Painting Frames

There is no better way to surround a photo or give a gift than to save money and use your own time and talents to recreate beauty. A thrift store frame plus a little time and creativity (and paint) makes a unique, original gift and a frame just the way you want it. 

I painted this frame for my mum this past Mother's Day. 

I almost forgot the before picture. 

Light blue first:

Then I used a wet paper towel to add some white paint. I rubbed it on and then rubbed it off hard to give it a white-washed, slightly distressed look. 

I got the frame nearly free at a thrift store, then chose I color of paint from my stash that I thought she would like. It looked great with a photo of her four children in it, taken by my sister.

Save money and have fun recreating a frame from a thrift store!

~ Chelsea ~

Pretty Vases made out of Jars

Using a variety of jars and adding touches of ribbons, fabric & trims is a wonderful way to recycle & repurpose.

 It is probably the last time for these pretty sweet peas now that the temperature has risen.
They came from one of our neighbors beautiful yards.

 They certainly added colorful beauty on our table for a very special occasion.
 Our Grand Daughters birthday dinner!

 ~*~Lynda~*~

Some B-4 & Afters!

~*~ Lynda~*~

Painting my Entertainment Center

A while back, I decided to paint my entertainment center black. It was golden oak and in good condition, but I just wanted to have it tie into the room better. I live in an older home that has wood trim and baseboards, so I have always tried to minimize having too many colors of wood. 

I didn't get a chance to take  any before pictures of the entertainment center. I lifted each side and stuck newspaper underneath the bottom edges and painted it right in my family room. It only took a few hours to finish the painting, then I let it dry overnight before putting the TV, DVD player and stereo back. 

I love how it looks with the satin black paint.

~ Chelsea ~

Painting Furniture is SO FUN!!!!

Here are a few pictures of some pieces that I hand painted with just 1 quart of a green color paint named "Casual Day" by Clarks & Kensington.
The first one is a fun corner shelf that my Handsome Honey made out of a louvered bi-fold door.

 And here we have a very basic little dresser that makes a great night stand with some drawers for storing some clothing  for our guests.

 On this chair I painted it to give the allusion of glazing, but all I really did was be careful not to get the paint in the cracks and crevices. Super easy!

Here is an awesome tutorial and video by BH&G on painting furniture! Have fun!
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/makeovers/furniture/how-to-paint-distressed-wood-furniture/

Bye for now, ~*~Lynda~*~

Starting on my Cabinets!

It has been a long time coming, but my kitchen cabinets are so close to being refinished and looking fresher than ever! I have all my materials and tools and myself psyched for this big project. 

I started today by using a flat blade to get all the existing (and not-so-effective) door bumpers off. 

Then, I started cleaning. 

I am excited to share a new product with you. It's called TSP and maybe you've heard of it. I never had before visiting this website in preparation for doing my cabinets.

It's a heavy duty cleaner that comes in granular form and you add it to warm water. It works incredibly at getting the dirt and grime off the cabinets and I also had a good time cleaning my house walls. It's relatively cheap and it definitely worked better than anything I have ever used before. 

It would be great also for preparing any hard-surface furniture for refinishing.

After I finish cleaning all of the cabinets, my next step is deglosser.

I'm excited to share my photos as I make my kitchen beautiful!

Can you feel the LOVE?

I just want to share some LOVE with you!

 Bling in a bow!!!!

 These are really special 'heart' flowers that 2 of our Grandcuties made for us last year. Love them!

 On our mantle are pictures of our 4 kids and their families! We love them all dearly!

 These gorgeous stemmed candle holders are from some dear friends in Austria! I found some old 'heart' bracelets to attach to them with a pretty bow.

 Triple the love! I just put this together with some things I already had on hand.

 I hope you feel the love, by giving love to all! Even yourself!

With Love, ~*~Lynda~*~

Love Is In The Air The Banner Way

Here are some very lovely Valentines Day decorating ideas from BHG!

With Love, ~*~Lynda~*~

Great DeCluttering Ideas!

Hi Friends! I just looked at this great link from BHG and wanted to share it with you! Have a fantabulous time creating your beautiful & organized living spaces!

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization-basics/declutter/?sssdmh=dm17.637874&esrc=nwdc121912

Then I looked over at my desk with a huge pile of papers that hadn't been sorted (or tossed) for a few months. Yikes! So, this inspired me to deal with it.

 This is a magnet board that we made a couple of years ago. Two metal tins hang on the glass knobs.

The smaller one holds all of my business cards. 

There are lots of special notes, cards, & pictures on this board. 

~*~Lynda~*~

Photo Frames ~ Magnetized

 I'm not a big fan of a lot of clutter on our refrigerator.  So, I painted these wooden frames, put a little touch of bling on them, added magnets on the back and enjoy changing the messages, scriptures or pictures quite often. It is so much fun! Especially when the pictures are of our Grandcuties!  They are precious and we love them dearly.

 I love Christmas too! Because I love Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas! ~*~Lynda~*~

Merry Christmas To All.

I really like the thought that I heard recently at church. Mas means more in Spanish, so, let's put more Christ in our Christmas.

 I am very excited about this mantle over our fireplace. Rod made it completely out of scraps that we had in the shop. It's so fun when I get an idea to make something out of a variety of pieces of wood and then my Handsome Honey makes it for me. Well, when he has time to, that is.

 This is a beautiful nativity that was given to me from Allen, Jacob & Chelsea. They purchased it while in Austria.

 This special nativity came from Guatemala from our Son, Allen, who was serving a mission there.

With love for our Savior, Jesus Christ, Lynda.