Industrial Chalkboard Table

How I envy Lilyfield Life! She found a dining room table in her neighbor’s garbage and snatched it up before the trash truck could take it away to the land fill. She worked some magic with chalkboard and red paint (two of my favorite things) and turned that trashy table into this industrial beauty.

Can you believe someone threw this out?!

I wish Husband would let me do the same to our dining room table. It was his parent's table and has seen better days. He won't let me paint the beat up old thing time warn patina. We compromise with an small army of table cloths.

What do you think? Painted wood tables - yay or any?

Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Condo Blues RSS Feed or to Condo Blues by Email.

I Marched in the 2013 Presidential Inauguration Parade

My feet hurt. I was tired. My hands in their it-was-supposed-to-be-colder-than-this fleece gloves were starting to overheat. My frustration grew. I could not always hear the cadence from my band to stay in step due to the drum corps in front of us, the echo from the buildings, and the parade announcers over the loudspeakers. Out all of the parades I have ever marched or will ever march, this parade had to be perfect.

Then I saw it. I sucked in my breath like an excited child seeing for the first time what Santa placed under the tree on Christmas morning.

The Presidential box.

I am marching as an ally in the Lesbian and Gay Band Association (LGBA) marching band. Two hundred and fifteen people strong we are the largest civilian marching band in the 2013 Presidential Inauguration Parade.

Everything I was feeling vanished except patriotism, pride in my band, and the profound responsibility that I am there for something greater than myself.

  

Photo courtesy of MSN

Painted Thrift Store Bathroom Mirror

My upcycled mirror!

You know you nabbed a good thrift store find when two strangers walking into the store compliment you on the beat up mirror you are carefully loading into your car trunk.

True story.

With a little spray paint love, this pealing gold paint and not in a good way mirror is going to add a little more fun and a lot more less builder standard to my guest bathroom.

I bought the mirror last fall to replace the giant builder mirror in the bathroom. Builders use these giant mirrors to make bathrooms look bigger (with varying degrees of success) and to sometimes cover up quickly done or not painted very well walls (as least this is what I am finding in my own home. *sigh*)

I'm giving the new bathroom faucet a thumbs up in this photo NOT the enormous mirror.

Let’s paint this guy!

DIY Goals for 2013

It's a new year and time to make those yearly goals. Last year I was waaaay too ambitious with my DIY goals. I made 30. I didn't leave room for life getting in the way and boy did it. I only finished 12 of my 2012 DIY goals.

I supposed I could cheat and make my missed 2012 goals my 2013 DIY goals but there are a few items I'm not sure if I want to do like building a fireplace mantel. I want to live sans mantel for awhile to test the waters.

Crazy, I know.

This year I think it might be best for me to make a few more general goals than a long list of specific goals. That way, if life gets in the way or I get my fantasy dream job as a Caribbean beach Quality Assurance Tester which requires Husband and I to dump everything in snowy Ohio for warm beaches, I won't feel like such a big fat failure at the end of the year because I didn't meet a long list of goals. I'm the Queen of Overscheduling. *royal wave*

General 

1. Concentrate on projects using the items I already have.  I'm not saying I won't buy any new materials or components to complete the project if that's what the project requires but I really need to knock the growing list of projects off my Someday list.

2. Find/create storage. We're pretty good about purging and donating the stuff on a regular basis so things don't pile up.  But there are some things we like to keep around, like say food but only one designated cabinet in the kitchen for it. I have some stuff stored in plain sight (aka no place to call home) as a temporary thing for far too long.