My FIRST Giveaway!

I am so excited to announce A Little of This, A Little of That's first giveaway! Yay for you, my readers!

This giveaway is brought to you by CSNstores.com

I have actually bought several pieces of furniture from CSN over the past few years. I have bought 2 black bookcases, and my daughter's bedroom set (bed, dresser, mirror, nightstand). I was SUPER scared to buy furniture over the internet, but it was a GREAT experience both times. Their shipping was fast (considering the furniture came assembled....oh yeah!) and their prices were decent. I would check them out if you are planning on buying any furniture.

They also have housewares, rugs, wall decor, tools, hardwood flooring, baby furniture, exercise equipment, etc. They have a little of everything!

Here's what ONE lucky person will win!
A Le Creuset pitcher in Kiwi green.
I am in looooove with this color!Could it look more "springy"?!
This pitcher is more than just cuuute; it is oven, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator and freezer safe! Awesome! You could actually use this in your kitchen. It can be more than just pretty :)


So, here's how you enter! There are multiple ways to get an entry. I will be using random.org to pick the winner from the comments section-make sure you leave a comment for any and all ways that you enter!

1. Become a follower of A Little of This, A Little of that and LEAVE A COMMENT telling me you are now a follower. (if you already follow me, leave a comment telling me you are already an awesome follower!)
2. Leave a comment telling me why you want to win!
3. Blog about this giveaway, and then leave me your link in a comment
4. Facebook or Twitter about this giveaway, and then come back and leave me a comment telling me that you did!

That's up to 5 Entries. Good Luck! I'm so excited for one of you to win!
Giveaway ends Monday, April 19th.

How to get FREE lumber for projects

I was lucky enough to get a TON of free lumber last week.
It will keep me in projects for a loooong time. (oh the possibilities!)

Thought I would share my secret :D

1. Find a house under construction close by.


2. Wait until they are done framing the house.


3. Make sure you have a large vehicle to haul off all that lumber.

4. Write down the home builders phone number off the little
sign in front of the under-construction house.


5. CALL AND ASK if you can go through all the scrap wood laying around the property.



This is what I did, and the site manager was SUPER nice about letting me go dig through the wood. Her exact comment was "you would be surprised how many people never call and ask, and just come take what they want". She was even nice enough to load up some of the wood in her truck, and drive it to my house. I think she was really glad I asked first.

I found wood in every length and width imaginable. You will too if you can find a house being built around you!

I got so much lumber that it filled up the back of my full-size SUV. I mean, lumber is cheap, but who can pass up FREE?

Fabric Covered Magnet Board Tutorial

I found a frame at Goodwill a few months ago, and have been wayyy undecided about how to use it. (I know you are shocked that I found yet another frame to rescue)

It is large, measuring 24x36 inches. A nice size! Best of all, it's black, and in good shape. Why was this at Goodwill? I figured that out after I measured the picture opening. 16.5x23 inches. Not exactly a standard size for a picture :)

I finally decided to make a magnet board out of it. I googled around, and searched a MILLION blogs, and could not find a good tutorial. Go ahead, you try to find a good tutorial for how to do this! The few that I did find were really vague about where to find the metal to make a magnet board.


Supplies Needed

Magnetic sheet metal
Spray on Adhesive
Gorilla Glue
Fabric
Gemstones (to make magnets)
Heavy duty Magnets
Hot Glue Gun



WHERE to find your supplies

Sheet Metal can be found at Lowe's or Home Depot. At my Lowe's, it was near the plumbing section, with the air duct materials. It is called JOIST SHEETING. A 16x36 in sheet was $5.24. In a different section of the store, they had thicker sheets of metal that is called "sheet metal", but it is MUCH more expensive. The same size piece would cost you $25. The picture below is where in Lowe's I found the JOIST SHEETING:


Heavy Duty magnets can also be found at a home improvement store. They are much stronger magnets than the kind you can buy at Walmart or Office Depot. Since I was making a fabric covered magnet board, I needed strong magnets.



The gemstones I used were bought at Hobby Lobby. I love how big and chunky they are. They were in the stained glass/mosaic tile section of the store. ($1.67 for about 15)



The reason I am telling you, dear reader, where to find this stuff is because it took me FOREVER to find it myself! I kept getting sent to the wrong place by salespeople who didn't really know that much :D



Steps to a FAB magnet board

(cut your metal to size if it is too large for your frame. You will need a tool called "Tin Shears" which can be bought at a Home Improvement store. They cost around $8.00)

1. Lay your metal on top of your fabric, and cut your fabric out a little larger than the metal.

2. Spray your sheet metal with spray-on adhesive

3. Lay your fabric on the metal (on the side you sprayed...) and smooth out any wrinkles

4. Flip your sheet metal over, and start spraying the extra fabric on the edges with adhesive. Fold the fabric over the sheet metal.

5. Make sure you pull the fabric tight as you do this, so it looks crisp.
it should look like this when you finish all 4 sides:

6. Glue your fabric-ized metal to your frame. I used sumo glue (pretty much the same thing as gorilla glue).

7. While your frame is drying, make your magnets.

8. Hot glue the magnets to the back of the gemstones.

9. Hang up your magnet board


10. Put on some cuuuute pictures, and you're done!



Here are some "final product" shots
(this frame is in a hall w/out a lot of natural light. forgive the lighting!!)

I'm linking up over at Shanty 2 Chic and Shabby Chic Cottage and Finding Fabulous and Craftaholics Anonymous
and fingerprints on the fridge
and The Shabby Nest 
and Funky Junk Interiors 

and the DIY Showoff 
and Making the World Cuter 
and

PVC Pipe Curtain Rods PART 2

I have had so many amazing comments on my PVC Curtain Rod post. Thank You so much! They really mean a lot to me! I had some really great questions, and some good feedback I want to share to make this a project YOU can do!

1. I bought my finials, wall sconces and brackets at Lowes. They were reasonable priced. HOWEVER, I found unfinished wood finials back in the fencing/lumber section for a 1/3 of the cost after I had already finished my project. Check them out if you are thinking of doing this
project.

2. I hot glued my finials in place. This does make it more difficult to take down the rod and remove the curtains, but honestly, there is no reason to remove the curtains. Most drapery fabric is "dry clean only", so unless something really drastic happens to your curtains, you won't be taking them down.

3. I spray painted my PVC pipe with regular spray paint. It did scratch when I installed the
rods (not too badly), and I wound up doing several "touch ups". A reader clued me in and let me know that they make a special spray paint just for plastic. DUH! Why didn't I think to look for that?? It takes about a week to cure, but when cured, it doesn't scratch.

**I got another fantastic comment, telling me that plastic primer is even better. Using plastic primer, you can use whatever color you want! Plastic spray paint comes in limited colors.**


4. For my corner windows, I used a 90 degree connector. The amazing thing about PVC pipe is
that there are a milllllion kinds of connectors. Just go to the plumbing section; you'll see a
connector for any kind of angle. This project would even work on bay windows!

5. I would love to see your finished projects! I'm interested to see how this works for you!

Retro Rocking Chair Re-Do

I am so happy to share my recent furniture re-do with all you guys! I have had so much fun breathing some new life into this VERY retro rocking chair!

Here she is in all her glory!!

Where did I find this lovely?? Canton, TX of course. The best outdoor flea market ever.

How much did I pay? $40. Not back considering the potential this chair had! (potential I saw, and the hubby did not. He was like...."ewww". But, he DID let me buy it!)

I LOVE THE LEGS on this chair. It's what first caught my eye!

DO NOT be scared to re-upholster something! It's a "figure it out as you go" kind of thing. Every piece of furniture is different. Just take it apart, and go for it!

First, I removed the seat cushion. It was simply screwed in on the bottom. Remove the screws, and then pull out the cushion.I had to have my hubby remove the seat back. Quite a bit of pulling and yanking was required.
I then lightly sanded the whole chair, with circular sander thingy (I know nothing about tools obviously....)
Sprayed it with some primer. (sanding and priming are optional, but make it look so much more finished!)

I then gave the chair a few coats of Krylon Black Satin (forgot to take a pic. sorry!)


Next I re-upholstered the seat cushion.
Here are the EASY steps to do this.

• Lay fabric on the floor, wrong side of fabric up.

• Center seat cushion on the fabric
• Using a staple gun, staple one edge of the fabric

• Go to opposite side of cushion and pull the fabric TIGHT and staple that side (ex: if you staple the left side of the cushion first, do the right side next)

• Finish stapling remaining 2 sides, making sure fabric is tight the whole time
• When you get to the corners, make sure you neatly fold the fabric
  

(kind of like wrapping a present)

I then tackled the padded seat back. There is really no right or wrong way to do it I discovered.

Here's what I did:

• I re-covered the existing seat back using the same steps as above
• I made my own cording to go around the edge of the seat back using cord
  (can buy at any craft store) and leftover fabric from this project.
• I stapled in the cording all around the seat back opening
• I then stapled the backing right below the cording (this chair has an open back, so you can see the fabric)
• Next, I stapled the seat back cushion in place.
• I rolled the lining up over the seat back and hot glued it down to hide all the staples (all 4 sides)

Here is the finished product!



Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?

(I made the little throw pillow too)

Close up of the fabric (that matches my master bedroom bedding PERFECTLY!!)



I'm in love....................

Just another BEFORE

AFTER

I'm linking up over @ A Soft Place to Land and Shabby Chic Cottage and Finding Fabulous and Shanty 2 Chic and TidyMom