Summer Time!

It is definitely Summer Time here in the Midwest, the mercury is certainly on the rise! Along with the heat comes fantastic colors that seem right at home only during the Summer months. Really, some of my all time favorites! The greens and blues. Oranges and yellows. Love them! This tablecloth encompasses all the wonderful colors and looks great with my centerpiece of fresh faux fruits. I recently found this open weave basket at the thrift store, I'll be showing you how I updated it in a near future post. I'll give you a hint: spray paint.
I found the most fantastic glasses at the Dollar Tree and the whole family loves them! They are great for lemonade and cherry slushes, they are a perfect size! I love the retro-ish fruit motif!


Place setting: Sea grass chargers (Kolh's), white Claremont dinner plate (Big Lots), yellow swirl salad plates (thrifted), Red handled flatware (Target, I really heart these) table cloth and matching napkins (Kolh's) and fun bamboo napkin rings (Ummm...I forgot).

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are enjoying the Summer!

It's New To Me

It seems that I rarely buy retail anymore. You know what I mean? I get more of a thrill revamping something second hand or what I already have. that buying at regular retail stores....well it's just boring! :) I love that challenge of re-inventing!

If you've been following along, you know that spray paint is my BFF! But ever so often, I come across an accessory that I don't have to paint, which is great too, because then I don't have paint on my hands for the next three days because I don't wear gloves.

I found a beautiful vase at the Beaver's Dam Antiques and did not have to alter it a bit! I did a new little vignette on the coffee table in honor of it. It's my way of welcoming it to the ever growing family of vases. Also, we finally got a sea grass rug! It was a birthday present from Justin, boy, does that man know me like a book! Not only does it look great, it smells great too!

So I went from this: Bare Floor To This:
Justin and I love the new rug, however, the kids complain about it, and the dog thinks it a big back scratcher, but we are getting use to it! :)



Painted glass votive, spray painted small vase and plate, very simple. Love my manzanita branches. The star fish I love too, this is the natural color. Most commonly found bleached white. I love the grey!





Especially next to the green!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are inspired!!

Visit Marty @ A Stroll Thru Life

Cherry on Top!

Ok scrappers, I promised a project post, and here it is!

Scrapbooking has always been a part of my life. You know, as a kid, taping down movie stubs and articles celebrating the latest sports victory, but I've been scrapping Artistically, for the last 10 years. Meaning, I discovered the addiction love of paper, paint, stamps, stickers, and soaked up anything I could learn from anybody that was teaching techniques. I even branched out to collage with my love of paper and paint, and some people have actually bought some things from my Etsy Shop. So when Amy from Caffinated Cropper sent a beautiful kit to me to do as I please...well, I tried my best! Now in all honesty, I have never worked with a kit, but I won't be saying that anymore! It was quite refreshing to think to myself: "OK, this is what I have to work with, what can I do" and not worry about the seek and find! It was a personal challenge to come up with projects. This is what all the kit contains (picture below), Amy can give the complete list. As you can see, it's chocked full of goodies! Some things I would have never thought about buying ended up being my favorite things!

(Via Caffinated Cropper)

The only things I used of my stuff is card stock (white), craft paint (Jamaican Sea), and adhesive. Everything else was in the kit.

My favorite thing that I had never used is the Smooch Spritz, Cherry Red. I was Spritzing everything! Look at the effect on the white card stock, and then the pink card stock! It was really fun!

Trims and tulle. Stamps and twine.

Buttons and fabric. Stickers and paper.

I was in heaven!



Out of the whole kit I made 1 scrapbook layout, 1 bookmark, and 8 cards, and I still didn't use everything up!

Thanks so much to Amy @ Caffinated Cropper! What an opportunity this was! Please visit Amy and see all the wonderful fun projects and fabulous kits!
Also, if you would like to see even more photos of these projects, please visit my photo stream at Flickr. You know I take a million pictures!! :)

Go kiss the men in your life! Happy Father's Day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Paint And Glass

I found a glass pear canister for a dollar at the thrift store and thought it would be a nice companion piece to the pear shape terrarium I have. I saw that it was really dirty, but I assumed that I could wash it up when I got home. I was wrong. After washing, soaking, CLR , Oops, and a number of different methods of cleaning, it would not come clean. That would explain the 1.00 price tag.

Oh well, or so I thought.

I was watching online episodes of House and Home and noticed a video in the DIY section pertaining to painting bottles. I clicked on it and watched as the gal demonstrated how to paint bottles, not in the traditional sense (spray painting the outside), but in a way I had not thought of. She demonstrated pouring paint into the bottles, sitting them upside down to pour out the excess, and after drying, had beautiful bottles that looked like milk glass! I loved it! I decided to try the method on the pear canister. If it didn't work, I was only out a dollar.

Before:

I poured in white paint, let it drain, and dry, and it worked! The only thing I did different than the demo...I used acrylic Craft paint, not latex paint as they showed. It worked just fine! I was so happy with the result! I also try it on a Dollar Tree votive holder, but used color paint (Jamaican Sea), loved this too! Because the paint is on the inside of the vessel, the outside is still shiny and no worries about scratching off!

After:

You've got to try this! Change the look of any glass container! You'll be amazed at the result! It is almost as addictive as spray painting! :)



Check out the video here



P.S. In case you didn't notice, I FINALLY was successful at creating a button, thanks to my husband! If you would like to grab it, it's going to stay at the tippy top for a few days, I'm just so darn proud of myself him! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Organizing Jewelry

I have been wanting to make one of these oh-so-popular jewelry organizers for some time now. I've seen a lot of great ones floating around blogland, and I really needed one! I don't own a lot of jewelry, but since seeing Logan (the youngest cute kid on my sidebar) single handedly destroy some of my favorite necklaces, it was out of necessity that I created my very own version, and hang it out of his reach.
I painted a thrifted wood frame white, and used some scrap MDF to fill it. I didn't have any store bought hooks, I refuse to buy anything else, my 'stash' can only get so big, I need to continue using my stash...any way, I decided to get all NEO on some spoons and bend them to make a hook. I needed some Matrix power on these spoons...they were not easy to bend...Here is the making of the Necklace/bracelet/watch organizer
I selected some paper to cover the MDF and used Mod Podge to adhere it.
Not only am I organizing necklaces and bracelets, I'm revamping my earring thingamabobs too!

I found these metal shelves at (ack) Kirkland's a couple of years ago, I had been hanging my earrings in the fretwork for some time now, working beautifully, thanks for asking, but decided to paint them white to coordinate with the other thingamabob I was making today. I hang my earrings, on the front and store my make-up and hair products on the shelves, Logan is murder on make-up too....

Before:

After:

In action:

I Mod Podged the paper onto the MDF, E6000ed the spoons on to the MDF, and let dry. I also put the center spoon on a little thrifted saucer, it was looking a little spoony so I added the plate for some fun interest

Here is the completed project, in it's photoshoot outside. The lighting in the bathroom is horrific, you'll see in a few seconds, so I wanted to photograph in the daylight (oh, and the weeds)

Here it is in action:

Back over to the newly painted shelves: Mercury glass candleholders hold lipstick and mascara
Vintage brooches and charms, ready to wear


See my Girlscout name tag? :) That's really vintage!!!

Picture of baby Keegan, he is a teenager now...my little baby gone...





Well, I hope you are inspired! Think of the possibilities to coordinate with your vanity area! Limitless! Have fun! You'll be glad you made one, I know I am!