When Goodwill Lets You Down, Shop at Your Neighbor's!

A few weeks ago I had a bummer Goodwill experience. I have heard some people saying that our local store had gotten pricey and really picked through lately. Being a new DIY/crafter I had no frame of reference and needed to check it out for myself a little more. Well, I understand now! I didn't find much that I like, but then saw a really awesome french looking mirror and and a dresser. Each was priced at $85!! HUH??!! WHAT??!! I was shocked.

Well, lucky for me, these 2 beauties showed up at my door that very afternoon!

Aren't they great?? I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them.

How did they show up at your door, you ask? So, rewind a few weeks before that. I had been at my neighbor Melissa's house. I saw them in her basement and she mentioned that she was going to sell them at our neighborhood yard sale. I quickly told her that I would buy them. Score for both of us. It took me forever to actually get them from her, so she took matters into her own hands and had her hubby drop them by! (Insert embarrassed face!)

Now they sit in my basement waiting for inspiration to strike. I was going to tell you my plans, but then decided I will share that in another post. (Taking a page from blogger gurus who tell me not to make one post out of two posts!) Off to paint that table from the other day...or watch Nate Berkus.

I have a little crush

on gray. It all started with this:

Cassie at www.primitiveandproper.blogspot.com

It is what gave me the idea to paint my dining room gray. This is a link to my first post about that. The room is horribly unfinished, but it's getting there! The room is painted Sweatshirt Gray from Benjamin Moore. An awesome gray with a hint of the blue that has a great dimension to it.

I think (ok, positively sure) that I have said how much I love gazing into that room from the living room. It is definitely the look that I love and am going for in the rest of the house. The problem is that I do not love gazing into the living room from the dining room. While a beautiful new couch is on my list in the FAR future, I figure paint is the best way to up the anty in there in the short term. 

Here is the wall/couch combo as it now stands:

Not bad by any means, but not like the dining room! I want a light/airy feel to go throughout the house - almost cottagey. I want a lighter/warmer gray than the dining room that won't feel too cold throughout the whole house. Which ever color we choose will run up the stairs and into the hallway upstairs. (I guess I should give you a real tour of the first level of the house. I'll save that for another post!) So, that's what I told the lady at the paint store when I asked for help the other week.

Here is what I am thinking, and I hope you can see the colors well in the pictures. Sweatshirt gray is the top color. The bottom large swatch is Harbor Gray also by Benjamin Moore.

I think Harbor Gray seems to be a combination of both of the middle two colors (Nimbus is one and I can't remember the other and yes, I am too lazy to march myself upstairs to check! Ok?!)

My decision? Harbor Gray! I think it's the perfect color. Now, to actually get the painting done, that's another story. Oy!

Home Again

We were on spring break last week so we took the girls and visited all of the grandparents. We got back late last night. The weather was awful but we had a GREAT time. Nothing like getting pampered by your parents :)
So, being away for a while, I don't have anything complete to show you. I have some ideas brewing and some pieces of furniture to work on. Here is a little sneak peek of something I started before I went away. I am hoping to get it finished this week. (That's also what I said before we went away!)
This little table used to live in the dining room.

It's going white with a fun detail. I don't want to show any more besides that! Check back later this week for hopefully the after!

New Art...

Wouldn't it be nice if I made it? Alas, I didn't. I saw these

awesome city map prints from Ork Posters FOR-ever ago! I thought they were so cool and loved the various colors and the price! We thought about getting the Boston, DC and NY posters for our basement, but never got around to doing it amidst all the other things going on around here!

I decided that we could get my brother one for Christmas - he lives in Boston now and I knew he would love the red one. Little did I know, he was getting one for us as well. He bought us the Washington, DC poster in black. We loved it, but it sat rolled up in the basement family room for a long time. To be fair, I had bought a frame a Ikea a while back, but it wasn't the right size. Finally, I got a frame from Target and we hung it this past weekend. Here are some pics.

I love looking at all of the little neighborhoods that always seemed to allude me in the past! The room is coming together, although isn't QUITE where we would like it to be. I am working on a fun little furniture piece for down there. More on that in a week or so!

April showers

We have had so much rain lately. It bothers me, I am over it. A friend at work told me today that she loves all the rain in April because her birthday is in April. That's a nice way to think of it, I guess. But, anyway, it still bothers me!

We decided to spruce up the front yard this weekend after all the gloomy days. Nothing like some adorable pansies to make the house feel brighter. Here are some before and after pics.

Cute, little, lonely window box

Happy front door!

Happy window boxes!

I love what a little color will do! Happy warm weather (here's to hoping!)

New Tray!

This weekend I attempted to spiffify ( huh, really, I just wrote that?) that tray from the entryway. Read about that here.

This is the tray:

I painted it a glossy bright white as step 1.

 I thought it was definitely a nice breath of fresh air, but I took it one step further! I had bought some pretty decorative papers the other day at Michael's. (4 bucks for 60 papers! How awesome is that!?)

I papered the back of the tray first, just to make sure I wasn't going to totally mess it up!

 And here is the front of the tray! It looks a little off center but I think that's just the photo

Just a little something extra! I am sharing at Debbie Doos Newbie party and Polly Want a Crafter today.

While I'm on the subject....

of craftiness I wanted to show you this adorable growth chart. Alas, I didn't make it. Two, awesome, local moms (from Reston) who own a company called Sugar Cone Company made it!

My older daughter is obsessed with ice cream, so this was perfect for them! My parents bought it for them as one of their Christmas gifts and we have it hung in their playroom. The color on the walls in there almost exactly matches the green on the chart. It's kismet! It adds just the right amount of fun and pizzazz. Check out their blog to get info on these awesome, customizable growth charts. (They know nothing about this post, just thought I'd share their great handiwork.)

So cute, right?? Wish I could claim credit...

Getting Crafty and a shout out...

My blog is supposed to be about how I am trying to find my inner crafty girl with some DIY trials thrown in there. I am working on it - not quite showing how I get my craft on. Patience, people!
I was racking my brain trying to think of an actual craft project that I have actually done. Then I remembered that I do have some bulletin boards that I made in my daughters' rooms a while back. Well, let's be honest, I only made one of them :) The first one came about from my good friend, Kate, who had made some in her daughters' rooms. Once my younger lady was born, I needed to infuse some color into her plain, little room. Kate suggested we tackle these and I was happy to! Let her tackle it, that is! I bought the supplies and Kate made it. It looked great. She's one crafty lady. Here's the one she made. 

I bought the bulletin board, batting, fabric and ribbon at the craft store and Kate had the staple gun and push pins on hand. She just wrapped the batting around the board first, stapled it and repeated with the fabric. She cut the ribbon and made a little 3x3 grid in both directions on the board. Super easy!

When we moved here I decided to tackle one for my big girl's room.

This time I bought a bigger cork board and decided to go for a more solid color fabric (there are small white dots but you can't really see them.) I made sure to pull the batting and fabric really tight around while stapling. I had some trouble with the ribbon grid - like getting it perfect - but I think it's the kind of thing that only I can notice. 





I used the same push pins that Kate used on baby girl's. After living with it for a few months, I notice that the pins aren't deep enough or something - they don't hold a lot of the things that we put in there. I am thinking maybe I need to sew some big buttons on the cross lines instead...know what I mean? She likes to throw a lot of things on there!

Also, here is a little shout out to my friend, Angie, at Seriously a Homemaker. She is starting a new Monday night feature called "10 Minute Monday." The challenge is to re-do a space in your home in just 10 minutes. I kind of cheated and didn't really re-do something, just cleaned it up. Here it is:
One big (little) mess.

Exactly 10 minutes to kick its butt. 
  
Pictures to prove it. 
  
Walk away feeling like a rock star! 
  
3...2...1...GO!

Oops, I see a little sock peeking out of my drawer.

Quick and easy! Told you I would do it, Angie!