The First 2015 Holiday Projects!

I'm so excited for Christmas this year and all that it entails. I posted about my office decorations a few days ago. I've also gotten a few holiday projects done so far and I love them!!! Both projects involved cutting vinyl on my Cricut Explore.

First, is a jingle bell shadow box. This one is so fun.

I also did a reindeer name sign. I've been admiring similar ones on Pinterest and the like for some time now and I finally made one for myself.

Have you started any holiday projects yet? Now I just need to finish cleaning my house so I can put up the rest of the Christmas decorations. I have the tree up and decorated, but that's as far as I've gotten.

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life! 

Office Holiday Tour

I have started decorating for Christmas at home, but I only have the tree done so far. My office, however has quite a few up. So, I thought I would share those.

This year, I went with a theme for the tree.  I decided to go with the song "Sleigh Ride." 

Half view of the front of the office:

Here's the whole front view with a panoramic picture. It distorts the space somewhat, but gives a good idea of what is placed where. 

The waiting area chairs with some little trees.

I found this lovely iced garland for super cheap at the thrift store.

It's hard to get a good picture through the window due to the reflection, but I have a little bottle tree display along with a sleigh.

A little twig and light display:

More trees:

Coat hook snowflakes:

I love Christmas decorating so much! I can't wait to decorate the house and show it off! More holiday decorating to come!

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

And rain will make the flowers grow...

It's been a great year for my plants this year. Everything has grown huge it seems. It's just been raining at the right times and I haven't had to water much. I ended up planting a lot of pots this year, and thought I would share them with you.

On the lamp post at the end of my driveway are some pretty pink geraniums.

A trio of mixed pots:

I've made a few dish fairy gardens this year as well.

I love how these turned out!

Then there is my two barrels:

The dahlia's are especially big this year!

I love planing in unexpected containers, like this teapot:

This the best year yet for my clematis.

And last but not least, I took an arty pic of one of my hydrangea bushes and a rusty chair in the backyard.

I'm in love with all the blooms! How is your gardening going this year?

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

Pinspiration: Wax Paper Printing

I am now addicted to this new method of making signs! Let me start at the beginning. I saw this pin:


I decided to try the method for making signs.

The tutorial is quite detailed, so I won't rehash it all here. I will say it's a bit tricky to get the wax paper through the printer, or at least it was my particular printer. Ultimately, in order to get it to work I had to tape the wax paper to a piece of regular printer paper.

It took a lot of patience, but here's how they turned out:

I especially love how the anchor one turned out.

Even though the method requires some patience (and sometimes swearing) I love the results. I've made a total of four signs now and I can't see to stop! Have any of you tried this method?

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life! *Planning to share at: Metamorphosis Monday;  Made by You Monday; Wildly Original Linky Party; Clever Chicks Blog Hop; Serenity Now Weekend Blog Hop; 

Arrows to Point the Way

I'm in love with all the arrow stuff I see everywhere nowadays. I've also been wanting to try my hand at some of the pallet board art that's all over Pinterest. So, I decided to combine the two. Now, the boards I used are not true pallet boards. These are just short boards I picked up in the odds and ends bin at Menards. Now, if you haven't seen the odds and ends bin, you need to find it! There are all sorts of shorter board ends in various lengths and widths.  I've found everything from plain pine to white oak to cedar siding ends in there. These ends are perfect for sign making.

After I picked my boards, I cut out two different arrow shapes using my cricut on contact paper. I used this as a stencil on my boards. I used acrylic paint and a sponge pouncer to do the paint. Then I lightly sanded with a sanding sponge. I used a coat of Minwax Early American stain over the top and TaDa! Fabulous signs!

I used a piece of cedar siding for this simple black arrow.

I did an ombre effect on the coral arrow into orange and I could not be happier with the results. I am addicted to making these now and need to make lots more!

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

Lovely Little Side Table

I picked up this lovely little mid-century modern side table.

It has two drawers and some lovely features that I thought needed highlighting. I've been jumping on the gold craze lately (see here and here) and I thought that might be a great way to do the highlighting.

First, I chose a fun color of spray paint called sea glass (made by Krylon) for the base.

Gold accents came next:

I love the effects! I can't believe I've been having so much fun with gold!

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

Art Deco Dresser- Lace Pattern Tutorial

I've actually managed to get a big project done! It's almost a miracle. My husband pointed out this dresser at a garage sale for $5!

For $5 how could I go wrong? The art deco handles alone are amazing! Hubby had to do some repair work to it. It needed a few boards replaced. Then it was my turn to paint it!

I decided it needed it's art deco roots highlighted. So, I painted the whole dresser a light gray color as a base coat.

Then I decided to use a lace and spray paint technique on the drawers. First I draped my lace curtain over the drawer:

Then I sprayed over the drawer with a silver spray paint. I removed the curtain right away to find this:

Beautiful! After spraying the handles to match, the finished product is very nice if I do say so myself!

What a fun project!

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

Pinspiration: Gold Striped Wall Art

Yesterday, I posted a gold owl I recently redid. Today I thought I would share some fun artwork I made. I was inspired by several projects I've seen recently on Pinterest like this one:



and this one:



and maybe this one as well:




so I decided to make my own fun canvas art. Here's what I came up with:

I do enjoy the little things. Things such as this artwork.

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

Gold Owl

Gold everything is all over Pinterest these days, so for the next couple days I thought I would post some gold projects I've done recently. (I promise someday soon, I'll show my craft area all nice looking!)

I found this great owl at Goodwill the other day:

I love this guy! But, he needed a little updating in my mind, so I broke out my trusty Rust-oleum spray paint and gave him a shine!

What do you think? I think he turned out pretty handsome. Come back tomorrow to check out another small gold project.

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

Craft Room Inspiration

I have an entire board on Pinterest dedicated to ideas for my craft room in the basement. Here's a few highlights that have inspired me and that you will see when I reveal the finished product.

Color inspiration from here:


and here:



I also have some organization inspiration from several places:








Then of course, there is some fun artwork I'd like to incorporate:







Like what you see? Then check out my entire Craft Room Inspiration Board on Pinterest:



I can't wait to start showing off parts of this room!

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!

Basement Craft Room Before (Scary!)

Things have been so crazy in our household lately, it's been hard to find time to blog. One of the things I've been trying to get done is cleaning and organizing my craft area in the basement. I need to get this done for several reasons:

1. Our basement flooded last year and I lost a lot of supplies because of it.
2. I have way too much stuff and I need to sort and get rid of some things. *See this post*
3. My husband has been bugging me to do this for the same above two reasons. ;) 

So at the risk of scaring everyone, I'm going to show you some before pictures. *Warning* The following pictures contain graphic images of massive amounts of craft stuff. Hoarding may be an issue. 

Yikes! I can't believe I shared that mess with you all. On the plus side, this space has good bones. The peg board and the built-in shelving were all here when we bought the house. I just need to organize this stuff and group all the like stuff together. Not to mention spruce up the place a bit! :) I'll admit, I'm almost done with this now, but need a little longer to do the sprucing part. For the next week or so, I will be showing you bits and pieces of this project, hopefully all leading up to a big reveal soon. Check back tomorrow where I'll show off bits of inspiration from my Pinterest board dedicated to the subject. 

Don't settle for dull, live a refinished life!