Back to the chalkboard

Back to the drawing, er, chalkboard!

Not only am I obsessed with Gallery Walls...I'm also obsessed with chalkboards!


It all started a long time ago, when I first saw Miss Mustard Seeds huge chalkboard.

I love her style....I mean who doesn't!


Then I made a few chalkboards for my booth over the last few months, like these...

But want I really wanted a HUGE chalkboard just for ME! 

And when I saw this huge, ugly picture at Goodwill one day for half price, just $7, I knew I had found my chalkboard. (Excuse the awful glare, this is the only before photo I could find.)

A couple coats of Salem Red Milk Paint, some distressing, and about 5 coats of chalkboard paint (painted directly onto the heavy cardboard type print) and wallah....an AWESOME large chalkboard for my kitchen!

And what about that menu??  My kind of meal. LOL

So, what do you think?  Are you loving chalkboards as much as I am these days?

Gallery Walls

I am completely obsessed with Gallery Walls!  


I've been doing my own versions of the gallery wall since way before I realized they had a name or were 'cool'.

My hallways have always served as a gallery wall of family photos and such.  And this house is no exception.


Some of you might remember forever ago that I posted the problem with my current gallery wall...it had the "highwater effect".

I've taken the 'stuff' further down the wall now. I'm still on the fence as to whether it's low enough now or not, but it's working for now.

Now I'm moving on to creating a gallery wall in the living room!

I told you I'm obsessed with gallery walls!  

Pinterest is only encouraging my obsession.

After lots of looking and searching and pinning...I have definitely learned that I am drawn to the eclectic type gallery walls.  I like a hodge podge of items. Artwork mixed in with pictures and letters/numbers and plaques and whatever strikes your fancy. 

Don't get me wrong I love structured gallery walls too.  Like these:

Source

Source

Then there's the pseudo-structured gallery walls.  These have structure to them in the way they are displayed, but the items on the wall have variety.  Like these:

Source

Source

Source

This one with all the paint by numbers makes my heart go pitter-patter!  I LOVE vintage paint by numbers! 

Source Unknown

THEN.......

BE STILL MY HEART!!

There's the ones that truly make me drool.  Okay, maybe not literally.  Not that I would admit too. But these are the ones I want in my own home. 

Source

Source Unknown

Source

Source

Does it get anymore spectacular than these?!?!  :)

If you are interested in following me on Pinterest so you can keep up with all the things that make me smile, laugh, or that is just plain adorable, beautiful, stunning, or whatever else smarks my interest, here is the link to follow me.

Furniture Redo's

Obviously I have been a very bad blogger the last six months.  As you all know, my first semester of college had me swamped.  

What you may or may not have known was that I was also very busy doing a whole lot of other things that I just never had time to sit down and blog about.

One of those things was redoing some furniture.  

I'm sure you remember the dated entertainment center I redid last summer.  From this:

To this:

The little table I bought for a $1.

To this:

But what I haven't shown you was a $5 chair I got from Goodwill last summer.  I don't have a before picture.  Not because I didn't take any, I know I did!  But because until recently I used to jump between 3 different computers, making my organization AWFUL!  

I'm sure you can image what the chair looked like.  Dated wood and super nasty navy blue fabric.

But it was not gross anymore after I spent a few days working on her!

I absolutely loved this chair!  I've had it in my living for months before I finally sold it on Craigslist the other day for....$35!

I wish you could see the distressing...it was by far my best to date.

I also redid this piano bench which I also bought at a garage sale for $1 last summer.

To this:

Oh yes my dear friends.....that is vintage key printed burlap!!!  GORGEOUS!  I got that at Joanne's with a coupon.  It's a little more expensive than plain burlap, but not much, and definitely worth the little extra money.

And the last one was the little footstool I picked up from another garage sale for $5.

To this:

I actually stenciled this key onto a swatch of drop cloth.  I got the image from Graphics Fairy.  Then I used my Cricut to cut out a stencil from cardstock and used fabric paint and a foam stencil brush to apply the paint.  It worked like a charm.

Just a few things I did in late summer/early fall.  :) 

Jack Jumped Over the Candlestick(s)

My latest obsession is candlesticks! Or pillar holders...or candle holders...whatever you choose to call them.

I want a whole bunch of big ones, various sizes and shapes, painted black, in the middle of my kitchen table.  I can remember not so long ago, there were always candle holders to be found at the thrift stores (you know...when I never had a desire to buy them).  

Now....not so much!  

Why is there a sudden rush on cheap, ugly, fairly large candlesticks?

I blame Pottery Barn!  ;)

Image

I mean, why pay $19-$49 from them to get this look, when you can paint old ones for next to nothing!

But....it's hindering MY ability to get candle holders cheaply.....and really, that's all that matters. ;)

And to buy new ones....WOWZERS!  They are a minimum of $10 a pop!  A little steep for me, especially considering how many I dream of owning. :)  

But ever so slowly, I am adding to my collection...$2 to $3 at a time.

The uglier the better.  I just hit them with some Valspar black spray paint and voila...I have various sized and shaped candle holders of my liking.

I have distressed one with some Rub N Buff, but mostly I just kept them solid black.

Sidenote...Speaking of Valspar spray paint.  It is not usually my first choice when it comes to spray paint.  But have you seen their new spray nozzles??  FABULOUS!!!

Other problem?  I get so torn!!!  Do I keep them all just for me??  Or do I take some to the booth?  :(  You know, I WANT to keep them all.  BUT...I also love my booth "followers" and want to share my new obsession.  

Oh, the life of a collector (and seller)! ;)

So, what did I do?

I kept three and took one of course. LOL  I think I'm comfortable with that ratio.  Now, if I can only find more. 

I also have been making some decorative candles.

I didn't take pictures, but that's ok.  It's so easy you don't need pictures.

I got this idea from my dear friend, Carol, at The Polka Dot Cottage.  She gives a wonderful tutorial, with pictures, here.

Basically, you stamp an image onto white tissue paper and then hair dry it onto the candle with wax paper.  Seriously, the hardest part is holding the image and tissue paper tight with an oven mit on (that hair dryer gets hot!).

  

It's hard to see, but this ones says, "See God in ever person, place, thing, and all will be well in your world." - Louise Hay.

The large floral one is a flameless candle.  Unfortunately, it did not get adhered good enough and came off.  But I'm not done trying to get this effect with a flameless candle.  I'll keep you posted on my success.

I DID however share these candles with my booth lovelies. :)  They just need to find their own candlesticks.  LOL  

Oh come on....THAT was funny. :P

And for complete randomness, here a couple other things I've put my touch on and took to the booth yesterday.

Excuse my disgusting carpet.  Note to self...probably not the best spot for photo ops. 

This shelf was a plastic gold scrolly shelf turned that I turned into this lovely with a whole lot of black, white, and gray paint.  

I must confess, I also did not want to give this up.  Having a booth is tough...I'm stingy. ;)

Someday I'm going to get around to showing you my new/old dining room chairs.  But this is the fabric that I used to upholster the seats.  I ADORE this fabric and want to use it everywhere!   But I do realize that might be slight over kill.  

My Gma Pat gave me a bunch of frames at Christmas she no longer wanted, so this was one that I painted and distressed and added my new favorite fabric too.  Wouldn't this be great in a gallery wall!  I may or may not have wanted to keep it to put on MY gallery wall I'm planning for the living room.  

I'm seeing a very ugly theme here...what about you?  ;)

Fresh Beginnings

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Isn't there always something exciting about starting a new year?  It's like all your dreams and ambitions get a fresh start.  With the beginning of each new year, your dreams suddenly become a possibility again.  :)

June Pfaff Daley

I'm very blessed and have a wonderful life.  I truly do not have any complaints about the life I have been lucky enough to live.  But I'd still like to push myself to max out my potential.  I don't make a lot of resolutions per say.  I just pray for continued blessings.  But man, that feeling of new possibilities sure makes your mind wander.  

What are my dreams/plans for this new year?  

• Be a better Christian!!!
• Spend more QUALITY time with my daughter!!!
• Continue on towards my Interior Design degree.  
• Explore my artistic side more, try my hand at some painting.
• Grow my blog. (Don't we all aspire to that? LOL)
• Start using my blog to facilitate online design consultations.
• Learn Photoshop! 
• Expand my booth from a wall to a full size booth.
• Start finishing and selling more furniture redo's.
• Maybe fall in love? ;)

And the big one I've been tossing around for some time now, but not sure I have the time to manage it properly at this moment...

• Start another blog (an expansion on my favorite quote by Ghandi - "Be the change you wish to see in the world").  It would give challenges, give ideas (some big, but mostly small manageable ways) on things we can each do to make changes or impact someones life, fun quotes, volunteering, spotlighting people who are making an impact, help find ways in various communities to get involved, recycling, etc.

As far as the house goes, it's mostly going to depend on funds this year.  Things are uncomfortably tight this year with me not working and going to school full time. But here's the dream list anyway...

• Add bead-board to the bathroom, including the ceiling, and replace the ventilation fan.
• Add a patio to the backyard (not sure about what type of patio I want or how that will look yet).
• Finish the fence project that took all spring/summer last year. :P
• New Bamboo floors (that's been on my wish list for almost 3 yrs now!  Chances are, it will still be on my wish list next year too. LOL)
• Make a headboard for my bed (also been on the list for several years now).
• Add molding to the tops of the kitchen cabinets (which I purchased almost a year ago, but have done nothing with).
• Paint the insides of the kitchen cabinets.
• Build a bench for the kitchen table.

Phew!  I don't think I can fit much more than that into just one year. ;)

So, here's to a fresh start.....and to new possibilities!!!

Source

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.