Sunday Verses

Chippy Table

I love paint, and now that I am an Annie Sloan paint convert, I love it even more.  Painting any old piece quickly is so easy.  And as I have said before, I do not make a dime off the sale of the paint, I just love it!!  It helped me transform this little Goodwill table,

 into a chippy little table with some character and new life. 

I used Old Ochre and CoCo for the detail, with a partial dark wax on top.

I didn't intend for it too be quite so chippy, I was talking on the phone and distressing it at the same time, multi-tasking strikes again.  I was distressing with a wet terry cloth, did you know you can distress ASCP that way? But, I still liked it.  The key with distressing is to not distress evenly. I cannot stress this distressing point enough--I see it too often, equal distressing, evenly spaced.  That is not natural wear and tear, that is made in China to look old distressing.

 

Yes, paint is good!

Under $100 Linky Party

I feel like I have been missing in action, in a little of a new idea slump, topped with doing lots of special orders, attending lots of football games.  But, today I got rolling on a few new projects I will be sharing next week.  You all don't seem to be slumping at all, busy with all kinds of new things such as:

Red Hen's bodacious Bombay chest

Restore and Renew's lovely grey cabinet

Dollar store elegance from Salvage Dior

Feeding My Temple's jalapeno pepper jack cornbread bites

Simple key and sunglasses holder from The Thinking Closet

DIY mercury glass acorns from In His Grip

Looking forward to your links!  {Please remember to read through the guidelines before linking up!

Thanks for linking up and for sharing you with us :) !!

Under $100 Linky Guidelines:

1. Please link to the specific post, not your blog!

2. Please only post ideas that cost $100 or less--it would be great if you share the cost of your project, but not necessary.

3. Please include a brief description in link up.

4. Grab my Under $100 button on the sidebar and include it in your post or a link to Beyond the Picket Fence so people can find you and more great ideas.

5. Please check and make sure your link works. If it doesn't you can delete it and try again.

6. Please no direct links to sales sites, i.e. ETSY or just a plain ol' commercial site, we are looking for inexpensive ideas we can recreate.

Lifestyle Change

Hubby is home sick, a stomach bug--we think.  As I have mentioned before, he has Celiac's Disease so it could be gluten contamination, but he doesn't think so.  He was diagnosed about a year and a half ago.  I was thinking this past weekend how much that diagnosis has changed our lives.  We eat differently of course, but we also shop in different stores, we eat at different restaurants, we do not get invited to dinner at friends' homes anymore, we attend fewer social events that involve eating, we travel differently, I buy different magazines--ones without a bunch of recipes like Better Homes and Garden has, we go to fewer movies because he misses the popcorn, medicines and home remedy cures for common ailments are different, yadda, yadda, yadda. 

I am not trying to evoke sympathy from you, it is all good and the new normal for us and just part of our life now.  Had you told me a year and half ago that so many things would change because of a gluten "allergy" (Celiac's is more than an allergy, it is an autoimmune disease) or that it would all seem normal I would not have believed you.  Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Here is a favorite gluten free recipe in our house.  Keep in mind, for it to truly be gluten free, you have to make sure all of your ingredients are gluten free--some sugar is processed on equipment that processes flour, etc.

Gluten Free Monster Cookies
Cream together:
1 stick softened butter
2/3 C. white sugar
1 C. brown sugar
Add:
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
Mix well and then add:
1 and 1/3 C. peanut butter
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 and 1/2 C. gluten free oats (I use Bob's Red Mill old fashioned oats)
a few handfuls of chocolate chips
a few handfuls of plain MnM's
(typical Becky fashion--nothing is precise--just go with what you feel)

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes--longer than typical cookies.  I love to cook them on parchment paper, come out very nice.  Enjoy!!

PS--It is Celiac Awareness month--do yourself a favor and check out the signs and symptoms of this life changing disease.

Sunday Verses

Wonderful Wood

Look what hubby brought home:

Oh, he knows the way to a girl's heart, at least this girl.  It is all different types of wood, some barn  wood, some other pieces.  A few square nails came out of some of the barn wood so it is old. My first project was a little, simple bench.

This is the most basic of construction and doesn't have a whole lot of stylish details, but a great shelf under the bench for shoes or storage baskets.

I painted over the barn red, yummy, delicious crackling paint--some bright green and turquoise.

Very little sanding and a little stain completed this simple bench.

Under $100 Linky Party

Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas--it was almost 80 yesterday, it is snowing today.  Oh Montana is such a fun place to live :)!  I harvested the garden, brought outdoor things in, I still need to cut back the perennials and do a few other outdoor chores before I start nesting inside.  Do you "nest" in the cooler weather?  Do you go crazy decorating for fall?  Bake?  Here are some fun things that some of you have been up to:

Seasonal decor from Antique Chase

Architecture of a Mom shared a pumpkin granola recipe

Simply bundled books from Knick of Time

Dresser drawer window boxes from Kammy's Korner

Treasures From the Heart's cute crow.

Can't resist sharing another great makeover from One Creative Couple

White works for fall at Chase the Star

Looking forward to your links!  {Please remember to read through the guidelines before linking up!

Thanks for linking up and for sharing you with us :) !!

Under $100 Linky Guidelines:

1. Please link to the specific post, not your blog!

2. Please only post ideas that cost $100 or less--it would be great if you share the cost of your project, but not necessary.

3. Please include a brief description in link up.

4. Grab my Under $100 button on the sidebar and include it in your post or a link to Beyond the Picket Fence so people can find you and more great ideas.

5. Please check and make sure your link works. If it doesn't you can delete it and try again.

6. Please no direct links to sales sites, i.e. ETSY or just a plain ol' commercial site, we are looking for inexpensive ideas we can recreate.

Sunday Verses

Under $100 Linky Party

Hello folks, and happy fall.  Oh my favorite season for sure--and leaves are turning.  I must get out this week and get some photos of the fantastic colors.  And speaking of colors,  I thought I would answer another question, the one I get the most and the one I find the oddest in some way (I have answered this before, but I keep getting it!):  What color did you use on...?  Why do I find this an odd question?  Because I am not sure if the color you are seeing is the real color the item is.  I have 3 different electronic devices that I use to look at my blog, and the colors look a a little different on each one.  The answer is most of the time, I don't know.  I use leftover paint, oops paint, I mix and match colors.  Nowadays I use mostly Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on furniture and I do name those colors in my posts.  If I do buy paint I tend to buy the Red Seal brand.  I will say the best red I have found besides ASCP Emperor's Red (which is better because it only takes 1 coat) is called Red Carriage in the Red Seal brand.  If I buy paint, I buy interior latex in an eggshell finish.  So there you go--not much help, but my advice is to peruse the paint chips--find colors that you love and use those.  Play and have fun!  Now for some wonderful links from last weeks party!

Junky bookends from Twigg Studios

Old book turned fun notebook from Creative Chaos

Beautiful autumn decor from Number 53

The Retail DIYet shared a thrifty foyer facelift.

I love Lake Girl Paints--look at the pumpkin pedestal made from a door.

Marty's Musings' Almost Like Candy Bars

Bell Jar Vintage's cute pumpkin patch

French inspired table from One Creative Couple

Thanks for linking up and for sharing you with us :) !!

Under $100 Linky Guidelines:

1. Please link to the specific post, not your blog!

2. Please only post ideas that cost $100 or less--it would be great if you share the cost of your project, but not necessary.

3. Please include a brief description in link up.

4. Grab my Under $100 button on the sidebar and include it in your post or a link to Beyond the Picket Fence so people can find you and more great ideas.

5. Please check and make sure your link works. If it doesn't you can delete it and try again.

6. Please no direct links to sales sites, i.e. ETSY or just a plain ol' commercial site, we are looking for inexpensive ideas we can recreate.

Eat and Trim

No, it is not a new diet--eat and get trim.  But I used some old trim boards to make another EAT sign.

The E and the T are easy.  The A takes a little more work.  As you can see, I am very technical about it--I just lay the wood on top of the E to get the right size and draw a line where I need to cut.  I then take it to the miter saw and figure out the angle that looks right and make the cut.

I use thin pieces of wood on the back to connect them.  This trim wood had some great turquoise color under the white.
Simple and easy and  a good reminder if you are one of the .001% of people who forget to eat :).