I'm so happy, I could spit.

Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, knowing how I detest body fluids. But I am very pleased with myself.

You can see in this picture that I have many blank, empty, LARGE walls in my living room. Actually, in my entire house, but that is not the point. The living room is where we hold our weekly vespers program, it's the first room you see when you walk into my house. And it's bare. I can't use the excuse that I'm still settling in, because we've lived here for 3 1/2 years. I'm just design-challenged.

But I finally decided to do something about it. It all started with this stack of frames:

Five of them I found at Goodwill for $.98 each. They had some 70s flower photos in them. Ugh. The bright orange and green ones used to hold alphabet cards that spelled the twins' names in their nursery. They've been sitting in my closet since the boys moved to their "big boy" room. So what am I going to do with all these odd frames? Spray paint them, of course! They turned out to be exactly the same size, even though the styles were slightly different.

So now I have a bunch of black frames. What do I do next? Wait for a few weeks for inspiration to strike, that's what. Finally I decided to do a patch of botanical prints. Problem was, I couldn't find any. I found a few free ones online, but our color printer got fried by some lightning the other night, and I didn't really want the hassle of printing them somewhere else. So I looked at Barnes & Noble for a botanical print book instead, you know, the coffee table kind.

No such luck. They didn't have anything to mention. Bummer. I looked around online for some books, but when you can't really look inside to see, I wans't going to risk not getting the full-size prints I needed for this project.

But today was my lucky day. I went out while Filipe was home on a conference call, and on my way to Borders, decided to stop by Half Price Books first. I went over to the Gardening section, and SCORE! found a reference book of wild flowers of America, with 400 full-color, full-page prints! Oh, I was in heaven. And better yet, the book was only $7.98!

The hard part was choosing which prints to use, although I suppose I can switch them out at will.

Anyways, I used a scalpel (yes, we have those around here) to cut out the pages I wanted, used one of the backings of the frame as a template to cut the picture to size, and got everyone lined up.

I took the pictures downstairs, got a big sheet of paper (really it was four sheets haphazardly taped together) and laid the frames out in their grid. I spaced the frames, measuring and squaring carefully, then traced around each frame. I then measured and marked where each of the hanging thingies goes. I found this method on this blog and it really worked well for me.

I then taped the paper grid to the wall, using a level to make sure it was all good.

That was the end of the hard part. Now I just tapped in my nails where I had marks, and hung my frames. They came out even! I was so excited.

And now I'm in the process of rearranging the furniture in the living room. I just can't leave well enough alone. But I am happy with this project because it was very difficult finding large art to go on this wall, and because this project was so awesomely cheap-- a grand total of $15.68. Can't beat that, folks.

And now I've finished rearranging the furniture, so here's a view of the room now:

looking from the dining room....

looking from the front door....

Yes, I think I'm one step closer to that homey living room I'm going for. Now I need some valances or something, maybe. And a few end tables. And maybe another soft chair. Yeah, that ought to do it.

 I'm also participating in Transformation Thursday on The Shabby Chic Cottage

Goodwill rescue, Part II

Well, I finally decided the fate of my ugly Goodwill headboard.

I thought for a while to use it in my new guest room/sewing room as an actual headboard, but I just wasn't digging the idea. So, when I saw this post on Centsational Girl, I knew this was the answer. I have been needing something to hang the dress shirts and stuff that comes out the dryer before I take it upstair to hang in the closet. Perfect fit! And this solution also has enough hooks to put the kids coats on, too. I'm so pleased with how it turned out. For a recap, here's how it goes:

• Find cheap, ugly headboard at Goodwill.
• Avoid husband's glowering looks as to why you would buy a cheap, ugly headboard at Goodwill while trying to reassure yourself some good will come out of this (pun intended).
• Sand/prime (forgot this step, actually. Regret it)/paint the ugly sucker.
• Look at it in the garage for a couple of months, trying to figure out what to do about it.
• Saw the legs off.
• Attach coat hooks.
• Attach D-rings to the back.
• Hang (the rack, not yourself).
• Look confident when your husband notices.

So thanks to Centsational Girl for the idea.... Everything told, this project cost me less than $20! Unless you count the fact that I now feel the need to revamp my entire laundry room... That could add on a few $$.... Stay tuned :)






And Trash to Treasure Tuesday (a little late) at



And Transformation Thursday at *The Shabby Chic Cottage* 

Instilling fear into my offspring

Every time I pull out the spray paint (which is getting ridiculously often), my daughter gets this look of fear in her eyes that makes me think she's expecting to be next!

I did a couple more projects this last week, and here are the before & afters:

A lovely, flawless table I found at GW, only $7. Loved the wood, too. But I have a bit too much brown/neutrals in my living room (and the rest of my house really) so this little friend was turned to.......

Black! I know, you're surprised, aren't you?

Also went to Salvation Army today and found this cute little box thing.

It has the nice garden-y cutouts and frosted glass inserts. I took out the inserts, gave a nice coat of Valspar's Porcelain, and voila!

A lovely tray to hold my bathrom clutter. On a side note, the Valspar doesn't seem to give as good of coverage as the Rust-Oleum stuff does. Anyone else notice that?

Can't wait to see what's sprayed next.....

I'm linking to DIY Day at

And Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Work in progress

Got out my spray paint again.... Today's find is a "Family" thingie from Salvation Army. First time visiting in this town. I liked it, it had nice stuff, good prices. Nice and clean, not too cluttered. Anyways, it is nice and heavy, no chips. It's just gold. Don't love gold. And since this fella's destined for the fireplace, it needs more contrast with my neutral walls..

Hello, black.

I'm upping my game...

So I found this little piece of ugly at a Goodwill a while back, labeled "end table." And I'm sure it one time was, in all it's 70s-style leggy form, faux-nail-trim-head glory. This little piece was crying out for help. I wasn't entirely sure what kind of help I personally could render, but I bought 'er anyways.

Lucky for me, I found these two little pretties at an antique/used furniture store up the road aways....

And no, the cute little lady was not part of the deal. She came at a hefty price 4 1/2 years ago.

But I digress.

I saw the vision of what that sad little table was destined for..... a desk for my two fellas! And since I've had so much fun with the black spray paint lately, I pulled it out again, to the dismay of my daughter. "Aren't we going to paint something a different color? How about pink? The boys like purple!" Poor lass. Black is the color of the week.

Well, a few coats of primer & paint later, and this is what we come up with:

Oh, yes, and I added the green stripes using some craft paint I had left over from doing the boys' nursery. I will eventually stencil Sam & Ben's names on their respective chairs. Sofia was insistent that the chairs needed to have some green on them, too. Stripes, wiggly lines, something.

Here's a picture of the boys enjoying their "new" furniture: