Fun with Frames

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

Gather old/ugly/abandoned picture frames buried in old hope chests and storage closets.

Find some of your favorite colored items and put in a pile.

March above items to nearest Home Depot for a color match in those small $3 color samples.

Have at it with your ugly old frames.

Careful not to go overboard with the pretty paint. Keep all of your nice brown frames se-par-ate.

Print up photos.

I knew instantly that the above oval frame had to be yellow. It looked too fussy in brown. It seems that a nice funky yellow, orange or green can be used to tone down overly prissy items.

This brown frame was the only frame I ended up buying. I did not have enough suitable brown frames, so I had to find one at my antique store.

Play with frames on the floor til you find suitable arrangement. Then throw them on your wall without giving it too much thought.

Hm. Something is missing.

Just so happened to get a little magazine in the mail with the following inspiration:

A little table underneath your frames anchors your collection nicely.

This little table just so happened to be within arms reach.

And presto, you are done!(Or not so presto if you are me. Simple projects like these seem to take me more time than anticipated).

And here are some additional views of the frames nestled in their new environment.

I happened to have a few left-over frames.

My friend Jessi embroidered those birds(in green frame) as a parting gift before she moved.

I decided to put these remaining frames in front living room.

Before:

After:

Calvin saw these frames and said "Hey! Where am I?"

Not to worry dear boy. Mama is not done just yet. She has lots of photos that still need framing.

You should see the little{big} pile of frames accumulating in my front room. I had a hay day finding great deals today at all the junk stores.

To be continued at a future date...

Gone to the birds

I've slowly been working at sprucing up my family room. Key word here is SLOW. I mentioned a while ago that I got some new curtains. I have always been drawn to white curtains, perhaps because they are light and airy.

And lots of birds have taken up residence in my home as of late. It was not intentional--it just sort of happened!

Bird #1 landed on my piano.

I found the silly bird at one of my favorite antique stores. I wasn't sure if it was ugly or charming, but bought it anyway. Back at home, I fell in love with it. I love how it goes with my favorite green candle sticks{awesome gift from my sister Lindsay}.

I'm still not sure if the bird is ugly or cute, but love it regardless.

I was also haphazardously throwing around ideas for pillows, and started off in this direction:

Had lots of fun learning to make rolled roses. But the overall look of this pillow was too fussy for my home.

So I took a minor U-turn and started another pillow. Enters bird #2.

The blue button seen in the yellow rose is actually a vintage earring that I found at my antique store. I think it adds a little *bling*.

Then my dear friend Becca inspired me with her doily pillows...and I think Lorie was making a pillow with some sort of crochet overlay{not sure what you used Lor, or how it turned out!}. Thanks for the inspiration girls! Hope you don't mind sharing your brilliance!

Enters bird #3 on another pillow.

I spied the above yellow/gold doily at my favorite antique store and my heart skipped a beat...but when I saw the hefty price tag(a whopping $6.75), I initially put it back thinking I could find it cheaper elsewhere.

Um no.

So I slunk back and {happily} forked over the bucks. I think it was worth it.

I also purchased a bunch of vintage buttons, some of which are seen at the end of this branch.

The green pillow has the other vintage earring and a funky blue pin I got for $1.

And then I was minding my own business, somehow meandering through Anthropologie, some 100+ miles from home... you know...just in the neighborhood...

and BAM! Enters birds #4, #5 and #6 galore, in some dishtowels.

My first thought was to turn these dish towels into pillows:

But, back at home they perched so happily in my kitchen, I did not have the heart to dismantle them. Plus, all the embroidered teacups scream KITCHEN! Yup, they belong in the kitchen.

Then, once again, minding my own business (in Joanns), when some aqua fabric jumped out at me. It reminded me of the aqua dish towel above.

After hemming and hawing for half and hour(the last thing I needed was more fabric), I decided to buy it. Came to $2.45, LOL.

I scanned the anthro birds from my dishtowel to my computer and embroidered me some birds.

Totally knocked off the birds, down to the colors. Shameful I tell you.

And for the first time in a while, pink was allowed in my house. It's on the middle birdie. Pink floss #3328, to be precise.

And this mustard yellow pillow was constructed using a fun thick crochet doily.

One of my favorite buttons is the sparkly yellow one on the blue dotted rose.

I could not find a grey throw anywhere, so I made this one from some reversible wool fabric. I made my own bias tape using the same fabric, which was exciting, but did a cruddy job matching the corners. Got a little lazy.

I'm currently working on another little project involving picture frames--almost done, but not quite. I am painfully slow these days. Everything is taking me waaaay too long to complete, including this blog post, so I shall sign off for now!

Toodles, and happy decorating! Or sunning--whatever you are doing these beautiful first days of summer!

banished no more

After 6 years of exile, my dresser has finally come out of banishment!

This dresser project was so quick and easy, I almost feel guilty...

Kind of like I cheated or something.

It did help that I had the primer, aqua paint and sealer all in my garage.

The only thing I had to buy were the silver knobs.

I originally planned to have orange knobs but I had a change of heart. There was already enough action going on with the aqua paint and the brown wood. I think orange knobs might have been over-kill. Like it belonged in a kid's room. Who knows. I just think that the silver knobs looked very clean and authentic on this particular dresser.

And this is the first time in 6 years that I can open my drawers with actual knobs. I no longer have to cry to the heavens "why me??" everytime I try to fight these drawers open. 

I painted this dresser with my bedding in mind. John and I bought this comforter set for each other last month as our anniversary gift to each other. 

And here is the view of my dresser from my bed.

As you can see, I still need to accessorize the dresser.

 

Our room is still a work-in-progress, but is slowly getting better. It will just take time. Ever since I can remember, our room has looked like a ghetto bachelor pad. Especially when John's office moved in, after the boys were born. 

Seriously. 

Oh you don't believe me?

Get a load of this.

bulletin board from our college days

mismatched file cabinet

lamp also from college days

decapitated imac

Just please don't make me give up my snow white bedding that my sister got me in college!

It seemed so hopeless to try to decorate my room with all the ugly office stuff. But I think with a little effort, we can make it look cozy and cute. John just painted a bookshelf and is getting rid of the file cabinet. He recently demolished his old particle board desk(you had to bang your hip into the door at just the right angle so it would open) and got a new desk on craig's list. So things are looking up. I used to die of humiliation anytime someone walked into my bedroom. I always wished for a lovely room like my sister had. 

Now I feel so fancy having new bedding and a matching dresser:)

i could stay here all day

I know, I know. Been a bit poky over here.

Poky indeed. 

But you would be poky too, if you had a whole new room to play in all day long. Between my outdoor deck and my new front living room, I could wile my days away forever. All the lounging and embroidering makes me giddy with joy.

So here is my new favorite hang-out folks. 

Almost everything I bought for this new room came from the proceeds of my garage sale, where I sold practically everything in this front room. And though I love this room, I must say, it was a difficult project. 

When your husband's topic of conversation at the dinner table is "so, let's count all the mistakes you made while decorating that room", you know the toll is high. You already heard about all my painting catastrophes...

Problem #1) wrong grey paint on walls

Problem #2) wrong orange paint/brushes for tree branch

Problem #3)big orange paint spill

Backing up a bit though, this whole living room started with the blue couch. When I saw it on Craig's list for just $150, my little heart skipped a beat. I could scarcely sleep that night...not knowing whether or not it already sold. Then I went to church the next morning, and got pounded by a sermon on materialism. So, I eased up a bit on my obsessing... Still, I called when I got home, of course.

"I need that couch", I blurted out instantly on the phone to a girl named Amanda (John in background, rolling eyes at me for not playing it cool at all). I see no point in playing silly mind games.

"Another lady is interested and I need to honor her first...", said Amanda.

Such integrity. I was bummed.

However, the next day Amanda told me that the other lady backed out and it was all mine! It was spotless and in absolute pristine condition. Yip!

I couldn't wait to start sewing pillows.

Problem #4) I made this orange throw from scraps of fabric laying around. I backed it with some grey fabric. The project was a bear. I was pulling my hair out. The orange/rust fabric was so stretchy, it stretched right off the other fabric. Fortunately, I was patient and eventually it all worked out. 

Problem#5) I ordered the green curtains from urban outfitters. I initially ordered 63" panels. When they got here, I was bummed at how short they were. The 84" panels were allegedly back-ordered til June. However, with a few phone calls to customer service, they found some more 84" curtains and shipped them off to me.

Problem #6) This orange wing-back chair was also a Craig's list purchase. Only $20. Unfortunately, a kind stranger offered to load it into my car and dropped it. And snapped one of the chair legs:( Thankfully, John was able to fix it. 

Problem #7) I made a little "branch" pillow for this chair. Methinks it's ugly. I can say that, since I made it. I think I will make another pillow that is cuter one day.

I already had this black hutch. It contains all of my fabrics.

Some new knobs were in order.

And here is my sewing box and new orange tray for my thread.


I think my FAVORITE PURCHASE OF ALL was this vintage metal desk. I'm not gonna lie, it was the most pricey thing on my list of purchases. It was well over $200 from an antique store, but WORTH EVERY PENNY.

It is in constant use. Between me and the boys, we pretty much live at this work station. We fight over it all day long. They color at it constantly. And leave their crayons and papers everywhere. We are still working out the rules. 

The minute we brought the desk into the house, Finn scampered off and brought his paper trays, trash can and chair to the desk and set up camp. He kept saying to me "I can't stop talking about this desk!"

The inside of the desk contains ALL of my scrapping papers and supplies. And my camera bag with all of my camera paraphernalia. It's pretty much awesome. I can sit at my desk and make an entire card without moving an inch. In my former days, my stuff was scattered everywhere and I was always on the floor. Ollie would grab everything. It was terrible. 

The top of my desk has my sewing machine on it. Although this makes things a bit unsightly, it MUST stay there. It is just too convenient. In my former days, John used to cart my machine back and forth to the kitchen table for me. 

Now, I sew almost every day, because my machine is so accessible. I even hemmed my favorite pj pants that were dragging on the floor and tripping me for the past year. 

And what's a desk without some fun stuff?

Problem #8) I had problems recovering my piano bench. After slaving away for over 3 hours, I realized I made the top part WAY TOO small. Arg. I wanted to cry. The green velvet fabric was so thick and unruly. 

So, the next day, John and I stapled some green velvet to the bench in 5 minutes flat. That is my kind of project. I think it shall suffice for now. 

These were the window frames I told you about a while ago. Enters problem #9). The glass from Finn's frame cracked last night while John was screwing in the metal sawtooth hanger. Lowe's saved the day. They custom-cut the piece of replacement glass for just $6.

So, in the end, all's well that ends well. Before remodeling, we rarely used this room. But now we live in it.

However, you can understand if I am a tad burnt out on decorating for now!