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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

My kitchen window



I love decorating and using various fabrics and layers for my windows. May look a bit impractical, but I don't have a great site to see out the window, so having a pleasing window treatment and a vintage piece like the shutter just pleases me.

Portrait study from Hands and Heart-Monica




Monday, June 27, 2011

Shandell's.com giveaway lamp kits

Shandell's.com has great kits to make all sorts of lamps and right now there is a giveaway. I want to win1

Friday, June 24, 2011

Cute little ladder decorated



I have been redoing my living room. It needed paint so bad, and the floor needed to be clean from the soot that comes from the pellet stove in the winter. Removed the huge rug, threw it out actually; just didn't want to deal with cleaning it and it would be expensive because it was wool. Washed the whole living room floor with tiles; (didn't do the grout which will eventually need it). And moved the living room around, taking the L shaped couch and separating, placing one piece up against the wall and moving the portable fireplace. I put a
table that I had in my hallway behind the couch and set up various vignettes on it and around it.

My husband loves it and said it looks so different and everything looks new. He knew that we had no money so that I used what I had. I began to tell him a little bit about each piece and where it was before because I don't think he saw some of the items before. Funny how we women know every nook and cranny and our men sometimes are not aware because they work so hard and are out of the house.

Stay tuned for more!

Flour Sack-Sac

Love my flour sac curtain for my kitchen. Stitched them with a heavy twin so they look original and not stitched on a sewing machine. Hung them on a shabby chic curtain rod over the cabinets that cover my sink. My children thought they may be a problem because the rod and brackets stick out a bit, but I am not having problems with it. Sometimes I want to wipe my hands on them like a hand towel so I
will make another curtain out of other fabric, so when they are dirty, I will have another set to put up.

Flour Sack curtain









Monday, June 20, 2011

Windows and grungy



I have had this window for awhile and it is grungy, chippy and the glass is out of the openings so I can't paint on glass and have to decide whether this is a throw away or a keeper. So I have painted my living room, hung up some vintage maps like Pottery Barn example, and now I want to hang up certain items up on the wall around the maps but not over do the wall and have it work together. So, this window may work being hung up in an empty spot next to the map and then I may put a picture on top of the window in a grungy or white frame.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Decorating and Art Work-I MEAN YARD WORK






Sometimes I wonder why I havn't done any art work like collage, drawings and paintings during the spring and summer, it is because I am doing yard work and not art work. I bring my art and design into my yard, trying to add impliments of color, texture and vintage art junk into my gardens to creation "Real life Collage"; little fences, statues, items I pick up from the road side garbage and items I make. Summer makes me come alive even though I am dying from heat exhaustion and mid-life.

Seabrook and Relaxation


My daughter and I trying to relax after a busy week of tutoring, yard sale selling, biblestudy and church, gardening, housekeeping...

Vintage Antique Wooden Sign



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Don't you just love vintage stuff! I do too! Even to the point of the item being too rusty or too fragile. So I bring it home and try to make due with it and if not, then at least nothing lost.

The owner of a little antique shop I go to had this sign hiding underneath dead greenery and leaves from last year. I begged him to take it and off it wen tinto my car "FREE" and I gave him a handshake as I entered my van in jubilee.

Now, I thought "Will Seth help me take off the huge metal pieces attached to it?" These were the pieces that used to keep the sign up ontop of the building. Seth was a sweet heart and helped me get the rusty pieces off the sign. One piece of metal had to stay on the left sign of the sign, with it's litte nails sticking out. I am getting over that but the sign is decaying and falling apart. I purchased a spray can of a varnish and sprayed the whole piece, giving the old letraset type of print from coming off anymore, to kill any bugs that may be in the wood and to pull out the beautiful color of brown in the wood.

Right now it is leaning in my dining room, where as I am painting my living room, collaging a wall like Pottery Barn and deciding where to put the vintage antique wooden sign. Pieces have broken off and that is what you are seeing in the pictures. If I can get a wire on it or a good piece of hardware on it to hang it, I think and hope it will last a few years longer.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Chandelier-DISGUSTING-Spray Paint Rustoleum

Does this look familiar, a disgusting looking chandelier.
You may see these in the Salvation Army or at a yard sale.
Don't miss picking it up. You can do so much like wash it down,
pull the yucky disgusting stuff off of it, and spray paint it.
Keep it black if you like, spray paint it the new modern color-SILVER
Hang things off of it, add new flowers, hang it up plain in front of your fireplace mantel.

Have fun. Spray paint is wonderful! Try the new Rustoleum colors!

Needs Work Chandelier





I liked black for the longest time in my home. An accent here, an accent there, then I decided the other day to do the chandelier over It is dusty, the grape vine wreaths on it are falling apart, brittle and disgusting, so I took it outside, washed it off, took off the grapevine wreaths and gave it a spray paint coat of white. As my children would say "What else would you have painted it, everything is white lately"! Then, I found some flowers I have hanging on my bed that are beautiful but I needed the for the chandelier. So I took them down, rinsed the dust off (yes, silk flowers can be washed) and then placed then in our nearly 90 degree weather to dry in five minutes and then intertwined then in between the spokes (I don't know what they are called) on the chandelier. I will then hang some crystals and possibly clear or silver baubles or christmas balls from it. It may be too much so I will try it and see and send pictures soon. Need to recharge my camera batteryl.

When is too much too much on the faux fireplace mantel

You tell me:) I am an overcrowder as you can see by the below pictures. I think my next mantel design is going to be simpler.

I recently purchased an old chaulk board that is huge. The kind I had in my classrooms when I was a little girl. I am going to take down the mirror and platter and put up the chaulk board. I am still trying to decide what color to paint my kitchen. Color limits me as white does not. I have thought of a light aqua, a terra cotta (my designer son thought) or a kelly green. All of the them are a bit different. So I wait and Wait and WAIT and then do not get it done.

In front of the chaulk board I will put back my white vase. Remember, you do not have to buy Pottery Barn's glassware unless you can afford it. I am sure the quality may be much better than what I purchase but I can't so I am pleased and content with what I have.

I can leave the white vase empty or fill it with sticks. Love sticks!

Decorating a Fireplace Mantel

Decorating a Fireplace Mantel takes practice or at least I think it does. It has to feel just right when putting your objects up there. It doesn't always have to be symmetrical-meaning the same on all sides, it can be asymetrical or different on the entire surface, but the heights of objects need to vary and the size of objects has alot to do with it.

I first take into consideration what I am feeling at that moment: color, texture, lighting. I enjoy having the little white lights up there so that in the early evening, rather than having an overhead light on, I can have a little twinkle in the kitchen along with a candle lit on the counter and it is super cozy.

My mantels in my home are on the smaller size because they are all faux or fake mantels and not real built in fireplaces. I gather my objects and always try to have a back drop behind the objects on the blank wall. If you walked into my home, you would notice I have trouble keeping a wall blank. I have one right now in my living room that is blank, ready to be primed and painted, and I just can't determine if I like it plain or not. So anyway, get a painting, a mirror, a plaque, a series of dishes or photos and hang them up first so that you are not trying to adjust your wall and break any of your precious finds. After you have your wall or mural done, then start placing your pieces on the mantel. Use books, perhaps cookbooks if it is in your kitchen, use glass, wood, pottery, perhaps some flowers in a vase, a candle placed (always be careful of those candles:) perhaps an odd vintage looking gadget, tuck a little picture frame of one of your children, yourself or a relative in between the pieces.

More later.

Mantel Decorating-Faux Electric Fireplace