Beach Vacay Dos*

It's been too long... I know. I've been having more fun reading blogs than writing my own. But I have a new post that adds to our first beach vacay. A year ago when we went on our first family vacation I came up with the idea of making a souvenir apothecary village. I loved it then and now that I got to add another I'm loving it even more!

 This year we went to Port Aransas and Corpus Christi. We stayed in Port Aransas and went to Corpus for the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington Museum. I used to go to Port A when I was younger with my parents so it was fun going with the kiddos and getting to share my memories with them.

After a day at the beach in Port A I found out that there were barely any shells... at all. I was kinda bummed and then when we went to Corpus it looked like there was broken glass all over the beach from all the shells. We didn't get in the water in Corpus because there were signs everywhere warning about jellyfish. I didn't want to deal with that. I did explain to my son what you're suppose to do if you get stung by a jellyfish... My 8 year old little man thought it was very amusing. Does it make me a bad mom if I'm telling my son to pee on someone if they get stung by a jellyfish? 

Back to the task at hand

I found my apothecary jar at Michaels again. It's bigger so it cost more than the last one -$30- BUT I donated a dollar to a school supplies fund and got a 40% off coupon so it came in around $21. 

I added the sand and shells we collected and ended up with this.

Last time I added a date card inside the jar

This time I decided to make a tag to hang around the lid. So I got on the mean machine and came up with this

And drumroll please

and here are our two souvenirs together looking pretty on our mantle

Vacations are becoming a special thing now and we're already planning our trip for next year.

We are thinking South Padre, Texas 2014. Then we will have a trio! 

I hope everyone had a great summer! 

LoveYa!!!

New Chandelier & DIY Rope Light Chain Cover

The other day the Hubby and I were browsing Lowes. I honestly don't even remember what we were there for because I found this chandelier.

It was $39.98! Sadly there were none left. Sad day... When we got home I looked it up on the 

mean machine-

yes that's a Fifty Shades of Grey reference...

On the Lowes website it's $79.96. Obviously there was no chance of ordering it online when it was half the price in store - I started to wonder if it was a typo at the store. I saw that another store had it in stock so the next day while the kids were at school we went straight there. They had one, it was $39.98 and it automatically went into my cart. The hubby thought it was pretty funny how determined I was - nobody else was going to get my chandelier! 

A month ago I saw this post from The Lettered Cottage about their chandelier in their sunroom. Instead of hanging it by the chain they used a rope covered chandelier pole that they got from their friend for $20.  

You can find it at Aiden Gray for $49.50

I think it looks so beautiful and rustic and I want it!

Of course I didn't want to pay $50 for it so I started to think of a way to make it myself. All it took was some pvc pipe, black spray paint, hot glue and manila rope. 

***********************

First we figured out how long the chain was going to hang from the ceiling. We measured it out to be 20 1/4" and cut the pvc pipe that length. I took some black spray paint and sprayed the ends so that you wouldn't see any white. 

Kinda a bad picture but you get the idea. After that it was just hot glue and wrapping - a lot like my Jute Christmas Ornament. The rope I used was pretty thick - 1/4" and when I first started wrapping I had to hold it down until it dried otherwise it would't stick. After I was done wrapping we just put the pipe over the chain and hung it up.

We went from this

to this

for around $55! One of the bulbs didn't work and we haven't gone to get more so yes it's one short in this picture. But it doesn't matter - I absolutely LOVE it!!! I can't stop looking at it. Now go wrap something with rope it's amazing!!! Seriously it's addicting next I'll show you how to wrap your children or some lamps whichever works best...

I hope everyone is having a good week!

LoveYa

Pallet Art

For the past few weeks we have been going through a bathroom renovation. I'm pretty excited about it because it's all starting to come together. I'm trying to make it feel vintage/rustic/spa -ish... We will see if I hit the nail on the head. But for now I'm going to share how I'm bringing in a little rustic with some DIY Pallet Art.

I have had a pallet for a while just waiting for something AMAZING to be done with it. I had tossed around some ideas and finally found the right thing for the Ayres. The first thing I did was print out a picture that I liked and used a projector to project an image on my pallet.

I had to find a dark place to do it and the bathroom was the best place. Then after I had traced it out I had this cute little puppy.

I decided I wanted to stain the outside and leave the inside natural but to get to that point I needed to get it ready. I taped off the silhouette and then for added protection from stain seepage I scored the edge of it with a razor blade.

Now it's time for the stain. I used Minwax Early American stain and just followed the directions on the back of the can. When it was dry I pulled off the tape and found out that it was a little messy. I had read online that the stain would probably seep through so I was prepared for it but in all honesty it's a pallet it's not a million dollar canvas so a little messy was fine with me. We tried to clean it up a little bit by sanding it and worked perfectly! So don't ever get discouraged and just keep working with it.

This pallet is going in our bathroom so to protect it from moisture I did four coats of minwax polyurethane. I let it set for a few days mostly because we were still doing a lot in the bathroom but tonight we finally got it up on the wall. And here she is!

I really love how it turned out. I love the colors of the wood against the white walls. I love it!!!

Hopefully soon I'll be able to post my first room reveal - pretty exciting!

I hope y'all had a great week! Our little boy turned 8 on thursday and his party is on Sunday so I know I'll be having a fun weekend and I hope y'all do too!!!

LoveYa