Sign of summer

Mmmmmmm...

cherry tomatoes straight from the garden.

this is one of the few things I like about summer.

Christina had a small computer crisis but she will be back to post tomorrow or Friday.

~Victoria~

Dumpster chair

Thought I'd share a picture of the chair that I pulled out of the dumpster on my excursion with my sisters.



My first thought when I saw the chair (without the bottom) was that I could use it outside as a flower chair. Then I spied the chair bottom in the dumpster and risked my life (JK) to get it out too. Don't you just love the detail of the legs?



I recovered the seat quickly with some toile fabric I had left from some pillows my sister made me. For the time being, a little pillow is sitting on the chair.


Eventually I might whitewash or paint the chair but for now it is happily residing in my living room just like it is.

~Victoria~

From the sis-in-law

Hey everyone! I am so glad to introduce you to our sister-in-law Meg. Victoria and I were talking this weekend and decided to beg her to do a guest post for us. Meg is such a special addition to our family. She is beautiful inside and out and is very talented. Her home is always such a breath of fresh air. The rooms are full of warm whites, soft greens, sand colors and sepia tones. As you will see she has a way with creating beautiful vignettes and great little projects. I hope as time goes by we will see more of her home. Welcome Meg!

{Christina}


Meet Meg:

As a full time nursing student and wife I have to work hard at finding the time and funds for decorating my small home. "Simplicity" is the central thought behind anything I create or admire. 90% of everything I use for my decor was handed down to me from relatives who have passed on. I have inherited a lot of stuff that some people would either store away or sell. I pride myself on seeing beauty in old crap.

This old wooden saw came from my grandfather's shed, soon to be tossed out. It now hangs in my kitchen.

In my foyer I have a tall table that narrowly sits against the wall. On it I stacked some old children's books from a distant relative. I was allowed to go through all the stuff no one else wanted. Not very high on the totem pole it seems. I thought the red in these books was such a great shade. I love old books anyways. The frames were some old ones I bought a while back. They originally were a light wood. I decided to sand them a bit and spray paint them white. I then took some scissors and roughed them up a bit. This was my first antiquing project. Now for my favorite part. Deep in south Ga. while visiting family I made my husband pull over so I could pick this cotton off some family soil. I then made this bouquet.

I spend a lot of time at the hospital doing clinicals and such. Every nurse knows that one of their most valuable assets (other than their pen) is their clipboard. I spend a lot of time with my clipboard. I got tired of running around with a plain brown cardboardish one all the time. I decided to spice it up a bit. I did this completely using spraypaint since it is fast and easy. patience is not my stong point. I got some thick card-stock paper and using an exacto knife I cut out a stencil. I think spraypaint is the way to go if your going to do stencils. I did have some issues with the stencil not being flush with the surface. You can probably tell the spraypaint got a bit out of bounds. It made it look better though actually. I really had fun with it.

A few months ago I decided to take a plain light brown wooded box and paint it with a monogram. I was in one of those creative moods. Those moods can get expensive. I don't have any pics of the before. Hind sight is 20/20.

I've enjoyed making this guest appearance. I never knew blogging was so fun. I'm in the process of making a quilt. When I get done maybe I'll come back.

Lamp makeover

Blogging has brought out the inner project girl in me! I have never completed so many projects in such a short time! Yay for blogging.

Years ago I bought a little wicker lamp base on clearance somewhere and at a joint yard sale with my sisters I snagged (for free) a lampshade that one of them had never used. Over the years I painted the shade white with craft paint and sprayed the base black but still the poor little lamp didn't have a home.

Recently when my baby sis stayed with me overnight while home from college she brought a painting project with her to work on. We took a radio to the kitchen and sat and talked while she was painting. I was bored (not for lack of interesting conversation...I just like to be doing something while talking) so I got my boring lamp out, glued a piece of ribbon on it...



then while we were shopping a couple of days later at Joanne Fabric I came across a little cameo in their "jewelry" department that was 40% off that I bought and stitched into place and voila!


I am happy to say that this little lamp finally has a home on top of my corner cabinet.

~Victoria~

Another thrifted picture makeover

Here we have another thrifted picture. It was filthy, with a hideous gold speckled fake wood frame and just overall ugly.

Ignore the $4.00 price tag. I only paid $ .50.

Before:



During:
Took everything apart and painted the navy mat and gold frame black:


Cut a piece of scrapbook paper to cover the picture:




With the last addition of our initial, I put it all back together.
Makeover complete in just a couple of hours, most of which was drying time.

After:




{Christina}

Corner cabinet make-over

I am in the midst of re-doing my kitchen/dining room. Those of you that know me well know that these sorts of "re-do's" take me quite a while...like a year or so. I had my dining/kitchen area painted in Feb and have been doing little things here and there to make-over the space.

This corner cabinet has been with me since I was a teenager and I love it.


It was looking a little blah so inspired by the Nester and so many of you that have used scrapbook paper as an enhancement, I decided to give my cabinet some pizazz.

I am thrilled with the results and the way it adds to the room!

~Victoria~

Making over a thrifted picture

with scrapbook paper and the letter "H"



Making over a thrifted picture originally from Target was fun and easy. I picked it up with an armload of other stuff for $3.00, so I probably paid about $1.00 for it. The picture wasn't me at all, but I knew the frame and mat could be something great, so the wheels started turning. It's time for a makeover!!

I didn't remember to take a before picture until after I had started painting the mat, so you will see a half painted mat and the picture that came out of the frame.


The mat was a brown mottled look. Nice, but not what I needed:




Here is the picture that was in the frame. Just not me:



I wanted a monogram for this makeover, so I sketched out an "H" on an Aldi ad, just for practice. I like it, so I just filled it in right on the ad with a sharpie:


Last but not least, my daughter and I put it all together and it was ready to hang. I use artist pins to hang almost everything in my house. They only make a small hole and they are strong. My box says "nickel steel pins size 17". They certainly wouldn't work for Great Grandma's priceless treasure or something heavy, but for small things they work so well:




I cut the "H" out of the ad, sprayed it with spray adhesive and attached it to a piece of scrap book paper. Oh, the wonders of scrapbook paper.

Here it is:

sorry about the laundry reflections in the background. I'll post a better picture later.

Victoria did something amazing with scrapbook paper today. I can't wait for her to post it for all to see. Stay tuned...

{Christina}