My New Topiary Trees :)

Some of you already know about my love for Topiary Trees :)

You can read my inspirational post here.

I was really looking forward to buying real trees.

They are spendy, and I'm afraid of loosing them :(

One day I was at Marshals, and bought a pair of these beauties :)

The pots are beautiful, but I think they blend in with the back splash a little too much.

Maybe some white paint, and a little distress will do the trick?

What do you think?

Lovely and Creative Jen, over at Scissors & Spatulas had an amazing tutorial on Topiary Trees!

I wish I had found the items she used! I guess I'll find them when I at least expect them! lol

But for now, I'll enjoy my great find at Marshall's for only $12.99 each! :)

There is not a chance that they will die on me!

Just in case you were wondering, the plaque above was given to me by a dear friend on my Birthday :)

Christ is the head of this home,

the unseen Guest of every meal.

:)

It will always be cherished.

And so will His presence :)

xoxo

A Little Bit of Spring!

March 20th is the official first day of Spring.

I cannot wait till we see change in weather!

I'm looking forward to long weeks of sunshine and streets filled with tree blossoms!

I hear it's already happening is some places.

Unfortunately not here in the Northwest!

It's rainy and gloomy :(

Although we do get a little bit of sunshine here and there.

Which I am very thankful for :)

Since we don't have any budding trees around here just yet.

I had to have something that reminds me of Spring, of the coming Spring!!!

(Sorry for the bad quality of the pic, I just noticed! U could tell that I'm an amateur!) lol

Have a great day!

xoxo

Top of Piano {Before and After}

What was the point of my Top of Piano Post?

Ah....to show you how it was and how it is now.

I cannot believe I forgot to show you a before!

Silly Me!

 

The before is how it looked like for the past 2 years! :O 

Sorry about the poor quality pictures!

The before shot was taken with a point and shoot, and the after was taken by a Cannon SLR.

Yes, you got that right.

You can now see how "good" I am with a camera.

lol

Now that I look at it, there is not much of a difference.

Maybe I should repaint the piano?

lol

I dare not to ask my husband!

he he:)

Hope Ya'll had a fabulous weekend!

xoxo

Top of a Piano II

Hello Everyone!

Happy Spring!

I'm sorry I haven't been posting regularly lately!

I'm still getting used to my hubbies work schedule and juggling everything from kids to dinner.

Y'all mom's know what I'm talking about ;)

Well....aside from working on my spirituality and trying to organize my life a bit, I was working on my piano display.

Working....that sounds like so much work. lol

It wasn't.

It's a matter of the right accessories.

So here it is :)

If you remember from the inspirational post, this is the piano that I refinished.

I don't know what I was thinking.

Seriously.

It's totally out of tune now

After reading and researching AFTER i refinished it, I found out that pianos are suppose to be sanded down by hand ONLY.

By using the electric sander, I guess I messed up all the chords inside :(

No wonder musical pieces sound so much different now.

lol

At least it looks ok. 

It wasn't much lighter though.

I wanted it to match the floors.

WHAT??

Yea.....I was pretty "matchy-matchy" type of gal.

Here are the close ups :)

 

 

My Favorite :)

What do you think? 

Did I nail it? 

Missed it?

I was hoping to find a lamp, but didn't find anything that wowed me.

Maybe on my next thrifty outing :)

Hope you had a wonderful Women's Day ;)

Back in Ukraine, it's one of the most celebrated holidays!

xoxo

Top of a Piano

My parents bought me an old upright piano when I was 12 years old.

Now it's in my house.

Not in the same original condition though..

More on that later.

I have been struggling with accessorising it.

For years it's been the same....

Since Christmas of 2008 to be exact :o

For the past week I have been gathering some ideas. 

It's time for a change!!!

I have found this photo that I will use as an inspiration. :)

You like?

I LOVE how this beautiful lady from Echoes of Laughter used books!

Oh and Lamps!

Isn't is lovely?

I love the simplicity of it

You can never go wrong with books!

Ask Megan from Honey We're Home!

Although I LOVE books, I haven't been a very good collector.

I usually borrow from friends, family and the good ol' library :)

I will definitely use a mirror :)

You HAVE to have a mirror!

What do you think? Do you have a piano?

How do you accessorize it?

I will keep you posted on my progress!

Happy Tuesday!!!

xoxo

Elephant Wall Mount

I have been spotting lots of deer heads that are mounted on the wall in many homes :)

No, not just cabins ;)

Image via decor pad

or this...

Image via Kenneth Brown Design

It has become quite a trend! 

Sorry, but it's totally not me.

Well so I though....

I was invited to a friends house and I saw this:

Oh! It's magnificent! And sooo beautiful!

I wish I had my "real" camera to take a picture that would do more justice to this Elephant Head!

According to my friend, it was imported from ??Uh, i can't remember!

I always saw deer heads, but never came across Elephant Heads!

Turns out, they're just as trendy as the Deer Heads!

lol

I honestly don't think I'll ever have one of these heads in my home, but it sure did catch my eye!

There is a great post and a cute DIY on this subject!

Hop on over to Sabbe Spot, Stephanie is amazing! You'll love her blog!

Is it in India where Elephants are really loved? 

I think so :)

Hope your week is going great!

xoxo

Craigslist Find!

I was in a great mood scanning through Craigslist a few days after my post here.

I was so inspired!!!

Craigslist has AMAZING deals, you just have to be looking at the right time. lol 

So...yesterday, I got a pair of these AMAZING End Tables from Potter Barn!

via Potter Barn

These were in Excellent condition for..

drum roll please....

$75!!!

 Ahh!! I am soo excited!!! While I was there, chatting with the seller, 7 people called him about it! 

I'm so glad I called within minutes of it's posting!

These look amazing in my "not yet finished" Living room!!! :)

Ok, please don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging, I'm simply showing proof that there are AMAZING deals out there! You just have to be patient to find the right piece, and act FAST!  

My CL Tips

Always refresh your browser, or press "search" every couple minutes to get the "freshest" deals.

Now, do your research, know what you're looking for and how much it's worth. 

Just because it says Potter Barn style, doesn't mean it's from Pottery Barn :)

Always act FAST.

Here is an example.

A few days ago, I came upon 2 beautiful leather ottomans in forest green :) 

Perfect for my office.

I emailed back and forth with the seller and said I will get back to her after I talk to my hubby.

Hubby was working and called me back in a few hours.

He totally loved them and approved!

I emailed back and said I'd like to come purchase them tonight.

The seller replies: Just Sold.

This was only 3 hours later!!!

Ahh!!!!

This is what I missed out on!

Seller was asking $80 for both. He/She purchased them for $100 each.

Please notice that the pictures are not that great, but this is where you, as the buyer score!!!

I couldn't find anything like that online. If you have any idea on where they're from, please let me know!

I apologize for such a long post.

I hope it was helpful.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Happy <3 Day!

xoxo

  

Neutral Baby Nursery - DIY

 Long before the birth of our second son, I started to think about his nursery. :)

I wanted it calm, warm, and relaxing.

A room I could go to, to nurse, change, enjoy and love my baby boy :)

I had such a pleasure working on this room! It was extra special to me since we didn't make one for our firstborn because we were in the middle of major remodeling!

It came out pretty close to what I had imagined ;)

The beautifully stars were by Martha Stewart that i purchased at TJ Maxx, Crib was from CL the Sheep Rug from Ikea. The beautifully bedding set is by Wendy Bellisimo and borrowed to me from my good friend Olga :)

I wish the yellow was lighter....Oh well ;)

Imagine sign I got at Salvation Army for like a $1, if not 50 cents.

The Gliding Chair and ottoman, we purchased off of CL :) For $50! ;) The IKEA table from CL for $6! Originally $60!!! It had a little water damage, hubby sanded it down and spray painted with $4 paint :) Voila!Lamp and curtains also lent to my from Olga :)

The changing table, dresser combo was Free of of CL :D SCORE!!! You will not believe it but I just wiped it down with a rag :D It has some nick-knacks but is amazing condition :) Did I mention it's a PALI brand? :D

The gorgeous shelf was also from Olga :)

The mobile was also from Olga :)

And this is the little guys that lives in this room ;)

Totals:

Paint - $40

Crib - $224

Dresser/Changing Table - $0

Sheep Rug - $25

Table - $10

Little square shelves from Goodwill - $1

Martha Stewart Paper Flowers - $5

Boarder - $20

Imagine sign - $1

Total $326

This is not considering the little essentials such as the diaper pad, wipe warmer, etc....

I love bargain hunting!!! It sure does pay off!!!

Please tell me what you think!!!

xoxo

Wall Decor - DIY

Do you have a big blank wall in your home? We did. We had no idea what to do! Then, I watched HGTV's Miles of Style show. They where also filling up space and stretched fabric & wall paper on wooden frames!

What a clever Idea!

I was very overwhelmed with all the beautiful fabric choices and decided to go with the wall paper.

Our local Sherwin Williams had really great choices. I "rented" out a few "textured" wallpaper books and my husband and I decided on Pattern number SW1AW616 from the book WARNER TEXTURES VOL 1, you can view it here.

This is what we came up with :)

Please excuse the messy stapling, our heavy duty stapler wasn't working very well....lol

No one sees it anyway ;)

This is how my husband built the frame. 6ft tall and 21 inches wide.

In order for you to have all 4, you'd need to order a double roll, like we did.

We measured the roll, and that's how we came up with the width, we didn't want to cut any sides ;)

The frames are pretty heavy. We got a few 2x4 boards and hubby cut them using a table saw to 2x2.

We were thinking about buying the super light cedar, but it wasn't fitting our budget, plus, this worked out very well for us :)

We had some left over wall paper, and hubby surprised me with this little arrangement. :)

It's hanging in our office. More on that to come :)

What we used:

Double Roll wall paper - about $60

"Lumber" lol - $10

Heavy Duty Stapler w/staples - Already Had

Table Saw - Already Had

Hammer and Nails - Already Had

This project cost us around $70!! I don't think we'd be able to buy something for that little $$ that would fill up the space like that, give it texture and dimension!

We get TONS of compliments! :) I'm really happy how it turned out!

Thank you so much for looking!

Please comment and tell me what you think!

xoxo

Topiary Trees in Kitchen

I absolutely love the look of Topiary trees in the kitchen, on each side of the sink! Especially if there's a window right above it!


 via Corbis Images

Don't you just love how they look? I would like a cleaner tree though, no ivy on the bottom, I think this is the best image i found though.

 

via Country Living

This photo is also very inspiring, even though it's Christmassy.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the chrome pots!

I'm trying to get the look in my kitchen! Post coming soon on that!

xoxo