The Cubs

The same day we got the credenza (from this post), we also got two awesome bookshelves from When Pigs Fly.  This store is amazing!  We'd been looking for something to go on either side of the fireplace since before we moved into our house, and these were the perfect find.  They are divided into little cubby holes, so we affectionately refer to them as "the cubs."

Here's the before:

They went through quite a process to get to what they look like now in our house, but it was well worth the work. First, I sanded them (yes, every little cub).  Then, we painted two coats of yellow paint and they looked like this:

Next, we beat them up a little... this was fun.  After that we stained them.  Finally, Justin added some sheet metal to the sides and backs of a few of the holes.  Here he is in action:

Isn't he so cute?  :)

Here they are right after we moved them into the house!

Finally, here they are all fluffed.  They make us smile. 

Credenza

One of my favorite places to shop in Clinton is When Pigs Fly.  If you've never been there you should make a point to stop by this week!  They have awesome things, and the owners treat you like family.  Check out their facebook page here.  We bought several pieces from there about six months ago now; what we call the credenza is one of them.  It is a beautiful mid-century modern piece with tapered legs and a half circle detail on the top two drawers.  This is what it looked like when we first brought it home:

We really wanted some color so we decieded to paint it.  So, I sanded, primed, painted (three coats!), and finished with a coat of polyurethane.  The color is called Gypsy Teal.

Here are some "in progress" pictures:

The painting process took a while with five coats and drying time, but it was very worth it.  Here's how it looks in its home, all fluffed up:

Everything on this table has a story, which I love.  Here are some close ups of some of our favorite things:

These Javanese Shadow Puppets and the calendar are from Indonesia... one of our favorite places.

I got the painting with my mom on my senior trip in France and Justin got the Eiffel Tower during his semester abroad in college.  The top book is Let the Nations Be Glad; we love the nations and we think John Piper is pretty cool.  The bottom book is The Book of Cheeses we got our first time going garage sale shopping together.

I made this metal board (see that post here) and the stand that holds it displayed a picture at our wedding.  We picked up this piece of drift wood in Orange Beach on our first anniversary trip.

This space makes us smile when we walk in our back door.

Sally's Shades

Well, technically they are Sally and Justin's shades, but that kills the alliteration I've got going in the title (sorry Justin).  

While I may not have blogged in over two months, I have been busy!  I've got lots of projects on the blog list.  The first project is a pair of roman shades I made for my friends Justin and Sally.  They have been redoing their kitchen and need some privacy.  Sally picked out a beautiful fabric and I got to work.  These were my first roman shades to make and they took a bit longer than I expected, but I learned a lot and (spoiler alert) I've already made another!  Check out Sally's Shades on her blog here.  More project updates coming soon!

Recipe Card Pin Up

I still have tons of "junk" in the garage from the estate auction I went to a year and a half ago... I love having it though!  It provides lots of opportunities for projects including this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and this one.  (Wow, that was more than I realized!)  I'm actually waiting for paint to dry on one right now!  I made this one several months ago, but we just hung it last week... I'm excited about using it!  It's a frame I cleaned and painted with cork board inside and a yo-yo detail.  It makes me smile.  I hope you do too!

Friday Night Fun

I was feeling crafty tonight but didn't really know what I wanted to make. So I gathered up some scrap fabric in red since Valentine's Day is coming up, and sat down at my sewing machine. This is the result. It's a Valentine's pillow cover. I think it's pretty cute for making it up as I went along. It was a fun Friday night.

Christmas Crafting (part 2)

I got this awesome frame at an estate auction I went to a long time ago.  Well, I thought it was really cool, but I only got 3 sides of the frame instead of 4 so I couldn't use it for it's created purpose.  Since it was green I thought it would look great for Christmas to display the Christmas Cards we received.  I tried a few different ideas before I decided on putting magnets on it and sticking it to a piece of metal I had left over from another project.  I sawed one of the pieces into a few more to make a tree shape.  Then I hot glued magnets to the back.  I like the finished product even without the cards, but love what they add to it!

Christmas Crafting (part 1)

I realize I'm a little behind for a Christmas post, but it's better late than never, right?  And, yes (part 1) means there's at least a part 2 and maybe even a 3... I'm just going with it.  We've been a little busy around here (more posts on that coming soon).  For now, I'm going to share our Christmas stockings and their holders I made.

I'll start with the stocking holders.  I'd seen several wreaths wrapped with yarn and really liked them, so I thought it'd be neat to try that.  I found these letters, made of cardboard, at a super discounted price at Hudson's.  It pays to have Q start your last name... Q and Z were the only letters left that weren't damaged.  Anyway, I decided to wrap them in yarn and here is the final product:

 
I wrapped Justins Q in red and mine in green (of course).  I really like the way they turned out.  All of our Christmas decorations turned out a little Old World and we both liked it.  After wrapping the letters in yarn I hot glued them to simple stocking holders I bought at Walmart.  I think the whole project cost about $11.  

On to the stockings, I ended up making them twice.  I thought I had some process pictures, but if I do, I can't find them now.  I first made them without batting between the outside layer and the lining.  (I had made some before with it and I thought they were too think.)  However, these were too flimsy and did not look good hung without the batting and quilting.  So, I took them apart and added it in then quilted them and sewed them back together at the top with the white cuff in between the outside layer and lining.  I didn't use a pattern, I just sketched the shape I wanted onto the fabric and copied it over to the rest so they would match.  They look a little different than traditional stockings because of the curled toe.  We like the whimsy of the finished product.

 I also wrapped yarn around a wooden letter and attached it to the stocking by tying it to the loop used to hang it.  The J was a little difficult to wrap, I had to undo the first attempt, but got it on the second!











We really enjoyed our mantle decorations this Christmas.  I'm looking forward to decorating it again... Christmas will be here again in no time!