Finished Projects!

So we cleaned out our garage and it showed me what I had hanging around to work on.

Following are some lovely before and afters (well I think so anyway, its so great to get them finished!)

I found this chair in some ones trash pile. The tacks were pretty easy to take out.

One coat of primer and two coats of paint later I realized that chars are hard to paint!

The frame was a last minute garage sale find from last year. I think I paid 50 cents. But all good DIY blog readers should know that any chunky frames should be picked up so thats what I did.

Not knowing that How About Orange would post something to fill it that would be pretty and practical!

I used the same paint that I had used on the chair and the dresser but since I had been jaded with the whole painting experience I went for the whitewashed look. that worked great since there was still water in my brush and I wanted to show off the details. The page didn't fill the frame so I put some muslin I had a remnant of across the back. I'll say its decent. Now I just need to find a bit of wall space for it. The calendar may have to move.

Hooray for finished projects!

Inspiration

Some inspiring pics from blogland today

A recent post from Joy of course the rug is from Anthropologie!

My fabric scraps need these cute bags desperately.

And if you wish you could sit with some tea or lemonade and put beautiful stitches together all day like I do, this site is loads of stitch inspiration!

I should have done this years ago

I finally made a list and Not just any list.

I've had projects from the last year left unfinished and constantly jumping into my daily mind's to do list. So I finally wrote that list down! This has made a huge impact on my concentration and daily work. Plus I got four of the projects crossed off in the first week!

So here is my list:

Ruthie's Bag (yes Cassandra, over a year later I am still planning to finish it)
Cross stitch
Soap cover
Heart cards
Shelf over stove
Drawer Pulls
Mirror
Birdhouse

I couldn't believe what a relief it was just to get the list out of my mind and onto paper. I was able to remember more immediate things and not have these running around every hour. And heres the kicker, this blog was supposed to be postings about projects I was working on. Now I can actually post some finished projects!

So here we go! I got four finished last week. here are some pics.

The Shelf over the stove

Includes brackets and riser board from Lowes. Two coats primer and one of semi gloss. It would have been much easier if our walls were flat.

The birdhouse that you see above I got at a garage sale this past summer and origianlly looked like this.

It was cute, I knew it needed a future with new paint.

Next Up, Drawer pulls.

I got this dresser off of Craig's list but never took a pic of its originial funkiness. If you wanted asian look, cool, but thats so not me. So here it is painted and finally has the pretty knobs (or handles?) that waited so long. I needed a different drill bit.

The knob/handles are from Target.com. Wow, did I have a hard time finding some that I liked (but thats usually the case with me).

And finally here is the one I'm really kicking myself about. Our bathroom mirror. We had been living with this for two years!

and it now looks like this. What a breath of fresh air and in our tiny bathroom it really makes a difference. The paint is the same as all previous projects.

So thats my first week roundup. I'm sure to be adding more projects to the list and will be staying on track for the blog with updates!

Just Wondering

Which arrangement do you like better?

Relaxing with produce

I am relaxing this afternoon with my first tomato produce from the garden!

Some beautiful mozzarella and sun dried tomato vinaigrette work perfectly with the early garden tomatoes.

Have a lovely weekend!

Lauren

Just a block away

Down the street and around the corner sat a bookshelf on the curb. I drove past it twice and waited till an opportune time (when husband was with me) to pick it up. It was heavy.

There were tons of stickers on the side. Regular and car bumper ones. A hairstylist friend told me that vinegar was a stripper so a spray of that mixed with water, let it soak in and they came off pretty well using the ice scraper (only thing I could find quickly to use).

I had been wanting some more grown up shelves for Jer Bear's room. The baskets in the changing table were working but there wsan't much room for him to use for toys. Plus the pajamas were getting out of control. I took the pic after removing all his pants from the top shelf.

Three cans of blue spray paint later. Lots of room or clothes and toys! One afternoon and that gets checked off my list for the cost of paint!

You can check out more projects at Kimba's for DIY Day!

P.S. The same house provided our sled last winter. If they give us anything else I may need to write a thank you note for the great discards!

I Heart Crate and Barrel

Helloooo out there!

Stacy over at 19butternut shared some new things from Pottery Barn today and it inspired me to share about one of my favorite places, Crate & Barrel. So thanks to Stacy my blog is alive again. It's not that I don't have ideas to write about but more like too many and I'd rather read than write so I read everyone else's posts and never get to my own. Whew! Hopefully that is gonna change. Starting Today!

So these are screen captures from their online Fall catalog. I LOVE Screen captures. If the photos don't drag off your blog and onto my desktop I will capture it and gather them into my growing files of inspiration. I may share some of them with you pretty soon.

Now back to C&B wonderfulness.

I am pretty much an organizational enthusiast. So these benches (which I have been eyeing for years) are always a fave.

This is a similar idea. Liking the white panel look and the shelves to stash. They would be great for library books. Cushions are always nice too :).

I have always liked glass front shelves. This one is so sweet and a great size.

More pretty shelves. I especially like the rear one with the offset horizontal lines.

All my fave colors right there and such cheery design on a rug!

So I first loved some C&B when it moved into the local Easton Town Center Mall about 6 years ago. It was perfect timing for me to then browse for my wedding registry and we got these amazing dishes as gifts. They were so affordable that we received every piece we asked for and some other pretty things thrown in. They still look great with everything and they are still available!

Finally here we have this adorable bag! What a great size and I am LOVING the lettuce print! For some reason it makes me want to laugh or giggle or something. Maybe cause its a little unexpected.

Hope you enjoyed my self indulgence as much as I did!

P.S. C&B has no Idea I am here, writing. But I'm glad you do.

Hope to post again, next week. Happy weekend!

Lauren