Extreme Makeover: Patio Edition

This is our sad, sad patio. Isn't it pitiful?




Let's try a different angle....


Nope, no help at all.

We have talked about doing something back here for the last few years. Wooden deck, pavers, stone work....I just didn't have a vision and it wasn't really in the budget, so we did nothing.



Until this year.

Our first choice was stonework, but it was a little over our budget, so we decided to do concrete instead.


Here it is in the 'during' stage.



And after we added plants and fabric shade panels to the arbor.








Oh yeah, I can definitely relax out here now!

To see how others are beautifying their surroundings, go check out the blog party at The Inspired Room.

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!

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.

Welcome

A few years ago, I spent my hard earned money on an electronic die cutting machine. I did my research and decided that the Quickutz Silhouette was the one best suited for me. I love the fact that there are no font or shape cartridges that you have to buy.

This cutter can cut any true type font you have installed on your computer and it also cuts .jpg files. I've mainly used the cutter in my scrapbooking projects, cutting out titles and shapes for my pages. I was able to cut silhouettes of my boys a few weeks ago and have had a few other ideas for home decor projects on my list of things to do.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on some vinyl and play around with it on my Silhouette cutter. The hardest part for me is making a final decision. I knew that I wanted to cut "welcome" for our front door and I must have looked at a gazillion fonts before I made up my mind. Here's what I ended up with:


**click on the picture for detail**

I love the way it turned out! (except for the hideous builders gold door handle which will be changed out soon) The font is Chopin Script and it was a free download from somewhere on the internet. Now I'm looking around the house to figure out where I can do more vinyl lettering.

First project of 2009 - Done!

Okay....so after seeing silhouettes of sweet children all over blogland, I knew that I had to do one of each of my boys.

So after coaxing and bribing them to stand against the wall, turn to the side, "STAY STILL FOR A COTTON PICKIN' MINUTE! QUIT JACKIN' WITH YOUR BROTHER!"...deep breath, take about 10 shots of each kid....breathe....

I got this:


and this:


I pulled it into my photo editing software, (AKA Photoshop Elements 4.0) and turned them into this:


Then I pulled that into my electronic die cutting machine, hit a few buttons and came up with this:


Aren't they cute?? I got the frames from Hobby Lobby. The clothespin in the middle was a 2008 project. (click on the picture to enlarge)

Now, I can mark this one off the list of projects. I only have about a bazillion left on there.

What is next on your To Do list?