Yes, I'm the sporadic blogger! (But I have a reason!)

For those followers who stick around to see a random post here or there from me, you may remember that I'm pregnant. We have had a rough month in April and were making it through our day job long enough to get home and just collapse. No time for fun things like decorating or antiquing or junking!
Well, Dr put me on bedrest one week ago and my health has DRAMATICALLY improved since then. I am 32 weeks pregnant and not ready to deliver this baby yet. But I'm doing whatever the Dr says and it has paid off. Which means I'm able to do things like GET THAT NURSERY READY!! I still have to remain out of work, but my bedrest has been modified to where I can sit or stand for short periods of time. I'm in nursery super mode right now and expect it to be done within a week.
Stay tuned, because my laptop and I spend a lot of time together, so I will either be lurking or posting!

Here's a pic of my sweet little girl on her 4D ultrasound.

Spring in our home

Spring is one of my favorite seasons, rivaled only by Autumn. I mean, I guess it's got pretty good odds of being your favorite season too...since there are only 4 seasons to choose from! Summer in South Georgia is just too hot to make my #1 spot. I'm not fond of the cold, and although it doesn't stay cold for long here, it does become a lovely shade of brown outside...not my thing. Spring, on the other hand, brings the most wonderful weather here and everything turns green. One of my favorite color combinations is green and white. So, for Spring, that's the palette that I chose most often in my home.

I have more pics to post later, but for now, enjoy a trip around the living room and foyer at some of the Spring Decor.


These topiaries and the candlesticks on the ends live on my mantle almost all of the time. I've moved them a few times, but they always find their way home. The topiaries came from Kirkland's a few years ago. I honestly don't recall where the candlesticks came from.
The other constants here are the Wii (see it under the bunny?) and the TV. On my list of projects is a TV frame! (Although I admit, it's not high on the list)

The other decor on my mantle all came from thrift stores, yard sales or Hobby Lobby (@ 50% off, of course!)


The shortest silver candlestick came from shopgoodwill.com. The second highest is just a regular thrift store find with the silver candy dish on top. I bought the dish in a set with the other "matching" candlestick. I don't remember how much the set was, but I can promise you that it was under $20.

The fleur de lis are actually very heavy and designed to hang outdoors. They were $5/pair at a yard sale!

The little tin box with the greenery was $1.91 at Goodwill last year. I remember this because the price is still on the bottom!





The white urn was another shopgoodwill purchase and again was under $10 including shipping. I think I bought it with a few bud vases. Unfortunately, I don't shop there much anymore because it seems like the shipping prices are always very high!

The glass candlesticks were a gift from my Mom...so you can bet they were on clearance! Like Mother, like Daughter!

To the left of our mantle is a console that is currently home to some 50 cent hobnail bud vases that I LOVE. These came from a juntiques store in Sasser, GA.


((Sorry, color is off in this photo, can't seem to get a good one)

The pretty plates came from Hobby Lobby (50% off of course!). The wall art is from Kirkland's about 4 years ago. The large vase is from Pier One and was a steal a few years ago for $16. The "Dream, Imagine, Believe" quote was a gift from a dear friend and looks perfect there.

One more photo from the living room is from the table to the right of the fireplace.


And in the foyer, we have a Hobby Lobby vase with beautiful eggs flanked by two Dollar General *yes, you read that correctly* hurricanes. On each side are my Hobby Lobby lamps. The clock is one of my free gifts from a Home& Garden Party that I had last year. The side table has been with me for quite a few years. I'm a little embarrassed to say that it came from a catalog called Seventh Avenue and was a terrible purchase...I paid way over it's value. Oh, well! It works for now!






Thanks for "hopping" by (says Mr. Hobby Lobby bunny!)



I'm linking to Nifty Thrifty Tuesday's. Do you have a link party you think I should join? I'd love to, so please invite me! Thanks!

Half Bath Makeover for less than $200

This is a project that Joe and I did about two years ago. We did this in about 2 days and for super cheap. The most expensive purchase was the mirror and paint. Everything was under $200.
The photos (of course, coming from me) are not the best. Mostly because the bathroom is small and hard to get photographs of!

This little bath is right inside the entry from our garage, so I've always called it the entry bathroom. It's the one that you make a mad dash for when you've been on a trip, drank too much water, coke, juice, etc. and are just pulling in the garage and yelling at the husband to give you the keys and...oh, wait. Maybe that's just me.

After looking at these, I'm leaning heavily towards putting up beadboard or doing some sort of wainscoting on the lower half of the walls...hmmm...I think I found my next after nursery project!!
Here are the before photos:




A little Tiffany Blue paint (actually called Alpine Glacier) a new mirror, and some black, silver and white accessories....and you have a different room.

Ignore the feet...so difficult to get a good image of this little space that I had to stand on the toilet to get this shot!

This photo is the best representation of the color.


Shameful to post a pic with such wrinkled linens. Don't know what I was thinking that day!

The "artwork" was super cheap. My Mom used to be an area manager of a large restaraunt chain that updated their decor a few years ago. They were tossing all of these frames (the frames had photos of things like blocks of cheese in them, lol) and we saved them. I used silver and white damask wrapping paper and then printed "Powder Room" on white paper on the computer.

The tile looks a little orange-y in these pics, but it's not. It's more of an off white color. I'll try to get a better pic. It extends throughout my kitchen, breakfast nook, laundry room and garage entrance and was already here when we bought the house.

So, what do you think?
I'm linking up to Transformation Thursdays, come by and see all of the fabulous entries there!

Help! I need something upholstered!

I have never taken a thing to have re-covered. I know that it's not super cheap, but I truly have no idea how much to even GUESStimate this would cost. For those of you who have had something re-upholstered before, can you give me an IDEA of what to expect?

Look @ these fabulous chairs I found....the seller wants $50...FOR BOTH!

Rainbow of Heroes

Today, I didn't go shopping at any yard sales, Estate Sales, thrift or antique stores. I also didn't get anything done with my nursery furniture or around the house. Instead, I was up super early because I was in charge for a fundraising yard sale for the Rainbow of Heroes Walk. Our District Manager's son was diagnosed in 2007 with Severe Aplastic Anemia and was treated @ Duke. Thankfully, he is doing wonderful today! Each year, in honor of Justin, all of the centers in our district host fundraisers from February-April to raise money for this worthy cause.

So far, we have raised $704! Our goal is $1000. We had hoped that our yard sale would put us over that, but we lacked both material donations and sales.

I think our next fundraiser will be a Krispy Kreme sale! Yum! If anyone has any ideas on short term fundraisers, please let me know!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Seasonal Decor for less than $10

Last Fall, I had a large piece of "art" in my living room that I fell in love with @ Kirkland's a few years ago. Since I purchased it, the walls went from a light khaki to an olive-ish color called Filoli Yew. When I changed out the paint color and bought new furniture, I no longer loved the artwork as much. One day, I decided that I wanted to take it down and replace it with a wall of botanical prints. But, this was fall and I was trying to budget for the holidays.
So, I decided to try a small project on a smaller budget. I bought some standard wooden frames from the Dollar Tree. I bought six.

I brought them home and decided to spray paint them silver with paint I already had.

Then I looked on the net for vintage prints. I found everything I needed at VintagePrintable.com

Fast forward a few seasons...and I am now in the third season of still using my $6 frames. I plan to add another row and keep meaning to put mats in each frame.

This season, I added a personalized touch that I created in dear ol' Photoshop!

Disclaimer: I am a terrible photographer and my camera is not cooperating right now. Please excuse the very poor image quality. I am working on this!






I'm linking to
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays and
Terrific Under Ten Tuesday

Nursery Furniture Headaches & Excitement! (Sneak peek)

Ok, first let me say that sanding and painting was a lot easier last year. Little Karoline doesn't seem to like it when I sit on the concrete floor in the garage! I think everything takes me longer these days than it did before I became six months pregnant!
I'm taking my time with the nursery furniture, but I have a few days off of work in two weeks, so I hope to finish everything then.
Here's a sneak peek of what I'm working on. All of the furniture will be black and I haven't decided on the distressing just yet. It's very likely though!

I have a small dresser/vanity, a large dresser that will be the changing table and a beautiful baby bed. I originally saw the bed in cherry, but found a natural colored one on Craigslist for about 1/5 of the price of a new one. Guess which one I bought?









Total investment in the furniture: $290!

The major savings on the furniture allowed me a little splurge room for other things, like the chandelier and the bedding!



I am getting so excited! About the baby, the baby...not having to redecorate a room, silly. Hah!

Do you refinish, restore or repurpose? Are they the same?

Ok, let me start by saying that I don't know much about antiques or vintage furniture. I'm learning, thanks to the internet and friends who just know these things. But, I don't always know the furniture style, type of leg, etc. Sometimes I can't even identify the wood type. I'm really clueless much of the time. BUT, I know when the wood is good (not rotted and not veneer), I know when I like the lines of the piece and I probably have an idea of exactly what I want it to look like when I'm done.

Call me crazy, but I always keep something at least a week before I touch it with a brush because I want to really get a feel for the furniture...should it be sanded & stained or should I paint it? I hesitate to paint some things, especially if I feel like it is a valuable piece. I picked up a FABULOUS radio cabinet from the 30's at the Habitat ReStore for $10...and right away knew that it would be restored vs. refinish. Restoring something is actually a lot more work than painting, in most cases.

Now, with all of that first paragraph said...I think it should be clear that I'm not an antiques purist. But, I don't like it when people say they reSTORED something when what they did was take a mahogany table or walnut chest and paint it bright red with black distressing. Hey, I'm all for freedom of expression and I like painted pieces. I've painted lots of furniture and will likely paint a lot more in the future. But...it's not really reSTORED. It's refinished.

As for rePURPOSE...this is a totally different thing. Repurposing literally means to give a new purpose to an item. Say you take a chair seat and legs and turn it into the base for a shelf (I've seen it!) or a headboard and turn it into a towel rack. To me, that is what is defined as rePURPOSING.

So, I don't know why I'm on this rant...but I can't be the only one who gets annoyed with these terms being used interchangeably, although they aren't. And funny as it is, one of my favorite shows, Cash & Cari is what started this whole blog. They use the term repurpose and restore WAY too loosely! I like the things they do in her shop...but it's NOT restoring!

Ok, rant over for the day.

Picked up a FABULOUS empire chest (see, told ya I'm learning) last weekend and am working on reFINISHING it. Someone put about 45 layers of stain and poly on it. And they didn't wait between coats so it's a bit sticky. There was also a veneer on top of a block of good wood, it's going away. Here's the before pic below. It's going to be black and will go in the nursery with the other fabulous Craigslist and thrift store finds. I have "lavish lavender" walls now and am moving right along. So excited!

Back to Blogging?

I've been thinking about really blogging again...because I have a closet full of projects! I just finished an adorable little table that I can't seem to find the before photo of. And I have LOTS of projects for my newest room in my house...the nursery! We are going to have a little girl in June! I'll be posting pics soon!