Christmas Gift

Stephen got me this great console table to put in our entryway. I have been looking for just the perfect one for like 2 years. I totally love it, as now my entryway feels complete.

Of course, every table needs some decor on it. I already had the vases which now have a home while they aren't on the mantle during Christmas. The green and white basket is from Longaberger (a Christmas gift). The wooden box is from my grandparents and this is the perfect place to showcase it. The frame I already had in a another room with a picture from our African Safari.

What's in my closet.

Hoodie: New York and Company

Shirt: Target

Skirt: Target

Leggings: Target

Shoes: None

Clean Slate

I've mentioned it before, but I'm obsessed with blogging. Not really writing my own, but following others. I don't think I have the creative writing skills, nor that exciting of a life to post something about every day. I mostly like to follow DIY blogs, home decorating or crafty blogs. It gives me such great ideas that I can store in my brain as something I'd like to do for my house someday. A lot of the crafty ones I look at from time to time are a little to0 "country" or just make me think "okay, seriously,why would I take all that time to get those supplies and

then make that." But such was not the case when I decided I wanted to make a desk out of a door.

Surprisingly, I don't think my idea even came from a blog, but it could have. I just finally decided that I had had enough of our corner desk. I wanted a custom look, something that was not too big and had plenty of work surface space.

To get some ideas of what others had done and what mine could look like I started looking at blogs and google images. I first found this one on the younghouselove facebook page.

I was like “yes, perfect”. Although, the legs weren’t doing it for me. I wanted mine to be a bit more streamlined like the one younghouselove had actually done for their house (seen here).

After some more looking around I decided that I wanted a door, probably stained, some straight legs and possibly a shelf or two to accommodate the shelves I was losing by not having the corner desk anymore (which had shelves, or levels really).

First step, I knew I could find a cheap door at the Habitat Renovation Station downtown. Just like I thought, I had more than enough to choose from . We ended up picking a 36” by 80” hollow unfinished door. Since at that point I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to stain it or paint it. The large door also gave us the ability to make our own custom size.

We decided to make our a desk 27” by 72”. That also enabled the 9” excess to be our shelves.

In the beginning, I thought making this desk was going to be really easy and take no time at all. I was wrong. It was pretty easy, but it took forever.

First, after we cut the door to size, we had to cut away the cardboard filler, insert some 1x2‘s so we could have something to screw the legs into, fill in the sides with 1x1's, let everything dry, then give everything a good light sanding. We also had to fill in the edges of the shelves. Then we had to stain everything and apply three layers of polyurethane.

In the end, after taking an afternoon to put it together. I am totally in love with my new desk.

I really like Shout and my washer

Yesterday I spilled one drop of polyurethane on my "good" jeans. Or should I say the only pair of jeans I'm wearing these days. I've tried to find them again and buy some more, but I don't remember where I bought them exactly. Could be JCP or Macy's.

Anyway. I was devastated. I thought I had ruined them. But because I'm cheap and crazy, I was down to keep wearing them despite the really obvious spot if it didn't come out.

I quickly applied some Shout and put them in the wash on the "stain wash" cycle. 2 hours and 45 minutes later I think the spot was gone. But I couldn't really tell because now my jeans were wet and dark, same as the spot. I let them dry overnight because I was really afraid of heating them to dry and therefore setting in the stain.

To my amazement, my jeans turned out just fine. YEA!!!!!