Estate Sale Oval Mirror Redo!

Remember the Oval Mirror I bought a few weeks ago at an estate sale?  Well the end result far

 

 

 

exceeded my expectations.   So much so, that my original thoughts of selling it, are now gone : )

 

 

  Much to John's delight (that's sarcasm there folks) we are keeping this little lady.  After cleaning,

 

 

priming, painting and sanding I am pleased to show you my new love.

 

 

Top Side Detail

 

 

 

Do you love her as much as me?!  So glad you guys talked me out of making her

 

 into a chalkboard like I originally intended to!!!  What do you think?

 

~Lauren

 

Linking up with these fabulous ladies :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Five.."It's fall ya'll", holiday cuteness, what I made for dinner, What I'm reading and more!

 TGIF my lovelies, remember the awesome TGIF line up we all used to watch as kids?  Man, I used

 

 to look forward to that so much but alas I am older and wiser now and I look forward to the Friday

 

Five now instead of Family Matters.  So without further ado her we go....

 

 

1)How perfect is this pin from cargo collective?

 

2)The pool is closed, school has started but my spirits are up because I still managed to add to my tan

 

 on Wed. AND pinterest is overflowing with fall cuteness.

 

twotwentyone 

  

 

 

 

source

 

3)Made this chicken and stuffing crockpot recipe for dinner last night, so yummy and EASY.  I

 

doubled the sauce and stuffing, fyi.

4)Currently reading this book...

 

"A little bit wicked" by Kristin Chenoweth.  I love a good memoir, and Kristin's got a whole lot of

 

spunk and southern charm.  

 

5) And I think we can all agree, we need this bag

Have a great weekend !!!

Lauren

School Lunches or Jail Food?

When I was a kid, I remember my mom packing my lunch with love notes and sandwiches.  There was

 always a Little Debbie snack cake du jour and a juice box.  I remember the occasional swap and

how some kids were allowed to pack, get this, chocolate milk in their lunches!   No matter how much

I begged that was not allowed in my lunch.  I would inevitably get food poisoning by leaving milk out

that long even, with my trusty ice pack in my lunch box.

With this being E's first time packing a lunch I couldn't wait to write a little love note, using the few

words he can read mind you, and use all of my new pinterest inspired cute ideas!  I knew from

previous years at daycare that peanut butter and nuts were of course frowned upon, but I had no idea

what was in store for me.  Taking a glance at the Kindergarten Handbook I noticed the following:


No juice
Only water is an acceptable beverage
No flavored water
No cookies
No gummy treats
No chocolate
No sugary snacks
"An acceptable snack would be popcorn or pretzels."

Ok, I can understand that they want the kids to eat healthy.  But according to the list I can't bring a

homemade cookie but I can pack a bag of peanuts?  Shouldn't that be somewhere on the list? With all

of the major peanut issues today, if you're going to take the time to specify flavored water one would

 assume you'd add nuts to the list.  E is a rather picky eater and could stand to shed a few tummy

pounds so all in all this won't be the worst thing to happen to us. Especially with going back and

forth between two houses. We'll know that no matter where he is he's being packed a healthy lunch.

Now 97% of his lunches this summer while he was with us were healthy but of course all kids like the

 occasional snack! So as John laughed at me I cut his turkey sandwiches into heart shapes and sent

him with a banana, pretzels and a water. 

At least we have a cute lunchbox and sandwich holder to

liven things up a bit. Are you facing any restrictions with lunches this year?

$4 statement piece, from matte and black to gold and bold!

One day while perusing my local Marshalls sale aisle I noticed a small, oval frame with some

character.  I typically don't like black frames, but at $3.97 I knew that I could easily update it to

match our décor. I slightly sanded it and spray painted it with two coats of gold paint. THAT EASY,

from matte and black to gold and bold. 

Now what to put into it? A while back I bought these ridiculously cute zebra cards with a red and

white Aztec print in the background, I had just used one so they were sitting on our coffee table. I

kept staring at them wishing that I could frame them, well wait, why can't I frame them?  When I

went to frame the card, I realized it was too short, ok so that's why I can't. On second thought if I just

open the card in it's entirety...problem solved. So, that's how I went from a boring, black frame to a

gold statement piece.

Side View

What is the craziest thing you've ever framed?

~Lauren


Go say hello to Kimberly ...

 

 

Driftwood Lamp makeover Inspired by Horchow

When John and I decided to move in together met, we were pretty much inseparable from the start.

 

  We spent all of our time together and there really wasn't a big "talk" of moving in, there was more

 

talk of when to move in my cat and dresser. Those were the things we waited on. One of the first

 

things that I bought for "our" new apartment was this lamp. 

Before

 

I loved it. I found it at Home Goods and could see it had potential. However, it originally came with a

 hideous ivory, knit  shade. I tore that bad boy off in a heart beat and replaced it with the drum shade

 it currently wears. I tossed and turned on whether to paint it a shabby chic white or a rustic brown.

No one quite new what to do with it.  Everyone seemed to like it, but no one loved it like me.  Like

all good projects, it sat untouched...for over two years, Until inspiration struck in the form of

Horchow. I was perusing their website one day for inspiration when I came across this beautiful coral

 lamp.

source

Granted it's coral not driftwood, but potato, potatoe.  I dabbled with the idea of painting it gold versus

 silver.  I finally decided on gold and outside I went. Side note, when spray painting in the backyard

 you always want to cover a larger area than what you need. On further note, John does not

appreciate when I spray paint the grass. 

                                                                        Close up before

                              Finial Before

So without further ado here it is all golden-ed up!

After 

 

 

 Close Up After

 

 

Finial After

Before & After!

 

What do you think? Do you like it better before or after?

~Lauren

 

 

Go check out these great sites

 

 

Trash to Treasure (literally)

                                 The nightstand

 We are a bedroom divided. I remember when we moved into our current

home and I looked at John and said that I wanted a nightstand, he looked at me as if I had

asked for a monkey. And if we are being honest here I had, plenty of times and it's the

same look. Trust me. But before I could start searching for my perfect nightstand I found

a project right in front of my eyes, on my mom's curb,  that is. Mom's neighbors were

throwing away a perfectly good table that was the perfect size for a nightstand. it

was a darker wood on top and a lighter wood on the bottom. "I'm taking it" I said!

"You should" John's mom who was with us encouraged. "It's garbage" John sneered.

But I could see the potential, I knew it would be beautiful and exactly what I had wanted

all along and FREE!!! We couldn't fit it in the car, so I left my dumpster treasure in mom's

hallway and came back later that night for it. It sat in our hallway for 4 months or so, it

held mail, bags, cleats, backpacks and leashes until one day I worked up the courage to

start my sanding. I sanded while watching tv and I sanded and sanded (This was in my

"pre owning of a sander days", so it was a lot of elbow grease and sandpaper)


Then finally the day came to take my little table outside and prime it. The two tone

wood, suddenly became an all grey wonder. I contemplated leaving it like that for all of

five minutes before I slapped on some white paint.  Then more sanding. Four months later

 I decided it wasn't shabby chic ENOUGH and decided to distress it a little more during a

law and order SVU marathon. Now it was just right!


But alas, I learned a valuable lesson, nightstands are meant to be beat up. Especially in

the dark, when one of you is a night owl and one of you is not. There will be drinks

spilled. My paint and primer started to wear off in the same place, and it started to wear

 on my nerves. My next project began; Fix the little spots that bother me and apply a coat

 of Minwax finishing paste to seal in the paint, primer and coat the furniture.  From Trash

 to Treasure, What do you think? Have you ever "taken" anything from the trash?

The only before pic I have of 1 of the shades of wood.

 

 

 

 

~Lauren

 

 

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