Delightful Dwelling

Sneak Peek Photo of My Kitchen Transformation!

2010-09-02T20:21:00.001-05:00

Here's a little sneak peek of my kitchen while it was decked out with bridal shower goodies:

And a reminder of how it used to look:

More photos and details to come as soon as life slows a down a little! I will have another crazy week next week and then I should be able to get back into some more regular blogging. This summer has just been so full of projects and events that I haven't been able to make time to fit in some much needed blogging updates of all the changes.

I'm still alive, part 2!

2010-08-28T18:39:00.000-05:00

I'm still here, trying to recover from all the madness that this summer has been full off. Right now I'm relaxing after hosting a bridal shower and stuffing way too many people in my little house. Which looks wayyyy different than the photos on my blog show.

My living room and dining room are no longer green. My oak cabinets are no longer oak. My white countertops are no long white. And I'm being mean and not sharing photos just yet! I'm still waiting for my elusive new area rug to arrive. It was on backorder and won't arrive until September. Then I will start going photo crazy!

I'm Still Alive!

2010-07-08T20:38:00.000-05:00

Umm, so I completely dropped off the blogging radar for awhile. So sorry to just up and disapper like that. If you are wondering what can make a blogger vanish from the wonderful world of blogging, let me give you some sneak peeks of what I've been working on like crazy.

My kitchen spent some time like this:

Our garage spent many days full of this:

Our yard was transformed to this:

We went hiking in Indiana:

Visited relatives and saw the sights in Arkansas:

Went to a wedding:

And another wedding:

And then last weekend celebrated America's birthday:

Many more details and some major before and afters to share! Now I have to get ready to paint my living room....

Laminate Bookcase Makeover-Part 2

2010-05-18T18:30:00.000-05:00

So, way back when, I posted the first laminate bookcase that I gave a makeover to. Then it took me several months to get around to doing a post about the second bookcase's new look. I think it's because I like how the taller bookcase is decorated and accessorized better. This one is a bit too cluttered compared to the first one, but it is useful for storage purposes. Here she is hanging out in a corner of our master bedroom.

This bookcase had the same paint treatment as the first one. Some primer followed by a coat of Behr's Pot of Cream paint in semi-gloss. I had to whack the shelves in place with a hammer because they were so tight fitting back into the bookcase after the layers of paint were added.

I also added the same moulding around the top using my nail gun friend.

I found some pretty damask wrapping paper at Hallmark to add to the back of the inside. I love the blue and brown colors together.

I decided to use the bottom shelf to hold my scrapbook albums. I wished that they matched a little better because all the colors look a bit chaotic together. I thought about doing a little curtain in front like I did for the taller bookcase, but the scrapbooks stick out too far outside the shelves for that to work. I also added a couple picture frames and some candles to fill in the shelves.

Over the bookcase, I decided to hang this shadowbox I bought at Marshall's for $12.99. The front of it has a handly little door that you can pull open to easily get to the inside. I figured it would make a nice place to hang and display some of my jewelry using the pearl pins that were included with the box to hang the necklaces and earrings on.

The door keeps my necklaces safe away from Emma's little paws. She looooves to chase after my necklaces. In face, she even comes running as soon as she hears my jewelry box or the shadowbox door open and tries to grab the necklaces out of my hand.

I added a scrap of beadboard to cover the top of the bookcase. This also helped hide the gap between the edge of the top of the bookcase and the inside edge of the trim around the top.

A reminder of how the bookcase looked before in all her light oak glory holding books in my craftroom/workout room/storage area/room in progress:

And now:

Burlington Coat (And Home Decor!) Factory

2010-05-05T20:50:00.001-05:00

I had not visited our local Burlington Coat Factory store in probably 10 years. That is until I saw Centsational Girl's post on all the wonderful home decor goodies she had discovered there. I was especially drooling over the variety of Waverly accessories in a lovely blue and white pattern. The colors were just too perfect for my craftroom makeover in progress that includes this spruced up laminate bookcase.

While I didn't find quite the variety of fun accessories that Centsational girl found at her local store, I did manage to snag a few cute deals.

The first thing I grabbed was this lovely, fabric storage box. I can never have too many storage boxes and the price was perfect at just $6.

I resisted all the other blue and white boxes, artwork, mirrors, and curtains. I did pick up one of these plastic bowls though for a whopping $1.49. It looks a bit green in this photo, but it is more blue in person.

My final Burlington find was this pretty blue glass vase or candleholder. It was on clearance for just $2.48 and I had to stop myself from picking up several. They also were available in a green and brown color.

All together I spent $10.74 including tax. Not bad for a shopping bag full of cheerful accessories.

Through the Lens

2010-05-03T20:07:00.000-05:00

I posted the other day about how I recently purchased a used Canon xTi camera. I had also spent $100 on a 50 mm f1.8 lens. I love that little lens and it takes amazingly sharp photos for the price. However, it is a fixed lens. That means there is no zoom so 50 mm(or 85 mm on my cropped sensor camera) is all you get. I wanted another lens that would give me a good wide angle as well as a moderate telephoto zoom. Basically, a decent all around lens. After spending a few weeks researching my options on my very limited budget (lenses are super expensive!) I decided on the Canon 18-135 mm IS lens.

That lens happened to be sitting on my doorstep today.

I'm already loving this guy and have been going crazy snapping photos around the house. I'm super excited about the fact that I can now photograph entire rooms of my house because of the wide angle end of the lens.

I think that is the best photo I have ever taken of my living room. This super, little all around lens will come in quite handy as I document the many projects I have in the works. It will also help when I call on the assistance of all you readers out there to help me pick out paint colors, curtains, and even flooring. I can be a wee bit indecisive at times. Or all the time. =)

Kitchen Projects-Part 1

2010-04-29T20:05:00.001-05:00

So for awhile I've been trying to be patient and not do anything to my kitchen cabinets until we replace the countertops. We are planning to do that sometime this year. I wanted to wait until we had the new countertops installed before going ahead with painting my orangey-oakey-boringey-me-no-likey cabinets. That way, I would have the counters to match different paint colors chips to and select the right tone and shade of paint. This is important because I'm probably going to be brave and paint the upper cabinets and lower cabinets two different colors.

However, I was off work the other day and I just couldn't take it anymore. My plain, unadorned cabinets needed something, anything to spruce them up. So I made a trip to Home Depot and $50 later I came home with some oil-rubbed bronze knobs and pulls for my cabinets. (One good thing about having a small kitchen, buying knobs is cheap when you don't need very many.)

After a couple hours of drilling and going back to Home Depot for longer screws, here is a peek at my cabinets now. These knobs were cheapies at $1.50 each.

The pulls were a bit pricier at almost $4 each. Good thing I only have four drawers in my kitchen. Well, it's only a good thing because it saved me money in this instance.

Mr.Delightful Dwelling came home from work just as I was finishing up. There was wood dust everywhere because I had to drill all the holes for the hardware since our cabinets never had any. He asked "What in the world did you do to make such a mess?!" He was totally oblivious to the new cabinet knobs, he just noticed all the dust everywhere. Men. As long as he lets me do what I want to the kitchen, I can't complain too much when he doesn't notice what I've done.

I can't show off the whole kitchen just yet without revealing my next mini-makeover project. I have a new wide angle camera lens ordered and on its way. Then I can get some good shots of the whole room to share.

Mirror Makeover

2010-04-28T18:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, first off I'm sorry that I disappeared for a gazillion years in blogging time. If you are reading this, thanks for not totally forgetting about me! I have so many projects to share and some major changes planned for the upcoming months.

Let's start out with a super easy makeover. I found this gold mirror at a thrift store. I love the scrollwork of the frame, but wasn't so thrilled with the gold color.

Enter spraypaint of course. I used a black metallic Rustoleum paint. I sprayed on a light coat so some of the gold pops through. The scrolled edges of the frame made it a pain to tape paper over the mirror. I managed to only get a bit of paint to seep through which I was able to scrape off using a fingernail. Here is how she looks with her new paint job.

I decided the perfect place for the mirror was by our front door. I'm keeping an eye out for a small console type table to put under the mirror. Or I could add a shelf instead. I have a big project planned for this wall though that will have to come first before I make a final decision. (Hint, think board-and-batten.)

Too Many Projects, So Little Time

2010-04-13T19:59:00.000-05:00

I didn't mean to drop out of blogland for so long again. I've been so busy working frantically on several projects around the house. We are planning on hosting a BBQ on Saturday and with up to 20 people showing up at our house, I've been very motivated to wrap up all the little changes around the house I have been putting off. I have three big kitchen changes to reveal, my second laminate bookcase makeover to show off, and a few simple makeovers to share. I'll try not to leave you hanging too long!

I also recently purchased a used Canon DSLR camera so I will have much clearer and brighter photos to share. I'm amazed at how sharp my photos are compared to my point and shoot camera, especially indoors where the lighting is always an issue.

In the meantime, here are some photos to share that I have taken around the house with my new-to-me camera and 50 mm f1.8 lens (the nifty fifty lens, what a bargain!) I'm still learning all the tricks to getting great photos, but the learning process is so fun.

A Custom Plant Bench

2010-03-31T20:39:00.003-05:00

I posted a few weeks ago about this custom shoe bench we built using Ana's plans from Knock Off Wood. Since it hasn't fallen apart yet, we trusted our carpentry skills enough to construct another bench.

So it was time for some more compressor power with my newest BFF, the wonderfuly delightful nail gun.

Within 20 minutes we were the proud new owners of this bench. You can see the plans for this bench on Knock Off Wood here. We did modify the plans slightly by not notching out the legs on the sides. We were feeling a bit lazy even though we have a jigsaw.

I gave it a couple coats of paint and primer (Behr Touch of Cream) and brought my new bench inside. It was just the right size to fit in our kitchen bay window. I needed something to put my ever growing plant collection on and this bench was the perfect construction project for the job.

Of course like any project, it's not perfect. It's so hard to find lumber at the big box store that is not warped or has tons of knots. We didn't nail one of the legs on very straight. The bench even wobbles back and forth if you try to sit on it. However, I still love that we built it ourselves and it works perfect as a place for my mini indoor garden.

Now if only this photo didn't remind me that I need to replace or repaint that vent cover. It really sticks out against the white!

Laminate Bookcase Makeover-Part 1

2010-03-29T20:22:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in almost two weeks. I was fighting a terrible cold so blogging and home projects were just not happening for awhile. I am finally back in action with several finished projects to share.

The main project I have been working on is to update my craft room. I posted the crazy "before" photos showing the cluttered mess the room had become. After giving the room a coat of the same paint color as our hall bath (Behr Rain Washed), I turned my attention to conquering the clutter problem. One major problem I wanted to tackle was to create a prettier storage area using one of the existing laminate bookcases I had. The bookcase needed to hold a hodge podge of mismatched photo albums, magazines, and books. Somehow I needed to figure out a way to make everything look more coordinated. I saw this photo on the BHG site and knew right away it would serve as my inspiration.

Here's how my version turned out.

And a reminder on how the bookcase started out. You can see it on the very left of the photo below. It was a super cheap laminate bookcase in a pale oak color that we purchased five years ago. We also had a shorter version of the same bookcase shown in the right of the photo. Both of these bookcases have been completely transformed. I will show the breakdown on how I gave the tall bookcase a makeover in this post. I will have another post later to reveal what the smaller bookcase looks like.

When I did some research online to find out if paint would even stick to laminate, I came across a very helpful post on the subject on the blog Living with Lindsay. I mostly followed her instructions which really ended up being the same steps I used when I painted the bathroom vanity cabinets in both our hall bath and master bathroom. Sand, prime, paint, and be very careful not to scratch anything!

1. First step, sanding. I used our power sander to sand every surface except the inside backing which I planned on covering up. I used a fairly high grit sandpaper. You just want to lightly scratch the surface without going all the way through. You should see little white flecks of laminate coming off.

2. Trim it out. This step is optional, but gives the piece a more finished look. If you have a bookcase that is totally plain on the top like mine were, you can add some moulding to give it more substance. We used a miter saw and a strip of moulding to quickly add some trim pieces around the top edge. Of course I used my wonderful nail gun to secure the trim. Here's the bookcase all trimmed out and sanded down.

3. Prime time. I used Kilz water-based primer for the large bookcase and oil-based for the small bookcase. I prefer oil based because of the extra durability and stickiness, but I went ahead and used up the last of the water based primer that I already had left before purchasing another quart of oil based primer. I let the primer dry overnight before moving on to the painting step.

4. Time for paint. I used cream Behr laytex semi-gloss paint that I have used on several different projects. Both bookcases were given the same paint color. I let both bookcases dry for five days before putting anything on top of them. This is very important. If you don't let the paint totally dry and cure for several days, you could end up with things sticking to the paint or the paint chipping more easily.

5. Prettify the inside. Just like in my inspiration BHG photo, I wanted to add something to the inside back of each bookcase. I found a roll of wrapping paper on clearance at Target for $1.74. The colors just happened to be perfect for the room. You could also use wallpaper or even fabric.

I used the shelves from the bookcase as my guide for how wide to cut the paper. Both bookcases had adjustable height shelves.

Then I just used double stick tape to adhere the paper to the back of the bookcase. A craft knife came in handy to trim the paper tight to the edges of the sides, top, and bottom.

6. Use a curtain to hide clutter. I picked up a simple tension rod at Old Time Pottery for $1.99 to hold the curtain and fit between the bookcase sides. The blue and white fabric was a $4 purchase at Joanns Fabrics. Since I don't sew, I used some iron on tape to hem each side and the bottom. Now I can hide the mismatched books and albums behind lovely and inexpensive fabric.

7. Add accessories, then step back and enjoy your bookcase's new look! I shopped the house for decorative touches to fill the top two shelves and also picked up a few more items while out shopping. The mason jars I found at a thrift store for $1. The silver globe on top if from Home Goods. The white bird and topiary are from Michael's. (Free for me with a giftcard!) The sleeping white ceramic cat was a Dollar Tree find. Inexpensive storage boxes from IKEA help corrall my endless supply of magazines and some general crafting goodies.

I am very happy with how my bookcase turned out. It makes me smile. =) I did scratch the paint in a few places while putting the shelves back in. Otherwise the paint seems to be sticking well to the laminate.

I will be back to post later on how the smaller bookcase is looking these days. It has been moved to a different room.

My Craftroom-The Scary "Before" Photos

2010-03-18T14:04:00.000-05:00

One major project I have been working on lately is to clean up this disaster of a room. The room currently serves as my scrapbook/craft/Bowflex/storage/catch all room. It's become such a catch all space that I can hardly walk in there and I certainly don't feel very inspired to do much crafting.

The two bookshelves and the closet are stuffed to the brim with games, scrapbooking supplies, knick knacks, memorabilia, and more.

About the only thing that is going to remain the same is the desk. I do love my desk. It was a $99 online find from Target several years ago. It even had free shipping. Pretty much everything else in this room will be moved around, painted over, and organized.

The room is currently halfway through its makeover. Stay tuned for a new paint color on the walls, a different furniture arrangement, and even a tutorial on making over those cheap, laminate bookcases. (Yes, they are paintable!)

Building a Shoe Storage Bench

2010-03-15T20:16:00.001-05:00

Thanks to the amazing plans and tips from Ana on Knock-Off Wood, Mr. Delightful and I were able to complete our very first wood working project. We made good use of my new air powered nailer and a borrowed miter saw to quickly put this happy little bench together.

We used the Brady Entryway Open Bench Plans, although we modified them slightly. Instead of using MDF and making the bench 23-3/4" deep, we used 1x12s to create a narrower bench to fit in the tight space near the door between our garage and our house. The width and trim dimensions were the same as the original plans. It just happened to work out that the width of 30-1/2" was exactly the distance between the front edge of our cabinets and the edge of the trim around the pantry door. It was just meant to be. We did also slightly change the plans by adding the bottom piece of trim to the outside face instead of adding it underneath the bottom shelf.

Here's Mr. Delighful Dwelling helping to assemble the bench. With the nailer, miter saw, and Ana's super simple to follow plans, we were able to build this bench in no time.

I decided to use beadboard as the backing. However, since the bench is so deep and will have shoes stored in it, you can't reallly see the pattern of the beadboard.

After filling all the nail holes and sanding with my power sander, I added a coat of primer. I followed this up with a coat of Valspar semi-gloss paint in a cheerful sage green. I have no idea what the technical name of the color is, it was a custom mistint that I picked up at Lowe's for $2.50. Overall, I think the project cost us somewhere in the $25 range. It's not perfect. The lumber is full of knots and not completely straight, but it fits perfectly in our little "mudroom nook." The shelves are just the right size for shoe storage.

Of course, no project is ever fully complete until it gets the official kitty seal of approval.

I had so much fun with this project that I had Mr.Delightful help me crank out another bench following a different set of Ana's wonderful plans. Stay tuned for the finished product.

Hiding an Ugly Laundry Room

2010-03-11T20:53:00.000-06:00

Our laundry room is also known as the kitty potty. We can't' close the door to the room because the cats have to get in there. So for the past 5 years, I've had a curtain covering the doorway opening to the laundry room. The room itself is in need of some major help in the decorating department, but I'm holding off until the day our 15 year old washer and 20+ year old dryer finally stop spinning and I can gut the room and start from scratch. I was using the plain curtain below dividing the space from the kitchen. I wasn't really happy with the curtain. It was a pain to slide over when we needed to do laundry and the color wasn't quite right.

Then I found this shower curtain on clearance at Kohl's for 80% off. My mom bought it for me and although it is a tad too short, I love the colors and the design.

Since it is attached with shower curtain rings instead of a rod pocket like the former curtain, it is super easy to slide back and forth for carrying all those baskets of clothes into the laundry area.

I love the simple changes that make me smile.

Thrifty Finds

2010-03-10T20:17:00.001-06:00

I'm back to share a few more discount goodies I picked up lately. The first cheap lovely is this pillow. I had been looking at the exact same one online at Wal-Mart for $12. Well guess how much this beauty was at Old Time Pottery? Only $3.99.

I found this cute, little bunny at Goodwill. He set me back a whole dollar. Isn't he perfect for spring and Easter time?

The final cheap find I have to share is this silvery candleholder complete with candle. Another $1 find at one of my favorite craft stores. It will probably end up in a different location and with a different colored candle, but it's hanging out in the living room for now.

I just love bargain hunting!

This Tool Rocks

2010-03-08T20:23:00.000-06:00

It was a busy and crazy weekend at the Delightful Dwelling. I worked on so many different projects my head is spinning. My house is a total disaster area, my car won't fit in the garage right now, and I have kitty paw print stains all over my carpet from a cat walking through a paint tray and then all over the house and furniture. But it's ok, because I'm having a blast and my house is getting prettier and more functional.

Several of my weekend projects were made possible by one wonderful birthday gift. A finish nailer. Some people thought I was crazy for wanting a power tool for my birthday, but my dad happily purchased me one for my recent 28th birthday. Here she is in all her beautiful and mighty glory.

Isn't she purdy? And yes, it is a she although I haven't given her a name. Dewalt brand tools on the other hand are boys, because only boys would wear school bus yellow and black together and still look cool.

This is the next tool on my "gotta have" list. I borrowed this compound miter saw from my in-laws, but I will have trouble giving it back. You can see a couple hints about one of our weekend projects in the photo.

Of course I couldn't have done it all without the help of Mr. Delightful Dwelling. When I could get him out from under his Jeep that is.

I might be a little slack in blogging this week as I try and finish up all my projects and get my house put back together again. I will be back with the finished photos and tutorials as soon as I can wrap everything up.

New Bathroom Vanity Knobs

2010-03-03T20:58:00.000-06:00

We completed a makeover of our hall bath over six months ago. Part of the makeover including painting the boring and orangey oak vanity to a sleek, glossy brown finish. I loved how the deep brown looked with the oil-rubbed bronze fixtures and how it contrasted against the white vanity top.

However, while at Hobby Lobby the other day, I was admiring their amazing selection of drawer pulls and knobs. They were having a sale so all the knobs were 50% off. I spied these beautiful white knobs and had to grab a couple since they were only $1.50 each. I thought the white would really pop against the dark brown and I was right. A couple minutes of drilling and on they went.

They make the perfect finishing touch. I'm hoping Hobby Lobby has another sale soon, because there were so many gorgeous knobs that I might have to see where else I can add or replace some knobs.

I Heart Pier One

2010-03-02T20:31:00.000-06:00

Pier One is one of those stores I try to avoid. They have too many cute things that I want to take home, but they are usually too expensive for my crazy cheap self. I had some time to kill before meeting up with Mr. Delightful and my MIL for dinner plus I had some birthday cash sitting in my wallet so I decided to stop in. While there were many beautiful things, I walked out of the store spending only $11.

This little bird plate jumped out at me right away. They have them in several colors and they are $5 each. Since my living room, kitchen, and dining room all have quite a bit of green and white, this one was perfect for my home.

The other accessory that I just couldn't walk away from was this coffee canister. It was on clearance for $5.48. I am not a coffee drinker at all, I don't care for the stuff. Mr. Delightful, however, usually brews some coffee daily. I was tired of the ugly, plastic Folgers can sitting out all the time. Now Mr. Delightful can have his coffee and I can enjoy this pretty little canister that holds the coffee.

Creating Metal Monogram Art

2010-03-01T20:45:00.002-06:00

I wasn't sure what to title this project. It all started out with the metal wall art thing over the bed shown here. I purchased it several years, but it just didn't seem to stand out against the wall. I was also tired of the flower design that was in the middle. I mean my bedroom is already a bit too much on the feminine side for Mr. Delightful without having another flower in the room. One day, while drying my hair in the bathroom adjoining the bedroom and staring at the metal thing on the wall, I had an idea on just how to give it a makeover.

First I took it off the wall and had Mr. Delightful cut out the metal flower design from the middle. It took him all of 20 seconds to cut it out with a grinder (I think that's what the tool with the spinning thing that shoots out sparks when it cuts metal is called.). Than I used spray paint to give it a nice coat of glossy white paint. It was looking better already. Next it was time to raid my fabric stash. I decided to use this neutral fabric that had a pretty texture to it. I picked up this clearance fabric awhile back for $1.50 for 3/4 of a yard.

I traced around the middle oval and cut out the fabric to slightly smaller as the outside of the oval opening. Then it was time to break out the glue gun for some hot glue action to secure the fabric to the metal. I worked around the opening slowly to make sure the glue didn't dry on the metal before I attached the fabric.

When I had hairdrying breakthrough moment, I decided that a monogram in the middle would look perfect. I located this perfect little letter at Hobby Lobby. They have quite an extensive selection of unfinished wood letters. I thought the curly letter style gave it a bit of whimsy. The "L" was painted with the same paint as the metal art and then added to the fabric with hot glue. Now the metal art is ready for its close up.

And the full effect.

Yep, I'm really loving it. So much better and such an easy makeover. It's amazing how different my bedroom looked just a year ago.

And how it looks now. (Ignore the wrinkled comforter, I had just washed it!)

Ahhhhh, so much more relaxing. I'm ready for a nap now.

Linking up to:

Blog Makeover in the Works!

2010-02-28T11:42:00.002-06:00

I'm currently working on some updates, new header, new pages, and other fun stuff. So please ignore the mess and any broken links or other goofy looking stuff while I work on these issues.

O wonderful Orchids

2010-02-25T19:51:00.000-06:00

I posted last year about Home Depot's Garden Club. If you are a not a member, you should be. (And no, I'm not getting paid to say that although if Home Depot wants to send me free stuff, I am a loyal customer, hint, hint.) If you join the Garden Club, they send out wonderful coupons and newsletters every month. Some of these coupons include buy one get one free plants. The latest newsletter included a buy one, get one free housplant. The coupon before that was for a buy one, get one free orchid.

Since the bouquet I bought a few weeks ago was wilting away and spring is still too far away, I went ahead and picked up two of the orchids for $15 total. Right now I have one in the living room and one in my craft room. Doesn't it look just perfect on the mantel? (And more importantly it's mostly out of reach of the pets.)

I'm hoping these things stay alive. I don't have the best track record for plants, but the instructions say to just add three ice cubes a week. I can handle simple directions like that. The tag even gives a link to the website for more tips for people like me who have a black thumb instead of a green one.

I did a little rearranging of mantel accessories to balance everything out with the tall orchid. I just love how elegant the flowers look. Please stay alive pretty, little orchid. I am rooting for you! (Sorry for the bad pun.)

If you aren't a member of the Garden club, head on over the Home Depot website and sign up here.

Decorating Cabinet Tops

2010-02-24T20:50:00.000-06:00

My house has really tall ceilings. My kitchen cabinets are not so tall. That leaves quite a large gap of empty space to fill between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling. I had some blue bottles and vases up there for awhile while I was in my blue and yellow phase. That phase has passed and my cabinets had been looking a bit bare on top since I painted my kitchen walls last year.

I finally got around to adding a little bit of interest up there. I shopped around the house and managed to come up with a couple arrangements all using stuff I had on hand.

I used vases, plates, and other accessories to create the arrangements. The platter shown in the photo below was a $1 Goodwill find that I painted Heirloom White. The jade dishes were from a family member. I think they are antique, I have no idea if they have any value. The white dishes are my everday dishes so I might need to pick up a couple white plates from the dollar store so I can have my regular dishes back for eating!

I'm still tinkering around with different accent pieces and working on an arrangement for the cabinets on the opposite wall. Overall I think it looks a bit prettier up there now than the blank emptiness it was for the past several months. The best part is that it didn't cost me a dime.

Nightstand Makeover Take 2

2010-02-22T20:53:00.001-06:00

Wayyyy long ago. Like 6 months ago. Right after I started this blog, this was one of my first projects. I painted our old and beat up nightstand. (Which is really an end table that belonged to my great-grandmother and matches a table that was in Better Homes and Gardens and that is another long story you can read about here.)

The problem was I hated it. The color was not at all what I wanted. Not even close. I was hoping for more of a deep and elegant brown. Not this yucky, mud puddle brown color that I ended up with. On top of the horrible color was that fact that even though I let it sit for several days before I put anything on top of it, stuff kept sticking to the paint. I was so frusterated with it that I just left it like that, sticky paint and all. And hated it for the next six months. Only the cats seemed to like it, but they love anything they climb inside of.

I kept waiting for warmer weather so I could carry this sucker out the garage and attack it with a paintbrush. But winter seems to be stretching on this year with temperatures continuing to hang out below freezing. So I just spread a drop cloth in one corner of the bedroom and started painting. Mr. Delightful is learning not to ask questions.

The color is "Quiet Rain" by Glidden. It's yet another free quart from one of their paint promotions. They have kept me well supplied in paint for the past year. I was afraid it might be too close to the wall color, but I think it contrasts just enough.

I spent all day keeping the cats away while I was painting. After I finished the third coat (covering up that muddy brown was a pain) I left the room for a minute. I came back to find this:

Yes, that is a cat print embedded in my final, smooth coat of paint. And since cats have four legs, guess how many of those little paw prints were left in my ~~perfect~~ good enough paint finish?

After applying yet another coat to try and cover up all the kitty fingerprints left behind, I decided that it needed a little adornment. So I ended up using my trusty Cricut to cut out a stencil. I ripped off a plastic-like cardboard cover from a travel guide to Gunnison, Colorado that I had laying around. It was the right thickness for a stencil and it was free.

I started out trying to make a pretty swirly outline as shown above. That didn't work out so well so I went the simpler route with just the solid swirl shape. The white paint is some Behr paint that I already had in my paint can stash. It is semi-gloss compared to the eggshell finish of the blue paint which made it stand out even more.

I added the handle back on and put the nightstand back in its corner. But it still looked like it needed just a little something more. So I decided to add a striped border around the edge. I pulled out a roll of painters tape and taped off a border.

Disclaimer: The way I made my border is not at all how your are supposed to do it. This is the lazy way to do it. If you are like me and are always looking for a shortcut and a way to do things that doesn't require hunting in the garage for the proper tools that you can never find unless your husband is around to direct you on where said tools might be hiding, then you might understand. But I don't recommend my method, because I didn't follow the rules and you probably should stick to the rules.

Here's how I shortcutted it. First, I didn't measure anything. No ruler, no pencil, no tape measure. I just sort of eyeballed where the first line of painters tape should go. That is the line closest to the outside. Then I decided to just make my stripe exactly the width of the painters tape. So I used the tape to mark off another line next to the outside box. Finally, I marked off one more box on the inside using the tape. Then I simply removed the middle line of tape, leaving an almostly perfectly marked border to paint my line. That doesn't make much sense when I try to explain it, but maybe a picture will help.

Still confused? Then do it the right way and measure everything out. Here's how mine ended up looking.

I started off painting the box using leftover paint from my kitchen. The color is Glidden's Whispering Wheat. It ended up looking too yellow though. So I pulled out my dark brown paint from our master bathroom makeover. This dark brown paint is actually a mix of Glidden Bittersweet Chocolate and some black Behr paint. I added just a little bit to some of the Whispering Wheat in a small tray and mixed them together. I love mixing paints and I do it whenever the color doesn't turn out to be the shade I want it to be. I guess I could call this shade Chocolate Wheat.

Here's how it finally turned out.

It's hardly perfect. The corners of my border are a bit messy and you can still see the outline from my first stenciling attempt on the drawer front.

But I'm happy with it. It looks so soft and romantic now. If a nightstand can be called romantic.

I added a picture from back when Mr. Delightful Dwelling and I were dating. It's one of those cheesey old time photos taken at Silver Dollar City, but I still love it. My hair was super long back then and I think Mr. Delightful's expression is pretty funny.

I think overall it looks much better than the mud puddle mess it was before. It went from "mud puddle brown" to "quiet rain blue".

Another Dose of the Crazy Spray Paint Lady

2010-02-21T20:05:00.002-06:00

I think my neighbors think we are weird. We try and keep our house and yard all nice and pretty, but we do have some strange habits. Like the fact that I spray paint stuff in my front yard. A lot of stuff. The neighbors that are out walking their dogs just give me some odd looks and continue on by. I once had a Jehovah's Witness try to talk to me while I was perched on a ladder spray painting our exterior lights. I think she thought I was a bit on the strange side too.

Either way, I was so glad the weatherman was wrong this weekend. They predicted snow and temps in the 30s. It was 53 degrees and sunny on Saturday. Prime spray painting weather and I took advantage of it even if the neighbors think I'm not normal.

Remember these gold keys I found at Goodwill? They are no longer gold.

These silver $1 platters are a different color now too.

See the metal art thing over the bed? It's in the middle of its own transformation brought about by the wonders of spray paint.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the two frames around the paintings were two different shades of white. Now they are both the same Heirloom White color.

I'll have some upcoming posts revealing what these objects look after their new coat of spray paint. Even if it makes me crazy.

Fantastic Fireplaces

2010-02-18T19:49:00.000-06:00

I just adore having a fireplace. It is wonderful to be able to enjoy a cozy, roaring fire like this one in our home. I am insisting that if we move, a fireplace is on my "must have" list of things to look for in a house.

However, one of the other great things about a fireplace is that it creates an instant focal point in a room. There is no guessing on what should be the centerpiece of the room. Fireplaces make it easier to decorate even for non-professional-just-trying-to-make-my-home-as-pretty-as-I-can-using-as-little-money-as-possible-people. Like me. Just try to arrange the furniture and decor so that the focus is on the fireplace and mantel and instantly the room looks more put together and balanced. Plus it provides a ready surface for displaying collections, flowers, and seasonal decor. Here are some examples of drool worthy living spaces with a fireplace as the crown jewel of the room. All images are from BHG.com.

I love the round mirror displayed on the mantel in this photo. It looks gorgeous against that wonderful gray paint on the walls.

This fireplace has some amazing tilework around the firebox. Combined with the timeless clock and pop of red on the mantel, it creates a lovely scene. They even show (gasp!) a TV in this room. More like how a real family might utilize the space. Since most real families do have TVs. (We're a little odd in that we only own one TV and hardly watch it.)

I'm not really sure what's up with the couch thing that looks like a bed, but if you ignore the weird furniture, the rest of the room is lovely. The simple arrangement of three pieces of artwork and the tall, elegant candles create the perfect touch for the mantel. I love the rug too, it brings a bit of whimsy to otherwise formal atmosphere of the room.

This is another fireplace that has some amazing tiling. I love how the red wall paint brings out the deep tones of the tile.

This room just made me smile. It's a bit too much pattern for my more simple taste, but I do love the colors and the way it all somehow works together without being too chaotic.

I'm really digging the arrangement of the milk glass all along the top of the mantel in this photo. Again, another interesting use of tile around the firebox to create a lighthouse scene. (Although I'm wondering why they left their worn out shoes in the picture below the table?)

Another Mini-Blinds into Roman Shade Transformation

2010-02-17T20:25:00.000-06:00

After I turned cheap, plastic mini-blinds into a pretty fabric roman shade for our bathroom makeover, I was itching to create another one. Once you make one of these once, they are so easy to do over again.

Here's how my newest roman shade turned out in our laundry room. (Ignore the plastic hangers on the right side of the photo, please! I was having a lazy photographer moment.)

I followed the same basic instructions as before. This one was way quicker and easier to make because it was so much smaller than the huge 47" wide window I had to cover in our master bathroom! I also used thinner fabric. The thinner fabric was good because the fabric glue stuck to it much easier. The downside of that was that the glue actually went all the way through the fabric in a few places and the whole thing was stuck to the carpet underneath! Luckily, it came off without incident although I was freaking out for a minute thinking I had glued the whole thing to the carpet.

This fabric was another clearance find at Joann Fabrics. I'm pretty sure I only paid $2 for a yard of this fabric and I only used half of it so the project by itself cost me all of $1. I love when they have the extra 50% off the red tag fabric at Joanns. That is when I stock up. The blinds were already here when we bought the house so I didn't have to purchase those.

Have I mentioned that I still don't sew? Need to remedy that someday, but that is why that make fabric glue and iron on hemming tape. For people like me that are sewing machine deficient.

I won't reveal the rest of the laundry room, it's still a disaster!

Giving an Ottoman a Little Bling

2010-02-16T19:29:00.003-06:00

In the little nook area of my bedroom, I had added this simple, round ottoman from Target. I wanted additional storage as well as something to fill in the space left from when we removed the dresser and TV. However, it was looking a little too plain. It needed a bit of "furniture jewelry" to give it the finishing touch.

Enter nailhead trim. I had never used this before, but I picked up this set at Joann Fabrics using a 50% coupon. It is sooooo easy to work with. You only have to add the tacks every so often to hold the strips of trim on. Much easier than just using only tacks.

I think it took me 10 minutes to add all the trim around the ottoman. When I reached all the way around the top and bottom, it was very easy to just twist the metal trim back and forth until it snapped. No cutting even required.

I think it looks much more sophisticated with the trim to give it that final polish.

Birthday Freebies

2010-02-11T20:24:00.000-06:00

My birthday was last week and one great thing about having a birthday is all the free stuff you can get. I'm not just talking about gifts from friends and relatives, but gifts from many restaurants. So I though I'd share the best restaurants with birthday clubs you can sign up for online and get free stuff/coupons. Most places will e-mail you the coupons a week before your birthday and they are good until a week after your birthday, so you have 2 weeks to fill up on free food. After all the eating out we've been doing the past couple weeks, I may need to up my workout routine! (Birthday calories don't really count though, right?

Red Robin-free gourmet burger. They will also sometimes give you a free ice cream sundae when they find out it's your birthday. The Whiskey River BBQ burger is my favorite. Onion straws and barbeque sauce, pure awesomeness.

Houlihan's-free entree. This is a great one because their food is soooo good, but a little pricey. I always get the stuffed chicken that I normally wouldn't pay $16 for, but it's great when it's free!

Noodles and Company- free dish. I love the buttered egg noodles with parmesan chicken. Yum. They also send other coupons out occasionally.

Ruby Tuesday- free burger coupon. They also send out buy one, get one free coupons on a regular basis.

Cold Stone Creamery-free like it sized ice cream + mix in. Good luck choosing a flavor.

Maggie Moos-free ice cream cone. And this is a massive ice cream cone, great for sharing. They also recently sent a coupon for a free milkshake. Also big enough to share. Cheesecake ice cream + snickers = perfect bliss

Sonic - free tator tots, cream slush, or drink

Culver's - free sundae. If you are tired of ice cream by now, this is custard so it's different. Just remember birthday calories don't count.

Fazoli's- free dessert

Chili's - yet another free dessert

Logan's Roadhouse- you guessed it, more free dessert!

Those are the best freebies, here is a loooong list of BIRTHDAY FREEBIES from STLMommy of all the places offering coupons for $$ off, free dessert, free appetizers, or free kid's meals. Happy eating!

Home Goods Goodies

2010-02-10T19:42:00.001-06:00

Our nearest Home Goods store is over 30 miles away. I really wish they would open one up closer, because I really enjoy shopping there. They have so many fun things and all at cheap prices. During a recent trip there, I picked up several fun items that I thought I would share.

The first item that ended up in my cart was this pretty little bowl. It was in the clearance section for $3. I can always use decorative bowls to try and contain clutter. I love the intricate design in the center.

My next find was this hanging lantern. The bottom unscrews and can hold a candle. I probably will just set it somewhere as opposed to hanging it. Mr. Delighful Dwelling thought it was weird looking and just didn't get it. I'm sure my blog readers will understand its hidden beauty though. Or am I just crazy for liking it?

One of my favorite finds of the day was this $6 vase. It goes perfectly in my kitchen and looks so pretty holding fresh flowers.

That vase is resting on my final purchase of the day, the table runner. The gorgeous detail of the design and the neutral colors really caught my eye. It is also just plain on the back so I can always flip it over if I decide the pattern looks too busy. Now I just need a crisp, white table underneath instead of my yellowish oak table. I'm keeping my eyes open for one at the local thrift stores for a round table because I think it would look better and work much nicer in the space than the rectangle table I have now.

Valentine's Day Crafts and Decor

2010-02-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

I don't normally decorate for Valentine's Day. It just doesn't have quite the excitement as decorating for other big holidays like Christmas. Mr. Delightful and I don't even really officially celebrate Valentine's Day or give each other gifts on February 14. However, I kept seeing all the cute and fun craft projects that other bloggers were creating for this day of love. After I decorated the "love mailbox", I was inspired to keep the heart filled projects going.

Armed with my crafting BFF, Mr. Cricut and I quickly whipped up a few little projects to spread a little romance and fun throughout the house.

Emma also "helped" as you can see here. I think I have to add "craft assistant" or "paperweight" to my post about Decorating with Cats.

The first project involved something to dress up the front door. I had the wreath I picked up on clearance from Target hanging on the door. It was looking a little lonely so I used the Storybook cartridge to cut out a heart with the Cricut. I used some ribbon to attach the paper heart to the wreath. I think it looks quite festive now.

I continued to rummage through my scrapbook paper scrap paper stash (say that ten times fast.) I picked out some coordinating paper scraps to create a little art project. I once again utilized the power of the Cricut to cut out another intricate heart and some letters to spell out a familiar Valentine's Day phrase. I created the lace border on the lighter colored paper using a Martha Stewart border punch. The frame is one I spray painted last year and used at Christmas to display the bird art I created then.

Here's how it looks on the mantel.

I had another frame leftover from Christmas crafting that was just waiting to be filled. I used some more paper scraps and one more Cricut heart to make this little art scene to display in the dining room.

My final art project of the day is a little romantic project courtesey of Martha Stewart and cupid. I used this template from her website to print out a fun little craft. It requires some cutting and assembly, but it makes a cute spinning wheel that rotates to show different phrases. The photo below displays the saying "you are my" followed by a picture of a sunshine if you look at the box across from it.

So now our home has a few simple touches to reflect on our love for each other.

Kreativ Blogger Award

2010-02-07T20:36:00.000-06:00

Julie at Growing Your Grass Greener was so kind as to award me with the Kreativ Blogger award. Thanks so much for the honor!

As part of accepting the award, I am supposed to list 5 things about me that others may not know and pass the award on to 5 other bloggers. So I guess it's time for me to open up and spill some of my deep, dark, secrets. Ok, I don't really have any, but here's what I came up with:

1. I started dating my husband when I was only 17.

2. I don't really like chocolate all that much. (That's the shocker one!) I can only handle it in very small doses and I'd rather have a bowl of fruit instead. Please don't hate me!

3. I have a weird fear of heights. I can handle being way up in the mountains and driving along a narrow road with no guardrail, but if I get above the second step on a ladder I get freaked out.

4. I scored a 33 out of 36 on my ACT in high school. Not to brag or anything. Hope you still like me after confessing that and my feelings on chocolate.

5. I was in colorguard all through high school so I guess you could call me a band geek. Even though I can't play a note, I can twirl a flag.

And now to pass along the award. I'm awarding it to five blogs I recently discovered:

1. Domestically Yours for her Pottery Barn inspired pillows
2. Thrifty Little Blog for her budget friendly room transformations.
3. The Domestic Chick for her fun Valentine's Day decor.
4. Old and Wiser for her kitchen soffit update.
5. Smashed Peas and Carrots for her Valentine's Day wreath tutorial. (Extra bonus for the blog name!)

Decorating with Cats

2010-02-05T09:22:00.001-06:00

If you have kids, you know that decorating with them in mind brings about it's own set of challenges. You have to take care with breakables, make sure everything is washable, and watch out for things that are easily knocked over or swallowed, depending on their age group.

Well, decorating with pets brings about some similar issues. My dog will eat anything that's on the ground. My cats can scale to any height and knock anything onto the ground. Which the dog can then eat once it hits ground level. However, the cats can also act as "household helpers" in certain special situations.

Fur Duster(as opposed to a feather duster)-If you need to dust in high places, just send the cat up there. She will clean out all the dust bunnies from the nooks and crannies.

Wreath Sizer- Cats can let you know if your wreath requires more flowers or other ornamentation. You can also know that it's not too full if your cat can still sit inside it.

Ribbon Catcher-Just in case you drop your ribbon while working on a project, don't worry. A cat helper will be there to catch it for you. Just make sure to get it away from them quickly as they play the "finders keepers" game.

Fabric Inspector-Cats are also very capable of telling you if your fabric is the proper color and if it is durable enough. If it can survive cat claws and either repels or camouflages cat fur then you know you have a winner.

Christmas Tree Decorator-Now if only they would learn to string the lights.

Curtain Tester-Cats will be glad to show just how sheer your curtains are. Therefore, you can immediately know how much light will travel through the curtains even if you hang them after dark. I think he is also telling me here that my curtains are too short, oops!

Plumber-Although I think in this case he is the one causing the clog.

Basket Checker- This basket will officially hold at least one cat with room to spare. That makes it big enough for all your storage needs.

Decision Maker-You weren't really thinking of returning that comforter, right? That would mean putting it back in this plastic bag and the cat already filled it with cat fur and claimed it as hers. Guess you are keeping that comforter then. You really wanted it anyway, you just didn't like the price so much.

Search and Rescue- Are you trying to put that piece of furniture together, but seem to missing an important piece? You can send your cats to the very bottom of the box to hunt for that last missing screw.

Management- Cats can remind you not to spend too much time blogging or decorating that you neglect your other duties. The laundry does need to be put away someday.

Life Coach- Most of all cats can remind you that spending time and effort decorating or fixing up your house is important to you because you want a cozy, happy home that is your own special haven.

No More Ugly Cords

2010-02-03T19:47:00.001-06:00

After we completed our office makeover, I still wasn't totally satisfied. While I liked the simple desk we built and stained, I was not so crazy about all the computer cords, storage unit, and paper shredder that were all in plain view. Not so delightful.

Luckily, it was a super easy fix. First I picked up a package of stick on velcro. I think it cost around $4 and one package was just the right amount for my 48" long desk. (Hammer not required. Dinner at Red Robin a nice incentive though.)

I attached one side of the velcro strip to the underside of the desk.

Then I attached the other half of the velcro strip to a length of fabric. This was another clearance find at Joanns Fabrics. I think I paid $5 for this one. The fabric is 54" wide so one yard was perfect. I used fabric glue to make a fake hem on the bottom. I didn't care about the top being perfectly straight because it wouldn't show. A kitty helper to hold down your fabric is optional for this part.

Finally, it was as simple as meeting the two velcro halves together to create a nice table skirt. I think it looks much cleaner without all the chord chaos.

I could have stuck the velcro around the outer edge of the desk, but I didn't want to hide the desk legs. They were too expensive to hide.

I made it a little too long, oops. I might need to "fake hem" the bottom again. Anything is better than a mess of cords though.

Sending My Love

2010-02-01T20:57:00.000-06:00

With Valentine's Day approaching in a few weeks, I figured it was time for a little romantic project. I'm always looking for cute and creative ways to share my feelings with my husband. I decided to create a darling "love mailbox" to use as a spot to leave sweet love notes, chocolates, or other small romantic gifts. Here's how it turned out.

The mailbox was a dollar spot find at Target. They have them every year around Valentine's Day. I had always wanted to decorate one and this year I finally got around to it. It started out plain white with a red flag.

A little Heirloom White paint covered up that bright red flag. I don't have any red decor in the house and I wanted a softer look to the mailbox. My spray paint job isn't the best, but it was 20 degrees outside so I did the spray painting inside. I had to do it quick before Mr. Delightful Dwelling found out I was spray painting in the house! I used scrapbook paper, ribbon, and other embelishments that I already had. The heart shape was cut using my Cricut. That made the total cost of this project just one little dollar.

A $4 Bouquet Goes a Long Way

2010-01-31T19:54:00.001-06:00

I love fresh flowers. They just really add the final spark and freshness to a room. They aren't usually in the budget, so I probably only get a couple bouquets a year. I was feeling a little bit of the winter blahs this weekend and too impatient for spring. So I picked up this lovely bouquet at the local discount club for $3.87.

It was so large that I was able to spread it around to two different rooms. Flowers just make me smile.

Sometimes $4 can really go a long way. I may have to pick up discount bouquets more often. Or drop more hints to Mr. Delightful Dwelling that pretty flowers = happy wife.

My Cat Needs a Shrink

2010-01-28T18:18:00.001-06:00

I have two cats. One of them is very inquistive and a bit eccentric, but for the most part a normal cat. Then there is Emma. We aren't sure what exactly happened to her in her previous life because she was a stray. Maybe she was deprived of oxygen at birth or maybe she suffers from abandonment issues from being in a shelter, but either way she is an odd animal.

Her first major issue is her obsession with all things plastic. In fact, she likes to eat plastic and we have to make sure no grocery bags, newpaper sleeves, or ziploc bags are left unattended. She has even consummed an entire Wal-Mart bag and then thrown it back up over the course of a couple days. Even plastic drop cloths aren't safe from her, because she likes to crawl underneath them. Maybe this is where the oxygen deprivation began.

Her latest issue is that she has decided to pull out her fur. She has soft, beautiful fur, but all along her sides, tummy, legs, and tail she has bald spots where she has been pulling out her fur. Apparently, this is common for cats to do when stressed. Now when she walks she looks like a scrawny rat. You can see her big bald patch on her side.

She did suffer from a recent bladder infection and was on antibiotics. That is the only thing we can figure out would have her remotely stressed. She still eats fine and acts completely normal otherwise. (Or normal for Emma anyway.) I wouldn't think sleeping 16 hours a day and having your meals hand delivered would be a stressful life, but who knows.

Maybe she had too much sun.

Maybe she was mad that we went on vacation without her.

Maybe she needs a chiropractor.

Maybe she doesn't like my taste in shoes.

Maybe she had a run in with the Big, Bad Wolf while dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.

Maybe my dining room chairs bring back flashbacks of living in a cage at the Humane Society.

If there are any cat whisperers out there, please share your advice. If there are no cat whisperers, you can just share your amusing pet stories. I would love to hear them.

My Dining Room Through the Years

2010-01-27T18:31:00.000-06:00

All of the rooms in our house have changed so much since we first moved in almost six years ago. I wanted to do several posts about how each room evolved and how the rooms ended up looking the way they did now. I thought it would be interesting to share how my decorating styles have changed. It also shows how much making your home a cozy sanctuary is a continous process that happens gradually over time.

Here's how our dining room looked with the sellers' stuff in it when we first toured the house. All the previous owners must have had a fear of color, because every single room in our house was the original white paint from when the house was built in 1994.

We spent the first week of home ownership painting like crazy. Here's how our dining room looked for the next few years while I was in my "sage and burgundy" phase.

I decided that I no longer liked the rug, it was just too dark and busy. I think we only paid around $20 for it at Garden Ridge so it wasn't a big deal to send it packing to Goodwill. I also added a different table runner from Target to change things up a bit.

Then when last fall came around, I added some mini pumpkins and gourds along with a latern to dress
things up a bit and bring in some color. I also added some pillows the head chairs.

Next came Thanksgiving. I added some more fall decorations and candles to create a nice tablescape for the brunch we host on the holiday.

Around the same time, I also switched out the wall art to add paintings created by my brother-in-law and my very own Mr.Delightful Dwelling. You can also see the light fixture we purchased to replace the brass one that came with the house. I also decided it was time to ditch the fake tree from the corner and moved our antique radio into that spot. That allowed me to turn the table at an angle. In this photo, it has the leaf in the middle so it is longer than normal.

When I discovered this mirror at Old Time Pottery, I knew I had a new focal point for this wall. I love how it bounces light around the room by reflecting the light that streams in from the patio doors. And at $29 it was a far cry from the $199 Ballard Designs version. I moved an ottamon from the living room to sit under the mirror and added some pillows to create a small seating area.

Then it was time to break out all the glitter and gorgeousness for Christmas. I added silver painted pinecones, candles, and ornaments for a festive arrangement. Snowflakes dangled from the light and my handcrafted ornament wreath was displayed over the doors to the deck.

Now that Christmas is past, here's how my dining room looks with the $3 table runner I posted about the other day, a vase from Sears, and some silk flowers.

While this room has come a long way from the blank slate we started with, it will continue to change over time and with the seasons. That is part of what makes decorating so fun, you are never done!

My $3 Table Runner

2010-01-25T20:13:00.000-06:00

My dining room was all decked out in holiday finery for the Christmas season with sparkling candles, pinecones, and ornaments. Now that all the Christmas decorations were put away, I needed some way to spruce up the table so it was not just a big, boring sea of wood.

I searched through all the stores, but I just couldn't find a table runner that I liked at a price I wanted to pay. I finally decided that I should just create my own, even though I don't sew a stitch. So I headed to Joanns Fabrics and thanks to the extra 50% discount on red tag fabric, I found a green and white fabric I wanted that was reduced to $6 a yard. I picked up a half yard for three measly dollars.

I layered in on top of the white curtain that I had been using as a table runner. Then I simply hunted my ribbon stash and came up with this black and white strand of ribbon to add the final touch.

Here's a close up of the detail of the fabric. I should probably hem the sides or something at some point. For now I just used a pencil and a yard stick to draw a straight line on both sides and then cut along that line as straight as possible to get a cleaner look on the sides.

I simply let the ribbon dangle off on the sides. So far that cats have not pulled it off.

I added a vase I purchased at Sears (I love Land's End's products) and some silk flowers for a sweet and simple arrangement. So far I am loving the look and the price although I may take off the mercury glass candleholders for an even cleaner look.

Goodwill Crate & Barrel Find

2010-01-24T17:49:00.000-06:00

Remember this goodie I found at Goodwill that had the Crate & Barrel sticker still on it?

I added some fake snow (it's still winter, right?) to the bottom and stuck a votive holder inside for a simple and easy accent in the living room. I might end up moving it to a different room because the green glass gets a little lost against the green walls, but for now I'm liking it where it is.

Trimming Out a Plain Jane Mirror

2010-01-21T20:27:00.000-06:00

Part of our master bath makeover involved updating the insanely large builder grade mirror. The edges were starting to get that peely look where they start turning black and it just didn't look very finished. Using some "Mirror Edge" trim found at Lowe's, we gave it a much more custom style.

Were you wondering how we attached the trim? Well, we used this handy-dandy tape gun that was a Christmas gift to me.

It's called Glue-Glider Pro and can be purchased at Archiver's. It is something that can be used in scrapbooking and other craft projects. There are different types of adhesive refills available and according to the back of the package you can practically build a house using this stuff. I'm not kidding, the package says it can be used to "hold up drywall", "attach crown moulding", and "attach weatherstripping."

While we had a good chuckle about some of the product's suggestions for use, I do have to say that it did a very nice job holding up our trim to the mirror. Not so sure about hanging drywall or crown moulding with it!

Adding Cabinet Knobs to Vanity

2010-01-20T19:42:00.001-06:00

One way we made the original vanity in our master bathroom look more finished and elegant was by simply adding some knobs to the doors. It previously was completely naked when it came to hardware. I picked up these knobs at Home Depot for $1.79 each.

Since my doors didn't have any previous knobs, I had to drill holes for the knobs to be screwed on. You can purchase little plastic guides to use to make sure all your holes for the knobs are in the right place. I'm cheap so I just made my own guide using a scrap of carboard that had a corner. I measured on the door where I wanted my knob to be and then marked that point on the cardboard by lining up the corner of the cardboard when the corner of the door panel. I poked a hole through the cardboard where that mark was.

I then used a pencil poked through the hole to mark on each door where I wanted to drill the hole for the knob.

Then it was as simple as drilling the hole and screwing in the knob. Simple change, big impact. (And yes that is a cat in the window if you look at the reflection. She loves being in photos)

Target Clearance Finds

2010-01-19T19:14:00.000-06:00

If you haven't been to Target lately or if you are like me and try to avoid it because even though you go only for cereal and almonds you end up somehow walking out with five bags of stuff and an empty wallet, you might just want to check out the ends of some of the aisles. Both of the Target stores in my area (yes, I'm blessed with two that are less than 10 minutes away) have several great items drastically reduced. I just happened to have a couple giftcards from Christmas so I picked up several items that I had been eyeing at the store for awhile.

My first find was this charging station. We are not really that into all the little technological gagets, but I did want something to corral all the cords for our cell phones and MP3 players. One Target store had all of these marked down to 50% while the other store had them only reduced 30%. Luckily, I found this at the first Target where they were cheaper.

I didn't have a jewelry box and I was tired of my necklaces ended up all tangled in the tiny round box I had been keeping them in. So when I spied this mirrored box for only $9.98 I snapped it up. They had several different kinds of jewelry boxes in a variety of colors and sizes. Even if you don't need one, this would make a great gift. I'm sure I'll have to clean the fingerprints off the drawers all the time, but who cares when it looks so pretty.

Another great section on clearance were the photo frames. They were reduced 75% off! I bought one for $2.74 and the others for $3.74. I already used one of the frames on the right in our master bathroom.

Besides the items I purchased, they also had many bedding sets and pillows reduced up to 50%. Check out the end of each aisle, that's usually were the bargain goodies are hiding. So if you are wanting any of these items, hurry to Target and see if your store has any great deals.

Installing Peel and Stick Tile

2010-01-18T20:08:00.000-06:00

So if your flooring looks like this:

And you would like something more like this:

But you don't have the time or budget for a major floor redo, one quick and inexpensive option is to use peel and stick vinyl tiles like we used for our bathroom makeover. These tiles have come a long way from what they used to be. There are many options to chose from in a wide variety of colors and styles. You can even buy ones that have grout lines to make them look more like a real tile floor. Here's some simple tips and tricks and the general how-tos on how to quickly and easily change your floor.

1. Measure your space.

This ties in with step #2. You need to make sure you buy the correct amount of tile for your space. Allow for at least 10% extra to account for mistakes and miscuts. Trust me, we had plenty of those. We purchased two boxes of 12x12 tiles and each box had 30 square feet. We have a lot of tile left over, but one box would not have been enough.

2. Choose your tile.

We purchased our tile from Home Depot. Most home improvement stores carry several different brands and sytles of vinyl tiles. Whether you want something that looks like tile, stone, or wood, you can usually buy individual tiles for around $1 each to take home and view in your room. I picked out our tile in the store without even bringing home a test tile first. I saw the mix of browns in the tile and knew it was the perfect choice to blend well with our dark brown vanity and soft tan walls. I believe the color is called "beige slate."

Make sure you look at the numbers on the box to buy all boxes from the same batch. The back of the box should tell you what numbers to look for. This ensures that the colors will all match. It is usually recommded by the manufacturer to put your tiles in the room they will be installed in for 48 hours to acclimate them.

3. Prepare your floors.

For our space, we were applying the tile directly over the existing vinyl floor. You can do this as long as the flooring isn't curling up or heavily damaged. It must be firmly attached to the subfloor. You want a smooth, level surface to apply the tiles.

Begin by removing the baseboards. You could skip this step if you wanted to just apply the tiles tight to the baseboard edges. However, that would mean a lot more cutting and making sure your cuts are more precise. We removed the baseboard, although we never manage to get all the pieces out fully intact. Our baseboards are so thin that they usually end up splitting.

Use an undercut saw to cut off the bottom of your door jambs. Do this by laying a piece of tile against the door jamb so you know the thickness to cut off. This allows you to easily slide the tile under the door jamb when installing the tile.

Next, if you are in a bathroom, remove any existing caulk around the edges of your flooring or where the flooring meets the tub or shower. I used a utility knife and a flat head screwdriver to scrape out all the caulk.

If you are working in a bathroom, remove the toliet. I lost the arguement with Mr. Delightful Dwelling on taking out the toliet. I should have been more insistant that we remove it first. It would have made the job much easier in the long run because cutting tile to fit around a toliet is a major pain.

The final step in preparing your floors is to get them very clean. Sweep up any debris and mop the floors throughly. You want a nice, clean surface so the adhesive will stick.

4. Find your starting place.

The best way is to measure each set of walls and find the exact center of the room to start at. Use a chalk line to snap a line between each set of walls to find the center point. Since we were working with such a small space, we laid out several rows of tiles to find out the best starting place. You want to find the best layout that will put all the cuts at the walls and the full tiles in the center of the room. You also want to try to minimize the number of cuts you will have to make. Even if you are in a large room, it would help to layout several rows to find the arragement that works the best. For us, we started at the doorway with the tiles centered left to right if you were standing in the doorway..

5. Lay them down.

Begin to lay down the first of your tiles. You want to place each tile tight against the previous one for a nice fit. If you have a flooring roller to further press the tiles down, that is a plus.

6. Make the cut.

Once you get all the full tiles in, it's time to start cutting. Measure very carefully to get as tight as a cut as possible. We had to cut every tile against our vanity at a slight angle because it wasn't straight. To cut an edge tile, first lay the tile to be cut directly on top of the last row of full tiles. Then place another full tile up against the wall so it overlaps the loose tile. Using the second loose tile as a template, mark the line to be cut on the first loose tile.

A utility knife and a straight edge are one way to cut your tiles. We started with this, but it was so hard to make a straight cut that I ended up pulling out my paper trimmer. The one I use for scrapbooking. Mr. Delightful doubted that it would work, but it actually worked very well. I was able to use the guide and the blade to score each tile and then snap it.

It also worked well for some of the tricky cuts like around the wall dividing the shower from the tub. It may be helpful to use sheets of paper to first make a template of how the tile needs to be cut to go around plumbing or other weird shaped obstacles. Like around the toliet your husband wouldn't let you take out and required a lot of trial and error to get tiles to fit around it.

7. Finishing Touches

Once you have all the tile in, it's time to finish up by reinstalling the baseboard using a nail gun or nail set to drive the finishing nails below the surface of the trim. Fill in and touch up any nail holes. I always paint my trim first before installing it, I think it is much easier. Apply caulk using these tips for a pretty caulk line. I applied caulk all around the top edge of the trim to give it a crisp finish against the walls (which aren't perfectly even) as well as a line at the bottom of the baseboard next to the floor. I think it gives it a cleaner and more finished look.

8. Stand back and admire your new floor!

If you are thinking of installing laminate instead of vinyl tiles, I have some tips on that to because we used it in our hall bathroom makeover. See the laminate tips here.

Goodwill Finds

2010-01-17T19:38:00.001-06:00

I picked up several goodies at Goodwill recently that I thought I'd share. Goodwill has been really hit or miss lately, but I finally stumbled across a few good finds.

First I grabbed two of these silver platters for $1. I think I see some chalkboard paint in their future. Another message board perhaps?

This little candleholder I snagged for $2. It still has the original Crate & Barrel sticker on the bottom. I have never been to a Crate & Barrel, but I'm sure this sucker originally cost much more.

These keys may look a bit gaudy now in gold, but I think some Heirloom White paint can fix that. Or should I go for the oil-rubbed bronze? I'll have to figure it out when the weather finally cooperates for spray painting.

Anyone else find any thrifty goodies lately?

It could have been much worse...

2010-01-14T20:02:00.002-06:00

While the pre-makeover state of our bathroom was a little dated and boring, it wasn't really that horrible. Nothing to give you chills or nightmares. All the basics were there and our house is only 15 years old, it just needed a little "tweaking" to become the bathroom that I now love.

Bathroom before:

It could have been far, far worse. If you have not seen this amazing bathroom transformation on the blog Fly Through Our Window, you have to check it out. Be prepared, this room just might frighten small children and anyone with a sense of style. Are you ready? Take a deep breath, put down your food and swallow first if you are eating anything and look at what they started with:

Are you still there or did you pass out or run screaming from the computer? I didn't even know they made sinks that color. Not to mention the wallpaper. And the curtains. And pretty much everything else. But Darby, the blogger, was on a budget and was able to whip up some makeover magic by working with the orange counter to make the room classy and elegant. After some wallpaper removal and the addition of some gorgeous fabric, paint, and accessories the room turned out like this:

Amazing, isn't it? So if you think some area is your house is just beyond hope, or you don't have the budget for major renovation, just remember that you can work with what you have. If you have crazy colored tile or a counter that's not your style, look for what you can change. Can you paint the vanity? Can you rip down the wallpaper? Can you find a pretty shower curtain to hide the ugly tile on your shower walls? Can you buy a new accent rug to cover up that worn floor? Sometimes the simple changes can add up to a big impact. Don't get discouraged by what you can't change and concentrate on what you can.

Towel Hook How-To

2010-01-13T20:29:00.000-06:00

I promised to show how I made this towel rack for our master bathroom makeover and I'm back to show just how I put this thing together.

First the supplies:
-Scrap piece of lumber. I used a piece of 2x8 cut down to about 22" long.
-Mod Podge
-Primer (if using bare wood)
-Paint
-Hooks (Mine were less than $4 each at Lowe's)
-Graphic to add to center

The graphic I chose I found on The Graphic Fairy. If you have not been the Graphic Fairy blog you must see it. You could spend hours looking through all the wonderful graphics and crafts she has posted.

My graphic is from an old French soap label and says "Natural Soap, against all diseases of the skin." I had to use an online translator for that. My French teacher would be so disappointed. I liked the antique look, the shape and size of the label were perfect, and everything just looks more elegant when written in French.

So first I primed and painted the front and sides of the board. I didn't bother with the back. Then I copied the graphic into Word and blew it up to the size I wanted. I printed it out on regular printer paper. I used my paper trimmer and scissors to cut out the shape and centered it over the board.

Next it was time to break out the Mod Podge. I hadn't used Mod Podge in probably 10 years or so. I chose the matte finish because I didn't really want it to be shiny. I used some Mod Podge to adhere the label and then applied several coats over the label and the entire board. Some of the ink smeared a bit, but I figured it just gave it more character. I wasn't going for perfection here, but something aged and worn looking. Or at least I'll pretend that's what I was going for.

Once everything dried it was time to attach the hooks. I had to be careful attaching the screws with the hooks because they were longer than the thickness of the board and I didn't want the screws to go all the way through yet. So I put the hooks on most of the way without fully pushing the screws through all the way until it was mounted on the wall.

It was finally time to hang the board on the wall. I used my fancy new stud finder to find the location of the stud in the wall. Then I used two screws directly into the stud to hold it on tight. I wanted it to be strong enough to carry the weight of those wet towels without pulling off the wall like our old towel bar did. Three times to be exact.
I used spackle and paint to cover over the screws. Wood putty would probably have been better because of the size of the holes, but my wood filler was all dried up in the tube. I do have an idea to cover up the screw holes though. I will post about that when I find time to complete that little project.

Once the screws were in the studs, I simply tighted the screws that held the hooks into the board and it was all set to go. Tres beau! J'adore!

Mini-Blinds Transformed into a Roman Shade

2010-01-12T21:13:00.001-06:00

I showed off this roman shade that I made for our master bathroom makeover using fabric and an inexpensive plastic blinds. The idea was originally featured on Little Green Notebook and I also saw a version on A Penny Saved blog. It's not a difficult project, but it takes a bit of time. Mine was a bit trickey just because of the wide width of my window. Here's the rundown how I created my version.

The materials you need are:

-mini blinds to fit your window.

-fabric slightly wider and longer than your blinds.

-Fabric glue. The tutorial says not to use hot glue. I'm not sure why, but I was scared away from the hot glue so I bought fabric glue.

- A tape measure

-Scissors

-A flat head screwdriver may be needed

My window is a goofy size, 47" wide. I finally found blinds that size at Lowe's for only $11. I used 54" decorator fabric from Joann's. It was originally around $25 a yard (yikes!), but I ended up getting it for under $6 a yard on clearance combined with an additonal sale on clearance fabric combined with an extra discount coupon for 10% off everything. I used about a yard and a half for my window which is 45" tall. I wish now that I had bought more of the fabric because I ended up liking it so much!

First begin by lowering the blinds all the way and laying them out flat.

Next you want to cut all the little, thin tilt strings around each blind slat. My wide blinds had 5 sets of these. I was able to run scissors along them and cut them pretty quickly because they are so thin. Do not cut the thicker, lift strings! You will need these for the blinds to work.

After cutting all the tilt strings, remove them and the strings that the tilt strings are attached too. Again, do not cut the larger lift strings. You should only have the thicker lift strings left. Then you want to pop off the little plastic circles at the bottom in order to get out the end of the lift strings, unknot them, and pull off the bottom thicker slat. Save this piece, you will need it again.

Remove and discard all the other slats, leaving only those left that you want to use for the folds in your shade. I decided to only use 3 middle slats because my window is not very tall. Therefore, my shade will have 3 folds in it spaced slightly over 11" apart. If you have a taller window, or want your folds smaller and closer together, than you would leave more slats left on the strings.

You should end up with something like this. Again,I left only three slats on the strings for mine.

Use the tape measure to line up your slats so they are evenly spaced. Mine are spaced just over 11" because 11" x 4 spaced=44" and I wanted my shade right around 45" tall. You will want to cut your lift strings down to only a few inches longer than the length you want your shade to be. Your shade should be about the length of your window or slightly longer. Reinstall the bottom, thicker slat piece.

Now you are ready for your fabric. Lay out the fabric face down and place your blinds on top. I put my blinds so the pull cord was facing up, but it probably doesn't really matter. Cut around the fabric, leaving a couple inches on each side.

Now it's time to glue. First fold over the top of the fabric so that you have a nice crisp seam and glue. Then glue the top of the blinds on top of this fabric. You want the crisp seam to line up with the top edge of the blinds. Do not glue the very ends (left and right side) to the fabric though, leave about 2"-3" loose and not attached to the top bar so that you can reinstall the blinds later. (See the tutorial at Little Green Notebook for more info. on the gluing process since I didn't take as many photos as I should have!)

Next glue your slats down to the fabric. I put them so that the rounded side was against the fabric so that the glue and the slats had the most contact with the fabric.

Then fold the sides in and glue those down. Finally, fold up the bottom and glue it to the bottom slat piece. I ran out of fabric glue so I did use hot glue on the very bottom piece. It worked fine. If you have a kitty to help you hold down the edges while gluing, that can be a help too. Or a hindrance when they try to eat the strings.

After letting everything dry for a few hours, you can install the blinds just like regular mini blinds. You then may want to use glue or double stick tape to attach the ends of the fabric to the mounting brackets on the ends of the blinds. (See the post on a Penny Saved for more detailed info on this part.)

Here's how my blinds look when they are completely down. (I made them a little bit short, oops!) You use the pull cord just like you would with the regular blinds to raise and lower the shade.

It probably sounds a bit complicated, but it only took me an hour or so and I love the result. I will be trying this in another room sometime soon.

Master Bathroom Makeover Revealed

2010-01-11T18:23:00.002-06:00

Want to see what we accomplished in the past week?

Compared to how it looked like to begin with:

The messy before:

The spa-like after:

From builder grade:

To "is this really my bathroom?"

And now for the overview of what we did. I poster earlier about how I painted the vanity and changed out the light fixture and faucets with help from Mr. Delightful Dwelling. The walls are Behr Oat Straw which I also used in our home office. I also added new knobs to the vanity doors and we added trim around the gigantic mirror. We planned on using regular moulding cut to fit and painted to match the vanity until we discovered this trim called "Mirror Edge" on clearance at Lowe's. It just happened to be the right color and the pieces were even the perfect length that exactly matched our mirror.

We used vinyl peel and stick flooring to cover the stained and scratched white sheet vinyl we had. The pattern is called beige slate and we purchased it at Home Depot. I will have an upcoming post dedicated to tips on laying vinyl floor tiles. They are a cheap and easy fix to hide an ugly floor.

This metal shelf thing was given to me by my MIL. It was originally a dark color, but I sprayed it with some Heirloom White. Now it holds extra towels and q-tips.

I made this towel holder using scrap lumber and hooks from Lowe's. I'll have a post about how I made it coming up later this week.

I shopped around our house looking for accessories to use and came up with a mirror, starfish, and vases I bought from IKEA over the summer.

This bowl was a 70% off find at Kohl's. I use it to hold my makeup and moisturizer. I'm a pretty simple girl when it comes to cosmetics. Foundation, blush, mascara, and chapstick are all I need.

A jar I bought last year at Gordman's holds my Olay Daily Facial cloths.

I bought some soap pumps at T.J.Maxx and filled them with my shampoo and conditioner. They are much prettier than having plastic bottles in bright colors scattered about. Everything sits on a plate I picked up at Marshall's. The mercury glass votive holder is part of a set that is also from Marshall's.

I made my own roman shade using fabric and a cheap plastic mini blind as inspired by The Little Green Notebook. Upcoming post to follow later this week on the how-to and tips.

I added a piece of framed art I found on clearance at Old Time Pottery.

I'm a little unsure about the diamond tins on the wall. They can hang either as a diamond as shown or tilted the other way so they hang like a square straight up and down. Should they stay or go? Or be moved in a line up or down?

I'm still amazed when I go into the room because it feels like completely different bathroom and we made all the changes in just over a week and on a small budget. This is by far my favorite room makeover in our home.

Here's the cost breakdown:

Flooring: 2 boxes @ $33 each = $66 (Home Depot)
Light above vanity = $98 (Lowe's)
Ceiling Mount light (you can barely see it in the first photo)= $10 (Home Depot)
Trim around mirror= $15 (Lowe's)
Knobs on vanity= 4 @ $1.79= $7.16 (Home Depot)
Faucets= 2 @ $29 (these are now only $25 at Home Depot) = $58
Bathroom Rugs = $14.99 (T.J. Maxx)
Soap Pumps, bowl = $4.99 x 2=$9.98 (T.J. Maxx), $2.29 (Kohl's)
Wall Paint, Behr Oat Straw=$32 (Home Depot)
Toliet Paper Holder and Hand Towel Holder = $18 (Home Depot)
Robe Hook= $4 (Home Depot)
Towel Hooks =$3.79 x 2= $7.58
Trim = $12 (Lowe's)
Vent Register Cover = $12 (Lowe's)
Frame and artwork= $3.74 for clearance frame (Target) $11 for clearance art (Old Time Pottery)
Blinds=$11 (Lowe's)
Fabric=$12 (Joann's)

Grand Total: $404.75
We seem to be spending right around $400 in every single room we makeover. We had giftcards that covered over $200 of the project so our out of pocket cost was really not that high. All the other accessories that I didn't list a price for were things I already had on hand.

Metamorphosis Monday

You Have to See This Blog!

2010-01-10T20:10:00.004-06:00

I stumbled across one of the more unique and amazing blogs I have seen recently. Which is saying a lot with all the wonderful blogs out there. The blog I discovered is called Knock-Off Wood. The blogger, Ana, shows how to make gorgeous furniture that is a knock-off of pricey pieces from places such as Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware.

My jaw kept dropping as I browsed through the many posts showcasing a wide variety of furniture plans from dining tables to bookcases to beds. She posts actual, easy to follow plans that tell you all the sizes and types of lumber and other materials you need to build your very own furniture. I have looked online for plans to build things before and had little luck finding anything that was either free or easy. Ana's blog supplies you with both and her talent will amaze you.

Are you in love with the canopy on this Pottery Barn bed, but not so in love with the price?

Ana has the plans for how to build your own canopy for only $20 and a little elbow grease She also shows how to make you own Pottery Barn style bed in different sizes and styles.

I already have picked out several projects that I can't wait to attempt when the weather warms up. I think I'll start with this Pottery Barn side table because it looks like one of easiest projects to tackle first.

And I am really itching to build this Pottery Barn bench to use by door from our garage to hold all our shoes.

So you have to go over and check out this blog. I will post about any projects I make with her plans. I do have some power tools on my birthday list this year! Be sure to enter her giveaway for a $25 Lowe's giftcard, enter quickly because it ends soon!

Master Bathroom-Painted Vanity

2010-01-06T21:11:00.000-06:00

I'm running a little behind on blogging this week. Each evening after work, we start trying to wrap up the final projects so we can have our master bathroom back.

One of the several projects that I tackled in this bathroom was to paint the vanity because replacing it wasn't in the budget. I had done this already in our hall bathroom so I already had the routine down.

First I started with some Kilz primer and my free Glidden paint from one of their paint promotions a couple months ago. The paint color is Bittersweet Chocolate. For the hall bath, I did first lightly sand the vanity and doors. I skipped that step this time because the doors aren't really shiny and I was feeling a bit lazy.

The primer I used was waterbasesd, because that's what I had on hand. For the hall bathroom, I used oil-based primer. While the oil-based is harder to work with(don't even bother trying to clean your brushes after using it, just toss them) I do think it works a bit better. I had yellow and orange stain poking through my first coat of primer this time. That was not the case when I used the oil base primer. I've also had some chipping happening on the side of the vanity. This is on the part that is not wood, but that shiny laminate stuff. I did not have any issues for the hall bath with the oil primer. So I would recommend using the oil-based to give you paint a better sticking surface.

I did all my priming and painting in the bathroom. I simply spread out drop cloths and set the vanity doors up all around the bathroom. I wanted to be able to close off the door so that I could keep the kitties from trying to "help" with my painting activities.

The Glidden Bittersweet Chocolate ended up not being dark enough for me. Unlike the French Chocolate paint by Glidden that I tried to use for the hall bath, this paint shade was not purple! I just mixed in some black paint I already had until it was the right shade of deep, dark brown that I was after.

I just wanted to hurry and get the painting done, so I was slacking on my photo taking of the process. I also don't want to reveal too much before I get to show off the final "after" photos of the room. You can see a glimpse of the new paint color on the vanity at the bottom of the photo.

That wraps up the painting of the vanity. I will devote another post to the flooring we used and then the last post will be the big reveal!

DIY Projects 2009 Recap

2010-01-04T21:17:00.001-06:00

With the new year starting, I wanted to do a recap of the various projects we completed in 2009. I first started my blog in May so these are different DIY accomplishments in each room I posted about in my first half year of blogging. I might do a second post to recap some of the various individual projects that took place, but here is a rundown on how the rooms started and ended 2009.

The Outside

First we started with giving the front of our house a bit of a facelift.

It went from this slightly dated before:

To this spruced up after:

The project involved painting the vinyl shutters, spray painting the exterior lights, and adding a coat of Behr Sly Fox to the front door. New house numbers and some trimming of the bushes completed the look.

The Living Room

I also completed several small projects in the living room including adding new curtains, pillows, and other accessories. A new furniture arrangement was the final piece of the transformation puzzle.

The before:

And the after:

Hall Bathroom

The next major room makeover happened in our hall bathroom. The original lighting, vanity, and flooring were pretty dated and boring.

So we added new laminate flooring, painted the vanity, added a coat of paint to the walls, installed a new light fixture, changed out the faucet, and added some new hardware and decorative touches.

The Office

Once the bathroom work was wrapped up, we turned our attention to our home office space which was a chaotic, disorganized mess.

We built our own desks, added madeover corkboards, new shelves, and a coat of paint. I scored a clearance chair at Garden Ridge to complete the look.

The Kitchen

The kitchen wasn't that bad, but I was a little tired of the yellow and blue color scheme. The light fixture over the table had been bugging me for quite sometime also.

I repainted the walls in Glidden Whisper Wheat, added new curtains, spray painted the curtain rods oil-rubbed bronze, changed out the light, and made over a Goodwill star plaque.

The Bedroom

The final room in our home that had a little updating this year was our master bedroom. It started out that I wanted to update the tired old headboard and get some new bedding because ours was starting to fall apart.

I added a creamy coat of paint to the headboard, new curtains from IKEA, lovely new beddding from Target, banished the TV and dresser from the corner, added a new ottoman, painted a chair to create a cozy nook in the corner, and spruced up some plain picture frames.

We are already hard at work at updating our master bathroom. We should have that project wrapped up by next weekend as there are only a few small details left. That will be our first room makeover to share for 2010.

Light the Way

2010-01-03T21:12:00.001-06:00

Remember this nightmare of a light fixture in our master bath?

Well, it's currently sitting in the trashcan by the curb ready for pick up day tomorrow. We ripped that dated sucker out of the wall and replaced it with a nice brushed nickel fixture to match our faucets. We picked up this beauty at Lowe's for $98. I looooove it. Already our bathroom is slowly transforming into a whole new room.

Did you notice anything else different? Perhaps the paint color? That's another project I finished this weekend. The blue paint was giving me the blues and I wanted something lighter and fresher. I used the same paint color that we used in our office makeover. The paint color is Oat Straw by Behr. It took two good coats to cover up that blue paint.

I have another painting project for this room that I will reveal later on in the week. Let's just say the vanity is no longer orangey oak anymore.

Ugly Faucets No More!

2010-01-01T16:18:00.000-06:00

Our master bathroom mini-makeover is officially underway. The first project we decided to tackle was to get rid of the nasty cheapo faucets.

We wanted to complete this project first, because how the faucets came out and went back in could determine the rest of the project. I posted in our first bathroom makeover about how our vanity top cracked while removing the old faucet. If that happened here, we would have to purchase a new vanity top. Since we have double sinks, that would add a lot of extra $$$ to the cost of the project because the two sink tops are not cheap.

While Mr. Delightful had to break out the sawzall to get the old faucets out, the vanity remained intact and undamaged. He also pulled out a large "Sara furrball" that was lodged in the pipes in the sink on my side. Oops. Guess I won't be brushing my hair over the sink anymore!

Even Emma seems to approve of the new faucets we purchased. We went with these Glacier Bay faucets from Home Depot. You can't beat the price at $25 each and I love the brushed nickel finish.

Here you can see the new faucet on the left compared with the old one on the right. Doesn't it look better already?

Hitting the After Christmas Sales

2009-12-30T21:36:00.000-06:00

Although it can be a little bit of letdown after all the fun and festivities of Christmas are over, there is one nice thing about the week after Christmas. That nice thing is the hunt for all the bargains you can find. I was given several giftcards for Christmas, including Michael's and Target. So I decided to see what goodies I could find and here is what I purchased.

Michael's had all these beautiful mercury glass style candleholders for 60% off so I had to grab a few of those. I also purchased several of these berry picks (ok, I bought all that they had) since they were only 16 cents each. I think I ended up buying 25 of them in different colors. They are so pretty I think I will try and use them year round.

Target was the next destination. I am lucky in that our Michael's and Target are right next to each other.

My first Target find was this lovely wood curl wreath. I had been admiring these wreaths at Target for awhile, but it wasn't until they were marked down to $4.98 that I finally put one in my shopping cart. I managed to pick the very last one off the rack. It is missing a couple curls that are broken off, but they are in the back so they shouldn't be too noticeable.

I also managed to buy the last one of these glittery bottle brush trees. It was only $3.50. Even though Christmas is over, I had to set him in our hall bathroom for a few days to add just a little bit of festive fun before all the decorations are packed away for next year.

My final Target Christmas clearance find was this package of ornaments. They were only $3 for 24 ornaments and I loved the different shapes and the red and white colors. I'm still hoping to put up two trees next year so I can have one that is all red and white, but we'll see.

Has anyone else found any great after Christmas bargains? I also picked up some ribbon and giftwrap, but I didn't think those were exciting enough to photograph and post.

Master Bath Revamp-The Before

2009-12-29T19:54:00.000-06:00

I posted yesterday about how we are working on a little mini makeover of our master bathroom. It is not in need of a major overhaul, just a little polishing. We may be moving next year (not sure yet) so we didn't want to do anything too expensive or put a huge amount of time into the project. We simply wanted to work mostly with what we had while changing a few details to make it feel a bit more like a true master bath. Similar to what we did in our hall bath makeover.

One corner of our bedroom is currently the staging area for all the tools and supplies we have purchased and gathered for the project. This gives you a little hint on what's to come.

But you can't share a room makeover without revealing the crucial "before" shot. I haven't posted photos of my master bathroom before because I really didn't like how it looked. Now I am posting it for the world to see all its ~~boring, blah, plain jane~~ potential.

On the list of things to fix:

1. Flooring-This is a biggie. The white vinyl flooring is 15 years old and it shows. While I do like white on almost any surface, white floors are not my favorite. They are just not very practical especially with two cats that shed like crazy and love to hang out in the bathroom.

2. The big Hollywood dressing room style light fixture.-This thing has been driving me crazy for awhile. Does anyone look good under those lighting conditions?

3. The orangey oakey vanity-We can't afford to replace it so it's getting a new coat of paint. Hopefully, this paint project will go better than the "purple paint" fiasco I encountered while painting the vanity in the other bathroom.

4. Paint color-I'm over the blue. It's time for something fresh and different

5. Window treatment for the huge window over the bathtub.-In 5 years I have never put a curtain or blinds on that window. It's frosted glass so nobody can see in, but the window itself looks a bit naked.

6. Playing up the gigantic mirror-We don't want to get into ripping out the mirror, so we will work with it and try to dress it up a bit.

7. New bathroom hardware-Our cheapey towel bar is cracked and falling apart. Time for some sparkling new hardware to add the finishing touch.

8. Replace the faucets-The faucets are the cheapest kind you can buy and after 15 years have accumulated a large amount of gross and yuck. One of the handles is turning green, ewwww.

I'll be posting the various progress we make in the coming days and weeks. I hope to get this project wrapped up fairly quickly, but you know how it goes with home improvement.

Back to Reality

2009-12-28T19:37:00.001-06:00

I'm a little behind on posting today. It's so hard to get back to work and blogging after enjoying several days off. I didn't even turn on my computer for 3 whole days. I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas celebrated with friends and family. (And kitties too!)

We had some beautiful Christmas weather with snow flurries falling for most of the past three days. As a Midwest girl through and through, I adore snow. It's even better when you don't have to drive to work in it and can just curl up by the fire and watch the flakes fall gracefully to the ground.

Mr.Delightful surprised me with a Wii gaming system for Christmas. Can you guess what we spent most of weekend doing? This thing is too addictive.

Don't worry, we did manage to pull ourselves away from the Wii long enough to work on a mini makeover of our master bathroom. Stay tuned for more details on that exciting project.

Yummy Gourmet Popcorn

2009-12-23T19:30:00.001-06:00

I have one final, last minute Christmas project to share. I found some gourmet popcorn recipes on the wonderful blog, Our Best Bites that I wanted to try. I chose to make the Peppermint Bark Popcorn and the Cinnamon Bun Popcorn to give out to various family members while we attend the five other Christmas celebrations we have in the next three days.

I won't go through the steps and recipes I used. The ladies on Our Best Bites do a fantastic job of explaining the steps in detail. Which is great for kluzty cooks like me. The recipes were fairly simple although they took a bit of time and left quite a mess in the kitchen. I believe I used every single mixing bowl I own at least once. It also led to an arguement between Mr.Delightful and I about the proper way to drizzle chocolate. I think I won.

I did alter the recipes slightly because I used chocolate almond bark instead of vanilla because I forgot to read the instructions carefully. I think it still tastes good though. Or at least good enough.

I packaged the popcorn in cute Christmas treat bags I picked up on sale at Michael's for $1 for a pack of 20. I added a Christmas bandanna I purchased up at Hobby Lobby for 65 cents to the bottom of a basket to provide a festive way to carry them all.

What do you think? Anyone hungry for some pepperminty or cinnamon carmel popcorn?

Favorite Ornaments

2009-12-22T17:42:00.001-06:00

I posted photos of our tree during the Christmas home tour post here. While I said during that post that our tree has a bit of a mix of random ornaments, there are several ornaments that do have sentimental meanings. I thought I would share a few of those favorite ornaments.

First I like to purchase an ornament on all of our vacations. I love lighthouses so I picked up this ornament of the Mackinac Point Light during a trip to Michigan.

This one I bought this year during our wonderful Colorado trip.

I also love this little Rudolph ornament that my MIL gave me several years ago. Aren't they the cutest reindeer couple?

This stuffed cat ornament I have had since I was little. I like that it looks like one of our cats.

This little reindeer is one of several that a friend and I made while in high school. She is simply made of two clothespins glued together and a face painted on. This is one of the lady reindeer because she has a flower and bow. The boy reindeer look the same, but without the flower and bow.

While this isn't really a favorite ornament, I thought I would throw in a picture of the ornament I made when I was in first grade, 20 years ago.

So those are a few of the ornaments that make up the hodge-podge collection we have hanging on our tree. Do you have a mix or ornaments or a pretty collection of matching ornaments? I hope to have two trees someday so that I can have one of each kind.

Christmas Wrapping

2009-12-21T18:31:00.000-06:00

I will admit that I am not that great at the actual wrapping of the presents as far as covering them in paper. I just can't ever seem to cut the paper in a nice, straight line. I also stuggle to fold and tuck the ends neatly. After so many years of wrapping gifts, I would think I would get the hang of it by now. I really need to watch some of those gift wrapping instruction videos on You Tube.

However, I do manage to a pretty decent job with the ribbons, bows, and other package decorations. I prefer using fabric ribbon as opposed to plastic ribbon or simple gift bows. I try and stock up on ribbon during the after Christmas sales so that I have a good supply of various colors and sizes to make presents look pretty and elegant.

I also have a fun time adding on dollar store ornaments and decorative floral picks. When I can find cute gift boxes for cheap, like the house shaped box below, I will snap them up.

How are you at wrapping? Do you get those nice and crisp ends tucked under neatly? Do you like using fabric ribbon? Do you have a cat like mine that likes to pull all the bows off the presents?

Kitchen Table Centerpiece

2009-12-17T21:01:00.000-06:00

I had this simple arrangement in the center of our kitchen table. The kitchen table needs something small and simple, because it is where we eat all our meals and I don't want something that's too bulky and in the way. I added these berry picks to a votive holder and rested it on a small mirror. However, this arrangement seemed just a little bit too wimpy for the size of the table.

So I turned it into this. I placed the votive inside this glass bowl I have leftover from our wedding. The bowl makes the whole thing looks larger and more noticable. Plus the bowl should keep the cats little paws out of it. Adding a little bit of fake snow makes it even more festive. The best part it that it took me about 30 seconds to complete.

DIY Glitter Ornaments

2009-12-16T20:41:00.000-06:00

I decided to whip up a few quick and easy decorated ornaments using the plain glass ornaments available at several different craft stores and some scrapbooking stickers. The stickers are by Making Memories. Here's how they turned out.

I planned on filling them with fake snow, but I ended up running out. I filled up one of the ornaments with curled ribbon, but I ran out that too. I'll have to watch the after Christmas sales to find some goodies to use for filling up the ornaments. For now, they will stay empty. I was happy with how cute the bird stickers looked though.

Gift Bows Created From Trash

2009-12-15T21:16:00.002-06:00

Do you know that you can recycle old magazines, catalogs, or newspaper ads into gift bows like this?

I saw the idea online somewhere. It's really easy once you get the hang of it. All you need is an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet ripped from a magazine or other source, brads, a hole punch, and scissors or a paper trimmer. If you have a regular size hole punch, you will need large brads with a top big enough to not pop through the hole. If you have a small hole paper punch(found in the scrapbooking section) you can use smaller sized brads.

I used a Kohl's jewelry ad for mine. Who doesn't like a bow made out of diamonds? I also used these star brads that I had from my scrapbooking supply.

First step is to cut the paper into nine strips. Cut across the shorter side so your paper strips are 8-1/2" long. If you have a paper trimmer, this step is super quick. If you have to use scissors, it will take a bit longer.

Next make a loop at one end by flipping and wrapping the end of the paper around to the back.

Repeat on the other end, reversing the direction the paper is looped under so it looks like this.

Carefully punch a hole through the center of the looped paper strip. Add your brad so that the pointy ends stick out the back. The back is what you see in this photo below.

Keep repeating this step with the remaining paper strips. Move the loops around as you add each layer to create a nice, even bow. It is a bit tricky to hold all the loops on as you add the new layer. You keep adding layers onto the bottom and pushing the first layer towards the top of the brad.

When you are finished the bottom should look like this:

The top should look like this. You can see the top of my star brad if you look closely in the middle.

That's all there is to it. You can use any type of paper that you want. I thought it was a clever idea to make bows out of things you might throw away.

Linking up the Shabby Chic Cottage:

Another Snow Scene in a Jar

2009-12-14T21:05:00.000-06:00

I had fun making this paper house and adding it to a jar with snow and accessories to create a mini winter scene to add some festivity to the kitchen counter.

I also liked the result of adding a seashell, a bead garland, and a layer of fake snow to a jar for the bathroom.

So I decided to create one more winter scene in a jar using some Christmas scrapbooking diecuts.

I added several die cuts trees and reindeer to the jar on top of a layer of snow. The snow is deep enough to keep the die cuts from falling over.

I moved my seashell jar from the top of the bathroom shelf down to a location next to the sink.

That way I could add the reindeer scene to the top of shelf where it is easier to see.

Christmas Home Tour

2009-12-13T22:04:00.001-06:00

Welcome to my home. I'm so excited about this linky party with the Nester. I love seeing homes decorated for Christmas so this is sure to be a fun one. Here are the humble decorations that I have used in my home to try and feel festive for the season. Our house is pretty small and I have limited surfaces to add decor so this is what I ended up with.

First off is the living room. I've been playing around with so many different decorations for our mantel. Here is what it looks like currently:

I added a garland from Joann's along with some bead garlands and candles to set a cozy atmosphere.

Here's how I had it decorated last week:

A roaring fire always helps it to feel more Christmasey. I'm not sure which arrangement I like better. This garland keeps losing its leaves, but I like that is more full.

I also like the simple color scheme of just using more the red and white. Which do you like better?

I also have a metal star I painted Heirloom White, a white sparkle tree from Sears, NOEL candleholders and LED tealights fromWal-Mart, and some other decorations I have had for several years.

The little metal trees on the left were made by my husband when he was a machinist. He also made the metal cross hanging on the vase below.

This is a jar I purchased on clearance at Gordman's awhile back. I added some fake snow, ornaments, bows, and an oragami snowflake. I created the snowflake according to some decorations I found on BHG's website. I will try and post a tutorial on how to make them, because the directions on the BHG site are pretty confusing.

Our tree is a bit too disorganized for my taste. I prefer clear lights, but Mr.Delightful likes colored lights. I think it's a guy thing to like the biggest and brightest colored lights. We compromise by using mostly clear with a strand of colored mixed in. Our ornaments are a hodge podge of hand me downs and some gifts. We have a few ornaments we have purchased on vacation. I would like to have two trees someday so that the main tree in the living room can be color coordinated and more streamlined while the second tree can have the mixmatch of random ornaments. I stick the really weird ones toward the back, but it's still a bit chaotic.

Next on the tour is the dining room. The dining room connects with the living room so I tried to keep mostly with a white and red color scheme to match.

I used a 79 cent bead garland on the chandelier along with some dollar store snowflake ornaments.

The centerpiece is the one I originally threw together for Thanksgiving and posted about here. It's just a $1 Old Time Pottery charger plate with spray painted pinecones and an IKEA candleholder. I added a gold bead garland and two milk glass goblets filled with ornaments and 23 cent berry picks from Joann's. The two little metal trees are another creation by Mr. Delightful. The table runner is a white sheer curtain folded in half a couple times. I decided to run it a different direction on the table.

Over on our antique radio I added a little glitter church with some fake snow, a latern, and some greenery stuck in a vase filled with snow.

Here's the nighttime glow.

My handcrafted ornament wreath hangs over the patio doors.

Next stop, the kitchen. I didn't do a lot of decorating in here. Just a few festive touches.

A $2 berry garland on the light.

A few ornaments on the star plaque I madeover a few months ago.

My ribbon wreath creation had a gold snowflake added to it.

A quick and easy table decoration using a votive holder and more berry picks. It's sitting on a little mirror from Goodwill.

I also crafted a little house out of scrapbook paper following a Martha Stewart template from her website. I added a little tree and a tiny car ornament.

The little house hangs out with the bird art I made.

Another bird art piece over the stove.

Final stop is the bathroom. All I did here was add a seashell in a jar along with another bead garland(I stocked up on them this year) and some fake snow. I know snow and seashells together don't make a whole lot of sense, but I thought it looked pretty.

That concludes the tour, thanks so much for dropping by! Please check out the other homes on the tour:

Ballard Designs Look Alike For Less

2009-12-10T20:28:00.001-06:00

I had been wanting a mirror for my dining room for about 2 years or so. But I'm cheap so I never bought one. I found this mirror several weeks ago at Old Time Pottery. (I know, yet another OTP find. What am I going to do when they close?) This one was priced at $29.99, which seemed too much for my cheap brain. I left it in the store, but I kept thinking about it. Picturing how it would look at the wall. Wondering if I would ever find another one like it. After a week or so of thinking, I finally went back and bought it. Here she is fitting perfectly on my dining room wall between the two little shelves that were already on the wall.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I received a Ballard Designs catalog in the mail last week. While flipping through the glorious pages of overpriced goodies, I came across the image below.

Wow, that looks familiar. Guess the price tag on their version? $199 for the pair. That's $99.50 per mirror. Quite a bit more than my $29.99 find that seems to be a bit of a bargain now.

Yep, I adore that mirror. It really helps to bounce some extra light around the room because the doors to the deck are on the wall directly opposite the mirror. I now think it is well worth the $29.99.

Christmas Mantel Decorations

2009-12-09T20:39:00.000-06:00

I was so busy this past weekend with Christmas crafting and decorating like crazy. My poor hubby said the living room looked like a tornado hit. (Like the close call we had here.) I had glitter, beads, ornaments, wreaths, garland, and all sorts of things strewn about the room as I tried to decide what to put where. It was more fun this year because I decided to splurge a little and purchase a few new decorations. I had barely purchased any Christmas decorations in the 5 years we have been married besides a few ornaments so the few decor items I had were gifts or hand me downs. Here's what I came up with for the fireplace.

Having a blazing fire going helps make it seem even more cozier. I loooove our fireplace. Hubby complains that they are such an inefficient way to heat a room because they send most of the heat up the chimney and just suck in cold air through all the little gaps in your house. But who cares when you can snuggle up next to something so warm and beautiful.

On the bottom left of the fireplace I added this little reindeer guy. I picked him up at Old Time Pottery (which is soon to close, grrrr) and gave him a coat of heirloom white paint. He used to be silver, but he just blended in too much to the fireplace so I painted him to make him pop out a little more. The greenery in the vase is some pieces I picked up at several places including Target and Old Time Pottery.

Along the top of the mantel I draped a glittery garland that I have had for several years. I think I picked it up at 90% off at Michael's maybe. I added some little ornament and glittering white picks along with a couple strands of beads that I bought at Old Time Pottery.

The big white star was originally gold, but it was a bit too bright for my taste. I think it looks much better in Heirloom White, don't you think? The star was yet another Old Time find for $6.99. The "Believe" sign I picked up at Gordman's a few years ago.

I stuck some more flowers and greenery into another vase. I filled in the base with the extra ornaments leftover from my ornament wreath project. A couple candles I had hanging around added a little more glow to the arrangement.

The "NOEL" candleholders are a set I purchased this year at Wal-Mart for $5. They came with those battery operated tealight candles that flicker to look like real burning candles. I like that I can just flip a switch and not worry about keeping an eye on them like real candle flames. I have a cat that has already burned her whiskers off once from sniffing a candle so it never hurts to play it safe.

The final section of my fireplace arrangement is this grouping of three little trees. The large, white tree I found at Sears of all places. I walked past it twice while shopping for gifts and I had to come back a few days later to buy it because I kept thinking about it. It was only $6.49 on sale.

The smaller trees on each side I have had for a long time. I remember using them for decorations when I was a little girl. We used to have probably 5 or 6 of them, but many of them were broken over the years. The ornaments are delicate glass and a few are broken on these trees also. I actually saw these exact trees in an issue of Better Homes & Gardens a few years ago. I guess they are vintage or something.

You may have noticed that there are no stockings hung with care waiting for St. Nick to appear. We don't actually have any stockings at our house. We do get stockings at my dad's for Christmas though. My stepmom ordered personalized stockings for all us kids and they are filled with goodies for Christmas morning. Whenever we have kids we will start using stockings although probably not over the fire!

Linking up to the Shabby Chic Cottage

DIY Ribbon Wreath

2009-12-07T21:26:00.001-06:00

I saw this ribbon wreath at The Long Thread blog and thought it looked like an easy way to make a pretty wreath. It was not as quick or easy as I thought it would be and my attempt did not turn out quite as nice, but here it is:

If you want to make one similar, just a warning. You will need many yards of ribbon. Probably 25 yards I would guess. I used at least 60, maybe more like 70 pieces of ribbon on mine. Each piece was about 14" long. I would recommend at least 14" length strips of ribbon so that you can easily tie a nice, tight knot around your wreath form. I used a 10" foam form I bought at Dollar Tree.

First step, cut many, many pieces of ribbon. Having a cat to help count can help. Except when the cat drags the ribbon away from you. I probably didn't use the best kind of ribbon. It was a bit slippery and not as wide as I wanted. I happened to find the roll of 100 yards of ribbon for $9 so that is what I ended up using.

Next, start to tie each piece around the wreath form and make a tight knot. It doesn't matter how you tie the ribbon, just keep it consistant. You want the knots to go the same direction. I went right over left and pulled it tight.

Keep tying the knots around and around and pulling them tight against each other to hide the wreath form. When you are done it will look a bit scary. A bit like a Medusa wreath. I was a bit skeptical that mine would ever turn out decent by this point, but I was too far into it to turn back.

The next step is to pull out the scissors and give the ribbon a good trimming. Carefully trim around the wreath and try to keep the ribbon pieces roughly the same length. After probably a good hour of ribbon trimming, it turned out looking much better. My fingers were a bit sore from tying so many knots though!

Linking up to the DIY fun: