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Friday, March 25, 2011

spring mantel...



Our family room is finally starting to take shape... Here's the before-before pic - before we even moved in. Notice the dark-wood built ins, grass wallpaper and popcorn ceiling. We changed all that - and added recessed lighting.


The shutters started out like this. I think I paid $3 (which is actually kind of lot considering the shape they were in, but they came from Habitat ReStore, so it was for a good cause). I removed the louvres and ran a bead of glue alongside the slats to help them stay in place.




I painted them with my freebie paint from Valspar {love}...


They turned out just a little too "seafoam green" (remember the 90's?) for me, so I toned it down with some of these. Just a little glaze...

And then distressed them really well. I love distressing - you kind of can't go wrong. The candle holders are from Goodwill - maybe 2 or 3 bucks for the pair. Painted them with oil rubbed bronze spray paint. The sea glass and "floating" candles are from Dollar Tree. Oh, and the mirror - purchased from Craigslist for $20 and painted white. Green mercury glass birds from the after-Christmas sale at World Market - I think I paid $3 each. So...what Spring sprucing-up are you doing? Leave me a comment - and link to your site, if you like! HAPPY SPRING! Linking up here...











Friday, March 18, 2011

dresser to tv console transformation...



Alrighty....here it is! You've seen the inspiration. Let's review.


So, here's what I started with. 40 bucks on Craigslist - LOVE Craigslist! There was actually some of this nice green wall paint on the top of the dresser:


And this was my inspiration. Check out Shausha at Show and Tell...her blog is great!
  Here's how we got where we were going... She was mighty dirty. I tried to use canned air - you know the stuff you clean your computer keyboard with - to dust her out. But that just wasn't cutting it. So I broke out the leaf blower. Worked like a charm. First, I removed the {lovely} handles and pulled the "medallion" thingeys off the front of the drawers. I lucked out - they actually overlapped the trim that I wanted to keep on the drawers, so I didn't have to do too much reconstruction on the front of the doors.
  Lots of wood filler and sanding... And here's the final product - TA DA!!! What do you think? I just love it! Every time I walk into this room, I'm so happy about how this turned out!




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Linking up here...




Primative and Proper
The Nesting Place

Friday, March 11, 2011

blog hopping...

Blog hopping over at...

The Girl Creative


Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

camera dilemma...

{BTW...did you know it's spelled dilemMa and not dilemNa?

I always thought it was dilemNA. huh.}

So...I like my camera. And it was a gift from my husband's Aunt Diane {so, free!} But it does not take good pictures inside. All cameras - I think - take pretty good pictures outside. But I'm having trouble finding one that takes good inside pics. I received a $200 Amazon gift certificate for Christmas and have been trying to find a camera on Amazon that's around 200 bucks. Here's the short list (in no particular order)...


{Canon PowerShot SX130IS}



{FujiFilm FinePix S1800HD}


{FujiFilm FinePix S2550}




{Nilon Coolpix L110}


{Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35}


I rely pretty heavily on customer reviews on Amazon. But these are all pretty much the same: lots of good, some not so good. So I'm having a hard time deciding.

So...what do you think? Do you have one of these cameras? Love it? Hate it? Any advise?

...OR...should I just use my certificate to buy lots of shoes?
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Linking up here...

all thingz related

blue cricket design

Thursday, March 3, 2011

ahhhh....

...wish I was here:
{photo courtesy of Coastal Living. gratefully stolen from A Life's Design}