JUST POPPING IN...

I know I said I wouldn't have a post today, but I'm just popping in to let you know I have a new post up at Word Slingers (here) today.  Come on over to read about my favorite way to decorate with something from the grocery store! And, my sister has 3 new tutorials up on the Hobby Lobby website if you want to check them out.  I just did, and the Needle Felting...oh so cute!  She also has some super unique (fancy!) friendship bracelets, and I have no idea how to crochet, so I better watch that one!   I hope you all have a great holiday weekend! ...

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GOLD POLKA DOT STRIPED NICHE

Thankfully this house has lots of storage, and the hall leading back to the master bedroom has an angled corner cabinet with a niche cut out.  The storage cabinet is very useful, but the niche has always a pain in the neck to decorate.  One, it's an odd shape, two, it's asymmetrical, and three, it's height.  One side is wide and one is narrow, so it's difficult to choose where the focal point should be.  Most accessories leave lots of blank space between the tops of them and the rest of the wall to the ceiling, leaving a lot of empty feeling space. After many different attempts over 6 years of living here, I think I finally figured it out! For a while I've had the itch to repaint our living spaces, which would be A LOT of painting so it's not on the docket any time soon.  I'm really thinking about going lighter on the walls, maybe a warm white or super light tan.  So, I thought the niche would be a perfect spot to experiment with a color...

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{GREAT FINDS} AT GARDEN RIDGE

Do you have a Garden Ridge in your town?  We've had one for many years, and it used to be one of my favorite places to shop, years and years ago.  For at least the past 5 years or so, it's been a major let down almost every time I've visited.  It seems like it got junky, cluttered, and full of just cheap stuff.   Still, I'll still check it out occasionally when I am looking for something specific and have exhausted all other possibilities.  Last week I stopped in looking for something like this .  No luck there, but I was surprised at how much great stuff I found!  I thought you might like to see, too. Sherry would have loved the aisles and aisles of ceramic animals they had.  All of these were really nicely sized and around $20 each. These reminded me of some very similar (and pricey) products from Pottery Barn, and came in several different colors. These little side tables were such a fun shape, came in a variety of colors, and would be great...

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WHAT "WOOD" YOU DO? & A GOOD GOLD SPRAY PAINT

How does Sunday evening always get here so fast?  No matter how great my intentions are, I'm always sitting down around 9:30 on Sunday evening to write Monday morning's post.  Anyway, by the time you read this, Happy Monday Morning!  I started a project over the weekend that I need your help with.  I bought this lamp on clearance at Marshall's a few years ago (while we were out on a date for Valentine's Day...gotta love a husband who waits for you while you shop!) .  I love it except it had a white washed glaze on it that I wasn't too crazy about.   All I could think about was making it into something like this: Pottery Barn Doesn't the shape look similar to the one in the middle?  I stripped the finish off of the lamp and got it down to bare wood. Now, I'm not sure how to finish it off.  Does it need a light stain?  A coat of lemon oil?  Poly? Clear wax? Dark wax?  I just want that rustic, natural look. If anyone has ever don...

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FRIDAY FAVORITES (6)

I'm always torn about adding a watermark to my photos.  I want them to be easily identifiable, but at the same time like the look of a crisp clear photo.  For the photos I have been watermarking lately, I found a great tutorial on how to  make a watermark using Picmonkey from Beginner Beans.  It was so easy, I just saved it to my desktop, and I can add it to any photo that I choose in a flash. Chalkboard Doors from  If It's Not Baroque -such a fun idea!  Her blog design is pretty cute too... I want one of these- and maybe one of these too. Today I'm so excited to be participating in the Suzy's "House Snooping" series over at Worthing Court .  Come over and do a little snooping through my house! Also, many thanks to Kim at Too Much Time on my Hands  for including my updated ceiling fans in a round-up of Mod-Podge projects she did.  There are some great ideas there! Today, I'll leave you with a sneak...

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FAQs-YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Alright, I've responded to these three questions enough times individually that I figured it was time to dedicate a post to them!  Here are the 3 most common questions that come to my inbox and their answers. 1)  What is your paint color? The reason I don't really have this readily posted is that I made it up!   I mixed colors until I got what I liked.  I've looked on some of my paint chips and Sherwin Williams #6107 Nomadic Desert and #6108 Latte are very close.  It's sort of right in between those two, so either one would probably be a pretty close match. Or, here's a photo of the formula if you're interested.  *Note*:  This formula is for a 5 GALLON bucket.   It will need to be adjusted if you want 1 gallon. It can take on a dozen different looks depending on the lighting, but the sample in that photo is pretty spot-on. 2)  Where did you get your curtains? I made them!     I bought the majority of the fabric at t...

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HOW WE MADE THE KITCHEN LANTERN PENDANTS WORK

I've always wanted some additional statement lighting in our kitchen, but with the way our current lighting was configured it just wasn't going to work.  Today I'm sharing how we went about working around that and installing the new lights.  This turned in to quite a lengthy post, but I wanted to show our process in case anyone else has a similar problem.    We had great lighting, but our ceiling looked like swiss cheese...there were lots and lots of recessed can lights (22 altogether in our open kitchen/living/dining!).  The biggest problem in adding lighting over the island was that none of the current lighting was centered.  It was centered for the room as a whole, but the island is off center and none of the can lights were where they needed to be.  So, we knew that if we bit this project off it would not be quick and easy.   Thankfully, my soon-to-be-brother-in-law knows a thing or two about electrical work, and agreed to help us out.  We decid...

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