June 27, 2014

DIY – Work Bench

Yesterday I posted about my Fourth of July styled shoot. Today I am going to talk about the DIY bench that I had my husband make for me. A bench that have proven to be very useful in the past four months that I have had it.

DIY bench

There are two reasons why I wanted to build this work bench: one, to use as a work bench for my business and two, to use as a display for parties/boutiques. Although a little bulky I love how the bench turned out. This project took us a day to complete, it is that easy! Just make sure when going to the hardware store that you have your supply list and measurements with you. It will make things so much easier, trust me! We were going to use a bigger size fence wood but unfortunately our local Home Depot only had the smaller one at that time so we had to recalculate how much fence wood we needed on the spot.

IMG_3719

Materials needed:

I am not specifying any measurements at this moment but here is the material that we used

(I will update this over the weekend)

2x 4”x8’ to be cut in half for the post of the legs

8x 2” x 8’ to be used for the frame of the bench

18x 5.5” x 6” fence wood (we used that since it’s cheaper than common board)

long screws

staples and a staple gun

stain of your choice (mine is Special Walnut)

 

Instructions:

Gather all of the material and cut to the fence board to the length of the bench you would like it to be. We have our bench at 40” height and I believe 5’ in length.

Make a frame for the bench with the 2” x 4” adding a board in the middle for support.

Place the 4’x4” post aka your legs inside the frame that you just built at the desired height for shelf and counter.

bench tutorail 1a 

Once you have the frame done  you can start nailing the fence boards down creating a shelf.

Now its time to staple the boards to the side to create a hutch. We left the curvy ends of the fence to create a little character to the hutch. Add the shelf to the hutch.

Dust off/Wipe the bench clean.

Apply stain of choice.

Done!!!

bench tutorail 1b bench tutorial 1c 

And here are three different ways I have used the bench so far. Please note some of the photos are taken with my camera so they are not the best quality.

Fourth of July party bench

 download

image

 

I linking this project to The Cards we Drew

Signature

June 26, 2014

Fourth of July Party

This was originally posted/featured in Everyday Party Magazine. I would like to share it here with you as well.

IMG_3688

Celebrating Fourth of July as Independence Day has been something that I had to adjust to when I came to the United States seventeen years ago.  Almost eleven years ago I met my husband during Fourth of July weekend and that’s how the holiday became a little more special to us.

It seems that every year Independence day is a low key celebration for my family. We usually spend the day swimming, visiting  the local fair and later going see the fireworks. When it came to this styled shot I decided to do something that we would usually do: a last minute get together with things that we have around the home. As much as we love homemade food, when it comes to putting parties together at the very last minute my husband and I believe in the 70/30 rule: 70% store bought or made by someone else ; 30% homemade by us. In this instance everything in the dessert table was store bought and everything for the main course was homemade.

IMG_3704

I decided to arrange the dessert table on a outside bench that my husband made for me. I love simple design and being able to bring items from inside the home. In this instance my big piece was the American flag that we painted and used for the focal point of the table. I have been told that there is noting more American than pies, popcorn, caramel apples and Coca Cola. I used apple, cherry and salted caramel apple pie along the traditional ice cream that I think should be part of any event during the summer.

IMG_3683

IMG_3709

IMG_3686

IMG_3689

IMG_3690

IMG_3695

IMG_3708

For the main course we had pork ribs done by non other than my husband, orzo salad, corn on the cob, corn bread, fresh strawberries and chips and salsa. What I loved about the food is that everything was done in less than three hours. The table was dressed with fresh flowers placed in mason jars.

IMG_3749

             IMG_3754IMG_3756

IMG_3751

IMG_3760

Fourth of July means to me to celebrating our freedom, spending time with family and friends and the official start of summer. Hope you have a great celebration this year!

IMG_3693

Signature

June 14, 2014

Ultimate Red White and Blue Link Up Round Up

I loved being a part of the Ultimate Red White and Blue Link Up Party and seeing what the other 109 bloggers came up with. Here is a round up of some of my favorite projects.

Round UP Collage

 

1. Stars and Stripes Paint Chip Bunting by One Krieger Chick

2. Land of the Free because of the Brave Free Print by The Contractor Chronicles

3. 4th of July Photo Booth Props by Capturing Joy with Kristen

4.  Star Spangled Dessert by Giggles Gallore

5.  Red White and Blue Painted Mason Jars by A Girl and a Glue Gun

6. Red White and Blue felt hairbows by Sugar Bee Crafts

 

In case you missed it here is the post with all the linked up projects. My project was the scrap fabric bunting.

IMG_4271_thumb[6]

Signature

June 11, 2014

DIY Patriotic Scrap Fabric Bunting

I have teemed up with Abbey from The Cards We Drew and 109 other bloggers to create the ULTIMATE Red White and Blue Roundup.

Print

Every year around this time I get confused, should I be decorating for summer or patriotic for Independence Day.  This year I decided that I will be decorating for Independence Day first and summer later.

I have seen scrap fabric bunting everywhere, from home decor to dessert table backdrop. I love that based on the fabric/ribbon you use it can be either shabby chic or very elegant. The best part it is so easy to do. It took me less than an hour to put the bunting together.

scrap fabric funting

 

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Gather the fabric that you will be using for the bunting. In this instance I used patriotic fabric and burlap from Joann’s. I bought half a yard of each fabric and a roll of burlap ribbon.

scrap fabric

2. Cut it into strips. I cut mine an approximately about inch and a half in width and double in length of what you want the length of your bunting to be.

3. Once you have the strips cut, line them up in the order you want them to show in your bunting.

4. Take your strip and loop it around the rope/twine that you are going to string your bunting from. To this, that what you want to do is have the fabric strips folded in half. Then while wrapping the fabric around the rope/twine have it go thru the the little loop. (I hope this make sense).

scrap fabric bunting diy

5. Repeat step 4 until you have reached the desired length of your bunting. Once you have you are done!

It’s just that easy.

easy scrap fabric patriotic bunting

patriotic scrap fabric funting

patriotic fabric bunting

scrap fabric bunting

So easy and the combinations are endless!

fabric bunting

Signature

June 9, 2014

Wedding Inspiration Week

I keep on telling my husband “where was Pinterest when we were getting married eight years ago?” Wedding season is about to officially begin and I feel so inspired by what I see on Pinterest, the web, and the magazines. Our wedding was very small and to be very honest lacked on decor. Even though it was lovely our decor was very basic. There were no DIY projects, there where no place cards, there were no special linens, but it was lovely. Sadly our photographer wasn’t the best ( I have the worst luck with photographers sometimes) Since I do not have any good photos of the decor I will just show you one of our post ceremony photos. It was pretty warm for being March in Seattle.

wedding photography

Okay I will admit we had a few good photos but that ways about it..I do have to share the one where we went to Starbucks to get coffee. Yes, loved going to Starbucks in my sparkling white dress to get coffee. The employees and customers weren’t sure what to think about that.

Starbucks 

So anyways since my wedding wasn’t exactly what I wanted I decided to create a few different wedding inspiration story boards and share them with you this week. So stay tuned!

Signature
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...