Quickie DIY bathroom art

I have been trying to finish up the guest bath for some time now… almost 5 years if you want to put a number on it.  I have done a few things, like paint half of a wall yellow, add some colored circles and monogram letters for the kids above some dog hineys for hooks.  We had a colored shower curtain that I wasn’t crazy about, but it served its purpose for a while….that is until a certain miniature pinscher had a little stand off with a skunk.  UGH!!  So that was a farewell to the shower curtain.  The room started out like this when I started this blog :

 

 

 

It’s a pretty bare bones bathroom.  Builder grade mirror, light fixture, and even curtain rods.  I really need something to warm this room up and make it feel less bathroom at a local convenient store, and more like the kids bathroom.  I like the monogram letters above the towel hooks, so that stays.  I am not 100% crazy about the paint anymore, but it will work for the time being.  That wall behind the toilet is my focus for this post.

 

I pulled that shelf down and brainstormed for a while on what I was going to put up there.  I had decided that I was going to put something up there that I already have…no shopping for this one.  I dug into my craft bin to see what I could find.

 

I came a across some little wooden letters.  I had them for one project or another years ago, and just hung onto them because you never know when you are going to need to put some words somewhere.  Really?Am I the only one that does that?  Say it ain’t so!

 

I tried to put some words together that “fit” in a bathroom.  I settled on ~wash~rinse~clean.  I used some acrylic paints to paint each letter a different color, then used plain on Elmer’s to glue the letters onto a piece of white card stock.

 

I had some frames that were in use in that bathroom a while back that I spray painted a glossy white.  Into the frames went the cardstock and words… and here you go…simple and quick are.

 

 

Here are some close ups.. I still need to fill the holes from the shelf.

 

I have some more ideas in the works.. I happened to run by the Goodwill yesterday and found some fun stuff to see if I can work into the bathroom!  This room really needs a nice shower curtain.  And there is always the possibility of something happening with that mirror. 

 

Anyone else whip up some quick art lately?  Work with any monograms?  Maybe you followed a tutorial to the letter?   Please share!

Faux capiz chandelier

I have been meaning to write about the a project I did right before I started this blog.  I kept putting it off since I didn’t have any pics of the process,  and finally decided that it was actually a successful project, and I needed to share it.  I had been seeing capiz chandeliers in people’s homes (in blog land) and really liked them.  The problem is, these chandeliers are out.of.my.reach.by.miles in the price department.  Then I started to see where people had made faux capiz chandeliers.  Perfect solution, right??!! I mean, they are made of wax paper, string and various metal bases.  Cheap…possibly time consuming, but pretty simple.  The first thing I had to do was figure out a base that would work for me.  I was on the hunt for a little while.  I had seen several different options used on different sites.The main one that I used was this one from Freshly Picked.  I lucked out in September, when my mom was going to toss an old lamp shade.  She let me take it, and even let me borrow some spray paint to paint it white.  I didn’t take any pics of the process, but there are many great tutorials out there that I will link up to.  I used a couple of different tutorials to get this thing done, it took me a while, but I did get it done.   I will give the best recap I can without pics to demonstrate the steps.

 

My first step was to get all of my supplies together. Here is what I used:

 

wax paper

red solo cup

ink pen

scissors

white thread

frame (I used the metal frame to a tapered lamp shade)

hooks that screw into the wall

wire

 

The first thing I did was to pull all of the fabric off of the shade.  Once it was cleaned off, I spray painted it white.  That was probably the easiest step of this whole project.

Next, I took wax paper in strips about 2 feet long and ironed 2 pieces together.  I put the pieces together and laid them on the ironing board, placing an old shirt on top and bottom of them to keep any wax from melting on the iron or the ironing board.  Once the pieces were ironed together – I started the part that had me wishing I had just shopped harder for a cheap capiz.  lol.  I took the solo cup and traced as many circles on the pieces of ironed together wax paper as I could fit.  Then I spent countless hours cutting, and cutting and cutting… seriously.. buy a circle cutter if you are going to attempt this. 

I actually found the next step kind of interesting.  I chose how far I wanted my “shells” to hang down, and proceeded to sew them together in strips 2 times that length.  I followed this video, because at first I thought it was not possible to sew them with thread….I was wrong!  Hop over there and check it out… she gives a very simple tutorial on the sewing the “shells” together. 

 

This is pretty much the meat of the project.  Once you have all of your strips sewn together, drape them evenly around your upside down, spray painted lamp shade.  Once you feel you have covered the shade and made it as full as you want, you need to hang it.  I ended up making loops with some picture hanging wire in 4 spots on the top of the frame, then screwing some hooks into the ceiling around the light fixture that was already up (a boob light without the glass dome).  That’s it!  If you can stick it out through the circle cutting marathon, you will have an awesome faux capiz chandelier!

 

Here are some photos of the chandelier hanging…

 

 

 

Here is a shot from below inside the chandelier, it fits perfectly over the fixture.

 

And here is how it is hung… be very careful to get those screwed in straight and tight.

 

I like how it turned out.  It doesn’t look like a real capiz to me, but I find it to be a cute alternative.  Hannah loves it and is ready for me to get going on the rest of her room!!  One step at a time… lol  One step that I didn’t take was adding a wire around the middle of the shade to add another layer to it.  I think it would look nice, but I am happy with how it is.  It’s good to know there are other options though!

 

Has anyone else been making any faux decorations lately?  Maybe you have some favorite light fixtures you have on display? 

Spray painted lamps–the beginning.

I think that yellow is one of my favorite colors… seriously, I really like yellow.  And if you pair yellow with grey?  Love!  So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise when I decided that the lamps in the master bedroom should undertake a little bit of a makeover.  Since I finally got around to deciding what I really wanted to do with the master bedroom, I have been on a mission to make this thing happen!  Step 1… paint those lamps!  Step 2….figure out the shades.

 

I have a game plan, and that is a huge step for me on this one.  Not only do I have a game plan, but my plan has me pulling it off for less moolah than I had ever imagined.  Maybe that is what was in my way all this time?  Money… I’m thinking that is some of it, but a good portion of my hesitance in moving forward with a design is pure fear.  Fear that I won’t get it right.  Fear that I will put it together and it won’t be like I pictured it.  Well, you don’t know till you try, huh?  So here you go.  Moving forward with this room.  I am really excited to put it all together.  It will be one step at a time though.  I debated whether I should get it done, then give the big “Here it is!” reveal, along with the info on how I did it – or show all the little projects as I commence this journey and show the big picture when it is done.  I have decided on the latter.  I will be DIYing as much as possible and it will kill me to keep it all hush, hush until the reveal.  And let’s face it, with my crazy life sometimes, it may take a bit to get to the reveal.  So without further adieu…..

 

 

The story of a lamp.  We bought these guys at Lowes last year (maybe the year before?) for $11 each –with the shade.  That was a pretty good deal.  We had been all over looking at lamps, T.J.Maxx, Marshal’s, Lowes, Home Depot.  My husband’s style and mine just aren’t the same all the time.  So when we finally saw these, and the price tag, we jumped.  Although they are nice lamps, my plan includes yellow lamps.  Enter Rustoleum’s Ultra 2x cover spray paint.  I picked a can up at True Value on my lunch break for the tune of $4.25.  That’s a pretty good price to get 2 new lamps, don’t you think??  This is really my second attempt at spray painting anything beyond picture frames and glass jars, so I was a tad nervous.  Nothing to fear though, this stuff is amazing!  Great coverage and what a glossy finish!

I started out by removing the shade and the hardware that holds the shade.  Then I followed that up by wiping the hole thing down with a damp cloth to get any dust or residue off of it.  Once I dried it, I covered the cord with a plastic bag, securing the piece closest to the base of the lamp with a little frog tape.  I also stuffed the top part with paper, and covered it and taped it as well.  Pretty much – if I didn’t want it yellow, I covered it up.

Don’t worry, the dog wasn’t standing there when I painted… that’s Lizzie, our boxer/helper/droololigist.

 

One coat…

 

2 coats…

 

 

 

3 coats…

 

And because I didn’t want to miss anything and there were a few spots… 4 coats…

 

 

You can already see the shine on that bad boy…And here we are…one yellow lamp.

 

 

I let this cure for a bit before bringing it in.  It dried really fast, and I only had to wait a few minutes between coats.  I am very happy with how this turned out.  I haven’t done the other lamp yet, since mother nature decided I needed to wait… 2-4 inches of snow to be precise.

 

And as always, because I love a before and after pic.

 

 

Now all that is left is to figure out if I am going to change the shades.  I may have to wait until I am further along with the room.  That yellow is pretty bright and I don’t want the shades to compete with it. 

 

Anyone else been spray painting lately?  Any success, or maybe not so successful, stories to share?

DIY Storage Ottoman reveal

Well… it took some time, and trial and error, but I did it.  I made a storage ottoman form a standard, non-storage ottoman!  If you recall, I scored this ottoman from Goodwill a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

 

Well,here it is!!  All decked out in new duds.

 

 

It was in decent condition, just outdated and lots of wasted space inside.  My vision was to make this a storage ottoman that could be used to store all sorts of goodies.  This is all in line with our need for more storage in our home.  I am determined to add storage, but only if it is attractive.  So my plan of action was to pull all of that fabric off and see what I had underneath. 

 

After I cleaned off all of the fabric this is what I was left with.  This is actually flipped upside down.  I was hoping there would be a top and bottom piece of wood, but there was only a top piece.  So much for using only what as existing… I would have to figure out how to create a top and bottom.  My sister-in-law had a good idea, pop off that piece that was already on the top, and use it as the top since it was the perfect size, then use a piece of plywood I had in the shed to create a bottom in it. 

 

Did I mention this thing had a lot of staples?  I mean a LOT of staples, it was ridiculous.  Whoever had built this thing was not intending for it to be taken part.

 

The next steps were pretty simple.  I measured the outside of the ottoman and cut my material about 2 inches longer.  The I laid the fabric on one side and began stapling it by stretching it over the top and then the bottom.  I did the entire top of one side, then pulled it tight across the bottom.  If you notice, I have tabs cut out around those supports inside.  I simply cut those pieces back when I had it all stapled on.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is where I ran into a bit of a problem…. when I got to the very end of the fabric, I had to attach it to the ottoman.  I folded it over and staples it.  I did not like how this looked at all.  I hopped online and did some searching for ideas of how to remedy this.  I found this tutorial over at Running with Scissors

 

 

I pulled MORE staples out… lol ugh!  This was actually an easy step, turn the fabric face to face and sew a quick seam in it.  Turn it right side out and pull it down over the ottoman.

 

 

Now you may have noticed that the inside of this ottoman is particle board.  I will have to be careful what I put inside this unless I line it somehow.  I had purchased a flat white sheet from the Goodwill a while back and was holding onto it in case I needed it.  That would work perfect for this ottoman.  So I put together a quick plan after measuring out the ottoman.

 

Thanks to my mom for helping me get all these pieces cut.  I am sooo new at this and she keeps me straight on cutting fabric correctly.   I lined up all the pieces before I started sewing them together, just to be sure I wasn’t horribly off on any of my cuts. 

 

I sewed all of them together in a circle, then sewed them onto a bottom piece of the sheet.  (Should I mention that I sewed the bottom on the wrong side the first time??  lol thank goodness for seam rippers).

Here it is!  I stapled my lining on at first, but I didn’t like how that turned out either, so I went back and hot glued it in.  I am actually quite pleased that this worked out so well, I came up with the liner all on my own, and I am NOT experienced in this sort of thing.

 

The next item to take care of is the lid.  Again, this part was straight forward.  Cut the fabric with some extra on the edge to pull over and staple.  Once it was all stapled, I hot glued a piece of that sheet that I had hemmed up as a liner to cover the particle board.

 

Here we are… getting close to the end!!  I purchased a piano hinge to attach the top.  I was concerned that it would not handle the job, but had seen lots of other ottomans using this simple hinge.  I also purchased a soft close hinge to keep this lid from slamming down on anyone’s fingers.  Specifically a 17 month old that would find it endlessly fascinating to hide stuff in there.

 

 

And here you go… here is the inside all put together and ready to go!  um, well, almost, the soft close hinge I bought was a right side hinge.  Because of the side supports I will need a hinge that can be attached either farther out, or closer to the center of the lid.

 

 

And, for a good before and after…here you go!!

 

Sharing the love

 

 

Good morning all!  Hope you have found your way over here on a pretty, wonderful, fun-filled, productive morning… because I am about to take the productive out of that sentence for ya   Starting this month, February, I am going to feature a new blog weekly for you to check out.  As I mentioned in my Blogger love post, there are so many great blogs out there.  I doubt I have the time in one day to read and get to know even half of them.  Hopefully you will go and check them out, I am sure that at least one will strike your fancy. 

 

This week I am going to introduce you to a blog that I frequent often.  Have you ever been over to iloverehabs ?   If not you just don’t know what you are missing!  Jennifer, her husband (coined “the hubs”) and piper (the dog), share the journey they are taking through rehabbing old items, decorating their own house, as well as helping friends with their decorating needs.  Just check out her home tour if you don’t believe me.  Here are a few shots:

 

 

Pretty nice, huh?  Go check out the rest of her projects…definitely “pin” worthy stuff.  Blogs like this are what keep me going.  So glad she has taken the time to share her story and passion with the rest of the world!

 

And I thought you might be interested in what I have been working on… here is a little teaser…

More details to come!

 

 

I wanna see your peacock…curtains that is!

Yes, that Katy Perry song did play through my head as I made these… and my husband thought it was funny to play it, you know, just to get it out of my head. Nope, stuck. Luckily, I was stuck on the design of my fabric so I was ok with it. I made a pit stop at Wal-mart last week. Not my favorite store by any stretch, but I had seen they had some fabric at ridiculous low prices. I have been envisioning some white based curtains with pops of color for the living room for some time now. I had considered doing a canvas drop cloth curtain, maybe stenciled or painted with chevrons. I kept hesitating, not really 100% sure of what I wanted to do. Well, maybe it was fate cause I found my curtains last week!

I am so impatient when doing projects, that is definitely something that I am trying to improve on. If you take a look at the pic below…it’s not done. The curtain wire is not taught enough, you can see where I have moved the bases to them, but have not puttied and painted the spots. Oh, and that panel on the right? Umm, it’s not done. It actually has pins in it. In all fairness though, I ran out of thread. And I am considering painting the main rooms of the house, so I am not sure I am going to bother touching up those spots. So really, the only part that I should have done was tighten up that cable. This is where I should hear a collective “Well, get to it!”. I will, this weekend. But enough about all that jazz…what about those curtains????

Nice? A little too loud?? My husband suggested a disco ball when he saw the material. lol They are pretty out there, but I love ‘em! I know they aren’t a choice everyone would make, but they suit me and I love to look at them. So here is what I did….

I bought 6 yards (I have NO clue how I came up with that – cause I need much, much more) The material is 48″ wide. I measured the curtains I already had hanging since I liked the length on them. 90″, so some quick match and that is 2.5 yards. (90″/36″ = 2.5 yds) So obviously my 6 yards was off..I don’t even have enough for 2 windows! Did I mention I paid 3.97 a yard for this stuff??? I will totally be going back for more.

But I digress, I cut my 2.5 yards, pressed it and then considered using hemming tape to get these done. Yes, that would be very easy. Almost too easy. BUT…I have a brand new sewing machine that I have to learn to use! So I hemmed the edges the old-fashioned way. I folded the material over approximately .25 of an inch. I pinned it down as I went and even ironed it so it would lay nice and flat.

Then I simply ran a straight stitch along the edges. Did I mention I don’t really know how to sew? Well, here are some good examples of things I did wrong/didn’t think of. I should have cut the material at 91 inches. Why? That seam allowance!

You can see in the pic that the patterned material is a little shorter. All-in-all not a big deal, but a little irritating for me. Oh and when I was sewing, this is what the back of my stitches looked like on that last panel…

From the research I have done, the thread tension was off. I will be taking that line out and re-sewing it. But I had to get them up!! I wanted to see if I was totally off with this fabric choice, or if I had really found what I was looking for.

I had those semi-sheer brown curtains up there before, and I actually cut those in half so I could layer up the curtains. I am kind of thinking the patterned material is too narrow, that maybe I should not have cut it in half. I may hang the piece I have left to see…but I wanted to live with them for a while before I moved forward. So what do you think??

I ended up making this little pin cushion while I was working on the panels. It was soooo easy to make and what a great help it has been!

Anyone else been window dressing? Window shopping? Or maybe you have your own version of peacock that appeals to you!

Goodwill finds

Anyone like to shop Goodwill? I know my mother-in-law should probably buy stock – er, if it was a publicly traded company of course I have gotten back into my thrifting. I used to do it a lot, but kinda fell out of the practice. It must have been something about having a baby that got my DIY bone to itching, cause it seems that’s all I want to do these days. I have come across some pretty neat things at Goodwill, and I think that I need to start exploring the other locations to see what goodies they may hold. Upon my last trip to the Goodwill, I found 3 things. Please ignore the Scentsy warmer- that’s its home on the bar.

I took this shot first, but as you can see..I had a “helper” who was very intent on helping. And those are fairly heavy glass, so I didn’t want any squished toes.

I found 2 of these “greenhouses” and a pasta container.

Some back story here would be relevant ~
I had actually been oggling this little “greenhouse” that YHL has for sometime

Image found over at younghouselove

Then I saw some for sale over at Zgallerie (my favorite place to peruse these days) and honestly, I had no idea what they were called (I searched that site for quite some time, but to no avail). I shot an email over to YHL to see if they had a name for it. Sure enough, they called it a greenhouse, or a cloche. Yay! A name to google (thanks so much to Sherry!)! Here is what I found when I googled “cloche” images:

Must be a hat thing.. and you know, my son would go crazy if he saw this. He loves him some hats.

So then I googled “glass cloche”. Ahhhh that is what I was looking for.

And.. I had already decided on a great place for one of these to reside. Oh and bonus? I had picked up these cute little faux succulents at Target for 2.50. So total cost on that little deal is 5.45+tax Woot! *note: I am not sure why my pics are all wonky…working on that!

I havent decided what I am going to do with the other one just yet. It’s waiting in the wings for some brilliant idea of some sort. And that pasta container? It is just another purchase in my mission of organizing the pantry. I will tell you that it’s in the works, but it may seriously take a year to complete. I am not a spender and it will take time to accumulate the containers I need to complete it. I could give myself a big old smack to the forehead though, I visited World Market this last weekend for the first time, and they had some super cute larger glass cannister at a very good price. I walked away… ugh. I wish I wasn’t such a penny pincher sometimes.

So has anyone else found some great Goodwill items recently? Or maybe you have some organizing going on behind the scenes? Please share!

**Teaser alert! I just purchased material for our curtains in the living room… I love it! I will be cutting panels and sorting out how I will hang them this weekend hopefully. I will share the deets when I am done! Think – peacock.

DIY ruffled pillow

I guess I have had a thing for pillows lately. All the Pinterest surfing has me really paying attention to pillows. I also love some re-purposing of items I already have on hand. Or really cheap ideas. Whichever, something crafty on a budget is what keeps me up at night (and a 16 month old, but what else do I have to do but “day”dream of pillows?). I saw this pin and this pin last week and figured, heck, I can do that. I have been needing to put my new sewing machine to the test and I had been given some valances that, although cute, just didn’t have a place in my house. Now onward with a tutorial of how I made my little ruffled pillow.

I didn’t take pics of the first steps, but it was pretty simple. I figured out how big I wanted my pillow to be, and cut out 2 panels(cut 3 if you want the front and back to have the same material). I then cut one of the panels into 2 inch strips. I took each strip and ran a long stitch down the center of it (no backstitching!) Once I had all the strips stitched, I started at one and held one of the pieces of thread while pushing up on the fabric. This started to bunch the fabric in little ruffles. I pushed mine pretty tight and stretched them as needed once I started laying them out on the pillow face. *one tip – use good thread! Cheap thread will break when you start pulling to ruffle it.* You can see in the pic below where I had all the pieces bunched up, and stretched the first out where I wanted it to fall.

Remember to leave about 1/2″ seam allowance. I let my strips overlap the allowance a little (not enough though, I ended up having to sew with about an inch seam allowance to catch-all the ends). Just watch when you pin them that you have the ends of your strips either all the way to the edge or sew overtop of the ends.

I pinned each ruffle down trying to keep the ends as straight as possible. I discovered while I was sewing them on that the most important step here is to make each strip’s first stitching line straight.

As you can see here, I just sewed each ruffle on by going over top that first stitch. As I went, I found that where the strips were not straight, I just unpinned, pinned them back and voila, easier to sew. If you look to the right of this photo, the edge ended up being 2 inches once I straightened out all of the ruffles and sewed them on. I just cut an inch off so that the whole piece would have the same seam allowance.

You can see that 2 inch side better in this pic.

And a little close up of the sewed on ruffles.

Here is what the back looks like…not really pretty, but no one will see it.

I also didn’t take pics of the next step. I didn’t use the same material to back the pillow. My bonus daughter had some old dress up clothes she was getting rid of, so I snagged a white dress out of it and used that for the back.

I placed the back piece and the ruffles face to face (front of the ruffles to what would show on the back of the pillow. Then I stitched all around the edges, leaving a small hole (maybe 4 inches) open to stuff the pillow fluff.

I actually sewed 3 sides and flipped it right side out to see how my edges looked and discovered that not all of the ends of my ruffles and made it into the inside of the pillow. So all I did was turn it inside out again and do another stitch a little further inside the first. You can trim extra material if you like. I did not.

I stuffed it, then turned the raw edges of that 4 inches I left open in and sewed it up on the sewing machine. Easy peasy. And I should note at this point… I don’t know how to sew. I am learning very, veerryy slowly.

Voila! Here you go…. one ruffled pillow!

And the back..

And here you can see how all of the ends of the ruffles are sewn inside. HHmmm little lumpy huh… needs some fluffing.

All done! My second pillow project complete!

Although it’s cute… I really don’t have a place for it in the house just yet still. I think I need to start working on pillows with a place in mind. But green is a good color, and I may work it in!

Anyone else been working on “pin” projects? Making pillows? Dreaming of pillows?

Place mat to pillow

I had seen this post over at The Country Chic Cottage about turning a simple place mat into a pillow. I mean, how cute? And how simple for this just.learning.how.to.sew girl. I was at Big Lots and saw a place mat that caught my eye. It had some colors I liked and was brighter than most I had seen. Oh and it was 2.99. Why not get it, right? So i brought it home…

The first thing I did was take my seam ripper and open up one of the edges. I chose a short edge for the obvious reason of not having to sew as much back up.

I grabbed a pillow I already had to check out the stuffing situation.

It’s nice and full here…

I’m not sure if you can tell from this picture, but it might have been a tad too full…like right after Christmas dinner is over, and you finished off that last bite of stuffing full. I decided to use the stuffing from another pillow I had on hand instead. It was much easier to pin it after putting less stuffing in it.

I pinned the seam I had opened up with a few pins about an inch or so away from the edge (sorry, I forgot to take a pic of that before I sewed it so I “reenacted” it).

Here is a close up…

And another… I really had to pay attention when I sewed this up, it was so full I had to be careful guiding it along that edge with all the stuffing in the way.

And all sewed up. I stitched the outside rather than flipping the fabric face to face and then sewing it all up, and then turning it right side out. The orignal stitching on the place mat was on the outside where you could see it, and I kind of liked that look. Plus it gave me a chance to try out some of the fancy stitching I could do on my machine.

Here it is looking all small and lonely on my couch.

So I moved it somewhere it fit a little better… (and you can see the fabric I am using to make another pillow cover!! A little sneak peek for you!)

Here it is… place mat-to-pillow

Anyone else upcycled something lately? I love some upcycling… share your ideas and projects!

A little at a time…

It’s 2012, and I am in full decorate mode. I want to do it ALL – NOW!!! I want to paint the island, paint the kids’ bathroom and vanity, put in some kind of storage in the living room, create a new dining set. I could list all.day.long the ideas I have and what I want to do. But the fact of the matter is…it all takes time, and money. Both of which are running closer to “E” in my daily gas tank. So I have decided the only way that I am going to accomplish anything is to take bite size pieces. I will make a list for each room of what I want to do. Then I can figure out which items will give me the most impact for the least money to start. That should at least quell the raging decor beast inside for a while.

How to begin? I seriously have notebooks full of ideas just scribbled down as I think of them. I attempted to put them in room or project order, but that didn’t always work out. Oh and did I mention that I got a sewing machine for Christmas?? (thanks to my wonderful family!) So now I have even more projects that I need to do! Need.. not want, need. Because I need a home that is beautiful to look at, I need a home that makes me smile when I see it. So let’s start with those areas I see the most: living room, kitchen, dining room.

In no particular order:

window treatments
wall color
furniture (placement and pieces)
rugs
art/picture placement
storage (this is a big one, we hardly have any storage)

I believe that little list of big stuff handles it. I have ideas, and I have some things in the works. Sadly, any furniture work will have to wait for warmer weather since I have nowhere to paint this time of year. But there are lots more changes I can make!

In the meantime, I thought I would share some sites that keep me inspired and reaching for my pocketbook. There are lots of good deals on a variety of home decor and general items! Check them out!

Joss&Main

Open Sky

WUSLU

Groopdealz

One Kings Lane

Does anyone else have a decorating monkey on their back? Or have you started the year out with a new mojo? Maybe you have a project list of your own to tackle?