My hobby is affecting my sleep

I couldn't sleep last night. I was having dreams and visions of craft ideas and future projects running through my head - crazy, for some of you to imagine I'm sure, but not so crazy for those who share the same excitement as I do for this hobby of mine. On top of that, the day's events and other everday details just kept running through my head (nothing at all super exciting either, just hum drum stuff).


I just couldn't shut my mind off, get comfortable and fall asleep. Ever have that problem where you're tired but because your mind is racing there's little actual shut-eye?


It took forever for me to even fall asleep at first, then I was tossing and turning and finally got out of bed a little after 4am due to a growling stomach. Apparently, when I'm normally sleeping at that hour, I don't know how hungry I actually am :)  So I snuck downstairs quietly...well, as quiet as one can be on old creaky hardwood floors and steps - plus the dog probably gave me away, what with his incessant jumping off and on the bed to see what mamma's up to (I wonder why doesn't he do that when Mike gets outta bed?).


Anyway, all that to say I probably woke Mike up anyway, but I went downstairs, made some toast, and watched the end of an old "Who's the Boss" episode. It was the one where Mona meets a younger man when she goes back to college and they start dating. Angela finds out, is appalled, but then comes around to supporting her mom's happiness. Aaaah, a time when there was no term 'cougar' or the show Cougartown - those were the days. I don't care for that word, btw. An older man dating a younger woman isn't called a mean-old cat name. No, he's a Sugardaddy or some sweet-themed name. Very unfair gender labels if you ask me. But you didn't ask me! haha, wow I'm rambling. Okay, so that's what lack of sleep does to me - sorry :/


ANYWHO! What I'm trying to get at - yes, I have a point - is that THIS was the culprit that started my evening off to a bad night's sleep:

A couple friend of ours was getting rid of this solid wood dresser (photo of it above from their spare bedroom) and asked if I'd be interested in it - uhhhh HELLZ to the YEAH! Free furniture to rehab with paint and love? Giveittomenow!

See, I looked beyond the in-your-face-like-mace blue (sorry Carolyn, I know you liked the color!) and saw a vision for Mike's and my new master bedroom dresser I've been on the hunt for since I mentioned it an earlier post here.

Once I get done with her, here's what she's hopefully going to closely resemble:

dresser photo found here

I want to lose the mirror, paint the body of the dresser an antique white with a glaze treatment, and stain the top a chocolately brown. Can you picture it?

So that's what's on my agenda for the weekend if it's not too cold outside. I'll be in the garage sanding this beauty and getting started on her makeover. A HUGE thank you - THANK YOU - to Carolyn and Jon for their generousity and thoughtfulness in gifting us this furniture piece. They are aware of my furniture finishing addiction and were glad to supply me with my next victim candidate :)

So, anyone else a weirdo like me when it comes to losing sleep over daydreams? :) Any other Who's the Boss fans? LOVE 80s shows!

Here's to our hobbies and *hopefully* getting a better night's sleep!

Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend!!

~Amy

Blind to the world

A few weeks ago in this post I mentioned I had swapped out the old aluminum blinds in the living room for some luscious thick faux wood blinds. Here they are, hung up in all their glory, so stately and refined :) haha

Now, it may be hard to tell the difference, but here is a close up before-and-after shot of the two different blinds when they're closed  - see how small and uninteresting the old ones on top were? I took these shots from about the same distance away, so there's no depth perception tricks going on here - just some plain old dated mini blinds turned beatifully bold faux wood.

They're 2 inches of faux wood blind awesomeness!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, I got them at Goodwill for a STEAL!

(sorry for the blurry phone pic)

That's right - only 14 smackers to transform our living room picture window :)

The brand is Levolor and I just looked up their brand online and found that a 38x60" (which is smaller than the one I got at Goodwill) faux wood, 2" blind costs over $100 - and I paid $14?!  JACKPOT!!!! 

Here are a few more pics of these babies :)

Oh, and that storage console in the photos above? That used to live on the opposite windowless wall in our living room and it was our TV console before we mounted the tv on the wall above our fireplace. I removed the doors, bought three galvanized steel bins (and stuck on little round pads on the bottom four corners of each to prevent scuff marks when pulling them in and out) and I already had the three baskets that happened to fit perfectly in the top three compartments.  

I had a bunch of little chalkboards left over from our wedding (which we used as table number markers) and glued magnets on the back of them so they'd hang just like you see them here on each of the bins.

Then in chalk I wrote what each bin's contents are:

Music - for all of our CDs

Movies - for all of our DVDs

and Miscellanious - for all other odds and ends and catch alls

that get thrown into it for a quick pick-up of the room.

The baskets hold other odds and ends like extra plug-in air freshner refills, tissues (we have to hide those because our adorable but weird dog will eat an entire box if left in plain veiw) some video games, etc.

I'm sure once some kiddies come along, the contents of these bins will change and will most likely become home to toys, games, and other baby clutter that can be tossed in and out of sight at a moment's notice.

So that's the updated corner of the living room. New blinds and a new/re-purposed console. 

And the large sailboat is an heirloom from my hubby's grandparents - it will normally only reside there during the summer, but it was just given to us and I'm desparatlely calling out for warmer spring and summer weather - like we had last friday! - and so here it will sit as a beacon of hope that warmer days are ahead me mateys! :)

So how bout you all? Swap out any old stuff for new stuff on the cheap lately? Any re-purposing/ organizational solutions going on in your casa? Anyone else dying inside like I am for springtime? :)

Good Wednesday to you all, and THINK SPRING!

~Amy

Miss Mustard Seed's 'Copy Me!' Challenge

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today's post is all things inspired by that beautiful blogstress Miss Mustard Seed. You know, the brilliant woman who puts together beautiful tablescapes and vignettes and crafty little projects and furniture pieces that make my heart go pitter pat and my mind go racing as to how I can copy what she's done. Well little did I know she was going to be hosting a Copy Me! Challenge to see how her followers emulate her style and decorating expertise! Woo to the hoo!!! :)


So to enter her challenge I took photos of my MMS-inspired projects and I'm posting them here today to enter and link-up...here we go!


The first project MMS inspired me to do was her sheet music wreath. As I've followed her blog, I learned that she and I have a few things in common, one of those things being music. Like MMS, I L-O-V-E, LOVE! musical theater (that's what I minored in actually) and there is something about song that just has a way of hitting you at the heart and making you feel things like no other medium on the planet can - does that make sense? It does to me anyway, haha. So when I saw her sheet music wreath post I HAD to copy it.

Withouth further ado, here's my finished product:

That's my mom in the black-and-white picture at the bottem left of the wreath - she was dancing and acting like a goofball when I snapped that photo and I love it! It's the perfect pose :)

I didn't have real antique sheet musice like MMS did, so I printed some of my favorite songs off the computer on regular printer paper. Then I tea-stained each sheet, all at varying degrees (some are darker tea-stained than others) because I thought it would give the wreath a little dimension. I love how it turned out!

In total, the sheet music wreath cost me next to nothing since I already had everything (glue gun, glue and printer paper) except the circular backing, which I bought for about $3 at Michael's.

 The next project I copied MMS on is her spindle starburst mirror -

             

                                          here's hers:                                        

and here's mine:

Again, I LOVE the result! What do you think? Did I come pretty close to the real deal?

I used a cheapo craft mirror like MMS did, and my spindles came from my hubby's grandparent's tool area in their basement. The house was sold and needed to be cleaned out and family could take what they liked. I remember my mother-in-law looking at me funny when I brought a bunch of sticks upstairs - "What are you going to do with those?" she said. "Oh I have a project in mind." I replied. So Nance, what d'ya think? :)

I had the hubs snap a quick photo as I was gluing everything together (thanks hun!) and I just picked up random lenghts and colors from the bunch of spindles I had as I went along. Not all of the sticks are spindles - some of them are flat little paint stir sticks, or something of the like. I didn't know what all the pieces were, I just knew I liked their shapes and colors and hoped they'd look good in the end.

Here's a few more snapshots from different angles:

And lastly, I put together a little vignette, MMS style, and added a lil bit o' green in anticipation of Spring. (Phil the groundhog did say Spring will come early this year - thank the Lord!)

I think the white/neutral colors of the linens, bowl and pitcher -  sorry, not Ironstone! :(  - and that leggy little table all mix to make a great little combination that MMS could be proud of - hopefully! :)  Everything but the books and pitcher, and ladder with the basket came from Nana and Pap-pap's house too. I love the table (which I may paint out white with an antique glazing treatment - a la MMS - sometime in the future).

The ladder I hung on the wall above the table is something I found at the Flower and Craft Warehouse in Lancaster, PA. The whitewashed cone basket came from K & S Flower and Vine Warehouse in Schuylkill Haven.

The dried hydrangeas in the basket were yet another find at Nana's house - she dried them and stored them beautifully and I'm so glad I found them and used them here.

I also copied her sheet music decorative balls and made mine into hanging christmas tree ornaments. But sadly, I took no pictures of those and they're currently being stored in the attic - NOT going up there til next Christmas :/ 

 But imagine hers (seen below) with little twine loops hot glued on top and hanging sweetly from a crisp evergreen branch - did I paint a pretty enough picture for ya there?! haha! :)

Next up on my copy MMS list (yes I have a list, haha) - A craigslist dining room set of table and chairs. I just picked up the set not too long ago so I'll have to take the before photos and post them later. I'm not going to work on them until the weather gets warmer since my workspace is in the garage and painting (as much as I love it) in 30-degree weather is not my idea of fun :)

Well, that's my submission for Miss Mustard Seed's Copy Me! Challenge. Hopefully my knock-offs are worthy of her praise and possibly the winning prize...fingers crossed! :)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Wednesday friends!

~Amy 

  



Shine a little light

It's a gloomy, damp, wintry day here and I thought I'd do a quick post on something that will brighten up the day a bit - or at least in my mind it makes it a bit brighter :)



Not too long ago my husband and I swapped out the dining room ceiling fan for something more dining roomesque and less fanny :) Also, prior to the light fixture project here is the hideous interesting wall paper that we inherited with the purchase of our home:

It was Fall and we'd just moved in and scrambled to try to make the place feel like ours before our wedding day which came the week after we were in. In hindsight though, looking at this photo it just felt cluttered. Well, and that pink and blue striped wallpaper didn't help :/ haha!

Here are a few close-ups of the ceiling fan:

And here's a view of the right corner of the dining room. It has a beautiful built-in but the mirrors in the background were too dated and not to my liking:

Mirrors are supposed to help a space feel bigger, but in this case it just felt like a fun house because the back of the built-in is shaped like an inverted V and the reflections were just wonky :/

The mirrors are out now (note to self: post pics of mirrorless built-in) and so is the ceiling fan. We purchased this light from Home Depot for around $40 if I recall correctly:

And with the pink and blue wallpaper gone (Great job hubs!! - he scraped it off the whole room with a razor blade!!) and a nice neutral paint color above the chair rail, it's a much nicer dining room now - at least I think so! :)

This cool trunk is to the left of the hutch. It was my grandparents and we found a ton of them out in their barn!

So to recap,

 we went from this...                               to this!

I like it mucho better. And next on the list? swapping out those aluminum blinds you see in the above pic for some faux wooden blinds. I've already replaced the set in the living room's front window and LOOOOOOOOOOVE em! :) Til next time!

Happy Wednesday!

~Amy