Arm Chair Refresh

I'm so excited to finally be posting this! It's always nice to finish something that's been on the back burner and this project was no exception. Over a year ago, I came across some vintage chairs on Craigslist. I loved their shape but they were a funky avocado green color. I mean, it wasn't awful but it definitely wasn't what I wanted for the long haul. I thought since I could buy the chairs for a pretty good price, I would reupholster them to my liking and be done with it, NBD!

Vintage Ficks Reed Sofa

Happy 2015, friends! Now that the rush of the holidays is over, I can finally sit down to blog. It's been a pretty crazy season and I'm happy to be in the new year. I realize how long it's been since I last wrote, we weren't even in our new house (!!), but I've had lots of little projects going here and there and need to just write about them already! I figure my sofa flip is as good a place to start as any.

Vintage Lamp Revamp

I'm baaaaaack! Wow, it's been a long time since I last blogged and I really have no excuse. Ok, I might have a small excuse. We sold our D.C. house back in August and while we looked for a new home, moved to the Virginia countryside with my parents. You would think that being away from the madness of the city and having my mom to help with the wee babe would prompt me to really ratchet up my craftiness but it's kind of had the opposite effect. It's not that I haven't been doing any projects, it's just that I've had zero interest in documenting them. It's been a long couple months with a lot going on. My parents bought an old farmhouse that needs loads of work and Mr. B and I have been getting our fill of stacking wood, clearing brush, painting walls, sanding floors and yard sales but the house is coming along day by day. Between the fixer upper and my not so little baby girl (she's already ONE!!!) keeping me oh so busy, I've found myself not wanting to blog. I guess I've felt in limbo, waiting to know where we are going to land before "taking on" anything new to write about. It's been a sweet time spent with family and I'm thankful for it but all good things must come to an end and it has, which can only mean one thing... WE FOUND A HOUSE! YAAAAAAY! A lovely four bedroom, 3.5 bath, open kitchen with a wall of windows and a great backyard HOUSE!

Ohhhhh, I am so excited! We've already closed on the property but don't take possession for another four days. I would say these are going to be the longest four days EVER, but, then again, I've experienced watching the clock tick for 12 anxious days past my due date. Four days are nothing. 

Having a new home on the horizon has gotten me out of my little funk and I've been excitedly lining up new post ideas. One of the HUGE advantages of living in the country again has been the steals on Craigslist and in thrift stores. You can find all kinds of goodies without the jacked up city prices. 

This brings us to today's post! A few weeks back, my mom and I were checking out a picker's warehouse (oh, the joy!) and I noticed a quirky lamp tucked back in a corner. It was dirty. It was rusty. It was patina-ed. It was perfect. The base has this gorgeous chartreuse glass globe with a nightlight in it and when the warehouse owner dared the cobwebs and plugged it in, both lights worked. I took it home for $20! (insert winky-face emoji)

Dressing Up a Dresser

Hey there, Blog Land! How ya been? That's great! Me? Well, I've been good and GROWING! 32 weeks on Sunday, whoop, whoop! Thanks for asking ;)

Updating Grandma's Display Stand

I'm sentimental. I'm nostalgic. I like things that have stories attached to them. Hearing about the desk you found in your great aunt's attic, that belonged to your long, lost relative, who immigrated to the U.S. during the Revolutionary War, is waaaay more interesting than "yeah, I got it at Ikea". But here's the catch, I don't necessarily like how all old things look. Take for example my grandma's display stand. I remember seeing this piece just about as far back as my memory will allow. It was my paternal grandmother's and it fit right in with her style. She must have done the majority of her decorating in the sixties because her house had an abundance of GOLD. I'm talking a look that would make Versailles blush; chandeliers, picture frames, lamps and this display stand...

Lady Liberty Coasters

FINALLY, a craft blog!!! 

A former co-worker of mine who also happens to be a rockin' artist (when you're done reading this, check her out here), was doing a project with a Peter Max book. As she was showing me her work, I spied a page she had taken out of the book with six of his Statue of Liberty lithographs. Later that day, I discovered she was kind enough to leave it on my desk and an idea was born.

Re-Purposing Art

Well, it's been a really hectic past few weeks. With my parents relocating here from South Dakota, Hurricane Sandy blasting the east coast (thankfully, we didn't lose power or have any storm damage!), and throwing a jewelry party with my mom, I've really been neglecting my lovely little blog!

A few months ago, I decided I wanted to re-purpose some art into one of those trendy quote pictures I've seen all over pinterest.  I thought it would be easy to just reuse a couple of paintings that don't really mesh with our style anymore into my modern, uber trendy idea.

Cool and funky but not really "our" look anymore.

 All I had to do was cover them with some fabric and then paint on the phrase I wanted and bam, new awesome art, RIGHT???

So far so good. The new "canvas" looked great. I wanted a spiritual phrase and I liked "It is well with my soul" (if you don't know the story behind that song, stop reading, open a new tab and look it up NOW! It's unbelievably touching!) and was just going to freehand it on in gold paint. Sounded simple enough... too simple.

Heh, not so fast. This DID NOT turn out the way I wanted it to, AT ALL. You can see the gold pretty well with my camera flash but in real life, it totally blended into the super busy background :( The more I messed with it, the worse it looked. After several tries to salvage it, I finally threw in the towel and gave up.

Not one to easily give up, just ask Mr. B, I tackled it from another angle. I chose a different quote, a different canvas, and a different medium. This time I found my base at Goodwill. Check out this little gem that was in perfect condition and perfectly in need of being re-purposed!

What's that you say? Why, yes, that IS a sea/porchscape on a solid piece of wood! I'm sure there's a dentist's office somewhere that will never know the joy of this masterpiece but alas, I have no regrets in destroying it.

After a few coats of black and turquoise spray paint and finding the right blending technique, I finally liked my background.

Last time I thought it would be wise to "freehand", um yeah, that was dumb. I bought stencils. But what to say? I still liked the "It is well" quote but decided to take this a different direction. I love the Bible verse from Joshua 24:15 that says "Choose you this day whom ye will serve as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." and have always wanted to incorporate it into my home but the only versions I'd seen were really grandma-y, needlepoint, some random nature background, etc. Ok, perfect, let's do this!

This is more like it! Again, I ran into an issue with the text being hard to see. So I went over the black with a coat of gold paint and SUCCESS!!! 

 I love the way it looks AND the message, score two for Mrs. B!!!

*Post Script

So my mom was reading through my blog and starts giggling. She then goes out to the garage, comes back in with THIS... 

and says "I was going to give this to you but I think it may be too 'grandma-y'" HAHAHAHAHA

House Stuff

I've been slowly but surely adding my touches to the house since the wedding (next week is ONE YEAR!) and thought I'd do a quick blog on some of my decor updates. 

Our kitchen has some great features, one of those being a wall of windows with a sliding door to the balcony. Problem is that it gets REALLY warm in the kitchen in the afternoons and we also overlook a busy road and could use some extra privacy. I've been wanting to add some curtains for a while now but wasn't sure exactly how to proceed. Last weekend I made a trip to Home Goods and just decided to go for it. I found a nice rod and some really chic curtains/sheers for a heck of a deal!

Mr. B securing the curtain rod for the "Oh so boring" wall o' windows

 

Pretty and functional... AND pocket friendly!

We also have a humongous wall in the kitchen/dining room that I haven't been able to adorn yet. I feel like it needs a massive statement piece and that means either a lot of $$ or some serious thrifting but during my outing to Home Goods, I found this awesome painting that just happened to have every color in my rug and was modern for Mr. B's taste! It's not as large as I would like but at least something is on the wall! On a side note, the buffet and hutch are going to get a makeover, stay tuned!

 

Not too shabby, eh?

And a few other updates around Casa de B! 

New fall pillows!

Re-working the wedding decor... still love peacocks :)

Gourds and mini punkins!

New Bath and Body Works Wallflower, love the design and the delish fall scents!

Framed up the ol' vows and some wedding pictures.

Obsessed with this cream and sugar set that my amazing Mom gave me when we went to visit over the 4th of July. 

I found this rad, antique food grinder at a yard sale this summer. I want to refurbish it but we shall see. 

Now that it's officially October, I'll be playing around with some fun decorating ideas and some yummy new recipes. Hope to have more blogs up this month! Ciao, Bella!!! XOXO