Heart Day

I really wasn't feeling like decorating for Valentine's Day this year,
but at almost the last minute I pulled out a few old things.

I'm in love with this rock my daughter found on the way home from school one day(this stays out year round.)


paper hearts hung on twigs,
cupcake liner pom poms I made last year,and a cute box that looks like an old letter (found at the thrift store) with vintage skeleton keys.

Here's how the rest of my house looks--lots of red and white with my favorite, grain sack stripes.

I'm lovin' my new handmade pillows,

and my .59 cent towells from Ikea.
I even gave my canning jars their own stripes, using plain and red twine.

Hope you all have a Happy Heart Day!

Thanks for all the love on my blog and all your nice comments, I heart you!

a bedroom transformation

I'm participating in

this fabulous link party
by Jennifer Rizzo, where you can show the evolution of your style in a particular room in your home. Here is what my bedroom looks like now.

Here's what it looked like before, lots of black. This was even taken after I had sold my 2 black nightstands. Imagine, a big black bed, black nightstands, and a big black armoire--very dark.

I painted my black bed, french gray, and swapped out the black nightstands for cream ones.

This picture kind of bugs me because the one mirror looks so much higher, but I promise, they are even. You can see the master bathroom reflected in the one on the right.

I found these 2 mirors at different times from a thrift store, then spray painted them both cream. Just a little paint, and a little time, helped to lighten and brighten the whole room. I like it so much better now. Go here

to see all the fun transformations!

I won ...

This fabulous giveaway!

A gorgeous vintage clock, old chippy clock faces (which I've been wanting to collect), this classic movie (guess what I'll be watching this weekend--can you believe I've never seen this before?),

 

and these beautiful glasses! 

I always say I never win anything, but I guess I can't say that anymore.

When I first received the email with the subject "you won," I almost didn't even open it because I thought it might be some sort of a scam or virus, but I'm sure glad I did.

The funny thing is I unwrapped the glasses from the Tiffany box, then rewrapped them and left them on my table. I guess I'm weird that way, my kids kept wanting to open the box.

Thanks to the very sweet Melanie from

Pretties and Posies!

Faux Grain Sack Pillows & Runner

This is what I was up to over the weekend... making this ...

and this.

(see that Tiffany blue box, I won a fabulous giveaway I'll share soon)

I have been debating whether to buy some authentic grain sacks to make some pillows and a table runner. I even had some grain sacks in an online shopping cart, and kept going back to look at them, but just couldn't get myself to click on the "buy" button.

I finally just decided to use what I already have and make my own (and save about $100 as a result!)

No one would even know they're not the real thing, right, well except now you do.

I made 3 pillows and 1 runner for about $10. (I'll show you the 3rd pillow soon!)

(dang wrinkles, I swear I tried)
I used leftover dropcloth material and basically just taped off varying stripes, eyeballing as I went. Then I brushed on some red acrylic paint and pulled the tape off.

I'm loving my new pillows and table runner, they give my home a fun french farmhouse feel.

All you Need is Love ... and a little wood and some paint ...

I made these signs. Of course from the famous Beatles' song.

You could call it valentine decor, but since it's black & white this will stay up year round.

Here was my inspiration piece: I ripped it out of my magazine, but I believe it was Romantic Country Magazine. I have no idea what this says but I just loved it.

I used what I already had, a large board + letter stencils from my scrapbook stash (I think you can buy similar ones at an office supply store), + some cream paint= Free Art (Do you know how much I love that!)

I layed out my stencils to figure out how I wanted my design to be.

Here it is, freshly painted.

Then I sanded with the grain to allow distress lines to pop through the letters.

I also slightly antiqued with a walnut stain, then added a topcoat.

About an hour or so later I had this:

Winter White

I decided to keep my bottle brush trees out after Christmas, because I love them so much, and add some other natural looking elements:
a ball of string from the dollar store,
twigs in an urn,
a stack of books in the form of a loosely shaped tree (I found these books at the library for .10 each and ripped the covers off). If there wasn't a foot of snow right now covering the ground I would go on a little hunt for pinecones--I'll have to remember to do that next fall.
I love the look of the creams and whites on Jaqueline ...
wintry, yet warm.