The little things...

I've been doing some smaller projects, but they make a difference, don't they? I wish I had a before picture for this vanity chair, but it was beyond bad, so it's just as well that I not show it to you. I'm going with the coastal look in my bedroom too, but I couldn't resist putting a little zebra pop in there too. I mean, I've never actually seen a Zebra at the beach, but... If I were a zebra, I would most certainly be at the beach.






Sorry about the picture quality, I think it's time to change the battery in the Nikon.

Anyhoooo, the chair was dark stained and had a uber thin pad for the seat. I laid a standard size pillow on top of the chair and it was exactly the size of the chair's seat. So I just slapped that pillow on top of the existing seat and stapled the fabric over it. It looks pretty good and I love the fluffiness. I did a sloppy whitewash paintjob but liked the look of it. So instead of painting a 3rd coat to correct my sloppiness, I just went with it and did the sanding to age it. I didn't prime it but it didn't yellow, which is more than I can say for my dresser. That's another story. Inexperienced furniture refinisher here.

I've been busy doing little things like making this little starfish garland. I got this mirror at a yard sale a few years ago, it's one of my favorite little finds. I didn't have to do anything to make it pretty, just hung her up on the wall. And she was only $15!



When my hubs and I were in our early 20's, I loved pretty vintage things but we just couldn't afford them. We lived in Asheville, NC at the time and there were amazing antique stores and Vintage Flea Markets. But, alas, I only window shopped. One day my husbands truck broke down. While he waited for me to come fetch him, he looked off on the side of the road and down an embankment there was a pile of trash-- old mattresses, a fridge, rusty old lawn furniture. Someone had sadly dumped their junk on the side of the road. My husband looked closer and saw a gem amidst the trash, all wet and covered in leaves. He dug it out and we brought it home. It spent years in our sheds, and traveled with us from NC to Colorado. I just pulled her out of the shed the other day, determined to finally use her. As long as she is hiding in the shed, she won't inspire anyone. Hopefully my hubs will get tired of seeing her on the back deck and will help me do something special with her. We've tossed around some ideas and have finally settled on what we'll do. Now I just have to motivate my husband, or bribe him with chocolate, whatever it takes. :-)




So here's the plan... We're going to hang the door behind our front door, on the wall. This is where we normally throw our shoes when we come in the house. We're going to build a little seat with cubbies under it to store shoes. We'll put coat hangers on it, somewhere, to hang jackets and scarves. But what about those windows? One of the pieces of glass is missing, which I can replace for $5 or so. No biggie. But should I replace it with glass? Mirror? Maybe just some wood and paint it with chalkboard paint? I like the latter idea, but am thinking that bulky jackets hanging on it would end up getting chalk dust all over them. My husband, Jeremy, likes the idea of putting mirror in it. But I worry it is too busy looking? What would you do?

Anyhow, these are just a couple little projects that went down over the week. I want to get started on the door this weekend, while there are a few drops of outdoor sunshine goodness left. But, I also want to paint the living room sooooooo bad. So, we'll see what happens.

Thanks for stopping by, for leaving comments, and for inspiring me with your creativity. Have a good night!

~*Stephanie~*

Been Busy

I have been busy decorating, despite that I haven't been great about posting pictures. I guess I'll bombard you with all the pics soon. I've most recently been working in my bedroom. I decided not to make the duvet cover like the Anthro one, with the linen. I just figured that 1.) by the time I buy enough fabric to do one in that style, I might as well just buy one, and 2.) linen is too heavy to get that effect anyways. It was a good idea, maybe I'll do it one day with a lighter fabric, just for fun. But right now I've got enough to do. So instead I bought the kissing pleat duvet from Target, in an aqua-ish color, for $70. It wasn't quite the right color, but it'll do. I made some pillows and painted my walls. I also painted my dresser and vanity. I gave my vanity chair a little makeover as well. Oh, I hate talking about all of it and not posting pictures. So I'll get on that tomorrow!

I made some pillows for my "Momma Bear Chair" as well, and that I do have pictures of! (As if you haven't already seen the chair a million times already. I just love her so much!)



Anyhow, just thought I'd update the ol' blog a little. I'll get around to posting some pics this week. My bedding is so soft and delightfully squishy, I have to show it off. Until then, I think I'm going to go cuddle up in it with my handsome husband right now!

Good night, Friends. Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for inspiring me!

~*Stephanie~*

The cutest seahorse ever...

I wanted to try my hand at making some slipcovers for my blah-ze dining room chairs. I sewed one during naptime the other day, with a cheap linen-ish fabric I got from Wal Mart. It turned out pretty nice. Now I have to sew enough slipcovers for 4 more chairs (I only have 5 chairs now, one broke right under me while I was nursing my baby. My husband walked in and found me laying on the floor with the baby still nursing like nothing even happened!)

In addition to sewing these, I decided to brandish some sea critters on the back, just for interestingness (I know it's not a word but it sounds good). I used Citrasolv and a copy I made from a Xerox machine. Apparently you can use laser prints too, but not prints from a jet printer. Anyhow, it came out cute, though smaller and lighter than I wanted. I'm alright with it though because there's no way to fix it and I'm not sewing another cover. Nope!

Here she is...



A closeup of that cute little guy...



I'm off to bed, Friends. Thank you for visiting & thanks for inspiring me!

~*Steph~*

Some creativity...

So I'm making some progress around here! Not enough to brag about or anything, but I'm putting in some effort. I've painted lots of furniture, and you know how long that takes (with 4 kids)-- first sanding, priming, painting, repainting. maybe some retouching... I'll share some pictures of the furniture in a latter post.

For now I thought I'd share some pics of the smaller, fun projects. Like these cute frames adorned with sand dollars and a starfish. The frames were .25 at the thrift store. I used a little bottle of robin's egg blue acrylic paint, $2.00 or so. I also got the shells for $1.50 at the thrift store. I think it's a fun little project, though my silly husband laughed at me when he saw it. He said, "How are you supposed to see the picture in the frame now?" He's funny, I love his silly sarcasm. I'll have to give him some learning on the subject of Coastal Chic Decor!

Thanks to Trash2Treasure for the idea!



I pulled this old window out of my shed. I bought it years ago for $7. It's been collecting dust in the shed, just waiting for me to do something special with it. I sprayed it white (it was red, which I'm trying to get away from). I made the wreath after a beach trip a couple of years ago. That was the last time I had some sand in my toes. :-( Anyhow, I thought the window and the wreath were made for one another. It's pretty cute, ain't it?



I didn't craft this one, I cheated. I bought it on clearance at Pier1 for $10. OK, I'm lying. I bought 2 of them. But I can't stand it, I'm having a love affair with Capiz shells. LOVE them!



And do you remember my little Freecycle chair?



She was FREE! You gotta love that! I bought some cheap fabric from Wal Mart and reupholstered her for about $12. I painted the wood white. I don't *love* the fabric, but it'll do. I'll throw some pretty frilly pillows on her, maybe a feedsack or burlap pillow, and she'll be a dollbaby.



Now I'm working on making a painting for my living room, doing some whitewashing on bedroom furniture, painting my living room and bedroom, and making slipcovers for my dining room chairs. Oh, and I'm trying my hand at making some bubble roman shades, like these. Fingers crossed they come out nice, I've never done window treatments and I can't find a tutorial on the web that speaks my lingity dingity...



That's all I've got for now, Friends. Thanks for visiting & thanks for inspiring me!

~*Steph~*

Question for you...

I don't know if this is one of those big obvious answer questions but I saw this sign at The Virginia House and I love it. The font is kind of subway-ish. I see signs all over your blogs with similar fonts. There's also the beachy looking fonts, like the ones you see used on wooden beach signs that I like.



My problem is that I don't have a Cricut (I think some of you make stencils using those) and the nearest Hobby Lobby is 45 minutes away and has NOTHING in stencils or in sponge letters.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can make stencils, or order some that are affordable? The whole exacto knife on sturdy paper idea scares me, I must admit. I know you ladies are really good at creativity and I'm new to all of this, so I thought I'd ask you!

Your suggestions are much appreciated!

~*Steph~*

Layered Fluffy Bedding

I've been planning to make my own bedding for awhile, it's on my list (which is very long) of things I want to do. I want that fluffy, light, squishy, cozy bedding that is like a layered cloud of cotton.

I've always wanted Anthro bedding. I started browsing their catalog in 2003 (when it was a little more affordable), dreaming of cuddling inside a brightly colored quilt. Now I'm not so much in love with the bright colored bedding, I'm more into this white Cirrus Duvet...



So, rather than pay $208 for it, I'm going to make it. My sewing machine is a champ with the ruffling, so I think it will come out nice. The only thing I will do different is use a fabric similar to linen that I found at WalMart for $2.50 a yard. It is soft and comfortable and it reminds me of old sail mast. Plus it's thick enough that my current colored comforter will not show through the fabric. Then I will sew pretty pillow covers with various light colored and textured fabrics, as well as a few little burlap throw pillows.

I'll post some pictured soon!

My Pretties...

Today I decided to do some cheap shopping at the thrift stores and antique mall. I made some money sewing some little girl twirly skirts, and boy was that $30 burning a hole in my pocket!

I had to remind myself what I wanted. You see, I always had an eye for pretty vintage things, but I would buy every pretty little vintage thing I could afford. Which is what got me to this funny little hodge podge scheme I have now. It's not awful looking, but I want a "theme" if you know what I mean-- that theme being bringing Charleston here to my home. So I kept my eyes open for all things shabby chic or beachy-ish.

Well, that's a challenge in Colorado because there's all this Native American, Ranchy, and Southwestern type decor, so that's what you find in thrift stores and antique malls around here. There's no French inspired decor, that's for sure. And forget the Coastal Chic. But it's about getting creative, isn't it? Working with what you've got, and doing it on a budget, in my case.

Today I found some treasures! I found sand dollars, about 6 of them, for $1.50. I got a big shell filled with little shells for another $1.50. I found a rocket ship mirror for my boy's room for $2-- and it goes with their space themed room (which I'll share picture of later). And... Drum Roll... I found a brand new Chandelier for $15! It's so pretty, little, dainty! And it's never been used, still in its original packaging. Who does that!? Who buys a pretty chandelier like this and drops it off at the thrift store? I'm not sure, but boy am I glad they did!



Earlier this week I was taking my daughter to school and saw a cabinet on the side of the road, buried under some old lumber and yard trash. It's yard clean up week in my town, so everyone is putting their junk on the road. I kept trying to talk myself into knocking on the owner's door and asking if they minded me digging through their trash pile, but it took me 4 days to get the courage. I finally did it, and the home owner even helped me load it into my van. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, besides paint it, fix the door (there's a door that fell off), put some wood on the back (maybe beadboard) and sand it up to age it and shabby chic it up. I'll figure out where to put it after I get it looking nice... One man's trash...



Oh, boy, am I getting over my head with projects!? This week I got a chair to reupholster, a cabinet to refurbish, and a chandelier to wire... That's on top of all of the rooms that need painting (I have RED walls in my dining room, ACK!) and the pillows I need to sew for my new bedding. Oh, geesh. Anyone want to come over and help? Bring your paint clothes and a brush, k? :-)