First of Many to Come!

   My beautiful baby girl turned 1 years old in November. When I was thinking of her birthday theme and decor I had to remember she was going to be 1 and would never remember any of it. So I thought why not do it they way that I wanted to. I figured I would only get my say on one, maybe two birthdays and the rest will be up to my creative little mini.

   I love everything rustic, if you couldn't tell from my previous posts, but I wanted to still maintain a girly vibe to her birthday theme. At first I was thinking "owls" because ever since I found out we were having a little girl, she has been my "owl baby". However, I changed my mind and decided to go with the theme "Rustic Chic". I used burlap for her sign, made a little cake topper out of burlap. My best friend/Finley's god-mommy made a delicious personal cake for Finely along with amazing cake pops and cupcakes. By the time we were done with decor and food it was very girly and I loved it!

   I planned on making pom-poms to hang from the ceiling but found a package of 3 at Hobby Lobby for $4.99 and thought it would save me time and probably would be cheaper! I bought pink and purple sets of pom-poms and Josh hang them up! I absolutely love the look of pom-poms and would highly recommend using them for anyone that is looking for a little extra "something" when throwing a party. {My 1 year old LOVED the pom-poms, they were a fun toy for her after the party}

   I had seen on pinterest so many boards of 1st year accomplishments and milestones and immediately thought I need to make one of these for Finley. I am all about documenting every growth, change, milestone, etc. so I thought this has to happen! :) I ended up buying a thin board from Joann Fabric and spray painted it with chalkboard paint. After I let it dry my best friend helped with writing everything on it. We used chalkboard markers to write on the board and I have to say these may be one of the best inventions! :) I am happy with the board that we used because now I can put it in the storage about Finley's closet and she will forever have a keepsake of each year and what be able to look back and see all the changes throughout a single year. I think it is a fabulous idea just to be able to look back after 20 years and see all the accomplishments and "new" things that happened that year!

   Oh…I can't forgot about the highchair tutu!! I absolutely love tutu's so I thought why not decorate her highchair a little? It was just an easy project, maybe took me 20 minutes. Well worth it and she still has it on her highchair {it is January}. For any of you that have made tutu's for your daughters, it is exactly the same way but just more tulle! In the picture it is hard to see the colors but I found a light pink and sparkly silver at Joann Fabric which fit perfect for her birthday theme!

 

Enjoy :)

What a Beauty!

   This may be one of my favorites!! I bought this desk at a garage sale for $5. I was so excited about this desk for many reasons…

           1.) It was light yet solid {For others that have re-done desks, you will understand how great this is}

           2.) It was beautiful…It didn't have anything broken or need to be fixed.

       
           3.) It was not a bulky desk…it could be put in any room and would bring "class"!

   I have to admit it did sit in our garage for some time along with all of my many other projects. However, once I got started sanding the desk down the process did not take much longer! I was so anxious to see the final product! I have been a huge fan of white wash paint so I decided why not try it on this beautiful desk?

   The desk turned out better than I had even anticipated! I white washed in small sections so that nothing dried too fast. My initial thought was that it would look streaky to work in small sections, but I feel with white washing that is almost what you have to do and in the end it all blends together!

   I ended up finding this desk a place in our home {which I did not originally plan to do} and it looks great! The white wash fits right in with the white trim and the old white window that hangs right above the desk! It is unique and I am so glad I can call it my desk! :)

   I have posted my white wash directions in a different post, but I will re-post it so that you have it!

•         1 cup water
•         2 cups flat white paint
•         Washcloth
•         Matte Finish Spray {Optional}
• If you are going to set things on the surface it may be best to put a finish on it so that it is water resistance and has a little protection

• You will mix paint and water. Take a brush or wash cloth and rub the paint mix on the surface. It is very similar to staining. You will rub the mix into the surface until you get the desired look. {Very similar technique, with gorgeous results}

Here is my BEAUTY! I am in LOVE <3

Enjoy :)

Rustic Windows-White Wash Technique

   I am very excited about this project. I have to say though at first I was very nervous, I thought it would be a complete disaster. But to my surprise it turned out even better than I had imagined! The thing that I love the most about it is…it is so easy!! I didn't have to go out and buy anything fancy, I had the paint already. 

                                Your supplies:

• Paint
• Water
• Old Washcloth
• Paint Brush

   I wanted to repaint an old house window, however I didn't want to make it look "new". I wanted to make sure that it still had the old, beautiful look but just "cleaned" up a little! The windows were full of dirt so I cleaned them up and and sanded them down a little just so that I knew for sure that the paint would stick! I used a damp washcloth to collect all of the dust from sanding. 

  Here comes the tricky part… You mix a cup of paint and 2 cups of water, stir until well mixed! How tricky is that!! :) You are now ready to paint! I painted each side small sections just to make sure that the paint didn't get absorbed and dry before I had a chance to spread it out with the washcloth. The most important step in white washing is rubbing the washcloth over the painted area to make it look worn. This is where you can get creative. You can have it look more worn in sections vs. other sections. In order to get it to look non-uniform just rub a section harder with your washcloth. Once I finished each section to the desired look I would paint the next section until the window was complete!

  I didn't use painters tape on the window, but you could. I ended up getting the paint on the window, but since it is watered down it practically peels right off. I simply took a paper towel and it wiped right off. But you could tape off the window so that you don't have to worry about clean up. Whichever you prefer! :)

  The greatest part about this project is that from when I started painting until it was dry look 30 minutes!! No waiting for the paint to dry like so many of my other projects where I had to wait over night to see the final product! I was ready to hang this window 30 minutes after starting the project and the best part is…it is BEAUTIFUL! I love it and it looks so nice in our freshly painted entry way!

                                  Here is the window before…(It is the window on the left side) 

                                 Here it is after painting! You can't see the beautiful little details from
                                    white washing in this picture, but it does show that you can clean
                                              up a window without taking away the rustic look!

Enjoy :)

Little Revamp

   As I may have mentioned in a previous post, if not, I will in future posts…We updated our entry way. The walls were tan when we moved into our house in July 2013. The trim was nothing to brag about, it was stained in sections and not in others. To say the least it was not very welcoming, and it needed to go! Right before Christmas I decided it was going to be a present to myself! It was as simple as that…I grabbed the gray paint out in the garage and within a couple hours the walls were gray! 

   The trim is what took the longest…because I had the wonderful idea of painting all the trim white! To say the least, it was well worth all the long nights and weekends! We also repainted the ceilings because there were marks on the ceiling, don't ask me how marks get on the ceiling!

   Now, I walk in our house and LOVE it! It is so welcoming and that is exactly what I was going for! The next project was getting the entry way decorated! I love all of my million projects, but what I ultimately love the most is getting to decorate after all my projects are complete! 

   For starters, I knew the closet had seen its better days and instead of hiding it…I was going to show it off! I did exactly that, I used my chalkboard paint and made the back wall into a new chalkboard. {Who doesn't love chalkboards?} Then I had this metal 3-tier bin that had been sitting in our garage for sometime. I found it and only had to pay $2 for it. The guy that I bought it from could not believe how excited I was. {He probably would have paid for to take it off of his hands.} I had a vision for it and I wasn't picturing anywhere in my own home, but I must say I sure do LOVE it! When I first picked it up, it was filthy! It was rusty, covered in spider webs and filled with dry leaves. I took my wire brush and went to work…within 30 minutes it was looking much better. I ended up using a rustoleum primer in order to stop the rusting/slow it down and to make sure that my top coat would have something to grab. After a couple coats of rustoleum white top coat it didn't even look like the same item! 

   I painted the front of the bins with a chalkboard paint, just to make it "pop" and make it more decorative! I am a fan of chalkboards, they had a little fun to home decor! I will be able to mark each level which just helps with organization, rather than a bin full of JUNK!

   I have to say the transformation of the entry way, the closet and the metal bin…I LOVE each and every thing about it! I enjoy taking items out of my garage that many would call junk and turn into something of a masterpiece in our home!

Happy Sunday!!

Enjoy :)

My Love for Vinyl

     For many of you working with vinyl is nothing new. It isn't new for me either, however each time I work with vinyl I fall in love with it even more! I will admit the first project I did with vinyl took me FOREVER. I now can say they don't take nearly as long anymore and they look so much better! What I love the most about vinyl is that you can take a boring picture frame and turn it into a beautiful decor piece in your home. It is also a great discussion piece when people see the transformation, especially from something that most would throw in their garage and never look at again.

       Here is a frame that a friend brought me and asked me to put a quote on it for her living room. Immediately the wheels were turning in my head! The end result is gorgeous, but that will come a little later! My friend picked up this frame at an auction shop in town and brought it to me asking if I could work with something like this. I could hardly contain my excitement! To many this wouldn't be a beauty or anything special. However, for me…this is a diamond in the rough and just needs a little TLC  and a fresh coat of paint! :)

    That is exactly what I did..I sanded it all down and put a cream color, flat paint on the frame as well as the backing of the frame. The backing had water damage, so I knew that in order to keep the backing on, I would need to incorporate it with the frame! In the end I think it turned out just fine. I love being able to create a beautiful piece while still keeping the original intact.

   After a couple coats of paint and sanding a few spots on the frame to "rough it up" it was time to add the vinyl quote. When I work with vinyl, I don't try to make it perfect or stress about the letters being aligned straight, etc. I simply just want it to look good! I am not a perfectionist by any means, but I feel like this makes it one of a kind!

More vinyl projects to come!!

Enjoy!!

DIY Rustic Ladder

 I had been looking online for affordable rustic ladders just that I could use for decor in our house! I didn't want a ladder that I could climb, I simply wanted one I would lean up against the wall and use as a blanket rack! I searched high and low and the cheapest I could find was $60 and was only 4 ft! I finally said "we will build it ourselves...How hard can it be?"

  The next day I took my measurements to the hardware store and said I need this size board cut at this length and this size dowel cut at this length. I then went home and started to put the pieces together! It is such a simple project, I was kicking myself that it had taken me this long to build my own decorative ladder. We glued the dowels to the side boards and then added a nail to securely attach the dowels to the side boards! 

   Within 20 minutes we had a ladder!!! However, I wasn't done! I wanted it to look weathered and rustic. So that is what I did, I grabbed my apple cider vinegar and steel wool and did just that... I weathered the wood!

    I soaked the steel will for 30 minutes in a bowl of apple cider vinegar! The apple cider vinegar will turn black and that is exactly what you want! I then took the steel wool and scrubbed!! **side note wear a pair of thick rubber gloves when doing this step! I didn't and boy did I regret that!! Your fingers will hate you, and you will a week or sore fingers! Never underestimate the power of vinegar!!**  Now the longer you soak the steel wool the darker the color will get when applied on the wood! So you can wait as long as you want depending on the darkness you desire! I scrubbed the ladder about 3x... Allowing it to dry between each application. Then I was DONE! At the point I had this weathered ladder that I has desired and my fingers were so sore it was time to be finished!

    I absolutely love our  DIY rustic ladder! Now that I know it is so easy I want to make more, but where would I put more ladders!! 😀

    I didn't take pictures while making it but I will for the next ladder that I make but here is the final product.

Enjoy!!

This shows you a close up of the weathering of the wood.