Chest Redo

I am working on getting my girls room done. The other day, I decided that I wanted this chest to go in their room. So, I took it outside, sanded it down and then painted it black. When it dried I went over it with a wax finish so it wouldn't scratch as easily. I also recovered the cushion with this fabulous material. It looks GREAT!!! I am so excited with the way it turned out. I recovered a pillow (with ruffles too!!!) as well to go on the chest. Take a look and let me know what you think!!!

Fun Christmas

I can't believe it's getting close to the holiday season. I'm trying to think of how to spice up my christmas decor and I came across this pretty little thing. Isn't it the best? I do believe I want to go bright and fun this year. This is all something you can do yourself...and just think of how the kids would feel to have all these bright colors around them too!

Floating Wall Shelves

I have been wanting Floating Shelves in my living room for awhile, so I finally sat down with my husband and we figured out how to make them ourselves. I was soooo excited (and still am!) I hate spending money on shelves or anything that I know I can make or get cheaper. SO.... here they are.....you can make them too!! All you need is: a router, a piece of wood in the size that you want your shelf, sandpaper, and paint!

Cut your wood to the size of shelves that you want. (Mine are 4 ft., 3 ft., and 2 ft.) Router key holes in the back of each peice.

Then paint them, and hang them. Here are a few pics of the final look. Enjoy and let me know how it goes when you try it out!

Nursery/Kid Room

I found this the other day... it makes me happy :)

I do believe this will be the EXACT thing I do to my boy's room. The color combo is just perfect and you can't walk into a room like that and NOT like it. *sigh* I'm in love. lol

DIY Lampshade

I know that there are a lot of lampshades out there. Most of the time, if I'm going to have a lamp in my house, I'm going to want a funky, fun design on the lampshade instead of the typical plain colored one.


I found this tutorial on another site called J Caroline Home. It's full of projects and inspiration.


So enjoy this small tutorial... it's uber easy. I'm going out to find me some cheap fabric and re-do the lamps that I already have :)






*You can buy pre-glued lampshades or cover a plain one. With the self-adhesive variety, the
lampshade's label is the pattern for your fabric. If you fabric edges won't be covered with trim,
add a 1/2" seam allowance and fold it over the lampshade and glue to the inside.
*If you want to cover a lampshade you already have, make a pattern from a piece of newspaper.
Tape or use temporary spray adhesive to stick the paper to the lampshade and use a
highlighter to trace around the edge. Overlap where your edges meet by approximately 3/4".
Then remove the paper and cut to make a pattern. Cut your fabric based on your newpaper
pattern. You can then use a permanent spray adhesive to adhere the fabric to the lampshade. I
recommend spraying the lampshade thoroughly and then applying the fabric.
*Where the fabric edges meet, fold the raw edge of the top fabric under and use Tacky Glue to
glue down. Then you can use glue on the edges to prevent the fabric from pulling up.
*On the lampshade shown, I used a bias tape (basically a narrow piece of fabric similar to a
ribbon with the raw edges folded in to the middle) as the trim, which I glued on the top and
bottom with Tacky Glue.

Fall Decor

I love decorating for each new season. It gives me a reason to redecorate and add new things. This year, I added fabric pumpkins. They were super easy to make and really cheap. It cost me about $7 to make them. You can find the tutorial for them here: http://bloggingwithholly.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-requests-for-pumpkins.html

Here are my pumpkins. They are sitting on my mantle. I think the best thing about these pumpkins is that the sewing does NOT have to be perfect and they will still turn out GREAT!!

* tip: if you are going to make these, just get the samples from the fabric in the home decor departmet at Joanns. They are the perfect size and it is free!!!*

Find something around your house that is fall colors and stick them in vases in your fireplace, or go outside and cut some branches (with leaves) off a tree and stick them in a vase, then tie a ribbon around the vase. It makes a huge difference and adds a nice little impact that makes me smile everytime I look at my fireplace. Continue to add little things here and there. They all add that touch of 'home' to your house.

If you don't have any fall decor things and you want some, just wait a few more weeks and they will all be going on clearance. Trust me it is worth the wait, then you have something to look forward to when you decorate next fall!!

A Few favorite things

I found these yesterday and I'm in love. All 3 of these places are something that I need to add to my "dream house" folder. I'm in love with that wood walkway though.... what a way to make a statement, but also keep things natural and green. And I might want to attempt to do that mirror mural above my fireplace... it's so pretty :)

Inspiration Boards

I found this blog and I LOVE it. Seriously- Jenny is so crafty and cute. Her blog is Little Green Notebook. I saw this on her blog and thought it was so adorable and so easy- I plan on doing it for the board I'm putting in the basement for the kids. This is easy DIY and very budget friendly. This come directly from her blog:

"I picked up a pair of very cheap cork boards and painted the frames with that same yellow paint that I used in my girls room (Martha Stewart "Olive Oil"). No need to tape or to be careful with the paint job here since the cork will be covered up.

I measured and cut up some old fabric that I bought for a project and never used (--Are you picking up on a theme here??) and simply ran a line of fabric glue around the border of the cork board. I glued one edge at a time and smoothed like crazy so that the fabric would lay perfectly flat. (PS the fabric is an outdoor print made by Waverly, called "Lovely Lattice" in Lagoon)

Then I fabric glued on some red gimp/trim to cover any imperfections or gaps in the border.

I hung up the refinished cork boards about five minutes before taking pictures, so I haven't had a chance to really style them yet with inspiration stuff, but that can be a fun ongoing project."

Since then... she's finished her room and it's adorable. Check out this sample of what this portion of the room looks like. Totally cute right?

Be sure to check out her blog for even more adorable and EASY projects! Thanks Jenny for the inspiration!

Halloween Wreath

I found this wreath online somewhere a few weeks ago and have been wanting to make one ever since. So, yesterday I got everything together and went to town. Here is what you need: black spray paint (I bought the cheapest kind I could find), a wreath from Micheals or Joann's and a small spider web package. Here is the type of wreath that I used. I got it for only $2 at Micheals.Spray paint your wreath.

Let it dry. I didn't spray it in all of the crevaces, just on the outer layer, I figured it would give it character, and it still had the look I wanted without spraying it that much. This part took me about 15 minutes.Lastly, Get your spider web and string it across your wreath until you have the look you want. This stuff comes with a lot of web and you use hardly any of it, so if you want to get together with a couple of girlfriends and do this, you could all split the cost of the web and the spray paint. (Which is only about $3, but hey, every little bit counts!!!)

The total that I paid for this came to about $4 and it only took me about 20 minutes to do minus the drying time. So, go call up some girlfriends, buy the stuff, and plan on making one this week!!!