Inspiration for my To-Do List—Part 2

Did you think I was finished? Noooooooo way!

My last post spotlighted some of my projects I would like to get started on soon, and here are just a few more.

Project 4.

Painting the china hutch.

My furniture is all a bit too matchy-matchy, so I’m thinking this big guy could use some paint love, too. If I go ahead with the plan and paint the board and batten creamy white, and paint the top portion of the walls Grand Canyon Red (rusty red), this will need to be either black, aqua with a coat of stain, or possibly even an olive green with stain. Ohhhh, or maybe even a gold with stain?

I want to cover the mirrored backing, and possibly do something different with the glass on the doors, too.

You have an idea for me? Please send it over!

Okay, let’s move on to another fabulous idea that I found yesterday while vacationing in blog land.

Project 5.

The old baby crib that I can’t bear to part with.

Yesterday I found this BRILLIANT idea from Little Apartment on the Prairie, and I had little light bulbs going off in my head. Look what she made out of an old crib, and be wowed like I was…

Cool, right? I thought it was total brilliance!

This got me thinking… I don’t really have a place for a plate rack of that size, BUT, I could use one of these (another aha moment):

(Courtesy of Ballard Designs—LOVE THEM)

This is what immediately came to mind when I saw her plate rack, like SHAZAAAM! Light bulbs going off in my head!

I have the perfect wall in my little laundry room to add one of these, and I would be able to keep the baby bed and make something VERY useful out of it. Right now, anything that needs to be air dried gets hung over a dining room chair. NOT SO PRETTY.

I knew if I kept the crib long enough, that some kind of project would come to mind. It only took 7 years!

Project 6.

The mirror stand. (one more thing hiding in the basement)

There is no more space for this free-standing mirror in my bedroom. Actually, there never has been, so it has lived in the basement for the last 5 years. Again, very matchy-matchy.

So, my thought is this: I remove the mirror from the stand, attach some D rings on the back, paint it and hang it on a wall elsewhere in the house. There is a long dark hallway upstairs and this may be just the thing to lighten it up!

Now, I need an idea for the heavy duty sides of the mirror stand. There has GOT to be something I can make out of those, right?

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I, of course could come up with a million more projects like:

• adding subway tile on the backsplash
• re-covering chairs
• slipcovering my old sofa
• painting the front door
• painting the fireplace wall brown suede
• painting the stairway wall the same brown suede
• beadboarding the garage (you should see the skateboard damage)
• changing out all of the plumbing fixtures
• framing the bathroom mirror
• finding old doors or shutters to mount on my palladium window

Really—The list goes on and on…

Over at Southern Inspiration, my good friend Suzanne is getting everyone motivated to GET IT DONE in the month of September. So head on over to Suzanne’s place and share your to-do list!

Hope you all have a great week!

~Misti

Inspiration for my To-Do List

So, I am finally done with school, have started my new job, my head is clear once again, and all I can think about is home projects!

I have started diving into blog land whenever I get a few spare minutes, and honestly, it’s a dangerous thing to hang out in the world of decorating blogs.

So many ideas—so little time!

A few of my projects have been dancing around in my head for quite some time, and some are very recent. Darn blogs!

PROJECT 1.

My first project is one that I have wanted to tackle for a few years, but our house was so new that the hubster had a hard time with ‘changing’ things, but it’s good, I promise.

This is my dining room:

It’s kind of bland with the khaki-colored walls, and I really want to liven it up and give it a wow factor from both the kitchen and family room. So, I found this color. It is Benjamin Moore’s Grand Canyon red.

It’s so me!

(Country Living—of course, and unbelievably fabulous)

And… I want to cover the bottom walls in board and batten, just like Julia  from Hooked on Houses did. So cool! She gives a great tutorial, check it out!

(Click on the image to see Julia’s how-to post.)

So, imagine my dining room with creamy board and batten and rustic red on the top. I can’t wait to get started! Thanks to Julia for THAT inspiration!

If I wasn’t in such a hurry, I would fire up my HGTV Design software and try to pull this together so I can really see the finished design, but really, no time today.

PROJECT 2.

I have a chair in the basement jungle that is in dire need of a slipcover. It has great bones, but fabric that is just not my style. The chair was given to me by a client, and it is in fabulous shape! I am thinking of going the canvas-drop-cloth route on this one.

There are so many great people out there that have sewn some great slipcovers, but one in particular, Victoria from Whimsy by Victoria, has great tutorials on her blog. Click on her name to take a visit to her blog.

PROJECT 3.

For years we have been going through bedding like Sponge Bob goes  through crabby patties! I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be able to have a fancy schmancy bedding set or pretty pillows either, because of this guy:

I have never shown pictures of my bedroom, because quite frankly, it’s awful. We are now using pieces from the last THREE bedding sets. This is the problem:

IT’S EMBARRASING—SERIOUSLY.

(The hubster is not the problem, the bedding is.)

Cynthia of Design Love gave me this inspiration:

(Click on photo to visit JolieMarche.etsy.com)

She found an Etsy designer that makes and sells this beauty. There are also some beautiful pillows on her Etsy site as well. Go check it out!

As much as I would love to have this fabulous woman to make this for me, I think I can pull it off with a few canvas drop cloths and maybe some of my mad painting skills. MAYBE. We will see…

I have a few more TO-DOs, but I will break for now and get back with you on the others. Right now, I’m hungry, and my growling belly waits for no one!

Over at Southern Inspiration, my good friend Suzanne is motivating us to GET IT DONE in the month of September, so head on over and share YOUR to-do list!

~Misti

The Perfect Inheritance

Some people inherit lots of money when family members pass on, but for me, the perfect inheritance is my grandmother’s sewing machine and sewing table.

My grandmother, actually my Abuela, was a wonderful woman who did a LOT of sewing. As a child, I remember her sewing clothes for my dolls and for my Barbies. She used to sew, for herself, some of the prettiest silk blouses, and the more colorful--the better!

I knew that I wanted her sewing things when my aunts were clearing out her house, but it didn’t really hit me just how much it meant to me until I saw it again in her empty bedroom.

It doesn’t go with anything in my house. It is not the right shade of wood. It’s not from the right era either, but I just love it!

Here is a close-up shot. Loving the retro look!

It may get a coat of paint one day, but for now, I just want to remember it just as it has always been…

I also got Abuela’s (that’s grandmother in Spanish) newest sewing machine. Who knows how many she went through over the years?

And I noticed that there is a spool of burgundy thread still in place. I wonder what her last project was?

I will definitely look into that, and see if I might inherit that as well…

Using the machine will be another story, as I can’t quite make myself take off that last spool of thread.  I am just soaking up having it right now, but I do have several projects that I want to tackle very soon.

The day we had my grandmother’s funeral service, I wrote a very special blog post that came straight from the heart of a proud granddaughter. Read that post HERE.

Have you ever received something super special from a loved one?

 

~Misti

Another ahhh haaa Moment: Kitchen Island

So, the other day I was checking out the latest Martha Stewart Living magazine, and out of all the awesomeness in there, one picture really jumped out at me: the Home Depot ad.

If I knew how to draw one of those cool arrows on the picture, I would point to the “X” on that island.

 I LOVE THAT BARN FEEL!

I have always considered painting the island and adding something to sides, and this would be SO MISTIFIED.

So, what do you think about the barn feel?

~Misti

Meeting Julie Ann

This past Friday I finally met a fellow blogger named Julie Ann. We have known each other for well over a year, but only virtually. We ‘met’ through another blogger (an awesome woman, but she no longer has a blog), Julie Ann read about where I live, and informed me that she would be moving from Wisconsin to my neck of the woods, and we started a wonderful friendship from there!

We totally forgot to take pictures Friday, so I hijacked one of her.

Meet Julie~ (Click the photo to visit her blog)

She was just as funny, warm, and loving as I knew she would be!

We had a great time together shopping at one of my favorite places, Scottsdale Farms. They are one of the only places open at 8 a.m., and I love that! We have coffee and shopped until our hearts were content. I blogged about Scottsdale last year. You can see why I love the store HERE.

We also walked through the plant nursery at Scottsdale, and oooo’ed and ahhhh’ed over the pretty flowers and trees, so when I got home, I clipped my hydrangea tree in her honor.

So glad we were finally able to meet, Julie! I am happy to have a new forever-friend.

Next time, I am taking you to my VERY FAVORITE store called The Paisley Farmhouse. I can’t wait for you to meet Diane! Check out my post on that store HERE. This picture is a teaser photo…

Thanks everyone for visiting me. If you would like to get to know Julie Ann and her doggie babies, visit her at Julie Ann’s World. I just love her and I know you will, too!

~Misti

Hidden Treasures: A Perfect Library Space

A few weeks ago I was asked by my husband to paleeease do something with my ever-growing stack of magazines. Well, I couldn’t just send them to be recycled without one last look through them. When I found this photo in the Dec/Jan 2010 House Beautiful, I had one of those ah-haaa moments.

You see, we have the perfect spot at the landing of the basement steps to add our own little library space! Let me show you.

Now, pretend you don’t see all of our junk there and imagine it with wooden shelves to the ceiling, maybe a mirror hung in front of the books for some light reflection, and a few art pieces on the shelves, too.

Here is the other wall as you turn right to head down the stairs. See…I already use it as a bookshelf, I just need to make it official and functional. I could maybe even attach one of those nifty rolling ladders! How cool would that be???

I love to read silly old love stories, most of all my beloved Twilight series, which by the way stands all on its own on my pretty red hutch in my room…

I also have quite the collection of home decor books that would look super fabulous in the “library.”

So tell me, have you ever had an ah haaa moment and found a great space in your place?

If you have created a great space out of an odd place in your home, let me know. I would love to show it off for you. You never know, someone else may have that exact space, and you could be their inspiration!

~Misti

Officially an MT!

Hey everyone! Long time no see…

It’s official—I am now employed as a medical transcriptionist! All  the hard work of the past year has paid off. My honors score came in in July, and two weeks later I landed a great job with a very large company. I started my training this week, and things are looking good!

What a busy summer we had. The boys kept us movin’ and shakin’ the entire time, but the fun had to come to an end and the guys started back to school yesterday. The house is WAY too quiet now. Even the dog is not sure what to make of the silence!

I hope you all have had a great summer. Now that the job hunt has ended, I can hopefully squeeze in some blogging time in between work, homework, dinner, and football practice. I truly miss blogging and am so glad that you all stuck with me. Somehow I managed to get new followers and I haven’t even posted in ages! I do LOVE my people!

Okay—I have two posts swimming around in my brain, so I will work on those and try to get them up and running. Time to get back in the swing of things!

~Misti