Glass Vases

You may remember these plates I made for Christmas gifts. Well, I took the same concept and made some vases a little fancier. These two glass vases came from the dollar store and the candlestick holders were given to me by a co-worker and friend (thanks Sabrina!) I followed the same instructions as before and used Epoxy to attach them together. I think it just gives them a more elegant feel. I'm planning on using this same idea for some Valentine's day centerpieces. When I finish those, I will share them too! The possibilities are endless with this! I think I will use glass candlestick holders for the base on the next one I make. You can normally find them for $.50 to $.99 at the thrift store and they often have pretty glass vases for around $1.

Dress It Up

I showed this dresser before as one of my "before" and "afters." Now I'm going to show you another "after." I decided to do a little tweaking. I liked the way it looked before but just wanted to spice it up a bit and it didn't cost me anything. I took some painters tape and leftover white paint and went to town. The only thing that was kind of a pain, was that some of the paint definitly bled through. At first I couldn't figure out why and then I realized my husband had recently dusted the whole thing with Pledge so the tape wouldn't stick. (yes, believe it or not my husband actually enjoys cleaning, he's the best :) So, I just had to get a tiny detail brush and touch up the areas where it bled. Doing that for over an hour will about make you go crazy.

Here is what it looked like before...

and now with the addition of the stripes...

I would love to change out the drawer pulls eventually to something a little more glam. I saw some that I love at Hobby Lobby but they are $5 (and that's at 50% off.) Not a bad price but multiply that times 16 and it's more than I want to pay. Here are some that have the look I'm going for. These first ones are from Overstock for $1.99! (Now, that's a price I can handle, but they are out of stock)

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and these are also fun, from Target.com

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and as always, Anthropology has some great ones... (this one is my second favorite)

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and my very favorite, which also just happens to be the most expensive (go figure, that always happens to me-these are also from anthropology)

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Sushi Cake

I love to bake, especially cakes. It gives me a chance to be creative. Every year for my husband's birthday I try to think of a different cake I can make for him. This is one I made for him one year because sushi is one of his absolute favorites. It was SO easy to make too.
Here is a list of things I used for the "sushi":
Swiss cake rolls
White Powdered donuts cut in half with sweedish fish and fruit roll ups holding them in place
twinkies wrapped in fruit roll ups and topped with sprinkles
twinkies covered in white icing and rolled in coconut to look like rice, then topped with red sprinkles to resemble roe
the "ginger" is actually dried mango and the "wasabi" is just green icing
The chopsticks are actually cookies that I found in the international aisle at the grocery store.

Vintage Printable

Many of you have probably seen this website out in blog land, but in case you haven't, here it is!  It's called Vintage Printable.  They have tons of free prints that you can download and print for your home.  I'm a sucker for the botanical prints and I like the prints of the birds too.  I think I'm going to print some for my dining room.  They look very Anthro to me.  I'll let you know how it goes.  So, I will leave you with some of my favorites....

These are just a few of the many they have on there.  I'm sure I could spend hours looking at them all.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Better After

A HUGE thank you to Better After for featuring some more of my furniture redos.  Check it out if you get a chance, she has some great, inspiring stuff on there!

Capiz Chandelier

I told you a while ago that I found my own capiz shell chandelier on craigslist. Well, I have finally gotten it up and taken some pictures of it so I thought I would share them. I actually bought two separate Chandeliers and put them together to make a fuller, larger chandelier. One of the things I liked so much about the higher end ones, was the fact that they were so full. I can't believe these were both listed at the same time and I was able to get them both.

This is the first one, originally purchased from West Elm. I got it for $40 and that included the light kit.

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Then, I found this one for $10! It did not come with a light kit but I didn't need one because the other one included it. So I just layered them one on top of the other, which was quite noisy, but surprisingly they didn't get too tangled.

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and here it is in my kitchen area...Ironically it is hard to get the lighting right when taking a picture of a light. This first one is without the flash....

and here is one with the flash...I'm happy with how it turned out and it gives that area a more elegant feeling.  It actually looks a little larger in person and for $50, I think it's a great deal!

Dining Room Hutch

I have been seeing so many people with hutches in their homes recently and it got me thinking. We have a buffet style table in our dining room that came with a top piece to make it into a hutch. When we first moved in, I decided I wanted to break it up a little and just use the buffet part. So, that left the top part just sitting in our garage. After a while, I got tired of it and wanted to switch it up a little. So, we rearranged a bit and decided to reunite the two pieces again. I really like having all the extra storage it provides. I'm thinking about starting a milk glass collection and displaying it in this cabinet. For now it houses all my white and glass dishes.

I forgot to take a before picture, so this is one from the fall.

and here it is after!

Six months from now it may be back to the way it was, you never know... :) I definitly like the extra storage and I feel like it's not being wasted by just sitting in the garage.

Glass Lamps

I just realized I have been doing a lot of posts on lighting recently, but I think lighting makes all the difference in a room. It's crazy how these lamps came together. I found these two glass vase-like things at the Goodwill for $2.99. They definitly caught my eye and the fact that they were a pair was even better! I'm really not sure what they are, but would love to find out. Any ideas? They have a fairly large whole in the bottom and a smaller opening at the top. I started thinking about all the wonderful things I could do with them and decided they would make nice lamps for our master bedroom.

I had to come up with a way to elevate the base so that the cord wouldn't cause them to sit unevenly. So, I found these two candlesticks at the Goodwill for $1.99 (they were actually at two different Goodwills, believe it or not) I unscrewed the candlestick, leaving only the base.  The base had nice feet on the corners leaving an open space on the bottom of it, just what I needed! Then, I primed it (to make sure the paint would adhere) and sprayed it with Valspar Gloss Gray Spraypaint.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the next thing I bought because I totally forgot to take one. Instead of purchasing a light kit from Lowe's for about $10 I chose to take the cheaper route and buy a couple of lamps from the Goodwill for a couple dollars. I plugged them in and asked for a lightbulb to test them out with to make sure everything was in good working order before I bought them. This step saved me over $15! If you want your cords to match you can actually buy just the cord at Lowe's for about $5. However, I decided to be cheap resourceful and buy two $0.99 extension cords and just cut the "plug in" part (not sure what that's called) off the end of it. Then all you do is strip the outer plastic layer off so you are left with just the bare wires. Putting the lamp back together is pretty easy, you basically just put it together the same way you took it apart.  The lamp shades were another great bargain at $2.99/each! (got those from Ross) So, here is the finished product!

I just love the detail on the glass. I think it's so unique.

Neck Warmers

This year I have fallen in love with neck warmers. I got a bright pink one for Christmas and I love it! They definitly keep you warm and they can add style to any winter outfit. I started looking at the one that I got for Christmas and it seemed like it would be so simple to make. Unfortunately, I do not know how to knit or crochet (hopefully I will learn soon.) So, I thought of a simpler way to do it. I found a sweater at the Goodwill for $3.

cut it just under the arms...

pin it...

sew it... (I used the smallest stitch on my machine to help keep it from unraveling)

and wear it!! (Please excuse this picture, my husband was busy so I had to take it of myself :)

I'm hoping it won't unravel, so far it has held up pretty well.  If it gets me through this season it will be worth the $3 I spent on it. :)  I'm thinking about making a smaller one that fits closer to the neck.  I will probably try using a children's sweater for that.  The best thing about it is you can make it any size, color, or style you want!  They aren't all that expensive to purchase but if you start feeling a little crafty make your own, and if you know how to knit that's even better!  I will leave you with some great ones from Etsy.

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Capiz Shell Chandeliers

Just recently, I have developed a fascination with capiz shell chandeliers.  I just think they are simple and elegant.  I think it all began with this one from Z Gallerie, it is by far my favorite one.  To me it just looks so glamorous, but it's $349.  I like the fact that it's square shaped too.  Surprisingly this is one of the less expensive ones.

Another beauty from Neiman Marcus for a whopping $1,395 (I get tired of things way to quickly to spend that much on a light)

I like the shape of this one too, from CSN lighting $656.37

I love how chunky and full this one from Emmerson Troop is, for $3,360.

another one from Target, for $369.99

I like the fun shape of this one from the light shop.com, for $435

Although all these are beautiful, and I would love to have them in my home I could never imagine spending that much on a light.  Fortunately, I found one (actually 2) on craigslist yesterday that I am going to try to combine to make one larger light.  Hopefully I will have it completed by tomorrow so I can show you!  Hope this post "brightened" your day! :)