Ships a'hoy!

I must clarify, I am not even a good decorator. I was not blessed with the ability to 'see' a completed project. I have to try and fail and try again. My husband has a fantastic eye for that stuff. The living room was one of his projects. He wanted a nautical theme. Not just any nautical theme that you can pick up pieces at a garage sale. He want the real stuff. I have added a few touches of my own but it is mostly his

Here are some pictures of what we have accomplished.

If you like the suspended boat, you are on "Team Todd". We fought for three days over the 'Hanging of the Boat'. Team Todd won.


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I LOVE the contrast of the brass and blue

I love this antique fishing bobber.

My uncle brought the ship back for my grandparents when he was stationed in Okinawa.

The fake dock was built by my father-in-law and husband.
They made it out of cedar fencing and stained it dark walnut.

I caught that marlin!  On eBay.  Makes for a great story!

That trunk was brought over by my great grandmother when she immigrated to the US in 1912.

My new pantry!

Pinterest inspires.  Plain and simple.  I am NOT a creative person nor can I come up with ideas on my own... Most of the time.  I can take an idea and copy it but coming up with my own not a gift I possess.  Finding Pinterest has recreated me.  I love to do projects.  I love social networking.  After completing my first projects from there, I began to find others.  My biggest project (so far) is redoing my pantry.  Just removing the items was a huge project!

It started with this picture I saw on Pinterest:

Painted the entire inside and covered the walls with old recipe pages from a church cookbook. The trim looks like crap and I was under STRICT orders not to paint the wood.  OOPS!! Paint brush slipped!

Some of the paint peeled on the shelves (not pictured).  I gave it another good coat and bought some shelf liner.  The white was too much of a contrast anyway. 

The "stuffings" covered most of the recipes but I know they are there!  (Notice the 'dings' are gone from the trim?) 

THEN.... I needed some cool storage containers.  I bought some on clearance at Target. They had Christmas tins on clearance for $ .50 each.  I spray painted them a khaki.  The glass jars came from a thrift store.  I saw on Pinterest where you take empty diaper boxes and line/cover them in fabric.  I wanted something that I could wipe off and wouldn't show the dirt as much.  I remembered a craft from Campfire Girls where we took masking tape or brown paper sacks and decoupaged them on something. 

So I tried this....

Wet the paper and scrunch it to remove extra moisture. 
Spread Modgepodge on the back of a piece and place on the box.  The pieces are very randomly placed. Make sure you smooth out any bubbles.

Once you get it covered, apply a light coat of stain:

 Then, I sprayed with a clear coat for protection.  I keep a roll of self-adhesive shelf liner on hand that I painted with my homemade chalkboard paint and cut pieces for the different storage containers in my new pantry.  My next part will be to paint the lids of various storage containers to match.(Oh! and some "skinny" chalk.  I am using sidewalk chalk right now. LOL)



I continue to "tweak" my organization and am currently making another 'leather' box for storage. I know, not that interesting but it sure was fun!!

PINTEREST! PINTEREST! PINTEREST!

Yes. I am addicted. I have so many great ideas and so little time. My sister-in-law asked me if I had ever heard of it. Nope... Not then. I started to see mentions of it in my news feed on Facebook and thought I would check it out. WOW! Looks cool! My husband is in the construction business and loves to create with our home. Problem is, I am not a creative person. I have to see it to know it. If I see an idea, I can recreate it pretty easily. It is just coming up with the idea that escapes me.

My first project from Pinterest were Christmas presents for my daycare parents. They turned out so cute!!

Talk about easy and fun! My oldest in daycare is three and the youngest is 12 weeks. A more "hands on" activity was not in our cards this year.

In finding these wonderful ideas on Pinterest, I found TONS of fabulous recipes. Three that I made for our huge, family Christmas were:

Buffalo Chicken Dip:

2 C Cooked Chicken
1 package cream cheese
1 C Cheddar Cheese
1 C. Blue Cheese
1 C Hot sauce

Place all ingredients in crock pot and heat through. Serve with celery.

Even my picky daughter loved it.

Marinated Mushrooms. I have to thank my Aunt Sue for this recipe! She is the bomb!


Crack Corn: Just follow the link. :) They don't call it "CRACK" corn. I do. If you eat just one delicious little piece, you are hooked!

Okay... I know what you are going to say about the next one. Believe me, I have heard it all. Even my sweet tooth, chocolate loving husband wouldn't try it. Guess what? It tastes like hot chocolate! Yes. MAKE THEM!!

Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies....Yes. I know! Bacon. Chocolate. Two of the worlds greatest inventions.


Following this will be my week of PINTEREST vacation activities.

Thanks for reading~!