channeling my inner girly girl

When I bought this lamp at a yard sale last weekend I thought to myself- this is a no brainer-- this lamp is a diamond in the ruff- a great makeover is in the bag. 

Now that the makeover is partially done-- I think it might be a little too "precious" for my liking.  I am by no means a girly girl-- I keep my hair in a pony tail most of the time and don't really worry about keeping my nails painted (apparently by my standards you are uber girly if you wear your hair down and have nail polish on? i don't know, moving on)...but on the other hand I am not boy-ish... this girl does NOT leave the house with out makeup on.. its just not a pretty sight.   

Anyways... this is what I started with:

I took the entire lamp apart-- I know, right- who do I think I am taking a lamp apart?  I bought one of those lamp kits, so I thought... this will be a piece of cake... I was right taking the lamp apart was a piece of cake... putting it back together, not so much.  


Here are the inner pieces

I spray painted them a metallic silver color and let them dry. Once they were dried I went through the painful task of trying to put the lamp back together.  Luckily I took pictures of it before taking it apart so I figured out where everything went.  So this is the deal-- the lamp is in one piece and if I plug it in and turn it on it does work, however, for whatever reason the lamp isn't "tight" anymore.  Its all loose and it jingles when I move it.  This thing is hanging on by a thread and I'm kind-of scared that it has potential to spark due to my unsure-ness in wiring the thing.  Can that happen?  Do I need to be worried? 

Here she is all put back together and shined up

I'm just not sure what kind of shade to put on it...what do you all think?  Is there a shade out there that would "go" with the lamp but not make it look SO girly? 

Carolyn 

Guess what got a mini makeover?


Give up already?  That would be my crappy hunkofjunk coffee table!


You all remember the before.  Yup, UGLY!

 With a little help from my new mouse I was able to sand away all the cheap laminate

This was a BEAST of a job!  Phew!  My arms felt really weird after vibrating for a good hour and a half. 

Shiny new coat of paint!  The little dot on the bottom left corner would be a tiny little bug that lost its life in my black paint--he never saw it coming.  I tried so hard to save the poor guy but he didn't make it.  It almost put a damper on my painting party...almost.   

Here we are, looking good as new in the family room!

OK- so I know what some of you are thinking... why didn't you paint the legs black?  Do you want the answer that makes me feel better about myself or the honest answer?  


Lets go with the answer that makes me feel better about myself--- I like the black and brown combo...really, I do.  The realistic answer is I didn't want to sand anymore!  Seriously it was draining and I gave up.  But I really do like the mix of black and brown.  


The only downfall to this job is that the top is not uber smooth like it used to be.. its a little rough and "chunky-ish" if that makes sense to anyone.  Can someone PLEASE tell me crunchy and rough furniture is cool right now?!?  Anyone?  


Happy Wednesday!


Carolyn 

a mouse in the house!

It's official... i'm in LOVE!

Check out my brand new B&D MOUSE!  It is the MOST amazing sander in the whole wide world (keep in mind that prior to this little guy I sanded by hand... so my opinion may not be that official:))

Regardless-- I LOVE him!

Stay tuned to see what me and my mouse worked on ALL Sunday evening!

Carolyn 

pretty-ing up some thrift store candles

PHEW!  What a insanely busy weekend!  I worked on a TON of projects around the house so I have LOTS of exciting projects to share... some that are pretty exciting and some that are just plain silly. 


Remember the candles I bought at Goodwill Friday night for a total of $3.00? I didn't love the color or the design, but luckily, it didn't matter!  I had other plans for these tubs of wax! I had these two really large candle pillars that I needed candles for... I decided to cover them in fabric to match my current fireplace mantel.  Oh!  One more thing...luckily the scent didn't matter since I wasn't planning on burning them.

$3.00!  These would have cost $8.00-$10.00 a piece regular price

Supplies ready!  All it took was my candles, fabric I already had, scissors, and glue scratch that-- I ended up using tape!

I cut two strips of fabric the same thickness of the candle

Ready to roll!

Rolling my candle.  Once I made it all the way around I taped the fabric together

Then I taped the fabric to the bottom of the candle... neatness does not count! 

All wrapped!  They look a little messy..but you will see- it really doesn't matter. 

All prettied up! Luckily the mantel is so high that you cant see the
top of the candles are different colors

The Finished product

What do you think?  Was it worth it for $3.00 and about 5 minutes of my time?  I think so!  I am a little annoyed that I did not plan this out better and go for a Fall color scheme (not that tan isn't Fall-ish but it really looks like sand right now and matches my summer mantel).  I am planning a Fall mantel soon so you never know... the color may just change:)

thrifty shopping

Whats a girl to do with a free morning and a few smackeroo's?  You probably guessed... Yard sale and thrift store shop!!!


Look at all of the loot I got for less than $35.38.  Sure it looks like trash right now but wait till you see what I do to it...or attempt to do to it!!

Almost all of my goodies!

What a STEAL!  Seriously!  I have been looking for one of these dresser's FOREVER!
When I saw it sitting all by itself I was so excited to see that it was $25.00... then just as I
asked the sales person to take it to the front for me he lifted off the lamp on it to show a SALE
sign for $10.00!!!!  You can't beat that price!  It is going to go in my guest bedroom.  I just need to
decide if it is staying wood colored or not... stay tuned!

U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi you UGLY... hey hey you ugly!
Ahh.. j/k.. I have high hopes for this one! This gem was $5.00

A closer look!

Don't love these right now.. but I think they will look fantastic prettied up.
The pink one was $1.99 and the white one was .99. 

Another plate for my plate wall!  Love how colorful this one was!
Plus for .99 it had to come home with me.

Pretty excited about these little mirrors that already have hooks for the wall.
They are going to be fancied up first though.  Total- $3.99

An Apothecary jar with sea shells.. you cant beat that!  $5.00

I debated on these things forever! They are wall sconces and I think I like them.. not 100% sure.
For $1.96 a piece I will see what I think of the end product.  

This is a HUGE bargain that I found at a yard sale this morning.  It is a warming dish that just
needs a little TLC to make it silver and shiny again.  Never been used for $3.50!

Have you gotten any good deals lately?
Stay tuned for some before and afters coming this week!

 Carolyn

finagling a rug

Eureka!  I feel like I have hit the jackpot of ideas!  So, you know how I have been dreaming of a striped rug?  You know the beautiful one below that is $890.00 and WAY out of my budget?

Well.. I was checking out IKEA.com and had a beyond brilliant idea (or a really stupid idea if it fails)!

They sell this rug for $12.99..yup that's it!  Its much smaller, only 5 x 3 compared to the above 8x10 but what if I bought two and sewed them (or lets be real, placed them) together and made it a 5 x 6 for only $26.00? Or what if I got three and made it a 5 x 9 for $39.00?  That's about as thrifty as it gets, right?

Just as I was contemplating the idea I remembered reading a blog about someone who painted their jute rug with a chevron pattern.  After a little searching I found it!  Check out what Our Humbled Abowed did!

Pretty fantastic if you ask me!

So what do you think?  The rug would go under my kitchen table so it would be mostly covered.  Ikea has a 8x10 jute rug for $90.00 that I could attempt to paint or I could go with the side by side rugs OR I could stop being silly and wait until I strike it rich or until the rug of my dreams goes on sale!  Decisions, Decisions!

Carolyn

neat and tidy!

When I returned from my beach vacation and opened up my pantry it physically drained me.  I am not a neat person by nature but I strive to be that way...it just doesn't come naturally for me.  Anyways- I wasn't feeling my best this past weekend and decided to stay in, relax, and clean up my pantry.  Here are some before and after pics.  Don't judge!

A little taste of what my shelves looked like

Tsk Tsk

Here are some after pictures:) 

Ahhh... I feel like I can breathe again!  If only the rest of my house looked this organized!  You should know that about 7 feet from this clean and organized little room I have a sink full of dishes and pots and pans on the stove.  Not feeling well is a great excuse for not cleaning. 

Have you organized anything lately?

Carolyn

if i jumped in a lake would you follow me?

Probably not but luckily I am not asking you to do that:) I just put a "Follow Me" link on the right side of the page and it looks uber pathetic right now!  Help me look like the popular girl that I long to be! 

Muah!

Carolyn

time to get serious

I decided to mirror some of my favorite bloggers and post some upcoming goals for the month.  Since September is just about kaput I decided these are my goals for September and October.   Maybe if I write them down I will accomplish them... we will see:)


September and October Goals:


1.  Find a table to go between my living room chairs. I'm thinking I could find the perfect glass and metal tiered table from a thrift store. The search is on!

2.  Fall-up my front stoop!  Add some mums and I am deciding between the ribbon pumpkins or the house number pumpkins. If I go with the ribbon pumpkins I would go with large pumpkins and if I go with house numbers I have 5 to carve.  What do you think? 

3.  Attempt to save my coffee table.  This is the story... we bought a coffee table exactly 14 months ago and it is the cheapest hunk of junk I have ever owned.  Unfortunately the store has a NO return policy (note to self.. run the opposite direction when a store doesn't back their products) so we are stuck with it.  About 3 months after getting the table we started noticing that the cheap veneer top coat was chipping off.  Now this is what we have...


We have tried purchasing the wood markers but this isn't wood-- it's fake veneer so I am going to get crafty and try to sand and paint and if that doesn't work I may attempt to decoupage fabric on the top of it like Nicole at Parlour did (see pic below!! P.S. I would link to her site but my link feature is not working.  You can find her on my favorite blogs list!). It's already ruined so I am OK with experimenting.  Let me know if you have any other neat ideas for me to try.

What I am currently dealing with:)

Example of decoupaging from Parlour! 

4. Maintain weight loss.  This is in no way a "diet blog" but I have lost about 45-50 pounds and I have every intention of keeping it off.  Maintaining my weight in September and October is a pretty big goal.

Here is a before and after picture:)  They are almost exactly 1 year apart.

July 2009 Beach Trip

September 2010 Beach Trip
P.S. I am NOT pregnant.. my pants happen to be
REALLY high and they make me look a little lumpy :(

5.  Make some art!  I love this "letter" art work that was made by some of my favorite bloggers at Young House Love (again, I cant link but you can click on their blog located under my favorite blogs list.  This project is posted under Most Popular Projects under the Projects tab at the top of the page).

This is their finished product!

This is how they did it!
They found a large letter from a magazine
article and cut out the surrounding
letters/words and blew it up by 300%!

That's it!  Here's to making some things happen in September and October!  What are YOUR goals??

Carolyn 

did you miss me? Did you know I was gone :)

Eeash!  Sorry for the week full of lackluster posts, I promise I have good reason for it-- I WAS ON VACATION!!!! We got back yesterday morning around 10 am from Nags Head, NC!  We had the BEST time... the weather was rediculously beautiful and I LOVED spending the week with the crazy people I call my family.  There were 10 of us total-- my mom, oldest sister plus her husband and their little boy, my older sister (not to be confused with the oldEST sister:)) her husband and their little girl, my little brother, me and my husband.  The trip was LONG awaited-- I spent the entire summer watching co-workers and friends head out on summer vacation and was so excited to finally have my turn!

I promise to post pictures as soon as the oldest sister gets off her rump and sends them on over to me (yes, I am talking to you, Chrissy)!  Why is it, you ask, that I dont have any pictures?  Well- thats cause I am incapable of toting my camera around with me.  If by some magical chance I have put forth the effort to bring my camera, the task of taking it out of my bag and pressing a button to take a picture is just too much effort for this girl. It's sad, I'm aware of this.  

I am off to RELAX tonight.  For some reason whenever I go out of town I return feeling a little "blech!" and under the weather.  time to get some sleep and hopefully feel 100% by tomorrow.

Carolyn

skinnies

So I made the leap and bought my very first pair of skinny jeans!  I feel kind of funny in them but I'm thinking that's cause I don't have the perfect pair of boots to go with them yet. 

What do you think of these Candence Boots from Steve Madden?

Or do you like these Tyller Boots better?

Any other ideas?  I am a BIG fan of the rugged leather lookin' ones but I also like the suede ones...what's a girl on a budget to do?

Carolyn