How To Uplift Your Throw Away Items

This week I have been working on uplifting every day items that otherwise I would throw away, recycle, sell in a garage sale, etc.

 

The first was this framed art.  I loved the frame!!! 

 

By painting the glass with chalkboard paint, I transformed this into a new fun piece!  With the neutral color of the frame, it can be used in many different places within the home.

 

 

The next was an item which in normal cases would be recycled immediately. 

 

 

However, wrapping twine and gluing it around this bottle repurposed it into a great Autumn vase.   To finish off the vase, I cut small branches off our tree.  A perfect touch!

 

Don't stop here, continue your journey and visit my blog post from earlier today titled
 Give.

 

I am linking up to these beautiful blogs, please enjoy the journey!

French Country Cottage

Stuff and Nonsense

At The Picket Fence|

The DIY Dreamer

The Vintage Farmhouse

My Romantic Home

Petites Passions - Passion Parade Link Party

 

 



Give

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.  Proverbs 3:27  

GIVE

 

As I sat in the chair, I realized how excited I was, and not even knowing what the final "look" would be.  At this point, the final result did not matter, it wasn't why I was here.  I had been waiting for this moment for two year and half years, well I suppose I have been waiting for this moment since the last time I did it.  My stylist brushed all of my hair into a ponytail at the nape of my neck, and with shears in hand, she started to work through the ponytail.  And finally....

 

And you ask, why would I grow all this hair just to cut it off.  The answer is simple...

 

Locks of Love 

"Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses we provide help to restore their self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers."
 

Are you someone who complains about your hair growing too fast?

 

GIVE

 

A special young lady in my life has given this same gift.  I am so proud of her!  She melts my heart daily with every breath and in every moment. 

 

 

It is her I think of when I don't want to "deal" with the length of my hair any longer.  I can't imagine if she or my son became a victim of cancer or any other life threatening disease.  The "what ifs" are more frightening the anything I have ever personally faced.  This very thought breaks my heart.  Therefore, I keep moving forward, continually trimming and conditioning, to ensure the best quality of the donation.

 

GIVE

 

There are so many rumors going around about the donation.  I for one believed these and therefore did not donate when I could have.  There are a lists of regulations here.  The most wide spread rumor I would like to put to rest is...  Your hair CAN be colored and permed, yes, yes, it can.  I started going gray at a very young age of 21, and I am now 90% gray in the front, I know, YIKES, right?!?  As you can imagine, I color lots and very regularly!  My hair is very donatable (is that a word?).  This is a cause I feel very strongly in and will continue to grow, cut, and donate.  I encourage you to do the same. 

 

GIVE

Wrapped With Love

  

A few weeks ago I attended a Sprinkle in honor of my dear friend and her soon to be newborn son.  I knew exactly where I wanted to shop, this fabulous boutique with the most adorable baby items.  It didn't take long before I found this sweet addition for her Baby Boy's nursery.  EEK!!!  It was a perfect fit!

 

However, to my disappointment, the only "gift wrap" they offered was a plastic bag with a sticker label of the store and colored tissue paper... um... no....

Off to work I went on a proper wrap for this sweet ornament.  Rummaging through my gift wrap organizer, a.k.a. guest room dresser, I found a box that I could spruce up for the occasion.

The box began to take shape with the newly added vintage inspired scrapbook papers.

 

 

Placing pillow filler and wrapping it with coffee stained material gave the inside a soft, vintage padding for protecting the fragile piece.

 

 

Do you have any idea how many uses cereal boxes have????

 

The ribbon really trimmed the gift box perfectly.  LOVE IT!!!

 



 

 

  This is the card I made for the baby gift.  It was inspired by the carousel horse in her Baby Boy's nursery, the mason jars used for flavored teas at the Sprinkle, and cupcakes for her blog The Canary's Cupcake.

 

 

I attended the Sprinkle with my best girl, my oldest.  We made it a Girl's Weekend and had a great time shopping, laughing, singing, eating, WOW!!!!

Speaking of my oldest, she recently acquired a desk.  She has been wanting one for awhile and was excited to finally have one.  It was a very sturdy desk, especially for her age, however, it wasn't quite finished...  It was painted with flat white paint and was only painted with one coat.  It hadn't been sanded and was very rough to the touch.  The desk also looked as if it had been used for target practice with a nail gun.  There were 50 + nail holes, all unfilled.  YIKES!!!

 

 

My husband and I immediately went to work on this newest project.  He sanded the entire piece.  I followed up by filling all the holes with the help of my oldest, she loved being able to get her hands dirty with Mommy.  Tee hee hee!

 

 

The desk was painted with the gloss white paint I have used for our wood trim in our home.  After two coats were applied, I noticed the top was warping.  UGH!  Not wanting to give up on this project, I had to find a way to work with the top.  What about decoupage, using vintage dictionary pages?!?  The pages would be a great inspiration for those study times at the desk, right?!?  To give a fun tween look to the vintage pages, I inked them in green to match her room and her bright personality! 

 



 



 

Accents were hand painted along the sides, accented by the colors of her room.  After I completed the accents, I added letters to the front spelling out her name.  Two coats of poly were added to protect all the accent paintings and decoupage.

 SHE LOVED IT!!!!

 

Since I like to keep some things private, there isn't a picture to show of the front and her name, but here is the side and a little glimpse of how it turned out.

 

 Currently I'm dying more coffee filters, my daughter thought a wreath would hang perfectly over her new desk, and I can't say no, lol!

I am linking up to these beautiful blogs, please enjoy the journey!

French Country Cottage

Stuff and Nonsense

At The Picket Fence|

The DIY Dreamer

The Vintage Farmhouse

My Romantic Home

Petites Passions - Passion Parade Link Party



Pretty In Pink

After making my Spook-tacular Halloween Wreath, I wanted to try something more colorful.  I grabbed my assortment of Martha Stewart Paints, and wouldn't you know it, I had more shades of pink then any other color.  I believe it was a sign...

First I did some investigating, the how to's to coffee filter wreaths.  I didn't really like any of the techniques used so I made my own technique. 

First I dyed LOTS of coffee filters with a mixture of paint and water, the consistancy of milk, allowing them to soak anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour.  The different times allowed deeper and lighter shades.  Next, let dry completely.

The next step is cut a spiral, oh and by the way, I used regular size coffee filters and extra large.

I started each flower by rolling from the outside in...

as I rolled, I gathered, hot glued, rolled, gathered, glued...

Some I rolled tight, some I rolled not so tight, and some I rolled very loose.  The next step was to start glueing on the wreath itself.

The pink against the chocolate brown wall ROCKS!!!  But I think I will find a space for it in my studio, against my vintage green wall.    Thanks for stopping by!

I am linking to the following beautiful blogs, enjoy your journey!

French Country Cottage

Stuff and Nonsense

At The Picket Fence|

The DIY Dreamer

The Vintage Farmhouse

My Romantic Home

Petites Passions - Passion Parade Link Party

EEK!!! Halloween is upon us!!!

My love for decorating our home for different holidays and seasons has been running rampant!  I always do the same decor for the Autumn season, however, this year I wanted to change it up a bit.  My focus was on Halloween and doing something ghoulishly fun!!!  I started with bats, 60 bats, hand cut in 5 different sizes...

 This inspiration came from my very talented friend Bryanna.  She however, hand cut 200+ bats last year for Halloween, YIKES!  The idea of the different sizes were to give the affect of the bats flying away.  Did it work?

 

The wreath was made after I attended Bryanna's Sprinkle.  She had made pink ones, absolutely gorgeous.  I wanted to make mine a little ..... dark...

 

 

Of course I had some inspiration from Pinterest as well. What did we do before Pinterest???  

What's a Halloween without spiders, spider webs, crows, skulls, blood, potions, etc, etc, etc..

 

 

The books were covered with brown grocery bags, and inked, then labels adhered to each. 

 

 



 

The candelabra was purchased at Goodwill, spray painted black and I added my infamous bookends to the top in place of candles.

 

 

The potion canister was a 50 cent thrift store find, I brought it home, spray painted it, and added the spooktacular label.  EEK!!!

 

 

 

All in all I am very pleased how it turned out!!!   I especially love how much money it (did not) cost! 

Now onto a little tour of the rest of the Autumn decor...

How are you decorating your BOOtiful homes this season???

I am linking to the following beautiful blogs, enjoy your journey!

French Country Cottage

Stuff and Nonsense

At The Picket Fence|

The DIY Dreamer

Faith Grace Crafts

The Vintage Farmhouse

My Romantic Home



It Was One of Those Mornings

Summer is a special time for our family.  Since I am able to stay home with my two favorite little people, our "to-do" list is ever growing.  The one project the kids and I have enjoyed this summer is tending to our garden.  We are growing many different veggies as well as fresh herbs.  Our basil plant has been quite the success.  Two days ago, I went out again and harvested approximately 2 Cups of basil leaves.  A pesto sauce seemed to be the easy way to use this abundance of basil, however, I would then need to make a market run for pine nuts.  I looked around my kitchen and spotted my loot of tomatoes resting by the window, waiting for salsa to be made.  And then it hit me, Vodka Basil Spaghetti Sauce. It felt a little funny grabbing the vodka bottle from the liquor cabinet first thing in the morning, lol!  

The "Mad Scientist" in me dove right in to this concoction.  I first chopped a yellow onion and minced a half head of garlic, cooking the onion and garlic to a nice translucent appearance.  Then adding one cup of vodka carefully, remember alcohol is very flammable!  I then started cutting approximately 20 tomatoes and chopped basil and added to the vodka saute.  Needing additional flavors, cilantro, oregano, ground cayenne peppers, salt, and pepper were also thrown into the bubbling goodness forming in my dutch oven.  Now this was smelling delightful, and I had to walk away and let everything cook down a bit.  After a couple of hours of simmering, the sauce was too chunky for my liking.  I poured the sauce into the blender, taking out the middle lid piece to allow the heat to escape.  Held a towel on the lid and pushed blend.

This worked out perfectly!  A couple of cans of tomato paste were added to thicken the sauce before serving.

Onto the homemade spaghetti.  This is when the kids always appear, watching, helping, eating the raw noodles.

One of my favorite meals is left-over spaghetti, I enjoyed day two of the meal simply because I would mix the leftover noodles and sauce in a container and warm it the next day together.  I have learned now how to get that taste immediately.  After cooking the noodles and rinsing them with cold water,  place your serving of noodles in a pan, add your sauce and saute the two, this will help marry the flavors, incorporating the taste into the noodles.

YUMMY!

I do apologize though, I do not have an exact recipe.  Like I said before, I am a "mad scientist" type of cook, throwing and adding, never following a recipe.  Therefore, just experiment with the ingredients I mentioned, adding a little at a time, and come up with what tastes best for you and your family.  Enjoy!!!

Linking up to:

The Shabby Creek Cottage