Blizzards, burlap and blisters.

For the last two days we have been snowed in. We had about a foot of snow with deep drifts. School has been canceled for the last two days and I only had to work half a day yesterday. Here's the snow.



This is my son enjoying his day off school. He loves our gas logs and his Ipod he got for Christmas.




I keep seeing all the burlap on different blogs so I bought some at Walmart. I was wearing a black hoodie and held my burlap to my body while I browsed. I got to the checkout and noticed that burlap really really sheds. I looked like I had held the mangiest dog or cat and it shed all it's hair on me. It made me wonder why it was such a hot decorating item. I brought it home and kept it covered in the Walmart bag and left it in the close for weeks. Today I decided I had lots of time to vacuum and took my burlap out of the closet and out of the bag. I used the burlap to make a tag for some pottery, a burlap ball, and I redid a lamp. It shed but not as bad as I thought it would. I made the lamp for my sister. It isn't one of my best projects, but I have never recovered a lamp shade and I had all of the items I used so it was a free learning experience. I also have been inspired by Kirsty at A Little Bit of Sanity and A Lot of Chaos She showed how to use several items to make Pottery Barn inspired home decor. You glue your items together, spray paint and then glaze. I gave it a try. It was so easy, but I never would have thought of it on my own. I needed some items to go with the lamp. When this snow goes away I will take them to my sister's house and see how they look.








This ugly chair was one of my projects to do by the fire today.




I bought it from Craig's List. I wanted an inexpensive chair to experiment how to recover furniture. The staples on this thing are terrible. Removing them causes blisters and sore hands. I have decided to remove a few at a time. I am not sure when or if the finished project will ever show up on here. I am not sure if it will ever get finished. I tried to talk Dan into taking it to the fire station so he would have a project to work on in the evenings. He said NO!






I really hope the streets clear up. I am ready to get out of this house and away from this fire tomorrow.

Guestroom Redo

The photos aren't the best but it shows what the room looked like before and all the mess I had while I painted not once, but twice. It was a flat off-whtie paint and the last room in the house that had not been painted since we moved in at the end of May 2004. I stared at a paint chip called wooden spoon for at least 6 months. It was taped to the the wall and very visible every time I ran on my treadmill. I just knew the color was a good choice because I liked it every time I looked at it. Well 2x2 inches of it were great. A whole room didn't do it for me. I slept on it and woke up hating it so off the the paint store I went for day 2. I went with a color not too far off from the off-white. It is called parchment. I was really getting mad when my husband would walk by and comment on day 2 of my painting that it looked like it did before I started. Well the paint was just enough of a change to make all of my old stuff look bad. It was never really cute, but it was something I could live with until I painted. So here is the before.







I bought sheets from Walmart and used 2 full sheets for $8 a piece to make the curtains. I bought the coverlet and shams from Overstock and then made some throw pillows. I have other fabric I might try later. I just couldn't decide on what I wanted. I thought about adding some fabric to the top of the curtains, but for now I like them simple. I found the "dream" at Michael's in the dollar bin. It is cardboard. I spray painted it and taped it with double sided stick tape to the headboard. I had the square frame and painted it and then painted a "D" from Hobby Lobby to Match. I have always liked nature and birds so I am glad that birds are in right now and I could use them for my redo. I may change some thing up later but for now I am ready to take a break from the room. I know the treadmill and tv are ugly, but they help me exercise and have energy for projects. So they are a necessary eye sore.

Chair with no seat. What to do?

I have the coolest antique chair, but it doesn't have a seat. I have thought about making a seat for it, but I have plenty of seating in my family room and I think my solution for the missing seat is fun.

New pillows looks like a new sofa.

When I moved over 5 years ago, my new house had an extra living room which meant I needed extra furniture. I bought a living room set that I (mostly) liked. I liked the main green color of the furniture, but I was never crazy about the throw pillows. The price was good so I thought I could learn to love them. I learned to tolerate them until about a year ago. I decided to unstuff them and restuff the new pillows I made that were much more my style. I couldn't believe how much it changed the whole look of the room. Here are some pics of the pillows. The first pic is the original fabric.



These next pics are the after pillows.




This project was much cheaper than buying new furniture. I have still loved the change a year later.

Pears

Pears seem to be the in fruit and I really like the way the look. I have seen reference to "Ballard Pears" so I looked and wow....very pricey. Here is what they look like and the website. http://www.ballarddesigns.com



So I was at my favorite place, Hobby Lobby, this week and they were having their annual home decor clearance. As I was walking up and down the aisles, I spotted some unpainted pears. The big one was on clearance for around $2.00 and the small one for $1.34. So I bought them and painted them.





I used celery green, avocado and burnt umber for the colors. I painted the celery green as a base and used a stencil brush to blot on the darker green and browns and then I added a brown glaze. I have some greenery with leaves so I stole some leaves, painted them brown and twisted them onto the stem. Not bad for about $3.50.

New to blogging. A few things I like to make.

After reading blogs on home decorating and crafts for the last couple of weeks, I decided to join the blog world. I have many old projects that I want to add when I have time to find all of my pics. I wish I had taken before photos, but who knew I would need them. I always love doing projects and it will be fun sharing them. These are a few things I like to do. I like to make fun pillows. Hate patterns. I just cut and sew. The quilted looking pillow is made of sample fabrics from a cool fabric store where I live. It was so hard matching all those little pieces together. Many of my friends wanted one, but it was just too hard to make. I am done with that craft forever maybe. I enjoy using scrapbook paper to decorate. I made the diamond patterned frame with Modge Podge and the $1 wooden frames from Michael's. I like to repaint things to match whatever decorating mood that I am in. The candlestick by the frame has been many colors. I also make jewelry. I prefer necklaces. I hope to add more projects I have done and I am about to paint and change up my guest room a bit. Better go take a before pic. (If you click on the pics they will enlarge.)