It's been a while.

It's been a while. But when

  you are constantly running after these:

What can I say? 

My life really is beautiful though.

Just to warn you, if you ever visit unexpected, you may see something like this 'tent" in my living room:

 So, needless to say, I don't have much time for painting this:

 But I'm working on it!

The sewing desk

This will be the first of several posts on putting my guest/craft room together. For the past two years it's been a sort of junk room where I throw everything that I don't want to be seen and then rush to put together when we have overnight guests. My current goal is to make it at the very least usable, but hopefully beautiful and "me" at the same time.  I'm learning about myself a little as I go along. My husband said I could do whatever I wanted in that particular room but then I did nothing all this time! I still ask his opinion here and there because he has such good taste though.

I've been wanting a little sewing desk for a while, so I decided to make one. I spent $27 and got a set of bar stools from craigslist and some wood from Lowes. The barstools still had $30.00 stickers on each! Here's the idea:

That's as close to a before picture as you are getting of the room by the way.

In progress, plus a mirror I was painting for the room. I'll show you that one next time. :)

And here she is! 

 Yes, I do sew on an ancient singer sewing machine. Yes it works, and no it never gives me any trouble at all!

 

 There we go, my cute little desk! I still need to do a little waxing and sanding, but I had to put it together to see how it would look! And the three little munchkins needed me...

Now I need your help. I have this chair. It needs some some tlc.

Do I cover the seat with this and refinish the wood?

Or do I cover it with a navy linen fabric and paint the chair white? I can't decide! Comment and let me know what you think. 

I'm not sure why the pictures are so cloudy, but I don't have time for perfection today so just pretend it was a foggy day or something like that!

linking up with http://www.lilyfieldlife.com/

a little change

I like changing things around the house. I've been fiddling around with the top of the piano for a while and I think I've finally got it. For now...

 We hung our family picture way too high and then were too lazy to fix it. It drove me crazy. I had a big, heavy, old mirror sitting in the garage for ages so I took it apart and put it's frame to good use. At first I thought I wanted it white like this.

 But instead I did this! Usually if I'm decorating or painting something on impulse, it includes bright colors. The turquoise color is the same as one of the walls in our living room and it really brought everything together. 

 I left it for a while but then I decided I needed to spray paint the vases. Why? Well, because the paint in the garage wouldn't stop calling my name of course. :) I still wanted something white in the group so I painted a wooden tray that was actually my three year old's playdough container. Then I added a leftover scrap of fabric from my kitchen chairs to the inside. I think it's a pretty nice  tray for a few little bits that almost became trash! I wish I had taken a before picture, but you will just have to imagine it plain and unfinished.

There now I think I will leave the poor thing alone for a while.

My baby

Meet Adele. She makes mud cute.

 My husband didn't quite "get" it when I showed him these pictures. I think he just couldn't get over her eating dirt while playing with her big brothers. But look at those eyes! She's a doll, a messy doll, but still a doll. :)

We have since had several lessons on not eating dirt so now she just tries to eat grass and flowers instead. It's a step...

a before and after

So, after a great vacation, normal life, and three sick kids later I'm back. Oh, and I got a camera! Hopefully the photos will be looking a little better from here on out! Now for that before and after....

I got this little side/end table from a neighbor's yard sale. It was pretty beat up, but I knew I could make it pretty! 

  Ew right? 

And the after!

 Pretty right? ;) I love the little knob I got at Hobby Lobby!

 I sanded the top, cleaned it all up, and then painted her with homemade chalk paint. But she was missing something. I distressed it, but that wasn't good enough. After experimenting a bit I used wood stain on top of the paint to show off all the nice details. Perfect!

 The picture below shows the true color.

 And a few more pictures just for fun.

What do you think? Was it worth the hours of work? I think so. :)

I'm linking up with
http://www.lilyfieldlife.com/2013/07/paint-parade-4-furniture-link-party-and.html

Goodwill find!

 When I saw this globe for $7.00 at Goodwill I was super happy! And I had just the place for it too. On top of the piano. The boys are enjoying learning from it, so this isn't just decorative, it's also very useful. We may be homeschoolers, but that doesn't mean our school stuff can't be pretty.

a sort of knock off

Several years ago my mother in law gave me a set of post cards. They were so pretty I didn't want to use them all. I imagined them framed somehow, so I  put them away for a time when I would need them. That time came recently as I started decorating my guest bedroom/craft room. I took a while to figure out how to matte them because they were a slightly odd size. I started out by looking at the picture frames at Walmart one day to see if it would give me any ideas (yeah, I know, Walmart isn't exactly inspirational). I saw that they had a lot of $3.00 frames with mattes. They happened to be the same color as the new handles I just put on the guest room dresser (more on that dresser redo later!). How handy! So I grabbed four. Now what to do with the matte since it's not the right size?  I remembered these $30 pottery barn frames I've seen. That's $30 for one by the way.

Add some strips of paper to the top and bottom of the matte openings and cover the whole thing with fabric, taping the back. I couldn't be more pleased with the results!

The pictures really don't do them justice (these are from my phone). They really look lovely in person! Well, at least I think so. And they only cost me $14.

The little nightstand

This was my first furniture painting project. My little boys were eager to help me first thing in the morning. It took us hardly any time at all.

       I used miss mustard seed's Flow Blue paint. It's a very pretty color.

 This little shelf is perfect for holding the kid's books. And now it matches their room better too! This is before I had waxed or distressed it at all.

 And this is why distressing furniture is so great when you have kids. Even if you don't do it, they will!

What inspired me

Me (note to self-don't do your hair like that!), Miss Mustard Seed, my best friend, Mercy

I know this will sound a bit cheesy but it's true! My childhood best friend had told me about http://missmustardseed.com a while back, but I didn't really "get" it at first. Then I saw that she was coming to Houston for her book signing, Inspired You. I thought we should go, mostly just for fun, not because I really loved the style of her stuff. (No offense Marion! I completely changed my mind!) Once we got there I wondered, are we going to be the only young moms there? Will we be out of place? What if she's a snob in real life? But as soon as I saw her all my fears were put to rest. What a lovely person! So kind and so real! And she even took the time to ask us questions about ourselves and wrote little notes in the book. I totally wasn't expecting that. As I read her book after going home I really fell in love with her style. I had bought a sample of her paint and used it a few days later. Then I liked it even more. I've since painted a few more things and I'm loving it more all the time. 

So, my first real post here is full of admiration for the lady who inspired me! Thanks!