Decorating With Sentimental Things

I love to use sentimental things when decorating my home. 

Why put something away afraid that something might happen to it? If you can't enjoy it, then what is the point in holding on to it? Everyday I look around my house at the things that have been passed down to me and my family and it makes me so happy.

Today I am showing how I decorate my mantel in the summer.

The focal point is the tomato print with its pop of color...I love color!

I posted last week about the banner year we are having with our tomatoes, so this print is quite appropriate.

It is by a wonderful artist named Chris Hartsfield. I have several of his watercolors.

The 2 larger silver trays belonged to my mother. The smaller tray I bought at a yard sale for $1 and added the vinyl "B" by cutting it out on my Cricut. I don't mind that they need to be polished. I like the tarnish! 

Many years ago (probably 15 or more), my mother in law gave me 3 blue Ball jars. I quickly became obsessed. I love them. I have bought a few over the years, but I have found that they are a little pricey around where I live. Last year I went on the World's Longest Yard Sale and I hit the jackpot. I found them for $2 and $3. I bought about 15! I wanted more but my kids were making fun of me.

The crock in the photo above is another piece given to us by my mother in law. I filled it with branches from my yard. 

The most sentimental piece to me is the pitcher. My mother made tea in that pitcher everyday for as long as I can remember. I would love to know how many gallons of sweet tea have been served from that one pitcher.

The memories that these pieces hold are so special. 

I'm glad I have them to brighten my home.

Ali's Room

When I started my business, Off The Wall Murals, almost 15 years ago, the majority of my work was done in children's rooms. There were of course the occasional  faux finishing jobs. I much prefer the kids rooms! Faux finishing is more tedious than creative and if I'm going to get covered in paint, I'd prefer it be over a creative endeavor.

 A few years ago things changed and I was rarely doing kids rooms. I was still doing some faux finishing but the majority of my work had switched to glazing kitchen cabinets. I love the outcome, but once again it is more of a tedious job than a creative one.

I was talking to someone a couple of weeks ago after I got yet another call about glazing cabinets, and I told them, "all I want is to do a kids room!"

Well, ask and you shall receive!!!

Michelle Enigenberg of Interior Designs by ME called me about doing some work in a little girl's room that she was designing. When we met and talked about her vision for the room, I was giddy!

The little girl's name is Ali. She is a precious 3 year old. I had so much fun painting for her today.

The room is still waiting for window treatments and a few other things but here is the result of my fun day...

The Before...

Three walls in the room are painted a light pink.

The wall behind the bed is a darker pink. On the darker pink wall, I painted an A for Ali.

I added a flower that matches the bedding behind the A.

Michelle added a little bling to the A and the flower once it was dry.

On one of the lighter pink walls, I added 5 flowers that go with the bedding. 

One of the flowers is over 6 feet tall!

There is going to be a chair that will be upholstered in a green leopard print. I painted some of the leaves to match the leopard print fabric. Here you can see the fabric swatch and some of my leaves...

I added one more flower to another wall...

There is nothing better than loving what you do and having a happy customer!

I think her expression says it all...

I will post more pictures when the room is completed.

Expressions Vinyl Giveaway at Ginger Snaps

Ginger Snaps is hosting a giveaway from Expressions Vinyl! To learn more, go to

http://gingersnapcrafts.blogspot.com/2011/07/giveaway-expressions-vinyl.html.

Here is a recent project I did using Expressions Vinyl and my Cricut...

Great Finds Update

Last week I posted some pictures of a chair and a mirror that I consider great finds.

I bought the chair at a thrift store for only $4.

As you can see in the photo above, the chair has some worn places but it was basically in great condition since I planned to paint it.

So, that was my project for the weekend.

I gave the chair a light sanding and then 2 coats of paint.

Then I added a French Grain label design to the seat.

I distressed the chair by lightly sanding the edges in random places and finished it off with a protective sealer.

It turned out great, if I do say so myself...

Oh what a little paint can do!!!

A Delicious Mistake

Every year we plant a garden. Well, mostly my husband, Kevin, plants the garden and I watch. Kevin travels a lot for work so the garden starts to grow and so do the weeds. I'm afraid of snakes and use that as an excuse not to weed the garden while he's gone. We have lots of snakes by the way! So anyway, our garden never does great. Last year we had a few tomatoes but they weren't tasty. They would look ripe but when you cut into them they were hard and light colored on the inside.

This year we did it right! Kevin tilled the soil and added organic chicken poop to it. We mounded rows for planting and then put down that black garden fabric (I actually helped). It holds in moisture and keeps the weeds out. We also bought our plants from a local grower rather than our big box home improvement store.

I don't know if it was one certain thing we did differently this year or a combination of things, but we have hit the mother load!

After giving away a bunch of tomatoes the other day, I decided that I would make salsa with some of what we had left. I have a new hand blender that I have only used once so I thought I'd give it a try. I thought I could give it one quick pulse and it would chop the tomatoes and other ingredients perfectly. Boy was I wrong! That one quick pulse made soup out of what was supposed to be salsa.

DELICIOUS SOUP!

So, rather than salsa we had a fabulous gazpacho!

Here's how I made it...

3 large tomatoes

1/4 vidalia onion, chopped

cilantro

juice of 1/2 lime

5 slices of jalapeno out of the jar

That's it! I just blended it up and got a gazpacho with a Mexican flair. It had quite a kick with the jalapenos. I might add less next time but my husband loved it that way. I added a little sour cream to cut the heat! Yum!

Great Finds

I just wanted to share a couple of great pieces I found this week...

The chair came from a new thrift store that a local church opened up. It is worn on the seat which doesn't matter since I'm going to paint it anyway. And, it is very sturdy. The best part... I only paid $4 for it. Yes, you heard right!!! FOUR DOLLARS! I'm not sure how I'm going to paint it yet. So many ideas are running through my head. I'll have to get a grip on which one I like best.

The mirror came from a junk/antique store on Hwy 16 near Griffin, GA.

It has a couple of chipped places on it, but once I paint it you'll never notice. It is great quality...very heavy. I love the shape of it! I'm going to be a copy cat and try the Acid Mirror technique I saw over at Luxe Boulevard... 
http://luxeboulevard.blogspot.com/2011/06/anthro-acid-mirror-via-vr.html

Oh... I forgot to mention that I only paid $10 for the mirror!

Take one more look...

So, stay tuned to see how I turn my inexpensive finds into something wonderful!

Family Cross

Instead of displaying a Family Crest in your home, why not display a Family Cross?

I painted this canvas with a cross that holds the family initials for my friend, Kelli.

Her last name starts with an "M" so I put an M at the top of the cross.

Her children's names both start with "M" and her husband's name starts with "R".

Here's how you can create your own Family Cross...

Supplies:

Canvas- I like the stretched canvas with no staples on the side so the painting doesn't have to be framed.

Pencil

Acrylic Paint

Paint Brushes

I started by sketching a whimsical shaped cross. You could sketch a cross with straight lines if you prefer.

I then started placing my letters.

I always put the letter for the last name at the top.

You have to play around with where the letters look best. In this case, both children's names started with an "M" so they looked better on the arms of the cross.

If there are more than 2 children, then you need to put the parents' names on the arms of the cross and the kids' initials going down the length of the cross. You'll see an example of this at the end of this post.

Once you have the letters how you like, start painting.

I used 3 different shades of turquoise for the letters and cross in this project.

I like to load my brush with more than one color at a time to get a blended effect.

I painted the letters with the lightest colors and added the darker turquoise for the background of the cross.

I added a dove to the center of the cross and then painted the background brown.

Once I had the background painted brown, I blended in a little of the turquoise.

Here's the finished product...

Here is a family cross I painted for another friend. I painted the cross smaller in the center of the canvas and added a line from a song to the canvas.

This family has 3 children so I put the parents' initials on the arms of the cross and added the children's initials down the length of the cross.

I would love to see if any of you try this!!! 

If you do, please post a picture on my Facebook Fan Page!