Purple Ducks

Last spring I had posted about my finding of a hideous mallard that I was so excited about! {see posting here} Well in the posting I had explained how happy I was about finding it, painting it,.. then tragic news about it breaking. I was determined to glue it back together and after purchasing some Gorilla Glue to do the job it just did not look good, so to the garbage it went.
So once again I was on the duck hunt!
Last summer Adam and I were frequenting a local thrift store and there laying neglected on a dirty table were 4 beautiful ducks for CHEAP! $1.49 each.  SOLD!

I was unsure where I wanted to hang them and not sure about the color but after some long hemming and hawing I decided on in the living room and PURPLE!

I know they aren't for everyone, but I love them, they make me happy! Thank you Antonio Ballatore for the idea!

 See original ducks, mirror & purple fu dogs on credenza {here}

pretty pretty endtables!

Back in October I found these end tables at St. Vinnys for $29.99 each. WHOA! I had been wanting to get matching end tables for the living room and these looked just perfect! But I wasn't wanting to spend $60 on 2 tables {even though I fully understand that $60 for matching end tables is very reasonable, I am a bargain hunter and that to me was not a bargain}.

So I passed on them.
A week or so later I went back and there they were marked down half price! YEAH! So for $29.99 I got both tables, now that is a bargain! I had big plans for them but being October in Oregon it rained pretty much every day, so getting any painting projects done is pretty much out of the question. Then we decided to host Thanksgiving at our house and not having end tables was just not going to work. So when there was finally a break in the rain I got out on the patio and sanded, sanded, sanded...

{as you can tell from Trudie our yard is quite muddy from all the rain!}

I was able to paint the drawer fronts white in the house, but my plans for staining the bodies of the tables would have to be done outside since the stain is quite smelly!

As Thanksgiving fast approached I had to get them done so I decided to do the staining in the garage.

 {so pretty}

It was a process & super cold so they took longer to dry, but by Thanksgiving they were in the house!

They are a perfect match and fit with the rest of our furniture and I love them! 

Total cost: $29.99

-I already had the stain & the white paint!

Notice anything else new in the room? ......

Purple Ducks! More about those soon!

New Dining Table & Chairs!

Well, the table was new in July - then the chairs were new/old in August, then I finally re-did the chairs in September.. Yes, I am just getting around to posting about them.
Our old dining set was a craigslist purchase that I re-padded and re-covered, and I liked it. But it just wasn't the right piece for our tiny dining room. It had to be pushed up against the wall or else you couldn't walk around it to get to the slider - but that also meant that anyone taller than 5' 9" would hit their head on the chandelier (Adam is 6' 3"). So it just wasn't right for the space, so back on craigslist it went getting more than I had paid for it! So we were dining table-less for a month or so. I had been eying a new table from IKEA so so once we made the trip to IKEA it was mine! I had been looking at it online and the price was $159- yikes! But I justified it because we had sold our old set. :) When we got to the store the price tag said $179! WHAT! So I had my friend Josh pulled up the IKEA site on his iPhone {I was sure that online it was cheaper!} and sure enough the price was $20 cheaper online, so we showed the cashier and he honored the price - Thank you iPhone! Then on the hunt for chairs.. 
One day while Adam and I were at St. Vinnys I spotted a set of 4 chairs - perfect! They were 25% off from $20 per chair. More than I wanted to spend. So I decided to test my luck and wait for them to go to 50% {it was Sunday and Tuesday was mark down day}. On Tuesday Adam went to St. Vinnys with his mom and.. the chairs were still there! 50% off! They weren't pretty, but I saw the potential. 

{before}

 beat up, scratched, dingy... but so cute! and super sturdy!

I was having a really hard time deciding what color to paint them.

I was debating between white and espresso so I did some quick photoshopping

and in the end I decided on...

 WHITE!

I first had to sand and sand to get some of the gashes in the wood out. 

Then is was onto priming. I decided to go with spraying the chairs since there are so many curves and details - I wanted them crisp and smooth.

After several cans of high-gloss white spray paint,

then another coat of white lacquer they were ready to be brought inside.

I of course ordered some Amy Butler fabric from Fabric.com that has pink, green, and gray in it - perfect for the kitchen! I didn't bother removing the old seat fabric (pea-green pleather), I just purchased some batting and did 1 new layer of batting between the old seat and the new fabric. I cut the fabric to size then staple-gunned the heck out of it!

We then screwed the seats back on and stood back and admired how pretty and perfect they were!

We can walk around the table now! and Adam no longer hits his head on the light!

 The whole set we pieced together is perfect!

Thank you St.Vinnys, IKEA, Fabric.com, and Home Depot for selling me 8 cans of spray paint!

And since I am a few months late on posting, the after shots are complete with Christmas decor! 

in case you don't remember what our old dining set looked like, it can be viewed here.
But trust me, this one is way better! Even Trudie thinks so!

Happy Thanksgiving {last month}

Adam and I hosted our first holiday this year - Thanksgiving! Our house is pretty small and somehow we fit 15 people + 3 babies for a sit down dinner. We moved our coffee table and 2 side chairs out of the living room and put a large banquet table down the middle. We also had 2 card tables with family sitting at. It was tight but we made it work. We had a lot of help from Adam's mom & aunt & uncle - thank you guys!

I made a ton of glitter pumpkins for decoration and even glittered candle sticks.

 I made place cards for everyone - Idea from Martha Stewart of course. They are made from those spiky balls that fall from a Liquidambar Tree.

  The kids anxiously waiting for their dinner!

a little bit of everything

 after dinner we all sat around and played "dirty bingo"

Happy Thanksgiving {last month} everyone!

Framed Family

I've always liked photo frame collages and since we didn't have very many photos of family around the house I decided, like most people, to put frames down the hall. I love unique ornate frames so for this project I of course was on the hunt for those! Goodwill, Garage Sales, TJMaxx,.. and finally I had collected enough. To keep them looking cohesive even though they were all so different, and to keep the hall looking as open as possible, I painted the frames the same color as the wall, HomeDepot Behr paint color Mineral.

Once I had all the frames painted I filled them with photos, then I traced around each frame onto scratch paper and paper sacks so I could test where I wanted them on the wall before I committed with nailing a hole. I used blue sticky tack to hang the 'paper frames' on the wall until I was happy, then 1 by 1 nailed a hole and hung my frames.

I also added in the mix of frames these 3 birds that I picked up for $1 at a garage sale. I spray painted them white and once the frames were hung I added these into places that needed a little something.

And here's the finished wall! I'm really happy with how it turned out!