Saturday's Shutter Assignment

So...we have been wanting to add some shutters to our house for some time now, but I don't really ever see any out there at the typical Lowe's or Home Depot stores that I like.  Plus, if you know me well I always think I  (excuse me-my husband and I) can make that object I am eyeing and at a lower cost than what the retail value is! Anyways, I mostly knew what design I wanted at this point because I had been doing some research on different styles, and when I say research I mean staring out the window at houses.  My husband finally had the itch to make them himself (usually the timing on when things get built at our house is based on his itch to do a project or my hinting I want "blah blah" built for mother's day or something).  I am not exactly knowledgeable on all those tools he has in that garage of his.  I mostly stick to my paint cabinet and occasionally toy around with hanging some pictures on the wall.  OK, man I am rambling.  It is way too late for me to be writing this.

First we measured our windows to figure out how tall the shutters needed to be and selected 3 pieces of wood per shutter to reach the width we wanted.  These were only about $2.00 each.

Here is my husband working hard at sawing the wood off to be the right size.  The back of his truck often becomes his work bench.

Here is what the shutters look like all nailed together in its raw form.

I decided to stain the shutters instead of paint them.  I wanted to warm up the front of our house a little and give it that slight touch of country charm.  This was the most expensive part of the project since I had to buy a gallon of stain.  Oh well, I am sure I will find a way to finish that can off on something else.

Next we added the hardware to make them look like they were operable.  I also think it adds something to them that without they wouldn't be as interesting.  This is adding "bling" in the construction world as I would say.

And here they are up on our house.  You will need special screws that are meant to go into brick and a good bit for your drill.  My husband learned that the hard way when he was using an old bit and it took him like 30 minutes to get one screw into the brick.

I am very pleased with how they turned out.  Now we just need to work on our landscaping.  Ahhh...lost, help!

Happy Making!
Anna Landers

Time To Share Tuesday

Thought I would share my latest design project.  My sister-in-law wanted me to help her with her playroom.  Her kids are getting older so she wanted to turn her playroom into more of a homework/art room type space.  It still has an area for toys and TV watching, but most of it purpose is for sitting at the table doing homework or craft projects.

Most of the storage items came from IKEA and can be interchanged with several units; ie, open storage, closed storage, etc.  The table we are going to look for on Craig's List and paint this green color.  Then we will look for the chairs and stools at local stores around the area to see what deals we can find.  Sometimes Ross or Home Goods can have some inexpensive looking ottomans and chairs. 

One side of the table would be my neices area where she could put all her things, the other side would be my nephew's.  Hope you like!

Thanks for letting me share,

Anna Landers



Thankful Thursday

So many of you may know my story, but for the sake of those of you that don't, here it is.  Early last year during a "routine" surgery to remove what looked like to doctors to be an abscess on one of my fallopian tubes it was discovered that I had ovarian cancer.  After a complete hysterectomy followed by six rounds of chemo I was told that my cancer is gone!  I went through one of the roughest times of my life over a period of 6 months, even though it seemed like so much longer.  Praise God that He got me through it.  On my journey back to recovery I was not sure how or even if I would be able to get back to the workouts I had once done prior to surgery.  Since cross country in high school it has always been one of my dreams to run a marathon, and I always thought that one day I would get around to it.  It seemed, though, that every time I started to train something else got in my way.  After some inspiration from one of my closest friends, I decided that with the help of God's strength I could start running again.  And so I did.  I set a goal to run a 5K in April called "Sprint for Cancer".  A little at a time I increased my distance until I hit the three mile mark.

Of course, I talked Anna into running the 5K with me.  For her, this was a comeback story, as well.  A couple of  years ago she had knee surgery and was unsure she would ever be able to run again like she had before.  With a little physical therapy and increasing her run distance at little at a time she was back to three miles again.

On April 21st we both ran together to sprint for cancer.  Through a little hard work and perseverance we both crossed the finish line and accomplished our goal.  We are both thankful that we were able to go out there and run that 3.1 miles with no injury, and we aren't going to stop there!  After all, life is a race me must run.  Never give up on the dream!

Right before the race

Almost finished!

Keep Dreaming,

Tiffany  

Photoshop Friday

We wanted to share with you some of the Photoshop projects we have worked on recently for some friends of ours.  Most people know what Photoshop is, but if you don't google it (because I don't feel like explaining what it is right now - he, he).  People often come up to us and ask us to help them with their house.   Most people don't have hours of time to go shopping with a designer, nor do they want to pay for that; so our solution in these situations is to come to your house, speak with you about what you are looking for, and take pictures of the area you wish for us to design.  We can take measurements for you, create a plan, and then do a Photoshop design like the following pictures I attached.  Then, you are able to go search for the peices on your own time or find things that are similar in your budget.  Check it out!

We have one more Photoshop project to show you, but I think I will hold out on that one untill she finishes the room so you can see the design we created and then how it really ended up looking like.  It is a playroom for a friend of ours who has 3 boys.  Our inspiration for the room was a treehouse hangout.  There is your little teaser!

Happy Creating,

Anna & Tiffany

Monday's Making Memories: Making Art

For those of you who love painting or just love a fun place to hang with your buddies, Tiffany and I discovered this wonderful place called Pinot's Palette.  Their motto is Paint. Drink. Have Fun.  And you will do all of those (well drinking is optional).   They have painting classes that you can go to or you can rent the place for a private party.  You can bring drinks and food and a big smile on your face!  Check out their website:  http://www.pinotspalette.com/  (No, we aren't getting paid for this)  And here are some pics of Tiff and I with our paintings:

Please try it out.  You will have tons of fun and you don't have to know how to paint.  They give you step by step directions on how to achieve the painting they are working on that class.  Or (like us) you can just paint what you want to paint.  And bonus, you get to take the painting home and hang it on that empty wall you needed to fill. 

As always, Happy Painting!
Anna Landers

Friday's Flee Market Finds (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

This past weekend Tiffany and I went up to Tulsa to visit a dear friend of ours, Alayna.  I think I have mentioned her on here before.  She comes to Dallas a few times a year and we try and get up there once a year as well.  We also went out to eat with some old college friends of mine.  Go Pokes!  We sat at the chef's table in the kitchen at The Tavern downtown, which was such a fun experience.  If ever you find a restaurant that offers that you should certainly try it.  It can get loud in there at times, but it is so much fun. 

It has become a tradition now when we go to Tulsa that Alayna takes us to this place called River City Trading Post.  It is this wonderful place that people can sell their "cheep crap" at, as I would call it.  There are rows and rows of booths set up and each booth is a different persons stuff that you can rummage through.  We always find some great "cheep crap" that we can turn into something unique and interesting.

We also were fortunate to come up on the weekend that a great flee market was going on at the fair grounds.  Again, this flee market was rows and rows of people selling their "cheep crap" they have collected or found themselves over the years.  Some of the stuff people were selling was actually "crap", but you can also find some really interesting collections of antiques, furniture, kitchen stuff, vintage clothing, jewelry, and anything else old, antique or vintage that you can think of in your head.  It was so much fun seeing what everyone brought and talking to the people about how they had come to collect these things.   Here are some photos from River City Trading Post & The Tulsa Flee Market:

 

You don't always have to go to Pottery Barn or Crate N Barrel to furnish and decorate your house.  If you want to include some unique pieces in your home try and find a local flee market you can go to.  Most of the things you find just need a coat of paint or some re-purposing of some kind.   Then your living room or bedroom will be full of conversation pieces that remind you of the fun times you had finding them and making them into something uniquely yours. 

Happy Flee Marketing!

Anna & Tiffany

P.S. Stay tuned for further posts of what we did with some of this stuff. 

Wednesday's Wall Art

My friend Randi moved into a new house and she has this big wall going up her stairs that she needed to fill.  I have been helping her design her house little by little and decided that we should fill that spot with a custom art piece that Tiffany and I could paint (our first one by the way).  We bought large canvases (these are 4' wide x 5' high) at Michaels and used acrylic paint, paper, and some nail heads to complete this project.  These took forever to finish as it is layer upon layer of paint to get it how we wanted it.  We finally got them done and hung (that is a whole other story) and I think they look great!  

Would love to do another one someday (maybe not quite as big) so give me a call if you have a blank wall that needs some canvas love.

Happy Painting!

Anna Landers