust to clean up.

The next step I did was wipe down the bench with a dry cloth to get all the sanded dust off of it. Then I sprayed a light coat of primer over the whole bench. The great thing about spray primer is you don't have to completely coat the item...just a light spray so it gives the paint something to stick to. However, if I had sanded the bench completely down to it's original form, I probably would have skipped the primer.

After the bench was dry from the primer I started painting. I chose a color of "Tidal Teal" blue color from Lowe's and got it in one of the paint sample sizes (which is a half of a pint). I bought two of the paint samples because I wasn't sure how much I was going to use and they were only $2.98 each! I will probably never buy a 1/2 gallon of paint again, unless I am painting a room or such. They are great for saving you from storing a lot of extra paint and saves you a ton of money!
Anyways...later I found out that I only needed one 1/2 pint of paint to cover the bench. I always buy satin paint finishes because I feel it always turns out the best. I used a cabinet paint roller which was great to use and I didn't have to worry about streaky paint.

 My husband liked the bench just like this...I love the color but it wasn't completely looking like the image I had in my head...
So I then sanded the places that I wanted to look worn and the places I would want the glaze to really show up. After sanding I wiped all the dust off with a dry rag.

I then mixed 1 part glaze to 1 part paint in an old hot chocolate tin that I saved. I chose a brown titled, "cowboy boots" for the glaze color (that's the fun part about glaze is that you can choose any color you want!). Then I added a lot of water until I got the right consistency I wanted. Honestly, I typically like it to be really watered down and be pretty runny. But, it is up to you! The more water the more lighter the glaze will be. I then put on the glaze using a sponge brush. Make sure you have clean rags on hand to start wiping the glaze off.  Now, I love using glaze as oppose to stain. This is because glaze is sooo forgiving! You can leave the glaze on longer than you can stain AND if you don't like the way it turns out, don't fret, just paint some more glaze over the top and wipe it off and it will take off the glaze you had underneath with it. I even had time to grab my camera and take a picture while the glaze sat. Also glaze is VERY easy to clean up with water. After I glazed the top, I realized I still wanted the glaze to be more watery so I added more water. After I was done glazing the whole thing, and wiped off the glaze, I ended up sanding more to add character.

After the glaze dried, thanks to the help from a wonderful sister, I printed out the vinyl lettering and stuck them to the bench where I wanted. After I had all the letters in place where I wanted them, I rolled over the top of the bench with a polycrylic (using a cabinet roller again), which will protect it. Note: You do not need to use polycrylic on everything you do. I only use it on the tops of tables, dressers, etc...basically anything that will have items on it.  Make sure you use a water based polycrylic. This small can of polycrylic was around $18 at Lowes so I like to use it sparingly and did only two coats.

 This is the end result:

If you have any questions, just leave a comment below and I will try to answer them. Thanks!