Outside Makeover: PROGRESS {part 1}

Hello folks! As you seen in my last post, we have started our outside makeover! Still slowly making progress, so this post will have a part 2! The progress shown in the pictures below is the deck to our new front patio!

Also, can you tell that we PAINTED?! Amazing! I am LOVING the color, it is called Dried Basil, and will look perfect with my Almond colored shutters and skirting once it all goes up! Of course, as far as this porch goes we still have to put up railings, steps, a roof, and stain...But I am still proud of the little bit of work we have done!

A HUGE thanks to my Husband, Daddy, and Jared!

And just because I can: Aww, how sweet ;) haha.

Hopefully, we can start filling up our weekends with more outside work, and I can get a new Progress Post to you soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Inspirations!

Outside Makeover: BEFORE!

Our house has been one major project since we got it. The inside has been completely gutted out, and re-done. It. Looks. Fabulous. I am hoping to do a House Tour post soon, just so you can see all of our hardwork, and the beauty of it. Even though I am very modest, I must say...I have one beautiful home!! However, we have one problem...You would NEVER know how hard we have worked, or how pretty it is on the inside by looking at it from the OUTSIDE. We were not able to get the outside done by the time of the Wedding, and since then it has kind of slid to the back burner. That is changing people! Progress will soon be made! Until then, I wanted to share with you all my Outside Makeover TO DO LIST, and some before pictures so you can see what we are working with!

Before pictures of the house: Old brown paint, dinky front porch, bent up skirting, junky AC unit..but a Beautiful yard! Are you guys seeing the POTENTIAL here, I know I do!

And this is just my little shout out ;) But you can see the paint and skirting much better in this pic. He is pressure washing to get it ready for a Brand New Coat of PAINT!

This will be a fairly slow process. All the work will be done by my Dad, his Dad, Cody, and my step dad on the weekends when they are available. I know my list is long, but I am very hopeful that this certain group of men can handle it! I will have a Progress Post up soon!

You know what they say: Don't judge a book by it's cover! :)

Happy Inspirations!

Adding Crown Molding Shelves

I love the look of crown molding shelves, and the dimension it can give to a room. It is a great way to add height and texture to a space, so I was stoked when I found a set of 4 shelves at a local yard sale for only $3! A fraction of the price that you find at Pottery Barn! They were already a dull ivory color, but I knew that I wanted them to be heavily distressed, So I gave them a good coat of flat black, then two good coats of Ivory spray paint. I then heavily distressed the corners and creases with a low grit sand paper.

I knew the exact location for these shelves! My main wall in my kitchen has been so bare, and I was unsure about adding art work, or pictures. Because I feel like that is such a permanent decision. At least with shelving I can switch out the items as often as I like, which knowing me, will be quite often ;) It makes such a huge difference in the space. I honestly had no clue just how naked that wall really was until the shelves were up. I absolutely love how it looks!

It really fills in the spaces nicely. Oh, and I must give a shout out to my Handsome Husband for hanging them up for me. We used a dry-wall anchor screw to make sure that they were really anchored into the wall, so I don't have to be too careful watching the weight of the items I put on the shelves. So far I have kept the items pretty small, but I do have some Wedding china up there that I would hate to fall, so the heavy duty screws were definitely a must for this project. Here is a close up of the items on each shelf:

Each shelf has its own little personality and I love it. It give great character to the space. A few of the items include: 2 pieces of wedding china, tea cup with wedding flowers, an angel, crystal door knob, oil rubbed bronze vase, measuring cups, flour sack clock, and a sugar canister. All items that are pretty appropriate for a kitchen, Id say! Hope you enjoy the new addition.

Happy Inspirations!

Pedestal Bowls

When I seen the idea for pedestal bowls all over BlogLand, I knew I had to jump on this trend. The simple idea of putting two pieces together such as a candle stick, and bowl, to give it dimension and height is genius! Let me tell you what you are going to need for this project:

Now, doesn't seem like that big of a list. But let me tell you, I had the hardest time tracking down these supplies. I found the bowls at my local GoodWill, just a few cents a piece. Score! However, the candle sticks is what started the Hunt. I found candle sticks all over, but not what I was looking for. I wanted something wood like my bowls ( for easy distressing), and I wanted it to have a little detail for character. It seemed like I was never going to find some that I liked. It wasn't until I had went out shopping with my Mother Inlaw when I finally stumbled across a pair (totally not looking of course, why is it that it always happens that way) that were absolutely perfect. I got started to make my Pedestal Bowls right away, Let me explain the process.

First I gave everything a really good cleaning.

Then I spray painted my first Pedestal bowl a pretty shade of Fire Engine Red.

After they were dry, I glued the candle stick to the bottom of the bowl using Gorilla Glue. I had to weigh it down so it would adhere properly. I let this dry over night.

Once the gluing process was done, It was time for some detailing. I took my sandpaper to it, to give it a nice distressed finish. After that, I used my Valspar Antiquing Glaze to give it even more age, and really bring out the detail in the candle stick.

I made this one for my Sister Inlaw as a Mother's Day Gift, It matches perfectly in her Country inspired kitchen. She has it sitting in her window sill. LOVELY.

Same "How-To" steps for the other Pedestal Bowl I made. However, I used a pretty shade of green in an acrylic paint for this one. Acrylic paint worked just as good as the spray paint! This one I made for my mom to use as a Catch-All bowl, for keys, phones, change, just odds and ends. It is also in her kitchen. This was also one of her Mother's Day presents! I think it turned out really pretty! I love it!

It is such a pretty way to display items! I am definitely on the look out for some more bowls and candle sticks, I need one for myself now ;) Hope you like them! Happy Inspirations!

A Book Wreath

I am so pleased with how this fun little project turned out! For awhile now I have had my moss letter 'D' hanging up in a little space in between my kitchen and living room. I loved the 'D' and I loved how the moss really livened up the space. But once I packed away all of my Easter decorations I just felt like the 'D' was out of place. So, I started pondering on what I could put in this weird space that I would not have to purchase. Thanks to BlogLand, I found my inspiration! Book Wreaths have been popping up everywhere. I absolutely loved the idea of replacing my Moss Wreath with a cozy Book Wreath! So off it was to gather my supplies!

Perfect! Found an old Danielle Steel book at Goodwill for only $.50! The pages, looked really worn, and the coloring had started to turn that beautiful antique yellow. The wreath form I had previously from another Goodwill trip, only $.39 for it. Score! So all in all this project costed me under a Dollar! Okay, so here is the run down:

Get your supplies ready, easily accessible

Next you are going to take a page out of the book and tear it in half, like so:

Take one of your halves and place the battery in the center, then wrap the page around the battery:

After you take the battery out, flatten out the bottom of the page (where the bottom of the battery sat in the center of the page) This will help you have somewhere for the glue to go. Now, take a dab of glue, then press onto the wreath. Do this about a GAZILLION more times and your Book Wreath will look like this:

I apologize for the HORRIBLE coloring. That kitchen window always seems to ruin pictures of this particular area.

But isn't it Fabulous!? And it was SO easy to do. And Cheap! I will admit that it was a bit time consuming and I made this wreath while sitting through TWO whole Lifetime movies, but I think it was worth it ;)

And the colors of the pages seem to work perfect with the other colors in the room. Here is one more spot so you can see how it looks in this spot in between the kitchen, and living room.

I love inexpensive, unique, and crafty decor! Well there ya have it folks, my Book Wreath! Happy Inspirations!

Simple Projects, Big Difference

I LOVE projects that are simple, easy, and fast! I am too impatient for long projects, and I like to see results fast. For a while I have had to little items in my kitchen that (to me) stuck out like a sore thumb! Wrong colors, wrong look for my decor, but were necessary to the space. My kitchen has a Tuscan feel: Dark walnut woods, deep maroon and tan paint, and Oil Rubbed Bronze accents everywhere! I have a convenient basket that sits behind my sink that holds my dish soap dispenser, hand soap dispenser, and sponges. One problem, the dish soap dispenser is shiny chrome. It SO does not go with my beautiful oil rubbed bronze basket, or faucet. Oh for the LOVE of Spray Paint! Thanks to my new obsession, Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic Spray Paint allowed for me to fix this monstrous disaster ;) Observe:

Before: Hideous!

Beautiful Faucet, Ugly Chrome Dispenser:

And the After is just BEAUTIFUL, and I can now sleep in peace at night ;) lol

Sighhhhhh. It. Is. Gawwgeous! And totally only took my like 2 mins. and I feel like it makes SUCH a huge difference. Although, no one else would probably had noticed my soap dispenser did NOT match my faucet! And if they did, Really?! What's it to ya? haha. Kidding. >.>

My other super quick transformation was my Knife Block. I have my knife block sitting out on my kitchen so it is definitely something that gets seen at all times. Well it is a light natural wood color. SO not apart of my decor element in that room. My cabinets and table are a beautiful dark walnut color, so this little guy was making my eye twitch! I contemplated the idea of sanding and staining, but that seemed like too much work for Lil Impatient Me :) So once again I turned to my old faithful Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint, gave her a good two coats, and distressed the edges. I was unbelievably Giddy over this one!

Before:

After: LOVELY, just Lovely!

Completely In Love with this small, itty bitty transformation. I might stencil something on it in the near future, might add a monogram to give it a little more character since it is always on display. But for now, I am as happy as a jay bird! I feel like my kitchen flows together much better now than before! You can never go wrong by adding a little more Oil Rubbed Bronze ;) Not in my house anyway!

Be inspired to make change, even if it is just a small one!

Welcome Carter Saint Brown!

On June 10, 2010 at 11:20 A.M. Our best friends, Christine and Acea, brought such a sweet little Miracle into this World. Carter Saint Brown was born 8lbs 6oz and 22 inches long. He is every little bit of Perfect! We are so very proud of the Family the Brown's have become. They have made fabulous parents, with so much love to share! Congrats Christine and Acea...We LOVE all THREE of you so very much!