Summer is just around the corner and we’ve been busy cleaning our patio and backyard, replacing patio cushions, planting bright flowers and getting summer ready.  We love to grill and entertain during the summer and I was really hoping to find some sort of outdoor bar that I could use for serving beverages and appetizers.  I haven’t been able to find anything even close to what I had in mind, so when I stumbled across this potting bench for $111.00 at World Market, I thought why not?

If it wasn’t for the sink in this piece, I don’t think it would have even occurred to me to convert this piece into a bar.   Many of the potting benches on the market have a sink or at least a bucket that is absolutely perfect for ice:

When it’s really hot outside, I plan on placing a large frozen plastic blue cooler block in the base of the bucket (below the ice) to keep the ice cold.

We added several hardware pieces to the potting bench to make it the piece even more convenient for us.  We added a standard towel bar to the front of the bench for towels:

We also added 3-sided channel trim that we picked up at Lowe’s for $4.00 to create a spot to hang glasses just below the top shelf:

We even added a bottle opener to front of the bench as well:

The little hooks that came with the bench are perfect for storing bar accessories:

The top shelf is great for bottles, drinks and extra cups:

If you’re looking for an outdoor bar or a food serving bar, a potting bench is the perfect solution and you can pretty much add anything to it to really customize it for whatever you need.  If you’re looking for something with more space, think about two of them together!  I have already ordered a second one from World Market that I’m going to use for food.
You can find potting benches pretty much everywhere right now and I found these below online including the first one from World Market that I purchased (click on picture for the link to the item):

Potting Bench at World Market is $111.00

Source: World Market

Target $169.00:

Source: Target

Woodland Direct for $273.00:

Source: Woodland Direct

Home Depot Potting Bench for $289.00:

Source: Home Depot

So many fun possibilities with these benches besides gardening.

Have a wonderful week friends and I’ll be back on Friday morning with more outdoor inspiration for us on Friday Favorites.

Cheers!

Cyndy

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Happy Friday Friends!

If you’ve been hanging out on my blog for awhile, you probably know by now that I am obsessed with online printables.   I get a tinge of excitement when I see the the words “free printable” flash across my monitor.   Oh yes, it’s so bad for me that I have set up a “Free Printables” Pinterest Board and have pinned more than 370 of my favorite printable links found throughout the Internet.  I think there are a lot of us underground printable fanatics living seemingly normal lives out there.  At least I hope I’m not alone in this!

I use online printables all of the time and I keep card stock and 8.5″ x 11″- 3M adhesive label sheets right next to my printer so I can print out something in a flash.

So last July, I shared a collection of some of my favorite free printables and I still love the collection and I use many of them regularly.  You can find last year’s {Part 1} “Obsessed with Printables” post here or by clicking on the picture below if you haven’t seen this collection yet:

Today, I wanted to share some of my new favorite printables that I have either used since last year’s post, or plan on using.  Hopefully, you can use them too!

To access the link to the downloads/printables that I am sharing today, simply click on the picture of the printable that you want and it will take you directly to the website and the link {with instructions} to the printable download.

First up is this fabulous chalkboard printable from one of my favorite websites, The Wedding Chicks:

Source: The Wedding Chicks

How fun are these chalkboard cards?  The Wedding Chicks recommend using a white chalk pencil to write on the cards.  I love this idea for place cards, food/drink labels for a buffet or even a cute thank you note.  There are a lot of possibilities with this fun printable.

By the way, The Wedding Chicks have an amazing collection of other free printables and beautiful mongrams that you will want to check out as well.  You can access their list of free printables here.

I also love these fabulous chalkboard labels by the talented Erin Rippy of the Ink Tree Press that she designed for World Label:

Source: World Label

These chalkboard labels are so fun and the template is set up so that you can fill in your own words in the chalk font, which makes these labels even more realistic.  I can think of a ton of different uses for these labels and below are some fantastic suggested uses for them as well that World Label shares on their post for the labels:

Source: Ink Tree Press & World Label

World Label offers a huge selection of free downloads/printables.  You could spend a day looking through their awesome free templates/printables. You can start by looking through their list here.  World Label sells adhesive labels in every size imaginable and you can order them through their website.  For each free download, they give specific label sizes to order. They make it super easy for us!

Next up, I just love these gorgeous free printable thank you cards created by Pumpkins and Posies:

Source:Pumpkins and Posies

These thank you cards are so beautiful and I just love the fun patterns and colors. Catherine has created several gorgeous cards for almost every occasion and they are all free!  You can look through everything Catherine offers on her fun blog Pumpkins and Posies here.

Another fun thank you card project that I just adore is from the super creative Michael of Inspired by Charm:

Source: Inspired by Charm

This project is a little different and while it is not quite a free printable to immediately download, Micheal makes it super easy for us.  Michael gives step by step instructions on how to create this beautiful thank you card with links to the font and flourish design. I wanted to share it with you today because it’s one of my favorite ideas and its so easy to do!  You can also venture off track if you want and create your own stationary or note cards using Micheal’s tutorial found here.

With Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday, I wanted to share a beautiful free printable card that I found from Ellinnee that looks so easy to make and it’s perfect for inserting a gift card:

Source: Ellinee

Such a beautiful card.  Hard to believe it’s free, huh?  By the way, Ellinee also has a free template and great instructions to make that pretty paper peony shown in the above picture.  You can find the peony instructions and template here.

If you’ve never been to Ellinee Design House, you will be blown away!  If you need invitations or DIY ideas, this is a great place for more ideas than you could imagine.  I could spend hours on their website looking at all of their designs.

I couldn’t believe it but Ellinee offers this gorgeous free printable wrapping paper:

Source: Ellinee

I could dedicate a whole post to all of the wonderful free printables that Ellinee offers.  They are all some of the prettiest things I have seen!  You can go through their list and gallery here to see all of the wonderful free goodies that they offer.

Another favorite printable and project that I can’t wait to try was created by Emily of @Jones Design Company for summer bag tags.  Emily shared this printable and project last summer on one of my favorite blogs, The House of Smith’s:

Source: The House of Smiths/ Jones Design Company

Source: The House of Smith's/ Jones Design Company

Emily’s tutorial for the bag tags looks so easy using this fun free printable.  I hope to find the time to make several for my daughter and how fun would they be for end of school gifts?  Such a great idea!  This printable could be used for labels and all kinds of different tags as well.

Speaking of tags and labels, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who is obsessed with these little printables of label joy!  Luzel from the fun blog iDiy has done an amazing job in finding and collecting free printable labels and tags and has dedicated numerous posts “For the Love of Labels”:

Source: iDiy

This collection of free labels found throughout the internet is “Part 5″ of Luzel’s free label series! Oh yea, girl is serious about her free printable label love!  Me too!  If you too have this label obsession, you need to run as fast as you can and check out all of the great links that Luzel has collected and shared here!

I also love free printable lists.  I am blown away by the number of fantastic free printable lists/charts and worksheets that are out there just waiting for us to print them.  I have collected tons of these lists on my Pinterest “Printables” board here if you want to look through the collection of lists.

This beautiful “to-do” list created by Jamie from the blog A Pair of Pears is one of my favorites:

Source: A Pair of Pears

I just love the font that Jamie used for this list and it’s perfectly designed to organize the week.  This would be a great gift to print out a stack of them and slip into a fun clipboard and wrap with a bow for a busy mom or teacher!

Another one of my favorite free printable lists is this awesome grocery list created by the design team over at Ellinee:

Source: Ellinee

Just what I needed!  I love how everything is organized as a checklist because this will help remind me of what I might be missing from my list.  I just love this!!

The internet is not only filled with free printable lists and worksheets, but you won’t believe all of the beautiful calendars that are out there as well!  One of my favorites is from the blog Blooming Homestead:

Source: Blooming Homestead

I just love the trendy patterns and fun fonts!  The calendar printable is set up for you to either print one month or the whole year!  How cool is that?  So fun!

Lastly, I thought I would close with one of my favorite free printable projects found on the Internet.  Martha Stewart is a big printable fan herself and she created these adorable pet id tags using a free printable template that she shares in addition to detailed instructions:

Source: Martha Stewart

These pet tags are simply wonderful!  The project uses Shrinky Dinks. This would be something fun to do with the kids.  Martha has tons of free printable projects and you can look through her gallery found here to see everything that she offers.  I think it’s by far one of the best free printable collections found on the Internet and I get all tingling when I scroll through all of her free printable projects!

Well friends, I hope this list will tide you guys over for a spell.  So many fun and creative free printables, I have to admit I get giddy when I look at these wonderful lovelies that these creative people have made for us!  I cannot thank the creators enough for giving such free printable joy and if you get the chance, please share the comment love with them as you visit some of these sites and download the printables.  I can only imagine how much time and energy it takes to create an online printable for the world. Thank you, thank you!!

Do you have a favorite printable that you want to share with us?  Please feel free to share the link in the comment section below.  I know you guys have some favorites too!

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Cheers!

Cyndy

Happy Friday!

This week on Friday Favorites, I wanted to share some of my favorite furniture revamps & tutorials found throughout Blogland.  I  have a long list of furniture pieces just waiting for a little bit of my time and I would like to try several of these techniques featured today.  I think you’re going to love this amazing collection!

The top of my list is this stunning chevron dresser revamp done was shared on Flickr by Ampirlot:

Source: Flickr Stream

This dresser is just fantastic! Without having any details, the dresser looks like someone used tape to create a chevron design and then simply painted the piece. Gorgeous! I was so inspired by this photo that I immediately started a dresser revamp this week with this concept in mind. Hopefully it will turn out!

Another furniture treatment/revamp that I am dying to try is using a high gloss lacquer in a fun color like this spectacular project created by Alison from the blog My Little Happy Place:

Source: My Little Happy Place

Wow!! So amazing!  Alison nailed the color and finish!  These two pieces are dressers that Alison purchased at Ikea and transformed them! I want to do something very similar as this in my dining room as well. Alison has inspired me to start thinking about colors and pieces. Hopefully I can get to this project this summer.

You can read all of the details of this revamp and get specific paint colors on Alison’s blog here.

Another high gloss tutorial that I want to try is thanks to Jenny of the blog Little Green Notebook. I just love her revamped side table:

Source: Little Green Notebook

Source: Little Green Notebook

Jenny’s table turned out so fabulous and I loved that she went into details about working with enamel paints. You can read all of the details and get color and paint information on Jenny’s blog here.

I really love the look of high gloss and its not just for modern/contemporary interiors. A piece finished in a lacquered high gloss adds a wonderful pop of color and finish in traditional decors.

Next up is this beautiful French poem painted dresser created by the Marion of the blog Miss Mustard Seed:

Source: Miss Mustard Seed

Source: Miss Mustard Seed

I just love this piece! Marion transposed the French words using a stencil. Simply gorgeous!! For the details on how Marion revamped this piece, you can find it here on Marion’s blog.

Another one of my favorite furniture revamp tutorials in Blogland was this dresser done by Kate from  Centsational Girl:

Source: Centsational Girl

Kate really did a beautiful job on this dresser using chalk paint and you can find details and paint colors here.  Kate loves to do furniture revamps, so be sure and check out her project gallery on her blog for ideas and inspiration.

Chalk paint is a really beautiful way to transform and update an old piece of furniture.   I stumbled across my own recipe about a year ago and I have been using it every since then. It just works really well for me and I get the exact color and finish that I want. I know there are tons of variations of chalk paint recipes and discussions throughout Blogland that you can search, but I settled on using 1/3rd satin paint, 1/3rd cheap primer and 1/3rd lightweight spackle compound. Yep, spackle compound! If I want my finish more translucent and wash like, I reduce my spackle and increase my paint. Works like a charm for me and there is no need to prime the piece.

I wanted to close with one of my favorite posts/revamps from another one of my favorite blogs, The Nesting Place.  I just love this gray hutch revamp:

While this is an older post, The Nester makes several really great points about getting started in revamping furniture and just experimenting to see what works on smaller pieces. This post just makes me laugh and is a really great place to start if you are looking to get started in revamping a furniture piece.

I’m really curious what furniture revamps are on your project list. Hopefully one or several of these projects featured today have inspired you! I want to find the time to try them all!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Cheers!

Cyndy

I have this thing about about sea fans.  They’re just so beautiful to me and seeing them framed on a wall reminds me of seeing them snorkeling at the bottom of the ocean, waving back and forth in vibrant colors.  In fact, I adore them so much that I have been dyeing them beautiful colors for over two years now and I have them framed in several places throughout my home.

Sea fans are so elegantly coastal to me and when they are dyed or painted, they can infuse a pop of color into a room in such a dramatic way. Since there are no two sea fans alike, they look amazing framed next to each other in a collection like these spectacular framed sea fan collections that I have found online:

Source: Haus and Home

Source:Haus and Home/ Phoebe Howard

Source: Decor Pad

Source: No Minimalist Here

The best thing about sea fans is they are inexpensive and run about $4.00-$12.00 each and you can buy them easily online here.  If you’re planning on visiting the beach, look for them in shell stores as well.

Framed fans can work in any decor depending on the style of framing. I can see them in a white washed frame for a shabby look or rather a sleek modern frame  for a contemporary look. My framed indigo blue colored fans are framed in more traditional in style:

Two years ago, I shared a tutorial on how to dye sea fans with RIT fabric dye that you can find here.  Dyeing the sea fans is my favorite technique to add color because it gives the fans the most vibrant and organic look. However, last week, I stumbled on a quick spray paint technique that gives the fans the beautiful color but with a minimal/plastic look sheen, as an alternative to dyeing the fans.

Here are the two different techniques shown side by side for comparison:

There are subtitle differences but it’s not that significant. The color seems much more vibrant and organic to me with the dye but framed and up on a wall, I’m not sure the differences would be as noticeable.

The spray paint technique is pretty simple but the key is to only use a satin paint. The gloss finish gives the fan too much sheen and makes it look plastic. The second important thing to do is to spray the least amount of paint possible and from the furthest distance. In other words, the second the fan starts showing that it is covered in color, stop spraying! It’s really takes about 10 seconds for an average size fan. The more spray paint, the less organic the finish looks.

Here is a close up of my spray painted fan:

Not bad, huh?

After I spray painted my three fans, I picked up a large mat at Hobby Lobby and cut the mat to fit my three frames. I also had to use wire cutters to cut the big stump off of the end of each frame so I could frame it:

I used ready made frames from Hobby Lobby and attach the fans to the mat with a very small amount of hot glue. Just enough to keep it in place. I then put the sea fans on the mat in the frames and while it’s a tight fit, I just close the back of the frame the best I can. Sometimes I have to add a couple small little nails to hold the backing on:

If you’re interested in dyeing the fans, you can find the tutorial here for dyeing them.

I am in the process of dyeing a large collection of fans in a gorgeous light turquoise color that I will post when I get them finished. This is such an easy and inexpensive way to add color and something spectacular to wall. So many possibilities!

On a side note, this summer I will be opening my online store and one of the items I am planning to sell will be dyed sea fans in various colors.  I hope to have the store launched by mid to early summer and it will be connected with this website.   I am so excited about it and I will keep you posted.  I know the “Shop” tab at the top of my page that has been up for almost a year has everyone wondering.  Yes, it’s finally going to happen!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and be sure and check back Friday morning for Friday Favorites. This week I am sharing some amazing furniture revamps and tutorials that I think you all will love and hopefully be inspired. See you then friends!

Cheers!
Cyndy

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This week for Friday Favorites I wanted to share some of my favorite “Pinteresting bloggers”.  These bloggers not only have amazing blogs, but they are also some of my favorite people to follow on Pinterest.  Pinterest has turned out to be such a fantastic resource for me in finding inspiration and project ideas. Finding people to follow that inspire me in their style/taste/ideas, is key for ensuring that steady stream of images and ideas.

I have found that if I’m inspired with a blogger’s style, chances are I will be inspired by their pin collections as well. When I find a blog that I love, I always check to see if they have a link to follow on Pinterest.  If you’re not on Pinterest, you can still visit these blogger’ boards and blogs.  You can also find me on Pinterest here as well if you want to venture through some of my boards.

By the way, many bloggers pin their work/projects on their boards as well, so this is another good way to keep up with a blogger as well and an incentive to consider getting on the Pinterest bandwagon if you’re not already.

So let’s jump right into some of my favorite pinteresting bloggers;

I adore Brooke Giannetti of the gorgeous blog Velvet and Linen:

Source: Velvet and Linen

Brooke is one of my favorite interior designers and her work is just simply breathtaking.  She shares many of her projects on her blog and Pinterest boards, not to mention that you can see find her work in almost every design magazine.

Brooke’s style is so gorgeous and elegant and if you’re not familiar with Brooke and her architect husband Steve, you will definitely want to go venture through her blog.  She is just simply amazing.

Below are just a couple images of Brooke’s home that I just love:

Source: Velvet and Linen/ David Offer Homes

Source: Velvet and Linen/ David Offer Homes

Source: Velvet and Linen/ David Offer

Brooke’s blog and Pinterest boards are packed full of so much beautiful inspiration and ideas that its truly is such a special treat for me to see her work.

Next up is one of my favorite blogs, Shauna from the beautiful blog Perfectly Imperfect:

Source: Perfectly Imperfect

I love Shauna’s gorgeous style both on her blog and her Pinterest boards.  Shauna has fantastic and creative decorating ideas and she really knows how to revamp furniture.  She shares easy to follow written and video tutorials for transforming furniture with unique paint treatments.

Here are a couple of my favorite projects of Shauna’s:

I love her video tutorial for learning how to dry brush:

Source: Perfectly Imperfect

This is a fantastic post where Shauna explains the difference between whitewashing and dry brushing and she also shares some great tips:

Source: Perfectly Imperfect

If you’re interested in learning how to revamp some of your furniture pieces or if you’re looking for decorating ideas and inspiration, Shauna is a great resource!

Another one of my favorite Pinteresting Bloggers is Kate from the popular blog Centsational Girl:

Source: Centsational Girl

Of course, I think most of us faithfully follow Kate’s blog but are you following her Pins on Pinterest? If not, you should because she really has a that same great eye for design ideas and finding inspiration with each of her pins.  I also love that Kate has organized many of her own projects on one board here, so it’s easy to access her links to all of her tutorials/projects in one place.

These are two of my favorite project tutorials of Kate’s:

Source: Centsational Girl

Source: Centsational Girl

Again, you can find Kate’s blog here and you can following her Centsational Pins on Pinterest right here.

Next up is Mary from the blog Urban Farmgirl :

Source: Urban Farmgirl

Mary has a really eclectic and beautiful design style.  She loves the simple, vintage, yet whimsical. She shares many of her projects on her blog and her Pinterest boards found here will simply amaze you, so much inspiration.   Mary and I share the same love of architectural elements, vintage signs, fun craft ideas and unique art pieces and Mary somehow always seems to find these goodies.

Mary’s blog is also full of great ideas and inspiration.  I just LOVE this fantastic numbered cabinet that she created:

Source: Urban Farm Girl

Last, but certainly not least I wanted to share with you Michael Wurm from the beautiful blog Inspired by Charm:

Inspired By Charm

I have followed Michael’s blog for probably close to two years now and have followed his Pinterest Boards found here for quite awhile as well.  I had absolutely no clue that Michael was the most followed Pinterest user until I went to look for something on one of his Pinterest Boards and saw that he had something like 900,000.00 followers on just one of his boards!

Michael’s own projects and recipes are amazing and he has such a creative eye for design, crafts, recipes and quotes and so much more, I am not surprised at all that he is the most followed Pinterest user.  It’s like the old “E.F. Hutton” commercial {yes, I’m old}, when Michael pins, everybody else repins!  

One of my favorite projects that I love that Michael recently made is this wonderful Eat Dessert First Chalkboard Wall:

Source: Inspired By Charm

You can see some of Michael’s other projects and recipes on his blog and Pinterest Boards.  Be sure and check him out, you will be amazed and inspired!

I have so many more favorites to share but I’ll wait to share more on some of the upcoming Friday Favorites.  Every Friday morning, I’m gonna try and keep this going and give you great sources of inspiration and project ideas.

I finally have a new project that I hope to share on Monday.  I have had some camera issues and wasn’t able to share the project I had planned this week.

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Cheers!

Cyndy

I’ve been wanting to start a weekly feature for a long time know where I can share and highlight some of the amazing projects and blogs that I run across and call it “Friday Favorites”.   I also want to feature Etsy stores and other fun websites as well.  There is just so much amazing stuff out there to inspire us and I want to make sure that you guys get a chance to see it if you haven’t already.

I can’t think of a better way to kick off the first Friday Favorites than featuring the blogs that I always go to first when I start to my journey through blogland.  It continues to amaze me how encouraging and supportive the blogging community is and these people that I’m sharing with you today have greatly inspired me and encouraged me in so many ways over the last two years and have made blogging extra special for me.

Let’s start with the fabulous Amanda Carol of the beautiful blog Amanda Carol Interiors:

Source: Amanda Carol at Home

I can’t think of any other way to describe Amanda other than to say that she is my blogland  ”soul mate”.  Amanda and I have very similar taste in design and decor but she has a lot more finise than I could every dream of having!

Take a look at a couple of Amanda’s  projects:

Source: Amanda Carol at Home

Source: Amanda Carol at Home

Amanda is an interior designer in Houston and she blows me away with every single one of her posts.  You will love her too { if you are not already hanging out at her blog}.

Next up is my friend the fashionista Anne from the awesome blog Wobi Sobi:

Source: Wobi Sobi

 There is pretty much nothing that Anne can’t do including making clothes, accessories and crafts.  She makes me laugh so hard with her “Sundays with Sailor Sam“:

Source: Wobi Sobi

Oh yes, Sailor Sam has quite the adventures!

Pretty much every morning, Anne takes a picture of her outfit for the day like these:

Source: Wobi Sobi

Go ahead girl!  Love it! Love the shoes, love the shades, love the dress!

Her outfit pictures, her beautiful face and sweet heart, just make me smile every time I visit her blog.  Most of the time Anne’s outfits includes something she has made or retrofitted in some way.  Anne is really gifted in writing her tutorials that makes everything sound so easy.

You guys probably already know this if you’ve been reading my blog for awhile that no one has inspired me more than  ”Sweet Paul”.  Paul is insanely creative and is the only person I know that can make a brussel sprout look like a work of art and make my mouth water and I detest brussel sprouts:

I just adore Paul and and if you have never visited his blog and beautiful magazine:

Source: Sweet Paul Magazine

run as fast as you can because Paul is truly an amazing gifted artist when it comes to styling a photo and his recipes and crafts and will blow you away.  Several weeks ago, I had the chance to go to NYC to meet and learn from Sweet Paul and I blogged about my amazing experience here.

Here are some of my favorite Sweet Paul goodies:

I can’t wait to make Paul’s recipe for caprese tarts that look so amazing:

Source: Sweet Paul

Paul’s yogurt, honey and berry breakfast looks so beautiful and yummy:

Paul has so many wonderful recipes, craft ideas and unique projects and you can look through his archives on his blog or you can check out his boards on Pinterest here where he posts images/links to most of his projects.

Next up is the super talented Elizabeth of The Mustard Ceiling:

 I first stumbled upon Elizabeth when she shared a gorgeous project using my tutorial for screenless screen print painting.  I have to say it is so fun for me to see someone use a tutorial that I shared.  It makes me feel like we’ve cyber crafted together!   I don’t think I have missed one of Elizabeth’s posts from that day on!

Here are the pictures from Elizabeth’s screenless screen printing project, it turned out so gorgeous:

Source: The Mustard Ceiling

Source: The Mustard Ceiling

Source: The Mustard Ceiling

Elizabeth has one of the best eyes for design that I have seen in blogland. If you are looking for design inspiration and great tutorials, her blog and her Pinterest Boards here will give you more decorating ideas than imaginable.

For my favorite craft fix and other home decor tutorials, I love to check in with Stephanie Lynne at the awesome blog Under the Table Dreaming:

Source: Under The Table Dreaming

I don’t know how Stephanie Lynn does it but several times a week she posts incredible project ideas and tutorials like these two projects:

Source: Under The Table Dreaming

Source: Under the Table Dreaming

I also always check in with Laurie over at Tip Junkie:

and the sweet Jen at Tatortots and Jello for crafts and other fun stuff:

These three blogs, Under the Table Dreaming, Tip Junkie and Tatortots & Jello are not only amazing craft and DIY blogs but they feature other bloggers on a regular basis, so they are a fantastic resource for finding new blogs and awesome projects in one place.

Another one of my favorite bloggers is Donna at Funky Junk Interiors:

Source: Funky Junk Interiors

Donna’s blog was one of the first blogs I followed several years ago and I rarely miss one of her posts.  You will not believe how creative and outside the box she is with her fun with her unique industrial chic style.  Donna is such a gifted blogger not only with her creative projects but in her writing.  I have never seen such an encouraging and uplifting blogger and many of her posts are about following your passions and encouraging creativity. Love that girl!

I thought I would close by sharing some of my favorite blogs that I have recently come across and look forward to following.  Maybe one or all of these blogs will peak your interest as well:

I just recently found Julie at the gorgeous blog EAB Designs:

Source: P.S. I Made This

I cannot believe that I have just now found the fabulous Erica Domesek’s blog P.S. I Made this.  You guys probably already know about this blog already:

Source: The Italian Dish

Erica’s blog is beyond amazing!  I cannot even explain how cool and different her blogging and creative style is.  Also, look for Erica this June as a judge on the upcoming Craft Wars with host Tori Spelling on the TLC.  How fun is that show going to be to watch!

I have another new favorite food blog called The Italian Dish:

I cannot tell you how excited I am to share this next post with you.  This last Saturday, my daughter’s school gym was transformed in a really big way for “Bayou Bash”, St. Cyprian’s annual school  fundraiser.  Bayou Bash is a vintage New Orleans meets the bayou themed party:

My crafty neighbor Jane and several other teacher/parents transformed the gym in such a creatively spectacular way that I still {four days later}, simply cannot believe what my eyes saw!

What makes this even more amazing is that these ladies not only took their creativity to an unimaginable level, but they did it on an extremely limited budget {school fundraiser} and   used all recycled items for virtually all of the décor.

They used items like old newspapers:

They used old wooden boards that they attached and painted with chalkboard paint for signs:

They used old quilts, drapes, burlap and kraft paper for tablecloths:

They also used some old pieces of furniture for a vintage seating area and throughout the decor:

They also used old variegated tin that they found to create a stage for the awesome Brian Harkness and his band:

The most amazing thing of all is that crafty Jane MADE the ceiling tent on her sewing machine!!

Can you believe that!!  She made that on her little sewing machine?  WOW!!  How she kept all the panels perfectly aligned is beyond me.  It really was a sight to see in person.

 So who are these insanely creative ladies?

{left to right} Alicia, Bailey, Becky and Crafty Jane

Not only are these ladies super creative but they are four of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet!  It was truly was a joy for me to spend a little time watching them transform the gym through they week as they decorated.  What is even better is that throughout the week the children of the school came in and out of the gym as it was being transformed with this insane creativity.  What a wonderful message for the kid’s to see! Recycling, imagination and creativity can transform virtually anything!

While I focused on the decorating for this event for this post, there were also a lot of other amazing people who all collectively pulled this event together.  The event could not have happened without the teachers, staff and parents who also put in a lot of time and effort.  St. Cyprian’s staff member, Sheila Adams was the catalyst for helping to bring everyone and all of the ideas together for this great event.

There were so many other creative details that I did not mention.  As you look through the pictures, you will see so many little touches that were really unique and fun.

As I mentioned last week, I’m getting ready to start a new feature on Friday’s that will start this week.  I will have that post up first thing Friday morning.  I also have several other projects that I recently finished and hope to have those tutorials up next week as well!

Have a fantastic week!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!  We had a great weekend with friends and family and we also spent a lot of time working on our yard, porch and flower beds.  I hate to say it, but I’m not much of a huge fan of gardening. Although, I do love the end results of a beautiful yard and flower beds,  I just don’t have a green thumb and it takes a lot of time and patience, both of which I have none of!  I’m more of an instant gratification girl and I’d rather have a glue gun in my hand than flower seeds.

Over the last few years, I have made an easy moss basket in the Spring for my front door to keep up through late fall/Christmas, as alternative to having seasonal wreaths throughout the year. I don’t have the time (or interest) to make and switch out wreaths, so this basket is an easy way for us to have something pretty on our door without much effort.

In the past, I would usually just fill the moss basket as full as I could with dried stems like wheat, lavender or dried hydrangea’s and I have just loved it!.  The best part is that it literally took me 20 minutes to make.   This year, I wanted to see if it would work to use real plants/flowers in my basket and I it worked perfectly and I just love how pretty it turned out:

Again, this moss basket could be used in many different ways either with dried stems or with fresh flowers. These wire grapevine baskets are sold at most craft stores usually in the grapevine/ dried floral section:

To cover the inside with moss, I had to use to a bag and half of the Super Moss (Preserved Sheet Moss) that I also purchased in the dried floral section:

I began by sliding the green moss in the basket and pulling apart any section that was not facing outward. In other words, save your pretty green moss for only the areas that you will see from the front (the picture below is the backside of the green moss which is yellow):

On the backside of the green moss, you can stuff pretty much anything that you have like floral foam, Spanish moss or anything organic. I used some old moss that had turned yellow from a previous project. The idea is to stuff it so full/tight of whatever you have that will push the pretty green moss into the wire front and secure it in place:

About half way up the inside of the basket, I began stuffing the basket with spanish moss and tearing the pretty green moss to completely cover the part that you see from the front of the basket:

The last third of the way, I divided a pot of flowers that I purchased from Lowe’s in half. I used a knife to cut the dirt and separated the stems at the top carefully:

I then inserted half of the flowers into the last top third of my basket:

I then covered the top dirt with a small amount of spanish moss that will help retain moisture in my basket.  After I took this picture above for you to see the three layers, I stuffed additional Spanish moss behind the dirt to also help retain the water and keep the dirt from falling out the back.  When I lightly water the basket, I remove from the door and rest on the porch for a few minutes just in case any of the water leaks out.

I couldn’t believe how light the basket turned out to be with all of my stuffing.  My neighbor Jane had a brilliant idea and suggested skipping the last step and rather than dividing a plant, simply insert two smaller plastic pots of flowers in their containers in the top part of the basket and top with Spanish moss.  This way you can just remove the containers to water and you can switch out flowers for the different seasons.  Either way, both work and I have watered my basket lightly every other day and the flowers look spectacular and have really grown in the last week.  I may have to periodically trim back because it is doing so well:

I have several projects that I have completed this week that I plan on sharing next week. I also have a new feature starting next Friday that I think you guys will like.

Have a fantastic weekend friends!!

Cheers!

Cyndy

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