Stuff I Bought

Back in December at my company Christmas party I won a Target gift card. It was one of those days I just needed something good to happen, not that it was a bad day, just was shooting for something good. I think I got the last drawing for the Target card and I remember say “I would KILL for that Target card.” Fortunately I didn’t have to and I was forty Target bucks richer. Go me.

When you HAVE money to spend it suddenly becomes hard to find something to spend that money on. Even Target! I think mostly because there are TOO many things I know I would like and hard to settle. Then for Christmas, I got another $20 target card, oh they know me so well!

I thought about buying my camera from Target, but it happened to be about $100 more in the store than online and in the end, bought the body only on Amazon, best deal.

I finally did find something online and it just recently arrived.

Pshaw, it ain’t no thang. Call me an American Gladiator. I’ll spare you the photoshop rendering.

I opened that box up so fast. It’s a hexagon Missoni pouf! I didn’t really buy into the hype when it first came out. The fact that it’s Missoni had nothing to do with me buying it. The fact that it was discounted down to $34.98 had EVERYTHING to do with it. They still have them online. AND I still have  $19 of a gift card left

This piece is definitely on the larger side. I was look at the reviews cause it doesn’t have that many stars (those came AFTER I bought it.) and someone gave it two stars cause they are lazy and didn’t read the product dimensions… Kathryn from Alexandria, VA, I’m looking at you…

The fabric almost looks more like a denim than an aqua, but I’m still thoroughly happy with it. I just don’t really know what to do with it at this point. My house is totally crazy. Half of my floors are ripped up so they could dry it underneath and no real date in sight as to when we’ll get it back to normal. Oh joy.

Anyone have any good Target recommendations? This card is burning a hole in my pocket….

Simple Dresser Makeover

I can’t believe I started this blog a year ago. It was such a great decision! I love having so much proof of my hard work because it’s so easy to write things off and forget. If you’d like to see what I’ve been up to the past year, you can find a photo link to each project on my project gallery page.  I’ve got a new project to help kick off the year.  Its a five drawer dresser I found on Craigslist for $25. It was clearly well built and just needed a little makeup and maybe some microdermabrasion and possibly new jewelry.

Now I actually had no specific use for this, but for $25 dolla dolla bills ya’ll AND those dovetailed joints, it’s hard to say no. It’s definitely a piece that can blend well in any decor and I’m digging the simple clean lines.

I knew I didn’t want another fully painted piece and the wood was in really good shape once it got a good sanding, but it took me a couple weeks to decide what to do with it. My problem isn’t being afraid to take a chance, its NARROWING down all of the options. Another gradient? Paint a pattern? Wall paper the front? Stripe it? This may sound so kooky but I find it I just let it settle for a few days if I’m unsure, then the piece usually speaks to me. Not literally, just like it becomes more clear to me what it wants. In this case, it wanted I white body and rich stained drawers.

I primed the body with Kilz primer spray paint, sent from heaven, and stained the drawer fronts using Minwax stain & polyurethane in one step in a color called Bombay Mahogany. Then I snuck a drawer back in stood back and decided that was the one!

I slapped a couple coats of white paint and some polycrylic to polish it off. Time to drill holes for the knobs. I created  paper template and measured out where I wanted the holes to go.

Here are the new knobs I picked out. It was love at first sight, but only took me a couple of months to find “the ONE” or ten in this case. i found them at Hobby Lobby, where else? They have TONS of knobs, but rarely do they enough all at one store. So I usually end up making another trip to a different store. Twenty dollars for the knobs is almost as much as I paid for the dresser! It’s still pretty cheap altogether.

I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. I’ve been kind of having a love affair with wood lately and this is the best of both worlds. I’ve been seeing a lot of pieces refinished similar to this and served as the perfect inspiration! I have so many other projects that haven’t quite seen the light of day but luckily I got quite a few Christmas goodies that make everything easier and I’ll be sharing soon!

Changing a Light Bulb

I promise I will not make any jokes about  “How many (insert witty line) does it change the lightbulb?” because this is not a joking matter and I can, in fact, do it all by myself. A very long time ago, February to be exact, I posted about a candle holder I converted to a light fixture. It was a good post and all, but lacked an explanation on how I accomplished it. The light bulb finally went out so I used that as a reason to get back up there and snap some pictures.First let’s take a look at the original light, well, just something similar to the original. Can you believe this costs $5.98 at Lowes? Crazy sauce. That’s like six McDoubles.

This is what I planned to replace it with. The opening was the exact same size as the light base. The silver stand was able to be unscrewed, flipped and screwed back in place. You can buy it online here but it’s 50% off in store maybe every other week.

This is after I removed the cover. When I first did this, it was to see if I even could. Once I decided it would work, I didn’t really finish anything because I was too busy gleaming about my success. Anyways, the base was left ivory, but wasn’t meshing with the crystal cover.

A little Rub n’ Buff took care of it! I had it out when I was doing the buffet. I was lazy again and didn’t tape anything off. I was shooting for “good enough”. From the floor, it looks flawless. I’m satisfied.

Once the lightbulb was changed and checked to see if it worked, it was time to put the cover back on. The screws are a part of the original light fixture so I took a paper clip, wrapped it around the crystal cover securely then wrapped it around the screw. There are three screws total I did it to each one. It takes longer to get the ladder out than to actually do this. I originally did this about a year ago, and have had zero problems with it except the light bulb burning out. It’s really easy to take it off and put back on so it’s not permanent.

There you go! Lights ON.

Lights OFF.
Anyone else attaching random objects to the ceiling and calling them light fixtures?

Antiquing an Antique

It’s possible, and I totally did it. I have a buffet that backs up to some chairs in my living room. I absolutely love the piece, but was having a lot of inner turmoil over whether to paint it or not. Believe it or not, sometimes wood it pretty. The buffet was lacking something and I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what. I’ve had this almost three years, and just kind of let it be because nothing was lighting my Christmas tree if you know what I mean.

Last week I came across a post of an updated buffet using Rub n’ Buff, and let me tell you, it looks amazing!  So I aspired to do something similar because, that’s what blogs are for??? Inspiration?!?!

 

Here’s my ingredients,

• Rub n’ Buff in Silver Leaf (It’s what I had on hand from this project.)
• Paintbrush
• Paper Towels
• Folk Art Antiquing Medium in Apple Butter Brown
• ONE finger

First off, I rubbed in the Rub n’ Buff into the wood trim. As soon as I would finish one part I would be like “Oh this part would look cool in silver too! Oh and this part! And THIS part!” I ended up silver leafing the trim, embellishments, hardware and legs.

Here’s a quick comparison. The silver wasn’t so bold in person, but it needed a little more dimension.

This is the original hardware and I lovvve it. It’s in really good condition, but also needed a little more emphasis. I put the tiniest smidge on my finger, because a little goes a LOOOONG way and lightly grazed it over the hardware just to hit the top of it and not go into the crease. So easy. Why did it take so long?

This is what it looks like when I put on the antiquing medium. Brush on, Wipe off. I don’t leave it on very long at all, maybe 30 seconds? I’ll bust out the stop watch next time.

This photo most accurately shows what it looks like. It’s still very silver, but has a nice aged look added to it now. I think it could have looked incredible in gold, but I didn’t have enough foresight to see that through. Most of my spontaneous projects evolve out of what I have on hand. I’m still happy with it though.

For a little sneak peek to the inner workings of my brain, I started the day preparing to clean the floors, that is so desperately needed based on this picture but quickly realized that updating this piece would be SO.MUCH.MORE.FUN!

This is the finished product for now product. The whole thing took about a half hour since all the parts I highlighted were raised, I didn’t need to tape it off for a crisp line.

I just need some magical potion that will help with the scratched and water spots on the wood. It could use a little rejuvenation without being completely refinished. Anyone have any recommendations?

P.S. the floors never did get cleaned either.

I Really Love Lamp

Consider me frustrated for forgetting to take a before shot. You see, I had this lamp, and it was brass kinda like the one below. While it could have worked in my decor as plain ol’ brass lamp, I was craving something different.

I found the perfect drum shade from Ross for $14.00. I wish they had ten, I would have bought all of them.

For the lamp base, I picked pink! First I sprayed it with Krylon’s white primer that I had on hand. For smaller, more detailed projects I totally prefer Krylon over Kilz. Krylon comes out way smooth and gives the perfect base coat for a project like this. Kilz I like for furniture, but sometimes comes out chunky.

After the primer I finished it up with Krylon spray paint in Watermelon. The color is not exactly subtle but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s taking a lot of self control to not paint any and everything pink. I love being a girl.

Drool. It is exactly what I wanted to be. It’s my pink artichoke lamp.

It so perfect that the color is called watermelon, because it hangs out in my “green room” or the den and everyone KNOWS that green + pink = watermelons, duh.

Ahhh, look at my nekkid pillows on the sofa! How embarrassing! The covers are in the wash, but I’m ready to make something new for it. Oh and you get to see a sneak peek  of Christmas! Plenty more to come there.

I’m happy with the way it turned out for less than $20. I forgot to mention, it was a gift from my mom she picked it up from an estate sale. I’d like to do something interesting to the lamp shade, but I still need the inspiration to strike me like lightning preferably without the hospital bills. I’ll probably check out Anthropologie’s lamp shade, I’m sure there is plenty to copy, er… “get inspired by” over there. Seriously, who can afford their shades? Or anything they sell for that matter?

Anyone else craving bright and bold colors?

Art Therapy

What gives lately? Not with you, but me. I’ve been feeling a little sluggish and uninspired, but I just need to push past it. So, I’ve been doing a little “art therapy” and I think it’s working.

For me, I can’t go wrong with a brightly colored painting to lift my moods.  It looks so good on my chocolate bathroom walls.

It’s seriously hard for me to NOT paint with bright colors. Most of the furniture in my house is all very neutral, but art is one place I like to go caaarazy with. MMmmm…. Cooooloooors.

I’ve also got that other makeshift art in my bathroom, and oh, it’s colorful too.

What’s your “therapy”?

Some of my others include, retail therapy, mom therapy, puppy therapy and snuggle therapy. Right now, art is the only one I have access to!

I’ve also listed this painting in my Etsy shop here. If you want it, its yours!

New Door Handles… Be Still My Heart

This is by far one of my favorite updates I’ve done in a long time. I’ve been wanting to replace all of the brass egg knobs on all of my doors, but with so many doors and knobs not being that cheap when you add it all up, it simply wasn’t a priority. See how ugly and dirty and scratched up and neglected this poor french door is? How sad.

This past weekend I was walking through Hobby Lobby, looking for something completely unrelated, and stopped dead in my tracks to inspect these beauty. This was love at first site. You may not think it exists, but I swear on my life it does. These were on clearance for $5.68 each down from $20, I’ll take four, thankyouverymuch!

Oh thank heavens, there wasn’t a giant hole drilled though! Make my life much easier! Just took some wood filler, and a sanding to get it all fixed up. Of course I cleaned the door and all of the stupid, tiny, cornucopia of window panes then slapped on some fresh bright white paint. I didn’t realize how yellow the old trim door and trim color was. You’ll just have to take my word on it since I can’t find that picture.

You saw earlier that they were brass which was fine and dandy, but not exactly what I wanted. That door is really close to my built in desk which has all silvery hardware. I’m down with mixing and matching, just wanted something different.I bought some Rub n’ Buff in Silver leaf (in the below photo, top right). I’ve read enough blogs to know it was awesome, but never had a reason to get some of my own. I just happened to spot some down an aisle and  there it was, in the flesh, begging me to take it home. So I did, and let me tell you, they should rename this product. Forget Rub ‘n Buff just call it Magic. How can one tiiiny little drop do that! I was all like, “CALEB!!!! COME QUICK!!!”  Wow, gee cool, Gloria. I thought it was awesome. It kept it all antiquey but I really like the switch up.  If you have never used Rub ‘n Buff, I URGE you to FIND a reason to buy it, seriously awesome. Imminently life changing.

Drool.
I’m so happy with the way it looks, and that I actually cleaned this door for the second time ever. Panes are a pain.

Now to clean the rest of my house! Oh and I guess I hadn’t mentioned it already after getting so caught up in all of the love and magic, this is the first of many makeovers for this room. I’m turning this into my crafting/studio room. It’s not that I don’t love my original studio, it’s that the space didn’t function very well for me unless I was sewing. I’ll be getting an awesomely huge crafting table as soon as I can find a truck to bring it to my house then bringing in other furniture and what not. So for this pending makeover, what better way than to start at the door. Voila! Cross this off the list!

Any one else out there get way too worked up over simple changes like me?

Dog Food Storage

There’s nothing worse than having to sneeze after you just swallowed eighty percent of the food in your mouth because that usually means you don’t have to worry about about swallowing the other twenty percent. My poor computer screen, oh well I guess I didn’t need those calories. Sorry KitKat, you were delicious though. That has absolutely nothing to do with anything except that it just happened.

What I REALLY wanted to share with you is my dog food storage. If I didn’t know and hang out with me I would think I was obsessed with my dogs, my husband knows this is not entirely the case. They drive me CRAZY about sixty to one hundred percent of the time (What’s my deal with percentage all of a sudden?) all the hair, mud, slobber, sneaking out of the yard four times in one week, fixing holes under the fence after each prison break, the tearing up of drywall, the barking, the vomiting, the STILL peeing inside the house even though I thought we were done with that, the humping each other on OUR bed where I SLEEP, having to change the sheets every three days because of all the invisible dirt, hair, and yuck that only I can see and not Caleb but doesn’t mean it’s not there, the garbage from the trash can when they go all CSI up on it, and having to let them out in the morning at crazy hours that I should not even know exist. Enough complaining.

Previously I had been using a woven hamper in the den by the back door to keep the food in. It worked fine when we just had one dog, but when one turned into two, it was one dog food bag in the hamper the other sitting unattractively in the middle of the room. Plus it had seen better days no thanks to Durant.

Look closely, there is a dog INSIDE the food basket.

Always trying to get in….

Preferring to eat the food in the basket rather than what was laid out for him. He tells me its the “experience”…

Whatever it was, changed needed to happen but I wasn’t necessarily on the hunt for it. I was strolling through Ross looking for something different entirely, saw this and had the light bulb moment. Perfect size, perfect pattern, doubles as seating and isn’t as easy to sneak inside. Sold.

The pattern fits perfectly inside my home. It wasn’t as cheap as I would like, I prefer free, but it was still on the low end at $36. Which is worth it considering the headache that it was before.
Success! It all fits!

 

Where do you keep your pet food?

The Pillow Formerly Known as Tea Towel

It’s Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday!!! I don’t know why I’m so excited about that but, oh wait! I do know… It’s my anniversary! Been married for three years now. It has gone by so fast. Sometimes I still feel like we’re in highschool. When the heck did I grow up and become old enough to get married and how in the world has it been THREE years?!? I never in 4.2 BILLION years (because that’s how “old” the “earth” “is”, Guffaw!) would have thought that at age twenty-three that I would have been married for three years… to a captain of the football team. Me?!?!? The Art Nerd! I love you Caleb! Happy Anniversary to ME!!

Okay, so this tea towel. It’s such a lovely shade of turquoise and my mom picked up these two at an estate sale. They kinda sat in a bag for a while before I decided to put them to use. I’m on a kick of getting all of the tiny little projects done, and this is one of them. Oh it feels so good to clean out the clutter and MAKE STUFF. No more “someday” or “eventually” excuses.

My one condition is that I didn’t want to spend any money on it, for like the filling. I did what any sane person does and tore open some old pillows I didn’t use anymore but didn’t have the cahones to throw away. What if I NEED it someday! I think that’s a hoarders mentality.
Here is is all sewn up now. I made it the fastest way which doesn’t include a zipper or a way to get the stuffing out. It’s okay though because it’s going in one of those not used very much rooms.

It looks lumpy because I was just testing it out. Success, it works! I really love the  pillow with all of the colors with the newly painted side table.

Haha dog butt! He’s been working out and just wants to be applauded for his efforts. Silly Durant. Maybe I’ll submit this to pets on furniture.

Well, that’s one less bag of stuff to do laying around. What have you been working on?

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Look at all Those Legs: Part Duex

I know I just posted about this table and called it done, but I couldn’t convince myself that I really liked it. It looked lazy, and unfinished and it didn’t take long for me to get on it and show it a little more appreciation. First, let’s start from the beginning.

Just the plain ol’ wood…

Then the gray with white stripes.

I guess I kind of liked it, but it lacked a bit of pizzazz. It fell flat in the room, more like a piece of furniture was thrown in place rather than it intentionally placed there. Be warned, what I’m about to show you is a little “out there.” I can tell you right here and now that not everyone will love the after, but for me it’s perfect…. until I change my mind again. At least, I don’t feel like I’m convincing myself I like it, but my tastes may change down the road, who knows.

I still wanted to do stripes, but a more interesting version. Out came the bright colors and painters tape. I started with what I already had and built on from there.

I think I’ve been subconsciously inspired by all the Target Missoni hoopla because I think the finished product channels it a little bit. I didn’t intend to hence the subconsciously inspired bit.

It’s a cornucopia of color now and helps tie in some of the other colors in the room that may have felt a bit disjointed. I feel like it fits my personality so well, my decorating personality that is.

Here you can see a tiny peek at the green ceiling. It’s all coming together!

It makes me so much happier than the previous table.

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