Sanding - Double Check

Flooring Part 4: 

My hands are still vibrating as I write this... we've been sanding today... all day.  And by we, my sweet husband did most of the work.  Something about having kids playing in the hose with their clothes on and dumping out the dog food took up most of my time... but I did do some... and definitely did quality control (poor husband).

So we used the Dewalt Orbital Sander and it is awesome!  We used a 60 grit paper first to get rid of the print and paint and my major cutting problems and then went over it with a 120 grit to quickly smooth each board out. 

The sanding pretty much corrected any unevenness I had from the cutting.  We also angled the sander to get a slight beveled look on the edges. 

The writing on the boards said that this product (the plywood) was known to cause cancer in the state of California.  Um... kind of freaked me out. So yes, wear your safety protection. I rock this look don't you think? 

Flooring Part 1  Flooring Part 2  Flooring Part 3 Flooring Part 5

Flooring Cut - Check

Flooring Part 3:

I'm slowly, but surely getting somewhere.  I finally finished cutting all the boards for the flooring.  I chose to cut the 8 ft boards into 6 ft, 5 ft and 4 ft lengths.  This leaves me also with 2 ft and 3 ft for extras I might need.  

Cutting to length was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. We don't own a table saw and I thought I could buy the Dremel SawMax (which is super easy to use) to cut a perfectly straight line. Because the saw does not have a straight covering, I could not use a piece of wood to keep me straight. I had to follow my pencil mark....very slowly.  My husband thought they looked fine, but when I laid the boards out on the floor, I could see the uneven and wavy lines here and there. 

So.... because I was unhappy with the waves, we decided to sand first instead of lay and then sand. This way, I can sand the unevenness into perfectly (hopefully perfect) straight edges. 

On another note.... while I was arranging the flooring and staring at my kitchen... a crazy thought came into my head... why not just do the cupboards at the same time.... it won't take too much longer. Uh, ok, brain. Since at the time my reasoning made sense, I had my boys take off all the doors.  I guess that means I really do need to finish them now.  

Flooring Part 1  Flooring Part 2  Flooring Part 4  Flooring Part 5

Pie Box Instructions

I still can't get over how cute the mini pie boxes turned out.  If you ordered them from Etsy or from the complete box, you can find the video {here}.  If you just have to have them, they can be found in or Etsy Shop {here}

Harry Potter Fan Gift Idea

I have 6 children, so there is always a party going on.  My 13 year old daughter was invited to a friends party this past weekend. I must inspire my daughter because the normal lotion/ make-up present was just not going to cut it.  Her friend loves Harry Potter so we scoured Pinterest for the perfect gift. My daughter took several of the birthday party ideas we found and evolved them in to the perfect Harry Potter fan gift.  Most of the work was done by her (she wanted me to make sure I gave her the credit). 

Here's our her final work:

She purchased a chest at Hobby Lobby.

We created a Gryffindor stencil using the Silhouette cutting machine

and an svg from their online store. We used black paint to paint the stencil and allowed it to dry before pulling up.  (in the future I would paint with a clear paint first so that the paint does not bleed on the raw wood)

My daughter bought several types of candies. We were in luck that it's Halloween because we found all the "gross" candies as well.  Aren't these Red Hots cute in a Tic-Tac like container?

We used printables from Over the Big Moon to adhere and attach to the candy.

{use the above link for the free printables}

Chocolate Twizzlers for Chocolate Wands

Pixie Sticks and Nerds fit perfectly into the test tubes.

 Super Cute

And it all "magically" fit!

We also printed a 5x7 of this printable found at Simply Fresh Designs.

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light." Professor Dubledore



{check out my supply store for tubes and other Harry Potter party ideas}



Blogging Tutorials

I've been on a tutorial rampage.  I've been trying to learn as much as I can about websites, blogging, twitter.  Yes, I'm a little behind.  My mind is spinning in circles, but I'm loving all that I've learned. There are some major talented bloggers.  My favorite blogging tutorials are from:

 

 

and