Refunk Your Junk: Vintage Frame- "I can do hard things.."

I've been itching to create something with the "I Can Do Hard Things" motto for a long time now. I have always been drawn to those words because ah, such truth in them!

Well, for some reason a creative rush hit me on Monday evening, yes.. Monday night, what was up with that?. D was playing Super Mario with Aspen, and Savannah & Addi came down to the craft room with me where they ended up painting.

I found this beauty of a vintage frame at a thrift store a few months back, $7 little find. (I know, right?) I have been undecided what I wanted to do with it, but just knew that beautiful little sucker would go in my craft room.

Then it happened: the angels began to sing & it was clear what I was to do. Okay, scratch the Angels singing part, but maybe... maybe they did sing. Pfft, you don't know. With fabric that stinkin' cute, how could they not? See? My point exactly. Just roll with it, people..just roll with it.

I know, I know... Girl, what is UP with that horrible picture quality?. Dude, totally not my fault. I can't find my battery charger for my camera anywhere. I have looked at 3 stores for a replacement, no go! So, for the last several weeks I've been relying on my phone. Yeah, I know, it's rough around here. Once I get the camera going, I assure you I will take better shots. But geesh, can't ya cut a Sister some slack? Goodness Gracious!

Ok, super easy project!

- Stalk your fave. thrift store for an awesome frame. (that's the fun part!)
- Remove the ugly picture inside that daaaah-ling frame.
- Slap some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (Paris Gray) on the frame.
- Wrap frame insert with fabric, hot glue down.
- Bust out some fatty letter stickers
- Call it a day. But first, take one more look and smile because ah... the truth of those words are powerful!! Why? BECAUSE WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!! WE CAN! Never, ever forget that!

Peace Out, Homies!

A Little Inspiration....

a few things that inspire me that I wanted to share :)

Tie-Dye Fun...

Last summer, one of our projects was tie-dye shirts. The girls had a blast making them, but oh was it ever so messy! Well this year, we just found out that the girls camp colors for their team at church camp is "tie-dye", and though camp isn't until another 3.5 weeks away, we thought we would get a head-start. Since we've been on the go non-stop, we thought this would be a perfect project to tackle today since we decided to spend the day at home.

Last year, we ended up spending about $75 in supplies, a little excessive and a lot messy, though fun! But this year, we did things a little bit different. We found "Fabric Paint" in spray bottles, perfect for tie-dying, and at only $19.99. We snatched a couple of $3.99 tee-shirts from Micheals, and this project we were all in under $35.00. Pfft, it was looking better already! :)



I have to say that doing the shirts using this method was so much easier, and so less messy. The girls had a lot of fun, and the clean-up was very minimal.. always a plus! They simply twisted the shirts in the middle, squirted on some fabric paint, untwisted, then twisted other sections of the shirt following the same process. Easy-peasy!











..and, here are the final shirts.









They each did 2, and there's still enough fabric paint to bust out a couple more...now we just need more Tee shirts!.

I think Savannah was happy with hers and will sport it to camp, but the other 2 are wanting to make some more and called these their "practice shirts", so...make more, we shall.

Super easy project and sure did keep them entertained! :) Pfft, I'll take it...

Little Changes to our Great Room

I added a few little additions to our Great Room recently, to lighten things up a bit and to bring in the change of seasons. You see, when we stumbed onto these pillows a few years ago...



it seemed as if they suddenly became the building block of the design of this room. We suddenly clung to all the rustic, fall colors which matched the color palette of our home. Both my husband and I love the rustic, warm colors... they are just so warm and inviting. However, going on almost 2 years now, we need change. Because these pillows are geometrical, we kept the theme going.... from the runner you see above, to this piece of artwork:


We also have the rustic, burnt orange window panels that tie everything together. But, since we moved into our new home 8 months ago, we've been undecided if we are going to keep this theme going. We all agree that we love the colors, but we're over the big picture, we're over the geometrical thing we have going on. Just last night, D & I were enjoying dinner out on the deck and he told me how he hates that big picture, and it's completley over the geometrical theme. Ah, if he only knew. I've been searching high and low for a new design concept for this room. To the right picture, to the right pillows, to the right rug. I wish it were that easy.... but, it's not from lack of trying. We'll get there, but right now... subtle changes to mix things up a bit.

When we moved into this house, there was still about 75% of work that needed to be done to complete the home. We've gotten about 90% of it done, but still have some projects remaining. One being the fireplace mantel in the great room. Since we are a family who rarely watches TV, the thought of plasturing a flat screen in this room would be the concept of a lot of families, but..not us. We love the quiteness of this room, and since this is the room the family comes together.... we prefer talking verses starring at a TV screen. So, we knew we needed artwork for this space.

Here it was before, in all it's bare glory...







We both loved this peice of artwork. From the finishing of the frame, the colors (sea green??? Yes, please!!!), the pattern....all of it.





My dear husband went to go hang the sucker up, had the picture in one hand.. the level in the other and....BAM-O! Yep, you guessed it.. the picture shattered. Glass was everywhere, the frame compleltey destroyed, the print itself all scuffed. We just rolled with the punches though, because what's done.. is done! Not a biggie. I looked for weeks for the same picture. I scored that one from TJ Maxx, my go-to-store for everything, and we all know that once something is gone in that place... it's gone. So, about 3wks went by and I finally found one that I thought might work. The husband isn't a big fan, but after sending up a ka-jillion different options, I think he was just over it, so.. he embraced it and then shared, "This one will be fine until we find something better".

So, now here's the after:





Then, I found some mustardy yellow pillows to brighten things up, pulling colors from the photo. I wasn't too sure about the mixing of the patterns, but... sometimes you just gotta smile & ask yourself, "Why, not?"






I added a couple of new little decor pieces to the built-ins, the little green and mustard yellow guys up on the top shelf-- pulls out the green and yellows from the picture. Hobby Lobby clearance, you gotta love it!


So, there ya go! Nothing too thrilling to say to the least, but change is change, and that's always a good thing!

So now... the hunt is on for a whole new design of this room, ah man... help me, now! The husband told me he's okay with this through fall, but then he's done. :) So.. wish me luck. I have 2 walls in this room that need some serious attention as well. I'm thinking floating shelving, which I already have, with B&W photos.. but then I think it would be over-kill with all the picture frames on the built-ins. So, this one will be a challenge. :) Moving into a new home is fun because you can then start over and mix things up a bit, but man.... it's finding the right design to make it all work.

Chelcey moves out in August, and then we'll be playing "musical rooms" with everyone changing rooms. Plus, the "purple" room, as we like to call it... aka: "the girls playroom or media room", is my next focus. It's a huge room and I absoutely love it, and I have big plans for this room, it's just making it all come together. So, we'll get there.... slowly, but we'll get there. :)

Hope you enjoyed the little "Great Room" tour and it wasn't too boring. :)

Ta-Ta!

My Craft Studio

As I mentioned a few days ago, I recently locked myself in my craft room and made sure that I wasn't leaving until I finally figured out where everything in that room was going to go. We moved into our new home back in October and this room has only been simi put together. I've moved things around a million times, but still never finding the best placement for everything. Then, I just kind of kept it the way that I left it, which worked, but it just wasn't visually pleasing. picky, picky, picky!

After I scored the yellow hutch off of Craiglist, the hutch basically just sat in the room, blocking my shelving unit. It stayed that way for about 3wks. Finally, motivation found me and sister was able to stay focused long enough to see it thru. Can I get an Amen? :) I moved things around that day in every way possible. I spent 4hrs. on that room until it finally clicked! I thought I had the right placement. It felt right, but it appeared so cluttered and the room so small, which it's not. Then finally it hit me. This crazy idea came in my head, I moved everything one last time and voila! I swear I heard angels singing. It only took months & months, but by golly.... it's done. Well, almost done. I still have to hang a few things and do a better job of organizing the things in my shelving unit, add things here & there, but by golly... we're much closer than we were before, and that's called progress, people... beautiful-beautiful progress. :)

I'm thinking curtains similar to these would look amazing in there....

Of course though, I will be attempting to make them verses buying them. Have you seen the price tag on these suckers? So, this would be a great summer project because man oh man, I'm sure I'll need (a lot) of time & practice to attempt these bad boys. I'm excited though, I mean, they can't be that hard, um.. can they? Shhh...

Okay, moving on.

I'm also eyeing this beauty of a rug that would look oh so perfect. It fits my theme and it just makes my heart go pitter patter. It's on my "dreamy-things-to-buy" list. It's more pricey than I could ever justify buying, because you know sister don't play like that, but this just may be the one purchase that I have to splurge on. If anyone see's a knock-off of this, hit this chick UP!

Now, onto the room. It's still messy, and not everything is in its place, but... work with me, people! :) Here we go....

This is the left side of the room once you walk through the door from the basement family room.

This is the little table that I gave new life to. :)

Here's a view of the same side of the room standing from the back.

Closeup of hutch... ah, beautiful little mini dressform canvas, oh, how I love you so.

This is the view from the door going outside, next to the chairs in picture #1.

This one came out dark, but this is the view looking in from the hallway door.

I'm obsessed with dressforms, but when I found this one.... ah, stole my heart right away.

Portion of my messy art table. I really like the feel of a boutique store with all my supplies, that's why I have 2 hutches in this room. I store all my supplies in baskets or easily moveable containers so that when I'm working on a project, I can just grab the basket of things that I need, and it's easy pick-up, too. Here's a shot of the table during a project :)

This is my inspiration board which will be mounted to the wall, centered over my table. Just gotta get hubby to hang that puppy. :)

... more to come. I'll share all the little details, and all the little things that I didn't take pictures of, next time. So... stay tuned. This room is a work in progress, but it's my happy place & I'm excited I finally got to share it with you.