Mirror makeover & the mixer!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I don't really enjoy cooking. There are a few things that I whip up that are pretty good but for the most part, I only cook so we don't starve not because I like it. So, it took Christmas baking to get me to finally use this beauty:

A KitchenAid mixer that was given to me by my very sweet mother-in-law a couple of years ago.  Let me just say this - making cookies with this mixer was AWESOME! One bowl, no mess..that's my kind of baking.  I can't believe I waited so long to use it!

Onto the before & after...I found this mirror at a local haunt. It was in the window for a couple of weeks and I finally stopped in to see it up close & personal.  I've been looking for a mirror for my Mom's guest room and love the shape of this one.  It is very old and had a few cracks in the wood, so I knew I'd have to paint it.

I repaired the cracks (on the four corners) & lightly sanded the whole thing.

Here it is after being painted with Dover White by Behr & glazed with Valspar Mocha.  The spot on the mirror is from aging and actually one of the reasons I really like this piece.

Love the scrolling detail.

I'll snap a picture after she hangs it with the dresser that we painted - it's looking good in there.  Now, I'm off to wrap up this Christmas weekend!

I'm linky partying with Remodelaholic - check it out.

TTFN,

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Thank you for reading my blog & inspiring me with yours!

My house is covered up in a Christmas weather miracle!  The last time there was measurable snow here on Christmas day was more than a century ago, in 1882.

Sending wishes your way,

Curtains & more Christmas...

I finished curtains for the little boy's room.  I was going to remove the closet doors and use them there, but I changed my mind.  I like them on this window and more importantly, Andy likes them!

I like curtains to go from ceiling to floor because it draws your eye up & seems more dramatic.  I wanted to keep his room bright, so I used white denim & ticking.  I did have his artwork under this window but had to move it. (Those are Christmas lights wrapping around the lamp.)

I trimmed out the ticking with a grosgrain ribbon. I have to be careful not to go too froo-froo in his room.  I checked with Brian and he said it reminded him of barber shop stripes - that works!

I made a simple valance for the other window and put Darth up on the lockers with blue LED lights. 

Nana (my mom) gave Andy his own Christmas tree years ago.  This year she added a Nativity set.  It surprised me how much it meant to him.  He was really excited about it.  I think some of what we're instilling in him is sinking in - yay!!!!

Andy is getting a couple of presents for Christmas that will really help streamline his room & set it up to take him through his preteens, hopefully.  We'll see..he might come home one day and want to paint it all black...which will totally freak me out.  Don't borrow trouble, right?

I have to clean, shop, wrap, etc...have a good day!

TTFN, 

Christmas Tour!

It's definitely Christmas time!  And to help us get even more in the mood - it's FREEZING here in GA. The least bit of sleet or snow flurries shuts this place down!  The weather has definitely kept me indoors and  I've been doing what everyone else has been doing - getting ready for company.   I didn't think I had much for Christmas decor but Brian assures me that we have plenty.

This arrangement is by my front door.  Maybe a little more sparkle next year?? It's pretty with the lights on. The front porch looks a little yuckity. We've prepped it for painting in the spring.  I'm definitely going to blog that..it has been a process.  *Thank you former owners for not priming before you slapped gobs of paint all over the place!*

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, You are crammed in the cor-ner!
Den isn't finished yet, so the tree was shoehorned into the living room.

My little red bird tree on the mantle.

Very sweet handmade ornament from my niece, Delaney.

This is another little tree on the fireplace.  I made the garland from sheet music and the ornaments are from the different countries I've visited or family brought back for me.

This little tree is in my Pink Room.

 I painted and "glittered" the pine cones. They are an easy filler for baskets like this.

This is a painted flower pot filled with garland and lights. I change up the decorations I put in it each year.

Santa collection.  My sister painted the Mrs. Claus picture in the back and gave it to me last year.  So cute!

I try not to go nuts with the Snow Village collections. I think it would be easy to do!

My little owl.

Always mindful of what Christmas is all about.  

My sweet, sweet grandmother gave this Nativity to me when I was 5 years old.  I absolutely cherish it.

I hope you all are enjoying this time of the year & thank you for taking the time to come by!

I'm linky partying with Thrifty Decor Chic and her Tree Party , Funky Junk's SNS and

TTFN,

Chandelier is UP!

My dreams came true!  Brian tackled removing our old light fixture & put up the new one this past weekend.  I was thanking him the whole time because as you can imagine, crawling around in the attic is no treat!

Mom picked this chandelier up for me last year for $20 at Lowe's.  They have the best clearance!  I liked the shape but it was a little too fussy, so I simplified the design a little.

I painted it black at first but it looked too flat, so I repainted it with Oil Rubbed Bronze. ORB gave it a nice sheen & some dimension.

This is what it originally looked like.  I used pliers to remove the leaves & sanded down any rough places left behind.  I still have the crystals & will use them in another project, I'm sure.

I love the dripping wax look on socket sleeves but couldn't find any, so I made my own.  I used hot glue and dripped it down the plain white plastic ones, then painted them a soft white.

(Aww man, the guy on the left is leaning a little. Didn't notice it until picture time, of course!)

We're installing a dimmer switch for it this week. I am seriously going to do that myself.  I'm ready to move up from rewiring lamps.  If you don't hear from me again, then you'll know I forgot to turn off the circuit breaker! 

I'm linky partying with Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous!

I hope you all are having a good week and staying warm.  And as my niece says,

"Lemon out!" (we love 30 Rock)

My first slipcover!

I've a hard time keeping up with blogging lately.  I have several projects like an inch away from being finished and I'm in a mad dash to get them done before Christmas.  And I haven't EVEN pulled out one single Christmas decoration yet - that kinda makes me queasy just thinking about that.  I know some people love holiday decorating (my niece being one of them...if she could make outside Christmas decorating a competitive sport - she would AND she would win!)  Don't get me wrong, I love a Christmasy feeling all over the house, but just the idea of hauling tubs from the garage, switching everything out & wrecking the house in the process, then having to put it all back up...blech!  I guess that's a little Scroogey of me, huh?

Well, all that aside, I did make my first slipcovers for 2 dining room chairs.  I bought these chairs for $5 each.  They are super sturdy and just what I was looking for to do this project.  I wanted to mix things up a little at the dining room table because it seemed too matchy-matchy with all the chairs being the same.

Before:

I would have just painted them & recovered the seat but there was some minor damage to the caning.

Added a layer of batting.

Pin fit a lightly bleached drop cloth.  Covering the second chair went a lot faster than the first.  I took advantage of the already hemmed drop cloth when I could (as MMS advises). I pinned just a smidge snug then sewed on the outside of the pin line. 

After:

They're very simple but I like them.  I'll try cording the next time.

 

I painted the legs black.  I know I should have ironed it before taking pictures,
but at the time that seemed really, really hard.

I also played around with my centerpiece and added some berries & more candles.

 We still have the chandelier sitting in the corner, so that sucker needs to go up and the 1980s one (seen in the mirror) can come down.  I might be able to talk Brian into doing that this weekend.

Last night I made the curtains for Andy's closet and hung them.  I'm finishing his window valances  today. I love the way his room is coming together.  I'm going to put pics of that up this week.  And I'm pretty sure I'm doing some long term damage to my hands with my non-stop crafting. We suffer for our art, don't we?

I'm linky partying with MMS at FFF.  Thanks for coming by!

TTFN,