What Started It All!

One summer during college, I lived with my dad and his wife (my parents are divorced) in northern Ohio.  The house next door to them had an estate sale, and I scored an old, violently green dresser for $20.  The lady even threw in a matching mirror to hang above it which, thankfully, had not been painted the same shade of green!

I spent all summer stripping that dresser of it's green paint, sanding it, repairing the trim that had been damaged, and finally, adding stain and polyurethane.  I can still remember getting finished with the dresser and racing up to the hardware store to pick out new knobs.  (I didn't have any patience, even then!)

This dresser of mine has traveled with me to college, my first apartment with friends, my first apartment that I lived in all by myself, and finally, to the house(s) I have shared with my husband.  It has been 12 years since I refinished it, and it still sits in my bedroom, though now it holds my husband's socks and t-shirts, rather than my girly stuff.  Over the years I have changed it's knobs, treated it with furniture oil and lectured many professional moving men about it's fragility.  I hope it will become a family piece that one of my kids will inherit someday.

To look at this dresser, it's nothing fancy.  But it was my first big "project," and I couldn't wait to transform it from an ugly basement castoff to a pretty little piece complete with scented drawer liner.

So it will always hold a special little place in my heart.  Do you have a first project like that?

WFMW: Inexpensive Fall Topiary

Today's Works-For-Me-Wednesday tip is about how to make an inexpensive fall topiary, but I first have to mention this: I think we need to establish some kind of workers' comp for bloggers!  I have officially sustained my first injury:

(Please ignore my old lady hands!  They have been that wrinkly since I was born, and now, at the ripe old age of 32, they look positively ancient.)  Let's focus on the large glue gun-induced blister on my finger instead.
I sustained this injury while attempting to create my fall topiary.  I bought one of these green cones at Michael's, spray painted it black (so that the green wouldn't show through if I missed any spots)...

...and gathered my glue gun (nasty little thing) and a few pounds of nuts (2 1/2 lb. to be exact) from the grocery store.  Then I turned on a DVR-ed "Desperate Housewives" during Nina's nap, and about an hour later I had this adorable topiary!

I liked it so much that I went back to the store, bought some more supplies, and made a second topiary.  I figured one day I might have a traditional mantle again, and that I would want one for either end.  Each topiary probably cost a total of about $10.  Works for me!

(And if anyone knows of a good insurance plan that covers glue gun burns, I am open to suggestions!)

Extreme Nesting Mode

I am still finding little projects around the house to keep me busy!  My sister says I am in extreme nesting mode now that I am only about 12 weeks away from having Baby #2.  That might be true, but I also know (from having Baby #1) that once Baby #2 is born, I will be out of commission, project-wise.  I will probably be proud of myself that I get dressed in the mornings, let alone even attempt to spray paint or Mod Podge anything.  So, let's enjoy this spurt of energy while we can!

I recently bought this little metal basket.  It's pretty sad.  

But I found some scrapbook paper and Mod Podged it until it looked cute enough to hold our takeout menus.  :)

I was at Michael's the other day and saw this little turkey on sale for $2.99.  I thought he was cute enough to come live at our house, but that he needed a makeover.

Here he is with a new coat of brown paint.  He's meant to hold a candle but I kind of liked him with a little pumpkin instead.  

See?  It's all part of my attempt to distract myself from the half dozen Christmas decoration boxes in my basement, screaming to be opened and put to use!

Warming Up the Bathroom

*Updated to add: The color in the bathroom is called "Cloudy Amber" and it is by Valspar.  I got it at Lowes.  Also, someone asked how I hung the wreath.  I just used a little nail in the drywall right above the mirror, so you can't see it as you are standing below.  Easy!

No news is good news, right?  We put an offer in on the house next door...a week ago.  Haven't heard a word about it.  We are competing with another buyer for the house, but the problem is that our offer is contingent upon us selling our current house. 

The "For Sale" sign is in our front yard.  We had one showing over the weekend.  No other developments.  We're not sure how this will all work out, but the one thing we need is time to sell our house so that we will be in a position to, you know, have enough money to buy the new house.  I guess we're still in the game.  But we have no idea what the score is!

So this weekend I spent a little time sprucing up our house for the real estate market.  Our agent recommended that we "warm up" our master bathroom.  It is full of windows, a huge mirror and a shower, with lots of tile.  Very stark.  Here is the "before" shot:  

First I scrounged up a wreath that I have had since college.  It once held a blue floral ribbon intertwined with some baby's breath (Yeah, my roommate and I thought we were awesome decorators in 1996!).  I ripped all that stuff off, added a brown grosgrain ribbon, and here are the results:

Then I grabbed a yellow pitcher that I've had sitting in a kitchen cupboard since we got married.  Added a few decorative sticks (and yes, I did actually pay for sticks, which boggles my husband's mind!) and placed it on the countertop:

I feel like these simple touches really give the bathroom a little more dimension and warmth.  Why didn't I do this before?

Now we just need a buyer with a lot of cash to come fall in love with our house, we need to win the bidding war for the house next door, and we need the timing to work perfectly so that we can pull this big puzzle together.  In other words, a miracle!  It could happen, right?

Getting Me Through To Thanksgiving!

My house has felt a little barren since I took my Halloween decorations down.  I just don't have a lot of Thanksgiving decorations, and there is this one spot above my fireplace that looks particularly sad:

Don't you agree?  Luckily, I was at Michael's recently and their faux pumpkins were 80% off, so I brought a cute white one home for $2.39.  I figured for that price, I could afford to try a new technique on it!  So I picked up some graphite paper for $1.50 or so.

This paper allows you to trace an image onto another surface.  So I found a font I liked, printed out a big "G" (our last name initial) on regular white paper, taped the graphite paper to the pumpkin, and then traced the letter.

When I was done tracing, I was left with a faint but very clear outline of my "G."

Then I just grabbed a black paint marker and colored in the lines!  The paint marker was really great for creating a much smoother line than I would have been able to create with a paintbrush.

I added a little grosgrain ribbon because...well, I add grosgrain ribbons to most everything that will stand still!  What do you think?  I have a few more little Thanksgiving projects that have spruced up my house lately.  I'll be sure to show them to you next week.  

Enjoy your weekend!

Hardware Changes Everything!

As I told you a few days ago, we have been on pins and needles as we attempt to put our house on the market and buy the bigger house next door.  (No news there...just waiting to hear which offer the bank accepts, ours or the other people's.)  To keep busy as we wait, I have been working on little projects, which has been therapeutic for me but is starting to drive my husband crazy!  

Changing the hardware on a couple of our furniture pieces has been a great way to update their look without spending a lot of money.  Here's our coffee table (that I bought a few weeks ago at a garage sale for $40!):

The craftsman look of the handles didn't really match the rest of the furniture, but for $10 I was able to trade them out.  Like the change?

Next is my grandmother's hutch, which you have probably seen a lot if you've been around here for a few months.  As you can tell, the handles were a very dated-looking brass:

I got these inexpensive knobs and handles from Lowe's, and I really like how they make the hutch look a little more up-to-date:

It's amazing to me what a difference the time of day makes out here in Colorado.  I did nothing to the finish of this hutch but it looks totally different in Picture A versus Picture B.  I guess it's the sunlight, and a little bit of the new knobs making their impact.  I love it when small changes pay off!   Next time you are attempting to buy a new house, you should try changing out some hardware...maybe it can help you too!   :)

WFMW: Last Minute Cards for Gifts

Today's Works-For-Me-Wednesday tip is one that has saved me countless times.  I don't know about you, but I always seem to be scrambling at the last minute to get gifts for people.  And cards for those gifts are even harder to remember.  So a few years ago, I got smart and started a stationery collection (all photos have been "doctored" to protect our last name...I hope you can still get the gist of it!).

This first one is a simple card with my daughter's name on it.  Whenever she brings a gift to a little friend's birthday party, we whip these out to use as the birthday card:

Next is a little gift card that has our last name on it.  It reads "The Smiths" (obviously not our real last name)!  These have come in handy for weddings and other occasions when the gift is from the whole family:

These last ones are my favorite.  They are gift tags specifically designed to fit over a bottle of wine!  How many times have you been on the way to a friend's house for dinner and haphazardly grabbed a bottle of wine from your own cupboard to give as a hostess gift?  I totally do that too!  These little cards just make the wine look a little more "finished" and not like you grabbed it on the way out the door (which you totally did):

When I factor in how much money I spend on cards at the grocery store or Target (if I remember to buy them!), it really adds up.  I buy these cards in bulk (anywhere from 25-100 at a time) and it ends up to be about $1-$1.50 each (and I don't know about you, but I easily spend double that per card if I buy them at the last minute).  Personally, I have someone locally who sells these to me, but I have also seen similar cards online at places like Tiny Prints or Doodlebug Dezigns.

This is the perfect little time-and stress-saving trick to keep in my back pocket.  Works for me!