Happy Independence Day!

Where would this country be without geeks brilliant technologically minded individuals?!  I'm so happy to announce that my own personal geek squad has located and fixed the problem on my computer. Whew! Big sigh of relief. Soooo, I can share PICTURES!! 

We made some fun Independence Day memories with a cookout on Saturday. I'm thankful for the freedoms we enjoy in this great country, and I say it's worth celebrating!

We had some fun and yummy decor...

refreshing lemonade...

made memories with the family...

enjoyed some all American hotdogs and hamburgers...

had some fun playing the homemade corn toss game...

cooled off with a little swim...

enjoyed homemade ice cream with fresh strawberries...Mmmmm...

and we finished the day off with some fireworks and "sprinklers"   :) 

A certain Daddy may or may not have burned a rather large hole in his shirt with some bottle rockets. And a certain Mommy may or may not have laughed her head off at his peril. It's just barely possible.

Oh, and one more thing. I made some fabric rosettes to add a bit of festive bling to my plain red shirt...

Ohmygoodness....I think I shall go clean my mirror.

 Right. Now. 

I pinned them on with safety pins, so they're removable.

I hope you all had a Happy 4th!!

Happy Birthday America,

 God Bless the USA! 

Beachy Sign

Happy Friday y'all! 

I've had this little project finished for quite a while, but just remembered to share it. I found this cabinet door at the Thrift Store, and something about it just screamed "BEACH SIGN!!" to me. 

I made some stencils, painted on the letters, then sanded some of the paint back off.  See, there's this unwritten law that anything beachy has to be weathered. I'm just livin by the law here. 

Then I had to figure out what to do with the indentions where the hinges used to be. After wearing the old thinking cap for a while, I decided to drill holes, and tie some rope through them for the hanger. It worked!

We have a little hallway leading into the den, and that was the perfect spot for the sign. (That's also where the covered file cabinet ended up). It really dressed up what was once a totally useless spot. Oh, and the best part? It only cost me a buck! Woot!

Check out the other Finished Object Friday projects at the Chari Tree!

I also want to give an update on my friend, Connie - she's off the ventilator, and is making great progress! Thanks so much for your prayers!

Daddy

A great big "Happy Father's Day!!!" to the best Daddy these 2 little guys could ask for. You're their hero.

And for the record, I think you're pretty awesome, too :)

The Hall Project Reveal...

Woo Hoo!!! It's finished! 

Well, almost. There's a few pieces of trim still missing...gotta get new light fixtures....gotta do something about the floor... all minor details :) We'll get there eventually, but lemme show ya how it looks so far...

Don't be surprised if there is a total photo overload ahead.

We're loving this old bench! It's become the official
 park-your-bum-and-put-on-your-shoes spot. I love it when pretty can also be practical. It's like double points.

I had in mind a ledge type shelf to display pictures, so I described what I wanted to my handy little fix-it man, and he built it for me! A couple of strips of wood, a few pieces of trim, and lots of caulk and paint later...

and... Voila!

I love it! (The fix-it man likes it to, something about no holes in the wall to hang all those pictures :)  He's threatening to build ledges all over the house so I'll stop putting a gazillion holes in the walls.)

Now let me go back a few months and dig up a before piccy for ya...

All together now... "EEWWW!"

All the dark paneling made the hallway feel very much like a cave.

White paint. I am SO a believer.

I declare, I believe the hall got 3 feet wider. And now I don't feel like I'm going to suffocate in there.

How bout a before piccy of the other side?

Same song, second verse. And yes, the lights were on. That's as bright as it got!

A few gallons of white paint later,

I think I just heard the walls take a deep breath and sigh with contentment.

What is it about daisies in old Mason jars? So simple, but I love them!

The stairs before:

  (pardon the little monkey up there, and don't ask what he's doing. I have no clue...)

And after.

They've come a long way, baby. 

We'll not get into all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into those babies.

I'm definitely enjoying the progress!

 Now I can move on to other things.

There's more paneling to conquer, and I'm ready for it.

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!