I also created a small entry rug out of the leftover table runners by whip-stitching them together and tying knots for a fringe on the ends...
Cheers!
M J
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Hello There! I finally got around to a few projects over the last week and updated the living room for the fall. In the late summer, I picked up a clearance desk at Target, a few table runners, placemats and a couple gold metal bins to update the little entry area of the living room. My intention was to turn the bins into stools by adding plywood tops. Well, over two months later and my intentions are now reality... When I bought the desk, I knew I wanted a pair of stools to sit underneath, but I could not for the life of me find two stools that I liked and would fit. Walking by the storage section at Target, I saw these sturdy metal bins and I knew they were exactly what I needed! Hubby cut two tops out of plywood and added cleats underneath to keep them on the bins. Then I covered them with the clearance table runners I snagged a while back... I was going to staple the runner fabric to the plywood, but I decided to go a less permanent route and just hot glue it. Now I can just rip these covers off if I get tired of them! I also created a small entry rug out of the leftover table runners by whip-stitching them together and tying knots for a fringe on the ends... I also made a few pillow covers to coordinate the living room with the entry area. I used a few clearance placemats and leftover runner material to whip those out... They coordinate with the pillows and curtains we already had... While I love to look at pictures of the chic, monochromatic rooms on many blogs, I just cannot live in that type of room. I need my color! Luckily, I am able to change things around with very little money with just a bit of work and ingenuity. And it does help to have a very handy Hubby! Now that the living room is feeling so cozy, I think it will be time to have our first fire of the season and curl up on the couch with some hot cocoa! Here's to sweater weather!
Cheers! M J
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Believe it my Peeps! FINALLY DONE! YAY! Hubs got the cabinet doors painted over the past few weeks and we finished up installing them last night: As you can probably see, Hubby also got the under cabinet lighting and the lighting in the glass door cabinet installed as well! The satin paint worked out well as the doors are still durable and wipeable! Yup, already been there... ;-) The paint colors are Valspar Bistro White and Kettle Black. I also got to do a bit of accessorizing since the visual clutter of the open cabinets is finally gone. I still find it funny how many people told me that they never missed those doors at all! Please allow me a small aside here... Hubs and I have been DIY'ing and helping with house projects since we were both kids. My Dad was a carpenter in his early days and his Dad was in maintenance. His Mom was always painting something in the house and my Mom did everything from tarring the roof to making wreaths. In other words, we come by it naturally. We enjoy it. That being said, we do NOT boast about it, we talk about it. 'Cause, hey, we ENJOY it! We are NOT telling others they should do what we do. We may ENCOURAGE others a bit, but there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with hiring a professional contractor. Heck, we have! I am only saying all of this because I want those that have perhaps a bit of insecurity about tackling a project to know: People are different and they have different priorities. We simply enjoy what we do. Period. Ok, I'm done! ;-) Here's a last pic of the finished kitchen! AAAHHHHH, so happy! :-) Thanks for hanging in to the end of this post! Just remember, you can do anything you put your mind to if you just TRY. Fear of failure is a cop-out and messing up is required. DIY, as in life, is a learning process. If we never try anything new in life or ever stop learning, what's the point?
Have a great weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J In my over-active, decorating brain, I look at spaces, no matter where they be, and find a space that could use some light. Light can be anything, not just the visually perceived radiant energy from the sun. Light can be a smile that brightens your day or a pleasant feeling that warms your soul. In decorating, light is anything in a space that pops and catches your attention, creating depth and dimension. In our back yard, behind the fire pit area, was an area that needed some light. Just a bit of attention. I created a little banner with my own sentiment to brighten up our back fence... Being in the woods has always been very calming for me. I grew up camping, hiking, and hunting, sitting under the trees and enjoying the peace. Having this little oasis in our own back yard now, is pretty special for me... This was very simple to make, just a cheap jute table runner folded in half, a few dowels poked through some holes and then my sentiment hand-embroidered with some yarn and ribbon. Took me a few hours to backstitch, but embroidery has always been relaxing to me, just like being under the trees...
Have a great day Everyone! Cheers! M J As promised, we got the shutters built and hung on the house! And can I just say, I am soooo relieved this project is done... :-) We simply used all 1 X 4 cedar boards cut to the dimension of each window around the house - all eleven of them. That makes 22 shutters all together... Hi Raven! ;-) Just to remind you of what the house looked like when we bought it, here is a before picture from the listing with plastic shutters, hunter green everything and the dirtiest roof ever... Lovely, right? After having the roof and house professionally cleaned, the new entry, new paint on the foundation and stairs, new shutters and lots of gardening, here is what the front of the house looks like now: It's a huge improvement. There is still work to be done, but we are calling it good for now... I hope you all have a relaxing weekend! We'll be kicking back with friends enjoying the fruits of our labor! Keep cool Ya'll!
Cheers! M J Remember last time I said I was looking forward to some downtime this past weekend?? LOL! HAHAHA!! LOL!!! ;-) If only... We spent the better part of the extremely hot and humid weekend working on outside projects. AGAIN. I know we both lost at least a few pounds of water weight... Anywho! We are in the process of building new cedar shutters and replacing the old plastic ones which I will show you later this week. Today I just wanted to show you our updated front entry... To give you an idea of just how horrible this looked before - here ya go... Cute, huh? Blah... Hunter green everything! The storm door, the front door, the steps and green over-spray all around them. Don't you just love when realtors hire the cheapest contractors to do the ole' lipstick on a pig thing?? Idiots. The storm door even opened the WRONG way! It would have been better left as it was, I am sure, and less work for us in the end. But we do what we gotta do, right? Hubby replaced the storm door with a nice, shiny new one, we prepped and painted the concrete steps, and scrubbed as much over-spray off as we could. I painted the old steel front door a few weeks ago and made a new wreath for the spring/summer. We will be replacing the front door at some point, but I just could not stand that green door any longer! Hubby got home that day and walked into the house smiling. He had no idea I was gonna paint the door that day, but neither did I! :-) I got a little antsy another day and built this house number sign. Sometimes you just can't wait for the Hubby to get home to cut, sand and screw some wood together, am I right Ladies?? Besides, I can use a chop saw and drill just as well as he can! Wiring up the new light fixtures, however, definitely waited for him... ;-) We still have some touching up to do with some white paint, but our new greeter is hangin' out on the other side of the door... Isn't he darling? Lucky little ceramic gecko. He is from an artisan shop in town and I couldn't pass him up! He matches the front door color way too well. :-) Support Local! Here is a little glimpse of the new paint on the foundation and concrete steps along with our front garden. I also picked up a cute new flag with our beloved Chesapeake blue crab, of course! After we manage to dodge thunderstorms and get the rest of the newly built cedar shutters up on the front of the house, I am hoping to take a break! We'll see...
I will show you the new shutters later this week! Have a great day Everyone! Cheers! M J Well, hello there! I hope you have all been enjoying your summer so far! We have been enjoying it somewhat, but we have also been enjoying the rewards of some hard work on the back yard. When we bought this house last August, the yard had been allowed to completely run wild. We even had to hire a landscaper to tame the wilderness that had become our back yard. Being the consummate DIYers, that was a hard pill to swallow, but with all that this house needed on the inside, we just couldn't handle it! Off of the screened porch, there was a sort of "fenced-in garden". If that's what you would call a garden... See what I mean? A weed infested mess. And this is after the landscapers had cleaned up the yard. And that shed. OY. We stuck that iron piece on an old nail and said good enough for a while, but we just couldn't stand looking at this anymore: Seriously, the shed looked like it had been in a dog fight with an F-16 there are so many holes in the siding! The plastic shutters look super cheap and faded. And those lights. Just. Urgh. While tearing up the landscaping ties from the yard, I thought, Hey! Wouldn't these make a really cool, rustic potting bench against that awful shed? So this is what we came up with... Hubby nailed the ties together and then attached the whole bench to the side of the shed. It is very chunky and worn, just what I was hoping for! Hubby also banged out some quick cedar shutters and we wired up some new, inexpensive lights from Lowes. A MUCH better view from the house and porch, I can tell you. Next we tackled the "garden" and walkway between the shed and the porch. Hubby dug up the weed infested area, then we worked with the existing plants, adding in new plants here and there to fill in. Our generous neighbor wanted to get rid of a few sedum plants and asked us to dig them up if we wanted them! Score! After laying down bag after bag of pea gravel and river rock, here is what we have now: My succulents and portulaca are really enjoying this area. It floods when we have heavy rain, but dries out pretty quickly and gets lots of hot mid-day sun. This little pea gravel patio reminds me of Tuscany, the little seating areas in the gardens. With our umbrellas up, it is a great spot to enjoy some iced tea and get out of the sun. We also added a cedar screen to hide the HVAC unit and added a temporary walkway around to the side of the house. We will be taking up all the walkways and deck boards at some point and laying new walkways around the entire yard. We just don't have it in us this year, it will have to wait. But this looks just fine for now... Last weekend, we got around to painting the foundation and the back steps. Here are some more horrid before pictures, gird your loins... First of all, what the hell is with the useless little deck sitting on the concrete steps? Second, why is the deck painted red when the concrete steps and foundation are that wonderful 90's hunter green?? Honestly people, I don't know how I've lived with this situation for the few months I have. It HURT just to look at it! LOL! Hubby tore out that little deck then we got to work prepping and painting the foundation and back steps. We also created a small vignette in the corner with an old post, old pavers and bricks... And more gifted flowers from our neighbor! Now to do something with that door... :-) Of course, all of this is temporary for now. We need to tear out some rotting wood on the screened porch and rebuild the whole thing. We will most likely close the porch in with large sliding doors and windows and add a wraparound deck with steps to cover that concrete eyesore. Last but not least, I got to get a little crafty for the grilling area! I made use of my Silhouette cutting machine and adhesive vinyl to create a little sign to cover a nice grouping of holes in the siding by the grill. SOOOOO many holes... Sigh... We cannot WAIT to get new siding put on this house! What back yard is complete without some Grillin' n Chillin'? While I had fun creating the graphics for the little grill and martini glass, getting my Silhouette machine to sync up with my new laptop tried my already thin patience yesterday. In the end, I prevailed and I get to show you all of our hard work today. I hope you enjoyed seeing the transformation of this little corner of our yard! Lots more to do and show you, but I am hoping for some downtime this weekend! Hope springs eternal... Happy Grillin' n Chillin' ya'll!
Cheers! M J Hello there, Friends! I hope you are enjoying the start to your summer! After the tragedy of yesterday, I am feeling in dire need of a little distraction from bad news... Hence this light and happy post! Hubby and I have been working on the outside a lot lately, but I have also been making some small updates here and there to the inside of the house... First up, the dining room! I added a new table centerpiece, an inexpensive blanket to the bench seat that goes perfectly with my Uncle's painting and some cute pom-poms to the wine pillow from my good friend! Pom-poms make everything better... The faux succulents, cacti and silks were on sale at Ben Franklin and, since I have a bad habit of killing real plants inside the house, these were a no-brainer! ;-) See??? Aren't they cute? They just make me smile. #pompoms4life... :-) Below, you can see the little, old shoe cabinet in the dining room also got a little update... With the addition of some old faux florals I had in the attic and an antique brick mold I scored in my little town, it is looking pretty cute too! Now, turning around to check out the kitchen, I was forced to accessorize the top of the refrigerator due to our acrobatic, senior, feline roommate that has an apparent addiction to ponytail palms... My Friend and I raided the basket stash at Home Goods and picked out three that complimented each other. I just added a turquoise tassel to the medium one and popped the ponytail palm into the small one. The big basket blocks Raven's jumping area! HA! And when the kitchen doors are finally painted (coming soon!), they will add nice height and visual interest to the kitchen... Speaking of the kitchen doors... Hubby actually got the drawers painted! It is so nice to finally have drawers again in the kitchen! I love how well the knobs go with the stainless steel appliances. And I really don't hate the little routed detail in the original doors and drawers. They do add a little interest to an otherwise boring door. My big, decorative jar also got a little makeover! I took one of my antique, wire bail, Ball jars and added a few more faux items. HHMMMM, there seems to be a faux theme going on here! LOL! Last, but not least, I picked up some beautiful hand soap, lotion and dish soap for a steal at Tuesday Morning! And you thought I was going to show you everything but the kitchen sink! HA! ;-) I keep all of my sink items in a cheap candle dish from Ikea. It catches soap and spills before they get to the butcher block counter tops and keeps everything contained & neat, but ready for their constant use! Bonus: I can refill these pretty containers with my bulk items later!
Ok, did I distract you from the bad news for just a bit?? I hope so! Wishing Everyone peace and love during these uncertain, painful times. Cheers! M J Howdy! It has been a while, hasn't it? Over a month and boy was it a doozy! I had another try at the surgery that was botched in November to no avail. Still no relief, but I will soldier on... Our non-profit had its annual international conference in Miami so we had to prepare for that and then we were away for 10 days running said conference. I am just now getting back into the home-grove of things and starting to map out some projects! First up - the linen closet that resides within the hall bathroom that we remodeled! Here is one of the before & after pictures for reference: The linen closet is to the right of the toilet nook and behind the hall door. Hubby primed and painted the paneling inside the closet, then we installed the flooring, trim and shelving. We also purchased all new door hardware to replace all of the old, brass hardware... Our vacuums, folding foot stool, foot spa and the unfortunate but necessary plunger all reside nicely on the floor while the bulk supply of paper products live on the first shelf... I purchased some matching baskets that were on sale from JoAnn Fabrics with a coupon and free shipping to store and organize smaller items... I used the same downloaded pattern that I used for the bathroom wall art to create some labels on my computer, printed them out on card stock and tied them to the baskets with some twine... Now we have a nicely organized linen closet that is pleasing to the eye! Best part? Virtually ZERO questions on where to find stuff! Yay for labels! ;-)
I hope you are having a wonderful May and that your Memorial Day Weekend is fabulous! Cheers! M J Wow, has it been an extremely disappointing week. I had so many plans this week, so many projects to complete, so much sun to soak up out in the yard, but unfortunately, my body had other plans. It decided to mount a revolt on any and all plans with some kind of awful cold/flu/stomach bug. FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK. Just freakin' wonderful... So, here I am, an entire week of beautiful weather wasted, to show you my last two DIY's from the hall bathroom... At least I can sit at a computer and move my arms. :-) As a reminder, here are the two other pieces I DIY'd for the hall bathroom: I had a sweater that I loved, but never liked the fit. I threw it in my project bin and hoped that I would come up with a use for it some day. It just so happened to work perfectly with the hall bathroom decor! Score! I believe I showed you my crafting mess last time, but I'll just show you a few steps I took to create these pieces. Here is the lowly camp stool and the sweater I started with... Now, I would usually break out the trusty sewing machine, but I just didn't have the time for all of the ironing and pinning. Besides, these items aren't for heavy usage, so I just broke out the good ole' glue gun. I cut the back of the sweater into the shape I wanted with seam allowance to glue down around the sides and a rod pocket at the top. Then I used my large needle to create a yarn fringe along the bottom edges... Then I added a few embellishments with some gray yarn and bright pom poms I had in my craft stash. I also found a few wooden pieces for the ends of the rod and a piece of driftwood to create a "hook" on the wall. I simply used a 3M picture hanging strip to adhere the driftwood piece to the wall, and Voila! A simple wall hanging... Covering the stool was also pretty simple. I used the front of the sweater and centered the pattern on the stool seat to cut it to size. After gluing down the edges, I flipped the stool over and laced the cover onto it with some black yarn... I was going to do some sort of treatment on the wood, but I actually liked it just the way it was, dirt and all! Many good memories from around the campfire are evoked with this little stool... After I finished lacing up the little cover, I knew it needed just a little pizzazz. I glued two little pom poms onto the ends of the yarn and called it done! There you have it, the last DIY's from the hall bathroom. When I'm feeling back to my usual self, I'll show you some of the changes we've been making to the yard lately!
Have a wonderful weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J Monday when I posted the Hall Bathroom Reveal here, I told you I would show you a few of the DIY's I completed for that room. Today I just wanted to give you a little info on the little art frame I made out of a Nate Berkus for Target letter tray... The letter tray was only $10.99, which is a great deal compared to many frames I searched. I also raided my jewelry making supplies and found some cool pieces from a necklace I deconstructed a while back. With my low-temp hot glue gun, I attached some magnets to the letter tray and to the backs of the jewelry pieces. They hold the piece of artwork nice and snug! I also used some brass screws to attach a decorative piece over the finger slot to make it look less like a letter tray and more like an intentional part of the design. Bad blogger confession: I got so into crafting, I completely neglected to take pictures of this DIY step-by-step. :-( However, I will give you a horrifying peek into what it looks like when I'm crafting on my kitchen peninsula... Lovely, huh?? LOL! At least I was done with my three DIY's in the same day and could clear up all the clutter. And just because I think it's so pretty, here are a couple more pics of this artwork: Well, there's one of the DIY's from the bathroom! I will show you the others next week.
Have a great weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J |
AuthorHi There! I'm MJ, a 40-something professional woman with a love for art, crafting and decorating. Here I hope to share my experiments and inspire others as they have inspired me... Archives
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