DIY Projects

I always have lofty ideas for projects around the house.  I can come up with amazing ideas and grandiose plans.  My problem is not time, or will-power, or drive, or sticktoitiveness.  No, it's sheer capability.  I lack coordination all together.  These are my projects as of late:

1) A trundle for the bunk bed.  You know, so we could move our poor 2 1/2 year old out of the pack&play and into a real bed.  I tried to convince my dad to help me make it, but he's no dummy.  He knows how inept I am.  So he found a carpenter, and I paid that guy to make it. (The wood color is slightly different only because the other stuff has seen the sun. Give the trundle a couple months with a window and it will match perfectly.)

2) Reupholster my great-grandparents' recliner.  I love family history, and this chair is like a treasure to me.  My own family heirloom.  And it's super comfy.  Need I repeat the story above?  I'm inept, my dad found a reupholsterer, and a lovely benefactress paid that guy to do it.  I ADORE this chair.

(For the record, I did sand, stain, and seal the wood on the bottom of the chair.  Okay, okay.  Sam actually stained and sealed most of it.  But I sanded!  Only because it's hard for me to mess that part up.)

3) Make a magnetic, chalkboard, puppet stage for the kids for Christmas.   Haha.  This one is bad.  So I conned my dad into making it.  I stood around and watched while trying to look helpful.  I did absolutely nothing.  My brother Liam put on the magnetic primer.  Sam put on the chalkboard paint.  And, the curtains?  Well, my mom tried to show a little faith in me.  She actually showed me how to do the stitching on the sewing machine.  But in the end she relegated me to the iron, and she did all the sewing. And due to everyone else doing it, it turned out awesome!

4) Make my parents a Smith plaque. When I got home from my mission, I lived with my companion Heidi Livingstone.  In her home, her parents have 1 Peter 2:5 displayed.  It reads something like this, "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house."  I thought that was amazingly cool.  Too bad you can't find Ricks anywhere in the scriptures.  But you can find Smith!  I bought a tile, got Sam to design the scripture, had my friend Bekah print it up on vinyl, and I, yes I, applied the vinyl to the tile.  See?  I can too do something. :)