To tile or not to tile...

So I'm a day late... sorry, but lets call Labor day a blog holiday to.

I'm posting a project from the past but we still ask ourselves the same question,

To tile or not to tile...

Josh and I found this tray at some garage sale, it had a broken side but with a simple piece of leftover scrap trim it was as good as new.  We hung on to this for a while not sure exactly what to do but we finally settled on trying to tile it.

After breaking up some free tile found at the local Habitat Re-Store, we liquid nailed the pieces to the bottom.  I know using liquid nail to stick the tile down isn't the correct way to tile, it was the simplest way for us to do it.  After waiting a day to let the liquid nail dry, (not including the extra day that we had to wait because I missed a single piece of tile)  Josh grouted around the tile to create an even surface.

This is the final product after it dried.

It now resides in his mom's room as art instead of a plain tray.  Leave a comment below if you have any questions or tips for our next tile project.

Welcome sign

The first thing most DIYers want to make is a welcome sign.  Josh and I waited until inspiration struck us.

 We found some old metal desk parts on a scrap run and had some pallet wood laying around... 

Of course the first thing I think of is a welcome sign, so we lined up pallet wood underneath the desk support so that we could get the right shape to fit the arch of the support.  

Then Josh got to cut it out and attach it to the frame and then stain the wood.

Then I got to add the word "Welcome" to the sign using letter templates that I printed off the web and traced onto the sign.

Oinker for the yard

If you are anything like Josh, you tend end up with a lot of scrap leftovers from things you disassemble when they brake and it is not worth it to spend money to fix it.

And, if you are anything like me, you see animals and statues in all of those random spare parts.

This little oinker is a combination of both of us. He is made of a coil spring, rebar, metal ears, scrap from an aluminum cutter, washers, and other random parts I don't know what they are.

This little piggy got a black primer coat of paint to give him more protection from the elements.  Then he got a nice coat of pink spray paint and a blow dry from the fan.

Below is a picture of him in his new habitat, plus a new accessory in his nose (a hoop earing that lost it's mate)

Glass block lamp

I have been seeing glass blocks alot on pinterest these days and I thought 

"Hey that looks simple enough, just drill a hole and shove lights in side, no problem"

And it was simple until we tried to drill a hole into a glass block.

We tried a masonry drill bit... no luck

Went to the Menards and bought a glass drill bit... no problem right... wrong!

The glass bit gets hot so we have to get a watering can and slowly pour the water while we drill the hole.

Even the water doesn't help everything, we even used cutting oil to help the bit cut better.

Finally, we got a hole large enough to fit lights into.

Next step, shove the string of lights inside.

Which was easy until the lights didn't go where I wanted them to go, so we used a screw driver to try and gingerly move the lights to where I wanted them.  It sort of worked but eventually I got the lights to where I could work on the outside of the block.

The final step is to paint on the outside.  I chose to paint flowers in one corner to cover up where I didn't get a lot of lights and add a welcome to the top to make it friendly. (that is if a glass block can even be friendly)

Here's the finished product with and without the painting on the outside.

                            

Give these glass blocks a try if you have the patience.

Wishing Well

Josh and I decided we needed to do something large again so why not a wishing well right?

This project was inspired by a similar wishing well that I saw online but like always we didn't have any plans, so we make it up as we go along.  We used 4x4 posts in the corners of the base with 2x4's along the top and bottom to make a sturdy box that wouldn't tip over with the upper weight of the roof. and covered the box with planed pallet wood.

For the roof we used more 2x4's for the t-shape on the sides and pallet wood on the cross pieces that support the leftover shingles from our new roof.  

Then you add the rod in the middle to make it look like more wishing well than just a weird box with a tall roof.  Although this picture doesn't have a bucket we did eventually add one which makes it even better.

We have made another wishing well since this one and I like it just as much. 

Hope you enjoy!

Meet Tippy the turtle.

Hello everyone,

 Tippy is made of a water pump (this lovely green thing to the left), a couple soup cans and a whole lot of metal nuts in various sizes and just as much hot glue.






Just add a little paint and personality to the shell and you have my new favorite critter Tippy who I don't have to feed or pick up after.

Meet Tippy!