Our new hobby.... and yes you can do it too!

So a friend of mine who seems to always come across the most amazing blogs and websites posted one day on her facebook about a fabulous website. I clicked on it and became addicted to the particular skill that this woman had. Although what this woman did required knowledge of something that I NEVER saw myself touching with a ten foot pole. The woman- Ana- truly has a gift for building furniture for next to nothing... you know, the pieces that you see in Pottery Barn Magazine and wonder who spends $300.00 on one shelf !?!(okay so if thats you don't read the rest of this :) Anyways I kept thinking man, I wish I could make that stuff.... well, I looked through the site a little more and found a very helpful "Getting Started" section and I began to be less intimidated with the whole thing. So the "go-getter" (as my sisters so lovingly refer to me as) said, "What the heck. I'll buy a saw. "

So this is what I got for Christmas...

I think my husband jumped at the idea of me wanting tools for Christmas since he would be able to benefit a little from it too, and the fact that he got it 50% off for Black Friday was an added bonus! My father-in-law is a master carpenter and can build anything and everything so I knew that if worse came to worse, he could always use an extra saw. It was almost comical as I opened up my gifts from them, tool belts, carpenter pencils, jigsaw, and other things that I've already forgotten what they are called, but my husband and I quickly put the tools to use and viola!

I'm very excited to show you our first creations. While I'm still learning much of the basics as hubby dearest pretty much tells me to do, I just have to tell you all that if I can do it, trust me....ANYONE can! And is it worth it cost wise? YES!! Anything that we have built, we have looked up online even to see if Walmart of Target can beat the price and there's just nothing like homemade knockoffs! :)

So our first attempt was this.... a sitting bench/bookshelf: Cost: 35 something

It still needs some paint but I just can't decide what color it should be.

Next we have these Photo Gallery Ledges... now keep in mind that when you build yourself it can be however you want, for an 8 ft. ledge its $10.00 to make, but my wall space was much smaller so we cut them down, it ended up being about $3.oo per ledge.

Sorry I know that picture is small.

Lastly, we had some leftover wood from the ledges so we built another ledge for the kitchen for my cookbooks, spices and then underneath we built a little clothes-pin hanger thing (sorry, couldn't remember the real name) Ana had this piece in her daughters' room as an art display holder but I decided to make it smaller and put my Christmas cards on it, only problem is that I had more cards then holders but I guess that's a good thing!

So if you're wondering what the site is its called http://www.ana-white.com

Its wonderful and don't visit it unless you have hours and hours to look at it, just kidding...well, not really. ;)
Our next project...a corner cabinet.

Thanks for reading!
Blessings!