Sumpin’ outta nuttin’

 

Remember when I said I was going to show you all of those ‘somethings’?  I’m doing it riiiight now.  This second so pay attention to this goodness!

I was at a yard sale a while back (shocking, I know) and I saw a little baskety bowl thing for a quarter.  I snatched that thing up quicker than kids snatch candy at Halloween.  The lady selling it said she used it for her facecloths in the bathroom.  It was cream and kinda tacky.  Right away, I knew what I was going to use it for- fruit!   A little spray paint (my fav) and voila!

When you get married, everyone wants to give you treasures- made of silver or crystal and stuff.  It’s typically the kind of thing that gets stuffed in a china cabinet because you are afraid to use it or have no use for it!  Guess what?  I use my ‘stuff’!

If it breaks, it breaks.  At least I used it for a time, right?  Very cool idea.  Ooooh…see the coffee stain on the counter? 🙂  You could also use one of your grandma’s china tea cups for a sponge holder near the sink.  That’d be a great plan!

Making my way around the kitchen…….I saw this ‘thing’ at the Salvation Army for 0.50 cents.  I knew I could use it.

Spray it red, of course! 🙂

Annnd…I found this silver tray for $2, cleaned her up and now it houses my jewellry.  NOT that there’s anything valuable in there but it keeps it tidy.  Remember grandmas cup and saucer?  Use that if you don’t have a tray!

So, what’s the lesson here?  Dig out all of that ‘schtuff’ the aunties gave you for your wedding day and see if you can’t come up with a use for it.  And, don’t pass by cheapie things at thrift stores and yard sales without at least debating internally for a WHOLE minute as to whether or not you can make something of it…

I can hear your heart racing- the second you X out, you’ll be running around like a mad person hunting down your goods.

Alright, class dismissed.

Presto Change-O

I just wanted to inspire y’all (teeheehee) with an example of how quickly you can go from bare bones decorating to decorated pretty darn well.  And yes, I tooted my own horn.  I’m proud of it.  The room and the tooting.

If you recall just a short while back we showed you our nearly completed livingroom.  Well, it’s looking a tad nicer at this point.

Here’s the original ‘after’:

And here we are now.  Subtle changes but they work.  Take for example my wickedly cool eggs in awesome colors.  They are great but I decided they were a tad too springy and Eastery.  I’ll save ’em for later.

My starfish is a much better option.

We finally got an ottoman for storage/seating.  It fills that little space that I had no clue what to do with until we makeover the wall with built-ins.

Also, note the candle holders inside…got those puppies for a buck at the Salvation Army store.  Perfect until we transform the fireplace.

Oh, and here’s a teensy tiny ‘art’ project I did on a ladder thing-a-majigger that I found in the shed.  Yay for free stuff…Any who, I sprayed it (love that stuff) and it makes for a sweet little magazine rack.

I was thinking…(scary, I know)…this would also be cool on the mantle at Christmas as a greeting card displayer/holder, don’t ya think?

Ok so, not much point to this post except that I wanted to show off a few little adjustments we’ve made to the second best looking room in the house.

Tomorrow I’m gonna show you what you can do with a little spray paint AND how you can use everyday objects in unusual ways and make it work!  So cool…

Vacation…sweet, sweet vacation…

Hola Senioritas!!  I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack!  These penny wise folks were on vacation to the States for the last little while so the home projects were on hiatus.  I’ll have a project or two (along with some pics of the stuff we’ve changed over the last little while) tomorrow.

It’s TOTALLY ok though because I have some utterly adorable vacation photos to share…Prince Penny met up with his equally penny pinching cousin (get this- she actually REFUSED a toy b/c it wasn’t on sale…gawd, I love her).

Here’s Prince P pulling his suitcase to the door on the first morning (we had to have a stopover)…

And, once we arrived, the cousins were free to run wild in the woods…like animals cutie pies!

And to play in the tent that cousin brought for toys…genius!

Cheese…(American cheese is Y.U.M)….you can almost hear Prince P sayin’ it, can’t ya?

Love these two!

Ahhhhh…cottage life is great.  Back to reality bites.  Next year…

Pinterest Challenge…Pump It Up!

So….Long time, no chat.  I’ve been enjoying the sun, working my buns off at my day job and getting ready for our summer vacation.  Not so much time for household projects.

I saw that my favorite-ist blogger Sherry at Young House Love and her buds were hosting a Pinterest Challenge.  The idea was to create something you saw and loved from Pinterest.  Well…I love almost everything but came across something that met my need for a quick yet cute idea.

This one is yet another that can be done with little skill….Y’all know I have bare minimum and I pulled it off…

It’s a mason jar soap pump.  This one was done with a smallish jar but I plan to make a larger one for the larger bathroom since the first was so simple.  Here’s the breakdown on what to do:

1) Obtain a clean jar.

In a perfect world, I would have a better photo but in a perfect world, King Penny would NOT have borrowed the dSLR and would NOT have forgotten to turn it off after use!

2) Screw it.  LOL LOL LOL  Ok, drill it.  A hole that is.  In the top.  Make sure it’s big enough to fit the pump part of your project or else you’ll have to head back down 2 flights of stairs.  Twice.  Been there, done that…..

Like I said….a perfect world….SIGH.

3)  Glue a nice paper to the cover of the jar.

4) Attach the pump and add soap.

Done and done.  Well…except that I might paint the gold part of the lid another color.  Cream perhaps.  Brown maybe…

Room with a view??

Da….da…da….daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa………….

Here comes the moment you’ve all been waiting for…a room that ISN’T BROWN!!!

Our love shack, love nest, boudoir or whatever else you wanna call it is now 90% complete!  90% is good enough to show you!  Yay!  You’re jumping up and down now, right?  RIGHT???

Here’s what the room looked like when we moved it.  It was papered.  Everywhere.  It sucked.  It was soooo hard to get off.  I cried.  Well, maybe not but I wanted to.  Every day.

Here’s a mid-way point.  Thank goodness for friends and family.  And good husbands who will scrub wall paper glue off of walls.  FOR FREE!

Ok, so…this room is grey.  I love grey.  King P loves it too!  Our old room in our old house was a slightly darker shade than this new room but we still love it.  We also love our king sized bed.  PERFECT for a palace and well worth the cost.  It was most definitely our one and only bedroom splurge.  As you can tell, King Penny was even ok with using a primarily considered feminine accessory color- fuschia!  CAN.YOU.IMAGINE??

The white quilt set and white bed skirt were from Homesense.  Grand total for both- $108 taxes included.  Great deal and perfect grounding color for grey and goes with anything!

The gigantical dresser was FREE.  Yup, free.  We intend on painting it in the very, very near future.  Our favorite wedding photo, a serving tray and a cool candle holder are great toppers.  See those lamps?  Proof that it’s ok not to be all matchy matchy….EVER!!  Seriously.

We’ve got 4 more of those little pieces of framed art to hang just below what is already there.  They’re another grouping of framed scrapbook paper.  At $11.99 for a set of 4 frames, they were a fantastic deal.

And…..here’s where the view comes in.  Next to our wedding vacation, our trip to the ‘big apple’ was the best!  We snagged this shot of the city complete with hand colored buildings for $69.99 at a local store called Bouclair.  We used a $50 gift card towards it- thanks C and C!!  It’s huge and we hung it low so that it sort of acts as both art and a headboard for now.  We plan on making one someday but…there’s so much to do and so little time….it works.

This isn’t the most exciting view of the room but it shows our gorgeous grey curtains.  They’ve got some sheen and add interest to the wall.  Those 2 canvases are ones we threw together ourselves.  Oh, and don’t you love the painted trim?  Sooooo much brighter.

We’re still missing our framed wedding vows.  It’s a very cool thing that King Penny gave me on our first wedding anniversary.  Maybe someday we’ll do a tutorial on it.

This view also shows the extremely large and extremely tacky ceiling fan.  In the middle of summer when it’s hot and hard to sleep, I can honestly say I’m glad we have it.  That sucker cools the room off in ten seconds flat.  I think a makeover is in order because I don’t think I could live with it gone!  Who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind in January?

A place to powder something

Oh happy day.  The sun is shining…finally.  It’s warm enough to hit the beach…finally.

Enough about the weather…I want to talk about our half bathroom or powder room as someone likes to call it.  When I say someone I mean someone who I don’t know.  Not sure how a room with a sink and toilet ever got dubbed a ‘powder room’…maybe because it sounds fancier or something.  Who knows?  I wonder what people powder in a powder room?  Their nose?  Their tush?  Aaaaaaany way….

Ours was so insignificant that a photo of it did not even make the house listing when it was for sale.  It’s that tiny!  We have no before pics.  Mainly because King Penny started painting without my knowledge.  Well, I mean…I came home and he was painting.

Guess what color it is?  I’ll give you a hint….it’s the ONLY color we’ve revealed in a post thus far.  You got it!  Brown again.  We had lots left over.  Ok??  Waste not, want not.

Here’s a view of the boring mirror that we’ll probably replace along with the boring sink.  We haven’t been able to find a vanity that fits snugly between the walls (39 inches is a weird one apparently) so we will likely have to convert a dresser or build one from scratch.  Until then….

Really the only thing we did in this room is take down the half dozen towel racks and replace them with that one single hand towel ring.  It’s plenty.  TRUST me!!

And, just for kicks…here’s ‘le toilette’.  Hopefully I got my francais correct on that one!  The little wire rack was at a yard sale for $5 a while back.  It’s perfect for fitting tightly in the small space and is just enough to hold some face cloths for Prince P, a few hand towels, some lotion and an extra roll of butt-wipe!

Note that the little bowl thingy made it in here.

Oh, here’s a close up of my DIY art:

A regular old canvas, some coordinating paint colors, a sponge brush and a regular brush later….VOILA!  Instant tree art!  Super easy and the best part was that it was impossible to mess up!  The most important part was to make sure to fill the canvas.  EASY!

Anyhow…that’s the 30 second tour of the ‘place to powder something’….I promise- the next room won’t be brown!!!

This little light of….ours….

This little desk lamp of ours was ugly.  Boring.  Not fun.  Remember when we showed it here (I was showing you the chair)?  Well, it got a little facelift.  A purty one!

It used to look like this:

I picked up a can of gold spray paint.  I like gold….sometimes.  With the brown and yellows of our livingroom gold just works.

After a little loving in the form of Krylon gold….

It’s a subtle change but it’s a little big more blingin’ now…Check it out from this angle:

Ahhhh…Much better…complete with mail and King Penny’s rubix cube!

Friday Hearts

I’m currently obsessed with one thing- wreaths.  I want to make more than the one yellow fabric style I’ve already done.  I want to put them on my front door.  I want one for summer, fall, Halloween and Christmas.  You name it, I want it.

From what I can tell, they’re the ‘in’ thing.  Even if they are not…they’re in with me!!

Here’s a round up of some cool DIY (do it yourself) wreaths for you to drool over check out.

This ribbon wreath is just gorgeous and would be wonderful for special parties….yes please.  Oh, couldn’t you just see it with Christmasy colors?  Like- cranberry and silver or green and white or red??  EEP!  I need it!

This one is made from a t-shirt.  I love love love the colors and think something like this would be great for spring or summer.  You could easily change up the colors of the flowers and ribbon and use a neutral shirt for a year-round wreath!  Very economical!

Oh, I just love the whimsy of this great idea!  A frame!  Who comes up with these things??  Seriously, I’d like to chip off a teensy tiny piece of the ‘ol brain in their heads!

Oh, did I mention that I also LOVE gifts??  🙂

Grab a chair, will ya??

I’ve certainly got my first!!  And….maybe my second one as well…

First up, the chair from hell kijiji:

Online, this chair just looked like a relatively unattractive chair with good bones that would be perfect for recovering and for taking up residence in my new living room.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH….WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRONG!!!!  In getting the chair home (my parents picked it up for me), I discovered several things about it.

I saw just how incredibly nasty it was.  Nasty as in- wear rubber gloves to touch nasty.

There are WAAAAY more staples in this chair than I ever thought humanly possible.  Like- hundreds, thousands of sharp little nippers and….killer nails.  In the words of Prince P- really really really killer nails.

I’ve started removing the fabric and I’m about 3/4 of the way there.  I’m following the process outlined on several other blogs and I’ll repost that process once I’ve finished.

The second chair, was way simpler to work on and complete:

I found this one in our basement.  It was pretty retro looking.  The bones were good….good bones I tell ya!

I found a clearance piece of fabric at the local fabric store for six bucks.  Perfect.  I picked up a cheapy cheapy can of cream spray paint from Wal-mart.  Score!  This little makeover cost $10!  I roughed up the wood a bit with some sand paper and sprayed it.  I attempted to do it nice even coats but alas, $4 spray paint doesn’t exactly go on so nice.  The fashionable green vinyl came off the chair top easily and I simply traced it on the fabric.  Then, once I knew the paint was good and dry….Ok, let me rephrase that- once I *thought* the paint was good and dry, I stapled the fabric back on the seat.

(you can most definitely see how I need to fix up the fabric a bit…I have extra hanging.  And the scuffs?  I like ’em so I’m leaving ’em!

Oh, and here ‘she’ is with the gorgeous roll top desk I gave King P for his birthday.  We still have to decorate the area.  That lamp will be an upcoming project…I’ll keep ya updated…

Simple.  MUCH simpler than that other hunk o’ junk.  UGH…the things I get myself into!

The ‘view’ from here…

This is it.  Our yard.  It’s peaceful (unless the chirping birds annoy you) and green.  And mostly private.  It’s super and I’m smitten.  Heck, we ALL are!

We’ve got a picnic bench and chairs to paint and King P has a swing to build- not the kiddie kind, the mommy kind!!

Not only do we have a regular old yard but…we’ve got the back 40…

And some secret hideaways…they’ll be great for playing baseball and camping out someday!

And, fab for pics!!

Here’s a view from the hidden area facing the backside of the house…you can see that the area that is NOT private to the left of the house…

Oh, it’s a definite work in progress…but it’s still perfect.

(That jungle patch will be a veggie garden next year)…

So, there you have it!  A tour of the grounds of Casa Pennywise!

(here’s the front yard- it needs some wicked gardening!)

Anyone else have outdoor projects?