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:

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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:

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

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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. 

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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.

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!  ;)

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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?  ;)

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.

Where Am I?

Wanna know where I've been lately and why my blog posts are so few and far between.

This is where I've been....

On my porch!!

Reclining in my outdoor Lazy Boy recliners (purchased at KMart)!

Planting new flowers, like my pink Lillies, in my border and moving others around, like my Day Lillies and my now dormant Daffodil.

Threading a bazillion straight pins in my little Better Homes and Gardens flag from Walmart. 

Yes, that's what I said, no need to reread.  LOL  Someone thought it was cute to steal my spring flag.  So, I thought grabbing my flag at night, full of straight pins would be fun too!  Yes I am crazy like that.  LOL  Don't steal from me and no one gets hurt. ;) 

Basically, I've been busy taking my home from looking like this when I bought it 2 years ago...

To this last summer....

To this so far this spring....

Basicallly...I've been busy people. :)

I've been taking this border which would never stay in place....

And have been putting in a paver border instead.

So, that's where I've been.

I hope you understand.

After a long, hot day, working in the sun...my porch calls to me to come sit and relax. :)

Pretty much, this sleeping face says it all. :)

Until next time,
Erin