The Barbarian King

A few years back my brother was visiting and he commented on my horrid cutting boards. I didn't think much of it. The next time he came, he brought me a present - a cutting board - with the condition I throw away one of my old ones. The next time he came he brought me another one. Now that my cutting boards are replaced I really should invite him over and point out my chipped cereal bowls! ;)

Recently my brother bought his first house and I thought it would be nice to give him a bit of a housewarming present. As a joke I bought him a cutting board with the idea of wood burning something manly onto it. You would not believe how hard it is to find a simple wooden cutting board in this town. After about my 4th store I lucked out and found a set of bamboo cutting boards.

My family has been playing Clash of Clans and the idea of a giant Barbarian King on a cutting board amused me to no end, and really, what is more manly than that?

If you do this I recommend doing it outside - maybe it is just the bamboo but the fumes were a bit much. Of course I only think of doing these type of things in the winter so not only did I get a headache but the house smelt like burnt bamboo for a few days.

I transferred the picture to the board by placing a newspaper underneath my printout - ads with lots of dark ink work the best, and tracing over the lines. It was enough for me to easily see the lines.

It actually turned out pretty good for my first time using a wood burner. I did make a mistake in one spot, but now I can't even pick it out...never mind, I see it!

Pretty manly and terrifying, right? My brother thought it was pretty funny, says it its the best thing in his kitchen. I'm not too sure about that but it was fun to make!

Nativity Scene

I'm in between loads of laundry, so I thought I'd have time to post something! This is something I found on Pintrest - Nativity Stocking Holders - and it was one of those project that I just had to make right away, with a special person in mind to gift it to.

I decided not to make them into stocking holders, but instead as a Christmas nativity scene. The gal also used vinyl nativity pieces and stuck them on the blocks of wood, which makes for a quick and simple project. I don't have access to what ever cuts out vinyl pieces (a Cricut maybe?) and so I did consider ordering the pieces from her - she sells them every fall. But then I thought - why do that when I can paint. I googled silhouette nativity scenes and it didn't take long to find pretty much all the same images she had used. A little re-sizing and I was good to go.

I got my husband to cut some blocks for me and I sanded them, painted them an off white, sanded them again to give them the distressed look, traced the nativity scene on and painted again. It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would.

My painting is far from perfect and however in the end they look pretty good.

The faces were a little difficult since my tracing turned out to be a basic outline - the 2 x 4 I used was kind of rough which made it hard to tace a pattern without falling into the grain of the wood. I did sand them down before I painted but it didn't help.

Nativity scenes are my favourite Christmas decorations and is a project I hope to make again! It cost me nothing since I used scrap lumber and already had the paint, just took a little time!

Organizing

Our laundry room doubles as a storage room. When we first moved in we put a bookshelf in there for canned food, cake pans, the small kitchen appliances and, well, all sorts of stuff. The entertainment stand soon joined the bookshelf and in it we (and by we I really mean me) piled quilt batting, Christmas decorations, gift bags ... basically all sorts of more stuff. And those shelves were surrounded by totes of fabric and baseball cards and childhood keepsakes, which stuff was also piled on. I didn't take a before picture, so you will have to believe when I say it was getting out of hand.

Last month we decided enough was enough. We simply had to reorganize and make better use of our limited space. I emptied the entire room in to the rest of the basement and cleaned it. During that process I discovered the washing machine was leaking oil; luckily it wasn't too expensive to fix. We then moved in a extra fridge we had and removed an old fridge that was set up in the under-the-stairs-storage room and started to build shelves.

We kind of planned as we went, and it turned out very well!

Then came the fun job of putting everything back. I moved things back and forth between storage rooms, made a garbage pile and a garage sale pile. The rest of the basement still needs to be cleaned up and organized, but the storage rooms are amazing!

Now the rest of the basement is a bit of a disaster but with a little more cleaning and a little more organizing it will be just as clean!

Birthday and Anniversary Calendar

This is another Pinterest project I've had my eye on for quite sometime. I wanted to make it for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Obviously that didn't pan out! Plan B was to get it done for her birthday.

The calendars I saw on Pinterest only listed the birthdays and I thought it would be really nice to add in the anniversaries as well. I came up with a design that I thought would be nice and headed out to the garage to find a big enough board. I did find one - I think it was what was left over from the ruler!

I ordered the letters, circles and hearts from this great Canadian site called Wood Things and got ready to paint! I printed out the words and traced them so that they were outlined in the wood. I took me quite a few days to paint. I had to do 2 or 3 coats on everything and I haven't done that much painting so my hand was not all that steady! I distracted the boys by giving them their own boards to paint. They enjoyed themselves immensely!

At one point my mother-in-law came over unexpectedly and saw my mostly painted board in the kitchen leaning against the wall. She thought it looked pretty good and I tried to brush it off as just another project. Someday I will learn to put stuff away!

The end result was great! It is one of those project that turn out so well you want to make it again. (Luckily I bought extra circles!) I just did the immediate family since I wasn't sure what my mother-in-law would want, but, when I have time I'm going to add the extended family as well. It should look even better with longer chains.

It's A Baby Shower!

Lately I've been liking the idea of gift baskets. They are fun to put together, and when you are shopping for a baby there is no end to what you could put in it! Instead of using the typical basket, however, I bought this little box...

and painted it like so...

because what baby doesn't need a place to keep his or her's (in this case - his!) first toys? I then sewed up a double sided receiving blanket, and an extra one for a girl while I had the serger out. I've since come across a better way to make double sided receiving blankets, so I'll be making some more!

Did some shopping for a baby boy, that hasn't arrived yet - but will soon! And finished off my baby boy gift basket. It contains - a toy box, a receiving blanket, tiny rubber boots, a sleeper, 2 outfits, a rubber duck, teething rings, baby spoons, snack containers, linking rings for attaching toys to strollers etc, Q-Tips, and a bib.

I also helped my sister make a baby blanket. Normally I hand quilt these, but since I was also expecting my own baby and didn't think I'd have time to get it done, I tied it. It turned out just as cute! Who doesn't love Tigger?!

The Fish Room

My husband has what we call a "Fish Room". At one time there were 6 or 7 fish tanks set up, now there are only 3. That makes it sounds like he scaled back, and in a way he did, but now we have a 90, a 50 and a 30 gallon tank with one little corner left for my crafting stuff! Last spring he decided he needed a big arm chair for his fish room so he could sit, relax and watch the fish. This was acquired one weekend while the boys and I were visiting my parents! So now there was just one thing missing - an end table for beside his chair. I got the idea of building one for him out of the scrapes in garage for Father's Day. It never got done until just before Christmas when one for my brothers came for a weekend. I have amazing brothers. They are always willing help!

We quarantined off the laundry room, since the garage was too cold, told my husband we were fixing the deep freeze, and got to work. I don't think he fell for the fixing the deep freeze line but we had to tell him something! :)

For using scraps left over from the ship it turned out really well. I'm glad Miles helped me. I probably wouldn't have got it to stay together by myself! I created a collage of our family fishing pictures and got a piece of glass cut for the top.

Measuring up!

Last fall, after I realized I had way too many projects on my list, I recruited one of my brothers to help me make a measuring stick for my boys. Actually he did pretty much all of it, I only bought the board and varnished it! We got it hung up before Christmas, and it looks amazing! Bas did a fantastic job. Once I get some fine tipped permanent makers I'll be able to mark heights.