I’d been going on about a giant chalkboard calendar for my home for the better half of a year, so for Christmas my husband decided to make my wish come true and together we created this awesome purple masterpiece. It is so handy and each person that’s seen it has paid it compliment. I think the comments about how fantastic it looks from the random power metre reader lady were the best.
You can find a variety of chalkboard calendar options on Etsy.com. I didn’t have the patience to wait for shipping and I wanted something slightly bigger/different to fit the space I had, so I created mine by painting with coloured chalkboard paint which you can pick up from specialist paint & decorating stores. Definitely check out all the colour options they have out nowadays.
During
Finished
Earlier today I posted this on my Facebook status:
The problem I have, is that with my youngest child now growing up and being more independent I sit around looking at things for my home and come up with random ways to change them. It’s probably a good thing we don’t have a tonne of excess money or otherwise my husband would come home and wonder if he was at the right place.
I have so many little projects I can do around my home. It doesn’t really need anything done (well a new kitchen, new carpet and converting the garage to a family room would be great) but in reality, it’s fine how it is. We purchased it because it covered our list of must haves – room to play basketball, fully fenced, two bathrooms, four bedrooms. We don’t have much ‘need’ for anything materialistic, I’m grateful for that but I personally have a need to create… All the time.
Originally today I really wanted to paint something. I have this huge blank canvas sitting there but I’ve dedicated that canvas to a project that will happen ‘eventually’ (read: it’s a really good idea I haven’t made the time to create yet) and so I don’t want to waste my $120 canvas on something that I may or may not like…even though I really wanted to. Sometimes I hate that I restrain myself to be sensible financially.
So anyway, from the painting idea I went outside to fiddle around with the log that’s been drying for months. When I realised I couldn’t be bothered working on that project either I decided to move onto the lamps in my living room that even though in the photo’s appear to be fine, are actually kind of grubby after being around my kids for years.
Juggling through my ever growing fabric collection I came across a certain fabric I received from fellow artist Karley Feaver and was absolutely delighted with the way the pattern looked on a lampshade so knew I was onto a winner.
With my trusty glue gun, scissors, fabric & old lamp I set to work and within half an hour (it may have even been 15 minutes) I modernised these out of date lampshades.
Easy peasy. If I had patience I would probably mod podge the fabric on & line the inside where the fabric overlaps with felt. Those would be my tips anyway for anyone wanting to have a go at recovering a lampshade but seeing as these are just for my home, I’m happy! The kids think it looks great too. I’ll finish the matching lampshade tonight.
If you know anything about me, you probably know that I love all things shiny. If it glitters, sparkles, shines, is over the top with bling and catches the eye, I’m in. I love it, it makes my heart sing. I’m like a magpie.
Well this is how I felt when I spotted these side tables below:
I saw them and I instantly thought “Ooo shiny”. Now, I have no idea where you can purchase those barrel like tables and even if I did, it wouldn’t be in my budget; so once again I decided to set off on a DIY adventure to create a shiny side table for Miss V’s bedroom.
Using what I had on hand I grabbed 1 x small square black table, a can of primer, a tube of silver paint and a tube of black paint. I sprayed it white, painted it two coats of silver and then made a black glaze to finish it off. It gave an antique silver result. I really like the way it highlights the texture on the under corners of the table.
The whole process didn’t take very long at all, maybe an hour or two. The longest parts being waiting for the layers of paint to dry. I was going to try a DIY with tin foil for this project but it appears our household doesn’t really use tinfoil – there was none in the pantry and we haven’t noticed there hasn’t been any for months hehe.
On a side note: as I finish writing this I’ve just had another idea on how to make a different sort of metallic side table. Hmmm!
I spotted this on Pinterest a while ago:
I wanted to add the link to the original post but it seems the blog has been deleted. I don’t know if someone DIYed this or if you can purchase it from a store somewhere.
Totally inspired by the look of this stag head I figured I could use it as an idea for my daughters room! I wish I was capable enough to do appliquéd patchwork type of stuff but that’s a little out of my realm of creativity. Maybe one day I’ll give it a go. If I ever get together with you Joanna, you can show me how it’s done. 
For now though, this is my take on the idea:
Total cost = $1 (That’s how much I paid for the cushion) Everything else was on hand.
I made this while I watched The Shining last night haha.
