Pottery Who?!

I'm sure everybody's seen this pillow from Pottery Barn. I loved it, but wasn't about to shell out 50 buckaroos for it. Who do they think they are anyway?! 

Sooooo, 

 can you guess where I'm headed with this? I sense a PB knock off coming...

The iron-on transfer paper worked like a charm again, and I have my own version of the PB pillow...for a thriftier Brittany kind of price :) My antiquated print program didn't have a font exactly like the PB one, so I had to freehand some swirly q's on there myself. Have you ever tried to do that with a jerky old mouse? I don't recommend it. But it was worth it in the end - I love it!

Woot Woot! Now that's what I'm talkin 'bout.  I'm on a roll now....gotta try one more.

Love it! This is so much fun :)

Besides being so fun to make, these pillows are the perfect accent to my "new" very old church bench in the hall. Stay tuned for some before and afters of the entire hall project!

So, do you love ruffles as much as I do? You do?! Then you've got to go to the Chari Tree to see her latest Finished Object Friday. You'll love it. Seriously.

Happy weekend to all my peeps, blog friends, and blog spooks! You know who you are ;)

A French Inspired Burlap Project

I had a wild hair idea this week. Yeah, what's new, huh?! I've seen some cool French grain sack inspired pillows, etc that really good DIYers are making. You know, those talented folks that can paint all fancy like. I totally stink at freehand painting, and my stenciling isn't a whole lot better.

But where there's a will there's a way, and I reeeally wanted to jump on the old band wagon.

Enter iron-on transfer paper and my trusty old ink jet printer.

And here's what I came up with:

It's not exactly perfect...but like the Nester says

It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!

All you have to do is build your image on your computer, then "mirror" the image, then print it onto the transfer paper.

After the ink dries, you cut out around the images, not perfectly, but loosely. Then iron it onto your burlap, or whatever fabric you prefer. Then frame it, or make a pillow out of it! I found this huge frame in my neighbor's trash, so this project didn't cost me anymore than the transfer paper. Love that.

As I stretched the burlap onto the frame, it scewed my print out the wazoo, but I can live with that. I still thinks it's da bomb. We just built this ledge shelf in our hallway, and I can't wait to show you the rest of it - so stay tuned!

Thanks so much to all of you who are helping us pray for my friend, Connie. The latest update on her is that the chemo is working, and she is slowly improving. The ventilator has been reduced back to 50% now. God is surely hearing and answering our prayers!

Praying...

for my sweet friend, Connie.

Connie just had a beautiful baby girl 3 weeks ago,

she's just precious.

They named her Madelyn Grace.

This past Wednesday, Connie was diagnosed with a rare gestational cancer. It had already spread to her lungs and liver, and was growing rapidly.

She began chemo treatments right away, but has been in very critical condition. She coded twice Saturday but is now stable and resting. We had a special prayer service for her Sunday, and we're trusting God to make her well again. Please help us pray for this special lady. Her husband is the General Leader of our church, and they have 3 sweet girls. God has already performed one miracle for her - baby Madelyn. (Most of the time, with this type of cancer, the babies have deformities, or they don't make it at all. But baby Madelyn is perfect.) So now, we're holding on for miracle number two!

~I "borrowed" these pics from Connie's daughter, Katie.~

Lovin my "new" Kitchen!

You probably guessed by my lack of blogging that I must have been up to something! Well, you guessed right - it's been a crazy busy week, but in a wonderful crazy sort of way :)

My happiest accomplishment this week is my freshly painted kitchen, and I've been dying to show it to you!

C'mon in!

I'm going for the 40's-50's retro vintage feel.

Here's a before pic...

Not bad, but you know how well oak and I get along...

I much prefer the bright fresh look of WHITE!

I used a roll of vintage "toweling" for my valance. I'd never heard of it before, but apparently you could buy a roll of toweling and cut off lengths of it to make your kitchen towels. But when I saw it, I thought it was a perfect size for a window treatment :) I've seen it in a variety of colors and prints - I really like the white with red stripes. (You can find it on etsy...)

How about a "before" of the other side...

And here she is now.

Ahhh. Makes me smile.

I saved some serious moolah by using the same hardware, my oil rubbed bronze spray paint worked it's magic on them! LOOOVE that stuff.

We still have a few details to work on, a different light fixture is in the plans, some beadboard for a backsplash, crown moulding on the cabinet tops - one thing at a time!

I love my vintage produce scales :)

And no 50's kitchen is complete without aprons! I love how they dress up the pantry door.

Some more vintagey details...

I love the yellow flour sifter :)

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend with lots of family and friends. I'll be sharing some pics of that later. Saturday, we had 22 people at our house for lunch - 9 of them were kids under 6 years old - talk about fun! And you can't beat the entertainment!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Decorating in the Dining Room...

I was so thrilled to find these herb boxes on etsy, because I had the perfect spot in mind for them in the dining room. I LOVE how they look! BUT...

I think my family is sick of hearing me sing "are you going to scarborough fair...parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme...." Ya know, that song can be incredibly annoying. Especially since I'm no Ed Ames.

One of my favorite places to go "junking" is our church basement :) I mean, how could I resist these adorable old Sunday School chairs?!

It makes a great "time-out" chair, and the pillow states just how I feel on most days...

Can I get an Amen?

I found these old shutters at the Thrift Store for 1.99, and I knew just where I wanted to put those, too. I never could get this wall to look right before, but I'm loving the shutters.

The hubs brought me this old sewing machine table (the neighbors were tossing it). I love it because it gives me some more buffet space. We do a good bit of entertaining, and I always run out of room for food on the buffet. This little table top folds out to make even more space - YAY! Now the question is, to paint, or not to paint. Hmmm.

I think the 4th herb box looks pretty sweet hanging on the shutters :) The big old wire basket also came from the Thrift store, it was less than a dollar, but I can't remember how much...maybe 59 cents? I'm not sure what it's original purpose was - it's pretty tall.

I guess that pretty much takes care of the Dining room redo...

except for refinishing the table, and finishing the chair covers.

Maybe I'll get started on that soon.

Maybe.

Finished Object Friday - It's in the Bag.

*Edited to add*....I now have several of these totes for sale in my etsy shop, The Parsonage Queen for those of you who may not like to sew ;) So click on over and browse, you're always welcome in my shop!

Ok, now back to the original post ;) 

I first saw this glorified tote bag idea on Susie Harris' blog, and it was one of those I've-got-to-make-these-TODAY things. So I made one for my Mother-in-law for Mother's Day...

and I was hooked.

I enlisted the help of my Mom, and we cranked out enough of them to give as Mother's Day gifts to our church ladies. Of course, I forgot to take any pictures before I gave them all away. But they looked similar to this one, with just one ruffle.

There are a zillion ways to make fabric rosettes, and we learned by trial and error what worked the best.

Then I made this one for myself, just because I had some extra bags left over. And I couldn't resist.

Well, and because I really wanted to try making some rosettes using the twist and glue method.

I liked it! At least I liked all but the hot glue burn on my finger...owie.

Since I used fabric scraps I had laying around already, the only expense was the totes themselves. You can get them at Wal-Mart for 2 bucks each. How awesome is that?! And the possibilities are endless! You can let your imagination run wild.

I'm linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday.

Happy Weekend!!

Special Touches...

I have a major weakness for old stuff.

I guess you could call me a junk junkie.

I like to have things around me that could tell a story.

And this vintage train case and suitcase set was just too big a temptation.

It was love at first sight.

And the hydrangeas, well, they just make it that much sweeter. Besides, what a perfect way to fill that blank spot in the fireplace!

I've made a few other little changes in the bedroom...

We put away the down comforter and brought out the summer comforter. (After we near roasted to death with the warmer weather...) Not only is it cooler, but the ruffles are just too cute, and it is SO soft. Makes it really hard to get up in the morning.

And I just thought I'd throw in this shot of the sitting area. What is it about old wicker chairs? They get me every time!

Dining Room Goes Neutral - Phase 1

First of all, thanks to you all for sending in your votes!

It was a very close race between "A" and "B"...

so I chose...

"C".

Yep. After all that, I decided to just mix the two.

Several mentioned the flowers, and then others liked the chalkboard, so I used both of those and a little metal container I picked up at Hobby Lobby. And you know what? Y'all rock, because I like it this way better than both the others :) What would I do without you all to make up my mind for me?!

So now,

on to other parts of the dining room.

I'm getting really tired of the toile panels. I know, I know, I just put them up 6 months ago...

But I've used that fabric for the past 6 years. Really. I'm ready for a more neutral palette. (Don't I sound all fancy using words like palette?! Shoot...folks round here would be like "Say what?") Besides, I just realized that I have panels is every. room. of. my. house. barring the kitchen and bath. Can you say RUT? It's time to shake things up a bit, no?

So here's the dining room before...

And then here are a few inspiration photos I gathered off the internet.

LOVE this one...

(Yeah, I know it's not a dining room, but still I love the white)

Did you notice a trend? Check out the window treatments. They're perfect. And simple. That's what got me to thinkin'.

So, I pulled down the pink toile panels,

got back on the old beastly sewing machine,

and created some faux Roman shades of my own.

They could stand to be a touch wider, but I'm still pretty happy with them. It's a nice change. I also added some linen panels to the buffet in an effort to hide some clutter. It worked :)

Now, on to Phase 2...

It may take awhile. I need to refinish my table.

Anybody wanna help?