Carys eating fry sauce

Went to sizzler with Jason and our girls, Seren and Carys..and both loved their fries and chicken strips, but most of all Carys loved eating the fry sauce from the pot...lol

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Sisters x

At the park with Seren, Carys and their big sister Ashton. Ashton flew into town last night, from Wales...its wonderful having her here for 3 weeks :-)

Carys were showing how brave she was, by going down the slide by herself ! And not wanting to be shown up, Seren had to keep up with her little sister.. lol

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Big Brother Bradley

BRAD & CARYS.

Carys endlessly tries to get hold of, Brads iPad and cell phone. It's quite funny to watch, everytime Brads gets up, Carys makes a beeline for his stuff......You just got to see it..makes me laugh everytime xx

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Big shoes to fill.....

WHAT BIG SHOES TO FILL, CARYS.

Carys loves to try an wear her daddy's shoes...lol

How darling x

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Shabby Chic Side Table Makeover

Lately I am on a revamp roll. I have just finished another painting revamp. Under each of the pictures, I will post the instructions. The only thing left I have to do is give my side round table a coat of sealant.

So to start with I used Krylon white primer and paint . It took three coats over the black, with a gentle sanding in between each coat...again I forgot the before pic!! Duh me.

 After letting the base coats dry, I used Glidden Vanilla shake paint, from Walmart. It took two coats. I also gave the door knobs a light coat, using the same paint.

Now they do say many hands make light work!...lol Carys bless her little cotton socks, wanted to help sand :) The end picture is me at the end of 1 hour of sanding to make it look shabby. Carys lasted all of five minutes, then she decided, her toys were much more fun!!! Than mammy's project!


THE FINISHED PROJECT #2.

I used the serving tray I made, to take this picture. I liked how it looked, I am now going to make a smaller serving tray, for my round table. 

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My first set of drums!

Trying to keep Carys occupied while preparing dinner. With her first set of drums.....kitchen style :-)

Mixing dishes make great..noisy drums with mams best used wooden spoons as her drum sticks.

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Shabby Chic Tray

So my neighbor, Heather has a really nice tray sitting on her dining table, which I love. So I set out to make my own. Heather gave me a spare picture frame, to get started. Be prepared for many pictures of the progress. I have done this so if any of you feel that you want to give it go, then you have the instructions :) and not have to guess like me lol.

So what I'll do is post the picture and underneath, tell you what I did to achieve the results.

Here is the frame as is, brown and old! I used Krylon White Primer & Paint, Gave it 2 coats. And let it dry.

I wanted to use a natural stain, so I knew tea leaves worked on paper, so why not try wood. I used cedar wood.

Next while I waited for the frame to dry, I soaked the black tea bags (I used all of them) in hot water. I let them soak for the time it took for me to feed the girls and clean up lol (30 mins)

In the Picture on the right, you see I have wood lined up that I cut up into pieces earlier to fit into the frame. Oops I forgot to take a picture of that stage!!

 I then used the previously soaked tea leaves and painted the wood with them leave the leaves on. Then I set them outside to dry. In the picture below you can see the end result ( the lighter wood)

Now in the first picture you can see a jar, filled with something yucky!! Don't be alarmed, it's nothing untoward! Lol.

I wanted to take the route of an all natural wood stain, so I googled and found a great site on how to make your own natural stain.

Click here to see the site; http://www.woodworking.org/WC/Garchive01/3_27colorants.html

And scroll down to where it says : Altering Wood: Tannins.

I used the vinegar and steel wool. I had done this 3 days before I wanted to make the tray, as the steel wool needs to react with the vinegar.

In the second picture you can see that when I applied to the steel wool/vinegar stain on    top of the tea stain, the wood turned a really dark brown, almost black!! I was wow, cool. I let it dry in the sun for about an hour. 

                                                         BACK TO THE FRAME!

Next I painted the frame with the same paint I used to re-vamp my side table in an earlier post. I let that dry, then came back and decided I wanted it to have more color, so I added some blue to a dish and add the original color, till I got the color I wanted. You can see the difference in color . Let it dry!

Okay, these next two pictures, are the next stage. The first was to seal the wood I treated with my natural stains. I used Polycrylic sealant spray. Gave them about three coats. Can you see how deep and lush the stained turned out!!! I'm so happy.

2nd picture, once the paint had dried, I took so steel wool and rubbed to get the shabby look.

Next I used, liquid nails to secure the wood to the frame, also using it between each plank of wood. 2nd pic i weighted it down while it dried.

1st pic, I didn't like that you could see the brown wood, so I gave it a lighter wash using the same paint, and let it dry.

2nd pic, time to finish the project. Take your drill, wood screws & your swanky looking handles, from Hobby Lobby, and set to work.

I measured both sides so they would be even, then predrilled the holes, then screwed the handles on!

                                            Here is the final project.
                               My Shabby Chic Tray!

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Picking flowers

Darling little Carys :-) picking and eating flowers.

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