4th of July Decoration!

This was super fun to make and makes a great statement in my yard for the holiday!!

I think I'm going to hang it up, but currently I just have it resting against my pillars.

I just went into my garage and found all the peices of scrap wood that I could find and pulled them out, and then pieced together a fun pattern. Only had to make a few cuts with my miter saw to make things fit completely. Then I painted each peice a random color. THEN I pieced together what I actually wanted to do with the whole thing and decided what needed to be what color and what should have stars and where to put stripes etc, and then I painted over them again with their new correct colors. If a piece was to have a star, I used a vinyl star decal that I printed on my vinyl printer (*a star stencil would do the trick greatly) and put it on before painting over the other color. That way the star would be UNDER the other color. With a stencil, it's going to be opposite but I really like the look of the star coming through this way. Although both are very nice looking.

In the end, I sanded all the edges and antiqued the whole thing and then stained over it with a dark stain. I highly recommend using a clear polyurethane spray to weather proof this if you are intending to keep it outside like I am. Which means I really should go do what I've highly recommended. =)

My neighbor and friend Ashley and I tackled this project together! This is her beautiful finished project. Are you loving this project???? I am! I want another!

This project was inspired by a reader of knockoffwood in the bragging board, who was inspired by this post from Ana at knockoffwood. Hers was amazingly cute!

Let me know your thoughts and what you plan to plant, build, make, paint, or do!!

More Furniture!

My parents came to town for a week ish, and we went to Hobby Lobby and shopped around and at one point, my Dad came over with this random night stand thing and was showing us, and then it clicked, DUH, I can make you a nightstand Dad and it will be FREE! I have all the things I need right in my garage. So later on, I asked them if they would really take me up on my offer and let me build it for them. So I went out in the garage and got er done. It was a lot of fun because my Dad was there watching me and chatting with me while I built it and he was very impressed with how quickly I was able to throw it together so that was a feel good moment as well.

And best of all.... He took it home and it was totally the right size, height and it completely matched the room it goes in. He was very excited and he's happy that he has a "Piece of me" in his room since I don't live in the same state. I sure love my parents!!