Wall Update

A couple months ago I decided it was time to update our front room, the one we hardly spend any time in (ha, ha.)  Unfortunately, I don't have a true before picture because I simply forgot to take one.  I'm not going to stew on that any longer (it kinda bugs me that you can't see what it used to look like) and get straight to the progress I am making with the room.  

This is where the room started once I pulled down a cloth wall hanging.  We repainted the entire room the lighter taupe.  It's a pretty large wall so I thought that adding a second color would help break it up.  Using a level, Mark helped me tape the rectangle.

In order to make sure the items I had planned to put on the wall were centered and arranged correctly I traced them on paper, cut them out, and moved them around until I was happy with the arrangement.

My handy dandy husband made me a frame and I added the things we had around the house.  This is how the wall has been for a couple of months as I've been waiting for ideas/merchandise to come to me....and come to me they did.

Just to refresh your memory, here is the fabric of the curtains we recently hung in the room.

A couple of months ago I spied this beauty at Pier One.  I loved the color and the texture of it.  It never left my mind.  I didn't buy it when I saw it because I didn't know how I would utilize it.

Then, a few days ago while strolling through Michael's I found this one.  I didn't waste any time purchasing it and eventually made my way to Pier 1.  Both wreaths have the exact colors in the curtains.  I envisioned the two wreaths hanging to the left of the framed wall.

Now, with the round mirror and two round wreaths, my husband thought there was just too much "roundess" going on.  My solution was to hang a rectangle frame inside the mirror, but I also wanted some texture.  Here is what I came up with:

 I found this canvas covered frame at a thrift store for a buck.  Perfect!

I painted the front and back of the frame.  The reason I painted the back was because it would show when hung on the mirror.

 To add texture I hot-glued this moss around the frame.

Then I found this beautiful ribbon at Joann's to hang the frame.

This is where the room sits for now.  To balance everything out, something will need to be done to the right side of the frame...someday.  Not sure yet what that will be, but it will come to me.  I desperately hate the couch and want to get something in a dark brown (again...someday.)  Also, I'll soon be on a hunt for some pillows that are colorful and more exciting to the eye.  Oh, and a new lamp as well...someday. 

State Fair Fun

It's Fair Time at Cal Expo in Sacramento, CA again.  This is our 3rd year going as a family...well, come to think of it, this is our 3rd year going ever.  Although Mark and I have lived in the area since 1998 we never attended the fair until 2008.  In the last few years we have learned the ropes of going as a family.  We arrive when the gates open since that's the coolest part of the day and hit up the rides first because there are no lines and again, the weather is coolest--and let me tell you, there is no shade for us parents to be standing in while the kids ride the (overpriced) rides.  While I am on the topic of rides, I am always amazed at the workers who run the rides and the game booths.  What woodwork do they crawl out of to be employed there for 2 and a half weeks and why to 99% of them have missing teeth? 

All right...so from the rides we walk around to look at the outside features and visit all of the animals.  I was very impressed at how clean and well displayed all of the animal stations/corrals were, but we were there when it first opened so that might be why.  This year the kids enjoyed visiting the "farm" where there was a petting zoo (again, super clean), pony rides, and chickens roaming around freely.  Now that we are chicken experts it's always fun to see the different breeds.  Our son fell in love with one of the Silkie (that's the breed) chickens.  Being that they are tame like ours, he immediately picked it up, found a bale of hay to sit on, and held it on his lap..  He was in hea-ven.

In the livestock building we saw sheep being trimmed and shown for prizes.  We also got up close and personal with some longhorn steer.  Whoa...the horns on those fellas were intimidating, especially the older ones.  In addition to the steer, the building was shared with llamas and alpacas.

Here are some pictures that highlight the animal part of the day:

Next, we meandered through the perfectly grown garden, which is something to be envious of, pet the sturgeon, took pictures by the sunflowers, and checked out the orchids in the greenhouse.

We laughed when we saw the "Are you an orchid murderer?" sign and actually took the picture for my dad.  I was given my very first orchid for my birthday from a friend and I am learning along the way about caring for one.  My dad has about 7 beautiful orchids blooming in his house right now and recently he was giving me tips about the flowers, watering, and the soil.

After walking around for a couple of hours, the next item on our yearly agenda is food.  Fair food is something most people drool over and hand over the bucks to enjoy.  Us?  Not so much.  Mark usually gobbles up a turkey leg and the kids and I each devour a big ol' corn dog.  For a treat the kids are happy with an ice cream cone.  We pass on the funnel cakes, deep friend Oreos/Twinkies, and chocolate covered bacon (but I am curious how that tastes.)

Due to time constraints this year, we didn't have time to visit the exhibits in the indoor buildings.  Although our day was cut short, it was a successful visit.  Our son said his favorite part was holding the Silkie chicken and our daughter said her favorite parts were riding the pony and going on the rides.

Thrift Store Finds: Before and After

Last week I posted some pictures of items I picked up at various thrift shops around town.  Most of the items I had a vision for and have spray painted spruced them up and put them in their place.  If you click on each collage, it will enlarge.

 The flower was painted pink to bring out the accent color in our new curtains.  The bird was painted Heirloom White to fit in with the other birds I have been "tending" to, the lantern was painted red to use for next year's 4th of July decorations, and the candlestick was painted a darker brown to get rid of the orange tint in the original.

 I picked this frame up last week because it was in good shape and I liked the beading detail.  I ended up spray painting it black and using it on the mantel (see picture below.)  The bird print was a free printable found here: http://printable.tipjunkie.com/printable-birds-and-cages/

 The beading shows up better in this picture and see the pop of color behind?  Love it!

 

  Here is the bird with another bird that we inherited from my grandparents and thought we'd never use.

So here is another before/after project I recently completed.  Years (and I mean years) ago Mark built a frame to hold a piece of scrap mirror we had found.  We hung the mirror above our fireplace as we were trying to fill the walls without breaking the bank.  Slowly over the years the frame began to give way.  As you can see in one of the pictures below, it got a bit wonky.  (Who uses the work, wonky? I dont 'know, but I like it.)  Not to fear...with the help of a couple of L brackets, some wood putty, and the sander, all was fixed.  I painted it the base color of our new curtains and ended up not putting the mirror back in.  And a little confession here:  What happened was that after adding the L brackets and getting rid of the "wonkiness" the mirror no longer properly fit in the frame.  No worries...I had other plans.  Remember the sheet music flowers I made?  I now had a home for them.  In addition to the music flowers, I added a piece of old sheet music from my inherited collection along with a framed saying by Ronald Reagan.  I had the flowers and sheet music hung and realized I needed to fill in the space above the sheet music.  With the help of a thrift store frame I had packed away, black spray paint, some sheet music, and black scrapbook paper I created my own piece of art.

Sheet Music Flower

With new curtains in the front room, I have been motivated to do some redecorating.  One of the pieces of furniture (if you consider it furniture) is my piano.  Above the piano is a piece of framed music that my dad hand wrote for me:  A song called "Satin Doll" which I used to sing while he played the piano.  Since I want to tie in a couple more music decor items into the room, I pulled down a box of old piano books and some sheet music that was given to me after my Grammy passed away.  As I thumbed through the music I realized that there were some pieces of music that were a) too hard for me to ever play or b) missing pieces of the composition. 

Perfect!  I would, and I did, create art with the sheet music.

 First, I started by making a pattern (or a "tracer" as I say in the classroom) 

 Next, I traced and cut out 7 pieces from the sheet music

 Then, I created a fold in the middle, at the bottom of the pattern.  I made sure not to fold all the way up so that the top would look like a petal.

 I then folded each side up to the middle fold to create a kind of accordion making sure the middle fold was in the upward direction.

 ...and I taped the sides up to hold the accordion folds together (with a very small piece of tape.)

 Once I had all 7 pieces folded and taped, it was time to start gluing them together.  I used a glue gun and just a bit of glue as to not burn my fingertips.

 Lastly, I added a black button from my collection (all three are different) to each flower to tie it all together.

I have an idea how and where I will hang these 3 sheet music flowers, but I'm not quite ready to make it final. I will post a picture once they are displayed.

Thrifty Finds

I had some time without the kiddos yesterday so I took advantage of being able to shop alone.  I hit up a handful of thrift stores and found some fun pieces.

This flower (I think it's a tea light holder) was 99¢.  My plan is to spray paint it--shocker, right?  Mark and I recently put up some new curtains in our front room (see picture below) and I want to spray paint this flower pink, as an accent color.

The material of our new curtains.  The top of the picture has truer colors.

 

 

 After completing my owls I kinda sorta have a thing for birds.  This lady was $2.99 and I plan to spray paint her with Rustoleum's Heirloom White.

 This frame isn't anything special, but it was new and I liked the beading around the inside of the frame.  It was $3.00 (a bit overpriced for a thrift store.)  Of course it will eventually get painted.

 I immediately pictured this tea light lantern spray painted bright red for our outside mantel.  It'll look perfect with next year's 4th of July decorations.  It was $2.00.

I can never seem to have enough candlesticks.  The one on the left is heavy, made of some sort of metal and was $1.99.  I plan to paint it a very dark brown--I know, it already looks brown, but it's a tad "orangey."  The one on the right was 99¢ and I think once painted will look pretty cool with its design.

 

Paso Robles Winecation

Yep, you read the title right.  I created my own word:  Winecation.  Mark and I spent a few days down in Paso Robles while the grandparents had the kids so we could celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.  The weather was fantastic, warm during the day and cool at night.  For three days we tasted wine, enjoyed the calm surroundings, and devoured tasty meals. 

Some of the wineries we hit up.

Overall, the wine tasting was a fun experience.  However, my only complaint is that some wineries don't waive the tasting fee (generally $10.00) even after you purchase a bottle of their wine.  Oh, and the wine seemed pricey too...$28.00 to $42.00 with most being $36+. We purchased mostly reds because we had a hard time putting down that much money for a white wine.

The highlight of one of the days was our drive up to Calcareous Winery.  It is considered one of the "Far Out" wineries because it's off the beaten path.  The drive up there was beautiful and it gave me a chance to play around with our new camera.

And once we got there....amazing view.  We planned ahead and packed a picnic lunch.  We purchased a glass of wine from the winery and had a very relaxing meal.

Because eventually our taste buds tired of wine, we took a drive down to San Luis Obispo where we strolled downtown, enjoyed a beer (ahhhhh), and got caught in the Thursday Farmer's Market.

Adding a piece of gum to the Gum Wall.

Mark was in heaven with all the meat on the grills up and down the street.

So many flower booths.

Berries, berries, and more berries