Cedar chest to cushioned storage bench

Years ago (when I was in middle school or high school) my grandfather brought me a cedar chest he got at a garage sale. I kept it in my room. My mom thought we could use it for a hope chest but all I managed to gather for it was a used george forman grill and some old prom pictures. Now that I've been living out of my parents house for a while and Todd and I have a place of our own, we went over to my parents to clean out even more stuff from my old room. It's amazing the things that you think you must keep when you're 19 :)

One of the things we brought back was the old chest, but I had big plans for it. Todd and I had been wanting an upholstered storage bench for the front of our bed to put extra pillows/linens (stuff I only use when I make the bed special - like if someone might actually see it!). Here is how my makeover turned out!

Before picture (see I'm getting better about the before picture!)

After I sanded it, I painted it brown, using Valspar spray paint in "Brown Velvet" - satin finish. Then I went shopping for foam for the top. My plan was to make a nice cushion for the top and upholster it with an extra curtain panel we had from the house we rented. As soon as I went to the fabric store I came down with a huge case of sticker shock! I could not believe how expensive foam could be - even on sale! So my project was put on hold, because I knew their had to be a cheaper  better way to complete my vision.

Luckily we are in prime garage sale season! I searched garages sales for foam and finally came across just what I was looking for - a full sized egg crate foam mattress topper. My plan was to put two pieces together egg crate side in so I would end up with the smooth sides for the top and bottom. The best part about this story is when I asked the lady in charge of the sale how much she wanted for the topper - she said she'd give it to me for free. FOR FREEEEEEEE. Free is much better than store bought foam $$. I told her I loved her. And I do.

So I removed the top of the chest, covered it in batting using my staple gun to secure it. Then I added my my pieces of foam and upholstered the whole thing using my extra curtain material and a staple gun!

Here is the final result!

 And it only cost me a can of spray paint!

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Valentines

I had a wonderful Valentines Day with a wonderful valentine. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband.

He had some delivered beautiful flowers delivered to school today

The card reads, "all my love to you babycakes." One of my favorite things about Todd is that he always comes up with sweet and cute terms of endearment. He also bought me chocolates and wrote a really sweet card - but I'll keep that to myself.

I also came home to cards and chocolate from Morty and Zatara. I think it is really funny how Todd picks out cards from them. I mean, I know they're animals and Todd picks them out - but if they were to pick out they own cards... they totally would have picked these.

Morty's card

Inside it says "I want to lick your face! I love you! Hold me! I love you!" which is totally what he would say if he were a person.

Here is Zatara's card:

The inside reads "It just means I'm a cat" and it's signed "Thanks for keeping me around - Zatara"

I like Valentine's day, not just because I have a valentine, but because I fee loved by him and my loving family [ok,  and Morty and even Zatara] each day of the year.

The after Christmas decor lull.

After Christmas I waited patiently for Target's Christmas decorations to go to 90% off. When the day came, I pounced! I bought up every snowflake I could find and even a little "let it snow" sign. I had high hopes of making something like this  but I didn't find any snowflakes that big. In addition, I have really fallen in love with the look of our red poinsettia wreath against the sage green of our front door. (I have decided that poinsettias are a winter flower and therefore not just for Christmas) I'll probably keep it up through Valentines since it is red and I don't really decorate for valentines.

Once I had my snowflakes home I let them sit in the bag  next to my computer for a week just needed a little inspiration (read: deadline). My inspiration came when we I found our we had guests coming up from Texas who were going to see the house for the first time. Getting out of rehearsal late and needing to clean the whole house did not leave much room for crafting or going to the store. But while cleaning out our "Nooooooo don't go in there!" storage room, inspiration struck as I found two snowflake printed gift bags. As one of my new favorite bloggers suggests: I decided to "Rock what you've got". I took the prints out of two frames that weren't currently being displayed, cut up my bags and put the snowflake paper in them. Then I took the eyelets and ribbon off of the "let it snow" sign. I tried to put the sign on the paper but it was too flimsy. Instead, I just put a glob of hot glue on the sign and stuck it right to the glass! Here's how they turned out:

I didn't have enough snowflake paper to do this frame too, but I think the print I already had in it goes well. It is also sort of valentines-y. It reads "you are the one I want most of all".

Again, I left my poinsettias up. I didn't feel like changing them, and I can't think of a "more winter" flower. I added the candle holders this weeks since I have been snowed in and bored. I made them  using Epsom salts and mod poge. I got the idea from this tutorial. I did two coats of epsom salts to make it seem more snowy.  here is a close up:

Ok, so I skipped the month of January...

January is a busy month! Apparently so busy that I can't even find time to blog.

After Christmas break we hit the ground running with the spring musical! We had auditions and immediately start rehearsals. It seems I kinda fall of the face of the universe during January and February. I think I am much more tired being an [assistant] director than I ever was as a cast member - and I'm not the one dancing for 2 hours a night!

I did have a list of things to blog about - but my computer died with all of my pictures. I did back them up so they are on a hard-drive.... somewhere. But really, who wants to hear about Christmas posts and whatnot in February? I'll answer that - nobody! Rest assured we had a wonderful Christmas with both sides of our family.

I will touch briefly on a few goals for 2011. Because I read somewhere that you have a higher chance of not quitting your resolutions if you make it through till February.Personally, I feel that I have a higher chance of not quitting my resolution if I start in February.

In no particular order:

1. Blog more. I want to make an effort to post more. Even if it's quick, or without pictures or not "blog worthy".

2. Learn to knit.

3. Sew something for our house. I have a sewing machine that I bought for my birthday nearly two years ago. I've sewn one very unsuccessful dog coat. Which, looking back, was an insanely ambitious project for someone who never finished sewing her bunny in 6th grade sewing class - and whose only truly successful sewing projects include a pillow made with the help of her mother to earn a girl scout badge.

4. Start a vegetable garden. I missed out on gardening last year, but I am already thinking about my garden for this year. I hope to grow summer squash, zucchini, potatoes and anything else I think I can manage.

deck the halls!

I was so excited to decorate for our first Christmas in our new house. Last year we didn't really get to put up Christmas lights because, much to our dismay, we did not have an outdoor electrical outlet. Luckily, our new house does have electrical outlets outside - but they are both on the back porch! It took getting creative with extension cords, but Todd made it work!

The Christmas tree in all its glory! I have almost all of our present wrapped.

NYC Christmas ornament, from our trip (and when Todd proposed!)

Our "first Christmas" ornament. Can you believe we've been married for two years?! Todd and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary December 20th! It has been a wonderful first two years of marriage. I am so lucky to have married the love of my life!

More decorations inside:

can you spot the leftover wedding decor in this photo??

The fireplace, one of my favorite things about our house. I just switched out the fall flowers and put in red and green poinsettias. Then I wrapped the two bird pictures. The stocking are new! We didn't have anywhere to put stockings in our old place.