Easy Wedding Silouhette

I made this with my new Silhouette Cameo that my Valentine got me for Valentine's Day this year!  I took the original picture in Photoshop, selected us and deleted the rest of the background.  I then went into the 'levels' setting and took the white down all the way so the picture was pure black - then saved it as a .pdf file.

I brought it into the software that comes with the machine, traced an outline of it (which is a pre-set option), tweaked the points some more to get rid of any jagged edges and points -- then sent it to my Silhouette Cameo.  Within minutes it was cut!  I'm absolutely in LOVE with my new toy....and many more projects will be done with it!  :)

Here is the before and after:

What a fun wedding or anniversary gift!

Mirror Turned Into Chalkboard

Have an old mirror laying around the house that you don't know what to do with?  I got this with my step-daughters dresser and nightstand that I bought off Craigslist last year.  I didn't have a good spot in her room for it, so I was going to re-sell it on CL.  But then I found this idea when browsing through other decorating blogs.  BRILLIANT!

I cleaned the mirror really good and sprayed it with chalkboard spray paint.  You can also roll the paint, but I had the spray paint on hand, so I used it.  Then I painted the frame black and dry brushed a little red on it.  I LOVE how it turned out.  And for Christmas, my husband bought me some chalkboard markers.  I haven't used them yet since I had a baby on January 25, 2012 -- but plan to pull those babies out pretty soon and decorate it!

Who would have thunk it?  :)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Grandpa's Old Brass Lamps

When my grandpa moved, he didn't want to take these ole' brass lamps with him.  So my mom snagged them for me...and my in-laws drove them down to Arizona.  It saved the money for postage...not to mention the big awkward box it would have taken to mail them.

I had grand plans for them.  Ya know, lamp shades are NOT cheap, so I took my sweet time looking for just the right ones at the right price.  I found these at Target.  They were originally $39.99.  YIKES!  Too much for me.  But they were marked down to $9.98.  Eeehhh, I wasn't positive about them.  Still more than I wanted to pay.  Then the following week they were marked down again.  I believe they were $6.98.  I could work with that.  I was well on my way with the lamp transformation.

I bought an off white spray paint at Lowe's.  I also bought a can of gloss spray paint.  I've read tutorials online saying you need to lightly sand lamps.  I didn't.  I just wiped them clean with a damp paper towel and made sure they were good and dry.  Then I went to town spray painting.  Here's a picture in the middle of the project....

And the final product with the final coat of gloss on them, along with my new lamp shades!  :)  I LOVE how they turned out...

Give thanks

Yesterday I went to Goodwill to see what treasures I could find.  I haven't been there in months and was excited to see what was there!  I found this beauty.  Here's the before and after of my purchase:

My sister made this sign for my mom, years ago...and when we were in Chicago for Christmas, it reminded me that I wanted one too!  And of course, since it was made so long ago, my sister couldn't remember what font it was.  What's a girl to do?  Well, here are the steps I followed:

1.  I took a picture of the actual sign and pulled it into Adobe Photoshop Elements (a program that my wonderful hubby bought me for Christmas this year.  I was SO excited!)

2.  I stretched it out and made it fit in the size of the board I bought.

3.  Time to print it out (in full size).  It took 4 pieces of paper and I taped it all together.

4.  I colored the back of the printed paper with pencil.  When I laid it on the black painted board and traced the letters, the outline of the font rubbed off so I had the font transferred right on there.

5.  Time to grab some red paint and go to town.  I used a small paint brush and painted within the lines.  I wasn't too worried about covering all the black underneath the red.  I wanted it to look a little rustic/primitive.

I had all the paint on hand....not too bad for a $4 project!  :)  Here it is up in our kitchen...

Kitchen Rug

I've been looking for a new kitchen rug for months now.  Actually 7 months...since we've moved into our new house.  I liked our old rug, but it was a 5'x7' and a bit too small for what I wanted.  So, I searched store websites, blogs, Ebay and Craigslist.  Well, Craigslist won.  A lady was selling a rug she had because she changed her decor.  Here's the proof:

She was asking $175.  I offered her $125.  And she met me in the middle and said she'd sell it for $150.  That's what I was hoping for.  :)  The only issue was that someone else beat me to emailing her....and she was holding it til the next day for a guy.  She told me she'd contact me either way and let me know if it was still available after he came.  BOO!!

So, I went to bed thinking that it would be gone.  Mid-afternoon I got an email from her saying the guy no-showed her!  Bad news for her, but good news for me!!  I called and said I'd be over in less than an hour to buy it from her!!  The best part:  you can still purchase these rugs from Target, which is GREAT....because I put the smaller rugs on my Christmas list.  I want two of them: one for in front of the stove and sink.  And they are even on sale right now!  Yeehaw!

Here's a picture of the rug under our kitchen table.  Don't mind the bib on the table, the vacuum on the side or the gross back yard.  I don't live in a model home...and the weather is JUST starting to cool down to work outside.  HA!

Now, I've just gotta get those kitchen cabinets painted and new flooring installed.  I'm gonna get tile that looks just like hardwood.  I know it's cheaper to do a laminate or actual hardwood, but we've got a pool...and that back door is the way in and out.  So...tile it is.  :)

The Girly-Girl's Room

It's been long enough.  We've been in this house for a little over 7 months now, and Rylie's room is complete.  At least for now.  Here is a before picture of the room - I know it's not the best, but it's the only one that shows the real color.  The flash didn't go off on the other 'before' pictures, so no need to post them...

See that color?  It was this gross peachy color that was AWFUL...and whoever painted, did a HORRIBLE job!  I still have to paint over the woodwork that they painted peach.  It made the room look dark and grungy.  I originally wanted to paint her room pink, but knew she'd outgrow that color really quick -- so I went another direction.  I went with a Benjamin Moore color: 'Glass Slipper'.  It's a Cinderella blue and more neutral than pink.

And here are the AFTER pictures...

Now...the breakdown of the cost of it:

Desk: $15 on Craigslist
Desk chair:  FREE from my grandparents.  I just painted it.
Dresser: $85 on Craigslist (came w/ a nightstand I have in the guest room)
Mirror: $7.50 from the thrift store
Toy Box:  FREE from a friend.  I'll eventually re-do it.
Chalkboard: $15 (I believe) from Ikea.  I just painted it.
Trundle bed:  $200 on Craigslist.  Mattresses were included.
Bedding: $40 from Marshall's.
Curtains:  I can't remember how much.  I bought the fabric online and made them.
Chest of Drawers: $10 from a friend's garage sale.
'love' sign: FREE.  I had the wood and paint and just painted it today.

King Sized Bed

Ever since I've started feeling better with this pregnancy, I've been a Craigslist stalker.  There's so much I want to do with our new house, it's SICK!  But unlike most people, we aren't made of money and I don't have a money tree in our backyard.  :)  I LOVE finding deals....I LOVE re-doing furniture...and I LOVE the inexpensive transformation of a room!

Last Sunday, I found this baby looming in front of my eyes on Craigslist:

Oh, how I LOVED it!  We didn't really need a new bed.  I was more so looking for an inexpensive king sized bed (or just the frame) to put in our guest room.  But this enticed me.  I could put our sleigh bed in the guest room and put THIS in our master bedroom!  Yeah, that was the plan.  But, she was asking $150 for it....more than I wanted to pay.

So, I kept the ad up in my browser.  Monday afternoon it was still up, so I emailed her and asked if she'd consider a $75 offer.  She had mentioned in the ad that she wanted it GONE...so I thought I had a little wiggle room on the price.  All I wanted to pay was $75 anyway, and I figured if she said 'no', then I'd be ok with it and keep looking.  She wrote back and said if I could come get it ASAP then she'd sell it to me for that price!

I waited for the bub to get up from a nap and called her.  It had been a few hours since she responded through email, so I asked if she was still willing to sell it to me for that price.  Yep.  So I quickly put on our shoes and headed over.  It's BEAUTIFUL!  I got it home and hooked up my spray gun and sprayed it black to match our other bedroom furniture.  Here's what it looks like:

Please excuse the night stand.  The little guy gave me a cold and I've been sick for 4ish days now.  There's more to do to the room.  I've gotta pick out a paint color and paint, but that'll kill my back now.  I may have to wait til this next little boy is born, but it'll get finished eventually.

Off white spray paint

It's been quite a while since I've posted.  We moved 40 minutes away from our previous home, I've been working on the new house and also found out that we are pregnant with our second child, a boy - due February 1, 2012.  So, I've been busy -- but I'm going to try and update more often and show you what I've been doing!  My next big project is painting the darn kitchen cabinets AGAIN!  Yikes...I swore I'd never do it again, but I've got those ugly honey-oak cabinets that I just don't care for.  Oh well, it's got to get done!  :)

But here's a little quick project I did a few weeks ago.  Well, it's not REALLY a project.  More so a quick spray paint job.  I got these little birdies from my grandma after she passed away.  They are from Ethan Allen.  I debated spraying them because I'm sure she paid a pretty penny for them...but they just weren't my style:

See what I mean.  They look 70's.  So, I bought a can of off white spray paint at Walmart and went to town.  Now I LOVE them!  They match my decor and I can say I have a little something from my grandparents -- and I remember them anytime I look at them!  :)

Such a cheap update!  I LOVE spray paint!!!!  :)

Transformed Treasures

I got this 'ole tin tray at a thrift store years ago.  I thought it was kinda cute at the time.  I never have used it.  That just shows how a spontaneous purchase can go to waste.  HA!  But hey, it's not like I spent a lot of money on it.  It was only 25¢.  It had a Christmas-y look to it.  I have so much Christmas decor that I couldn't possibly put another thing out.  Well, maybe I could.  But I don't like the look of it.

A few weeks ago I was watching Hoarders on tv.  That show grosses me out, but I watch it anyway.  This time, it made me realize that I have WAAAAAAAY too much stuff that I don't use.  It FINALLY hit me to get rid of stuff that I'm not using or haven't used (or worn) for years.  Boy did I go to town.  I gave away about half of my wardrobe, I'm selling stuff on Craigslist and I'm throwing things out.

I remembered that I had this tray in an old trunk that needs to be painted black out in my garage.  So I went out to get it.  It was PERFECT for the top of my toilet in the bathroom.  Every time I go to a friends house, the top of their toilets are cute.  (Who would have thought I'd say the top of a toilet is cute?  HAHA!)  Well, mine just had a box of tissues on it.  BOOOOOORING!!!

So I grabbed some paint I had on hand (a Waverly paint color:  Summer Cottage -- satin finish).  I painted that tray up....and VOILA!  It's now shabby chic and fits perfectly in my hall bath!

I love transforming things from 'non-usable' to usable and I'd LOVE to see all your transformed treasures!  Click on the link below and let's all link up and share our ideas with other blog readers!  :)  Please be sure to link to your direct post, not to your main page.  Happy decorating!

Halloween decorating

Today I packed up the little bub and we went shopping.  I heart The Dollar Tree.  You can find so many cheesy things to gussy up!  Here's what I did:

I normally don't decorate for Halloween, but I've found so many cute ideas from other blogs lately...that I just couldn't resist.

The cute little witch silhouette was found here.  I actually printed it out and traced it onto some scrap fabric I had laying around the house.  Then I grabbed a paint brush and black paint and went to town.  I LOVE it.

The crow was found here.  I don't know what she used to sit this little guy on...it looks like a real stump of wood to me.  Since I didn't have that, I bought some round styrofoam pieces and some fake moss to glue on it (both from the Dollar Tree as well).  They didn't have the glass candle pillar base (boo), so I found something in my 'armoire' of house goodies that works just fine.

I printed out the 'boo' using Century Gothic font -- size 100 (since my frame was a 5" x 7" instead of a 4" x 6").  I'm thinking about reprinting it, and instead of the word 'boo', I'll make it say 'eek' since I got an orange glittery 'BOO!" at the Dollar Spot inside Target.  I don't want too many boo's around here.  :)

The cute little orange pumpkin....you guessed it.  The Dollar Tree.  They have a bunch of different ceramic ones, which I got one of each.  I love these little guys....

Thanks to all the bloggers out there who have such wonderful decorating ideas.  And plus, they are SUPER INEXPENSIVE, which I'm sure my hubby appreciates!

And just for the heck of it, here's the whole shot.  Gotta get that star in the picture!  :)

If any of you have other fun fall decorations, let me know!  I LOVE seeing different ideas and copying you guys too!  :)