Broken Glass??

My first experience in playing with Mosaic stuff.  My sister in law asked me to help her with this project.  It was a first time for both of us, so we learned a little, and had a lot of fun! She had a broken vase she wanted to use, so she broke them up into fingertips size pieces.  I had a piece of framed canvas that we decided to use.

We mixed up some white grout and applied a thick layer to the whole thing. We then laid the glass in a heart shaped and filled it in.   We later decided to scrape the rest of the grout off.

We then let it dry for a while and then cleaned off the glass with a sponge. She took it home to let it dry and then she was going to spray paint the canvas white and tie a ribbon around it with a saying. 

I am excited that it really worked and actually turned out since neither one of us knew what we were doing!!  So next time you break a vase, don't worry we have a project for you!

BeadBoard

So I finally did something I have been wanting to do in my house for a long time!  I wanted to do it in our last house, but by the time I got enought guts to do it myself, we put the house up for sale, so when we moved into this house, I knew I wanted to put beadboard somewhere. . .at first I thought the kitchen, but then some chain of events changed my mind about what I wanted to do in the entry way and so I decided that the entry way would be a perfect place to do beadboard. . . 

We love how it looks!  I got about half way done and realized I didn't take a before picture. . oops! I put a picture of the hallway in to give you kindof an idea of what it looked like before.

If you want to do beadboard in your house, go here she does a great job at explaining how to do it, and she is fun to read :)  Also don't feel like you have to have a bunch of tools to do this project.  I did this with an exacto knife, a hand saw, hammer, nails, and a caulk gun. It took probably longer then if I had all the tools, but I still was able to get it done.  I did about 15 feet of beadboard, and spent about 90.00 .  (I bought the pre-cut wood slates)You probably can't tell, but I made a mistake when I bought the beadboard, and bought 2 packages of beadboard and 4 packages paneling.  I didn't notice until I had stained everything, and couldn't take it back, so I just aternated the beadboard with the paneling.  I love how it makes the beadboard look subtle.

I think I'm ready. . .

. .to show you the laundry room.  You will have to use your imagination for one picture, my amazing dad is in the process of building me a counter to go above my washer and dryer. I know it will tie everything together. For now here is what we have. . .

I found the perfect thing to help with the other side of the room- I went into Joanns and they had these green vases filled with feathers, I loved the color of the feather, and they were on clearance almost 70% off!!  I am still debating weather to make the pizza thing green. . .hmmm. . .

 Here are the curtains I made here

 This is our "drop" zone-where we drop everything when we walk through the door. . .

 I love all the little details. . .

 This is where you are going to need to imagine a beautiful counter. .  it's going to be amazing!!!

The color I used is Martha Stewarts Phlox.  I was hoping it would of been a little more gray, but I love it with the curtains, and now that I have everything up I don't notice the purpleness in it anymore. .

Shopping the Thrift Stores

I am going to step up here on my soap box and tell you my two sense on thrift shopping for decorations.  Remember this is only my opinion.  I have not had any school or professional training in this area, nor do I claim to be an interior decorator. . .but I have learned a few things.  Now a couple of years ago I would of told you that you can't find good things at the thrift store to use in decorating. . .and if you could you have a rare talent. . . while I still think there are those select few you have a rare talent of seeing something un-useful and making it useful and amazingly cool, . . . I feel I am learning a few tricks of my own.  First when you go into the thrift store make sure your not looking for something specific, or you won't find it.  Look for shapes and textures, because trust me when I say this-you can spray paint just about EVERYTHING!!  Before I left to go thrift shopping I had two things in mind, I wanted to get some "silver" things and I wanted some tall things.

 The silver bowls were probably my best find!!  I am going to leave those as is-love them- The pizza thing I am thinking I might need to paint it green (as you will see in a later photo).  The wood serving thing I spray painted also.
 This thing (I think it's an old trash can cover thing they used to have without the bottoms) anyway I loved the texture of it, and I knew I could spray paint it, so I didn't hesitate to pick it up. 

 There it is all painted!!  I love how you can still see all the texture.

 Old books are a must for me-they have so many uses so I never pass those up-This one I painted silver and tied a yellow ribbon around it-

Also don't be afraid if something is dirty or rusty. . .you can either clean it up or leave it to add to the character of the room.

That little tin up front is rusted, and when you pick up the lid it sounds like there is sand or rocks in it, but I still got it. . .why? . . .because it's silver, so cute, and just the perfect thing to hold stuff that I find in pockets.  The big jar was a gift from my mom (where I am going to keep my dryer sheets), and the other jar was a thrift store find. . .jars like that are a never pass up!!!

And here it is all put together.  I love this side of the room.  I love the height of everything the touches of color to pull it all together, and the pieces of silver and clear.  I know there are probably people out there that would say this is alllllllll wrong, but I think it looks great and hey I'm on the soap box right now :)!

 This side is struggling a little bit. . . .that is why I am thinking to make the pizza thing green. .  .but I would also like a little more texture added to it so I am still thinking.  I also think it needs something taller. . .still working on that to. . . I do love the tin. . . this was given to us full of cookies. . . we ate the cookies and I was about to throw the tin away when I thought "this would look great in the laundry room" :)

Okay I think I have spent my fair time on the soap box.  I hope what I shared will help you in your adventures at the thrift store!

Bathroom Curtains

I have been working on this project for a while and it is finally done!

I did curtains for our guest bathroom.  First I took 2 yards of fabric and cut it in half length wise.

I hate the look of seams when I use sheer fabric, so I take a lighter and go along the edges.  It cleans up the strings and melts it just enough to keep it from fraying.

Next I had beadboard leftover from a project.  I glued it together and painted it red with some sparkles. 

 I had a huge bag of these left over from another project also, and so I glued them all over the wood.

 I hooked the fabric to the back of the wood and hung it above the window. 

I am thinking that it would of turned out better if I had painted to wood white, but it's done and hung up!