Be Mine Bonanza: Day 6-A Beachy Valentine Wreath

Hi there! 

I am Michelle from Emerald Cove and I am so happy to be here again at the Second Annual Be Mine Bonanza!

I had so much fun last year with the pom-pom flowers.

This year since I am longing for the beach, and if you follow me you know how much I LOVE the beach, I decided to pull out my driftwood, shells and twine and create a Valentine wreath from the beach.

I gathered my materials:

Styrofoam heart

Twine

Shells (starfish)

wood rod 

Driftwood

faux pearls

Before I started winding the twine around the heart, I though that it would be easier to place the wood rod in first.

A good idea, but be gentle when you are pushing it through and you might even find something sharp to get you started otherwise you wind up with a broken heart. :(

No worries though, nothing a little hot glue can't handle!

Once you have the rod through, you can start winding and winding...

and winding!

It does take a while but it is something that you can do while watching TV and when you are done it will look something like this.

I had to get creative with the points of the heart and unfortunately I don't really have a "correct" way to do it but I will say hot glue helps ALOT. 

From there you can glue on your shells.

I used a starfish for the point of the arrow and clam shells for the feathers.

Then I adorned then with the faux pearls.

The final part was to just tie them to the piece of driftwood with twine and hang!

"If love was water, I would give you the sea."

I heart the beach! :)

Thank you Kindra for inviting me to join up again this year and hosting such a wonderful event, I am always so inspired by you.

xoxoxo

Thank you so much Michelle for joining in on the Be Mine Bonanza again! I just love the idea of using twine to create such a wonderful wreath. Adding the beachy feel is perfect to go along with the decor in Michelle's home. You can find Michelle HERE. She has one of the biggest hearts and it shines through her words and photography. Her projects are pretty awesome as well. Drop on by and tell I sent ya. :)

BE MINE BONANZA LINKY PARTY

I also want to feature you as well. Instead of my Terrific Under Ten Tuesday this week, I will have a Be Mine Bonanza linky party open up all week.

Link up your Valentine projects.

You can link up as many posts as you like.

Please leave a link back to At Home With K in your post or on your blog.

The Linky party will be up until January 28th.

Thanks!

Americana Wood Flag

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

I hope you are all having a safe and happy Holiday weekend!

Just in case you missed my guest post over at Chicks Dig Deals, here is fun Americana DIY project you can whip up this summer!

I really heart this wooden flag from Pottery Barn. But not for $129! Ouch!

I thought I would make one of my own with stuff I already have at home.

I cut lathe wood to the length I desired. I wanted to make my flag light weight but you can make it with any kind of wood your prefer.

Lathe comes in a bundle for probably around $6-$7. I am still using my bundle of lathe from my purchase more than 2 years ago. So it lasts a long time.

Here are the measurements that I used but you can use any length/number you choose.

6-10 inches

6-26 inches

7-36 inches

I went ahead and painted the pieces red, white and blue. And also stenciled on stars. Hobby Lobby and Michael's both carry cheap star stencil sheets for around $2-$3. If you don't want to stencil then you can hand paint. Since I love the distressed look, I sanded the wood and added Early American MinWax Stain.

After the stain dried. I attached 3 pieces of lathe to the back of the flag with Gorilla Glue. I love Gorilla Glue! It's strong and waterproof. I then stacked some heavy boxes on top and let dry overnight. 

Then at one end of the flag I attached one 1x3 with glue and nails. I'll be hanging the flag vertical with wire so that is why I added the 1x3 for added support. If you want to hang horizontal then you don't have to do this step.

I want to hang my flag with wire, so I drilled two holes at the top of the flag through the lathe and 1x3.

I cut 2 pieces of wire from my bundle I have below. You can find wire at any home improvement store.

Before I show you the reveal...I wanted to show you my daily frustration with my outdoor flags. They always look like this. :( I'm always unraveling them. They're supposed to unravel themselves. So I was tired of the daily battle. LOL

A light weight wood flag looks so much better! Great for summer! Plus it was Free for me!

Thanks for visiting today. Be sure to come back for Terrific Under Ten Tuesday!

*UPDATED*

How to Hang an American Flag 

Stars always on the left

Linking Up HERE

Drink Carrier

Since I have 2 boys with me all day during these fun summer days...the house is getting a little chaotic. Hard to keep up with the everyday pick up. I wouldn't trade it for the world but it does get overwhelming sometimes. LOL

One of the problematic areas is our drinking cups. I use one everyday but my boys use several. So plastic cups are everywhere!

I had to find a solution to this madness. :) So I got my thinking cap on.

I got this metal basket at a vintage store this spring for $3. It has 4 slots perfect for a drinking glass for each member of my family.

I wanted to personalize each space, so I found these metal label holders that I bought at a garage sale for 50 cents. I wasn't too thrilled with the color. So I sprayed them with metal spray primer and then Indoor/outdoor oil rubbed bronze spray paint.

For the labels, I cut up an old cardboard box from the recycling bin to the size of the metal label holders. Cost-FREE

I found these cute MINI stamps in the dollar bin at Michaels! I used these to stamp our names on each of the cardboard pieces. After the ink was dry, I added a thin layer of Modge Podge over the cardboard labels, for protecting them from any water splashes.

I then attached the metal tag holders to the wire basket with twine. Then slid in the cardboard name tags. So easy!



I bought 2 packs of 4 summertime cups for $1.99 each at Target. They're the perfect color for summer, plus my kids love them!

Now there is less countertop clutter! My kids are learning to be organized, plus they seem to be drinking more water as a result! Bonus!

Linking up HERE

Kids Job Charts

I HAD TO DO SOMETHING!

Nagging at my kids...especially my 7 year old to do his chores everyday was getting old for me and him! LOL So I thought of an easy solution to start the DAY after school ended.

To make my job charts pretty, I painted a couple garage sale frames with my boys' favorite colors: Blue and Red. I sanded down the edges and added a little stain...surprise, surprise

I printed out their lists. The glass of the frame makes it perfect for dry erase markers.

The list looks long but 1/2 of it has just the basic morning routine stuff like: brush teeth, comb hair, wash face, vitamin, make bed...I don't know if it's just my son or the boy in him but I'm constantly reminding him of these simple tasks.

When he does a task then he check marks the task. The major thing about this chart is that ALL these tasks need to be done by 9:00 am! He can get these done eventually...but it might be noon or LATER before he gets around to them! So the time limit was a BIG thing when planning these charts.

Besides the basic morning tasks, he also has a daily chore that involves more "work" and time. I've kept them simple since he's only 7.

After he completes all of his chores AND before 9:00 am, he writes a PLUS sign (+) on the correct day on the calendar. IF he doesn't complete all the chores then he will have to write a MINUS sign (-). If he doesn't finish all of his chores by 9:00 am, he still needs to complete them ASAP.

At the end of each month we will tally how many +'s and -'s he has. He gets a certain $ amount for each day and if there are any -'s then I will subtract from that amount.

For my almost 4 year old, I used Big Font and pictures to make it more playful. He enjoys "helping" me out and does all of these with very little or no help.

We are 1 week into our "summer" and I can happily say that this system has worked great for us!! My son gets it all done by 8:00 am most days! I think the best idea was the time limit. There is absolutely no nagging anymore on my part.

Hopefully this will flow great throughout the summer. Then my next plan will be a smoother transition into before and after school tasks/chores this fall.

Got a Job system that works great for your kids? I would love to hear about it!

Linking up HERE

Enjoying Summer

The summer is flying by. My son can't believe me when I say "Do you know school starts again next month?" Here in small town Nebraska, school starts early, so it will be here before we know it!

I love this time of year, even when it's HOT HOT. The joy of having my kids home with me all day, playing is just #1 in my book. I am so blessed. There is so much to do and so little time. So hopefully we can get all the summer planned activities squeezed in, along with my craft/home projects. Got to take advantage of the nice weather while we can!

Here's a little taste of summer at our home.

Fresh picked flowers from our yard.

I just love my old $1 garage sale picnic basket!

 Watermelon anyone? I made this fun piece last year after finding this wedge in our yard after our neighbor cut a small tree down.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far! Have a beautiful day!

Makeover Fun

I'll be sharing some past and new makeovers from time to time here. There nothing I like more than a good bargain! That's why I can't get enough of garage sale season! Woo! Last year, my friend Judy, gave me some old wood to work with (in return, I gave her one of my handmade birdhouses). Boy, did I have fun with this pile of wood!

I had some clearance Christmas ornaments (50 cents) lying around in my craft supplies and a summer project idea came to mind!

I painted an easy flag design on the boards....separated the ornament star to make 2 stars, painted them white...added dark walnut stain to the stars and boards and sealed. I purposely kept the the edges uneven. I like things that look distressed and NOT perfect! My hubby went ahead and screwed the boards on the outside of our shed. And I smile because the cost was next to nothing!

This summer, I found this chair at a garage sale for $1! Yeah! Pretty huh?

I painted it Ivory, sanded it down and then added dark walnut stain. It was headed outside so I sprayed some sealer on it. Added a simple $1 garage sale wreath and it looks great!

The chair is still shuffling around the yard...but as of now it's home is by the Ole' flag.

Thanks so much for Visiting!