Peacock Headbands

I am patiently trying things and widdling away in my "work shop". 

 I always have loved really pretty headbands, but I never seem to remember to put them on myself. I was inspired by a coworker to give these peacock lovelies a try, so out with the hot glue gun I went :) 

 

What do you think? Overdone maybe? I probably wont be listing them on ETSY but I may stick a few in the booth to see if they sale! 

I am finding tons of inspiration lately with different tasks to do around the house, from painting to flooring, to shelving! It seems like the house will never be "done" at this point. 

Monkey and his Motorcycle Diaper Cake

One of my coworkers is having a baby shower tomorrow at work. Of course I am the one throwing it! Tons of fun! We are having a Taco bar, and they are decorating the nursery with Monkeys :)

Hence the diaper cake, monkey on the motor cycle, thanks to the tutorial over on Sweet Aprils blog

http://www.sweetaprils.com/2011/08/diaper-motorcycle-tutorial-diy-how-to.html

She really gave a great tutorial on how to get the right shape of this really cute diaper cake, I hope I made her proud :) 

The Louis Blue Vanity

Of course just like everyone, you are too excited about a project to take a really good before photo of it before you start slapping on some paint. Then halfway through you realize oh... I forgot to take a before picture "DOH". 

So here is the Vanity in our booth, it has been sitting in our booth for a good 6 months and hasn't sold yet like it was. I guess no one wanted to appreciate the original Hollywood regency style wood grain beautifullness.

So My mom and I decided to take a few pieces out of the booth and paint them, this was one of them because our other vanity has a matching wardrobe. I decided to take the color Louis Blue to it.

We are getting there, I am starting to like it in this picture, but I was very worried about the drawers, they seem to have some "raised" spots in them that I need to fix. 

Here it is with the original hardware back on it, you cant see the bubbling in the drawers I need to fix. But here is my next question... I was thinking about painting a design on it, but I am not sure what i should go with. Do you have any suggestions? At first I thought maybe some cherry blossoms? 

What would you do ?

Projects Projcets Projects

I have been working on so many different projects that my head is spinning. Not too sure the reasons for why I am working on them, maybe a spot in the antique mall that is about to get taken over? 

Without Further ado I present my Annie Sloan Chalk  paint madness.... 

Louis Blue Vanity, I was thinking about painting some cherry blossoms on this one, but I have a feeling it is already sold as it sits with just the blue.

I love this dresser, and I am contemplating keeping it for myself... I will show you some better pictures soon. 

 

Cute little end table I picked up. Painted in Paris Grey

 My Graphite Grey Mirror....

Better pictures to come! Sorry I have been busy in my workshop (living room). 

Canning Figs, and Kosher Dills

I manage some times to even impress myself, when i am able to come home from work and put up some deliciousness. On Monday one of my coworkers gave me some Figs, I have never seen a real fig before, as far as I knew a fig came wrapped in a cookie! So I managed to can up some Fig Jam! I also got some pickling cucumbers from a farm down the road from me and put up some Kosher Dill Pickles, I cheated though I just used a bag of seasoning!

Fig Jam

3 pounds fresh figs, washed, stems removed

2 cups granulated sugar

Juice and finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, combine the figs, sugar, and lemon juice and zest. Bring to a simmer over medium low heat, stirring constantly. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove the cover and continue simmering, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens. When the mixture gets quite thick, begin to stir constantly to keep from scorching.

While figs are cooking, prepare the jars and lids. Fill the jars with the hot fig jam mixture, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims and threads with a wet paper towel. Add hot lids and rings. Process in water bath at a full boil 10 minutes.

Makes 4 half-pint jars.

From www.sbcanning.com 

Angry Birday Party! Robert turns 7!

Hello Everyone! I decided to share some of the Angry Bird Party pictures from my recent 7 year olds birthday party! All of the decorations were made by me or bought from Etsy.

It seems like every where you turned in my house there was balloons, or streamers. I had a friend create the angry birds cake and cupcakes, and then my little sister made some cake balls for her nephew. Stayed with the primary colors throughout the house, tons of paper mache pigs every where! Those took a while to make. I also had golden eggs hidden all around the yard. 

 My now 7 year old enjoyed it, I was trying to figure out the appropriate age at which it is ok to just drop your son off at a birthday party, so I let all of the parents leave their kids and suggested they go get pedicures, or have some time to themselves! It worked out really well, we didnt have any problems with any of the kids! 

In the backyard is where the kids stayed mostly, a slip and slide, a water slide, and a little swimming pool. Along with all of that we had an angry birds crash course with water balloons! We built it out of boxes, and my paper mache pigs became obliterated!

Happy Birthday to my now 7 year old Robert, oh where does the time seem to go? 

The Kitchen has come far!

We are approaching three years of living in our house. I have always loved and hated the kitchen all together, love that its so large, and hate that the ugly cabinets and everything else in it. We have been slowly remodeling, and I just wanted to share with you a couple of REALLY bad cell phone pictures. 

 This is just one corner in my kitchen, but you can see the amazing difference. I used to have a dark, dull and ugly kitchen and slowly i am making it brighter and better! I need to work on my shelf arranging, but i am digging it, what do you think? I want to paint the shelves, and put up a tile back splash, but my husband will need to come off of strike first. Also I am dreaming of a vintage milk glass cake stand for the corner. 

Oh well I am a happy gal for right now! 

What do you think? What kind of canisters should I go with? Or should the yellow ones stay?

Johana's Bouquet

This is a bouquet I made for Johana, this was a rush order, and the only things the bride wanted were "old brooches" she did not want any newer brooches in there. This was an easy task for me, just because i have been collecting brooches for such a long time. I think i did a pretty good job. Her theme is Marie Antoinette and Peacock, I used several cameos and tried to stay with a blue, and purple pallet.