Home Decor

 Now that I am over my jet lag I feel like I can get my act together on this blogging life. 

The kids started back to school the day after we got home. Remind me to not plan a trip like that again. Yes! The kids are back to full in person school. Last year we had some back and forth that was really tough. But we are finally back into a somewhat normal routine. I am officially living that sahm life where I can get some cleaning, alone time,  and some TV watching done. 

I can focus on some decorating projects. I have been so focused on what I should do or not do that I wasn't actually following through with my ideas. So I decided to just do them and sit with them. I can always change things up later. This last week I had one of those very moments. My friend was in town for the day and we talked about another idea I had for my office/studio. She thought it might be pointless because we are moving again. (Maybe soon, maybe not) But I really wanted to just move in and finish projects. The next day I was just needed to do something creative. 

A little back story. It was the anniversary of my Dad passing away suddenly. I always never know how to feel exactly. I felt moody, numb, sad, not sad. It's always a guessing game to be honest. I needed a good distraction. Since the kids were at school and I had the house all to myself I got to work. 

Originally I wanted to print out sheet music to my own songs to put them all over the wall. Then I found this little book of sheet music from old hymns in some of my dads old stuff. I decided I would use those instead because it is what I had on hand. I figured I would pick ones out but as I sat there looking through all of the titles I realized a new/better idea was born. The names of these hymns were so encouraging. "Jesus heals a broken heart", "God answers prayer", "My Redeemer", etc. I felt like I was taping up the full armor of God onto my wall. I got emotional. It turned into something that it was meant to be. I love when that happens. I am thankful to be able to notice when it does.

Floral: Michaels, Sheet music: Family, Mirror: Five Below

DIY Sunday Edition

I have a stockpile of DIY projects. I'm not sure what I was doing with my time in Georgia but I didn't get any of them done.  Well, with the exception of my entryway bench.

I just kept adding to my list.

I found the easiest projects to accomplish at home with what I had on hand to start off with.
I had a couple canvases for the kids to paint on {that post coming soon}
Then I had this lovely piece. I found some old spray paint in the basement that survived the move. I had some sandpaper and my task presented itself.
This piece came attached to our TV stand that we got a few years ago. I didn't want to throw it away because I had a vision for it. Time got away from me and I never did it.
After watching several DIY videos on youtube I finally felt motivated.

I waited for a nice sunny warm day and went outside. I removed all the cardboard and huge staples and started sanding away. The paint I had was a primer and paint combo so I didn't have to worry about priming it beforehand. However it did take more paint that anticipated. I had to bring it in for a few of the cold days while I waited for a time to snag a couple more cans from Home depot. Now with everything getting worse and more stores closing and limiting customers I'm glad I did it when I did.


PROJECT:
2 1/4 cans of Rustoleum all surface paint and primer in "Flat Chestnut"
Sandpaper
Flathead screwdriver  with help from the hubby for the difficult ones (to remove staples )







{BEFORE}

Voila! I give you my version of a blanket ladder! Just upcycled some packing material that's it. It can also probably be used for a planter outside. There's tons of different ideas. You just got to use your imagination.

{AFTER}

 Here's a list of my favorite DIY'ers

XO, MaCenna
Liz Fenwick
Lone Fox
Mr Kate
Living to DIY with Rachel Metz




Happy DIY'ing while you are quarantined! I'd love to see your projects too
send them to me via IG or comment below with a link to your project. 

Georgia House Tour Part 1

I realize the title of this post might have you confused. But previously I did promise you a belated home tour post from our Georgia house. I frantically cleaned and took pictures before we moved. I like to do that for our own memories anyway. It was definitely not completed to my standards. I took way too much time being indecisive. I have stuck to my plan to not do that in the new house. More on the new house to come soon. But for now this is part 1 of our Georgia house tour. 

I'm not really sure what to call my style. I'm very eclectic. I combine my taste for boho, vintage, and flea market style. I love classic neutral colors with a pop of color. If you have ideas on what kind of style we can call that or if there's already a name for it let me know. 

The living room was a mixture of new, thrifted, and DIY projects. 

My newer pieces I purchased during our time in Georgia were the TV stand which was from Wayfair. We had a corner TV stand that I got from the Salvation Army back in Massachusetts. It didn't work for this space and was very big so we had sell that. 

This lovely china cabinet I bought from a huge thrift store in Charlotte, NC. I paid a whopping $65 for it. A steal in my opinion seeing how most of these pieces at thrift stores come already redone and are selling for over $300. Not in my price range at all. 

All my lovely old hardback books were bought fom the local library. With the exception of some I got from my grandparents like this very special copy of "Little Women".

My DIY project for my hanging planters. {Spoiler Alert} They aren't real plants. Click the link for how to do this project.

This mirror was another thrift store find in Alabama. Some mixed knick knacks from Target Dollar Spot and Hobby Lobby. As well as another original DIY project my lace vases that have been going strong for almost 10 years now! That's saying something with how many times we move. 

Another cool story about this old Army trunk. It's actually my hubby's Grandpas World War 2 army trunk. When I first got it almost 10 years ago I had no idea what to do with it and it sat in the basement. Until someone said it needed to be displayed a few years later. It has been ever since. I love it. I love having a piece of our family history forever.

My take on an art display above the couch. Those red ones actually had roosters on them from Hobby lobby and I painted over it with chalk paint. I don't hate it now but I don't exactly love it either. I see more mickey mouse ears. It definitely needed something that I had intentions of doing but never got around to it. Not it is serving a different purpose in this new house. We shall see as time goes on here if it will get reinvented.

My music room/office space. Which was actually the formal dining room designated space. As you can see I have a huge upright piano that is a beast. We got it for free in Massachusetts and it is a must wherever we go now. It will not get sold or left behind. Even more now since I have written songs on it and Ri has learned piano on it. It's also the last piano my dad ever used. It's a permanent fixture in my house. Combined with more finds from Salvation Army and family heirlooms the end table, and desk.

I do miss this house. It felt homey, cozy and creative. I'm still working on making the new house feel the same way. I hope you enjoyed part one of my Georgia House tour. 

Stay safe, Stay home!

DIY HOME DECOR

It's been so long since I did a DIY post. Let alone a home decor one. I'm the type of girl who loves to present everything as a whole. My house is just not done yet. We've been here for almost 8 months and I'm slowly decorating the house. I probably take way too much time thinking about how I want it done then I should. Maybe I'm just a perfectionist. I really love hanging plants in general so I when I started seeing them being hung indoors I got really excited. Even more excited when I saw a decorator hang them from the ceiling vent. GENIUS! I filed the idea away in my brain to come back to later. At a recent trip to Hobby Lobby I came across these hanging tea light holders for only $7.99. I knew I had to get them. I like to visualize before I start a project. So I knew I could use just some garland for . Then I realized it had to hang somehow. The hook for the tea light holder wasn't going to work. I knew I had some twine at home. I literally just tied the twine to the hook and another smaller hook or bracket for hanging pictures and hooked it to the ceiling vents. 

The whole project cost me $40 give or take. Hobby Lobby is constantly having sales on this type of stuff so take advantage. I hung one lower then the other mainly because I measured wrong. But it came out great even though they are uneven. One of the easiest DIY projects I've done. 

Diamond Hanging Tealight Holders: Hobby Lobby $7.99

Greenery garland: Hobby Lobby $10.99 

Heavy Duty Twine: Lowes

{DIY} Vintage Circus Party

I recently blogged about my daughters vintage circus birthday party! I thought I would share some of the easy DIY things I made for the party that came out pretty cute!

I had really envisioned some glorious tiered birthday cake for the party. But that was out of my budget and also unrealistic. It was a small party with just a few people {mainly because our house just isn't that big} Everywhere I looked cakes were too expensive or not what I wanted. A sheet cake that was too much cake and an easy $20. I decided to just make cupcakes again since it was easier and cheaper like her pixie/pirate party last year. 

I didn't want to use the cupcake stand from last year. I wanted to try something different. I started looking for little cake stands. But again everything was out of my budget. I went to the Dollar Tree and got these cute glass plates and candlestick holders and some 9001 super glue at Joannes and made two very simple and inexpensive cake stands. VOILA!

 

 

From the beginning I knew I needed some kind of games. At least a couple right? It was a circus party. So I started collecting cans from dinner to make this cute bean bag toss game.

I got wrapping paper in the color scheme of the party from the dollar tree. I measured one of the labels on the wrapping paper to be an exact match. Then I just used scotch tape. One game down!

    I like using labels or signs throughout the party. It just adds a cute personal touch. I lucked out and found these little chalkboard stickers in the dollar bin at Michael's. It came with a set of 6 stickers and some chalk. They went along perfectly with the vintage theme! I got the black and gold 4x6 frames at the dollar tree and used some of my polka dot scrapbook party that I already had. Those were one of my favorite things of the party and the little gold elephants.

 

Anyone thankful for Pinterest?... I am!

I found this printable "pin the tail on the elephant" game.

All I had to do was save it to a flash drive and took it to Staples. 

I had them print an 18x14 size and it was only a couple of dollars. 

Then I taped it to a glittery gold trimmed poster board I got from Target. 

I also painted the elephant with gold metallic paint for fun.

It's always worth it to make things for these parties. It's fun and inexpensive. What types of things have you made for your parties? Leave a link in a comment I would love to see!

{DIY} Dining Room Hutch

 It's finally done! This was by far my biggest project so far and it was a daunting task indeed!

I knew I wanted a hutch to replace my make-shift dining room hutch that I had previously. Which was really an old entertainment center. I wanted something that would fit the feel of the rest of the furniture in the house. Something older, slightly classic and vintage like. Maybe claw feet or something like that. I kept hanging around my favorite place {The Salvation Army} and I finally eyed his bad boy! I loved the caged doors, it gives it such a unique, shabby chic look to it. I don't see many hutches like this around. 

I knew from the beginning it was going to be red. I wanted something bold and rich. Red is one of my favorite colors. When we finally got it home it sat in the garage for awhile. And of course I let the months go by and let it gather dust. I always have big ideas when it comes to these projects. But sitting down and getting them done is a whole other thing. I was inspired to get it done when my parents said they were coming to visit for Thanksgiving. I wanted my dining room to look nice for the holidays! 

It wasn't easy because it was getting colder. I thought I knew what I was doing this time around. I wanted to spray paint the whole thing. There's a lot of crevices and hard to reach areas. I thought spray painting would be the way to go. 

The problem with that is. It's a HUGE piece of furniture! What was I thinking!? Not to mention spray paint doesn't go very far on something like this. I bought over a dozen cans and it still wasn't enough. Then I ran into another problem. I picked RED! Red and more specifically this shade of red isn't a very popular color choice. Meaning: Stores don't stock very much of it. I cleaned out Ace and Wal-mart and it still wasn't enough. 

There was only one thing left to do. I color matched at Ace hardware as much as I could and ended up going with brush painting. Honestly, I should've just done that in the first place and I would've saved myself a lot of time and money. So if you are going to be painting furniture just use a brush. At least when it's a big piece like this. 

Remember how I said it was getting colder? I wasn't exaggerating! I was out there freezing to death trying to get the job done. Sanding and priming.... it wasn't until I was really close to being done with the paint that we realized we could bring the pieces in and finish it inside in the nice warm house! Serious blonde moment there and I was in fact kicking myself,{once I defrosted that is}.

What I used:

KILZ Primer Spray Paint {4-6 cans}

Reusable sanding pads

{next time I would sand better if I had more time}

A gallon of color matched {Satin Burgundy} to Krylon satin burgundy

I did at least 4-5 coats. I didn't get to do a finish yet. Or get the glass cut for the shelves. 

I will post the completed dining room once everything is all finished. 

I was actually really please with the finished product. I was worried about brush strokes but it doesn't show at all. So you must get a good brush not the cheap ones! It is a must when painting furniture!

 What are some of your furniture redo's?

After  & Before

{DIY} Vintage Christmas Ornaments

Christmas is probably my favorite holiday! I love Christmas movies, Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, the list goes on and on. Last year I went all out on making my own Christmas Decor. Link HERE

I found this awesome wrapping paper last Christmas that became my inspiration this year. Yes! I did plan my theme/color scheme a whole entire year before. I wanted to get into this whole vintage feel into our Christmas. As you can see I went crazy at Michaels but I couldn't help it when things were 70%off either that or a $1.00 so Riley and I got crafty this weekend as we listened to Christmas music. Simply easy DIY ornaments. I just bought paint in my color scheme, as well as some scrapbook paper I already had, a hot glue gun and we went to town.