I Heart Maps

I saw this wreath tutorial the other day on Flowerpatch Farmgirl and decided to try my hand at it using an old atlas I recently picked up in a freebie box.
I used a combination of pennies and copper furniture brads as the centers of the flowers. I just hand cut out a bunch of hearts and didn't have a heart punch like the tutorial had used.

Here it is all tied up with burlap on my newly painted (Mediterranean blue by Valspar)
shutters! I salvaged some shuttered bi fold closet doors from a friend's neighbors garbage. Adam was embarrassed. Is he embarrassed now? I think not.

Lastly, I put some little Ikea plants in an old apple crate on top of a wooden box I hot glued some sawed off yardsticks to the front of. I think it looks kind of patriotic in a flag sort of way. Perfect for summertime!

French Curvy Dresser

For a while there, I was determined to get some organization in my hallway. I originally had some PB cubbies with plastic dollar store baskets that you could see all of my "haven't found a place for" things junk and it was overwhelming to say the least. After reading the 31 Days organization series from The Nester, I was inspired to gain my hallway back using a dresser. I found this on Craigslist listed for $75 after using words in the search engine like "french" and "provincial" and it had 12 drawers! Perfect for my junk. Love those legs...

And after a light sanding and some glossy white spray paint, I had this!

I distressed it lightly afterwards wherever there were paint blobs that didn't even out. Distressing stuff, even lightly, helps take some of the pressure off of being perfect when spraying. Usually I'm doing it on a napping-kids-timeline or kids-touching-my-newly-painted-things-timeline so either way, I don't have forever to be a perfectionist about paint blobs.

Close-up of my thrifted mirror collection. I love the gold and silver ones as is, but I'm not sure what to do with the wooden ones. Any color advice? The big white one is newly painted so I'll keep it that way.

A little twist on a DIY sunburst mirror. I superglued and hotglued old keys on some old Walmart candle holder mirrors I've had for a long time. Superglue worked best by the way.

To the left of the mirrors, above our bedroom doorway, I wanted to show you my Valentines Day present from Adam. He stayed after work a couple nights and welded up our anniversary date, 6-5-04. We celebrate 7 years on Sunday! :)

On the right hand side of the dresser is an old bucket lamp I spray painted cherry red and copied someones idea of their lampshade I found on a blog. All it took was removing the fabric and leaving the wire frame for the more industrial look. I like the funky look of it, but my energy efficient light bulb is not that pretty. I do love the open lighting it offers though in a dark hallway.

I've been working on a few other things including a summer mantle which I'll be posting later so maybe I'll be back in my good blogging graces soon. :)