thrift store renovation

**I added this post to Shanty 2 Chic's Rustoleum Revamp Party***

So, again my newly inspired DIY thoughts (due to the GREAT blogs I have been reading) I went to the local thrift store on a mission!! I wanted to do another chalkboard project but this time I had my kitchen in mind. I headed to the thrift store in search of an framed piece of art that was in need of some TLC to take it from fugly to fabulous! The store had a ton of great frames but I finally spotted one that I knew I could bump up into a whole new dimension of fabulous!

I will admit that people gave me some funny looks as they saw me snatch up the ugly beat up piece of artwork, and I don't blame them. It didn't EXACTLY fit the style that I give off, but if only they knew what I had in mind for this baby!!

What I loved about it was the gorgeous details and style of the frame. Now, please don't judge me for painting over a piece of artwork that contains Jesus. I found it a bit ironic myself but I know the Lord wants me to be happy!! LOL :) So, I snatched this frame for a deal at $16 and went to Home Depot and got two spray paint cans and some sand paper and went to town!! First, I lightly sanded the frame to get the varnish off, and to make sure that spray paint would stick nicely.

After I sanded I made sure to clean off all the frame so they weren't any dust remains any where on the frame so it wouldn't be a messy paint job, now it's ready to paint!!!!!!

The color I picked for this project was GLOSS apple red. My 1/2 bathroom downstairs is red (and please no paint jokes if you have BEEN in that bathroom...yes I know it needs some touch ups, STILL!! haha :D) and I also picked this color because I thought it would give some spice to my kitchen, and eventually I want to get some red toile curtains/pillows in my dining room/living room area so the color will flow well with the downstairs flow.

I used the whole can and did a couple coats front and back. Again, super simple and easy to use and it dries fairly quickly. I had the whole back and front of the frame done by last night, and then I let it dry overnight so that I could cover the painting with the chalkboard paint today. I also painted over the actual painting with the red coat as well, simply because I didn't want to cover it up, but also to kind of layer it before I used the chalkboard paint. I used the same chalkboard paint as I did with my laundry room re-do, and the same method. I taped up the edges of the frame (again another good reason that I let it dry overnight) and then did 6 coats of chalkboard paint.

After the 6 coats dried, I took the tape off, and it looked a little something like this. (Sorry, the top of the frame got cut off)

Again, I got a little bit of leakage through the tape on the bottom corners, but that's no big deal. I am going to have to get another can of spray paint to touch it up, but for now I am in love!!!!!! I love the glossy finish of the apple red and I seriously cannot believe this is the same ugly painting that I picked up less than 24 hours ago. It's amazing what you can make if you just see the potential in it!!

I decided to hang this baby up above my sink where I previously had a french memo board. I love pictures (which if you know me well enough you are aware) and I just have SO many all over my house which is a GREAT thing but I am looking to de-personalize and add a bit more classic style to the house.

So now, my kitchen sink area looks like this!!!

I love, love, love it!!!! I haven't added a saying to it yes, as the paint hasn't dried for a full 24 hours but I just couldn't wait to hang it up in my kitchen!! It really sticks out against my white walls, but like I have said a million times, my home is still a work in progress!!!

So, tell me your thoughts! You can leave comments even if you don't have a blogger account and if you look you better tell me what you think! I don't think it's a bad project renovation for under $30 especially since it looks like it's worth WAY more than that!! I think I am becoming a DIY kind of gal...this stuff is addicting! Adding cute pieces to your house on the cheap, there is nothing like it!!!!!!!!!!! :)

lots of love from me to you!

the thief <3

love love love this song. makes me think of my honey every time i hear it & it totally brings me back from our beginning of us to this very day...so i thought i would share with you.

Your eyes are full,
full of the future of us
The air changes as you look acrossat me in that wondering way

It is as if
I knew you before we spoke
Do our hearts know something we don't?Conspiring, converging
without giving us any say

You sing me to sleep,
talk down my walls
Look through my windows as I wait
You could be the thief
I give the key to

You're ruining me
with secrets and gestures and looks
With sonnets and second-hand books
Playing the chords in me
nobody knew how to play

You sing me to sleep,
talk down my walls
Look through my windows as I waitYou could be the thief
I give the key to

It fits in your hand like the water in rain
It unlocks our two different selvesand shows we are the same
Rather than wait 'til I
put me out for the taking
You're breaking
You're breaking into my heart
and I'm letting you
Your eyes are full,
full of the future of us

a whole new purpose

So, in my last post I said I had some GREAT ideas for this little baby!!!!

As you see, we haven't gotten much use of this little white board calendar recently. Considering the last time I even wanted to update it was April and it has been sitting in my loft, I had the bright idea to re-purpose it and use it as a CHALKBOARD!! This inspiration comes in part to all the great blogs I have been reading lately and each one had some kind of chalkboard renovation on them and I thought it would be an great use of this calendar board. So, I went an got myself a spray can of chalkboard paint (under $5 might I add) and went to town! It was SUPER simple to do!

STEP ONE: Tape up the edges of the board. I just used painters tape since that's what I had on hand.

STEP TWO: Prep spray paint can. I have NEVER spray painted before and I was nervous about it since I have heard there is a "technique" to doing it, but it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. STEP THREE: Paint the board by coating evenly, I did three coats of paint total and then let it dry overnight. When it's all said and done it looks like this!!

Okay, so as you can see I had a little LEAK on the bottom edge, but otherwise I am proud of how it turned out! I really think there will be more chalkboards created in my future because it really was so easy and I love the look & feel it adds to my house! The BEST thing about it is that since it was originally a white board it's magnetic so I didn't even have to add the extra magnetic paint! Two for one if you ask me!!!

I decided to add this board to the doorway that goes from my laundry room to the kitchen. I thought it would compliment well the new decor I added to my laundry room and I love that it's the FIRST big thing you will see when you walk in the door. I think it will be nice to change the saying as things come up, events, holidays, and what not.

Isn't it cute? It says "There is no place like HOME" in case you can't read it. I think it adds even more to my cute little laundry room! This definitely makes me want to paint this room now and get a new light fixture, but like I have always said it's one step at a time!! So, tell me what you think about it?! I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!! :)

from drab to fab

so, lately i have been reading a ton of GREAT home decorating blogs. i never realized how many great blogs are out there regarding home designing on a budget! i have added the links of the great ones i found to my following list (if you are interested).

i have been feeling so inspired lately because of these blogs, they really are great tools! there was a ton of awesome pictures about laundry rooms, and tonight as

i found myself wondering around tj maxx i definitely scored some great finds and my laundry room went from drab to FAB!!!

i really wish i would have taken a BEFORE picture but i was too excited to organize all my new stuff that i forgot to! i know most of you know what general laundry rooms looks like, messy, cluttered, ect. but here is my AFTER!!

don't you love it? super organized and stylish!

these polka dot storage bins were so adorable! i love polka dots, but i wanted them to not SO girly and i think this accomplishes it well! i am one for organization and the bins hold all my cleaning & laundry supplies perfectly!

so a few months back i saw something similar to this in the ballard designs magazine. it was on a much larger scale but i fell in love with the look of it! i thought this would be the perfect touch to the laundry room!

how cute does this look together?! this bucket was so adorable i just couldn't pass it up. i put the towels & toilet paper for our downstair 1/2 bathroom. it's definitely way more stylish then hiding them underneath our kitchen cabinet.

here is an up close of the bucket!

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!

and finally, what inspired the room to begin with!! the laundry sign!

i love that it's a mirror, it adds the the charm i was looking for and it's just PERFECT!! :)

overall i am VERY happy with how it turned out! i am sure there will be tweaks here and there in the future. i would love to paint the room, and change out the standard shelving it's on, but for now i simple love it!!

and here is a teaser of my next project in mind!

this is a white board calendar that we don't use very much (as you can see by the month listed) but i have a GREAT plan for this little thing! don't want to give it away but it will be grand :)

hope everyone is having a great night!!!

geez it's about time!!!

i doubt that any of you have REALLY been missing by blogs that much, but i really have been doing a bad job at updating. i really do want to be better at this, because i really blog for myself more than anything else.

so, what's been good in my life lately? LOTS!! about a month ago, i got a 12% raise at work!! God is so good! when i got my promotion back in January they told me in 90 days they would "evaluate" my progress and give me a raise based on how i was performing, well i guess i have been doing really good and they decided to compensate me accordingly!! actually above & beyond since i walk in the favor of God! even my boss was shocked when she told me the amount of a raise i was getting. the coolest thing about it all is how the FAVOR of God is stamped all over this, because no one in the company is getting a raise this year, but not only did i get a promotion and a raise in january, i got another LARGE raise a month ago. talk about walking in the blessing!!! along with my promotion, we found out that our mortgage company had been doubling charging us for an insurance fee and so we got a refund and our monthly payment when down by $200!! HALLELUJAH!!! i think the most awesome testimony in this all is that a week before this all happened, scott & i were talking about how frustrated we were that with our bills and income that we weren't where we wanted to be and that it would take a raise for both of us to just be semi-comfortable and we were just really down about the whole thing, and not even a week later the Lord had rocked our world and completely changed our financial situation. He is a God of results!! His word and promises to tithers will not be VOID in our life but it will accomplish the blessing on our behalf!! He is doing big things in us, through us, and FOR us!!

this past saturday, scott & i celebrated our 1 year anniversary and i cannot believe how fast time goes by! our first year of marriage was wonderful, honestly if every year is good as this one, i know our life will great! we didn't have the typical "hard" first year of marriage. i think after dating for 5 1/2 years before tying the knot really helped us because there weren't many surprises, just adjusting living together and the differences in opinions, but really it was a GREAT year. i am realizing how blessed i am to have a happy marriage, to not face a bunch of challenges that come so standard in other marriages. the Lord really equipped us for each other and it's been a learning process, but i know the reason we are a success is because HE lives in us and is the centerpoint of our marriage. i mean don't get me wrong, we HAVE challenges, but it's nothing that we cannot ever fix or work through. i love being married to my best friend and i love seeing the growth in scott since we got married and his love and passion for the Lord. it really has deepened in him a way that i have never seen in previous years, and i am so in love with him for being committed to the things of God in his life, my life, and our life together. i cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us, i know it will be good.

i think more now than ever before in my life i am content in such small little things, little joys, and little moments that i took for granted before. the Lord is really doing a work in me right now, molding and shaping me more into who He wants me to be in order to accomplish what He put me on this earth for. i have been challenged in ways that i have never been before, and i have given the Lord access to work in areas of my life that i have never let Him into before. it's been interesting growing in Him, i know that every day for the rest of my earthly life will be filled with growing up spiritually, but i think now my outlook on it has changed. it's not something that i feel is bothersome or hard to do, it's simply the Lord and i walking out life every day and it's the little change here and there. it's not attain perfection all in one day, but getting better at things every day little by little. i love learning with my creator as my teacher. i really love my life right now. i feel like in growing closer to Him that it has pushed me further away from other things/people in my life, which isn't always a bad thing, because he has blessed me by placing others in my life who have the same heart and passion for Him as i do. it's been interesting but i am loving every moment of this life!!

more than ever before

"Hollywood isn’t just liberal, it is fearfully liberal. It is easier in Hollywood to say you’re a drug addict or to pretty much anything than to admit to being a committed Christian," media expert and longtime Hollywood publicist, Michael Levine of Levine Communications


This morning I was reading this new article (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517277,00.html) about the backlash that Ms. California has experienced for taking a stand against gay marriage that cost her the title of Ms. USA. Everything that I have read about this situation has been so negative about her and criticing her for being closed minded, and not in touch with her generation. It is so sad that the Christian world view and moral standard is one that is silent and a minority. I am convinced now more than ever that our country is ready for a GREAT awakening. I am so sick of hearing all this negativity about having morals and standing up for Christ. I want to see the Christians of the USA stand up for what they believe in and shake this nation with the power of God. I think it is awesome that Ms. California took a stand and wasn't untrue to her beliefs to win a title. I think the above comment from the article I was reading is a tragedy. It's a tragedy that it is better to be so strung out on drugs or alcohol and that is socially acceptable in Hollywood, but to live a life filled with conviction and morality is one that is looked at with distain and brutally criticized. No wonder this nation has experienced since a moral decline since the growing generation looks up to the "rolemodels" in Hollywood. It really breaks my heart!

My heart cry for revival is our nation is stronger than ever before and I believe that most Christians out there are on the same page. Pray for our country. Pray for this generation. Pray for revival. I can't wait for it to come!!

stirring things up

God is really stirring things up in my life these days!! I feel like I am growing more and more every single day, but in a different way then I ever have before. I feel like I am being challenged more in my commitment to His word and to sticking true to the lifestyle that He has called His children to. It's a good thing to be able to prove that His word works! Scott & I have really been focusing in more on what the Lord wants us to do in every area of our lives, and our flesh is definitely being pushed out of it's comfort zone, but that is the great thing to be going through. Just follow the leading of the Holy Spirit is

Anyways, I guess this post is to say that God has some great big things coming my way and it is more important now than ever to really press in to what He wants to you to doing and just seeking Him more and more everyday!!