CSN Review

The gracious people over at CSN have asked me to do a review on a product from one of their MANY stores. Wooooohoooooo!!!

For those of you unfamiliar with CSN Stores, they house over 200+ stores with every thing from home office desks:

To cookware and cutlery:

And even toys for the young'uns:
I know... How fun is that?

So, now I just have to decide what to review...

Shall I get some Melissa and Doug toys to try out for the kiddos?Those sassy shoes that I've been eye-ballin'?
Or something more practical?
What do you think?

My First Pennant Banner

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: " I am no scrapbooker." In fact, the thought of paper crafts overwhelms and scares me a bit. This may come as a surprise to some because of the giant crate of scrapbook paper I have in my arsenal of craft supplies, but 'tis true. So, when I decided to make my first paper banner, I found the task a bit, well, daunting...

I started making one back in November for Thanksgiving with my friend, Jamie. She had made a few before and they turned out just amazing! But, when the business of the holidays kept us from getting together, I never finished mine. THEN, I kept seeing some more fabulous pennant banners online and out in BlogVille. I HAD to make one! (and finish it...)

So, I pulled out some paper I had, and after spending hours in Hobby Lobby and Michael's trying to coordinate this and that, (and probably over thinking the whole thing), I came up with this:

What do you think?

I'm linking up at these great parties:

Magnet Chalkboard

My friend Tiffany moved to New York the day after Christmas. ***silent sobs*** And although she will be missed immensely, I know this will be a great adventure for her and her family!

Well, because she is moving all the way across the country, she had to get rid of a lot of stuff so they won't have to move it all. She was nice enough to let me have first dibs on most of the stuffs she was parting with in exchange for doing whatever she needs for her hair for free. A pretty dang good deal if I do say so! I'm all about bartering! I got 3 wood saws (these will def come in handy for some ideas I've had in mind), a Dremmel tool, some home decor stuff, a refrigerator, just to name a few. Thanks Tiffany!

Among all the stuffs was this picture frame.

There was no glass in it, but I loved the details in it. I wasn't sure about what I was going to do with it until I remembered my dad has a ton of sheet metal scraps. He and my brother build custom chopper style trikes and always have scraps of sheet metal. So I had him cut a piece down to fit the frame.

I was just going to make it just a plain magnet board, but changed my mind and wanted it to be dual purposed. So the sheet metal got a couple coats of Rustoleum chalkboard spray paint:

Then the frame got a coat of black paint:

Then a couple coats of Heirloom White,
distressed the details a bit with sandpaper so the black would show through just a tad:

Put it all together, and I have a super cute magnet/chalkboard!(sorry...not the best picture...)

YAY!

The best part is, I did it all for FREE! (I had all the paint on hand.)

Don't you love projects like this??? Cheap/free and easy!

I even made some cute bubble magnets to go with it:Oh, joy!!!

What have you been working on lately?

Linking up: