Chalkboard Love

I have been slightly obsessed with chalkboards lately.  

I've sold several chalkboards in my booth lately.  This is the most recent taken to the booth for sale.

It didn't always look like this though.  I rescued it from Goodwill on one of our half priced Saturday's.  It was U.G.L.Y.

I painted and distressed the frame.  And then I used chalkboard paint over the glass.  

I bought this container of FolkArt Chalkboard Paint forever ago with a coupon.  So, I paid approximately $5.  It takes quite a few coats, usually at least 4 coats, to cover nicely.  But I still have well over half of the bottle, many projects later.

I 

So, here is the finished project once again.  

And with that, this will be my final post until after new year.

I hope you each take time away from the computer to enjoy time with your family and friends this holiday season!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

This project was featured here at Craftionary.

Meeting a Bloggety Friend!!

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting my long time blogging friend, Tammy, from Not Just Paper and Glue.

She lives outside Dallas where I am visiting my family.  So, we made arrangements to meet at The Little Blue House in Keller, Texas.

The Little Blue House was amazing!  I chose to do these Ho Ho Ho Tags.

These are not mine...mine are still drying because I used WAY to much of the glossy stuff over my letters....but on the bright side....they are looking really good (if they ever dry). ;)

Anywho....I enjoyed finally meeting in Tammy in person.  She is just as sweet as I imagined she would be.   

She made this gorgeous flower ball ornament for me!! 

Tammy is a PK Glitz representative.  She let me try out all her goodies!  

Can I just say.....I AM IN LOVE WITH GLITTER!!!  It was so much fun! The glitter is so fine (not that I can really say I know much about glitter).  But here is what I made.

  

I cannot tell you how happy I am I got to meet Tammy.  If you have time, stop by her blog and check her out. :)

O' Christmas Tree

O' Christmas Tree.....O' Christmas Tree.....You Bring Me So Much Pleasure!

Although we are never home for Christmas, I still decorate the house and the tree every year.  I figure we have a few weeks prior to Christmas to enjoy it before we leave to visit our family.  

Last week I showed you some of the other Christmas decor around the house this year.  Here is our super, duper skinny tree (the only size that will fit in our pint sized home)...

Most of our ornaments are either handmade or they have a special meaning to us.

Last year I told you all about the special sequin ornaments that my Grandmother used to make for my mother every year.

I was SOOOO excited when I stumbled upon several bags of antique handmade sequined ornaments at my favorite Antique Mall last month.

They were bagged 4 to 5 ornaments to a bag for $5...I felt like I had won the lottery!

They are just as beautiful as the ones my Grandmother used to make.  I had a hard time believing that someone's family actually gave these beauties up.

To be able to add to my collection, and so inexpensively, was a wonderful surprise this year.

I hope you are all having a special holiday season!

Deck the Halls....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I have had a much needed break this past week and took the opportunity to deck the halls....walls.....shelves.....and more. :)

I also got a new camera on Black Friday!!!!!!  No, I did NOT get a DSLR...I'm still an unemployed student remember...what were you thinking. LOL  Anwho, here's hoping the new Nikon Coolpix L105 can make up for my lack of photography skills. ;)

I thought I'd kick off my favorite holiday with a few pictures of the holiday decor this year.

I hope to share more pictures of our holiday decor soon.  But until then, enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend. :)

Beautiful Junk

I was motivated to get a blog post up this weekend because my awesome bloggety-friend, Mel, from Junkin' Junky is hosting her first link party called "Beautiful Junk Saturday"!!

I just had to be a part of it. :)

And since I haven't been posting much lately because of school, I figured I'd show several projects I've done recently for my boutique wall at The Emporium in Greenwood, IN.

Let's see....first up is the, um, lovely apple recipe holder I picked up at Goodwill.

After lots of sanding, some black spray paint and some awesome scrapbook papers, I had this.

It went straight to the booth, but I will be honest, I will not be heartbroken if it doesn't sell because I am completely in love with it! :)

Second is the little plate I also found at Goodwill.  I loved the shape.

I decided it would make a really cute chalkboard for the kitchen.

It was the first time I worked with chalkboard paint.  It took at least 4 coats, maybe more, but I was impressed with how well it worked when done.  

Shhhh, don't tell anyone but I have another plate so I can make one for myself. too. ;)

I only make things for the booth that I would love to have myself....which makes selling my own handmade creation super tough!  I want to keep everything I sell! LOL

So, that brings to my third Goodwill upcycle.  An old wood taper candle holder.  

I'm not a fan of tapered candles, they just drip all over the place for me and it bugs me.  So, I took this candle holder and added a finial I purchased at Lowe's.

I used black spray paint over the whole thing to make it one large decorative finial piece.  I also distressed it slightly with a gold Rub n Buff.  

Another creation I had a REALLY hard time getting rid of.

And lastly, I don't have before shots, but basically I used a plain glass candle holder, hot glued burlap, some twine and an vintage jewelry piece for a, now, fancy candle holder.

Whew!!  So, there you have a handful of what I've been working around here.

Some of these items have already sold at the booth and others were still there yesterday when I was there.

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As an update, the booth is actually doing really well.  I just wish I had more time to work on stuff for it.  School has me CRAZY busy.  Seriously, I do homework all. the. time!  But can you believe I'm already halfway through the first semester!  

Surprisingly, Algebra (remember how worried I was?) has come VERY easy to me.  It's actually my easiest class!  Can you believe that?  LOL  

Drawing is extremely hard for me, but I LOVE it!  Go figure.  I'm actually going to take another drawing class next semester even though it won't count toward my Interior Design degree.  

And the hardest class, without a doubt, is Intro to Interior Design!  There is SO much work in that class!!  Architectural hand lettering...impossible!  The tests and quizzes....ridiculously hard!  Floor plans and elevations TO SCALE....takes forever.  I have serious concerns about my end grade in that class....can you believe that?!?!  It's quite shocking to me.  Who would have dreamed THAT would be the class to give me heartburn. 

Don't get me wrong...I enjoy every single bit of what we are learning.  It's just an overwhelming amount of work.  My ever so slight perfectionism might, just maybe, be a part of that....but....nah....that can't be it. ;)

Bedroom Updates

STOP!!  Don't adjust your screen!!!

Really......

it's me.

With an actual, real live, honest to goodness POST!

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I know all my followers understand, but I still feel the need to apologize for my long dry spells between posts these days.

Ladies (and Gents), let me just tell you.....COLLEGE IS A LOT OF WORK!!!

I feel like all I do these days is go to school and come home and do homework and repeat!  Occasionally I make something for the booth (about once every 2 weeks).  That is what life consists of lately.  

I knew it was going to be a lot of work....but I was not prepared for the insane amount of hours I put into homework EVERY SINGLE FLIPPIN' DAY!

But I gotta tell you..........

I LOVE IT!!

Seriously, I do!  Even algebra (which I currently have an A in....WOOHOO!)  The art classes have been extremely hard for me.  It appears I am not naturally artistic. LOL But what I lack in talent I am trying to desperately make up for with LOTS and LOTS (and LOTS) of practice.  :)

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Ok, so on to my master bedroom updates.


Many, many moons ago, I posted about my master bedroom here.  But since that was way before most of you were followers, let's take a trip back.


When I purchased my home, the tiny 11x12 master bedroom looked like this.

1989 called and wanted the pink walls, brass fan and awful fake wood doors and trim back!


But once I painted the walls the perfect yellow/gold color (that I can't find the name to!!) and all the trim and doors, it looked like this.

Then this....

The closet doors painted white...

And my GORGEOUS Pottery Barn Velvet curtains that I only paid $20 a panel for at Home Goods which you can read about here!

There was nothing wrong with this look (except for the need of a headboard) and I loved it for well over a year, which let's face it, in the Interior Design blogging world is like an eternity! ;)


The changes I made recently first started out of necessity...but spiraled into pretty much a whole new look.  You know how that goes. LOL  


I needed a new home for the pie safe after I moved the computer into the living room.

The pie safe is probably the only piece of furniture I will never part with in my house.  It is THE work horse of my house.  It holds warranties, photo albums, every single photo ever taken, memories, Doodle's baby stuff.....everything important.

I really didn't have anywhere else to put it, but my bedroom.  I also felt it was important to keep that piece near me as we start to bring in foster children.  I don't want to risk the stuff inside to possible anger, outbursts, and such.


It is a decent sized piece of furniture though and my bedroom is tiny.  


I tried several different layouts which made the tiny bedroom feel crowded. But ultimately, 50 more nail holes later, settled here.

I was surprised the bedroom actually felt more spacious!  How is that possible?  It's proof, just because you have small rooms, it doesn't mean you have to always use small scaled furniture.


Do you remember that picture above the bed?  It use to be in the living room.  It didn't make the living room cuts, but works beautifully in my bedroom now.


Of course, I STILL need a headboard!  It's been 2 1/2 years...I mean seriously, you'd think I would have taken care of that by now.

The only thing I purchased for this room redo was the denim comforter.  It was important that the Pottery Barn curtains stayed in the room, so scrounging through my garage I found this old quilt I had.  And that's where the color scheme started coming from.

I took the two dark red pillows from the previous bedding set and turned them around to hide the gold ornate stitching....and wallah, they look like new pillows.


I'll show some of the details in a later post.  But for now wanted show you the changes taking place inside.