2013

The New Year!

A birdie told me to!

On a visit to our local




 Salvation Army store,




a little birdie told me





 to look up...

My "Best Of" 2012

I have selected 10 of my projects that were done in 2012 as my favorites because they are the most  beautiful or beneficial to our home and how we live. In no particular order...
1) New Hobby Garage

This was built by an excellent builder and friend. He put this up in 23 days and it looks like it has always been here connected to our 15 year old house! I use one bay as my space to paint furniture and do projects. Hubby uses his bay for a hobby pick up truck. We even have attic storage so furniture pieces and supplies can be stored out of sight and kept neat. A real dream come true for both of us. You can see more on this project HERE.
2) Mud Room

Snowy Snowball Urn

Yesterday we had our first snowfall of the season, and it put me in the mood for some kind of showy snowy decor.





Like a lot of people I know, my inspiration came from Pinterest! What did we ever do before Pinterest? I know that it certainly wasn't as easy to find inspiration as it is today. 



Anyway, my inspiration came from this...

Enjoy Your Christmas...

Putz House & Tie Skirt

Since all the decorating is done,

 I have been having a bit of fun. 

I have always wanted to make a cute little paper house. In doing research on them, I found out the name of these sweet houses are putz houses.



I googled them and came across a pattern to use. I used this pattern...

Christmas 2012 House Tour

Happy Holidays...please come in...

My 3 Chrismas 2012 Mantels plus 1

 Please enjoy viewing 3 of my Christmas Mantels

  

Plus 1 that I helped a friend decorate...

Hand Painted Christmas

My hand painted Christmas...

Painted red frame

Hand painted pitcher

My Take on A MacKenzie Childs Tree

I am thankful to be blog friends with Patti over at Pandora's Box.

She actually lives close to MacKenzie Childs farm and has even worked in their store this past year! Oh what a dream! Patti shared with me the actual tree that they had decorated in the store last year...

I think it is just 2-die-4 wonderful and whimsical. So this year I thought I would work even harder to replicate it than I did last year. I don't have even one thing that is an actual MC piece but have made plenty replicas of their items.

EAT Tray!

Such a fun piece.

This was an easy transformation. I took an old wooden tray with folding legs, placed vinyl letters on the top, then using Annie Sloan French Linen, just painted the top and sides of the tray.

Abandoned Tables Made New Again!

I have been beating the weather clock, so to speak! Colder weather is upon us here in Illinois and I have been trying to get any larger pieces of furniture painted, out in the new hobby garage, since it is not heated.

I received four oak tables that needed an update. A sofa table, an oval coffee table and two matching side end tables. They were dirty, abandoned and crying out for some love...

Meet Lacey!

See why I call this bookcase 'Lacey'? 

It has really pretty cut-outs that make it look that way to me.

The bookcase came to my door looking like this...

Blessings

Another MacKenzie-Childs look!

If you are a Courtly Check MacKenzie-Childs lover, then you are really going to like this!

Initially, I painted this tiny lamp...

 

I painted it to resemble one of MacKenzie-Childs' pieces.  Then one day, the on and off switch broke and after fixing it, It broke again.

Not pretty, but so Organized!

I crave order and I love to organize! The one room in my home that has been driving me nuts is, my storage room. This room is in the basement where I store clothing and holiday decor. It's a good size room but I have always had a problem trying to just stack my plastic tubs one on top of the other, so if I need something out of the lower tub, I have to unstack the whole thing. It's a hassle and makes the room messy. See what I mean...

The builder had put in two wire racks for hanging clothing, but I didn't have clothing to hang on this side of the room. Here's how I solved this problem. I researched free-standing shelving units and came upon this one...

Birds on a Wire!

I have a soft spot in my heart for birds.

 Do you too?




With that in mind, I painted a curvy end table to look a bit French and well, you'll see!

Meet Jax!

I have a friend that just had her third baby...a boy named Jax. He is beautiful as are his siblings. Jax has a five year old brother and a 3 year old sister. Every time my friend has had a baby, I go over about two weeks later to take new baby pictures for her birth announcements. I just have a normal digital camera that is not fancy so these pictures are very amateur, but I have so much fun taking them.

Fall Mesh Wreath & Stool Cover

Just a couple of things that I whipped up today...

 A Fall wreath made with a base of  green mesh.

Wool Pumpkin Tutorial

 It has been a while since I did a tutorial for you to enjoy...and even make if you wanted to. I also have been crazy over wool lately and decided to play with various kinds. Sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy the tutorial!

Materials that I used:

1 old wool sweater, washed and dried to felt or shrink

1 old plastic pumpkin, purchased at a thrift store

2 wool flowers, premade and purchased at JoAnn's, Optional

Jute

Burlap for leaves

1 dowel rod

Let's get started...