C'est Magnifique

White Love

2011-10-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

I AM working on finishing up my A.D.D. decorating projects, I really am... but I only have a few hours each day to work on them because I have a stupid day job! LOL! So, in the meantime, while I'm waiting for paint to dry and light to take pictures, I thought I'd share one of the things around my home that I love... white pottery and dishes. I don't think they are ironstone necessarily although I love that too! It seems to be kind of rare here in Washington state :( But I love old, crazed, chiped, cracked, discolored dishes... is that weird??

Here are a few of the pieces around my house...

This cute little basket weave pitcher is one of my very favorites! It sits on my kitchen windowsill next to the soap dispenser.

This is on my stove, I use it to hold spoons while I'm cooking.

OMG! LOVE, love this little bowl... I love how discolored it is!

The two plates on the bottom ARE ironstone, I just found them a couple of weeks ago at the thrift store!

These are on my bookcase...

This is in my bathroom... isn't it a beauty!?

Also in my bathroom...

I love it's little ruffled edge!

This is in my craft room... serving no purpose except to look pretty! It's one of the few that isn't pure white but I love it!

Do you have any special things that tug at your heart??

Tackling Another Partially Finished Project

2011-10-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

So, by now you all know about my decorating A.D.D.... if you don't then... Hi, my name is Tania and I have decorating A.D.D. I have lots and lots of projects that are almost done but not completely finished... I don't know what gets into me... I start a project with good intentions and then get sidetracked and before you know it there are 8 other projects in various states of done-ness!

I'm working really hard to finish those up before I start any more... So, this is another thing that I finally finished up!

I have this upstairs closet... don't really know what it's original purpose was... there is already a big linen closet, each of the bedrooms has a closet... and then there's this... it had a rod so I thought coat closet? But there is one of those downstairs by the front door already. I have an abundance of extra blankets, pillows, bedspreads, etc. so I thought why not another linen closet?

It was cram packed full of junk that I've either gotten rid of or found another, more fitting home for.

After it was emptied it looked pretty sad... dirty and in need of a paint job. First thing I did was get rid of the rod.

Then I painted it and put in one of these... (just $27.00 at Home Depot)

Here it is after the paint job and shelf addition. I know! It looks built in which is EXACTLY what I was going for! Lesson learned tho... put it together IN the closet. LOL!

I know... you're thinking... you forgot to paint the rest of the inside of the door... don't worry, I didn't forget!! ;) The little blue baskets are from the $1 store.

And so here we are... all full of frou-frou pretty linens... oh, and a basket full of doggies shampoo and supplies :)!!

The little crochet lace edge on the top shelf is something that my grandma made... I have a couple more and will put them up just as soon as I find them! Oh, oh! And see the door??

I had a little tan throw rug that used to be in the bathroom... so I thought... eh... why not? and put it under the shelf!

Here's the pretty door... I used some of my scraps of vintage wallpaper and put a different one in each square in the door. I found a recipe online for homemade wallpaper paste, I didn't want to spend money buying a whole tub of paste for this little tiny project so that worked perfect... it just takes two ingredients... cornstarch and water... boil it and badda-bing, badda-boom... you got wallpaper paste baby!!

This bag holds extension cords.

And THIS closet is one that I don't mind if it doesn't get closed all the way!

A command hook and I have a place for my little sweeper that we use upstairs alot!

There you have it! Another project finally completed! I'm so pleased with myself! On to the next!

My Shed - Part VI (The Final Touches)

2011-10-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, time for showing off the final touches to my shed project! I actually finished a project... you don't know how much of an accomplishment that really is! I have many, many partially finished projects underway, so to finish one... completely... is something to be proud of for me!! :)

When my mom and dad were finished helping me with the inside details of the shed my dad said... "I think you need a window on the front here", so I said... "well, I have those old windows over there" pointing to a stack of vintage windows I've been hauling around with me from house to house for years. We held one up to see what it would look like... "cute!" I said! So there it is... a little window on the front! LOL!

I picked up the director's chairs at a garage sale a few weekends ago with the intentions of changing out the faded green striped canvas for something cute... like oilcloth! So they've been leaning up by my back door, I drug them around to the back to set next to my cute new shed... and BAM! The decorating A.D.D. took over and I started to tackle that project!! NO!!! Tania... stop the madness!! LOL! That's why I have all those projects in various stages of done-ness!! So I stopped myself, that project will be for another time!

The rickety old ladder that was just leaning up against the fence is now sitting all cute in the corner holding birdhouses.

And here are the adorable new/old red shutters! Another thing I've been hauling around with me for years with nothing to do with them! I knew I'd want them for something someday! And the trim around the windows is some old molding scraps that I've also been hauling around... MUCH to the irritation to those who help me move... except my mom of course... she "gets" me! LOL! When we were looking for something to trim out the window with I said, "I HAVE molding!!! I've been dragging this stuff around for years, through several house moves... FINALLY... a use for it! I FEEL VINDICATED!!!" holding my hands up in the air like someone who's just won a race! LOL!

Here is my "garden" sign, somewhat like the one in the inspiration shed... different font tho :)

And here's what it was before... this was a project I made back in 8th grade I think, in wood shop! LOL! I got a B by the way! (My mom felt a sudden urge to give BACK all the stuff I made in school when they moved) I just flipped it over and painted on the back... repurposing at its finest... and keeping the integrity of the original, fine art piece!

And here is my super cute, bright yellow and red potting bench skirt! I just used a length of jute twine the same length as the bench, sewed a casing in the fabric, gathered it up on the twine and lifted up the HEAVY bench top and tucked the fabric under there! Voila! Now it's easy to take off for washing and I didn't have to mess with grommets or self-adhesive velcro that never works anyway! In this shot you can see what the top of my $5 garage sale score bench top looks like.

And here is the bench in all her glory wearing her new dress! See the little red valance on the window! That's a scrap of wood... again that I've been dragging around with me, I just cut a piece to fit my window and painted in red to match! Cute yes??

And finally, the last little finishing touch I wanted to add... a chalkboard on the door! Just taped off a square the size I wanted and painted it with chalkboard paint!

It has a list of fall chores on it now!

So, there you have it! My shed is all done and looking so cute and organized! I did some yard work today and I can't tell you how nice it was to walk into my nice "new" shed and go right to the tool I needed! I LOVE IT!!

Thanks mom and dad for all your hard work... once again! :)

My Shed - Part V

2011-10-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

Still have a few little finishing touches but my shed is almost done! I'll show you what I have so far. You can see the first 5 posts about it and the progress here, here, here, here, and here!!

Before...

And after!! The color I chose is Wild Yellow Begonia.

And here is the inside before...

And after! (still need the garden sign above the window and the potting bench skirt) The tubs under the bench hold fertilizer, potting soil, mulch, etc. and of course this side of the shed will be much cuter once I get the skirt and window dressing up!

Look how organized!! I even washed off all the yard chemicals and supplies! I had stuff I didn't even know I had!!

My hose will hang around the green metal tub on the wall as soon as I'm done with it for the year.

The stuff in these crates is all stuff that needs to be painted and listed in my Etsy shops.

Granted... mine is not quite as cute as the Better Homes Inspiration shed but that's because theirs was strictly a gardening shed and mine has to hold many other things... I don't have a garage or any other place to put all of this so here it stays!

Hopefully tomorrow I can show you the potting bench skirt, little red shutters on the outside, and the garden sign!

My Shed - Part IV

2011-10-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Now that the pegboard is all up, the fun part begins! Decorating... yes, decorating the shed! Oh... and the minor detail of putting everything back into the shed!

First I taped off a bunch of squares so I could paint the green and red squares like in the BHandG inspiration shed. Here's that again...

Oh yeah... having fun now!!!

You can see my new potting bench above under the window! Yay! So cute! I actually got the top at a garage sale for only $5!! It's metal and pretty heavy and a pretty shade of green too!

See that green shelf there? There were two of those ugly, industrial looking metal shelves in the shed when I moved in and they were pretty nasty looking and one was covered in rust. I was originally going to throw them out and buy new but then I thought since I'm trying to be budget friendly here I'll just paint them! So I took a scrub brush to them with some soapy water then sprayed them with a coat of automotive spray primer (to put a stop to the rust) and then I painted one green and one red! This didn't cost me anything because I already had all the spray paint, even the primer!

This isn't that great of a shot... it looks like I missed a bunch on the green one but actually that's the back that's going against the wall and I wanted to make sure I didn't run out of spray paint so I just did the parts you'll see!

So, you're probably thinking, "how much longer is she going to drag this out?!" well, truth be known... I'm not completely done... :( It's been raining pretty much all week so I couldn't finish the trim painting on the outside and it wasn't good light for taking pictures of what I do have done. I'm hoping tomorrow to get most of the finishing touches done.

Here's what I have left to do...

1. Paint the window trim inside and out
2. Make the little garden sign hanging above the window in the inspiration shed
3. Make the fabric skirt that goes on the potting bench (theirs is pink fabric with red cherries)
4. Paint and hang the little red shutters outside around the window
5. Paint a chalkboard on the inside of the door
6. Walk in 40 or 50 times a day just to enjoy how cute it is!!

Check out my FREAKING ADORABLE fabric I got for my potting bench skirt!!! It was at JoAnn's for $4.99 a yard. It was a little more than I really wanted to spend but I looked through the clearance section and it was totally LAME! They had the same fabric as that in the inspiration shed but it was $9.99 a yard and I needed like 4 yards!

And here's another shot of the inspiration shed. You can see the table skirt and the garden sign here.

My Shed - Part III

2011-10-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

So, now we have a cleaned out shed and a window... next is the pegboard! (If you missed the first few posts you can see them here, here, and here!) Most of the shed project has been very budget friendly. I had a pile of scrap lumber from an old workbench that I took out of my basement so we used that and a couple of 4x4 posts that came off my mom and dad's old patio that was crushed by a tree! The window was $10.00 at the Habitat Restore. I had to buy pegboard though. I opted for the stuff that was already painted white and it cost just a little bit more than the plain stuff. I paid $150.00 for 8 sheets but I figured I would have had to buy a gallon of white paint and then the time it would have taken to paint it and it all evened out!

Here's my dad and I starting to put up the pegboard. I really was helping... see that box of screws in my hand?

Moving to the other wall...

It was kind of a slow, tedious process, I didn't think it would take that long, but of course the shed isn't level anywhere, there were slanted ceilings, bumpy, uneven concrete, and we had to put in extra 2x4's so we'd have something to screw the pegboard to.

And around the room we go! Weeeee....

Me helping again... holding the box of screws! Hey, that's a very important job you know!!! LOL!

My mom playing with Pongo...

And finally... we put up some of the leftover pieces on the ceiling so I would have a place for small stuff... rolls of landscaping fabric, dog tie-out chains, dowels, etc.

This is my workbench that my ex-husband built me for my tools. I used to do a lot of wood working and decorative painting but haven't for several years because I haven't had a place to set up my tools... so now I can do some of that again! Yay!

So, we've gone from this...

To THIS!!!...

Now that the pegboard is all up, I began preparing to paint all those darling little colorful squares on the walls like the inspiration photo! This is where the fun part begins!!

Here's the inspiration photo again so you can see what I'm going for!

My Shed - Part II

2011-10-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

So the last couple of posts I've shown you my inspiration shed from Better Homes and Gardens and my shed and all the ~~crap~~ precious belongings that came out of my shed! The first thing we did to my shed was add a window. The BHandG inspiration shed has a nice window and I thought a window in my shed would be so cool, it doesn't have electricity so the extra light that a window lets in will be so nice!

Here's the window from the inspiration shed...

Yes, I am planning on having adorable red shutters around my window too!

This is me standing at the back of the shed where we are putting the window. The shed is next to the house with the shed doors opening to the back yard, the back of the shed is in the front yard...make sense?! That's a very LARGE butterfly bush that I neglected pruning this year. I had to prune it a little bit so we could get back there and next spring I will really prune it back so my new cute little window can be seen from the yard!

So I found a small window at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore for just $10.00 (love that store)! Here's my dad standing next to the hole he cut for the new window.

And there you can see how big the window will be! Cute yes??

And this people... in case you don't know... is a finishing nail!!! LMAO!! My dad... he cracks my mom and I up. We asked him what they heck he had that nail stuck in there for and he said... so serious... "well, it's my finishing nail". My mom and I looked at each other and started cracking up!!! LOL! I mean it was knee-slapping, tears in the eyes, full on LAUGHING!!!

Here's my dad and I MacGyvering the window!

And here we are with a window! Don't ask me what my dad is pointing at... I have no clue... maybe his finishing nail!?!?!? ROFLMAO!!!! Love you dad!! :)

My Shed - Part I

2011-10-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

So... now that you've seen my inspiration shed (post right before this one)... I'll show you my shed BEFORE the redo.

I know... you're thinking "how is that going to look like the inspiration photos?!" Come on now... it has potential!

Queue the horror music... ree-ree-reeeee!!! Here is the inside before. Now I can be messy... even a little sloppy at times but I really do have a good excuse for this mess!!! I moved into my house last November and the very weekend I was moving it snowed so things just got shoved in here on top of stuff that was left by the previous homeowner.

That's Miss Roxanna looking horrified herself! LOL!! I mean really, I had already started cleaning it out at this point... it looked like an episode from the hoarder's show!

Here is everything that came out of the shed!!

And more...

Even I was wondering how all that was in there and I still had room to walk in! I did sort through all this and purged quite a bit, but there's still lots left to fit back in!

And, so here is my shed all emptied out...

Looks pretty tiny for some reason... but in reality it is actually a pretty good size shed... as sheds go anyway!

Stay tuned to find out how my shed will slightly resemble this shed!!

Shed Inspiration

2011-10-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

I have a shed in my backyard... most people do! My shed was (notice I said was! tee hee!) a total, disaster area... most people's are! Everything that wouldn't fit anywhere else was shoved in there... that's how most people organize a shed! LOL!

I had big dreams for my little shed though!! Look at this (not my shed, but my inspiration shed) from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication - Storage - Summer 2011 issue:

OMG!!!!! Look at how CUTE!!!! I love the bright yellow color... the red and green squares... the pegboard... the clever use of containers... swoon!!

And that skinny potting bench with the adorable cheery cherry fabric curtain is SO.FREAKING.CUTE!!!

So I asked my mom and dad (many of you have seen the projects they've helped with in the past and are wishing for a mom and dad just like them! LOL!) if they would help me fix up MY little shed. My shed doesn't have a cute little window tho... "we can put one in" my dad says!!! And my shed doesn't have a peaked roof... it's a flat roof that angles from the side of the house down, and my shed doesn't have double doors in the center, it has one door on the left side... nothing we can do about that though! The ceiling is rather low so no sparkly chandy for my shed :( oh well... it is a shed after all!!!

So... I'll leave you with these inspiration photos courtesy of BH&G to drool over and I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with some pictures of MY shed!

Fall at my house

2011-09-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

I decorated a little bit for fall around my house this weekend!

I made this cute little FALL banner and I have a couple of Halloween themed ones in my Etsy shop.

These pumpkins are from the Dollar Store and I just spray painted them white. The little wood looking stand under the chicken wire cloche is actually a bowl that I just turned upside down. I have since put some pine cones in the little bird feeder and it doesn't look so barren.

These little pumpkins are also from the Dollar Tree, the star I've had for YEARS, I think it was someone's pattern cut from scrap wood, but I love it.

This is my buffet below my mantle.

The little fabric pumpkins are available for sale in my Etsy shop.

The rolls are old player piano rolls that my mom and I got at a garage sale.

My front porch!

Garage Sale & Thrift Store Finds

2011-09-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today it was my daughter and I going out to the garage sales and thrift stores... I don't get to spend much time with her lately since she's 21 and too cool for most of the stuff I enjoy so it was nice to spend some time with her today! :)

Here's what I found!!

Aren't those hat boxes cute?? The one on bottom is a newer Mary Engelbreit box, I think it used to have plates or something in it. The one on top is vintage... I don't know about where you live, but my local Goodwill is TERRIBLE about putting packing TAPE all over EVERYTHING! You can see that it took off some of the stripes on the box... grrr.. :(

There's also an old basket, file box, kitchen utensils, cookbook, and little pail!

I just love that twig basket! And there are some fun little plastic pictue frames, an old art deco frame, a tiny teacup and saucer, rulers, vintage hangers, an antique string holder, an old lamp shade frame, and ...

A whole box of these fun brass letter stencils!!

It was a pretty good day even though there weren't really many garage sales and we only went to one thrift store!!

Garage Sale Loot!

2011-09-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

My mom and I went to some garage sales again on Saturday... it's a normal Saturday morning ritual for us!! I got lots of goodies this time (well, I usually get lots of goodies... my side of the truck is jam packed always and my mom's side of the truck is just... well... piddly!!! I don't know what her problem is... I even let her be in front of me at the garage sales yesterday so she could get first pick and still...!!)

Here's the whole loot:

I thought this tea shelf was cute and would be neat looking painted and distressed! Look for it to show up in the shop soon!

And aren't these leaf shaped tea spoons just so sweet!? They are aluminum and so lightweight! There's also a white ceramic flower frog, an old picture frame with concave glass, and a couple of quilted, round place mats...

Some adorable hand embroidered linens!!!

We bought a whole grocery bag full of these and split them, they are old player piano music rolls!

Some old aluminum measuring spoons...

I'm envisioning chalk boards here...

and this vintage purse is so, so cute! This was at one of the garage sales where I let my mom go first and she walked right past this beauty!!! Too bad, you snooze you lose!!! LOL!

Pretty cool stuff huh? And all for under $10!! WooHoo!!

Today I've been just putzing around the house. I finally put up this cute little rub-on decal I got from Elephannie on Etsy in my recently painted and redecorated hallway... isn't it sweet? Really easy to put up too!

Toy Box Redo

2011-09-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

I found a simple, pine toy box at a garage sale a few weekends ago and only paid $3.00 for it! Ok... once again I have forgotten to take a before picture so this is not the chest I bought but mine looked very similar except it was just raw wood... no nice finish on it and no rounded corners.

I started out by painting it with a coat of leftover Seattle grey paint from my bathroom project and then put on a sloppy coat of the Mistaya white trim paint also from my bathroom project. Again, I didn't get a picture of that in between stage... :( I then sanded the hell out of it!!

Next I decided to put some lettering on it to attempt to make it look like an old shipping crate.

Some grey craft paint, some stencils, more sanding the hell out of it and voila!

I didn't know what to write on it so I used my vital statistics!! LOL! My initials, date of birth, and birthplace. No social security number... sorry identity thiefs!!

I also added some cute little caster wheels that I picked up at a garage sale for .50 cents!!

Here she is!!

What do you think??

It's sitting behind my couch now to store extra pillows and blankets!

Thrift Store Lamp Redo!

2011-08-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

I found A lamp at one of my favorite thrift stores and knew it would be just beautiful with a redo! Ok, it's not THIS lamp... I had a before picture but I cannot find it anywhere! Grrr... so I found a couple online that have the same basic look that mine did before...

So you get an idea of what mine looked like right?? Now, add a hideously ugly, stained, yellowed, drum lamp shade with ugly brown fringe crap on it! LOL! I left that with the folks at the thrift store to dispose of!!

Here is mine after, with a coat of fresh white paint and a new, crisp white shade!

Isn't she pretty?! I lurve her!!! She is in the spare bedroom... waiting for the rest of the room to catch up to her beauty! LOL!

Upstairs Hallway Reveal

2011-08-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

As soon as I saw Jami's (Freckled Laundry) hallway reveal I was in love! I knew I had to recreate the look in my own upstairs hallway. Here are some before shots:

This was at the top of the stairs between two bedrooms.

This is turned around and looking back the other way.

It's hard to tell the wall color before, but it was a kind of taupe/tan color.

Looking toward the linen closet, the bathroom is on the right and a bedroom on the left.

ok really??? This is just sloppy if you ask me... why would you splotch paint all over the light fixture and not even clean it off??

And these are just lovely don't you think?? From the previous owner of course! And look closely at the switches... they are old and black and splotched with paint too!

Here are some after shots!

Here you can really see the difference in the colors... my new color is called "Wash Basin" grey and the same "Mistaya" white trim as in the bathroom.

Here we are at the bottom of the stairs... there are still some things I need to change here... like that baby poop colored crown molding! But it goes all around the living room so I couldn't just paint one little piece... it's a project I'll be tackling in the next few months. And that ugly old smoke detector that doesn't work...need to get a new one of those... and the hideous baseboard heater down there... I'll either paint it or see about getting a new one, don't know if they make 'em that short anymore! But I did make a new simple curtain out of a cheap $3.00 sheet I got on sale at Fred Meyer!

I found this cute white stair basket after I first moved in. It's handy to fill with stuff that needs to go up so you don't have to make 8 million trips up and down the stairs!

This is back up looking at that ugly window with the air conditioner in it! I've wanted to hang a curtain up there for awhile but didn't have a ladder tall enough to get up there! I borrowed one for painting so I took advantage and made another curtain, also out of a cheap white sheet!!

Got this cool metal star at Big Lots for $11!

My chippy old door...

Little bird's nest under a tiny cloche and my greenhouse thing with a stack of old books and a small starfish!

And this is back at the top of the stairs where that old door was before! I bought a stencil at Craft Warehouse for $6.99 and made my own version of Jami's beautiful wall stencil!!

I hung an old mirror I had in a different room in the center of the stencil design.

I also found a couple of shirts at the thrift store and made chair slips with them like Jami did! The little chair is from the American Primitives antique show that we recently went to and the large folding chair is something I pulled out of my shed and gave a sloppy coat of paint (leftover bathroom paint)!

Here is the linen closet with a sweet little sachet bag I found at a yard sale over the weekend hanging from the knob! It says "Cherish" in grey embroidered letters.

I spray painted the ceiling light so no more paint all over it!!

oh! And would you look at that... nice, crisp, white, new, clean light switches!

I know it's not too exciting for most, but when you go from this:

To NEW... well, it's exciting! Plus I changed them out all by myself and I'm pretty proud of myself for that! LOL!

I'm so happy with my new hall, I keep walking up there and just looking at it!

Vintage Pillows

2011-08-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

My mom and I went to an Estate Sale a couple of weekends ago... we don't usually get too excited about them because the company that puts on most of them in our area charges too much for our tastes. Granted the prices are actually not bad I suppose... but my mom and I are used to thrift store and garage sale prices... so we kind of go into sticker shock when we go to these estate sales around here! LOL!

Anywho... we happened to stop at this one... and as we suspected, everything was priced out of our price range. But we kind of like to meander through the homes anyway... just being nosey I suppose. We ended up in a bedroom where I found these two old feather pillows. I pulled them out of the top of the closet, preparing myself for the price I was about to see... but there was no price! So I found the dude who is in charge and asked him how much. He said... get this... wait for it... he said $1 each! I about crapped a brick!!! Seriously? $1??

They were SO mine... I had a death grip on them just in case anyone else happened to hear that crazy good price and tried to RIP them from my hands... now they are in my spare bedroom. I already had the largest one. Isn't it sweet how they gradually get smaller and they colors are all different but with the same print? I love them. I also got the pink wool blanket on the bed at the same estate sale, it's listed in my Etsy shop now.

American Primitives at Clayson Farms

2011-08-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

My mom and I go to this antique show every year! It's like the Farm Chicks show only smaller and on the most beautiful grounds you've ever seen in Gleed/Yakima, Washington. Last Saturday was the show!!

Here are a couple of shots of their home and grounds. My mom and I are hoping that one day they will offer tours of the inside! ;)

This is the back porch, don't you just love the way it's decorated!!??

This little babbling brook runs all around the grounds...

A gate that leads out to the pasture.

The barn... yes, there is stuff for sale in there too!

And here are some shots of fun stuff that all the different vendors had.

Love the chalkboard...

There were two of these adorable little fawn yard ornaments... they both sold pretty quickly!

See him perched in the bird bath!? Cute!! And look at the fold up bed... I would LOVE to have that in my other spare bedroom!

And of course no respectable antique show is complete without a girly dress form! LOL!

We had a fun time as always! We ate a gigantic hot dog and they also have homemade berries pies for sale either a whole pie or by the slice and ala mode! Mmmm!!

Trash to Treasure Chair

2011-08-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

I've needed a chair for my sewing table for awhile now and I finally found this cutie at a garage sale last weekend. It was just $2 and while it looked a little frumpy and bedraggled with it's crusty mint green seat cover, I knew it could be really cute and just what I wanted for my sewing table!!

Here are the before shots.

I had some cute oil cloth that I picked up at the thrift store awhile back for $2.50 so I used that for my new seat cover.

The back has a metal piece that had been painted black and the paint was 1/2 gone... and not in the pretty chippy way that we all love! LOL! So I sprayed it with some bright red spray paint I had.

Isn't it cute??!!

My Bathroom Redo is Complete... well, sort of!

2011-08-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

I just can't wait any longer to share my new bathroom with you after its much needed update! I still have a few small details to finish up but for the most part it is complete!! Just as a reminder, here is what we started with when I moved in last November:

Ugg! Yellow and black striped wallpaper, black shutters, shower curtain, tile around the sink, , baseboards, light switches, mirror... black, black, black... icky!!

Here is the during... after I FINALLY got all that nasty wallpaper down... what a job that was!!

Yes... there was a bright yellow wall under that wall paper...

And here is the after!!

The gray color I chose is called Seattle! I live about 4 hours from Seattle and it is gray and rainy there most of the time... not here though! The white trim color is called Mistaya.

Maybe you can see that even the baseboards got popped off, painted that fresh Mistaya white and then reinstalled!

My ruffled curtain I made awhile back to replace the little black shutters when they literally fell apart!!

And my white eyelet shower curtain that a friend gave me.

Oh... you'll really be excited by this next thing... wait for it...

I sprayed the ugly gold TP holder with hammered bronze I think it is! Badda-Bing!!! Yah baby!!

And would you look at this cute little night stand!! I got it at a yardsale last weekend for $10... and the best part was it was already painted! I'm thinking of adding a little wire basket to hold toilet paper where the magazines are now sitting.

And of course my beloved ladder that I found at the dump... it's now a super cool towel rack!

See that picture hanging over the toilet? This is it, I got it at Joyworks in Snohomish, WA... I just love it and it has kind of steered my decorating theme for this room... beachy! Or... it will be beachy when I add some more beach themed accessories... right now it's just the picture and a starfish in the basket on the back of the toilet!!

The sink area with new white tiles in place of those ugly black ones!

I've had this little square clock forever... it started out years ago with a quilt block painted on all sides, then went to black with gold numbers and now white and no numbers! The little bird is a vintage Avon soap and the little mirror with the birdcage and "fly" is something I picked up at an antique store.

Several apothecary jars filled with makeup sponges, soaps, and cotton balls and my sweet little white planter pot with the ruffled edge holds Q-tips!

I know this is about as exciting as the toilet paper roll above but to me it is just as beautiful as the rest of the bath now considering the previous owner had off-white switches with black switch plates. I changed out the switches all by myself (I'm an electrician now you know ;) LOL!)

I also sprayed the sconces with the same paint I used on the TP holder. I'd like to replace the globes, I don't really like the little etched grape design... but that will have to wait for the perfect thrift store find because they don't have anything at my Lowe's or Home Depot that will fit :(

And I replaced the round mirror with this vintage square one that I've had.

So what do you think? I love it, it looks so CLEAN and FRESH now!!

Moving My Studio Space

2011-07-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

My daughter moved out a few weeks ago :( so I decided to move my craft studio from the teeny-tiny room that it was in to her old room. Don't worry... if she decides to come back there are still 2 bedrooms for her to choose from!

So, this is my space before... crammed into the littlest room on the planet aside from a closet! LOL! You can see I had stuff all over the floor, boxes of stuff that I had no where to put... piles of things here and there... barely room to walk let alone create something!

This is the empty room I'm moving into. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the new room is probably twice the size of the old room:

Here we are all moved in! Don't mind the bright, glaring light next to the dress form, my table leg broke years ago and my dad repaired it with a piece of reflective metal that they use for road signs!!

So I can now have my table completely folded out and you can work from both sides... so someone can join me now!! I put it next to the window because I like to look outside while I'm working. We're also upstairs and it looks over the front door so I can see whose coming!

This suitcase is GIGANTIC and it's filled with paper ephemera! I almost killed myself trying to pick it up to move it!! LOL!

I have lots and lots of storage cubbies and shelves... and it's all FULL let me tell you!!

I would like to find something fun to hold my rolls of vintage wallpaper... see them leaning against the wall down there?

This is my beloved "fine piece of furniture" as my family calls it!! It was a freebie that I scored when my dad worked at the cemetery! They used it in a shed to hold lawn care supplies. I have three old locker baskets on top spilling over with stuff! Old trims, ribbons, fabrics, and crepe papers!! You can see the stack of old hat boxes on the right... I didn't realize I had so many until I stacked them all up!

An old shoe holder...

This is inside the closet... TONS of stuff in there!!

Here is looking in to the left... I used old pop crates stacked up and a hanging shoe organizer.

This is looking in to the right...

I like to use pretty boxes and containers for storing my supplies...

Of course you gotta have a boob-tube!!! That green dresser has been around forever! My mom painted it for me when I was a baby and then my daughter used it! It now holds fabric.

My sewing corner... the table is an old Singer sewing machine iron base with a new top.

And here are some of my favorite things I like to look at in my room... my growing collection of horse ribbons... and one gymnastics ribbon from my daughter! LOL! Don't they make a cute valance!? I have another window that needs a valance as well!

This is my very favorite poster. I framed it with some old pink molding...

I got this rug years ago at a garage sale... it's an old latch-hook and it's so soft on your toes!! I have had several people offer to buy it!! LOL!

My Paris poster with the little vintage cherubs on the corners!

My chandelier hanging from my $8 Goodwill birdcage stand! I thought I was brilliant coming up with this idea and then I saw it somewhere else! :(

This is the door leading into the room... or back out, whichever way you look at it!! I have saved all the fun postcards advertising local antique shows and such!

So, what do you think?! It's so much more spacious, I love it!!

I am participating in the 3rd annual Where Bloggers Create party over at My Desert Cottage, hop on over to see everyone else who is participating and their wonderful studio spaces!!

Decorating A.D.D.

2011-07-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

I have A.D.D... I'm just sure of it, I have not been officially diagnosed but I do have a daughter who has been diagnosed so I know what the signs are... and I'm almost 100% positive that I have it too! I have learned to deal with it at work... and at school... but it really shows it's ugly head in my house...I have so many unfinished projects it is pitiful... at least 8 different projects that I have started and not finished. I start one and then I run across a piece of fabric or something that I bought for another project so I take that and start the other project... then... OOH! shiny... pretty...distracted AGAIN! and on and on... never finishing anything!

Here are some projects I've started recently and not finished yet...

This is one of my spare bedrooms upstairs. My daughter's friend was staying here for awhile and it has stayed exactly like it ended up when she left!

I have a plan... sort of... for this room. I want to decorate it shabby chic, girly style. The walls are a pale yellow and I think that will work with what I have in mind.

I got this tall skinny dresser at a garage sale for my daughter and she hated it. I'm going to paint it, I think it will be so sweet when it's all done. The lamp sitting on top was a thrift store find. It was gaudy gold metal and I painted it white... it's just waiting for the perfect shade to come along (go buy a lamp shade you say?? It's the same thing when I go shopping... there's so much to look at in the stores my A.D.D. kicks in and before you know it I'm on the opposite end of the store as the lamp shades and I've totally spaced them!!

I need to go through all those boxes stacked behind the door. I have more room since my daughter moved out so I should be able to find a place for them.

A friend of mine gave me the wicker bookcase. I used to have it in my craft room and then my daughter's room until she decided she didn't like it either. I'm envisioning some matching baskets for guest supplies... some old books, a few knick-knacks...

The piles of linens in front of it are for the room as well... there's a white bed skirt with fringe along the edges, a super cute duvet cover that I found at an antique show, it's made with vintage handkerchiefs, several of the vintage satin souvenir pillow covers, some have Mother poems, some have states on them, and an old family heirloom quilt.

You can also see my old hope chest in the corner with the lid open... when my daughter was moving out we emptied it out so she could move her "hopes" to her new place... and that's how it's stayed... lid open (why don't I just close the lid you ask... A.D.D). I'm going to recover the top fabric part.

The chair sitting under the window was found in the Walmart parking lot... I shit you not! There it was... out in the middle of the parking lot where no one parks... all by itself! All I could think was that someone had their motorhome parked overnight and left the poor chair sitting there.

This is the other spare bedroom upstairs. This is the one I just moved my craft room out of ... it's teeny-tiny (see how I've never finished cleaning it up??... A.D.D).

That box looking thing covers the slanted stairwell wall I guess. I was thinking of making it into a sitting area... kind of like a little built in couch of sorts with a padded seat, pillows all around and a skirt.

This is what I have been working on FOR.EVER... it's my bathroom. The next two pictures are what it looked like when I moved in. The black shutters quickly fell apart from all the heat and moisture from showering.

It has (had) hideous yellow and black striped wall paper and black fixtures and details... blech!

Here it is all torn apart!! LOL! I spent HOURS stripping off that STUPID wall paper! OMG! What a bitch that was! I tried a steamer for awhile and that was just painstakingly slow and tedious... and of course with A.D.D. you can't have that!!! So I tried something I found at Lowe's called Chomp and one of those little scoring tools... that worked really good!

Here is a paint sample that I'm testing out... it's called Pebble Grey and it's by Glidden. So far I think I like it! I don't know what the deal is with the one yellow wall... at first I thought maybe it was to prime the bare sheet-rock for wall paper but I don't know because only that one wall is yellow.. maybe the previous owner had A.D.D. too!!??.

This fan/light thing is so ugly... not sure what to do about it. It's old plastic that has yellowed and looks nasty, the cover that goes over the light bulb is missing... I thought about painting it and making one of the cage looking light covers that are so popular right now... what would you do??

The gold TP holder has got to go... I bought some metallic oil rubbed bronze spray paint to fix it up!

There's that YELLOW wall again!

Here I have ripped off the row of black tiles around the sink area... you can see the black in the 2nd before picture.

Don't like these either... I don't think I can change them out though because they have plug ins on them and I'm not sure they make them with plug ins anymore... there are NO OTHER plug ins in the whole bathroom. I think I'll use the spray paint on them too and just get new globes.

Not so crazy about the mirror either...

And black switch plates with old, dirty off-white switches...hmmm... I bought new crisp white plates and switches to switch these out with.

So there you have it... some of my decorating A.D.D. in full view! LOL!

Summer Time Back Patio

2011-07-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my back patio as time... and money allows! I've installed a Sunsetter awning, with the help of my mom and dad of course... couldn't have done it without them! The instructions for the awning said that an "average" person could install it in just a few hours... LIES!!! ALL LIES!!! Let me tell you... I may be of "average" skills when it comes to this kind of stuff but my dad certainly is above average... and it took all three of us like 6 hours total!! I also purchased new patio furniture and had to put it together... lots of cussing happened during that project!!

I found the slice of wood and the large glass candle holder today at the thrift store!

I bought more flowers and planted this pot to try to disguise the gaggle of wires and boxes and junk... I try to check out the clearance flowers, there is usually nothing wrong with them except perhaps they aren't blooming at the moment... but they certainly will again! I got these flowers for $2 and $3.99. And I bought the fountain today too! OMG! I've been wanting a fountain for SO long! I was going to make my own but by the time I would have bought the pots, the fountain kit, etc., etc. it would have cost more than just buying a ready-made fountain. Well... it would have cost more than this fountain anyway! It was on sale at Fred Meyer marked down from $70.00 to $39.90!!!

Last weekend a friend and I put down the river rock along the edge of the house. There is a basement window right next to the flowers so you couldn't plant anything there because you wouldn't be able to water very well... so I thought rock would dress it up a bit!

I got this little rusty truck from my dad... I don't know if it was his as a child or not but I love it! The rusty coffee can came from our junking trip here!

And here are a few pictures of some new flowers that have started blooming in my yard!

And here is a little vignette I have created...

My old lawn mower, my grandma's old wheelbarrow, an old apple picking bag (also from the junking trip)! Do you see what's in that wheelbarrow?? You may have to enlarge the picture... they are CHERRIES!!! I am so SICK of cherries ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE. that I could scream!!! They are in the grass, in the bark, in the flowers, in the wheelbarrow... on the deck, on the patio, on the patio furniture, on the dogs feet which also makes them in the house!!!! OMG!!! The tree is old and just a beautiful shade tree... but I can't take it!!!

IT'S GOIN' DOWN!!!

It's almost done dropping cherries now, but come fall it's gotta go!! HATE.IT.!!! Now... do you want me to tell you how I really feel about it!!?? LOL!

Puppies and Furniture do not mix!!

2011-07-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

You may remember awhile back my daughter's friend was staying with us along with her pit bull puppy, well... he wreaked havoc on my house and some of the furniture in it :( This chair was the object of one of his little puppy fits.

Luckily he only chewed on the two arms...

But still... I was so upset because I had spent so much time revamping this chair! You can see the transformation here.

I thought maybe I could get out my trusty palm sander and fix it. I didn't have the same paint anymore but I found some that was a pretty close match and I think it looks pretty good! Don't get too close though, you can still see some of the REALLY deep teeth marks... but not unless you know they are there!

Oh, and yes the puppy is gone now!! He was aweful cute but GAH!!!

Fun Weekend Finds!

2011-07-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

My mom and I went to the Blueberry Daze Festival and Antique Show at Bill's Berry Farm in Grandview, Washington on Saturday! It was lots of fun, they have a petting zoo and pony rides for the kids, you can pick your own blueberries and cherries, there's a fun country band, they make fresh blueberry doughnuts and there are several antique booths set up! My mom took her camera and did blog post about it on our blog The Vintage Dresser, you should go take it look! I took some pics of the fun finds I brought home that I thought I'd share now.

But first... I have to show you the lovely way that I used to display the dog food!! Nice don't you think? The burgundy color of the sack coordinates nicely with the red bricks of the fireplace chimney! I've been looking for something to hide the dog food in for some time now...

I found this at the antique show! It's HUGE... perfect size for a large bag of dog food! It was only $20.00, not bad considering the size and usefulness!

You can see I need to go grocery shopping... not much in there now!

I found this old flag bunting and thought it would make a fun table runner to add to my 4th of July decor! We found one antique vendor who seemed to have $5 stuck on the brain because nothing was marked and everything we asked about was... you guessed it... $5!! So, that's how much I paid for this flag bunting, I thought that was a steel because there was another vendor selling them for upwards of $20.00... EACH!!!

I have a little collection of these pillows going... once I get my spare bedroom redecorated I'll have to show you the rest! I also got this one at the $5 booth, but I got smart after awhile and said "would you take $2.00 for this?" and she said "sure!"... so this was $2.00!

And once again at the $5.00 booth... lots and lots of paper ephemera!

The two boxes above have snippets of vintage Christmas wrapping paper and Christmas cards!!

Look at all the sweet wrapping paper!!

And cards galore... all unused!!

The cards and wrapping paper together were $7.00 and the little bundle of papers below was $2.00. There's an old Seattle Washington map, a Blue Bird composition book, some old air mail envelopes, someones old gas receipt, some contribution cards, letters, a German "Almanack", etc. I love this stuff for altered art projects!

One vendor was selling these little burlap sacks for .75 cents each and the white sacks were what the $5 lady put our purchases in! I think they could be decorated up and made pretty cute!

I paid $1 each for these. The Lovely Letters box is just an empty box... I'm a sucker for pretty, old boxes! The other is a box of vintage mirror table place setting markers!

Now to haul all this up to my new studio space where I actually have room now to put all these new supplies!! LOL!

Flowers From My Garden

2011-06-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

I did some yard work after work today and picked these flowers to reward myself after all my hard work! These are just some of the flowers that are blooming in my garden now... aren't they pretty??!!

The neighbor's have the purple one's (don't know what they are) just growing wild... taking over their ~~weed patch~~ err... garden! They are creeping over to my side and while I was pulling other weeds I yanked these out... then I thought "oh, that was mean, they are kind of pretty" (yah, I'm weird like that!)... so I stuck them in a vase and then went and picked some other flowers... a couple of roses... daisies, tiger lilies, Sweet William, and some other stuff I don't know the names of!

Hope you all are having a lovely summer so far!