Go make something!

Before the days of Pinterest (seriously they existed) I had more bookmarks in folders than anyone should ever have on their computer.  One of them included this image:

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that I had found on a blog in 2010.  I fell in love and I had been wanting to replace our freebie table for years.  After reading how they redid I decided I could do it too!  So I scoured Craigslist for the perfect table  I came across a ton of them but I am cheap frugal, and I wanted something low cost if I was going to strip it down anyway.  Last June I finally came across this gem:

You can read about that here:

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-newest-project.html

After I refinished the table:

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2012/06/dining-table-finally-revealed.html

I started working on finding a hodge-podge of chairs for it.  The hard thing was deciding how I wanted to do it, no matching, 2 sets of two, all the same color, all different?  I finally decided to just see what I could find cheaply.  First I found a set of  four wobbly well loved pressed back chairs on a local for sale board on FB for $15.

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2012/09/trash-to-treasure-tuesday.html

Out of the four only one of them was really sturdy so I refinished that one and a highchair that I picked up off the same board from someone else for $10.

And then it took me nine more months to sturdy up a 2nd chair out of that bunch of wobbly ones and also luck upon a garage sale selling two similar-ish press back chairs for $4 each!

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2013/06/another-weekend-has-ended.html

So now that I have it all together I thought I would post a final product post.

Here she is:

Not to shabby, and I love it much, much more than anything I ever could have purchased in the store!


Breakdown:

Table (craiglist) $15.00
Sanding pads (hardware store) roughly $15
Teal (Cozumel by Behr) Paint 1Qt - left over from previous project
1qt Walnut stain by minwax - $8.00
2 chairs (FB sale) - $15
1 Highchair (FB sale) - $10
2 chairs garage sale - $8
1 qt  Zinzer 1.2.3. primer - $9.50
1qt Olympic One in Heavy Cream- $12
1 Gallon of  Minwax oil-modified polyurethane in semi-gloss - left over from Addison's bedroom floors

Total Cost: about  $95.00
And I have plenty of leftover stain which I have used on multiple projects more than 1/2 quart of the Cozumel and
 hopefully enough of the Heavy cream for me to redo this craigslist find:

And just for fun, lets remember how pretty this room was just 2 years ago....

Dining room make over

Ugh.  Next, replace gross carpet!

Influenster Mary Kay Voxbox

The same day that my Carabox arrived to my house so did this latest Mary Kay Voxbox from Influenster. It was a great mail day!  Are you familiar with Influenster?  If not and you like to test new things and give your opinion you should sign up..I have some referrals left let me know if you are interested!

Anyway in this Voxbox Influenster and Mary Kay sent the following for me to test and give my opinion on:

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  So right off the bat I am just not a lipstick girl...Have you ever saw these chicken lips?  (as in chickens don't have lips and neither do I)  Lipstick looks ridiculous on me, I put this on long enough to know that it also doesn't work for me.  I think because I never wear it when I do put it on it also feels so weird on my lips that I couldn't stand to wear it.  I should pass this one along to someone who will wear it!

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I have yet to try the Creme Eye Color ($14.00) in Violet Storm and Creme Eye Color/Concealer Brush but as soon as I have time to properly put on makeup I will try it out!

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The things I am already LOVING?  The Lash Primer ($15.00)  & Lash Love Lengthening Mascara ($15.00)!  As soon as I pulled the tube out of the mascara and saw that it had one of the silicone type brushes I thought, oh man, not gonna like this.  In the past when I buy the brands that have these brushes they clump so bad I can't stand it. Not true with Mary Kay.  In combination with the lash primer this stuff is amazing.  I haven't tried it on its own yet because if I can use the primer and get even longer lashes that just with the mascara alone, I'm all over it!  It wears great without flaking off and leaving black chunks of mascara on my face. Seriously I love this stuff, I will be finding out who I know that sells Mary Kay now!

My First Cara Box Exchange

Like most people I love getting stuff in the mail.  Secret packages that you don't know what is inside, even cooler.  So when I stumbled upon  Kaitlyn's Blog and read about the Cara Box exchange, packages full of things combined with a chance to meet and get to know some new people, I was all in.  Seriously fun, you should check it out!

I was matched up with Brittany & Mary.

I got to chat a little with Brittany and learned we have a photography passion in common.  Check out her blog to see what I sent to her.

Mary and I talked a little bit through e-mail and she's a pretty active blogger so it was easy to learn more about her.  She sent me the cutest package.  Seriously.  The theme for the month was "take me to the fair"  One of my favorite places ever!

And I didn't get a picture of it but she used mustache duct tape.  Instant cool points.

That box was packed full of fun things.  

My husband called dibs on a ring pop, the peanuts and the cracker jacks.  I think he thought this was for him?  I loved the little cosmetic bag set, I'm pretty much the biggest collector/hoarder of bags as it is so these will for sure come in handy.  Anyone who knows me know's how much I love color so these are perfect.  I may even share one with Addison who is serious about her money collecting lately to put in her piggy bank!

I liked that she included a few little personal items like the nail file/hand sanitizer/frame.  These will all come to work with me to keep on or in my desk.

I had so much fun doing this, I can't wait to participate again next month!  Go sign up, you have until tomorrow!