diy benches how to

i cant believe I'm posting so soon after doing a project. we worked on the benches over the weekend but as i thought would happen we did not finish the project. just regular life with a toddler and a million errands and homestead chores along with some badly timed rain. we did however manage to complete the build of one of them. now, i just need to get them sanded and stained which im hopeful i will be able to complete this week, fingers crossed.
so, here is the photo how to instructions

so we built a rectangle with the dimensions that we wanted then in each corner added a vertical 2x4 to the height we wanted. then we added an identical rectangle frame to the top.

next, we spent some time breaking down some pallets, cutting those to 18 inch pieces and using a 150 psi staple gun to attach them. we alternated the pallet pieces we used so one big one small and tried to keep the color pattern random. 

to make the top we used 2x6 boards and laid those out, evenly spaced then screwed them to a couple of fence boards we had, flipped them over and attached with 3 inch door hinges. 

done. we had the staples, some screws, the tools, the pallets, and my dad gave me the hinges so our total for this project came in at $137 and some change, but that also covers the wood for the second bench we will be building. this one is 19.5 inches tall and 2x8 the second will be same height and depth but 10 feet long. 

really happy with the added storage we achieved with this. we have a small house and no attic so storage is like the number one key word around here. 

DIY deck storage benches

we built our deck awhile back and we are finally getting the benches built.well, thats the plan anyway.
we will be starting them, of that i am certain.
so here is the half of the deck we are working on today.

so, there is the before. im just gonna go ahead and post this now so it doesnt stay a draft for the next month. 

hope to bring the results in the next few days

psorisis update

i started a UVB light therapy. i posted before that i struggled with psoriasis and that it had gotten bad enough that it affected my life. i was losing sleep and felt embarrassed to exposed it so i was stuck wearing long hot pants and anyone in Texas knows that we need to be in shorts at least 10 months a year.

within one week of treatment i noticed that it wasn't itching so badly. two weeks and i felt immense relief from the constant itch t visually there wasn't a major difference. well, its been just over two months and I'm so happy to report that i feel great. every now and then it will still itch, but its more like just dry skin itch.

we got a mini

I cant recall if i mentioned that our goats had to be re homed.  it was a sad day when our female, Bella, went to live on a farm with a cousin of mine. We decided that it was best for her to be with "family" so we could still visit. i put family in parenthesis because while we are distantly related we are not close. turns out we haven't been allowed to visit her and it still breaks our hearts. short story with our male. once he didn't have a female he tried to mate with everything. i mean everything and if you know goats then you know the spraying and the smell was just too much.

 let me introduce y'all to Marron.

i will be posting more about Marron soon. plus, the pallet paddock and how we built it. 

till next time, keep it Green, clean, and classy. 

life struggles --- psoriasis

as the title states, I'm talking about life struggles today which is not my norm at all. sure we all have struggles and most of them are mundanely common so why bother talking about them (money, steady rise in the cost of gas, traffic, lack of sleep...)
however, today I'm talking about psoriasis. its a disease that millions suffer from and i am in that number.
for me, i had my first break out when i was just 19. after, that i didn't have it again for years and when it would come back i would head out for more sunlight or hit the tanning bed, yikes!!! i was literally baking my skin, the horror.
i have been struggling for months with another break out and not to sound too vain but the spot that popped up on my forehead along my scalp was the final straw that broke the camels back. i am starting UVB light therapy.
i will share my progress and story with y'all so that any readers out there with psoriasis doesn't feel alone.

that is the largest breakout and the one that itches the most. keep posted for more updates. wish me luck and prayers are appreciated. 

medicine cabinet makeover - ideas

so, that is the before and after of the medicine cabinet makeover

that is the medicine cabinet i found at thrift and i ended up covering it with a vintage map that i had laying around.

i also covered the frame with the map and since then i have kept looking at it thinking "is that too much map?"      i think that the answer might be yes and i have an idea on how to change it without undoing the work i already put into it.
more on that later..
more makeover ideas...

mirrors are just glass with a treatment done to them, you could remove the mirror treatment so that it was just glass again and store your small office supplies in it in cute containers or labeled glass jars.

concrete LadyBug part 2

there it is!!! its finally finished...well the statue is and now i need to landscrape around it, haha.

so, y'all know that this project started with dirt, lots of dirt. 

my brother came by on day two and helped me shape the mold. i had done some shaping on it day one but then the chickens came by and investigated my work and ended up chicken scratching it to a shapeless blob.....thanks chicas

 finally it was shaped and right away we started adding concrete to it. i first put a crocheted shawl on it so the concrete would have something to grip to. ..... I'm giving instructions of what i did, not what you should do. i have zero sculptor/concrete/statue making skills but what i did, did work.

oh yeah, to apply this concrete my brother and i just used our hands which i highly suggest you NOT TO DO. The concrete will chemically burn your hands. 

after, we had it covered half way...we ran out of concrete, my brother stood guard because the chickens kept coming over and trying to get on it and leaving chicken foot prints all over. ugh, sometimes farm life is a pain.

day 3 my brother and i got up early and headed to lowes for even more concrete, this time i got even more than we thought we would need. we got the ladybug covered!!!!! 

day 4 i covered the ladybug with the second coating of concrete and for this i wanted a smooth finish so it wouldn't be all bumpy and scratchy on my baby Z.

now, for this one i didnt use my hands...ok, well i did but that was not making it smooth enough and i had a brilliant idea to use a stick on tile because they are flexible and very smooth

the white heart is where Z put her hand prints in the wet concert. i knew i couldn't make it look realistic so i went with cartoon and added the black border at the bottom to blend it in. i will be putting a circular border around it and filling with mulch

a GREAT visit

so, over the last weekend my mom and me took off on a roadtrip to take baby Z to meet her great grandma. the visit went smooth and we took Z to a park that i had found on line. it was so beautiful and they had so many statues that kids could play on even a ladybug which is Zs favorite. she fell in love with this ladybug and an ant (i love it mommy its nice and wont bite me) haha.
the love was so profound that everyday she reminds me of the ladybug and says "bring ladybug here so daddy can visit and i wont miss it" too cute
so, as a conclusion to this story...im now experimenting with statue making. it needs to be big enough and strong enough for her to sit on plus smooth for her perfect skin.
brainstorming with my family and we all came up with this....

a pile of dirt....

haha, part two coming soon

old medicine cabinet repurposed

y'all know I've mentioned before that my house is small so storage is key. i picked up this old metal medicine cabinet for $10 and knew right away i liked that it was metal,  the storage it could provide for all of our small junk, and that it opened three ways. what i didn't love was that it was a mirror. i have one open wall in my living room that it would fit perfectly on but i wanted the wall to have art not a mirror.

in comes decoupage. i did a d.i.y. modge podge with some generic school glue only 57 cents to adhere an old world map that i had laying around, so free.
 there it is. done didn't take but maybe 20 minutes and total cost was $10.57

the map i used is actually big enough that i could wrap the frame with it as well. you can see i did it already on the bottom middle section, to see if i like it and i do.

ill post the cabinet frame wrapped when i get it done.

dinner in 15

Hey everyone, so normally if I'm posting a recipe its healthy but this isn't, haha. I'm posting it because its quick and it has been dubbed "delicious" by my husband. my toddler tolerated and that was my main motivator in posting because she is picky picky. 

while the water comes to boil for the pasta i cooked the sausage. my lazy pant method of sausage meatballs is to pinch off meatballish sized pieces and drop them in the pan. i let them brown up, flip'em and cover them with a lid. 

once the pasta is done, drain liquid, then add the tomatoes, and cheese sauce, plus seasoning, top with meatballs..boom, dinner, 15 minutes. 

the seasoning i used is what i always use...goya, fajita, and black pepper. 

serve with a salad (that my husband cut so I'm not adding that in the time)

chicken coop on WHEELS

i have been meaning to post this one for a long time, over a year. we were tired of the chicken coop clean up and wanted a new design that would mean less cleaning time. around the same time my brother, works in construction and remodel, had a job with a tongue and grove demo. he asked if i wanted the wood...free lumber that's a big YES PLEASE!!!!

my brother is the greatest y'all. he delivered the lumber and stayed to help me build it.  we live in Texas where it is 100 degrees 90% of the time...i may be slightly exaggerating  but keeping the chickens cool and not warm was the main objective. so, that is why the walls are mostly just chicken wire and not solid. i wanted whatever breeze we had to be able to blow in. we do add a heat lamp for the few cold nights that we get. 

we ended up using sheet metal, for a roof, as the walls on the upper part to keep chickens safe from predators. even in a coop a  raccoon can reach in and hurt or kill one or several chickens. chickens like to perch up high so they are never on the lower beams. we put them in just as a step to the higher beams. 

the inside view. we only put in perching beams and no boxes. we have their boxes built somewhere else and its so great! if the boxes are part of the coop the eggs get so much poop on them, its way better this way

so the above picture is what the bottom looks like from the inside....dirty. this is real life, chickens poop like 24/7 haha. the coop is on wheels and every few days we roll it around and usually i spray the inside down before movoing it but i havent kept up with it due to a crzy cold front in texas. we got snow!!!! that never happens and it was before freezing for days. my husband even had to take a snow day at work haha. 

i do have pictures illustrating the build step by step so comment if yall want more pics or instructions. till next time.

DIY Sring art

So, my brothers girlfriend asked if i could make some string art (specifically this one  and i knew i could but i hadn't in forever so here is a little refresher course for everyone.

  i started with drawing out an outline of the shape i wanted, or shapes....print them to save yourself more time. for this my shapes were the outlines of the good ole USA and Brazil. my brother is currently in a super long distance relationship, she lives in Brazil. which is why she asked me to make this for him instead of making it herself. its their love from one country to another, how cute right?

 back to the instructions.... get ready for some time to pass as you slowly nail in the nails along the outline. when you are done just rip the paper out

then, weave your string between the nails. i chose to go vertically but it doesn't mater

its a neat project with a cool finished look. 

I've done it!!!!

i finally figured out how to atached photos again. the blog is back in business y'all and i have so many things to share.

we arent in the tiny house anymore but we are still living small. just under 600 sq ft and it feels huge, giant, enormous..haha you get it.  even with a bigger house we still need more outdoor living space so we do have a screened in deck on the horizon. 

hear are a few samples of what to expect

BIG Girl Bed

building a bed, the efore. what a mess

blogger photo issues

hey y'all, i have been so frustrATED with blogger that i have sort of given up. photos wont upload from a google account so email me or leave a comment if you can help

trying to get back

well, i have a lot of projects going on and have already completed so many projects while i was m.i.a. im going to try to catch yall up. unfortunately im having difficulties getting photos to load. i will keep plugging away at it. i have consider switching up from blogspot and moving to a new host but we will just see how it goes first.