thankful.

In the spirit of thanksgiving, I made a small change to the burlap banner that has been hanging from the mantel.  This was my plan all along, but since I made the banner before Halloween, I wanted to wait.

This is what the banner looked like this morning.

And, this is what it looks like now:

This change took about 5 minutes and some stencils and craft paint I already had on hand.

I think it's a great reminder for me to see this every time I walk through the living room.  I have so, so much to be thankful for.  My cup truly runneth over!

xo,

Emily

Living room changes

Let's look back at some old pictures of the living room, shall we?  I can't find any pictures of when we first moved into this house 4 years ago, but at that time, we had a large sectional couch in the living room (which now lives in the much larger family room).  It didn't take me long to realize that the couch was too big for the room.  So, shortly thereafter, I purchased a normal size leather couch and recliner.  I decided upon leather because we have 2 dogs, and I figured it would be easy to keep clean.  Fast forward to this past summer, when I was given (given, yes, for FREE) two large bookcases which I placed on either side of the fireplace.  So, this is how the room looked at that time.

Yowza.  Can you say dark?!  I knew the leather was dark, but once I added the tall and imposing bookcases, the room kinda felt like a dungeon.  It's worse in pictures, but still- it was dark.

It didn't take me long to decide what I really needed to do was to paint the brick fireplace.  I had actually wanted to do this pretty much since we moved in, but I was so scared.  It is such a permanent thing, and I didn't want to do something I couldn't undo.  So, I delayed.  But, finally, I bit the bullet and painted the brick.

It immediately lightened up the space.  It was like the living room lost about 100lbs.

I also added a lot of lighter accessories.  I painted that barn star on the mantle a light color, I got some lighter throw pillows to break up the dark leather furniture, and I brought in some softer textures with the ottoman and fuzzy throw.

It was better, but it still wasn't quite there yet.  So, after much more hemming and hawing, I finally decided to use this past long weekend to tackle the project of painting the bookcases.  I started on Friday after work, and I finally got all the shelves loaded  back in and staged at least a bit last night.  It was a LOT of work.  I wiped down and primed every surface.  Then, I painted everything with between 3 and 5 coats of paint.  Then, I touched up all my mess-ups, and there are STILL more touch ups that need to be done. 

But, the transformation is amazing.  This is finally what I was going for all along.  The white paint just makes everything look so fresh and clean.  I also painted the back of the bookcases an army/olive green color, which makes everything pop.  This is so hot in the shelter blog world, and it's a trend that I love.

I have only staged the shelves with things I had on hand, mostly, but I even think it looks pretty good so far.  Of course, there's always work to be done!  :)  (For example, I would love to devise a way to make the bookcases built-in.  I would need some sort of addition from the top of the bookcase to the ceiling, and then there's the 6 or so inches between the left one and the wall.  Anyone got any ideas?)

Let's have a quick look back again.  Then, and now:

The difference is amazing, don't you think?!

xo,

Emily

PS.  I would be remiss if I did not provide any photo credits.  All of my usual, sub-par photos are taken by yours truly with my frugal point and shoot can't-go-wrong, perfect for the photog illiterate Nikon on the basic settings.  (All I know how to do is turn on or off the flash.)  These most recent photos of the living room were taken by my son and budding photographer, Colin, on his fancy pants camera.  So, a large part of the difference is the photo quality.  I hope to have Colin take more pictures for the blog in the future.  We are still discussing payment.  Hugs and kisses is what I've offered...

Funky, free dresser goes turquoise

One Saturday morning over the summer, as I was minding my own business on my way to the dump with a car full of trash, I was shocked to see a beautiful vintage 50s chest of drawers just sitting on the side of the road with a FREE sign.  I did what any good thrifter/lover of all things free/frugal fanny would do and immediately pulled over.  I wasn't necessarily looking for a new dresser, but I mean can you really have too many dressers?  Before I knew it, I had knocked on the door and the homeowner was helping me load this mid-century beauty into my car.

Structurally, the dresser was in perfect condition.  Cosmetically, it was decent.  I used for several months without doing anything to it before it spoke to me.  When it finally did speak to me, it begged me to make it turquoise.  And, who am I to deny a 60 year old dresser of its last wish?!

So, this past weekend, I removed the drawers and gave everything a good wipe down, a coat of primer and 2 coats of Lagoon by Behr in semigloss.  The paint color actually goes quite well with the funky attitude of the dresser.  It is just what I was going for.

She now has a place of prominence in my office/craft room and holds my fabric and sewing machine accessories.  Basically, we love each other.  Not bad for free, huh?

xo,

Emily

PS-  I don't know if you can tell, but I left the legs natural.  Does anyone have any thoughts on that?  I'm not sold on it just yet...

linking to the girls at...

a birthday pillow

Today was the birthday of a dear friend.  Someone very special to me.  This person is one of the most thoughtful, kind people I know, so I wanted to give her a small but meaningful token to help her celebrate.  And, wouldn't you know, Pinterest came through for me again.  You see, I am a follower of my friend's on Pinterest, so I could stalk her keep an eye on her tastes pretty easily. 

So, one day I stumbled upon this pin of hers, from here :

 

Um, adorable, right!??  Knowing I could not surprise my friend by painting her front door, I figured I needed another way to use this idea.  Enter my one of favorite crafty projects ever: the throw pillow.  Folks, I have a pillow problem, but that's an entry for another day.  Bottom line is that once I discovered how easy, simple, ridonculous it is to sew an envelope pillow, it's all I do.  (Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I digress.)  So, I knew I wanted to use this idea on a pillow.  So, I whipped up a drop cloth envelope style pillow case and crammed it with an unused form I had lying around.  Then, I grabbed my stencils and some basic craft paint and added the stenciling.  And, funnily, I actually thought the original pin said hi instead of hello, so that is why I ended up with that instead.  And, this is the finished product!

 I immediately loved it.  It's so simple and cute and whimsical.  My friend has dreams of redoing her entryway and perhaps having a mudroom of sorts one day.  How cute would this pillow be on a bench in a mudroom?

I think my dear friend liked the pillow, and I can only hope that when she looks at it, it reminds her of how much I care about her!

xo,

Emily

Fabric bunting project

This project has been a long time in the making.  I fell in love with fabric buntings months and months ago via pinterest.  I was loving them so, so much I wanted one in every room.  I tried my hand at making one with cut up sheets and fabric napkins from the Goodwill.  Once I decided upon a size and method, I finalized a prototype and made a pattern.  And that, folks, is where this project stalled.  I knew I wanted to make more of these, but I never executed.  I'm sure I'm the only one with this problem...

This past week, I finally got to the fabric store with buying fabric for this project as my main goal.  You see, my niece Naomi is having a birthday very soon, and the first bunting I'd like to make is for my sister's house.  With 5 kiddos, she is always decorating for birthday parties and holiday gatherings.  How cute would it be if she had a fun and festive and gender neutral pennant flag that she could pull out for each occasion?!

I had decided on a color scheme already, so when I found a bundle of yellow, grey and black fabric quarters in the quilting section of Joann's, I snatched them up.  They are perfect!  Last night during Grey's Anatomy, I cut the quarters into triangles.  Using my template, I cut 2 triangles out of each quarter.  Each triangle is approx 8" wide and 11" tall.  (I have no idea how I settled on those dimensions, haha!)  Here are all my triangles (12) cut out.

I also picked up a yard of plain white fabric to line the back of the flag with.  I also cut 12 of them, and lined the up with the patterned fabric.  Then, I sewed them together.  I only sewed down the two long sides, leaving the top open.

Here's one set sewed together.

Next, I attached them to a double fold quilt binding.  I used one 3 yards long and extra wide.  I chose to use grey thread and grey binding.  Sky's the limit, though.  Here it is all laid out attached to the binding along the top.  I also attached a bit of coordinating ribbon to the ends for tying.

Viola!  That's it!  :)

I just love the finished product!

I hope my sister likes it and uses it for years to come.  One thing is for sure, it was made with lots of love!

xo,

Emily

Old chair, new look

Squee!  Pinch me, I'm so excited.  After a major loss of motivation, I have resumed work on my office/craft room.  Tonight, I recovered my computer chair.

This chair actually has a bit of a back story.  This past spring, a dear friend of mine invited me to an antique sale/flea market.  I had not heard of the specific event, but of course I jumped at the chance to get out and do some pickin'!  So, off we went on what happened to be a lovely spring morning.  We checked out a darling home full of lovely antiques, and then we browsed the property where a bunch of vendors were set up selling their stuff.  As we checked out the final vendors and were discussing heading back to the car, we were so proud of ourselves that we had shopped to our hearts content and STILL had honored the time frame that my friend had set up with her husband (who, in the meantime, had their 4 kids and was prepping one of them for a baseball game).  As we rounded the corner on the side of the property to just double check that we had seen all there was to see, we discovered an entire other lot that we didn't even know was there!  We hadn't even made a dent in all of the vendors and antiques!  Needless to say, my friend called her hubby and begged for more time.  And, being the sweetheart that he is, he obliged.  :)

So, that was the day I picked up this chair.

I loved it from the moment I saw it.  The curves are just perfect.  I remember the lady who was selling it had said that she considered painting it white but decided not to because it was in such good condition.  I couldn't agree more.  I love the natural wood.

I even love the fabric she chose, and I have lived with the fabric for probably close to 6 months now, but it simply doesn't work with what I'm doing in the room.  So, sadly, it had to go.  I found some awesome fabric at HobLob.  I was $8/yard, and I needed 1/2 a yard.  Plus, I had a 40% off coupon, so the fabric set me back less than 3 bucks.

The fabric is a light blue and brown.

I love, love the fabric with the chocolate brown rug I already have in the room, and I think it goes quite well with the wood of the chair.

xo,

Emily

Fall Pinterest Challenge

I love a good challenge, so when my besties (okaythatmightbeastretch), Sherry of YHL and Katie of Bower Power, issued the second ever Pinterest Challenge, I knew I needed a blog.  Stat.  Enter this mediocre effort.

So, which of my pinterest pins did I decide to recreate?  Well, to be completely honest, I have been recreating quite a few of my pins, unlike some chronic piners.  But, I will share 2 with you.

First, a burlap bunting.  This idea is all over the interwebs, but here is a link to my main inspiration.  Originally found here.  And, here is my version:

This project is ridiculously easy.  All I did was cut triangles out of an old burlap coffee sack that I had left over from a chair covering project.  The sack was originally $1 from a local coffee house.  Then, I hot glued the triangles onto a length of twine.  Seriously easy.  Even for me.

If you look closely at the pictures above, you will see my second pinterest recreation. 

A mod podged pumpkin.  I've been decorating sort of half heartedly for fall.  It took me a while to realize it was because I wasn't loving the typically warm fall colors this year.  I have just begun decorating with cool colors, and I'm loving it.  Imagine my relief when I discovered that I could mod podge a pumpkin to be whatever color I wanted, as was done here.  It was simple and took about 1 episode of Grey's Anatomy.

It looks like of like a preschooler did it up close and in pictures, but in real life, I'm in love.  :)

So, there you have it.  My contribution to the Fall Pinterest Challenge!

xo,

Emily

linked to Sherry and Katie