This beautiful piece of art was my Mother’s Day gift from my sweet Lilly Jane.  I couldn’t believe this amazing gift that she created all by herself!  I grabbed  her up, spun her around, and begged her to teach me how to make one!!!  This isn’t the first time I have begged my child to teach me something crafty.  Remember when she got off the bus carrying these awesome paper stars!?!?!  I think I made 30 that afternoon!

You too can make this very cool, very easy aluminum foil art project.  Grab an old frame that has a glass front.  Take the glass out and line the inside with crumbled up aluminum foil.

Grab your sharpies!!  First use your black sharpie to make lots of different shapes on the glass.

Next use all your favorite color sharpies to fill in the shapes.

Oh yeah you know it!!!  I make her wear this shirt all the time!

Once you are done filling in all the shapes, put the glass back in the frame over the aluminium foil.

Ta-da!!!!  It’s a beautiful stain glass expensive looking piece of art!!!

These photos don’t do it justice!  You just have to try one for yourself!!!

We made a couple more!  Off to the grocery store to pick up some more aluminum foil!!!

Happy Friday!  xoxxoxo Angela

I decided this past weekend that I was going to hit some yard sales and wasn’t coming back until I had scored several pieces of furniture!  I woke up wayyyyyy early Saturday morning, drank wayyyyyyy too much coffee, and left the house at 6:30 am.  Yes I am that person sitting outside your house waiting for you to hurry up and open up your garage and start your sale!  It’s true, the early bird gets the worm!!!

Here’s some of the fun stuff I found on my little yard sale adventure……

I’m a sucker for original paintings.  This painting on canvas was $8.00 and will be going in my guest room.

$1.00 sign and $1.00 basket.

I have a list on my phone of things that my friends have asked me to look for while I’m out and about.  I can’t wait to give this to my friend who has been looking for a Cuckoo clock!!  This never been out of the box clock was $12.00 and the pea candle that I just couldn’t pass up was $1.00.

$5.00 end table.

$4.00 Picnic baskets!

This is ugly, but at $1.00 I already have a plan for this guy!

$8.00 vanity and stool.  Just the stool alone is worth the $8.00!!!  I can not wait to paint these two pieces and recover the stool.  Bye Bye viney flowers!

I think this was my favorite find of the day.  It use to hold an old radio but was replaced with two little shelves.  I’m going to fix the shelves and paint!  I might be keeping this for myself!  $10.00

Little end tables sell really well, especially when painted blue! hahaha!  $6.00

$20.00 dresser!  Finally a dresser that doesn’t cost $80.00!!!

This shelf unit is pretty ugly too, but has sooooo much potential!  I am hoping I have enough barn wood to enclose the sides and back.  At $10.00 it will be fun to play with!

Oh yes, I had to feed my shoe addiction by grabbing these new Steve Madden heels for $2.00

I almost died when I saw these $3.00 Vintage cowboy boots!  The lady selling them said they belonged to her grandmother and she tried and tried to wear them but they were just too small!  Well guess which Cinderella they fit!!!?!?  They are sooooooo soft and already broken in!!!  Is it fall yet!?!?

Not bad for a Saturday morning!  Guess I have some projects to get working on!!!  Anyone want to come help paint!!!

What is your favorite yard sale find!?!?!

xoxoxo Angela

Here’s an example of a non-compatible yard sale partner.  I will not use names to protect the innocent.  My dear dear friend asked if she could join me one Saturday morning, and I said sure knowing how much I love her company.  This dear dear friend is a chatter box.  Normally I love her chattering ways but there is no place for that while hitting yard sales.  Yes chatting in the car while driving to the next sale absolutely, but not while shopping.  Once you arrive at a sale, you approach quickly, skim items available, purchase items quickly without talking, and then back in the car walking very briskly the whole time.  My dear dear chatter box friend wanted to talk to the people putting on the sale, their kids, and everyone else who was there shopping.  She had questions about what they were selling and why.  Were they moving? Were they just cleaning out the house? Was it hard to get rid of their stuff?  On and on with the questions.  I think we made it to like 3 sales that whole morning.  And she was a very slow walker.  I love my dear dear friend to pieces and we will still hang out but we will not be attending anymore yard sales together.  hahahaha!

So the last yard sale I went to I found this.  The lady wanted $50.00, and I could only talk her down to $40.00.  $40.00 was a little more than I wanted to pay but I loveddddddddddd the desk and knew it would be so beautiful painted blue.  Of course blue, are you so sick of blue yet?

I bought this chair a while ago at Value City Thrift Store in Mooresville, NC.

It had been marked down to $10.10 as you can see because they write on the furniture!  WHYYYYYY!?!?  And wonder why $10.10!?!?!  That extra dime almost scared me away.

My sweet neighbor and friend Kim came over and chatted with me while I painted.  See I really do like to talk and chat.  There is just a time and place for it and a yard sale ain’t the place.

Because I failed upholstery school and I loved this vintage fabric that was already on the chair, I decided to paint around it.  Took a little longer than I thought it would and I had to be a lot more careful than I normally like to be.  Thumbs down on this project.

Distressing.

Before and after glaze.

  I took both pieces to 32 Flavors Boutique last Friday.  I sold the desk the next day for $160.00!!  $160.00 won’t pay our mortgage but it sure will help support my yard sale habit.  Anyone need a chair!?!  Anyone want to hit some yard sales tomorrow!?

Help!!!!!!  If you live in the Charlotte or Bristol area and have any furniture pieces you would like to sell, please let me know!  Thrift stores have gone up so much on their prices and I’m enjoying lazy Saturday mornings at home with the family more and more so finding furniture at yard sales has been tough!

Happy Friday!! Hope you have a weekend full of inspiration and lots of crafty projects! xoxo Angela

OK, so I try to play it cool when I’m around people that I totally love and admire.  But let me tell you when I went to the Haven Conference with The Nester last year, I was anything but cool!  The Nester is friends with Miss Mustard Seed, one of my all time favorite people that I don’t know and stalk online.  While Nester and Miss Mustard Seed chatted it up, I stood there like a complete mute that had never carried on a conversation in her life.  I had no words, just a goofy smile, and crazy eyes because I was staring at Miss Mustard Seed in real life.  I’m sure I made her uncomfortable and she probably alerted the authorities after Nester and I walked away.   I have just been so inspired by this amazing talented creative artist and just wanted to tell her.  Instead I think I mumbled something about the yummy snacks that were available.  Dork.

But guess what!?!?!?!?  I have a chance to redeem myself!!  Miss Mustard Seed and I are both speaking at Becoming Conference this year!!!!

Becoming 2013 | August 9th-10th

We are so excited to invite you to join us for the third annual Becoming Conference.

Hosted once again in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, NC on Friday and Saturday, August 9 and 10, 2013.

I have been so blessed to be a part of this awesome amazing conference the past two years.  Such a wonderful experience that when you walk away you feel inspired, encouraged, refreshed, and your cup is full.  Full of the good stuff people!!!!!

Becoming 2013 is a weekend designed to encourage and inspire women to live intentionally by becoming more creative, purposeful, and frugal. As women, many of us desire to be more intentional with our time and financial resources; more intentional with our family and homes, but aren’t sure how to make that happen.

As we gather from all walks of life, we will tackle some of those day to day issues that typically seem mundane. Our desire is that you will leave, not only refreshed, but encouraged, empowered, and motivated with the practical and tangible ideas you have received. Hopefully, by tackling the mundane, they will now have a sense of magic.

From personal finance, meal planning, entertaining on a budget, thrifting, home decor, trash to treasure, and more, Becoming 2013 will revolutionize the way we think, not just about our finances, but our homes.

The two awesome women behind this amazing conference!!  Jenny of Southern Savers and Jenny of  Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!!!  Loveeeeeeeeee and admire them.  When they spoke the past two years opening night I was taking down notes as fast as I could and learned so much!  Check out the other amazing speakers that will be at Becoming this year!!!  Oh my gosh too many people to stalk in one weekend!!!

Here I am speaking last year and not throwing up!!!  Did I mention that public speaking is my greatest fear!!!  Yes you should totally attend this conference just to get a chuckle of me up on stage!!!  This year I will speaking about creative inspiration and also teaching an art workshop!

If you are super cheap frugal like me you are going to love the cost of this conference.   This is such an affordable weekend!!!  You pretty much get your money back in the sweet goodie bag you receive when you check in!  I wait all year for this bag!!  Check out the registration details and break down of prices here.

If you don’t have plans August 9-10, I would love love love for you to join me in the mountains for some major inspiration, encouragement, and just a little bit of stalking!

Dear Mom, do you have any plans?  Would you like to be my roommate and date for the weekend!?

xoxoxo Angela

My friend gave me this little side table recently.

I was in such a hurry and excited to get this painted that I didn’t take time to sand it.  I didn’t realize how thick the paint drips and blobs were from the previous paint job.  I was heading to 32 Flavors Boutique the next day and wanted to take this with me to sell in my space.  I didn’t have time to start over sanding and repainting.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw this little wooden print that my neighbor gave me.  I almost donated it because I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with it.  All of a sudden that silly nonsanding mistake opened my eyes to a new idea!  See mistakes can be good!

Totally need to work on my measuring and straight line drawing!

I cut down the print with a jigsaw and then sanded the edges.

A little liquid nails and this print was not going anywhere!!

Finished just in time to take with me to 32 Flavors Boutique!!

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my 39 years.  ALOT.  ALOT.  In life, in mothering, and in creating.  I am learning that real beauty can come from those mistakes.  Pretty profound for a Monday morning!  When I finally let go that everything had to be perfect or look a certain way when creating, that is when true joy and love for creating came.  When I stopped beating myself up for making mistakes when painting or sewing or whatever I was working on and instead embraced those mistakes, I truly enjoyed the process.  Just like my dear friend The Nester says over and over, It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.  Amen sister.

I would love to hear of a mistake you made in any area of your life that turned out to be a beautiful blessing!!

Happy Monday! xoxoxo Angela

It’s been almost 3 months since I painted my kitchen cabinets.  I loveeeeeee the new cabinets and so far the paint has held up great.

We finally painted the green walls a fresh light grey!!!  

I hung pieces of old wood around the kitchen to give it a old distressed barn feel.    I would love to distress and ding up the cabinets but my husband would definitely kill me, so I’m just going to stick to the wood pieces.

I finally broke down and bought a Keurig.  I had decided against it until I saw this color and I was instantly sold!  I’m such a sucker for Turquoise.

Yard sale spoons spray painted cream.

And my new favorite addition to my kitchen!!!  My bestest friend Tonya gave me this clock that she made out of old pieces of wood!  Ahhhhhh it makes me sooooo happy every time I look at it!  I love to incorporate handmade gifts from friends into my home.

Here’s the back in case you are interested in grabbing some scrape wood and making your own.  You can get the clock parts at Hobby Lobby or Michael’s and they’re so simple to install.

So with my kitchen finally finished I am beyond happy with how it turned out.  I am cooking a little bit more just because I love spending time in this space.  Pinterest has become my new online cookbook!  If you have a favorite cookbook that is good for beginners please let me know!!!

xoxoxo Angela

]]> http://buttonbirddesigns.com/2013/05/the-kitchen-that-was-suppose-to-make-me-cook.html/feed 12 http://buttonbirddesigns.com/2013/05/the-kitchen-that-was-suppose-to-make-me-cook.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ButtonBirdDesigns/~3/cqLI31mnrlo/shadow-box-love.html http://buttonbirddesigns.com/2013/04/shadow-box-love.html#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:06:52 +0000 angela http://buttonbirddesigns.com/?p=3127 My dad was in the military when I was a child.  We moved every 2-3 years until I was in the tenth grade.  It was hard at the time moving so often, but now that I look back at it, it was pretty cool to live in all those different places.  One such place was Munich, Germany.  It was there that my parents gave me my first shadow box.  Shadow boxes were a big thing in Germany.  I loved it and used it to store all my super special collections and treasures.  To this day I still get goose bumps when I see a shadow box.  I stumble across them from time to time at yard sales or in thrift stores.  If I see one I will definitely knock someone out of the way to get to it first.

I found the green one at Goodwill last week for $2.99.  A friend gave me the white one and the blue shadow box and the smaller one came from a yard sale for a $1.00 each.

I pulled out my paints,

my stamp collection, (nothing says cool girl like stamp collection)

and some pretty paper.

Nothing helps the creative process more than coffee and Nutter Butter cookies.

If you need a shadow box to brighten your day, you can find these at Sanctuary of Davidson!!!

Happy Monday!  xoxoxo Angela

32 Flavors Boutique has moved and I am going with them!!  Michaella and Ann moved 32 Flavors from Huntersville, NC to Charlotte, NC into a beautiful old house with lots of space!  Enough space that they offered me a little corner of my own!  Can I just tell you how excited I am to be a part of this amazing boutique!!!  I’m over the moon!  The location is awesome, right on East Blvd. and the house is so cool!  Wood floors, fireplaces, even a room totally devoted to art classes!!

  So I loaded up the truck, Yep I might have accidentally traded in the old mini van in for a truck!!!  A big ole black truck that is!  I have alwaysssss wanted a truck ever since I was a little girl.  The one I dreamed about had giant tires, exhaust side pipes, and big KC lights on top.   First of all why is a little girl dreaming about exhaust pipes!?!?!  This truck is not all red-necked out YET, but I’m working on it!  My mom was concerned when I first bought the truck.  She was worried that there wouldn’t be enough room for my kids and all their friends.  My plan is working…insert evil laugh here.

I loaded up the bed (that’s truck talk) and headed into Charlotte!  The boutique is about 20 minutes from my house.  I had to get over my fear of the Charlotte roads, traffic, and all those lanes, but now that I have made the drive a couple of times, I feel like such a big girl driving around in the city!  This momma will take an empty country road over 4 lanes of bumper to bumper crazy drivers any day of the week.  I think I’ve only flipped a couple of people off.  I kid.

I started unloading my stuff about 10:00 in the morning and 4 hours later and rearranging things 355 times I finally came up with this……

Meet Michaella Dalton, owner of 32 Flavors Boutique.  I totallllllllly admire this girl.  She’s younger than I am but knows nothing about fear.  She just decides what she wants to do and does it.  I am inspired by her I can do anything I set my mind to attitude.  When I grow up I want to own my own boutique too.  I hope some of Michaella’s no fear in going after her dreams will rub off on me.  I just love being around her.

This is Ann Silosky, the other owner of 32 Flavors.  This girl just cracks me up!  She is one of those people that if you hang out with too long your cheeks and stomach hurt from laughing so much.  Such a positive, uplifting, happy person who brings so much light to the boutique.  And did I mention she is the most amazing jewelry artist!?  I promise to go back now that the boutique is open and all beautiful and takes lots of photos.  I will be sure to include Ann’s amazing works of art.  If you can’t wait for my photos and want to see her work you can find her at Silosky’s Jewels on Facebook.  I would add a link but I took the plunge and am no longer on Facebook.  It’s amazing all the extra time I have on my hands now!!!  I have no friends but lots of time!

And here I am striking an awkward please get the camera away from me pose!  I never can just act normal when someone points a camera at me!  Spaze.

So if you’re in the Charlotte area and want to get your fill of art, jewelry, and beautiful handmade gifts please stop by 32 Flavors Boutique!!  More photos of this amazing boutique coming soon!

224 East Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28203

You can also find more of my Button Bird Designs goodies at Sanctuary of Davidson.  An awesome gallery in Davidson, NC where everything is handmade by local artists.  Another one of my favorite spots!!!

I found this awesome vintage inspired nursery rhyme fabric at Mary Jo’s Cloth Store in Gastonia, NC.

 I cut the yard of fabric into rectangles around each nursery rhyme.

Added a little pocket on each pillow to make it easier for the tooth fairy when she is searching for that little tooth in the middle of the night!

A little stuffing!

The tooth fairy has been super busy at out house lately!

You can find these tooth fairy pillows at Sanctuary of Davidson and also in my new space at 32 Flavors Boutique’s new location in Charlotte, NC.  Can’t wait to share more details about that this week!

Hope you have a beautiful, inspiring Monday!  xoxoxo Angela

My husband says I should make it a rule not to buy pillows from thrifts stores.  As far as he is concerned you shouldn’t buy anything from a thrift store.  Silly man.  Luckily this is where we Do NOT agree.  I found this pillow at Value Village Thrift Store for 2.99!  It was brand new with the tags still on!!!  And guess what!?!  I bought it.

Tracy and I went to Metrolina Flea market and Antique Show  a couple of months ago where I scored 3 of these burlap flowers for a couple of dollars each.

Crazy girls!

I loved these handmade flowers and as someone who loves to sew, I could only imagine the amount of time that went into each petal.  The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was the lace around the center, so I took some scissors and got rid of it.

Enter hot glue station.

A $5.00, 5 minute pillow redo!!

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