3-for-1

I've already mentioned that this year I get to host Thanksgiving dinner at my house.

As with ANY social gathering, it's an excuse to find/buy/make something (or several somethings!) for the house.
This is a 3-for-1 post - three projects, all done in time for one event - Thanksgiving Dinner :)
It's long, but worth it (I think!)

Project #1

For a long time I've been lusting after all the gorgeous buffets/hutches I've seen being refinished all over blog land.
I have actually whined to my husband "I wish that window wasn't in our dining area! Then I could have a buffet!"
What a silly thing to wish for...fewer windows!
So I came to terms with my big beautiful dining area window, and set out find a buffet without the top hutch piece.  Last week I found this beauty.

She was marked $75!  Puh-lease.  I walked away, but kept an eye on her.
Several people stopped to look at her, but seeing the price tag, quickly walked away.
Then one man stopped.  Opened her drawers, rocked her back and forth to see how sturdy she was, looked inside her cabinets.
I felt assaulted.
So I waited for him to walk away and then rushed back to my baby.
Then I flagged down an employee, casually leaned against the piece (placing my hand over the price tag) and offered $20 for it.  The employee said okay, wrote up a "hold" tag and gave me my copy to take the the register.  As soon as she'd taped the hold to the top, I ran off to pay, laughing maniacally all the way,
Is that cheating? Do you think it's wrong that I sort of cheated the thrift store?  Because I'll be honest...I don't really feel bad about it.  Maybe a tiny bit.  I don't know - I figure she didn't HAVE to take my $20 offer...

Anyway, once I got her home I was pleasantly surprised to find her made of solid wood.  I considered stripping and staining, her, but she had a seriously glossy finish, and I had visions of myself working on this buffet until Valentines Day.  So I sanded, primed and painted her Parchment, by Behr.
Parchment is an identical match, by the way, to our beloved Heirloom White.  I purchased a quart of it in Behr's paint plus primer premium paint (wow, that's a lot of P's) back in June and still have about 1/4 of it left.  LOVE it, use it on everything!
The great thing about brush painting vs spray painting, is that it can be done indoors.
I sanded and primed this piece (spray primer, btw) in the garage, then moved it inside for the painting.  Two HUGE benefits to that - the temperature and the fact that my 3 year old is inside and I can supervise his destruction activity better if I am inside, too.

 

I loved the hardware on the piece - bonus! The handles on the door, especially.  I removed everything - even the hinges - and painted it all black.  So gorgeous.

Once it was dry, I selectively distressed it.
I LOVE how it turned out.  On Thanksgiving I'm going to cover it in desserts - I have 3 stands I plan to fill with yummies :)

Project #2

Months ago I found this strange tray...trough...wooden thing at the thrift store.
It had been craft painted.  My worst nightmare.
It was burgundy with a cream border. Inside the border were some abstract leaf-looking things.  It was a dollar, I think.

I bought it and left it in the garage pile for a while - to marinate (in my mind, not in a flavorful solution.)

Last week I decided it would become the base for a candle display/centerpiece.
I love candles this time of year.  I'll go all Summer without even thinking about fire, but October hits and all the candles come out. I'd love to have a fireplace, but we don't. For now, we have candles, instead.

I sanded and then spray painted the wooden thing with flat black - the wood grain really stands out on this and you can see it through the paint - I love that.

I already had a bag of polished river rocks, but I did buy 3 more from the dollar store.
I also bought three candles, 1.50 at Wal Mart.
That makes $8.50 for my candle display/centerpiece.
Beautiful and cheap! Like me! Haha! (totally kidding, btw)

Project #3

I've had some trouble with window treatments in our house.  It's taking me AGES to decide on what looks best.  I have most of the house settled now, but the great room area (kitchen, dining, family rooms) has still been posing problems for me.
Months ago I read on the Nesting Place that having a luxurious fabric someplace unexpected was cool and brought...something. I don't remember, to be honest. All I know is that I purchased some chocolate colored dupioni silk on clearance and put it in my dining area.  (there's some in my kitchen, too, but that's another story.)

(blech!)

Now, the Nesters advice is sound. She's a decorating genius. The fact that I recently decided I hated my window treatment/mistreatment has nothing to do with her - only with me.
This time around I decided to follow Traci at Beneath my Heart and her example.
Traci is a drop cloth connoisseur, and reading her post was extremely helpful.
This Pottery Barn image is what I was going for.

I love my drop cloth curtains SO much.
The texture, the color - everything!

 

Thank you, Traci, for the inspiration!

Whew! That's everything!

I'll be linking up to...
Kim's Dare to DIY party,
Cheri's It's so Very Creative,
Made it Monday at the Persimmon Perch,
Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Make it for Monday at Cottage Instincts
and to DIY Day at ASPTL.

Thanks for stopping by!

Where do you spray paint?

This is, on many levels, very embarrassing for me.
I grew up the daughter of a car dealer.  My father loves cars like us craft bloggers love our hot glue guns and burlap.  His love is a lot more expensive than ours, obviously.
Some years ago, he built a 3 car garage in his backyard.  It's insulated, heated and air conditioned, wired with satellite television and radio, well lit and decorated. The concrete floors are sealed and clean enough to eat off.
This new garage is in addition to the 3 car garage that is attached to his house, which is also heated and air conditioned, equipped with television and radio, well lit, decorated, and possesses clean, sealed concrete floors.
The point is, I was taught to respect my garage more than I do.

Our garage is...
well, it's nothing like my dads garages are.
My husband and I both drive trucks, and only one will fit inside the garage.  So Matt parks outside. Because I'm a princess. (kidding! sort of.)
Not to worry, though, we've managed to fill the space with plenty of stuff.

(I love paint! don't worry - this isn't all of it...)

There's a big pile of thrift store treasures, large bins where we collect glass to recycle, and lots and lots of paint.  The winter is much more crowded than the summer, of course. Patio furniture cushions, large clay pots from the front porch, etc.

(there's a dresser in there that's going to be FAB!)

Every spring I spend a week cleaning it out, but it never makes much of a difference.

It's okay, though - I'm at peace with my garage mess (even if my dad does shudder every time he comes over!)
The BEST thing about it is that I can spray paint in there.
The floor is covered with strange geometric shapes in various colors from the overspray of all my projects.  It's like a rainbow, I love it.

This time of year, it's getting pretty cold here.
Yesterday it was 40 degrees.
I backed my truck out, set up shop, and got to work.  10 projects at a time - that's what I call a productive spray painting afternoon!

I've got some exciting projects coming up!
1. Will be a large centerpiece
2. Will be a fun candle holder
3. Hardware for a new piece of furniture
4. A curtain rod for my upcoming family room re-do
5. A picture frame - also for the family room re-do
6. A chair
7. A tray (this one is going to be fun!)
8. Behind the buffet - a piece of metal for my upcoming kitchen re-do
9. A buffet, for the dining room
10. A doll cradle - a Christmas gift for my niece :)

Where do you spray paint?

French Wire Basket

One more post...I'd forgotten about the Dare to DIY party over at my buddy Kim's.  Can't miss that!
(can you tell I'm sick today? I've done nothing but stare at my computer all day! The best thing about feeling like crap, lol)

When my Fall Pottery Barn catalog came I went nuts - marking almost every page, writing notes about things I liked the best.
This was one of my favorites.

The French Wire Chandelier, filled with fall bounty (the bounty is hard to see in this picture.)

It made my heart race, it was so beautiful.

We have very high, vaulted ceilings in our great room area, which is where my dining table is. A couple of years ago we hung a beautiful ceiling fan above our table.

I love it. It's very pretty, the blades have a distressed finish that I adore, and we use it non-stop for about 8 months of the year.  Right now, we are not using it.

(ignore the dust - I was!)

So I thought since I couldn't just HAVE the chandelier, maybe I could hang something similar to the the  basket portion from my fan.

I found a pretty wire bowl in black at a garage sale for $1.  Then I found this wreath at another garage sale for .75

I tore the wreath apart (made 2 more projects with it, too! Stay tuned for those ones!) and arranged some of the bounty in the bowl, wiring some onto the outside, as if all the loveliness was spilling over.

Then I twisted on some black wire to hang it from the light bowl of my fan.

 

(Dusted while I was up there, too)

LOVE it.

I'm hosting Thnksgiving this year and I am excited and THANKFUL to be able to have our family at our house for my favorite holiday.  I have lots of special plans for centerpieces and food presentation, but this hanging basket was probably the most important thing to me.  I'm so glad Kim's party got my butt in gear so I actually got this done!

I'll also be linking this to DIY Day at Kimba's

Skirt Dress

I've never posted so many times in such a short period of time!

I really wanted to join the Cottage Instincts  "made it with what i had" party, though - so I'm back with one more project :)

I've had this skirt for years.  It still fits fine, and my husband liked it, but I always feel ridiculous when I wear it.

It's not really my style.

I bought it thinking it would be cute with flip flops for a trip to the park or the zoo...

In reality, the pink stripes are little girl-ish and I feel like I'm trying to look younger than I am when I wear it.

Here it is on me - I took off my sweats to put it on for the picture (still wearing the hoodie!) LOL

I measured how big around it would have to be to fit my daughter (7 years old, but a little small for her age) and cut off the extra.

 

I used those pieces to make straps for the dress.  I started off trying to make a ruffle sleeve, but my sewing skills are remedial at best and I gave up after an hour of screwing around with it.

Sewed the whole thing back together, attached the straps and ta-da!

A dress for my sweet girl :)

 

(those are her clothes wadded up in a ball on the floor behind her - should have moved those!)
I should take a picture of her with it on over a long sleeve shirt - that was the intention for winter.  Maybe when she gets home from school today I'll do that.

This was SO easy.  The skirt was from the misses department at Mervyns a million years ago - it was a size medium.  It made a size 6x-ish dress perfectly.  If you have any old skirts consider making them into little girl dresses! It's a super fun, fast project :)
and...

Kids Bathroom Redo

When we moved into our home (just over 3 years ago) I didn't want the hall bathroom - the one the kids use - to be a "kid" bathroom.

I love those kid bathrooms - but only when they are actually dedicated kid spaces.

Mine was a hall bathroom - the bathroom guests would be using.  I felt like it needed to be "adult" in it's decor.

Fast forward to now - things have changed. I no longer work outside the home, my life revolves around my kids.  And I no longer care if my (childless adult) guests giggle a little at my hall bathroom.  Two children use it every day and I want it to be bright and happy for them - not the boring neutral that it's been for way too long.

Before:

Model Home-ish, wouldn't you say? Except a Model Home would have had something nice hanging above the toilet. I always meant to hang something there, but never could find anything I liked.

To start, I decided to install beadboard.
I've had a beadboard obsession for longer than I can remember - yet I've NEVER installed it in a room.  The bathroom is small, so I figured it was a perfect place to start - nice and easy :)
Once I knew beadboard was going in, I chose a paint color.  I wanted something bright, and lately I'm having a thing for green.  I chose a Behr color called Grape Leaves.

Here are the After picture -

I purchased this adorable shower curtain at Target.

I already had a stack of brightly colored towels that matched the colors in the curtain perfectly.  I sewed little ribbon loops onto them to hang them on the new towel hook I installed to replace the old towel bar with.

 

The shutter is actually an interior shutter that I found for CHEAP on KSL.com (our local - better traveled -version of Craigslist.)  I painted it with an oops paint in the most gorgeous shade of turquoise and distressed it.

The sign hanging on the front is made from a scrap of beadboard and hand painted by me.  I'm not sure I LOVE it.  It might be replaced in the future.  We'll see.

The shelf is another project that I'll share in the future.  The accessories on it I already had.

I framed out the mirror with molding and corner pieces.  Love the way it turned out!

The whole re-do was SO cheap!
I bought a gallon of paint for $25 (only used half)
2 sheets of beadboard for $33 (I got one for 50% off because it was damaged at one end)
The molding, liquid nails and silicon for less than $30
The shower curtain was $20
The new towel hook was $3
The shutter was $1.25
The shelf was about $4
Total was about $100!

The counter top flower arrangement thing is made from stuff I already had.  I'm not sure I love it.  Thoughts?

Is it good, bad or ugly?

Linking up to The Room a Month party at Shades of Pink
and to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
and to It's So Very Cheri's It's So Very Creative party!

Useless (budget) Decor

A few weeks ago at the thrift store I spied this ugly brass thing.

I'm not exactly sure what it was intended to be, but to me, it looked like a candle should sit on it.
I paid $2 for it and brought it home, where it sat in my garage for a week or so.

This thing is strangely sized. It's about 3 feet tall.  I took a picture of my boy next to it, so you all could see.
(Keep in mind, this was a picture for sizing reference only. The boy is barefoot and still in (non-matched) jammies and he's eating something...I'm not sure what.  I promise I'm a good mom. Don't judge me from this photo.)

I gave my brass monstrosity several thin coats of Heirloom White spray paint, until it was sufficiently covered.

When it was completely dry, I dried out the glaze that I've been hearing so much about.
Rubbed it on, rubbed it off.  Sure enough, it gave my strangely shaped candle stick some lovely depth.

Tough to see that depth from far away.  Here are some close ups.

Pretty, huh?

I found a pretty pillar candle at Target and slapped it on top. Then I tried to find a spot it could sit.

It ended up outside, where I think it looked quite pretty.

Useless decor.  The Pottery Barn want's $89 for this one

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/floor-standing-candlestick/?pkey=ccandleholders

I paid $2 for mine :)

Unfortunately, the weather has turned and I had to bring it inside today.  I'll find a spot for it in my bedroom or bathroom, I think - since it was in the PB bed/bath catalog.  God bless the Pottery Barn - who would I copy cat if it weren't for them?

Winner # 2!

Since Sandy never got in touch with me (sorry, Sandy!) I used random.org to choose a new winner today.

Lucrecia is the new winner!
and her blogger profile even has her email address.  Yay!
I've sent you an email and will get your prize in the mail this week.

Thanks again to everyone who entered!