M is for Mantles

Okay, so I know "M" week was last week.

Simple truth, I wanted to play with the Nester and her mantle party.

Complete disclosure, I want to be her friend.
She is awesome. It is her fault that my first post of "N" week is "Never satisfied." It has nothing to do with the fact that I am, in truth, never satistfied.

Anyway, get in your time machines and go back to "M" week with me.

This will be relatively quick, painless, and full of pictures. I have an upstairs mantle and a downstairs mantle. Let's start with the upstairs:

Here is how my mantle looked at Christmas:

Here is the same mantle at Valentine's:

Finally here is how the mantle looks right now (I haven't taken down the Easter stuff yet, don't judge me):

Yeah, I know. Terrible shot. Told you. I really wanted to get this done.

Here is the downstairs mantle (I only have pics of this one handy for the current season.
Yes I am THAT needy. I just want to be part of the Nester's party.

Finally, I have one more "mantle" in my bedroom. I (my hubby actually) made it to serve as a shelf for the entrance to the bedroom. You can read more about the bedroom semi-transformation here.

That's all I got. Come by the Nester's for more (better) mantle inspiration!

Bid Farewell to Truvy's Beauty Shop

I told you all about my trial with Truvy.

For those of you younger than 30, Truvy (played by Dolly Parton) is a character in Steel Magnolias. She has a beauty shop in her garage that is the location of many scenes in the movie. If you haven't seen Steel Magnolias, go rent it. You will not be disappointed.

But I digress...

Last post of "M" week:

And I am going to show you some highlights of my master bedroom. To save you from getting distracted by clicking to another post
(I am the queen of getting distracted-but I am sure you haven't guessed that by now)
I am going to show a before then an after picture of different areas of the room.

Here is the far corner (this room is stinking huge) before:

Here is the corner after:

Here is the bed wall before:

And After:

Here was my nemesis...the hair washing sink:

Here was my attempt to work with what I had:

Buh-bye sink...

Finally...no sign of the sink or of Truvy anymore!

I'll post a better step-by-step of how I went from sink to shelf in a later post.

Here is the first thing I see when I walk into my bedroom:

I love my "mantle shelf." It is just some super cute corbels with 2 shelves wrapped in molding. (I used two shelves because I wanted it to be think and chunky and I already had the wood on hand). Here is a closer shot of the corbels ( I got them off ebay.)

Finally here is a shot of the room as you come in:

Let me tell you that rug is HUGE. I'm talking 12' by 18' We bought it at an auction last week for $85. Can you believe that?

After looking at all those pictures...I am my own worst critic...I am worried now that it is too colorful. I am second guessing my choices. I do plan on making another set of toile curtains for the windows by the chair (so all the curtains match-again, just using that I had). I still have some other areas to add some touches to. I am thinking the area above the headboard needs something.
But isn't there a fine line between just enough and too much? Help me find that balance!!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by! Go watch Steel Magnolias!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick,



come by for a visit!

Mighty Warrior

Welcome to my first post of "M" week.


I have mentioned "Little Man" in previous blogs and today I am going to show you a project from his room.
First of all, he is called "Little Man" because he is very small for his age (he is 5 1/2 and looks about 3). I try to encourage him with "big" talk and expect more from him than a lot of people do. That being said, he is IN LOVE with Star Wars
(but, heck, what 5-105 year old man-child isn't).

I love vinyl quotes, but most of the time I can't find the quote I am looking for.
Yes, I know I could get some custom stuff, but I like the embellishments and variety of fonts the pre-designed stuff has
(plus I don't have the patience to create from scratch. I am a tweaker, not a creator).

I LOVE the quote from Judges 6:12, referring to Gideon,
"The Lord is with you mighty warrior."
That is PERFECT for little man. He is my mighty warrior, even in his size 7 (toddler) shoes. And that quote fits wonderfully in a semi-Star Wars theme room.
(I am also not a "theme-y" room person. That means I do it subtly-no Star Wars bedding or curtains, just little touches here and there.)

Here is how I created this quote for my little man:

Step 1:
I decided how much of the wall I wanted to take up, then drew level lines using chalk. (I did top and bottom lines to make sure my letters were somewhat the same size.)

Step 2:
Write the quote on the lines also with chalk.

Chalk is super easy to erase and you can easily paint over it. I used to use pencil, but could still see the pencil marks under the paint.

I free-handed this design. Now, first let me tell you I am no professional by even a stretch of your imagination. I just have pretty decent handwriting and a fairly steady hand. I simply found a font on the computer that looked "kiddish" and used that for my inspiration. This is doable for just about anyone, but you could print this out and create a stencil if you'd rather.

Step 3:
Step back and make sure it is large enough, centered, in the proper scale, etc.


Step 4:
Paint over the chalked-in words. I just used craft paint (the kind you can get for like $1 at Walmart, etc.)

Step 5:
Erase the lines and step back and enjoy.

Here you can see the chalk lines. You can even see where I don't write EXACTLY on top of the chalk. I almost always write bigger with paint than I do with chalk--another sign that I am no professional.

The sweetest thing was just this week I was putting little man to bed and he was staring at the quote. (He is in kindergarten and learning to read). He asked me what the last two words were, so I told him and he then read the whole thing to me.
I told him that meant he was strong and brave.
He just said "I know."
Awwwww...

Linking my warrior to:

Leggo My Eggos!

Okay, so that is a little bit of a stretch. I had another idea to link eggs to the letter L, but it didn't work out the way I planned. (Legumes means beans-or something like that-not eggs).

Anyhoo. Eggs are the topic of my second installment for "L" week:

I love to decorate for the holidays. I love sparkly things. For some reason this year, sparkly eggs and I didn't jive. I just didn't feel like all my cute, pastel, sparkly eggs were what I wanted out this year. So I came up with a different approach. I borrowed an idea from Maryann at Domestically Speaking and made my own "twinefied" eggs. I added my own embellishment to a few (you will see in a minute).

I also got some cute napkins and decoupaged some. Oh, also I have made several cloches. Here are some of the Easter decorations around my house:

This cloche is simply a white plate with a votive candle holder on top (the kind you stick in a candle sconce.) Notice on this twine egg, I added a little polka dot ribbon.
( I love some polka dots!!)

Next up is my dining room table:

I have a lot of silver accents in here. You can get a glimpse of my decoupaged eggs. (And there is Scarlett in the background.)

Little Bunny Foo Foo under glass.
(You know there was ACTUALLY a question about Little Bunny Foo Foo at the Regional Governor's Cup competition last weekend?)

Here is a closer shot of the decoupaged eggs.

I love this little silver bunny sitting under a votive holder. I LOVE the shape of the glass and it is perfect for a little "happy." Can you see that cute top?? It is a perfect tiny cloche!

Downstairs, I allowed myself to put out some of my pastel, sparkly eggs just because, well just because I really like them and it was difficult to give them up!
Here is my hearth on my fireplace:

That is a concrete bunny I normally have outside, but he has been in the garage for the winter, so I thought I would park him here for a little while.
Here is a closer shot of him, and the sparkly eggs:

I am pretty pleased with the pictures I have this post and I have Donna at Funky Junk to that for that. Go check this post for tips on taking better pictures. She promised Step #1 would make a difference and I think she is right! Thanks Donna!

I am going to be linking up some places this weekend. Come by and check them out. I kid you not when I say you will find some great ideas!!

Laundry Room Blues No More

*I chose this as my favorite project of 2010*

I am linking it up to the CSI Challenge. This post has been edited from its original version.

Feast your eyes on this:

That is so NOT my laundry room. Sniff, sniff, sob, sob.

We just moved into this house in October
(okay, how much longer can I really use that excuse-we just moved in? We're going on almost 6 months, what is the statute of limitations on it??).
Anyway, there are so many things I love about this house. Great space, great kitchen, great outdoor areas. There are a few things I DON'T love about this house. Truvy's beauty shop for a bedroom, the carpet and the laundry closet.

Yeah, you heard me right, it is a CLOSET. In my wonderful 2900 square foot house, I have a laundry closet! Anyway my A-Z Decorating has inspired me to get it spruced up just in time for "L" week:

Now that I tricked you by that amazing laundry room, here is what I get to look at every time I do laundry:

Wait for it....


Open the door slowly, so not to run screaming...


AAAHHHHH, TOO LATE, TOO LATE!!

Please, I can't take it anymore!!!

Really, people. You can be honest with me. It is pretty bad huh? Did you notice the cinderblock walls? The two by fours? What about the fuse box?
But look in that picture above. See that glass jar right above the light switch? That was my little pretty that I focused on and that is where I started with my inspiration.

Once I got going, it was really simple. I found a $5 light fixture (my daughter hated it, at first) and painted the yucky brass parts ORB. The globe has a pretty cool floral pattern on it that looks nice when the light is on.

Next I sewed some VERY simple burlap curtains.
(So simple in fact that the back panel is super crooked-I just block it with that tin finial thing).
I used tension rods to hang the rods on the three walls. When I got the curtains up, I felt like something was missing, so in true "Nester" fashion I "mistreated" those curtains by hot gluing some floral fabric and ribbon to them.
Yes, I can sew, but I did not feel like dragging my sewing machine out. It was kind of freeing to do it "the wrong way." And you cannot tell one single bit. I didn't even turn the fabric under to hide the raw edge, I just covered it with the ribbon--I was living on the edge!

After adding some accessories (a tray, my glass jar, a glass container for my dryer sheets and a PLASTIC cruet for my fabric softener) Also, the glass votive holds change and random legos that I find leftover in pockets or the washing machine. VOILA!

Because my laundry space is a CLOSET, I was really lacking a folding space. One night I had the brilliant idea to remove the fold-down desk from my computer armoire and it works great:

While there is one more thing I would like to add (thanks to an amazing idea from Sausha:

(Which I hope to gets hubby on ASAP)

Here is the after:

I added "Wash" and "Dry" signs on the doors, in case I forget where the laundry closet is.

Here is a shot of the table folded down. The great thing is that I can see the TV from this angle!

To save your clicker finger, let's take one more look.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I have redone several rooms in this house, but this one by far has provided the biggest change to date (Truvy's beauty shop is coming next, I can't wait for you to see it) so I am using this post as my fav project of March. Come visit at Beneath My Heart and see what others chose as their favs!

Come by the CSI Challenge and see some other great projects!