Paint it is!

So, I have been a busy little bee over the last several weeks, preparing the house to host a baby shower for my friend Leslie. Nothing like the motivation of 20+ women coming over to get projects done around the house! :o)

So, last post I showed you this mirror and asked if I should paint it or not.


Thanks so much to everyone's advice! I went with painting it black and left some brown peeking through.

First I taped off the mirror part,


and then I took a candle and rubbed it all along the edges, in the creases and on the details. Next, I spray painted it black and once the paint was dry, I took a towel and rubbed the edges to reveal the brown. The wax from the candle works as a resist for the paint. It worked great!

Here's a close up of the top detail:


Another close up:


And now the big reveal!


Remember the before?


And the after:



I am thrilled with how it turned out! Thanks again, ladies, for your advice!

To paint or not to paint, that is the question....

Take a look at this mirror I scored at a neighborhood garage sale awhile back for $10! This thing is HEAVY! As we were loading it in the car, my MIL and SIL were asking where I was going to put it, my answer was "I don't know yet."



My husband swears that we have a room in our house that he's never seen called "I don't know yet" as I'm always bringing home treasures to put in there. :o) I just couldn't pass this one up...did I tell you it was $10?



Well, this morning it came to me that I should try it above the buffet in the dining room.



What do you think? I like the way it pulls light over to that wall by reflecting the glass patio door.



I think it needs to be another color though, right? What color? Black to match all the other furniture? Or another color to make it pop on it's own? Creamy white? Or, I could leave it mostly brown and darken the crevices and details with black?



Let me know what you think!

A work in progress...

Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick is hosting a spray paint party. It just so happens that I spent a little time over the weekend with spray can in hand.

For the last month, I have been working on a redesign of our master bedroom. I contacted Layla Palmer over at The Lettered Cottage awhile back for one of her virtual consultations and have been busy implementing her suggestions.

This past weekend, I was working on the windows. I took some 3/4 inch pvc pipe,(cut to size for me by 2 nice men at HD) 3 elbow joiner thingies, 5 coat hooks and some satin nickel spray paint...


to make myself a drapery rod to hold up my new chocolate brown panels...

I have 2 finials that I still need to add to each end. (that's them sitting on the window sill)





And since I loved the way the satin nickel finish turned out, I looked around to find something else I could add a little sparkle to and found these:


I have a few things left to do to finish the room and will be sharing the before/after pics as soon as I get it all pulled together.

I'm (almost) famous!

One of the blogs I follow is Layla's over at The Lettered Cottage. She is such a talented designer and she posts such inspiring photos and decorating advice.

Several months ago as I was cruising Layla's blog, I came across this post and stopped dead in my tracks. I had been trying to figure out a home improvement project to work on with my Stepmom over the Thanksgiving holidays. I quickly sent her the link to Molly and she thought it was a great idea.

Once we got the project completed, I decided to send Layla and email to say thanks for the inspiration and sent her the before and after pictures. When I heard back from her, she asked if I minded if she shared my pictures with her readers. MIND?!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? What a huge compliment! I was so excited!

So, last night as I was catching up on my favorite blogs I came across her blog entry from last week. (Can you tell where this is going yet? ha ha)

I'm famous!! Go and check it out for youself! Country Kitchen Cabinet re-do.

Thank you Layla! What an honor to be showcased on your blog!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas....

I am obsessed with decorating! We are hosting Christmas Eve dinner for the first time and I want everything to look very festive. I am getting so much inspiration from all of the blogs I stalk. I just can't get enough of all the creative goodness! Here is what I've done so far:


This is the mantle with the garland inspired by Nester.



The bottom two shelves have my Christmas Village collection.



My new chandelier that my Dad installed for me when they were up for Thanksgiving.



Found these glittery pears at Michael's for .89/each! I love my poinettia plates I got from Garden Ridge last year. They only had 6 left by the time I got to them and I was so sad when they didn't carry them this year. :o(



I love how the dining room turned out. I just finished the window treatments a few days ago. I still need to add the tassel fringe at the top below the black and white plaid.



This is the tree in the entryway. It is made from a tomato cage turned upside down with garland and lights wrapped around. Super easy!



The boys' trees in the hallway by their room. They put all of their handmade ornaments from school on them.

I need to get a pic of our main Christmas tree...I'll add that post later.

Fall Mantle

This is the only pic I got of my fall mantle....taken with my cell phone. Oh well, at least I got a shot of it so I can remember what I did for next year.

Spooky Mantle

I have been so inspired by all of the home decorating blogs I've found recently. What a bunch of awesome creative women...sharing tips and ideas.





I found the tree/owl window cling at Michael's, cut it into pieces to fit the window panes.


The boys carved these pumpkins over at Nanny & Jacquie's.


I picked these up at Kirkland's. The cloche was a steal at $4.97!

I'm going to try to get better about blogging and sharing ideas. Thanks to all the wonderful ladies who have inspired me! :o)