a changing table with a new identity

Oh I so love paint. It's wonderful how a few coats can take a former bland changing table (which technically was originally sold as a kitchen cart and has spent the last few years stuck in a closet storing odds and ends) . . .




A cabinet that has tons of practical storage potential . . .

To something much, much better looking and oh so useful for some additional kitchen storage.

Beside the paint, I changed out the wooden knobs for silver ones stamped with a fan pattern for the sweet price of $7.16 from the wonderful land of Target. Since I already had the black paint, this transformation only cost me a couple of hours of time (spread out over three days) and the cost of the knobs.

Yep, I definately love paint :)

***Oops, I should probably mention that in addition to painting, I did sand the heck out of this thing. I guess I'm so thrilled with the finished version, I forgot about that extra work that went in to it. So make that a couple of hours painting and a couple of hours sanding.

With a little help from some spray paint

You know how sometimes you find a decorative item and love the shape/design/price but the color is wrong? Yeah, I do that a lot. I found this over the weekend. $2.99, only in white. It's pretty enough but I wanted it in black.

No problem with a can of spray paint. I used Fusion spray paint for plastic. It promised no need for sanding or priming. Yep, less steps and instant gradification - sign me up! I even got it at a craft store with a half-off coupon.

So here it is after painting. What's that? The shape changed? Yeah well it's possible that this originally white piece, also $2.99, fell in to my hands at the store along with that first piece ;) Gotta love a bargin.

So what do you think? Should I add some metallic to it? I've heard wonderful things about Rub-n-Buff. A little silver or a toned down gold on the highlights might be just the thing to finish these off.

Framed keys

When Ben's grandma was moving, she gave me these keys. She said they had belonged to Ben's grandpa. I just love old keys so I was happy to have them. Having a story behind them makes them even better.

It took a while to figure out exactly what to do with them though. They've hung on nails, been tucked in an apothecary jar for a bit, but mostly they've just been shuffled around for the past year. Not anymore though. The frame is double matted so it's deep enough for the keys, the background is a sheet of scrapbook paper and the keys themselves are attached to a scrapbook journaling card using foam adhesive squares. And I used things I already had in the house so it took no time at all to put together.

How did I not know about unbleached cotton?

I have a sweet table that's been passed along to us. If I remember correctly, at some point it was Ben's grandma's. It's definately showing it's age and is fairly beaten up and could use some painting or refinishing. Depite of that, I like it's shape and detail and it fills an empty spot in our living room nicely. Some day I'd like to rework it but the "to do" list is so long already.

To cover up some of the damage, I started out looking for burlap to make something like this. But then I spotted unbleached cotton. So casual and I love the texture of it. For $2.48 a yard, it was perfect.

So here's the sneaky part of the project - no sewing, just an iron and some hem tape. How easy is that!


So this runner cost a grand total of $3. I think I'm going to add a ribbon boarder to the ends. I'd love to add some fringe but the cat would chew it right off. It does cover some of the damage but you can see how uneven the finish is and some of the dings. It also looks like it's in desperate need of dusting - not sure what's up with that. I do dust. I swear :)

Road Trip!

Nothing says summer better than a good road trip. Some snacks, a cooler full of soda and a few mixed tap . . . errr, an ipod loaded up with some great songs. Ben and I have been trying to come up with a few fun places to head off to this summer to introduce Miss J to the joys of hours on end in the car.

This little tool on TripAdvisor is a great place to find ideas for a road trip. Just plug in your area code or city and select a full, half or quarter tank of gas.

Happy traveling!

Magenta is that you?

There are so many other things I should be doing with my time but I can't stop snickering over this outfit. And yes, I did indeed pause the tv and proceed to take a picture of the tv screen - oh DVR, how I love thee . . .

Ok, so what in the world is she wearing? Was there not one crew member that was kind enough to pull her over and whisper that perhaps the alien look was a bit over the top? Or maybe Lady GaGa was her guest stylist for the day - although if that was the case, I doubt she would have been wearing jeans, or pants for that matter. And of course she'd need to be carrying an open umbrella in the house.


I think I figured it out though. During filming breaks, the entire crew was playing "Rocky Horror Picture Show"! The host was obviously playing the roll of Magenta.


"It's just a jump to the left. And then a step to the right . . ."

Rub-on magic

I snagged these little metal containers at Hobby Lobby yesterday. Half off - yeah Hobby Lobby! If you look close, they say "Coffee" and "Sugar". Of course the bottom said "not food safe" so these two are for decorative purposes only. They'll probably end up holding pens and a little notepad.


So since I don't have a need for faux coffee and sugar in the living room, I turned them around. Still cute but they're needing a little something. Que the scrapbook rub-ons . . .


And voila! How cute is that little tin now? All dressed up with a "M" for our last name. Now I'm thinking the larger one needs a number on it. Maybe our house number. Or a "3" since there's three of us.

If you haven't used rub-ons, they're so easy to use and come in hundreds of styles, colors and sizes. The only trick is making sure that you rub them long enough to transfer the whole image. Good lighting and looking at it on at angle can help you see where the rub-on has seperated from the backing paper. Easy, peasy :)

What to do with the foyer

To say it's not very welcoming would be an understatement. I've thought about painting the inside of the front door black to dress it up some. There's something about black doors that makes the space seem so warm and inviting. At the very least, the door is screaming for a wreath.

The hall to the guest bath and the laundry room is right off the foyer, you can see the entry there on the left side. Since there's no room in the actual foyer for a table, I found this tiny piece at HomeGoods to serve as our landing space for keys, the mail, cell phones, etc. Don't look to close at the bottom shelf, if you do, you'll notice that the reason this little table was so cheap is because the bottom shelf is put on backwards. The basket hides that little flaw just fine though. And it's a great spot for storing things that need to go out to the car with us.

The white, square bowl holds our keys and the vase will get dressed up with some flowers from the yard. Until they start blooming, I might have to snag some branches off of our flowering shrubs. And there's a deep drawer that's already storing our sunscreen, sun glasses and other daily use items.

This sums it all up

I was indulging Miss J's current obsession with Taylor Swift this weekend and one of her songs includes the line "I don't know how it gets better than this."

Oh, that is so perfect for right now. Sure we have the daily drama of medical bills (thank goodness for insurance), having a hundred things on the to do list and just the general drama of life but all and all, it's all so good right now. We've got a roof over our head, enough to feed the family, Ben's getting stronger every day and Miss J seems to be overcoming the issues that cropped up during Ben's transplant and recovery.

Yeah, I don't know how it gets better than this :)

It's green, it's modern and I think the Jetsons would be right at home

How cool is this? Clayton Homes has introduced the i-house. A very modern take on the traditional manufactured home.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_re_us/us_clayton_i_house

Score!

Ben and I have been wanting to redo our bedroom for about a year. Ok, technically it's more me that's interested in this project - Ben doesn't much care what a bedroom looks like, if left up to him, we'd probably be sleeping on an air mattress with a Yankees bedspread and crates for nightstands. I'm joking . . . kind of . . . yeah, not really ;)

Today, I wandered in to Bed, Bath and Beyond and found this Nicole Miller bedspread. It's the perfect grey color and the best part is it was on clearence. It's even the right size for our king size mattress that's apparently deeper than a normal king. Add in my 20% off coupon and I got a steal. Oh, it's even machine washable and will actually fit in our washer. Yahoo!

Then since I was so inspired, I had to stop by Lowe's and get a paint sample. I've got the paint color narrowed down to two choices. Both are silvery, grey colors. We have black nightstands and a black dresser. The tv has a silver frame and the lamps are also silver. The plan is silver, grey and black with another color to punch it up. I'm thinking an apple green color for summer and then maybe a purple for winter. I'd keep the color to a pillow or two and a couple of inexpensive accessories. I'm also going to do some black and white prints on the walls. I want something very relaxing and calm. It seems like our bedroom has become a storage area and a forgotten space. How sad is that?

Bye, bye messy, unloved bedroom. Hello pretty, lux space :)