Frame Revamp

Who-hoo, another frame make-over! When I saw this at goodwill for just $2.00 I couldn't resist.
First I took it all apart- Tossed the painting and cardboard, but kept the wood the canvas was glued to.
Next, I printed out the first line of one of my favorite hymns- I used white paper- The color is just ink from the printer. Then I lightly distressed the paper with a sanding block.
A little mod podge later to attach the paper to the wood insert and a few coats on top to protect the finish and her she is...
I think it looks great in my $5.00 frame holder I picked up at a garage sale. Here's an up close- gotta love the details on this frame.
Hope you enjoyed. Love, Kelly

Linking up to Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design and Reinvented

Vintage Looking Beach Sign

Laura picked up this picture for me a while back for $2.00 at Goodwill- She was sure I could think of something fun to do with the frame- she knows how much I love picture frames. After much consideration I decided a vintage beach sign would look perfect...Perfect for Laura who loves the ocean.So here's the after- All distressed and ready to go to Laura's. So, how did I do it? Read on for directions.First I took out the old canvas painting. Because this was a canvas and not a piece of wood, I tossed the picture and cut out a new piece of MDF to fit the frame. That's right, I cut out the wood myself. Now that Mr. Right has shown me how to use the circular saw, I'm unstoppable. I gave the frame a fresh coat of white spray paint, then painted the MDF with a watered down white paint. I cut out "Beach" and the arrow out of vinyl on my cricut and applied them to the painted MDF. I then painted over the vinyl with a coat of watered down creamcoat bonnie blue paint, then a coat of creamcoat midnight blue paint and while the midnight blue was still a little wet a coat of creamcoat quaker gray. When it was all dry I used my portercable palm sander and began to sand down the layers of paint. Now, my original plan was to peel off the vinyl and let the watered down white underneath the vinyl make the letters, however, I really liked the effect that the paint gave when it stuck to the vinyl- so the vinyl is still on the sign. For the frame I brushed it with the same Bonnieblue, then midnight blue, then a light coat of white spray paint. I used the sander on the edges to let the layers show through and give it a nice aged look. Hope Laura likes it! Let me know what you think. Love, Kelly

Linking up to
DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

How do you say I love you? Is it engraved?

At night, when I was little, I remember lying in bed, my mom sitting near me running her fingers through my hair. Sometimes we would talk about the day or future plans, or laugh about something funny, but most of the time, I’d close my eyes and enjoy being close to her. She’d gently pull my hair, tucking it behind my ears over and over again. I felt warm and safe.

Funny, how we grow up and turn into our parents. As a mom, I find myself doing the same thing to my boys. Watching T.V., during dinner, good-bye kisses before they leave for school; I am always playing with their hair. I love their hair long, maybe because it’s the best way to get my fingers wrapped around a little something.

Chandler’s hair has the curls, Payson’s is thick & gold, Mayer’s is thin & shiny and Reef’s is feather-light, barely there and often full of static.

All the boys are in desperate need of haircuts. I keep putting it off and I think I know why. Plus, it's no secret. The counselor and I are hippies!

Haircuts are something I do at home. The counselor and I did the math last summer while I was giving haircuts before school started. I’ve saved our family a lot of money, maybe over $1,000.00.

How did I learn to cut hair?

My dad.

My dad, who at 67 has the thickest head of hair of any grown man I know. Going bald is something he will never have to worry about.

As a teenage, I gave my dad haircuts. Sometimes they turned out great. Other times, it was obvious he was working with a non-professional, but was always grateful, especially since he needed a haircut about once a month.

How do you show love to your child/children/parents/ family/ spouse?

Is it a kiss, a kind word, their favorite dinner, a note in their lunch box?

Saying I love you is important, but showing it is equally so.

Last week was our 5-day give away, and I wanted something really special for the last day, so here it is.

I have a dear friend who makes and designs jewelry. She’s offered a necklace to a lucky follower of My Dear Trash. The necklace has two charms and she’s offered to engrave your own personal message (up to 9 characters each per charm). Her website is http://ideclarecharms.com/

If this was my necklace I would engrave:

Four Boys

1 Girl

Wouldn’t that be cute!

To qualify, become a follower and leave at least one comment between today, January 25, 2010 and February 13, 2010. Kelly and I will post the winner on Valentines Day.

Thank you, I declare for your generous offer of this lovely necklace. I Declare will engrave any special message, but they also feature necklaces for nurses & mom’s who run in marathons, 10 K's and so on. I Declare was recently featured at the Phoenix Rock n' Roll Marathon. Great niche for sure.

Kelly and I support mother's who work from home. If you have an idea for a give-away and want us to feature your business, just give us a shout and let's do something fun.

If you're a trash collector, like Kelly and I, send over your recent finds and we'll feature you as a guest.

Now, for the winners of last weeks give-aways.

Annette, I hope you enjoy my manuscript, Colors of the Sea.

Molly and Jay, a Chuck Norris T-shirt is coming your way.

Emily, you'll look great in your new Ralph Lauren Sweater

and Kathryn, (by the way, love your blog) you win the Ann Taylor Cardigan.

Please email me at winona@lauralofgreen.com with your address and I'll get your prizes out with my next EBay mailings. Congratulations.

More give-aways to come, so stay posted.

1st Birthday

My baby turned 1 on Friday! It doesn't seem like it's already been a year, but I think that's because this will be our last, and I want to keep her little as long as I can. Here she is playing with her Grandma Pat.We had a little cupcake party with family and a few friends- here's the toppers I made. The cupcakes were from pillsbury cake mix and the frosting was homemade buttercream. I've never piped my frosting before, but it really made them look pretty.
It's a tradition for the kids to get their own cake on their first birthday. Aspen dug right in.
She was able to flatten the whole thing in just a matter of minutes.
Remember the piano I picked up last week at a garage sale for $5- It was a hit! Love those sales.
Here's the little princess, proud as can be of her very generous haul of toys!
Since it rained this weekend there was no garaging to be done, so I had to share a little glimpse of one of my rays of sunshine. She is truly heaven sent. Love, Kelly

Broken Teeth, a Futton Mattress and day 5 of the Week Long Give-Away

I have three crowns in my mouth.

Three crowns from three different pregnancies.

Starting with Payson, I’ve had one tooth break with each pregnancy.

And what does a crown cost? Like $800.00, and that’s when the dentist gives you a break because you don’t have dental insurance, you’re huge and pregnant and he feels sorry for you.

I remember when I was 8 months pregnancy with Reef, sitting in the dental chair getting my third crown. The dentist was jamming a drill in my mouth and I was thinking, “I have to go through this and child birth too?”

So, with my 5th pregnancy, I was determined not to break a tooth.

But first, I had to figure out why I break teeth when I’m pregnant?

I went to the health food store and spent some time with a nutritionist. Turns out, I was severely calcium deficient. So, I purchased the best calcium/magnesium supplement they had. I’ve been taking it now for almost a year and knock on a wooden tooth; I haven’t had a tooth break this time around.

Sometimes a problem comes into our lives and it takes a little bit of creativity to solve it.

This happens most of the time when thrifting and/or yard sale shopping.

Something catches your eye and you know it’s great, but you're not sure what to do with it? How to fix it? Where to put it? Maybe it’s broken, old or stained. But it has potential if you just think on it a bit. It has some value.

I was shopping at Goodwill on ½ day and saw a gorgeous leather couch. I love leather. All the couches in my house are leather because I have so many boys. Trust me; it just has to be this way.

But a gorgeous leather couch doesn’t come cheap, UNLESS it has something wrong with it.

I examine the couch for a minute. The cushions are discombobulated, not lying flat and out of synch. I realize the problem. The couch is a hide-a-bed, minus the mattress.

I wonder how much a hide-a-bed mattress costs and numbers start running through my mind.

The couch is $50.00, but today I can bring it home for $25.00.

If I can get a mattress for cheap, this is a great deal.

So, I bring home the couch and place it in my garage. It sits there for a week. I’m too busy to shop around for a hide-a-bed mattress and don’t even know where to start. I wonder if this was such a good idea.

Later that week, I’m posting some things to sell on Craig’s list: a vintage chair, a retro end table and an old futon.

A FUTON!

I run into the boy’s room and grab the futon mattress. It’s flimsy & floppy. I wish the counselor was home with his strong muscles and patient temperament, but he’s not. It’s just me, my short temper, the futon mattress and a kind’ve broken hyda-bed frame (I realize this later) on a gorgeous leather couch. I go into the garage and start my experiment. I set the mattress on the hide-a-bed frame and fold the entire thing back into the couch. The futon mattress is a little big, but it works with my pushing. I place the gorgeous leather cushions back on the couch and hold my breath.

It looks perfect.

I cautiously sit down and it’s the most comfortable couch I’ve ever sat on (alright, I'm exaggerating now, but I was just so happy).

I actually fixed it!

I had to call the counselor and let him know. The kids come into the garage and lounge on the new couch, complimenting my ingenious idea. It was a day to celebrate.

So, get out there and find some trash and if isn’t just right, I hope you have an extra futon around!

My last give away of the week is something really sweet. Stay tuned.

Scrabble Board Family Home Evening Chart

I love game boards, game pieces, play money, etc. These are some of the treasures I scoop up at garage sales. Occasionally you'll find a sale that thinks games should be priced at $5.00 each, at which times I do not buy, but 95% of the time games are .50-1.00 (this is the most I will pay) It is also not rare to find games that have never been opened. I'll be showing off my game board wall next week, but for this week I wanted to show you my Scrabble Board Family Home Evening Chart. This idea was not mine, my sister-in-law actually saw these made at a church activity and shared the idea with me. I apologize for not being able to credit the creator. Family Home Evening is a weekly tradition in our home as we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, Mormon, etc.) Each monday we gather for a lesson, activity, treat, song, etc. Our children know that nothing else gets scheduled for Monday nights, it's our special time together. To keep ourselves organized we use this chart and give everyone an assignment (Okay, maybe we don't use it every week and many times it's 6:00 on a Monday and we're not sure what were going to do, so we go get frozen yogurt, or pop in a movie, but in a perfect world...) Here it is:The assignments we included are: prayer, music, scripture, lesson, activity and treat. We have 8 members in our family so we have 2 extra trays added to the bottom. To make the board you will need 2 scrabble games, scissors and hotglue. To make the names I just cut up the bottom of the game board box into strips and hotglued the letters on, see picture below of the back of the name piece.

This is an easy project and looks great when displayed. Hope you enjoyed. Have a great weekend. Love, Kelly

Mini Kitchen Make-over

I have six daughters- granted they range in age from 1 (her birthday's tomorrow) to 20, but when you are blessed to have six daughters you can never own too many barbies, babies and play kitchens. This leads me to my next garage sale find, a few weeks ago Mr. Right and I found an adorable mini kitchen. Now, we already have this great kidscraft wood kitchen pictured hereBut with a $5 price tag I couldn't refuse. And... you may have noticed "pink palace playhouse" on my under construction list- I thought this would make a perfect outdoor kitchen by the new playhouse were remodeling. So here's the before...

There's one thing that really makes me crazy... Okay, maybe more than one thing, but one of the things that makes me crazy are people who are lazy painters. If you're going to take the time to paint something, do a good job. Remove all hardware, doors, knobs, etc. so you can get a professional looking product. Prime! Prime! Prime! The picture doesn't quite show all of the details- but there is white paint splattered on the metal hardware, they used a marker to color the burner grates black, and they didn't prime with Kilz so the oil from the wood knots are coming through (that's what the big brown spot is on the front cupboard) . While I was examining this example of pure laziness and complaining how the paint runs over onto the back I find this stamp:

(See how the paint goes over the edge? Doesn't that just make you crazy- okay, maybe I'm a litle OCD about painting) Elves and Angels. I googled this today and discovered that my little $5 kitchen actually cost $206.95 new!!!! $206.95!!!! Here's a pic of what the kichen originally looked like:This one has a little oven door- I guess mine is the vintage model- that probably makes it even more valuable, or maybe not? It's made out of pine and is evidently a popular toy offered by numerous specialty stores. On to the make-over... first, we removed all knobs and hardware, sanded, primed and gave it two coats of Behr's Polar Bear White. My 6 year old really wanted to be part of the make-over, so I let her do the painting. No worries, she's been trained by a crazy OCD mother. She was very proud of her paint job, as was I. We sprayed the knobs with Rustoleums berry pink and then put it all back together. Here it is all finished up.

I can't wait to move it outside into her new playhouse. Hope you enjoyed. Love, Kelly

I'm linking up to Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple

And Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous for Less

Rejection #38 and Day 4 of the 5 Day Give Away

Dear Writer:

Thanks for seeking representation with us. I'm afraid I don't feel I can sell your book.

I wish you the very best of luck in your pursuit of representation.

Signed, Agent X

Image found here.

Another rejection letter, read at 10:00pm, when I’m tired and discouraged by how messy my house is. Home-made lasagna needs to be put away and Reef is crying for another chocolate chip cookie.

My manuscript lays open on the computer screen, staring back at me and I wonder why I give it so much of myself.

Chandler comes and sits with me and I explain to him why I’m sad. I show him the rejection letter.

“Have you ever wanted something so bad and you work really hard and you still don’t get it?” I ask him.

His ten-year old mind thinks for a moment, and he shakes his head no.

But still, he feels my pain and sits with me for a while.

We listen to the music coming from the computer. When I write, I listen to New Age on AOL radio. It clears my mind, but leaves me teetering on that edge of enlightenment and heartache.

I’ll blame my mood on the music.

The counselor comes in and offers to pray for the night. He prays for safety in our home, good health, love and that we can accomplish the things God wants us to.

What is it I want to accomplish?

Why do I want to be a writer so much?

Isn’t writing for my own fulfillment enough?

I want to be a writer because I have something to say.

My story is about a girl named Winona, a girl I’ve come to love because she’s so alive in my mind. Here’s her story (the condensed version).

Winona Ray never understood her dad’s unpredictable temperament or bizarre research. When he takes his life she leaves home, moves near the sea and pursues her dream to study marine biology. Like her hero, ocean scientist and author Rachel Carson, Winona’s capable of healing the sea from an endangered future, but a secret more vulnerable than her dad’s death forces her in the shadows of a constant nightmare. Assigned to mentor freshman Darren Michaels, a Son of Triton, Winona finds herself shaken not just by his deep-sea green eyes, but his patronizing complexity. What she ultimately learns is he holds the keys not only to healing the sea, but her own soul.

Winona is why I can’t sleep at night. Winona is why I turn on my computer after midnight. Winona is why I left my nursing baby last year and went to New York City. Through Winona I dream and feel and understand. I yearn and contemplate and envision. She’s taken me many places I’ve never been and I can’t let her go.

Image found here.

So, today, my dear friends, my give-away is a copy of my manuscript, Colors of the Sea, because it is not trash to me. Just leave a comment below to qualify.

And I’ll keep writing, because writing is like breathing; I need it to survive.

Scroll down to see days 1, 2, and 3 of our week long give-aways.

EBay Disappointments of the Week and Day 3 of our Week Long Give Away.

Last night was a disappointment.

It was pouring rain, not a disappointment by any means, but I had to run to the post office.

And it was raining like a tidal wave.

Image found here.

I arrive at the post office in one piece and pick up my XL bin full of priority mail packages. I carry it half-off my hip, sort of lop-sided, because I have this belly sticking out, and wouldn’t you know it, I spill about half of my shipment.

“Stay calm,” I think to myself as I bend over, bending like a tree swaying in the wind.

I have to bend at an arch. I feel so un-lady like.

And the rain washes over me in buckets.

I pick everything up and carry my shipment inside.

I place my first envelope on the scale and start my exchange with the automatic shipping machine.

And wouldn’t you know it, the machine isn’t feeling well.

On the computer screen it says its system is down and can’t help me with my request, but can it help me with something else.

I wonder just what else it can help me with.

A cup of hot chocolate?

A great lasagna recipe?

So I pick up my heavy, just spilled XL bin and carry it back out to the car, in the pouring rain, and only one envelope falls this time as I place it back into the car.

I drive to another post office and the automatic shipping machine has the same problem, but it’s just as courteous and offers to help me with anything else I need.

Can it offer me an umbrella?

Carry my bin back to the car?

EBay was fabulous this week, with lots of people shopping. I had some great stuff to sell, but I did have a few disappointments. They’re nothing like being slapped in the face by an automated shipping machine or dropping packages in the rain, but still worth noting.

Formal gowns don't sell well on EBay. I think us ladies want the shopping experience when we need a fancy dress. Buying a formal gown on-line just isn't as fun. You don't get to try things on and isn't that what it's all about sometimes.

Like this gorgeous Laura Ashley Black Velvet Dress sold for .99 cents. I'm sure who ever wears it will look great and her smile will be that much bigger knowing that she purchased it for under $1.00.

And this Jessica McClintock Dress, brand new, with the sweetest lines and diamond studs never even sold. I gave it to my neighbor who's going on a fancy cruise. Now she has a sweet dress to wear.

Sometimes, a somewhat successful junk collector finds something really cool that they’re not sure what to do with.

Do I keep it?

Do I sell it?

Or do I give it away?

I think I’ll give it away!

This shirt says:

Ten Things You Need To Know About Chuck Norris

1) He can sneeze with his eyes open

2) Before he goes on stage, Chuck Norris break’s someone’s leg to give himself good luck.

3) Chuck Norris was the first person to tame a dinosaur.

4) Chuck Norris’ heart beats once every week.

5) It never rains on Chuck Norris

6) Chuck Norris has no doors in his house, only walls he walks through.

7) Chuck Norris can grate fresh Parmesan cheese with his beard.

8) Chuck Norris can turn back time by simply staring at the clock and flexing.

9) Chuck Norris won a staring contest with Medusa!

10) If you stare at the American flag long enough, a 3D image of Chuck Norris appears.

If you want to win this shirt, make up #11 in the list of things unknown about Chuck Norris and leave it in the comment format below.

I’ll announce the winner on Monday. To see give-away from day one, click here. To see give-away from day two, click here.