Sweet little birds

I've become obsessed with fat little birds. I can't explain it. I love them. They are mod and quirky and cute.  I decided I needed to have them in my house.  I already have a cute little white ceramic one that is still looking for a home, but wanted something a bit more punchy.

I also didn't want to spend any money. This bizarre thing has happened since I started this whole blogging thing. I can't believe it's possible, but I've gotten cheaper. I look at stuff in stores and think, "Huh, I could make that." And don't buy it. And most of the time, I don't make it either, because that would take planning and thinking and right now, I don't seem to have the time for either of those things.

But, I digress...back to my chirpy little birds.

I had a set of pictures from our old bathroom back in Colorado. They didn't fit the style of the house at all, but I figured I could repurpose them somehow, so hung onto them.

Here they are in all their glory.

Pretty standard bathroom art you can buy pretty much anywhere. Not horrible, but not what I wanted.

I tore them apart. Poor things didn't stand a chance. And I didn't take any pictures. I have no idea why. Sigh.

Anyway, I got them down to the bare frames and glass. Then, I primed them and spray painted them chrome with some spray paint I bought years ago. Covered like a dream! They looked great!

Next, I cut two pieces of scrapbook paper to the size of the frame. Then, I used my Silhouette to cut out two chubby little birds from pink and orange card stock. I use a glue stick to attach the birds to the scrapbook paper. As I was laying the birds out, I decided to swap the beaks, wings and tails to give them a little more interest.

(These are hanging in the same room which doesn't have any windows, one is by the light and the other isn't. The first one is more true to the colors. No matter how much I tinkered with them in Paint.net, I couldn't get them the same color.)

Originally, I'd planned on hanging these cuties in the kitchen, but they just didn't look right with the chrome frames on gray walls.

Here they are hanging in the downstairs bathroom.

And the best part is, they were free! I had the frames, spray paint and scrapbook paper. Cheap, cheap!

Once we get a couple more finishing touches on this room, I'll show you the whole thing. It's turning out very cute!



Quick and easy teacher gifts

I haven't done one single thing for my son's pre-school teachers all year. I feel horrible about it. He's got 3 great pre-school teachers. And, 3 great daycare teachers. And my daughter has 3 great daycare teachers too.  See my dilemma? 9, count 'em, 9 people to buy gifts for? Overwhelming.

But, since this week is his last week of preschool, I decided to make a little something for his preschool teachers.

Easy, simple and cute!

I started with plain white mugs that I got at the dollar store.  I used my Silhouette to add black mongrams in Century Schoolbook font.

I had three favor bags we'd gotten from a wedding we were at a couple of weekends ago, so I filled them with dark chocolate Hershey kisses. (Because really,  who doesn't love getting chocolate?)

They still needed a little extra something, so I used my Silhouette again to create a Thank You tag.



I wanted to include a personal note to each of his teachers, but all of my stationary is still packed away in a box somewhere down in the basement. Instead of stationary, I cut a piece of coordinating scrapbook paper, wrote my note on the plain side of my paper, then rolled it up and tied it with some left over ribbon.

On my way to daycare, I stopped and picked up Starbuck's gift cards and tucked them in the back as well.





I'm really happy with how they turned out!







Dining Room Then and Now

I have no idea why it's taken me so long to get this one posted. I took the pictures the same day I took the ones for the bathroom post.  Time gets away from me!

Anyhoo...

The dining room was actually in pretty good shape. With the exception of the carpet. I don't understand why people put carpet in dining rooms. I really don't.  We did it once. Don't know why. I do know that it will never. happen. again.

We ripped out the carpet, took all trim off (not just in here, but the whole house!), and painted the walls a simple tan (Behr - Gobi Desert). Then, we installed a beautiful maple hardwood floor. (We hired this out and it was one of the best decisions we made during this process!) After the floors were down, the nice, clean, white trim went up! I love white trim. Makes every color pop! We also spray painted all of the dark wood window frames white. It was a pain in the you-know-what, but they look brand new!

(Have I told you when I say "we," I really mean my wunnferful hubby? No? Huh.)

Not bad! We are getting there. But I wasn't in love with the light fixture. It was just OK. A perfectly nice fixture.  I wanted something with a little more personality than "perfectly nice." And, when you walk in the front door, you see all the way through to the dining room. The existing fixture was dark and low and your eyes stopped at it. It also made the already low ceilings seem even lower.

Enter sparkly-acrylic lovelieness. Fantabulous! I love it.  (Who knew you could fall in love with a light fixture?!) It doesn't obstruct your line of vision. It also makes the ceiling seem much higher. And, as an added bonus, it makes rainbows on the walls! Perfecto!

 

We've only got bare bones furniture in there now, but it's functional. I've got some ideas on how to liven it up.  I think we are going to eventually move the buffet onto a different wall and get a skinnier side table to replace it. It's a bit of a tight squeeze now to get drawers open. We may also had a tall wine rack in the corner to balance out the curio in the opposite corner.  Do you like the highchair? I was too lazy to take it off to take pictures.

 

 

We are soooo happy with the way it turned out!



I can't decide which room to show you next...family room? master bedroom? kitchen? mudroom? Decisions, decisions.

It's supposed to be rainy and crappy here this weekend. Yay! Not.  But, it does give me the chance to hopefully get some crafty projects done.

Tweetie bird

I found this little sweetheart on clearance for $2.00 at Michael's today during my lunch break. I have no idea where she is going to go, but I had to have her.

The Home Stretch

We've been remodeling the house we bought back in November and are in the home stretch. Our lease was up on the rental house May 1.  We moved in Easter weekend. It was insanity. I HATE moving. But, I love our new home.
The transformation is pretty remarkable. We hired out the carpet and hardwood floors. Sparky did the rest (with some help from friends and family). It's been a long haul, but it's going to be great!

One of the biggest transformations has been the upstairs bathroom. We originally weren't going to do it, but we were able to cut budget in a couple of other areas to get it done. And, it's beautiful.
This is what the upstairs bathroom looked like when we had our inspection.

Well, we basically tore the whole thing apart. The shower and tub area went down to the studs. The toilet came out. The sink, vanity and light were gone.

Here's how it looked tonight:

The room doesn't have much regarding accessories, but we LOVE it. The tile is great and the room feels so much bigger!

I have a couple of inspiration rooms that I'm thinking about for this space.

I love what Emily Clark did with her kids bathroom.

I also love what Chris at Just a Girl did with her kid's bathroom too.

Maybe I'll try to combine the two. Ya never know. I'm kinda crazy like that.


I can't wait to show you the dining room. You wanna see my favorite thing EVER? Ok, here is a sneak peak.

(I need to figure out how to take a great picture of this fixture, cause this one doesn't do it justice.)

Let the fun begin!

Yay! We are moved into our new house! Now, the fun begins. After the unpacking is done. Sigh.

I hope to have some great before and after posts coming soon, but first I need to take the after pictures. This is what I struggle with. Do I take them now, even though the rooms aren't "finished?" I'm thinking yes. Otherwise, it's going to be eons before I do another post.  Maybe tonight. Maybe I'll get some pictures taken tonight. Yeah, tonight. Definitely tonight. I think.

Keep your fingers crossed!