Cute Cornucopia

We are finally starting to put together our menu for Thanksgiving, and this is definitely on our radar:

Isn't it gorgeous?  It's a cornucopia made from french bread dough and tin foil.  Looks easy enough, but I am a hot mess in the kitchen, so we'll see how it goes! 

Busy, Busy, Awfullly Busy

I thought I'd give you a small picture of what I've been up to lately around here:

Rearranging furniture!  Isn't it lovely?  I have been helping my sister keep up with her two little ones and also baby-sitting for one of my friend's kiddos.  Three children under two = cause for rearranging the furniture to keep them corralled.  We really did rearrange the living room furniture, I will just have to show you the real new arrangement later! 

Addressing envelopes.  And response cards.  And return addresses on the envelopes.  My sister's brother-in-law is getting married and she was enlisted to design the invitations and address the envelopes.  I had so much fun helping her out!  We came up with a great design for the invitations, and then had fun teaching ourselves calligraphy (and then practicing by writing out 360 addresses!) 

I did make a little time for yard sale-ing and added to my milk glass collection.  My mom found this great vase, candlestick and these awesome lotion bottles.  I'm thinking a vintage-looking labels would look great on them!  

 

I also found some amazing clothes!  I bought 28 items of clothing for $35 from one yard sale.  All of them are great name brands, like the Ann Taylor Loft sweater and blouse, the Banana Republic knit dress, and the Express eyelet suit set above.  These are a very small sampling of the great things I found!

And in the evenings I have found a little bit of time to work on this.  It's a bib necklace inspired by Stella & Dot's Natasha necklace (that retails for $200!).  I fell in love with it and am attempting to DIY it, but I have a long way to go.  Notice I wasn't brave enough to post a photo of the real necklace next to my knock-off - I'm afraid it would make mine look pretty sorry!

Hopefully things will settle down a little soon and I'll be able to get back to blogging regularly, but I'm not holding my breath!  

And the winner is.....

Thank you so much to everyone who voted for the designer inspiration room for my guest bedroom over on All Together Now!  The votes are in and our inspiration is this lovely room by Brooke Giannetti:

I will be posting my DIY projects as I complete them, so that capiz shell chandelier, the bolster pillows, the upholstered headboard--I will have make a DIY version of each of these and post the tutorials here!  I am so excited to attempt a replica of this room! 

A Plethora of Pretties

Christmas is right around the corner and I am itching to get my holiday decor up.  I am making myself wait until the day after Thanksgiving (at my husband's request), but that doesn't mean I can't look!  While looking around to see if there is anything more fabulous than Eddie Ross' hanger & ornament wreath (below), I found several gorgeous DIY options for Christmas wreaths. 

Here are a few:

A gorgeous earthy pinecone wreath

 

A silvery mirror wreath 

A swirly wreath made from recycled toilet paper rolls

A ribbon wreath

A yummy gum drop wreath

 

A paper leaf wreath

A traditional wreath made with gathered greenery

 Or this one made from zip ties

What will grace your door this Christmas season???

Sunday Afternoon Again

I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'
~ Jeremiah 65:1

I am thanking God for his mercy and kindness on this Lord's Day.  Have a wonderful Sunday!

A Designer Bedroom - Please Vote!

I am planning an overhaul of one of my guest bedrooms and am letting my readers decide how it will be decorated!  I posted a photo of the room along with four designer rooms I love over on my other blog and am counting on you to choose the best inspiration space for me to recreate.  I'll be posting all my DIY projects and bargain buys here and the final results on All Together Now.  Please stop by and vote! 

Lovely Legs

A month or so ago I bought this bed at a yard sale for $10.  Remember?

I really fell in love with the shape of the legs even though at the time I wasn't sure if I really needed another bed.  Turns out I didn't -- but I have been wanting a console table for our foyer for quite a while.

Look familiar???

 I'm a little afraid to put anything on top of it at this point since the paint might be a little tacky still, but accessories are coming soon!

You know my fear of tutorials, but I'll try and post a mini photo tutorial soon.  

Sunday Morning (A Little Late) & Yard Sale Finds!

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning : great is thy faithfulness.

~Lamentations 3:22-23

Because I'm so late posting my Sunday morning verse (oops!)  I decided I would go ahead and show off my yard sale finds for the week.  Just when I think things are winding down for the winter we get a rash of 70 degree days and yard sales are amazing!  

I found two great art books - one with photo portraits and the other with nature paintings.  They both have some great full page art in them that I just might have to frame.   

 

I also found a collection of several of Jane Austen's novels.  I love Austen and was excited to pick this set up for just $1!  

 

This adorable porcelain lamp was $3.  I loved the base, but the shade was a little washed out and had yellow and green flowers on it.  It didn't match any of my decor, so I painted it light pink.  I have been working on redecorating one of our guest rooms and this is perfect for it now.

This guy was $5 and I don't know what it's called, but it's a thermometer/barometer/hygrometer.  I think it's old, and I love the markings on the barometer: "Very Dry", "Set Fair", "Fair", "Rain", "Much Rain", and "Stormy".  It seems to still be working, too!

 

I have been searching all over for a console table for behind our sofa and finally found one I liked for $20.  I really like it so far, but may paint it to make it stand out a little more.  (It inspired me to move all of my Living Room furniture around - I'll have to show ya'll soon!)   

  

Maybe my favorite find all day is this gorgeous cut-glass mirror, though.  I love the look of these but they're always so expensive!  This one set me back $10, but it still had its original $70 price tag on the back, so I'd say it's a good deal!

 

Hope ya'll had as great a weekend as I did! 

Bargains

Well, since yards sales are starting to dwindle we are having to find bargains elsewhere.  I haven't been doing so great.  It's hard to adjust to retail prices (even super-clearance prices!) after shopping a dollar at a time at yard sales.  My mom's done a little better.  She took a trip to Ikea the other day and found these pillow shams in the clearance/return section for $1 each.

She knew I have been admiring them forever now but was too cheap to fork up $15 apiece for them, so being the sweet mom that she is, she got them for me! 

They work great with my black and white houndstooth ottoman! 

She also scored at the Pottery Barn Outlet.  They had tons of navy and white ticking outdoor tablecloths for $8 each.  She bought seven and plans to use the fabric for curtains.  We figured out that it comes out to about $2.50/yard!  They do have a hole for an umbrella about halfway down the panels, but we will work around that!  I'll post photos once she sews them.

We have a few yard sales to hit this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some more bargains to share soon!
 

Easy Peasy Custom Bed

We bought our bed last fall, back before we moved into our new house.  I found it at JC Penney Outlet for $200.  I had seen an extremely similar bed at Restoration Hardware for around $2,000, so $200 sounded really good to me. 

I loved how simple and classic it is -- and I still do, but with our color scheme in our room it's a little dark and heavy with nothing else in the room to balance it out.  I've been trying to figure out how to lighten it up, but didn't want to paint it. 

This is what I came up with:

I love the look of upholstered head- and footboards, and I really wanted to add a light fabric to soften things up.  Remember this fabric?  Well this is what I had in store for it! 

With the help of my husband, we traced the arches of the inserts onto craft paper and cut them out.  (Just like the crayon rubbings you used to do in school.)

We picked up some 1/8" plywood at Home Depot and cut it to size using our craft paper pattern.

I upholstered them with some batting and the new fabric.

 

And then used a few 3M velcro strips to attach it to the bed.  It's been up for a few weeks now and is holding just fine! 

We should be able to pull the strips off anytime if we decide to take the panels down.  I spent about $15 on fabric, $7 on the plywood, and $5 on 3M strips.  I had the batting from my ottoman project, so the total for this little makeover was about $27.  (Use a dropcloth or a sheet for fabric, and you'll save quite a bit!)

 

This really is a wonderfully easy, cheap project and it makes such a huge difference!