Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Lovely

This is my next door neighbors yard with little purple flowers all over it. They even mowed and I was so happy to see the flowers were still there. It looks like a lavender field. The trees belong to my neighbor's neighbors driveway. They are so beautiful. Spring has sprung.

Giveaway

Go to Create Studio to check it out!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I know. I'm weird.

I walked into my local Goodwill and saw this sign glowing at me as I approached the lamp section. Without hesitation, I unplugged it and put it in my cart and 10 bucks later it has since found it's way into our sitting room on the piano. I love all of the subway art and old signs now that you can create, but even better, mine lights up. And yes, it says "digital cameras". No sentimental meanings behind this except that I liked it and described it to my mom as an "antique sign". My dad who was visiting at the time rolled his eyes and said it's probably from the 90's. Adam just laughed when he saw it. I love it. What do you think?


Thursday, March 25, 2010

Knock-Off Wood

After two friends of mine referred me to a great furniture design blog, Knock-Off Wood, I decided to check it out for a bench I've been wanting for our entryway. After finding this plan, I got right to work convincing Adam that we needed to get to work! :) And so we did...

And by the next day we had this!

Then, last Saturday morning it was seriously the prettiest day of the season so far with upper 70's and I spent every bit of it outside. First step was distressing the bench. This was not part of the original "knock-off" plan, but I like that look and I wanted it to match our front door with the same distressed look and stain. I have never used a chain before, but my sister told me once that chains are the best and wouldn't you know, I happened to have one lying around! I also used a hammer and nail for little worm holes, a screwdriver that I just raked down the board a few times and a sharp edged piece of hardware that I just dropped in random spots to dent up the board really good.
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Then I used the same polystain that we used for our door and applied with a sponge brush in one hand and an American flag in the other. My two-year-old kept asking me to hold it and yell, "American Flag! American Flag!" Ha ha. And so I did. :)


And here's what we have to show for it! I could not be happier! We bought a few things at the store when we purchased the lumber, so I'm not exactly sure how much it all cost but the whole bench was probably around $25.00.

Now, I have to rearrange that wall a bit behind it. Maybe with a bunch of pictures or mirrors I think.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Spring Mantel in the Sitting Room

Inspired by this mantle series by The Lettered Cottage I finally got a vision for our sitting room mantle. I took the first step by completely removing everything on the mantle except for the AK painting that you may remember back from this post.
Everything else came from stuff that I already had and after playing a while and mixing it up until it was just right, I came up with this!

Being Spring and Easter time, I knew I wanted to work my robin's eggs in there somewhere.

My honeysuckle bush is blooming out in our yard which has added to more than one bouqets around the house. I love bring it's scent inside.


One thing I learned from the mantle series is that you can never go wrong with papers and/or books. I had an old childhood Bible that was pretty tattered and another old yet New ;) Testament I had found in the attic here. So I put those in a tarnished silver bowl I picked up at Goodwill the other day along with a book Adam's grandfather wrote, Darkness is Light, and ta da! I'm done until summer when I get to re-decorate my mantle all over again.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Wildlife Cam

We have tracks. Big tracks. The kind of tracks you don't really feel comfortable with when their right outside your kitchen window. Dog? Cat? Wildcat? Coyote? (Cue the Jaws music). Now, mind you, I don't have mammoth hands or anything (I'm 5'2), but these are from no ordinary tabby cat. We have had a couple spotting's late at night, both Adam and I at separate times and we both witnessed a cat-like animal that ran away quickly but was stockier than a normal cat and low to the ground. It also did not have any distinguishable features like a raccoon would. Adam's grandparents were in town and picked us up a wildlife camera to mount and take pictures when it detects motion. All we have to do is plug in the USB card in the morning to see what it's discovered! Thanks guys!

We've heard there are hairy beasts around these parts...This one seems harmless.

This little guy can't be the match to our prints, but he did eat our little goodies we left out for the loch ness monster. PB&J and ham if you must know.


Not a match either...still on the lookout...we'll let you know.