This one's for you Shelley

A great friend of mine has requested a few times that I begin a blog. So...Shelley Winters, this one's for you!
I'm a self appointed craft junky! I'm very much addicted to Pinterest and all things pallet right now. I guess the big difference for me is that I actually make the things that I Pin on Pinterest.
I love to get my kids involved in helping make crafts or trying out new recipes. I have four of the coolest kids you will ever meet! Willie is our oldest. She is 19 and leaving in a few short months to attend Berea College on a full scholarship (praise the Lord for the scholarship.). Brooklyn is 9 and just finishing up 3rd grade. She is very much the book definition of "drama queen" but I love her still! Isaac just turned 8 and is finishing up 2nd grade. He is my challenging child, very head strong and has serious OCD leanings. We have nicknamed him "Monk" after the tv character played by Tony Shalub. Miss Parker is the baby and just turned 6 months old. Her picture appears in the dictionary next to "spoiled rotten."
Then there's the man who made all of this possible, my sweet husband, Nick. He really is a great balance for me. He knows that I'm going to do crafts and projects around the house and I know he is going to be annoyed with them and that's how our life goes!
I'll share some of the projects that we are currently working on and hopefull inspire someone to try some of them! One of my newest project obsessions is with pallets. The mother of a kid at my school donated 20 pallets for me to get my crazy out on! I'm going to turn most of them into benches for the reading garden at school. But, while I'm perfecting the way to create the benches, I'm having a blast making other things!
Here's the bench prototype...

I did end up adding a few extra boards on the seat so that the tushies don't fall through. But other than that, this is simply two pallets that have had a few boards removed from the ends and been stuck together with a few screws. We sanded it down so there weren't any splinters and then I let my middle bits (Brooklyn and Isaac) paint. Pretty cute if I say so myself!

The other project I created with the left over parts of the 2 pallets I used to make the bench was a wine rack that I will give to my dad for Father's Day.

I LOVE THIS! I think that we can get between 8 and 10 bottles of wine in there. I will definitely be making more of these. It is too cool not to!
My students are finishing up their exams, so I better start grading those!
Next post: Memory quilts made from t-shirts.