Couch redo...

Our couch. Ugh.

 

I've definately seen worse (who am I kidding) we've owned worse. It's a typical neutral beige sectional, but it wasnt that it was ugly it was just boring and needed a little pick me up. I have had a mild obsession with nailhead and tufted furniture for as long as I can remember and even though I knew we just couldn't spring for a new couch anytime soon, I knew I wasnt giving up on at least updating it to give it a similar feel.

 

I found a pinterest link for cleaning micro-suede that changed my life....ok, i'm being a bit dramatic but it is seriously awesome if your couch is showing signs of love... milk stained, crumbs galore kinda love that is. The awesome couch remedy post is from chrisandrobinsnest.blogspot.com. I wish I had taken some before pics but I didn't and the afters would only make sense if you could see the disgustingness that was.

 

On to making it pretty. As I mentioned I LURVE anything nailhead. I was at JoAnn Fabrics when I came across my solution. I always thought nailheads only came in individual form, ya know..nail each one in one at a time...Booooring. BUT THEY DON'T, Yippee!! They come in rolls!

So up went my couch...BE CAREFUL, my husband wasn't to pleased that I had our heavy couch standing on end by myself. It was really so simple, every 5th nailhead was an empty space to mallet a matching nail into. *Use a mallet so that you don't dent the nails!

 

Here is my before, during and afters! I love it now. Such a simple change but it's clean and doesn't feel so boring anymore!

 

 

 

 

 

*Sorry this last pic's quality isn't very good...

 

All Hallows Eve

It's Fall Ya'll!

 

In our house and many others this means jeans and sweatshirts, football (Notre Dame and Bears football to be exact), chili, pumpkin farms, apple pickin' and ALL things Halloween!

 

In light of this totally awesome season I thought i'd share some favorite crafts and thangs...

BOO!

 

 

BOO! These are cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby (I think they were $1.59 each) and as always 9 times outta 10 Hobby Lobby has what you are looking for at 50% off! Oh and don't forget that if it isn't you can whip out your phone and pull up an online 40% off of one regular priced item any day of the week. I almost did "EEK" but ended up with BOO. I grabbed my letters and a few peices of Halloween themed scrapbook paper and a tub of Mod Podge, ugh I love Mod podge!

I basically put the letter on the paper and traced it, cut it out and got to mod podgin. One coat to glue it to it (don't worry about a few wrinkles, they'll go away) and after that dried about 15 minutes, one coat on top.

 

I grabbed whatever felt and ribbon I had for the embelishments. I found the Best tutorial here for the felt flowers. I love them and how cute would these be for Chrismas with the words Joy or Noel?!

 

The Candy Man

 

 I found this idea from one of my favorite blogs House of Smiths. Here is the tutorial for her

fun table candy display

 

 

 

Say whaaaa?!



 

 

Legit. This is a real spider.....in extreme closeup of course. BUT ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It has a face! My husband and I both fully turned into ninja's upon discovering it. Being that this is a Halloween post I couldn't help but let this little guy drop in to say hello.

 

 

 

Don'tcha just love Pinterest?

 

 

Seriously, ya don't need a tutorial here. Buy a straw wreath and roughly 3 yards of tulle, cut into about 2-3 inch pieces and tie. Yup it's that simple.

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Vase



 

 

Man, my mother-in-law doesn't think she's crafty but seriously look at this?? Totally Awesome.

 

 

 

I'll leave you with some house decorating, fun at the pumpkin patch and my little lovies last years Halloween costume....enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

ugh...could these little pumpkins get any cuter!?

 

 

My Fancy nancy

 

 

 

 

Here's to enjoying all that is Fall Ya'll!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Beautiful Disaster

I thought i'd start out my first DIY post sharing my very first refurb piece from last year....Oh AND let you know the epic fail that happened shortly there after. She was a craigslist find at a whopping $30. Chris and I went to pick it up and let's just say she was rough around the edges. This peice was....SPONGE PAINTED! Yes, I said sponge painted. Aye yai yai, talk about a DIY gone bad, and to top it off it was sponge painted black and brown. BOOOO!

Here is a before of this poor thing...

As you can see, it needed love....BAD. I had been eyeballing a few mirrored pieces for awhile but have you seen the prices on mirrored dressers?? Yowzers. um...no thanks, I'll save the $500-$700 for something else. Being that it was my first DIY project I needed some guidance on painting furniture, which I got at www.centsationalgirl.com. Seriously, Kate is so creative and inspiring. My first step was to remove the hardware and strip her down, which was kind of a pain but no pain no gain right? (at least I keep telling myself that.) I prefer Citristrip Paint and Varnish Stripping Gel, it's non-toxic, the fumes are minimal and it has a pleasant orange smell.

 After that I filled the hardware holes with Elmers wood filler and let it sit for about 20 min. Then I got out my Black and Decker Mouse power sander (my  very first power tool, hee hee) and using meduim grit discs I sanded, and sanded.....and sanded. Did I mention I sanded? :) It needs to be sanded until it is as smooth as a baby's bottom, which took roughly one year (do I need to say i'm kidding?) but you get the picture.

Let the Priming/Painting begin:
Let me fill you in...I LOVE SPRAYPAINT. It is just plain nuts what a little can of spraypaint can do. To this day 90% of my paint projects are done with spraypaint. I primed it first with my A-#1 go to primer, Zinsser's oil based Cover Stain. This is seriously awesome stuff, covers just about anything, dries fast and is my very favorite.**PLEASE use a mask, this stuff along with all spraypaint is potent and very dangerous to inhale. Once everything was primed. I sanded again with a meduim grit sanding sponge by hand to get it smooth again. Now it's time to paint! Never under estimate the power of a good brush and some paint conditioner. I use Purdy brushes and always add some Floetrol paint conditioner (not to be confused with thinner!) I painted this with Benjamin Moore's Advanced water based White Dove Satin finish paint. I painted everything but the top and sides with a brush and used a roller on those. I painted 2 coats leaving it sit about 6 hrs in between coats and then let it sit a couple of days to cure. When I returned back I brushed on Minwax Poly to seal in all my hard work!

My next step was to get that mirror on there that I wanted so badly. I sought out places to cut mirrors which I found not far from home and only cost me $20! I just brought him the mirrors (I bought 2 cheap $5 back of door mirror's from walmart) and gave him the sizes. I also brought him one of my knobs to have him drill my hardware holes into the mirrors...(this was included in the $20 price..woohoo!) When I got them home I used Gorilla glue to glue them to the drawers (This was a mistake I will shortly explain) and then added the hardware and VOILA!! My mirrored dresser was finished and at a measley $72...take that Pottery barn! Here are the before and afters......



Before:





After:






I Luuuurve her. So pretty, but now for the epic fail part I slipped in there.
The nice gentleman that cut my mirror suggested that I use a bit thicker mirror and liguid nails mirror glue so that I didnt risk the mirros cracking....well WHAT DOES HE KNOW, HE'S ONLY A PROFESSIONAL! yup.....I opted for the cheaper route and ALL but one of my mirros cracked within a couple of months. :( WAH! So, If you choose to mirror a piece, use thicker mirror than you think you should and use Liquid Nails Mirror Glue so that all of your hard work doesnt go to waste. For now, I will most likely remove the mirrors and replace them with something else or who knows, maybe a whole new project....... :)

Who's that lady?

You know that feeling of being the "new kid?" Those fears I that I think we all had as a kid at some point or another... Will I be picked last in gym class? Will I be sitting alone at lunch? Am I "cool" enough to fit in? I've been pondering a blog for some time now and everytime I would think I was ready a new batch of silly questions would pop up. Would I have enough material? Would I know how to write it all down in a flattering blogger-like format? One that was "catchy" enough? (People love that cheesy word, don't they?!)...What made these questions so odd for me is that I'm not a shy person..like, AT ALL! I don't stear clear of confrontation and truth be told, I don't exactly mind being in the spotlight. :) As silly as it seems the blogging world can be pretty intimidating...and a serious plumet off of the plank of self-esteem, but I am slowly learning through myself and a little help from my friend Heather over at http://itsourlongstory.blogspot.com/ that this is normal?? Who'da thunk it?! So who knows what will come of it and if this will be the first of 5 or 500 posts....but none the less, today's the day I jump in.