Shabby Chic and Ruffled

A few months ago I showed a piece of a project I had started and asked for guesses on what it was. Well, believe it or not I just finished it. I put it off and put it off...I sometimes do that when I am worried something won't turn out like I want it too. 

Now that it is done, it is just like I wanted it to be, so I am happy :) ! I just love the girly Tilda fabrics and ruffles...

It is maybe too frilly for some people--but just perfect for me. My new shoulder bag!

Aren't these the sweetest fabrics? I wish I had yards and yards of this beautiful Tilda fabric!

I would so love to decorate a baby girl's nursery in these fabrics. Actually, I would love to do my own bedroom in these fabrics! But for now I am just so happy to have my bag.

I made a pocket on the inside for my purse camera.

My all time favorite wallet I got a couple years ago at Goodwill looks perfect with it.

When I was taking these pictures I thought I felt eyes on me. I was right. My sweet Sophia was probably wondering why I was taking pictures of a bag!

Sophia watching me through the curtain

She probably thinks it would be a better use of fabric if I would have made her a bed.

It is such the perfect size. We went to the fair for a early birthday celebration for Chantel and I could hold water bottles, extra wallets, and all that stuff you pick up along the way at the fair. It is not too big though, and easy to carry.

Well, this is my favorite project of the week...I hope you like it.

Thanks for visiting!

Decorating with Letters

I love projects. I really love quick and easy projects that make me feel like I have accomplished something with not too much effort. I have always loved decorating with letters.

I was inspired by a fellow Oregonian blogger at Pink Postcard. She was nice enough to explain to me how she did it and how she found the alphabet online. 

My printer doesn't work so I had to figure out a way to do it without printing. I traced my computer screen! Then I went to Fed Ex and copied it in different sizes.

Then I did an old technique I learned at a ceramic shop-- I traced the letter onto tissue paper and then laid the tissue paper on my project and traced again with a fine line Sharpie. The Sharpie soaks through and there you have it--your image ready to paint!

It is really easy and a fun way to transfer something when you don't have a working printer!

So the B is for our family name--but there are all sorts of pretty letters in this alphabet. I wanted to put an S somewhere so I decided to put one on my recently painted bottle.

You can find the alphabet I used here. It says to feel free to use it--so feel free! :)

I have always thought our bed is so pretty but was missing something. I think a B is just what it needed!

 Now I just need to get to stenciling that wall behind the bed :) There is always another project calling my name!

Usually a cat or dog wants to lay on the bed when I am trying to take a picture--this time it was a bored teenager!

I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer. I am seeing Halloween and Fall stuff being brought into the stores. I am not ready! Here is to hoping summer is not a mere memory quite yet...

Thanks for visiting!

Pretty Painted Bottle Tutorial

I found a very pretty bottle the other day at Goodwill. I paid $1 for it. Someone had painted it already but I felt like I could give it new life. I am not a fan of the bright green color that it was...but I have been itching to paint something in a purple hue lately.

Last Saturday was free quart Saturday at Ace Hardware and I got this beautiful lavender color called Kimberly. I think it is so awesome that Ace does these giveaways. I love the Clark and Kensington paint! I coated the bottle twice because I didn't want any of that green to show! I have found with painting glass that hasn't already been painted as long as you clean it well most paints adhere nicely. I like to clean the glass with rubbing alcohol before painting. I also often make the paint chalky like shown in this post. But this bottle was easy because it already had paint on it and it seemed to be nicely adhered. I like to use a foam brush on glass projects.

After the paint is totally dry (I usually wait until the next day) I start sanding. Because I put 2 coats of paint on the sanding was more work...and the green kept showing thru anyway! Oh well, I decided the peeks of green showed the history of the bottle.

 The bottle was looking pretty but I thought the middle was just asking for a special treatment. So I decided to do one of my favorite techniques..the lace technique. You can see the technique on the coffee table in the background of these photos.

So I taped and covered all the parts that I wanted to stay just the way they are.

You can see the grass in my backyard is no longer green! :(

 

 

So I cut a piece of lace. This lace will get covered in paint and thrown away--so don't use anything really expensive . My Mother is able to find lace at garage sales for me all the time. (thanks Mom!)

I spray the lace with spray glue--let it dry for a minute so it becomes a temporary bond and not permanent. I wrapped it around the bottle and made sure it was adhered. Then I just sprayed it with white spray paint. (I usually use Krylon)

Remove the lace and you have a beautiful look!

I had planned to add a crystal brooch or something hot glued to the front but decided this bottle was so pretty it didn't need it. Sometimes simple is just right.

It is such a pretty painted bottle!

It looks beautiful with some Catmint in it.

Free paint and a $1 bottle = a happy Sandy!

 

I found this picture of Fez on my camera...

The hat he is wearing used to be worn by Big John (our cat who recently passed) and Chantel had taken the picture. Chantel said that Big John wanted Fez to have it...that Fez had inherited it from Big John. I am glad she is starting to heal from the loss of Big John. I sent the picture into Good Day Oregon and they showed it on the news during their Good Day Pets segment. He is so cute. Our cats just ooze with personality.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the painted bottle tutorial and I would love to see any bottles you create!

Thanks for visiting!

House Sparkle and Precious Kitties

The heat and humidity has been getting the best of me this summer. I feel like I have been getting nothing done..just no energy. But thankfully Wyatt and I decided to take an air conditioned drive to Goodwill the other day because look what we found!

I love crystal chandeliers and now I have found 2 bargains in a month! When I first got it it wasn't looking exactly like I wanted...

All it took was a little white paint, some distressing and cleaning those crystals and it turned out just like I wanted it too. It was priced at $6.99...but I had my $10 free receipt so I got it for free!

I had the perfect spot for it in my entryway above the chair where we sit to take our shoes off.

 I am really happy to have found this, and also so thankful that my husband is so good at putting things like this up for me!

We have had so much going on in our lives in the world of our felines...who are family to us.

Big John and Chantel

We lost our precious Big John who died of old age at 17. He has been with the kids their entire lives (and most of Janae's life) and we miss him so  much. What a wonderful boy he was!

Right around the time of Big John's passing we saw a silver shaded persian at the animal shelter while going with my Mother to license her puppy. We later saw her again at Petco..she was being advertised as being up for adoption at the shelter. We learned she had been there over a month and she was 5 years old. Her fur was a terrible mess and I think people were just afraid of the care her coat would take. I knew I could handle it. For many years I showed chinchilla and silver shaded and golden persians. Big John was my last persian from my cat showing days (though I never showed or bred him..he was just a favorite kitten who became a pet to us). Here I am in my cat showing days...

Those were fun years! My kitty Snuffy did very well at the shows :)

So anyway..you know where this story is going...the kitty at the shelter came home and became part of our family.

 

She had an ear infection, and lots of mats but we got her all cleaned up and she is doing great now. She is such a love!

 

 

Her name at the shelter was Rain. They named her that because the person who brought her in said they just found her. The shelter wondered if that was true. She was in bad shape so I am sure the person didn't want to admit to the lack of care. We liked that name but we name our animals more "real" names so we named her Sophia...keeping Rain as her middle name. Our other cats did not like the idea at first but they are slowly accepting her.

"Mom--Phoebe is touching me!" I swear sometimes cats can be as bad as kids when it comes to trying to annoy each other :)!

There has been one more big feline story in our household recently. Wyatt and I went to my parents house one day and as soon as we got out of the car could hear this terrible screaming! We ran to the backyard where we found a little orange kitten stuck in a bush. My parents don't hear well so they hadn't heard it--but a lady in the apartments behind their house said she had heard the screaming for 3 days. I can't understand some people! To make a long story short Janae decided to save his life and become his Mama. His leg ended up having to be amputated. Read the whole story here. It is really heartwarming..I am so proud of Janae.

I know we can't save them all...but I am thankful for the ones we are able to save!

Hope this finds everyone enjoying the summer--I am hoping to spend the next few days catching up on everybody's blogs! Ice tea and a computer---sounds like the thing to do in all this humidity :)

Thanks for visiting!