I've got nothing

I've got nothing for you today. We had a wedding on Saturday of some close friends of ours and I was suffering all day Sunday. Between battling my fourth cold this school year and the wedding fun, I was laying on the couch ALL DAY Sunday. So...I have nothing for you.  Nada, zip, zero.

I will leave you with this and hopefully I can function today and work up the energy to write a decent post.  Until then, remember that my bench is up for the best of February over at The Saturday Morning Blog.  Head on over there and if you love my bench, will you

You can vote once a day, so feel free to keep voting until the voting ends on March 4th. You are the best!!!! I'm up against some pretty good competition, so I need all the help I can get.

I woke up this morning to 150 followers! I am so excited and honored that 150 of you wish to follow this little blog of mine. I will be working on a Giveaway, stay tuned. Have a great Monday!

Vote for ME!

So my dear friends, my bench is one of the finalists over at The Saturday Morning Blog for the month of February. Will you vote for me? Pretty please!!!!

You can vote once a day, so I may be an annoying blogger for the next few days. Thank you so MUCH!!!

I Made Pillows

After making my bench and adding color with my pillow to my very grey room, I decided more pillows and colors were needed.  So I found these napkins at Target on clearance in just the right color.

I bought some pillows at Big Lots that were even cheaper than pillow inserts from Joann Fabrics.

I had my mom thread the antique sewing machine (it actually belonged to my seamstress grandmother, Mamama) and I sewed.  Here I am below trying to keep a straight line. I made a skirt when I was in 6th or 7th grade with my mom's help. I've never sewn again. It's not difficult at all, well, especially that my mom was next to me the whole time.

My 2 1/2 year old nephew was very curious and stood around and watched.  He ended up on my lap as I sewed and you'll see the result of that later.

He would touch the machine and say it was hot.  He also would roll the knob on the side to bring the needle down as I sewed. It was pretty cute. 

He wanted to help cut the thread with his scissors.  Yes, there is a band aid on his forehead, and no, he was not cut or injured.  His shirt had about 5 across the front and his shorts had one,  Buzz Lightyear of course.

Here they are.  I love the combination of colors.  If you look closely at the top of the blue pillow, there is a little bit of wonkiness going on there. Learning to sew and sewing a straight line with a kid sitting on your lap is probably not the best case scenario, but I wouldn't change it for a thing.

So have you sewn anything exciting lately?

I want to say a deep heartfelt thank you to the following amazing blogs for featuring my bench

Just Resting Up

Linking up at: Tatertots & Jello

Giveaways & More

I have just been one lucky girl.  I've always uttered the words...I never win anything.  Well, it seems my luck is changing.  I've won some more giveaways. I am ecstatic and besides myself. 

I won one of Aesthetic Outburst's 20 in 20.  She did a series of Valentine's projects and hosted a giveaway per day.  She is an incredibly talented artist and the crafts she does with her kids are so inspiring. I was on Cloud 9 when I found out I won. 

Lindsey over at Better After had an amazing giveaway of a Shabby Apple dress. Would you believe that I won this too. I am giddy with excitement and to top it off, it's my favorite color!

I have truly never been so lucky. I am so grateful and appreciative of all the effort that is put into hosting a giveaway. Please visit everyone mentioned above and send them my love. I am feeling the need to share this giveaway love with all my readers.  I will be hosting a giveaway when I reach 150 followers. I'm almost there.

Sitting in my Living Room

I came home with these items yesterday evening.  They were given to me by a dear friend from her father-in-laws estate.  They were ready to be sent off to Goodwill.  I convinced/begged her to let me have them.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with any of it, but I love it all.  My favorite is the table on the left. I will be finding a spot for this one in my home.  The other two tables are a set, one is damaged, but my grandmother used to have one of these in her living room so they are very sentimental for me.  I will post individual pictures for my Week-end Finds post on Monday, but I couldn't help myself and had to give you all a sneak peek.

I hope to be able to make a new life or find a new life for Mr. W's pieces. They were a part of his home for half a century and it means so much to me that my friend allowed me to make something of them.  What do you think?

$10 Upholstered Headboard - Check it out

I just had to post again today because everyday I am more amazed at the things that I am finding out there in this world of blogs. I have found the community of bloggers to be such a talented and kind group of people.  Blogging has become such a positive and fun experience for me.  I find myself striving to be more creative and in this, finding a whole new side of me. It's been such positive experience and I can't thank you all enough. In the midst of personal struggles, I have found a creative outlet for myself. 

So let me introduce you to Margaret from Sugar & Spackle.  She has just outdone herself today. She made a 'temporary' upholstered headboard for her rental home for $10 using poster boards, yes, your read that right, poster boards.  I'm a lover of upholstered headboards ever since I made mine.  You have to go check this one out. It's so fresh looking. I love it.

Thanks for the inspiration Margaret. 

Painting Furniture Inspiration

I've been following the work of Tara over at Lauren Lane Decor for some time now. She has an incredible eye for furniture pieces and does amazing work painting them. We've chatted a couple times through email and she has totally inspired me to try painting a piece of furniture.  Look at her latest piece. I'm in love with this table. What an amazing paint job and the lines of it are just gorgeous.

Thanks for the inspiration Tara!  I painted my bench yesterday. Nothing fancy, just good old white spray paint. I'm loving it. I will post pictures as soon as it's ready.

Week-End Finds

I've tried to stay away from thrift stores the past couple weeks, but I couldn't help myself.  I found this tacky frame/plaque for $2.00. 

A little yellow spray paint and it has a whole new life.

Here it is hanging in my room. 

I found this little bench at Goodwill.   I loved the lines of it and I've been wanting to try painting a piece of furniture. I figure that a small bench is a great way to start.

The fabric is stained and in desperate need of reupholstering.

After a tough week at work and a busy weekend, I am so excited to have today off.  I may work on this new little bench, or maybe I will lay on my couch all day.  I think the latter is winning.

I joined a linky party at : Vintage Revivals

Sweetest Day

Angela over at Green Submarine has one of the funnest blogs I've found. She features awesome DIY projects from out in blog land. Today, she is featuring my Upholstered Headboard.  Please head over there and check her out, you will be so inspired.

Just a reminder for my new friends of what my upholstered headboard looks like.

Camilla over at First Lady of the House featured my Zebra Bench yesterday. Thank you so much and I appreciate the love.  Go over and say hi.  You must see her blog header, you will love it.

I just wanted to thank all of you for all your support and comments. I get excited every time, I see the email show up on my phone.  I can't believe that my little blog/hobby has 116 lovely followers. I am truly honored and grateful.  I will be hosting a giveaway when I reach 150 followers.  So come join in the fun.

Our Master Bedroom Before

When we bought our house 7 years ago, we thought the Master bedroom would be a temporary one. The plans were to build a Master Suite after a few years. Those plans changed due to unforeseen expenses and a terrible economy.  When we bought the house it was in disgusting shape.  Our bedroom is the original 1955 Master bedroom of the house. The green floral wallpaper was actually glued on wood panels on some of the walls.  We discovered this as we scoured the walls getting them ready to remove the paper.  One wall had a Formica slab and the terrazzo floors were badly stained.  This room was not carpeted or tiled.  This was THEIR floor.

Notice the window treatments/shutters.  They are half painted.  This was not done by us, this is how these people lived.

I don't have pictures of our room from when we first moved in.  We painted a mustard yellow and our bed linens were shades of white and off white.  The pictures below are the ones we used when we sold our bedroom furniture on Craigslist to make room for our Ikea Pax Wardrobe.  You can see the closet without the doors installed.  This furniture belonged to my husband before we were married. It was in excellent condition, but too big for the room. 

Last Valentine's, my husband was in Spain for an 8 day business trip. I decided to fix up our room a bit.  I bought these velvet striped curtains at Target, the furry throw from Target online, and my $90 hamper from CB2.  I was pretty happy with how the room looked, until my New Year's post, when I realized everything was grey. 

I've been working on adding some color and accessories to the room.  I may even attempt to make some throw pillows myself, well, with my mom's help. Lighting is an issue in this room.  Remember, that closet is covering an East facing window and the other one you see there, is a 6 foot window that is almost completely covered.  Yea, I know. Lucky for us, we like to sleep in total darkness. I will post pictures of our completed room next week, if I can get the pillows done.

DIY Bench Project Complete

I've been wanting a bench for the foot of our bed for some time. We actually need a place to throw a pillow or a pair of jeans when we get home.  Our room is a master from the 1950's which equals a tiny closet and no bathroom.  A couple of years back, we built an Ikea wardrobe to have a place for our clothes.  This causing us to lose about 2 feet of our already tiny room.  Our furniture in the room consists of our low profile Ikea bed, two tiny nightstands, and a hamper.  Hence, the need for a landing ground for clothes...or a bench.

Please check out my inspiration post, where you can see all the great ideas for benches out there. I drew my inspiration from each of these benches.  Including the idea of actually making a bench myself, to using an old coffee table, and to buying the wood at Home Depot. 

I found this table last week at a thrift store for $7.00.  I loved the mid century style legs.

I flipped the table over and took off the brackets/plates that were holding the legs.

They were kind of rusty so I attempted a rust remover and ended up just spray painting them black.

I love the warm tone of mid century pieces, but these legs were in bad shape.

I sanded them down.

Stood them up on the brackets and applied a bit of a darker stain to match my lamps.

One of the main reasons I wanted to make the bench myself, was because of the specifications that I needed. I wanted the bench to be 48 inches long and 12 inches wide or should I say thin.  I bought a 12 by 2 piece of wood and had the guy at Home Depot cut the length to 48 inches.

I wrapped it with the same batting I used for my upholstered headboard.  I used what I had, so 3 layers is what it got.  It could have been thicker, but I didn't want to spend any more money.

I stapled it all the way around, but left the edges unstapled so that we could add the legs as close to the edges as possible.

I ended up having to buy 2 yards of the zebra fabric because of the length of my bench.  I cut it using the design of the pattern as a guide. I folded the fabric in half to get the exact center of the design.

I stapled all the way around except for the edges.  You see the design in the center.

Mr. J helped me with the legs.  He pre-drilled holes into the wood.

Screwed in the brackets as close to the edges as possible. Being that the bench is on the thin side, I wanted the legs to be as supportive as possible.

Attached the legs.

Now, I had to figure out how to get all that batting and fabric around the legs. I cut off some of the inside layers of batting and rounded out the fabric a bit and just stapled as tight as I could.

Here it is.

This project was so simple and has made a huge difference in our room.  Our pillows are no longer on the floor.  I think I may do another pillow with some of the leftover fabric.  What do you think?

Total Cost Breakdown:

Table   $7.00

Wood  $8.00

Fabric $22.00 (But I have a ton left over)

Screws $1.50

Total    $38.50 (all other materials were already on hand)

Linking up to: These Creative Juices, Hope Studios, Blue Cricket Design, Paisley Passions, The Answer is Chocolate, Finding Fabulous, My Repurposed Life, Remodelaholics, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Singing Three Little Birds, Boogieboard Cottage, The Saturday Mornings Blog, The Lettered Cottage, Primitive and Proper, Vintage Revivals, Between Naps on the Porch, Thrifty Decor Chick