Winter warmth for my niece :)

This is my niece, Zoey. 

Currently, Zoey reigns supreme in our family, as she is the only girl, AND  the youngest of the nieces & nephews. There are (5) boys that came before her, ranging in age from 21, down to 13. So not only is she the youngest, she came along 8 years after the last one. 

She's every bit of a princess, and we like it that way.

Over Thanksgiving break, we had a wardrobe malfunction, (i.e. a busted zipper)
& had to buy her a new coat. 

Now, you may not know this, but the Princess Wardrobe pretty much
has only {TWO} Color Choices.

 [Pink] or [PURPLE] 

That is pretty much it. And depending on the shade of pink or purple it can be pretty hard to match. So when Zoey asked me to make her a purple scarf and headband to match her coat, I honestly wondered if it were going to be possible. We looked at several different colors, and were about to settle for a white or pink option, when we wandered into the Yarn Store at the Old Forge Hardware Store in the Adirondacks. 

There, we found this beautiful purple color.
Oh the Gasps! Her sweet little hands flew to her face!
"Auntie KISHA" she squealed with delight - "I think it's a perfect match!"
And she was right! This Cascade Pacific, color # 37, is almost exactly the
same shade  of Purple as her brand new coat. We were thrilled!  

Now, I've never written a crochet pattern before, so unfortunately I don't have one yet to share with you. I may get it written up to share, but I can't promise as my "A" button sticks horribly on my laptop right now, and even typing this up is a little bit frustrating.

So I will share with those of you who crochet regularly that this is a super simple project. The scarf and leg warmers are (2) rows of Double Crochet, followed by a single row of puff stitches (5 YO). Then to the scarf I added (2) rows of lacy trim (basically Ch 5, sk 2 st, sl st in next st).

The flowers I just picked a tutorial off of Youtube and followed that. You can search and tons of options will come up :)

The headband whipped up FAST - & that pattern I found "HERE" at "Tangled Happy" - which is a great blog to follow by the way. The pattern was well written and super easy to follow. I see a lot of these in my Niece's future. (And mine too, with a minimal size adjustment).

So, what homemade gifts are you working on?
Linking up here!

A bed for you, a bed for me...

The other day, I posted about my kitchen furniture that I redid.

Then I worked really hard and got it linked up to 7 or 8 linky parties. Oh my goodness that was work let me tell you! So many people, so many sites, so many amazing projects! All my hard work paid off though, at least sort of, because I've had over 200 hits to that post alone since yesterday morning. That is the most traffic I've ever had to this website, almost ever. Well not really but it usually takes a month to have people looking at my blog that much!

I'm shocked though, because no one said one comment. Not one person signed up for my emails, or joined my site via Google. Just goes to prove, the internet conversation is so one sided!  The readers have all the power, and I am just the muse...

I'm over it :) at least people are looking right? Which is better than no one looking and then I'm technically talking to myself. Which is strange. Even for the internet.

I digress. 

Anyway. Check this out. A new craigslist find. That place is a gold mine I tell you! A gold mine! 

My son, is a bit of a fanatic. A 20yr old tattooed, pet store working, artist fanatic. When he wants something a certain way, we sort of just let it be that way, until I can prove to him that my ideas will look good, be affordable and won't take away his 'artistic' style in any way.

For years, he insisted we leave his mattress/box spring on the floor. He liked it low to the ground and that was that.

Well fine. Except that now we are selling the house, and people are coming to look at it, and we can't have it look like we are paupers living in a shack. People need to see furniture in order to see a purpose to a room. 

 That logic he got. And with his blessing we happily trotted off to a sweet woman's house who had a nice little Headboard / Footboard combo with metal frame for sale. For a really good price. And we went, and it was a nice set with good bones and a lot of potential.

On a side note, her yard looked like a super flea market. She lived on this beautiful little dead end side road with neatly manicured yards and lovely little porches. But her yard? FILLED from the front to the back with tarp covered Flea Market, yard sale loveliness. She said they'd recently had a 20 family yard sale.

Did you catch that? TWENTY families.

Where was I when this sale was going on?!?!?

Seriously, I'm sure she's her neighborhood's favorite house -.-

Anyway, the bed was ours and we brought it home, and I immediately got to work. On the foot board at least. The head board is still in the garage. We'll get there - hopefully this weekend will be nice and I can finish it. Not sure but we'll see!

 The piece did need a little TLC on the left leg. Thankfully all the pieces were there, and a little wood glue and a rubber band were all that was needed to make it work.

 First coat Annie Sloan Old White. Do you like my "workhorses"? yeah... I'm so cheap. I just used some old book shelves I had in the garage. Same concept - even if they are a little bulky - but they work good and make a good work surface!

   First coat of Annie Sloan Paris Grey. I mixed it 2 parts paris gray, 1 part old white to give it a lighter color. Did one coat of Paris grey, and then distressed, heavily. After that I applied a second coat of Paris grey and viola. Foot board is done. Haven't done the wax yet. Might do that tonight before I go to bed. It doesn't take long. I use an old white Tshirt to buff it on, and let it dry, then a 2nd coat. Beautiful! 

So this is it :) My son's footboard. I had a hard time getting a good picture of it because it kept trying to roll away (those casters really work!).

What do you think? Good distressing? too much distressing? Can't really see enough to make a judgement call?

Well, next we'll be working on the matching headboard, and a dresser we picked up this weekend. Trust me, the guy didn't know what he was selling. There's no way he knew... or he wouldn't have let it go so cheaply!
Linking up here!

Kitchen Re-take

Well so you all know that I'm moving sometime SOON. And we've pretty much decided not to take most of our furniture, and well most of everything isn't coming with us. Except, I feel like it's ok to bring the kitchen farm table and chairs. And probably my couch table in the living room.

Funny thing about being a Pinterest junkie (I mean who else do you know has like.. 48, er, um... 49 boards?) is that you get really inspired, and things that were just fine before, suddenly aren't fine anymore. Like my 4, unmatched, hand me down chairs that are with my Kitchen farm table. They are pretty standard chairs - like any you find on Craigslist for like $10 each or whatever... but two are white and light wood, and two are just some sort of oak wood with pretty spindles on them. Either way, they don't match.

And when I get to Colorado, I won't have a garage for storage, or an outside deck for painting projects, or well.. much of anything really. So I know that this is a major project that has to be completed before we go. Along with every OTHER project that has to be done before we go. You know, like actually putting the house on the MARKET?

Motivate Monday # 1

Good Monday morning! Oh I 'm sooo excited to share with you this new 'feature' on my blog - "Motivate Mondays" :)

What is Motivate Monday?

Well it's my opportunity to share with you some FABULOUS sister bloggers and the great things that they are sharing on their sites. You see I subscribe to many blogs, and see so much inspiration.

My Favorite Blogs List

Every morning I grab some coffee, and browse through many of these great sites, and I learn so much, from painting to crochet to cooking to raising kids and encouragement in my faith. I'm so thankful to have all of these great women to learn and grow from.

It occurred to me that perhaps I should share some of it with you! So here we go.

Every Monday I will post links to my 7 favorite blog posts from the last week. I will also post a Motivate Monday Link Party for you, my readers to share your own projects or motivation. Anything goes!

These are the Party Rules. Remember to play fair :) We just want to have a little fun!

a.) Share a maximum of (2) motivate projects for each Link Party
b.) Only share NEW Motivate projects for each Link Party (please do not share the same projects every week)
c.) Only share your own projects, from your own blogs. Please do not link back to someone else's blog. 
d.) Link directly to the post of the new motivate project. Please do not link back to your Blog's home page.
e.) Go back to your Motivate Project link and link back to my Party Link


Ok! On to the Motivation!

My first motivation was actually found on Pinterest.

I love love love the awesome Typography of the chalkboard variety and I am loving the idea that I can do this in PhotoShop, or PhotoBucket, Or Gimp, or any number of other Photo Editors out there. (Confession? Yes I need to learn Photoshop, as evidenced by my severely lacking in quality pictures I continually post here!)

The Blog is Foolish Fire and the project can be found here - so have a lot of fun with this and don't forget to share what you've learned in next weeks link party!

Holiday Dough via Heart and Soul Scrappers

Yes, Yes I know it's way too early to be thinking  Christmas. Especially since I am not ready at all to say goodbye to my non-existent summer. I keep thinking there will be time to redeem myself and get to the beach, or the river, or an amusement park or a picnic, or well, anything, to remind myself that it is, indeed summer.

I might be behind the 8 ball on this one.

I'll get back to you and let you know.

In the meantime - while on Pinterest this morning, I found a fantastic little idea for Christmas! How FUN is this idea from Heart and Soul Scrappers? Holiday Dough. (ok I also admit, as a former CTMH consultant, I am not surprised at all at her creativity level!) 

Anyway - hop on over to her blog for the "rest of the story" and you betcha I'll be having a little fun with this come this Christmas for my (4) nephews who never want anything BUT money! LOL

Enjoy and let her know I sent ya!

Heart and Soul Scrappers: Holiday Dough!!!: I got this cute little gift idea from a fellow CTMH consultant ( Terrie Dodd ).  I typed the poem on my computer, inserted a gingerbread man...

Midnight sneekin'

ok, so who doesn't get up in the middle of the night and do a little sneakin? to the fridge, to the coffee maker, to the tv, to the bathroom... to facebook?

Well, I hate to be the one to spoil a surprise, but seriously I could not WAIT to share this with you all (which is how us yankees say "ya'll") And this is just so good. It's my first FULL furniture set re-do. As in chairs and all.

Oh, it's not done yet, which is why this is the 'sneak' peek. It's about halfway there. It's been painted, and scraped and sanded and painted again, and the top has been stained a beautiful color which looks like it's got natural burns in the woodwork.. oh I love how this is coming out.

And seeing as I love it so much, and I love you guys so much - I just had to share it with you!

But... it's just a peek... which means the rest of the reveal will have to wait till it's all done. And trust me there will be pictures. And shopping lists. And instructions.

Because I'm cool like that. Seriously cool like that.

Just suffice it to say, it's been quiet around here, cause this gal has been busy!

More updates to come - right now it's 1:30 am and snooze time... so thankful for the 3 day weekend!

Don't forget about the Freebie posted last week thursday! Follow the instructions and maybe you'll win!

Happy Labor day!

weekend madness

This has been quite the week/weekend, but I'm beginning to really understand that I do, in fact, do too much. For a long time that just seemed like the pace that life should be led. And I convinced myself that I was truly living life, and now it's become habit, and it's hard to say no. Slow down. Enjoy the small moments. It's hard for me! I only have one life to live, and time is spent, whether i'm productive or not, I can't get those minutes back. There'll be plenty of time for rest in heaven right?

ah, maybe. Well to be fair, some of these pictures are not from this weekend. Like this fabulous table top smores display. A  few weeks ago, Tye, his girlfriend Iri, her mom and I went to Taste, in East Aurora, and had a fabulous little hang out evening. The kids got smores, Tye got a cookie dough cheesecake, and Carmen and I both got the carrot cake. oh man, so good. I mean the company. The company was so good. lol No, the desserts too! 

This n that

You guys will forgive me if I don't blog on the weekends right? Especially if it's because I'm just too stinkin busy living life? Yeah, I knew you were all cool like that. All four of you that read this anyway :)

Even though my boy was away for the weekend I had a lot going on. Saturday and Sunday I spent the majority of the days working on my special project, which I hinted at a few weeks ago, but haven't posted yet. Don't worry it's almost ready. Hopefully by this weekend. It's going a bit longer than I'd hoped for but, then, most projects do with me!

I figured I'd give you a little teaser anyway :) See the picture? Well the back is part of my kitchen table. I've completely redone it and LOVE the new color. But, this is all you get, you'll just have to wait until it's complete for the "rest of the story" - as they always say. (who is "they" anyway?) 

My Cottage Charm: How to paint a dresser

So I'm learning how to link up to other blogs, and I stumbled across this one today, which I'm SO excited about! This girl, Missy, from the Blog "My Cottage Charm" is the original maker of the highly popular "BATH" sign that I pinned weeks and weeks ago, as inspiration to do for my downstairs bathroom.

Well because of the Mini Roll Top Desk I discovered last night, I was looking for some painting inspiration, especially for some 'beat up' pieces that had been recovered, and beautifully repurposed. I just LOVE what Missy did with this dresser. I mean seriously it takes a keen eye to see the potential in pieces like my desk, and her dresser. But, a little creative ingenuity and you can make it happen!
So click below and check out Missy's blog post about her new Laundry room addition. Break out the bleach and the paint and have a blast!

~Kisha

My Cottage Charm: How to paint a dresser ..Laundry Room Style!: I promised you guys I would show you what I was going to do with the space under the cabinets in my laundry room. I’m going to show you...  

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