Paper Daisy Designs

Palette Tray v2.0

2012-02-01T11:00:00.000-06:00

As you might recall I built a tray using a palette this fall. Click here to read the post with the complete directions, because honestly now I can't remember exactly how I did it. ;)

About a month ago I got the a new Pottery Barn Catalog, and saw this tray in it. It made me realize my rustic tray could use a few improvements to really make it sing.

So I set out to add some more details to my pallet tray. An upgrade if you will.

I started by making a pilot hole about where I wanted the cut/notch to be, then attaching a hole cutter to my drill I made a big semi circle. (I'm pretty certain it's a door knob hole maker.)

When I finished with the hole cutter this is what it looked like.

I then took my jigsaw and cut the points off so that it was more smooth.

Next, I took a very deep breath and started on the handle holes. I really had no idea what I was doing or what I was going to end up with. I guess I should have done a little research. ;)

Here you will notice where I drew out the shape and made pilot holes.

Here's a lesson learned and a good tip. Make your pilot holes a little bigger, if possible with a larger bit and right at the edge of the round part of your handle. It's really hard to force the jigsaw into make that tight turn. If I had done this, I'm fairly certain I would have had more perfect looking handles holes.

But I'm really okay with it as it is, it's a rustic tray right?

Here are some finished photos. I'm still not 100% happy with the styling. It's a work in progress.

These simple updates definitely make it look more like a tray and less like a crate. :)

And I do hope to slip cover or reupholster this ottoman soon. I'm so over this color.

I loved being re-inspired to make an updated version of my free palette tray! Palette Tray v2.0, pretty cool.

Sharing here.

Squeaks and sneaks

2012-01-27T10:11:00.001-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted much this week. I have several projects in the works, but none of them are done enough to share yet.

The second half of the week I have been focused on getting my house squeaky clean. Kind of a "spring cleaning" in the dead of winter. I have a party at the house this weekend and it was really time to do things like scrub down the kitchen cabinets, wipe down baseboards etc. I was thinking, while I was cleaning, that it's really a much better deal to do "spring cleaning" in the winter because who wants to waste precious spring days cleaning anyway?

The first part of the week I was a scrapping fool. I finished up my six GCD Studios layouts for the Craft and Hobby Trade Show. Here's a few sneaks I can share now. The new lines really are soo much fun. Bright and colorful. Can't wait to work with them more!

I'm even toying with the idea of going back to doing Project Life. I did it last year but made the fatal mistake of not committing until about the third week in January and then worked backwards because I was also doing a photo a day. Needless to say it got overwhelming being behind. I think it's much better to work on it as you go. Things have stabilized around here, in that we aren't moving anytime soon and so it might just be a good time to give it another go.

Makes me smile

2012-01-18T15:27:00.000-06:00

So, one of the things I asked for this Christmas was glass canisters. I'm sure most people think this is a really strange and boring gift request, but once I got them home and added my own touch to them they made me smile.

They make me smile every time I walk into the kitchen and each morning I make oatmeal for breakfast or every time I make cookies. The beauty of their simplicity and convenience just makes me happy. I feel like I've created a little baking center in that corner of the kitchen with my much loved candy apple red Kitchen Aid mixer right there.

Man, it's the little things life that make us happy sometimes, isn't it? No pulling out all the plastic containers I had in the pantry when I bake and measuring cups actually fit down in the canisters!! Happy, happy!

To create the labels I used chalkboard paint I already had from creating a chalkboard I apparently haven't shared, because I couldn't find it. Anyway, I used my Slice cutter by Making Memories to cut the shape of the "stencil" and then painted several layers of chalkboard paint.

If you look closely you will see that the paint bled just a smidge on almost all of them. But I don't mind. I think it makes them look hand made and charming. :) I labeled each canister with a chalk marker which was so much easier than writing with regular chalk on a curve.

Of course, I could have just purchase ready made chalkboard adhesive labels, but I wanted the project done as soon as I got them and knew I had all the supplies. The labels are very inexpensive and I actually ended up ordering some of when they came back to Very Jane to use elsewhere. (The owner, Megan, says she features them every month so join up because it's a great price!) :)

Oh, I forgot to say that the glass canisters came from Target. I also wanted to give a disclaimer that I ended up using a sheet of plastic wrap under the lid of the brown sugar to keep it from drying out.
Sharing here:

celebrating love & art

2012-01-17T16:12:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday, Richard and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary! Wow! 20 years!

It's kind of mind boggling.

I'm so lucky to have gotten to "grow up" with my husband. Being high school sweethearts and marrying after college, neither of us care to imagine what our lives would be like without each other.

And yet, we are still two very different people with a love that brings us together. We compliment each other really well. I'm the artsy, happy go lucky, "smiley" girl I've always been, well on most days. He's the thoughtful, lover of sports with a sense of humor that draws people to him, just like he did to me when I first met him. I still love that he makes me laugh, even when it's at myself.

But, if you could have told me, even ten years ago, that on our 20th Anniversary, Richard would drive to St. Louis to take me to an art gallery I think I would have laughed in your face and said, "in my dreams!"

Well, dreams really do come true, because that's exactly what we did this weekend. :)

But let's back up a little because on Wednesday he came home from work with 2 dozen roses. This coming from a man who rarely buys flowers. He really is becoming the romantic I knew was hiding in that macho guy.

We then shared a lovely dinner at a local steak and seafood place in town. Shocking I know to think you can get good seafood in Missouri, but if there's any to be had it would be there. I so enjoyed my lobster and risotto! Yum.

On Friday, we drove to St. Louis to have dinner at a favorite local Italian restaurant and to see the special exhibition of Claude Monet's Agapanthus Triptych at the St. Louis Museum of Art.

The three panels featuring Monet's water lillies, each 7 by 14 feet, were reunited after 30 years of being at separate museums across the country.

To see a work of this scale is just breathtaking. I loved hearing that Monet called these works "Grand Decorations" and got an explanation as to why it's called Agapanthus when clearly the painting features water lilies. The agapanthus were in the corner of original renditions that Monet painted and as the years went by he painted over them.

I loved taking it in from all angles and locations up close and wasn't too surprised after coming out of a deep inspection, to find Richard, ever the curious conversationalist, talking to the museum attendant. The attendant expressed, among other things, how was sad he was to see two of the three panels shipped off to their respective homes soon. He also pointed out his favorite angle to view the painting, which was from the side. From there you really could get an appreciation of the movement of light and color in the painting and seams seemed to disappear. So amazingly beautiful!

After that exhibit we took in the other European collection at the museum. It was so thrilling for me to see great works by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Rodain and Renoir, many of them were works I remembered studying in my art history class in college.

Van Gogh's Stairway at Auvers

Renoir's The Dreamer

I was most surprisingly enchanted to see Edgar Degas' sculpture of Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. I have seen this as reproductions before and didn't know or remember that the original sculpture, done in wax, included a tulle and gauze skirt and a flowing silk ribbon in her hair. It was quite shockingly beautiful. (It was eventually cast in bronze by his heirs in the 1920's and they chose to keep the skirt and ribbon in the original materials.)

What a lovely night at the museum! I was so filled with joy and so inspired to see such great works of art. I was more than just a little crushed when I heard whispered, "You'll need to leave, the museum will be closing soon."

We had decided after dinner to have dessert when we left the museum. With little choices around the museum and the hotel, we ended up having sundaes at Steak and Shake. :)

It was really the prefect ending to a our cultured evening. Kind of like us. A great mix. I can't wait to see what the next 20 years has in store for us. I am truly a blessed woman.

last one, from last year

2012-01-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

I wanted to finally share with you the last dresser I did before winter really hit around here. It's a shame really because after a couple weeks of cold, where I told the world, I was done painting for the season we had some unseasonably warm weather.

Here's the before, cue horrible iPhone photo. :)

I thought this piece would be a piece of cake. I'd clean the piece really good, especially the top, a little light sanding and get busy painting. I thought I'd have this piece done in no time. I'm sure that's what my client/friend thought too.

But you see those spots on the top? Those were a lot worse than they seemed. After one coat of Coco Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I knew I had a problem on my hands. The spots seeped through the paint and then seeped through Kilz. I ended up stripping the top.

Figure in some freezing temperatures off and on and this piece took a record 3 weeks to finish. Not good.

But the results, oh, I think they were good. Really good and most importantly my client loved it.

The original hardware was painted with brushed nickel and the sides were accented with 2 pearl finish craft paints. Of course, I finished the whole thing with several coats of Johnson's Wax.

She's a beauty don't you think? Sharing with.... thirty handmade days and

Scrappy Post!

2012-01-11T14:33:00.000-06:00

I finally have another scrappy post to share today. :)

I was ready to take down the Christmas card display this weekend and decided to make another scrapbook page out of the photo cards. I have been hanging them on the laundry room door for a couple years. It's a door most often kept closed and pretty visible. You can see this door at the end of a "hall" just as you pass the stairs.

I try to keep the layout to one page, so not every photo card gets used, but I try and rotate our friends and family year to year. :)

Supplies: Ribbon from Elsie, Letters from American Crafts, Chipboard stickers & number stickers from Making Memories.

I often use a portion of a card for embellishment too. This year I just loved the bright and happy "Peace, love & joy"

Admittedly, I have been having so much fun putting my creative efforts into decorating and painting projects that I didn't have much time for scrapbooking. I have also been in a bit of a "paper funk"! When I created this page today I realized that the "funk" I've been feeling is probably rooted in my printer situation. Just trying to print the names out was a complete headache.

I have an Epson Artisan 800 which has become a mighty ink hog and is constantly requiring that the heads to be cleaned. Hugely frustrating.

The other printer I bought about a year ago (because I always felt the Epson printed photos too dark) is the Canon Selphy CP780. I loved it. I always got great photos that came out they way I expected. I even figured out how to outsmart it and make it print mini photos. It was great. And then sometime this year I finally got around to upgrading my Mac to Lion and found out that Canon has no intentions of creating a driver to work with Lion!!! Grrr!

Hence, my frustrations with scrapbooking. I had really gotten used to the process of printing the photos I wanted at the exact size and time I needed them. :(

I'm going to have to figure out a solution because I was invited to return to GCD Studios as a Layout Designer for another year! I am so excited to have another year of fun with GCD Studios and Heidi Sonboul, the design team coordinator, who got her own line this year! Yea for Heidi!

It's so very cute! And Happy!

The other lines are equally as fabulous, but this one called Splendor by Heather Tozzi is stunning. I could use these papers to decorate my house and plan on some incorporating some decor projects!! Love it!

I can't wait to get the new stuff and start creating layouts for the CHA Winter show!! I better figure out how I'm going to outsmart, out-wit or just be plain happy with my printers.

Winter Mantle

2012-01-05T13:53:00.001-06:00

We traditionally take down the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day. To me, it's officially the end of the holiday season and it's a good low key thing to do on a day after you stayed up way past your bedtime.

Here's a iPhone shot of the mantle during the holidays. I regret I didn't get to photograph it properly, but I think that's an indication of how crazy it was around here.

This was a fairly big deviation from what I normally do on the mantle, not so much in the elements, but how I hung the garland and the stockings. Even though it looks very different than what I traditionally do, the only thing new was the taller apothecary jar.

I don't know about you, but the one thing I really don't like about taking down Christmas decorations is how boring the house looks afterward. I wanted to slowly transition out of the bling of the holiday decor and do a festive winter mantle. (That phrase kind of reminds me of "festivous". lol )

I had a vision in mind to keep some of the glass containers and fill them with gold and silver balls and beyond that I didn't know what I was going to do.

Enter the clearance section of holiday decorations at my local Gerbes grocery store, where I saw this tacky wreath silver wreath plastered with snowflakes, silver balls and a plastic, glittery "Happy Holidays" in the middle. I thought that with some serious editing, it could have some potential especially for only $10.

And with that serious editing came this...

I turns out that the editing was not just in vain either, I used the silver balls to fill out the glass containers. The snowflakes were made with clothespins and then sprayed lightly with brushed nickel spray paint. I found how to make them here. I also used some inexpensive epson salt in the hurricanes to mimic snow. :)

The framed photo is a favorite one I took on assignment with my father of a local big tree after a snowfall last year. I love that I'm finally using it somewhere in the house, even if it is only seasonal. I printed the photo on my color printer and found a frame in a stash in the guest bedroom closet.

I talked about the pallet backdrop before here. It has been a great "free" piece for my mantle. I can't just hang a wreath on the wall because an electrical outlet and a cable outlet would be in plain view. Quite the eyesore.

I debated on whether or not to paint the sticks white? Not much invested in them so I can go either way. (I collected them, or actually yanked them out of the ground, from the day lilies in the front yard this fall.)

What do you think?

Linking up to the Open House Party at No Minimalist Here &

Back for the New Year!!

2012-01-04T10:42:00.002-06:00

Well, I didn't at all intend to take such a long Christmas Break from the blog. I knew I would be away, since we traveled home to Louisiana for Christmas, but oh my that was some break!

So, how was your Christmas? I hope it was filled with lovely memories and truly blessed. Ours was so wonderful and we were blessed to be able to share it with so many of our family members this year. It was so very good to see our family and some of our friends in Louisiana. I wish there was enough time to see everyone we dearly love, but even a week is truly not enough time to see everyone.

We left the Thursday afternoon before Christmas. That morning, we had our own version of "Express Christmas". We exchanged gifts within our family and gave Tucker his presents, since he was staying with our dear friends in the neighborhood who keep him when we travel. We are so lucky he has a fun place to stay.

After our "Christmas Morning", we loaded up the car and headed south. The last photo in the series above was taken at Lambert's Throwed Rolls. This was the first time our travels had us there at the right time for a meal. Our first experience at Lambert's was during the drive up to Missouri when we moved 4 summers ago. Just for grins, here's what the kids looked like back then.

As we approached St. Louis, we ran into none other than Santa Claus riding down the interstate!

A little goodwill ride, on his bike? No sense in bothering the reindeer, right? Too funny!

That night we stopped in Jackson, MS so that the next morning we didn't have but a few hours to get to our first stop in the Louisiana Christmas tour of 2011...an afternoon in Mandeville.

We had lunch with Emily's godfather and his family. Good seafood and great visit. (I forgot to take a photo.)

Next we drove over to our old neighborhood and my friend Stephanie arranged a reunion with our "gang". We reminisced about the great times we shared. Lots of laughs then and now. We all survived Katrina together and that changed our quaint little community and bonded us all a little tighter together.

The children sure have changed and grown! Here is a favorite photo of them nearly 6 years ago.

and now...

Then it was off to Baton Rouge, where we would spend the holiday happily shuffling back and forth between my Mom's house and Richard's Mom's house. It is so nice to have them in the same city now. :)

Christmas morning Miles and Emily opened their "stockings". We forgot to pack them so Santa filled shopping bags with their goodies. :)

We spent the first part of the day at my Mom's and then back to the Davis' for an evening Christmas dinner and opening of gifts. It was a great Christmas all around. Lots of smiles. :)

On Tuesday we drove to Morgan City, La to see my Dad's family. Miles and Emily both enjoyed playing with their young cousins. Miles was wishing he could have the little car!

The final stop on the Louisiana Tour was West Monroe. Home of the Rebels (2011 high school football champions) and our friends the Kennedy's. Dana, Emily and I enjoyed a little antiquing that afternoon and then joined the boys for pizza and frozen yogurt.

Whew! I should have given you a "long post ahead" warning. Thanks for hanging in there. It was a long trip and a really long ride home on Thursday. I easily gained 4 pounds on the trip. Lots of good southern cooking and most especially fresh seafood, always seem to go hand and hand with family and friends in the south. :)

Once we got home, it took us, or me really, a few days to regroup, get all the laundry done and get everything put away.

And then I got this crazy idea to make a big pot of pastalaya and have friends over for New Years! I'll share more on that tomorrow. I've got to get myself to the trail to run off all the stuff I ate over Christmas!!

I have quite a few posts swimming around in my head...the last piece of furniture I did before the cold hit, some exciting GCD Studios news, and my winter mantle, so be sure to check back soon.

Scrappy Post: Snow Flakes!

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

Ok, I have to admit. I love snow pages! Snowflakes are just as much fun on scrapbook pages as they are in real life. Maybe it's because I grew up in Louisiana and lived there exclusively until 4 years ago when we were transferred to the midwest. Obviously, I have been snowflake deprived for most of my life. ;)

Here is the color inspiration for my challenge at GCD Studios this month. Yummy looking right?

Here is the page I created with snowflakes and that lovely color inspiration!

A few fun things to note:

I created the journaling tag from the back of one of the Great Outdoors packaging. I just couldn't resist using that mountain scene.

I painted one of the chipboard boarders from GCD Studios and wrapped it in red and white baker's twine to bring in the red from the isnpiration.

I created the snowflakes to mimic the felt letters in the title.

I used the Slice to cut out the snowflakes and then applied glue with a glue pad and sprinkled it with Soft Flock fibers. Once it was dry I set it with Super Seal. I love that stuff. It's a great way to make sure glitter and the like stay where you put it and not all over your scrapbook page.

A few close ups.

I've been meaning to share this little tip from my whole layout design process. I confess, I am a consummate paper pusher, moving all the pieces around on a page until I get every piece exactly where I want it before I glue any piece down. I found that occasionally, I forgot exacly where a little piece was before I took it apart and found that very frustrating. I now keep my phone handy to snap a quick photo of the layout before I take it apart to glue it and in this case, I decided to mist the cardstock in background.

Here's another look.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: GCD Studios Great Outdoors, Homespun Chic, Ella Blue
Chipboard: GCD Studios, Letters: American Crafts, Ribbon: Love Elsie, Pebbles: Prima

Wishing you snowy, fun filled days this winter!

Slightly coastal tree

2011-12-13T09:53:00.002-06:00

As the holidays approached, the one thing I was most looking forward to decorating this year was this little silver Christmas tree.

I picked it up at the end of season sale at Wal-Mart. I never opened the box until a week or so ago. From the photo on the box, I assumed it was a cute little retro tensil tree. Well, to my surprise it is quite the disco ball, psychedelic number. Obviously I've dolled her up to hide her true tendencies. :)

Now onto the ornaments. Once it was decided that the tree was going in the dinning room I thought it would be fun to have a few coastal themed ornaments. I had this crazy idea in my head that it was going to be easy to find ornaments that were kind of coastal at craft stores and the like, But apparently I forgot I live in the mid-west and coastal trees aren't the rage here.

So of course I had to make some of my own. I started with these glass balls, well they aren't really balls. they are kind of flat. I was going to swirl the inside of them with Duck Egg Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to match the dresser, but then decided because they were more flat than round, I could glue something to the outside. Enter the infamous junk drawer, where I had a stash of sand dollars Miles brought home from a trip to the beach before we moved here.

I simply used Gorilla glue to adhere the sand dollar onto the ornament. I also poured sand and small shells from this summer's trip into them. (And see, up-close, the tree is quite psychedelic.)

I did end up using the Chalk paint to cover chipboard birds from GCD Studios that I glittered.

The other especially beautiful ornaments on the tree are antiques from my mother-in-law. I'm happy they have a safer spot on this little tree.

Linking this up to Centsational Girl's Holiday Craft Link Party and

Breaking the room down, corner hutch

2011-12-10T12:04:00.001-06:00

Today, I'm sharing the before and after of the corner hutch from the dinning room reveal. It's a unique, handmade find from Craig's List I got for $60. It's not perfect, but as I was painting it I began to imagine that someone handy guy built this for some one he loved. That made me smile and love it even more.

Here's the before, a lovely iPhone shot. :)

And after lots of Duck Egg Blue and Old White here's what it looked like at Thanksgiving.

Here's what it looks like now. I love that it's the perfect spot to display our manger scene and creche this Christmas. Every year, I've never felt like I've had the best place to put this. I do now.

I kept the original hardware on the bottom. For the upper cabinets, I picked up some knobs at Hobby Lobby and painted them Old White. I kind of like that the hardware is not the same. I just didn't feel like the top hardware really worked on the glass doors.

I love having a cabinet to display some of my china. I feel very lucky I found this piece that fits so perfectly in the space at such a great price!

Breaking it down, curtains on the cheap

2011-12-06T17:18:00.001-06:00

The inspiration for the curtains in the dinning room reveal I shared yesterday came from this lovely image.

Via Centsational Girl

After a little research, I found that this patterned fabric also comes in other colors, namely gold. I thought it was so beautiful and hip and the perfect fabric addition to the new dinning room. The price tag for this perfect fabric though, not so perfect. I did the math and the fabric for two 94" panels would be around $180. Ouch! While beautiful, I couldn't swing that price tag.

I remembered seeing ready-made curtains that had been stenciled with great designs, but I couldn't find the right length inexpensively and locally. So I decided to use the cheapest, long length of fabric popular with blogging DIYers- drop cloths!

I copied the style of curtains I had hanging here previously, a back tab panel. I used strips of leftover drop cloth material to sew on the tabs, spaced almost exactly like the old panels.

I lined them with white twin flat sheets, thanks to a fabulous tip by Miss Mustard Seed. Flat sheets can be purchased at Wal-Mart for only $5.00 a piece!

The drop cloths were purchased at a newly opened Big Lots for $10 a piece. I believe the size I used was 4 x 10. Unlike the wider size, there are no seams in the middle and fairly nice edges. I even had plenty of extra material at the bottom to use for other projects.

I could have bleached them, but after hearing the horror stories from my friend Dana who ended up with blotchy unbleached spots, I decided against that idea. (An important side note here, Dana says the Wal-Mart drop cloths are inferior quality to the Big Lots versions. Just today, she had to have a plumber come and dig out all the strings that were stuck in her washing machine drain! Yucky and expensive.)

I have also had good luck with ones from Home Depot. I used those for outdoor curtains on our pergola this summer and they have held up well, even after several washings.

I ordered the stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. They are a little expensive in my opinion, but the quality really warrants the price. I could justify the cost as well because I plan on using the stencil again in the powder room just off the kitchen.

This is how I secured the drop cloth to the floor and covered the floor with a plastic drop cloth to protect the floor. It worked great. Using the stencil was very easy and quite forgiving actually. I used a small, sponge roller (the ones for trim and cabinets) and latex paint. I purchased one of the "quarts to go" from Sherwin Williams for about $7 and have nearly the whole quart of paint left. (Any great ideas on what to do with that left over paint?)

You'll notice that I ended up using a happy green color instead of the gold. I pulled that color from the fabric I used to recover the chairs.

There is also a hint of this green in decorative paper I matted and framed on the opposite wall. This is why good design is an evolutionary process. The gold, or even a blue green, I had considered would have been boring.

Here are the curtains again in the room.

It is with my sincerest gratitude that I dedicate this post to my dear friend Dana. She is constantly fielding my "what if" questions and politely listens to all my "grand" ideas. This room would not be what it is today with out her support and encouragement. She's the best!

Dinning Room Reveal

2011-12-05T18:03:00.001-06:00

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to finally make the promised reveal. I think I mentioned the dinning room enough times recently without actually sharing it, don't you think?!

Let's start with the obligatory before. It was really hard for me to find a photo of the room without people sitting around it for a meal. :)

This photo was taken soon after we moved in and basically, besides the addition of brown silk curtains this is how it stayed for several years.

When I first considered updating the look in our house, my friend and decorator, Sherry came for a consultation and we switched the brown rug above for the gold one from the living room. And while it made the room brighter, these dark brown curtains didn't seem to work anymore.

After I acquired this buffet and these lamps at an auction, which I talked about here the wheels were in motion to do some real decorating in this room. The room had been in serious need of more furniture.

Here is the room set for Thanksgiving dessert, my self-imposed decorating deadline, on a very rainy day. (Thank goodness for a flash you can bounce off the ceiling.)

And now decked out for Christmas, on a brighter day.

Over the next few blog posts this week, I'll break down some of the things I created on a budget for the room, including the curtains and the paintings.

I will share a little about this corner hutch. It was a lucky, inexpensive find on Craig's List. I got if for $60 and painted it to match the buffet. I now have a place to display our wedding china, which just happens to have a shell pattern on it!

Of course the colors are a lovely mauve and grey from the early 90's, but that's okay. I didn't even remember this when I stumbled into a "beachy" theme by using the decorative paper I found in my studio and framed it for the top of the buffet.

The only thing left to do with this room is to refinish the dining table top and paint the bottom half Annie Sloan Chalk paint, Old White like the chairs. That will have to wait for the spring. My garage is too cold now for painting and refinishing. :(

I love that it is so fresh and bright. It's like a ray of sunshine and just a little whiff of the beach when you enter the house. Who cares if I live in the middle of Missouri, right?

Linking up to

Be sure to check out later posts for more details.

A run, giving thanks and Black Friday!

2011-11-26T10:37:00.001-06:00

I hope you all had a very blessed Thanksgiving. We certainly did. We are very blessed with sweet neighbors who invited us for Thanksgiving dinner. And like I mentioned in my previous post, I was attempting to get the dinning room redecorated for dessert at our house. Got it all done somehow! I'll share a full reveal of the room next time.

Since I didn't have to spend the whole day cooking this year, Emily and I signed up for the Turkey Trax run Thursday morning. My regular running buddy, Tucker, came along too.

Thankfully, it wasn't too cold and we ran a good race. Emily needed to stop briefly a few times when she'd get a stitch or going up a steep hill. (See us walking up hill here on the right.)

Emily is very proud and just a little boastful to have beat me to the finish line! Little stinker! See if I'll be as generous with stopping next time. ;) We had to start in the back with Tucker and with over 1000 runners, it was a good way back. I haven't seen our official time yet.

After dinner and dessert back at our house, more of our friends came and we spent the evening playing Quelf. It's an odd little board game, but pretty fun. One notable play, everyone was too mess up my hair. They had way too much fun with this one!

Emily really wanted to experience Black Friday this year and since we didn't have any family visiting and were home, I thought this was a good chance to give it a try. We were fairly low key about it. We got to the mall at 6 am and we since the anchor store we parked at had opened at 4am we didn't have a long line or huge crowd.

It was a successful shopping trip. She found several outfits to put under the tree. We had shared some fun mother daughter time and now she really can't wait for Christmas!! I would do it again, just like this. The lines weren't terribly long and not any more crowded at the stores we shopped at than on a busy Saturday.

Mad dash and Thankfulness

2011-11-15T20:06:00.001-06:00

Recently, I feel like I've been in a mad dash of painting and re-decorating. I do crazy things like this sometimes. I want to get a project done, see a good time for a self-imposed deadline and go for it. Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't.

I've been slowly redecorating our dinning room. It started with this buffet and the vignette I put together on the top.

From there, ideas floated around in my head and I began to get a vision of what I wanted the room to look like. Then, I scored the perfect corner hutch on Craig's List for $65 and the wheels were in motion.

Not to mention, I know that my furniture painting days are numbered since the temperature is slowly dropping. So I figured now was as good a time as any to get my dinning room redo completed. And with Thanksgiving quickly approaching that seemed like a great deadline. I hope to reveal the room on Thanksgiving Day when our neighbors come over for dessert.

Here's the list of what I've been doing or plan to do.
1. Paint, wax hutch, Duck Egg Blue
2. Paint and wax dining chairs, Old White
3. Recover chairs
4. Sew curtains

I wisely decided to hold off on refinishing the table. I'm so glad I was at least slightly realistic about the whole project. (wink, wink)

Before this mad dash started, I added a few fall decorations around the house. Here's our fall mantle using the palette wood piece I made as an anchor like I did for Halloween. I simply added a few things from around the house and the fall decorating box.

If you look closely, in the frame on the mantle is a word art verse from 2 Chronicles I created. I wish I was better at committing verses to memory. I love having reminders of God's blessing in our home. I'm hoping this will help us all remember. It's a printable I wanted to share with you too. First I made it vertical and then I decided I wanted I wanted it horizontal. So you can choose the right one fo your space. ;)

If you click on the version you want you can download the file directly from here, via Keep and Share. Hopefully you can find a place for it in your Thanksgiving decor. The pdf files are set up for a 5 x7 frame.

I also wanted to share this great vignette with you. Do you remember the scary dresser? Well, imagine the smile on my face when I found it looking oh so fabulous at my friend's booth at the Marketplace! Pretty amazing huh? (Please excuse the iPhone photo though.)

Off to rip some more of the old trim off the dinning room chairs. Four down and 2 more to go!!

Fall Colors

2011-11-04T09:04:00.000-05:00

I just love the color inspiration image I worked with for GCD Studios this month. Such a great fall palette!

I also was inspired by the loose compartmentalization of this fabulous picnic box and the layering. Here's the layout I created. I just love these (2) so much!

Closer...

Supplies: Papers from the Great Outdoors collection and Fun House Collection. Chipboard letters: GCD Studios and American Crafts Chipboard words and brads from the Soul Food collection.

Scary Dresser, DIY Chalk Paint

2011-11-01T20:53:00.002-05:00

In honor of Halloween, I thought it be a good time to share this scary looking dresser makeover. Even the seller on Craig's list dubbed this dresser the "Frankenstein of dressers".
Here's the scary before.

Like most projects I work on, I did learn a few things with this piece.

1. Never let a seller deliver items. If they aren't in as good as condition as you thought, it's mighty hard to tell them to take it back.

2. Seller's interpretation of "in good working order" is sometimes very loose.

The drawers did work, but not very well. The sliders were metal on wood. Not a good combination. In the end the client and I decided to cut our losses and resell it. She was going to use it as her dresser in her bedroom on a very large wall. She and I both doubted my skills to fix it well enough for everyday use.

I got lucky when a decorator friend of mine said she'd take it off my hands if I'd paint it to match some other furniture she was using in a model home. I was super excited!

I think it came out really great. And most importantly my friend loved it.

Yes, I do realize I need to work on my staging, but really I'm just happy I could convince my husband to move this heavy monster to this clean wall in the garage. I grabbed a few things from around the house, snapped a few photos and let him load it on the truck.

I almost forgot to tell about my experience with DIY Chalk Paint. I used Calcium Carbonate mixed with sample paint from Benjamin Moore per No Minimalist Here. Honestly, I don't think this will be something I do again soon. I had a really hard time mixing it smooth. And when I used a roller on the top of the piece, the chalk looked fine going on, but dried with little clumps of white dispersed across the top and I ended up sanding it out and repainting it with a brush. To be sure I had a durable finish on it, I used Wipe On Poly from Minwax. I knew there wouldn't be an issue with yellowing since the piece was black.

I believe Annie Sloan Chalk paint is definitely superior to this and is worth the investment. I wanted to give it a try and needed the piece to be a true black per my client's wishes. Now I know. If I got in a pinch with color or time I might try it again, but it definitely wouldn't be my first choice of paint.

Retro inspiration

2011-10-30T10:43:00.001-05:00

Okay, so honestly doesn't this image crack you up? How groovy are those yellow tights and socks? Are these girls are like the bright and colorful Charlie's Angels?

I do love the color palette though and jumped at the chance to work with these colors. I think these colors are real snappy and offer a fun twist to a fall themed layout.

Here's what I created with the October GCD Studios Kit of the Month.

A million little pieces

2011-10-29T11:05:00.003-05:00

I've got a super easy technique to share this month that perfectly illustrated how I was feeling about our son growing up. He's a sophomore this year and we realize that time is ticking and before we know it he will be leaving our nest. :(

Here's a close up.

I just punched a ton of cardstock in the color palette of my page using a super small and an ordinary sized hole punch. Stretched out two-sided tape and poured the "confetti" on to one side of the tape. Be sure to keep the backing on the other side until you are ready to adhere it to your page.

I found that some of the empty spaces needed to be filled by hand and some of the larger pieces needed to be removed because they were only partially sticking. Lastly, I filled in the spaces with the teeny, tiny punches. I found the best way to do this was to press the tape onto my non-stick matte covered with the tiny punches.

I think this technique has great potential, such a great way to use scraps and bring your color palette together.

Here's one more look.

Supplies: All paper and embellishments from GCD Studios except washi tape, 7 Gypsies and unknown. Letter Stickers: Basic Grey, October Afternoon
Thanks for stopping by!

Decorating with palettes

2011-10-27T09:47:00.003-05:00

Well, hello there! So glad you are still checking out the ole blog. I've recently been wearing way too many "hats", as they say, and just haven't been able to get to the blog to share.

It's a shame really, because I have tons to share. In the few stolen moments in between my graphic design work, running and everyday mom duties, I've been a busy little worker bee.

Let's start with free palettes today. :) I've learned that despite being free, they are really quite the little buggers to work with. You definitely need to be ready to put on your working gloves when you deal with these bad boys.

Via

For my first palette project, the palette was fairly agreeable when it came to taking the boards apart. I was able to remove most of the long boards without splitting them by whacking the backsides with a hammer until they came apart. It was good hard work and great way to work out some aggression. ;)

Here's what I created with the boards I got in the end. I've been wanting a rustic element for my fall mantle. I plan on redecorating it after Halloween with more traditional fall decor, a wreath maybe?

Anyway, I just love it. It's exactly the organic looking element I was hoping for. And I love that it gave my "spooky" banner I created for GCD Studios last Halloween new life. (Click on the first link for a complete how to.)

Very simple construction really and so much easier than the deconstruction! I just took some of the other board pieces and made a cross support to hold the long boards all together. The weathered patina is perfect for this type of decorating and of course that's why I went to all the trouble to work with a palette anyway. Well, and they are free.

The next project evolved from my desire to have an extra large tray on our ottoman and not wanting to spend $75 to $100 to get one. I plan on slip covering or reupholstering it the ottoman this winter, but until then I thought covering it with a larger tray would be a good place to start. (I'm so over this rusty color and am tired of trying to decorate around it.)

The second palette had much sturdier, thicker wood and therefore was much harder to get apart. I pretty much decided the only way to tackle this one was to cut it up with a circular saw. Much to the dismay of my husband, Richard, who came home while I had abandoned the project half way to go to a meeting, I made a complete mess in the garage.

The two shorter, long boards are still attached to the bottom boards they were originally. So basically I cut off one of the sections divided by these boards. Does that make sense? After I cut them to the right length, I then used other boards I removed as the ends. As simple as this sounds, it was by no means easy, but in the end, it came out pretty cool, I think.

After I got they tray built, or the crate as Richard calls it, I sanded it down really well and applied clear and dark waxes and then buffed. I kind of like the process of adding both the clear and dark waxes at the same time. Feels more fluid to work with and easier to control the coverage.

Of course this solution brought about a new dilemma... what to put in the tray. For now I threw in a few ceramic pumpkins, a box we sometimes store remote controls in (wink, wink) and the magazines I had on a smaller tray.

So if you have any great suggestions for what to put in my new tray after the holidays, I'd love to hear them!!

Recently...

2011-10-07T11:25:00.001-05:00

Newsflash...I haven't been here. Here's what I've been up to instead of blogging.

1. Finishing up long overdue projects. Here's a sneak peak of the antique pedestal table I bought earlier in the year. Still want to paint the chairs to match.

2. Enjoying the mild temperatures and going hiking with friends. I love having a state park nearby.

3. Attending Soccer tournaments. Last weekend Emily's team played in a tournament in town. It's nice to be local, but it does make for a full weekend.

4. Attending swim meets. Miles actually had a meet at his high school's pool last weekend as well. It was good to see him swim for a change. He's in the silver cap.

5. Working on Graphic Design projects. For one of the projects I've been working recently, I created an identity package including a blogger site. She's a friend of mine and just getting it started, but she's got big plans! A click on the screen shot will take you there.

6. Making a huge mess in the garage and bringing out the Halloween decor. I'll share more about this later, but here's another sneak peek.

7. Enjoying the fall color. These maples are just brilliant in front of Richard's office. (I'm dropping him off and picking him up most days because Miles takes the truck to his 5:30 AM practices. )

This weekend is a little lighter than last weekend as far as scheduled events goes. A few things I plant to do are; work in the yard a little, work in the garage a little, go for a run, miss and worry about Miles as he heads out today for an overnight swim meet.

Have a great weekend!!

A little bit of Paris...grey

2011-10-06T21:59:00.002-05:00

So remember a while back I mentioned that in addition to this piece, I also purchased several companion pieces while at the auction?

Well, I'm finally sharing. :)

Here's how these girls started.

I scrapped and scrapped and then lightly sanded until there were no more loose bits of paint. In fact, there was enough paint flakes to fill a standing dust pan! Despite the condition on the outside, both functioned well as you might expect from antique Thomasville pieces. The only work I had to do was to replace the latches on the inside of the armoire.

After two coats of Paris Grey, center details of Paris Grey mixed with Graphite and details with Old White, here they are. I don't usually name my furniture, but I spent A LOT of time with these girls and came up with names for them during the long hours.

Meet Bella and Beatrice. Bella is the armoire and Beatrice is the little sister, side table.

Closer...

You'll notice that I chose to just embrace the chippy paint look. I think it adds to their charm.

I also added small touches of Annie Sloan Dark Wax at the end, just to warm up the overall color.

They were sold to a friend of mine for resale in her booth at the Market Place in Columbia, Mo. I wish I would have taken a photo of them when I delivered them. She was happy to fill these drawers and shelf with oodles of Christmas ornaments and other seasonal display items almost as soon as we decided where to place them in her booth!

I'm very proud of my first pieces bought and painted with the intention of selling.

There may have been a few times I wish I could have kept them. ;)

Back to school fashion

2011-09-17T05:17:00.002-05:00

I'm sharing another GCD Studios project today. :)

My color inspiration layout for this month came from this beautiful outdoor place setting.

I thought it was a fresh mix of colors and not a combination I would have chosen naturally. But as luck would have it, it turned out to be the perfect color combination for my daughter's back to school photo this year.

To create the page, I began pulling out all my GCD Studios papers and embellishments that were in the color palette and fit the theme of my page. After that, the page just came together rather quickly.

As I often do, I created a portion of my title on a little chipboard plaque. I like how it keeps the title from floating on the page. I just love all the different styles of plaques by GCD Studios. I really could find a use for them on every page I make.

I try to keep the colors fairly evenly dispersed around the page to create a sense of balance. The metal rimmed glass brads are perfect for spreading that perfect little hint of color. Love them!

Here's another look.

Supplies:
Patterned Papers: GCD Studios Soul Food, GCD Studios Animal Crackers for Girls, Studio Calico
Embellishments: GCD Studios Soul Food border strips, chipboard word plaques, metal rimmed glass brads, metal rimmed clips, inspiration card.
Transparency: Hambly; Letters: American Crafts and Basic Grey

One last thing, be sure to enter the Giveaway for this month's kit!! You can find the entry post here.

I'm looking forward to creating some layouts with this kit this month!! :)

Fall frames

2011-09-16T17:05:00.000-05:00

The air is getting cooler here in Missouri and I'm thinking fall is coming! I created this table scape featuring frames and ceramic pumpkins to great my friends and family when they enter our home.

This is a fun and easy project featuring products and papers from GCD Studios and ordinary table top frames. Like most scrapbookers and avid photographers I have an abundance of frames, so I thought it would be fun to use them to help me spell out "fall" in a textural way.

I started by assembling my GCD Studios papers with fall colors, grabbed varying sizes of chipboard letters and got busy gluing.

I used Mod Podge for gluing each element to the chipboard letter. It takes a while longer to dry, but no burned fingers or stringy leftovers, like from a glue gun.

Here are close ups of each letter frame. For the "f" I used little bits from a fall foliage branch.

For the "A" I used leaves ripped from a faux leaf branch. I found that the cheaper, less glossy leaves accepted the glue best and would lay flat on the chipboard

For the first "L", I used twigs I gathered from my friend's backyard and trimmed them to fit the chipboard.

For the last letter, I wrapped jute around the chipboard. This one was probably the most challenging. The jute needed to be secured on both sides and I felt like I needed an extra hand. Where are those extra hands when we need them?

Here's another look at all of them together on my entry table. It's a great way to welcome fall as friends enter our home. I've also added pumpkins to the bottom of the table too.

Happy Fall! I like this idea so much I'll likely create another set for the Christmas Holidays. Maybe spell out "noel"?

I've shared this with Inspired Room's Fall Nesting Party. Loads more great ideas if you want to join the party!

sought after

2011-09-15T22:30:00.003-05:00

So today I'm happy to reveal the buffet that was the reason behind me stepping into my first auction house.

My dear friend and co-redecorator/enabler, Dana, recommended this site to get information about finding auctions in my area.

Low and behold, I discovered that in a few days this beauty was going to be auctioned off at a nearby auction house.

I loved the lines and the size, knowing it would be perfect in my very empty dinning room.

It was just a little shabby, but I later found once I got it home, that it is a Thomasville piece from the 70's. Needless to say it is extremely heavy and very solid. Definitely worth the effort of making it beautiful again.

I decided try my hand at stripping the top. I figured if it didn't work out I could always paint it. It took lots and lots of patience, especially in the details under the top but I got it stripped. (I ended up using steel wool to get in the edges.)

I don't know what kind of wood it was, but even after 3 coats of dark walnut stain, the top still wasn't as dark as I would have liked. I ended up putting 2 coats or Annie Sloan dark wax to give it the rich color I was after.

The body was painted Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Duck Egg Blue. I did just one coat and followed with the Clear Wax.

Given the size and placement in the room it's awfully hard to get a good photograph.

I have big plans for the rest of the room and reveal that once I get the table painted and curtains made. :)

I've linked it to Miss Mustard's Furniture Feature Friday Link Party, if you want to check out more.