Grain sack pillows

My sitting room is really shaping up nicely (If I do say so myself!).

It all started with my burgundy striped couch.
I still love the line of it but not the dated burgundy striped fabric:

Then I slipcovered it with this Surefit slipcover I got from Target:

I knew the pillows had to go as well (does one project always snowball into another?). I saw these on sale at
Pottery Barn for $29.50 for just the cover! Ack. I knew I could make them for much cheaper.

I had purchased this lovely grain sack fabric from Decor Steals. It was $24 for 2 yards worth. Score!

I bought two 20" down filled pillows from HomeGoods for $19.99 for the pair. The covers
were pretty nice and removable to boot. I removed those (I will keep them because they are a nice neutral).
And sewed up two of these these:

A lovely trio: My coffee sack pillow I made (see here), my new grain sack pillow, and my ruffle-y Pier 1 pillow!

Loving my new neutral look!

Linking up to these parties this week:
Between Naps On The Porch
Cedarhill Ranch
Savvy Southern Style
DIY By Design
My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia
Green Willow Pond
The Shabby Creek Cottage
No Minimalist Here
From My Front Porch To Yours
Creative Crafts Thursday
Miss Mustard Seed
Serenity Now
Tatertots And Jello
Pieced Pastimes
Thrifty Decor Chick

The Little Dresser that Wood

Hi peeps! Thanks for coming back to my little blog! I'm so excited! I have finally finished this project! I had this plain antique oak dresser that I have had since I was a teenager. And it was already a antique when I got it so you can only imagine how many years old it is now! Hundreds, I'm sure! Ha!

So here she is before I started. And yes. The mirror HAS been crooked since I have had it.
And I never fixed it. For over 30 years. Whateva'! Don't judge.

ANY-way. It was pretty boring. I mean the mirror has some nice lines but the dresser itself - blah. Except for
those cute little wood casters on the bottom, pretty boring. All square, pointy edges. That orangey-oak color. Hate it.
And the knobs are stuck on. The screws must be stripped but I can NOT get those suckers off!
First I painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Chateau Gray. Which is really green. Not gray.
And I just wasn't feeling some green. I wasn't loving it.

First I painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Chateau Gray. Which is really green. Not gray. And I just wasn't feeling some green. I wasn't loving it. So then I did my own mix of 2 parts Old Ochre (creamy white) and Coco (dark taupe).
Of course I forgot to take a picture at this stage so here is a picture of my trusty helper instead (not so much).
At least he is actually awake in this one. A rare occurrence.

Note that fantastic grainsack pillow behind him! More on that later!
So after I gave it a good coat with my, ahem, "custom" mix I was feeling a little more love towards my dresser. But it
was still just a little too "eh" for me. It needed something. So I did a little trolling online and found this piece:

From home---made.blogspot.com . Adorable, right?
So I taped off the front and stippled some Martha Stewart Satin Acrylic in Vanilla Bean down the front.

 Note to self. Don't model AND take the picture yourself...

Or your hand will look deformed like this! Ew. I'm going to wear gloves tomorrow. (Self-concsious!)
I then waxed the whole piece with clear wax. I sanded in some light distressing and then waxed again with a 50/50 clear/dark wax mixture to stain the wood a little darker. And then the final result:

NOW she has some character!

I just love her now! And I am thinking of moving her back into the Master bedroom sitting area since she goes so well with my couch now. Remember the grainsack fabric I got from Decor Steals? These:

I made the pillows for the couch:

See how great they match the dresser?!

Happy sigh.

Thanks for stopping by again!
Linking up at:
 My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
 Cedar Hill Ranch
 Between Naps On The Porch
 DIY By Design 
 Savvy Southern Style
 From My Front Porch To Yours
 The Shabby Creek Cottage
 Miss Mustard Seed
 French Country Cottage
 Jennifer Rizzo
 Serenity Now

Filler Conundrums!

Lets chat a little about fillers! No, no, not Juvaderm or Botox!
You know, decorative fillers for vases, bowls and hurricanes! =o)

When I was sitting in that Pottery Barn class last Sunday I was peeking around trying to come up with some
fresh ideas for swapping out some of my containers. In the past I have used the popular ones. I'm sure we have
all used those containers of mixed filler you can get at: Pier 1, Target,  HomeGoods, anywhere really.

Here is a picture of the filler and vase aisle in Target. All sorts of filler!

I have also used pinecones, coffee beans (smell so good with a vanilla candle!), shells, rocks, acorns, cranberries,
faux lemons and more. These are all the popular ones. And while they work great and look good, sometimes you just want something new, right? Remember the little marbles and glass pods were so popular?

Look at that! $10 for wine corks!? Why would anyone need to BUY wine corks? Confusion...?

I switched out my dining room hurricanes recently to wine corks. Am I the only one who saves these?
You just gotta and they are great fillers for pretty much anything. I have picked up a lot of old finials and
architectural wood pieces lately at Lucketts Antique Store. They are usually pieces of stair spindles and
old trim work. I love those thrown in a bowl or in my carpenters box.

I still love all those decorative balls you can pick up everywhere too.
I like to mix textures to create a little more interest. I have moss, feather, twig, ceramic and wood ones.

Think out of the box when you are looking for fillers. I think old tarnished silverware would be fun and different. What about pool balls? Rope or twine? Even old spools of thread. You could shred up newspaper or paper bags (but make sure you use battery operated candles with those!). One of the Pottery Barn catalogs had old nuts and bolts as filler.

Well I'm done randomly musing about fillers. Sorry it wasn't the kind you were thinking! Although I could
share my secrets on that too I guess. Or I guess I just did! Oh well!

I hope I gave you some fun ideas! Please share your own creative filler ideas!

Addicted to cloches

So as I was saying in my last post about the Pottery Barn class, I am really addicted to cloches right now. I have to keep talking myself out of buying too many! I even talked my friend Cheri into buying one the other weekend. I knew if I couldn't get her to buy it I would snap it up myself. Plus it was a great deal and she really needed one. Now I can visit it just 2 doors down! LOL!
I don't know what it is about them... But I just can't get enough!

 This one is in my dining room with moss, feather and twine balls in it...

 This one is in the foyer with a birds nest and eggs (I needed a little spring in my house to get me through the winter!).

 And this one in the living room has some shells. And some funny little straw sproingy things.

And these wire cloches are also in the living room.
I got these from One Kings Lane. Or was it Decor Steals (2 of my favorite online home stores along with Antique Farmhouse and Joss and Main!).

Here is my foyer vignette again. I added the cloche last and it just made such a difference.
The glass block has white lights inside and gives the foyer a nice glow at night.
You can only use candlesticks, bowls and vases so often.

AGAIN - forgive my photos! I am getting much better with my Canon Rebel but a freaking sunny day would be really helpful! I think we have only had 3 this year!
Anyway, what decorating item are you obsessed with?!

Pottery Barn Accessorizing Class Review

It seems like everyone is having the winter doldrums right now! To combat that myself and many of my girlfriends have been sprucing up our homes. I don't know about you but I find myself buying the same type of decorating items over and over. I am just really drawn to sconces and candlesticks. ALL the time. I mean I literally have to talk myself out of buying them all the time. It's a sickness I tell you. Cloches are my new weak spot. I think they are taking over my candlestick obsession! I have really been in love with them lately.

But I still find myself in a accessorizing rut and kind of redoing the same type vignettes over and over. Or maybe I am just a little bored and need some inspiration. Well, what better place for inspiration when there is no barn sale available than Pottery Barn?! We all just love to get that catalog in the mail, right? There is nothing better! On that note, I decided maybe I would go sit in on one of their free classes. Most stores offer occasional classes in the morning before they open their doors. If nothing else I was curious to see if it was the kind of thing I would recommend to my staging clients.

So while my family lazed around this am I got up and showered, grabbed a coffee to go (from my Keurig!) and off I went to the mall (a place I rarely go lately!). I can tell you I have not been in a actual Pottery Barn store in a while. It's just best to just stay away from those places sometimes, you know. Don't send a alcoholic to the liquor store and all that! Anyway, so fun to go in while it is closed and lounge around like you are in a friend's house.

And look! A nice Cloche! He, he (you think I joke but that one followed me home!)
It was a small group - only about a dozen people - even one poor hubby. The gal next to me said she had been there before when it was pretty crowded. As in standing room only! This class was How To Accessorize Your Home. They did a lot of chatting about their products (to be expected). They discussed decorating your neutral sofa with pillows and changing them for the seasons. I was drooling over their Jute Braided Pillow.

Then they went over how to decorate your coffee and console tables, bookshelves and other surfaces. They highlighted their lanterns, vases and fillers. Botanicals seem to be really popular right now including mosses, stones, ferns and another natural type substances. And wrapping books in craft paper (I would use paper bags) to use as risers or even bookshelf decor.

Mostly I would say this particular class is great for a novice or someone who has a lot of trouble decorating. I mean, I am pretty sure I could figure out myself not to put bigger items in front of smaller items on a bookshelf. Huh?

  But wait! Don't stop reading! Here is the awesome part of the class and the reason I will definitely go back. After the class they gave everyone a 10% off coupon to use that day. Now I know this is not a huge savings but here is the great part. The 10% off was off of EVERYthing. Even sale and clearance items! So I definitely scored some deals! While everyone else went straight to look at the items the instructor had highlighted, I went to the back of the store to the sale and clearance sections. Yep, that's how I roll. I am cheap like that - hence the name of this blog!

So. Here is my haul:

Whoo - that looks like a lot, eh?! Oh, and yes. Yes that IS two more cloches I got. I am going to have to admit here, PB has pretty decent prices on these. I mean, I look for them everywhere: Salvation Army, barn sales and even my fave Lucketts Antique Store! They are hard to even find secondhand and since they are so popular now the saving is usually not that great. That small one (8" tall) was only $14.50 regular price and the other with the mercury glass pedestal base was $49 (plus my lovely 10% off coupon!).

PB has all their baskets on sale this month for 20% off. That made 30% off for me. Woot-woot! So I grabbed this one - original price $99 for $71.10!

Love it!

And now my best deal! I found this gorg' lamp back in the clearance section for the best deal! (sorry for bad iPhone pics today! I was excited and impatient. Hopefully it makes you appreciate my regular bad pictures more! Yes?)

Anywaaaaay... This sucker was originally $170. It was marked down to $54 because it has a small crack in one of the horizontal seams around one of the bulb-y parts (technical term) and the harp that holds the shade in place was all loose. I tried to just tighten it but it clearly has a bigger problem than that. So I rigged it up with some twine covered wire.

I thought it looked "rustic"...? Maybe not. Well once I find a shade I like you probably won't even see it. I might redo it with some wire or even epoxy or something. Final price on this was only $49.97 though! What, WHAAAAT?! Uh huh! Sweet!

See? I just love a deal!

I also picked up some Robins Eggs...

And that boxwood topiary that was way too expensive but I have been searching HomeGoods for-EVA' and I can't find one. So that was a splurge but at least I got a little discount. Did I mention my 10% coupon?

The only bad part of my day was seeing these cute guys:

Freaking cute, right? That brought up my feelings of loss over the ones I had in my cart from... Was it Joss & Main or Antique Farmhouse...? I don't know but they had a set of two for only $29. I had them in my cart and then forgot about them.  These PB ones are $29 each! Argh. Anger and loss, anger and loss. Please, please, please if ANYone sees this back on whatever site that was let me know!

Wow. that was way long for me! Sorry. I'll keep it shorter from now on! Toodles!

Hey Girl! Valentine Linky Party!

What a fab idea! Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" Link Party featuring hubbys, kids dogs whatever! Thanks to Michelle at Decor and the Dog, Chelsea at Two Twenty One, Bliss at Bliss Ranch, Ashley at Domestic Imperfection and Kelly at View Along the Way.

Hubs is gonna kill me But I just HAD to get in on the Hey Girl Linky Party!

I love my guy - he is definitely a good sport and lets me do whatever I want in our house! So XOXO to him!

So fun and funny! What a great idea for a Link Party girls! Click over and visit at Michelle at Decor and the Dog, Chelsea at Two Twenty One, Bliss at Bliss Ranch, Ashley at Domestic Imperfection and Kelly at View Along the Way for tons of hysterical Hey Girls!

Old junk is now new junk!

Mostly I am a purger! If I am not actively using something or it doesn't get used a couple times a year I get rid of it! The only exceptions are my china and silver (which I have probably only used once!) and my wedding dress! I think when we moved a few years ago it cured me of compulsively saving. Or maybe watching Hoarders did...?
But every once in a while I save something because I just have a feeling. Does anyone else ever do this? I am praying at least one or two of you are saying "Sure!". Anyway, we received some wine as a gift from one of my hub's clients one Christmas. I saved the wooden box it came in. In our old house I used it on top of our kitchen cabinets as a riser for some decorative plates or something.

 I like the box itself, especially the little knothole in the front there.

The top just slides out. I never really liked that stag on the top. It just looks, I don't know, a little too huntsman for me. (And yes, those peeps in the bowl were my snack while I did this project! At least I shared the first two rows with my kids!) And the wood is just plain, unfinished. Too "new" looking for me.

I took the lid off and grabbed my Minwax Early American Wood Finish to give it a little color. I gave it 2 coats and let those dry.
We got both a bottle of red and a bottle of white in this box.

So there was a little divider in the middle. I went back and forth about whether to leave that in or not. I stained it along with the rest... And THEN decided I didn't want it in there. So I removed that. Not as easy as it sounds. That sucker was in there tight!
Now. Where to put my new "vintage" wine box?!

I had this little arrangement on a wine buffet in the kitchen. That owl is just my favorite little accessory right now. Owls are SO popular right now. And mercury glass. This one is just TOO cute! Guess where I got him. GUESS!!! HA! Walmart! Love!

Just so friggin' cute!
My little boxwood came from my favorite store, HomeGoods.

Do they look cuter in there? Hmmm. I'm still deciding. (That is our bulletin board on the wall. Where I keep our family calendar, schedules and misc papers). Oh. I also took a Sharpie marker and colored in the letters to darken them up a bit. I' so glad I saved it. Even if I don't keep it in this spot!

Maybe I will turn the top over, hide that deer and make a cute sign too!