My thrift store makeovers and my updated booth!

I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day! The family went out to eat with my mom. Every restaurant in town was packed so we had a bit of a wait. So much for the "romantic evening" huh?

A few posts back, I showed you my thrist store finds. I was needing a cabinet or shelf to show some of my goodies in my booth at Curious Cat. I messed with it all week - trying to get it to prim perfection! It was the standard glossy stain color - nothing fancy. I painted it white and then brushed dark stain over the paint once it dried. I then came along with a tan paint and brushed it on - then took a sponge to wipe some of the paint off. After all was dry, I sanded and scuffed for the worn look. What do you think . . .

Before:

After:

I love the way it turned out! The stain and paint really brought out the detail in the molding.I also had picked up a wood medicine cabinet. I gave it the same treatment as the shelf.
Before:

After:

I wanted to put it in our newly updated bathroom but it was too big! So, my daughter and I took it to my booth at Curious Cat.
You know how when you move one thing around, it triggers an entire makeover? That is what happened yesterday. We spent a few hours rearranging the booth so I wanted to show you all how it looked when we were finished.

I just finished the star pillow sitting in the blue basket. I forgot to take a picture of it! I have to put some more goodies on my new shelf. I had run out of "tweak" time by the time we had moved things around. You know, you really never have enough "tweak" time anyway!
Have a great day!
Nicole

A craft area redo and a vet update

A few years ago, I installed some wire shelves in our hallway. It was a recess in the wall which housed the furnace at one time. Since then, it was a place to store our towels, sheets, and extra blankets. Now that I was finally finished with the bathroom, I had a better place for all of these. Yesterday afternoon I decided to make my former linen closet into a crafting storage area.
Over the past few months, I have realized that I had crafting supplies scattered from one end of the house to the other. Everytime I wanted to start a project, I had to hunt down my supplies. Sometimes I would give up and just go buy whatever I needed. We can't afford to do that anymore so I was on a mission . . . to find all of my crafting supplies and get them organized!

I our bedroom, I had 3 (yes 3!) of those plastic storage things on wheels. Each one had 3 drawers in it and it was the home for the bulk of my stuff. The rest was scattered in the dining room (which is where the sewing machine was), beside the recliner (I had a basket there with things that I work on while watchin TV), and in various drawers.

I pulled EVERYTHING into the living room. Fabric, buttons, paint, sanders, candles, floral stuff, all of it! Needless to say it was a MESS! I didn't want to go buy more plastic bins so I took the drawers out of the ones in my bedroom. This eliminated a lot from my bedroom and I didn't have to spend any money!

It took several hours but I got it finished. I know it doesn't look like a lot but it is all packed in there! Everything except my fabric. I have it stored in a cabinet in the dining room.

Living in a small house means that you don't have the storage that you would like. I have had to find creative ways to store things so they aren't just lying out for everyone to see.

I have so much stuffing and batting that I needed a place to "hide" it. This was my solution . . .

Can't even tell it's in there, huh? It works great because I don't have those big bulky bags showing! Since I became organized - I have started on 3 more projects. I am not a one at a time type gal! I'll try to show you those projects later.
I think one day I am going to do a post and show off my hiding places! I have things hidden everywhere since there is not room to store them!

We took our English Bulldog, Cane, to the vet yesterday. He loves going because he gets to visit other dogs. We got to sit near the scale so he thought that everyone was coming to see him as they were going to weigh their animals. We knew he had an ear infection because of the way that he was acting. Turns out, he has a bacterial ear infection, skin allergy, and Entropion in one eye. Entropion is an inward rolling of the eyelid edges. He said it is a painful condition because the hair on the lid constantly scratches against the cornea.
They gave us meds for the ear infection and he got an allergy shot for his skin. We also got a cream to put in his eye to help with the discomfort but he has to have surgery. We were not expecting that at all!
The vet said that other than the eye, Cane was very healthy. At least we got that good news! So we hope to have his surgery scheduled in the next few weeks.
Right now, he is in the recliner snoring louder than my husband! Makes it hard to watch TV when they are both dozing! I think the curtains are gonna pull off the windows! I am gonna record it one day!
I hope everyone has a great day!

Nicole

Finally . . . A completed bathroom!

I have been mentioning my bathroom remodel project in my last posts. It has been a long time coming but I can finally say that it is finished! We live in a older home that belonged to my grandparents and it has one small bathroom. When we first moved in, it didn't even have a shower! I remember taking long hot baths in that little bathroom over the years. It still had the old cast iron plumbing so let me tell you, it took FOREVER to fill up the bath! I would start the water, go finish my homework, and then get in the bath about 30 minutes later! Seriously! The water ran that slow!

After we inherited the house, the plumbing was the first update we had completed. We had that done before we ever moved in. I knew there was no way that the four of us would ever be bathed at that rate! We had a shower/tub installed at the same time.

In the corner of the bathroom, we had a chimney. Back then, it was the chimney that went to the furnace. When I was a teenager, my grandparents had the furnace removed and installed Central Heat & Air. Boy, we thought we were something then! The chimney remained and was eventually painted the same color as the bathroom. You really couldn't even tell it was a chimney. It was in the corner and you basically just passed it by when you came into the bathroom.

It is a small bathroom with the basics . . . toilet, sink, tub/shower. However, there was no place for towels or all of your bath essentials. The entire house didn't even have a linen closet. My grandmother kept all of the towels and linens in a hutch.

Fast forward several years when we moved in. I thought to myself, "We could remove that chimney and build a cabinet in that corner to store our towels and stuff!" Sounds easy right? OH NO! REMOVE A CHIMNEY??? WHAT WAS I THINKING! What about all of that soot? Chipped cement? No, I never asked myself that. That would have made way more sense than I had at the time I guess!

The hubby and I go into the attic and start taking apart the chimney. Luckily, it had been capped off years ago so it didn't go through the roof. Brick by brick, my dear hubby chipped away at the cement - breaking them apart so we could get them down the attic stairs (yes, the pull down kind) and out the door into the bed of his truck. We had an assembly line going. He broke them apart, I took them to the stairs and passed it down to Miranda, she passed the brick to Colton who took it out the door and threw it in the truck. It was a little messy up in the attic but not too bad. We get downstairs and get the chimney 1/2 way down. Then we seen it. Black soot was packed full almost 1/2 up the chimney. PACKED FULL! We started shoveling it into trashcans. Sucked it up in the Shop Vac (BAD IDEA) Needless to say, by the time the chimney was gone, the bathroom was black, we were black, the CARPET was black, the porch was black, the poodle was black and the children were black!

In the weeks to come, we had to rip up the carpet and put in new flooring. I had tried everything to clean the carpet but nothing would get that oily soot out! We cleaned ALOT of molding and walls. Had a poodle BLEACHED! Then we built the cabinet for the bathroom. Once that cabinet was in place, I didn't want to be anywhere near that bathroom for awhile - seriously, awhile! Because of the disaster that I call, Hurricane Nicole, we have been working on cleaning up for about a year!

That brings me to the bathroom makeover. I finally got up the courage to give it another try. My daughter and I worked on it over the weekend. We got the old molding torn down and painted. I painted the ceiling a bright white to lighten it up. The rest of the house has more prim colors to it but I wanted something light and bright because of it's size. I still try to bring in some prim pieces so it doesn't look like it completely belongs to another house. Once we got it painted, the hubby helped me hang the wainscotting and new molding. I am very pleased with the results!

Today was cleaning day for the bathroom! I put my hair in a ponytail, put on some sweats, and went at it! The floor still had remnants of black soot! That stuff was in every nook and cranny! I felt like Cinderella . . . not the cute gal heading off to a ball . . no . . . the one with her bucket, on her hands and knees, scubbing the floor. That was me today. Can you picture it?

The hubby cooked dinner tonight so that I could clean the bathroom. (Not sure if he was being nice or if I was being punished! lol) So, after over a year of waiting . . . it is done. I spent the past hour decorating it and moving things from other rooms. I still have a few things to buy to give it that finished look but it was so clean, I wanted to show you before my kids wake up tomorrow and there is toothpaste on the walls! lol

Keep in mind that this bathroom in small so I could not stand back far enough to get the entire picture so I had to take them in sections.

I picked up this shower curtain a few months ago at Curious Cat for $5! It has been sitting in a box every since then.This is the pan I have hanging over the commode. I bought this from Beth at Olde Tyme Marketplace. She has a booth at Curious Cat also and this little gem was there calling my name!

I am going to use the blue jars for my essentials . . . Q-tips, cotton balls, and tweezers/fingernail clippers. I just thought they fit perfect with my new blue! I am going to get some brown fabric to put them on. Just to break up the blue and white. I guess something with texture.

I put this little gathering together on top of an old wood hamper. The brown pitcher belonged to my grandmother. The set of shutters are another of Beth's treasures!

Just a close up of the old wooden hamper. I love it! It holds our sheets and things (shhh!) I am going to put more brown fabric here to cover the hamper lid.

This is the vanity that we purchased last year. I think it is so cottagie (I know that isn't a word!) I allows some storage underneath - thank goodness! Also, see the Maple candle on the sink - another of Beth's treasures! The best smelling candle . . . EVER! I hung this wreath over the wooden hamper. Great brown against the blue!
I took down the medicine cabinet and hung this mirror instead. It was a wedding gift from my Aunt Dot. She even wrote "We love you" across the back. It was a centerpiece at our table during the reception. She had it covered with lit candles and flower petals!
Yes, this is a picture of our floor. Nothing special - except it has NO SOOT on it anymore! Can you believe it! I also wanted to show you . . . it really is a small bath huh? I was not kidding! Thanks so much for taking the tour of our bath remodel! Sorry for the long post but I really felt I should explain why it took so long to remodel our tiny bath! I am sure I will be tweaking it in the coming weeks - but for now . . . IT IS FINISHED! (You should see the dance I am doing about it!)
Thanks to everyone's well wishes for Cane! He goes to the vet in the morning so I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!
I hope everyone has a great week!

Some Thrift Store Goodies . . .

I had to show off some of my weekend Thrift Store finds! The hubby and I took off early Saturday morning on a mission. I needed a piece of furniture to display my handmades at my booth at Curious Cat. We actually found so many good deals that I couldn't pass them up! The first store we came to had a lot of great things sitting out front. I immediatly pulled in because I seen a hutch top sitting there all alone. We got it and a great bathroom cabinet! It is solid wood and looks great! I can't wait to slap a little paint on it!

The second store we went to had a lot of old prim looking pieces tucked in behind the newer stuff. Everytime I go there I have to look back behind the "nicer" things to find what I am looking for. This time I found this old metal bin - it has a great pull out door on it. It is made like a tater bin (just so you can picture it). It looks like it went in a bathroom or something. I am going to research and see if I can find out what it was for. It is the white cabinet above. I had to have it - only $5!
I found a table that had a handful of wood picture frames - had to have those - $1.00 for all. I use them for my stitcheries - that way I don't have to charge an arm and a leg for the finished product!
Last but not least, I found an old porcelain coffee pot. It is perfect! In great shape - just needed a little cleaning.

All in all, I think it was a great bargain day! I am going to get my finds "prim-tastic" hopefully this week.

We have been making a few changes in our main bathroom. It is a little small so we needed to brighten it up. My daughter worked until late last night repainting. We had a custom built cabinet installed but I never got around to painting it. Miranda took care of all of the white painting - the door, trim, and the cabinet. I decided to go with a lighter blue. It is not really prim but I wanted something a little more lively in there. It always seems so dark and gloomy - had to brighten it up! I will take a picture of it when it doesn't look like such a mess! Hopefully, later on this week I will share it with ya.

I have to take our dear doggie, Cane, to the vet on Wednesday so I won't get a lot done that day! He isn't feeling well lately. I think he has some type of ear infection. He is still running and playing but we want to get it checked out before it gets worse.

Better safe than sorry I guess! I take him to a vet about an hour away because they are a lot more affordable than the ones around here. They have seen Cane since he was a puppy so that way they know his history.
I hope everyone has a great week. I will share my bathroom pics and my thrifting makeovers as soon as I can!

Marvelous Moms

A few months ago, I sent in a letter to a local radio station for a contest they call "Marvelous Moms". I told about my mom who has always worked 2 jobs to take care for my brothers and I after my father passed away. As with a lot of mothers, she sacrificed a lot to care for us and make sure we had what we needed. I had forgotten all about writing the letter until today. I received a phone call from my mom. I could tell she had been crying. Of course, a thousand things ran through my mind as to what was wrong. She asked me about what I sent to the radion station . . . it took me a minute to remember. She said they had called her and told her she was this week's "Marvelous Mom". They read her the letter I had written.

At the moment she called me, I was sitting inside the pharmacy waiting for my husbands meds to get filled. He is diabetic so this takes a while to fill all of the testing supplies, needles, and medication itself. I wasn't sure if they had played it on the radio yet or not so I tried to get out of there as soon as I could.

About 15 minutes later, I had escaped from the pharmacy and made it to my car. My husband and I were going through the bag to make sure we had picked up everything we needed and about that time, he announced, "Now it is time for this week's Marvelous Mom!" I was so excited! I was actually getting to hear her response!

They told her they were with WSOC and asked if she knew me. (At this moment, I know she was thinking . . . should I admit it or not!) They told her that I had written a letter and asked her if they could read it to her. As they read, she was very quiet. When they got to the end, they told her that they were honored to get to meet someone like her. As she tried to thank them, I could tell she had been crying. The guy reading the letter said that he had tried to read it 2 other times but had to stop because he was choked up. (Now, that must have been a good letter!)

She won a gift certificate to a auto shop for an oil change, a $60 gift certificate to Cabet Cheese, and a certificate for pamering at Massage Envy!

I was so glad that she had finally received some recognition for all that she had done! It got me thinking though - I had wrote that letter several months ago on my lunch break at work. I submitted it online and had forgotten all about it. It never dawned on me that my mom had no idea that I looked up to her so much! She was in shock that I would take a few minutes and write something great about her - like she hasn't done a million things like that for me over the years.

I remember I would find silly notes in my lunch - simply telling me to Have a great day! In college, she would send me post cards from my home town (which is literally 45 minutes away) saying "Wish you were here!). For every birthday, I would get a card with a heart felt note written inside letting me know how much she loved me. But she never expected me to do the same for her! She told me that it made her day. She had been a little down in the dumps lately so it came at the perfect time too!

I tried to find the link so you guys could hear it but the station hasn't posted today's podcast yet. And of course, I couldn't wait to share it with all of you!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I have some Goodwill Hunting to do!

A New Look For an Old Hat

Since we all love searching the Thrift Stores and Goodwill - I thought I would share this really inexpensive makeover of a 90's classic. We all remember them . . . the straw hats that we used on the front door to greet guests. The ones with lace and flowers . . . you remember right? Everytime I am at a yard sale or bargain hunting, I run across a few. They still have the lace and ribbon on them, usually covered in dirt and dust and lots of missing flowers.

I seen this at a friends booth at Curious Cat a few years ago. She actually brought life back to the straw hat! I have to give props to Gladys for coming up with this idea - I loved it so much I bought hers right off the wall and have had it hanging in my dining room for 2 years now!

She stripped the hat of all it's 90's goodness. No more lace and ribbon - goodbye rosettes and wire!

Materials needed:

Straw Hat

Piece of Cardboard - size of hat

Small piece of ribbon

Wide ribbon for "band" on hat

Mossy Grass

Small Bird

Twig or small dowel rod

Hot glue

Instructions:

First step is to lay the hat on a piece of cardboard, trace around the hat and cut out. Then she cut a hole towards the bottom of the hat - not very large. Just about the same height as the bird used. She turned the hat over and stuffed some great mossy grass inside. Now you will glue the cut out cardboard piece to the back of your hat. **Be sure you can not see the cardboard from the front!** You can go ahead and hot glue a thin piece of ribbon or wire to the back in a loop in order to hang your hat. Once all has dried, turn your hat over and we can start working on the front! You will hot glue a twig or small dowel rod to the bottom of the hole (this will be the birds perch). You may have to use your fingers to pull some of the mossy grass towards the hole opening. You want a little sticking out from the hole to cover the opening. Once the twig is stable, glue your bird on to the top. Then take your wide ribbon and wrap around the hat. Tie into a bow at bottom. Be sure to hot glue the ribbon to the hat so that it doesn't slide off.

Viola - you've gone from an out of date straw hat to a cute country bird house! This whole project will cost you less than $5!

We've got to get Gladys up and running with a blog - she has the neatest ideas out of some household goodies! I am going to try to get over to her new store and take some pics! I'll be sure to share them as soon as I can!

Whatcha Working on Wednesday

Technically it is after midnight so I guess it is Thursday but I wanted to get in a post on Leslie's Whatcha Working on Wednesday. It has been forever since I have gotten a Wednesday update in - I barely made it this week!

I have been stitching a lot lately - I enjoy that because I an sit in the living room with the family and stitch while they are watching TV. I hate being in another room sewing but then, of course, if I move it into the living area, they can't hear the TV! I am trying to work on some Spring items for my booth but, it is hard to think of Spring, blooms, and flowers when we woke up this morning to SNOW! I apparently hadn't been paying attention to the Weather Channel because I had no idea it was on it's way! The kids got up for school today and the phone rang. It was the School System calling to let us know that school was cancelled. We looked outside and there was snow all over! Talk about a shock. We all just went back to bed. Nobody even felt like taking pictures or going out to play. We have all been passing around the flu for the past few weeks so we are still trying to recover.

The first item I finished was a Spring Pitcher stitchery. I added a few buttons for flowers and lightly colored in the pitcher with a dark blue colored pencil. It reads "Bloom Where You Are Planted" along the bottom. I am working on sprucing up the frame but it hasn't dried yet. So far, this is what I got . . .

I have had this two part frame since last summer. I picked it up at a yard sale along with a bundle of wooden frames. I finally decided to stitch something just for this frame. I found this stitchery and thought it would be perfect!

It reads: "No matter what, no matter where, it's always home when love is there". I just stitched a Saltbox house to go on the other side. Added some prim to the frame and viola . . .

I also worked on a few hearts for Valentines. I had some red ticking left over from Christmas and thought I would use some of that. I picked up a wooden box with an iron gate like backing to it at a thrift store. I filled it with some white pip berries and my grungied hearts.
It turned out to be perfect for the space I needed to fill!

I am just glad I got to share in the WWW this time. It may be months before I get to do it again they way my memory is!

Nicole