#0 Days of Before and Afters - Day 2 - Hunting/Camo themed room

I adore this room! This room was an attic space that my friend turned into a bedroom. Because it was attic space, it has a cool sloped room and an area that we made into a fort. Mark and I installed green metal roofing from Lowe's to the slope of the ceiling to help achieve the look of a hunter's camp. I used burlap on the windows and doors of the fort/camp, as well as on the bedskirt. Here's a BEFORE shot of the space.

I used a camo canopy from Academy Sports to make a canopy. This was CHEAP and EASY. I hung two cup hooks on the ceiling, then two nails at the top of the wall (where it meets the ceiling). I cut the canopy - didn't measure, just eye-balled it - and hooked it on the hooks and nails. So cute and really simple to do. I covered a piece of plywood (that was measured and cut at Home Depot) in a foam mattress cover and burlap. I attached a wire to the back of the plywood and hung it on the wall (like a picture) to make the headboard.

The burlap pillow was made with the freezer paper tutorial from earlier. Also super cheap and easy. I self-fringed the burlap so no money was spent on fringe.I love saving money!

The shadow box is waiting to be filled with outdoor goodies like rocks and junk! We arranged some of the little boy's old boots on the shelf, and he hung his pheasant feather thingy all by himself because I apparently forgot to do it! :)

This was an easy and inexpensive room to pull together. Hope you're inspired to try something similar!

30 Days of Before and Afters - AU/war Eagle room

Wow! I'm looooong overdue for a post! So I'm going to make it up to you by posting 30 Days of Before and Afters starting today! I've had lots of projects going on over the last few months. Hopefully you'll see that my lack of posting hasn't been because I haven't been working on projects! It's had more to do with the fact that I've had so many projects going on that I haven't had time to blog about them!

I've been helping a friend decorate her children's bedrooms. It's a win/win situation for both of us. She's a photographer and has taken my kid's pictures in exchange for decorating her kid's bedrooms. Perfect!

I'll be honest. When she first mentioned that her 4 year old wanted an Auburn/War Eagle room, I felt a little sick. :) Not only am I not an Auburn football fan, but there colors are navy blue and bright orange and, well, I felt challenged. However, shortly after that conversation, I was eating in Zaxby's (yes, the fried chicken finger place), and I couldn't keep my eyes off their decor, which is basically vintage sports memorabilia. Lightbulb moment for me. Right then and there I decided that we'd decorate her son's room with a vintage Auburn football theme.

The first thing I did was to paint the walls in a faux finish to give them a slightly worn/vintagey feel. Then I found some blue and white quilted coverlets for the bed. But the stark white in the coverlets was too crisp against the worn walls. SO I dyed the coverlets and matching shams with RIT dye. I had never used Rit dye before, but my mother had some success in dying a coverlet before, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Not only was it super easy, it was super cheap and provided just the look that I needed!

Then the real fun began as I started scouring flea markets, thrifts stores, and yard sales looking for vintage sports stuff. The "WAR EAGLE" letters were the gold ones at Hobby Lobby that I simply spray-painted black. The lamps and shades were from Target. I spray painted the base of the lamps blue and added an ornage grosgrain ribbon to the bottom of the shade. I'll tell you about the chalkboard wall in the dormer window space in just a minute.

The lockers below were found on ebay and spray painted black. LOVE them! Bewtweent he "WAR EAGLE" on the wall and the lockers, the room is adorable! I had a ton of fun scouring flea markets, thrigt stores, and yard sales looking for vintage sports memorabilia! The old megaphone and awesome old football were found at a local flea market. $10 for the megaphone and just a few dollars for the football! I fould several old folding stadium cuchions and hung one on the wall as a shelf.Those cute little football boys were a few dollars at the thrift store. They're from the early seventies, I think, and remind me so much of the Holly Hobby figurines that I had hanging on my wall as a child. LOVE!

A place for all of his AU caps!
This is the small dormer window space. I decided to paint the entire space with black chalkboard paint. I hired a friend (who has awesome handwriting!) to write the 2011-2012 football schedule on the wall. The four year old has strict instructions to NOT draw on this side of the wall, but he has complete freedom to "chalk it up" on the opposing chalkboard wall!

I know I just said that the "War Eagle" letters anf the lockers " make" the room, but the chalkboard wall "makes" it, too!

Here are some BEFORE shots. It was already a cute "Fireman" room, but he was ready to move on.

Stay tuned for more!

Past Valentine Day Ideas

I haven't had a whole lot of time this year to work on creative Valentine ideas (although I have a few in my mind!), so I thought I'd share some of last year's projects.
If you're interesting in making these Valentine Owls, click here. I have thought of some other cute Valentine quotes that would be cute with these: "Valentine, you're a hoot!" , "Owl be your Valentine!" "Whooooo loves you?! I do!!" These Cotton Candy Ice Cream Cones are still one of my favorites. Click HERE if you're interested.

DIY Trumeau

I've been dying to wrap up this project so that I could share it with you. This may be my ALL TIME FAVORITE PROJECT I've ever completed and I did it all BY MYSELF!!! Using Susie Harris' tutorial as my guide, I finally (after 5 years of wanting to do this!) had the guts to make my own Trumeau mirrors! And I couldn't be more pleased!! I L-O-V-E them!! 1. I went to Lowe's and purchased a sheet of 3/4' plywood. I had my measurements in hand and had the guy at Lowe's cut the wood for me. I also bought my moulding while there, as well as Liquid Nails for mirrors, and a $10 Miter Saw kit. . I primed and painted the wood as soon as I walked in the door.

2. I purchased a beveled mirror from Wal-Mart. I think it was only $11.00. I applied the Liquid Nails to the back of the mirror as well as the plywood. I put some heavy stuff (like books and paint cans) on top of the mirror while I impatiently waited for the Liquid Nails to dry so that I could move on to the next step.

3. I was so anxious to finish this project that I forgot to take pics while working. However, Susie did...so take a look at hers. But i did just as she did. I didn't use a measuring tape, I just used a pencil and my eyeballs to mark the cuts on my moulding. The Miter Saw was very self explanatory, even to someone who has never used one. Of course, the miter saw is a hand-held saw, so it took a little while. However, I did this on the carpet of my daughter's bedroom (to give you an idea of how little you have to stress about this step!).

Then I used the same liquid nails to adhere the moulding to the edges of the mirror. And the same books and paint cans on top of the moulding to keep it in place.

Then...I taped off a 10 x 18' rectangle and painted the inside of the rectangle the same color of the dresser (which is one shade darker than the wall, by the way).

Then.......I ordered a fancy monogram to go inside the rectangle. I ordered it from a local shop (Fun and Fancy), but you can order them off of Etsy. Just type in monogram and all sorts of fun things come up!

This bedroom is FINALLY complete!!! (For now!)

Thank you, Susie Harris, for your step-by step tutorial!!

I'm linking to Transformation Thursdays at The Shabby Chic Cottage , Strut Your Stuff at

Somewhat Simple, and Thrilling Thursdays at Paisley Passions
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Boo Bags

I thought I'd re-post some Halloween stuff from last year.

These bags were super easy and I don't want to insult your intelligence by writing a tutorial. However....here goes. Cut the top of a white bag into a rounded shape. Glue on googly eyes. Now you have a "Boo Bag"!

Happy Halloween!

Linking to Transformation Thursdays at The Shabby Chic Cottage., Show Off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans, Somewhat Simple, Frugal Fridays at The Shabby Nest.

DIY Cake Stands

Last week, we celebrated my youngest child's 6th Birthday with a Little Chef Party. I made some quick, easy, and completely inexpensive cake stands for each of the little cakes. I wrapped different sized cans from my pantry in scrapbook paper that I secured with a glue gun. Then I spray painted burner covers (you know...the round things that go over the burners on a stovetop) a coordinating color and glued trim on the edges. The burner covers were from The Dollar Tree. There were two in a pack. They had 'not so cute" country images on them (like ducks!). But a little spray paint can go a long way!

I thought they turned out kinda cute.

This would be fun to do at Christmas for appetizers. Wrap your cans in different papers - or spray paint the empty cans and add polka dot grosgrain ribbon - and put your appetizers on coordinating sparypainted burner covers.

I actually did something similar at our school's Cake Walk. Instead of using the cans from my kitchen, I asked the ladies in the cafeteria to save their industrial-sized cans. I spray-painted them and hot-glued a 2 inch ribbon around the center. And rather then using burner covers, I used round pizza pans from the Dollar Tree.

Linking to Toot Your Horn Tuesday , These Creative Juices, The Creative Itch, Lucky Linky, Hope Studios

On Thursday, linking to Transformation Thursdays at The Shabby Chic Cottage, Show off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans., Somewhat Simple. On Friday, linking to Frugal Fridays at The Shabby Nest.

Have fun!

Big Girl Bedroom

My two youngest girls are only 15 months apart and have always enjoyed sharing a room together. Fortunately, the room is big enough for two full size beds. I adored the bedroom that they shared together! However, recently they decided that they each wanted their own room. I moved one of the full sized beds into our "extra" bedroom for one of the girls, then re-painted and re-decorated the other room (the one below) into something really special.

Here is a BEFORE shot: And here are the afters:

The chaise lounge below doesn't exactly work in this room, but I tried to make it work by removing the existing trim and gluing some blue ribbon along the bottom edge. The raw silk blue pillow was a steal for 50 cents at a yard sale. The blue throw hides marker and glitter glue that are at the foot of the chair.

I love this room as much as my little girl does! I must confess, however, that just about every idea for this room came straight from Janell at Isabell & Max Rooms. I was in love with her daughter's "Dream Bedroom", and Janell was generous enough to list all of her sources and even her paint color! Lucky me!

Stay tuned and I'll post pics of my other daughter's "big girl" room.