Friday, June 25, 2010

W is for Wages


As soon as the temperature hits anything above 40 degrees my kids BEG to have a lemonade stand.
It drives me a little crazy.
But now that they are older and can take more initiative and responsibility they don't need as much assistance from me to go into business.

What gets a little hairy is the making of the signs, the hauling of the "princess folding table" and chairs, and of course the mixing of the lemonade.
It just creates a huge mess that I am left to either pick up
or endure the whining of "I'm too tired to pick it up now."

Disclosure: I am notorious for doing a project and leaving the mess for my sweet hubby to clean up. By the time I finish a project I am usually impatient and done and want to get the heck out of Dodge. So I really can't fault my kids, I just try to teach them better habits and follow through than I have.
Anyway, one day at my favorite flea market we saw a super cute lemonade stand. It had wheels and a cute little canopy over the top.
Alas, it was already sold.
But that got hubby's wheels turning. He had plans to make one.

Fast forward a few months (and a few princess table lemonade stand days later) and we were at yet another auction.
A microwave cart came up and before I could say "Bob's your uncle" hubby was bidding on it.
I proceeded to respond with "What are you doing?" (add appropriate shocked tone here) He said "I think that would make a good lemonade stand."
I was shut up pretty quick, because I could see he was onto something.

Here is the before (sort of). We still haven't gotten the hang of taking "before" pictures.
He had already removed the doors and added the picture molding around the edges.
I bet you all know where I am going with this.

I spray painted it white (to prime it) and then let the girls and a neighbor paint it white with brushes.
My decorating nazi side just had to find something else to do while they were painting
(luckily we had a yard sale coming up so I had plenty to do.)
When they said they were done I stepped in and smoothed out the puddles of paint and the run marks (there was so much excess paint it didn't even qualify as drip marks).
Here is A #1 putting some artistic touches on it:

Here is the other side:
I painted the front with chalkboard paint and then wrote our "menu" on it with my new liquid chalk markers.
I love these things!
I have another project I am anxious to show you (and the reason I got them in the first place) but that is probably going to be another couple weeks, sorry!

Here is the final result and her debut at the yard sale!
The kids had a ball with it and they made over $30!!



Makes you thirsty just looking at it doesn't it?
I'm sharing this with:



A very important P.S.
I told you about this earlier, but it really needs to be said again.
Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick
is giving away a Silhouette!!
What is a Silhouette?
A Silhouette is very similar to a Cricut, except you don't have to buy cartridges for it.
You can download all kinds of cutie things off their website for very, very little money!
I know I told you before that you shouldn't go HERE to enter for yourself.
How about you go HERE and just tell Mrs. TDC that
your friend Molly REALLY needs one.
That sounds like a plan to me, go tell her. Go on. I'm waiting.

12 comments:

  1. That is so fabulous! This would make me so much more willing to say yes to a lemonade stand! Love it, thanks for sharing. I just found you through Miss Jenny's class, and I'm glad you linked up!

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  2. Love it! I have an old picture frame that is painted with chalkboard paint and I use it to write menus on when I cater! It's my...favorite...thing...ever...

    Sad, but true..

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  3. How so very clever! I love it! (stopping by from Jenny's place)

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  4. This is wonderful. I love the blackboard section. I bet your neighbors would love to rent it for their garage sales.

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  5. This is really, neat, clever and so cool. I bet you get people buying things just because you have this fabulous lemonade stand. Great job by everyone sprucing it up. Great W post.

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  6. Yea! what a great way to repurpose something! So cute.

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  7. Too cute! Love the chalkboard front~ glad to know about the liquid chalk markers, Happy Lemonade Sales :-)

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  8. Wow! What a deal. I wish your kids were in my neighborhood, I'd be a customer. I love lemonade, brownies and cookies!

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  9. You, your husband, and kids did a fabulous job. Adorable!

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  10. Your husband is brilliant. I would have never seen that idea but it turned out amazing. Your girls did a wonderful job decorating it.

    Tell them if I was driving by I would totally stop there! AND give them a tip!

    Awesome link to Alphabe-Thursday's letter "W".

    A+

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  11. Good for your girls for showing so much initiative and also for hubby for spotting the potential!

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  12. This post has been selected as one of my great posts of the week. Here is the link to my post.

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