Sunday, July 31, 2016

New Headboard

Hello!  It seems like its been so long since Ive blogged but however long its been, Im so glad to be back.  If you follow us on Facebook, you know that my hubby had a health emergency come up.  He was diagnosed with a heart problem and ended up in the hospital having a few tests run and thankfully, the tests came out good.  I want to say thank you to each and everyone of you who prayed for him and our family.  It truly meant the world to us.  He is on the mend and we are slowly getting back to a normal routine again.
Quite honestly, the whole thing shook us both up so much that I havent even wanted to blog or work on any project.  I wanted to spend all my time with him and our kids.  I even considered stopping blogging altogether.  But my creativity seems to be coming back and Im looking forward to getting back to the projects I was working on.
I was in the middle of redoing our middle sons room.  His room is tiny and so making it work has been a huge issue.  Plus, he is tall and must have a double bed instead of a twin so the first thing on the list after getting the bed was a headboard.   Of course, it had to be cheap so I knew I was going to make it myself.  I didnt want to do the same thing I did for our other sons room and had always wanted to make a headboard from an old door, we just couldnt find the right door, until a few months ago.  So, I got to work.
Ive been so absent minded lately so unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the door before I cut it down and added the molding.  But here it is before I painted it.  I wanted to use a door that had the same size panels all the way down.  I measured the width of his bed and added a couple of inches just to be safe, then measured and cut the door to size.   Then I removed all hardware and filled the holes with spackle.
I added crown molding and a top piece to finish it off.  Im not about to try to do a tutorial on making miter cuts and return pieces for molding.
Mine are never perfect and I always end up with a big pile of mess ups as it is always a trial and error kind of thing for me.  Im sure there are lots of tutorials out there that are a lot better than anything I could show you.  Faster, too.
After all that, I filled the holes and painted the entire piece. 
Heres how it looks now before I put it in the room.  I still need to add a brace to the bottom so I can attach it to the wall.  I will blog about that when its finished and show you how it looks in the room.  I cant wait to put it all together with the bedding I bought for him from West Elm.  Love their bedding!  So thats it for now!
Thank you for visiting today!  Enjoy your day!
Diana
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Saturday, July 30, 2016

How to Organize Your Keyring

Sometimes it seems I just have too many BIG projects to complete! So, when I find something I can accomplish quickly and easily and that will bring some order and some "pretty" into my life, I am very happy. Not a home improvement idea, but I had to share this...
So, here is a look at my key ring, the way it was...not so pretty.
Plenty of keys that I have no clue what they are for and a ton of those annoying cards.
See, not pretty, not pretty at all.
But, wait..now take a look
How much better is this??  3 steps for this simple satisfaction..
  1. Download the FREE app Key Ring onto your smart phone!! This app lets you enter all your cards and then you can just scan from your phone. It slso lets you download deals for your cards. So, toss those messy tags and clean out your wallets.
  2. Pitch any keys that you are dumbfounded as to what they were ever for and how they even got on your ring.  If your worried you may realize what they are for and desperately need them (murphys law)  just put them aside.
  3. Get yourself a new keyring to show off your now organized personality. I love the Finderskeypurse. Visit http://finderskeypurse.com or amazon. Tons of styles and you can hook it onto the side of your bag. That means no more searching for your keys, because if your bag is like mine, it is a seemingly endless pit. My husband and sons are terrified of my purse! They dont understand my organized chaos and fixing that is another story.
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Friday, July 29, 2016

Cottage Of The Month

Hey there!  Hope you are all having a very relaxing weekend.
I wanted to share with you that our home was selected as Cottage Of The Month over at Jennifers amazing blog The Old Painted Cottage.  It is truly an honor.  
 If youd like to check it out and see a few never before seen photos and parts of our home, 
click here! 
And be sure to check out the rest of the beautiful cottages featured there, as well as, Jennifers blog!
Have a great weekend everyone!
 
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VINTAGE SHOPPING THIS WEEKEND womens expo

 
 
 
We took a trip out Chilliwack last night
and here are some quick photos I took in the expos vintage alley.
Elisa of Home Sweet Nest has some marvelous smalls to choose from at great prices.
Home Sweet Nest also has some wonderful furniture pieces.
She has a fun Hudsons Bay Company Themed Bench (not pictured)
upholstered with a vintage mink coat.
I just may try that some time.
Country Lane Decor has some beautiful work displayed of furniture built with reclaimed wood.
The ladies of The Passionate Home are having on site chalk paint demos.
They also have some great vintage goodies you can purchase.
This is my favorite shot,
in the back ground you can see our sweet Elinor of the Passionate Home.
 
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GHOST OF HALLOWEEN PAST costumes

Last year George and I did the ghost thing but a little more elaborate
than a simple sheet.
Ghosts from the Titanic
George gets to know a great deal of the customers he delivers to,
and the last couple have been spent together doing those deliveries all dressed up.
Last Halloween we stopped in to see Bunny and got a photo taken with her.
Miss Bunny unfortunately passed days after her 101st birthday Oct 16th 2011.
I have always made all my costumes thru the yrs.
2009 I wanted to be the characters on a lotto scratch card I bought
King and Queen of Hearts
When I give him a a full face of hair it takes at least an hour or more in the early morning
to get ever hair glued in place.
Here is George half way through getting his beard glued on
2008
Leprechauns
At the time I was a warehouse manager and this costume was fun and easy to work in
and it was mighty cute too!
Captain Morgan
George actually wore the pirate costume to deliver for the day
and changed into a leprechaun when we went out for the night.
The next three are costumes I made several years before
George and I met.
Energizer Bunny
I actually made 5 costumes like this,
Sylvester the cat, Wiley Coyote, Scooby Doo, and Tiger
All were sold except the the Bunny
Miner 49er
GANDOLF the GREY
Heres a couple of pumpkins I carved for the front porch last year.
Many years ago I also used to be a professional pumpkin carver.
I also won a few community contests for this work
I will be resurrecting The Cat for this years festivities.
And George will be ....
well youll just have to wait and see.
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Thursday, July 28, 2016

MOUTHWATERING DESK bright white desk

 
Have you ever seen such a beautiful shabby chic desk.
 
Glass knobs
It has a great foot shelf underneath with caning.
Painted in bright white, distressed, and waxed offering that oh so soft velvety feel.
I had 2 small orb shaped knobs perfect for these mini drawers. 
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Faux Fireplace

I love fireplaces.  To me, they warm your soul, not just your body.  Since hubby and I have been married, Ive dreamed of having one.  I grew up having a fireplace.  I loved helping my dad carry in wood and build a fire during the cold winter months.  He taught me all about kindling and what worked best.  Sometimes, he would even let me start it myself and I always felt so proud when I was able to get a fire going as good as he could.  To this day the scent of a fireplace burning somewhere in the air outside takes me right back to those special times with my dad.  It stops me in my tracks and I remember how much pride he seemed to take in building a fire for his family on cold evenings.
Our house doesnt have one and since I cant build a functioning fireplace, I decided to do the next best thing, a faux version.  It might not be just like what I had growing up but it certainly reminds me of that and brings back wonderful memories.  And hopefully it will provide a feeling of warmth for our kids too.
I used the cheaper wood from Lowes that is full of knot holes and it cost me a little under $100 to build.  I followed this tutorial, somewhat.  It took me an afternoon to build and I painted and added the barn wood the next day.  Not too bad as far as being time consuming.  And it really wasnt as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Ive wanted to build one forever but always felt it was too intimidating.   It wasnt once I got started.
To achieve a glowing "fire" look, I built a box from the remaining scraps of barn wood and filled it with burlap, Christmas lights and wood logs.  To really make it seem real and have a little fun with it, I play my crackling fire in the fireplace app on my ipad.  :)  A couple of times, I even caught myself going to stand in front of it to "get warm".  Silly, I know.
I am so happy with it and really, when I look at it, I cant believe I did it.  I know my dad would be super proud.
For the top, I used an extra thick piece of barn wood that I sanded down and waxed.
I decided against using candles in the box as I didnt want to be worried about wax dripping everywhere, which seems to always be a problem when I group candles together and burn them.  Luckily, there is an outlet directly behind the barn wood so I cut a small hole in the wood to provide an opening so I could plug in the lights and have it be perfectly hidden.
Cant wait to decorate it for the holidays!!
Have a wonderful day!
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