Dutch?

Truth is I don't know where to start on this blog.....

I will start with this. About a month and half ago I got a random phone call from my realtor. He had asked me if I had any interest in selling my house because the 2 townhouses next to mine he sold very fast and he had a buyer interested in them still. Keep in mind my house wasn't for sale but my realtor knew mine had relatively the same layout and he just wanted to check with me. The amount that it could potentially sell for was far more than I paid for it, so it was hard to say no....but I didn't have any plans on moving anytime SOON so I just kind of put that call on the back burner. I saw the two houses next to mine had the SOLD signs in the lawn and watched the owners move out over the next couple weeks. That's the end of that story.

Wall Collage Week

This Weeks Events...
(a little behind on posting)

I bought my house about 3 years ago and completely changed the look of it by painting the god awful flat tan colored walls red, yellow, and green. And WHY anyone would paint the whole house in that color...is beyond me! But even years later, I still don't feel like I have decorated it to the best of my ability.

So yesterday I got a sudden whim (after I saw a photo of a collage on a wall going up a stair hallway, thank you Pinterest) and instantly decided I wanted to make this whole wall collage thing happen in my house. It's pathetic really, it's literally all I could think about the entire day while I was at work. I pictured things in my head, thought of things I had thrifted that were laying around in the garage I could use, and was thinking of some things I wanted to pick up to make it work. I could hardly wait until 5 o'clock hit to attack this brilliant idea that was seriously taking over my head. I really didn't know what I wanted to put in the collage or where I was going to put it. As soon as I got home I started rummaging through my garage (aka my studio.) I have all sorts of "junk" and DIY creations in there, so I knew I'd find something.

So here is my wall before I did the collage..

 

 

Nothing crazy awesome, also nothing crazy boring. But it never really did it for me. So....here was my attempt at the wall collage idea...

 

 

Have no fear folks....the "S" (wedding gift) art is no longer crooked! LoL But aside from that what do you think?! It definitely changed my entry way "feel" and gave it more of a rustic feel. I think I still may change it a little bit, but I really do like it!

I also had a little bit of a problem hanging stuff...pun intended. I am a little bit short, 5'3" doesn't always get the job done. And with a husband who works overseas and a 5 lb. Chihuahua as my sidekick,I didn't have a whole lot of options. So a short ladder and a "time out" stool  I crafted to sell had to make do. No I do not recommend trying this at home!

Here are a few more photos of the wall décor pieces close up...

Soon after I finished this project I had yet another random though at updating the look of my home. I had a left over PVC pipe that had a hole in it from a previous project that I never used. Here is what it looked like before....

I know what you're thinking. (That is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, where can you get such a stunning PVC pipe for yourself...the answer is home depot lol.) I promise I'm not crazy, I put it to good use since it was just hanging in my garage. I also had in my garage a bunch of fake vase filler grass and sticks. I actually found these when I was out on a job one day. Someone must have moved from the house and left a bunch of stuff on the curb, which included this perfectly awesome decorating sticks still in the bag. So my girlfriend though I was crazy when I told her we were coming back with her truck to pick up this junk, but we did it anyway! And now I have a corner stairway filler "vase"...I think it's lovely. All it need was a little paint, ribbon, and some TLC!

I finished off my crazy week by enjoying the gorgeous fall weather Iowa had to offer. It was 70 degrees and sunny Friday so I randomly decided to grab my pup and my camera after work and head to Saylorville Lake. It's only about 15 minutes from my house and I've been there 100's of times, however only to go boating...I've never really explored the areas around it. So I jumped in the car and drove around. I ended up at the visitor's center just in time to catch a beautiful sunset! Here are some photos I got of the gorgeous evening and my little furball.

 

It ended up being a beautiful weekend! I did however capture one shot that shows my hearts not quite complete with my husband away....

I hope you've enjoyed this extra long blog! Until next time....

Sunday Thriftin

My old "Sunday Funday" used to consist of day drinking and a ton of alcohol. My new "Sunday Funday" consists of thrift shopping and turning other peoples junk into my own treasure! So let me share today finds and recreations....

I was super stoked about my first find of the day at Goodwill.  A big wood fork and spoon, .99 cents each, score.

Honestly these were pretty cool by themselves, without any tweaking....but they didn't really match my kitchen so I decided I'd take the sander to them and toss on some ebony stain.

 I still wasn't feeling like they'd fit the look I was gong for in my kitchen so I gave in and decided on my go to......painted them black.

 I think they turned out pretty awesome for a total of $2.00. I haven't exactly figured out placement yet as I am still decorating my kitchen, but I will keep you posted!


My next find might make you wonder what the hell I was thinking, but I see things different than most. You are going to look at this and see a creepy bear with balloons picture, I mean I saw that too at first...but then I saw a nice wood frame that I could stain and turn into my own picture to fit my wine theme kitchen.

So I took the creepy bear picture apart, stained the frame with my favorite ebony stain, painted the glass black and wrote a little "Wine Bar" action on it. After I got done with it here what it looked like...

Not too bad of a find for $1.99!

And last but not least, my wooden horse find. This one has no place in my home as it would look perfect in a nursery and my husband and I won't be having babies any time soon! So here it is before...

Please don't look close at my man feet! I'll give you a guess at the first two things I did to that horse....if you guessed sanded and stained, you were correct! (Oh and I ripped off the creepy hair attached on the back for the tail.) After that I painted it pink (the color in the photo is off) and ran the sander across it to give it a distressed look and let the stain peek through. Here is the final outcome, I tossed a letter on there as an idea for customers but really there are so many options we could add to her to make her perfect and customized for a little girls room!

Oh one last find for me, not my house! A super cute peace sign purple scarf that I washed and rocked tonight!



I hope you enjoyed my random Sunday Funday finds! And if you're looking for bedroom decor for a little girl, let me know! The horse still needs a home....

<3Chelsey 





Saturday Creativeness

All week I told myself I was going to devote my entire weekend to crafting and revamping the house. It's only Saturday night and I have already accomplished a TON.

As I sit here typing this blog (trying to stay awake at 11...I'm pathetic,) I realize I haven't showered since my 9:30 A.M. workout class...and in fact I do smell pretty rank. I have paint all over my hands and also just realized I haven't even ate dinner (unless a glass of wine and an entire bag of lindor chocolate truffles throughout the night counts?) But I am loving my busy day and progress. Unfortunately the house has paid for my success, it looks like a hobby lobby semi truck crashed into my kitchen!

My morning started at 9:00 A.M. I woke up and went to Zumba, after that I was supposed to meet a lady who I was buying a little table from. (I found the item on a buy/sell facebook page, those are my favorite thing lately!) So I drive to Woodward, IA to pick up this table and was a little hesitant going to the boonies for this random item from someone I don't know. I sent a text to my best friend and told her who and where I was going in case the sellers were murderers and I never came home!
Boy was I wrong, the lady who posted it was actually the daughter of the woman selling it and she was so darn sweet. I got there and it was a little old lady who had quite a houseful of stuff, she said her daughter had been selling stuff for her, and she was trying to pack and get rid of stuff since her husband passed away. Her eyes filled up with tears as she said those words to me...I couldn't help but hug her, I could see her heart aching. We small talked about him and his Marine background for quite some time and then talked crafts. She actually made the table with the mosaic tiles herself. She was selling it to me for $5. What a steal! It was a cool table but pretty dirty and had some stickers all over it so I took it home and got out the hose and scrubber! Here is what it looked like before....

I scrubbed, scraped, washed, and started painting it black. I was hesitant at first on what to do with it, I wasn't sure if I should cover up the tiles and mosaic pieces she put in it. I also didn't know if I should try to sand and stain, paint cream, or just go black. I ended up choosing black. I used spray paint, because it's easiest...and I'm lazy and messy. I was literally done in probably 10 minutes with this treasure.

Here is how she turned out, I decided on putting it in my entryway of my town house. Right when you go upstairs from the front door is where this is.

A picture showing the difference from before and after...really a little TLC made a huge difference, doesn't even look like the same table!

Once I realized what a difference just adding the table in my entryway made, I wanted to revamp the area a little bit. It's funny how the smallest changes can make a world of difference, in decorating and really any situation in life. So here is what the area looked like before, with no table...

So I did some scroungin' around the house/garage (I'll be honest I am a bit of a hoarder of cheap junk/thrift finds) and found some things to try to spruce up the area. The first thing I grabbed was a .79 cent treasure I found at Goodwill...

Lame huh? Well I took the price tag off, grabbed my sander, put it to the wood for about 20 seconds, brought it inside and glued a black "S" on it that I had leftover from our Wedding Décor....

Looks a little different now huh? So I hammered a nail in the wall and stuck it above my new table....

I'm still not sure if I like the composition and/or what should be on the table but for now I like it...what do you think? I tell ya one thing that drives me crazy, no actually three. The vent, thermostat, and light switches messing up my decorating game! LoL

I forgot to mention my other Goodwill finds, the picture frame and the thing on the left side of table...

I found it for $2.00 today and love it. It says "Be The Change You Want To See In The World." And at the top there I a little slit to drop your change in it...which meant I could throw away the red solo cup in my kitchen collecting change. Perfect....great quote that also serves a purpose!

So my day was far from over after all this, I also started some Christmas crafts and since it's too cold to work in the garage, my kitchen became the crafting spot.

Here's what I came up with today...

Big snowman, and a failed attempt at Rudolph! Haha



A Christmas countdown sign!



I can't even believe I am sharing my disaster of a kitchen with you guys! I am also I the process of changing my theme in the kitchen from coffee to wine...

Anyways today was a very successful day in my book, but I desperately need to take a shower and get to bed so I can get back at it tomorrow! <3 Goodnight All!

Free Beauty Products?!

So if you know me, you know I am a huge penny pincher, thrifter, bargain shopper, cheap ass, frugal freak, all of the above. I get a lot of questions on my shopping ways and where or how I get some of the awesome things I find. So I thought I'd start sharing some of my shopping tips and fun finds!

This one is fairly short and sweet, but I wanted to share my first experience with something new I signed up for. Walmart now offers a "Beauty Box" where they send you free products every season and you only pay $5 for the shipping. So every three months or so they send you out a new box with all sorts of different products, some samples some full size. COOL huh?! As soon as I read about this, I signed up not knowing what to expect in my box. They do ask for your birth date so I assume that the stuff they send is also age appropriate.

What was in my box!? This is the fall box I received:

I haven't tried any of the products I received yet, but am pretty pleased with the stuff they sent! As you can see I got a sample of perfume, Dove Shampoo, Conditioner, and a hair oil treatment. I also got nail polish, full size deodorant, full size lipstick, a sample of foundation in different shades, a coupon for that foundation, and some facial cream to get rid of blackheads. All stuff I would totally use! Are you going to sign up for this "free" deal? Do share! I think its a great way to try new things and finally something FUN to receive in the mail aside from all those damn bills! =) I'm not getting paid to advertise for them, although I wish I was....but if you'd like to sign up here's the link! 

Wal-Mart Beauty Box

I hope you enjoyed my bargain tip for today! Now I've got to go test all these products out....

<3 Chelsey