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Thrift table redo

I hope everybody has enjoyed a wonderful weekend with family and friends! I’ve been busy working on a couple of projects along with preparing for Christmas decorating. I noticed that the Christmas stockings that I made about 10 years ago are a little outdated (and quite colourful!) which is nice but just not in keeping with my current style. I found a lovely linen table cloth from value village that I used to make some “new” ones, they are simple but nice. I will show these in an upcoming post.

Here is one of the projects I worked on this weekend. Remember that little thrift store table I got for $19.99?

This is what she looks like with a little paint on!

Trying out a few Christmas decorations

We all look good with a little paint on! I scuffed up the edges to give it a little more vintage feel.

Hoped you enjoyed this little restoration project, thanks for stopping by. I will partying with these ladies this week:

Goodwill hunting redo and more thrifty finds…

4:53 pm by kim 8 Comments

Do you remember this Goodwill hunting find? This chandelier was only $6.99!
I had seen what Sue at Beach Bungalow had done with her chandelier and decided to try it.

A couple coats of spray paint and…

Isn’t she lovely?

We are currently redoing my daughter’s bedroom and this light fixture fits in perfectly. Stay posted for her bedroom makeover coming soon!

I just found this wonderful dining set with table, six chairs and two extra leaves on-line for $50.00.
I love the shape and the table would have been worth the price itself. A little paint, sanding, pretty slipcovers and this will be gorgeous. Stay tuned for “after”.

I love the colour of the wood. I will probably just sand then stain the top and repaint the bottom.

The chairs will look so pretty with little linen slipcovers.

Love the detail.

This was a little end table I found and will give it a sanding and coat of paint. Love the caning detail.

I found a pair of these topiaries at Goodwill. I really like them but my daughters say they are ugly!
They remind them of cartoons! I think they are cute but now I’m second guessing myself…
are they as nice as I thought they were or are they hideous?

What do you think?

I placed them in some white bowls, and with a bit of greenery and sprucing up I think they will be nice for the holidays.

Thanks for stopping by!

A peek at my bedroom…

5:19 pm by kim 10 Comments

Hello everyone! I thought I would give you a little peek at my bedroom. It is not very big and so you think it would be easy to photograph however it proved difficult with my little point and shoot.
Hope you enjoy…

The pillow cases with the crocheted ends were only 9.99 a pair at pottery barn. I thought it was a real find.

You may notice that the black mirror over the bed still has the price tag on it from Homesense. I’ve had it for over a month and am still undecided. I was thinking of painting it white and perhaps putting some candle sconces on either side of it like the ones here

I will splurge on real flowers. Especially hydrangeas, and these ones dry beautifully.

Do you see my one ode to Christmas? One large silver ball! Will work on that soon.

One of my crystal nobs has fallen off can you notice it? It is somewhere in the room.

Yes I have a picture of myself up there, is that wierd ?

Picture of hubby and I.

We all know it doesn’t always look like this! Although I try to keep the bed made and my clothes in the closet, I usually have magazines, books and bibles all over the place! There is at least one fur baby up their as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Driftwood key holder

6:17 pm by kim 10 Comments

I can’t seem to get enough of this driftwood! There is no end to what you can do with a piece of old water logged wood

I decided to put some of these little hooks that I got from Home Depot…

Onto this piece of old driftwood

I drilled a small pilot hole first and then screwed the screws in. Very easy.

I continued down the length of the driftwood

It is great for a place to hang your keys, leashes etc.

My husband hung it up by placing a few long screws with plugs into the wall and the piece of driftwood sits on it nicely. Great in case I want to move it.

There is still enough room to sit and put your shoes on and the keys don’t get lost!

This would also be wonderful as a coat rack hung higher. Also would be great to use in a bathroom for towels. (Which is where I may eventually hang it once I redo the main bathroom.)

Hope you enjoyed yet another driftwood tutorial.
Thanks for stopping by!

Fur babies revealed…

1:09 am by kim 9 Comments

Most of you have already seen Butters in previous posts. He loves to jump up on my cushions and “mushes” them down until he has a comfortable spot. Butters is a long-haired chihuahua.

This is my beautiful boy Jack. He is a mitted seal point ragdoll. Doesn’t he have beautiful blue eyes?

He does think he’s all that and more.

This is my seal point siamese girl “Tara” she is very shy and spends most of her time on one of our beds.

Tara dreaming of catching all those birds outside the window.

Call to order for the family meeting! They love to sit with us and snuggle on the sofa. My daughter Hope is shy along with Tara who wouldn’t look at the camera.

Butters taking a nap.

Butters sunny side up!

Butters and Jack both doing the “ragdoll flop”.

Bath time.

Jack opens up the shutters with his giant paws whenever he wants a peek outside.

Hope you enjoyed all my fur babies 🙂

Ironstone Pitcher

5:09 pm by kim 10 Comments

Isn’t she a beauty?

I found her yesterday at the Goodwill for 9.99!
I have found ironstone platters and bowls at the Goodwill but NEVER have I found a pitcher!
I was doing my Goodwill/Salvation Army run and was about to leave with nothing and then I spotted her from the corner of my eye. Most of my ironstone collection is from Ebay.

She is lovely from every angle. And a stately 12 inches high.

She is a J&G Meakin which is who made most of my other Pitchers.

Here she is with some of her sisters. She has made herself right at home!

Family room “Mom Cave”

9:23 pm by kim 13 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Between Naps on the Porch for Homegoods “Mom Cave” link party.

My Mom Cave happens to be my family room, yes I do allow other family members to “visit” but this is where I spend most of my time. My husband and kids prefer the basement.

This is where the magic happens so to speak.

This is where my laptop lives, where I do my blogging.

This is where I entertain my friends.

There is nothing like curling up with a good magazine and a hot cup of tea.

Chocolate cake, tea and good company…

I love this room because of the cozy fireplace and Yes! I do have my TV in my “cave” Where else would I be able to watch my Jane Austen movies and HGTV?

My little fur babies are welcome anytime. This is Butters trying to figure out what I’m doing.
He is usually curled up here with me.

I hope you have enjoyed my Mom cave as much as I do!
Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Driftwood candle holder tutorial…

5:09 pm by kim 43 Comments

I know that summer is over and Christmas is fast approaching, but I keep my driftwood out all year long. I wanted to combine my love of candlelight with my love of driftwood and this is what I came up with.

Sooo pretty!

We live near the lake so we can walk a few blocks to the nearest sandy shore. My daughter and husband got these pieces for me on their walk.

Just find a piece that you find appealing. It should have some depth to it as your candle will have to sit in it. A flat piece would not be a good candidate for this project.

You will need a drill, a 1.5 inch spade bit or a 1.5 inch orbital bit? (Not exactly sure what that one is called and the knower of all names aka my husband is not around) Using the spade bit is much easier and far quicker as it reduces 1 step. when I first tried this project I didn’t have a spade bit so I had to do it the hard way. You should have a tape measure, pen, flat head screwdriver if using that orbital bit and Tealight candles.

First, lay down your piece of driftwood and see which side you prefer as well as where your piece sits level.
Take out your tape measure and mark where to place your holes. Or you can eyeball it like I did.

This is the 1.5 ( or1 1/2) size spade bit

Center your bit over your mark and apply pressure. It may be easier to do on the floor. The table works for my back! Start drinlling.

I have a level on the end of my drill. You want to keep it level so that your candle will sit level.

If you decide to use this bit, remember to place a mark on your bit at the depth you want your bit to go in the wood. I wanted my candles just at or above the wood line to decrease risk of setting the piece on fire.

This is what it will look like when you use the above bit.

You will have to tap out the wood that is still left with this bit which wasn`t difficult but time consuming, however, both bits were 1.5 inch but this orbital bit left a bigger hole and was easier to place the tealight candles into than the spade bit.

This is the piece with all the holes done. You are ready to put your candles in!

Please make sure that you use the tealight candles with the metal around them (most come this way from ikea and Walmart etc.) as this will decrease the chance of your piece catching fire! Also, make sure that your holes are flat and even so the candle doesn`t sit sideways, you will get wax everywhere.

You can place it anywhere!
Like all candles, DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED!

You can use all different shapes of driftwood to make it interesting.

I use them on my mantel as well.

Soo pretty!

Hope you enjoyed todays tutorial. Please once again, NEVER LEAVE UNATTENDED! This is old DRY WOOD and burns very easily
.

I will be partying with:

Brass sconce makeover

8:24 pm by kim 4 Comments

I found these brass candle sconces at the Goodwill for 3.99 each. These pics are not the greatest as today was pretty overcast. There seems to be some brass coming through in the above pic but that is a reflection of the green hydrangeas below it.

I forgot to take a “before” pic before painting the above sconce in a pewter colour spray paint. I also bought another pair of sconces but in a different shape and placed it with the restored one so you could see the original colour and finish.

This is the after. I used rustoleum all surface spray paint in “silver” I wanted a pewter look and this one seemed to be the closest to the pewter look I could find. These sconces didn’t come with shades and to be perfectly honest I didn’t know what those two metal brackets (my husband says they are called clip holders) were for! It just dawned on me today that they are to hold a shade of some sort.

I found this little glass shade at home depot for 5.99. I wasn’t sure it would fit…

I used the little oil lamps from pottery barn that I had gotten for 50% off last year. I didn’t want to use tapered candles (which the sconce seems to be made for) as it would stand above the shade. When I run out of these oil lamps I’ll use tea light candles.

I think they look charming and I love the fact that you can take something that somebody didn’t want anymore and restore it into something lovely and useful again.

Goodwill Hunting…

7:30 pm by kim 5 Comments

These are all my great finds from Goodwill! This little Eiffel Tower was a little pricey at $4.99. It stands about 12 inches and looks lovely on my end table.

Loved this picture. It was 19.99 but I asked if I could get it reduced due to the fact that the frame was a little damaged. The manager gave it to me for 14.99. I was hoping for 10.00 but oh well. You never know until you ask. I absolutely love the colours in this pic as well as the awesome scene.

This is definitely a before shot!
This will be a before/after post in the near future.

Another chandelier! This one is made out of wood. I kind of like the black but the light holders need some work. The wiring is also quite old. Will need to let the hubby look at it to see if it is salvageable. Either it will need to be rewired or it can be used as a candle holder. We’ll see…either way it was a find for 6.99 don’t you think?

This is my chihuahua “Butters” he loves to check out and smell all of my new (junk) acquisition’s.
Isn’t he adorable?

These are few more of my goodwill hunting finds.

Don’t you just love these dishes? I love the wonderful scalloped edges
.

I placed the plate behind the white ironstone tureen so you could see the colour better. It is a little pink/ beige. I’ve thought of calling it peige or bink? They look so lovely on the table. I was able to get 6 of them for 6.00. I believe they sell them at the Bay so I may be able to get more.

This is a pretty little milk glass piece to add to a somewhat growing collection. I try not to spend more than 4.00 dollars on any piece. This one was 3.99.

Look at this lovely ironstone bowl I got for 2.99! Not sure how old it is but I don’t care anymore!

It looks good with these lovely Christmas balls I keep out all year. It would look good with some pine cones as well. Is anyone else excited about Christmas yet?