French Country Hutch

Happy Thursday To You,

With the holidays being over and having a little more time we are finishing some old projects and starting on some new ones.  One of our projects is to put shelves in our new French Country hutch.

French Country Hutch

In this picture you can't tell, but there is a room for a top shelf and then a shelf below the other one.  It didn't come with the shelves, so we have to make our own.  We got a killer deal on this piece and it's quality furniture on top of that.  We bought this piece from Restoration Hardware at an outlet store.  And on top of it being a great deal that day they were having 30% off on top of the deal.  If you can't tell I'm like super excited for us to have this piece.   So, we knew we wanted additional shelves and just decided that we could cut and make them work.  We started out with boards from Home Depot that needed sanded and then stained.  To help condition your wood and get a better coat of stain on your boards we first used this on it all.  

Then came the time to pick the stain.  Tricky, tricky, tricky!!  I got a brilliant idea and decided to pull out all my stains and give a comparison to them.  Thank you Sherwin Williams for all my extra paint sticks!!  

I wiped the stain on left them dry for awhile.   We've settled on a Dark Walnut stain to finish the shelves with.  We also had to buy shelf brackets to hold up the shelves.  We choose a couple that are more expensive, but nicer and then settled on ones that cost about $1.67 a piece.  Most of our stuff comes from Home Depot because that's all that we have in our town.  

Tags & Organized

I'm trying to get organized for this upcoming year.  It seems that we are just so busy and I really do not want to spend as much time trying to find everything, but I want everything to have a place and be able for me to find it, but for the rest of my crew to find it as well.  And what better way to have some fun and craft then to make some tags for jars.  Here is what I'm trying to achieve in the end.

Radiant Orchid

Yep, that's it!!  I'm in love with the color of the year for 2014.

It even has a great name.  Radiant Orchid.  Yes, Radiant Orchid  Your all gonna love, love, love this color.  I could think of quite a few things that need to be this color in my house.  Not sure my FAV's would love it, but I sure do.  Maybe, I can squeak it in somewhere like my bathroom or even coffee cup or a watch.

Tag Your It!!

Tag Your It should be the theme for this entire year.  I don't know about you, but some days I wonder how things could get any more of a mess and unorganized.  Maybe it's that I have a family (a.k.a. crew) or that I live a life ??  Or that we entertain about every Friday night?  Anyhow, this is the YEAR!!  I'm going to get organized and more importantly stay organized.  So, I'm starting out with organizing and labeling containers for our  Butler's Pantry.  You can use any type of labels you want, but I choose this one because I already had it.  Here's the end result of what I want it to look like.  Honestly, the  tags do not look this big on the jar,  but my camera was like acting all weird with it.  

Oneida  jar from Target

 I knew that I wanted to start out with approximately 25 or 30 labels for the jars.  You can make the labels out of chalkboard paper or black cardstock.  I choose cardstock because I was in a hurry and didn't want to paint chalkboard ones.  I love this part, this is where I get the chance to break out the Sizzlix Big Kick die cutting machine.

Along with this you will need a tag label die cut.

Next you will sandwich the label die cut between the pieces that you will run through the machine.  Here's an example of the set up:

And my end results are:

Media Room

WELCOME MEDIA ROOM

It has been about 7 months since we've been into our house on Paydirt.   I'm glad we are here, I'm glad the move is over and I'm especially glad the wait is done with.  But, let me tell you it has been a long year for us to get to this place.  I'm going to save that story for another post, but let's just say that it tested all of our patience, self-control and we had many sleepless nights.  Our first project that we felt we should start with was the Media Room.  Well, I guess you can tell where our priorities are can't you?  Movies, movies, moves!!  We were going to rip-out the small bathroom that was connected to the other room.  Which by the way this bathroom, was somewhat of a waste because it didn't have a shower or a tub.  So, basically it was an ugly, large, unused room with a toilet and a vanity.     We decided long before we moved in that we wanted a Media Room for our crew of a family.   This house did not have one, so we knew we would have to create it ourselves.   We weren't quite sure how to lay it out, or make it happen either. But, after much discussion with my FAV, we figured out a plan that would work and would work within our budget.  Here is a picture of a partially rip-outed bathroom.  I'm not sure where the before pictures are of this area, but this is all I have for now.

Bathroom partially tore.

This is looking down the hallway into the Media Room. 

Bathroom almost completely tore out. 

I wanted our Media room to be a room that would be dark in color to reflect a "theatre" type atmosphere, but yet be different enough to stand out from other rooms.  My inspirational color came from this sign and the whole room was worked around this color.

Big Lots 

And are  you ready to see the final pictures?

The ceiling got painted a dull black from Sherwin Williams.  We ended up having to give it two full coats of paint and then a touch up in other spots.

And just to not leave them out, my CREW taking a break during construction:

Wet Bar Cabinets are kitchen cabinets from IKEA
Countertop is  a Laminate one from Home Depot
Wilsonart  Laminate in Winter Carnival HD with Mirage Finish

UICK VIEW

BESTA

Flooring was a special order from Lowe's
TV is a 75" flat screen from Costco

GOD STRENGTHENING ME

Today I saw a quote ad from http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com and I believe it is one that I should say everyday.

God might not lighten my load, but he will strengthen my back.


I love, love, love this so much.  So, many times I know that I couldn't have made it without his strength.  Without his constant helping, carrying, guiding me through the tough times I've had in my life.

Meal Planning for December Made Easy

Meal Planning for your Hungry Household.

I've been working hard on preparing and planning for the Holidays.  I know that with everyone being so busy anything that we can do to make our lives easier and feed our hungry family will be wonderful.   So, with that I'm enclosing my easy Meal Planning for all of you for December.  Happy Holidays and may the hungry in your household be ever in your debt.