Thursday, October 18, 2012

Project FAIL & RE-DO

Tuesday night I attended a craft night & was signed up to make a Thanksgiving plaque. I just had to add my scrapbook paper & vinyl lettering...it looked easy enough!
 It actually turned out quite cute & then this morning I decided to sand the edges & add a little stain.
This is when I ruined the whole thing... stained dripped on the middle of the project & when I tried to wipe it off it ripped the paper!  It did not look good!
Here is an example of the project (poppyseedprojects.com)...


              I had used orange polk-a -dot paper for my background, I wish I had gotten a picture!
AND
This is how it looks now...
I was able to still use a corner of my orange polk-a-dot paper for the middle wood piece.
Then I hung a fall wreath with some ribbon from the top of the plaque.

Next, I sanded the edges & added my stain...carefully this time!

I couldn't save the vinyl lettering, but at least it wasn't a complete loss.


I guess I'll be able to use this as part of my decor for October & November now.
It can be so frustrating when you mess up a project!  
I need to remember to always STOP when something is "finished"!
It would save me a lot of headaches! :)
I'm sharing with these blogs:
Finding Fabulous
At The Picket Fence
52 Mantels
36th Avenue
Kristen's Creations
Craftomaniac
Cherished Bliss
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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Fall/Halloween Front Porch

Here are a few pictures of our front porch this year...
 We had our house painted this summer & I'm actually loving the black door!
You can see the before & after HERE.
The color of the door really makes my wreath POP...
I just added the "Happy Halloween" sign to the middle of my wreath.

Then I hung some smaller wreaths on my metal pots...
I also placed some yellow fall flowers in the bottom containers...
The yellow color makes me happy!!
My pots are always fun to decorate for the different holidays!

Then on your way up to the door this is on the inside wall...
I LOVE pumpkins...
 
 Especially our light-up one...I think he has a pretty cute smile!
AND
Here is one final picture of the whole porch...
Happy Halloween!!
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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Window Treatments Can Change The Whole Mood Of A Room




I was looking back at some old pictures of our house & I was surprised at how much window coverings can change the mood of a room.

For example, this was my husband's office before we needed to use it for a nursery.
 
 Notice the dark brown roller blinds we used on the window.  
When the blinds broke in this room we decided to replace them with this style because it matched the room well & the cost fit our budget at the time. 
This is the same space now...
  Of course we changed the paint color & added some woodwork on the walls, but look at how much brighter the window looks!  We replaced the dark brown roller blinds with a white one.  
Then we added the cute valence above it.  
It turned out great!  
My dream is to have plantation shutters some day, but I have realized the roller blinds are so much easier to clean!  I did a whole post on cleaning blinds if you'd like to see it here.  They just don't seem to get near as dusty as my wood blinds!

Here is one more example of how window treatments changed the mood of our master bedroom.  
This is the before...
Notice the dark red curtains...
Don't you love the color? 
 It's funny looking back how much I loved this style!
Here is how the room looks now...
Once again, it's amazing how the mood of the room changed just by replacing the bedding & window treatments.  It's so much brighter now!  You can get all of the details of what I changed in the room HERE.
I love looking back at old pictures & seeing the changes we've made over the years.  It's so fun to see what was once so popular & comparing it to the styles of today.
For now, I'll continue dreaming about plantation shutters in my living room!  Hopefully someday I'll be able to show a before & after of that for you too!
I also found some inspiration photos at http://www.melbourneblindcompany.com.au/
The site is actually from a business called Melbourne Blind Company.  It has a picture gallery & a section that shows you how to measure for blinds correctly.  I thought it was very informative & helpful!
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Monday, October 1, 2012

I'm so glad our sprinklers are fixed!

For a couple of months, I've had to water the grass manually because several of our sprinkler heads were broken. They're pretty easy to replace, but for some reason it took a while for us to buy new ones and then take the time to put them in.

Now that they're in, I really appreciate our sprinklers so much more. It's so tedious to stand out there and water the grass. Sure, the water feels nice on a hot day, but still, I'd rather not have to be the one doing the watering. I did buy one of those oscillating sprinklers that you connect to a hose, but it hardly seemed effective. I still ended up manually watering our trees and the parts that the sprinkler couldn't reach, and also the front (I let the cheap plastic sprinkler water the back, while I took care of the front). It would take me between 30 minutes to a little over an hour depending on how much I felt I needed to water it on any given day. I even got a nice tan in the process. :P

I'm not able to use our sprinklers on timer though because one of the valves still needs replacing. But manually having to turn them on and then back off is still loads better than watering the grass by hand.

I dislike having a lawn in general. If ever move to another place, I definitely don't want somewhere with any grass at all. I hate having to water and mow it. Meh. No more grass for me. Hardscaping all the way! Or maybe some bushes or something that requires less upkeep than grass.
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