My husband and I have been having fun working on projects together and creating things from wood pallets we got from a friend. A couple weeks ago we made shelves that came out pretty good. You can look at the project here. Then we made a sign with our family name on it that I really like. You can look at that project here. This last weekend we made a bench. He actually made it and I took pictures! We needed a bench with a place for shoes for our entryway. We have white carpet, so I try to enforce the "take your shoes off rule" and it's easier to have people do this when there is a place to sit to take their shoes off and a place to sit to put them back on. The bench serves this purpose and I really like the way it came out. I do want to make a cushion for it that I'll get around to making and posting soon. Here is how it looks right now. Here are the steps my husband took to make the bench. Because we have made the shelves and the sign using wood pallets, they are all broken up. He cut the section above to begin with the seating portion of the bench. He hammered the ends to another piece of wood to create a somewhat ladder. He filled in the wide open spaces with pieces of wood … [Read more...]
Archives for 2013
Allen’s Update
This is part two of an inspirational story Allen's Gift, written by Sophia's Dad Brett, a Physician's Assistant. Intractable vomiting. In the medical world the word “intractable” is used when nothing given as treatment or therapy relieves the given symptom. In this case vomiting. I mean think about it, remember the last time you had “the stomach flu”? Or how about the last time you went out and drank way too much only to spend the next 2 hours in front of the toilet? For me, vomiting represents one of those bodily functions that causes the afflicted to be so miserable, so “please God I’ll do anything if you make it stop” type of agony. But in the back of our minds we KNOW the vomiting will end soon and life will once again return to normal for us. I spoke with Allen today on my cell. “Hey buddy, you hanging in there?,” I asked. “Doing the best (long pause) I can with (long pause) what God has given ( long pause) me to handle today,” whispers Allen with obvious great effort. “I wanna (long pause) go home so bad, so (another long pause) tired of this”. This time the long pause came from me. “Hello? Brett? (long pause) Hello?” “I’m here Allen,” I say as … [Read more...]
Trip To Incline Village, Lake Tahoe
Summer has officially arrived and we kicked it off with a family getaway to Incline Village in Lake Tahoe. It was fun and tiring at the same time. We had a few days of June gloom that could have put a damper on the mood of the trip however we made the best of it and had fun anyway. When the sun came out, we were very happy. Nothing beats the crystal blue waters of the lake and the crisp clean air in Lake Tahoe. It's a beautiful place to be. The best part of the trip for me was that it was an O'Connell family reunion (my Dad's family). My Dad and his four siblings were all there with a number of my cousins and their kids. I grew up spending Summers in Lake Tahoe with my cousins and aunts and uncles and it had been a number of years since we had a get together in Tahoe. So it was great to be back with everyone. I'm bummed I hardly got any pictures of the group but here are a few. Sophia with my brother Billy and his girlfriend Chelsea Sophia and Dada Loving the sand and frigid lake water Sophia, Bailey (Brandon's girlfriend), and Lauren Brett and I My cousin's wife Brynn and their daughter Cici Brynn with my cousin Matt's kids My aunt Karen and cousins Mike and Sean My … [Read more...]
Fabric Flowers
You have probably come across these rolled fabric flowers on Pinterest or maybe you have seen them in a store. They aren't the easiest flowers to show you how to make. I tried to learn how to make these through a tutorial I found on Pinterest and couldn't quite follow it. So, I'm going to try to show you the most basic way I found to make them. I apologize the pictures are terrible. I'm on vacation. I took these the night before I left and rather than wait until I get home to re do the pictures, I thought I would go ahead and post them now. Step 1 I would practice with some fabric you don't care about. I cut a two and a half inch strip of fabric about a foot and a half inches long. You can play around with the length of the strip of fabric. The longer the fabric, the larger your flower will be. Step 2 Fold the strip in half. Step 3 Fold the end of the fabric to create a ball shape. This will be the starting point and center of the flower. Use hot glue to secure it. Step 4 Twist the fabric around the ball. As you twist, use hot glue to hold the twist in place. Continue around and around until you are satisfied with the size of the flower. Glue the end of the fabric to the … [Read more...]
An Eventful Weekend
It was an eventful weekend for our family. There is nothing more rewarding and valuable than spending time with people you care about. That was what this past weekend was all about. First we celebrated Brandon, my stepson's high school graduation and Sunday we enjoyed Father's Day together. The graduation was great. All of Brandon's family came to honor his big day. There was a lot of excitement, joy, and celebration. It was an important milestone for Brandon and I'm glad we could all be there for him. Father's Day was another great day of time spent together. I wish I would have taken more pictures. The boys played golf. Sophia and I played at the park and later we had a great dinner and opened presents. … [Read more...]
Wood Pallet Sign
This last weekend my husband and I worked on another project using what was left from the wood pallets we used to make the pallet shelves a couple weeks ago. We decided to make a wood pallet sign with our last name on it. This wasn't hard to do. My husband did what I would consider the hard part. He pulled three pieces of wood from the pallet. He measured the wood to the length we decided would fit well on the wall. He cut the wood according to the measurements. He nailed three post on the back of the sign to hold the three long pieces together. He applied two coats of dark red spray paint. Once the paint was dry, he sanded it to give it a rustic look. I picked a font I liked from my computer (I used baskerville font, size 600), printed out the letters, then cut them out. As you can see, I messed up the e. Using a pencil, I traced each letter on the sign. This part was a little tedious but not too bad. Next, I painted the letters an eggshell white color. I had to go over the letters a couple times. This is what the wall looked like before. There was a framed collage of pictures. Here is how the wall looks now. I'm going to do a post on the chalkboard I made that is below … [Read more...]
Allen’s Gift
I’ve been thinking of how I will say it, how I will turn someone’s life upside down as I move from patient room to patient room. Room one holds a gentleman that is having trouble getting his diabetes under control and has diabetic kidney and eye disease as a consequence of his over indulgence. My second patient, who has known coronary artery disease has been experiencing chest pain over the last week, awakening him every night with “an elephant on my chest” in a pool of sweat. “Luckily he is not currently having any chest discomfort,” my nurse tells me. I scan the list of my morning patients; hypertension, follow up labs, complete physical exam, back pain, trouble swallowing, shortness of breath, abdominal pain and weight loss. Then it’s lunch with a stack of lab results, adjusting blood thinners, pathology reports and back to seeing my patients at 1 o’clock. Then I see Allen on my schedule! There it is at 1:30 pm. FOLLOW UP RESULTS. The young man is in his late 20’s, is engaged and has the whole world in front of him. Except I’m going to tell him in the most tactful, gentle, and compassionate way, that he likely will not be around in a year. That all the planning he … [Read more...]
Pallet Shelves
Pinterest is full of awesome ideas for using wood pallets. I had never really heard of wood pallets before I started looking at Pinterest. Or maybe I had and just not payed attention. Anyway, ever since coming across these great ideas on Pinterest, I've been wanting to make something out of wood pallets for a while now. Where do people get wood pallets? I had no idea. I asked my friend whose husband is a contractor and he brought 3 wood pallets over that were in really good shape. Once I had the pallets, I had to figure out what to make. I've been wanting to put shelves up in our living room, so I thought we could try and make pallet shelves. And if they didn't come out good, we could just buy them. So I recruited my husband to help me make shelves from wood pallets. I shouldn't say, "to help me" . He did all the work! First, my husband used a hammer to take apart the pallets. He laid the wood out that he would use for the shelves. He used two slats for the top shelf and four for the bottom. He measured how long the shelves would be and cut the wood accordingly. He cut smaller blocks of wood to use as support for underneath the wood slats he put together for the bottom … [Read more...]
Decorating with Succulents
Have you ever tried decorating with succulent plants? I think succulents are cool to look at. They grow well in containers, are low maintenance, and add color, beauty, and interest to any room or space. They aren't expensive either which I like because I'm not good with taking care of plants. You may even have some in your yard you can use. Of course succulent plants look beautiful in an outdoor garden, but have you seen succulent plants incorporated in mixed flower bouquets or table arrangements? Try bringing some of the natural world indoors to make things interesting in your home. Or add succulents to flower arrangements for table centerpieces. Below are some pictures of ideas for decorating with succulent plants. Line up various size hurricane vases with candles and pieces of succulent. This is a quick and easy way to decorate a table. Simple and understated I love this idea from thesweetestoccasion.com of using a succulent plant as escort cards and as a gift for guests. This is a beautiful table arrangement for a wedding or baby shower from acharmingoccasion.com Another beautiful arrangement for a wedding from bearflagfarm.com. Since I found so many great ideas … [Read more...]
Felt Bows for Baby
Felt Bows are another simple do it yourself project. As I've said before, all the DIY projects I do are simple. There isn't much to them. This is what makes it fun for me. I don't spend hours trying to make something. If it's going to be too complex or take a lot of time, I would rather buy it. But simple projects like these felt bows are fun. I get a lot of gratification out of making flowers and felt bows for my baby and friend's babies and I think you will too. The other point I want to make is that I get inspiration from Pinterest, magazines, catalogues, and when I go shopping. Most of the things I make are not totally original. You have probably seen them somewhere before. I usually change something about the project to make it a little different from wherever I saw it. Back to felt bows for baby. You will need scissors, felt, a needle and thread, and then you can attach it to whatever you want with hot glue. I attached mine to hair clips. Felt Bows for Baby {Steps} 1. Click on the link below to get an idea of the 3 shapes you will need to draw to make felt bows Steps {Note-these shapes are not perfect. They will give you the general shape.} 2.Draw the 3 shapes onto … [Read more...]
