Sale at My Etsy Store

I am having a sale at my Etsy Store!  All of my "sweetheart saying" ACEO cards are buy one get one free!

Get your Valentine's Day Shopping done now!  Hurry - sale ends January 31!

And the Winner is...

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway.  And a special welcome to my 3 new followers!

 

True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 13 Result: 3 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

 

Evelyn of one of my favorite reads... Use the Loot.  I will get your shipping info and send your package out asap!  I hope you enjoy. 

Last Day to Enter Giveaway!

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway!  For detail check out this post.  Post a comment, become a follower and let your friends know!!!

Bathroom Re Do

I wanted to share the progress on my main floor bath re-do.  This was suppose to be one of those quick and easy projects that I would have done in less than a week.  Well a week later, it is not done but I will show you the progress anyway...

This is what the bathroom looked like last week.  I re-did it shortly after we moved in 13+ years ago.

Well, here is what I have complete so far...

I finished painting and distressing the vanity and the medicine cabinet, and got all the wall paper stripped.  We were using DIF to strip the paper, which works great!  However we were afraid that the DIF might mess up my newly painted cabinets so DH put some painters tape around the edges where the cabinets butted up to the wall paper.

All was good until I took the tape off yesterday afternoon (he only put the tape up yesterday morning, so its not like it was there for days and got "too stuck"), and no only did the black paint I just did come off, but so did the primer below that, and the white paint below that, and the original primer I put on before painting the cabinets white (13+ years ago), leaving the original 40+ year old yellow/gold paint along the edges of the medicine cabinet...

There was only one small spot where the tape took paint off the sink cabinet, but pretty much took all the paint off where it was put on the medicine cabinet!

So now I can't decide whether I can just reprime and paint the areas where the paint has come off, or if I need to do the whole thing all over again... I am thinking I am going to try to just do the 2 areas... what do you think?

I've decided to take a break from this project today - a little too frustrated right now.  Plus, DH has to move the light location and patch the hole where the existing light will be so I will wait till he finishes that before I go back in and work on the medicine cabinet!

To see, more creative DIY projects, visit A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day...

In honor of taking a break from this project, I decided to have a giveaway...  You can win this...

 

The post about the giveaway is here... please take a minute to enter!  You can get up to 3 entries - good luck!

Giveaway at Creative Juice Studios

January seems to be the time that everyone decides to change their lives.  Clean up, declutter, redecorate, take a class, finish the unfinished, etc.  But, we all need to take a minute from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and

 

And sometimes we need a reminder to do that!  So that is what I am giving away... a tangible reminder to take time to relax and recharge our minds and bodies! 

So if you need a reminder to RELAX,  this is all you have to do to enter...

Leave me a comment stating what do you to to RELAX and where would you hang this plaque to remind you to take the time?

Want a second entry?
Become a follower of my blog and leave me a second comment stating you have done so, or that you already were a follower.

Want a third entry?
Post a blog post about my giveaway and leave me another message with the link to your post.

Entries to the giveaway will be taken until midnight on Friday, January 22.  On Saturday, January 23, a winner will be selected via random number generator, and posted on my blog. 

Now, I've got to get back to those 100 projects I've started since the first of the year so that I can mark one off my list then take some time to RELAX and enjoy the fruits of my labors!

Transformation Thursday

I decided to join in on Transformation Thursday @ "The Shabby Chic Cottage".  I didn't have any recent transformations,so I decided to show you some of the past things we have done at our Cottage.

For those of you who don't know, we have a small lake cottage about an hour from our home that we totally enjoy in the summer.  I have decorated it on the utmost cheap budget.  Most of what is there was either left by the previous owners, found a thrift stores, resale shops, garage sales, clearance sales or given to us by family and friends.  All of this scouring, finding, gathering and repurposing, has left us with a cozy little place to enjoy in the warm months (and sometimes even in the cold ones), where we can spend time with friends and family.  Some of these things you may have seen on my blog before, but just wanted to share a few of my favorite things that have transformed our cottage into what it is today.

 when we first bought the cottage

 

New outdoor colors... 

 Sorry for all the construction debris in the front yard of this one, but it was the only one I could find of the front right now...

We have 2 small attic type rooms upstairs that we use as the kids rooms.  We transformed on of them  from this...

... to this.  Here is the girls room.  Couldn't find the pics of my sons room right now, will show you those another time, but love how the girls room turned out.  The bottom is a wide 3'+ border that I had the paint for the walls and ceiling color matched to.  Added the clouds, and even some glow in the dark stars that show up at night.

  

An old windowpane and vintage post cards from the lake - most 1920-1930 that I aput on the back of the glass with clear scrapbook photo corners - this is one of my favorites because it has so much history!

 

My vintage enamelware pots - most I can and do use - others are too damaged, and just hand there as decoration.

 

This is one piece of a 3 piece set of vintage aluminum patio furniture I got at a flea market for $80 and included new cushions that I just recovered - they were butt ugly.  The other 2 pieces include a rocker and a couch that folds down into a daybed.  When the girls have friends at the lake they love to sleep on it in the screen porch!

 

The only before pics I had of this table were on my cellphone that died before I could download them.  It was an ugly very dark 70's walnut type finish.  I first painted the table all red (same color as the chair on the left) and the top white.  It looked great in my mind, but the reality was completely different, so I had to go back to the home improvement store and rethink my strategy.

I sanded the top to remove some of the white paint, then added a royal blue stain to it and several coats of polyurethane.

 I painted over the red legs and base with white, and then sanded it to distress it and reveal the red underneath.  Then added several coats of polyurethane to it to keep it from distressing too much more with use and to keep the white paint white - it is a lake and lots of bare feet resting on the base if you know what I mean...

 One of our biggest projects was the construction of the tree house.

 

 There is a big long story about the tree house if you are interested you can read my blog post about it here...

 

I also couldn't find the pics of it finished - we painted all the railings and support pieces to match the house, and painted the whole inside white.

My cousin Lori painted the name of our lake on this old oar we found at a thrift store during one of our annual "junking" adventures!

There is so much more I could and will show on upcoming posts...

Original Paisleys!

I blogged about this pillow I made here and mentioned that I had another project I made with the same 3 paisley patters I designed to show you today, well here it is...

I used the same 3 paisley patterns but with different color pallet and arrangement, they look totally different!

I stapled this one to an 12" x 12" artist canvas I had to make it a picture.

All of these materials also came from my overflowing stash!

 

I'm thinking of some other color combos that would look great in these paisleys.

 

 I had so much fun with these I may even make a whole quilt with them... what do you think?

This post has been shared on A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day

New Original Creation

I love paisley!  I always have!

My daughter M and I were talking about re-doing her bathroom this winter, and she suggested black and white paisley.  I was searching for some black and white paisley wall paper - when I thought about designing my own applique pattern to make paisleys with some of my old scraps of fabric from my overflowing stash.

 I also used some left over ric rac pieces and some mismatched buttons...

 

 

 And I finished it off with some left over ball fringe...

And the back is a cute pink and white cotton gingham (you can't find cotton gingham anymore)!

I even had a pillow form the right size to fit (it is a little big, but just don't look too close at the gap in the buttons on the back)!

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, and it cost me nothing but some time designing and redesigning the paisleys! 

I have another creation that looks completely different using the same paisley patterns that I will show you tomorrow!

Great Giveaway

V and Co. is have a great giveaway on her blog.  She is giving away this great necklace...

by The Rusted Chain.  She has 3 ways to enter so hurry over to her blog and enter.  You have till 8am on Thursday to enter!

I really hope I win, however the next best thing would be for one of my readers (however few you are) to win.  Best of luck!

If you do enter, make sure you mention in your comment that you got there by way of my blog!!!

Sneak Peak...

Just a quick peak at something I am working on.  It is too cold to go outside (at least in my opinion) so I decided to try something I have been thinking about for a while.

These are 2 separate things, but using the same pattern I designed.  I will post more pictures when they are complete.

All of this was taken from my massive scrap stash!  I love being able to make a project without having to go to the store!

LOVE YOU... getting a jump start on Valentines Day!

 This is the first in a series of collages I am making and photographing combining 2 of my favorite things... Scrabble Letters and the sayings on the Valentine Conversation Hearts.  Small 2.5" x 3.5" ACEO trading cards and larger prints of each are available in my Etsy Shop.  

These would make great gifts for Valentine's Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries, or anytime you just want to let someone know or remind them how much they mean to you.

Some others that will be forth coming in the series include: "Lover Boy", "Love Her", "Yes Dear", "True Love", "Lets Kiss", "Cutie Pie", "Sweet Talk".

If you have a favorite Conversation Heart saying, I would love to know!

Last Completed Project of 2009

I managed to complete the quilt I was making for my in-laws 2 days before we were getting together to celebrate Christmas. Which means I finished it on December 31! So that also makes it the last project I completed in 2009!It is only a lap sized quilt, but it took me forever. I started it in October - thinking I had plenty of time. Well, then my sewing machine decided to act up and needed to go in for repairs. Got it back right before Thanksgiving - but since I was hosting Thanksgiving, I couldn't do anything with it until after.

Then, I made about 50 of these letter plaques, that I gave away as gifts and listed in my Etsy store...But I persisted, and finally finished it with 2 days to spare!
Each of the 4 corners are quilted with this snowflake pattern I made. I had originally planned to do all the blocks this way, but time was not on my side!
I am happy with how it turned out, and I think they liked it!

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2010. May it hold all that you hope for, as much as you can handle, and more than you could ever wish for!