Inspirational DIY ideas

I took some time off from blogging busy with real estate and new classes .  I'm back.  We are on school vacation this week. Here are some projects I finally completed and sold through the local auction house.

When you use wood for furniture that's been sitting outside in the yard

Brighten up your Sun Bleached and Faded Pillows with this Tip

Hello Once again it's been awhile since I've last posted.  I have been very busy with so many  projects going on. Is the sun ruining your furniture and fabrics?  You'd be surprised, but even indirect sunlight will bleach out furniture and fabrics over a period of time.

Mix n Chic Style Challenge-Decorate bringing the outdoors in

TGIF . Yesterday flew by.  Have you ever been stuck on decorating ideas and not knowing where to start? I'd like to share some tips with you that I use .  Pick one or two items and let your imagination go wild .  There are no rules when it comes to decorating .  I'll show you how I chose to bring the outdoors in for this design Mix n Chic Style Challenge .   I headed over to Chairish, an online marketplace for vintage and used furniture.  They have a great selection of  Shabby Chic pieces to add to your home.  When the paint is peeling and the metal is rusty, the easier it is to mix it in with any decorating style.

joss & Main Inspirational Painted Picture

I'd like to share with you a picture I saw on joss & Main that I gave me inspiration for a special Christmas gift.  I was browsing on their website and came across this picture of a Shih Tzu dog.  It looked almost exactly like my Mom's dog.  Since it was only a few days until Christmas, I didn't have time to purchase it so I decided I'd try to paint one just like it.

Backyard Playhouse Shed made with Recycled Wood

I thought I'd give you a sneak peak at  what I was working on this past summer for our 5 yr old son.  I started to build  an  8 x 10 shed playhouse for him from recycled wood.  It is still under construction and I plan on finishing it up in the spring.  He has alot of those pricey ride-on toys that we didn't want to leave out in the weather.  I didn't want to take up space in our sheds for our mowers and yard tools with all his toys. I built this strictly for him and his toys.

Wood Baby / Dog Gate

Hello, I thought I would show you the wood baby / dog gate that I installed  going from the den to the kitchen. The gate was in another place , but I decided to move it when I found our dog on our sofa in the wee hours of the night.  He's not a small lap dog and rolls around in the yard.  So our sofa is no place for him to be.

Old Picture Frame and Chicken Wire Art

Ever wonder what to do with old picture frames that have no glass?  Try adding some chicken wire to the back of the frame to hang pictures or accent another piece of art.  The projects are endless and you also get to recycle the old frame instead of tossing it.

                                                                            

Spring Forward

Spring is officially 2 weeks away. Remember this weekend is Daylight savings time. Move clocks forward 1 hour which means longer daylight and hopefully more sun to melt this snow. It is snowing right now as I look out the window. I thought I would try to force spring into my home since it looks like it's going to be a very long time before I see my spring flowers popping up in my garden.

Here are the beautiful Tulips and Iris'  that I received on Valentines Day  (3 weeks ago). I will give you some tips on how to make your fresh cut flowers last longer.

Scrap wood Heart

The other day when I finished making chalkboard gifts for my son's teachers for Valentine's day ,  I had a small pile of scrap 1 by 2's leftover.  The way  they were piled on the floor kind of looked like a heart so I went with it.  I only had to make a few cuts since most of the pieces were already at 45 degree angles.

Tips & Tricks : Fresh Air instantly throughout the house

If you are looking for a way to freshen the air throughout the house in an instant , you might want to try this. Candles can take some time before you can smell them throughout the room , and room sprays are a temporary fixer.

Painted Wooden Sign and Post

I finished painting the post I made the other day. I made a sign for the Holidays . Paint the post white first and let it set for about 10 - 15 minutes.

Chalk Painted dresser with a stencil

Last year I got this dresser from a woman who was down sizing.  It's old and definitely shows it's age. The top was peeling and part of the hardware is missing.  I thought this would be a great piece to try chalk paint.  I let it sit for awhile out in the garage. That's where my projects await me.

I was looking thru some blogs that I follow and got my inspiration from Red Hen Home (www.redhenhome.blogspot.com).

How to make a Pine Cone Wreath - DIY

I told you about a couple of wreaths that I made last week for Kim. Here is one of the wreaths and the way that I like to make pine cone wreaths.

Holiday Wreaths as a way to say ' thanks '

A month ago I met this wonderful woman named Kim. She collect these beautiful pinecones , thistle , and eucalyptus pods a few years back in California and Colorado and was saving them in her garage. She wanted to make ' something ' with them someday. Well she never got around to it and passed them onto me. There were bags and boxes of them.  I was thrilled because the pinecones were so different from the pinecones here in Massachusetts. I made a promise to her that I would make her a gift with the pinecones, etc.  I wondered for a couple of weeks what could I create for Kim that would be a wonderful gift as way to say ' thanks '.  I had come up with so many ideas that I could do with the pinecones , but not knowing her style or what her house looked like on the inside it came down to making a wreath for her front door for her home.

I wanted to make something that she could have for the years to come.  She can easily change the bow to give a it a fresh look year after year.
I'm on my way to deliver it to her, along with a second wreath of ribbon and door knob bells.

 

I will take pictures of it on Kim's door and show them when I get back home.  I'm a little sluggish today because last night we went to NFL patriots game and boy,  it was colder than cold.  It was around 6 degress with the windchill.  The wind was just going thru me.  We definitely dressed properly but it didn't matter.

This is what we do for fun. We have one more game to go to for this season.  I just hope it's not as cold as last night.  There's something about the air at 1 am that just makes it feel colder when you're already freezing. My camera was freezing up so that's all I took for pictures.  Needless to say, it was a great night despite freezing out feet off. I will show a tutorial of how I made the wreaths in another post when I get back home from Kim's.

Holiday Solar Lanterns - DIY

I have these lanterns outside for the summer with candles in them for tabletop lighting on the deck. I was going to put them away for the winter but decided to try to use them for the holidays instead.

As you can see the lanterns are old and rusty which I love, not to mention all dented.  I went by the dollar tree store and picked up 2 holiday solar lights. I then masked and painted the lanterns with black spray paint.

I took the solar lights apart to use the tops of them only for this.  I tried to goop the light inside the lantern , but it didn't hold.  There is probably too much candle wax on the bottoms in the lantern.  I had to think of something else to hold the lights in place. Yup, I borrowed some of my son's good ol' play-doh and I he had some black on hand.  I made a couple of play-doh balls and stuck the light into it inside the lantern. I molded the edges over the sides.  I tested the lights to see if they would light up outside at night and they did.

Once the play-doh dried and hardened , I added some pinecones cut in half around the base of the lights. I also added some holiday greenery at the tops of the lantern.  When the spring comes , I will easily be able to take the holiday lights out and re-use the lanterns again for the spring. I think I can get another year out of them.

                                                  I just need to hang them outside.

Another ' CHUNKY ' Wood Frame - DIY

It's been a very busy week trying to get the outside of house freshened up to get ready for Holiday decorating. I have about 5 projects I'm working on that I should have finished in a day or two.  Here is our thermometer that we rely on more than once a day in our house.  I had some scrap wood lying around so I thought it would beef it up a little.

DIY SCRAP WOOD ' CHUNKY ' FRAMES

While I was staining and painting the house , it was hard not to notice some of my outside decorations weren't looking so good. I thought I would clean them up a bit and add to the frames.

No-Sew Window Valance

It's that time of the year again.. Brrrr...cold.  The good ol' New England Winter is on the way.  This morning I dropped my son at Nursery school and came home.  When I walked in to my kitchen it felt very cold, not from the temperature, but from the look of it.  I thought I would make a quick no-sew window valance.

Since this window gets the morning sun and it's the only window in my kitchen, I like it with no valance.  I try to get as much natural light as I can.  Do you like my 1980's Kitchen?  Someday it will be renovated just not anytime soon.  There are other bigger and better projects going on now.  I will show you them later.  I had some time today to make some small changes in my kitchen.  I had a piece of  leftover burlap and I stole some curtain rod ' clips ' from another room.  I cut down the burlap material and folded the edge over. I used the clips and hung the curtain. It took about 10 min. I'm using a tension rod so I can take the valance down in the spring and not have any holes in my cabinets.

The clips can be found at any major store like walmart, home goods, target.  I bought mine at crate & barrel when I lived in my apartment some time ago. I got the propeller at a tag sale about a month ago.  I wasn't sure where I was going to use it yet but I had to have it.  I hung the valance and the first thing that came to mind was the propeller. what do you think ?

I also added the hand towel hook on the cabinet door. The kitchen has a warmer feel to it when you walk in especially from the cold outside. The greatest part is it only took about 10 minutes to do it.