Day 9 - DIY Refurbished shelf

Do you have any furniture in your home that is as old, if not older than you are?  I do.  There is a little shelf that belonged to my mother and her siblings when they were little. I've used it and now it belongs to my son.  Needless to say it has gone through its fair share of wear and tear.  I've decided that it needed a bit of an update. A quick and simple update that only took one weekend and now it looks like a completely different shelf.

 The shelf had several coats of paint on it to begin with so I had to sand it down before painting.  I then painted it black (it was a can that I had picked up cheap at the Habitat for Humanity Re Store which is a great store to find new and gently used items for the home with all of the proceeds going to this great organization). Once the black was dry I painted a green tree on one side and a blue tree on the other.  Another good idea that I might do on the shelves is to put my sons hand prints on the shelves every year with the date under them.

 This is a simple, easy and cheap way to update any old or worn looking piece of furniture and make it your own.

Just as a side note for those who wish to refurbish something with a little more elaboration and detail. Along with the shelf, I had a dresser that my grandparents used when they were younger that later became my dresser and is now my sons.  My husband surprised me when I was pregnant with a refurbished dresser that had a landscape of the Toronto skyline and my sons initial in a beam of light just like the batman signal.  Now this was a project that took a bit  longer than a week and I can't really tell you how he did it other than he used stencils to paint each layer and he put on new handles. But it just shows how different we can make an old piece of furniture look with just a little time and effort.

Day 6 - Decor To Do List

I love the holidays and Thanksgiving and Christmas are my two favourite. During the holidays there are many things that my family and I like to do. I usually make a to do list that is either written down on a little piece of paper and stuck on the fridge or in my head. This year I thought it would be nice to incorporate my to do list into my holiday decor that I could display in the house.  This is a cheap and very easy way to decorate for the holidays.

You only need three items, a frame, a piece of pretty scrapbook paper and a dry erase marker.  All I did was cut a piece of pretty fall inspired paper to the size of my frame and put it inside.  I then wrote on the glass my to do list. The marker wipes away easily and I can keep it handy to check off the activities as we do them.

I also cut a piece of Christmas paper that I am keeping in the frame behind the fall paper to interchange as the holiday rolls around.

Thank you for visiting A Cup of Tea and Life. Please take a moment to share with your friends and family.

Day 2 - Homemade Subway Art

Since being on pinterest I have come across several pins for subway art.  They seem really nice and a great way to decorate for the holidays without spending too much money.  While there are many sites that graciously offer their subway art for free I thought I would make some of my own.

The first one I made was for my son.  I wanted something personal that I could put up in his room.  It was really easy to make. I just used microsoft word and inserted wordart for each word.  I was able to change the size, colour and font for each word.

Here is one that I did for fall, my favourite season!

 Once done, all you have to do is put it in a frame and find a spot for it in your home.  You can get pretty cheap (but nice looking) frames at Michaels and if you happen to have one of their 40% off coupons, even better!  I plan on making a few more for other events, Christmas, winter, Easter, birthdays, etc. and keeping them all in one frame.  This way I can easily switch them out when needed.

Thank you for visiting! Please take a moment to share with your friends and family.