New projects

Stay tuned because I have several posts coming! I’ll be featuring a friend’s gorgeous little apartment, my finished dressers, some curtains I’m making for the bedroom, and a new restoration project – a 100+ year old school desk. So check back soon! Happy Monday, all!

lamp revamp

I'm a total failure and completely forgot to take a "before" picture...and I forgot to take any "mid project" pictures as well. So you'll just have to believe me when I say it didn't look this way before...it was yucky bronze and rather unattractive until I added a new coat of paint and a new lamp shade!

Here's the finished project!

Thrift store lamp - $3.25
Paint - $6
Lamp shade - $14
Total cost - $23.25

Not bad for such an attractive lamp, don't you think?

laura bradshaw

I am so in love with the home of Laura Bradshaw. To me, it is the absolute perfect mix of modern and vintage. I want everything in it!

Photos from Design*Sponge

Welcome

Welcome to my new design blog! As you can see, I have imported the blogs from my personal one that I thought were appropriate to post here. Thanks for continuing to follow me! I'm pretty excited to be starting a separate blog dedicated to art, crafts and design. Let's hope I can keep the momentum going! Happy Monday!

Homemade Air Freshener

So I totally got this off Design*Sponge (you can check out the original post by Halligan here). But I'm posting my version and process, which is only slightly different.

Here's the inspirational product:

The major differences between mine and theirs...I didn't use their template. I made my own. Also, I left off the girlie touches since my husband also has to drive my car. He refused to be seen driving a car around with something like that hanging in the window. I didn't use glue because it didn't work well for me, and I also used cloves and cinnamon sticks instead of lavender. Here's my how-to:

Materials:

• wool felt
• all-purpose thread (or embroidery floss)
• embroidery needle (a regular needle will work just fine too)
• scissors
• ribbon
• your choice of "freshening material" (I used whole cloves and a crumbled up cinnamon stick)
• fabric marker, pencil or chalk

I didn't end up using the hole punch or the craft glue, so ignore that part of my picture

 You'll want to trace your template and cut out the bottom portion of the acorn, and then do a blanket stitch all the way around as show below.

 Next, you'll fill your acorn with your scented product of choice. You could use dried lavender. I chose to use whole cloves and a cinnamon stick that I broke up in pieces.

 Next, trace and cut out the top of the acorn and blanket stitch all the way around it also. Something to keep in mind that I forgot to do on my first one...if you want to hang it in your car, you'll want to attach the ribbon during this portion. I tried attaching it after and found that too difficult, so I made a 2nd air freshener. I simply blanket stitched to the middle tip, stuck the ribbon in, did another couple stitches and made sure the other side of the ribbon was coming back out (you can see in the bottom picture) and continued my stitching.

 I attached the top by doing a simple straight stitch along the bottom edge to grab the open side of the acorn bottom. This is a picture of my first finished acorn. I didn't end up liking the top. I thought it was too small, so I decided to stick this one in a drawer and make a 2nd one for the car.

Sorry, picture quality on this one isn't that great. I took it with my phone before I put it in my car, but this is my second one.

Hope those instructions were clear enough. Let me know if you have any questions! It was really simple and easy to make. And now all my friends want one :). I guess I know what I'll be attaching to gifts this Christmas!

A couple quick tips:
-If you want your stitching to be thicker like mine and you're using regular sewing thread, just double it up (so you're sewing with two strands of thread instead of one).
-Make sure you cut your ribbon at least 15 inches so you have room to tie a bow in your car.
-Don't overfill your acorn or it will be too difficult to attach the top.

Happy Crafting, loves!

Dresser #1

Well, I had hoped to come home from work tonight and post fabulous pictures of my finished dresser. Unfortunately...that's not the case. I guess it's all part of the learning process as I'm pretty new to painting/fixing up furniture. I didn't use the right tape or just did something completely wrong (or both), and it totally screwed up my lines. I spent HOURS taping this thing! UGH! So frustrating. So, pretty much I am just going to repaint the entire dresser. I can't really cover up the mistakes without touching up the white, and I doubt I could find an exact match. So I'm just redoing the whole thing. You can see the "before" pictures below though when it was still white and pink.

Oh well. Like I said, part of the learning process. It's 9pm, so it's too late to start on the dresser tonight, but I DID come home from Home Depot with a new can of paint, some paint brushes and more sand paper to get this redo started tomorrow! Hoping to be done by the middle of next week.

Monday, Monday

This weekend was rather productive. Corey and I went thrifting on Saturday and found some good stuff. Got a couple books for $.50 each, a lamp (that I painted) for $3.50, and an old window for $10 that I have a project in mind for. Plus, we got the garage cleared out/organized, some furniture sold on Craig’s List, and I started painting the dresser. I also got a picture frame that I’m doing something with that I need to apply the 2nd coat of paint to. I forgot to take before pictures of the lamp and picture frame, but I’ll post the finished pictures maybe later tonight. The lamp should be done drying by the time I get home from work, so I just need to find a new lampshade. The dresser is looking good. A third coat of paint will be needed to fully cover the old pink trim, and then I’m done. Now onto the next project…dresser number two! Dresser number two is going to need a full paint job, not just an easy trim this time. So that will be a much bigger project and more dramatic before/after. Pics to come, so stay tuned! Sorry this post is so short…I guess it’s just a little teaser for the posts to come! Now you have to come back and check them out later this week :) Happy Monday! I’ll leave you with a few inspirational (at least for me) pictures to enjoy.

Photo is compliments of knack

Photo from Color Collective

Photo from Design*Sponge

Unfortunately, I cannot remember where I got this one. I know it was one of the blogs I follow...

Photo from Design*Sponge

Can't remember where I got this one either, but definitely one of the blogs I follow

Can't remember where I got this one either, but definitely one of the blogs I follow, so check out the blogs in my sidebar!

Weekend Projects

You may remember my poster here about my great lamp finds...

Well I've finally got them up and running! I decided to keep one lamp as-is but had to replace the top portion where you screw the light bulb in and get some lamp shades. 

I got the replacement base socket at Lowes for a couple bucks, had the hubby rewire it, added a linen shade I found on clearance from Restoration Hardware, and voila! Isn't it pretty?

And here is the Value Village find for $2... before it was this icky brass color.

A little scratching of the glossy surface with some 000 grade steel wool, a good coat of primer and paint...

And... TADA!!

Aren't they pretty? Now I need to find a few more lamps for around the house! Before/after on the garage sale dresser to come!

I love pretty pictures

Can I just say that I am officially in LOVE with Laura Nelson's home?? I want everything in it!!

Check it out here! Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

Pictures via Design*Sponge