Gone Pillow Crazy!

Here are a few more I made:


I have always had an addiction to throw pillows (just ask my husband who gets annoyed every night when he has to take them all off of the bed), but this is taking the addiction to a whole new level.

Does this make me the laziest person alive?

Today I decided to be adventurous and make a throw pillow. I bought the fabric and ribbon, along with some fabric tape for the ribbon. As I was getting started I thought -- what the heck, I'm going to use fabric tape to do this whole thing! Kali had to sacrifice one of her old pillows for this project, and I think it turned out pretty cute. The whole thing took me maybe 15 minutes. I think I may have found a new addiction! I learned how to make the flowers from a friend who makes super cute head bows. It is super easy. (Yes I use the word super a lot).

I can't wait to make some more! Although, fabric tape isn't cheap so I may have to break out my sewing machine after all...

Thank You Shanty 2 Chic

I got the idea for these photo frames and mirror from here:


I especially loved the idea of using burlap as a backdrop. I had these frames already and they are all different sizes/styles.


I wanted a mirror on the other wall, and I found some super cute ones at Hobby Lobby, but they were quite pricey. I decided to check Ross to see if they had anything cheaper. Lo and behold, just what I was looking for - and it was only $12.99. Sweet. I also looked for a little table but didn't find anything that I fell in love with (that didn't cost a fortune), so I dug up an old table (originally blue with an American flag on top) and spray painted it. One day I will buy myself a fancy table, but this will do for now.

Before:

Boy, I hadn't noticed how scuffed up the french door is. Yikes!

After:

I feel like things are coming together at our house! My next project is to sew some couch pillows. Considering I haven't operated a sewing machine in decades, I'm not sure how it's going to turn out....

Eating my words

In my last post, I mentioned that I'm trying to move on from the "Country" look. I guess old habits really do die hard. After I painted my armoire it was just screaming to be distressed. And I have to say, I went from hating this armoire (before painting), to just tolerating it, (after painting it black), to actually kind of loving it (after distressing). I didn't go too crazy with the sanding, I just did the corners a little and then went over it with some dark stain. I already had the sanding block and some left over stain, so this project didn't cost me a dime and it probably took less than an hour! (Well, the distressing part anyway. The spray painting was the longer, more tedious part of this project.)

Before:

After spray painting:

All finished:

Now my dilemma: The black handles are washed out, so I want to change them. Do I buy new hardware? Spray paint them? And if I paint them, what color? Brass? Silver? hmmmm. What should I do?

Oh yes, and we are going to be moving that thing so the chords don't show. I am still working on the whole arrangement of that room. I need an interior decorator to come over and help me out. Any volunteers?

Great inspiration for an afternoon project

My friend Stephanie let me know about a home decorating blog (thanks Steph!) and I copied this idea straight from one of the projects on here:

Before: A jewelry box that has been sitting in my closet.


Step 1:
All I did was get a sample-size bottle of white paint and slap on two coats. It dried super fast and I did this entire project while Emi was eating lunch.

Step 2: Distress. Now, I am not really into the distressed look (it is a little too "Country" for my current taste), but I loved how it looked on the Show & Tell blog so I went ahead and took the sand paper to it.

After:
I haven't found a permanent home for it yet, so until then it will have to sit on my bathroom sink.

Was it worth it?

Okay, so I have been posting my recent projects on our family blog, but since I have been working on many projects lately, I figured I better start posting on here again so I don't bore my family and friends who don't care how excited I get about what I did with a can of spray paint.

So here is the run-down on the table project:

It seriously took FOREVER! The first problem I encountered was the heat. It was above 100 and the paint would dry in clumps before I could even spread it. So I ended up painting the table inside. The second problem was that it took FOREVER to paint the chairs! (The table was a lot easier since I could use a roller.) First there were three coats of primer, then 3 coats of paint, then 3 coats of the epoxy sealant. Seriously, painting nine coats on 6 chairs took hundreds of hours! I am usually not a perfectionist but I wanted the table to look flawless. Now that it's done I am glad that I did it, but at the time I just kept thinking, "what did I get myself into?!?!"

Bit by the design bug again...

Well, after we sold our home and moved to Oklahoma, we have kind of been in "transition" so to speak. Which explains my long absence. We are getting ready to move into a new home and I am dying to redo a few of our pieces! I am starting with our kitchen table. (You can see my previous post for the "before" picture.) I am planning on painting it a charcoal black to go with the stainless steel appliances. Best part: I found the color that I wanted in the "oops" section at the Home Depot for $1.00!

I'm crossing my fingers that all goes well and that I don't ruin our dinning table! I will post "after" pics after I finish!