Wednesday, October 16, 2013

October Craft Club {Oregon Weekend Whimsy}

 Hello friends! I'm so excited to share with you another craft club post!  We had a very successful craft club last weekend, and can you believe it..... I remembered to take pictures!!

Let's get right into them!  This month we chose to create scrappy wreaths in autumnal colors or Halloween theme.  The possibilities were endless, and they turned out great.  

Here are some of the samples we used for our invitation.


We also chose to pair this craft with another fun halloween theme vintage spooky photo frames.  These are so much fun.


Alright, on to the fun night.   This month we had 15 ladies come join in the crafty bliss, come see how much fun was had!






















Did you see all of those amazing crafts??  They turned out to wonderful, and everyone had a blast!

Interested in finding out more about the Craft Club we have here in Oregon?  Head on over to Facebook and join the fun!


Thanks for stopping by today.  
Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, Facebook and Bloglovin.  And be sure to check out all the places I love to party each week here in blog land!

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Monday, October 14, 2013

DIY Custom Reception Counter {Before & After}


 Welcome back readers!  Today I am going to share with you a DIY project that we tackled for our front office.  I shared our office makeover with you a couple days ago here, and today I want to go into detail about how we came to a decision on what to use for the reception counter.

It all started with this not so awesome counter that was pulled from the original building, and was headed for the TRASH!

  
Hideous?  YES!  I had the best vision for this, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't take a little convincing from everyone else around.  I kept repeating "just trust me".

We started by removing the door in the center and cleaning it up.  Then we started adding some trim pieces and added some leftover bead board from the office remodel.  We gave it a coat of the perfect white paint and in no time I was falling in love.  We left the original counter top attached to use as a base.


Once we knew what we were going to be using for the counter top, I purchased  some chunky corbels and we attached them to the front. 



 For the counter top, we purchased a 4x8 sheet of cabinet grade plywood, along with some oak moulding for the trim.  Once we had it secured we gave it 2 coats of minwax stain, and topped it with 3 coats of poly.  Remember, this is a construction office and we need it to stand up to men for a while.



You can see below that we added a shelf to the center portion that originally had doors.  This unit was not only going to serve the purpose of the front counter, but also has a load of storage!

And there you have it!  For the cost of trim, paint and plywood we have an amazing new front counter that we saved from the dump!

Thanks for stopping by today.  
Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, Facebook and Bloglovin.  And be sure to check out all the places I love to party each week here in blog land!



Saturday, October 12, 2013

Office Makeover {Before & After}



This will be a short but fun post!  

 About 6 months ago the company that I work for (happens to be my family) moved to a brand new HUGE location.  The square footage is amazing, but let’s just say….. it needed some MAJOR TLC.

Sadly I don’t have any pictures before the crews started gutting the place.  It had awesome shag carpet, and had been vacant for over 5 years, and more recently become a homeless camp.  It was awful.  The whole place was boarded up, and there was not an inch of wiring left in the building (thank you to the crack heads for stripping the metal).

The company was going to be spending a LOT of money on the internal renovations, such as plumbing, electrical, heating, fencing, windows and a new security system.  Which meant that our office budget was going to be small.  

This meant we had to get creative.

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We started out by pulling down all of the ugly ceiling tiles and replacing them with fir wood planks provided to us by a friend who owns a milling company.  FREE!

My mom and I did the entire ceiling by ourselves.  I think the crews there working, may have thought we were nuts, but we kept chugging away!

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Then we picked out a basic creamy white paint from Home depot and sprayed (my mom did this part) the whole place down in a fresh white coat, using that same friends industrial paint sprayer.  

We kept the original wall paneling, and figured it would just look like wainscoting, it does and we love it to this day!

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As for the flooring, we headed to Home Depot and chose a clearance flooring that would be strong enough to hold up to the construction traffic.  And we have yet to scratch any of it.

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As for the furniture, we did a few DIY makeovers that I plan to share next week so be sure to come back by.  

Over time we have made several small purchases to add to the décor.  I love coming to work each day now.  It’s so bright, yet warm and inviting.

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Our office is actually on the upper level of the building, and when you come up to the top of the stairs I created this Vignette just outside the office door.  I LOVE it, and that Open/Closed sign is swoon worthy!  And notice, we won the concrete in excellence award for 2011 in the State of Oregon!

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That’s it for today!  We are loving the progress, and I can’t wait to share more with you as we go!!

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Thanks for stopping by today.  
Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, Facebook and Bloglovin.  And be sure to check out all the places I love to party each week here in blog land!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

DIY Lampshade Pendant {Budget Friendly}


 Today is a fun DIY post on how to create custom pendant lighting, using a lamp shade and about $5 worth of items from your local home improvement store. (this post contains affiliate links)

 

This all started when my best friend Heather sent me a picture via text asking me if I wanted these lamp shades for $2.99 (for the set)!   Mustard quarter foil Threshold shades from Target.... wrap them up and put them in the cart!  YES! 

In fact the only reason Goodwill had them was because the shipping tags messed up the bar codes, and at this exact time those same lamp shades sat on the shelf in Target for $24.99 EACH!


I ran to my local Home Depot to look for the plug in bulbs that you can use for the paper lanterns, and was told a little secret on how to create this for much less.

Here is what you need.
 



 First you will need to cut off the female end of your Indoor extension cord.  Toss this, you will never need it again.
 

Next, split the end of the cord down the center, about an inch or so long.
 

Your Bulb socket  has a twist off top. Take that off and you will find 2 channels with metal prongs where you cord will go.
 

Place your cord into both channels. There is no right or wrong way to do this step.
 

Twist your cap back on tightly and you are done!  You now have a plug in light bulb for about 1/4 of the price you would have paid elsewhere.
 


But who wants to have to plug in their light every time they want to use it?  Not I, so let's move on!

  See below how to properly assemble the bulb and cord.
 

Now its time to add the Cord switch .  Locate the place that you will want the switch to be, and slit only ONE side of the extension cord.
 

Tear back each side about an inch as shown below.
 

You will then carefully need to strip the plastic from with wires.  It works best to use a wire stripper, but if you do not have one, you can very carefully do this with scissors.
 

Unscrew your switch box, and place your cord and wires in as shown.  The wires will be wrapped around the screws. (there are directions in the package on how to do this)
 

And that's it!  Put the cover back on the switch and you are good to go!
 

Here is one of the lights hung next to the bed.
 

And here is my instagram picture I shared when this was finished!  I LOVE the way it lights up my white plank wall.
 

You can't see the cord, but they run down into the corners, and the switches are at the end table height.  Makes bedside reading and blogging much easier when you don't have to climb out of bed to turn off the light.
 


Thank you to my readers for stopping by today.   Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest, and you can find me on Instagram and Periscope @OneThriftyChick.
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