I feel like I've been so busy these past few weeks. I havn't had time to do one dang thing around

the house. It just so happens that I had today off work, and

tomorrow as well!

You better believe I spent my day working on my hutch.

Finally!

I have had this thing for almost 3 weeks! Just staring at me in the garage.

I've been stewing over it every day. I've finally come to a decision on what to do to it......

Today was just sanding, sanding, and more sanding. This has by far been the messiest re-do I've ever done. I was completely covered in dust. Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow or at least by Saturday!

(mine and Scotts favorite picture.)

more to come! (hopefully soon!)

My amazing husband installed new tall baseboards for me today. He's the best. I was going to do before, during and after pictures but he ripped up the old ones before I expected, and he got the new ones installed today before I even expected him to! So tomorrow we will caulk and paint them. Then I will post Pictures of my new lovely large baseboards.

Stay tuned....

I just got an Email from Linda at lindaslittlebits. Linda awarded me the ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD! Thank you so much!! I'm so happy that other people have enjoyed the things I've done. I'm glad I can inpire someone out there, because I know how excited I get when I see someone else's project that gives me some great ideas! Thank you Linda! You made my day today! Now it is my turn to award 15 fellow Blogladies. These are a few fun, entertaining, and inspiring blogs I like to keep my eye on... (click on each one for their link)

1. Lettered Cottage

2. Better after

3. The DIY showoff

4. The Old Painted Cottage

5. Shanty2chic

6. Just Beachy

7. Its the Little Things that Make a House a Home

8. My Cute Little Crafts

9. Velvet & Linen

10. Shabby Rags to Fancy Riches

11. Strictly Simple Style

12. Barnhouse

13. Imperfectly Beautiful

14. Thrifty Decore Chick

15. BusyBee Lauren

Enjoy!

Well let me just say that my new friend over at BETTER AFTER made my day!

She featured me on her blog! (Click here to see her blog)

You know when someone leaves you a nice little note out of the blue? And you feel all giddy inside? That is me! Thank you so much! I love her blog. She just displays before and after pictures of everybody's projects no matter what they are. So go check out her blog! Especially if you have something you need to re-do, and you just havn't whipped up any good ideas. There are tons of them!

CLICK HERE to see her post all about my things!

Step by Step chair Re-d0

1.) Remove staples with needle nose plyers & take material off.

- Sand out any scratches and nicks on wooden areas that will be visible.

- Prime wooden areas that will be painted.

-After priming, sand with a fine sand paper. Wipe with damp cloth
-Paint 2 coats. After it dries, Sand again with very fine sand paper & wipe off

- Seal. I use polyeurathane with a Satin finish.

-Lay old pieces of matieral out on top of the back side of new material.

Trace with pencil and cut each piece out.

-Lay the piece of material on the chair and center it so it will stretch over the batting evenly. Use a nail gun and start at one side, nailing the material into place, working your way around the chair. My chair had large pins in some areas. They came in so handy because they cover up any folded areas so you cannot see a seam. (notice on the side of the seat.)

Kitchen Before and After

(Click on Picture!)

Its a before and after Party for Home improvement projects! So I thought I would post pics of my Kitchen, and I just finished my new little cornice yesterday so perfect timing.

I havn't posted any pictures of my kitchen since it got a facelift last year. So here it is so far...

I'm going to do the After first, because the before is quite scary.

AFTER

Before

We actually lived with the blue counter tops and laminate cupboards for a year. Then I ordered new cabinet doors, as plain wood (paint grade) and painted them myself. It took FOREVER but it was worth every second and saved alot of money! Then my brother put in new countertops for us, and My Husband put the crown moulding on top. I'd say it made quite a difference. I've been so happy with it.

Don't forget to go to the DIY Show Off (click here) & see all of the before and after projects that people have submitted! Lot of great projects to see! Or if you have a home improvement project you've been working on, Add your link to her site!!

Flea Market!

This morning we got to the Flea Market right when it opened. They had so much cool stuff! It was in the parking lot of an Antique store, and the store was having a sale too. Each of us found cool stuff. I wish I would have taken pictures of the things my friends got too so I could show you. Maybe I'll round them up. These were my cool finds for the day.

This is my favorite. It sits on my counter as a little recipe stand. I did find out that it is an old shoe display stand. (I gave it a good scrub down after I found that out...) The best part is, I don't have to do anything to it! Its way cute. Got it for 3$

I found these old lock plates. I've been looking all over for these. I almost ordered some from ebay but I'm glad I didn't. These were 1$ each.

I'm not sure what to call this. It was 5$. I used this on my cornice above my Kitchen window. Click here to see my kitchen

K, I love this. No clue what it is. Just a tall post thing. But I love it!

Anyway.. I highly recommend that if you hear about a Flea Market in your area, don't pass it up! Also, this is a great blog with lots of ideas on flea market finds and what to do with them! check it out! (click here)

An exciting day tomorrow... Flea Market starts at 7:00 a.m. Can't wait to see what we might find!

#1. For a while now I have been thinking of what to do with my master bedroom. We painted it when we moved in but thats about all I've done to it. I want to have most of it all planned out before I do anthing. So here it sits... I like the color, but it's nothin special...

Why am I telling you this? that brings me to part 2 of my story today.

#2. I have finally stumbled upon my new found store 'The Door and Trim Store'. I figured there had to be somewhere that had cheaper moulding than Home Depot and Lowes. So I've been on the hunt. And when I search for something, I WILL find it.. I found it! All the prices are half of the wherehouse prices. And they have a huge selection to choose from. Boy, did that get the wheels turnin in my little brain.... I found it on Thursday so today I went there and got some moulding and trim to try something in my bedroom.
Moulding is one of my favorite things for a home. It can add so much to any space. My brother and sister in law put molding above their windows kind of like the pictures I found here. It looks so good! (I don't have pictures of it) Here are some examples of moulding above windows that I really like...

#3. So I began my project yesteday. I used door casing for the sides of the window and the very top piece. The brown piece is a 4 inch piece of MDF as well as the 1 1/2 inch piece. I measured and cut them first. Something is wrong with our nail gun so I just nailed them.

I chose to take have the side pieces end with the bottem of the window, but you could just cut them at a 45 degree angle and use the same casing across the bottem. That is a little easier. Then in the garage, I layed the other pieces out a few different ways to decide which look I wanted...

They are all just slightly different. I liked option 1 the best, but Scott liked the 3rd one. So I went with the 3rd one. It's his room too right? :)So the next step was to put the thin piece right along the top of the window.

Then I put the 4" MDF on top of that. This piece can be any height you want. A 16 foot piece of this 4'' stuff was only 4$ so I went with that.

For the top piece, I used the same casing that is on the sides of the windows. I just cut the bottem edge off at a 45 degree. The way the detail is on the casing, it resembles crown moulding on top.

That is all I was able to get done so far. After I put the bottem piece on I will prime and paint it white. This is what they look like as of now.

(Sorry the pictures are bad, I took them with my phone.)
I am happy with how the windows look so far and I cant wait to see the finished look. Maybe seeing them daily will help me decide what to do with the rest of the room. So more to come with my new looking windows.....

Tiny Wooden Crates

I found these tiny little crates at Goodwill, I thought they were so cute!

They reminded me of the little boxes Layla over at The Lettered Cottage has on her kitchen wall. (Go check out her place!)

Anywho..... I had this unfinished little wanna be plant thing, so I just split the atom, and made two little guys. I had some rocks I bought once for my bathroom that I put in to cover the green spongy stuff. They sit in my kitchen window and greet me every time I walk in. I like how they turned out.

Before

After

Can I just tell you how much I love Antique stores? But for some reason,,, I've had it in my mind that they were expensive and weird. For the past couple of weeks I have stopped by any one that I've seen and let me just say, they are the Bomb-Diggity! I can't think straight when I go there because so many ideas are burnin through my skull! I've never been to one and spent less than an hour in it. Why have I been so blind all this time! Why?!

These are what I dreamed of having as I browsed today....

I Love this hall tree...

I thought these old school chairs were soo cute. Minus the Pillows... Not really something I would have a place for in my house, but I just wanted to keep them when I saw them sitting there looking at me.

I think it's good that money isn't endless. I would have a house full of things like these, and nowhere to put them. So I'm okay with just looking at them for now.

A few weeks ago I was out yard selling, I got this trunk for $2. I didn't really like it at first but I thought for 2 bucks, I might be able to find something cute to do to it.

So it came home with me and sat in my Trove (the side alley) next to my house. We happened to get some rain while it sat, and I went out one day, and this is what I see.

My first thought was Crap! It got ruined!

Then I looked closer.............

I loved what I saw! I could see little panels of wood that were underneath. So I started ripping off the green. (It was alot more time consuming than I expected it to be.) I hosed it down so the green stuff would get soft and pull off. I left it out in the rain the next time it rained. Finally I got all of it off. This is what I ended up with.



I love it! The wood pannels on the sides and the bottem are a little warped from the water, but thats what I like about it. There is old material inside of it that I'm going to replace and use it for storage in one of my bedrooms... I'll post more pics when I'm done!