It's the little things...

The last few weeks have been trying for me (family stuff) and I haven't been in the mood for getting on here and talking about stuff.  I have since come to the conclusion that the issues I'm facing with my brother aren't going to change.  His choice, not mine.  

On that note, I decided to not dwell on it (I'm a champion dweller) and I'm going to instead be present in my present.  Does that make sense?

So on that note, I was out yesterday and went to the Walmart and as I was diligently going by the list in my head and not getting sidetracked and I found some really cute curtains for my kitchen along with the stuff I went in for.

When I got home, I snagged the last five of these little guys:

And hung these little guys:

They're the Better Homes and Gardens brand (they each came with two red panels and two of those are hanging on the back door, but they're just red and what's exciting about that??) and the packaging says "Fall in love with your home all over again!".  I thought that was a little much until I put these up and put away the dishes.  Guess what? They were right!  I loved my kitchen!  

We rent right now, but if this was my kitchen I would definitely paint the cabinets and walls and change the counters and floors. They aren't horrible, they just aren't what I'd do with my own space.

Believe me though when I tell you that I am thankful to have a kitchen to cook in and a roof over my and my family's heads.  No complaining from me....  :)

Christmas copy-cat

I'm linking up with Debbie for her magazine copy-cat challenge party...

These are decorations I made last year (is that cheating?) and I really wanted to do something Christmasy for the party!   

I put up fall stuff the first day of September and although our summer was pretty short, I just couldn't wait.  My husband called me out on it too: "It's still summer!!  And I have to admit that as much as I love the fall colors and all, I'm ready for some red, green and sparkle!!  

I couldn't find anything in any of my holiday magazines to make in the last couple days, so I'm recycling this idea.  :) 

I bought the Farm Chicks Christmas book last year and fell in love with the little trees they had made and figured they would be easy to replicate.

(mine)

They were...just a lot of time spent wrapping styrofoam cones.  I had the most trouble with the paper wrapped one, but that was probably because I didn't have a lot of patience on this particular night.  I just wanted them done already, lol!!

(Serena's)

I'm going to make more this year and utilize our new bookcase as it has cubbies.  There are lots of cute ideas and eye candy in that book.

I love me some Farm Chicks...the summer show is lots of fun, but boy I wish there was a holiday one, too!!

OK, well I'm off to check out the other party go-ers!!

I'm not sure about this and a linky party

When I bought this shelf I liked it, but after a year it started to seem so dark.   I tried to lighten it up by putting different colored frames and what-not on it, but no dice.

So I decided to try out some Annie Sloan Old White on it.  At first I thought it was a total lost cause.  It seemed super blah.  Then I distressed it here and there (the front part is metal, so I thought it had an old ceiling tin feel to it) and thought it looked better. Then I distressed it a little more and that helped.

I hung it back in its spot last night and it still hangs there.  Naked.  I think it has the feel of an old mantel I could have found in a cool old farmhouse.  Maybe.  If I squint my eyes just so....

What do you think?  Did I wreck it?   Be honest.  I can take it. 

;)

I'm linking up over at Debbie's for her Newbie Party.

I've never been big on the linky things until lately.  I linked up just a few (Debbie's Copy-cat party was the first), but I realized that they really are fun.  So I put two and two together: Debbie seems like a fun girl and add to that a linky party and I bet it's a rockin' good time!

I'm off to check out the attendees....

The entryway table

I'm linking up with Miss Mustard Seed for her Furniture Feature Friday Party!

~

I've always wanted a proper entry.  In Southern California there aren't a lot of houses that have such things.  So you can imagine my glee when we moved into this house in Washington and it has one!  

One problem.  What the heck goes in it??  

It sat empty for a long time...until this past August to be exact.

  

I finally got tired of looking at the random stuff I put in there trying to figure it out and went on a hunt while the boys were on a camping trip.  I mean, what better time to hunt than while alone? No dinner to make, no one to entertain, no one but me!!  :)  While making the rounds of all my favorite thrifting places, I hit Spencers Antiques last. I should have gone there  first.  

I found this table in the last booth I looked at.  Perfect!!

  Just a few random things I wanted in this space.  

After shopping the house, I came up with about 95% of what is in it now.  It was quite a relief since I didn't want to be out shopping anymore.  I wanted to be fiddling around!

One day I got sick of all the brown and remembered an 'oops' paint I had and decided to paint.  I sanded the top and realized under the ugly brown was some nice wood.  I didn't have any stain on hand, but I did have scratch cover.  So that's what I used along with a poly coat. It turned out pretty OK if you ask me.  

During a recent trip to Seattle I found this rug at Ikea. Side note: you have no idea how much I dislike being 4 hours from Ikea.  I used to be 10 minutes from one.  

The chair is also from Ikea and the pad is from Homegoods years ago.  The gum dispenser belonged to my grandparents.

(I'm fairly embarrassed to say that the gum in there is about 3 years old.  Yuck.  Thankfully, nobody wants any!)

The long basket here is also from Spencers and has 5 wire dividers inside, so I used it to put canning jars in each one to hold flowers in the beginning.  When they died, I used it just to fill space, but I love it! To keep some small things organized I found three wire baskets (I couldn't decide on a color, so we each got our own color) to throw hats and floppy purses and such in at the end of the day.

It looks really blue in this ↓ picture, but a truer shade is what you see in the shot above.  It's a flat paint and at first I wasn't sure about it, but in the end I liked it a lot. I distressed it here and there and love these little nail holes.

One of my favorite things about it are these little curvy bits.  Second to them is the top which is two wide slats of wood with a few marks here and there and a bit of a gap between them.  It has a great lived in feel that I love.

I finally feel like this area is finished thanks to this find.  Of course there's always something to rearrange or redo altogether. I love to keep the front door open now and I'm not embarrassed when someone comes a callin'!  :)

(I apologize that my pictures are more on the yellow side than I would like.  It was nighttime when I took most of them, but they do get the point across!)

Peaches for grandma

I had packed up some peaches to send to grandma and after I had it all wrapped up, it occurred to me to cute it up a bit.  Why that didn't occur to me in the first place is beyond me....after all, I have a room full of stuff to cutify things.  Doesn't mean I always do though.

A couple years ago I bought myself a Cricut machine for Christmas and have only used it a handful of times for things that nobody else sees.  I need to change that since there are so many neat things to do with it!

Anyway, I made this using a jar stamp I bought to make tags when I gave jam as gifts a few years ago and the 'Preserves' cartridge.  (These cartridges are chock-full of items to cut out...it's amazing what you could do even if you only had one or two!)  In this instance I would love for the word to have been 'peaches', but hey, what're you gonna do?  :)  

It can be a bit time consuming to get all the paper choices made and layer everything when you're done, but it's totally worth it.  The options on the Cricut machine are pretty endless.  And they're pretty easy to use which is good for my non-techy self.  ;)

The little hearts were made using a Martha Stewart heart shaped hole-punch and added only because somehow when I was finished with this, I managed to get hot glue on it and in trying to take it off, some of the paper tore off!!  grrr....

At any rate, they add a bit more love, right?  Right.

(these opinions are mine and I'm not being compensated in any way for them)

Granny blanket

While driving by a local thrift store I saw this beauty in the window.  I kept thinking about it, so I raced back hoping it was still there.  It was.  It was $5.  It was mine.

I love its colors (it reminds me of the Brach's neopolitan candies that I love so much) and the fact that it isn't ginormous.  It's a little bigger than a lap sized blanket and perfect for me when I park myself in the corner of the couch.

:)

Duh

While at the Yankee Candle store the other day (there's a new store opening in my area and they offered BOGO...yay!), I noticed a little set of three glass jars with the scent sticks for Christmas.   

They were really cute; little red, green and brown jars with a little ornament style adornment

tied with red gingham ribbon.  At that moment I had an epiphany.  :)

   

I thought to myself "Hey, I have a small jar from the goodwill and they have the 

refill scents and sticks here.  I'll make my own."

Duh.

So I did.  This isn't the exact jar, the original one is smaller (and cuter as it has 'third pint' embossed on the neck) but I found this one today and since it has a smaller opening, I knew it would 

be better since that way the liquid won't evaporate as fast.

Or so they say.

 I tied on my own ribbon and thing-a-ma-bob to decorate it.

The scent I bought is Spiced Pumpkin and it smells yummy...just enough scent to blend with 

the candle I bought (Nature's Paintbrush. It's new and has a soft leafy scent) for fall.

I used a little thrifted dish and these little seed/pumpkin looking things to give it a little more

fall 'oomph'.  What I love best about this is the endless possibilities season after season.

And that, folks, is my 'duh' moment for the week.

Oh, right, who am I kidding....there will be plenty more before the week is up!!   ;)