Fall in the Dining Room

I wasn't sure how to decorate this room for fall since I painted it aqua, but it turned out to be pretty easy using a natural palette.  I do have a few Halloween touches such as the placements (from Target, love them) but everything else works until the week after Thanksgiving.

Hope you are having a nice weekend!

Halloween

Whew, have not posted in a long while!  I've been really crazy busy with my job, working 12 hours days and having no life, but today my daughter Manda and I got out the Halloween decorations.  I also managed to buy a few new things like the picture above (from Victorian Lowbrow), and another similar one, which I love so much that I ordered a third one.  

Manda and I are big fans of Halloween!  We picked up several new things at Target this year, like the skull above.

I bought these awesome stickers on Etsy and got some old bottles at the flea market to stick them on. 

Also at Target we got these bat stickers and put them in the foyer to look like bats are flying into the house.  It looks really cool!

 
I had an old buffet in the garage that Manda helped me drag out to use until I can find exactly what I want to put here.  I had my eye on an antique piece on Craigslist but it got away from me.  :(  I need to fill in this vignette, it's a little sparse for my taste.

My little garden filled in really nice this summer.  I never did plant the lower half, but it's on my list for the Spring.

Hope you have a nice week!

Waiting out the heat

Hot enough for ya? I feel like I've barely left the house except to get in the car and go someplace else that has air conditioning. I'm sooo done with summer right now and ready for my favorite season - FALL.  I wish my deck plants still looked like this, but they just fried in the nasty heat we've had all summer and are barely hanging on with twice daily watering.

I have been working on a big project but have been both busy and lazy, so there is not much to show just yet. I'm painting this:

 
I'm nearly done with it but my youngest is home from college for a week, so I have everything on hold so we can actually eat dinner at the table while she's here. With this cabinet emptied out, my kitchen was a tad cluttered. :)   Forgive me if I don't share photos of that, I took pics of some pretties instead.  Cookie?

 

Have a great week, and stay cool!

And a mirror to match!

Last weekend I braved the heat to go to the flea market in search of treasure. I didn't find much, but while browsing one stand I saw a mirror leaning under the table and went in for a closer look. I was an old, narrow gold ornate framed beveled mirror. Gorgeous, but the top was broken and hanging off. "I'll give you that for $5" she said, apparently noticing my skeptical look. "Uh, ok." Five bucks? Yeah, for that I can deal with a little "character". So, I glued the top back together as best I could (admittedly, not that clean a repair) and painted it to match my little armoire. I'm liking it.

I also just hung up this bed curtain, which I got at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for $2.  I have been finding some real bargains lately! 

Taking these pics reminded me that one of my goals for 2012 is to work on the master bedroom.  This bed is crying out for a whitewash, isn't it?  And now that I'm looking, so are my lamps.  And I could definitely do with some new ruffly white bedding.  It's always something, isn't it?  Hope you are all staying cool!

Turquoise Jewelry Armoire

I picked up this little jewelry armoire at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for $25:

 
Not exactly a priceless antique, but I liked the carved details and thought I'd like it even better white. 
Then I changed my mind and painted it turquoise. Or, to be precise, I painted it Martha Stewart Hummingbird Blue.  Yes, on my kitchen table.  That's how I roll.  Hmm, note to self... clean out the garage.

Freshly painted, and a little too pristine for my taste, so I roughed it up a little bit around the edges:

Applied a dark glaze to accent the details and give it a little drama.  Now it looks like it had an interesting past life, maybe storing feather boas in a bordello.  But probably not.

Then I decoupaged some scrapbook paper to the frame of the interior mirror (and took a bad pic of it):

Finally, I filled it with my costume priceless jewelry collection.  I have a lot more jewelry than I thought:

I took a couple pics in different light and the color looks completely different.  Here it is in the sunroom, looking slightly washed out:

And here it is in the bedroom with the color looking slightly more saturated than it is.  Neither looks exactly right, but in person it is precisely how I envisioned it, and I guess that is what counts. :)

I'm partying at Furniture Friday, Potpourri Friday, Feathered Nest Friday, and Show and Tell Friday this week. Have a great weekend, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Birds Nesting in the Daisies

When I came home on Thursday afternoon, I noticed some weedy twigs poking out of my front door flower arrangement.  Uh-oh.  Some sweet little bird has decided my flower basket is an ideal nesting spot.  I guess this confirms that I don't get out much, for surely any comings and goings would have deterred her from setting up house in such a way that her babies will be in and out of my foyer.

The daisies do provide pretty good cover from the elements and screen the nest from passerby.  I had this problem once before, when mourning doves set up in a planter outside my back door.  They made a mess.  These eggs are tiny and so pretty, I can't think of disturbing them but it will not be easy since this is the only practical means of egress from my house.

My neighbor thought they might be sparrows and from pictures I've seen online I think she is right.  So it appears I've got guests for about a month.  I'm going to have to rethink my door decor once they move out.

Hope you are having a nice weekend!

Finds, Flowers, and the FLOORING

Pic of some of my flowers because they are so pretty right now:

 I found some cool vintage silverware at the flea market last week:

And today I picked up a jewelry armoire at a yardsale, which is going to end up white or MAYBE duck egg blue (but probably not).  I loved the carvings:

Do you see what it's sitting on?  I'm pretty excited because I spent all day working on re-installing the flooring in my foyer, which is Allure Ultra, a sort of flexible laminated rubber tile that locks together with a little rubber channel.  I have been working on this putting this off for about 2 months, because I was not happy about the way it looked.  The locking part was not staying "locked" and the corners kept shifting around when the next piece went in.  I had 2 boxes installed for the past 2 months, and the other night I laid 2 more boxes.  Still not happy, so this morning I ripped it all out and started over.  That may sound dramatic but it's pretty easy to dismantle, the hard part is getting it to lock together perfectly.  I had much better luck, maybe due to practice?  I spent several hours today laying on the floor, using my weight (which is substantial) to hold the finished part in place while I put in the next piece.  I put all 4 boxes back down plus half of box #5, so there's just a box and a half left to do.  Here is where we stand:

Now that the installation is going better, I really kind of love it.  I'm sure the dark color is going to be a nightmare to keep dusted but I just had to have it anyway.  In the next pic there is a bit of a glare, so you can see the "hand-scraped" effect better. It's a really nice-looking, realistic alternative to wood, which would not work here due to moisture.

Ignore the dirt, I swept but should have vacuumed before taking pics!  I still have to finish the powder room and closet, and then put the edge molding back in place, but I am now feeling confident I will get there.

Have a great week everyone!