Monday Made It: New Teacher Desk

I have been so busy lately getting ready for the start of school, which was last Friday, that I have gotten so very behind on my blogging!  I've missed getting to link up with Tara the last couple of weeks for Monday Made it, but that definitely doesn't mean I haven't been crafting and creating!

I decided at the end of last year that I wanted to get rid of my big clunky teacher desk.  I know lots of teachers who don't have a desk in their classroom at all, but I like having my own space.  I wanted an old small desk that I could paint and make cute to match my classroom.

I found my perfect "cute desk" at the "Junk Ranch" (basically a huge vintage craft show) for $100.  It was grey when I bought it and it sat in the garage most of the summer that color.  I didn't decide until about 2 weeks ago that I was going to do a complete overhaul on it!  I don't think I ever took a before picture, which makes me very sad :(

I painted the entire thing white (I'm loving the clean look of white lately) and was just going to paint the drawer pulls teal... then I saw this...

I fell in love and knew my little desk needed this addition!  Of course that meant more time painting and sealing, but I think it was worth it!  

What do you think?

My second MMI really goes to my hubby.  A couple of years ago, he decided to get rid of his own teacher desk and wanted a podium instead.  Our friend had all of the wood working tools needs, so one Saturday they built while the girls hung out at the pool.  He used it when he was in the classroom, but once he became an administrator, the little guy came to live in our house.  I wanted to paint it and take it to school with me, but that never happened until this past week!

Here is the best before I have. 

Isn't my little helper so cute!

I painted the whole thing and this is what it looks like now!

I think it turned out pretty cute!

Those are my two big projects that are finally completed and have a new home in my classroom.  Somehow, I think my garage is more full now thanks to some thrift store finds!

Make sure you check out what everyone has been making!

Monday Made It: New Lamp

I love Mondays during the summer and joining Tara's Monday Made It Linky Party!

I have some fun things to share this week, that I am very proud of!

 First off is the fruits or rather vegetables of my garden!!!

These are the onions and potatoes from one of our raised bed gardens!  These are the biggest onions we've been able to grow since we started gardening.  I love growing fresh food and being able to cook it fresh!  It's awesome!

 Next is another one of my projects that I thought wouldn't take that long... WRONG!!!

I had these two lamps that came with my classroom last year.

They have been sitting my craft room for the past two years waiting to be saved.  I did some pin-searching and found this.

click the picture for the link

I thought to myself, "I can do that no problem!"

I'm working on a plan for a craft room/office make over in what is now our guest room.  I decide to do grey, yellow, and blue as the colors and what better place to start a make-over than with a pair of lamps?!

First, I spray painted the bases grey (I had some paint left over the from the playhouse make-over) I picked out five different ribbons that were grey and yellow of some kind of varying width and pattern to use.

 I cut my ribbon and hot glued it together end to end.  Mind you, with an 18 month running around the house, this took me the better part of a week during nap times.

Then I started making a pattern with the different ribbons and building from the bottom up.

WOW!  Did this take a lot of ribbon!  I sat at my kitchen table for more than 2 hours gluing ribbons on the lampshade!

I kept adding rows until I got to the top of the shade.  Here is the finished product!

Now, my task is to go to Hobby Lobby tomorrow, buy more ribbon and finish the second lamp!

My last MMI for the week, may give away my "big project" if you've been following along lately.

I found 6 all wood chairs on Craigslist for $100.  We bought them from this little old 95 year lady who still lived on her own and grew her own garden.  She thought $100 was too much and I told her I wouldn't take them unless I paid that much.  

Before

Accent end chairs in Flamingo salmonish color

I did 4 of the 6 in white and love the clean look.

So that's what I've been up to this week!  I can't wait to check out what everyone has been making!

Monday Made It 100th Post!

WOW!!!  I can't believe this is my 100th post!  I didn't even realize I was close to 100 posts until I sat down to write this one!  I started blogging about a year ago and while there have been months that I have been a great blogger, there have definitely been dry spells.  I enjoy my little blog, but I also have a crazy busy life that comes first.  I find that it's all about finding a balance and when life gets crazy the blog gets cut first.

Now on the post at hand!  It's Monday which means it's time to link up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  I absolutely love this link up and seeing what everyone is up to!

My first MMI is just a little item for my classroom.  I actually found it last summer and had plans to make it over, but it got lost in my mess of a craft room (currently working on getting some organization in there)

It's really teal not blue

My Cricut broke a couple of weeks ago.

:(

I plan on using it for cap erasers so I can monitor the coming and going of the little buggers!  I want to put a vinyl label on the glass, but I'll have to wait until I save up to buy the new awesome Cricut Explore. 

My second MMI is really a put it together project.  I've been on a mission to do a lot more DIY building for things in my house.  That meant that I needed tools!  I've been working on convincing the hubby that we needed some bigger tools as our hand-me-down circular saw wasn't going to cut it (pun intended!) anymore.  My MIL decided she could use some new awesome tools too so we went in halvsies.  This is what we did tonight in the crazy hot garage!  

I've got a huge project in mind/works for our kitchen that hopefully I'll be able to show off by the end of the summer.  

Hopefully I'll have a lot more to show off next week!  I can't wait to check out what everyone has been making!

Monday Made It: Bench seat and more!

Oh I love Mondays in the summer! I love Tara's Monday Monday It linky party because it really does keep me accountable!  It makes me get my projects done instead of just letting them sit for weeks in the garage!

So for my first MMI, my end of the year project with my students.

I painted the background, had a friend draw the tree for me so I could paint over it, and then had both my classes leave their fingerprints on my tree!  I love the way it turned out and I did one for my partner teacher, too! 

I decided my door needed a little sprucing up, so here is I what I came up with!

I love the bright colors of the flowers with the subtly of the mint green chevron washi tape on the W.  Doesn't it just scream, "SUMMER!!!!"

Now, for the big one!  I wrote about this project last week, and knowing I needed write this blog post really made me finish it this week.  Now granted I was putting final touches on today, but hey at least it's finished. 

So a reminder of what it was before.

 Then I made the cushion

And.... drumroll please.... Here is the finished product!

Lily approves of the bench

I got the baskets at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and they fit perfectly! 

I also decided that the chalk paint was totally worth the money!  It covered great and the shade wasn't "too" white.  

Now I have to figure out what to do for curtains.  My MIL suggested doing away with the curtains and making a cornice board valance instead.  What do you think?

Well, I'm off to see what everyone else has been making!

Monday Made It: End of Year Gifts

My blogging track record definitely isn't what it used to be, but I'm ok with that.  I'm making time to be with family and working hard with the hubby to get the house organized! We've working slowly but surely on getting rid of old stuff that we don't use anymore and better utilizing the space we do have. Here are a couple more photos of small spaces I've been working on.

I do however love me some Monday Made It summer time linky party fun with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics!

So I have to fess up and say that I am guilty of starting tons of "projects" that will be "easy and take very little time" Then I get started and then I realize how in over my head I am.  Refer to last week's post to see what I mean!  This week is no different, but I continue with my "projects" as they are known in my house.

 I've been pretty rotten with student gifts this year and I decided that I wanted to make up for that here at the end of the year.  I saw all of these cute pictures floating around of wordles for each student.

Bright Concepts 4 Teachers

So about 2 weeks ago, I made my little form with each student's name on it and a line next to the name.  We had a discussion as a class about kind adjectives and I let them loose!  Some students were more creative than others. I thought I was doing pretty well starting this project 2 weeks before school got out.

Now here comes the part that no one tells you about... you ready... then you have to compile all of those adjectives for each student!!!  I had to flip through my 25 papers 25 times get all of the adjectives for each student! For those of you doing the math, which of course I did, that 625 page flips! I typed them all into a word document so then I could just copy and paste the set into Tagxedo.com. (love this site, btw) Seriously took way longer than I would have liked!  Then I had to format the word clouds with the right colors, layout, and orientation.  The first one took forever, but it did get a little easier after that!  I saved all the images and then put them in a power point presentation so I could easily move things around.  The only thing is that Tagxedo puts this frame around its clouds that looked silly for my kids, so I had to crop each picture!!!  Talk about biting off more than I can chew! I finally finished them all last night.

Pre-picture added

I really love how the words repeat themselves and they fill the shape. I put their picture in one corner and then 4th grade and the year on the opposite corner.  I'm taking them to be laminated today as I have several students who won't be here through the end of the week.

 My next MMI is very similar in time frame nature.  I bought this awesome coffee table at a local second hand store for $30!  

My plans for this little baby include painting it white, making a seating cushion for it, and adding baskets for storage underneath.  It will no longer be a coffee table, but instead a way cool bench for underneath my family room window.

The painting has been more difficult than I first thought.  I bought the 2 in 1 paint and primer spray paint and it's not going on how I had hoped.  I'm going to go an invest in some chalk paint tomorrow and give that a go!  I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

So yesterday I decided that I might as well make my cushion!  Here is how it turned out!

I bought the fabric at Hancock's and it was on sale for 40% off!  I love the way it looks and can't wait til the whole thing is finished and put together!

I have several more projects in the works that hopefully will get finished once I get through this last week with kids!

Don't forget to head over to see what other made it's are at Tara's blog!