200th Post Project Dump

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged, I know. I think I’ve been suffering from seasonal depression and the never ending winter. You all know what I’m talking about. We woke up to snow this morning. But it’s suppose to get up to 60 degrees today and I’m feeling pretty optimistic that spring like weather might be here to stay. But that may change next week.

Even though I haven’t blogged in over a month, I have been doing some projects. These were small projects that in the past I would have made a post for each one, but now I feel like that would just waste your time seeing as I don’t have much to say about each one. So I’m just going to lump them all together in this epic post. (Epic might be a bit of an exaggeration.)

So here goes:

I saw this idea from Shanty-2-Chic’s blog. DIY Centerpiece Mini Planters .  I’ve been keeping an eye for some planters for my herb garden shelf.  So I made these little wooden boxes.

Currently they are housing fake plants.  Cause it’s been wonky weather outside and anything would just die.

They go with the table centerpiece I made awhile back that I don’t think I ever shared on here.

Next, I made this butterfly specimen art for Delilah’s room.  I painted each butterfly on canvas then cut them out.  Then bent them to give it some shape, and hot glued them on a diy stretched canvas.  Then framed it out.

This is a produce crate I made for fruit.  I got the idea from Pottery Barn, Stackable Wooden Fruit Crates, they are no longer available.  I made it stack-able, but never made a second to stack.  But I might someday.

I’ve been lining my flower beds with random rocks I’ve been finding.

I updated the girls’ silhouettes above our bed. Old silhouettes seen here.

And finally, we got fish!

The girls love pulling up a stool and just watching them.  Joey and I do it too.

And that’s all I can think of for now.

So this is my 200th blog post. That kind of blows my mind to think about. I’m not a Chatty Kathy, so it’s impressive that I have come up with 200 different things to talk about.  I feel like I’m becoming more motivated to do some more projects and actually share them with you.  Sorry to everyone who checks my blog only to have nothing to read about.  But also, thank you to everyone who reads my blog.  And for those of you who leave comments, you make me feel so loved.

Coffee Staining

Awhile back I made some cheese boards for gifts.  Kind of like cutting boards, but made with a softer wood, so I wouldn’t technically call them cutting boards or use them a such.

I cut a random shape out of pine and sanded them down.  Then drilled a hole in the handle.

But, they looked too new.  I wanted the aged look.  But since these are meant for food, I couldn’t just use wood stain.  So I used something I’ve been wanting to try out.  Coffee staining.

Some people use brewed coffee and paint it on.  I just mixed coffee grounds with a small amount of hot water.  So it was like a coffee ground paste.

Then rubbed it in.

Here’s another project being coffee stained.

Let it sit for a bit, then wipe the grounds off with a paper towel.  Then let it dry.

To finish it off, for the cutting boards, I applied a wood oil made for cutting boards.  I found that at Ace Hardware.  This will keep the wood looking nice.  Since you wash the cutting boards, some of the stain will come off eventually.  You could re-stain it, or just let it wear down and that could look cool too.  I haven’t gotten that far with my cheese board, so I have no clue what it will look like.

As for the other project I stained, here’s the before,

 

And after.

I made this box to hold the poinsettia we had for Christmas.  The pot was covered with the crinkly gold and green wrap, which is now sitting down low to keep the water from running out.

I also did the book crate with coffee stain.

So even though I could have used regular stain on these last two projects, I like that I’m not using harsh smelling chemicals for projects in the house.  And I can do the actual staining indoors.  And I get to use up all that random coffee I buy but don’t end up liking.

What about you guys?  Have you tried coffee staining wood?  How does it hold up?  Or have you tried staining other things?  Maybe fabric…  That’s sounding cool.

 

 

Book Crate

Yesterday I was so bored.  It was a weird feeling being bored.  The girls both had school and normally I would have tons of things to do.  But I didn’t have anything to shop for, the house was fairly clean and I had no projects to do.  So I cleaned the garage.  Then I went and picked up more pallet wood at my brother’s.  But I still didn’t have a project in mind.  Well I do need to build a doghouse, but I didn’t get enough wood for that.  Then Ana White posted this project on her facebook page.

Chalkboard Produce Crate

Perfect!  I went right out to the garage and whipped it up.  Using the wood I had and tools I have.  I don’t have a big enough drill bit to make the handles cut out.  I would love to do rope handles, but I used what I had.

Most of it was built with pallet wood, but I also used some 1x2s and 1/4″ mdf for the bottom and chalkboards (there’s another one on the back).

Don’t let the books fool you.  Those are the bigger kids books we have.  This crate is actually pretty good sized.

And since it’s chalkboard, I can make it say whatever!

I used coffee to stain it.  I plan on sharing more on that next week.