Shopping cart~

The shopping cart that I picked up at a yard sale recently for the mere sum of five buckeroos has gotten a make-over. Here is the before photo.I spray painted it with flat white paint and I made some white liners for the two wire baskets. Doesn't it look so much happier now? I'm going to tuck it in my hallway beside my front door. I'm going to fill each basket with odds and ends that seem to multiply in my house when I'm not looking. Super great storage for under $10 bucks! Caute!

You can view more transformations over at "Shabby Chic Cottage" and also over at "A Soft Place to Land" Kimba is hosting a "do it yourself" linky party. The Coloradolady is also hosting a Vintage Thingie Thursday. And last, but not least...Leigh over at "Tales From Bloggeritaville" is hosting a Thrifty Thursday linky party~ Becky is hosting a Linky party as well on her blog "Beyond the Picket Fence" Also... Jen from the blog "Sanctuary Arts at Home" is hosting a make-over party! You can also see more Show & Tells over at Cindy's blog "My Romantic Home"If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more... you can click right here to go have a lookie~lou.

Mummsie~

Happy...Clinque's "Happy"...

Birthday~

Sewin'

Have you ever wanted to make a slipcover for a chair but were afraid to give it a try? Well, I'm going to share with you how to do it the easy-peasy way! Firstly, either purchase a flat sheet from a thrift store or use one your willing to cut up. Your needing: a flat sheet, pins, a pen and scissors and large paper (optional). Thats it. The first thing your needing to do is start draping the sheet over the chair. Make sure the fabric is smoothed over the contour of the chair.... Next, your needing to start cutting and piecing the fabric over the chair. When pinning the sheet/fabric pin close together as this will later be the stitch line you'll be using on your pattern. Here is the chair covered with the sheet. You can see that it is pinned together over the entire chair~Once the chair is covered using this method, take your pen and and mark where the pins are. This will become the stitching line you will use later. Remove the pinned slipcover pattern you've just made. Mark each piece with corresponding letters, like A to A that when placed together they match up. Once the whole thing is removed and marked with line-up-leters cut the fabric pattern you've just made along the pen lines. This is now the pattern to be used either as is...or trace it on paper so you'll have a paper pattern.
Using the new pattern you've just made, trace it onto the final fabric your wanting to cover the chair with. The line you draw onto the final fabric will be your stitching line, so add your seam allowence when you cut it out! Then just sew the whole thing together. Keep fitting it to the chair as you go as you might need to make a few alterations to get a snug fit. I put in a zipper down the back of each slipcover I made for easy removal. I made 4 slipcovers in total~ Here is the finished chair with a match-box fabric motif. I made another one with a dark-dark denium for a dresser look.Here is Miss Chloe Rose trying out her chair which I slip covered with some Disney princess fabric. She is sad to see the Cheeto-orange stained chair arms covered up. She is sensitive like that~ I also made a matching denium slipcover for this little chair as well :-)Thats it, easy-peasy slipcovers!

Easter Swappin'

Anyone out there looking for an Easter swap?There are two that I have just signed up for worth a lookie-lou. The first one is a bunny swap being hosted by Vivian on her blog "Vivs-Whimsy" the sign up ends February the 26th. Hurry-hurry...

The second swap is an Easter Basket Swap from the blog Miss Rhea's Sweet & Shabby Roses. The date to sign up ends on February the 26th. The baskets are to be made using yogurt containers that you repurpose into a super caute basket. Easy-peasy! Go, right this very second and check them both out!!

Thrifted Treasures~

I picked up some more treasures to add to my overflowing home... These three silver pieces were found at 3 different stores. The dish was $1.50 the two matching bud vases were $3 and the lone candle holder was $1.

The two matching glass jars were $4 bucks for the pair and the white glass vase was only .50cents. (I have the exact same one in my cabinet... oh I love things that match!)

This white wooden wall shelf was $3. I have no wall space left... *gasp* but I was thinking this would be so cute filled with jar fairies, so in my cart it went. Maybe I'll knock off that bottom decorative piece and add a wooden base to it and stand it up on my desk.... or maybe, I'll stick it out in the garage!

These two wreaths were $1.50 for both. The black one I am going to use for Halloween, and the twiggy-spring looking one is going to be-- well you guessed it... a spring wreath!

I also received this wonderful pie safe from my mother recently. I am going to paint it white. Surprised? I asked permission first, just incase she was wanting it back.... I'm sure it horrified her, but she was generous enough to say yes. (I'm sure all the while cursing under her breath!) I have no space for this piece, but that didn't stop me from taking it...lol... seriously, I love me some furniture! So where is this piece going? Um, that'd be in my bedroom. Ok, that even made me laugh~ Off to paint!

O.W.O.H. event~

I really enjoyed myself this year being part of the O.W.O.H. event. There were over 1,000 people participating this year. On my blog-post for the event I had 702 comments on my giveaway alone...wow! The winners of my two giveaways are as follows: Rhonda from the blog "Blue Creek Home" won this vintage box full of vintage junk stuff.Lisa who's blog is "Life Unity" won this vintage tintype.I went to every blog who joined up with this yearly event. It took me about 4 long days to visit everyone! I bookmarked a lot to my computer and became a "follower" on some as well. I must have entered about 900 giveaways. For some reason typepad wouldn't allow comments from me. Anywho, I was extremely lucky to have won several wonderful items! Here is what I've won~ I won this piece of mixed media art..... from Lisa, her blog is "I've Been Thinkin' 'Bout 'Inkin" Cute name huh? Cute stuff too!Here is a view of the base.I also won this from Kathy whos blog is called "Kathy's Funny Farm"

It is a digital scrapbook. How cool huh?I won this stunning necklace from Sally, her blog is called "Wire Worked" Isn't it dreamy?

I was also lucky enough to win this beauty of a necklace called a Spirit Gourd Necklace from Vivian, isn't it amazing? I see myself wearing this one a lot too.Vivian's blog is called "Vivian Helena Creates" Vivian just happens to live up in the foot hills close by to where I live here in Fresno, California. Small-small world huh? I'm anxious to join up for next years event, to bad its a year away! lol

Happy Birthday...

Miss Chloe Rose! Well here it is your very first birthday. I pray you'll see at least 99 more!I've made a few things to help with the festivites. I hope you like them.... a sweet felt banner with your name on it~I made this cut out of you for the table. I've got you sitting on a silver tray with pink rose petals around you, and there are some big semi precious rings around you. I know how you like your bling~...Here is the before photo I used... Your playing with my silver charm bracelet which is loaded with hearts, you love to shake it and hear the sound it makes~I took this photo of you while you were playing at my house one day and...I turned you into a fairy. You look so serious, which is how you always look-- so its very fitting!I also made these crocheted cupcake party favors with a little two sided cut-out photo of you wearing a pink netting tutu. Ahhhhhhhhh such a cutie-pie sitting on a fluffy cupcake... may you always sit on soft stuff :-) I also added a tiny-tiny berry wreath around your head, adorable~Here is the photo I used for the cupcakes.... Always laughing/smiling when your not looking at the camera! On to more important things... like eating cake! At first you were very cautious... You added some frosting to your lips before you took a bite! You don't want to appear washed out in the photos... such a smart girl!Here you are when you had-had your fill of cake, or should I say frosting! Your favorite gift this year? Money-- real and pretend. What can I say, your a very sensible girl! Here you are listening to the money whisper sweet nothings into your ear~
Happy-happy birthday Miss Chloe Rose~

Fluffing~

Ok, I'm bored. I'm still fluffing-moving-tweeking things around my house. I'm wanting to do something "artsy".... but I just can't wrap my brain around a project at this time...so I'm just going to fluff up my house a bit. Which is a good thing because once the weather gets nicer, I'm going to spend hours and hours outdoors! So I started off small... just redoing the top of a hutch I have in my den. Here is the before photo. Here is the after~ Nothing drastic, I kept everything the same, I just painted the baskets and replaced the greenery I had across the top of the hutch. I added some numbered tags that I made to the 4 baskets. I'm wanting to do something to the oval basket as well... I'm still thinking on that. I had a bit of white embroidered fabric hanging over the edge, but it looked weird. I just made this "love" banner this morning and tacked it up. Caute!

More paintin"

Look what I found in a few drawers and under my bed. Four frames and two mirrors, all in need of painting. One mirror was avocado green and the other one was a dingy-dirty gold. Once everything was spray painted white to match....I tried my hand at using real staining glaze. I know right? I'm so brave. I've never used the stuff...I've always used watered down paint. I've been toooooooooo chicken to commit to stain. Well hells-bells.... I lurve the stuff! I purchased Ralph Lauren's Faux technique glaze... in the color of "smoke." I musta gotten that info from someones fabulous blog (thank you to whomever that was) because thats what I had written down and purchased. I just painted it on and rubbed it off. Easy peasy. It wasn't smelly, sticky or yucky at all. It was actually very enjoyable to work with. The brush I used washed out faster with the glaze on it than if it had acrylic paint on it. crazy~ Here is the glazed frames.... lovin' them!I hung the frames & one mirror in my front entrance hallway. I swear, I'm not happy unless every square inch of my house is covered with something. Why is that I wonder?... The large square mirror still needs to find a home.... probably back under my bed! Those dust bunnies like looking at their reflections. There is a shelf above these frames which I'm trying to fill with light & bright stuff.... all of these games and old toys (pictured below) used to be up on the shelf, now I've got them in my grandkids playroom at my house :-) I'm still needing to fill about 9 feet more with more games....
Clutter, clutter....clutter. But I like it :-)

Paintin'

Here is an old gumball machine that I've had for about 10 years. It has been in my garage for the past 5. I'm trying to use things that I bought in the past with the intentions of fixing them up and making them cuter to use in my home. You know how that goes-- life happens and you get sidetracked and you just end up not doing things~ Okokokok, thats my story and I'm sticking to it~Most of the time, these treasures get stuffed under my bed, garage and various cabinets. Shameful! Anywho, I spray painted this gumball machine and stand white & distressed the whole thing with pink paint and now its inside my house once again. The plastic containers inside of the gumball machine cannot come out, they are purely for decoration~You can make gumball machines dispense candy without having to put in money. Its an easy fix... all you have to do is remove the silver turn unit on the front. If it is hard to remove just tap it upwards with a hammer. Once it is removed you just unscrew the little kick-stand that clicks the knob into a stop mode after the coin has dropped and the candy is released. Easy peasy~ Hmmm now I've just got to find a place for this.... it might end up back in the garage~ I've linked this post to My Romantic Homes Show & Tell linky party. If you have linked to this blog and wish to view more you can click right here.