Sunday Projects

On Sunday, I found myself with a completely free afternoon and several projects to finish. After church, I convinced Michael to go to Lowe's and get the rest of the things I needed. I channeled my best DIY/HGTV knowledge to use as little money as possible.

1. Re-pot a plant
 About a month ago, a very sweet patient brought me a baby plant that was inside a little toy dinosaur. It was a really creative idea I thought, and I'm pretty sure its an aloe-vera plant.  If you knew how much aloe I end up using every summer, you would understand how excited I was to get this plant.

cute little dinosaur!

As you can see, it was getting a little too big for the dinosaur. I found a medium-sized flower pot, bought potting soil, and gave the plant a new home.

My Supplies: potting soil $4
plant, pot, gloves, spade: free!

(you can just barely see the plant sticking out the top)

2. Bookshelf fix

We bought a bookcase from ikea this summer and I put it together wrong. One of the shelves was facing to where the unfinished (ugly) edge was facing out. You may be thinking "well just take it out and turn it around silly!" but that won't work in this case because it was the only shelf that is part of the supporting structure. Unfortunately, I realized my mistake waaay too late to fix it. Well I probably could have fixed it, but that would have involved taking apart the entire bookcase. Good news is that it turned out to be a very easy fix, and only took about 15 minutes. I found an iron-on veneer and some wood stain, and now you can't even tell the difference between the shelf I fixed and the rest of the bookcase! 

Before the fix

My supplies: stain- $4
veneer- $3
sponge brush- free!
Iron (not pictured)-free!

After (see you can't even tell!!)

3. Garage Sale Treasure

One of my new favorite things to do is go to garage sales. Not every time, but sometimes I find some really great things. This chair is one of them. I have a keyboard that Michael bought me for Christmas last year but didn't have anything to sit on when I play it. I have been using either his desk chair, or the coffee table. I had an idea of what I wanted, but just couldn't find it (at a price I wanted). Then, I hit the jackpot at a garage sale. Here it is:

As you can see, it was in pretty rough shape. I could tell with just a little TLC, it would be a perfect keyboard stool. Plus, it only cost $2. How could I say no?

My Supplies: pledge (for cleaning)- free!
paint (sample size)-$3
Spray on Primer- $4
sandpaper- $2
wood dowel (for extra support)- $0.96
screws- $ 0.54
paintbrush- $7

Finished!

I pretty much love the chair now, and its just the right size and height for my keyboard. Yay for garage sale treasures!

That was it for the day. 3 projects and my total investment was $29. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon.