I Can't Wait For...

The hutch is getting springified.

Dear Spring,

I'm anxiously awaiting your arrival. I look forward to the day when your warmth and sunshine melts all of this yucky, dirty snow. I long for your beautiful tulips and the chirp of birds. I crave seeing the green leaves on the trees again. Please visit soon. I love you and miss you!

Making Over A Finial

Another D.I. find is transformed. This finial had serious potential and I'm glad I saw it. They had three for sale and I'm kicking myself for not buying them all and gifted the other two...arrggg. Anyway,I gave this bad boy three coats of antique white paint and finished it off with some glaze. This piece was really glossy to begin with and the paint kept rubbing off...note to self...prime next time! I love the finished product!!

Before...what do you even call this color? :)

After...oooo...awww...beautiful!

I love how the glaze gets trapped in the details.

Making Over A Pinecone

I bought this at the D.I. a couple of months ago. It was love at first sight...I saw the potential right away. I have used its little gold self here and there in the living room for the last couple of months, but it finally just had to have its makeover.




Three coats of glidden later...


After some glaze.


I like this color much better than the gold, but all three of my boys have asked me why I painted it...they liked the gold! Sorry guys, the gold just had to go.

Finding Cheap Cuteness

I found this cute little tray at Hobby Lobby for $2.80. I snatched it up! I knew I could do something with it.



After trying a couple of different things, I ended out putting my moss topiaries in it and adding a grapevine ball.



I just love it!

Two Moss Balls Are Better Than One

I bought this little dish thingy at the thrift store for $1.50 the other day. It is made out of metal. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.


Rather than add this little guy to the "waiting to be painted" pile, I got out the Glidden and brush and went to town. It took three coats because I didn't prime...oops. Since I already had the paint out, I decided to paint the small urn from a couple of posts ago too.


For a finishing touch, I added some glaze. This is my first time using it and can I just say that I'm in love! It is so easy to use and really makes the details pop. I will be using it lots more in future projects.



I wasn't able to find a cast away basketball for this project and didn't want to spend a fortune on a Styrofoam ball...but I did have a bazillion of these grapevine balls stashed away and just covered one with moss. Easy peasy!



I love them!! Best of all...they were SUPER cheap and I think they're FABULOUS!!

Happy Friends

I bought these two items separately and they go together perfectly. I was so happy when I got home and realized this. I bought the easel at an antique store for $6...score! I love it, but it was really all alone in it's coloring, that is until I brought home this statue thing from Hobby Lobby...clearance for $8. So, they are happy little friends.

I won the plaque from a giveaway hosted by Traci at Beneath My Heart.

Quick, Easy Topiary

This is another borrowed idea. I found it at Creations by Kara. I love topiaries in all their varieties! I would say that I'm a bit obsessed...I have too many to count...okay I just counted them...I have twelve, that doesn't sound like a lot. Anywho, when I saw this on Cara's blog, I knew I was going to do it and began the process of finding the perfect ball. Most of the little balls that our boys have are buried in feet of snow and I thought I was going to have to wait until spring until I found this little ball under our bed! It was a souvenir for our littlest from Disneyland, so it wasn't the cheapest ball, but I think we have gotten our money's worth out of it, so it was the lucky ball to be covered in green moss.

The supplies needed are a small ball (you could buy a foam ball at the store if needed), a container to hold your topiary (I got mine at Hobby Lobby), and green moss. I found my moss at the Dollar Tree. You will also need a glue gun.


You just start gluing the moss onto the ball until it is covered and ta-da, you have a homemade topiary, for cheap!

I plan to paint the urn antique white when it's warm again, to add some contrast.

Valentine's Day Wreath

I have been looking through blogs for wreath ideas and found lots! I eventually decided to combine a couple and this is what I came up with. This wreath took about 4 hours to do...seriously! I started it last night and finished it this afternoon. I really enjoyed making this. One of our sons helped me last night and it was so nice to sit and visit with him. He was having a hard time sleeping and I was happy to have the help and company. Our youngest was my happy assistant today and it was fun to spend time with him too.

First, you need to cut about a million of these! I used 1 1/2 yards of fabric total. I ran out last night and had to go back to the store today for more. I cut the fabric into strip and then squares and then circles. I won't lie, it took a ton of time.

I didn't take step by step pictures, but I wrapped the fabric around the end of a sharp pencil, dipped it in glue and pushed it into the heart...repeat this step a million times until it looks full.

I love it!! It has texture and color which are favorites of mine.

I am growing more and more fond of the color red...

Painting and Twining (is that even a word?)

Painting

I have a serious back log of projects that I have been wanting to do. I finally decided that I need to stay away from the thrift stores until I'm caught up...now that was a huge motivator because I love to go thrifting! I found this spoon and fork a couple of weeks ago and they have been in the waiting to be painted pile ever since. I ended out using craft paint on these because it is still too darn cold to get the spray paint action going. This little makeover was really quick and simple. I still plan to sand them up a bit and add some antiquing gel. They are good enough to hang up now and they have been moved from the forsaken pile.

Before:

After:

Twining
I used to be anti-monogram, but have since fell in love with the idea of them! I am proud of our family name and want to display the letter 'B' everywhere!!! My maiden name and married name both start with 'B'...just a little nugget of info for you. :)

So, I got the chip board letter and twine at Hobby Lobby. I saw this idea on a blog somewhere and thought it would be so easy. Now let me just say...I was really wishing that my last name started with 'T', or 'I' during the twining process. Wrapping that 'B' was a pain in the 'B'ehind!!! It ended out taking a couple of hours and several hot glue burns. I was so happy to be done with it! I really like it though, it was worth the time and effort.

Looks pretty simple...

Here it is in all its glory!

Marbles, Glue and a bit of frustration...

So I'll be the first to admit that I'm not really a crafter. I have never come up with an original idea. I am a huge borrower of ideas though and I borrowed one from Jen over at Tatertots and Jello...again. I thought this would be easy and I loved the 3D effect of the marbles.

I painted a couple of Dollar Tree frames black, cut some scrapbook paper, traced my heart, added glue and started to stick the marbles on...sounds easy so far and it was. As I started to add the marbles, I could not for the life of me get those round marble to come together to make a heart! It drove me crazy. I think I finally got it to work, but it was not as easy as I thought it would be. The X and O was way easier on the marble end, but required some measuring and tweaking to get it all centered. All in all, I had fun with this craft and the kids liked it because they got to stay up until 10:30...shh told tell anyone.


The heart is my fav! I love the whole package a lot. This year will mark the first that I have ever decorated for Valentine's Day...I quite like red :)

Decorating Contentment

We bought this hutch last summer. There is so much I love about it, but don't really get into blonde woods. It is in flawless condition and doesn't need to be painted, but I just can't fight the itch to paint it...I think it's a disease! So, I'm thinking when the weather warms up, it will get added to the paint list, it is getting really long!

For a couple of months this piece of furniture has been kind a drop off surface for papers, ribbon, thrift store finds etc.

I finally cleared it off and attempted to decorate it.

The frames with the letters in them get changed out for each season...have you ever noticed that the seasons all have six letters in them (I use Autumn instead of Fall)? I was super excited when I found that out!

Three of the plates are from Hobby Lobby and the smaller one is from D.I.

The pear is from Michael's...it's actually a gourd, but I thought it looked enough like a pear, if you don't mind the brown color. :) The stand it is sitting on was a D.I. find.

The frame was a Christmas party win and the topiary is a fix up from D.I.

I achieved the balance I have been craving for this piece of furniture and like the color scheme too. Finally it feels right and I am very content.



Onto the next thing...my dad was going to throw this picture out until I arrived just in time and said "No!!!" I mean how could he throw this beauty away? The cross stitch is hideous, but the frame...I saw huge potential in the frame and have big plans for it. I will reveal when it's done. It will be getting a nice fresh coat of black paint in the process. The clapping lady man were deposited in the trash thank you very much.

I'm lovin' the detail on this frame!