Spoonflower

Oh boy is has been awhile since I have been on here. And don't think I don't think about it. I think about it all of the time. I still haven't updated Brecken's very last 12 month pictures and stats. Plus we have done other things. It will all happen soon. The reason I am on here now is because of the website Spoonflower. Heard of it? It's so awesome if you are a lover of fabric. I love fabric but then almost freeze up or get overwhelmed when it comes to look at and matching fabrics. Weird I know when it really isn't hard to do with scrapbook paper and other things. Anyway, this site is awesome. People are incredibly talented and you can make your OWN fabric for a premium price. So cool! I was cruising through the site and the thought came to me that when I am ready to redo the boys room, I should replace 9 calendar CARS prints in frames with coordinating fabric to their bedding. I found the perfect ones on here and all that I will really need is a swatch. Okay, so I just saw the swatch size and it probably won't work like I thought but the swatch will be perfect to carry around with me. The best thing is happening today though! Today is annual free swatch day with free shipping. I am so excited! I am going to order the swatch that I know has the perfect colors for the room so that I can carry it around in my purse to match other things to it eventually. Free swatch day is only good today through tomorrow noon eastern time or somewhere around there. Anyway, fun site to check out and get inspiration too.

*If you want to check out the swatch I got search: Owls, in blue - In the Land of Boys by aimeemarie

Time for the Advent

This is my 3rd year making muffin tin advent calendars and selling them on Etsy. I did pretty well the first year and have increased sales every year since. Last year I was selling them clear into January. This year I started selling quite a few in September. Both firsts for me. Anyway, last year someone contacted me about highlighting my calendars on a mommy type website. Sure why not but the feature never appeared. Well this year it finally did which was exciting. I believe I am under the modern category. You should check out the calendars under each category. It is actually a fun little highlight. The problem is, they had to seriously pick my most unattractive, not my favorite calendar and I know that I gave them different pictures last year. Anyway, make sure you check out the luxury calendars. If I had tons of money to blow, why not do it on a Porche calendar. Insane!
The website is called Babble.

Should I Be Spray Painting...

...probably not but I do. Last week Gunnar and I picked up a couple of things from Hobby Lobby. I really wanted a big letter B for Breckin's room. That meant that Gunnar wanted a big G and then he wanted a wooden toy train for the baby. They were super cheap and 40% off on top of that so why not. Saturday we spray painted them. Gunnar loved watching me to see how it turned out. He picked the color and I painted. Jeff was cleaning the garage and kept teasing me about whether or not I should be doing it.


Our projects are done and Gunnar and I had a great time. Just ignore the really ugly look. I had just gotten back from hula practice and had no intentions on looking good for the day.

Some Done, A Billion to Go

I have some of my projects done and a billion more to do. These projects were fun and really easy to do. I am also really bad at taking before pictures and in our house numbers sign I wish that I had remembered. The letters were so tarnished you could hardly see them from the street. I decided to take the plaque down and paint the letters Heirloom White and repaint the board black. It was a fast, easy projects and looks so much better hanging from the lamp post out front.

The next project that I did was make recycle bags for all of the things that we take to the recycling bins. We used a cheap laundry organizer that was driving me crazy. I wanted something function. Something that was easy to fill up, grab and go. I tried these really cute ones from World Market but ended up taking them back because they were just way, way too small. In the end, I decided to make my own. I had lots of muslin left from a project that never happened. I am so proud of these bags. I even made handles, added velcro tabs, and boxed the bottom corners. I seriously love these things. I also used the freezer paper technique to make the words on the front. Super easy. All that I did was printed off the recycle logo from the computer. I took the exacto knife and cut out the details. I then traced it onto freezer paper and cut it out. The cool thing is that when ironed, the freezer paper sticks to the fabric like a stencil. I then spray painted (you can use whatever type of paint) the design with green spray paint and then peeled the stencil right off. For the letters, I ran the freezer paper through my Cricut machine and saved the little insides of the letters and did the same thing. As you can tell the paper was much smaller around the edges and I oversprayed. To me it gives it that more urban, reduce, reuse, recycle feel to it.



These bags are really big. I should have had Gunnar get in one for comparison. I meant to put newspaper instead of paper on the one but I forgot. We changed plans and will now store the newspaper in a rubbermaid underneath the bags anyway because of weight so it all works out. We will put other types of paper to recycle in this one instead.

Now this is the hideous now/before. I am currently in the process of painting this white. We plan on storing two rubbermaids on the bottom, one for newspaper, the other for aluminum/tin cans. We will then put a shelf above the rubbermaids to seperate the space but also support the bottom of the bags if they get heavy. Then on the back wall somewhere we will add a board for the hooks to hold the bags up. I am excited to see how it all comes together. This space was originally used for an upright freezer. We happened to have a chest freezer in the garage so it wasn't used for a while. This had been the perfect set up for recycling and our garbage can/cleaning stuff is stored in that closet to the right so it works.
Not only has recycling drasticall cut down on how much trash goes out each week, Gunnar also loves it and is totally into it. He always asked me if something needs to go into the cereal box area or the milk area. Our set up may be different if we have a city recycling program that picks up at the curb but we don't and have to take it to a close drop off point. We just love that we can help reduce waste that goes out from our house.

The next project that I completed was this pillow for Breckin's room. We are keeping it the Hawaiian feel but I wanted to add a couple of things to make it different from when Gunnar was in there. Apparently I can't make a pillow to fit a pillow form correctly. I think I get paranoid that it will be too small and end up compensating but really I don't care. I loved this fabric and when I first saw it I thought of ocean waves. I then added the surfboards with felt and glued them on with Fabritac (the best stuff in the world). The main pillowcase is the pocket style in the back. Oh ya, I also added the blue piping around the edge which I love. The more and more I do piping I really like it and am getting more comfortable with it.

The last thing that I made was a Swiffer cover. I found this fun tutorial at Sew Much Ado and just had to make it. For our hardwood floors, I really just needed something that dusted them. The pads that come with the swiffer just didn't cut it. This tutorial looked easy enough and I had everything. She must have big feet or something because my sock would not stretch perfectly like hers but after way to much time spent on it and stretching as I sewed to get it right, my cover was done and I love it. I love that I can easy throw it in the wash and resuse it over and over again. It picks up so much stuff too. If I feel up to it someday, I may make another for a spare.


Off to finish painting the last of my interior doors. No this is not a nesting thing. I have to muster every ounce of determination to get up and put another coat on them. They do look super good though and with all of the new, matching door knobs on them, they look really good and cohesive now. No more mismatched knobs and ugly doors.

Wee Wee Wigwam

Last month at our Relief Society meeting, one of my friends was in charge of a mini class on making inexpensive things to keep or give away. She asked if I could bring some of the things that I have been working on so she wasn't displaying everything. Sure...I can find things.

The day before, I ran across these and had to make them to take. They are hilarious and you may or may not have seen them before. I found this super, EASY tutorial on Make it and Love it. I figured that I am having another little guy so why not. Plus they are super funny baby shower gifts. I used all scrap material and made a bunch in 30 minutes probably. We'll see soon how well they work to cap off the spout in a couple of months with Breckin.

Gunnar also has to have a picture and this is his latest, crazy pose.

He is a nut. Four year olds are SO much better than 3 year olds. Man 3 year olds are monsters. He is high energy but he is hilarious. Right now he is still zonked out in my bed at 9:20am because he wandered in at 5:30am this morning saying, "mooooooom, I need a bath...my bum hurts." Your bum hurts, what? I asked him if he pooped his underwear...no. Did you not wipe good enough? Blank stare because I still do it for him. He was seriously bothered by it. Not sure why. I was not getting up for a bath that early so he crawled in bed and has not woken up yet. This weekend wore him out. Sundays seem to do that to him. He is also picking up everything that I say. Oops. Like, "Holy Crap" and "Dang it!" I don't say holy crap...just oh crap. Jeff blames that one on me and I accept full responsibility.
He also has the funniest conversations with Heidi as they are heading to her work twice a week. He told her that she could have a sleepover and bring her sleeping bag. She would sleep on the couch but Uncle Ren is NOT invited because there is nowhere for him to sleep. What?
He is also still pregnant with his baby. We are both having boys. We are officially naming our little guy Breckin Maunakea Miller and Brent was a close runner up. Apparently Gunnar took the default name because his baby is named Brent Thomas (think Thomas train) Miller. All of us can't believe that he has kept this up for the entire time that he has known a baby is on the way. We have 9 more weeks and I can't wait to see what happens when he never has a baby. He will make a fantastic big brother, though. He is so excited and understands it all.
A baby was being blessed yesterday at church and he said, "oh so cute! I want to kiss it!" That gives me hope.

It's Coming Back to Life

My craft blog has been sadly neglected in like, totally forgotten about in over a year and a half. Since I am getting back into digital scrapping and have exciting news tomorrow about that, I decided to put all of those types of things on that blog since the exciting news should make posts over there rather frequent. I am super excited to get back into digital scrapping as I have found it fun and therapeutic. So head on over here and make sure to add it to your google readers or follow me if you want. I added a direct link to the right of my blog too!

More Boppy

I'm finally done with all of the Boppy covers. I got a little out of control with them but they were easy and fun and I am way proud of them (I can do zippers!). Heidi and Mindy both asked me why I have so many. I guess it is because I have everything already for this little guy and this really is the only thing that I could make for just him. Gunnar didn't have them.

My very favorite has to be the brown one. The fabric is great and really cute.

From Ugly to Way Better

Remember this lamp:

I've had it this way forever. Ever since Jeff broke my really nice, heavy one. Not sure why I have tolerated it this long. Probably because I was too cheap to replace it and desperate for the light it provided in this room.

I took the Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint to it and found a new lampshade and covered it with new fabric and here it is:

It looks so much better! I learned so much about lamps. I bought a lamp harp to extend the height of the shade. I wanted a drum type shade. I loaded Gunnar up in the car one Saturday, went to the first thrift store in town and found this awesome thing ready to cover for $2.99. I took it home, immediately cut out the fabric and went to cover it, only to find out that it was too short. The shade has a very slight upward curve to it. So I rolled the shade over some paper for a pattern, like I was supposed to, to get the curve. I was to cheap to buy more fabric, so I took the two pieces that I cut apart, sewed them back together and cut out the fabric with the pattern. The mistake is barely noticeable on the back. It totally worked out.
**So my cousin wanted more details so she can do it herself. Take a piece of newspaper (if the shade is small) or something longer for a bigger shade to make the pattern. Find the seam on your lampshade and place it down on the paper. Begin to trace the edges of the lampshade onto the paper as you roll it. Once you get to the seam again, you are done. I took my sewing guage and measured little tick marks about 1/2" away from the lines that I just made to create the extra to glue over the shade. Cut it all out. I read on one tutorial, that she used spray adhesive to keep the main body of the fabric attached to the lampshade. I didn't have any, so I used fabritac (or hot glue would work too) and spread a line down the seam to start. Then I would but some on the very top and bottom of the shade, press the fabric in and do this slowly until it was tight and done. Then I went back around and glued down the edges on the inside to finish it up. Lastly, I folded over the fabric at the seam and glued down to make it looked finished. I hope this makes sense. The harp and finial also came in bronze only so I spray painted that as well. There are several great tutorials online already. Just google how to recover a lampshade.

I have to tell you about the process of picking out the fabric. Gunnar really liked this lighter green fabric. So did I until I found this one. He was SO strongly opposed to this one, he would throw the bolt out of the cart. I had to keep it on the very bottom of the cart. Not sure why he was so passionately against it. It's not that bad. An older lady, also getting fabric cut, looked at what I was getting and said, "Oh, you are going with the ugly one." I had to laugh but I do like it much better than the other one. **So I posted this in a hurry earlier and apparently forgot to explain most of this story. The lady totally said it sarcastically with a laugh because she saw the drama with Gunnar and said she had a grandson just like him.

Time for Job Charts

Gunnar is fast approaching 4 years old next month and we fill that he is fully ready for a job chart. I saw this job chart here quite a long time ago and loved it. I finally decided to sit down yesterday and make Gunnar's. Let me tell you, it was hard. It had been about a year since I did any digital scrapbooking. Basically since my mom had her stroke, I didn't have time. I felt like I was relearning my program all over again. And when my computer got it's virus and I lost every single picture and almost all digital scrapbooking stuff, I had no desire. I was depressed about it. However, this has fired me up to do it again and I love the results. All that is left is getting it printed through Costco as a 12x18 print and laminated. I really liked the designers chores, so I stuck with them. They are totally age appropriate for Gunnar. Eventually they will probably change.

Hanging Pretty

The jewelry holder is finally finished and I am so happy about it. I bought 2 packages of 1/2" cup hooks but they were BRASS. Yuck and that was all that they had. So I pulled out my trusty can of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and blasted those babies. I couldn't be happier. Now I just need more in a big size, I think, to finish out the bottom. And thanks to Heidi, I used a removable ribbon for my hair flowers. My bathroom counters are so much cleaner now. And if you forgot what it looked like, click here.

I Can Sew Zippers!

I finished one of my Boppy covers and love it. I actually sewed in a zipper. I am so proud of myself and was scared out of my mind to do it. This was such an easy, fast project. Now that I have the hang of it, it shouldn't take long at long to make more (because they are fun and happy!). My high school friend Stacey, with It's Fun to Craft, would also be proud of me for washing my fabric ahead of time to prevent shrinkage later on. She wrote up a tip about washing it and I've heard how that should be done anyway, and I have never done it. Don't know why. I actually really liked the feel of the fabric after it was washed so I am converted now.

Anyway, the zipper was fun, let me tell ya. I honestly didn't even know what to do when I got to the part I had to sew over the zipper. I went for it and got my needle stuck in between the teeth! It broke the needle and bent it. Easy to replace, so I thought. I thought that I had it all the way in place but realized that I didn't. I took it back out and the needle slipped down a teeny, tiny hole in my sewing machine. I had to take apart the entire bobbin area to find it. It is kind of a good thing that I did because there was so much thread fluff down there that needed to be cleaned anyway. So after that fiasco, I googled sewing in zippers and learned alot. It looks really good for my first attempt and can't wait to do the other one.

Gunnar also thinks that him and the baby can share the pillow. He will lay on one side and the baby on the other. Hate to burst his bubble, but not everything will always be his.

Necklaces Galore...What To Do

Somehow I have accumulated a fair amount of necklaces for me. If you really know me, you know that jewelry is not my thing but somehow I have many necklaces and like wearing them. I needed something to corral them and hang them up.

I have been eyeing this board all summer long when I would pull the lawnmower out of my parent's shop. This was used to display knobs and things for a lumberyard that went out of business. It is really big measuring in at 22"x22".
My plan was to utilize the color underneath, paint this cool light blue color I found in the oops section at Home Depot for $1/qt a couple of weeks ago, then spray paint in black. Then paint it this spring green that I got for free when Glidden was giving away free quarts online a while ago. Then sand it down in places and age it with Minwax walnut stain.

While I painted away, layer after layer, Gunnar wanted to paint as well and loved it. However I discovered that he has interest in art like the size of a snail. He enjoys it for about 5 minutes, then he is done. He may come back to it, but the same thing happens...done in 5 minutes.
I was really pleased with the finished product of my board. I love how the blue comes through here and there and there and I have always loved how walnut stain looks on things.




I plan on adding cup hooks (apparently I don't have any around the house) where I need them and hanging this in my bathroom. I have flower hair clips that need a home, so I was thinking of adding a ribbon somewhere, stapling it on and clipping the flowers onto it. We'll see what the final, final project ends up looking like. This was a lot of fun and I am so pleased with the final results.
One last thing. While I was taking the outside pictures, Gunnar followed me out with an apple that cracked in half. He wanted me to take a picture of him talking with the apple up and down as if it was a puppet. Silly boy.

Fun Projects

When I was on my craft frenzy a while ago, I did 3 more projects that I didn't post. Things have slowed down dramatically since I got this crazy annoying cold and cough.

I knew soon that soon I would need a pillow to sleep with when I became more pregnant, so we pulled out this long body pillow thinking that it would do the trick. It didn't. It was so new and puffy that it felt like a 3rd grown adult in our bed every night. It was so big, it was awkward to sleep with. I needed something different. Within a day or two, I stumbled upon this great tutorial for a leg pillow. The top pillow is the dimensions used in the tutorial. It was almost a little too tall, so I used the rest of the foam that I bought and adapted the dimensions for the fabric to fit. I really like using it and the larger size is perfect to sleep with. I am more proud of myself for being able to follow the directions, make the pocket in the back and make those boxed corners. Those that sew well are probably laughing at me right now but I was excited with my new found knowledge. Gunnar is pretty sure that the big one is mine and the smaller one is his.

My other project is these reusable produce bags. I saw a tutorial (love those things) on these and decided to go for it. Super easy and super cheap and incredibly handy. It takes a yard of mesh netting (by the tulle) of any color. Gunnar was so excited to be in charge of picking the color. Cut out and sew up the sides. I loved taking these to the store. I really hate putting my produce in the plastic bags to only throw them away when I get home. A yard of mesh made 6 of these. I gave Heidi and Mindy two each.

The last project was Gunnar's valentine's for this year. I saw this idea online and new it was the one. Gunnar is obsessed with gum. Perfect. He was very excited to pick out the gum but didn't fully understand that he couldn't eat the entire pack beforehand so we had to hide it. He chose that zebra striped gum from long ago. It was actually perfect because the ends had different colors on them and it was the cheapest. Probably because the flavor lasts for half a second. Gunnar also picked out the papers. Anyway, I was excited to realize that I could use my Cricut for ALL of the cutting. I cut the rectangle, circle and heart with it. All that I had to do was ink and assemble. So easy and Gunnar loved them.

I am currently working on another project but I'm not done yet. Almost sounds like I am talking about my baby...I had a cousin ask to see pictures of me pregnant. At this point I am just slightly chubby looking. Not really pregnant looking. That hasn't come yet. So when it does, I want to post pictures to remember this time. I really regret not taking more with Gunnar, like any for that matter. I think I have about 2-3 with him. But he'll probably have the most baby pictures overall so I am not too concerned. Baby is moving around all of the time. It is actually moving quite a bit while I type this. The movements are my most favorite part of being pregnant. It is also the one thing that I miss the most once the baby is here. Anyway, we have less than 2 weeks before we find out what this baby is. Gunnar is still pretty sure that I am having a girl baby and he is having a kid baby. We'll see.

Whoa...Energy!

I have more energy than I have in the last few months so I have been on a crafty high. There were so many things that I wanted to do and now with this new found energy, I am getting them done. Mindy says that I am nesting but that is so not the case quite yet anyways. It is energy.

I saw the idea online to frost windows/glass with frosted glass spray paint and a decorative piece of scrapbook paper and thought that it would be perfect on this door. It has always bothered Jeff that this window was so open. We could see where the previous owners had blinds or something hanging. I didn't want blinds, I liked the light coming through. In comes this frosted glass idea. I did it at night when Jeff was gone and the fumes were enough to kill an entire house full of people. Not the greatest. I found my scrapbook paper at Joann's on sale and used temporary spray adhesive to stick it on. It was really easy and fun to do. And if I decide that I don't like it later on, it is pretty easy to take off with stuff mentioned on the spray can. I plan on doing the glass door on our entertainment center but want to see if I can find a different design of paper that I like.

Rillz and Mindy went to church with us this last Sunday and stayed for dinner afterwards. Rillz birthday is actually today but we thought that it would be a perfect time to have a family party since they were already this way after dinner. I have always wanted a reusable, fabric birthday banner and thought what better time to work on it.

This picture was taken at night so it turned out really bad but you get the idea. The letters are made from felt. I cut them out from my Cricut as a pattern and traced backwards on the felt.


The backs are made from one of my favorite fabrics ever. It makes me happy every time I see it. I sewed it all together with ribbon. It was fun to see hanging in the dining room and everyone liked it. It essentially free because I was able to use stuff that I alreayd had. Great way to use up scraps of fabric.

While I was at it, I figured I would make a Valentine's Day one. These are all of the V-day decorations that I have so the banner definately adds to it.



I love the fabric on the back of this one. The color combo is great. This took me no time at all to make. I decided to use twine to hold it all together. I folded the top over and held it in place with fabritac, the best stuff ever. If you have yet to try it, get a bottle with a coupon. I use it for fabric projects as well as scrapbook projects. It reminds me of hot glue but without the gun and hot part.

These are just 3 of my projects. I have 3 more that I did. I just need to take the pictures and get them on here. I plan on finally working on my neckplace holder for the bathroom. Hopefully I will get that started today. It desperately needs done.

Advent Mania

What has kept me super busy, away from life and away from this blog? Advent calendars! Last year I decided to make advent calendars out of muffin tins and sell them on Etsy. Nobody else was really doing it and they looked fun. I sold 17 of them and was over the moon excited. I bought all of the little trinkets for the following year at deep discounts at the end of the season. I was ready this year, or so I thought. The season started a little slow but has picked up and for some reason is still going after Dec 1st. To date, I have made 29 calendars and still have one more that I know of for a giveaway that I am participating in. I have been extremely blessed with the success of these calendars during the most cash strapped time of year. And they are pretty fun to do on top of that.

However, here is the dilemma this year. A client of mine that has now been known to be the one that buys baby albums for all of her friends that are expecting, ordered two albums that are needed by next week. She needed an 8x8 baby album and a 12x12 wedding album. I am s.t.r.e.s.s.i.n.g. out! I have yet to start a single one because of these advent calendars. I am now in the process of putting together the last advent calendar and hopefully that it is. I can clear my desk and get started on the albums. I also need to work on Heidi and Ren's christmas present for this year. Actually work on it is not right. More like start it.

Thankfully I have a sister who is a lifesaver. Heidi takes Gunnar to work with her twice a week which allows me to get some of things finished/started. Plus Gunnar just loves it. He loves being with "his kids". That is what he calls his friends there. Pretty funny.

What Have I Been Up To?

Besides being with my mom for about 8 hours per day. Which I totally love by the way. Just a little background. Jeff has been at POST which is Peace Officer Standard Training for his job. Thankfully it is just in Meridian (about 20 miles away) however he has to stay there the entire week and can only come home on the weekends. Thankfully it is only two weeks long and he is into his second and final week. Anyway, he was home this weekend and we both became so motivated to get projects done. I had so many, oh ya, you guys read about that.

So lets get started. I found a few cute things at Savers the other day and thought spray paint. They were not spendy so why not. The first is this cute little bird.

So I am also not very good at taking before and after shots. By the time I even remembered a camera, this little guy was well on his way to white. He is pretty small but heavy. He was a blue "stone" look before. The other thing that I found was this something. Honestly I have no idea was it it. But I thought that I could spray paint it and eventually find a cloche to go over it. Right now my bird is sitting on it. As you can see I forgot the after picture on this one but will post it later. It was spray painting all black.I f.i.n.a.l.l.y. finished Gunnar's dressing. I am just warning you, that if you are thinking of painting red, just take this as a warning and don't do it. I swear to you that you will curse your way through the entire project and then after really like the results. Much like I did with this dresser. No lie here, it took about 15-20 layers on this thing. I went through 3/4 of the pint of paint. That is a lot of paint on a project like this. I painted and painted and painted to finally end of up with this.The drawers are chalkboard paint. Super easy to roll on. Of course it doesn't have that freshly painted look to it because you have to rub a piece of chalk over the entire thing to prime it.The knobs are probably my favorite. The white knobs were the originals that we on it before. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them. In the end, I decided to keep them as they were. The washers on the backs are the fun part. I was reading a magazine a couple of weeks ago where they primed washers and then spray painted stripes on them. They used metal knobs in front of them with the fun bright washers behind. Gunnar's room is more kid industrial with CARS as the theme so I decided to keep them as they are. I also wanted to find a H.U.G.E. frame for Gunnar's room where I could turn it into a chalkboard for him. I started to notice that thrift stores wanted an arm and a leg for really ugly large pictures and the frames really weren't worth it. Hmmm, where am I going to find one? I decided to search craigslist. You never know. Low and behold there was someone selling huge, empty frames. A lot of them to choose from. I met with her and all that she wanted was $5/frame. Holy Cow, I was stoked! I bought two. One that is going in our bedroom (more on that later) and then this longer one that is perfect for Gunnar's chalkboard. This thing measured 52" long x 28" tall. Go ahead, grab your tape measure just to see how big it is.

The table saw that it is propped up on is not small by any means. Okay, so I decided to go with red on this too. Why, I don't know why. I am still in the process of spraying coat after coat on this thing. It is slowly looking better. I plan on checking out Michaels to see if they can cut me a mat that I can paint with chalkboard paint for this. It is really so big I am not sure what to put in the center. Okay, so maybe I do know why I picked red. Gunnar's walls are tan right now. I have the paint to paint the bottom half blue with white chair rail on top. So red naturally worked. At Ross last week, I found two wall ledges cheap but they were white. I don't want white. I originally wanted these for my front room but I really wanted three.I just planned on buying a third that looked close. My reason for buying them was that I know that I could easily spray paint. So that is what I did and decided to put them in my bedroom instead.About two summers ago, I found this yard sale with all of these super old things. She was selling them sooo cheap. I was immediately drawn to these frames. They are old and the paint is wearing off of them but they are perfect. I believe they were around $.25/each or two for that price.I love finials! I have several. So I gathered them from the family room and stuck them here. The silver thing is a mystery. It is not a candlestick holder. I think I found that at a thrift store many years ago. Just liked it. But it looks good in that spot. I have since added a family picture below the higher shelf and plan on hanging smaller pictures of Gunnar inside those frames on the wall. I will post a more complete picture when it is done.This weekend we also chose (I had already narrowed down my choices and Jeff helped with the final decision) and bought curtains for the sliding door in our room. Does anyone have or remember the vertical blinds? We have those in our house. Now that we are nearing 4 years in this house, I figured that it is about time that they come down. We chose a brown lightly lined curtain. I really like them and they look good in this room. I plan on collecting the cream version of it for the front living room. I need 6 panels in there. I really like this rod that we picked out. Usually something that I would not be drawn to but it works well in the bedroom. Just look past the odd coloring behind the curtains. I still need to touch the walls up where the other blinds were taken down.Now this was probably one of my most exciting things of all time. We have this store nearby called Graples. It is one of those places that is only open on Thursdays and sells in style home decor at deeply discounted prices. Really quite cheap. They open Saturdays a few times per year and a couple of Saturdays was that day. Normally I wouldn't go but I figured that I would when I saw through the window to their clearance section. Heidi and I took Noelle there and wanted to go to the clearance area to only find out that it was closed until this Saturday. So I went that day and headed straight to clearance. When the doors open at this place, it is an absolute zoo! Drives me rather nuts. A bunch of ladies grabbing things like crazy, whether they probably really need them or not because they don't know if it will be there 5 seconds later. Nuts I tell you. The clearance is actually across the parking lot in a part of the warehouse where larger items are picked up. So that is where I headed. I found several cool things and snagged them but then I noticed two twin headboards. I have been looking for a sturdy twin headbaord for Gunnar. How strange seeing these even there. They don't sell headboards. I've never seen one in the store. I ask how much because they weren't labeled. I was told $25 and then 30% off of that. Home Decor in the clearance section was 40% off and furniture 30%. Holy Smokes! That made it super cheap. There is always something wrong with the stuff in clearance. Heidi found a frame there once that was perfect except for the glass that was broken out of it. No big deal. So I searched this bed and the only thing that I could find that was that the paint was coming off of the top. I can handle that. So I bought it and was stoked. I tell ya, this thing is heavy! It is sturdy beyond belief. I asked the sales person where it had come from. She was pretty sure that it was the owners and she just stuck it in there. They were also selling another one that would have been perfect for a little girl. The detail work on it was really cute. Anyway, My plans are to paint it white. I am thinking spray paint to get an even, smooth coverage. I love it! And did you want to see what my garage looked like? Jeff had me all set up with different areas.We have the kitchen cabinets pulls which are turning out awesome! The kitchen already looks updated and better. I am about half way done. More on that in another post.The frame station, the chalkboard drawers, and the wall ledges.

On top of this, I had an order come in through Etsy for a baby boy album. I really need to get on that. And then within the last couple of days, one of my all time favorite clients wants to get 2 baby albums and 2 wedding albums for various people this year. She is so fun to work with and all of her friends now expect these as gifts. So I really appreciate her business. I just need to make the time to get Brent and Noelle's album finished and off of my desk so that I can get moving on these others.