Do you love, love, love it?

I remember when I was younger and would try something on in the dressing room.  (We all know that that can be a very unpleasant experience. There is no torture like swimsuit shopping. Enough said.) ANYWAY, I would ask my mom's opinion on whether we should get something or not and she would reply, "do you love, love, love it?! Then and only then was it deemed worthy to purchase if passed the "love X3" test.

I feel the same way now about my home.  I started a little venture on the side (you know, in my free time after being a full time mom) where I refinish furniture.  Turns out I love it a little too much.  The last piece I did was a buffet. ($20!) The previous owners had ripped the doors off the poor thing.  I fell in like with it and gave it a fun new pop of color.  Then I sanded the crap out of it (because I know things will get beat up anyway and I like the look. I think it adds charm. FYI-I am not into this glaze and stain everything as far as the eye can see look though. Now you know.) So, I got the buffet done and ready to sell.  And then I couldn't.  Because now, you guessed it, I love, love, love it.  So, out went my old computer desk and in came the buffet

. I actually love that it doesn't have doors.  It makes the perfect cubby for books or even baskets.  It passed the 3X love test.

Do you ever have something pictured in your head and just can't find it in the store?  For weeks I've been impatient after all the looking but not finding part of shopping.  We bought some faux leather couches that were pretty, but for many reasons just didn't work for us.  I had the perfect couch in my mind to replace them.  I would pair a linen sofa with a brown leather chair that we already owned and be good to go.  I found the sofa. It was everything I could ever want.  And only, um, $700 over my very modest budget.

I got to the point of tears after an entire day in another town shopping for furniture and finding nothing. Right before leaving to come home I remembered a sectional that was listed on craigslist.  The owner didn't get off work until 10 pm.  It was 8. We had tired and hungry kids with us.  We were already there though, so we waited til 10.  And we were rewarded big time.  The sectional was perfect for our other room, so we could swap out the other furniture to replace the "leather." So, at 11 at night, we found ourselves wrapping couches with tarps and tie downs for our trip home.

While trying to live frugally we seem to always do things the hard way. But we are always blessed with what we need and often, exactly what we want.

My new favorite score

The couches that were in the family room now at home in the living room

Our beautiful new sectional.  SO comfy. 

For the love of Mirrors

I guess I have a thing for mirrors. I  didn't realize that I had so many until I walked around my house with this blog in mind.  There are a lot.  One in every room but the kitchen and our nursery.  Which, is bound to change when I see one I "have to have!" So, which is your favorite?

TJ Maxx-$11 on clearance. Was a horrid shade of green.

Yard sale find, $1. Was gold. Probably lost all value the day I sprayed it, but ain't it perty now?!

Kohls clearance

Target clearance. Was a rust color.  I think this would be awesome in a bright color too!

And these are just the cutesy ones.  There are 4 or 5 more, but these are the ones I love.  Like I said, I have a thing for mirrors. :)

A Fashion Don't

I was rummaging through a sack of clothing at a yard sale on Saturday. I pulled out the cutest pair of jeans.  At least I thought they were cute, until the second half of them came out of the bag.  Then I may have yelled "Holy Crap!" and thrown them to the ground.  Okay, I did. The second half was knit from the knee down.  As soon as I got over the shock of how hideous they looked, I decided to buy them for .50 and make shorts out of them.  And now, they rock.  But my white legs don't rock so much, so I will spare you "after" pictures. :)

Okay, now picture them as to the knee shorts.  Cute, right? 

Trash Talkin' Tables

One of my favorite blogs is called Better After.  She actually just featured one of my favorite projects I've ever done, my kitchen table.

A woman down the street from us was giving away some furniture.  I went to look at what she had and she asked if I needed a kitchen table.  I didn't, but I was curious to see it.  She showed me this beauty and said that if I didn't take it and the other items, she was throwing them all away! I can't see good furniture (or a good  ANYTHING) thrown away, so I kindly asked my husband to throw his back out bringing it home for me. :)

So, here's the before and after.

With a couple coats of primer, paint and a can of black spray paint, it was transformed! I knew it would take a beating having little ones, so I distressed it on the edges and I love the look of it even more. I used a water based sealant similar to polyurethane, but without the yellowing effect. I was lucky enough to find 6 beautiful chairs on craigslist for only $15 each! And bonus for me, the bench from our last set worked perfectly too!

This next table is also on my "favorite projects" list.  I have been wanting something for my bathroom and couldn't find anything that was the right size (or the right price.) Then I stumbled upon an ugly, yet charming table for $2 at a yard sale.  I painted several coats on it...and then, to my 3 year old's horror, took an electric sander to it.  She was baffled as to why I would spend so much time working on it, only to destroy the paint.  She tried to be nice about it, but kept saying, "it looks cute there and there, but not there and there. It's only kinda cute there" (In all the sanded spots) 

Random side note:when my kids were asked to fill out "all about my mom" questionnaires for Mother's Day, they both put "painting" as the answer to "what is your mom good at?" Bless their hearts. 

This table was a hideous, peeling white mess when I bought it. I kept envisioning how great it could look.  With a lot of work.  Then I would work on it, for 3 minutes at a time.  Then I would sit in the hammock and read, pretending that I was waiting for the paint to dry.  Finally, I got all the peeling paint off and gave it a fun new color.  (Just don't look too close since I missed a couple spots. Translation:up close it looks like poo, but far away it's adorable. And the price was right at $5!)

I've always wanted one of these indoor/outdoor tables, but I'm too cheap to just buy one. A few weeks ago, a local thrift store posted a picture online of a different item for sale (first thing in the morning) and I saw this and about peed my pants. Yes, I just said that. I asked the owner, all through online chatting, if it was, in fact one of the tables I was thinking of.  She thought it was a vase.  I had to go look so I threw my 3 pajama clad, starving children in our van and ran to the store.  I wish I'd taken a before picture, it was hideous.  It had hibiscus flowers all over it, but for $5 I didn't care! After lots and lots of spray paint (and more time spent in the hammock reading between paint coats) it looks like this...

I think my favorite aspect of all of these makeovers is that I can just repaint them if after a while the colors make me nauseated. :) Don't be afraid to try a pop of color...you just might like it! 

Stripes

Stripes are so popular these days. They are also, surprisingly, much easier to do than I thought they would be. (My husband did them, but he made it look easy:)

The pictures on the wall were in ugly gold frames originally. I sprayed them brown and made flowers out of lace (just by rolling it in my fingers) and added a pearl to the center of each.

The white mirror was a gold frame from a yard sale. I sprayed it white and had a piece of mirror cut for it for a few dollars.  I'm telling you, spray paint is life changing! :)

The earring holder was actually a yard sale find. Someone had made it in, of course, a gold frame.  I just brought it home and painted it turquoise. All you need is wire (this is like a window screen, but you could also use chicken wire or punched metal), a frame and either glue or a heavy duty staple gun to make it.

P.S. Nothing wrong with being a gold lover.  It just depends on what is painted gold.  On these, I was not such a fan.