Painted Wood Burner and Bathroom reno

Merry Christmas

                   Merry Christmas and a happy healthy New Year   

Christmas 2014

Well I started my Christmas decorating early and ended late. We took a trip and I came home in a full blown flare up. I was only able to do a very minimal amount each day. I ended up scaling back my plans considerably. I'm  grateful that I was able to accomplish what I did.The struggle was real folks, I'm late for every holiday link up but better late then never! So here's my living room and dining room dressed up a little for Christmas!

I used my tabletop tree again this year and placed it in a wine crate that I wrapped in the same birch wrapping paper that I used for my dollar store candles makeover. The cute fawn pillow was a H&M Home purchase.

Quick Dollar Store Candle Makeover

This Christmas I wanted to add a little white birch to my Christmas decor and while I was cruising the aisles at Pier One I spotted this great birch embossed  wrapping paper. Immediately about twenty potential projects popped into mind. I started with wrapping it around my dollar store candles.

I used these dollar store holy candles, you can also find them at the grocery store.

Snowball and Cotton Boll Wreath

I'm decorating for Christmas earlier than usual this year because we're going out of town for a week the day after Thanksgiving. I'm excited about visiting family and at the same time anxious because it's a whole weeks setback. I'm sharing my first Christmas project now because I'll be away and I don't think I'll be taking my computer.

 This year I'm doing a snowy woodland winter. I thought a snowball wreath would work well with that theme.However  the thought of making tons of pom poms by hand was not appealing to me so I bought two large bags of white pom poms in assorted sizes and glued them to a Styrofoam wreath that I first covered with an old white sheet torn into about one yard strips.

In Memorium

 Paris our beloved fur baby has departed this earth, She was our little ray of sunshine for twelve wonderful years. Paris had one mission in life and that was to love and be loved. She was the most gentle  and loving dog I've ever known. She displayed no signs of illness and left this earth gently, the very same way she lived.She went to sleep on Thursday evening November 6th and slipped away early Friday morning November 7th. We are crushed and our home has a large hole in it. We are grateful for the 12 wonderful years of unconditional love and joy she bought our family. She is and always will be, deeply missed.

Giant Coasters

Ever since Brandi made these cute coasters  I've been dying to make a few of my own. Now that we have so many wood surfaces I figured I'd better get to it. I went to The Home Depot and bought a few tiles.  I thought the 4x4 tiles were a little dainty so I bought 6x6 tiles. They are HUGE.

I figured if I was going to go through all of the trouble of making coasters with pretty images I didn't want what ever was placed upon them to completely cover up my hard work... ha.I made two different sets. One using wrapping paper that I bought from Marshalls.

Fall Buffet

For some reason it took me all week to finish this vignette. I had a million and one interruptions. I was waiting on pumpkins at first and after the pumpkins appeared in the stores I just kept hitting snags along the way. I almost said forget it, by the time I finish this no one will be interested in fall decor. However I managed to get it done.

.
I love it when other bloggers use those beautiful vintage breadboards as backdrops in photos. I don't own any yet but I have a boat load of vintage thrifted silver so I decided to take it out of the cupboards and use it in my vignette.

A New Coffee Table and A little Fall

When my children were growing up we ate every meal at the table. Well now that we have an adults only house we like to grab a bite in front of the tv sometimes and watch a movie. The white ottoman that we had didn't give us enough room to set drinks or plates of goodies. So we built a coffee table to replace the ottoman.

A Mora Clock and A New Table

I mentioned in my  window treatment post that I was building a new side table. Well it's actually just two pieces screwed together, no real building involved ha!

 I inherited my mom's French Provincial dining room set. I love it but it had a double pedestal base that felt to bulky for my small dining area, so I removed the pedestals and replaced them with curvy Queen Anne legs that I bought from ebay. Looking at those pedestals gave me an idea, why not make a new side table from the pedestal. Here's what I started with

Hawaii Part Two

As I told you in the first post my family had the privilege of vacationing on the beautiful island of Maui. It was our first time visiting the paradise that is the Hawaiian Islands but it certainly wont be the last. There is so much to see, we barely scratched the surface. I already shared a few pics from the beach and our lovely view from our condo, now I'd like to share some photos from our cruise around the island and the fantastic Luau. We took a cruise around the Island on the beautiful Catamaran  "Hula Girl".

My Hawaiian Vacation Part One

From July 22-27 we had the privilege of vacationing in beautiful Hawaii. We stayed in a condo in the lovely Kapalua Villas in Kapalua on the island of Maui. We  arrived  in Maui jet lagged and tired after 11 hours of  flying. When I saw the beauty of this grand island all fatigue and jet lag disappeared.

The condo  living room

A New Window Treatment

My slow re-decorating is continuing. Since I haven't posted any updates lately I thought I would share my new living room window treatment. Even if my room is still miles away from done and you can totally see project wood sticking out from under my sofa LOL

 I wanted a lighter and more tailored window so I put up semi sheer curtains from Ikea and bamboo blinds that I ordered from Overstock.com. I added a sisal rug also ordered from Overstock.

The Wood burner Take Two and A Few Sneak Peeks

Remember when I painted my wood burner the fist time? I was so pleased. Until this happened after we used it a few times,

The Foyer/Vestibule

Is it a foyer or a vestibule? anyhoo it's the little space you first walk into in my house. It was drab and dark and needed a new look. So I painted it.

In my last post it looked like this

Happy Easter

 Have a  Happy Easter!

Well hello my friends. I've had a longer than normal absence from my blog. I haven't been feeling the greatest and so my productivity level is in the toilet. I have an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue. It can be very debilitating and frustrating. I'm feeling better, well enough to do a little online shopping anyway lol. I've been searching the thrift stores and Craigslist for over a year for a chair, haven't been able to find just what I'm looking for. Lo and behold Restoration Hardware had a sale on exactly the style that I wanted. YIPPEE!!! Since I had a little Christmas money and I haven't bought furniture brand new from the store in 15 years I treated myself to this lovely chair. I ordered it in white linen with a burlap back and sides.

photo source