My spice rack update was featured today over on “Serenity Now” (thanks Amanda) in her “Weekend Bloggy Reading” link-up party (where bloggers can share links of what they were up to in the past week). Amanda thought my little rack was special and featured it here! What an honour!

Amanda is a mommy and blogger from Virgina and her site is great – check it out. I love her tagline… “A mommy’s guide to staying sane”.

She does some amazing crafts and her blog is a wonderful source of inspiration. Thanks again Amanda!

Happy weekend everyone!

There is an office building near where I live that has this painting behind the reception desk. I’ve admired it for years and this week while in the office I was ‘that person’ who actually pulled my phone out and snapped a picture of it. Should have seen the look I got from the receptionist…

Our little guy is just over two and a half and in the new year we’ll be working on transitioning him to his ‘big boy bed’ and I’d like to do some inexpensive updates to his room, taking it from nursery to well… three-year-old-ville. I was thinking I could recreate something like this!

Anyhoo, weird looks aside check this out. I LOVE this.

Wouldn’t that be fun in a kids room? I especially love the texture and the layering of paint. Here’s a closer look (again with the weird raised eyebrow as I zoomed in with my cell phone – not making too many friends at the office).

I thought this could be relatively easy to recreate and the randomness is super cool in my opinion. It will also be a fun way to get a toddler familiar with letter shapes – and seeing them interplay with each other in a new and unexpected way. Recreating it myself will allow me to customize the colour palette to suit his room too!

And speaking of that, check out what someone’s big boy bedding is going to look like when he gets his new twin bed. LOVE!

How adorable is this!? I adore the owls all the quirkiness they offer. I am also googoogaga for the graphic and fun pattern. So sweet. And so many fun options to play off of this!

Here are two other bedding designs that I was contemplating for awhile but the owls just won me over… I think, no, I’m sure… I think. Oh, they are just ALL so cute!

Awesome sauce.

So yes, Owls and some funky letters are the start of my daydreaming about how to put together an extra special sweet and adorable room… for a little boy who is extra sweet and extra special… and adorable.

I will share any painting DIY as I tackle it And if the owls ever make an appearance on this end you will be the first hoooo to hear!

How about you, DIY’d any art lately? Purchased any new bedding recently? Was it owl based? What do you think of my lofty vision?

Things are getting spicy over here! Okay, not really but this old spice rack got an update. Not too bad in her ‘day’, but looking a tad wimpy by today’s standards. Who am I kidding, it’s just a spice rack. Standards = none.

I’m back! I had stopped blogging as I didn’t think I had enough time… but realized how much I loved doing it so decided to do my best to MAKE time! What is time if not spent doing things you love right?

Here is a little project that I worked on lately…

This antique sewing machine is used as our front entry way table but wasn’t quite vibing with our décor. It’s a sentimental piece as I got it at an auction with my dad and he refinished it for me, but it was time for an update. The old finish was a bit too rustic and the hardware needed some TLC.

My goal was to obtain a more modern finish – darker and more walnut/expresso vs ‘oak’. And to introduce a little sparkle to the lack lustre drawers!

Plus, I had accidentally given it a water stain it a few years ago so I owed it. Woops!

… And these knobs were looking more wobbly than Lindsay Lohan on a Tuesday after a night out on the town.

So I took it out to the garage and got my groove sand on.

After my sandathon I wiped it down with a damp cloth, applied some wood conditioner, wiped that down, then applied two coats of the water based walnut stain I had purchased… and hated it. So, I applied a coat of espresso stain on top of that… and still hated it. The finish was much too RED for some reason. SO, I did what any insane determined blogger/DIY attempter would do. I cried softly and started again.

After two coats of just the espresso stain I was happy. And let’s face it, even if I wasn’t, this thing was going back into the entrance regardless.

So, here she is AFTER!

She looks good in her new dark get-up no?

Here is a close up of how the dark stain really helped accentuate the wood grain.

And NO more water stain!

The finishing touch was these glass knobs that I added. I think they help modernize the whole piece. So much lighter and prettier than the old ones (sorry Lindsay).

As I was screwing in the last knob I heard the cutest little voice behind me – “Mommy, I do it”. I turn around to find my 2.5 year old little Mr. Fix It with his tool puzzle – all ready to help mommy screw on the hardware.

Since I had just finished screwing in the last knob I undid them all (what is it about this project and doing everything twice?) and my helper assisted in reapplying the finishing touches. From there he moved on to find more things that needed fixin’.

As he ‘worked’ I took more photos…

Have you stained anything recently? Any ‘helpers’ around your house? Been out on the town with Lindsay lately?

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers out there. Have a great long weekend!

Autumn is in the air! … and now it’s also in my living room.

Having recently painted (and fallen in love) with our (now) black mantel I could not wait to decorate it for Fall. And yes, I’ve fallen for it (ha ha, get it). No? Oh. Please just pretend you did (and sorry for the bad joke).

Anyway, here she is all decorated up niiiice (well, I think so anyway but I’m no professional…).

Since it’s a bit of far shot and the mirror is somewhat distracting let me zoom in to show the fun Autumnal elements!

The best part (well, in my opinion anyway) is that aside from the wreath which I just made (small supplies cost) everything else was FREE as I already had it on hand. I literally just brought it all out, dumped ‘er on the couch and began assembling until I was satisfied!

I got this glass pumpkin a few years back and have always loved it. I designed the mantel with it in mind and chose most of my colours playing off the ‘vibe’ that Mr. Pumpk was putting out. In the back is an opening for a tea light holder which adds a nice warm glow when lit.

I took some of the moss that I bought for the wreath (tutorial to follow in an upcoming post) and used it throughout the arrangement to tie my little vignettes into the wreath focal point.

I love the cozy relaxed nature that my ‘old’ and used candles offer. Having been lit in the past, they are all slouchy and organic. I love how they add to the warmth of this whole display.

Here is a close up of the right hand side. Those two frames were given to me by a coworker who was cleaning out her basement and thought I might like them. YES please! I have something in mind for the large one but before I paint it, it was the perfect hue for this display. The smaller bamboo one had no picture in it but I loved the wood that was simply the inside of the back. I left it this way as it added yet another texture. I personally think layering and texture are the keys to an interesting mantel (or any display really).

Here is the focal point wreath I made and as mentioned, I will have a follow up tutorial post. Not satisfied with the standard ‘Autumn wreath” (bright orange fake leaves and overly rustic) I decided to make my own! I wanted something simple and graphic and am really happy with how this turned out. And it was SO easy to make. Yay for easy.

Here is close up of the wreath. You can see the moss used here which I mimicked through the candles and other elements.

And here are a few nighttime shots with everything lit and aglow. YAY FOR AUTUMN!

Oh, and it SMELLS like Autumn in here too as these candles have the perfect Fall spicy scent. Love it.

There seems to be a bit of a rivalry going on at my house. Team Mantel vs. Team Bannister. It threatened to get ugly folks… but all is well that ends well.

Here’s how it all went down.

Banisters caught wind that Mantel had a painting party… but didn’t invite them (oh. oh. Drama). So, after a heart-to-heart (what, you don’t talk to your banisters?), I promised Banisters that they too could have a party of their own. And what did they want to wear? Well their LBDB’s of course!

Here is how Banisters looked before dressing up…

We have a few banisters like this around our house and I didn’t want to hear them whine too wanted to paint them all the same for cohesiveness.

Here is the signature drink that was served at the party, and a party goer partaking in a big sip…

Once drunk painted all the ladies banisters looked fantastic. LBB’s all around!

Oh, and for anyone following along, I used the RIGHT paint this time.

After we recently painted the main floor light the banisters just washed into the background. I feel it looks polished now. Black is the new banister.