DIY Milkglass

If you've got a little bit of extra time and paint on your hands and would like to change up some glass bottles or jars you have lying around then this is the perfect project...
I originally got this idea from beach house in the city. Hers turned out fabulous and inspired me to try it for myself.

Via beach house in the city

I started with a couple of plain glass bottles...here's a hint: search for unique glassware at thrift stores rather than antique stores to save some money. Antique stores have very unique (and old) medicine bottles, etc. but they can cost up to $5 or more each! I like to snag something for more around $.75 and thrift stores will rarely let you down if you're searching for glass (or picture frames).

I used a beige paint and a plain white acrylic paint for these bottles. Once I gather more glassware from thrift stores I plan on having a plethora of white and cream colored bottles.

First, add a little bit of water to your paint. I mixed the paint and water in a plastic cup until it reached the right consistency. You don't want the paint to end up too watered down or it will run.

Then you will pour your paint mixture into the bottle and swirl it around until it is entirely covered. You'll know if you've added too much water if the paint tends to run down the sides and pool in the bottom rather than clinging to the glass really well.

Before and After

Beach house in the city explains this important fact, so keep this in mind:

"because i use laytex paint, i can't fill these with water and put flowers in them. solution? next time you buy real flowers, collect the little stem water containers or purchase some from a florist. now you can enjoy your bottles with single blooms."

I plan on making a small shelf above our dining room doorway to place these lovelies on either side of our At Table sign.

I'm linking up with Home Stories A 2 Z & What Allie's Making Now

DIY Faux Deer Head

After searching for quite some time looking for a project to create a faux deer head I finally came across this pattern and tutorial from Chronicle Books. 

Via Chronicle Books Blog

After printing off the templates and cutting them out, you will have 7 individual pieces, four pieces have to be taped together creating the antlers and the deer body.

I traced each pattern onto foam board and then used an exacto knife to cut out the pieces. This process was much lengthier than expected, and the edges of my pieces weren't as smooth-looking as in the Chronicle Books' picture, but I pressed on!

As I completed cutting out each piece I began putting them together to see how it all worked.

So neat! Here's the deer before giving him some color...

I first decided to cover him with fabric using adhesive spray. I used brown wrapping paper for the back piece which serves as a type of mount for the deer. I sprayed one side of the foam board piece with adhesive spray and then smoothed out the wrapping paper on top. Then I used my exacto knife again and cut the paper, using the foam board piece as a guide.

Cutting wrapping paper with a knife=super easy. Cutting fabric with a knife=pain in the booty. So, I gave up the fabric idea and since I didn't have the right color of paper on hand I leaned on my handy dandy spray paint in New Avocado and went to town!

To hang him up, I used an awl (I had no idea what this was, but after Google searching it, realized I actually had one in a random tool box) to make two holes in the top corners of the deer's body. You could use anything to make these holes...like a nail or a paper clip that's been straightened out. I did feel pretty cool using a tool I'd never heard of before though!

Then using some wire...

fashion a hook...nothing fancy needed, this deer head is pretty light!

I think he turned out pretty good! He'll stand out more against gray walls when I move him to his new home.

P.S. My doggies are making me really happy right now...

P.P.S. I was home when I originally wrote this post, but am now publishing from the beach in South Carolina....I miss my doggies.

Linking to Home Stories A 2 Z  & What Allie's Making Now

DIY Bird Mobile Assembly

Late Tuesday night I decided to begin assembling the bird mobile together and since a thunderstorm came right as my husband was headed out back to sit around a fire with his friend Jackson, I was able to snag him for his engineering smarts (which I knew I'd need).

This mobile looks simple enough, but it takes some balancing talent.

You will need:

your hand-sewn birds (See this post for bird patterns and tutorial)

branches

hot glue or thread and needle

fishing line

eye hooks (about 2 per branch)

drill and tiny drill bit

doorway (or some place to hang your mobile during assembly)

patience...

First, pick out the branches you will use and begin placing the birds wherever you want on the branches. Some who've made this mobile sewed the birds in place, but I, wanting to keep things quick and easy, decided to use my hot glue gun.

Then, decide how you want to hang your branches...having a partner helps!

Once you've decided how you want your branches to hang the hard part begins...

Start from the bottom branch and find the fulcrum(or balancing point) as best you can by balancing on your finger.

Once you've established the balancing point on the branch, drill a small hole for the eye hook.

Tightly insert the eye hook and thread with fishing line. The length of the fishing line will determine how close or far you'd like the next branch to be.

Continue with the other branches as you did with the first, noting that the weight of neighboring branches will affect where the fulcrum is. You won't have one continuous piece of fishing line, rather, separate pieces connect each branch. Each branch will also have two eye hooks, one on top and one on bottom (with the exception of the bottom branch). 

Don't get discouraged if you've assembled the whole mobile and your branches aren't hanging straight. We had to move eye hooks around numerous times before we got it just right.

There is no way I could've figured this out with my husband Steven! He is the bird mobile master and the best husband ever! I seriously would've thrown the branches across our dining room in frustration if I had gone at this alone!

Isn't it lovely?!

Yea you guessed it, that's a blanket backdrop!

I am so thrilled with how this mobile turned out! If you're worried about not being able to figure the balancing out, just give it a try! We almost resorted to using two strands of fishing line between each branch to help them hang straight, which still would've looked great, but would inhibit the separate limbs from being able to turn individually, which is so neat!

I can't wait to show you pictures of the mobile hanging above Finn's crib in the finished nursery!

Linking to Home Stories A 2 Z & What Allie's Making Now

Chair Redo

This winter I picked up a chair from my favorite antique store for $15.00. I was looking for something that would be an easy first time reupholstery project, but would look completely different when finished.
I bought this chair before we knew we were pregnant and I wasn't quite sure what colors and fabric to choose because I didn't know where the chair would end up.

First, I removed the upholstery...a yucky green plastic seat cover existed underneath.

After choosing to make this chair a part of the nursery, I decided to use some fabric from the quilt I'm making for the nursery to cover the chair cushion. Reupholstering a chair of this design is super easy. All it takes is fabric the right size, folded tight and stapled underneath with a staple gun and lots of staples. With new fabric the chair was already worlds different!

Then, it was time to paint the chair! I found Valspar's New Avocado spray paint in satin and thought it would match the fabric and nursery color scheme perfectly!

I primed the chair first.

Then sprayed it with New Avocado until the can went dry!

Here's the new and colorfully improved chair! All set to add a dash of color to the nursery.

Before and After:

Linking to Home Stories A 2 Z

Cheap Changes to Picture Frames

I received these two fantastic prints from the Etsy shop Chasing the Crayon and finally got my hands on some cheap frames for them. Michael's had these guys on sale for $4.99, I could not pass them up! The frames came in a variety of colors, but none of them fit the shabby/rustic look I was going for. 

I decided on two plain black frames.

They were too contemporary and clean for my taste, but I thought I could change that with a little bit of ivory paint and a paintbrush. I just barely dipped the brush into some paint and dabbed it on a rag until it was super dry. Then I very lightly painted the frame.

And here they both are with these super cute prints, looking more rustic.

And for another next to nothing change for a picture frame, try using spray paint and Distress Ink like I did with this one.

It used to be a teal and gold color(sorry I didn't take pictures during). Distress Ink can be found at Michael's or any other craft store on the scrapbooking aisle. The color I used here is called Walnut Stain. I love using it! Sometimes it's nice to sand whatever you're distressing first, but with this frame, I just rubbed the ink pad against the frame and it picked up the ink in natural looking places. 

Sometimes you just need some color...I had two cherry stained picture frames that I had tried to paint white, but the paint wouldn't stick to the frames' finish, so I gave up, thinking I wouldn't be able to use them. But, spray paint did not let me down this time!

The frame on the right is what both looked like, you can see where I stopped trying to get the white paint to stick.

First, I primed the frame to make sure the Avocado color would stay. Did you know Valspar has tons of their paint colors available in spray paint? I didn't until a few days ago!

Then it was just about two coats of paint and 20 minutes and I had a brand new piece of decor for the nursery!

Download this alphabet print for your own project here.

Never pass up a good deal on picture frames...anything can be done with a little paint and dry brush, or some spray paint and distress ink! Also, a great places for cheap frames are thrift stores...I don't think I've ever been to a thrift store without seeing a shelf full of different frames.

My husband left for a wedding in Memphis today, so after a late night of some seriously annoying heartburn, I slept in, and now am contemplating my day. Maybe I'll check out this enormously huge antique store in Elizabethton for a new bathroom mirror? 

Happy Friday everyone!

Paint the Nursery, Check!

On Tuesday I went wild and totally killed the nursery walls...all done! If you've kept up with our journey towards prepping for parenthood then you'll remember that we're currently using what will be the nursery as our bedroom while we renovate the master area. The walls were green when I moved in, painted by the husband's old roommate and great friend Jackson (soon to be uncle Jackson!).

I got down to business, painting the edges and corners first with an angled brush, then rolling the walls. I finished in about 3.5 hours. All by myself and all while 7 months pregnant! Told you I killed it! YEA! (I might feel like I got hit by a bus today, but I got the job done!) I used Valspar's Artichoke 6003-2A. I used the same color for our dining room and I absolutely love it! I also love that this paint hardly leaves a smell behind at all.

Looks like a black and white photo, but it's color, I promise!

When the bathroom is to the point where we can move into the master bedroom, then we'll assemble the crib and it'll be placed right where our bed is now.
Would I be jumping the gun too much if I went ahead and put nursery decor on the walls? 
Yea, maybe.
And check out all the diapers we received from my amazing co-workers! How long do you think these guys will last? Three weeks?

Two more months, really?!?!

17 weeks, 31 weeks.

The Beast Update: Unremoved, but Tamed

Back in February, Steven and I decided to remove a huge bush from our front yard that I named the beast. We never got around to pulling the bush out completely, so it was left through spring after being chopped in half. After growing back just a tad, I am happy with the beast sticking around for a while.
Let's take a look at the transformation:


The beast went from this...

To this...

And the beast today after a refreshing spring...

And although I have completely neglected the yard for indoor ventures, I am so excited about all the great plants popping up everywhere from last year and years before. There was definitely at one time someone who lived in this house who knew what they were doing in the yard.

I love these beautiful white blooms that are sprouting in the backyard (is this a yucca?).

There's also a super cute rosebush that seems to bloom more than just once a year

This hasta has never failed to grow back 

And these ground crawlers I planted in a strawberry pot about two years ago and they keep growing back each season. I love how tiny they are!

And check out these great blooms that sprung up along the front and side of our home!

I plan on using a can of spray paint on an old metal chair I found thrifting ages ago and some new house numbers along with more green thumb attempts to give our front porch more appeal. Hopefully making some headway this weekend, especially if the weather holds up!

I am slowly but surely preparing for baby Finn's arrival and helping Steven with the bathroom remodel along the way...more on that to come!