Our Entryway

I wanted to share with you what we did for the section of wall between the door and the stairs. I had this portrait that we had taken last year by Rachel Clare made into a canvas from Costco.

 I was very impressed with the quality of the canvas and how it turned out. Of course, it also helps to start out with a great picture! I wanted to incorporate the same color that I painted the kitchen wall so I painted this 4'x5' rectangle on the wall and then my wonderful husband added white trim around the edges. Very easy and it adds so much to this wall where as just the canvas would have looked plain and small on this big wall.

Overall, I am really happy with it and I'm thinking of doing something fun here for the holidays but we'll see if I get around to that this year! I have more plans for the area to the right of this, a mudroom! I am desperate for a place for the kids' shoes (I include my husband in this!) plus jackets, backpacks and all of that other stuff. But I have to take it one project at a time right?
Right now we are actually in Lake Tahoe with some great friends so hopefully next week I will have some pictures to share from our trip!

The Girls' Room Redo

My daughters are now 8 and 6 (although my oldest keeps reminding me that she will turn 10 next year, 2012) and as I kept getting mad at them for not keeping their room clean it dawned on me that I had not given them the tools to be able to keep it clean. So it was up to me to help them. Their room used to have just a couple of sterilite drawer units with their toys in it and then everything else ended up everywhere. Most days I wasn't sure that they had a floor!

Friends of ours have been keeping a desk in their storage unit for us for over a year now and I finally was able to get over there and get it. It belonged to their daughter that is grown up and I knew right away that it would be something that the girls would be able to grow into. Here is what it looked like before (taken with my iphone before we went to go buy paint)...
I actually loved the blue but it just didn't go with the girls' room. The fake keyhole was my favorite part and that drawer folds down for a keyboard someday when they are ready for it. One knob was broken off and that didn't bother me since I knew that I wanted different knobs anyway. I decided on a nice bright white and after two coats of spray primer and one coat of white spray paint (all Valspar) this is how it came out...
I found cute little crystal knobs at Lowe's and had to tape off the fake keyhole before painting because it is glued on. I really love how it came out because the lines of it are so clean.


Now it is a great place for the girls to sit and read or draw and one day do homework.

In my quest to bring in some old antique type stuff to decorate their room, my grandmother gave me several antique frames. They were all dark brown and one of them was an easel style frame without any glass. So I spray painted it a light pink and made it into this...
I had one of my favorite pictures of the girls printed in 5x7 and adhered it to a piece of chipboard. I then strung some bakers twine onto it using these mini clothespins that I picked up at Michael's in the dollar bins. The girls love having this in their room now.

Previously Madison had Hannah Montana bedding and the matching lamp. Although it was cute, it just didn't go any more. They still needed a lamp but I wanted something a little more girly and yet not themed. I had this lamp in my office but never used it. It was dark brown until I spray painted it that same pink. Now they have a cute little shabby lamp for their desk!

To help the girls with their storage issues, we picked up two Billy bookcases from Ikea and put them on either side of the desk. Now they have a place for everything, even a place for their snow globe collection where their brothers can't reach them.
I'm still working on the decorative aspect of this room. These pictures need to get hung up, two of them are paintings that the girls did with noodles and string and pom poms. The other is a canvas that Madison painted last year. And now that turquoise chair has a place too!

Hope you enjoyed! And I will share more as I continue to add flair to this room. Come back tomorrow when I share a scrapbook sketch and the first of four different ways that I used it!

The Blue Chair

My 6 week photography class is now over and although I am sad that I will no longer get assignments and be able to share my pictures with my classmates, I am excited about everything that I have learned. I have gone from taking mediocre pictures on semi-auto modes of my camera, to shooting fully in manual and knowing how and why I choose the settings that I do. One of the things that we learned towards the end of the class was about visually interesting photos and using props, namely chairs. I was so excited to go to the Salvation Army to look for a cheap wooden chair that I could paint a bright color and use in some fun shots. Here is what I found for only $7.00!
It was boring white and wood and was crying out for a really fun color. So I went to Lowe's and bought some Valspar spray paint in Mediterranean Blue. I am so in love with this chair! That night I went out with my girls and my friend Kristina and her daughter Kaydence. We went out into what looked like the middle of the desert and found this great bush with bright yellow flowers. This was the perfect spot and we chose to go out about an hour before sunset to get a nice warm glow. Here is my favorite shot of my friends' daughter...
Isn't she adorable?! She loved this hat that I brought and was being such an adorable little ham! I also got a few minutes to shoot pictures of my girls although it was cold and windy. Here is my little Kaley Bailey...
She couldn't even take her jacket off because it was too cold. And my beautiful way-too-grown-up Madison...
I was so pleased with how these pictures came out that I decided to take it out into our side yard and place against our wood fence in the shade. Then I convinced the boys that they wanted their picture taken and they went with it. First up is Zachary...
I love these striped shirts against the blue chair and wood fence! And then maybe the most priceless face that I have ever seen... my sweet Gabriel...
How can that not just melt your heart?! Well, needless to say I am now excited about finding more cool chairs to paint bright colors and use in new ways! So always be on the lookout for a good deal and a new way to use something old!

Spring Brunch Centerpieces

I recently had a spring brunch with some family and I decided to take that opportunity to try something that I had been wanting to do for quite some time. These fabric lollipops are what started this whole hair applique business and they turned out to be such a cute centerpiece for the tables. I knew that we were going to use a large dining table so I made the main centerpiece very long.
This planter box I bought at Target and it was I think brown to start off but then I spray painted it with my good ole Heirloom White spray paint and then put floral foam in the bottom. I made the fabric lollipops with t-shirt fabric that I bought at Joann's. The pink and blue I bought by the yard, the green I bought a $2.25 t-shirt and then just cut strips out of it. The yellow is actually white fabric that I bought by the yard and then spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Lemon Zest. I hot glued the strips while twisting them onto circles of cardstock. I had to make two for each lollipop because I then sandwiched them together with hot glue and the dowel in the middle. I tied a ribbon onto them and tah dah!
I covered the floral foam with green rafia grass (which was perfect being just before Easter!) The banner is made of little rectangles that I cut from patterned scrapbook paper and then I ran them through my sewing machine with a straight stitch and adhered them with glue dots and ribbon bows. This was how I displayed our dessert also... cake pops! Yummy! You can tell that the bottom picture was after we had devoured about half of them!

This is the smaller version that I made for the kids' table. Just like the big one but with fewer lollipops (and cake pops!) I only attached a ribbon bow to this one. The planter is also from Target and I didn't have to spray paint this one because it was already this great purple color!

Did you make any fun centerpieces for Spring this year? Or have you ever combined a centerpiece with showcasing dessert before?

Bedroom Corner

There is a corner in our bedroom that is kind of behind the door where I knew I wanted to put this little setup. These 8x8 frames are from Creative Memories and I got them before I stopped selling it years ago. They are magnetic and so they are very easy to change out the layouts and I don't have any glass to deal with. I have two 12x12 versions downstairs also.
Here is a close up of the four frames. Obviously I have one for each child and I try to change out the layouts every season. They then go into 8x8 albums that I have for each of the kids. Instant albums... I love it! The only thing I wish is that the ribbon wasn't there going across them. They come with little black clothespins so that you can clip things onto it but it just seems to be in my way. I haven't yet figured out how to take them off without ruining the frames. The black circles in each corner are the magnets that hold the layout in place.
I always do the layouts with one 4x6 picture and I always put their names on it. These layouts have been up for quite a while but the colors went so well in our room that I have left them up.
This little antique sewing machine table sits under it. It is something that has been in my family for a long time and I love that I own it now. On top is a beautiful doily, a vase that my grandmother gave me (that I finally bought flowers for) it's from Thailand, and the glass lotion bottle that was my great grandmother's complete with her lotion still in it, and a little glass dish that was hers also. It has been almost 10 years since she passed away and I like having these little pieces of her surrounding me.
This is the opposite corner of the entry into the bathroom. The only reason why I show this to you is because that framed picture of my husband and I used to be in between the four magnetic frames at our old house. It didn't fit in this house so I split them up. The picture we took using a tripod and remote and then I did some fancy stuff in Photoshop Elements to it and printed it at Costco. Now it sits here in our little workout corner. I have just recently started back on the elliptical after 2 months off (shame on me!).

I love creating scrapbook layouts but often times they go directly into albums and I don't get to enjoy them much. It is nice to have places like this that I can rotate my creations and get to see them before they get put away. The bigger ones downstairs are more for seasonal pages like at Christmas I put up last year's Christmas morning layout, and St. Patrick's Day I put up the girls' clover artwork. The clipboards that are in my office are for current 12x12 pages that I complete and want to enjoy. You can see that here
I hope to get into my room today and create something, as much as Spring Cleaning makes me feel good creating something for just a little while will make me feel better!

Spring is Here!

Here in the High Desert spring has been teasing us. One day it is beautiful and the sun is shining and then last week it was snowing! But I have decided to make spring stay put for awhile at least inside my house so I have been very busy getting my craftiness on!
Friday night my friend Kristina and I got together and made these moss covered letters. We each did the first letter of our last name, it was incredibly messy but I love how it turned out! Now I want to find a bigger ampersand and do the same thing. This is now sitting up on the top shelf of our chunky shelves in the dining room.
This is my take on Becky Higgins topiary found here I couldn't find enough of the right flowers (nor could I afford that many!) to cover a whole Styrofoam ball, so while I was at Tai Pan last week I picked up this green ball for like $4.00. I had this buttery yellow vase sitting around that I bought at Marshalls for $6.99. I did just like Becky's tutorial: filled the pot with floral foam stuck a spray painted dowel into the ball and the foam and then covered the foam with moss (leftover from the letter project) and added a couple of pears! So easy!
I did just like I said I was going to and spray painted this wreath stand Heirloom white and then distressed it. I love how it now pops against the buffet and the wall. The Easter Egg wreath tutorial is from the last post found here .
I have added to my apothecary jar collection and filled these ones with various fake fruit. I love the colors (especially the lemons with the raspberries and blackberries). Ok and I held my camera up to take this picture because I'm not that tall and I just realized that there is a Nerf gun dart up there! Didn't know that!... I guess that is life with little boys.
I also created this over the weekend. Now this one is also from Becky Higgins and I followed it as closely as I could. You can find it here I just loved the colors of it. The candle stick I got at Home Goods and spray painted it Sun Yellow from Rust0leum.
I also added a few pretty flowers to our bedroom. I will be sharing more about this little corner in a couple of days. I love the yellow against the blue!
I got really spray paint happy this weekend apparently! This little pot I have had for so long I can't even remember where I got it. It used to be olive green and went very well with my "Tuscan Dungeon" decor that I used to have. But now it is Sun Yellow and slightly distressed then filled with a mixture of pretty pink flowers and some foam fruit (yes, I had that much fake fruit thanks to my friend!) that I stuck wooden skewers into to add into the arrangement. The grapes I just tucked into the vase. This now sits in my laundry room and makes it a little more cheery! Couldn't we all use a little more cheeriness when doing laundry?

Easter Wreath Revamp

As I was perusing the dollar section of Target I found this cute little egg wreath for only $2.50. I thought that it was perfect for my house but a little plain. I wasn't crazy about seeing the seams on the eggs and how all of the eggs were the same finish, aren't Easter eggs supposed to be like snowflakes... no two are ever the same (at least when my girls decorate them!) So I brought this home and used supplies from my stash to make it unique.

I used these Queen & Co. adhesive rhinestones in the same turquoise color to make stripes across the eggs.

I used Distress Stickles to create little polka dots on the pink eggs.
And Distress Crackle paint in Mustard Seed for the yellow eggs. I didn't worry about covering the whole eggs just the front and a little of the sides.
I also painted some green acrylic paint on the green ones and then sprinkled a little Martha Stewart glitter on them while the paint was wet. And I covered the surrounding eggs while I sprayed some Tattered Angels glimmer mist in purple on the purple eggs, they looked dyed and I love it!

So here is my one of a kind wreath that only cost me $2.50 and it goes perfectly on my new wreath stand that I picked up on clearance at Michael's, although I want to spray paint it Heirloom white and then distress it a little. Happy Spring... even though it was snowing here last night!

DIY Chunky Shelves

I saw these really incredible shelves on the House of Smith's blog a while back and have been wanting to re-create them in our dining room. I knew that the perfect place was above that buffet but it took us a little while to get to that point. Now that the wall is painted and the buffet is done we (mostly Neil) got the shelves done too! This is what the House of Smith's looked like...
Aren't they amazing?! And the full tutorial is here, Neil built them and then I filled in the holes with the wood filler and painted them and then he hung them... a true team effort! So these are ours...
I'm still working on actually decorating them since I have never had so many places to put decorations before, especially Spring/Easter decorations! I just took a trip to Tai Pan and Home Goods, plus raided the dollar section at Target so I'm getting there!
For right now this is my set up. The wreath on that new wreath stand I will be sharing more about tomorrow. I can't wait to craft and pillage some more fun vintage-y finds to put on these shelves for oh so many different occasions.
So here is where this wall goes right into the kitchen (please don't look too closely!). I would like to get a new dining table set at some point as soon as I think our kids can handle it. They are almost there.

Things I Love...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!
Although I am still in the middle of a couple of little projects to finish up my new Valentine's decor, I will share with you some of the things that I have finished and things that I am just loving right now. First off is this wreath...
I saw this in the back of the Scrapbooks Etc. magazine and knew that I had to make one for myself. It wasn't until I went to buy the stuff for it that I realized that theirs was only an 8" wreath (too small for me) and it used 1" wide strips of paper (too bulky). So here is my version, a 12" wreath form covered in 1/2" strips that are an old SEI collection called Twitterpated that I have had in my stash for over a year.
The lollipop is just a felt scalloped circle glued behind a circle that I cut out of matching paper and then used a rubon from Making Memories that I have had forever (I love to use up old products in my stash), I added a lollipop stick and some ribbon and glued it on!
The time consuming/pain in my rear part of this was hot gluing all of those strips on. I think I may have burned off my fingerprints from all of the hot glue burns! But I do love how it came out and I finished it off with some glue and chunky glitter. I am loving turquoise and pink this year, as you can tell...
I am loving jars lined up on my mantle right now, filled with little love treasures. I will definitely have to get more Ball jars for next year, maybe even some blue ones!
I whipped up some of these super easy ribbon flags using American Crafts valentine's ribbon that I picked up for a dollar a spool last year at Michael's. There are little buttons that I hot glued onto the ends and then I just placed them in this jar on my mantle.
I really love these Valentine's Day kitchen towels that I picked up at Target the other day. I am definitely noticing a turquoise theme everywhere I go this year.
I just couldn't resist picking up some red & white spice drops at Winco to fill up one of my Apothecary jars. The heart candies I have had for a couple of years now from another candle holder.
And most of all, I love these roses that I picked up at Vons on Friday. I bought them for each of the girls and then took them into their classes to tell them how much I love them and to make them feel special. They were very surprised and kept smelling these roses all afternoon. Now they are filling my kitchen with thoughts and smells of love.
Well, I am off to Disneyland today with my hubby and the girls. The girls are out of school today so we are going to take advantage of it. Can't wait to spend the day with them, the boys will be here at the house getting love and attention from their great grandparents, and then we will spend a quiet evening at home watching a movie on the couch as a family. I love Valentine's Day!
Hope you all have a great one!

Valentine's Decor Project

I went to Marshall's for the first time and I believe that I left there saying to myself "why haven't I come here before!" I was in love with so many things but only bought a couple of home decor items. Two vases that I will have to share later once I actually buy the flowers to go in them, and this frame that was $7.99. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it...
This adorable little piece now sits on the cabinet just outside my downstairs bathroom. I used some Love Me Do collection papers from My Mind's Eye that I picked up last year.
I measured and cut white cardstock to fit the frame and then cut these two frames and pop dotted the red one to add some yummy dimension. I don't know about you but I am in love with turquoise this year!
Then I picked out several of the coordinating papers and punched hearts out of them and just started laying them out until I was happy with the pattern. I got out my new sewing machine (and actually threaded it myself this time!) and I stitched down the center of each heart. I did have to adhere the hearts down with one little strip of adhesive just off center to keep them in place so I could sew them down. Then I lifted up the sides to make them pop! I took out the glass from the frame so it had enough room, and that was it! Super simple and super cute!

More decor stuff coming tomorrow with stuff I have done using my Silhouette SD.