She's done! A painted armoire

This will be a picture post.  After two nights of our house alarm beeping on the hour, EVERY hour, I'm tired.  But I'm happy to say that she is finally done and my craft stuff is not in boxes on the floor anymore.

{New York City picture purchased from Hobby Lobby}

{hardware purchased from House of Antique Hardware}

And because everyone loves a good before and after:

{Roo is the happiest that the creepy handprints are gone.}

Linking up to:

Nutmeg Place Show off Saturday

DIY boxwood wreath tutorial

One of my favorite things about my home gym spruce up has to be the boxwood wreath that I created.  Since I'm not a huge wreath person, I wanted a small, inexpensive and naturally relaxed one.  It was hard to find one (I'm too picky) so I made my own.  And since it was so easy, I thought I would share how I made mine.  Here's what you need:

{It was $12.99 for that sprig of boxwood so use that Hobby Lobby coupon!}

Pull off the leaves instead of cutting them with wire cutters.  I'm all about not cramping up my hand with those blasted wire cutters.  Maybe if I bought some better ones? One more thing to add to the list.    

Place individual leaves on and inside the vines of the wreath.  Then wrap the thin wire around and around.  Take care to arrange the leaves in a circular pattern and not straight up and down.  

Keep going until you either run out (like I did) or the wreath is as full as you like it.  

Don't look too closely because you will see the wires.  But that's ok with me because I follow 

Nester's rules of It Doesn't Have to be Perfect to be Beautiful.  

This exact same scenario happened with the topiary in the the first picture.  I saw, I hunted, I got discouraged, I thought, and then I just made one myself.  Except I didn't take any pictures when I was creating it.  I'm itching to make another one so I just might be doing a tutorial on a topiary soon.

Linked up to:
Nutmeg Place
Funky Junk Interiors

My home gym spruce up

I've been sprucing up my home gym for months now.  I stand in front of the this TV and setup everyday working out and I wanted it to be more motivating.  It was around Christmastime when I got the urge to paint the backs of my bookshelves black.  You know, with all of the extra time that I had.  I'm pretty sure I was painting the day before my in-laws arrived.  

 

I got the idea from Edie's place to paint the back black to sort of hide the TV.  I've always thought mine stuck out like a sore thumb.  

I used some leftover chalkboard paint so I could add and change out quotes easily.

It makes me happy that the TV isn't the first thing seen anymore.

For me, the things that should stick out the most are the inspirational ones.  Like Tony Horton's motto:  "Do your best, and forget the rest" and a Spartan helmet.  Yes, a Spartan helmet.  This became a must because hubby and I just signed up to run a Spartan race in the Spring.  I need some serious motivation staring me in the face while I work out to get myself ready for it!

And my favorite pictures of my family are definitely not up to date but I chose them because they make me smile.  It motivates me to work hard and stay healthy for them.

Here is the saying in the frame:

{I found it on Pinterest but unfortunately it's not a direct link}

It's a great quote for all areas of my life right now.  Blogging, volunteering, mothering, etc.....

Since I'm such a visual person all of these things help me to stay on track.  What about you?  Do you have things around your house to hold you accountable and motivate you?  

I would love to hear about them. 

Christmas craft week

We started Christmas craft week this week!    

For the first semester of last year, I was watching two extra kids after school.  By the time Christmas came around everyone was antsy in the afternoon and they also didn't have homework.  Thank goodness for Meg and her ideas.  Christmas crafts saved the day!  I'm doing different ones this year with just my kids and first up was the felt Christmas tree inspired by here.  

I've made it a point to not run all over town so when Walmart was out of the things we needed I had to improvise.  No styrofoam cones?  Make them out of cardboard.  (I had to refer to my friend Cyndy on how to make one!)  No felt (whatsoever)?  Use a $5.99 green XL sweatshirt.  I bought the little presents at the dollar store and had all of the other trimmings on hand.

I would love to say that as much as I love the one on the right, it wasn't going to happen with moody kids that day.  I should have had the strips already made.  Lesson learned.  So we opted for little squares hot glued on in a criss cross fashion.  All Roo wanted to do was the decorating anyway.  Mommy could do the hard part.

Not much went on yesterday since I had a small surgery on my gums.  It was more intense than expected.  I'm better now and hopefully will find some styrofoam balls for a craft that Roo has made up herself.  Wish me luck because I have no idea how to substitute for those!

Winter cotton ball wreath and a linky party

Nothing like a linky party to get your creative juices going with a deadline.  Thanks to Rhoda's at Southern Hospitality, my house is a wreck but my entryway mantel looks lovely.  

I really wanted to do a tablescape over at Layla's but let's face it, that's too fancy for me.  Just the other day Roo asked what napkin rings were.  She's never seen them at our house!  Hence the reason for no pictures at Thanksgiving.  I tried my best but I wasn't happy with it and I was a complete stress ball. 

Moving on.  I had fun creating a natural space for a Christmas mantel.  Since my cotton ball wreath has gotten so many looks on Pinterest,  I dolled her up and put her on display.   I love how she sparkles now.

The mini trees are real from Home Depot and lit up with battery operated lights.

The pine cone and seed pod things were free from the yards around here.  I sprayed the pine cones with fake snow last year and, don't tell my 6 yr old sweet toothed daughter, but the seed pods were dusted with powdered sugar this year!

A corner just for me

I didn't mean to take such a bloggy break.  It just happened.  I have some projects going on but they involve painting and I can't go outside to do it.  My town is getting swarmed by mosquitoes so we have been stuck inside.  They are so bad that we had to run all the way home from school the other day and soccer practices were cancelled.  

Anyway, I did do a little rearranging though.  I'm slowly but surely adding furniture to my empty front room and it makes me very happy.  

 This area of our house is right by the front door in formal living room that we now use as our workout room.  I don't want it to be empty but we still need space to move, jump and lunge around.

I bought the rocker at a local antique store.  This chair is very comfortable even though it doesn't look like it.  The table is a hand me down from my house growing up.  It has moved with us umpteen times and I so glad that I still have it.  I remember dusting this sucker when I was younger and it was a pain to get in between all those grooves!

Here is a closeup of the detail on the chair.  

The lamp was on clearance last year at Target but it took me forever to find and make over a shade.  When I found one, I spray painted it and then hot glued rope around it.  Two hours later and a few burned fingers and I have a new lamp.  But wouldn't you know that I would run out of rope at the VERY last second.

That's OK, I just turn it around and no one can see it!

Halloween mantel

The kids wanted Halloween decorations and this is as scary as I get!  

I did not want to spend any money so I went to my handy printer once again.  The crow was filled in with a sharpie and then cut out.  The sticks were collected outside of my church the day I was volunteering and spray painted black.  

I love how it turned out but I especially love that I didn't spend any money.  

******Happy Halloween******