Mirror, mirror on the wall (before and after)

A few weeks ago I shared this mirror I found at a garage sale for $5.



What I like about it is that it's an antique...meaning it's heavy duty with a real wood backing. This sucker probably weights at least 20 lbs.

However, I don't really need another plain old mirror. I wanted to jazz it up a bit.

I started with this F that I printed out from my computer. F being the first letter of my last name, though I guess it can stand for anything really, like friend, fabulous, freak... Then I cut it out with an X-acto knife.



I used a combination of redline and painter's tape to make frames around the monogram. I would have liked to have done something a little fancier, but I wanted this to be as quick and painless as possible, so straight lines it was.



After a few coats of Valspar Frosting spray, this is what I got.



Who knew it would be so difficult taking a picture of a mirror? The middle square is slightly tilted. Which really irritates me because I measured and measured again before spraying. Eh...I'm still fairly pleased with how it came out.

But since it's so heavy, hubs had to hang it with some sort of special toggle bolt. And he said he's not moving this thing EVER. So I guess it's here to stay. ha!

A quick little "crappy to happy" project

I went to Ross the other day. I usually stay away from that place because the one here in town is sort of...well, gross. But sometimes I can find little treasures hidden on the back of a shelf somewhere, needing a new home.

On the clearance shelf, I found this little sign.



Because it had been roughed up somewhere along the way and had a little chunk missing from the top, I got it for $2.99.



And while I'm sure some of you would just take a brown marker to fill in the broken area, I'm far too ambitious for that. (ha!) Besides, while this bronze color is nice, it didn't really do anything for me. So I gave it a quick coat of white paint.



And added some raw umber glaze I had from previous art projects.



I like how it turned out, but...I don't know. It still doesn't feel right. It almost seems too "girly" for my tastes. Any suggestions?

Cissy and Sammi say hi!

Vintage glass flower frog turned wind chime

My mom and I have been collecting vintage glass flower frogs for several years now. We've made quite a few wind chimes from them. This is one I made one for my neighbor for her birthday.



I used glass beads and a ceramic "B" for the center since their last name begins with a "B."



It's so funky and charming, don't you think? I'm such a great neighbor to have. :b



I love the clinkety-clink sound it makes in the wind.



I used my secret spy ninja skills to creep into her backyard this morning to take these pictures. =) She wouldn't mind though. We are really close friends. ;)

Thrift store rehabs revealed

We bought this house about 5 years ago and have slowly worked our way around the house redoing everything. Most of this was cosmetic, consisting of taking down wallpaper (kitchen and bathrooms), painting, redoing the floor, etc. We didn't get to the guest bath until about 2 or 3 years ago. We took down the wallpaper, pulled up not one but TWO layers of linoleum, smoothed out the walls, painted, put down ceramic tiles (hubs rocks) and changed out fixtures. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to put on the wall over the towel rack, so it's remained empty since that time. I thought about painting some canvases, but that never happened. I actually bought a piece of funky metal art at a Dallas art festival a year ago, but decided it didn't work for me in there.

Then last week I found these at the thrift store.



I loved them the minute I saw them. I knew I'd paint them silver....I could definitely see the potential. They reminded me of those retro midcentury modern starbursts from the 1960s (photos courtesy of etsy).





I originally thought I'd put them in the dining room, but tried them out in the guest bathroom and loved them there. (side note: I don't know why my wall colors always come out so funky on camera...the bathroom isn't apple green...the 2nd picture is more true to the actual color)







Not everyone's style, but I love a little funkiness in every room. Not bad for $4 thrift store find.

Remember this hideous gold mirror?



I love it now. It resides in our bedroom. (again, my wall color isn't Texas Longhorn orange..though I do love the Longhorns since I grew up in Austin :) , it's actually a pretty pumpkin color, though you wouldn't know it by these pictures!)





Then there's the $3 hook rack I found at Goodwill last week. This didn't need a rehab, it simply needed a lot of cajoling, prodding and begging for me to have hubs hang it up outside. It works out *perfectly* for hanging our towels by the pool! This eliminates the need to lay the towels on the ground, having ants crawl up in them and then doing an "ants in my pants" dance when drying off. Not that that's happened or anything. ;)



I feel like I've gotten quite a bit accomplished this week. My "to do" list is getting shorter. It feels good. But then I will have to make another "to do" list for next week. So the fun starts over again. :)

Recycle old pillows: no sew dog bed (or floor pillows for the kids)

Remember the no sew fleece blankets that were all the range a few years ago (I still have mine and love them...the dogs even have smaller versions, too)? This project is a spin-off from those. Here's a great way to recycle some old pillows you may have, you know, the ones that are flat and have lost their shape. We all have them tucked away in a closet somewhere! I have to warn you, the pictures came out dark for some reason. I hope you can still see.



I started by throwing them in the washer and dryer to freshen them up and get them somewhat fluffy again.

Next, take a yard of fleece and fold it in half, cutting along the fold so you have two separate pieces. I'd have preferred to use brown fleece, but since this bed is for my 15-year old dachshund, and she's almost completely white now, I knew the brown wouldn't work as well because she sheds so much...I didn't want the bed to look like it had a fur coat on. ha!



Start by cutting a 4" square from each of the four corners.



Then cut 1" wide strips all the way around.



Once you've cut strips all the way around, begin tying knots from the back and front pieces. I doubled-knotted mine because I know my dogs will scratch and dig at the pillow to make it just the right degree of comfiness, but I'm sure a single knot would be fine, too.



Tie knots all the way around, leaving enough space to stuff your pillows inside. You have two options at this point. You can leave the knots showing on the outside. This looks nice, like fringe. Or, you can turn the fleece inside out so the knots are on the inside, then stuff your pillows. Knot the remaining strips, and tuck inside (if you aren't leaving fringe on the outside).







{Join the DIY party and share your latest projects at Kimba's!}

Quick and easy accent pillows

Here's a project that will take maybe a half hour from start to finish. Longer if you are like me and do a lot of it in front of Law and Order. ;) If you can sew a straight line, you can do this.

I've seen this done many times over the years on tv and in magazines and always meant to try it, but never got around to it (you know how that goes, don't you?!). I was browsing the other day and saw it done most recently here. I've been wanting to make little lumbar shaped pillows for my kitchen chairs for, oh, I don't know, the last 4 or 5 years or so. When I saw this idea yet again, I knew it was the answer. Quick, easy and cheap.

I bought 4 place mats for $1.78/each at the W when grocery shopping last night. I love the woven cotton fabric for it's texture and durability. And the colors are bright and cheery, perfect for my kitchen.



I did mine slightly differently than Sarah did hers, though, but it's still very simple. Unlike Sarah's, my place mats are not doubled sided. No problem. I simply folded them in half (right sides facing each other) and sewed up the 3 open sides (leaving enough space on one side to turn the pillows right-side-out and stuff with fiberfill).



But before turning right-side-out, be sure to clip the extra fabric from the corners so the shape will be more natural. So far, this whole process has taken *maybe* a minute or two, tops.



Next, stuff the pillow. Here's a little tip: if you have a difficult time reaching down into the corners to stuff the pillow, use a skewer to push the filling down where you want it. Afterward, I just stitched up the hole using a basic "over and through" stitch.



And that's all there is to it!





{Join the DIY party and share your latest projects at Kimba's!}

Before and after: antique nightstand

There's nothing better than finding a great project in the making, especially when it's unexpected and cheap. Several months back, hubs and I went for a drive one afternoon. We ended up at a junk/antique store in a small town. I happened to see this cute little nightstand in the back of the store covered up with lots of stuff. I liked the size and shape of it. It needed a lot of TLC, but it still appealed to me. But I didn't know what I'd do with it. I'm really out of space for furniture pieces. The price tag said $12. Sold. For that price, I'd find a place for it. When I told the shop owner I wanted it, she said I could have it for $5.



After sitting in the garage for a month or two, I brought it outside, gave it a good wipe down and sanding, then painted it a light cream color. The top of the table has a leather inlay with some gold design, but unfortunately, whoever owned this piece before me decided to STAIN THE LEATHER when they were refinishing the piece. Sinful! I thought about just painting over it, but decided to leave it as is. If I change my mind, I can paint over it later. Hubs tried to strip the stain from the leather, but it just didn't work.



The original handles on the drawer were broken, and they really weren't my style anyway. I suppose handle sizes have changed over the years because I haven't been able to find any new ones to fit the hole sizes. And I really don't feel like patching the holes and drilling new ones. Too much effort for a $5 table. So instead I found 4 cute ceramic knobs at Hobby Lobby (at 50% off) and I think they look great!



We decided to use this as a TV stand in the bedroom (I know! a TV in the bedroom!). It's a lot cuter than what we were using before.



Whatcha think? Nothing special or fancy, but I love how it looks now.

Chalkboard paint project (thrift store rehab)

I scrambled to get my project done for Chrissie's Chalkboard Paint Party. And I do mean scrambled. Our weather has been really ugly lately, so I haven't been able to get outside to paint.

I had found this really blah plaque at the Goodwill.



It was simply a matter of peeling off the paper that was glued to the front, sanding off all the sticky residue and painting.



Eh, I'm not too thrilled with how it turned out. It looked much better in my mind's eye. That seems to happen a lot! I'll probably rehab this rehab eventually.



If you want to join the party, visit Chrissie's blog and see what cute projects all of these other creative gals have come up with. Mine really pales in comparison. I just don't have the knack for this one. But I had fun!

Chalkboard Paint Party

Chrissie is having a party today! My project isn't finished yet, so I'll have to link up with it tomorrow. However, please go over and show everyone your creations using chalkboard paint!

Happy Friday!

This little light of mine...

I'm gonna let it shine!

Remember this little garage sale lamp from last week? I bought her to go on our foyer table because she is just short enough to fit under my black and white picture grouping.



She was cute as-is, but just a little too country for this girl's style.

So she got a make over yesterday.



Now she's brushed nickel with a red shade (which matches the red in the dining room (which is adjacent to the foyer) and the red in our couches. I may add some fringe or something to the shade later so that it hangs over that white bulb holder part, but we'll see.



Oh how I love her so!