Christmas mantel

Here's my easy decorating Christmas mantel.  I mostly used what I already had, the only new things are the green star ($5 from Big Lots) and the garland and green berries (Dollar tree).

We have a tree and some more Christmas decorating around here too, but I haven't taken pictures yet of the tree all decorated yet.

We went to a Christmas tree farm and cut our own tree for the first time:



Linking to the mantel party at the Lettered Cottage

San Antonio 1/2 marathon

We were in San Antonio again last weekend, this time Chris ran the 1/2 marathon instead of the full like last year.  The weather was cooler and running 13.1 miles was a lot more enjoyable for him than 26.2.

We even got to do some antique shopping here:

Mirror mirror on the wall

 

I found this mirror a few weeks ago at an antique store, I don't think it is any kind of "antique" but I liked the look of it, and it was only $10.  The outer frame is plastic but it looks like metal from a distance.

I like the way it looks in here, now our "formal dining room", with some other white and cream things.

I got this little lamp (below) for $2.99 from Goodwill and the burlap shade from Target.

I'm looking forward to decorating this room for Christmas!  I did not decorate much for fall, only some white pumpkins here and there and some Halloween decor on my sewing table.

Happy Halloween

Long time, no blog.....

Hi there, life has been crazy busy lately, school and kids and homework and fall softball season.  I didn't forget about my little blog here, hopefully I will get back to posting a little more regularly again soon.

Here is a couple of yard sale purchases / finds I have come up with in the last couple of weeks.

Number 1 - I got this FREE Pottery Barn corner chair.  One night I told Chris I was going to Starbucks but really I went to pick up this chair.  I guess it is really meant to be part of a sectional sofa but it works fine on it's own and is very comfy.
Kate (9) said "I wonder why someone would give it away for free, maybe they put all their dandruff on it!"  Oh well it seems very clean to me and the lady giving it away said she was just clearing out space for her grandmother moving in, and she was giving it for free because it was missing one of the side pillows.  I have plenty of pillows so no problem there.

The little ladder you can slightly see in the side of the picture I got at a garage sale for $2 and painted light blue.  The pillows on the corner chair I've had a long time from IKEA.

The lemon pillows on the couch are from Pottery barn (the covers on sale, the down inserts from IKEA), and the other long lumber pillows are from Marshalls.  I got some birthday money and a Marshalls gift card and I spent it all on pillows!  Anyway this is where I sit at the end of the day when I come home from work and the kids do their homework at the coffee table most of the time, so we have lots of comfort and pillows :)

The other project just completed today was a full size bed I bought for Kate's room.  I got the head board and footboard for $30 at a yard sale.  It looked like this to begin with:

And now it looks like this:

She wants new bedding which will come eventually, but for now what we had looks fine.  

The bed I primed and then painted light gray, so it is a little contrast to the white walls in her room.

I love how this bed turned out.  To buy something new like this would be very expensive so I love turning something vintage into something fresh and new.

Here is one for comparison price:

Jenny lind white twin bed:

$499 from The Land of Nod

Ok, I think I have a few more things to blog about soon, so there is a little update for now.

Sharing the bed makeover at Met Monday

And Domestically Speaking's power of paint party

New painted furniture

This new piece was picked up for free! Chris came home on Friday after visiting a friend and said he saw a piece of furniture in his garage that he thought I would like, and he would help me fix it up and did I want to go get it? I am not one to pass up FREE and old furniture, so off we go yesterday and this is what we came home with.......

This came from a set of two built in cabinets.  One was fine with me because our house is newer and there are not many corners anyway that this would work in.  Just like the chest of drawers I painted a few weeks ago, this was very rustic and dirty, but I thought it would look fine cleaned up and painted.  Chris went off to Lowes and bought a piece of panelling to cut and add some boards where some were missing on the back, and I finished cleaning it up and getting it ready to paint.

For the under coat I used the Zinsser paint and primer I've used on many projects now, and for the top coat I used Stonington gray that I've used on painting a couple of our bedrooms.  I'm very happy with how it turned out!  Right now I have Chris' grandmother's fransiscan china in the cabinet.

the knobs (they are a galvanized metal) came off that old chest of drawers.

The doors are missing their glass panels, which we might replace one day, but I like the way it looks open just fine too.

The new cabinet, led to more furniture switching, I brought this table in here from the kitchen and paired it up with my white painted chairs.

I'm thinking this table and the ladder type shelf behind would also look nice painted the gray color.....

So for now we have a "formal dining room". Which we may eat in here some, but it will also make a good homework place in a room with no TV for distraction, or a good monopoly game zone too

And the smaller white circle table ended up back in the kitchen with the black painted chairs.

I do have a little surplus of "stuff" from all my bargain hunting, collecting of late so I'm going to have a garage sale next weekend when my neighborhood has it (we can only do it twice a year).

posting at Southern Hospitality

And Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party