If someone had told some farmer in 1890 that his feed sacks would be covering furniture in high end homes 120 years later, he probably would’ve dropped his plow.  I love finding beauty in everyday objects that are worn, well used and mended.  The fact that an object is still around over 100 years later speaks to the quality of it.  A lot of these “everyday” antiques are affordable, but European grain sacks are not one of those things.  So, I reproduce my own.  Click here for a tutorial.  Kim from Cheap Chic Home won one of my custom painted feed sacks for my 1000 follower giveaway.  I was a little slow in getting it done, but it’s finally finished.  Her requests…include the number 5, French instead of German, and paint some vines somewhere.  So this is what I came up with. I love it so much I’m going to make some for

Our house has come a long way.  When I look at our mile long DIY wish list it’s easy for me to forget how much we’ve accomplished. This is what our dining room looked like when we first moved in.  The paint on the walls was dingy, the wood floors were covered with nasty carpet, the pine trim made the rooms feel dark and the 1980’s ceiling fan was definitely not orginal to the house or well suited for a dining room. …and this is what it looks like today. So, first I’ll tell you what we did and then I’ll give you “the plan.”  It goes without saying that we ripped up the carpet.  My husband actually did that right after closing as I went to the airport to pick up my mom.  She flew up to help us move in, since I was six months pregnant at the

I have had this beautiful ironstone wash bowl sitting on the floor of my office for months.  I pull it out every once in a while to use it for a picture, but I’ve always struggled with what to put in it.  It’s just so big.  Everything I drop in it shrinks away and just doesn’t work.  As I’ve been working on the decor for my living room, I kept coming back to that bowl. So, I filled it with some balls of twine, pinecones and some “moss spheres” I made out of tennis balls. I simply hot glued sheet moss to tennis balls that had lost their bounce.  This arrangement isn’t as “springy” as I would like for the season, but it’s what I had on hand, it was free and I love how the textures play off each other. More to come…

As a fond farewell to the SYTYCD contest, here is my “junk” entry for week eight.  Enjoy! I am a person who is a magnet for free stuff.  Mostly stuff that other people consider junk.  You would not believe what people have offered to me for nothing.  I am fortunate to have ended up with neighbors who are hunters and sellers of things that are cool and old and they’ve given me many bargains.  A few weeks ago they offered a rusted iron bed frame for free and I couldn’t say no.  I immediately saw the potential in the footboard.  It would make a perfect towel bar.   The bed frame had clearly been left in the elements for a long time, so it first needed a good cleaning, sanding, and a hose down.  I then coated it with two thick layers of polycrylic to make it useable.  If you’re going

**I’m posting this to The Best DIY Projects of April at Beneath My Heart.  As Jeff would say, “Leave the tribal council area immediately.” Heidi would tell me, “You’re out.” Ali would looked at me with a sympathetic face and inform me, “I’m sorry, but you are not the biggest loser.” And Clive would say, “Your show has been cancelled.” (Can you tell I like reality competition shows?) Anyway, I was booted out of the SYTYCD competition today. If I was competing for a million bucks or my own show, I may have cried, but this was for fun, so it was just a bummer. It was bitter sweet news. This competition has been stressful at times and has distracted me from things that are higher priorities, so it’s a relief to be done. It’s hard because I was over the moon about my guest room. Well, I still am,

I love it when I finally finish a piece that’s been taunting me every time I go into the workshop. I bought this piece for $3.00 at a yard sale.  It was originally part of a vanity that was split in two and then separated from it’s twin.  The piece was dirty, the side was damaged and that paint job did not do it justice.  My husband fixed it up and made a new side for it.  I cleaned it up, painted it cream and rubbed an antique stain on it. After all of that work, it looked terrible and I was ready to throw it away.  I wish I had a picture of how bad it was.  It looked like I had taken a beginning faux finishing class and tested out my newly acquired skills on this piece.  So, after months of eyeing it when I went down to fetch my laundry,

I am continuing to do some tweaking on my newly made over guest room.  Most of the room is perfect, but there are still a few small things to take care of.  Today I swapped out the mirror above the dresser with a framed piece of antique lace. I love this mirror, but it was just too low to be functional and it looked a little funny wedged between the coved ceiling and the dresser. I bought this piece years ago at a consignment shop for about $28.  I’ve loved it in the blue for quite a while, but it was time for a change. I took the piece apart, washed the glass and cut a new piece of backing.  I then cut a piece of linen to size and put it all back together again.  The cream linen still sets off the lace, but there’s less of a contrast, so

I’ve been teasing you with the reveal for a few days and now it’s here.  First of all, I’m going to share my entry post for this week and then I’ll take you on a tour and tell you how I did it. “I can’t really say how this project came about.  Last week, I had no clue what I was going to do.  I walked through the aisles of Lowes, talked to people in every department and asked questions like, “Do you think I can pull this fence apart and use the pieces for something else?”, “Do you sell this piece by itself?” and, my favorite, “I know this sounds really crazy, but could I use that like this?”  My mother-in-law and I hummed over roofing supplies, turned plungers upside-down to see their potential, and zigzagged from one side of the store to the other in search of the perfect