random wednesday

as usual, i've got a lot of random things going on.  so, i thought i would just be random and share!

last friday, C and i went up to our local ReStore to look around.  i didn't really go looking for anything in particular, so, we were just about to leave when i saw this hanging on the wall.

i loved the sweet needlepoint, and thought it would look great in C's room.  i needed a little more art in there, and this needlepoint at only $10, would work great.

but that matte.  grayish blue?  why?

and the frame.  pretty beat up and bad.

so, i bought it, but wanted to make it work for cheap.

i took it apart and cleaned the glass and the frame.  sprayed the frame white and then found a matte for $3 at hobby lobby.  and now, it looks like this -

so much better, right??  the green matte alone makes a huge difference!  one that actually matches...what a concept, huh??  and glossy white spray paint always makes things better in my opinion.

now, it's hanging in her room with a couple of other prints and frames i already had.

the smaller frames were terrible too, but i just sprayed them white.  the mason jar art was a valentine's day card.  and the smallest print is from katie daisy that i got on Craft Weekend.

all three of these cost me a total of $13.  i mostly just used things around the house.  i love finding old stuff that's not being used anymore and making it cute again.

ok - random train moving on....

this was last saturday.  we were able to get out and ride her bike!  it was so nice to let her run around outside.  it's either been too cold (because it's february!) or too rainy.  i'm not complaining at all about this snowless winter.  it's going to be almost 60 today, and we will be doing this again!  =)

later that night, i had a free night to myself.  why?  because these two went on a little date!

i couldn't love this picture more.  she was so excited!  she calls "dates", "gates".  when she spends the night at her gran jan's, she knows that mommy and daddy are going on a gate.  well, this time, it was her turn to be taken on a gate by daddyboy.  she was beside herself.  running around, getting ready.  i loved seeing her so excited.  and i am beyond thankful for that boy.  to be excited to take his daughter to a dance in a church gym?  thats a keeper right there!  ;)

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on monday i made these

 
low-fat lemon poppy seed muffins.  i found the recipe here.  they are really good.  just the right amount of sweet and a nice change from cold cereal in the morning.

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ok - here's my last random rambling...

see these?

part of my valentine's present.  yummy.

but, today is ash wednesday.  the beginning of lent.  and i've decided to give up sweets for lent.  not sugar.  sweets. stuff like ice cream, chocolate, cake, cookies.  all things i love.  but, all things that i've started to realize, have a hold over me.  i can make up a hundred excuses and always justify a little sweet treat.  but just because i can justify it, doesn't mean it's good for me.  and worse than the physical health reasons, i realized i don't have much will-power against these things.  i don't like that.

so, i'm making it public.  i'm sharing it with the world!  uh-oh....  NO MORE SWEETS UNTIL EASTER.

uh.  i think my uterus just yelled at me....

have a good wednesday friends!!

a chair for C

we still don't have C in a big girl bed yet...  i wanted to share this little chair makeover with you then, but i'm not exactly sure when that will be.

so, it get's its own post!

i found this chair at my local ReStore.

they are kind of hit and miss, but i've had some success up there lately.  like my lamp.

this little desk is child sized, and was only $15!  i couldn't pass it up.

i wish i had found it unpainted, but since it came white, i decided to paint it again.  the white is sweet, but C is getting a white bed and a white dresser, so i decided to do something kind of bold and bright.  plus, it took less than 2 cans of spray paint, so it will be cheap to change if i ever want to.

it's called raspberry pink from Krylon.  C thinks it's red, but it actually works really well with the pillows and bunting i made for her room.

after i sprayed the entire thing, i knew i wanted to add more.  a little something on the top board of the back rest.

i thought about initials, or her name, but then i decided i would do something more generic.

so, i went with bunting

simple and sweet.

but after walking by it a few times, i felt like it needed a little more.

i was originally only going to trace the little flags and connect them.  but then i got gutsy and decided to add the little polka dots.

i definitely don't have the most steady hand, and i pretty much never paint.  except walls.  but i think it turned out pretty cute.  especially for a 2 years old!  =)

and C loves it.  she loves the little cubby area underneath the seat, and she loves that it's just her size.

we have it sitting in the kitchen right now, and she sits and colors at it just about every day.

i can't wait to put it in her room, whenever it's all finished.

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so, i'm leaving for craft weekend tomorrow morning!!  i mean, really?  it is really tomorrow??  it's been very interesting trying to explain to people where i'm going and why.  isn't a weekend FULL of crafting a good enough reason?  i mean, look here and here at what she has teased us with already??

so, my weekend starts tomorrow!  have a good one friends. i promise to take lots of pictures to make you jealous!!  ;)

a little weekend project

well, we didn't get to put C in her big girl bed this weekend like we origianally planned.  the people painting her bed took a little longer than we thought.

so, since i was in the frame of mind of getting her room ready on saturday afternoon, and then wasn't able to, i decided to tackle another project i've been thinking about.

her bathroom.

when we first moved in, we snapped this picture

terrible.  just terrible. 

pinkish tile on the walls.  brown tile on the floor.  and that seat cushion....  terrible.

but remember, we bought this house knowing it would need some work.  there is a lot of potential.  good bones.  and a great neighborhood.  i mean, remember the kitchen??

so, we know we will change this bathroom someday, but for now it's clean and functioning, and it's C bathroom.  so, after we moved in i found a shower curtain that was pretty neutral, put a couple random pictures on the wall, and left it at that.

but lately i've been thinking about the pinkish tile and the fact that this is C's bathroom.  why not just embrace the pink?  it is a little girls bathroom after all.  and i think i'm fine with making it a little girly.  trying to make it look brown just isn't working.

but finding the right shower curtain to work with the tiles was going to be tricky.  everything was either too pink or too girly or too childish.

until i saw this

HELLO amazing amy butler shower curtain!  and HELLO being on sale from $40 to $10!  that's right.  great colors, obviously girly but not too girly, and only $10!

so, this inspired me to give this bathroom a little face lift.  emphasis on the word little.  this project was kind of out of nowhere for the hubs.  and we just spent money on some new furniture for C's room, so i was going to do my best with what i had.

i decided to paint the walls the same color as C's room.  i had plenty of paint left over, and the yellow looked good with the tile and the curtain.

so, this

went to this

not too bad huh?  i know it's hard to tell the walls are yellow in the picture, but i was night.  bad lighting...

i think now the tile kind of looks like it was on purpose.  kind of... =)

the other side

so, heres what i did spent money on.

the shower curtain - $10
the ballerina towel (doesn't really match, but C loves ballerina's right now) - only $3
orange wash clothes in basket on top of toilet - $5

that's it! 

the art & frames i already had.  the ABC art above is just something i created in Word.

the art above the toliet - well, i love it...

a few months ago i found some katie daisey stationary.  so cute.  i knew i would use them as cards, but i also knew i wanted to frame some.  the color in both of these prints matches perfect. 

the basket holding the orange washclothes was used in the bathroom before.  it's not pictured, but it used to be green.  i just sprayed it pink with some paint i already had.  and the little bucket holding her toothbrush, i got that for her pink, orange and yellow party back in september.

so that's it.  one afternoon and $18 later, we get this

i'm kind of crazy about it.  it just feels brighter and cutier and is finally more my style.

i worked on a couple of things for C's new room too, but i'll share those once we finally get her settled in.

hope you had a good weekend!  ready for monday...?

a $2 lamp

so, i got this awesome new lamp for 2 bucks a couple of weeks ago.  our local ReStore is just a couple of miles away from our house, so when we were there looking for a dresser for C, i stumbled upon this treasure.

awesome, huh?  a regular brass beauty!  and as you can see - $2!!

but i saw her potential. 

we've been wanting another lamp for our living room.  we had one of those floor lamps that were really popular when i was in college, but it just wasn't doing it for me anymore.  plus, you can't pass up a $2 working lamp!

so, i got to work.

i taped a plastic bag around the light bulb area.  i also put the cord in a bag and taped it shut.

i used rust-oleum's ultra cover 2x in gloss navy blue.  i wanted a color that would work in different rooms.  just in case i want to move it, this color will work in a couple different rooms in our house.

so, after it dried, and i found a lampshade at target, here's how it turned out...

YEAH! 

it's kind of hard to tell the color, so here's a closer picture

i love it!  shaun loves it too, but i think mostly because it was so cheap!  =)

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and since it's friday, i thought i would do a little InstaFriday!

i didn't take many pictures this week, so i'm combining it with my little lamp DIY

C enjoying some peas.  she ate the whole bowl!  i think she was mostly exciting about using a spoon correctly, but i was pretty impressed with how into the peas she was.

some new fabric for C's big girl room.  next weekend we are going to move her into a big girl bed.  i've got some bittersweet feelings about all of it.  i know she's ready, and we are too.  it's still just crazy that my "baby" will no longer be in a crib....

i got a new app on my phone.  diptic.  these are a few before and after pictures from my most recent ReStore finds.  the top two are obviously my $2 lamp, and the little desk is still in progress.  i'll share more about it soon!

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so, that's it for friday.

PLEASE come back tomorrow.  one of my best friends is guest blogging.  she is going to share about a ministry/non-profit she has started.  you will love her heart and i'm honored to let her use this space to share it.

happy friday friends!

fun find on etsy

i just found the cutest thing for C's room!

as you may remember from the post about C's room, i have a little bird theme going. well, just recently we moved her furniture. her crib was in a corner and both walls were exterior walls. with the temperatures dropping and only 1 vent in her room, i am trying to figure out how to keep her warmer at night without sweating shaun and i out! so, i rearranged her furniture.

to make stuff on the walls make sense, i had to move things around. now, i have one wall that is pretty bare. it's the wall her crib used to be on. but - i think i've come up with a solution and should have it resolved after i visit IKEA this weekend. i'm going to purchase a few of these shelves.

they are picture ledges. we got some for our master bedroom a couple of months ago and i really love the concept. very easy to install and fairly inexpensive. (duh - it's IKEA)

ok - but back to the title. since i have a little bird theme going on in her room, i could NOT pass up these little cuties -

aren't they precious? they are easy-to-apply vinyl stickers that come in a variety of colors. and only $5!! honestly, i'm not big on decals, but in a little girls room, i think they could be really cute and fun. i can't wait to get them and add them to her room. i plan on having a couple sitting on her new shelves! they come from an esty shop called elaphannie and they are the small ella vinyl decal.

i'll be sure the post more pictures once i have the shelf and birdies up!

and check out this shop. there are TONS of cute decals!

Lands' End

Lands' End was catalog that my mom used to get. it always had pretty nice stuff, but it was all pretty "momish". well, today i was looking for a momish bathing suit top and found out some wonderful things about lands' end. they have evolved and they have some great features on their website. so, i thought i would share.

first - my best friend told me to check out their overstock department. it's seperate from their sale. i went and found a pretty cute top for $10! check it out {here} i was really pleased with the selection and the prices. notice how this top was at one point $52! and they actually had my size! most of the time when you look through really reduced sale items they are out of the most common sizes like 6 or 8. well, i'm an average girl and those are my sizes. but i was able to get the top in my size. i am really excited! i hope it works.

second - after i purchased the top, i decided to check out their Lands' End Canvas section. i originally thought i was going to be looking at their totes. (have you ever had one of their totes? very sturdy and very useful. i use mine all the time.) ok - so i went to the canvas section. check it out {here}. when you see this what do you think of? j.crew right? young girls in comfy cute clothing. well keep looking, because...you can! the prices are not as high as j.crew. they are not dirt cheap, but a polo shirt is like $25 or $30. and tops are like $20. now, don't get me wrong - I LOVE J.CREW! i just can't always afford j.crew.

third - after i looked through most of the clothing, i realized i needed wanted some of their cute tops. but i had already ordered my bathing suit top. and i don't want to have to pay shipping for 2 orders from one place. i figured i could call them really quick and add the shirts, but i'm at work. i shouldn't really be shopping right now (or blogging for that matter), so calling them might give me away. so...i tried the live chat feature. SO COOL! annette came on and asked me how she could help and then added my two shirts to my existing order and then sent me an email confirmation before she left. it was amazing!!

this picture might be kind of small. but basically this is my chat with annette.

so, i just wanted to share this new knowledge with you all. as you can tell, i'm pretty excited.

i'll let you know how things work out.

oh wait - reason four why i like lands' end. anything you order online, you can return to a sears' that sell lands' end. that's awesome! i really hope that everything works out, but just in case...

have a great thursday!