All in the Family

Remember my sister, Em?  I made the scrapbook paper wall plaques for her new apartment as a little house warming present.  Well, it turns out that she has a creative side too!  And she's even better than me!  Where I mostly use other's ideas for my inspiration, she's actually used her noggin to completely design and create her own diy home decor.  This is perfect for college students who are trying to decorate their dorm rooms or those moving into their first apartment and don't have a big budget for decorating.  I'm so excited to be able to feature her project!

Here's what she made!  Isn't it cute!  She used the  tops off of old shoe boxes to make this super cool, modern wall display.  Canvas is pricey, and if you are anything like my sister and love shoes, you have TONS of shoe boxes in your closet  just waiting for you to create something beautiful.

 She took her box tops and painted them these pretty, bright colors to match her bedroom.

 She found a spool of thread to use as a template to draw her circles.

Then she traced her lines.

And then she finger painted her design!  She is so smart :) I bet this entire project cost her less than $3 because all she had to buy was the paint.  Am I right, Em?

And now she has something totally fabulous to hang above her bed!

Good job Em!  I can't wait to see what you make next!

Long Time, No See Friends

And I have a good reason.  I had my wisdom teeth out last Thursday.  Here I am trying to eat soupy mashed potatoes with my mouth still numb and a ice pack wrapped around my head.  Boy, do I look pretty (looking at myself reminds me that I really need to dye my hair).  Thanks goodness I have a sweet, sweet husband who wiped the potatoes from my lips and face when they lingered there too long.  I couldn't feel anything, so how was I supposed to know they got left behind?  My sweet, sweet husband waited on me hand and foot the entire weekend and even brewed excellent cups of coffee for me.  And you know me, I'm very particular about my coffee ;)

I thought I'd be way down the recovery road by now, but I'm still having sporadic pain throughout my entire head/face/jaw.  I'm hoping it's not dry socket.  I go to the dentist for my post-op check up tomorrow so if you're the praying kind, I'd appreciate prayers concerning my healing, my appointment tomorrow, and maybe you could ask Him to also cut me a little slack in the pain department too?  And while your at it, ask if He could take out the calories from all the ice cream I ate over the weekend.  It sure did make my mouth feel good, but it's not gonna make my butt look good.  :-/

Back to School!

stolen from my SIL's facebook ;)

 Our nephew, Jax, is starting pre-k this year!  Isn't he a handsome devil? 

I wanted to do something special for him to celebrate his first day,  so Justin and I filled this cool Crayola thermos with goodies!  Along with new pencils (I found the free pencil tags over at eighteen25), we stuffed some Toy Story magnets and skittles in it.

Then we wrote a note on the back of a free back to school clip art that I printed out.  He was so excited to get his present!  I think I just started a sweet, little, back to school tradition for him =)

DIY Scrapbook Paper Wall Plaques

My sister, Em, is moving into a new apartment this semester and she doesn't have much of a budget to spend on home decor.  I told her "No, problem!  Let me make ya something!"  Big sister to the rescue! ;)

Fab Find Friday: Upcycled Kitchen Mat

My house has become a recycling center.  Ha ha, not really but I've been trying to make our house look nice and homey with little money as possible.  I've been thrift store shopping, garage sale hunting and re-purposing some of our old decor to make it look new!  One of our neighbors had a garage sale a few months ago and I bought her old kitchen mat, painted it, and made it my own! 

See the mat on the left there?  That's the one I painted!  

DIY Distressed Vase

This was my first DIY project.  I loved this wooden vase.  I loved the hydrangeas.  I loved the hydrangeas in the vase.  I loved the hydrangeas in the vase on this dresser.  They were perfect for the guest bedroom.  I didn't love the brown on brown  of the vase against the dresser.

So, I decided to paint it.  I roughed it up a bit with sand paper so that the paint would stick.  I primed it and then used spray paint to color it a nice creamy color.  After the paint was dry, I used sand paper to make the distress marks so it would have that old rustic feel that I love so much.  After I was done distressing, I put the hydrangeas back in and it looked so pretty!

I really love the way it turned out!  The cream color looks great with the dresser.  And the distressing gives it that antique feel that goes great with the family heirloom accent pieces that I have around it.  The jewelry box was my grandma's, the perfume bottle was my mama's, the compact was my great grandma's (and it even has powder still in it!) and the harmonica was given to me by my sister last year for Christmas, well because it has my last name in it.  We now call it the HARMON-ica.  Ha ha. 

Project In Progress: Desk Refinishing

Here's a little something that I'm working on....

I can't wait until it's finished so that I can reveal the before and after pictures.  This has been a challenge, a learn as ya go, learn from your mistakes, kind of project. But I think I'm doing alright for my first ever refinished piece!

Guest Bathroom

You got a little taste of what the guest bathroom looked like when I blogged about making the hanging votive wall candle holder.  Here is the rest!

I love the colors of this bathroom.  I normally don't like purple but this deep purple mixed with the aqua blue is so beautiful.  The purple towels are new thanks to some fabulous cousin-in-laws and the blue towels are left over from my single days.  They were still in good shape and they went perfectly with the new decor.

Does this look familiar?  I'm still in awe that I created that design.  I'm a good copier but rarely do I come up with an idea all on my own!

I love the design of the soap dispenser and the toothbrush holder.  It has a raised modern daisy chain design.  We have the trash can to match (can't see it in the pics though).  I had these bottles in my bathroom before we got married and I was able to use them again because they went so well with the color scheme.

 I think that the bathroom still needs a little work making it look a little prettier, but for now, it's working and looking really well!

DIY Dog Pillow/Bed

Sweet little Dexter has been so mistreated.  He's been sleeping in his crate with just this measly old blanket to keep him comfortable. 



He'd rather lay on this old egg crate than that hard crate tray.  Hmmm....my wheels are turning.  I think I feel a project coming on!  I think I'll repurpose this old egg crate and a fleece blanket and make him his own pillow!