pottery barn butterfly pillow

Did you know that you can make your own version of these super cute super springy Pottery Barn pillows with a little fabric, inkjet transfer paper, some basic sewing skills and a half an hour??? I did!

Their not perfect, but it only cost me the $8.00 or so for the transfer paper. I had the fabric leftover from another project and I just found some cute butterfly pictures on Google images. LOVE. Welcome to Spring dear sofa!

painted table and a chair's found potential

Let me tell ya! It has been a week here in Crazy town! One of those that by Friday night leaves me wanting nothing more than  a long hot bath, a good book and a weekend long escape! Is that too much to ask??? Don't get me wrong, I love my children, but they about drove me to my brink this week!! So the projects I am sharing were actually done last week, but I haven't gotten around to blogging about them.

So the I finished(?) the chair from this post. I still don't know if I am in love with it. We left off at re webbing in the previous post. We also had to re-tie the springs. This part was not so fun. Luckily my sweet sweet husband helped me out a little a lot with this part! I tied them onto the webbing and I came home one night to find this:

I attempted it. Really I did. But I thought my head was going to EXPLODE trying to get those springs to lay right.

After that I tried just putting a few layers of batting over and the burlap, then sitting on it. My tush had some major protests! One of the back springs was determined to remind me of its presence. Since I hadn't budgeted for foam as well. (That stuff is not cheap) I went down to my stash and found some leftover scraps from the kitchen chair project. I pieced them together as best I could layered lots of batting over it and reupholstered. Bonus?? I actually had enough drop cloth leftover from the kitchen chair project as well, so that cost me nothing! So that is FIVE chairs recovered with one drop cloth!

Anyway, here is the final product.

I still feel like maybe it needs a little somethin' somethin'. At least a nice colorful pillow. I also considered doing some simple stripes like a vintage grain sack look.  Kinda like these:

Whatcha' think??

Also I painted the table to go with my new chairs

a couple coats of Zinsser primer and a few coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White and tada...

I love how bright this area is now!

Thrift store love!

I have started to notice lately that the area around where I live seems to be thrift store central! It seems like once a month I drive by a sign advertising another one I have never heard of before. Of course, this means that I have been trying like crazy to check them all out!! I love going into thrift stores. It is such a thrill walking in, wondering if you are going to walk out with something that will become a lovely treasure! I love the feeling of finding something I know will be beautiful, but watching people look at me like I have lost my mind because I am actually buying "that".  My latest find earned a couple of comments from the check out clerk. I didn't care though. I just might be in love.

So what I found was this:

The cost was $10.00. Apparently no one wanted to buy it because of the gross looking dried flowers inside.

Lucky for me the bottom was loose and I could tell that was going to be a really easy fix. I unscrewed the bottom.

Gently pulled it apart.

Then chucked this gross stuff in the trash.

A quick coat of ORB spray paint on the base and my pretty girl was reborn.

Here she is with an extra lamp shade sitting in my dining room.

Does she remind you a little of these or is it just me? The cheapes of these bases goes for $169.00!! I am way proud of my savings!!

via pottery barn

Linking up to:

Bringing the indoors out!

There are few things I enjoy more than sitting outside on a lovely spring or early summer day enjoying the smell of flowers and the feel of a wonderful breeze on my face. I have longed for a beautiful outdoor space of my own for quite some time. We have almost always had some sort of outdoor space to enjoy, but it was never particularly cozy or had quite enough seating for many people to enjoy it at once. Well, that has changed. As part of my birthday present my wonderful husband help me get our spacious deck all set up as an outdoor living space for me to enjoy. I AM LOVING IT!!!

Now I have a great place to sit and enjoy some quiet time to myself and admire some of these.

Or sit back and watch these guys make memories!





new chairs

When we moved into our house last year it was the first time I was going to have both an eat in kitchen nook as well as a formal dining room. I have always wanted that! Anyway, my family has had this table that has been passed around to all of the sisters at some point I think. So I had a table for my nook, but no chairs. So I found these at a garage sale the weekend I moved in. I was excited because they were a perfect match for the table. But as they sat there for a year, that area became very colorless to me. Wood chairs, wood table and wood floor. It needed something. Also the wicker was uncomfortable for as often as we sat there, so I decided to recover them.

Here is the before of the chair.

 I started with a base coat of Krylon spray paint in avocado.

It was a little much on its own for me so I distressed and glazed them as well. I use Valspar premixed glaze. Just paint it on.

And wipe it off.

I then used a drop cloth and stenciled numbers on for a little whimsy and recovered the chair with two inch foam, batting and the stenciled canvas.

Then end result is a much cushier, more colorful set of chairs.

I LOVE them.

I have a few more projects in store for this area, including a new rug and I am thinking the table will go two tone soon!! I can't wait to show the finished room!

Edited: I painted the table too! Now it is nice and bright and lovely!!

Easter weekend

Not much needs to be said here! I had such a blessed weekend! My husband set up a day full of surprises for me on my 30th birthday this Saturday. I will try to blog about it this week. Then I got to spend Easter Sunday with these ridiculously cute boys!! Nuff Said!! I hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Waste not!

So,  have seen all these cute cloches and terrariums around blog land and thought they were super cute! I want one! I've seen a couple at hobby lobby and home goods, but I just haven't wanted to spend the money on them. So.... enter a horribly ugly light fixture I found at a garage sale last fall for $5.00. I forgot to take a before picture of it all together. I actually bought it for the small chandelier inside the oak and brass surround. I thought it would be perfect for a friend's kitchen redo.

Anyway... I never threw out the cover because I was convinced I could do something with it. Well, this week I decided to have a go at it. Here is the before. I had already started painting when I realized I still needed to take a pic.

I painted the wood part a green color, which I later topped with a lighter green color.

I then covered the old brass with silver leaf. If you have ever worked with silver leaf you know it can be a messy frustrating job. But they now have some packaged on like a wax paper and it helps SO much with the mess!

half brass, half silver leaf

Once that part was done I used some antiquing glaze to age all of it a bit.

My two year old wanted to help with this which resulted in this little treat!

Thank goodness I had freezer paper down!

Here is a close up of the finished product.

And here are a couple of pictures of where it ended up. I haven't decided if it will stay or not. I had forgotten before I did the whole thing that it had tinted glass in it. Every time I see it it reminds  me of those glasses that tint in the sun and never seem to really become clear once inside. Not really dark, but not clear either. But I thought I would share it anyway. Really I didn't lose anything, since I already had all of the supplies on had for the project. If I hadn't tried I'd never have known!!