a clean halloween

I am so very

 for all my blogging friends that help put a 

 

under me and help me to keep my house organized and decorated

 without you I would never get stuff like this done!

 

Under my sink.  Newly organized, not too pretty but very functional.  Now I finally know where everything is and I don't have to dig through stuff to find a clean sponge.  Thanks so much for checking back. I love bloggers!!!!!

A teenager redo

Today we redid the my daughter's bedroom decorations.  She used to have a pink kitty cat bedroom, but she is much to mature for that now.  Here is a picture of what it used to be like. The pictures are really quite lovely vintage pictures.  2 paint by number and the grey and white is beautiful.  I will be listing these in my etsy store if you are interested in them. She used to have a twin high backed daybed, but now has a queen without a headboard, her choice.  Since there is nothing there I thought it needed something.  


Here new bedding is zebra print, aqua blue, lime green and purple.  Very cute!  I went to the dollar store and bought 12 canvas frames.  I didn't care what the print was because I knew I would be covering them.  I just wanted them the same size.  After getting them I spraypainted the edges black and then mod podged the scrapbook papers on top.  They aren't all what I would have picked, but they are her and easily changed as she changes.  

 

The first few canvases I used matte medium instead of mod podge and am now a mod podge convert.  AS you can see in the rainbow and a few others, the matte medium did not dry flat and there are some crinkles.  Once I switched to mod podge, it righted itself.  Amazing because matte medium is at least double the price of mod podge.  So here are my tips:  

1.  Don't use screws or nails.  I started out with a level and screws, but it was too complicated.  My daughter has a huge aqua blue bulletin board on the next wall and I noticed a bunch of bulletin board push pins and tried those instead, much easier..I used two per canvas so they don't move around.  I still need to move 1 or 2 here and there, but really much easier then leveling and screwing and rescrewing.  Plus the canvases are very light weight.

2.  Don't panic about the papers.  If you get tired of them, you just mod podge another paper on top and replace it.  I wouldn't have picked a few of those papers and she will probably one day not want the ducks, but she just won a duck decorating contest and is into ducks.  When that is over I will replace it.

3.  I added 3d embellishments and they really only needed double stick tape, except for the cross.  It's a christmas ornament and has a hole at the top and I think I will need to do a few stitches to keep that from fallin off, but because it's canvas and paper I can do that.  

Don't worry I haven't forgotten about my organizing project, I went to the dollar store last night and will be posting that sometime this weekend, or at the lastest Monday, since tomorrow is Halloween.  I hope you have a great day with your families. 

 

Halloween fright!

BOO!

 

OH MY!!!!!! Did I let you see this?  That is underneath my kitchen sink.  TERRIFYING!

Why did I show that?

Because if you come back this weekend you will see how I organized it.  Brilliant, right?  I hope so, I'm hoping it will inspire me, because here is the truly scary part.....Thanksgiving is coming!!!!!And people may notice that.  So here's hoping my halloween fright will spur me on.  

Here's some ideas that have actually worked for me in organizing.  I will be posting this over at the nester .

I don't fight it.  If I notice a pile up, I go with it.  Hmm!  my family has some serious allergies, since all 4 of us take different allergie meds everyday, they seemed to just sit on the counter, along with motrin.  so I put a covered decorative tin there.

 

Want a cookie?  Sorry it's loratadine and a jumbo bottle of motrin:)  Obviously you can't put a tin or basket everywhere in your house, but if it's always there, don't fight it, go with it.  

Here's another hiding spot.  Many people have looked for bread here, but you will soon find out that this stows all my teenagers cords and electronic gizmos. Our family rule is that you charge your phone in the kitchen at night, so no 2 am calls,etc. , and the cords were always on the counter by the outlet, so here is the container.

 

And if you notice not alot of other stuff around it, nope, I likes my countertops clean and lean!  

I also can not stand the pile up by the backdoor of backpacks, church stuff, etc.  So I cleaned out a kitchen cabinet ( I know not always an option)  But I am rich in cabinet space and poor in mudrooms and back porches. So this worked for us.  So instead of dumping them by the backdoor they take two extra steps and put them in the bottom cabinet......sometimes........ I can't work miracles people.  But here is the beauty of the plan.  If I find something of theirs and it's just lying around, I throw it in there and they know where to look.  

So hopefully you will remember me and pop by this weekend and see my newly organized undersink cabinet.  

   

the winner!

The winner of the owl pillow is Terri@em-belle-ish@blogspot. A new friend and new blogger also. Terri please send your address to biedebach@sbcglobal.net and I will get that out to you as soon as possible. Congratulations!

cute organization

I did something today I don't usually do, Organize!  It just goes against my nature. But part of the reason I started this blog was to motivate me to decorate and organize my home.  

I started out by going to the dollar store and buying tubs in aqua.  I knew I would need about 5 or 6.  I wanted to organize my daughter's bathroom.  It also is the guest bath, so people legitmately need to look in the cabinets sometimes.  Plus with the holidays coming up, I know I will have houseguests and company.  After establishing what I would neet each tub for I made little tags, this was mainly to help her organize her stuff and it looked cute.  The whole thing took 5 minutes and I had all the tags and lettering already.  So here is an encouragement for all of you that aren't prone to organize.  Make it pretty and cheap and go for it.  
 
Plus when people come over they will be very impressed if they feel  the need to go through your medicine cabinets.  I'm so excited I'm probably going to need to clean out another cabinet, and I feel closer to you now because you've seen my toilet paper!  Ha Ha blogging is just the best!

Linking this to craftomaniac

I am so thankful!

For you!  I have only been blogging for a month and I already have over 1000 page views.  Thank you so much!  I wanted to do a giveaway as a thankyou.  The giveaway is for the felted wool owl pillow shown on the middle of my fall mantle.  I actually made two, one just for you.  So if you would like to join this giveaway please become a follower or if you are already a follower, leave a comment.  The giveaway will end this Wednesday, October 27th at 12am pst.  Thursday morning I will do a random number draw and announce the winner.  Once again thank you so much for spending your time with me.  It means alot.  I am thankful for you. 

P.s.  The picture is of my children about 8 years ago, aren't they cute?

The island completed!

Finally! I am posting this on miss mustard seed's blog for her feature friday. The island started out as just your basic wood island with white laminate countertops. My husband added bead board, picture frame molding and the texas stars in the corners. 3 paint layers later this is what I got. Black first, then Sherwin williams rapture blue. Sand, then stain with minwax provincial stain and two coats of poly. From the pictures I think the bottom needs a little more of the stain, but it is done. I love it! The paint recipe was from a blog called prim and proper. I am planning on painting the rest of my cabinets creamy by sherwin williams with a little glazing and will post those as I start.

 

and here is the back.

 

The butcher block countertop is from ikea and is the birch treated with mineral oil.  

christmas hoodies

I am listing these Christmas hoodies in my etsy store today.  I think they are darling.  They went like crazy last year.  An athletic fit, rather then a normal fit.  These are in size small and medium, misses sizes.  All the larges and x larges are already sold.

My craft wall is done- come take a look

Didn't it turn out cute?

 I just love it!

The last two projects were very easy.  The shelf I already had, it was a goldy color  I simply spraypainted it pink.  The 3 colorful buckets were at my grocery store in the discount bin for 99 cents each.  I thought they would add some great storage.

I have a tutorial on making the button frame if you are interested.  

 

I started with a ribba frame from ikea.  Basically a shadow box frame.  I tried it with frames I had and even though buttons aren't very thick, it still wouldn't work with the glass.  I knew I wanted a plain white background so I traced the mat on some posterboard.

 

Then I had to think a little, which I umm don't like to do.  I needed to decide on spacing, this is probably the most crucial part.  I decided to use the width of my ruler for each row and to space 1 1/2 inches apart. I did a little pencil dot on each spacing and then cut little pieces of double stick tape and put it on the dot.

 

Then I placed each button carefully to make sure it all looked straight.  I think glue dots would be good for this also.  

  I had already spraypainted the frame an aqua blue, so I just simply put it all back together.  Very easy with just a small moment of thinking. 

 

 

Slowly, slowly, slowly

We have had the busiest weekend.  A nephew birthday and my 16 year old son got his first car.  He's been 16 for 2 months now and we found a great car at an auction and made his decade possibly.  Let's just say it's love.  But because of that the island was put a little on the back burner.  Which is just fine with me.  But we did get alot done.  Here is my little beauty as of today.

 

New butcherblock counter top.  Not as easy to install as ikea led us to believe.  We had to cut it down and then use a router on the edge.  If you aren't prepared to do that, I wouldn't buy it from them.  Although it was considerably less then home depot and lowes.  The quality is great also.  New hardware.  The only thing left to do is paint the outlet covers and paint the bottom.  I wasn't sure if I needed to, but from these pictures it really stands out.  All of this will be done by Friday because I am planning on posting to Miss mustard seeds furniture friday post.  So come back on Friday and see the few things left to do.

I have always loved my kitchen layout!  We built this house right before everything was available.  We had two options for tile:white or off white.  The cabinets were ordered before we got here, etc.  The layout is perfect but we have lived her for 11 years and it has just never been what I wanted, except the layout.  Revamping this little island has really given me the courage to make my kitchen what my heart has wanted for 11 years.  I am planning on painting the remaining cabinets sherwin williams creamy with a slight glazing.  I am going to do a dark charcoal grey soapstone or quartz countertop and a white subway tile backsplash.  I'm keeping my appliances white because why change it if it's not broke.  Plus I'm not someone who longs for stainless.  Although I am thinking of adding a stainless vent above the stove.  Tell me what you think.  The painting will start soon.  The countertops and backsplash will be done during the summer.  

I am also redoing the floors this summer because I have to.  The floors are in terrible shape.  My children get splinters all the time.  We have a black lab and a pool.  I love wood floors but will never do them in a kitchen again, so we will have tile.  I'm not sure what, if you have a suggestion, please let me know. 

It's october 15th!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know if you remember what is happening today, but I sure do!!!!!!

 

This babies getting her butcher block countertop!  I have been waiting for months and months and months.  I'm sure everyone understands this.  I have had this money saved 19 different ways and something would always come up!  The start of school, homecoming, etc.  But today is the day, we are on the way to ikea and sometime this weekend she will be done.  I will be sure and post pics for everyone.  I'm very excited!

 

There's been a murder at my house ( insert scary musict DA DA DUN )

Last night a murder occurred at my house!  I think you may remember my bell jars, that had my fall village and ornamental corn my mom had grown.

Well at dinner my family was strangely quiet.  They were looking around at each other and smirking.  Of course I knew something was up, but what?  Then I saw the crime scene!

 Apparently someone had been murdered!  By who I will never know ( don't worry she was already broken)  They just decided to have a little fun with me.  After dinner I was passing by and noticed that the CSI team had apparently been through and the body taken to the morque.

 

I love my family!

 

holy ghost craft

My kids have been singing this song since kindergarten.  They learned it at church camp and everytime we drive by a halloween house that is decorated with ghosts and very spooky my youngest has always sang this song.  So I decided to make it part of our halloween decorations this year. 

It was super easy  to make.  I just cut the board to the size I would need.  Did you know that most hardware stores will cut the board to the size you need for no charge?  I already had this at home and my husband has been teaching me how to use his tools, so I did it myself, It felt great!    After that I simply spraypainted the board with a little krylon black spray paint.  After that was dry I punched out all the letters I would need from a punch letter set I have.

 

 I bought this a few years ago and it has been worth it's weight in Gold!  Here is an inside page.

 As you can see some of the letters have been used.  They come in all different fonts, sizes and colors.  I have used it for alot of craft projects.  Alot of crafters would you mod podge to adhere the letters.  I simply lack mad mod podge skills.  It always gets a little lumpy for me.  So I have been using this stuff

 Matte medium can be found in craft stores it's just usually in the art supply section, not the crafting section.  I just love it.  You simply use a paint brush and paint some on the back of the letter, place it where you want it and then paint over it again with the medium.  Once all the letters are placed I do another all over coat and then top it off with a spraypaint sealer.  The flower was adhered with gorilla glue.  This stuff works great, but a little goes along ways.  Thanks for checking back.  I am linking this to the csi project

 
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A new layer of my disease revealed!

a

Within seconds of the last post I remembered a glass vase that I had and a stalk of fall corn from my mom.  So now you know the depths of my disorder.  I really get excited about this stuff!

So here is the final addition

 

Not exactly a bell jar, but perfect to display my mom's ornamental corn she grew last year!  Plus I am one of those big believers in groupings of odd numbers only.  

 

glass cloche? Glass bell jar?

I've heard them called both.  I'm sure you will recognize this look if you are into decorating at all.

 

so pretty!

They are called bell jars or glass cloches and are quiet popular.

My Friend Vickie and I went to a local flea market last week and they were EVERYWHERE

So pretty, but pretty pricey.  Taller lids were $99, I think I saw a set similar to this set for $39.  

   Not bad but I remembered that I had an old butter dish from my sister's days as a princess house crystal party girl:)

So when I was at the thrift store the other day and found another glass lid for .99 cents I was very pleased I didn't buy them.  Mostly I just didn't want to tote 6 seperate pieces of glass over an hour home on bumpy roads.  

Then the next question was what to put in them.  I had already used every last faux pumpkin

And wasn't interested in redoing any displays, but then I remembered my little characters from my fall village.  I just wasn't using them this year, but they have a certain sweetness I liked seeing, so here they are on my breakfast nook table..They make me happy.

 

 

Not bad for .99 cents.  

  

summer plates to fall plates

I explained in another post my strange need for change and color.  I am really trying to accomplish this without spending lots of cash. I only have a few spots left in my house to change from summer to fall.  This may seem like a lot of work to some of you, but I love to do this.  It's actually how I spend my free time, and how I get through my chores.  I promise myself once this load of laundry is folded I can hang different plates, so now you know I'm weird.  Oh Well!

I have a huge double window in my dining room, used to be living room.  I think I mentioned we changed them because modern dining room space aren't really useable in my opinion.  So in between the windows I hang some of my plates.

 

Alot of these are my oldie but goodies.  The left end is my grandmothers and so is the the 4th from the left.  

I wanted to change this out for halloween and thanksgiving, which I generally lump into a harvest/fall theme.  But I didn't have enough plates.  I went to the thrift store and found 3 plates for 99cents.  There not that impressive in the next picture, but just wait.  The black one on the end actually has see through dots.  I thought that alone was worth the moolah.

 

The white is boring.  But I wanted a plain white, I loved the wheat plate.  It was a little smaller and the wheat was an orangey gold color.  Not normally something I would buy, but with my new plan it would work perfectly.  

I knew that the plates would be about 7 feet up from the floor and therefore not that clearly viewed.  This was important because I used simple black scrapbooking stickers on the white plate.  Very simple and I already had them.  Here is the arrangement now:

 

I think it turned out very cute.  The center green plate I have had forever and the owl plate i bought about a month ago at hobby lobby at 50% off of 3.99  so 1.50.  Altogether this new look cost a whopping 2.50!!!!  That's my kind of seasonal change.  

a few small changes and we're almost there

I have been working on my craftroom wall and wanted to show you some updates I've been working on.  Most of these came from the spraypaint pile last week.  Here it is when we last saw it:

 

And here is the lasted version:

 

I added some material to the back of the wizard of oz doll collections,  I know that the munchkin is tipping, I think I 'm going to need to add some glue dots to keep them in place.  Plus I'm not sure if It will stay there permanently, so I will wait.  It's off kilter because of the air vent, under the bulletin board and I'm not sure if I like it that way or not.  The clipboard I painted with some oops paint and then glued to scrapbook papers to it.  I also put the striped fabric in the picture to show where the color scheme came from.  In about a week when this wall is complete I will be making lined drapes for the craft room window.  They are super easy to do, and I will be sure to give lots of tips.  

My family wall

I have always struggled with decorating my home.  In the past I have gotten bored with something too quickly and then spent time planning on replacing something once I got bored with it.  Not very economical or responsible I realize, so mostly I just spent time planning, and being unsatisfied with what I had.  I have really been trying to work on this attitude.  I realized that I like alot of change and alot of color.  That is one of the reasons that I got easily bored.  I have never really been a neutral girl.  But one day while browsing through my favorite blogs I realized that I could get the change and the color I craved but not spend more then 5 or 6 bucks each time I got bored.  This wall is a compilation of many blogs that I have seen, I wish I could give credit but it's just been a general change of heart and learning from all the wonderful blogs out there.

This wall is on the right side of my house as you walk in the front door.  It is actually meant to be the dining room, but I have always found it to be too squished to really work.  So we switched this room into a sitting room and then made the living room our dining room.  A post for another day.

This wall is mid change from summer to fall.  Everything that is black stays the same.  I change the wall by putting in seasonal pictures of my kids, so the beach pictures will change to trick or treating.  The big b in the center is a frame from Ikea and it used to have a big B with summer paper and colors.  The black frame with the cross also had different colored paper in it.  The pumpkins and acorn were seashells and the kitty plate and halloween urn were summer plates and the words beach.  So very quickly and cheaply I can change it
out without spending tons of money.  Here is the wall ready for fall completely.

The pictures have been changed.  After Thanksgiving I will make the leopard print paper, into red and white candycane stripes and the b will be lime green polkadots.  The pumpkins will become christmas ornaments.  The pictures will be my kids at christmas in the past.  The kitty plate will be a french christmas plate and I will put the orange urn away and replace with something Christmasy.  I plan on changing this wall for Christmas, valentine's day, spring/easter, july 4th and then summer again.

Here are some tips if you are interested in this also:

Decide on a shape for your layout.  I wanted a rectangular shape over my couchs.  So I made sure that all the edges of everything kept those borders in mind.

You don't have to have everything the same at first.  Just decide on a basic color: black, white, silver, white, pink etc.  Then pick out shelves and decorations you already have and spraypaint them all the same color.  Do things that are meaningful to you and your family.  The texas star is there because we live in Tx.  The cross in the frame is there because we are a Christian family.  Things like that.  Then just change out seasonally.

I went through my pictures and had them enlarged from a normal snapshot to 8x10 for 3 dollars each at walgreens.  I had all the scrapbooking paper, but if I didn't it's less then a dollar, I kept the original mats from the frames and just put in new pictures.  Please leave any questions that you have and I would be happy to anwser them.

pheasant tea towel

I have about 6 or 8 of these.  One day last fall I decided I loved pheasants and drew out this design.  I love how they turned out, so colorful and vibrant.  I sold some at a craft show but still have some left, so they will be in my etsy shop and I am going to link with the girls at 1825 also. They are having a link party and there are lots of cute ideas over there.

Thanks for stopping by!

spraypaint day 4

A very small change.  I added the craftroom sign.  Do you think I am overdoing the polkadots?  I do love them.  I have another plaque and the picket fence tray to show still.  I haven't forgotten don't worry.  I still want to add more to this, but I need a day or two to decide and then I think it will finally be done and we can move on to the cowboy chair and some other harvest crafts.

Canton Tx flea market finds

Yesterday I was gone all day.  It was a wonderful day of flea marketing with my good friend Vicky. It was beautiful weather and even though it was a Friday, the place was crowded! 

My first find was this chair.  I bought it for the saddle embroidery on the chair back.  It is going to need some bigtime cosmetic work, but it is solid construction.

 

I am sanding and staining the wood, and reuphostering the bottom.  I hope I can make it as cute as I see it in my head.  I have never done reupholstery before.  I will do a step by step tutorial and hopefully we can learn together.  

The next thing I found were these cute necklaces.  It wasn't a great day, I've had better, but still lots of fun.