Bookcase revisited. How to make a crummy bookcase awesome!

Most of us have some older, cheaper made, possibly even hand-me-down furniture in our homes that we don't particularly love. What do you do with that stuff? Give it away again? Shove it in a garage sale? Pretend it's not there? I am guilty of all three, but I decided that the bookcase that had been relegated to the basement for two years deserved a new life.

I took a very inexpensive (I think it was $60 at Target 7 years ago) MDF and laminate built bookcase in faux cherry and painted it out and gave it flair. Its destination, my kids playroom. Which has been seriously lacking storage as they amass every toy available on the market. I am slowly creating a nautical theme in the room so I wanted a navy blue element. I decided on navy pinstripes. I primed the dresser with Kilz primer that works on everything, including plastic. This is really important if you are using cheap furniture because you can bet good money that it has laminate components. After two coats of primer had air dried I spoke with the hubs about possibly just spray painting it instead of using a brush and latex. We agreed that we weren't losing a whole lot if it crashed and burned, so we went for it. It did take a few coats but it did work and in the end saved us time and we didn't have brush marks, so it looked a lot more, "professional." One day I will invest in a paint sprayer but for now I love that this worked!

We taped off two lines and newspaper covered the top and (yet again) spray painted a cool navy stripe. I visited Walmart and for the crazy cost of $3 bought a yard of navy pinstriped fabric. We removed the backing and duck taped the fabric over it. Keep in mind if you do this it's easier with two people so you can keep it stretched nice and taut. I love this tip and I have used it before in my family room. If you want to change it down the line it's as simple as taking the brad nails off and pulling off the duck tape.

Here is how she turned out. I wish i had a before shot but silly me got excited to start and forgot to take one. Just envision ugly. Total cost for crappy bookcase to turn into awesome bookcase: $9!

I also had just enough fabric left over to create a pillow cover so I whipped that up in like no time and for $1.50 had a cool decor matched pillow.

Sugar cookies for a bun in the oven.

One of my best girl friends is having her third little bundle of joy. He will be joining his two brothers to complete the three musketeers. To celebrate his gender I whipped up some really cute cookies. I love the blog sweetsugarbelle so that's where I went for inspiration and words of wisdom. If you are looking to try your hand at making really awesome cookies I can't think of a better place to start. Just make sure you read ahead, watch some you-tube videos and bank your patience beforehand.

Several hours and frosting laden cabinets and countertops later, I ended up with these sweet little babies. I packaged them very carefully for their long ride across the US. I said I prayer to the USPS gods and wished for the best. Luckily they made it in perfect shape even with 95+ degree temps.

A dream is a wish your heart makes! Records as art.

I got the idea to use vintage Disney records as art last summer. So right on my typical time scale, I just put them up about a week ago. In all fairness they did take a while to find the specific records I wanted, at the price I was willing to pay. All in all, these three set me back $11 bucks. I know what you are thinking...."wow she's not good with money." I have purchased a bunch more because I just love them and I have some other projects in mind. I was going to make custom frames for the princess albums with white moulding and acrylic plastic sheets but I liked the look of them leaning. Think of this idea in terms of any record cover you love. In a collection, or framed alone to make a big statement. It's fun to hunt for them and it really personalizes your space!

Craft with crap! Upcycling your kids toys.

My little man loves motorcycles. Virtually anything with wheels he is in love with to be honest, even if it is just a wheel by itself. Watching him play with wheels that have been snapped off of motorcycles got my wheels turning. (hahaha that was soooo bad I apologize to the reading public) I had a bunch of little broken diecast motorcycle pieces and some of them were really cool. So, I took out a crafters best friend and hot glued those bad boys to a frame. It looks so cute! I can't wait to put a pic of him sitting on daddy's big "bike," inside. I thought this type of idea would look really cute around a clock too. It could be any old little toys. Barbie doll clothes glued to a memento box would be glam! Just don't go over board, one maybe two pieces to a room. That's the difference between cute and attack of lady with glue gun.

Other things I have been spotted glue gunning = ribbon to lampshades, twigs to candle holders and rope to just about anything. I <3 my glue gun Elma!

I can't stop eating - Roasted Veggie Pasta!

I am a fan of pasta. I am a fan of veggies. Hence I am a fan of this recipe. This is an adaptation from Kitchen Boss.

One head of cauliflower
Ten garlic cloves (if you have an insatiable need to stave off vampires like me....if you're not a fan add less or leave it out).
Half a sweet onion
One red bell pepper
Pint of cherry tomatoes (or any tomato you have)
Olive oil, salt and pepper
Breadcrumbs to taste (approx 1/2 cup - we make our own by processing left over artisan breads)

Any green you like (I sometimes use spinach, sometimes spring mix) I don't really measure here. I use almost a full plastic container of the organic prewashed stuff. It really wilts down.

Box of twisty pasta of your choice (we like Dreamfields rotini)
Mozzarella to taste
Parmasean to taste

Cut up all your veggies. Remember that if you leave your chunks large they will take longer to roast. Also, try not to have very large differences in veggie size, except your garlic that you slice. I keep my cauliflower bite size and base everything else off of that. Toss them in a few tablespoons of oil and salt and pepper, then breadcrumb. You can add some Italian seasoning here too if you would like. Roast in a 450 degree oven for 40-60 minutes.

During the last 15 minutes of roasting, boil your pasta per box directions. When ready to drain keep one cup of the liquid.

Take drained pasta and add: roasted veggies, greens, pasta water, and then your cheeses. We like a lot of cheese so I start with a 1/2 cup each and then add more if I need to. Taste and then add additional salt and pepper if needed. Finally, eat like you haven't in a week! Remind yourself that you used healthy Dreamfields pasta, veggies and greens so therefor there are no calories within said pasta.

I <3 Vegas baby! State map art!

Prior to moving to the land of the cold I lived and went to school in San Diego. Just a short 6 hour drive to Vegas. To say we went frequently would be like saying you are a little bit pregnant. We would scratch up some cashola and hit the road every chance we got! We love it so much there that we got married there in 2005.

I saw the cool map art going around on Pinterest (the coolest site ever) a while ago and put it on the mental to do list. I wanted one of Nevada! Well, I finally made one the other night. Its got a great spot in our boudoir over my reading chair.

It was super easy and I got lucky because Nevada is a pretty straightforward cut out. For the backing I actually just used two 12x12 scrapbook pages and lined up the lettering in a cool manner. A little cutting and taping and voila! Check it out! And I know it's not the best pic, iPad shots are always tricky.

Hardwood flooring time! Sung to MC Hammer.

Blogging has been lacking recently. I blame the massive undertaking of redoing pretty much our entire downstairs. The family room is pretty upset that it didn't get an invite to the redo party but that will come with time....and money.

Our first floor had a combination of cheap carpet and cheap cracking ceramic tile. The previous owner tried to "gussy" the place up for sale. We lived with it for 5 years, or 130 pay periods if you get my drift. I would love to say that we whipped it out ourselves and on the cheap. ::insert buzzer:: Nope. With two small frys flooring our entire downstairs would require massive babysitter time. Not to mention our own time. So, we did do 75% of the demo ourselves to include ripping out tile, carpet, two layers of subfloor and about one zillion staples. We also put in new casings to match the new base and shoe, repainted the playroom, oh and started gutting and redoing a little area called the kitchen. But when it came down to putting in the flooring we used a general contractor with a respectable bid. I found him on Angie's List, which I highly recommend using if you ever need to hire out work. I have been burned in the past with cheap labor enticements that didn't exactly pan out so well. Keep in mind this is your home and if you're a control freak a perfectionist like me you want the work done right!

Here are some before and after shots of the floor. It is from the color plank collection by Somerset Hardwood Floors. We chose a 4 inch wide white oak plank in metro brown. We love it! It's only flaw is part and parcel to why we love it, it's dark so light debris from kids and pets does show. This is pretty true of any dark stain wood so keep that in mind if your considering. Here are some before and afters!