and the winner is...

TA DA!!!

After months of exhaustive research (I got my Amazon GC for Christmas, people!) I finally bought a Canon PowerShot SX130is. Not the SLR I was dreaming of, but it's an awesome camera and I LOVE it (and it was in my price range). Sample pics to come...

craigslist fail...or hit?

Fail or Hit? You decide...

I searched for a king-sized headboard and found this:



And here's the info:

I use the term "pimp" very loosely. You don't have to be a pimp. I mean, I'm not. Definitely not. But this thing is big. 10'3" big. (' is for feet, " is for inches, by the way.) And when I say big, I mean long - from end to end it's 10'3". That's longer than my bedroom. Longer than all three of my bedrooms. One's actually converted into a little office, but that's besides the point. Perhaps they would be larger if I were a pimp. But I'm not. Definitely not.

Now what is this thing? It's a headboard for a california king bed. And it has a nightstand on either side combining all 3 pieces into one big unit. It's 4 feet high. It has a mirror that goes all the way across and LOTS of storage. It also has lights on it so that you can read in bed. This thing is OAK. That's wood from the OAK tree. Heavy! Way heavier than you think. You need a truck or an old VW bug that's also a flatbed. But once it's in your bedroom that's larger than mine (sure - rub it in why don't you) what it took to get it there will no longer be a concern. It'll be good ol' times that you can laugh about and reminisce about when you're good and old and your children's children are about to inherit this soon-to-be family heirloom pimp furniture. Moving it into their space will then be their problem, not yours. Just instill into them good work habits so that they have bedrooms that are bigger than mine. You know, like a pimp.

I say "fail" on the photo, but definitely a "hit" on the description!

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...

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Nesting Place

Spunky Junky {thanks for the feature, Halsey!}

Serenity Now (thank you, too, Amanda!}

French Country Cottage

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Paisley Passions

Today's Creative Blog

Craftaholics Anonymous

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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Primative and Proper
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Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Finding Fabulous

Funky Junk Interiors

Under the Table and Dreaming

Between Naps on the Porch

Blue Cricket Design

Miss Mustard Seed

The Shabby Chic Cottage

The Shabby Nest

Somewhat Simple

504 Main

French Country Cottage

Serenity Now

Remodelholic

Spunky Junky

Delightful Order

blog hopping...

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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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ahhhh....

...wish I was here:

{photo courtesy of Coastal Living. gratefully stolen from A Life's Design}