Before It's Too Late!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  Can you believe it's already here?  I canNOT!

 

If you saw my house right now, you'd laugh because it's suffering a serious identity crisis!  The outside is decorated for Halloween ... the kitchen has the beginnings of Christmas ... and, the sitting room has Fall splashed around.  I almost feel sorry for it (and, me, lol)!

 

Before the leaves and pumpkins are put back into the Fall bins for another year, I snapped a few pics of our sitting room, dressed in blues, creams and pops of vibrant orange.

 

 



Glass cloches are often my BFF when it comes to styling ... they're the perfect way to showcase ANYthing, aren't they?

When I spotted "Mr. Owl" at Michael's, I just *knew* he had to come home with me ... esPECIALLY since he was on sale (40% off)!

 

Once again ... another glass cloche to the rescue.

 

 

I still can't wait to change out our chandelier!

Behind the loveseat, I added a sofa table recently picked up from a consignment shop.  You know I love having another place to add a few goodies:

 

More pieces of orange found its way to our accent chest, too. 

 

 

My favorite part of the day is when the afternoon sun shines in:

 

 

So, tell me ... is your house suffering an identity crisis right now, too?

 

I'm joinging:

 

Savvy Southern Style/WUW

Kristen's Creations/Share Your Creations

French Country Cottage/Feathered Nest Friday

At the Picket Fence/Inspiration Friday



 

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Diwali Craft & Home Decor Inspiration- I

Do you have those plain white tea lights and wanted to make them a bit more interesting. Here are some easy and interesting ideas to add some drama to your decor and I am sure you all will going to love it. I made these tea light candles (in picture below) in different colors but wasn't happy with the way they turned out. So I decided to spice them up. There are few ideas I am sharing though you can go wild with your imaginations and creativity.

1. Stick designer stones around the tea light let them dry and then glitter them. This is the simplest thing to transform plain tea light candles into glamorous one and looks fabulous.

2. Make a motif or design of your choice with different colors, stick stones and then add some glitter. That's it your tea lights have turned into elegant piece of decor.

3. One more simple idea is to paint the tea light in linear gradient color and mark the color separation with glitter.

4. We all love satin ribbons don't we. Stick one lovely satin ribbon around the tea light and it's done. You can add glitter on tea light's rim to give it a festive look.

Now lets talk about how to decorate your home with tea lights:
1. To make a table centerpiece: take any tray put some pebbles with flowers or petals then put tea lights in any fashion linear, circular or random then put some pearls around each tea light. You are ready to greet your guests :)

2. For decorating walkways or entrance: Place the tea lights on entrance or on walkways put petals around each of them and then make rangoli around petals.

3. Floating tea lights: Float them in water with flower/ petals, shells, pebbles or glittered thermocol balls. You can use wine glass also to float them.

4. Make a cluster of pillar candles and tea lights put one decorative mirror behind the arrangement. This setting will double up the charm and glow of your space.


Hope you liked the inspirations and please do share your ideas and inspirations also. I would love to showcase your work here on my blog.
Stay tuned for more on Diwali crafts and home decor inspirations.


Word of caution: After lighting diyas and candles treat them with great caution don't leave them unattended, keep them out of reach of children.

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Sit and Stripe

Here are two small pieces of furniture that I had a little fun with...


 I painted this with Annie Sloan French Linen Chalk Paint at the base and Old White stripes.








 This little chair is what I call junior size. It's not as small as a child's chair but not an adult size either.


I painted this sweet chair with Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint then dry brushed it with Paris Gray to

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Quick, Call the Exterminator!

That's right, friends, our mudroom has been taken over ... a-GAIN!

They're everywhere ...

 

*sniffing out* the family ...

 

 

making themselves right at home in their little houses ...

 

 

and, engaging in surprise attacks on us AND each other!

 

Apparently, they aren't our only unwanted guests!  This crow stands perched on the soffit, ready to swoop down on his next victim at any moment!

 

 

Even our "command central" has been taken over ...

 

we can't even go close to our candy corn (which, *per-abably* isn't a bad thing)!

 

 

And, don't let "Miss Ezmeralda's" endearing smile fool you ... she's just waiting to pick a spell out of her book and cast it on you while you're folding laundry!

 

 

Just look what she did to ME ... stitches, fangs and icky blood vessels, oh my!

And, we can forget about trying to escape ... just take a peek at what is out there waiting for us!

 

 

So, tell me ... has *your* house been taken over by unwanted Halloween creatures?

 

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Crazy Good Transformation!

This cabinet turned out crazy good and could be used for so many things.

A neighbor who knows that I transform furniture asked me if I would like to purchase this piece and do something fun with it.

Upon seeing it, I knew it would be more challenging than just painting it. But I was up for the task.


This is what it looked like when I bought it from her...


Someone had added the V

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Double The Chandelier Fun!

I found two chandeliers at a garage sale. I thought with some imagination and paint, they could be better.

However, before I got started, I sold one, the larger one, to my friend. Sorry to say I didn't take any before pictures, but if you imagine this as shinny brass you will get the idea. All she did was paint the brass white and have her husband hang it in their newly painted dining room.

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NOW, You're (Home)Talk'n...

What is it about Spring and Fall that makes so many of us want to declutter and organize?  Yes, friends, it’s that time of year when I feel the “urge to purge.”  And, in order to complete my mission, I’m constantly looking for ways to make sense of my home's chaos!
 

Enter HOMETALK!   You know ... the amazing online community where members can post their home projects … ask for opinions … and find creative and inventive ideas to implement into their own homes!  One of the many great elements of Hometalk is its “Clipboard” feature.  You can save (or “clip”) any project you see to refer to later.  Annnnnd, your friends can follow your clipboard so that they may be inspired right along with you!

And, speaking of clipboards … when my sweet and beyond talented friend, Karianne (from her “ohso” famous blog, Thistlewood Farms), asked if I’d create an “Organizational/Storage” clipboard to be shared on Hometalk's Facebook Page (and her fabulous Facebook page, as well), I, of course, said "yes," especially since organization is something I'm trying to conquer in our home as we speak!

When you have a minute, simply click HERE to visit my clipboard.  You just might be inspired by the incredibly organized pantry that has a place for ev.er.ee.thing; the awesome wall mounted storage made from crates and palettes; the shoe organizer created from simple molding; or the storage bins made from twine covered cardboard boxes (yes, cardboard boxes) ... I could go on and on!

And, while you're there, be sure to become a member of Hometalk (if you aren't already) and start creating your own Clipboards that we can follow!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!  I'm off to finish taking pics of our Fall sitting room before it turns into our *Christmas* sitting room!

 

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Sweet Yellow Chair

 
Into my life came this old







 Lyre Back Chair...












Give me some life, it said!

So I did...










Now it's for sale in my booth!


These parties I love to link up to or check out my Blog Parties tab
Monday
Party Time @ It's So Very Cheri
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps On The Porch
Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple  
Make it Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

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She's Ready for Her Closeup!

Happy Friday Eve!

 

One of the many fabulous things that I learned at the Southern Bloggers Conference this past weekend was that sometimes less is more when it comes to our words.

 

And, to let the eye rest with clean space in between your thoughts.

 

Sooo, that's what I'm going to attempt to do with this post.  But, you know what less words means, right?  MORE pictures!

 

I'm excited to share with you our revamped kitchen!  Come on in!

 

Welcome to our white and bright kitchen!  I can't tell you how much we love it!  Our walls are now BM Manchester Tan.  I painted the bottom cabinets (originally maple stained) to match the upper cabinets (that I painted white awhile back) ...

we (meaning my husband and neighbor) added beadboard to the backsplash ...

new cup pulls were added to the drawers ...

 

and, we *finally* added support to our butcher block top island (which we should've done a year ago ... oops), by adding new farmhouse legs (which I painted and distressed to match the Chateaux Grey island)!

With our kitchen not getting any direct light, I can't tell you what a difference it has made in how "happy" this room now feels:

Pretty white platters (from Home Goods) serve as simple, yet beautiful, *art* on the wall:

And, white pitchers turn into a fun and functional place for utensils:

 

Of course, Fall embellishments have been added here and there:

 

 

 

 

 

And, this year, instead of using a Christmas tree, I decided to do a different take on our Fall family tree by adding branches (some of them lit) to a fleur-de-lis vase ...

 

 

and then clipping family photos and saying to the branches.  I love having it on the island so that our family is part of the "heart of our home" this time of year.

 

 

 

I'll be back soon to share other details and pics of what our kitchen looked like before it got its new look!

 

So, tell me ... do you prefer less words and more pictures or more words and less pictures?  :)

 

And, as always, thanks for stopping by!

 

I'm joining:

 

Savvy Southern Style/WUW

2805/Potpourri Friday

At the Picket Fence/Inspiration Friday

French Country Cottage/Feathered Nest Friday

Kristen's Creations/Share Your Creations

 

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