Summer Hiatus

"Summertime and the livin's easy..."  *Sublime*

I'm enjoying doing small projects here and there around the house, but I haven't had the heart to make myself sit down and blog about them.  In fact I've been trying to make myself chill out a little and actually sit and read or veg in front of the tube.  Sometimes I feel like I'm running down a hill with projects, kids activities, chores, etc and I forget to slow down and rest.  In fact I expected the end of the school year chaos to diminish and for the long days of summer to bring a little R & R to my life.  Instead I found that between much loved visitors, summer activities and house projects, my life nearly sped up rather then slowed down.  With three young children I'm finding that I have to plan to do nothing and schedule a rest.

So I apologize for neglecting my blog for a little bit.  I'll soon sit down and get you pictures of all my recent projects.  I've actually finished my shutter project and am working on the rest of the room so my "after" picture will be more complete.  Dan and I painted the playroom and I sewed cute curtains using the tree and bird fabric you chose.  We've had two birthdays this month, a couple camping trips, hosted a soccer coach from Wales, spent some time at the lake and this weekend my daughter and I will be leaving the boys behind and are headed for a girls weekend in L.A.  Perhaps I'll have to stop at Anthropologie again!

Besides indulging myself with the book Twilight, I've been reading Getting Organized in the Google Era by Douglas C. Merril.  On page 30 he writes, "...when students graduate, they enter the workforce having been conditioned for years to think of the summer months as downtime.  Being disorganized and unproductive between Memorial Day and Labor Day have become engrained habits." It's a very informative book and the section about the summer vacation dilemma gives no answers but has given me something other then myself to blame about my lazy summer attitude!

What have you been up to?

China Hutch ~ Furniture Evolution

One of my favorite pieces I've refinished is a hundred dollar china cabinet from a thrift store in Las Vegas.  

It was my diamond in the rough.  I used an electric sander on the flat surfaces followed by hand sanding, but was only able to hand sand the front.  After removing the dust with a tacky cloth, I painted three coats of semi-gloss white.  Sometimes the secret to brush painting is using an expensive brush and pulling your strokes to the end of the wood (hee hee....that's what she said).  This piece has moved houses three times since I bought it and nicks and dings can be seen in a couple areas where the paint is flaking a bit.  On this particular piece I believe it has added more charm, however to the critical eye it shows that the piece could have used a bit more prep work in the sanding department.

I highlighted the detail work by folding a sand paper to the width of the recessed area and sanding to expose the wood.  I did not finish this with any kind of polyurethane but instead chose to leave the raw wood exposed.

All hardware was removed during the refinishing process and then spray painted with Rust-oleum Hammered aluminum.  Changing the hardware on a piece can make a world of difference, but sometimes all you need is a little Rust-oleum.  This stuff really holds up through the wear and tear that hardware can get. And don't forget the hinges when spray painting.  I love when hinges are visible.  I wish my kitchen cabinets had visible hinges, I think it adds so much charm.

One Project Closer ~ A Winning Entry

One Project Closer has started their third annual Before and After contest to benefit and bring awareness for Habitat For Humanity.  Every week they choose a winning entry.  If picked, you receive a gift card for either Lowes, Home Depot, or Amazon.  A hundred dollar donation is also made to Habitat for Humanity! What a great deal.  At the end of the summer, all the entries are posted and the community votes for the best project.  The winner receives an additional $150 gift card!

Olive and Love's Shutter project was fortunate to win last week's contest!  Please check back later this summer for a link to vote!

Check out One Project Closer! Maybe you'll win next!

And FYI....Yes I finally finished attaching all the shutters....well, "I" translates to my father in law, brother in law, husband and "I" finished!  I still need to touch up the screw holes with paint and then I'll take some pictures and post away!

Wedding Picture Display

What I appreciate most about photography is the stories it can tell.  When presented with our wedding photos 9 years ago, we really couldn't pick just one and sure didn't want to plaster the walls with them.

Instead we chose twenty two of our favorite, some taken by the professional and some by the guests.  I took them to Michaels frame department and laid them out in order.  They helped me design a mat and choose a frame.  Budget was important so my options are fairly base, however I think it gets it done in an elegant matter.

The center picture space displays our wedding invitation printed in black and white.  All the photos are also printed in black and white.  Although I believe displaying them in color would look good too, I like how the black and white unifies the photos.

The last picture is my little niece, exhausted from a long night of dancing.

Paint My Chandelier Or Wait For Other Inspiration?

Paint my chandelier or get something new?

Here's a reminder of my dining room with shutter wall and current gigantor chandelier:

Various lighting concepts have crossed my mind for my dining room.  Some require lots of shopping, some are hair ripper outers, and one is just a simple click at Pottery Barn dot com but eats away at my empty pocket book.  You may remember my Moroccan lantern idea or my sisal hanging lamp idea? All fun, but just not in the current cards.

Please excuse my half a** picture....I've been gardening all day and I'm feeling a bit lazy.  My thought now is that perhaps, at least for the interim, I could use what I already have with a chandelier makeover.  The curtain rod in this room is black so I'm considering hauling the chandelier outside and spraying it black.  The shades I am thinking of painting blue with an acrylic and fabric medium mix.  This room has always given me issues for some reason and I'm feeling uninspired as to what lighting may compliment my shutters.  What do you think?

Lamp Rewire and Makeover Complete!

I'm finally finished painting and rewiring my thrift store lamp.  Now I'm addicted to lamps and have since rewired four additional lamps!   ...so easy.
I picked my lamp up during a thrift store shopping spree I had a couple months ago.  Here's the before picture:

I began 'demolition' by cutting the end of the cord.  This is optional, as you could just unscrew the two screws inside the light socket that hold the wires from the cord.  I opted for a completely new wire and lighting hardware because the current one was pretty old.  If needed you could also just buy the cord and use the existing lighting hardware.

At this point, this lamp pretty much came apart in pieces pretty quickly, as it was mostly held together by the tension of the light socket on the top.  My advice? do this over a soft surface if you're working with any breakable materials.  I would also advise against doing this inside over carpet, as some old lamps may have tiny bits of broken glass inside them.

After cleaning up the wood pieces and conditioning them with tongue oil, I laid the metal pieces on paper in my garage.

Using white Rust-oleum Satin spray paint, I gave the metal a couple of coats on both sides, followed by a coat while sitting them on their top, and another coat while on their bottoms.

Follow paint instructions for correct outdoor temperature and wait time between coats.

After the white paint was completely dry with the final coat, using gloves and a rag I covered the metal pieces with Minwax 'provencial' wood stain.  After all the nooks and crannies were completely covered, I wiped it away using the clean part of the cloth.  The resulting finish was a darker color in the crevices, and an off white color on the raised areas.  After allowing the metal to dry, I gave it coat of spray polyurethane.

I decided to use white on my metal after finding my lampshade from Anthropologie

Next step? ....the fun part!  Assembly time!  I laid out all my pieces on my dining table, including a lamp kit from Home Depot.

Another piece of advice?  ....Take some before pictures to help with reassembly.  You may think you'll remember where all the little piece goes, but a picture will really help.

So just to remind you what the lamp looked like before, here it is again:

And now:

I used to have a pretty simple lamp here before (also from a thrift store for five dollars):

I think the new lamp really livens up the space, don't you?

Have you ever rewired an old lamp?

Ice Cube Tray Snacks

I'm always trying to think of new ways to get healthy food into my kids' bellies.  Here is an idea I probably read about in some parenting magazine years ago.  My kids love having snacks or lunch out of ice-cube trays!

Grapes, beans, cheese cubes... raisins, nuts, seeds, ....frozen water... it all works and makes eating fun!