Fire Place Screen Makeover

This is a fireplace screen I purchased at Goodwill, it was $9.99 and was half price. It had brass along top and a ugly brass design at the bottom, Yuck. Tom saw it and immediately removed the cheesy scroll brassy bottom, then I was luck ughh we forgot to take a before pic. Tom reminded me, that one of these days we will not just jump into projects and remember to take before pictures. I decided to place the brass bottom on the screen so you would get an idea of how it looked. I spray painted it black and here it is. I don't think it's too bad for five bucks.

Hey All You Decor Addicts

I just entered to win a $50.00 visa gift card on decorchick.com check her site out! She has fabulous tips, and ideas.

Vermont Lake Monsters Game

The Lake Monsters baseball team is a single A team league in Vermont for the Washington Nationals. We went to their game last night against the Hudson Valley Renegades, representing the Tampa Bay Rays. My 8 year old son was the bat boy for the game, he was thrilled! He got autographs, a baseball, and a broken bat for a souvenir. It was a great night, honoring our military.
Today at camp Adam wrote a book about his expierence, love it!

Faux Real!!

I'd like to thank The Academy, The Associated Press, and my family without you this could not have happened. I did it, I made two pillows with my left over zebra fabric from the ottoman. I made one an envelope style slipcover, and the other was a slipcover that I closed with two buttons. Love It! I put some pics with me actually making it. I am not even close to being a good sewer, or even an average sewer, hence me being so surprised at my work.

Goodwill Find

Went to my favorite store today, Goodwill. I got quite a few things, they had a boat load of good stuff. I have quite a few projects on my plate right now, so stay tuned I'm pretty excited about them. Tom and I went grocery shopping yesterday and picked up these beautiful Sunflowers. I had put the flowers in a vase, but the top of the vase was way too wide, making the sunflowers a little droopy. I went to Goodwill hoping for a more narrow top vase, which I found, but I also found this cool silver decorative vase that I put the other vase in. I think it looks pretty good.

New makeover

Yesterday Tom and I were doing some errands when we decided to slipcover our ottoman. We have a black leather couch set, and ottoman. We felt there was too much black and wanted a change. We decided to go to our local fabric store and do some zebra, I love zebra, and the living room needed some pop. The fabric was expensive! It cost $21.00 a yard, we bought two yards. When we got home Tom cut the fabric for me, he cut it in a plus sign shape. It looked like this(+) after he cut it. We did this so we would only have four seams to sew. When Tom finished cutting it I lugged out the ol' Singer sewing machine. I am not a huge fan of sewing, but no choice, had to. We sewed the first seam close to the edge so we could judge the fit when we slipped it over the ottoman. It wasn't as tight a fit as we wanted, so we sewed in an additional seam to have it fit more snug. It looks awesome. I am going to attempt to do a couple pillows today, I had quite a bit of left over material . Wish me luck.

Guess what I got Saturday?

The GAGA Record!

He poohs in blue

Garage Sale Find

Here is a pic of an old fan I found at a garage sale. I taped off the areas I didn't want painted, then sprayed it black. I have been told I need a black decor intervention. The best thing about this little find is it blows the best air. I just can never turn it on, because it could seriously chop off my little ones fingers.

My Favorite Thing

I hate to state the obvious, but a cute idea for wall decor is framing something special from your little one's. I love this peice Adam made me for Mother's Day!

I have a feeling I'm not in Vermont anymore

Oh my gosh yesterday was so crazy!!!! Tom, Adam, Noah and I were downstairs listening to the storm outside when suddenly I jumped and was like, "what was that?"Tom would say I screamed. Tom looked outside and we had a tree fall on our sun room. It was thundering and lighting outside and pouring!!! Tom wanted us all to get out of the house. We all jumped in the car in the pouring rain, and just got out of dodge. I didn't have my cell phone, baby bag, nothing. We drove around for a little while, trees were down everywhere. It looked like a Tornado ripped through our town. We never get severe weather in Vermont, we are actually lucky in that way. We ended up coming home when things calmed down, and noticed the sun room was in tact other then a 4000lb+ ash tree on it. We had some tree people come down and check it out, and they said it would cost $700.00 to get a crane out here and remove it. The tree was removed today, and to say it was a miracle that we had no damage is an understatement. The tree uprooted which made it come down slower then if it had split. God bless.

Roughing it in the woods decor

Tom and I took my friend Laura camping for a couple days up in the green mountains of beautiful Vermont. Laura is from Vermont, but moved to Tampa Florida several years ago. Laura was not exactly thrilled to go camping due to bears, and just the dirtyness of it all. Laura was unexpectedly surprised when I started decorating the site. I had bought a cool table cloth from the Maxx, matching pink and blue citronella candles, and black solar lights that attached to our shelter. Laura had a wonderful air mattress, and the morning before we left I convinced her to garage sale with us, we found a small battery operated fan for her. Laura sleeps with a fan every night. We had a great fourth of July!

Entry off garage makeover

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Holy 70's Paneling! This is the mudroom off the garage. This was a small makeover with much impact. I decided to paint over the paneling which required washing all the paneling down, then priming it. It takes a little extra work to paint paneling, because you have to get paint in all the paneling creases. It turned out faboosh. I had to paint two coats. I decided to paint the ceiling in this room the cappacino brown I have in the dining room, and living room. I found the little drum light at home depot for $39.00, and I was so happy because it corresponds with the drum light in my dining room. I got the baskets, $4.99 a piece and shade, $14.99 at Christmas Tree Shop. (A fabulous gem of a store found only in the New England area. This store is pretty cool, in Vermont we don't even have a Target, Pier 1, West Elm, and the list goes on, and on.)

The dining room

These are some pics of the dining room. The top pictures are of the dining room before. We have a chair rail and Tom had sponge painted it like a greenish turquoise below, per his previous girlfriend. The table was also pine and pretty beat up. In the after we painted the bottom part of the chair rail a cappuccino brown color. Tom painted the dining room table and chairs black, and it was alot of work. The table was sanded first, then painted several times black. There are probably 7 coats of paint on the table! Tom is meticulous at whatever he does, I love him for that because I am so not like that. We got a fabulous area rug at Homegoods. The first time we saw it there it was over $300.oo, not a poor girl purchase, we waited a couple of months and got it for $125.00, it is shag and fab! I ordered the drum light on line it was $100.00 and worth it. The mirror on the wall is from Costco, I won a football pool at work years ago and bought that with no regrets. I would like to say on a side note that I know that $125 for the rug, and $100 for the light are a little pricey, but they are staples in the home. I'm not a professional decorator by any strech, but sometimes you do have to spend some money.

Fireplace Makeover

We had a nice brick wood burning fireplace, but the style was a little 70's. When Tom and I went on a trip to see his sister in Ohio and noticed her beautiful ceramic tiled fireplace, that was all it took we decided to make ours over. These are the shots of Tom refacing it. The first shot is when Tom put the leveling mortar on the seat of the fireplace it was a little uneven. The second was after he drilled the cement backerboard in. The third was putting a black piece of granite that we got at lowes for $7.00 to finish off the firebox area. The tiles are marble and were purchased for a steal at Lowes. The tiles were I believe $2.28 per tile. We purchased 40 tiles. When we did the fireplace we didn't have our own wet saw, so we rented one for $85.00. Tom also had to rent a hammer drill to hammer the backerboard into the brick of the fireplace, but it turned out that was a wasted expense because all he really needed to do was a get a cement drill bit. I believe the total makeover was around $400.00. I think that isn't to bad, but alot on a poor girl budget. It was Tom's real first time tiling and it turned out FABOOSH!!!! My only major issue is that I have never had a fireplace before, and still can't figure out what to put on the mantle.
Update of how it looks now.

It is holding up great!

Turquoise Desk Makeover

Here is a desk Tom had hidden up in our garage. I had the need to paint something turquiose badly and he gave me the ok. I love the way it turned out. I first sanded with my mouse sander, then used cheese cloth to wipe it down. I primed it with some left over primer we had. Tom and I then went to his favorite store Lowes and picked out the perfect turquiose color. We live in Vermont and go to Florida every winter, when we look at this we think of Flo-rida! My plan was to put it in the dining room to keep the mail on, because our dining room table was becoming a dumping ground for mail. We have since discoverd our new love for playing records, yes records, so we have a record player on it for now. We are starting to get quite a collection. From Led Zepplin, Eagles, The Carrs, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Duran Duran, to my latest that is coming soon via ebay LADY GAGA. We will be getting a record cabinet soon that will be painted black and adorned with silver tacks along the edge. Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New fan for living room

With this heat wave a fan addition to the family was a must! ( Along with an air conditioner in the bedroom) Here it is.

In the before just picture an ugly glass recessed type light.