Mini Chest of Drawers

So in my never ending quest to organize my home....my latest obsession is my half bath! I store & do my makeup there. It's also were my daughter gets ready...so hair stuff, headbands, tooth brushing.....But don't have much room for storage. And honestly I ask WAY to much of the vanity cabinet!!!!! Right now I'm using a Kaboodles! Yup! Nostalgic right? It works, but it's starting to fall part and I don't care for it. I keep it in the cabinet my Monica's closet...(you have to be a Friends fan to get that! Lol) So I came up with the Mini Chest of Drawers! And I LOVE it!!!! There's no digging for stuff and packing it back up. It's all right at my finger tips!!!! And I love the character it adds to the room!!

This build was mostly reclaimed wood that I found bundled on the side of the road!!! I wanted a rustic, imperfect look. The only part that is new wood is the drawers and shelves. 

For this project I used a hammer, nails and wood glue. No screws! I custom made this to fit my specific needs! And what I had for wood. You can take this basic idea and make yours to fit your needs! These are my dimensions! Instead of an item list I'm using the pic above, unfortunately I lost some of my pics from this project :(  But I think the diagram above is pretty self explanatory. If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments!!

First I glued and nailed the top and sides!

Then I glued and nailed my shelves. (spaced out to fit the draw front measurements)


For my drawers I used 1/4" plywood, tack nails & glue.1: Nailed & glue the front to the sides. 

2: Nail & glue that piece to the draw face.

3: Nail & glue the back on.

For the bottom I just used wood glue and painters tape, let them sit overnight.

Now I didn't have enough reclaimed wood at the right sizes to do the whole project. So I had to use some new stuff. I used the same treatment as I did on my http://thatcraftymommyblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/diy-pottery-barn-mirror.html to get that faux reclaimed wood look....... Now if you don't have any reclaimed wood available you can do this treatment on the entire project! Just make sure to do it BEFORE you assemble it! then sand after to give it that worn look!

I used a semi-gloss poly all over. I used 3 coats, normally I only do 2 but I had some loose paint and really funky spots I wanted to really seal in!!!

Lastly...I found these adorable draw pulls at    They are the perfect fit! They do not come with long enough screws. (my draw faces were thick, if you use thinner wood they might work fine.) So I just found longer screws with matching threads.

 

I absolutely LOVE this project! Its definitely one of my all time favorites! And something I use every single day!


Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments! Thank you so much for stopping by!!!

                                               xoxoxo Sherri

Reclaimed Wood Advent Calendar

 

Hello!!! Tis' the season for Christmas crafts!!!! I've been pinning Advent Calendars on Pinterest for months! But didn't LOVE any of them....

I've been working on a couple projects with some reclaimed wood I'd found. And the other morning standing in my mess of scraps it came to me!!! 

I looked down, sipping my morning cup of coffee.....and I seen a CHRITMAS TREE!!!! How perfect!!! I can't begin to tell how excited this made me.... And that's probably something I should keep to myself! Don't judge! ;) I'm not crazy I promise!!! But I mean, it was all there! 

I laid them all out right then and there! (I had a couple thick boards I cut in two)
I then just took my tape measure at an angle and penciled my lines. And then cut those! I had a few nice rough naturally angled ends I left alone. The base or "trunk" of my tree was already angled! But you could easily cut down a straight board!

Just nail in place! I used a scrap piece of wood to keep them equal distance apart!

I used carpet tacks as my decorative rustic nail heads. 

I don't have a pic? Sorry...but I sprayed it down with some spray poly!

I found these little bags in the wedding/shower dept of Michaels. And these tags in the craft dept. I wanted that "chalkboard" look so I also grabbed a white paint pen for my matte black tags!

Number your tags!

Attach your tag to one end of the drawstring on your bags!

Then pull the drawstring so that you have the desired length for your tag to hang flat. Now tie a bow with the remaining string and loop your knot on the nailhead and tighten!

As a topper I made a burlap bow. Super easy!!!

I absolutely love how it came out!!! I'm going to be sad when I have to put it away!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!! Xo Sherri 

Easy Kale Soup

This is a great recipe if you are strapped for time and want a hearty meal! I typically don't stray from my usual go-to recipes....but I had some random stuff laying around that needed to get used before it expired. And I accidentally made one of my favorite recipes a LOT better!!! Yay!!! So here goes....

You will need: 

            I/2 bag Glory prewashed kale

            1 1/2 bags teeny tiny potatoes

            1 box potato leek soup (from               

             Whole foods) I can't remember 

             the brand. But any box potatoe 

            Soup mix will do. It's also the 

            only one like it at whole foods, so 

            if you go looking you'll find it! 

            1 package all natural Al Fresco 

            Chicken Sausage in Spinach &

            Feta 

            1 can organic cannelloni beans

 

            1 bay leaf 

            6 cups water (more or less        

            depending on how thick you

            like it)

            1/2 tsp Mrs.Dash original blend

            Spice

           Salt, pepper, garlic salt to taste

Start by cutting your potatoes in half. Next tear your kale into one inch pieces (hard stems removed) Then add your potatoes, kale, spices, potato leek soup & water to your pot, bring to a boil. Boil until your potatoes are soft and kale to your desired texture. While that is boiling remove the skin from your sausage and slice into 1/2 inch pieces. I then slice those in half again. Brown and add to pot. When your soup is almost done rinse your can of cannelloni beans and add those to your soup. Let them warm through and your ready to serve!!!! I top it off with some freshly shredded Aged New York Sharp Chedder! So good!!!!!!! Hope you enjoy! Don't be afraid to change things up and make it your own!!!!! 

         Xoxo Sherri

            

DIY Costume: Carl & Ellie from UP!

So Disney Pixars up is one of our favorite movies! And Carl & Ellie are our favorite cartoon couple of all time!!! So when picking a couples costume for Halloween this was a no brainer!!!! 

My only problem was that I didn't have time to order anything online! So I had to try and find what I could locally & make everything else myself.... 

The aviator hats were the hardest! It's not like you can just go to Target and find one...so I decided to look for brown trapper hats I could alter! And lucky me I found these Domo hats at Walmart for $10 each! 

I just cut the stitching holding the flap and folded it under. 

Next was the goggles. I decided to use Mason jar lids!

You can use any flat head screw driver. Hammer slits big enough to feed your band through! I used http://www.joann.com/1-3%2F4in-metallic-waistband-elastic/13059928.html#start=2 as my band. It worked great!

Then I hot glued the ends in place. 

I wanted to line the bottoms of my goggles. I just cut little circles from felt and folded it in and glued, also folding it a tiny bit around the outside rim!

There is so many options when it comes to these! You could spray paint them, use thin weather stripping instead of felt....tons of possibilities! I also found my husband an awesome pair of fake glasses!

Next was my "Ellie Badges". The bottle caps she keeps pinned to her overalls. 

I used a nail and scrap wood. Just hammer two holes far enough apart for a safety pin to fit through!

 Cute right?! :)

For the clothes I hit the thrift store! They had a ridiculous amount of sweatervests!!!! 😂 and I grabbed a tan collared shirt as well for my hubby. 

I already had overalls and a floral button up.....don't judge! ;)

All I did was add a fake green patch to the knee of my overalls. 

Lastly I made my Adventure Book! 

I used one of my daughters books and just covered it with a paper bag! Grabbed some colored pencils and got to work!! 

For makeup I kept it simple. I did my best to round my brows a bit. I did a brown liner on my top lash line only, from inner corner to outer corner. A brown shadow on my lid and slightly above my crease, to mimic the shadowing of her eyes. And then heavy bronzer to fake that sunburned look on my cheeks, all around the end of my nose and a little on my chin. Then added some freckles! (Which you can't really see well in this pic of her) 

I chose to add some mascara...I couldnt help myself! But she has a no lash look going on...

We stopped off at the local grocery store to get some balloons before the party....definitely have to get the balloons!!! ;) 

It was a lot of fun making these! And a wonderful night out!!! Hope you have a wonderfully spooktacular Halloween!!!

          Xoxo Sherri

DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Trunk/Coffee Table

So we decided after 8+ yrs we'd replace our sofa's. We went from off white slip cover's to dark brown leather!!! Yeah! Quite the change!!!! Our new sofa's also recline....which didn't really work with our over sized coffee table!

As you can see it was huge!!! And moving it every time we want to recline is ridiculous!!!! 

I always love the look of the trunk/coffee tables! And I knew exactly where I could find the perfect one to build!!!

http://ana-white.com/2013/04/plans/becca-trunk 

Or here:

http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2013/04/pottery-barn-inspired-chest-coffee-table.html

These women are amazing!!! I built mine exactly to their plans...accept I didn't use plywood as my sides, I used solid wood. If you choose to do this it adds to the width and length! So your lid needs to be a tad bigger! 

So head on over to their awesome sites for the deets!!!😉 It was a super easy build! And I really enjoyed it!!! 

You literally build your box, trim it out...then build your lid!!!! That easy!!! And honestly you could do what ever you want for your lid!  

I chose to go two-tone with my inlays! I used :

And I finished with my favorite matte poly!!!

You also get to customize it with your hardware! That's my favorite part!!! 😁 

 

I got all my hardware from lowes!!!! Including the nailhead trim! 

I also grabbed a couple of theses special hinges! There are tons of different kinds to choose from! With little ones you don't want the lid slamming down!!! 

This is a great beginner build! And I highly recommend it!!! ;)  It's definitely one of my favorite pieces to date!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!! Xoxo Sherri