Changes to the Picture Wall...

One of my most treasured possessions is family photographs, and while I have several places I display them, my favorite is the picture wall in my living room.  This wall has evolved over the past few years, and continues to change.  I have posted about it in the past, but have made some recent changes.  I love sharing this idea because it is affordable and unique.

This time around I took down all of the pictures and painted a tobacco color inside the molding.

I then changed out the pics that were in color to black and white, and arranged how I thought I wanted them on my dining room table.

Next came the hard part, putting all those pictures back up without a real guide.  I more of an "eyeball it" type of girl.  That whole measure twice cut once thing doesn't apply to me.  I just hammer, move, hammer again, etc. 

And there you have it.  My family picture wall.  I'm sure it will eventually change again, but for now, I love it!

What do you think?

Roadkill Rescue...

There is a Roadkill Rescue party going on over at Infarrantly Creative and I really wanted to participate.

However, the rules of the party are that the item you are fixing up must have been free to you (i.e. from the trash, a relative, etc.) I have several projects I am working on right now, but most of them are items I bought at thrift stores, so I am gonna share some of my favorite fix-ups from past posts that do qualify. Here we go!

Up first are 2 chairs I got from the dump. The man was tossing out 4 of them, but I only had room for 2 at the time. I am still wishing I'd gone back for the others. Oh well. As you can see they were in pretty bad shape.

But after a little TLC, they have found a new lease on life! The black and white one I sold at an antique store downtown, hence the price tag.
But this lime green one is the chair in my craft room. I'm sitting in it now, proud as a peacock. If you want all the details on how this transformation occurred, you can follow this link.
Another one of my favorites is this old entertainment center. Lon's grandma gave it to me, and it was definitely dated, but it was free and that is my favorite word!
Nothing a new coat of paint and some beadboard on the back couldn't fix! I had my brother in law help me with this project while he was in town and it is also in my craft room. You can go here if you want a step by step on what we did.

The rockers on my front porch were also free. Lon's grandpa gave them to me. They were out at the family farm and nobody really used them anymore. They needed a sanding and some paint. But they are perfect on my front porch. I also added decorative door knobs for some detail to the tops of the chairs.
Last but not least, is another item in my craft room. It is the white shelf that holds all my fabrics. There is no "before" picture because I left it exactly as it was. It was given to me when an office went out of business. It held documents, but fits all my fabric perfectly.

Thanks for stopping by, and for lots more Roadkill Rescues don't forget to visit Infarrantly Creative!

Quick and Easy Window Project...

My friend Amy and I completed this little window project in no time flat, so I thought I would share it with you. We got a glass window from Habitat for Humanity Restore.

It was a little beat up on the outside, so I covered it with paper and sanded it down good. I then spray painted it black.

If you wonder why it seems to take me forever to complete projects, here is your answer. I have 2 eager helpers always on the ready.
They love to use this spray gun handle on the spray paint. If you do much spray painting and don't have one of these, you need one. It will change your life. Just sayin'. It costs $2 at Wal-Mart.

Anyway, I then roughed it up a little more, and rubbed a dark chocolate stain over the edges.

Amy and I cut out some vinyl letters on my Cricut, and we were done.

Here it is hanging in my dining room. I just love how it turned out.

I have lots of projects about halfway done. I'll be posting some more as I finish them. Be back soon!

Easy Lampshade Makeover...

As any good blogger will tell you, you ALWAYS take before pictures. Well I forgot to, so you are gonna have to trust me that this sassy little thing was originally a $3 lamp with no shade from a yardsale and that it was the ugliest thing on the East Coast. Think dirty brown wood and brass. BUT, if you do A LOT of sanding, paint it red, and make it a cute shade you end up with a fantastic lamp!

I took a lampshade my Mom gave me years ago. It was just a simple white shade from Bed Bath and Beyond. I added fringe to the top, and ribbon to the bottom.

After a closer look, I decided to cover the cord with red fabric because it needed "something else". (Excuse the fact it is sitting on my kitchen counter. I still have not found just the right place to put this cutie patootie.)

A couple hours and $3 later you have an adorable lamp that is truly unique. This could be so cute in a lot of different spaces. Think primary colors for a little boy's room, or even pink for a little girl's.
I am linking up to ASPTL's DIY Tuesday

and Reinvented's Trash to Treasure Tuesday. Hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for visiting!

Walker's Cowboy Room...

I got an e-mail last week asking about Walker's bedroom. It occurred to me that I had never posted about it, so here you go Heidi!

As with most other rooms in this house, Walker's room was floor to ceiling wallpaper.

Gorgeous right? I had a hard time deciding whether or not to take this fantastic paper down, and pigs fly!! Lonnie's grandma and I worked for days to scrape that ugly wallpaper down inch.by.inch. Just getting it painted was a HUGE improvement. We used Benjamin Moore's Quincy Tan. A great color I used throughout other rooms in the house.

I had done Walker's nursery in a vintage cowboy pattern, so transitioning it into a "big boy" room was super easy. We moved the crib and baby furniture into Connor's room and replaced Walker's with Attic Heirlooms by Broyhill. The bunkbeds are by another company but were the only ones I could find that matched the Attic Heirlooms but had storage drawers underneath. When we bought this furniture we were in our other house. Moving it here was a little tricky. I then tried arranging it several ways, but ultimately, this was the only way everything would fit.

This is looking in the door from the hall. He still has a bedrail, but he rarely sleeps in this bed. I could probably get rid of it. The bedding is from Target. It is a cowboy print quilt.

To the left. Valances are from Lowe's.
His closet and toy chest sit on the same wall as the door. I chose to leave the doors off the closet so that we would have a place for the train table. It was the perfect size and the boys love to play there. It also forces me to keep his closet tidy.

Here are some of the picture arrangements in the room.
This boot is from TJ MAXX and it happened to have Walker's name on it. It is probably one of my favorite things in the room.

This is a little shelf I got from Micheal's and painted red. Those are some old cowboy boots Walker wore for Halloween and the picture is one of my favorites of Lon and Walker goofing around in Walker's child-size cowboy hats. I simply added scrapbook letters that said Cowboy to the mat on the inside of the frame.

I made these little stars for his nursery 5 years ago and they have just sort of stuck around, but I still like them in his room.

These prints were all bought online via e-bay, and then I got frames from Hobby Lobby and framed them myself. The bottom left is a pic of the boys at Dixie Stampede.

Walker's bedside table was from a clearance sale at a furniture store a few years ago. It was less than $50 and is a really nice piece. The basket on top holds his library books so they don't get misplaced and it was from Habitat for Humanity for $1.

There you have it. I hope I answered all of your questions Heidi and if I missed something just let me know.

Happy Blogiversary, and a Giveaway...

I. am. shocked. It has been one year since I began this journey called a blog. I have written 241 posts. I never thought I would have that much to write about, but evidently I do. I just looked back at my very first post, and I laughed so hard. So much has changed over this past year. I have really gotten "settled" in our home. I have lost 36 lbs. The boys have grown and changed. I even got a blog button. But most of all, I have made so many wonderful friends!! I am so thankful for the friendships that I have made through the blog, and all of the wonderful new things all of you have taught me through your own blogs. So, I'm gonna have a giveaway!

I have pondered all week about what I was gonna do, and finally decided that since I am such a sentimental person, I am gonna make the winner a gift or two. It is not huge, but it is gonna be handmade by me and will be made to suit the winner's tastes. I will make the winner a tassel and pillow according to their personal home decor colors.

Now don't fret. My tasseling abilities have gotten much improved from my first two tries. I still can't believe I even posted those pitiful looking things, but they were a work in progress and I can look at them now and see how far I have come. Here are a few of my more recent beauties and I posted about my pillow last week, but here are a few of them as well.


Now, the rules are simple. Just leave me a comment and you will be entered. I am gonna take names until midnight, Tuesday October 13. It seems like an odd time, but since 13 is my lucky number it works. Good luck and thanks for a wonderful year!

Toile Chair Tutorial...

If you visit this blog very often, then you know I am not the best at tutorials. I typically direct you to someone else's tutorial since I usually forget to take enough pictures. Well that is probably the case here again, but this is a really simple chair makeover so I am gonna give it another try. Let's get started!

First up, you find an old chair at the dump. You let everyone there look at you like you have lost your ever loving mind because you are putting more trash back into your car than you just took out. Here is the little beauty I came home with:

Next I took off the seat. I just unscrewed it from the bottom. I then washed the whole thing down really well with some soapy water. While the chair is drying, I start prying off the fabric from the cushion.

Now this seat had no real padding so I added a seat cushion to it. I bought a pack of 4 of them at Wal-Mart forever ago, but they were not more than $10. I just cut it to size and then glue it down with spray adhesive. (Sorry here is where I was so involved I forgot to take pics!)

Next I went back to the chair and sanded any chips in the paint. I then spray painted it black with black spray paint. I do this more as a primer. I then brushed some black paint I already had over the whole thing. Let that dry and then spray paint again to make it look smooth and get any spots you missed. I then sealed it with a clear acrylic spray.

Back to the cushion. I stretched and stapled my toile fabric over the cushion and stapled it to the bottom. I then added my ruffle. I just measured all the way around the outside of the seat and doubled it. I wanted my ruffle to be 6 inches high so I cut and hemmed a strip of fabric 6 inches by the diameter doubled. (Are you starting to see why I don't do tutorials?) I then stapled the ruffle into place.

Finally you reattach the seat... and sit on the chair hoping it doesn't fall over. Mine didn't so I was good to go!

I actually got 2 of these chairs at the dump over the summer. The other one is my chair in the craft room. This is how it turned out and a link to that post if you want the details.

I am sharing this at ASPTL for DIY Tuesday

and at Reinnvented for Trash to Treasure Tuesday.

Hope you have a great week and thanks for stopping by!