It's begun! Cabinet updating in progress!

I cannot, I mean cannot tell you how excited I am. Finally after years, years people..... of wanting to paint my kitchen cabinets it is FINALLY going to happen! But first just a little bit of tweakin to make them look like they aren't builder grade yucky cabinets.

We added a little bead board to the ends. Already I'm getting a peak at what it is going to look like painting them white!

And we added crown molding that is a little bit bigger than before.

I'm going to paint with chalk paint. I have researched and I think it will look great and be really durable. I am going to mix Old White and Pure White. Neither of these really looked like the white I wanted so I thought mixing them would be a good plan. Did I say I'm excited, because I am. My sister-in-law is coming from North Carolina on Wednesday and helping. We have lots planned during the week that she will be here. I can't wait to share it all with you! And the good thing about all of this besides the fact that my kitchen is finally going to look the way I have wanted for a long time, is how clean everything is going to be. It's a whole new perspective when you get down on the floor and start cleaning stuff! My poor hands feel like sandpaper but I'm not complaining. Keep checking back and I will show you what we are up to.

Ms Smartie Pants Award

You aren't going to believe what Pam at Simple Details has done to her ceiling! Designers are always telling us "your ceiling is the 5th wall in a room" but most of us leave it alone. Pam did not, she surely deserves a Ms Smartie Pants award! I can't imagine what her fingers, neck and arms must feel like.

She made this amazing pattern with nail heads, yep you heard me! I cannot even imagine what her thumbs, arms, neck, must feel like! I would only dream of such a project and never, NEVER attempt it. Great job! go check her out, she has great style!

Baby Nursery Part 3

Ok, here we go onto wall 3. I was about to say this one is my favorite, but honestly it's too hard to pick, I just love this room!

 We'll start with the center. The changing table wasn't anything great, just your basic piece of furniture but we sanded, primed, painted and sanded some more and it's looks purrrty terrific now!

I love the black and white zebra pad too, the perfect amount of black and whited added to this side of the room.

This is the first piece I have ever sanded to look this distressed, love the look and it's a great way to get all of your frustrations out! Crystal knobs came from Hob Lob.

And a simple little valance we made and added ball fringe with glue. Every little girl needs some ball fringe!!!

And some art we made using scrapbook paper. No patterns, just inspired by the internet and cut up paper until we liked the look.

Sweet elephant love!

And little houses, remind me of San Fransisco. You can't see but it says welcome and their last name, and 123 and ABC and I drew a a stick person in the door of one of the houses.

 And this corner, the ideas just kept coming and coming. It's dangerous when the 3 of us put our heads together!

One tissue ball, one made out of a boa and one made out of napkins. LOVE!

Words you think of when you think of little girls, love, play, giggle, pray, cuddle and dream. We cut them out with a Cricut and mounted them on MDF scrap boards.

And an H for Hadley set inside of a Goodwill frame. 

A fabric flower made from the same fabric as the elephant set inside of another spray painted frame from Goodwill.

And you may remember this chair I made a long time ago, it was actually for Macy but it matches Hadley's room much better. We decide to put a rocker in here but didn't get it done yet. It will go in place of the chair. And the little rocking horse came from Michael's. It was spray painted blue and then a tale and mane was made out of all the scraps of fabrics in the room.

H for Hadley!

Letters bought at Michael's and covered with scrapbook paper. We used alot of paper and fabric in this room!

One more look at the last wall. If you want to see the rest of the room go here and here.

Her mom went to the Dr. today, we'll be meeting her anytime now and I can hardly wait!

Parties I'm linking to:
 House of Hepworth's
Saved by Love
My Repurposed Life
Fingerprints on the Fridge
 The 36th Avenue
I Gotta Create
Whipperberry
Miss Mustard Seed
Freckled Laundry
Tatertots & Jello
Too Much Time ON My Hands
I Can't Stop Crafting
Funky Junk Interiors
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Positively Splendid
Pink Flamingo
It's So Very Cheri
Thistlewood Farms

I'm giving out my first Smartie Pants award.

So I am starting a little something new! I am always browsing thru blogs and see amazing projects but sometimes I see something that I think is super duper amazing! Did I just say that, I suddenly feel like I am 5! Anyway I have decided when I see such awesomeness that I want to share it with you, my favorite blog friends. I'll be giving out what I call my "Ms Smartie Pants Award." This award will be given to anyone I randomly pick who has come up with an awesome idea that is out of the box, it may be grand or small, just something that makes you go hmmmm or oooooooh or awwwwww, well you get the idea, something that says, why didn't I think of that! I even have a cute new button to go with it.



If you get this award please take a button and share that you are a "Smartie Pants".
So, the very first award goes to Rasha from My Champagne Taste. I just found her blog and she has a young, fresh, eclectic style.

 I love how she used those drawers to hold coffee mugs and the tablecloth is a shower curtain! Such a fun dining space! She totoally is thinking outside of the box! Go, go now, you need to check out her silver leaf dresser. I can't wait to see what you come up with next Rasha!

Transforming cheap bookshelves in the babies nursery

So all week I plan to share Hadley's baby nursery, but I don't want to just show you how it looks, I want to bring you along and help you see why we made the decisions that we did. Yesterday I showed you one wall of the room, today I want to give you a little closer look.

We have all seen these inexpensive shelves at stores like Walmart. They usually cost around 20.00 and are functional but not too attractive. We knew we had a plan to take care of that.

Imagine this wall if we didn't have the bookshelves. Notice that all of the furniture, dresser, crib, and changing table are all about the same height? That isn't really a good idea in a room, it shortens the room, you need to have pieces that are all different levels in the room. It's more interesting and pleasing to the eye. The bookshelves seemed like a great way to add the height we needed and would give us lots of space to add WOW to  room!

We picked up some simple strips of trim to add to the shelving. We did this to make the shelves look a little more substantial and have a little classier look. We decided to paint them pink because we were concerned about the creamy white of the dresser not matching with the stark white shelves. We purchased Christmas wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby for 80% off after Christmas and wrapped the cardboard backing.  It is a great background for all of our accessories. The shelves were 20.00 each, 20.00 more for trim and a few dollars for the polka dot paper and for less than $85.00 we have a great look that fills up a large wall in the room. I showed you how I transformed the little owl here.

This lamp was a Goodwill purchase, it began it's life as red. We spray painted it and added some fun flowers to the lamp shade.

This little elephant was a gift from a visit to Santa. He was unfinished wood and we painted and added some scrapbook paper. The saying is hung on the back of the shelving to give some height to the area.

A little frame picked up on clearance at Ross will soon hold a picture of Hadley. The spool is an antique wrapped with a fabric banner we made. I didn't get a close up picture but the bottom 2 shelves will be for her book and toys.

 So on the other side of the dresser we have another shelf  full of cute little chochkies. In the left corner you can see a blue thing with a flower on it. It's a frame we made. We got the idea from UCreate. Soon it will have a picture of a new baby on it.

I love these little blue shoes. They were a pair of those ugly brown leather shoes kids used to wear. We spray painted them blue and added a ribbon for the laces.

Isn't is cute! I just love all the personality that these add.

And this picture was purchased from Pier 1. It was a huge inspiration for the room.

A little bird resting on a nest of newspaper in a cute little cage.

She is so sweet.

It's such a pretty room. And all of these choices helped to fill this wall perfectly. Tomorrow I will show you another side of the room.

Parties I'm linking to:
Uncommonly Yours
Savvy Southern Style
Domestically Speaking
Blue Cricket Design
52 Mantels

More on the Baby Nursery

This weekend I went to my niece's house and we did our power DIY/crafter weekend so that we could finish up the babies room. I have so much to share. I think this is the BEST room we have ever done!!! But for now I will leave with you with one wall. Watch over the next several days and I will give you a full room tour with details on how we made some of it.

Isn't it adorable? I can't wait to share it with you. But for now a little rest is in order.

I'm joining these linky parties
Brassy Apple
Homemaker on a Dime
Craft-O-Maniac
Sugar Bee Crafts
Home Stories A2Z

Exciting news for this little blog!

I am feeling pretty excited, ok alot excited!!!! My Valentine wreath is being featured on an online magazine called Parentables. Go check it out! They are sharing a bunch of different wreaths for Valentine's day. Thanks to Pretty Handy Girl  for including me in the great lineup!
 

More kitchen storage

Who designs a kitchen with only 2 drawers? Seriously is that not ridiculous??? Believe it or not I have lived in this house for 22 years with a kitchen that has only 2 drawers and they aren't even big ones! Of course, along the way I am always looking for storage. Ok, don't judge a girl for her past craftiness! I'm just saying I painted this years ago during my Mary Engelbreit infatuation days. Not that I have anything against Mary, I love her, it's just not right for my space any longer.

This was cute and perfect many years ago for the decor in my house but not so much now. Believe me there will be the day, years from now, who knows sometimes just months, when you will look back on something you made and think what was I thinking??? The important part of the story here is this is giving me 6, SIX more drawers, that is 3 times more than what I already had!

A little sanding and it already looks better, right? This was actually a garage sale find years ago. It's small, I think it is suppose to be for lingerie, at least that is what they told me.

And here she is now! I painted her with Annie Sloan Paint, the color is Provencal. I love this color and as I mentioned before I am all about these Moroccan patterns right now so I found another place I could use one. This is a stencil is made by Martha Stewart.

I lightly sanded the stencil to give it a bit of an aged look and it also helps hide the mess ups if your stencil bled a bit.

And I picked up some new hardware at Hobby Lobby on sale this week and she is ready to be filled up!

What do you think? It's a pretty big improvement huh? And the best part, more space for kitchen junk, oh yea! So, do you have any of those past projects that you are scratchin your head about?

I'm visiting these linky parties

Brassy Apple
Homemaker on a Dime
Craft-O-Maniac
My Repurposed Life
The 36th Avenue
Funky Junk Interiors
Miss Mustard Seed
Positively Splendid
I Heart Naptime

Check out my new look!

I'm so excited about my new blog look, isn't it cute! I've been working with Courtney at No So Homemade. She is great to work with, she listens to what I want and is sooooo patient with me. If you are needing a new blog look check her out! Anyway, I am hoping this will make things a little easier around here. I still am working on labeling and we may have a tweak or two but I am thinking it looks pretty darn cute! Oh, and I have a link to Pinterest and FB so be sure to go and join those! Great things planned for the year, I hope you'll be around to be a part of it! I've got a little announcement, ok big announcement for me, nothing like Martha calling. I'll tell you about it in a couple of days! Thanks for visiting, you guys always make my day!

More Valentine Decor- Rerun

According to my stats, it looks like alot of you are looking for some projects for Valentine's decorating right now. My Valentine wreath has been my most viewed post for the last couple of weeks (thank you for that!). I am not planning on putting my stuff out for a couple more weeks, but I thought I would show you some more reruns so if you are inspired you can get busy creating!
 

I purchased this cute little frame at the Goodwill. As soon as I saw it I had an idea of just what I wanted to do with it. Do you have items that you are drawn to at the Goodiwll? I do, frames are one of them. This little gem cost me  99 cents, how you gonna walk away from such cuteness for that price I ask you???? So I gave it a good coat of  Krylon X Metal Red spray paint.

Then I took some of the leftover wool that I had from this project.

And this old sweater... I love the color of but it always sheds and gets awful little fuzzies in my eyes. I couldn't throw it away, I thought it would be perfect for a project. I cut 3 hearts in 3 different sizes out of these fabrics.

I cut 3 small circles a little smaller than a dime. Then I took a needle and thread that had been knotted. I pulled it thru the circle.  I couldn't take pics of this but I folded the circle in half, with the knot inside and I folded it in half again which made a little bud. I took the needle and thread and whipped a few stitches thru the small end, kinda at the point. It forms these sweet little buds.

I glued all 3 of those buds to the center of this heart. I also stitched around the white heart, then glued everything together and popped it into the frame. I love with a whole project is created from thrifting!

Today I put together one little vignette just inside the entry of my house.

Love potion! I found this label on google images, just typed in "love potion label" and there she was. I printed it off and spray adhesived it onto a .99 cent bottle from the Goodwill. I had these darling little beads so I strung them up and put them around the neck of the bottle. It's full of some kind of fruit drink I had laying around the house. If you do this put the drink in BEFORE you put the label on, as to not spill on said label. It kinda aged it out so I am fine with it, no worries.

 I also got this little pitcher from Goodwill and made a lollipop bouquet. Ummm, I love this time of year when you can get a whole bag of pink and red tootsie pops!

 Precious Mattie, I loved his sweet little soul.This is better than a plate full of fake chocolates.

Here is one other vignette I set up, this is like the mantle at my house, always changing. I love it tho, I feel if I just change up this one spot the whole house is festive!

One last project I made.

Candlestick from Goodwill for .99. Love that store! Spray painted is with the same red Metal X Krylon spray paint. ( I looked for this paint this year at Christmas and didn't find it, if anyone sees some let me know.)

Then I took these necklaces I purchased at CVS for a dollar. I cut them all apart. I only used the red for this project. I hot glued them onto a basic 3x6 white candle. Next I dipped them in a crock pot of melted wax.

This is just plain parafin wax but I didn't think it was deep enough so I added an old white candle I had.

I dipped mine twice but you be the judge if you do this. Sometimes once is enough. These make perfect teachers gifts! I have done this for years but I used to make them with Spree candies. They came in packages with red and white candies. I can't find them anymore except in their regular colors which are cute too, but not what I was looking for. I've made them with ALL kinds of items added.

This is probably my favorite! But I have added dried apples, oranges, ground coffee beans, cinnamon sticks, dried flowers, I mean anything you can think of.

Isn't it sweet? They look like gummies.
Oh and the pink beads, can't let those go to waste.

I added them to my Valentine tree.

So this is how this table looks now. If you want to see more about the tree go here. And pardon these pictures this is with my old camera, they look awful! I hope you inspired to spread some love and pretty up your home for those you love!
Come check out the linky party at:
Pink Flamingo
I Heart Naptime
Positively Splendid
Craft-O-Maniac
A Stroll Thru Life
Michelle Paige