Trashie Trough

I know, I am horrible- my last post was last Friday.  This whole "work" this just cramps my style!
Kidding.
I am so thankful that God provided me with a job that 1. Pays bills and 2. I enjoy... really enjoy.  Then, just to make things better, he gave me opportunities to form relationships with awesome people.  Love it!  It does control my life, but hey, girl's gotta do with a girl's gotta do.
Plus, we can work extra duty (i.e. take money at the gate and do scoreboard at volleyball games.  Easiest cash I ever made!) for extra-spending.  Me likey.


A few weeks ago, I hounded the free section of Craigslist for a wood pallet.  Yuuuuuuuuup.  Found it! (that was a Storage Wars yuuuuup by the way.  Dedicated to my husband). It was in a neighborhood whose residents could probably afford 2 of my house, so it was really embarrassing picking the pallet from the curb.  But, if you know me in real life (not just blog world!), you know I. have. no. shame.  So I loaded that puppy up and brought it home!

Some of it was pretty nasty and in rough shape.  My original plan was for Daniel to pull some of the 2*4's (or whatever they are) off and make me a trough-shaped flower container thing.  He inspected it and, after trying to pull parts of it off, it started to split.  SO i figured out- HEY, the wood is already built in trough-like shape.  We just need to cut one out!
Exhibit A: husband hacking at pallet.  Pretttty sure that whole flip flop thing is a safety hazard.  He likes to live on the edge.

Anyway, we were left with this:

I love the words on the side!  It's not cut perfectly, but I like it that way.  You can't tell when it's on the mantle anyway!

The people who lived in our house before us left us a ton of paint/stain, so I found this:

and already had this to seal it:

I wanted to stand it down a little, so I gave it a good rub with this:

I painted one coat of stain on the inside and outside, let it dry overnight, then put a coat of Polycrylic down:

This is my favvvvvorite part! I love the little imperfections and knots!

And....  Boooooya!

I had to buy the flowers at Hobby Lobby, but they were 50% off and I had several Etsy orders this month to balance it out.  Love love love!

Cheryl and I are hosting the Spa Club this year at school, so I have this week's project to share tomorrow.  We are also finally finishing our wainscoting project tomorrow.  I am so thankful (and in love!) with my talented husband!