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.

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.

I need help...

update on 01/31/09:

YAY!! I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!! WOO HOO!!
I had the sweetest offer from Melanie to take a look at it. Isn't she sweet?? I ended up figuring it out on my own, I don't even want to go back and think of all the hours it took me.

Now I need to get back to spending my energy on being creative! :o)

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See that annoying "exceeded bandwidth" error in my header up there? Where is that coming from? Ugh! I cannot figure it out.

I was using a free blog template and a few days ago, I signed on to my blog and saw those ugly errors everywhere! I panicked! I quickly reverted back to using one of the blogger templates, but that one error up there remains. I have gone thru the HTML code line by line (I am no programmer/coder/smart computer person, but hey, I tried! ha ha)

Can anyone tell me what I need to do? I would be eternally grateful and you would save me from going completely insane.

My sanity is in your hands....

Mason jars + hose clamps + molding = FABULOUS!

photo courtesy of Country Home.

How cute is this??? Another project to add to my To Do list.

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!

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?