Peeks from My Week!

I don't know about you, but I do love a lazy Sunday afternoon. I thought since I had some time to spare, I'd show you a few projects from the past week. For those of you who said a prayer for my dad's surgery, thank you! The surgery went well and he is doing great!

One afternoon this week, I came home with lots of energy to spare (not typical of a kindergarten teacher) and decided to paint my window trim and sew my curtain.

 I have had the fabric for a while now. Some of you may remember me asking your opinion on your favorites. Well, I ended up choosing one that wasn't even in that post. I found this Waverly fabric on fabric.com and fell in love. It is called Charismatic Honeysuckle and features most of the colors I love so much. It has a pale aqua blue/minty green background and pops of orange, peach, cream, lime, khaki, cherry red,  & mustard. I love it! 

Source

It's difficult to see the light fixture in the photo above since it is glass. This is the one I chose and I love it!

Tuesday, I spent the majority of the day at the hospital with my mom and sister while we waited for my dad to come out of surgery and recovery and be placed in a room. After he was settled in, I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby to pick up a couple things. I bought this boxwood sphere and placed it in one of my tureens to add some color to the vignette.

I bought a couple hooks to hang dishtowels or pot holders on. Here is one.

And here is where I had the hubby hang it.

Here's the other. This is the one I went after but I decided to get two and wanted them to be different. This one is ceramic and metal.

Here is where it hangs.

This is the number one reason I went to Hobby Lobby though. I have been wanting one of these double faced clocks for a while. They were on sale 50% off so I had to have it! 

Here it is from the dining room.

And here it is from the kitchen side. I love it!!!

Another quick little project was repainting these frames. I have had these hanging in my bathroom for a while and just love them, but I thought they needed some color. They were thrifted of course.

I spent about an hour carefully taping over the gold because I wanted to keep it and just paint the brown. They didn't turn out perfect since the paint leaked in under the tape a little, but I still think they look so much better!

Here's another before and after. I really liked the fabric that was on the chair before, but I wasn't overly happy with it and have been wanting something different for a while. So, since I had a little of the Waverly fabric left over from the kitchen curtain, I decided to recover it. I really like the big, bold flowers and the green was perfect!

Here is where the chair "lives". It usually holds my purse and anything I bring home from work. It sits by the front door in my "entry". I know I have a lot of color going on here. Do you think it looks OK? 

I used my little wire basket to hold a clear vase and some branches from my Sparkle Berry tree.

I think it looks pretty.

Last project share...I know this post was long!

I used a piece of the Waverly fabric to recover one of my sofa pillows. I wanted something brighter than the dark ones that matched the sofa. I wanted to make two, but didn't have enough fabric. That's why I  used it to recover the chair instead. 

I had one very small piece left and I decided to put it in a hoop. I love hoop art!

I also printed a new piece of "art" for the clipboard. This scripture is perfect for me lately.

Well, if you're still reading, you made it! I appreciate your taking time out of your day to catch up with me and my life. This week is Teacher Appreciation week and my boss is providing lunch for us tomorrow and then letting us leave and go out to lunch Tuesday, and she's paying for our lunch! I have an awesome boss. We normally only get to leave for lunch on days when the students aren't there, so this is a treat! I am off work Friday because my daughter and I have a weekend get away planned! I bought her Beauty and the Beast theater tickets for Christmas and this upcoming weekend is when it is playing. We are both so excited to get away for a couple days. I'll share when I return. I may share a couple things before then if time allows. Hope you have a blessed and beautiful week.

Until next time....

Gorgeous in Gold

I can't believe I have had time to blog so much recently. You may remember from my post on Thursday that I had mentioned gold dipping my ottoman legs to match the plant stand.  Well, I am sharing it today. You can see my new sofa in the background. I love it! It came with the pillows you see on it. They are really nice pillows, but I do plan to make some new covers for them sometime soon.  Anywho, my little ottoman is sitting in front of the sofa. It doubles as a coffee table. 

You may remember it from this post last year. I liked it still, but I wanted a pop of color in the living room since I have so many neutrals in there. All I did was pad and tuft the top and paint the legs gold.

I love this fabric. It has a gold metallic floral design on it....so pretty!

I covered the buttons in the same fabric. I have never covered buttons before and was amazed at how easy it was! The tufting part wasn't so easy though! It wasn't that difficult really, just time consuming.

Taping off the legs and spraying them gold was a cinch! I am still loving my jute chevron rug!

And here is a view from the sofa. If you didn't get a chance to read my created entry post, click here. The hubby and I still can't believe the transformation in our home. I love it more every day....Sadie does too!

This post was short and sweet, but come back tomorrow and read my blog tour post. And if you missed my kindergarten classroom yesterday and want to check it out, click here to see it! 

Wishing you a blessed and beautiful week ahead!

Until next time.....

My Created Entry

Hello blog friends! I've been missing in action recently with the start of school. I spent most of last week moving into a bigger classroom. It was a lot of work to get it cleaned and organized, but I finally finished it. This week was my official first week back to work and it's been a busy one too. Today was Meet Your Teacher and I met 17 of the 21 students on my roll. I can already tell I'm going to have some sweetie pies! Anywho, I haven't had much time to blog, but I decided to type up a short post this evening. As many of you already know, we have been renovating our living and dining rooms and are nearing completion. We have used up our budget for the reno, so we will have to wait a few weeks to buy materials for the base board and crown molding, but that's OK. We still have some window and door trim to finish to keep us busy. 

Today I'm sharing my entry space. I do not have an official entry and have always wanted one, so I created a little space to act as an entry. I took some scrap wood left over from our bookcase project to create some hat/coat racks. I had everything for this entire area except for the hooks, which I ordered from Amazon. 

I used 1x6 boards and whitewashed them. For the chevrons, I used lattice wood and stained them dark walnut like the plank wall. I already had the mirror and decided to leave it blue. I almost repainted it, but I like the blue against the dark planks.

I ordered two different kinds of hooks for the mirror. These are the bottom hooks.

The top two look like this. I love these with the glass knobs.

Here's the entire area. I thought about taking the hats, jacket, and dog leash off for the picture, but then decided against it. Just keeping it real. This winter, it will hold several coats/jackets and a scarf or two. Below the mirror are a basket I thrifted for $2.50 a while back. It holds flip flops and other shoes we slip off and on to go out at home. I also placed a plant stand here. I thrifted this piece several months ago. It was stained wood, but I thought it needed some color, so I painted it aqua blue.

Not only did I paint it aqua blue, but I also gave it some gold dipped legs. I love how it turned out! So much so that I gold dipped the legs on my ottoman which I will share soon. Isn't it pretty? I love it...:) I already had the flower pot (thrifted of course) and just gave it a coat of coral. I am loving the bright and cheery colors in my living room.

Here's the whole wall. I still have to hang the coral framed picture you see on the floor behind the green chair, along with a couple other pieces. There are a couple things laying on the TV stand that don't belong there and the chair is holding something I have to return this weekend, so lots of real life here. No staged photos for me today!

I have been trying to visit your blogs and comment when I can, but forgive me if you haven't heard from me lately. The first and last few weeks of the school year are so busy for a teacher. I hope to share some photos of my happy classroom with you this weekend. And Monday, I will be taking my turn on the bloglandia tour! I hope you all have a fabulous Friday and even better weekend. Thanks for visiting and as always.....

Fabulous French Provincial

Wow! Is it Wednesday evening already? This week is flying by. No complaints though since I am going to Tallahassee this weekend to visit my beautiful daughter, Miranda. Haven't been up there since March and I am so looking forward to it! I wanted to thank you all for such sweet comments on my built in bookshelves. A couple of you are no reply commenters, so I couldn't reply by e-mail. I appreciate all of the comments though and so did my hubby! We are still plugging away slowly but surely on the trim, so room reveals will be a while longer, but I do have a project to share today. 

I  bought this French Provincial dresser a few years ago at a thrift shop. It had a large mirror attached and two matching nightstands. The miror was removed and will be used in the master bathroom reno in a few months. I have been using the dresser in my bedroom, but I always knew I would use it as a buffet/sideboard in my dining room someday. Well, that day has finally come!  Of course it needed an update. Here is a before picture taken about a month ago. I love the lines on this dresser and the beautiful hardware, however, I did not love the aged finish on it. It just looked dingy to me.

So, of course, I removed the hardware, mixed up some chalk paint, gave her three coats, waxed her and reattached all her jewelry, and just look at her now! So much better! I was originally planning to paint the hardware, but opted not to. I love the gold and the patina is really pretty now on the bright white paint.

She is already filled, decorated, and sitting in the dining room. She looks gorgeous against the dark stained plank wall! Here's one of her vignettes.

Remember the aqua blue lamps. They look so pretty on the ends of the buffet.

 I found these gorgeous lampshades at Lowe's and returned the others to Wal Mart. These were only a couple bucks more and for the nailhead trim look, so worth it!

Here she is! Isn't she lovely? I am so pleased with how everything is turning out. 

Lately I have been working on school projects. I have been moving into a bigger classroom this week and boy, was it a mess! I am happy to say that after two 10 hour days, it is clean and a lot of my things are put away. I am hoping to finish it tomorrow and Friday. I officially go back to work Monday, so home projects will slow down a bit, but we will finish eventually! Since I got to move into a bigger classroom, I now have room for my desk chair at school. They of course provide us with one, but this is my personal chair and I use it at my small group table. With the problems I have going on with my back, this type of chair is more comfortable for me when I have to sit and work with the kinders. Anywho, I had recovered it in all black and white chevron a couple years ago, but after sitting in the shed for the past year, it was filthy! The back piece is similar to a pillowcase, so it was removed and washed. I took the rest apart and recovered the seat and arms with the fabric I had left from a desk skirt I had made to match the chair. It is 5 different fabrics sewn together. Very bight and colorful! Trying to use what I already had on hand to save money too! It turned out super cute.

Another little project was this one for my team. I found the tags online and ordered the bright colored pens for just over $2 a pack from Amazon. I already had the highlighters and ribbon, so this was a very inexpensive (and cute) back to school gift for my kinder team. I think they will love it! Oh...the background to the photo is a little sneak peek at yet another project that I will try to share soon!

Well, that's it for now. This was the summer of projects for me and I hope to share a few more soon! 

Hope you have a wonderful end to your week!

Until next time.....

A Home for My Sewing Machine!

Wow! Is it really Wednesday? This break of mine is flying by...but in a good way! The hubby and I have been busy bees working on our spare bedroom and I am close to being finished....but not quite!

In addition to the various projects going on in there, I have been working on a project in my craft room. You may remember the little vanity I shared a couple weeks ago. You can see it in the photo below on the left prior to it's makeover. The right side shows it after it's makeover.

I just love how it turned out. This was the ultimate thrifty project since my mother in law gave me the little vanity to use for a sewing table. I had all the supplies on hand to make it over.

*chalk paint (mixed by me)

*2 shelves

*brackets for shelves (firring strip)

*burlap for seat cover

*black paint for hardware

*wrapping paper for drawer liner

*decorative tape for edges of shelves

*creative vision :)

I love the shelves the hubs added for me to display things. I had bought these two shelves a year or more ago and had no idea what to do with them. I was actually about to get rid of them when we had the brainstorm to add shelves to the table. These two could not have been more perfect for the job!

That's my sewing machine under the vintage pillow case. I still need to add ribbons to the sides to tie it on.

The bench got a new outfit in some lovely chevron burlap I purchased a while back.

Love it!

The inside of the drawer got a little special treatment too...:)

I love this wrapping paper I bought at TJ Maxx a few months ago!

You can see how the hubs attached the shelves here. There were holes already in place. I'm sure there used to be a mirror on it. He used carriage head bolts to attach it all together and it is very sturdy!

I just love it and am thrilled to have a permanent home for my sewing machine!

Now...just a tiny sneak peek at one of the projects I was working on for the new spare room! This old chest of drawers belonged to my Granny Valentine. It was in need of major repair. The veneer was bubbled on both sides and chipped and coming off in some places (see photo below). It was pretty much beyond repair. I couldn't bear to part with it though, so as we were working in the room, I asked Joey...aka, the hubs, to nail some leftover pieces of paneling to the sides of it. As luck would have it, the ends he had to cut off were the perfect width for the sides of the chest. You can see them nailed on below. The sneak peek is the lower right photo. I was planning all along to paint the whole thing white, but then I changed my mind and decided to go with black! I happened to have a brand new container of black paint that the hardware store had given away as samples. It was the perfect color, so I added some calcium carbonate and made chalk paint. It is wet in the photo below but has since dried to a lovely finish and I LOVE it. I hope to share soon...:)

Well my friends, I really ought to get to bed....it's after midnight! I've been working nonstop for 2 days now and am exhausted...but satisfied with the amount of work we have managed to accomplish. It rained ALL day Tuesday which threw us off schedule for one project, but it will just have to wait! I'm happy to report that I have a quick trip to the thrift store planned for today to look for something for the new room, and then I need to pick up things to cook for Thanksgiving as well as groceries for my house! The pantry is looking pretty skimpy, as is the fridge! But hey...who has time to grocery shop...lol! So excited my Randa will be home tonight and will be here through Sunday. 

So blessed.....and thankful!

Oh...thank you all for the sweet comments you have been leaving! I am reading them, but just haven't had time to reply to all of them. Please forgive me...:)

In case I don't have time to post again before tomorrow.....

may each of you have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving surrounded by those you love most.

Until next time.....