Coming up Next...

Oh my, oh my. I'm breaking tons of promises lately.
Where to start?

First, I promised to show off a bunch of rooms of my mother's gorgeous renovations, but we were able to come back to our house sooner than I thought. Yesterday, actually. But I did manage to snap a photo on my way out. She has this awesome 4 pillared porch. I would LOVE to have that at my house, but it would mean a crazy construction project.
So here's a sampling of her porch.

And I also promised to show off my dressed table with my nice china. Monday was my only day I could have done it this week, and of course I was at my mother's.
But I won't disappoint you! I'll be doing them for an early Christmas dinner. So look for that in the next few days!


So, let's talk about what we have coming up.

Whimsical Alphabet, Two creative wreaths (don't miss these, they are the coolest things ever!), tons and tons of ornaments I will be showing you how to make, sneak peeks of the newest reveal (it's coming along faster than expected!), highlights of our annual Festival of Lights, fun Christmas recipes, and more. Stick around, I have a full agenda for you guys!

When it rains, it pours

Oh my poor neglected blog.
I won't be able to show you any new projects for a while. The breaker at my house is toast. The part is shipping from California and should arrive by this Friday.
I have no heat or electricity, so for the meantime I am staying at Casa De Mom's ;)

So, since I don't want you to get bored for the next week, I will be highlighting some of my mother's rooms.
She has a gorgeous 2-story house. She has been tirelessly working to remodel it. So I will be showing you all of her beautiful remodels.
And maybe I'll show off some of my step-dad's "toys" as well.

You don't want to miss this. This woman can seriously decorate. Plus you may get a little glimpse of my childhood.

Overall, I think it should be a fun time.

Things and stuff

Today we're going to keep it simple and easy.

First, I'm going to show you a simple way to add details to a candle.

With upholstery nails! I'm planning on putting more on there, but I had very little left over from a previous project. But you get the idea, right?

Secondly, I finished the letters on my son's door.

I'm glad I went with white. It looks like it could possibly be part of the door. Subtle, yet bold =) I love it. And thank you Babara for the advice!

And lastly, I'm going to show you some awesome things that I found at Goodwill a while back. They've been sitting in my vehicle for quite some time now.

Shutters.... One's a bit broken, but with some TLC and a bit of creativity, it'll be awesome! And for $1.99, I wasn't going to pass it up!

And a mirror window. I don't know what I'm doing with this bugger yet, but I liked it, so I bought it. Remember: I'm a SQUIRREL! NOT A PACK RAT!
And no, I'm not going to do the obvious thing and put the shutters with the window.

Anyways, I've finally kick started my new reveal. I know it will take me a long time to finish, but I'm just letting you know that it's underway!

Velcro Photos

Yesterday I showed you my new wall above my window. I took out all these white framed photos (being too large for the space)...

and ended up with this.
It feels more open to me. Yes, I will eventually replace those ugly curtains, the broken light/fan (not even joking, broken from my husband playing Wii tennis), and I still need to paint the sconces. But it still is much better than before.

But what happened to all those photos?

I switched my large wedding one with that cool square scroll thing you see above. So now my wedding photo is above my entertainment center. There's nothing fun or cool about that, so I'm not even going to show you.

But....

I've done a fun project with the rest of them.

Velcro Door Photos

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I decided to put those photos on the kids' doors. What a fun way to show who's room is who's.

The problem was that I couldn't just hang it on the door. Kids slam doors, the pictures would definitely fall and break.

I didn't want to glue or nail it to the door, either. I eventually want to be able to change out the photos.

My solution was velcro.

Supplies

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-Sticky velcro strip (MAKE SURE it's the sticky stuff, not the stuff for sewing!)

-scissors

-level

Directions

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1. Measure across the top of your frame.

2. Cut a velcro strip to that length.

3. The velcro was thicker than my frame, so I also cut the velcro in half down the length of it. You might want to do it also, to save on velcro.

4. Peel off the sticky tape on your velcro and attach it to the top/bottom of your frame.

5. Press the other velcro on top of that side. (I put the hard stuff on the frame, and did the soft on top of it.

6. Now peel off the sticky backing of that while it's still attached to the frame. That way, when you put it on your door, it's 100% guaranteed that it will be in the right spot.
7. Have a level handy to make sure that your photo will be basically level on your door (it doesn't have to be perfect!)

Pretty neat, huh?

I have these letters that I took off my son's door to put this photo on. He's had these letters even before he was born, so I definitely want to keep them around.

They obviously need to be painted a different color. And I'm getting rid of the N and the Y. We no longer call him Johnny.

But I can't decide on a color. I can't do it BLACK because it would look weird with all the brown stuff around it. I can't do it BROWN because the photos will remain in black and white.

I was thinking WHITE so that if sort of blended in with the door, but since they are 3D, you could still see them.

I'm not sure.

I'm confused at this point.

What do you think?




If you love tablescaping, stick around next week. I'm busting out the bone china (yes, ladies, I DID say bone!!)

If you haven't done so yet, go check out Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage. You don't want to miss it!

Focal Point Wall

When I chronicled the 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest, I showed you my living room wall. Though all the photos above my window was definitely a focal point, it seemed way too large for the space. Not to mention that it really didn't go with the decor of the rest the room.

See what I mean?

Then I got these awesome huge pictures/framed from Younkers on Yellow Dot for only $3.74 each. So I put those up above my lamps, taking down those dinky little candle sconces.

Then there were just too many frames there, lol.

So I took down my huge (16x20?) wedding photo and traded it with this fun scroll thing that was above my entertainment center. Better...

Still too many photos (not to mention that one photo was two dogs in it. I only have 1 now...)

Yup, take the rest down.

So with those gone, I put those dinky sconces by the scroll.

And I was done!

Before:
After:

Those sconces are getting an oil rubbed bronze treatment soon, and I have a fun idea for dressing up the candles. And I think I am going to space them a little further apart (I just used the nails that were there from the frames.) But I like it much better this way.

Oh, and as soon as I give my mom the window dimensions, she's bringing over some classy drapes. Yay! I can't wait to get rid of these ugly lace things. It came with the house, don't tease me!


But what happened to all those cool photos of the fam?!
It's all part of a fun project that I will show you tomorrow.
Stick around for it, you don't want to miss it if you have kids!!

Check out The Shabby Chic Cottage for the Trasformation Thursday for some fun ideas for your own home!