Desk Steal

I have been using an old vanity as a desk in our living room for a while now. It was slim and only had two drawers for storage and a cubby where you have to lift the top of the vanity to access it. It was not convenient what-so-ever. I search Craigslist quite often and see old desks all the time that could be easliy updated. It wasn't until Kevin mentioned the fact that we needed a desk for more storage, that I really got to searching! I always get excited when he actually says we need something...it doesn't happen very often. On a Saturday I found two desks almost exactly alike, one for $20 and one for $10. I quickly emailed both ads in hope one was still available. I received an email back that day telling me that the cheaper one was sold.

Bummer. 

The next morning, i receieved an email from the other ad telling me that it was, in fact, still available! I emailed right back asking if I could have it! She told me that if I came and picked it up before 1pm that I cold take it off her hands for 10 smackeroos!! I told Kevin and showed him the picture. He was less than thrilled. You see, he is the one who drives all over Memphis to pick up the pieces I have found on CL. Picking up a desk on a Sunday afternoon was not his idea of fun, especially when I pulled up the address and it was in a less than pleasing part of town. Luckily, when we arrived it was the most cute little quaint house in the heart of Midtown. The houses surrounding were all older, smaller homes and were just adorable! I was so excited to get it home and get to work on it!!

Here is the before

It was a little rough on top, but structurally in great shape!! I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it! I had been eyeing this desk that Miss Mustard Seed finished with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint found here.

Isn't she lovely?? I think so too! I loved the look of the painted desk and stained top. I actually have a dresser done the same way. I was leaning towards a darker blue for the drawers on mine though. I hit up Sherwin Williams for some $5 samples and covered the whole desk without even making a dent in the samples! I used a foam roller for the sides and a foam brush for the smaller spots. I covered with Kilz primer first and then painted. I distressed with my electric sander. 

And here she is!!

Please ignore the Disney lap pad under the table as well as the plastic bag, this is Kevin's way of hiding cords. In this photo, you can also see why I hate the wall color.

The stain is something I had on hand and I'm not sure of the color.  I cleaned(tried) the brass handles, but they didn't seem to want to polish perfectly. I took that as a sign that they wanted to stay antique looking, so I left them that way. I still want to line the drawers with some fabric or coordinating paper, but we will see if I ever get around to that. In the meantime, we are enjoying all the extra storage this baby brings us! When we get around to painting the walls Sea Salt, the drawers may clash and have to be painted a different color.

Do you think I should paint the drawers white or another color??

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Sea Salt and Driftwood

After months of staring at our ugly green-yellow-tannish walls, I have finally decided on a paint color for our living room walls. I have been debating and finally narrowed the colors down to three, Contented by SW, Sea Salt by Valspar and Sea Salt by SW. Luckily, a friend I've known my whole life works at the paint center at Lowe's, any stranger would probably dismiss me after pulling all of the paint fans of brands they don't even carry. After having her mix the 3 colors and taking them home and trying the samples out, I chose Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams.

My official inspiration for this room comes from this bedroom at studio ten 25.

Isn't it beautiful??  I absolutely love the colors and love how bright the paint makes the room feel! Our current paint color is drab and uninviting. The paint color in this bedroom is Rainwashed by SW and is currently in my stepdaughter's room. Rainwashed is a little saturated for our living room, but when I saw Sea Salt in this room,  I fell in L O V E!! I had to have it!

So it's official!! I will be painting the living room within the next two weeks! I'm so exciting to have some bright and relaxing color on the walls and get rid of drab and gross green!

The Z Gallerie mirror in the second and third photo was giving me a panic attack. I wanted.it.now. Unfortunately, it's out of our price range. But I did score a gigantic mirror from Hancock Fabrics for only $39! There was no tag and no info on the mirror to indicate any price. It was sitting in front of another gigantic mirror of the same size and that one was currently $250 on sale 30% off. The young salesperson said he figured MY mirror was the same price. After calling around for over 15 minutes, he told me my mirror was only $39! I wanted to kiss him! Not many people will go out of their way to spend that much time on the phone researching prices. I'm grateful he did! It made my day! 

Now if I can only get my living room to look like this....

I picked this up over at a' la mode. Love the drapes!  I'm not sure of the original source, but the young guest blogger from the post has some wonderful design tips! Check out Michaela at Michaela Noelle Designs!

Also, on a recent trip to the in-law's at Pickwick Lake, I collected a ton of driftwood and shells! I can't wait to get to work collaborating a centerpiece of some sort to tie in the Sea Salt paint! Have I mentioned I love beachy stuff?? Here are some ideas with driftwood and shells I love!

PB Teen

 Shells with sand

Which is similar to the centerpiece we created for my wedding here

How about this mantle covered in driftwood and seashells! My kinda art. Actually, check out the whole web page filled with driftwood art! Karen Miller is obviously a talented artist, and the alligator made from driftwood!



My Beachy Wedding

Lately, I have been seeing so many beach inspired rooms. I personally love the beach and my parents have been taking my sister and I to the Gulf coast since I can remember. We started out on the coasts of Florida and through the years made the Alabama beaches our favorite. When my sister and I were young we vacationed on the beach at least once a year, sometimes twice. Our most recent trip was to Ft. Morgan, AL for our wedding. I couldn't imagine any other perfect place than this. Until BP had their little mishap....

We had already paid our deposit for our beach house and were worried what was going to happen with our "perfect" plans. Luckily, the water cleared up and there was NO oil in the water(that we could see or taste, at least). They opened the beaches back up about two weeks before the wedding and it turned out to be perfect after all!! 

See how blue the water was??!

This wedding was planned on a serious budget. If I couldn't find what I was looking for at the right price, I made it. Including the bamboo arbor we stood under while being married.

 I made all the flower arrangements, except the bouquets and all the decorations, with the help of family and friends. We made all the food and desserts.

I iced these cookies the night before the wedding!

If you can't tell, my wedding was starfish themed. I fell in love with the way the starfish looked and totally went with it.



The best part is that I got to bring most everything home with me as momentos. I found an arrangement similar to this one and wanted it so badly.

The kit with the vase, sand, candle, shells and starfish was over $50 each plus shipping. I headed over to our local Old Time Pottery and picked up two similar vases and white candles. My mom filled the vases with sand from the beach and shells she found as well as very inexpensive store bought starfish. There were two and they turned out perfectly all for about $20 for both centerpieces, saving about $80!! I brought one home and she has the other. Mine is sitting on my armoire in our master, I love looking at it everyday knowing it holds sand and shells from the beach we were married on!

I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of wonderful family and friends! There were only about 15 in attendance, not including the wedding party and everyone chipped in and helped with something, whether it was building the arbor, smoothing the sand, or making food and starfish decorations for the aisle chairs.

It was the most perfect wedding and we loved our local minister. He incorporated the ocean and sand and told us true love is endless, just like the ocean. Sigh.

If anyone is interested in the details of the decor or vendors we used in that area, feel free to contact me. They were all AWESOME! I would recommend them to anyone with small or large budget!

Time for a new clock...

Since we moved in our house, we have always had a large clock in our living room. At first, I never paid any actual attention to the function, it was hanging on the wall for decoration purposes only. But, everytime I asked hubby what time it was, he pointed to the wall. So then I got used to checking the time on the wall clock and depending on it to make sure I was out of the house on time for school.

A couple of months ago, Hayden started a stage where he beat his big head against anything near him, doors, furniture, and you guessed it, walls. One day we weren't paying enough attention to his head-banging and so he banged hard enough that the clock fell straight off the wall and bounced off his head. That was the end of that clock.

The clock hasn't been replaced because I'm super picky about what I want to do with that space. Since I'm obsessed with mirrors and all, I've really been contemplating creating some sort of mirrored clock. We recently replaced the standard frameless mirror in our master bath with a framed one from Kirkland's outlet. So I have a mirror that can be cut down to size. The issue is finding a clock kit that I like and figuring out what type of numbers I am going to use(Roman numerals or block numbers?) and if I want to etch the numbers or use vinyl or paint. 

I've got a few images of what I like, but not really sure how I'm going to cover the edge of the raw mirror if I have it cut down. Maybe I need to scour the area for a round frame? Or maybe a large square frame with the numbers in a circular design?? I'm so indecisive!!

I'm loving this one from Restoration Hardware. I love the circular design and square frame. How in the world would I get this design on a mirror?? Stencil paint possibly? Projector??

I also like the antique look of this one, but it has no hands, so not actually a working clock.

This one is modern and sleek, but no numbers and I'm not patient enough to try to picture numbers in my head :)

Love these two as well!! I guess I have a lot of decisions to make!! The biggest part is going to be trying to get hubby to take the huge mirror to the glass shop to have it cut down. Luckily, it's not far from our house and they have even offered to cut it for free! What nice people they are!

Maybe someone will have some suggestions for me!

So it seems I have an obsession, or quite a few actually!

Since I was out of school last night and had some free time after work, I decided to find some Goodwill frames to place the seahorse pictures in. I stopped by a new little place called Small Treasures. The first time I stopped by was after it first opened and it only had about 4-6 booths. Now, they are busting at the seams! They are 1000 times better than an antique store because there are plenty of antiques to choose from, but without the enormous prices. Also, way better that Goodwill, because I don't leave the store smelling like, well, Goodwill. And, I don't feel the need to sterilize my hands afterwards, that's a big plus!

I had made a trip around the store once and found quite a few things that I would have loved to take home. There lies the problem. I always find something I want to take home. In fact, there is a Pottery Barn piece, a gold frame, a box from ebay with a bird cage and ceramic birds(that has yet to be opened) and a gold mirror that I purchased the last time I was at Small Treasures, in my car at this moment. All these things were purchased over a month ago, even a couple of months ago, and they have been traveling around with me in my car. I don't take them inside, because I don't have anywhere to put them at this time. Plus, I have to unload a kid, purse, diaper bag, and sometimes lunch when I get home. Who wants to go back out to the car to unload more junk? Not me. They need to go into the shed for now, but then I will have to hear it from hubby when he opens the shed door and stuff comes tumbling down on top of him! So, hello shopping obsession. Or is it hoarding? None-the-less, on to my second obsession.

Mirrors.

On my shopping trip yesterday I took a second trip around ST and almost missed this!

It did not have a hangtag, so at first I didn't think it was for sale. I checked the back and there it was! A sticker for $6!! I had to have it for my bedroom. For a month now, I have had a vision of a wall collage of pictures in my bedroom. I have a side chair and table that need to be recovered and stained and wanted the collage to hang above those. I have a tin star that is red and think it will coordinate perfectly. I think almost everyone has one, or two. You know what one I'm talking about??

And guess what?? Yeah, it's still in the car too! I did manage to take in the 3 books I got from Salvation Army (Lipstick Jungle, One Fifth Avenue, and My Year's with Julia) SCORE!

Oh, and while I'm at it, let me just mention how high prices are at the local Salvation Army. An old brass table lamp is $19.99. I realize this is for a good cause, but how are they going to donate any money if no one can afford their junk?? And dressers with severe water damage for $100?? Come on!

             Dear Salvation Army, I can buy a BRAND SPANKIN' new lamp that is NOT brass at Walmart for less than $20.

Thanks!



Just in case you were wondering, here is the mirror that has been hanging out in the back seat for a month or so...

Isn't she beautiful?? Not sure what I am going to do with her, but for $7, I couldn't pass her up! She has a travel companion too that is almost a twin, but she will be painted and stuffed with corkboard for Chloe and Savanna's new room! I'm thinking lime green!

This leads to my other obsession. Gaudy, ornate frames.

I typically buy any old gold frame I see if it's reasonably priced. It can always be painted and I'm sure I'll find a place for it one day(note the hoarding coming out in me here). I love anything with detail! I currently have two gigantic gold mirrors at home that need a place on a wall. Oh, wait, three :) I just have to find the perfect place for them.

So next time you come across an old tacky mirror, you'll think of me. And if you have any to get rid of, think of me!

Oh and I googled gaudy to make sure I was spelling it right(I'll blog about my memory loss one day and the fact that I seriously need a planner) and this was the first picture that came up! It's titled, "gaudy nail art".

Ha, ya think?

Seahorse Knockoffs

Well I got my Ballard Designs catalog in today and couldn't wait to see what kind of surprises were ahead! I flipped through, and of course, was in love with everything. BUT BOY, is it overpriced! Sigh.....I guess I'll have to figure out some way of making some knockoffs.

My favorite things were these seahorse giclee prints. I love the beach and these would look perfect in my blue bathroom!

Ballard Designs

But at $319 for both, I'm outta luck!  I pulled together my resources(Google, ha) and found a free download of a seahorse sketch and a free linen background and pulled together this...

Now, I know this is not the same, but I really like the finished product. Fell free to use my image if you like. Or make your own. The sketch can be found here

 and the background can be found here.  I can't wait to get them home and frame them and get them hung! I'll post a picture soon of them on the wall so you can see them against the blue!

Dresser dilemma.

Well, poor hubby is going to kill me because now I'm on a dresser kick.  I'm really trying to get our mismatched master in order and it's taking me a while with all the other stuff we are doing every.single.hour.of.the.weekend. So, while I was doing my hourly search on craigslist.org I cam across a really rough looking dresser for $15. It was gigantic and very unusual. Almost immediately I had a vision and it looked a lot like this number...

Which is a $2500 Williams Sonoma french style buffet. Ha, right. I love how the white contrasts with the stained top. Then as I searched more for inspiration, I found this dresser, which was in horrible shape and this lady spruced up. Now the craigslist dresser and this dresser are almost JUST alike. Same details in the drawers and everything! I decided I had to have the dresser.

So I sent poor hubby over to the house to get it and let's just say he came home empty handed and smelling a little like "grass" if you catch my drift. He proclaimed that the dresser was not coming into our house. Enough said. So I've been on the prowl for a nice old wood dresser that I can paint white and stain the top a dark mahogany or walnut. If any of my friends come across one at a cheap reasonable price, let me know!