ana-white.com

go to her site now!! she has tons of plans, not just doll beds. i love ana! she takes furniture and figures out how they are made and puts the design plans on her site for free! she even gives you a shopping list and a cut list. awsome.
so i saw this doll bed on her site the other day and fell in love. now my Zella doesn't like dolls. doesn't want to play with them at all. but, she loves her kitties. so i thought this would be perfect. i have a few projects going on right now, but this one i had to stop everything and make. i have never, never worked with wood and furniture making. so this was my very first project. i ran up to Lowe's with my shopping list and cut list. the guy at Lowe's cut everything for me for free. so when i got home, i arranged the pieces into the bed and started working. charlie b had to show me how to use the drill and then i was on my own.

here she is all ready to prime and paint.

here she is with her bedding. Zella and i went to JoAnns to get material and foam for the bed. they sell a 1inch thick foam pad that is about 15 x 18 inches. perfect. i made a envelope style sheet in cream, and made a rag quilt for the blanket. i also made two pillows for her.

here she is all finished! this was a really simple project. a great first project! if you have Lowe's cut your wood. make sure that they are the correct length before you start. mine were off a little so i used a power sander to make them the same.

not too bad for my first project?

she doesn't even wobble!!!

Zella loved it, she told me the bed was spectacular!

jill b

let the holidays begin...

i have seen these wreaths all over the blog-oh-sphere. and i love them. i think that Ballard designs has them for about 50 or 60 dollars. but mine cost way less. wanna make one? you only need two things. a giant letter, i got mine from Joann's, and Christmas garland. i ended up using 4 garlands. they are about 2.99 at Michael's this week. i can't remember how much the letter was. but i want to ballpark it about 8 or 9 dollars. i didn't use glue, the garland is on a wire, so i just kept bending it as i went around.

i started in the center and made my way around the two bumps.

and then, i just kept on going. all the way around. i just kept tucking the ends of the garland into the last section i worked on.

and then i added a ribbon. in hindsight, i would probably add my ribbon as i went around. but i just adjusted the branches over the ribbon and you can't see it.

there are many different tutorials on the Internet on how to do this. i used a combo of a few. i wanted mine to be "chunky" so i wrapped the garland all the way around the letter. but i saw that some women just cut off the branches and hot glued them to the letter. this method will give you a flat back instead of a puffy back that mine has.

easy peasy, so bring on the Christmas decorating. i love it

jill b

will this work

http://www.knock-offwood.com/

this is the blog that i got the amazing coffee table plans from.
go there right now
you will love it!!

here she is, all painted up

zella helped me paint her. and i think she turned out beautifully! we got the plans for her off of knock-offwood.com
her site is awsome!!
thanks ana

she is so pretty...

if you scroll down to the post: introducing... you can see how we made her.

now, who wants to come over and sit by her?

did i tell you she is pretty?

jill b

our weekend project

ok, so it was my project. but charlie b helped and did more than his fair share. i have always wanted a large chalkboard. even when i was little i wanted one. my mother-in-law had made one for her grandchildren, and i loved it. so i went a looking. i found a couple on the Internet that i liked. and then charlie b helped me make it. it was pretty easy. we used ply board. it is much lighter than the particle board that we already had. chalkboard paint and molding. so i first primed the board. i did about 3 coats. it said to reapply after an hour. but we live in Arizona. so by the time i made it around, it was dry enough to go around again. once i had it primed, charlie b measured the board to mark where the trim would go.

i then added the chalkboard paint. this is so cool! i put about 3 or 4 coats on it. we started to get a wind and dust storm, so we moved this inside.

zella helped me put the next coat on. i think i put about 3 more coats on it. i have never used this paint before, but i wanted to make sure that the primer didn't sneak through, and i wanted it to be a crisp black.

charlie b and i held her up against the wall and nailed it into the studs. we used our stud-finder, and the stud jokes began...

charlie b let zella help.

after we nailed it to the wall. we placed out molding over the nails.

zella is my example of the scale of the chalkboard.

and now, may i introduce to you...

my big, and beautiful chalkboard. i love her! she is 6 feet by 4 feet. did i tell you that i love her? because i do. and charlie b for helping me.

my supply list

ply board, cut to the size you want.

paint primer

chalkboard paint

paint brush/roller

molding

nails.

and a charlie b, he was the most important part of my supply list.

now i have to fill her up...

jill b

introducing...

i have been raving about my new coffee table. i just love her. i thought i might post some pictures of her making. charlie b started off by making a shell of a box. we used screws and wood glue.
ana, from knockoffwood.blogspot.com, had hacked this coffee table. we loved it, but we read on her blog that some people were a tad disappointed in the overall height of the table. so we tweaked the plans just a big. we used 1x12 boards for the sides. add an inch for the top and an inch on the bottom, for the support for the wheels, and 5 1/2 inch wheels= our coffee table at 19 1/2. we also enlarged the overall dimensions of the coffee table. we went with a 4 feet by 5 1/2 feet. we super-sized her!
my handsome hubby working on my table.
a picture of the inside.

and here she is. we just love her! i am going to sand her, and then paint her a rustic/chocolate brown. i think she fits us just beautifully.

jill b

we took a holiday

we jumped in the car and drove to Dana point California. we stayed with some friends. which is the best kind of friends, the kind that live one block up from the beach! we went to the beach a couple of days and then came home. thanks, we had a blast!
jill b

introducing...

go ahead, drink her in.
she still has some work do to.
i am gonna sand her down and paint her up.
are you still drinking?
i am.
jill b

the nortorius b.i.g.

so we started a project. i have been looking for a big coffee table. i want a big table. i even thought about buying a kitchen table and cutting off the bottom part of the legs to make it a coffee table height. but this project started with a blog, knockoffwood.blogspot.com. anna takes expensive furniture and figures out how they are made and then offers the plans, shopping list and directions for free! i have been reading her blog for a while and love her plans, and i love a good diy project. i saw a plan for a big coffee table and i knew i had to have it. i showed charlie b the blog and he thought it was doable. after looking at the plans for a while, charlie b decided he could do it even better. so we super-sized the coffee table, added a storage option with a lid. i was going to paint it the chocolate brown that i wanted, and we went to lowes. we bought all of our supplies. charlie changed the type of wood to particle board, thinking it would be easier. we assembled it... and it was BIG! did i say big? i mean BIG!! we didn't know what to think for a while. so we decided to live with it for a while to see what we thought. charlie called me the next day from work, he had been brainstorming of what we could do with this giant box. maybe a sandbox for zella, a storage unit for the garage. i suggested we put it on craigs list to see if anyone wanted a big box. charlie said he wanted to re-do the coffee table and follow anna's directions a little big more closely. he said we could re-use the wheels and we were really just out the cost of the particle board. so we regrouped and redrew the plans. decided on real wood, and headed back out to lowes.

so we got our new wood. had it cut, and it is just waiting for us to have time to assemble her. i think she is going to be beautiful! i am glad that we had to re-do her. i think she will be better, stronger and more durable.

now we have do have plans for the big box. but i will leave you with this...

think zella's room and my hallway...

i'll update when i have pictures

jill b

new adventure

we went to the library, and zella got her first library card. she was so excited. we read a bunch of books and checked out a few and a movie. the expression on her face was priceless.

in other news, we have been working on a big project. i will show pictures later. she is a big one. and i think we are going to go a little smaller this time. what am i talking about?

a new coffee table. we made one, too big. going to redo her this weekend. I'll show before and after pictures soon.

jill b

she...

is the love of my life.
is starting to love being "crafty".
makes me smile and laugh all day long.
is so sweet, funny and charming.
is the best shopping buddy.
makes me cry when i think about how much she means to me.
makes me a mommy.

i love, love, love you, little girl.
jill b

my birthday present

since my sister mentioned me in her blog yesterday, i thought i would show a picture of two of what she was talking about. in both pictures, you can see the borders that she made. they are so beautiful and i love the way it adds an extra special meaning to me.

thanks kim! i love you

and i only have one more left...

jill b

remember these kind of days...

yesterday was too nice outside to stay indoors. when zella got up i asked her what she wanted to do today. she said go on a picnic. so we rode our bikes up to the park and had a picnic. we snacked on cheese sticks and apples. we played with the tea set we brought and had a great tea party at the park.

after we drank all of our tea and at all of our food, we went to the playground. we had the entire park to ourselves. nobody was there. so we climbed, swung, slid, jumped, chased and laughed. we had a great time. after a while, i wanted to swing. they have this big red chair-swing, perfect for leaning back on. so i was swinging in it and zella wanted to sit on my lap. we were swinging as high as we could. i was tilting my head back, so that i could look straight at the sky. this is when my heart became so full. i was overwhelmed. and i was so thankful to be her mommy. i told zella that i hope she remembers days like these. the kind of day that we ditched all of our normal plans to go and play at the park. the kind of day that she is the most important person in my life. the kind of day that was filled with so much joy and fun. days that we spent together, just her and i. i told her that having a tea party was one of my favorite things. i said that i loved her so much and i hope she remembers that.

i was holding her as tight as i could on my lap, swinging as high as we could. i asked her if she would stop growing up. that i wanted her to stay my little girl forever. she asked me why, and i said that each day she lives gets us one day closer to the day she will move out of our house to live on her own. and each day gets her closer to the day she meets the man she will fall in love with and marry. and that i will love my job as a grandmother, i love her where she is right now. she looked at me and said, i don't want to move out. i want to live with you and daddy forever. me too baby, me too. but then reality set in and i told her that one day she will want to move out, get married and start her own family. and that daddy and i would be really happy for her when that time comes. she turned her head around and said, but you like me at five? yes baby, i like you at five!

jill b

extreme home makeover

doll house edition. a few months ago, the fabulous D'Ortenzo girls gave zella a doll house that they no longer played with. she was so excited! all the way home from their house, i heard the following sentences about 100 times:
mommy, i just love my new doll house!
i can't wait to play with my new doll house!
why did they give me their doll house?
i love it!!!
i love my new doll house! (this one i got over, and over, and over........)
and i think my favorite one happened as we were pulling into our garage after a 45 minute drive home...
we need to visit Olivia more often!!
this house was well loved. and she loved it right away. she played non-stop with this house. we moved it into whatever room we were in. she loved to decorate it. her little ponies and littlest pet shop animals lived in it. she didn't care about the graffiti. in fact, she now knows how to spell Mario.
after Christmas, zella was occupied with all of her new toys. i decided that the house needed a make-over. the previous home owner had decided that they needed a new place and i realized that most of the work was cosmetic. i tried spray painting the house. however, the graffiti was written with crayon, and ball point pen. both bleed through paint, badly. so i went up to Lowe's and was amazed what they sell in a spray paint can! you can get chalkboard pain in a can!! i was loving this isle. i think i gathered more ideas for future projects. back to the house. i picked up 3 cans of spray primer and 3 cans of pink spray paint. the primer worked like a charm. it did take a full day to dry in between coats because it was cold. if it was summer, it would of only taken 10 min. i moved onto the pink. this took a few more days. after we got the paint done. my original plan was to put scrapbook paper down on the floors. but since the floors did not have any kind of a finish on them, the spray primer and paint caused it it curl in some places. i realized that if i just put the paper down on it, it would be bumpy and lumpy. so i realized that i would have to put some kind of a sub-flooring down first, and then the paper. after telling this to charlie b, he said that he would lay down some wood flooring for us. i was so excited when he said this. then we ran into this problem. the floating wall on the 2nd and 3rd floors was going to be difficult to work with. so after some discussion with my flooring contractor, we decided to take out this wall. doing this would take our house from a 5 bedroom house to a 3 large room house.

we weighed the resale value, and knocked down the walls.

here it is after the walls were taken out.

charlie b, my flooring contractor, then proceeded to lay the wood flooring in all 3 levels of the house.

i think it turned out beautiful! my lighting contractor, charlie b, strung some lights throughout the house. i still need to wall paper the walls.

today zella and i will be going to the fabric store. we are going to pick out fabric for our window dressings. i don't know how to make them... yet. if you have any ideas, let me know. i will show more pictures of the house when i have the wall paper is in. wish me luck

jill b

she...

turned 5!!

made us a family, a party of 3.

adds so much joy and happiness in our lives.

is growing up way too fast!! i am so blessed to be her mommy. my life completely changed the day we found out we were pregnant. i can remember that day so clearly. it is not the normal average day that one finds out they are pregnant. our story began 4 years before. those 4 years were long and painful. i felt like my life was on hold. i couldn't see beyond us having a family. we turned to Dr. g. she was amazing, nice and sweet. she cared about us as a family when we were just a party of 2. i was never a number. the office staff always used my name and were always friendly. we had just done our transfer 2 weeks before, and i had one more day to go before i had my first beta, blood test, to see if our ivf cycle had worked. i was laying in bed and i was so curious to find out. i got up and found a pregnancy test deep in my bathroom cabinets. i used it. and watched as the two lines lit up. i couldn't move. i called charlie b and told him. he was silent, followed with "really, no really?" i called the doc. and told them what i had done. i asked if i could come in to get the blood test today, instead of tomorrow. they said come on down... i called Cari, and i think she got to my house in about 5 min. we drove down town without saying much. now i know that a at-home pregnancy test can not have a false positive. so i was so excited, but i had experienced so many negatives that i didn't want to even dream about a positive and all that came with it, until i heard Dr. g. say that my blood test was positive. the blood draw took less than 5 minutes and i gave them my cell phone number to call. they told me that if they didn't call me by 4pm, to call the office. as Cari and i drove home, she asked me how i could be so calm. i told her that i have been at this point so many times, that this was just something that i did. i can't remember what i did to pass the time that afternoon. but about 3:45 i walked across the street to my girlfriends house. since they hadn't called, and it was getting close to 4, i was starting to lose hope. i needed somebody there with me to make that call. charlie b was at work. my mom was at work, my sister and dad were working. Kim was home. so we sat on her couches and stared at my cell til it was 4pm. i looked at her, she smiled and told me i can do it. i called the office and spoke to the girl who makes the apts. when i told her who i was and that i was told to call if i hadn't heard from them. she said"I'm sorry Jill," i jumped in and said "your sorry that i am not pregnant, or that your office didn't call me. and she said "oh, no. I'm sorry that i didn't call you earlier because, sweetheart, you are pregnant!" i looked at Kim without saying anything. and the tears fell down from my eyes. i said "really?" and she reassured me that everything looked great, and my beta numbers were fantastic. i was instructed to come back in 2 days to take another blood test. i got off of the phone, placed it back on the coffee table, and sat there. i turned to look at Kim. she had tears down her face and had the biggest smile on her face. she heard the whole conversation and was so happy for charlie b and me. i said, "i can't move, i am afraid to move." and we started laughing and crying. i then walked across the street to our house and called charlie b. he was so excited! so technically, charlie b was the second person that found out. and by the time charlie b got home, more people knew. my sister was the 3rd person that i told. she was in Michael's, shopping. when i told her, she started screaming!! and i was laughing. i then called my mom at work, and my dad at home. at the same time, charlie told several people and when he got home, we went over to his parents house and told them. when we got home, Jeff and Veronica brought over a dozen of pink roses.

our lives have been forever blessed. our journey to zella was crazy. worth every minute and every pretty penny it took to get her. i can't imagine my life without her. she is the sweetest, funniest little 5 year old that i have ever met. she always has a smile on her face. it is because of her, that i get to be a mommy, and charlie b a daddy. because of her we are a party of 3, a family. i love her so much that it hurts. sometimes i look at pictures of her when she was a baby, and my heart aches. to me, she is the most beautiful little girl i have ever seen. she is so full of life and hope. and she has all of her future to be and do whatever she wants.

i love you so much baby! you make me so proud!

jill b