Thanksgiving preperations.

Tomorrow we will have a house full of family and I'm so excited!  I've missed them so much!  Normally I would be rushing to get things done but the past 2 days I was lucky enough to have my husband home.  It's been so nice to have time to enjoy preparing for Thanksgiving!

I found this side board at Home Goods on clearance awhile back and it was the perfect size for our kitchen.  It's been sitting in the garage and I haven't had much time to even worry about it but I really wanted a place for desert tomorrow so I took advantage of my hubby being home and got it 90% finished for tomorrow.  I will do a post later with the details.  I have some amazing hardware on order and a few last touches but it turned out perfect in my eyes.  I can't wait to see it in the house displaying the many deserts we have planned.

Here is what it looked like before.  It wasn't bad it just wasn't my style. 

The flowers are ready to be arranged. 

The linens have been pulled. 

And the first batch of cookies have been baked.  

As you can see we ate most of them already so I have to get back to work!  Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Vintage Framed White Board.

I keep trying to keep our beautiful homeschool library looking like a library instead of a class-room but no matter how hard I try the "school" supplies keep sneaking their way in.  We needed a white board and I refused to go with the classic school style.  I'm sure at some point I will give in but for now I made this one.

I used dry-erase paint on the cardboard backing of an old picture and it turned out great.  The picture was something I had from my collage years that I wasn't using anymore and the size was perfect for what I needed.   I was planning on painting the dry-erase paint on the glass which would have made for a much nicer surface but it cracked before I had the chance.  Oh well, it works great and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I repainted the frame with several layers of old paint in the garage.  To get this look I used a white/gray base then added dark gray and wiped some off with a rag.  I then added beige and wiped some off and topped the whole thing with the main color Benjamin Moore's Coventry Gray and wiped some off as I put it on.  To finish I added some dark gray into the ridges.  The original frame was beige and looked a little cheap.  I'm very happy with the frame!  The color is so soothing.  I also really like the dry-erase paint over a regular dry-erase board because it doesn't have that hospital stark feeling about it.  It's bright white but still soft on the eyes.  It was easy to paint on and left absolutely no odor which I was very surprised by! 

Do you have any creative ideas for homeschool rooms?  Especially ideas on keeping down the clutter?