A Wood Project for Christmas

Ashlee called the other day and said she had a project for us to do on Tuesday. We had our day planned to hang out at the Barn at Hansel and Gretel. Well, Emma hurt her neck at gymnastics...that threw a kink in our plans.......literally! 

She is ok, but she couldn't move her neck at all! I took her to the doc and they helped her work it out! 

Ashlee and I changed our plans to Wednesday. She came over around 10am and brought some old wood from her neighbor's fence! It was old and grey and worn out! Perfect!!

We were making mangers for Baby Jesus! Ashlee saw one her friend's husband made and knew it was the perfect project for us. 

We didn't have a pattern, just a picture. We totally just figured it all out. First we cut the long side pieces. The first cuts were a little too long. The proportions had to be right. We just cut 5 or 6 inches off and then cut the other 3 the same. 

Next we cut the pieces for the ends. Those pretty much needed to be a square. It would square up on the ends. We did no official measuring. 

Here are several of the cuts. The top one is probably too long. We cut it to match the two smaller matching pieces. That little piece was going to be an end. We love the rustic-ness of it! 

We didn't have any extra hands to take pictures of us screwing all the pieces together. We just lined up the smallest piece to on of the longer pieces and put in two screws. Next we took the other "side" piece and screwed it to the small pieces matching up the corners. 

The next step was to cut the legs. All of our pieces were the perfect widths from the fence. These smaller pieces made the best legs! We just held them up to the bed area and cut them to fit. The last step was to screw in the legs under the base. We made it and X shape for ease. 

Our finished project! Do you think it is as cute as I do? I was thrilled with the outcome! We literally were finished in an hour. That included Ashlee going through the house looking at all my Christmas decor and finding screws as we went along! 

This project was so simple and fits perfect with my wood Christmas tree and tiny tree with burlap! I added a bit of straw. I do not have a baby to put in my manger, but I may take the top of a post or just a wood ball and wrap it up in a blanket to make it look like a baby!

Ashlee posted a pic of hers on Instagram with this precious star and her "baby Jesus". I'm smitten!

Sharing on Funky Junk Interiors SNS for the first time!

Bella Rustica and a Junk Challenge!

My purchase for the day. I loved this old roll-up map turned chalkboard!

Bella Rustica for me was-a-last-minute-hop-in-the-car-why-not little trip. I found out about the show a week before and then had so many people saying I HAD to go! Fellow junk lover, Beth Bryan, from Unskinny Boppy literally tagged me on facebook saying it was a Lucy Farmer match made in Heaven! I knew that moment, nothing would stop me. I posted that I was heading up there and my cousins from Hendersonville, TN said they would meet me! Yay!! Tracy and I are kindred spirits. We could hang out for days and get so many projects done. Leigh is her younger sister and loves a good project, herself!

My business card basket

As I was driving up, I took the scenic route. (and made business cards) The land in Tennessee is so beautiful. The rolling hills and farms make me want to slow down and enjoy the ride. The tractors you get behind help the slowing down part! Traveling down the one lane dirt road to get to the barn was comical. I was a little worried that for one, everything would be gone (lots of people were leaving), and two, how would I ever get out of there!

The barn itself was worth seeing. It was a big, green, well taken care of barn. Several stalls had merchandise and the artists were sitting outside working on projects. As you passed the stalls it opened up to a bigger area and the vendors created their own "stalls". Gorgeous booths created by very creative vendors.

photo: Rhoda, Southern Hospitality

I made it to 3 booths before Funky Junk Donna was going on stage. I skipped the rest, ordered a BBQ sandwich and sat down for the lecture. I missed quite a bit of it....the line for the BBQ was LONG! I made it in time for her to introduce the Blogger Junk Challenge. Donna invited several bloggers she asked to help with this segment. She needed a couple of volunteers from the audience. I was chomping at the bit to get up there! Tracy and Leigh looked at me and screamed GO! I jumped up and before I knew it I was hauling tables and lamps around to create a vignette! Of course, I loved it! It was very similar to my stint on the Nate Berkus Show. They wanted us to create a room from things we found from the booths outside!

This is Rhoda, Sandra and myself pulling it all together. Did I mention how hot it was that day? We were steamy!!

Photo: Rhoda, Southern Hospitality

Rhoda and Sandra already had a table they wanted to use. It was definitely our inspiration for the look. We had a bit of a struggle with no backdrop. We were outside, there was a tree and a lot of bumps in the grass.......not to mention, the natural slope of the ground! We found this wood screen and pulled and pushed things around to get it out of it's home and into our space!

Before:

After:

This is the final outcome! It really came together great at the end! We had so many beautiful things to choose from. I had a blast working with these two. They really have great ideas. We all had similar taste and I think that helped. I want those lamps!!

The other group had the inside room. It was pretty dark inside the barn and the light was bad because it was behind them. I loved what they did. It was very different from ours and perfect in so many ways!

Did I mention both volunteers were Lucy? How crazy is that? 

Left to right: Lucy, Donna, Angie and Myra

Thanks Rhoda for letting me borrow your photos from Bella Rustica! Otherwise, they would all be blurry and dark!
We would like to thank all the vendors that let us "borrow" their wares for our room. I linked up their facebook pages. Go ahead! Check out the goods and like them!

Lamps: Blue Goose Linens
Wood Backdrop/Screen: Carters Creek Station Antiques
Bird Painting and pillow: Maxine Q Jewelry
Table and large bench: Olde Things New
Turquoise frame, 2 iron chairs, silver tray: 2Storeys Antiques
Pillows: Vintage House Dressing
Blue Bench: CeCeCaldwell's Paints

Disclaimer: this information is to the best of our knowledge and there might be an error.....or 2!

Handy Man for Hansel and Gretel

I have a few handy-man projects that still need to be done. I called my go-to handy-man and he came right over. Problem number one is he's my brother. Problem number two is he didn't bring any tools. We chatted yesterday about the few projects I need finished. He must have forgotten what we talked about??

We decided to work with what we had. His drill without a full-charged battery and my drill that will only last about 15 minutes before it needs to be charged again. I had just picked up some barn wood from River Bottom Pine. They are in North Birmingham and if you don't know where they are? You will never find it! The sign out front is about as big as my thumbnail. It was actually delivered there by Shane from Southern Accents. I don't know if they even sell barn wood! haha

So, we decided to make John Connor's headboard. I wanted it to look like a barn door. I bought some tracks when my Mom, Aunt Linda and I went to Maine. I found a really cool architectural salvage place and they had the track and rollers. I was thrilled! The store there is so cool. The guys were super nice and instead of trying to pack the track, they shipped it to me! I was so glad. They rollers were heavy and my suitcase would have been overweight!

I love the way this door looks. This was at the store in Maine. It was the door to the bathroom!

The track and rollers/brackets I bought are just like these! So rusty and old! Funky Junk Donna would be so proud!

I got a few action shots of the bro doing a little work. He's using my drill and it was barely moving. He was putting all of his weight into it! That's a lot....because he's 6'4". At least he had a good angle!

That's a good sneak peek of what the door will look like!

Here is a close up of the hardware. It was harder than we thought. Seems like everything is when you are trying to DIY! I guess they are lessons you have to learn! The drills died and the screws were getting stripped. We called it a day and it's all out on the sawhorses. I'm hoping to get Handy-Man Connor on it tomorrow. hahahahahaha! Just cross your fingers it gets done by someone tomorrow! The bro has baseball games for his son and won't be able to finish before next week. I'm anxious and some would say I have no patience! If it gets put up tomorrow, I promise to get some pictures and post it!!

 I just wanted to throw this screen door in. I literally found it under the crawl space today! I was looking for the breaker box. {OH yeah!! My Dad came by and hung a few lights! He's the best!! We still have a few to go. We should get those up next week and I will give you a tour of them all hanging!} Anyways, the screen door was under the house. Can you believe how cute it is? There is a storm door that we come through everyday and I've been meaning to measure it so I can change it to a screen door. Hopefully, this one will fit! It needs a new screen (obviously) and a little tlc, but I LOVE it!!