i might be obsessed

It is confession time.  I love garbage.  Here is the lovely land of Australia they have a thing called Council Clean-up.  Every house is allowed to council clean-ups a year.  You can basically put anything outside your house and they will take it away for you.  The awesome thing about is that people leave all sorts of stuff out there...some of it is proper garbage and other stuff is really great.  People stop and pick through it and take what they want before the clean-up happens.  It is quite exciting. 

My kids yell "mom!!! garbage!!" whenever we pass a pile.  It is a tad bit embarrassing, but I totally love it.  I got an AWESOME BBQ from a lady that was putting it out.  I screeched to a stop and snag it and Jared loved..still loves it.  I got a table and 8 white chairs for our backyard, some golf clubs for Jared...boogie boards....tons of cute, clean clothes for the girls.  It is pretty much a free garage sale. 

Anyway, I picked up this table (above)...I know it looks like it has seen better days...but I knew I could transform it with a little lovin'. 

I had to peel off all the thick black vinyl, which was time consuming and I gouged the heck out of my knuckles....then onto the sanding.  I am obsessed with sanding.  I love my sander. I sanded the desk and then applied a couple coats of black paint.  I love painting too.

Then I applied a layer of modpodge and then a piece of fabric.  I then gooped on more modpodge over the top, smoothed it out and let it dry.  I LOVE modpodge...I think I am seriously obsessed with it.
 

I antiqued the edges.. and this is how it turned out....

It was fun to turn the old desk into something fun for our office room.

next project....Alivia helped me make a board for the kitchen.

more fabric and modpodge.

i added their names in vinyl and divided the board with ribbon.

i learned that thicker fabric s better, the thinner fabrics tend to bubble a little.  i added a piece of metal to each column and a clip for homework and chore assignments.

This changing table was another free side of the road find.  I cleaned it up and added some fabric to it.  I don't trust it to change Jack on, it's a little wobbly, but it's great for storing items. 

When we moved to Australia, we sold all of our furniture, stuff that I really liked....so since we know we are not going to be in Australia forever, I don't really want to spend a lot of money on furniture just to have to sell it all again.  I love thrift stores.  I loved them back in the U.S. too...I always find treasures.    I had been looking for something that I could put baskets in and little cubbies for the kids to put their backpacks in instead of just having them plopped on the floor. 

I found this BRIGHT blue beauty at a Salvation Army for $20. 

Jack was a sweetie and sat in the bean bag and talked to me while I painted.

After about three coats of paint, it was ready to be used.

This is a pic before the kids claimed their cubbies and started stashing what they wanted in it.  The pic board I made to display pics of fam and friends.  If you sent us a Christmas card, you are on the photo board.  The clock on the left is the time in Utah and the clock on the right is Sydney time.

more fabric and modpodge...

We were driving home from school a few weeks ago and this white table was on the side of the road with a sign on it.  Liv hopped out of the car and read the sign.  It said, "if you like it, take it."  She yelled, "mom, do we like it??"  We did and we took.  I cleaned it up and added some fabric to it.

I have seen cute camera straps online and liked them so I decided to make my own.  I tried to pick out fabric that wasn't too girly so Jared wouldn't feel embarrassed to hold it. :)

Kinda fun to have some color and it cost me $2.50 to make. I would have paid $30 online. 

Soooo, I will let you all know what other great treasures I find on the side of the road. :)