DIY Ceiling fan pull chain

My ceiling fan pull chains are boring.

I have been wanting to spruce them up for a while now, and I finally got some big ceramic beads to make some better pull-chains.

I used wire to string the beads together.

I attached my beaded wire to the existing pull-chain by wrapping the top of the wire around the chain. The original pull chain bead that came with the ceiling fan slid up and out of the way. I wrapped the ends of the wire around the chain, and slid the bead back down over where I had the wrapped wire.

Close up of the decoration on the porcelain beads:

The smaller beads above the porcelain bead are wooden beads.

I love the way my pull chains look now, I think I'll work on sprucing up the rest of my ceiling fan chains!

DIY Drink Coasters

I was looking for something to do last Saturday and I remembered that I had bought a stack of tiles at Home Depot a while ago. I intended to make drink coasters out of them and I put them away so I could collect stickers to decorate them. I was thinking I would find some Harley Davidson stickers for a custom made drink coaster for Timmy. I have been looking for a cool fairy sticker, or maybe Mickey Mouse for a coaster for me.

I still haven't found any stickers, but I decided I would try to make the tiles into custom coasters using stencils and paints. I can always buy more tiles when I find some good stickers.

So I went digging through my craft stuff and I found some supplies to make the coasters.

I found 9 tiles,
a roll of cork to cover the backs of the tiles/coasters
Modpodge to seal the tiles
Paints in colors that match our living room, and a few brushes
Gorilla glue
(not shown: ruler and stencils)

First I drew on the tiles in pencil. Since I am not an artist, I used stencils to make my letters straight.

I drew a "B" for Bruns on 4 of the tiles.

First I tried to paint the letters with black craft paint and a small brush. It worked ok, but I tried using a black sharpie to color in the letters and it was much easier to use the sharpie.
After that I used the sharpie to make all of the rest of the coasters.

Then I put about 5 coats of mod podge on each coaster to seal in the sharpied "B"

(yeah, I'm wearing tinkerbell pj's)

I tried the "B"'s at different angles, I'm not sure which way I like them best. I like both ways.

Here are the finished "B" coasters, after I put the cork backing on:

I also made a coaster for my Sweetie that says "Tim", and I made a coaster for myself with my name. I REALLY LOVE the way these turned out! I think I like these better than the "B's"

And I couldn't resist making a coaster to remember our wedding. (In case you haven't read our wedding story, read about it here. It's a GREAT story!)

I used really small stickers for that one, and I mod podged over them to seal them in.

All of the coasters got a cork backing. It turned out I didn't need to use the glue because the cork had a sticky back. I just had to measure and cut the cork to the size of the tiles. The cork is very thin and cut easily with scissors.

I really love the way these turned out, and I have more ideas to try. I would still like to do my sticker idea, and I think I'll try to find some interesting paper to cover the tiles too. Maybe some sheet music with the musical notes would be nice for a set of coasters for my music loving mom?

Lots of possibilities!!!

Timmy's Birthday present

Timmy turned 45 last Friday!!

He had to work during the day but we celebrated by going out to dinner at the Olive Garden on Friday night. It was a very nice dinner.

Good food, and great company, I love a date with my Sweetheart!

On Saturday, I told Tim we were going shopping. I had told him a few days before that I was taking him to pick out his own birthday present. I gave him a $100.00 spending limit (all I could afford!) and I told him he had to pick something fun.

I gave him a few options such as an RC car, or a trip to Mickey's Surplus to pick out some goodies. I also told him he could choose anything he wanted, it didn't necessarily have to be one of my options. I was really just trying to give him ideas.

So we set out to find my Timmy a birthday present, and we ended up at a hobby store. My goodness, what a great store! It was packed to the brim with all kinds of big kid toys.......train sets, rc cars, rc planes and helicopters.....

.........we browsed around the store for quite a while, and Tim picked out this:

It's a Remote Control car (truck?)

It's an EVADER EXT2   1/10 scale 2 WD

This one actually cost more than the $100.00 limit I had given, but Tim had some other birthday money from his family so he added to what I gave him.

He's been playing with it all weekend, actually we all have been playing with it. Since we have almost a 1/2 acre backyard, there is plenty of room to play.

Here's Timmy with his new birthday toy:

Timmy picked out the black one, but the body is removable and can be custom painted however he wants it to look.

There are different parts that can be changed or modified, so Tim can "work" on it, and upgrade it.

This little car goes pretty fast, and jumps things and is really quite fun to play with.

My son Allen and I both want one now. So does Allen's g/f Shelah. And all 3 of us have birthdays coming up in the next few months!

I think it was a good 45th birthday for my Sweetie!

DIY sign

I made a wall hanging for Tim and I, and I just love it!

I bought the wood frame part at Michael's arts & Crafts for $1.99

I used stencils for the lettering, and I painted it in colors that would match our living room.


It's hanging beside our front door, next to my favorite wedding picture.

I hope my tree doesn't impale my dog

A few months ago I was walking around the back yard collecting all of the fallen tree limbs so we could make a pile and burn it all.

When I got to the back of the yard, I found this:

A giant tree limb had fallen and was sticking almost straight up out of the ground.
My dogs play back here, I hope they don't get hit by a falling tree limb. These limbs are sometimes bigger than my dogs!

This one was about 4-5 inches across.

Here's the hole it left in the ground when I pulled the limb out.

Our backyard

Our house is one of the few in our neighborhood that sits on 1/2 acre of land. Most of the other yards around here are much, much smaller than ours.


Our doggies are so lucky to have such a huge fenced-in yard to run around.

Standing near the back of the house. Our yard goes all the way back past that big tree thats (kind of) in the middle of the yard:

Standing in the middle of the yard, close to the big tree mentioned in the above pic:

At the back fence, looking at the other side of the big tree, and beyond it, the back of our house:

HUGE yard!!!
(and I do run around back here with the dogs, Jack loves it when I'm outside with him)

Again in the middle of the yard, this time with a view of the back of our house. Can't wait to paint the house this spring!

This picture was taken before we burned that pile in the middle of the yard.
And there's my little Jack coming to see what all of the picture taking was about.