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!

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.

Garage sale - before/after projects

This weekend we saw that a neighbor was having a garage sale, so we stopped by to see if they had anything I couldn't live without. I found a couple of things...both are things that I'd been searching high and low for, but never wanted to pay full price. Patience paid off.

First I found this set of nesting wrought iron outdoor side tables. Aren't they cute? They match my patio furniture PERFECTLY. And at $10, I couldn't leave them behind. However, they were the wrong color and the paint was a bit rusted.



After a little bit of black spray paint, they now are the perfect partner to my patio furniture! (the morning light is not great for these pictures, but you'll get an idea of how they look)



I've also been on the hunt for a pair of chunky funky candlesticks. This is something that can be very pricey, and because I'm frugal, I haven't wanted to pay full price. Besides, I change my mind on decor so often, it doesn't make sense for me to pay full price for anything. And because I worked in advertising for so many years for a major retailer, I saw the enormous amount of mark-ups that were given, I just can't bring myself to pay for anything at full price EVER. ;)

So that same garage sale had this pair of chunky funky candlesticks that I've been dreaming of. They were a really tacky gold/brass/patina color. I love a nice patina as much as the next girl, but I am not much into the gold/brass look. At $4, these were a steal. It would have been a sin to leave them behind!



I couldn't decide if I wanted to paint them black or brushed nickel, but since I had the black paint already out for the tables, I just went ahead and painted them black. I also bought two pillar candles for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. Then I added these really funky beaded garlands. I've been saving these for a long time, just waiting for the right project.







Unfortunately, the pictures aren't great. The lighting in my house is terrible for picture taking. I wish I could get a good picture of these, because they turned out really cute.

I found the garlands in Salado, TX at one of the many cute shops. They were only $6.50 a strand. I bought one green, one "topaz" and one pearl. I decided to save the pearl for another project. Those shops in Salado have these in every color imaginable, and they use them in such cool ways. They string them on anything you can think of. The best way I saw was on a chandelier. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it to show you all. Here in my town, I did see a couple of strands of these garlands at a boutique on the square, but they only had one or two color choices, and they were $14 each! Insane!

I'm pretty pleased. I wish the photos would do them justice. But then I never claimed to be a photographer. ;)

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!

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!

Sew, what's up? (and a blog question)

A few weeks ago, I bought about 5 or 6 wool sweaters at the thrift store. And that particular day, they were 1/2 off. As I was checking out, a lady behind me said "I guess I got here a few minutes too late." I said "pardon me?" She asked "are those wool sweaters?" I told her yes, and she mumbled some comment about there not being any left, except the one she had in her hands. That wasn't true...there were many more left. They just weren't very pretty. ;) I didn't want to tell her I had plans to cut them up use them in craft projects.

So in an attempt to try to get out of my funk, I worked on a little something last night.

Wool sweater #1, washed and dried. I probably should have run it through again, because while it did tighten up, it was still a bit misshapen, which you will see in my finished project. But I couldn't be bothered to do it the right way, I wanted to do it the quick way.



After a lousy, quick attempt at embroidering, I sewed the sucker up, stuffed it and I was done. Now I can feel good that I got my butt off the couch and did *something.*



Can you even make out what that embroidery is? Probably not, so let me tell you. It's an "F" for our last name. I just quickly free-handed it while watching Forensic Files. As you can tell, I was more interested in Forensic Files than paying attention to stitches. Oh, well. It has "character." ;)

Today, I looked at the leftovers from Wool Sweater #1.



Let's see, what can I do with a sleeve? Make a leg warmer? Tie it around my neck as a scarf? Fill it with stuffing and make a breeze protector for my front door? While those might fun ideas ;), I made an iPod case.



I used the waistband portion to make a tiny pocket inside the case to hold my ear buds so they won't get tangled.





Sew on a button for a closure.



Stitch up the sides and bottom, and then remember that you forgot to double-check that the iPod would fit (it does).



Notice how misshapen it is? That's called character.

Take a peak inside.



The end of Wool Sweater #1 project. It may not be pretty, but it's functional, and more importantly, it's done. Now my iPod won't get tangled up in my purse.



Blogger question:

Twice today I tried to add blogs that I want to follow, and I get an error message saying something like "you are trying to follow this blog, but it appears that there is no feed." But then I show up on their list of followers. But they aren't showing up on my end. What gives?

My cheap, er, inexpensive interpretation

Hello girls! Here's a project I've been planning for quite some time.

I was flipping through a catalog and saw this cute pair of art pieces.



Wow, I thought. I must have this for my house!

However, I was not willing to pay $89 for something I knew I could replicate easily myself (though I *do* want you to pay $89 for this because it is from my company and I want my company to have good sales so I can have a job and afford the luxuries in life, like food, my mortgage, you know).

I've been a rubber stamper for, oh, about 18 years. I knew I could make this on the cheap.

I went to the thrift store to find a pair of matching frames, and this is what I found.



Eek. U.G.L.Y.

But the frames were nice, solid wood frames, so I knew they'd work.

I tore two pages out of an old book, busted out my rubber stamps, and here's what I came up with.



I think they turned out ok, but I'm not totally in love with it. Maybe I should have paid the $89 afterall.

Maybe I need something other than butterflies. I have lots of butterfly stamps, but this was the only one I really liked for this project. It doesn't have enough "umph" though. Maybe I'll do some tweaking. We'll see.